I would be happy to do a day by day for you...
Saturday--flight down (arranged by Disney, reservations were made almost 1 year in advance)-- We were not sitting altogether. My husband ended up sitting with my son and I sat further back in the plane. Waited in line at the airport for a little less than an hour to catch our bus. Bus ride was nice. I loved the movie outlining the boat. We were very excited. Got to the port. Waited well over an hour to get signed in. My son was miserable and hungry. Should have broke down and bought food at the snack bar, but were anxious to get on and get to the buffet. Ended up grabbing pizza when we got on board, 1st thing we passed. The pizza was good. Went to room and missed the departing show because my son wanted to nap. We sat outside on our little deck and relaxed. Got ready for dinner at the Parrot Cay. Met our table mates-all of us were a bit sea sick, it really moves around back there. The water in the glasses was sloshing back and forth a bit. It was a weird feeling. Food was bland, but that was not a problem since I didn't feel so good. I felt really sick by the time we got back to the room after a short walk. Went to bed to make it "stop". The curtain in the room was swaying from side to side--yuck. Called it a night. My son was exhausted anyway.
Sunday--Had room service for breakfast--donuts and pastry were poor, OJ was watery, apple juice was like syrup--YUCK. That was our fault though, shouldn't have done room service. Went to the spa for mani then later a pedi. They were ok, but I was still feeling yuck so it was hard to relax. The girl doing my nails said it would typically calm down by around 12-1 (thank goodness it did). Had lunch at Topsiders--food average. We went to the club to sign up my son. (I have already spoken a lot about the club). Spent some time by the pool--Freezing to death. It was so windy and cold still. Kids were swimming, but most sensible folks had on pants and sweatshirts. Visited the arcade, was bummed at the size. It was very small and packed with people. Later in the week it was not as packed, but there was not much for a little guy to do. He loves arcades and we usually can find enough to keep him busy for hours. Went to dinner at Lumiere's, food was bland. Environment was nice. The waitstaff really tries hard and brings new things if you do not like what you are having. We tried this a couple of times, but nothing really was good. We are food snobs--I will admit that. We are very spoiled when it comes to fresh, terrific food. My family has wonderful cooks, my brother is a chef and has worked at amazing places--The Breaker's Hotel, 4 Seasons, etc. We always have fresh herbs (growing in doors and out), grow a lot of our own produce, I love the food network, and amaze my own friends often at my creations. We travel a lot and try new things all the time. What I am saying is we know good food, but understand that a cruise line would not be what we are used to. Still what we had was no where near what we expected. The meun's were fine, the presentations were ok, but the food was often bland and yuck.
We went to the Golden Mickeys that night. We decided to wait until 10 minutes before show time to go to the theater since my son is a wiggle worm and we didn't want to go too soon. This was a mistake. The whole theater was packed!@!!!! We walked up and down the aisles. The only reason we were able to stay and see the show was because a VERY VERY nice man put his daughter in his lap, and his wife put her son in her lap, so we had 2 free seats with my son in my lap. It was a nice show, but the movie screen clips that were throughout the show were boring to my son. It was very noisy in the theater, but that was expected since there was so many little ones. If I was an adult traveling without kids I would have been very annoyed.
Monday--Went to Parrot cay for breakfast. Was sad to see the pastry and donuts were the same. Muffins were packaged looking. Tried the eggs, bacon, sausage. Eggs were horrible and powdered. Bacon was not great. Sausage was ok. Later saw the omlet bar. Oh well.
Went to kids club a couple times this day. I won't add much to the club stuff except this day I did see a poor little girl around 4 years old have a pee-pee accident. It was so sad. She was standing there with a bright red face crying pathetically in her puddle. I understand that the staff is not allowed to touch children who have accidents for very real health issues. I don't claim to have a solution either. But the little girl was screaming for a very, very long time until her mom came to get her. The staff had surrounded her and her puddle with brightly colored cones and instucted her to stay there and other people/kids to walk around her. It was sooooo traumatic for that little girl.
Went to the pool again. It was much warmer this day since we were further south. There is a HUGE amount of kids in the Mickey pool. I have personally never seen so many in such a small pool before. It was a very fun pool though for the kids. They did not seem to mind, but I jumped in 2 times to upright my son after he had been shoved over. The pool is shallow enough for little ones to walk in, but the big ones are still running and jumping everywhere. I wish there was a half hour a day for smaller ones or something. There is a Goofy pool that has bigger kids, but many were still more interested in the Mickey one since that is where to slide is. There is a Mickey ear with fountains for non-potty trained kids. But big kids were running in and out of that too and slidding over the edge of the "ears". Great pool, but hard to find a time when it is quieter/hazard free for smaller kids.
Went to late lunch at the hotdog place. The hotdogs were good, but the buns were a bit stale. Enjoyed the fries. Had soft serve ice cream too. A teenager would think they died and went to heaven. These fast food places were better then we would have expected and we enjoyed them since we don't eat too much of this at home.
I went to the gym this day. The gym was nice, although the ceiling is not too tall on the 2nd level(a ramp between levels). I am glad I am not 6 foot or would have bumped my head. The guy next to me on the elliptical had his hair touch everytime he stepped. My only real complaint about the gym (I went ~ hour Monday-Friday) it was pretty hot in there. I sweated like crazy every time. The AC was too low and there weren't any fans.
Went to dinner at AP. Our seats were not great for viewing. We were all the way up against a wall and behind one of those serving station things. It was difficult to take it all in. Food same. Servers nice. Went to the family dance hour. My son loved this. The floor was packed, bigger girls were twirling/running wildly around. Cute, but knocked my son down, twice. He was ok, and we did return a couple times later in the week since he loved it so much. Again getting knocked a fair amount. Wish they had picked a bigger dance location.
Tuesday--
Arrived at St. Maarten. Had breakfast at topsiders. Tried the mini blueberry pancakes. VERY dry. I think we went to the kids club for a while. Had a quick lunch, fruit. Went to Afternoon beach bash. It was great. Warning there are some completely naked and topless folks on that beach too. This was not a problem for us since my son is clueless still, but I did hear a couple parents with older kids complain a bit, they had said it was supposed to be a fully clothed beach. No idea. There were a lot of island folks trying to sell things. They hovered most of the time asking over and over if you wanted this or that. It didn't bother us too much, but a couple people on the bus were talking about it on the way back. There were 4 dogs running around fighting at the end of the beach time. One ran by and missed my son by inches. Regardless, we enjoyed our excursion. There were nice cushioned chairs, and an umbrella that we only had to pay $3 to use. We got to see the island on our bus ride. It was nice.
Had to rush to get ready for dinner (20 minutes for all 3 of us). Went back to Parrot Cay. I felt a bit sea sick again. Something about the location I think. Food same. But they gave all of us bandanas for our heads (pirate theme). There was a show at the end of dinner with music and the servers and kids going around the room. Our server grabbed my son and made it half way around before my son started crying. My son was afraid of the loud music and didn't know what was happening. If I had told him what to expect and that he was just going in a circle maybe he wouldn't have been scared. Oh well. We tried very hard to keep my son up for the pirate show. He just couldn't make it. It does not start until 9:45 (probably waiting for everyone to finish dinner). Bummer. Just too late for my little guy after a day at the beach.
Wednesday--St. Thomas day. Everyone on the boat had to get up early this day. We were thankful at this point that we hadn't pushed for the pirate show. Kids and their 'rents looked EXHAUSTED. Wasn't a big deal, just a hoop to jump through. Tried to go to Lumiere's for breakfast. It was filled and they would not allow any more people to go in. We ate at Parrot Cay. Left for bird show at top of the mountain on St. Thomas. The tram ride was cool. It gave a great view. We went on a short hike at the top of the mountain, had some water then saw the bird show. It was a very small area, but was cute. Headed back for the boat after a walk. It was a nice short excursion for a family with little ones.
Had lunch at topsiders, there were fresh shrimp today. That was nice. Glad that we didn't eat on the island! Went to the pool again. It was still very crowded. I would have hoped that people would all be out on excursions. Oh well. Went to the kids club. Tried again to go the basketball court. It always is very crowded and too dangerous for a little one. We expected that though.
Had dinner at Lumieres again. Tonight our dinner companions were at Palo, so we felt more comfortable telling the staff that we were not enjoying our food. They brought over the head guy, who was nice and offered to cook something that we had already had earlier in the week. We didn't have the heart to tell him that there was nothing that we tried that we would have wanted again. He was trying, but what could he do. We only talked to him in order to hopefully make a difference for future guests, we knew it would not do any good for us.
Had our pictures taken--camera staff also very nice. Did the family dance party thing again and called it a night.
Thursday--Went to the character breakfast. Tried the kids Mickey waffle and chocolate pancake--both not good at all, hard. My son wouldn't even eat them. Stuck with the fruit. My son loved that characters.
Someone passed out the night before and fell down some stairs. We made an emergency transfer somewhere and were off course now. The seas were VERY VERY VERY rough today. Up to 20 feet waves per the captains log on the TV. People were stumbling everywhere. On the top deck if you went to the back and looked forward you saw the whole boat tipping up and down. The horizon was moving everywhere. For the person who said they were not sea sick at all and they always get sea sick, I doubt it. This is the day that the kid puked in the Mickey pool. My husband who is never sick, was sick in bed all day throwing up. I felt like I could too but I was trying to keep moving and keep my mind off of it. My son kept complaining that he was dizzy and pick him up. There were people puking in trash cans. It was a very rough day at sea. I went to the movie Nemo with my son, the HUGE screen was swaying from side to side. I concentrated to not be sick. My husband was too sick for food today. Went to Disney Dream show that night (went to the early seating since we were not doing dinner). It was much less crowded then the later seating. The show was great. But it was so rough at sea still that the shutter that the girl was singing (at while she was at the window) kept swinging shut and she kept pushing it open.
Friday--we arrived late at Castaway Cay due to the stop we had to make for the hurt women the night before last. The captain was able to make up some time after the sea calmed down a bit. We were in line for about 45 minutes to get off the boat (my husband wanted off since he was still recovering). We quickly got our seats under an umbrella. Later on many people were trudging down the beach complaining that there was no where left to sit. Probably extra crowded since all/most? of the excursions were cancelled since the water was still to rough. The island was the highlight of the trip. The BBQ sauce actually had some flavor. I also had a mango that nearly made me weap with joy it was so good. We were among the very last people to get back on the boat. We were too late to get to dinner. We had room service. The pizza was not the same as the top deck pizza, it was thicker and soggy. I ordered a ceasar salad and it was tiny tiny, and the croutons were soft. Oh well. Room service we already knew was not the way to go either. We packed everything. Went for a walk on deck, had it almost to ourselves since it was cold again. Had a taco, tasteless and the shell was not cooked, but oh well. Watched a movie on the big screen. Went to bed.
Saturday--
Had breakfast at topsiders so we would not have to get up too early. Took our time getting off. Debark was pretty smooth since everyone was already gone. Waited ~45 minutes on the bus before it left. Flew home, seated together thank goodness.
To those of you I have bored senseless by now, I appologize. After my initial post and reading many of the snappy comments I wonder why I bothered at all. This more detailed post hopefully provides clarity to our experience.
