10/05 4-night, our first cruise. Sharing with our DIS friends.-4/13 +/- awards

[Babs417]

Great report it made for easy reading. Cant wait for our cruise.

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Christine woke early the morning of debarkation, and headed out to the verandah. From there, she watched the ship being tied off to the pier.

Then, the dance began…several small forklifts scurried over to the ship. The first one placed a ramp from the ship to the pier. It ran onto the Wonder and picked up something, and placed it onto the pier. From there, one of the other forklifts would race it over to the cruise terminal. Tractor-trailers and box trucks were directed onto the pier to deliver provisions for the next sailing: food, new mattresses, a radar arch, new lounge chairs, and such. Luggage, bundled cardboard, broken chairs, and other items were brought off the ship.

By now, the sun was up, and we were ready to say good-bye to our stateroom. We closed the door for the last time, and headed up the hallway to get breakfast. Fritz was already cleaning out some vacated rooms. We paused to exchange thanks: ours for his being so thorough, and his for our being so nice to him.

Beach Blanket Buffet was our breakfast destination. People were already debarking the ship, so the buffet line was empty. At the juice station, we found Adina, our Palo server from the night before. She said a friendly good morning to us, and we found an out-of-the –way table to eat at. Suddenly, Adina appeared. She said that the coffee was not up to standards, and had brought a fresh cup for Christine. After taking our time eating, we headed down to deck 3 to debark the ship.

The Internet Café was empty, but the sign designating Sean the raffle winner was still there. We paused for pictures with it, and then moved forward towards the Lobby Atrium and Main Gangway. Cast members wearing large Mickey white gloved hands were waving good-bye. They collected our survey, and we walked down the gangway to the terminal.

Next thing we knew, we were at Orlando International Airport. The Southwest check-in was easy, but the security line was long. Even with this delay, we were through security and out to our terminal on the monorail quickly. We were at the gate more than 2 hours before our scheduled flight. Along the way, we saw several DCL and Carnival Cruise Line vacationers headed to their flights home.

As our flight time approached, we qued up in the “A” slot. Suddenly, a swarm of people appeared. We thought it was a group tour that would be on our flight. It turned out that their plane was so late getting in, and the gate it was assigned to was full.
They came to borrow ours. Southwest turned around that plane, brought ours in, and got our flight boarded in less time than it took for Jet Blue to process one plane at the gate next door. We left within 30 minutes of our scheduled departure time.

Back in Baltimore, we found ourselves waiting, and waiting, and waiting at our assigned baggage carousel. Our garment bag never came up the chute. Christine stayed at the carousel, while Sean went to the Southwest baggage office. There, he found dozens of garment bags and other large bags lined up in the hallway. Ours was distinctively marked, and easy to spot.

We boarded the shuttle to Smart-Park, and were soon at our car. The drive home, on a Thursday afternoon, was a long one. Traffic was heavy. We were back home by 7:30 pm.

It was time to unpack and reminisce. Sean started another of our post-Disney plus/minus lists to capture our thoughts while they were still fresh. We had already changed our language from, “if we cruise again” to “when we cruise with Disney next time …”


Next up: epilogue and plus/minus awards...
Sean

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

Upon our return from recent WDW/DCL vacations, we've started analyzing things about our vacation. We categorize them into Pluses and Minuses. They consist of the good, the not so good. The things we'd do again, and the things we'd do differently. Here is our 10/05 DCL Plus/Minus award list:

Plus:
At least a 4 night cruise. 3 isn't enough to feel settled in.
The fitness center, especially if you get up really early (we were there by 0615 each day)
The Passporter book. Each of us read it at least 3 times. It still sits on my nightstand.
Going down the night before. I wouldn't want to deal with the stress of flying and trying to get to the terminal in the same day.
Private town car service. A worthwhile indulgence. We've been using Happy Limo. Not a stretch limo, just a car and driver. This is our vacation to leave the driving to someone else.
DCL food. It was convenient, of good quality, and nice variety. It was abundant, yet we both came back at the same weight we left at.
Palo. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The friendly staff of DCL. You couldn't pass a staff member in the hall without them saying, "hello" or "have a nice day".
Rotational dining. Variety, and consistent staff are nice.
Beach Blanket Buffet. We think this is under-rated by Passporter. On a couple of occasions, we were able to observe how efficiently Disney can move people without rushing them.
The elevators. Sean wishes he could take these speedy, reliable things with him to the Hospital where he works.
Deck 5. Less overall traffic due to fewer cabins. Children not a problem, even with Flounder's/Oceaneer Club on that deck.
Q & A with the senior ship staff. Very informative.
The Personal Navigator.
The bridge tour. Sadly, no longer offered, from what we read.
The service oriented stateroom host (Fritz). There when you needed him, but not lurking. We felt he worked with us for things, not for us.
For those flying from BWI (Baltimore): Airport Fast Park and the new Southwest Terminal.
Bring binoculars if you can. We didn't, and plan on it for next time.
All Seasons Travel. Through numerous calls, we found customer service oriented staff. They were willing to spend the time on the phone with us providing education. We didn't feel like we were being rushed so that they could get to the next call. We've already booked 2 more DCL cruises with them.

Minus:
Rather limited access to characters, we felt.
The cost of photos at Shutters.
A need for more, newer, weight machines in the fitness center. Solved with the recent upgrade/expansion of the Fitness Center.
More space needed for stretching. Also remedied?
The new, 2006 style Romantic Escape at Sea. Yet, after much thought, we've decided to book it for our 10th anniversary cruise this fall. We like the robe idea, the rainforest is sounding more interesting, and getting to book Palo and excursions 105 days out.
The Castaway Cay store is too small.
More retail space and variety on the ship.
They should note in the PN what areas of the ship are closed (and when). We sailed during the Ebert/Roper film festival at sea. Imagine our surprise when we showed up at Quiet Cove Pool to lounge before sailing away to find it roped off. They were having a private reception there at the time.
More on-board adult activities on days in port.
More space to hang damp clothes.
Now, the last minus is sort of self-inflicted. We heard about booking the next cruise while on board. Didn't realize that DCL seems to have a liberal rebooking policy. We should have signed up for a cruise with the intention to later move it to another date. I'm a little upset at myself when I think of the $$ we could have saved. Mrs. Burns has been very understanding.

And now, some further commentary from your hosts:
Between the DIS, Passporter book, and our initial experience aboard DCL, we'll make our future cruises that much better. I did a good job getting this written down within a month of returning from the cruise. DW asked me to, as she wanted to create a scrapbook of our first ever cruise. My journal would be added into the scrapbook by DW. A bit of a delay by me in getting it up here, but I'm first across the finish line. The scrapbook is only up to the morning of Nassau Day. She's promised to finish it before we cruise again this fall. I have to say publicly, she's doing a WONDERFUL job with it.
We hope you've enjoyed the trip. We know our next cruise will be even better, and now the pressures on the next trip report.
S&C