Recent Miami cruisers... Where are you?

[moomy-san]

So the first Miami sailing has returned- and no one has checked in? I'm going crazy!! I have questions and they have the answers!
Heeeeelllllllpppppp!!!!

 

[fredgirls]

 

[neg58]

What do you need to know?

Nancy

 

[nicolet]

Hotel stay before the good and bad?
Dis transportation did you use it?

Embark and disbark as easy as in Port Canaveral?

 

[moomy-san]

How was the embarkation? Organized or chaos? Was the Castaway Club line busy? (Some say from PC it's sometimes better to go through the first time cruiser line because CC line is so busy)
Was there Miami specific merchandise on board?

 

[bahacca]

I came to post this very thing!

If it was the 4 night (KW, Nassau and CC), was there a Palo brunch at all with no sea day?
What was the dining room assignment pattern? ABCA, ABBC, etc
What night is Pirate night?
Did they have any wine/tequila/other alcohol tastings?

 

[cwdefouw]

I came to post this very thing!

If it was the 4 night (KW, Nassau and CC), was there a Palo brunch at all with no sea day?
What was the dining room assignment pattern? ABCA, ABBC, etc
What night is Pirate night?
Did they have any wine/tequila/other alcohol tastings?

So far they have only run 7 night cruises, the second one left Sunday the 30th. The 5 and 4 night cruises don't start until next week.

 

[neg58]

Some of the info won't be the same since we were on a 7 night and things were shifted because of Christmas.

First I'll say that the crew was very excited about new ports and Castaway Cay. Some had never been there since the Wonder has been on the west coast/Alaska/Hawaii for awhile.

We live in Florida and drove down. We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale the night before. I originally had booked a cruise/park at Coconut Grove, but decided I didn't want to double back to pick up the car at the end of the cruise. We also have a 'need' to shop at Macy's since our town doesn't have one, so we knew we wanted to have time to go somewhere along the way. We shopped and then just drove to Ft. Lauderdale. It was fine. We parked at a lot for $4.50/day on 7th street in Miami. Drove to the port, dropped off the kids and luggage, and then parked, took a shuttle to the port. Parking at the port is very easy, but $20 day. Lot is fenced but in a rather shady area. Only mistake was the shuttle. They made me pay for round trip ($7) but they never showed for pick up and I just took a taxi back ($9). You CAN walk, but it's a long way across the bridge. Disney sails out of 'F' and only one other terminal 'g' is closer to Miami, but still a walk.

The terminal is smaller than Port Canaveral, but just as easy. The CC check in was much faster with only 3-4 groups in front of us. The walk to the ship is much longer.

Pirate night for us was Dec 26 after a day in St. Maartens, but I think that was because they didn't want to do it on Christmas. There were lots of brunches at Palos as we had 3 sea days. Formal night was the 2nd night and semi-formal the second to last, after a sea day.

There was a lot of 2012 and Cruising through Christmas stuff on board. There were all 4 of the Camillia disney charms for sale. I didn't see a lot of special Miami stuff. At the officer's pin trading, the officers had a lot of cool pins from Hawaii and Alaska. I got one that said Wonder and had the Gingerbread house on it.

Because it was the inaugural Miami sailing and Christmas, we receive a lithograph, a set of placemats, and a clock as gifts.

The shows were good except for Toy Story. All the little kids lost it about 40 minutes into the show, and there was a lot of whining.

I found the food in the dining rooms to be very good, and the food in BBB to be awful. Fast food on deck? terrible, except for the coconut/pinapple and mango soft serve ice cream (yum).

They did have the many tastings of liquor, but I didn't go to any. Because it was Christmas, there were fewer of the traditional classes like cooking and drawing. They added towel folding at the last minute.

The port is crazy on disembarking. All ships are lined up, so there are taxis and shuttles going every which way. The luggage comes off like at an airport, with moving, winding belts and you have to grab it. Never had a porter ask if we needed help. Long lines. They called us by character tags to disembark and we waited about 30 minutes after breakfast and then another 30 minutes or so in line. Patience is required.

Nancy

 

[Smbertram]

I know there is no transportation from WDW, but what about the airports? I haven't invested much time in finding this out, but I guess I should since we leave in 102 days.

 

[neg58]

I know there is no transportation from WDW, but what about the airports? I haven't invested much time in finding this out, but I guess I should since we leave in 102 days.

The guy at the port said a taxi to the airport (Mia) was $25 one way. I know there were a ton of shuttles and I think they are about $10/person.

Nancy

 

[Bonniec]

We live in Florida and drove down. We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale the night before.

Where did you stay?

 

[goeva]

Because it was the inaugural Miami sailing and Christmas, we receive a lithograph, a set of placemats, and a clock as gifts.

Thanks for your mini report. Do you have personal navigators or photos to share with us? TIA.

 

[neg58]

Where did you stay?

We just stayed at a Holiday Inn Express right in Ft. Lauderdale by the beach. I thought there would be some hotels by the airport, but I ended up circling around and just saw a few hotels. I asked at the Embassy and they were full, and the next block the Holiday inn Express had a room. I got it for $99 from a very very nice clerk. Breakfast wasn't bad. It took about 40 minutes to get to the port the next morning.

There are a few hotels in downtown Miami for about $150 a night, but usually parking is extra. There are also a lot of hotels by the Miami airport that people use.

Nancy

 

[MrsParr]

We stayed at the Miami Marriott (used points), but I would recommend the Holiday Inn near the port instead. It was cheaper, and was right across the street from a nice shopping area.

The port was more crowded than the terminal at port canaveral, but the CM's kept things moving along.

 

[Mtkgal]

What time were you off the ship?

 

[icehawkmom]

We had late breakfast and we finished about 9:00 a.m. (we were a group of 16).
The line up at that time was very long and we found a seat in Promenade Lounge to wait it out. The last call for leaving the ship didn't come for at least 40 minutes and we didn't clear customs until almost 11:00 a.m. It was very long lineups which moved very slowly. If you have early flights out of Miami you should be aware that disembarking is a much slower process than Port Canaveral and you had to wait for your luggage tags to be called.

 

[Mtkgal]

We had late breakfast and we finished about 9:00 a.m. (we were a group of 16).
The line up at that time was very long and we found a seat in Promenade Lounge to wait it out. The last call for leaving the ship didn't come for at least 40 minutes and we didn't clear customs until almost 11:00 a.m. It was very long lineups which moved very slowly. If you have early flights out of Miami you should be aware that disembarking is a much slower process than Port Canaveral and you had to wait for your luggage tags to be called.

Thanks for that info. I'm curious to see if it gets any better as more Disney cruises leave out of Miami. I'm glad I have an afternoon flight since I need to go to FLL.

 

[beachpal]

I did see in the Navigators that the people with an early flight were supposed to let Guest Services know, presumably so they could disembark earlier than the rest of us?

For anyone flying out of FLL, it took us only about 20 minutes by cab from the port to the airport for about $80 including tip but there was no traffic to speak of.

 

[neg58]

Thanks for that info. I'm curious to see if it gets any better as more Disney cruises leave out of Miami. I'm glad I have an afternoon flight since I need to go to FLL.

Our tablemates wanted to get an early start, but didn't really understand the luggage situation. They had already put their luggage outside the door before dinner, THEN I told them that we had late breakfast and they may not be able to get off until called (we were of course in the last group). Guest Services tried to get their luggage back, but it was buried deep in the cart. What Guest Services did do was give them 'Red Mickey' tags to carry. They could then get off the boat and hope that their luggage was already on the carousel. So they went to late breakfast but then got off as soon as they could. We didn't see them again, so I assume they did get a little bit of a head start.

All this to say if you need to get off early, you can either keep all your luggage with you and walk off in the first group (around 7:15), or you can ask to be moved to an earlier group. Just don't put the luggage tags on before you ask.

Nancy

 

[Dogsambam]

We thought the disembarkation was amazing! The airport style conveyor worked great. No hoarding through lined up baggage like cattle! The best disembarkation we have ever seem, and this is after 28 cruises.

This was our first Disney cruise and I have to say, we are hooked! The the bonus of leaving out of Miami was a plus to us. Already booked Fantasy for next trip. If a 7 night was available out of Miami again, we would have booked that.

Food was mediocre, but we had heard that from lots of friends, and knew what to expect. To say staff was amazing is an understatement. The BEST we have ever had, and again after lots of cruises. As Nancy said, they were so excited about the Miami, Castaway Cay etc thing.