jkrohn2703
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2005
Okay, this was our 1st DISNEY cruise and it exceeded some of our expectations and just meet outhers. We went to Disney for 2 days before our cruise and stayed at the WL. The resort was nice, but love the POLY!! Magicial Express was wonderful! Did Expedition Everest many times and this was a great way to kick off our Disney Cruise. We left the WL at 10:00 am by way of Happy Limo!! (Happy Limo, NEVER AGAIN!!!)
We arrived at the Port on 2/25 at around 11:30 a.m. and were on the boat by noon eating at Topsiders. We had a cat 3 suite so we were given boarding pass #15, but didn't need it. We went right to the concierge line and off we went. Only, our room was not going to be ready until 1:30. No big deal, we all had our swimsuits in our carry-ons. I was even allowed to have our friend who had a Cat 10 room check in with us. So this way we all stayed together. We were given a 5:30 seating time with the APL rotation. Yes, we requested early seating--Never again!! We thought with the ages of our children this would be great. Ages of kids 10,9,6,6 and 2. Well, we ended up no going to dinner 2 nights, and barely made it there every night. Our servers were Leo from India and David from Australia?? And by the way, we met our head server one night, can't remember which night, and never saw him again!! Our Asst. server, not very good at all. He could not remember what the kids liked to drink and got very upset with us cancelling our wine package and not having many cocktails for dinner. We drank at the pool everyday and at night in the clubs. We just did not want drinks at dinner. The one night we had them was for the Captains Gala, and he was over joyed!! Especially when I took home Disney's special champagne. Our room 8548, AWESOME!!! Our concierge team and our stateroom attendent were all GREAT!! Our stateroom host was from Thailand and kept our room exceptionally clean. We over compensated him for his great service.
Now, since I had a 2 year old, I had to use Flounder's Reef nursery. What can I say about those people in there---AWESOME!!! Emily from the UK, I cannot say enough about her. Monica, Ophelia and Janet the nursery manager are all GREAT!! They were the shining stars of this trip. I was so sad when they told me they could not accept a cash tip. If they got one, it would be pooled with all the kids clubs. To me, not acceptable. I did finally ask, what can I do for all of you without having to have your tip pooled. They finally said, phone cards. Well, this was Wed night, and I had no way of getting them phone cards. They did give me their address, and I am heading to get each of them a phone card and something special. Without them, my trip would have been much more difficult for my 2 year old. I had my DD in there for every stop on the island, (I highly recommend that) hard to push a stroller, and gave my husband and I a chance to enjoy things with the other 2 (DD 9, DS 6) I did take my 2 year old off at Castaway Cay, but not until 1:00 p.m. I did not want her to be out in the sun all day with her fair skin. But, I cannot say enough about Flounders, my daughter got so excited everytime she saw the sign. When I would go to check her in, she would immediately head to the door to be let in. I did use more than 10 hours. I was never turned away for time. I only had 5 hours scheduled befor I left. I think at the end of the cruise, i spent about $120 at Flounders. WELL WORTH IT!!! You know, its very hard to leave your child ( I am a stay at home mom) with strangers, but these people put me at ease within 5 minutes at the Open House on the first night. Okay, enough about Flounders.
Key West - Today, we had our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. Then, DD 9 had her hair braided on deck 9. It was $30, and it still looks great today. This was just okay. Ohana and Chef Mickey's, much better. this was a good stop. As soon as we got off the boat, the skies opened up, and we head to the first store with ponchos. I heard if we would have been on the boat when it started raining, we would have been given ponchos from the ship. We did some shopping and stopped at Sloppy Joes. We had fun sight seeing Key West.
Day at Sea - this was a nice relaxing day. The one thing I must pass along is, get up to deck 9 early to claim your chair. We went to Bruch at Palo today. Florencia was our server and she was awesome!! Request her, she is sooo nice and will make your dining experience at Palo---PERFECT!!! (Ours was)By the time we got there(deck 9) @ 1:00 p.m. there was nothing left. I know the chairs on top say to not save, but all were draped with towels. But, we still had a nice day despite the winds!! Tonight was formal night, and it was very nice. Our dinner was in Luminere's. Very nice dining experience.
Grand Cayman - This was a tender port. This was a nice port. We just did some shopping and returned to the boat to go to the pool. THese are nice days to hang out at the pools, not a lot of people. Tonight, we skipped dinner. Had too much fun relaxing. Went to the Rocking D Bar for the ventriloquist and 80's night. Entertainment was awesome and we had soo much fun.
Costa Maya - This port was just okay. We had more fun in the Buena Vista Theater listening to Travis(South Africa) and his partner talk then we did on the island. Those two guys are such great entertainers. They both did all the shows. Travis has so much energy and is just so enthusiastic! We literally were only off the boat for a half hour. One CM told me that Disney had people aboard our cruise just to check out this port because of all the complaints. The shopping was weak and I did not like the forwardness of the store people. My daughter on the other hand went with my girlfriend on the Dolphin excursion and both could not stop raving about how beautiful this island was. Guess you had to go on an excursion to see all of the beauty. This was also Pirate night. We had dinner in Parrot Cay and participated in all the fun. Dinner was okay, but the Pirate Party on Deck 9 is something not to be missed. My children and myself, had a BLAST!!! This party was definatley one the many highlights of this trip. And the fireworks, were outstanding!! Buffet after was good too.
Day at Sea - today I started the day off with a massage at Vista Spa. I was signed up for the Aroma Stone Therapy. Peter my massage person was nice, I did not feel this massage was worth the money at all. Cost was $175 for 75 minutes. Never again. Then we headed up to deck 9 for breakfast and more sun. Yes, the chairs were full again. Only this time one of us ran up to the deck to save chairs like everybody else. Dinner tonight was the Chef's Gala and this was probably my favorite dinner of the week. We were in Luminere's. We had a great dinner rotation just too early. We also went to see the matinee today of Disney Dreams. Not as many people do the matinee so you do not have to arrive early. The best show of the week, Twice Charmed. We only saw 3 shows the whole week. We just stayed too busy. There is so much to do it is impossible to do everyting. (Golden Mickey's, Twice Charmed, Disney Dreams.) Next time I will make a point to see the shows. I thought they were all great! Then we headed off to Rockin Bar D for 70's night. This was even better than 80's night.
Castaway Cay - THIS IS AWESOME!!! Highlight of the trip. We had so much fun hanging on the family beach, going in to the water floating on a raft, we just relaxed and had a Conch Cooler and a Mudslide. The food at Cookies BBQ was also really good. The BBQ chicken breast was really good. I cannot wait to see what they are adding here. We are planning on returning in 2008 for the Eastern cruise. I will say my DD10 went to her club for only about an hour. She really wanted to play on the beach. Our last night, we dined at Palo. This was definately a great way to end our wonderful week. We chose Palo for the last night because we were not crazy with the dinner menu for this night. But, we all said we will end our final night again with Palo. The food there is not to be missed. Our servers name was Alexansder from Croatia. He was very good, but we loved FLorencia. And for my final highlight of the trip, Emily (Flounder's Nursery) delivered an envelope full of projects she did with my DD2 in there. They are so precious and brought a tear to my eye. THose women in the nursery were nothing short of FANTASTIC!!!
Departure from Port Canaveral - this was so easy. We got up and were down in the Atrium on Deck 3 by 7:15 am and off by the car port by 7:30 am. It was a very smooth transition. Very easy to find your luggage and get through customs. But, here is how our trip ended. I reserved Happy Limo to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. Well, at 8:10 am a man from Happy imo walked by us with another family's name on his card. So I stopped him to tell him Happy Limo was supposed to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. He said he would contact someone and get back to me, never did. Well, I called the office, of course, that was closed until 9:00 a.m. At this point I am ready to get on a Disney Cruise bus to the airport. Well, at 8:30 someonse shows up from a company called Bates Limo with our name on it. Okay fine. Only, the woman was in her 70's and could not lift our bags at all. And, she would not pick us up where the porter dropped our luggage up at because she wouldn't. So my husband had to literally move our luggage about a block and then load it in to her car. This was just ridiculous. For the $200 I paid for this part of the trip, I was mad. Now, we get in to the Cady stretch we supposedly rented which states is had a 15 inch flat screen tv and air conditioning. Well, not this one. This one had lights falling off the ceiling, no tv or working AC. As soon as I got to the airport, I called Happy Limo right away. They offered me a 20% discount for this part of the trip, well I ended up getting 50% off. Needless to say, I would not recommend Happy Limo. We had a return flight scheduled for 11:45 a.m. that's why I wanted to be picked up at 8:00 am to ensure plenty of time to get through security and get to our airline. Happy Limo, never again. And needless to say, I booked this car 3 months in advance.
We arrived at the Port on 2/25 at around 11:30 a.m. and were on the boat by noon eating at Topsiders. We had a cat 3 suite so we were given boarding pass #15, but didn't need it. We went right to the concierge line and off we went. Only, our room was not going to be ready until 1:30. No big deal, we all had our swimsuits in our carry-ons. I was even allowed to have our friend who had a Cat 10 room check in with us. So this way we all stayed together. We were given a 5:30 seating time with the APL rotation. Yes, we requested early seating--Never again!! We thought with the ages of our children this would be great. Ages of kids 10,9,6,6 and 2. Well, we ended up no going to dinner 2 nights, and barely made it there every night. Our servers were Leo from India and David from Australia?? And by the way, we met our head server one night, can't remember which night, and never saw him again!! Our Asst. server, not very good at all. He could not remember what the kids liked to drink and got very upset with us cancelling our wine package and not having many cocktails for dinner. We drank at the pool everyday and at night in the clubs. We just did not want drinks at dinner. The one night we had them was for the Captains Gala, and he was over joyed!! Especially when I took home Disney's special champagne. Our room 8548, AWESOME!!! Our concierge team and our stateroom attendent were all GREAT!! Our stateroom host was from Thailand and kept our room exceptionally clean. We over compensated him for his great service.
Now, since I had a 2 year old, I had to use Flounder's Reef nursery. What can I say about those people in there---AWESOME!!! Emily from the UK, I cannot say enough about her. Monica, Ophelia and Janet the nursery manager are all GREAT!! They were the shining stars of this trip. I was so sad when they told me they could not accept a cash tip. If they got one, it would be pooled with all the kids clubs. To me, not acceptable. I did finally ask, what can I do for all of you without having to have your tip pooled. They finally said, phone cards. Well, this was Wed night, and I had no way of getting them phone cards. They did give me their address, and I am heading to get each of them a phone card and something special. Without them, my trip would have been much more difficult for my 2 year old. I had my DD in there for every stop on the island, (I highly recommend that) hard to push a stroller, and gave my husband and I a chance to enjoy things with the other 2 (DD 9, DS 6) I did take my 2 year old off at Castaway Cay, but not until 1:00 p.m. I did not want her to be out in the sun all day with her fair skin. But, I cannot say enough about Flounders, my daughter got so excited everytime she saw the sign. When I would go to check her in, she would immediately head to the door to be let in. I did use more than 10 hours. I was never turned away for time. I only had 5 hours scheduled befor I left. I think at the end of the cruise, i spent about $120 at Flounders. WELL WORTH IT!!! You know, its very hard to leave your child ( I am a stay at home mom) with strangers, but these people put me at ease within 5 minutes at the Open House on the first night. Okay, enough about Flounders.
Key West - Today, we had our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. Then, DD 9 had her hair braided on deck 9. It was $30, and it still looks great today. This was just okay. Ohana and Chef Mickey's, much better. this was a good stop. As soon as we got off the boat, the skies opened up, and we head to the first store with ponchos. I heard if we would have been on the boat when it started raining, we would have been given ponchos from the ship. We did some shopping and stopped at Sloppy Joes. We had fun sight seeing Key West.
Day at Sea - this was a nice relaxing day. The one thing I must pass along is, get up to deck 9 early to claim your chair. We went to Bruch at Palo today. Florencia was our server and she was awesome!! Request her, she is sooo nice and will make your dining experience at Palo---PERFECT!!! (Ours was)By the time we got there(deck 9) @ 1:00 p.m. there was nothing left. I know the chairs on top say to not save, but all were draped with towels. But, we still had a nice day despite the winds!! Tonight was formal night, and it was very nice. Our dinner was in Luminere's. Very nice dining experience.
Grand Cayman - This was a tender port. This was a nice port. We just did some shopping and returned to the boat to go to the pool. THese are nice days to hang out at the pools, not a lot of people. Tonight, we skipped dinner. Had too much fun relaxing. Went to the Rocking D Bar for the ventriloquist and 80's night. Entertainment was awesome and we had soo much fun.
Costa Maya - This port was just okay. We had more fun in the Buena Vista Theater listening to Travis(South Africa) and his partner talk then we did on the island. Those two guys are such great entertainers. They both did all the shows. Travis has so much energy and is just so enthusiastic! We literally were only off the boat for a half hour. One CM told me that Disney had people aboard our cruise just to check out this port because of all the complaints. The shopping was weak and I did not like the forwardness of the store people. My daughter on the other hand went with my girlfriend on the Dolphin excursion and both could not stop raving about how beautiful this island was. Guess you had to go on an excursion to see all of the beauty. This was also Pirate night. We had dinner in Parrot Cay and participated in all the fun. Dinner was okay, but the Pirate Party on Deck 9 is something not to be missed. My children and myself, had a BLAST!!! This party was definatley one the many highlights of this trip. And the fireworks, were outstanding!! Buffet after was good too.
Day at Sea - today I started the day off with a massage at Vista Spa. I was signed up for the Aroma Stone Therapy. Peter my massage person was nice, I did not feel this massage was worth the money at all. Cost was $175 for 75 minutes. Never again. Then we headed up to deck 9 for breakfast and more sun. Yes, the chairs were full again. Only this time one of us ran up to the deck to save chairs like everybody else. Dinner tonight was the Chef's Gala and this was probably my favorite dinner of the week. We were in Luminere's. We had a great dinner rotation just too early. We also went to see the matinee today of Disney Dreams. Not as many people do the matinee so you do not have to arrive early. The best show of the week, Twice Charmed. We only saw 3 shows the whole week. We just stayed too busy. There is so much to do it is impossible to do everyting. (Golden Mickey's, Twice Charmed, Disney Dreams.) Next time I will make a point to see the shows. I thought they were all great! Then we headed off to Rockin Bar D for 70's night. This was even better than 80's night.
Castaway Cay - THIS IS AWESOME!!! Highlight of the trip. We had so much fun hanging on the family beach, going in to the water floating on a raft, we just relaxed and had a Conch Cooler and a Mudslide. The food at Cookies BBQ was also really good. The BBQ chicken breast was really good. I cannot wait to see what they are adding here. We are planning on returning in 2008 for the Eastern cruise. I will say my DD10 went to her club for only about an hour. She really wanted to play on the beach. Our last night, we dined at Palo. This was definately a great way to end our wonderful week. We chose Palo for the last night because we were not crazy with the dinner menu for this night. But, we all said we will end our final night again with Palo. The food there is not to be missed. Our servers name was Alexansder from Croatia. He was very good, but we loved FLorencia. And for my final highlight of the trip, Emily (Flounder's Nursery) delivered an envelope full of projects she did with my DD2 in there. They are so precious and brought a tear to my eye. THose women in the nursery were nothing short of FANTASTIC!!!
Departure from Port Canaveral - this was so easy. We got up and were down in the Atrium on Deck 3 by 7:15 am and off by the car port by 7:30 am. It was a very smooth transition. Very easy to find your luggage and get through customs. But, here is how our trip ended. I reserved Happy Limo to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. Well, at 8:10 am a man from Happy imo walked by us with another family's name on his card. So I stopped him to tell him Happy Limo was supposed to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. He said he would contact someone and get back to me, never did. Well, I called the office, of course, that was closed until 9:00 a.m. At this point I am ready to get on a Disney Cruise bus to the airport. Well, at 8:30 someonse shows up from a company called Bates Limo with our name on it. Okay fine. Only, the woman was in her 70's and could not lift our bags at all. And, she would not pick us up where the porter dropped our luggage up at because she wouldn't. So my husband had to literally move our luggage about a block and then load it in to her car. This was just ridiculous. For the $200 I paid for this part of the trip, I was mad. Now, we get in to the Cady stretch we supposedly rented which states is had a 15 inch flat screen tv and air conditioning. Well, not this one. This one had lights falling off the ceiling, no tv or working AC. As soon as I got to the airport, I called Happy Limo right away. They offered me a 20% discount for this part of the trip, well I ended up getting 50% off. Needless to say, I would not recommend Happy Limo. We had a return flight scheduled for 11:45 a.m. that's why I wanted to be picked up at 8:00 am to ensure plenty of time to get through security and get to our airline. Happy Limo, never again. And needless to say, I booked this car 3 months in advance.
