3 months can change a lot.... 7-night eastern caribbean w/ Tortola Trip Report

[Carterfam]

Well the boys did not sleep through the night, at all, they were waking up every hour or two, it was not a night to remember, I finally around 2:00 AM, decided to bring them in bed with us, so they would at least get some sleep, there sleep is more important then ours these days. Well, they finally went to sleep peacefully, of course DH and I did not sleep so soundly. DH finally gave up around 6 AM, and got ready for the day, I followed shortly after.

Around 7AM room serviced arrived with our breakfast, bagels, fruit and chocolate milk. Mmmmm. I needed a stronger pick me up this morning, so I headed to Cove Café for a nice strong Cappuccino. Cove Café has all your coffee desires, and more. I am not a coffee drinker but I definitely needed one this morning.

When I returned with freshly brewed coffee, the boys were finally waking up. We fed them, and got them ready for the day. My goal was to get them back on schedule as much, as I can.

Our first event of the day was our excursion… I know what your thinking, how with little sleep and two little boys could imagine doing another excursion. Well with hours of research, and planning (maybe only a couple). I found a perfect solution for our family called...


This is a do it on your own excursion, that you buy your ticket through DCL (which is cheaper I might add). Anyways, the Butterfly Farm is 3 minutes walk from the ship, it opens at 9 AM, and you can stay as long as you like.

We decided to spend the morning in our room, relaxing, watching movies, napping and left for the farm around 12:30 PM. We had a very friendly tour guide who showed us around the tropical farm. We learned so much about the life cycle of the butterfly. It was fun to watch the boys try to catch he butterflies, which land near the stroller, or on them. They never stayed long enough for a picture but it was quite a sight.
We did not stay very long, we were back at the ship around 2:00 PM, for the boys next bottle and nap, but I should mention that if you love to take pictures, you can get some amazing shots on this excursion, at the farm and on the walk to the farm, the ocean view on the walk is outstanding.

Overall, it was a good excursion with young ones because you can set your own pace, and tour when it is convenient for you. We would of loved to stay longer, except schedule of the babies called.

When we returned to the ship, DH and I headed back to the room, to get the boys ready for their afternoon nap, the boys seemed much more content, and back in routine by now, so DH joined his sister for some ship activities.

 

[Carterfam]

Cruisin’ for Trivia
It was being held the Promenade Lounge; it is a big trivia game, for a prize. DH said the prize was not actually that big, so when they tied with the many others they were not too disappointed to lose out in the final.

DH headed back to join me, and DSIL and her DH stayed behind for a couple of drinks.

Family Crafts
Around 3 PM, in the Lounge they were allowing families to make special picture frames, so DSIL decided to participate and make some for the boys, they were made of Popsicle sticks, and woodsies. They are really cute. I think it would be a nice family activity together.

Around 4:00 the boys woke up from their nap, and I was starting to feel like I was spending the whole day lounging in the room, DH suggested we head to Goofy’s Pool for the Deck Party.

Deck the Deck Party
This activity I assume only happens around Christmas, or during the Winter Season, it included Mickey and Minnie and all the Disney Friends for Winter Season songs and activities. It actually made me get into the Christmas Spirit a little. It was fun and cute to watch, the boys were too busy eating to enjoy any of it, but it was nice to get out of the room.

From there it was time, to head back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner.

Dinner: Lumiere’s
It was a dinner, tonight when I realized I did not have lunch today. It must been because I was so sleepy, but as soon as I looked at the menu I was starving, and Lumiere’s is one of my least favorite menus for supper, but I had a five course meal that night and it was delicious to say the least.

I had: Ratatouille with Piperade Vinaigrette (Cold Version), Normady Salad, Duck Fricassee Bordelaise, and Crème Brulee – all very delicious.

DH: Shrimp Medley, Mixed Garden Salad, Coquilled St Jacques, Montellmar Nougay and Pistachio Cream Sauce – all very good.

It was this night, when we started talking about future trips, and how much more fun these vacations are going to be as the boys get older, and how much fun we will, have together. We always like to try the new special cruises so we decided to tentatively book 15-night Panama Canal Westbound Cruise, we enjoyed it the last time, and the boys will be 18-months so it seems perfect, DSIL and her DH might just join us too. We definitely will have a busy winter season if all go as planned.

After Dinner, all the boys (big and little) headed back to the stateroom, while DSIL and I decided to go play some bingo.

 

[Carterfam]

Pin Trading Jackpot Bingo
Bingo is not for the faint at heart, if you are not willing to lose do not play. It is rather addictive I might add. DSIL is a big pin trading fan, and she just really has not been able to go to any of the events at the time, so I decided to tag along considering I was not dying to spend my evening in our stateroom either. She did win one of the four cash prizes of $1,000 and traded a really nice pin with this elderly lady a few machines down for us. It was a successful evening I would say for her, not so much for me.

Variety Showtime: featuring Freddy Fusion & John Charles
John Charles was the first one to perform a 30-minute musical comedy set. He opened the show with a Jimmy Buffet song and joke, which was hilarious. After him followed Freddy Fusion with a science / magic act, you could tell all the kids in the audience loved him. This was a really good balance of family entertainment on Disney parts. There was something for everyone to enjoy.

Pirates Life for Me
I headed to bed after this, I was exhausted after the last two days, and was looking forward to our sea day tomorrow. DSIL on the other hand did not have two six-month olds and was still ready to party. I wish I could

She started at Studio Seas, with a game called a Pirate Life for Me, I totally did not understand it, so I will try not explain, there is a wheel to spin, and the goal is to capture the pearl, sorry that is all I can explain.

Decades Dance Party
DSIL and her DH ended up at the decades dance party, which she calls more her scene, it was a big dance party to music from the last four decades, which is right up her alley, because she loves old music. The next morning she was telling me all about what I missed out, and all the music we used to groove to as a child. Oh I miss those days.

DH and I were asleep when they returned. Hoping for a relaxing day tomorrow.

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Really liked that you listed details for so many activities.

 

[Carterfam]

Really liked that you listed details for so many activities.

Thank you! The main question I always get from new cruisers is what is there to do on the ships, and there is so much to do on the ships, you really never have time to experience it all. So I really wanted to highlight all the activities we partaked in, to show all that you can experience on a Disney Cruise. This is only half of it.

Thank you, for reading.

 

[Carterfam]

For the most part, I can say we all woke up in a pretty good mood, and practically on schedule. I know their moods had changed because of the excursion event (even those I know they were good on it), but their little bodies needed time to adjust.

The nice thing this morning, is that we all were able to go to Goofy’s Galley together for breakfast, once we were ready for the day. I mean all six of us, it was really nice. DSIL wanted to try the Animation at Animator’s Palate again, so we all decided to join.

The boys were having no problems in their carriers,

Animation
I proved my point from earlier that I can’t draw, but it was fun. DH’s turned out better, and DSIL drew us Donald Duck, which is now nicely in our bathroom, since our kitchen is Duck Themed. The Cast Members are very helpful and give you lots of tips, we had fun but it was time for bottles and naps.

DH and DHIL offered to head back to the room with the boys, I wanted to head over to the Promenade Lounge, to make some kites for our adventure at Castaway Cay,

 

[Carterfam]

Family Kite Making
Since the boys are into everything that moves, I thought it would be fun to decorate some kites to fly at Castaway Cay tomorrow, that they could watch.

Well at this activity, you basically just decorate a kite that is already, made for you. No assembly, required. We made two one for both boys, with their names on it. They have markers and ribbons to decorate it with. It was a little bit insane, they did not have enough markers to number of participates so it was a little chaotic, trying to grab markers. It was fun, none the less, being an adult and all.

From there I was hungry, and I wanted to make sure I had lunch today, so I stopped at Goofy’s Galley for some lunch and brought some back for DH.

We spent the afternoon in our stateroom, letting the boys crawl around, watch a movie (can’t remember which one), until it was time for Mr. Toad’s Wild Races.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Races
This is a funny event. First of all I should note, that they do not use real toads, they are small wooden toads, connected to the ropes, and the goal is for the participate to get the toad to the finish line. It is a hilarious event because the participate holds on to one end of the ropes, and tries to figure out how to make the toad moving, there is a lot of funny arm movements, hopping and weird body movements going on to make that darn thing move.

The boys were not interested at all, even with all the noise going on. I brought their toy car keys to keep them entertained, just in case, and Kyran was trying to figure out if he could put the yellow key through the key loop. Crazy boy. DH was really entertained by that, and thinks we have a budding mechanic in our future.

After the Wild Races, it was time for bottles and nap, and even a nap for this mommy, who’s schedule is still a little out of whack.

While, I fed the two bundles of joy, the rest of the crew (my crew that is) decided to do the Scavenger Hunt.

 

[Carterfam]

Family Magic Quest
We used to do this all the time as kids / teenagers. It is a scavenger hunt around the ship, but it wild and wacky tasks all around the ship, for a small prize. They teamed up with a mom, grandma and two kids. I did not write down much detail of the tasks, but they had a blast, and brought back some Mickey hats that they received.

I woke up around 3 PM, the boys were sleeping so soundly, I can’t believe considering we are on Day 6, with only one bad night and all the horror stories you hear, that the boys did well in those cribs.
The gang returned shortly after that, DSIL was dying to play bingo (maybe because she one), but if you love bingo this is the one you want to attend.

Final Jackpot Bingo
It is held in Walt Disney Theatre lunlike all the others. Instead of there being four or five prizes up for grabs, there is one the snowball prize, which on our cruise was $5,000. It is a full house game, and the prize must go. Guess What, I did not win??? The pot was shared by 4 people and I did not win. Oh Well, it was fun, just goes to show I have no luck when it comes to gambling. Our family played 4 games and did not win a thing. Neither did DSIL, but spending time wit her is what counts.

We returned to the stateroom after bingo, to find DH trying to feed Kyran well, playing cards and entertaining Ryder. It was hilarious but you have to be a multi-tasker when you have twins.

Dinner:
Tonight’s menu was Captain’s Gala and it was semi-formal meaning jackets are not required. We had it in Animator's Palate, not the perfect atmosphere for this kind of meal, but 4 out of 6 days is not bad.

Our Menu:

Appetizers:
Garlic and Herb Sauteed Shrimp – delicious, not too garlicly, the perfect blend.
Grilled Vegetables and Beef Prosciutto – nothing fantasic, but good none the less.

Soups / Salads:
Wild Forest Mushroom Soup – yummy yee )
Chilled Beef and Sundried Tomato Consomme – it was okay.

Entrée:
Baked Loster Tail – I have been waiting the whole cruise for this, it is a must on my list.
Veal Roasted with Shallots, Fennel and Vin Santo – it was delicious.

Dessert:
Warm Chocloate Lava Cake – oozing with chocolate sauce how could you not resist
Lingonberry cheese pudding – he shared it with the boys, their faces were priceless, the chocolate brownie was good.

John Charles: Cabaret
We went for some after dinner drinks to Rockin’ Bar D, John Charles was playing, his musical comedies are hilarious. He usually does an act in the main theatre, plus a side show. If he is on your cruise, he is a not to be missed.

DH, the boys and I all headed back to the stateroom, to get the boys ready for bed. DSIL and DBIL decided to catch Disney Dreams, and Mickey Mania before they would return to watch the boys, so DH and I could see the movie premiere of the Princess and the Frog.

Disney Dreams
Dreams is one of my favourite shows, but I have seen it hundreds of times, and my boys are more important to me, but Disney does put out all the stops in this show. You get confetti, snow and bubbles raining over you, and the best part sprinkling the boat with pixie dust is the best part. DSIL I said all the actors were amazing and should be on broadway, that is saying a lot coming from her a Disney veteran

Mickey Mania
Is a game show type game, where contestants are chosen to test their Disney knowledge. DSIL or DBIL did not get chosen, but according to them they got all the answers right. It is a fun time if you get chosen or not. You always get two type of crowds, the crowd that helps the contestant or the type a crowd that plays along. We always play along to test our knowledge, and I say we are pretty good.

Movie Premiere: The Princess and the Frog
We made arrangements with DSIL even before we got on this cruise to attend the movie premiere of the Princess and the Frog, since the nursery is not open at midnight. Being a movie buff, I was really excited. The boys were sound asleep and I was excited to go.

We packed up some snacks to eat in the theatre and off we went. We got there in plenty of time, and go seats right in the middle of the theatre. Perfect.

Review: I am glad to see that Disney finally went back to its traditional animation for this movie. It was full of energy, quality, sentimentality, and superb animation of the 90s Disney flicks, and is inches away from Pixar status. I hope that it gets the praise and success it truly deserves, with the blending the old-school qualities with new-school outlook on where the status of animation and storytelling is headed. Princess and the Frog is a fun, entertaining, and fulfilling ride from start to finish. I enjoyed it so much; the 100 minutes just flew by for me.

Castaway Cay is tomorrow, so it was off to bed for us.

 

[Carterfam]

December 11th – Castaway Cay

Our last full day on the ship, I could not believe that it is almost over. I was determined to make this a better experience then our last experience at Castaway Cay.

We woke up around 6:30, and stuck to the regular routine, room service. It was the second day in a row, that we were all up together. Instead of breakfast together we all went to see the Princess and the Frog PremEAR.

Princess and the Frog PremEAR – See review above. It was better the 2nd time around, movies usually are. The boys actually sat through most of it. DH left about 15 minutes before it was over to feed and put the boys for a nap. DSIL liked it, but you could tell it really was not her type of movie.

I headed over to Diversions after the morning was over.

5K Run
Seven days on the ship, and no exercise. I was ready for something physical. I have been trying to shed the last little bit of my baby weight for a while, but these 5-course meals and free food were not helping. The 5K run at Castaway was a perfect time to get a little bit into shape.

You meet your cast member right on the ship, we met ours at Diversions. He takes you off the ship, but you do the course off the ship, and he meets you at the finish line with a free plastic bottle for running it. You can walk / run, go at your own pace, you can even take a short-cut if you wanted too. The course goes through the main part, past the bicycle rental place, down the airplane runway to Serenity Bay, You turn and come back and then take the bicycle loop near the tower and back to the ship.

If you like to run, it is a fun activity. It is always refreshing to start your morning with a run, it really got me pumped up for the day.

I got back to the room around 10:45 AM, and everyone was sleeping, well the boys were and so was DH he fell asleep watching a movie. DSIL and DBIL were no where’s to be found.

So I took, a walk around the ship and snapped some pictures since, I had rarely done that yet. I was only gone about a half an hour, and when I returned to the room everyone was up, and Ryder was already fed, bonus we were going to be able to explore Castaway Cay, a lit bit longer then we expected.

Our first, stop was to get the boys picture with the painted rocks of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc. It was a disaster 3-month ago, so I wanted it to be better this time around, and I can say they are thousand times better. To bad, the next time won’t be until there 15 months old.

 

[Carterfam]

Crab Races
After our wonderful pictures, we headed down to the Castaway Cay Gazebo to watch the Crab Races. I enjoyed this event, even if it is too slow for the boys to truly enjoy. What happens is they place 8 crabs in a bucket, and then dump them into the center of the circle and which ever crab walks out of the circle wins the heat. There are 4 heats, and a final race. If you would like to participate, then go early to sign-up.

The only thing that disturbed me, which I am animal lover, is that the cast member host said, all the losers were collected to be sent to the galley for the Parrot Cay crab dip on the next cruise. I don’t know if he was joking or not.

The boys, were more into this then the Mr. Toad’s Wild Races, maybe it was because I did not give them a toy to play with. Ryder was even practicing his clapping skills, edged on by daddy.

Cookie’s BBQ
We headed to have some lunch, at Cookie’s BBQ. It was very good, there were a lot of options to choose from, DH had ribs and corn, and I had a burger and potato salad. For dessert we had cookies and ice cream. The boys had their first taste; they found it interesting to say the least.

We then just enjoyed the afternoon on the beach; we flew our kites, tested the water, but basically played into the sand. Oh how we loved the sand. At least it was not becoming food this time and they were not trying to eat it. They liked throwing it more this time, and getting buried by it, oh they were so funny.

 

[Carterfam]

Family Whale Dig
Because the boys were having so much fun in the sand, we thought we try their first really Disney Activity, that they could participate in… we thought we would go digging for whale bones. Well it was an interesting. Like I said they were more interested in throwing the sand, then digging in it, we did not find anything, but it made for some cute pictures, because they do have a skeleton body of a whale peaking out of the sand, which is pretty cool.

After this big event, and a thousand pictures later. We headed back to the ship, for a bottle and a nap. On our way, we ran into DSIL, who were headed on a snorkeling adventure, with a quick hi and bye, we were off again for our stateroom.

We just lounge around the room, while the boys slept, spent some time on the verandah, and getting ready for dinner. The boys woke up around 4:30 – 5 PM, which was a little later then usual, but with all the fresh air, I was not surprised to say the least.

Dinner
We had dinner at Parrot Cay tonight, with the menu Ti’ We Meet Again. Here was our dinner:

Appetizers:
Sesame Crusted Tuna Sashimi, Wakame Salad and American Caviar – I was tempted to try caviar, I had never had it before, and probably never will again. DH ate most of this.
Chilled Seafood Medley – This was more my kind of food, and it was delicious

Soups & Salad:
Cream of Split Pea Soup: it was okay, nothing special
Romaine Salad with Artichoke Chips – This was delicious, I ended up ordering a second plate. It is a must on my list.

Main Course:
Grilled Beef Tenderloin – nothing special.
Pan Seared Turkey Filet Mignon Normande, Apple and Caivados Dressing – I did not enjoy this that much either, maybe that’s why I ordered a second helping of the salad.

Dessert:
Deep-Dish Apple Cranberry Pie – just like my grandmother would make it, yummy.
Baked Alaska – highly recommend it.

The boys actually fell asleep during supper, which had me a little concerned about putting them to bed earlier.

Live Music with Midtown
After dinner, we headed to the Promenade Lounge for after dinner drinks. The boys woke up with all the noise, for once I was happy. Midtown was playing on the stage. They play quite a mix of music so that many generations will enjoy. I noticed the lounge was a little bit busier then it was any other nights, everyone trying to party it up on the last night.

While the boys little nap at supper did not throw off their sleeping schedule. The two hours in the fresh air, just made them really tired. Note, to remember this when I need to get stuff done, play outside for a couple of hours.

Remember the Magic: A Final Farewell
DSIL and I went to see the live entertainment tonight, at Walt Disney Theatre, While the boys put the finishing touches on our luggage that had to be outside our door around 10:00 PM.

This is a great show that has a mixture of the variety acts that you saw on your ship and Disney characters. It is a show that allows you to relive all the magical moments on the ship. Not my favorite, but fun anyway.

After the show we headed to the lobby atrium

Til We Meet Again
It was to bad this was so late, in the evening, it would have been a great event for the boys. It was an informal meet and greets with the characters, and cast members. Who bid you farewell until they see you again. DSIL and I got our picture taking with Cinderella and of course Mickey Mouse.

It was not overcrowded which surprised me, but at the same time it did not start till 10:15 PM, so unless you don’t have little ones on a schedule or you want to push the limits with your child, it is really hard event to attend to.

 

[Carterfam]

Well with all that extra sleep the boys had during dinner yesterday, made them wake up early and when I say early I say 5 AM, I really did not know what was going on, it unfortunately through our whole schedule off for the day.

Breakfast
While when I was first planning this trip we all planned to have breakfast together, as a last hurrah. Our schedule breakfast time was 6:30 AM, when we got our schedule too early for me. Then when the boys woke up at 5 AM, I thought it was maybe doable, but putting them in their carriers was unmanageable, they wanted to be free, not tied down, so we were out of luck, maybe next cruise.

The debarkation day is the only day that you have a schedule breakfast, beside the character breakfast. It is always in the same restaurant you had the night before, we had Parrot Cay on Day 7, so we would have our breakfast at Parrot Cay. There is also two seatings, one for 1st seating and one for 2nd seating, Just like you would normally had for dinner.

Departing the Ship
It was a little crazy departing the ship. When we reached the terminal all the escalators had been blocked off, and passengers were backing up in the hall. This would have been around 7:30 AM. It took us about 10 minutes before we got downstairs to the luggage bay. This is a long time when you have two little ones in tow, who are crying because they do not want to be in their carriers. We found out it was because the customs area had become really congested.

We had no problem gather our luggage, and even those custom lines were still very long, we moved through them very quickly with no issues.

DH went to get the car, while I said our final goodbyes to his sister and fed the boys their second bottle of the day, in hopes they would go back to sleep when we got the car organized. DH was quick he was back in 15 min. perfect. We loaded up the boys and we were on our way back to the Residence Inn.

We thought, we would try spending some time at SeaWorld, but that did not happen with boy’s weird schedule going on, so we just hung out at the hotel, swam a little, just had some quality family time until we returned to our crazy city of Los Angeles, and our crazy busy life.

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Good stuff! Thanks.

 

[croppincolburn]

I really enjoyed your report. I've forgotten how things were with a 6 month old. Ds is 6 years now. At least he understands about sleeping in. He just doesn't do it yet. I hope to try some of the fun shipboard activities you mentioned. Thanks for posting this!