We survived NYE at WDW and actually enjoyed it. Including a Disney cruise and Disneyland.

Part 1.

For those of you who are reading this I have some very important advice that I took from others on this board that helped me enormously.
The most important thing with WDW is to plan and then do some more planning.
It was stressful and annoying putting all this effort into a place that we have been before about 4 years ago now and was driving me a bit nuts but without it we would not have enjoyed our time and copped with the crowds.
I had always wanted to see Disneyland at Christmas and this was the year I was going to do it. My original plan was to spend boxing day at Disneyland, see an NFL game, go to Dallas and to go on a Disney cruise. I booked the cruise and then waited to plan for the rest of the trip. In the mean time I started to read things about Disneyland not putting as much emphasis on Christmas due to the 60th celebrations. I was not going to go all that way and for it not to be full on. So I kept following everything so I could to try to find out what was happening. One of the problems is that Disneyland only provides details about a month out whereas WDW provides this information a few months out. I had to make a call and provided with this minimum amount of information and uncertainty I chose to go to WDW first.
I am so glad I did.
We left Sydney on the 26th Dec after a hectic Christmas and spending the morning packing up Christmas lights. We have a huge display each year and the hot weather and sun deteriorates them. We flew Qantas but on American Airlines tickets it was thousands of dollars cheaper for our family of 4. All adult tickets. We flew Sydney to Dallas with Qantas then Dallas to Atlanta with AA. On the way home once again Qantas but as AA passengers from LAX. Every think went smoothly and we where ready to board when a storm hit and we were delayed. I am a bad flyer so this was not a good start for me.
The flight was long but to our surprise the food was nice for airline food.
I had booked our flights with a travel agent this time I normally do it myself but I was a little bit concerned with the Qantas planes AA tickets thing because it was so much cheaper I thought there must have been a catch. Our plane was to fly to Dallas change planes and then fly onto Atlanta to watch an NFL game the next day. My family are Carolina Panthers fans and they were playing Atlanta in Atlanta on the 27th. The travel agent suggested a plane that left 1.5 hours after our plane was due to arrive in Dallas. I knew we would have to go through customs, collect bags, deal with crowds as it was boxing day and opted for a plane that left 4.5 hours after our flight was due to arrive in Dallas. I am so thankful that I made that call. Our plane arrived late due to us leaving Sydney late, customs was a nightmare and security to get to our next gate was incredible. American was on a heightened security alert being the holidays so it was very slow. We made to our next a gate with 30 minutes to spare.
My next important tip add extra time to go through security at American airports. If you think you need 3 hours make it 4 or more.
We arrived in Atlanta late on the 26th Dec and caught a shuttle to Courtyard by Marriott Buckhead. The room was nice and the staff directed us to a late night pizza place around the corner which was perfect. We didnot see much of Atlanta but we have been there before our main aim was to see the NFL. We brought our tickets through ticketmaster and had great seats and a great time even though Carolina lost. The next morning we made our way to the airport ready to go to Orlando. Monday 28th Dec WDW here we come.

What date was your cruise?

Disney Fantasy 2nd till 9th Jan.

We were on the Fantasy sailing the 9th.
I booked when the prices first came out & then they added the Star Wars day to ours, I knew then I should have tried to change to your one.
Don't get me wrong, it was great, but it wasn't as magical as what I thought it was going to be.
The ship was packed, the Stars Wars day didn't interest me, but from what I can gather, Disney has a lot of unhappy customers that booked that cruise for the first Star Wars day,and a lot of what they promised didn't happen.
I was disappointed course on Pirates Night, the servers didn't dress up for dinner & there was no pirate menu.Also it rained so they moved the show inside, pretty hopeless, couldn't see anything.
Star Wars night for dinner, the servers dressed normally & they had a Star Wars menu.
We found the food was really much the same every night, just had different names.
We got a few photos with characters, but couldn't be bothered really with the long lines, after just spending 2 weeks in WDW.
At the sail away party, I said to the kids stand here as a short lady & her daughter were in front of us, of course she was justing holding or should I say hogging the railing until the rest of her party got there For the start of the show,so we got pushed back.
But the best one was Star Wars Night, when they were having a show on deck, btw this wasn't a show , characters walked on to the stage & then off. About an hour before this was to start, I took the kids up to get a spot, anyhow the railings all had people leaning on them or kids sound asleep stretched out on the floor, people standing with arms stretched out taking up 3 spots, it was unbelievable, anyhow told the kids to go down to the pool deck and wait and watch from there. About 20 mins later thought I would go and see where they were, walked up where a woman was standing by herself, she knocked me flying cause she thought I was going to get her spot, mind you 4 people could have stood next her, she was obviously waiting and holding the area for her family.
I must say a few choice words came out of my mouth. That was it for me, I went up on deck adults area & watched the fireworks from there, laser show didn't happen, that was supposed to.
The icing on the cake, was no docking at Castaway Cay, they said it was too windy & a storm was brewing & if we did dock we might not have got out. Wow 12 months of planning & that was to be the highlight of the trip, didnt happen, all I have is a couple of photos of it in the distance, so off we went, heading for Port Canavaral, weird the sun was shining , where is the storm? & then a few hours later the rain came, so even though they scrambled a few things together for passengers to do, u couldn't go outside, by this time I was ready to get off.
I did enjoy it, but there were a lot of adults without kids, probably due to Star Wars, and hey I like a drink or 2 , but wow a lot of drunks around lol.
I did get to see Neill Patrick Harris who was on board with his family lol.
Anyhow sorry to ambush your post, hope your trip was great, we had such a fantastic time, we did 4 nights at DL , left Sydney 16th Dec, 14 nights CBR, 5 nights Cabana Bay Universal , the cruise then 4 nights Bordwalk Inn, got home last Friday.
I enjoyed DL so much, but WDW at Xmas was amazing.

Part2

Mon 28th Dec we caught a shuttle to the airport with what I thought was plenty of time to catch our plane. We were flying SouthWest airlines good prices and 2 free bags. I told the children we will have breakfast at the airport before the flight no problems. I was wrong, we checked our bags in that part was quick and easy and then looked for the food court area. I found it without any problems but it was impossible to get near any of the food places due to the ques to get through security. The security ques were so long they weaved in and through the food court and there were barriers everywhere. I have never been in a longer security inspection line in my life. The airlines were sending you warnings to add extra time to you plans so as to not miss the flight. It was single file with dogs as well as all the other security things but most airports have one or two things they seemed to have everything. In some ways it made me nervous but in others more secure. Apparently Atlanta is one of the busiest airports in America and a lot of people change planes here.When we got on our plane the pilot announced due to favourable weather condition our flight would be an hour less. I was very excited by this as I hate flying, it also meant I could get the family food quicker. After we collected our bags it was on to Chic-Fil-A, I have loved there food evr since I first had it about 20 years ago. We then headed for the magical express, I dont know why but once again i got lost going to it. The same thing happened last time, I think it maybe the signage or my brain.
We boarded the bus and were on our way. It pulled up to Grand Floridan which i had stayed at before and when we walked in and saw it decorated for Christmas I knew I had made the right choice. I had selected the cheapest room as the most important thing was we were their and got to experience this hotel in all its Christmas finery. The room was on the second floor in one of the outer buildings with a few of the edge of the lagoon and we could see and hear the monorail going past but that did not bother me I loved it.
Due to it being the busiest time of the year I have everything planned out sit down meals all booked and all my fast pass booked as well. I had also organised a delivery from GardenGrocer to be delivered. I was hoping that it would be delivered and left in my room but I had to collect it from bell services. The order contained some sea sickness tablets for the cruise, some basic medical supplies and shampoo/conditioner and some snack packets of cookies and chips. I was very happy with it and would order from them again.
Previously when I was planning I had booked a whole lot of things for our first part day but after reading advise from the forums I decided to not try to fit in everything because having every minute busy would not allow us to enjoy the season. I didnot like the fact that due to the way that WDW now works you have to put alot of time and effort into what feels like a school timetable. The problem is that if I wanted to eat at certain places and ride certain rides I had no choice. So I planned but I did make changes as we went along to suit the changing needs of our family day to day, I needed to be a bit flexible. Originally I had planned to have lunch at Beaches and cream but on reflection cancelled that as I thought we might be to hurried. So then I planned to go to Disney Springs before our booked Minnie's Christmas dinner. Once again I had second thought and decided to go latter in the trip. I am glad I did it took for ever to get there and was hot and involved crowds and alot of walking. I prefer downtown Disney in Anaheim I think because it is more compact.
Instead we ate at the hotel, hamburgers which we all enjoyed and went for a swim. We then made our way to Hollywood Disney for our fast passes and our Holiday meal with Mickey,Minnie,Donald and Daisy all dressed up for Christmas.
There was plenty of time to have photos with the memory maker we purchased and to use our fast pass for toy story. I was surprised how warm it was I was expecting winter but it was a little hotter than what it was at home in Australia and humid. That was one of our biggest surprises how warm it was and it did hinder our plans a little.
The dinner was a buffet and it was alright but not as good as I thought it would be. The desserts looked amazing and very Christmassy but the taste let them down. By the time we had dinner it was time to see The Osborne family lights. As we are big into Christmas lights this was very important for us to see. The fact that this was the last year gave me that extra little push i needed to visit WDW at Christmas time.
They were beautiful and once again i was expecting to be walking through them with a hot chocolate all rugged up instead we were searching out cold bottles of water. Apparently ever one was surprised by the warm weather and shops were having a limited selection of t shirts but had an over supply of hoodies and jumpers. Please do not take the weather we experienced as been the norm around Christmas as it is not. People were saying that its the warmest Christmas time they had experienced at the parks. We went on 2 more rides one fastpass and one not. One of the problems was there was a 1 hour wait between each of our fast passes and due to it being so busy the lines for other rides were really long. I did want to see the star wars fireworks but by about 9:00pm due to the heat and crowds everyone was done. I could have pushed it but this is one of the moments were we need to be flexible. Nothing helps you lose the Christmas spirit quicker than cranky teenagers. I was impressed with how long it took us to get a bus back to the resort we waited 5 minutes and we were on a bus. When we got back we sat down and spent a little time in the lobby just taking in the decorations, it was just like you were part of a Christmas movie. Tomorrow we start the day of with a 7:00am Character breakfast at Crystal palace.

It is interesting what you mentioned about your Fantasy cruise. This was our 3rd cruise 2 on Fantasy and 1 on the magic in the med. This time I thought the quality had gone down. It was like they were trying to maximize profits so they were seeing how much they could get away with reducing. Our cruise was full of first timers so they may have not noticed it as much. A lot revolved around the food, quantity, quality and variety on the menus in the rotating restaurants. Portion sizes were a lot smaller which is fine but if you do not have soup, a salad, an appetizer an entree and dessert you were left feeling hungry. It appeared to be that they were given a price point for each meal that it cost them to produce in the past for example $10 now it had been reduced to $6. The quality was also lower of the food that was produced. We are not foodies but we had to send food back on a number of occasions. We had never had to do that before. There appeared also to be a lack of quality control. You do not send people burnt food. You also do not hand some a glass of lemonade with a huge crack in it and a big chip that you could have cut your mouth with. I do not blame the waiters but I think pressure was being put on them to reduce costs.
The other thing that surprised me was how pushy people were. My daughter and I were waiting for a lift on a number of occasions waiting with a small number of people and a gentleman and his wife in a wheel chair. The numbers started to grow a little the lift arrived and they pushed this couple out of the way to get on the lift. We waited back and waited for the next one and helped them get in. I was shocked and he said he was getting used to it on the cruise and thanked us like what we had done was something special. I just thought it was common manners. Do not get me wrong there were plenty of pluses on the cruise but at the end of it I am not so sure if it is a good choice for us to do a Disney Caribbean cruise again on the Fantasy.

Yes, I agree about the food on the Fantasy, my kids only had main meal & dessert most night, I always got entree, main & dessert, no soup & salad.
Our waiters were ok, they did their job, but never asked if we wanted more of anything, or anything else when a few times our plates were left with a lot of food on it, cause who ever ordered it didn't like it.
We had the 2nd setting which suited us great, but always felt a bit rushed like they were trying to get us out lol.
My son had a good laugh how we had to tip the head waiter, he said all he does is come around and say hello each night.
Yes I can't compare it with any other cruise lines, as it was our first one.
Agree with you re the weather, it was warm, kids enjoyed being able to swim though, our last 5days 16-20th Jan,it got cold, from 28 to 14.

Part 3
Magic Kingdom Tuesday 29th December 2015

The day started really early as we had a breakfast booking at 7:00am at Crystal Palace. The park opened at 7:00am this week for on site guests. We were concerned when we walked up stairs to catch the monorail from Grand Floridian and it was all locked up and I was quickly trying to think of plan B when it opened up at about 6:30am. The monorail started from our stop. We arrived at Magic kingdom and joined the line to get in. I learnt very quickly that for a quicker entry do not take a bag. The security had increased and did add time to our entry. I was surprised that there was a reasonable number of people ready to enter the park. We were led to a seperate area as we had a breakfast booking and were allowed to enter the park first about 10 minutes before the other park guests. This meant that we had the park to ourselves. To some people a breakfast during the early morning entry time is a waste of valuable time that could be spent on rides but to us it had a better purpose. I will set the scene
An empty park
It was dark
All the Chistmas lights were on
The castle was glowing with crystals
Photo pass photographers ready and waiting
Getting there that early and into the park before everyone else meant that we got the most beautiful Christmas photos without anyone else in them except for our family. Due to this we got to breakfast 5 minutes late which was fine. I was surprised how few tables were filled. It looked like they staggered bookings which was great for us. Only 1/4 of the tables were full but all the characters were still working the room so we got to see them quickly and spent a bit of time with them. In many situations it seemed like Disney increased capacity and had plans in place to make things run more smoothly. We were told that on some of the days we were there this week they had phased closures we did not feel our experiences were hindered by it. After lunch we had some rides till it became to crowded for us so we caught the boat back to our resort. Lunch was had at the self service food place at our resort which was nice and uncrowded. Due to the warm weather we spent the afternoon away from the crowds swimming and resting. Just before it got dark we caught the monorail back to Magic kingdom to view the evening shows.
Due our daughter suffering from anxiety it was very important for us to minimise the impact crowds had on her. I was not sure that going at this time of the year was a good idea but we risked it and were ready to make any changes we needed to. There was only a few times where this became a problem and we tended to find solutions quickly. Instead of walking down Main Street for example we found it less stressful to walk through the shops it was cooler and often diverted her attention away from the crowds. Because of her anxiety and what I had read about night time crowds we used one of our fast passes for the Christmas wishes and Believe fireworks shows. It was wonderfull the shows were brilliant and we were in an uncrowded grass area. We were able to sit and stretch out with a great view. It was a great atmosphere in our area and we got to have lovely chats with people while waiting and experiencing all of the shows such as the lighting of the castle. At the end of it we simply took a few steps and were on the side exit path that avoided most of Main Street and the bulk of the crowds. It was then a short walk to the wharf and onto the ferry that was waiting back to our resort. When we got back to our room Christmas stockings were waiting that I had organised from Disney florist. They were expensive but I chose build your own so they each had either a Mickey or Minnie in them, some American Christmas candy and a Disney Christmas throw that had their names embroided on them. We are having a late night tomorrow so I don't think we will take advantage of the 7am start tomorrow. Another huge day planned at Magic kingdom tomorrow.

Part 4
Magic kingdom Wednesday 30th
Once again we caught the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I know that is expensive to stay at a monorail resort at this time of the year but having a 3 different types of transport available made I've a lot easier. We started a little latter today but still arrived at Magic Kingdom before 8 am. The extended hours do really help. I had originally planned to take advantage of them in the morning and evening but quickly realised that my family could not do both. So we opted for the early mornings. We still managed to stay till after 12 tonight. Once again the park was manageable in the morning but the crowds tended to grow between 10 and 11. Today we were leaving the park after lunch as I had a booking for Liberty tree taven.
Once again I used a fast pass for something other than rides. We had a fast pass to be in the roped of area for the Christmas parade. During December you have to pay extra to see this as it is part of Merry Christmas party at night which is a seperate ticketed event but during the week between Christmas and new year you can see as part of your Magic kingdom for free. It was on twice daily at 12 and I think 3. The crowds started to line up on the sidewalks quite early for this. We found our roped of area showed our fast and waited. The parade was fantastic the position of the fast pass area meant that there was no one blocking your view and you were seeing front on the parade was going down Main Street and heading straight for you. When it got to you it then turned so you had the best possible view and it was amazing. I felt like a young child again. It was such a good spot that Disney were filming it next to us for their achieves. After this we went to lunch. It was sad as we were waiting they were running behind to see the number of people trying to do a walk in for lunch. Many of them said we have tried everywhere but all the restaurants says they are fully booked. If you want to sit down for lunch and not fight the crowds which was extremely important to us you need to book months ahead. I know it's impossible to know what you wants for lunch or dinner and which park you are going to be in but you just have to. There is little chance for spontinatee at this time of the year. When I first booked all that time before I did over book for restaurants but you are able to cancel without penalty 24 hours before. After our first day at WDW I did make a few changes to our meal bookings so that they best suited the needs of our family. A few weeks before we went we could have made changes to our fast passes but after we arrived it was impossible as they were all booked out. Liberty tree taven was nice but very slow both to be seated and with service. Do not book a fast pass to close to your meal time.
After lunch once again we went back to our hotel for a rest as I knew we had a late night ahead.
Though reading of these boards I learnt that they do a trail run of the New Year's Eve fireworks on the 30thdec at Magic kingdom and it is not as busy. Which was perfect for us.
As the time got closer to our trip I started to worry that not as busy could still mean extremely crowded so I started to stalk web sites for ideas. It then happened a dessert party was listed for the trial run fireworks on the 30th. It started at 10:30pm and involved some desserts and a great view and an uncrowded area. It was expensive the desserts were ok but not worth the money we paid but to us the fireworks show was amazing and the lack of crowds to us was the most important thing. This allowed us to see the fireworks with our daughters anxiety flaring up. At the end of it they gave us all a Mickey elf cup and we went straight down the quick exit out of the park onto a ferry. I loved it and would do again for the trail New Year's Eve fire works but I am not sure about other times of the year if it would be worth it. For those of you interested the park was wall to wall people and was even worse on New Year's Eve.

part 5
NEW YEARS EVE
I knew that this was going to be a really long late night so we had a non park morning. Instead we caught the ferry to Magic Kingdom and changed to a ferry headed to wildness lodge and had a booking for lunch at Whispering Canyon. Wildness lodge was still decorated for Christmas and looked beautiful. As we were changing ferries i looked at the line for magic kingdom and I couldnot believe how big it was. I was told at Wildness Lodge that they had started phased closures at MK. It was interesting to note that security had once again increased at the parks. You now had very careful bag checks in that people were asked to remove things so they could check bags more thoroughly such as jumpers which slowed lines down. You also had sniffer dogs and proper police officers not just Disney security and a lot of them with helicopters flying above and drones.
After lunch we went to Disney Hollywood Studios were we planned to spend the evening. When we arrived the crowd was big but manageable. As the night wore on this changed for us as we found it to hot and crowded. After our booked dinner and some rides we made the decision to leave as my daughters anxiety was starting to flare up. I resigned myself to the fact that we had an awesome time and we saw fireworks last night any way so it was best to go back to the resort and maybe have a swim and relax.
So we left DHS about 9:00pm and headed to the bus for our resort. The bus was waiting and we were the only ones on the bus. The driver mentioned to us that we would be able to see the fireworks from our resort so I thought that maybe a good solution. I wasn't aware of how good of a solution that was. We went to our room freshened up and went down stairs to get some drinks and ice cream from the 24 hour self service area. A barge containing the fireworks was right in front of the Grand Floridian so we had an amazing view without any stress. There were 2 good spots that you could watch the fireworks from one was on the docks where the ferry left from that was packed and the other that we used was around the corner from the self service place on the water near the Sago cay building. There was only a few people at this spot and the view was not 100% it was 99% and fantastic. This was the best decision we made. At the end of the fire works we simply walked up to bed.
I think this change that we made help us to survive the crowds and allowed us to have a great New Years Eve.
If we were every lucky enough to do it again the only change I would make I think would be we would not go any where near a park in the evening and have dinner at our resort Grand Floridian or another close by. Then we would relax and enjoy the fire works.

Thank you, I am bookmarking your TR as it's got some great ideas and info in it! Sounds like you had a blast.

We went to Whispering Canyon for dinner NYE, didn't the resort look beautiful, in fact all the ones we went around to, we oohed & arghed at , amazing.
We never had any intentions of visiting the parks Xmas Eve, Day or NYE. We went back to the resort CBR & watched them from there, they had heaps of stuff going on & we saw the MK & Epcot ones from our resort.
We also did the Fireworks Dessert Party, though on the 26th. It was nice I thought.
Lucky you staying at the GF, wow that place was so beautiful , we went to dinner one night at 1901 Park Fare & then watched the fireworks.

part 6
New Year Day
Once again Early morning entry is your friend, I really thought we would be making better use of the late night closings during this trip but we just couldnt make it most nights. We found that getting up early hitting the parks, leaving before lunch or after a lunch booking and then going back in the evening worked best for us. I had heard and read and seen video and photos of how bad it could be but we loved it. The key to making this a fun happy event is planning and managing your expectations and being as flexible as you can be with all those bookings you need to make months in advance.
I forgot to mention we did not do the dinning plan as for us it did not work out to be cost effective. We did however buy 2 resort cups that could be refilled for free with drinks as often as we liked. This worked out well for us as we spent alot of breaks at our resort in the middle of the day. The quick service restaurant was also open 24hours so we could go down at 2am and get a drink if we wanted. The tap water in Florida to us tasted funny so we did not drink it and got water from the machines.
Also the Grand Floridian has an ATM and we found it to be one of the better ones for fees when taking money out of your travel cards.
Photopass photographers take photos in the lobby of you infront of the tree. Apparently Mickey and Minnie come out in the evening for Christmas photos in their Victorian Christmas outfits but they told me that it finished on Christmas eve so I cannot confirm this.
The lobby smells of gingerbread which I hate but I loved the smell. They have a shop in the lobby that sells gingerbread goods made of gingerbread. They closed the shop on New Years Day.
The question is would I do it at this time of the year again and the answer is definitely. If we had a whole lot of spare money I would do it again this year or next. It was a very expensive holiday but you have to expect it at this time of the year.
After going to the parks we decided to go to Disney Springs. To us it was a waste of time and we much prefer downtown Disney in Anaheim. It took a long time to get there by bus. The place was crowded and very spread out. The shops were just not interesting enough. There was a whole heap of new restaurants but we found it hard to just get some simple drinks and some kind of foods to eat and walk with. Maybe if it hadnot of been so crowded and not as hot I might of enjoyed it more. We didnot stay that long I had originally planned to spend all afternoon there but instead we went back to our hotel for a swim. That night we had simple dinner from the quick serve place and swam and watched the fireworks. Tomorrow was going to be a big day we were off on our Disney Fantasy cruise.

I'm really enjoying reading your trip report. I'm glad you were able to find alternatives that assisted with your daughter's anxiety so as not to exacerbate it and she could enjoy also. I had a big smile when I read you were able to see the NYE fireworks from your resort without all the stresses.

I'll stay tuned for the next part

Thanks for all the useful information - very helpful for any future Xmas/NY trips, which I hope one day we will do again. Good that you were able to manage your daughter's anxiety so well without anyone missing out. Sounds like you had a really good time with a nice mix of rides, enjoying Xmas celebrations and "down time". As to the cruise - I always thought if ever we cruised, a Disney Caribbean might be it, but now it sounds like its advantages might be diminishing. Lookign forward to reading more

part 7
The cruise
We did a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Fantasy 2nd - 9th Jan with stops in Tortola, St Thomas and Castaway cay. This was not a star wars cruise.
This morning we had a leisurely breakfast at the Grand Floridian cafe it was a little pricey but it the food was nice and the atmosphere was lovely. It was a nice way to finish off our stay at the Grand. We then waited in the lobby for the bus to take us on our cruise. I dont know why but I always worry at this point what happens if they forget us or we are not on the list. This is the second time e have left from here for a cruise and once again there was no problems. We all managed to have a little doze on the way down to the ship. I made sure we all had some sea sickness tablets before we left WDW just in case. We used Dramamine the less drowsy blend that we got delivered to our room at WDW from GardenGrocer. I have found in the past that they work really well for us. We arrived without any problems and joined the line to be checked in. The line was long but that was fine with us. i then noticed the shorter line for guests who had cruised with them before and it was so much shorter than the other line. I think our cruise had a lot of people who were cruising with Disney for the first time.
This is our 3rd cruise and we have only been on Disney. Our last cruise was on the Magic in the Med in 2014 and our first was on the fantasy and we did the Western Caribbean. I really enjoying cruising and so does the family except for my husband.

Tortola- we did the Disney excursion to the Baths. It was really well organised and we had a lovely time. We did the morning departure which did not include lunch. As I have a bad knee at the moment I was a bit concerned that this would be a bad idea. The walk to the baths in really in 2 sections. The first section down to the beach is narrow and slippery. I managed this without too many problems. I decided when I got down there that I would stay at the beach for a swim with our daughter while my husband and son went through the caves with the guide. This worked out perfectly. We had a lovely swim and brought some drinks and met them back at the top as they exit at a different spot. We didnot feel rushed and had a lovely day. As we were leaving the afternoon group arrived. To me it seemed like they would be a bit rushed. That particular group also had the problem that a storm was rolling in. I am not sure if that is common in this area. We got on the boat and were part way back when the storm hit. The trip back was a little rough. We would have had time to do some shopping but it was pouring. We were drenched but that was ok it washed of all the salt. The pier that you walk back to the ship on is very slippery when wet. We took our shoes off and walked bare foot thongs were just to slippery.

St Thomas - We brought some nice necklaces here and had a nice time but I should have planned it better. I should have booked an excursion or planned one privately. The teenagers were bored as well as hubby.

Castaway Cay - I love this place and wish that we could have had a double dip cruise but they seem to occur at the wrong time of the year for us. Our teenagers booked an excursion with vibe here and went on a jet boat ride, snorkeled and rode bikes. They met back up with us latter in the afternoon. They loved it and had a great time. We on the other hand simply swam, read books and I ordered Pina coladas. I love that I could find a lounge with an umbrella to lie under and listen to music being sung in the background and just have a stress free time. The water was warm and the weather was beautiful the whole day. The only thing that was a disappointment was the quality of the food it was either under cooked or burnt. Maybe we were just unlucky but the quality controls seemed to be lacking compared to the last time we were here.



Next stop Orlando and the flying to Dallas Texas

Was the cruise full?
I so wish we were on that one, missing CC was such a disappointment.
Did you guys go to AK & Epcot?

I think the cruise was full or very close to it. We were going to go to Epcot to see their Christmas activities but in the end that was one of the things we decided to miss. I think if we had an extra day we might have gone to EPCOT but the last time we were their about 4 years ago we did not enjoy it. I have not been to AK yet maybe that might be a reason to go back when they start there new night time show. I think the next park I would like to go to is Japan. We have been to Paris and HongKong.
It's sad when you miss CC especially when you are looking forward to it.

You were much better planned than we were at the Ports. We had nothing planned and just strolled around ourselves. Totally agree about Castaway Cay, only been there once and loved it.

Part 8
Dallas here we come

We arrived back in port early on the 9th of Jan. I awoke to the sounds of a busy wharf. It was dark outside and raining. It looked gloomy outside but at least I had no activities for today except travel. Breakfast was a disappointment. We sat down and ordered and once again the food had quality issues. What was on the menu was not what we received things were missing. I am not sure if it was the fault of the kitchen or the waiters. They even managed to burn the hash browns and due to poor quality control they were served to us. I did politely show them why there was a problem with them and they offered to replace them but with that and soggy cold toast I was over the idea of breakfast. I don't know what checks they have in the dining room before they serve food but we found they were lacking on this cruise. I am not a foodie and am usually just extremely grateful that someone else is cooking for me. This cruise the dining room food experiences were just poor. I don't know if it was Disney trying to reduce costs by cutting corners or poor staff training or a combination. The food on the Magic that we travelled on the year before was so much more enjoyable. We ended up getting food at the airport.
The disembarkment process was smooth and we were at the bus ready to go to the airport quickly. We arrived at the airport and we were so early for our flight we had to wait to check in as it was more than 4 hours before our plane. Being there so early meant we could get some food and go through security without being stressed. Every airport had different security and we gave up trying to guess what we had to do. At some airports you had to take off your shoes, some you had to take your laptops out others you didn't.
Once again we flew with Southwest Airlines I did make sure that I paid extra for early bird boarding numbers. For those of you who have not travelled with them before you do not get seat numbers but are given a boarding number and you chose your seats when you board.
The plane trip was smooth and we caught a taxi to Homewood suites Dallas downtown. The hotel was clean and the room big. The location for us was great as the reason we wanted to go to Dallas was because our children were studying JFK at school and we could walk to this area easily from our hotel.
We arrived in Dallas and it was freezing. My family laughed at me when I brought a long warm Parker from Amazon to take with us before we left Australia. I was having the last laugh know. The hotel did not have any dinner options it was a Saturday night at about 5:00pm and we ventured out with a list supplied by the hotel. We went to a casual Texas steakhouse. The food and atmosphere was fantastic as we had not booked we had to wait about 20minutes so we went next door to a shop to spend the time. The shop was full of cowboy boots,hats and everything that you think about when you think of Texas. We had a great time the only problem was the walk back to the hotel. The area was not the best and we did not feel safe. We were not walking back late at night it would have been about 7:30pm. When we got back we decided to stay in and spent the rest of the evening watching T.V.