I've already posted on several topics in the main forum regarding our cruise, but wanted to add my experience to this thread as well. We were a group of 16, 8 adults and 8 children. We went with my DH's parents, his 3 brothers, my SIL and all of my nieces and nephew as well as our two DDs. DH & I are the only ones who have ever done a
Disney cruise before, but DFIL & DMIL are frequent cruisers.
We all flew out the night before and stayed at the Radisson, which was fantastic. The rooms are spacious if in need of some minor fixups (the shower curtain was slightly torn, the wallpaper in the bathroom was peeling in one spot). I, personally couldn't have cared less about those very minor issues, but I paid special attention because others on here have complained recently. We had pizza from Kelsey's next door which was fabulous and the breakfast buffet in the Radisson for breakfast. We used the WIFI and it was a bit slow, but worked without a problem otherwise. We would definately stay here if we do just a cruise and not WDW time again.
The DCL computers were down for check-in when we first arrived at the port, but they fixed them within a short time and we were only in line for maybe half an hour to 45 minutes? Maybe it feels shorter now because it was so long ago. The buffet at Parrot Cay was great. By the time we were finished eating a very leisurely meal, it was time to just wander the ship a bit before heading to the stateroom. I had sent two boxes to myself via FedEx and both were in my room as soon as we were able to get in. It was all a very nice start to the trip.
My DMIL got ill halfway through our cruise. She had to visit the ship's doctor several times and get medication for migraines (she has several health issues including neurological problems and a crippling migraine on top of all of that can be a very difficult thing). She wasn't able to do much of anything for about 2 days, but the cabin steward (we were in the adjoining room to her and DFIL) and the dining team asked about her every day to make sure she was alright, and to send their best wishes for her to recover. (We LOVED Fernando and Lynette and will request them when we sail again if they are still onboard. They were absolutely amazing and we already miss them terribly. They felt like family by the end of the cruise.) The doctor called to check in on her a few times as well. When she was feeling better a bit for Pirate night, the servers fussed over her to make sure she was comfortable and when the noise from the festivities got to be too much, they didn't skip a beat when she had to leave. The room steward was pleasant and understanding about cleaning the room and would jump in if they walked out for 20 minutes to get some fresh air, so it would be clean on their return. (Thanks Orlando!)
Room service was fantastic. DMIL wanted outmeal in the early afternoon (easy to eat foods while ill) and none of the restaurants were serving breakfast anymore. DFIL asked someone as they were preparing for lunch in Lumiere's and they said it wouldn't be a problem, they would have it sent to their room immediately. DH & the kids and I ordered room service every night when we got back to the stateroom for bed as well as for breakfast two of the mornings. Diane, who answers the room service phone, was incredibly pleasant to deal with and was very understanding if I needed to double check the order with the family to make sure I didn't forget anything. I was a bit disappointed with the Cake of the Day selections though. 3 of the nights I called, the only option was cheesecake. While I LOVE cheesecake, I was hoping for a bit more variety.
Pirate Night was fantastic! My entire group loved it, though it was a bit too windy up on deck 10 to watch the movie afterwards.
DH & I had brunch at Palo and fell in love with it. Because we were travelling with extended family, we didn't try to get Palo dinner reservations because we didn't want to not have dinner with them. After having brunch (and loving our server as well), we asked to be put on the dinner waitlist. One DBIL and DSIL got Palo for the night of our brunch and greatly enjoyed it, which just fed our need to try dinner. We had little hope since the waitlist was already two pages long. Nassau afternoon we got the call. 8:30pm Kristian would see us at Palo! We got to enjoy dinner and watch us sail away from Nassau over dessert. It was absolutely fantastic! They even gave us a chocolate soufle to take back to the room since my DD8 wanted desperately to try it. It was slightly soggy by the time we got it back to the room, but she did get to try it! We are now complete Palo addicts.
The weather was great. It rained a bit in Key West as we were walking the 10 blocks or so to Fausto's (thank you Shirley) to buy Diet Pepsi, but it was a warm kind of rain and my DH and DDs and I considered it an adventure.
Grand Cayman was gorgeous and all of the ships in the harbor looked like something out of a movie. All ready for battle. Ok, maybe that's just my DH and my oddities there, but still.
It was a bit windy and the water was a bit choppy some nights, but overall it was fine. A Dramamine every couple of days and all was well.
Castaway Cay day was a bit windy/chilly and we were very disappointed that our Bottom Fishing Excursion that DD8 wanted so desperately got cancelled, but DD8 and DH are planning to try again NEXT cruise. We had purchased a kite in Nassau at the Pirate Museum for DD4 and we instead spent the morning getting it stuck in a palm tree where it still might be flying. We tried desperately to get it down, but ended up having to give up after about 45 minutes. If anyone saw the Jolly Roger flying over the island, that was us. It was still flying as we sailed away.
Disembarkation was insanely easy. We were absolutely amazed at how quickly it all happened. We were among the first to get into the luggage area and we grabbed a porter for my DILs and ourselves as we were the only ones who managed to be ready to leave by breakfast (of our group). The customs agent waved us past as soon as we said we were US citizens and never even looked at our birth certificates. We were outside waiting for the Radisson shuttle to take us back by ten to 8 in the morning I believe.
My only real complaint about anything is the elevators. There are rows of 4 elevators in each area (forward, aft and mid-ship), yet all 4 are linked together. It's not too much of a problem for the forward and aft elevators, but those midship elevators being linked is a real problem. At one point we stood there for 10 minutes waiting for an elevator. People would just walk up to the far side elevators and jump in when they got there, (or run when they see the doors open from halfway across the atrium) completely disregarding the people who had been standing there. Just unlink the right and left sides and it relieves some of the problem. If you push the button on the left side, only those two elevators will come to your floor. Not the far right where you'd have to run, knocking people out of your way to get to it before it's either crowded with a million people or the doors close (if you've been standing there waiting patiently)! I know it may seem minor to some people, but it's just a pet peeve that could easily be fixed instead of standing out as a problem.
Anyway, we had a fantastic trip and we are looking forward to going again. We weren't able to rebook onboard, but we are looking at going again this time next year. If things work out, we're even day-dreaming of B2B 7-nighters, with a couple of days at WDW to boot.
One of my first posts was about Palo and I "accidently" said PALOS. Boy they do not like it when you put that 's on there!! I was flamed so bad I didnt know if I wanted to post anymore! I do not think you were throwing darts!! I think you were just telling your expeience about what happened with Shirley. I do agree that maybe you should have spoken with her first though! I am glad that you had a good trip!
!!!), the ventriloquist, Atlantis on Nassau, and 
. That didn't make much sense to us. Well, we had already booked a room so that we could spend the day at Atlantis (which we loved!) so we didn't want to rush back for 5:30 pm dinner. We ended up eating dinner that night up at Topsiders which wasn't bad. They didn't have lobster tail up there, but they did have the chocolate lava cake. 
