Opie100
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2009
- Messages
- 725
We had a great cruise - I think the only way not to have a marvelous time is if you are expecting perfection. Feel free to ask questions.
Background: 5th cruise (2 RCCL, Celebrity, Carnaval); first Disney cruise. Party of five (one five-year-old) and two grandparents in their 60s. We booked on Dec. 1, 2008.
Transport to Hotel: Flew Southwest to Orlando on 2/27, arrived around 5pm. Rented mini-van from Budget (approx. $105 for day). Drove to Cape Canveral
Hotel: Residence Inn Cape Canveral; two-bedroom suite. I recommend this option - clean, quiet rooms, good deal for five people (cheaper than two separate rooms of similar quality).
Transport to Ship: Dropped family off at port around 10:30am using rental van (there is a small fee to use hotel shuttle to the port), returned car to Budget (got gas first). Budget's shuttle back to ship runs frequently. This was a quick process - I was only away from family for 15-20 mins. Hertz location is also close to port.
KEY SUGGESTION #1: Do not forget to bring your passports, even on all USVI itineraries, and do not ever place them in your checked baggage. They are REQUIRED for check in and it is a pain to fish them out of your bags after dropping them off.
Staterooms: We originally booked a Cat. 12 guarantee, and our two rooms ended up in Cat. 9, on the 1st deck (two portholes). We knew this before leaving since that info was updated in the MY DISNEY CRUISE online about 30 days before departure. We looked into upgrading again at the port but there wasn't much left to upgrade to at that point. It appears that Disney gets more bang for their buck to do free upgrades than to hold back more
rooms for potential upgrades at check-in. I think that is a smart strategy - we were happy with our rooms. We had the queen, and our daughter was in the couch single.
KEY SUGGESTION #2: If you are in a room with a bunk on the wall that you aren't using, and your have room rattles (noises), try sticking folded papers in the crevice in the bed.
Planning/activities: We took a spa tour on the first day, and doing so allowed us to enter in a raffle held at 3pm on embarkation day for a free massage. We won, which we upgraded to a couples massage. Time flies and it is hard to keep up with everything going on otherwise. Also: The 3D movies are good - if the first day or two is cooler with the wind, that is the time to try it because you won't want to when the weather is at it's best.
KEY SUGGESTION #3: Do the spa tour before 3pm on embarkation - you have a decent chance of winning the raffle for free services at that time because not that many people do this.
KEY SUGGESTION #4: Earlier rounds of bingo have fewer people, and thus a better chance of winning. Most people that we saw won using the machines.
KEY SUGGESTION #5: Bring a highlighter with you, so that you can highlight each block in the Navigator during the activities each day that you don't want to miss. Sounds trivial, but it helps.
Dining: We had second seating - so our 5-year-old DD only ate with us in the dining room three times. The food on the cruise was good. The best food was in Palo (both brunch and dinner). Honestly, in my expierence on different cruise lines not that much separates the quality of the food. But we were not disappointed.Servers: Evandro and Daniella - really great. The character breakfast was great too - do not forget to check your ticket when you get to your stateroom to see when your character breakfast takes place. DD ate a few times at Topsiders for dinner - servers were very nice and even fetched a hot dog for her when it wasn't being served (it is a service restaurant for dinner, not a buffet).
Shows: The best quality of any cruise line we've experienced. We had high expectations here, and were not disappointed. Come early so that you can see them from the middle front section.
St. Croix: This is not as dynamic of a destination as St. Thomas/St. John, but there are good times to be had. There is a massive oil refinery on the island that you will see on your cab/van ride. Some that took the cab over to just walk around Christiansted were disappointed. This would be a good place to do the mini-boat excursion, that others have recommended.
St. Croix Excursion #1 - BUCK ISLAND SNORKEL
Two of us did the Buck Island Snorkel Disney excursion. I would rate it as good, but could have been better. The boats used for these trips smell like diesel fuel during the trip. I would recommend booking a Big Beard half- or full-day sailing snorkel excursion instead and just cab it over there. It will be more expensive but I think sailing is a better way to travel. Buck Island snorkeling is fun - but is off the boat so it is not for people afraid of swimming (do I even need to say that?). The coral is very interesting but it is not as colorful as it once probably was due to tropical storms. The trip out there allows you to see some beautiful homes that you don't see on the drive over there.
St. Croix Excursion #2: CRUZAN RUM DISTILLERY
I'd recommend this - it's about $13/pp roundtrip to get a cab to take you and stay there while you do the tour. The tour is $5.00. Afterwards, all the rum you can drink. Really. We brought back a case (6 bottles) - they had all kinds to choose from, with cases with different varieties from $25-85, which we wrapped good in newspaper and tried to check on Southwest. WARNING: airlines may tell you to put it in another bag. We were lucky to have one and the bag/box combo made it without breaking.
Pirate Party: Fun dancing and fireworks (only night of fireworks on the ship - 10:30pm). Good viewing on Deck 10, but you can view them from the dancing area on top of the pool as well.
St. Thomas/John: Beautiful. Even the cab ride views are awesome, although spooky at high speeds.
St. Thomas/John Excursion: TRUNK BAY
We took a cab/open-air truck to Red Hook, and took that ferry to Cruz Bay for the cab ride over to Trunk Bay. Awesome beach and sand. Good amenities. Good snorkeling off the beach. We spent $200 round trip for a family of five, so not cheap. $10/pp from port to Red Hook. About $6/pp for ferry. Another $6/pp to get back and forth between beach and Cruz Bay. Vinow.com is a good source of info on transport details. Doing this ourselves was cheaper than through the cruise line, allowed us to leave later than 7:15am (don't wait until after 9am, however), and allowed us to stay there until 1:30pm (about three hours). You want at least 3 hours here.
KEY SUGGESTION #4: Seriously consider a beach day at Trunk Bay, St. John.
Castaway Cay - lots have been written on this already. It's really beautiful. The water was chilly, but not enough to keep people out of it in the afternoon. The tide was out in the morning, so the water was low, particularly at the adult beach. Food was good.
Kids Clubs: Our daughter is 5, but she liked the Club better than the Lab at first until she got familiar with both. For borderline 4-5 age kids you can swap back and forth between clubs if there are events in one or the other that you think they will like better. We changed her wristband for the different age groups a few times. DD spent most dinner times in the club as she's not much fun at a late dinner.
Days at sea: We were going quickly to stay ahead of a big cold front that dumped snow even in the south. As such, it was a bit rocky down to the islands, and rocky again returning to Castaway Cay. Didn't bother me at all, but one of our party had a hard time sleeping one night.
Pool: The big LED screen above the family pool is genius. All cruise lines should have this. It is really fun. If you don't want it, there are other pools to choose from. Kids pool gets crowded, but kids really don't care. The wind during the at sea days was enough to make it chilly if you didn't stay underwater.
Disembark/Post Cruise: We took the Budget shuttle back to get the van again and we had about 5 hours after the cruise to work with - not enough to do a park IMO, so we drove to Downtown Disney and had lunch and horsed around.
I'll keep updating this as I think of things. Feel free to ask any questions you like.
Background: 5th cruise (2 RCCL, Celebrity, Carnaval); first Disney cruise. Party of five (one five-year-old) and two grandparents in their 60s. We booked on Dec. 1, 2008.
Transport to Hotel: Flew Southwest to Orlando on 2/27, arrived around 5pm. Rented mini-van from Budget (approx. $105 for day). Drove to Cape Canveral
Hotel: Residence Inn Cape Canveral; two-bedroom suite. I recommend this option - clean, quiet rooms, good deal for five people (cheaper than two separate rooms of similar quality).
Transport to Ship: Dropped family off at port around 10:30am using rental van (there is a small fee to use hotel shuttle to the port), returned car to Budget (got gas first). Budget's shuttle back to ship runs frequently. This was a quick process - I was only away from family for 15-20 mins. Hertz location is also close to port.
KEY SUGGESTION #1: Do not forget to bring your passports, even on all USVI itineraries, and do not ever place them in your checked baggage. They are REQUIRED for check in and it is a pain to fish them out of your bags after dropping them off.
Staterooms: We originally booked a Cat. 12 guarantee, and our two rooms ended up in Cat. 9, on the 1st deck (two portholes). We knew this before leaving since that info was updated in the MY DISNEY CRUISE online about 30 days before departure. We looked into upgrading again at the port but there wasn't much left to upgrade to at that point. It appears that Disney gets more bang for their buck to do free upgrades than to hold back more
rooms for potential upgrades at check-in. I think that is a smart strategy - we were happy with our rooms. We had the queen, and our daughter was in the couch single.
KEY SUGGESTION #2: If you are in a room with a bunk on the wall that you aren't using, and your have room rattles (noises), try sticking folded papers in the crevice in the bed.
Planning/activities: We took a spa tour on the first day, and doing so allowed us to enter in a raffle held at 3pm on embarkation day for a free massage. We won, which we upgraded to a couples massage. Time flies and it is hard to keep up with everything going on otherwise. Also: The 3D movies are good - if the first day or two is cooler with the wind, that is the time to try it because you won't want to when the weather is at it's best.
KEY SUGGESTION #3: Do the spa tour before 3pm on embarkation - you have a decent chance of winning the raffle for free services at that time because not that many people do this.
KEY SUGGESTION #4: Earlier rounds of bingo have fewer people, and thus a better chance of winning. Most people that we saw won using the machines.
KEY SUGGESTION #5: Bring a highlighter with you, so that you can highlight each block in the Navigator during the activities each day that you don't want to miss. Sounds trivial, but it helps.
Dining: We had second seating - so our 5-year-old DD only ate with us in the dining room three times. The food on the cruise was good. The best food was in Palo (both brunch and dinner). Honestly, in my expierence on different cruise lines not that much separates the quality of the food. But we were not disappointed.Servers: Evandro and Daniella - really great. The character breakfast was great too - do not forget to check your ticket when you get to your stateroom to see when your character breakfast takes place. DD ate a few times at Topsiders for dinner - servers were very nice and even fetched a hot dog for her when it wasn't being served (it is a service restaurant for dinner, not a buffet).
Shows: The best quality of any cruise line we've experienced. We had high expectations here, and were not disappointed. Come early so that you can see them from the middle front section.
St. Croix: This is not as dynamic of a destination as St. Thomas/St. John, but there are good times to be had. There is a massive oil refinery on the island that you will see on your cab/van ride. Some that took the cab over to just walk around Christiansted were disappointed. This would be a good place to do the mini-boat excursion, that others have recommended.
St. Croix Excursion #1 - BUCK ISLAND SNORKEL
Two of us did the Buck Island Snorkel Disney excursion. I would rate it as good, but could have been better. The boats used for these trips smell like diesel fuel during the trip. I would recommend booking a Big Beard half- or full-day sailing snorkel excursion instead and just cab it over there. It will be more expensive but I think sailing is a better way to travel. Buck Island snorkeling is fun - but is off the boat so it is not for people afraid of swimming (do I even need to say that?). The coral is very interesting but it is not as colorful as it once probably was due to tropical storms. The trip out there allows you to see some beautiful homes that you don't see on the drive over there.
St. Croix Excursion #2: CRUZAN RUM DISTILLERY
I'd recommend this - it's about $13/pp roundtrip to get a cab to take you and stay there while you do the tour. The tour is $5.00. Afterwards, all the rum you can drink. Really. We brought back a case (6 bottles) - they had all kinds to choose from, with cases with different varieties from $25-85, which we wrapped good in newspaper and tried to check on Southwest. WARNING: airlines may tell you to put it in another bag. We were lucky to have one and the bag/box combo made it without breaking.
Pirate Party: Fun dancing and fireworks (only night of fireworks on the ship - 10:30pm). Good viewing on Deck 10, but you can view them from the dancing area on top of the pool as well.
St. Thomas/John: Beautiful. Even the cab ride views are awesome, although spooky at high speeds.
St. Thomas/John Excursion: TRUNK BAY
We took a cab/open-air truck to Red Hook, and took that ferry to Cruz Bay for the cab ride over to Trunk Bay. Awesome beach and sand. Good amenities. Good snorkeling off the beach. We spent $200 round trip for a family of five, so not cheap. $10/pp from port to Red Hook. About $6/pp for ferry. Another $6/pp to get back and forth between beach and Cruz Bay. Vinow.com is a good source of info on transport details. Doing this ourselves was cheaper than through the cruise line, allowed us to leave later than 7:15am (don't wait until after 9am, however), and allowed us to stay there until 1:30pm (about three hours). You want at least 3 hours here.
KEY SUGGESTION #4: Seriously consider a beach day at Trunk Bay, St. John.
Castaway Cay - lots have been written on this already. It's really beautiful. The water was chilly, but not enough to keep people out of it in the afternoon. The tide was out in the morning, so the water was low, particularly at the adult beach. Food was good.
Kids Clubs: Our daughter is 5, but she liked the Club better than the Lab at first until she got familiar with both. For borderline 4-5 age kids you can swap back and forth between clubs if there are events in one or the other that you think they will like better. We changed her wristband for the different age groups a few times. DD spent most dinner times in the club as she's not much fun at a late dinner.
Days at sea: We were going quickly to stay ahead of a big cold front that dumped snow even in the south. As such, it was a bit rocky down to the islands, and rocky again returning to Castaway Cay. Didn't bother me at all, but one of our party had a hard time sleeping one night.
Pool: The big LED screen above the family pool is genius. All cruise lines should have this. It is really fun. If you don't want it, there are other pools to choose from. Kids pool gets crowded, but kids really don't care. The wind during the at sea days was enough to make it chilly if you didn't stay underwater.
Disembark/Post Cruise: We took the Budget shuttle back to get the van again and we had about 5 hours after the cruise to work with - not enough to do a park IMO, so we drove to Downtown Disney and had lunch and horsed around.
I'll keep updating this as I think of things. Feel free to ask any questions you like.
I have printed each and everyone out and will plan each day to the hour so once we get to the ship my family can look at me and say no we don't want to do anything you spent hours planning, let's just wing it. 
Which will be fine by me, I just like to plan and think I am in charge. 
