January 30, 2011 Wonder Mexican Riviera ANYONE OUT THERE????

[ssawka]

Heading out of DC tomorrow afternoon. This will be the longest DD has flown without a layover, wish us luck! Can't wait to meet everyone in person on Sunday!

 

[aldarowa]

OMG. We just finished packing and we have 5 suitcases (2 big, 3 small) and a duffel bag full of FE gifts. I guess we girls went a little overboard with the amount of shoes we packed.

DH told us at least 10 times that he has the least amount of stuff.

Wish you all a save drive or flight tomorrow. See you Sunday morning.

 

[boiseflyfisher]

We will see you all tomorrow! We are heading to the airport in a couple of hours. I can't believe it is almost time!!!!!

 

[rrbar]

I wish everyone safe travels. We will be there at the terminal around 11 am. We are really looking forward to this vacation!

 

[2littlegirls]

And we are off! Safe travels everyone. We are looking forward to seeing some SUNSHINE!!!

 

[simbasmom2]

Safe travels everyone. We had a great time in LA. Can't wait till tomorrow! Yay !!!!

 

[simbasmom2]

Safe travels everyone. We had a great time in LA. Can't wait till tomorrow! Yay !!!!

 

[dllocals]

Yippie!

We leave today!

 

[LKFan]

Welcome back! Hope you had a wonderful time!

Once you get settled, can you please share your experiences (for better or worse) on the main board? There are many of us cruising in the next few weeks who are anxiously awaiting your reviews.

 

[simbasmom2]

Thanks for all of the Fe gifts! I will gladly give a mini report later. On my phone in the airport and my phone is acting weird. Sad the cruise is over, but we booked the dream ...yay

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I hope everyone had as much fun as we did, it was great to put names to faces and we loved the FE gifts! The kids had so much fun in the clubs that DH and I had more dates this week than we have had in the past year I was skeptical after reading the reviews from the previous cruises but Disney exceeded our expectations and we booked another cruise for next year.

 

[ssawka]

Welcome Home everyone! Our flight got in late last night, so I'm still a little groggy.

Stinkerbe11, 2littlegirls, and rrbar it was really nice to meet all of you in person. As Stinkerbe11 said, putting names to faces is priceless. To everyone else in the FE exchange or who posted to this thread, maybe we'll meet on the next cruise. To all our FE pals, thank you so much for the gifts, you can tell there was quite a bit of thought put into many of them. With all the stuff we got, we didn't need to buy too many souvenirs.

To everyone reading this thread that will be cruising soon, I really only had two complaints about the whole trip; one that is totally out of Disney's control and one that I think they could have changed.

The first one is the weather, again out of Disney's control! We had beautiful sunshine, but it was quite windy which made it quite chilly on deck (not to mention the rocking of the boat). We still got some use out of the pools, but would have liked a bit more summer-like weather.

My second complaint was that the second stop in Cabo was far too short. We did a swim with the dolphins (truly amazing! highly recommend!), which left the ship at 10:45, but unfortunately the last tender was at 1:30. This left no time for shopping, eating, sightseeing, etc. Our waiter (Minguel) said that on future cruises they will be staying in a Cabo until about 7:00 PM. Again, these two issues are quite minor in the scheme of things, given how amazing the rest of the trip was.

Unlike Stinkerbe11, we did not rebook on board. We're DVC members, and although we had a fantastic time and the ship and service were phenomenal, I'm just not ready to give up my WDW vacations just yet. Besides, there are too many Disney destinations we still need to try (HI, HHI, Paris, etc.) We will definitely take another cruise, but maybe in a few years or so. I know this though, our next cruise will be on Disney!

Now back to dealing with my food hangover and trying to get my body use to being on land (I still feel like I'm rocking!)

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I totally agree about the weather, that's why I rebooked for April next year. We absolutely loved the secret porthole room, it was really quiet and I didn't feel the motion was any worse being forward. I do feel like there was so much to do that I didn't relax as much as a resort type vacation but DH and I got to spend lots of time together as a couple. Speaking of dates...I loved the Palo brunch (Judy was awesome) but the service at dinner was shockingly lacking. We had been seated for almost 30 minutes before anyone came to the table to offer water and our coffee was brought when we were almost finished with dessert-not quite what I expected, but we still enjoyed eating in peace. I'm anxious to hear what everyone else thought about the cruise, let's hear from you!

 

[rrbar]

I'll post more later as I am supposed to leave for work in 12 minutes! Anyway, thanks for all of the great Disney FE gifts. Shopping Stacey, I loved the little suitcase and will be putting some of the pics in there soon. We "lost" the Mexican Riviera magnet that we got as a FE gift and my 13 year old was a little bummed but then it showed up on our door on the last evening- and I know it wasn't on any of the other doors on the hallway because I looked! The weather was too cool for me also, but we are from Southern Calif. We rebooked for April next year but may change it to September when the new bookings come out as since it is so hot in los angeles, it has to be hotter there! My 13 year old told me again last night that he just wants to go back on the cruise ship, he was asking us to stay on the ship the day we left. We had 2 teen boys but they really liked the trip and said it was one of their best vacations ever. So, no one is too old for Disney! I will post more later. Thanks again for the gifts, everyone.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

I'll post more later as I am supposed to leave for work in 12 minutes! Anyway, thanks for all of the great Disney FE gifts. Shopping Stacey, I loved the little suitcase and will be putting some of the pics in there soon. We "lost" the Mexican Riviera magnet that we got as a FE gift and my 13 year old was a little bummed but then it showed up on our door on the last evening- and I know it wasn't on any of the other doors on the hallway because I looked! The weather was too cool for me also, but we are from Southern Calif. We rebooked for April next year but may change it to September when the new bookings come out as since it is so hot in los angeles, it has to be hotter there! My 13 year old told me again last night that he just wants to go back on the cruise ship, he was asking us to stay on the ship the day we left. We had 2 teen boys but they really liked the trip and said it was one of their best vacations ever. So, no one is too old for Disney! I will post more later. Thanks again for the gifts, everyone.

September will be very hot 90+ and it's also the rainy season, so you may want to join us in April! We are doing the 15th-22nd, after peak flu season and hopefully warmer weather

 

[2littlegirls]

My girls thought the FE's were the best thing in the world....so thank you for making our trip so special.

As for the cruise at this point I have mixed feelings. Again the weather (not Disney's fault) and the ports were WAY to Short. I felt we were at sea a lot and my girls weren't into the clubs. They wanted to swim a lot and the weather just wouldn't allow it.

Customer Services on board was top notch and the boat was always very clean.

Didn't rebook on board. Not that I wouldn't cruise again, I just will shop a little more and look at port times closely before I book.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone else.

take care,
Rachael

 

[rrbar]

September will be very hot 90+ and it's also the rainy season, so you may want to join us in April! We are doing the 15th-22nd, after peak flu season and hopefully warmer weather

Well, we did rebook to the week after you are going but we will probably change it as that is during school time. The kids did the homework before they left but now have so much makeup classwork that my husband said they won't be missing school again for 5 days but he will forget that after a while. It is just that my son didn't get the science homework ahead as the teacher went home sick so it is just a lot more to do than he expected.

I know we can move around the rebooking date and still keep the discount. I talked to a family from Chicago and they told me how to book one room in my husband's name and another in my name so that we can get the discount for both rooms and the onboard credit. Then we can switch the names on the keys around when we check in so that our friends can use the room with my husband's name and get that discount. The rebooking guy said that would work so we will try that.

Someone else told me that Sept was the rainy season so I will have to rethink that. Our spring break is the week before Easter next year so the price is more, so I don't know. I just know that I don't want to go in January again, April would be much nicer.

 

[mafpi]

Hi everybody. Still trying to figure out how to make this the greatest vacation ever. What can you tell me about pin trading, pillow cases, other things to have signed or any other things like theese I can plan out. Thanks for your input.

 

[dllocals]

We had a fantastic time! The FE gifts were amazing! This was our 3rd cruise and the amount of goodies received was incredible. Thank you all!!!! We didn't mind the weather until it got too cool for swimming, which to us wasn't really until the end. It just got us some practice for Alaska in August. We enjoyed the dining, but the service wasn't as outstanding as we experienced on the Magic. We had the pillowcases signed and pin traded with the Officers. Kids were a bit pushy in line waiting (or not waiting) their turn. That was a bit disappointing for my kids who lost pins they were interested in because they were patiently waiting their turn. FYI - Did anyone else know of the pin trading book that is kept in the gift shop for training? That was a bit of a surprise to us. Our room was great, we were upgraded to a larger room on Deck 8 which was outstanding. There weren't too many decorated doors, which was different from previous cruises as well. We decorated ours with a map and the girls flying away with Mickey Mouse balloons. We love decorating the door and are trying to think of what we can do with it in August. Eskimos perhaps? Glad everyone had a great trip, we sure did.

 

[dllocals]

Hi everybody. Still trying to figure out how to make this the greatest vacation ever. What can you tell me about pin trading, pillow cases, other things to have signed or any other things like theese I can plan out. Thanks for your input.

Bring the pillow cases and a baggie with pens (fabric or sharpies). Deliver them to Guest Services and they will be delivered to your Stateroom one night or two before the cruise ends. Our kids love this. As for pin trading, go to the gift store and ask to see "the book". Also just keep an eye out for lanyards and felt squares worn by the waist of cast members. We really enjoyed trading with the Officers, but stay with your kids because there were a lot of pushy kids cutting in the line to get all the vinylmation pins. My girls waited patiently and lost trades too many times for my liking. They were still able to trade quite a few times, but I really wish parents would just keep their kids in check since we all know they are excited and sometimes do silly things. Just relax and enjoy the Magic. Review the Navigator each night and discuss what you really want to do the next day. We keep our schedule pretty relaxed so that there are no stressful moments of racing to get somewhere by a certain amount of time or disappointments about missing something.