DBinMV
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2005
- Messages
- 186
If youre still with me, heres the last entry
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We get to Lumieres at 7AM and load up on breakfast eggs, bacon, Mickey waffles, you name it. Its a little weird on the last day youre kind of tired, you can tell the crew is already starting to prepare for the next group of passengers that will start boarding in a few hours, but youre still there.
One item of note our friends never got their autographed pillow cases. Disney gave each child a stuffed Captain Mickey, but they managed to lose both pillow cases and a set of rainbow sharpies. Meanwhile, our pillow cases were waiting in our stateroom Friday night. Im not really sure what happened here, but I guess it DOES happen.
We say our final good-byes to our serving team, and go hang out in the Promenade Lounge waiting for the line to get off the ship to shorten a bit. The Lounge has CNN on, and again, its a little weird getting caught up on recent events after having a week to disconnect from reality. Its necessary, but still not all that fun.
Its trivial to find our bags and get through Customs, but then the vacation ends abruptly. We were told in the disembarking presentation on Friday that we would be able to check our bags and get our boarding passes outside the Disney terminal if we were using the Disney shuttle service to the airport. This turns out NOT to be the case, for us. The representative from American Airlines says that were not on their list of randomly selected people. It doesnt seem to matter if you book your flights through Disney or not, and I had entered our flight information on DCLs web site weeks before our cruise.
Oh well, well just have to check our bags at the airport, but that also means lugging them around.
On to the flight remember when I said that the Starbucks breakfast was the second-worst of our vacation? You had to know that the worst one was going to be airline food, and American didnt disappoint. Not only does American charge you $5 for a snack pack without offering so much as a bag of pretzels, the snack pack wasnt even as good as the one we got on Delta for free! All in all, comparing the American flight from MCO to LAX to the Delta flight from LAX to MCO, the American flight just sucked. The seats felt like they had less legroom, there were no individual screens, and the movie that they showed (Shadows in the Sun) was pretty awful.
So to recap our trip:
Not to be missed: Palo, the Spa (realllaxxxx..), Checchoben, Castaway Cay Eco-tour, Pirate Night, Disney Dreams, and the Dessert Buffet. If you happen to see Mario, Lisa, Nadege (servers) or Brian (stateroom host), tell em that some guy named Dave said that they were incredible. The Club/Lab can be a real treat for the kids and for you, but be sure to prepare your kids ahead of time so they know what to expect. Also, if your child needs more structure, start them in the Club when there is a structured activity. If s/he just like to run around, start them in the Club when there is free time. I think the first experience for the child is the key.
Fun, but $$$: Castaway Cay parasailing.
Be careful with: Frozen doughnuts, the Topsiders taco bar (chili for meat, stale taco shells), Costa Maya shopping.
Disappointments: Our friends not getting their pillowcases, not being able to check our bags at the Terminal, American Airlines.
Anyway, if you're still reading, I hope you have as much fun on your Disney cruise as I did on mine. The things that didnt go as expected were easily worked around, and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it.
On our way home. Why am I smiling?
Happy Cruising!
DBinMV
We get to Lumieres at 7AM and load up on breakfast eggs, bacon, Mickey waffles, you name it. Its a little weird on the last day youre kind of tired, you can tell the crew is already starting to prepare for the next group of passengers that will start boarding in a few hours, but youre still there.
One item of note our friends never got their autographed pillow cases. Disney gave each child a stuffed Captain Mickey, but they managed to lose both pillow cases and a set of rainbow sharpies. Meanwhile, our pillow cases were waiting in our stateroom Friday night. Im not really sure what happened here, but I guess it DOES happen.
We say our final good-byes to our serving team, and go hang out in the Promenade Lounge waiting for the line to get off the ship to shorten a bit. The Lounge has CNN on, and again, its a little weird getting caught up on recent events after having a week to disconnect from reality. Its necessary, but still not all that fun.
Its trivial to find our bags and get through Customs, but then the vacation ends abruptly. We were told in the disembarking presentation on Friday that we would be able to check our bags and get our boarding passes outside the Disney terminal if we were using the Disney shuttle service to the airport. This turns out NOT to be the case, for us. The representative from American Airlines says that were not on their list of randomly selected people. It doesnt seem to matter if you book your flights through Disney or not, and I had entered our flight information on DCLs web site weeks before our cruise.
Oh well, well just have to check our bags at the airport, but that also means lugging them around.
On to the flight remember when I said that the Starbucks breakfast was the second-worst of our vacation? You had to know that the worst one was going to be airline food, and American didnt disappoint. Not only does American charge you $5 for a snack pack without offering so much as a bag of pretzels, the snack pack wasnt even as good as the one we got on Delta for free! All in all, comparing the American flight from MCO to LAX to the Delta flight from LAX to MCO, the American flight just sucked. The seats felt like they had less legroom, there were no individual screens, and the movie that they showed (Shadows in the Sun) was pretty awful.
So to recap our trip:
Not to be missed: Palo, the Spa (realllaxxxx..), Checchoben, Castaway Cay Eco-tour, Pirate Night, Disney Dreams, and the Dessert Buffet. If you happen to see Mario, Lisa, Nadege (servers) or Brian (stateroom host), tell em that some guy named Dave said that they were incredible. The Club/Lab can be a real treat for the kids and for you, but be sure to prepare your kids ahead of time so they know what to expect. Also, if your child needs more structure, start them in the Club when there is a structured activity. If s/he just like to run around, start them in the Club when there is free time. I think the first experience for the child is the key.
Fun, but $$$: Castaway Cay parasailing.
Be careful with: Frozen doughnuts, the Topsiders taco bar (chili for meat, stale taco shells), Costa Maya shopping.
Disappointments: Our friends not getting their pillowcases, not being able to check our bags at the Terminal, American Airlines.
Anyway, if you're still reading, I hope you have as much fun on your Disney cruise as I did on mine. The things that didnt go as expected were easily worked around, and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it.
On our way home. Why am I smiling?
Happy Cruising!
DBinMV
