dizfanz
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my do
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2001
... dining 2 out of 3 nights at Palo. If the Gordon family from Canada is out there, nothing personal, we just had to go back for another night. We did enjoy your company at our 1 meal together. Wonderful service from Hristo. What a great server. My wife and I both work in upscale restaurants, so we know one when we spot them. He can make excellent wine recommendations if you need one. Food was out of this world. We originally had Palo reservations the last night, but when we got onboard we decided to change them to the first night based on our dining rotation. We were not excited to eat at Parrot Cay the first night. I am so glad we did. When we were there, we noticed that they could have obviously seated more tables, even though they insisted they were booked up. We made a request to be put on the waiting list for our last night, and sure enough, it came through.
We ate at Triton's our second night. I had the tederloin, my wife had Cod. It was just ok. We were definitley disappointed as we had lunch and breakfast there earlier that day and both were quite good. The food at dinner was a letdown, particulary after Palo the night before. After the cruise, this led me to think if we could have had dinner at Palo all 3 nights if we played our cards right? That would have been great.
Nassau as a port of call was alright, but nothing great. We were debating if we should even get off the ship. The weather was horrible at the pier. It looked like a hurricane was hitting us with the strong wind. Once we made our way up to town though, there was almost no strong wind, as it was blocked by the buildings. We did not book an excursion, we wanted to shop instead. We thought we would get some great deals on liquor, jewelry, and more. Alas, we did not think the deals were great at all. Maybe if you want a trinket or some cheap gold. And maybe if you want a several thousand dollar stone or gem, then it was a good deal, but nothing in between. The liquor is no cheaper even duty free than here in Indiana.
Castaway Cay was great. What a wonderful island. The only downside was we could not dock until 1pm because of high winds in the morning. But once we were on the island, we were in total peace. The weather was still chilly, though some did brave the waters. We made our way to Serenity Bay, cocktails in hand. We relaxed for the short time we had.
That night we dined at Palo again. We had a late reservation and wore formal attire. We did not want to rush back to the room to pack our clothes in our luggage to be collected that night, so we decided to keep our luggage and carry it off. This worked out just fine. Carrying your luggage off is simple, although I would only do it has a couple with 2 bags, not a family with several cases.
Some thoughts:
We had a WDW stay 3 days before and one day after our cruise. It was more economical to get a weekly rate on a rental car and park it at the terminal than any other option. We did National Emerald Aisle and got a great SUV for $170 plus $30 to park at Canaveral. Just transfers to the ship would have cost us $130. Palo is great, do it. We love the adults only areas. Cove Cafe was awesome to sit back, relax and have a nightcap like a Baileys and Coffee, or try a hot chocolate with Frangelico. I asked for a hot chocolate and the server ran all the way back to the bev station to grab hot chocolate packets for us, even though I insisted on ordering something else. Great service again. Diversions was another favorite. If you like good beer, this is the place to go. They have a great selection of imports, even though some DCL publications list otherwise. Cadillac Lounge has the best wine by the glass selection on ship. We did realize that different bars have different selections of alcohol, so check them out to find your favorite. The price of drinks seemed very reasonable to me. I was expecting much higher since they don't exactly have a lot of competition in the middle of the Atlantic
You have nothing but time to walk around to find your drink. This first time cruise was fun for us, even though were are a couple in our 30s with no children. We will probably do another 3 day DCl trip in the future. But for a longer trip, we will be trying another cruisline.
I think I will get tired of the food on DCL for 7 days. The main dining room is just ok. The quality of the late night desert buffet is soso. Since we work in restaurants, on vacations we are not always the most sociable with other people, that is what we do for a living. Not to say we don't like people, we enjoy our time alone though, so we would like to have a table for 2. I believe other cruises have better options to accomadate this. For 3 days tied in with a WDW stay, the DCL is the best way to go. For a longer trip, I would like a ship more geared to adults, obviously DCL is focused on family. And the most important thing I learned, an outside stateroom with a verandah is a must
We ate at Triton's our second night. I had the tederloin, my wife had Cod. It was just ok. We were definitley disappointed as we had lunch and breakfast there earlier that day and both were quite good. The food at dinner was a letdown, particulary after Palo the night before. After the cruise, this led me to think if we could have had dinner at Palo all 3 nights if we played our cards right? That would have been great.
Nassau as a port of call was alright, but nothing great. We were debating if we should even get off the ship. The weather was horrible at the pier. It looked like a hurricane was hitting us with the strong wind. Once we made our way up to town though, there was almost no strong wind, as it was blocked by the buildings. We did not book an excursion, we wanted to shop instead. We thought we would get some great deals on liquor, jewelry, and more. Alas, we did not think the deals were great at all. Maybe if you want a trinket or some cheap gold. And maybe if you want a several thousand dollar stone or gem, then it was a good deal, but nothing in between. The liquor is no cheaper even duty free than here in Indiana.
Castaway Cay was great. What a wonderful island. The only downside was we could not dock until 1pm because of high winds in the morning. But once we were on the island, we were in total peace. The weather was still chilly, though some did brave the waters. We made our way to Serenity Bay, cocktails in hand. We relaxed for the short time we had.
That night we dined at Palo again. We had a late reservation and wore formal attire. We did not want to rush back to the room to pack our clothes in our luggage to be collected that night, so we decided to keep our luggage and carry it off. This worked out just fine. Carrying your luggage off is simple, although I would only do it has a couple with 2 bags, not a family with several cases.
Some thoughts:
We had a WDW stay 3 days before and one day after our cruise. It was more economical to get a weekly rate on a rental car and park it at the terminal than any other option. We did National Emerald Aisle and got a great SUV for $170 plus $30 to park at Canaveral. Just transfers to the ship would have cost us $130. Palo is great, do it. We love the adults only areas. Cove Cafe was awesome to sit back, relax and have a nightcap like a Baileys and Coffee, or try a hot chocolate with Frangelico. I asked for a hot chocolate and the server ran all the way back to the bev station to grab hot chocolate packets for us, even though I insisted on ordering something else. Great service again. Diversions was another favorite. If you like good beer, this is the place to go. They have a great selection of imports, even though some DCL publications list otherwise. Cadillac Lounge has the best wine by the glass selection on ship. We did realize that different bars have different selections of alcohol, so check them out to find your favorite. The price of drinks seemed very reasonable to me. I was expecting much higher since they don't exactly have a lot of competition in the middle of the Atlantic
You have nothing but time to walk around to find your drink. This first time cruise was fun for us, even though were are a couple in our 30s with no children. We will probably do another 3 day DCl trip in the future. But for a longer trip, we will be trying another cruisline.I think I will get tired of the food on DCL for 7 days. The main dining room is just ok. The quality of the late night desert buffet is soso. Since we work in restaurants, on vacations we are not always the most sociable with other people, that is what we do for a living. Not to say we don't like people, we enjoy our time alone though, so we would like to have a table for 2. I believe other cruises have better options to accomadate this. For 3 days tied in with a WDW stay, the DCL is the best way to go. For a longer trip, I would like a ship more geared to adults, obviously DCL is focused on family. And the most important thing I learned, an outside stateroom with a verandah is a must
