Ok everyone. Not really a trip report but here are some thoughts about our Mexican Cruise.
Senor Donald and Senor Mickey
Overall, a really great cruise. We had a lot of great family time, super excursions, made some great friends from the DIS, did a lot of fun stuff on the ship, participated in a fun Fish Extender exchange – boy some folks are VERY creative, had some good food, lots of Mickey Bars, lots of good wine.
The adult pool --- ahhhhhhh
Embarkation was crazy fast. We stayed at the Grand Californian and checked in at the hotel, including receiving our KTTW cards just before jumping on the bus. They picked us up quite late (12:20 p.m.) but then just rushed us onto the ship. And I mean rushed us. I barely knew we were in the terminal and all of a sudden we were on deck four. It was crazy but good that we didn’t have to sit around.
Adventures Away (Sailaway) Party
The boat drill was fun as always! But the best thing is that we stood next to a family with girls the same ages as ours. They quickly became friends and wanted to hang out in the club together, talk together at dinner (we had the same seating and sat near each other).
Our ship!
Dinner. Our server was good (Vlado) and we had our assistant server from our very first cruise (Walter), who we really enjoy. I found it interesting that almost everyone seemed to be sitting in family units, rather than sharing tables. We didn’t request this as we prefer to sit with others as it helps keep the kids entertained but there were SO many tables of four around us it’s almost like Disney did it on purpose. Perhaps West Coasters are more interested in this
Dinner Part Two: Wow was this cruise casual. I fretted over not bringing a suit for formal night and we were just going to skip it this year and go to Topsiders. But not after I saw people in tank tops and bathing suits the first night at dinner in Lumiere’s. For formal night, I actually saw at least a dozen people in jeans and t-shirts, a couple of guys in tank top and bathing suit, lots of guys in shorts. I had on khakis, a dress shirt and jacket (no tie) and still was in the top 50 percent of better dressed folks. At Palo for dinner, there were several men in jeans and I actually only saw one person in a suit. Again, with khakis, dress shirt and jacket I was among the more formally dressed. On semi-formal night I saw a couple of guys in tank tops, swim suits and baseball caps. I’m no fan of wearing a tux or suit on a cruise but I was willing to not go to the dining rooms on this sailing because we tried to pack lighter since it was such a long trip. I guess I was just surprised by the overall casualness of it all after three sailings that were not like that.
Palo: This cruise confirmed it. We LOVE Palo Dinner but only LIKE the brunch. I think it’s because we always go a little early for “lunch” food but are not really huge breakfast people. The neatest thing about Palo was that we found that Marco is now the manager! He used to be our favorite server there.
Faith Trust and Pixie Dust
Wine package: I panicked and bought the premium wine package on night one and then realized how much wine that committed us to . By Palo night, we were on pace to use up all our bottles. Not sure how that happened. I’d probably not do it again though, because I think what ended up happening is that we took our leftover wine out of the dining room and used it that night and the next day and therefore didn’t really enjoy fun fruity beach cocktails as much as we normally would. It was a good deal and would do it if traveling with friends anytime.
Characters: I have read on the boards about people who don’t think there is enough character interaction. Frankly I think anyone who says that isn’t trying. This cruise, more than any other we have been on, seemed to have even better character interaction – and not just at the planned “meet and greets.” We saw Daisy and Donald, Cinderella, Goofy, Pluto and Minnie in the hallways at one time or another.
Our Alice meeting the REAL Alice
Snow White and Em
Photos: Bought more photos this time than ever before too. I think it was due to the amount of character interaction we had AND the fact that the photographers took more than the standard shot many times (girls hugging a princess or just face to face talking with a character) that are much more interesting than the standards shots.
Deck parties: Loved the sailaway party (or whatever it is called now) as it seemed more fun than ever before. Pirate party got moved inside due to a HUGE storm leaving Puerto Vallarta and that was a bit of a disappointment at first, but we ended up with a twofer – they did the fireworks the next night instead and held a mini deck party too. There was also Minnie’s Fiesta party that was fun on Mazatlan day. There was also a strange party in the atrium on our last day at sea that felt like a “welcome aboard” party with a balloon drop –incluidng the theming and the way the Cms were talking but it was on the last day.
The Minnie Fiesta
Presentations: Attended both the
Castaway Club preso which was interesting especially with
DCL prez Tom McAlpin on board; and the DVC presentation for current owners. We had been thinking for a long time of adding points and the offer on this cruise was just to good to resist so we did it. Now we own at BCV AND AKV. The DVC personnel made it hard to schedule an appointment, for sure, but we ultimately got it done on one of the last sea days.
Ports: We LOVED our dolphin swim in Cabo and were going to hit a beach resort afterward but the swim was much longer than expected (which was a great thing) and it was VERY hot. So we just went back to the ship.
Los Arcos in Cabo
Mazatlan: We didn’t get off the ship here but did some spa stuff in the morning (I had a stone massage, girls all got their nails done/ the kids as part of a princess makeover they offered that was fun but way overpriced). Both kids got braids this time too and they were the best ever! Probably wish we would have gone into town just for a bit but overall we really had a nice time staying on the ship.
Coulda been our Christmas picture but a certain four year old had her own ideas.
Puerto Vallarta – we went to Paradise Beach resort and had the absolute best time. The beach was nice, the pool was great , the buffet was good. Even though it was a five hour excursion, we could have stayed here another few hours.
Extra Day at Sea – Always love extra days at sea, however, we REALLY found ourselves missing
Castaway Cay. It really does put a nice ending on the cruise and gives you something on the last day to keep your mind off the fact that the cruise is nearly over. The 2 sea days at the end found us thinking a lot more about the end.
Our favorite princess
A view from deck four
Shows: Great shows as always. Love Disney Dreams and Golden Mickeys. The hypnotist was fantastic too. Really we never get tired of the shows. We also love the family stuff in Studio Sea (Who wants to be a Mousketeer and Mickey Mania in particular) Sat through some painful family karaoke too but my DD9 loves it.
My favorite Show
Kids programs - Our youngest (DD4) really warmed up to the kids programs this time after not loving it in November. She actually asked to go this time. DD9 was hot and cold this time. It really all depends on who is in the club for her. But she also started saying “Oh I did that last cruise” so I asked her if she is bored with the programs on DCL and she claims no but I don’t know…
My only real complaint – Kids were REALLY running amuck on this cruise and it got worse and worse as the days went by. I don’t know whether to blame it on it being close to the start of school for California so there were more tweens on board or the fact that DCL changed the age groups and the 11-13 year olds are really all in a more unstructured environment now. One of our fellow cruisers had a boy in this group (now called Ocean Quest) and they spend all their time in Ocean Quest. He said no one talks to each other and the kids just stay on computers alone during their time. He got bored and checked himself out after not so much time and I saw him with his family most of the rest of the cruise. Other kids took a different route. In addition, the 8-10s didn’t get a chance to go to Ocean Quest the way my DD did last year as part of the 8-9 group when 10-12s were still in the Lab. There were so many kids sitting in stairwells, playing on the elevators – and I saw kids in Cove Pool area with parents which I found really odd.
Will post some photos of the St. Regis part of our trip later
The "F" part was close, but not quite the right word ...
We'll give you our itinerary for the entire cruise so you can find us and slug us back to the ship and/or our cabins 
BTW, excellent summary of what you've read. I give it an A++++++++++++++++
Hey Wendy and Woo 
We have big plans - two soccer games and cleaning the garage!! Good thing we went out to dinner on Friday!!
coming her way...hope she's on the mend soon. How is your dad doing?
since I will be heading back to work tomorrow
....and do some cleaning around here. I just finished one room and decided to take a break....
