Newmexikid
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2002
We had a wonderful trip and I'm stilling trying to deal with reality again...what no Mickey Mouse bars for dessert? Yes, I gained a quick 5 pounds on this trip.
I would like to highlight our trip with some nuggets of information that may be helpful from the perspective of taking a 2 year old and 5 year old. My DH 46, me 37, DS 5-1/2 and DD 2-1/2 flew from New Mexico to Orlando on friday. We rented a car from Avis and drove to Coco Beach and stayed at the Marriott. It was great; it took us a whole 10 minutes to take up our luggage, change clothes, and walk to the beach. I would recommend the Marriott; they were very nice and stored our daughter's car seat for a week.
We dropped the car off at Avis and got to the terminal very early by Avis shuttle. I would recommend this, mainly because we waited only 10 minutes to check in and then got in line immediately (to board the ship). We sat with our backs against the wall and were comfortable as we could be, considering we were sitting on the floor. It was amazing how packed that terminal was before we boarded. We didn't bring two way radios and really didn't feel that we needed them. I can see how this would be great with older kids.
Ressie Scramble: yes, this was a scramble. The hard part was Flounder's Nursery. You have to be a planner and know exactly when you want the nursery; keep in mind that the nursery isn't opened throughout the whole day. There are times when they are closed or just open for family play. I made the Flounder's ressies (after waiting in line 30 minutes, some had been there for up to an hour) to the best of my ability while my DH went to changed our seating to 1st seating. (talk more of that later). So then I went to Palo's and got ressies. But then realized that the night I made them didn't coincide with the night I requested at Flounder's. My mistake I admit, but then I had to head back to Flounders and change them. You can prioritize your requests, which is nice. My daughter is potty trained (she turns 3 in August), and was by far the oldest. She got sick with a cold on Tues
So we didn't use the Nursery after that (let me say I wish they would enforce the rule about being healthy. When I dropped her off the first time I saw a little girl with a very bad runny nose -- go figure).
Food/Drink Brought on Board: we went to the Publix the night before and bought 48 little bottles of water, some beer, some snack items for the kids, ginger ale, 2 bottles of wine. We packed everything in two boxes that we requested from the produce dept. and it saved is mega $$$$$$. We brought tape from home. No problem at all bringing this on - we were very pleased with ourselves for doing this, esp. with the water. We also brought a soft cooler that we took with us to the beaches.
Stateroom: we were impressed with it; the over the door storage was a must; our room was 2132 and it was terrific. The port hole was good and I don't know if I would have wanted a veranda with the kids being small. My 2-1/2 year old slept on the "couch/bed" and my 5 year old was thrilled to sleep on the top. The service was excellent. We clicked by Day 2 that we HAD to go back in the afternoon for nap(s). It made a big difference. The t.v. has 24 hour Disney movies; oftentimes the kids fell asleep to them. We slept wonderfully and boy did we feel the ship move. Luckily, no one took medication and were fine. I didn't talk about it in front of the kids. The temperature of the stateroom was good and only one night did we hear some noise from above. I was the only one who would wake-up hearing the engines revving in the early a.m. (getting into port). But that's just me. I would bring highlighters to mark your Navigators daily. It was a little confusing trying to coordinate everything that we wanted to do. For instance, I didn't want my son to miss Captain Hook in the club, and plus, I wanted to be sure to get tickets to Tea with Wendy Darling at a certain time, plus don't forget that characters will be certain places at certain times, plus that reservations for my DD was at what time again? etc., etc. Also, I taped the daily Navigator to the wall so we wouldn't have to search for it. Just wished I had an extra copy to tote around during the day. You can pick one up at Guest Services, if they have them.
Laundry: we were told that the best time to do laundry is the day/night when were at port. Days at sea are very busy. It's one dollar in quarters to do each a load of wash and load of dry. I'm glad I did (just two loads altogether), since I really tried to pack light. Don't get your room anywhere near the laundry. Our tablesmates were and they said it was terriblely HOT. (plus there's a fair amount of traffic around there).
Kid Clubs: this was a dissappointment. I had visions of us having more time together alone. Basically, the only time were were alone was one afternoon at the adult pool and one dinner at Palo's. We didn't want to ditch the kids a lot (it was obvious that some kids spent many hours in the clubs, whether they wanted to or not). We wanted to have dinner together (except for Palo) and do fun stuff together. My DS, 5, liked the clubs, but after two days at port (we didn't put him in then), he didn't want to go back. It seemed like a lot of kids and noise, and not so much attention. He's a pretty easy going guy, so I don't know what to think. The second time he was in, we went to say hi and see what was going on. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him and they had left him in the club and didn't take him in the lab, he was still with the 3-4's. So...I wasn't very happy about that. It took about 15 minutes to actually "find" him. Need I say more? My advice would be to have your kids in them a 2-4 hours at least every day so they get used to it and the pace. Plus, with my DD being almost three, we could have waited 4 months and then wouldn't have been charged. Don't forget that they add gratuity to your Flounder's bill, too.
Shows: Entertainment exceeded all of our expectations. We liked Morty, contrary to some. It was fabulous for our age of kids (except for the Mousekateer Show, we walked out). The shows were about 55 minutes long and kept their attention really well. The smaller family oriented shows in the evening were good too. Our socks were blown off by it all! Go Disney! My husband and son took in the Rookie (a movie) one afternoon while DD took a nap and they enjoyed that and some time in from the sun.
Seating: we were APLAPLA; I decided that I wasn't going to get in a tizzy over the order of our restaurants. The second seating wasn't going to work for us; I liked being able to go to the 8:30 show and then crash with my little ones after that around 10:00pm. It wasn't always nice having to get ready and rush around early to make it to dinner by 6:00, but it was well worth it for us to have the option for bed after dinner or after the show. My DH was second in line to make this change and they said just talk with the restaurant manager that first dinner the first night, and it was taken care of. No problems, no questions asked. I do wonder if we got stuck with less experienced waiters and a so-so table, though. Our waiters were nice, but there was some of a language hurdle., but not a huge problem. Our table was always close to the entrance of the restaurant right next to a bus stand. My favorite for lunch and dinner was Luminiere's. I would recommend ordering whatever quantity you want of entree/apps/desserts without modesty. Plus, just ignore that hard sell of the alcohol (if you don't want it). Bring your cameras and camcorders to the Character Breakfast and all dinners as there's much going on. The dinners were sometimes hard at the 1-1/2 hour mark. One night we went to Topsiders and were disappointed. That place seemed like a 3 ring circus to me (any time of the day). Plus, FIND someone to help with carrying trays. We had a hard time with this and got stressed out managing our way around the crowds, with trays, and two kids who can't carry trays. Our head waiter (Romano) seemed a little miffed that we went to Palo's and Topsiders one night (could have been my imagination).
Also, I would have packed more entertaining things for the kids to play with at dinner.
At Port: we went to Orient Beach and Coco Beach. It was good. We got fried at Orient Beach like Kritters said on her report. My kids didn't notice the nudity; it was a bit more than I expected it would be. Where are all the 40 year old men? Tee hee!!! Anyway, the Disney shore excursions are so limited for 2 year olds, so we just decided to be laid back and make our own plans. It worked for us, with taxies and getting umbrellas (no problem). We did the PBJ thing and I packed those lunches. That saved money, no doubt. I was surprised at all the Disney folks who got off at St. Martin doing their own thing. We enjoyed shopping in Haveinsight Mall in St. Thomas and bought a digital camera. We had done some price comparision in advace so felt very comfortable doing this. I would recommend bringing an umbrella stroller for a little one. My daughter doesn't use the stroller that much anymore, but we used it all the time off ship and it was a huge help in getting on and off the ship and on Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay: What a wonderful highlight to the vacation. Here's a little hint, by this time my DS had a bad cough, since he had caught a cold too. (my kids aren't the sickly type, just for the record). Anyway, he was coughing like crazy, so that morning I wanted to buy some cough syrup from the infirmery. The other stores wouldn't open again until we were out at sea and I didn't want to wait all day. I went from our stateroom to the forward elevators and went right down to the infirmery (just 5 minutes after it opened), bought the syrup, only a reasonable $3 for Robitusson, left the doctor, and got off the ship. Evidently, my DH and DS who were going to sprint to save seats took ten minutes longer. They were trapped in the crowds of people at the aft elevators, sweating and getting anxious. They got off seeing us first in line to take pics with the Chip and Dale. My suggestion would be to have someone go ahead and save umbrellas and get inner tubes. The beach is beautiful and snorkleing, well, sucked. Bummer! The kids loved the water and collecting shells, which I learned after the trip on this board, you aren't supposed to take. Lunch was yummy and it was a relaxing time had by all 4 of us.
Room Service: beware and check your order before you tip them. We ordered room service and hung out the reminder on our door the night before at least 10 times. 8 of those times something was wrong or forgotten, i.e. no cookies for our "picnic lunch" in St. Martin. Too bad. I'd double check when you call and then check when they deliver. They are fast, no longer than 20 minutes for delivery.
Tips: we tipped the customary tips, even though we dined at two different restaurants two nights. As I remember (but don't have record of now), the suggested amounts were a bit higher than I remember reading in the literature. $25.00+/person for your server.
Characters: we decided midway through that it would be fun to start collecting autographs. I wish we started this sooner and made more of an effort sooner to see them and get pics with them. They usually make their appearances around 5 minutes before the reported time (or was my watch too fast?) and the lines form quickly at that time.
Pictures on Board: do yourself and favor and buy your pictures as you find them. That place is a hot and sweaty madhouse with tired whiney kids that last night on board. It was too bad I waited in line forever and was shoved around trying to find our pictures (esp. from Castaway Cay).
Last Day: we went to Cape Canaveral. It was expensive ($25/adult) ($15+ for kids as I remember). It was very hot (96) and we were pretty beat by this time. I was pleased with Avis again. Very painless interactions. Caught their shuttle back, got the car, picked up our car seat from those nice folks at the Marriott, and then went to see some rockets. We wouldn't try to do so much with smaller kids, but you could do that with older ones (age 7+).
In General: the ship is beautiful and the bathrooms are always clean and being cleaned. Staff is courteous and most seem to truly LOVE kids. I can't believe their stamina. Palo's is worth at least one visit. Bring at least $50 dollars in $1 bills for the misc. tipping on island and land and room service. Don't try to pack too much in -- try to relax too. Eat lots of the wonderful French bread. And enjoy that sound of the Magic's horn -- to the tune of "When you wish upon a star."
I would like to highlight our trip with some nuggets of information that may be helpful from the perspective of taking a 2 year old and 5 year old. My DH 46, me 37, DS 5-1/2 and DD 2-1/2 flew from New Mexico to Orlando on friday. We rented a car from Avis and drove to Coco Beach and stayed at the Marriott. It was great; it took us a whole 10 minutes to take up our luggage, change clothes, and walk to the beach. I would recommend the Marriott; they were very nice and stored our daughter's car seat for a week.
We dropped the car off at Avis and got to the terminal very early by Avis shuttle. I would recommend this, mainly because we waited only 10 minutes to check in and then got in line immediately (to board the ship). We sat with our backs against the wall and were comfortable as we could be, considering we were sitting on the floor. It was amazing how packed that terminal was before we boarded. We didn't bring two way radios and really didn't feel that we needed them. I can see how this would be great with older kids.
Ressie Scramble: yes, this was a scramble. The hard part was Flounder's Nursery. You have to be a planner and know exactly when you want the nursery; keep in mind that the nursery isn't opened throughout the whole day. There are times when they are closed or just open for family play. I made the Flounder's ressies (after waiting in line 30 minutes, some had been there for up to an hour) to the best of my ability while my DH went to changed our seating to 1st seating. (talk more of that later). So then I went to Palo's and got ressies. But then realized that the night I made them didn't coincide with the night I requested at Flounder's. My mistake I admit, but then I had to head back to Flounders and change them. You can prioritize your requests, which is nice. My daughter is potty trained (she turns 3 in August), and was by far the oldest. She got sick with a cold on Tues
So we didn't use the Nursery after that (let me say I wish they would enforce the rule about being healthy. When I dropped her off the first time I saw a little girl with a very bad runny nose -- go figure). Food/Drink Brought on Board: we went to the Publix the night before and bought 48 little bottles of water, some beer, some snack items for the kids, ginger ale, 2 bottles of wine. We packed everything in two boxes that we requested from the produce dept. and it saved is mega $$$$$$. We brought tape from home. No problem at all bringing this on - we were very pleased with ourselves for doing this, esp. with the water. We also brought a soft cooler that we took with us to the beaches.
Stateroom: we were impressed with it; the over the door storage was a must; our room was 2132 and it was terrific. The port hole was good and I don't know if I would have wanted a veranda with the kids being small. My 2-1/2 year old slept on the "couch/bed" and my 5 year old was thrilled to sleep on the top. The service was excellent. We clicked by Day 2 that we HAD to go back in the afternoon for nap(s). It made a big difference. The t.v. has 24 hour Disney movies; oftentimes the kids fell asleep to them. We slept wonderfully and boy did we feel the ship move. Luckily, no one took medication and were fine. I didn't talk about it in front of the kids. The temperature of the stateroom was good and only one night did we hear some noise from above. I was the only one who would wake-up hearing the engines revving in the early a.m. (getting into port). But that's just me. I would bring highlighters to mark your Navigators daily. It was a little confusing trying to coordinate everything that we wanted to do. For instance, I didn't want my son to miss Captain Hook in the club, and plus, I wanted to be sure to get tickets to Tea with Wendy Darling at a certain time, plus don't forget that characters will be certain places at certain times, plus that reservations for my DD was at what time again? etc., etc. Also, I taped the daily Navigator to the wall so we wouldn't have to search for it. Just wished I had an extra copy to tote around during the day. You can pick one up at Guest Services, if they have them.
Laundry: we were told that the best time to do laundry is the day/night when were at port. Days at sea are very busy. It's one dollar in quarters to do each a load of wash and load of dry. I'm glad I did (just two loads altogether), since I really tried to pack light. Don't get your room anywhere near the laundry. Our tablesmates were and they said it was terriblely HOT. (plus there's a fair amount of traffic around there).
Kid Clubs: this was a dissappointment. I had visions of us having more time together alone. Basically, the only time were were alone was one afternoon at the adult pool and one dinner at Palo's. We didn't want to ditch the kids a lot (it was obvious that some kids spent many hours in the clubs, whether they wanted to or not). We wanted to have dinner together (except for Palo) and do fun stuff together. My DS, 5, liked the clubs, but after two days at port (we didn't put him in then), he didn't want to go back. It seemed like a lot of kids and noise, and not so much attention. He's a pretty easy going guy, so I don't know what to think. The second time he was in, we went to say hi and see what was going on. Unfortunately, I couldn't find him and they had left him in the club and didn't take him in the lab, he was still with the 3-4's. So...I wasn't very happy about that. It took about 15 minutes to actually "find" him. Need I say more? My advice would be to have your kids in them a 2-4 hours at least every day so they get used to it and the pace. Plus, with my DD being almost three, we could have waited 4 months and then wouldn't have been charged. Don't forget that they add gratuity to your Flounder's bill, too.
Shows: Entertainment exceeded all of our expectations. We liked Morty, contrary to some. It was fabulous for our age of kids (except for the Mousekateer Show, we walked out). The shows were about 55 minutes long and kept their attention really well. The smaller family oriented shows in the evening were good too. Our socks were blown off by it all! Go Disney! My husband and son took in the Rookie (a movie) one afternoon while DD took a nap and they enjoyed that and some time in from the sun.
Seating: we were APLAPLA; I decided that I wasn't going to get in a tizzy over the order of our restaurants. The second seating wasn't going to work for us; I liked being able to go to the 8:30 show and then crash with my little ones after that around 10:00pm. It wasn't always nice having to get ready and rush around early to make it to dinner by 6:00, but it was well worth it for us to have the option for bed after dinner or after the show. My DH was second in line to make this change and they said just talk with the restaurant manager that first dinner the first night, and it was taken care of. No problems, no questions asked. I do wonder if we got stuck with less experienced waiters and a so-so table, though. Our waiters were nice, but there was some of a language hurdle., but not a huge problem. Our table was always close to the entrance of the restaurant right next to a bus stand. My favorite for lunch and dinner was Luminiere's. I would recommend ordering whatever quantity you want of entree/apps/desserts without modesty. Plus, just ignore that hard sell of the alcohol (if you don't want it). Bring your cameras and camcorders to the Character Breakfast and all dinners as there's much going on. The dinners were sometimes hard at the 1-1/2 hour mark. One night we went to Topsiders and were disappointed. That place seemed like a 3 ring circus to me (any time of the day). Plus, FIND someone to help with carrying trays. We had a hard time with this and got stressed out managing our way around the crowds, with trays, and two kids who can't carry trays. Our head waiter (Romano) seemed a little miffed that we went to Palo's and Topsiders one night (could have been my imagination).
Also, I would have packed more entertaining things for the kids to play with at dinner.At Port: we went to Orient Beach and Coco Beach. It was good. We got fried at Orient Beach like Kritters said on her report. My kids didn't notice the nudity; it was a bit more than I expected it would be. Where are all the 40 year old men? Tee hee!!! Anyway, the Disney shore excursions are so limited for 2 year olds, so we just decided to be laid back and make our own plans. It worked for us, with taxies and getting umbrellas (no problem). We did the PBJ thing and I packed those lunches. That saved money, no doubt. I was surprised at all the Disney folks who got off at St. Martin doing their own thing. We enjoyed shopping in Haveinsight Mall in St. Thomas and bought a digital camera. We had done some price comparision in advace so felt very comfortable doing this. I would recommend bringing an umbrella stroller for a little one. My daughter doesn't use the stroller that much anymore, but we used it all the time off ship and it was a huge help in getting on and off the ship and on Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay: What a wonderful highlight to the vacation. Here's a little hint, by this time my DS had a bad cough, since he had caught a cold too. (my kids aren't the sickly type, just for the record). Anyway, he was coughing like crazy, so that morning I wanted to buy some cough syrup from the infirmery. The other stores wouldn't open again until we were out at sea and I didn't want to wait all day. I went from our stateroom to the forward elevators and went right down to the infirmery (just 5 minutes after it opened), bought the syrup, only a reasonable $3 for Robitusson, left the doctor, and got off the ship. Evidently, my DH and DS who were going to sprint to save seats took ten minutes longer. They were trapped in the crowds of people at the aft elevators, sweating and getting anxious. They got off seeing us first in line to take pics with the Chip and Dale. My suggestion would be to have someone go ahead and save umbrellas and get inner tubes. The beach is beautiful and snorkleing, well, sucked. Bummer! The kids loved the water and collecting shells, which I learned after the trip on this board, you aren't supposed to take. Lunch was yummy and it was a relaxing time had by all 4 of us.
Room Service: beware and check your order before you tip them. We ordered room service and hung out the reminder on our door the night before at least 10 times. 8 of those times something was wrong or forgotten, i.e. no cookies for our "picnic lunch" in St. Martin. Too bad. I'd double check when you call and then check when they deliver. They are fast, no longer than 20 minutes for delivery.
Tips: we tipped the customary tips, even though we dined at two different restaurants two nights. As I remember (but don't have record of now), the suggested amounts were a bit higher than I remember reading in the literature. $25.00+/person for your server.
Characters: we decided midway through that it would be fun to start collecting autographs. I wish we started this sooner and made more of an effort sooner to see them and get pics with them. They usually make their appearances around 5 minutes before the reported time (or was my watch too fast?) and the lines form quickly at that time.
Pictures on Board: do yourself and favor and buy your pictures as you find them. That place is a hot and sweaty madhouse with tired whiney kids that last night on board. It was too bad I waited in line forever and was shoved around trying to find our pictures (esp. from Castaway Cay).
Last Day: we went to Cape Canaveral. It was expensive ($25/adult) ($15+ for kids as I remember). It was very hot (96) and we were pretty beat by this time. I was pleased with Avis again. Very painless interactions. Caught their shuttle back, got the car, picked up our car seat from those nice folks at the Marriott, and then went to see some rockets. We wouldn't try to do so much with smaller kids, but you could do that with older ones (age 7+).
In General: the ship is beautiful and the bathrooms are always clean and being cleaned. Staff is courteous and most seem to truly LOVE kids. I can't believe their stamina. Palo's is worth at least one visit. Bring at least $50 dollars in $1 bills for the misc. tipping on island and land and room service. Don't try to pack too much in -- try to relax too. Eat lots of the wonderful French bread. And enjoy that sound of the Magic's horn -- to the tune of "When you wish upon a star."
