Lobstergal
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2003
- Messages
- 23
After months of reading these boards we finally were on our way to Florida. We flew down on Wednesday from cool but sunny Maine and arrived in Orlando around 6:30pm. We rented a car from National for the week. We had dinner at a great steakhouse on International Drive..Cattleman's and spent the night at the Holiday Inn Convention Center (finally a decently priced hotel with 2 QUEEN beds!!--85.00 +tax per night).
We had breakfast at I-HOP on Thursday and arrived at port around 11:15 am. Our kids DS 15 and DS 11 were SO exicited to see the ship for the first time. (this was their first cruise). We checked in quickly and waited about 1/2 hour for boarding to begin. We had probably 100 people in front of us--but we were on board by 12:20. What a beautiful ship.....DH and I have been on Carnival ships before and while they are nice, Disney is beautiful! Sis and I took off for our cabana reservations which we got with no problem then we had to wait for the kids club to open. We were 2nd in line there and had the kids enrolled within 10 minutes. We had lunch at the beach blanket...I must say that while the shrimp were a favorite with my family... I loved the desserts!! (it shows too
) The thing I noticed most about the ship was that it didn't appear huge inside like the carnival ships. I think that the Disney ship is designed so that you don't realize that there are 2500 other people on board and it sure worked!
We had to wait until 1:30 for our rooms to be ready so we toured the ship and ended up on the basketball court. (a favorite for our kids). When the rooms were ready we went down--deck 1 room 1030 and my sister and her family were in 1032. We got upgraded from an inside cabin to an outside with 2 small porthole windows. The rooms were great....and in the best location as we were right around the corner from where we left the ship in both ports!! The only noise we noticed was on the last night--some of the luggage was stowed in the room beside us and it got a little loud for a few hours--until approximately 12:30am.
We had early seating after requesting late but it worked out for the better--our rotation was Animators, Parrot Cay and Tritons. We didn't do Palo. (next time??) We had the BEST servers: Faisal and Anita. Anita wasn't feeling well so she was quiet, but Faisal made up for it--he was great!! While I was excited to see animators, I think my favorite meal was at Parrot Cay. We ate breakfast each morning there too. (it was buffet). My 15 year old wasn't happy about having to dress up for meals. We found that people dressed in various ways so I allowed the kids to...EEKS.....wear shorts to dinner!!! (except at Tritons, where I made them dress up). I know that it said no shorts but everyone else did it (don't tell my kids I just said that) and they wore nice shorts with polo shirts. We ladies wore capri's or skirts and the men wore dockers and polo shirts. Tritons night we all dressed up (men in ties, sis and I wore skirts).
We missed the Hercules show.....we were just too darn tired, but went to both of the other shows. They were great!! The kids made the disney dreams show only and said that they wished they would have come to all the shows.
The older kids missed the '411' at the teen club, it was held at 10:30 the first night and they were just too tired. The didn't go to the common grounds much and when they did, my son said that it appeared that groups of teens knew each other and hung together, so they felt a little bit out of place. On the 3 day, there is so little time for the kids to go to the clubs as you are busy with your shore time, dinner, shows, etc. All in all, the teens went to the clubs for about 1 hour and the 10-12 y/olds went for about an hour in their club. They liked it--there just was so much else to do.
We swam with the dolphins in Nassau, I had booked this separately and it was a highlight!! Expensive, but a once in a lifetime thing to do! We also took a horse and buggy ride for 25 minutes around town. Did very little shopping and found that a simple no thank you--went a long way with the tee-shirts, braids and other goodies constantly offered.
Castaway Cay was another highlight. Disney sure did this right! What an island. We went snorkeling, rode bikes, layed in the sun, and had a super bbque lunch. The hubbies and kids played at the games pavillion while sis and I did a 1/2 hour on the beach at Serenity prior to our cabana massage. We did the couples massage together as the men wouldn't do a massage. (we're not telling them what they are missing out on!!) The therapists spoke very little during the treatment and didn't push any products at us either--it was great.
We sat up late the last night--and ate a leisurely breakfast at the beach blanket buffet the last morning, while everyone else was scrambling off the ship. Not us, we had 2 more days in orlando and wanted to try to be the LAST off the ship. We weren't but it was a much better debarkation then on Carnival where you wait for hours for them to call your tag color. We sure hated to leave!!
We drove to orlando, checked in at the Holiday Inn family suites into a 3 BR mega suite. This place was great. The 8 of us bunked together in this 3 br, apartment-like place right in front of the pool. I would highly recommend it! Nice pool, free breakfast buffet each morning, kids under 12 eat free for the other meals. they have activities at the pool, putt-putt golf, shuffle board, ping-pong, a game room and are 1 mile from Disney entrance.
We spent the next 2 days laying by the pool during the day, went to visit my aunt and uncle in Lakeland one night and went to Wonder Works (the upside down building on International Drive) one night. We flew back to Maine on Tuesday morning and arrived home at 6 pm.
What a trip---I need to start saving for the next one!! lets see.....just 300 days and many $$$ more to go........
We had breakfast at I-HOP on Thursday and arrived at port around 11:15 am. Our kids DS 15 and DS 11 were SO exicited to see the ship for the first time. (this was their first cruise). We checked in quickly and waited about 1/2 hour for boarding to begin. We had probably 100 people in front of us--but we were on board by 12:20. What a beautiful ship.....DH and I have been on Carnival ships before and while they are nice, Disney is beautiful! Sis and I took off for our cabana reservations which we got with no problem then we had to wait for the kids club to open. We were 2nd in line there and had the kids enrolled within 10 minutes. We had lunch at the beach blanket...I must say that while the shrimp were a favorite with my family... I loved the desserts!! (it shows too
) The thing I noticed most about the ship was that it didn't appear huge inside like the carnival ships. I think that the Disney ship is designed so that you don't realize that there are 2500 other people on board and it sure worked! We had to wait until 1:30 for our rooms to be ready so we toured the ship and ended up on the basketball court. (a favorite for our kids). When the rooms were ready we went down--deck 1 room 1030 and my sister and her family were in 1032. We got upgraded from an inside cabin to an outside with 2 small porthole windows. The rooms were great....and in the best location as we were right around the corner from where we left the ship in both ports!! The only noise we noticed was on the last night--some of the luggage was stowed in the room beside us and it got a little loud for a few hours--until approximately 12:30am.
We had early seating after requesting late but it worked out for the better--our rotation was Animators, Parrot Cay and Tritons. We didn't do Palo. (next time??) We had the BEST servers: Faisal and Anita. Anita wasn't feeling well so she was quiet, but Faisal made up for it--he was great!! While I was excited to see animators, I think my favorite meal was at Parrot Cay. We ate breakfast each morning there too. (it was buffet). My 15 year old wasn't happy about having to dress up for meals. We found that people dressed in various ways so I allowed the kids to...EEKS.....wear shorts to dinner!!! (except at Tritons, where I made them dress up). I know that it said no shorts but everyone else did it (don't tell my kids I just said that) and they wore nice shorts with polo shirts. We ladies wore capri's or skirts and the men wore dockers and polo shirts. Tritons night we all dressed up (men in ties, sis and I wore skirts).
We missed the Hercules show.....we were just too darn tired, but went to both of the other shows. They were great!! The kids made the disney dreams show only and said that they wished they would have come to all the shows.
The older kids missed the '411' at the teen club, it was held at 10:30 the first night and they were just too tired. The didn't go to the common grounds much and when they did, my son said that it appeared that groups of teens knew each other and hung together, so they felt a little bit out of place. On the 3 day, there is so little time for the kids to go to the clubs as you are busy with your shore time, dinner, shows, etc. All in all, the teens went to the clubs for about 1 hour and the 10-12 y/olds went for about an hour in their club. They liked it--there just was so much else to do.
We swam with the dolphins in Nassau, I had booked this separately and it was a highlight!! Expensive, but a once in a lifetime thing to do! We also took a horse and buggy ride for 25 minutes around town. Did very little shopping and found that a simple no thank you--went a long way with the tee-shirts, braids and other goodies constantly offered.
Castaway Cay was another highlight. Disney sure did this right! What an island. We went snorkeling, rode bikes, layed in the sun, and had a super bbque lunch. The hubbies and kids played at the games pavillion while sis and I did a 1/2 hour on the beach at Serenity prior to our cabana massage. We did the couples massage together as the men wouldn't do a massage. (we're not telling them what they are missing out on!!) The therapists spoke very little during the treatment and didn't push any products at us either--it was great.
We sat up late the last night--and ate a leisurely breakfast at the beach blanket buffet the last morning, while everyone else was scrambling off the ship. Not us, we had 2 more days in orlando and wanted to try to be the LAST off the ship. We weren't but it was a much better debarkation then on Carnival where you wait for hours for them to call your tag color. We sure hated to leave!!
We drove to orlando, checked in at the Holiday Inn family suites into a 3 BR mega suite. This place was great. The 8 of us bunked together in this 3 br, apartment-like place right in front of the pool. I would highly recommend it! Nice pool, free breakfast buffet each morning, kids under 12 eat free for the other meals. they have activities at the pool, putt-putt golf, shuffle board, ping-pong, a game room and are 1 mile from Disney entrance.
We spent the next 2 days laying by the pool during the day, went to visit my aunt and uncle in Lakeland one night and went to Wonder Works (the upside down building on International Drive) one night. We flew back to Maine on Tuesday morning and arrived home at 6 pm.
What a trip---I need to start saving for the next one!! lets see.....just 300 days and many $$$ more to go........
