10 Day Holiday Cruise! Pictures! Dec 16-26 2006

[mrsnesbit]

Day 1!
Arrived at the Port at 10:40 am and got group 4. There were a lot of excited people! I made my family wear matching shirts, bright green with the fab five on it and santa hats. We were cute! DH not loving it but he did it. We had booked an interior room I think cat 10, but upgraded to a porthole on deck five forward 5518 for $390 I think that makes it a cat 8. We thought that was pretty good for 10 days! I was so happy to be deck 5 forward! I have never slept better on a cruise before. This is our 6th Disney cruise and we are usually in the back where you can feel all the vibrations. Also we were on a short hallway with no one across from us. Not a lot of traffic or hallway noise! Also you can't beat deck 5 for proximity to the kids clubs and Walt Disney Theatre. I will book in that area again.

We were happy to get APLAPLAPLA. That put us in Lumiere's for both formal nights. Also it gave us 8pm dinner instead of 8:15 or 8:30, so dinner was the perfect time for us! We booked Palo for our 3rd Animators night so that was perfect too!

When we got onboard we took the picture and my husband headed to Rockin Bar D to get Palo reservations and request a server. We didn't want to leave it up to chance as we had had some major difficulties on our last cruise with Alvin. I hear his wife is now onboard so he is happier now. My husband couldn't get any of the servers on my list so I had to go take care of it myself. While I was in Parrot Cay I ran into one of our previous servers that we loved! We had had him years ago in the dining room then in Palo last year. He was on our rotation so I went and requested him and we got him! He totally made our cruise!! His name is Emmanuel. His assistant (he called her his secretary) was Anatascia and she was new but he had trained her well and she was just incredible too!! The servers can make or break your cruise! This service team definately made the cruise!

The weather wasn't great but the kids still donned suits and hopped in the pool after lunch. They rode the slide over and over! Played ping pong and just enjoyed being on the ship. Sail away was very windy at the front of the ship. We also went to secret Deck 7 and watched the port disappear. That was cool! We skipped the show to unpack then headed to dinner at 8pm. Beef Wellington oh my! Sooo good! No show in Animators because they figured all the kids would be tired the 1st night and they were right. There were kids laying asleep all over!

Our ds age 10 was totally enthralled by the Ocean Quest club on Deck 2. That was a great improvement for ages 10-14. He made great friends there with all different kids.They hung out the entire cruise!

Our dd age 6 didn't really love the club that much. I think that 3-4 and 5-7 clubs need improvement. The club is so dark, I have always thought that. A little more light in there would be nice. She went when we needed her to go but didn't really want to be there. There was a counselor that was terrible. We have never run across this before. Her name is Colleen she is from the US. The most unpleasant person! I spoke with Ian (officer in charge of the club) about her treatment of me and my dd. He said I wasn't the 1st and that they were working to instill that Disney spirit in her. I think that it is a lost cause. She was miserable. All the other counselors were great though!

 

[kritter]

OH I love reading your trip report....I can not wait to hear more!!!!!!

 

[mrsnesbit]

We were excited for Key West since we had such a great time the other 2 cruises we have been there. The last time we got smart and rented a little electric vehicle and had a blast. We drove all around the town and the kids loved it! Unfortunately is was drizzling when we got off the boat and the kids decided to stay onboard! That turned out to be a good thing because it started to pour and flooded the streets! Luckily I had brought an umbrella but it didn't do much to keep my feet and ankles dry as we hopped through deep puddles on our way back to the nice dry and cozy ship!

Did I mention at check in they gave us each a lanyard with two Castaway club pins and on it and a kttw card holder. That was soooo nice. When we got onboard it gave the crew an idea who to say welcome back too! What a novel idea we loved it. This was also done to encourage pin trading and it worked. The cast was allowed to accept any number of those pins for trade so a lot of them just had lanyards full of them from trading with all the kids. My kids brought pins to trade so they wanted to keep the Castaway club pins to give to friends at home. I asked them what they did with all the pins and they said they send them to CA for cast to trade there since it is so novel out there where the cruise line isn't.

If you have postcards to mail I recommend heading to the chamber of commerce just off the ship. They are open and have all kinds of information available as well. They will also mail your postcards if you have stamps on them. We liked that!

While we were out in town our dd made chocolate chip cookies in the club she loved that!

Dinner was at Parrot Cay. We skipped the show again, I like the regular shows and am not that interested in the magic shows or ventriloquists. Instead we went in search of characters for our dd to take pictures with! We found Princess Aurora and went pin trading in the stores. Again we enjoyed our fabulous service team!

Monday was a day at Sea and busier than a port day!

 

[kritter]

Oooh can't wait to hear more and all about Christmas Day tooo!!!!!

 

[mrsnesbit]

I forgot to mention that we set up our mini Christmas tree when we got to our stateroom and I even had a mini battery powered train to go around the tree! I got it at Walgreens for $1.99. It worked great and the kids got a kick out of it! We saw people during boarding bringing on like 4 foot trees in a box. Ours on the otherhand was about 12 inches! We had little tiny ornaments and had a great time decorating it! There were many trees around the ship. Of course the huge one in the Atrium, a nice one in preludes and a white one just outside the Buena Vista theatre. There were several in Palo too. It was so nice! I can't forget the incredible life size gingerbread house just outside the Promenade Lounge. It smelled soooo good! Really that was cool. A great picture spot. Does anyone know when they set it up?

Anyway it was a sea day and We love Sea Day! We had the Palo Brunch booked for 10:30. DD was not happy to be going back to the club but she was a trooper and went! We had Carmen as our server and she was very nice. The Brunch was as amazing as ever!! If you haven't been you must do it! I took pictures of the food before anyone touched it. It was beautiful! They make magical eggs benedict too! Better than in the regular dining room. I digress. We were happy to have stollen bread again... delicious! BUT we were missing the strawberry preserves they used to have in a bowl! They had little smuckers jelly jars. I guess because it is cleaner. I was still bummed! But I was happy to find out that they serve stollen bread in Goofy's Galley in the morning! Before you could only get it in Palo!

After brunch we picked up the dd and looked for ds. Couldn't find ds though. We walked all over trying to work off the brunch! Then put on our suits and hung out at the pool! It was such nice weather so we got some sun and dd played in the very crowded Mickey pool.

We headed to the Gingerbread house making in Studio Sea at 2:15. They were still setting up when we got there so it was really crowded outside with everyone waiting to get in. When we got seated there was a bag of frosting, gingerbread house pieces, a cardboard house and a bag of candies. There was a pastry chef there to help out and he walked around with a pastry bag and offered advice and encouragement! We let our dd have a good time and we enjoyed watching the others around us as well. There were some real pastry people, and their houses were gorgeous. Umm then there was the family that had an exploding frosting bag. That was funny! We all had a great time and everyone left smiling! My dd gave herself a frosting mustache and beard and we took pictures in front of the big gingerbread house.

We headed to the spa for our couples massage after dropping dd off at the club again! I wouldn't book that again. We were crammed in a tiny room and the massage table I had kept tipping. The Massage therapists were really nice but just kept laughing off the tipping table. I about fell off the table when I sat on it. The other table didn't tip. Anyway that really ticked me off. We paid a lot of money for it and it made me mad that they didn't take care of it. I didn't complain to anyone else though. When we were through I just wanted to get my daughter and get ready for Formal night. I have to mention that the shower in the ladies locker room is great! It has a huge shower head and the water just pours out like a water fall. I have been on 5 other Disney cruises and never taken a shower there before. It was so nice!

Dinner at Lumiere's. French dinner! Escargot!! My favorite. YUM! I ordered two!

We went and took pictures after 1st seating dinner started so we could get it done with no line! Then we booked it over to the show, The Golden Mickeys, we didn't get to see the whole thing but when we saw the line for pictures after the show we knew we had done the right thing! We have seen the show before anyway. It is a great one!

As I said earlier we had dinner in Lumiere's it was wonderful. Did I mention escargot! LOVE IT.We were so tired from running around all day that we missed the "Family Golden Mickeys After Party" at 10:15 pm they dropped the golden balloons that we had been looking at since we boarded. Off to bed!

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

great report,...I'll be waiting for more.

 

[mrsnesbit]

Hey Another Sea Day!

Today we slept in, well at least me and the kids did. My DH went to work out in the gym early. DS his Ocean Quest as soon as he could. He never saw the pool again after the 1st day! Sad but true. He made friends with Alfie from England, Sam from SC and Nick from NJ. We even ran into Sam and Nick on the same excursion in St. Thomas. That made leaving the club bearable for DS.

We went to the stores and traded pins. (not me just the kids) The cast are so good about trading, they are very patient. Also you can trade with the cast outside of topsiders, the people handing out wipes. There were people handing out wipes everywhere!! We were able to serve ourselves at the buffets but you had to sanitize first. I had read that crew were serving you from the buffets but we didn't find this to be the case.

I forgot to mention that we got our Castaway club gift in our stateroom the 1st or 2nd night. I thought the lanyards with pins were the gift! We got a tote bag that said Castaway club on it. We also 2 net bags, red and blue with Castway Club on them. They were really handy for the pool and excursions! In the bags were 4 sunscreens, 1 container of wipes, a cool notebook and something else I can't remember. We used the sunscreen like crazy because it was faces 30 and it was a nice little tube. I brought sunscreen but this was nice and small. We were so excited to get such a nice gift.

One thing I am sorry I missed was a Q&A with Tom Wolber, Senior VP of Disney Cruise line. I bet that was interesting! did anyone go and find out when the 3rd ship will be done and where they are going to put it?

The Captain was signing so I bought the Castaway ornament that looks like a postcard and had him sign it from him to our family. That was nice.

We went to the pool for a little while and then to the wine tasting at 2pm. We have done it 2 other times so I think that we need to try the martini tasting next time. It was fine but basically the same as before. Sniffing and Swirling and listening to people make up imaginary flavors that they smell and taste! Don't get mad wine people, I know that is what you are supposed to do but it still cracks me up. DH's Aunt and Uncle own a well known winery in Napa so we have been there many times and still can't get into the sniffing and swirling. I'm into the appreciating (that would be drinking) the wine on my palate!

The rocking of the ship puts me to sleep so I took a nap! DH took the kids to see Robert Wilde (dangerous comedian) for the show. We headed to Animators for show night and some delicious steak and corn risotto. I love risotto!

Since I had a nap DD and I went to the tropicalifragilisticexpialidocious Deck Party. We were right in front and there didn't seem to be a lot of people there. The characters were everywhere so DD was in heaven. We danced around and did the limbo (Uh not me just her) and went back to the room. On the way we scheduled her for some braids the next night at 9pm. She was excited. We looked at the book and she decided on cornrows. That meant a 45 minute appointment. She was just doing the front.

There was an art auction company onboard so we were having fun looking at all of their stuff.

BTW Don "Ducky" Williams was onboard. He has been an artist with disney for 27 years and has an amazing story as to how he came to work for Disney. He goes on approx 8 or so cruises a year! If you are on a cruise with him you will know how much fun he is! Talk about Disney Spirit.

 

[Madisonznana]

I'm enjoying your report!! I can't wait to read more. I was just telling my husband today, I thought it would be fun to take a Christmas Cruise!

 

[tjeagle]

Great report! Keep it coming!

 

[msaseifert]

I love reading your report............I think it would be awesome to take a holiday cruise!

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

Mrs Nesbit, ...I am loving your report, but I have one request, ...we would love it if could you please, post some pictures?


Those of us who are stuck here on land love pictures it helps us feel apart of your cruise and it helps us remember the MAGIC...

 

[mrsnesbit]

Mrs Nesbit, ...I am loving your report, but I have one request, ...we would love it if could you please, post some pictures?


Those of us who are stuck here on land love pictures it helps us feel apart of your cruise and it helps us remember the MAGIC...

I know but I don't know where to host the pictures. Can I do it like with snapfish or Kodak? I have lots of pictures! I would love to share!

 

[mrsnesbit]

 

[mrsnesbit]

I guess not! Can anyone tell me howto add a photo? It says I may not post attachments! I don't know why. Help???

 

[kritter]

Love your report...Great JOB!!!!!!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

try using Photobucket.com for your pictures. Many of us use them and they work great for the threads.

Great report, keep it coming!!

mom x4,grandma x4

 

[mrsnesbit]

I went and signed up but then my camera battery died so I had to plug it in then my internet went out! I am back on so I will try to get pictures up today! Thanks for the information I appreciate it!

 

[mrsnesbit]

 

[mrsnesbit]

I did it but the picture is huge! Oh Well. Can anyone tell me how to make them smaller? thanks

 

[mrsnesbit]