It's Magical Blog
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 30, 2015
Meet the Galvani Family
When my husband Darren and I started planning a vacation to celebrate our ten year anniversary we decided to bring our two kids along, Jack age 6 and Ben age 3. We both work full time (plus) and wanted to have the opportunity to spend more times with the boys. I knew I wanted to find something that incorporated child care that would be intriguing and engaging for the boys. Many vacations include some sort of babysitting or child care but I wanted something that the boys wouldn't be able to refuse, thus ensuring we would have the right mix of couple time and family time. It came down to a cruise or a Beaches Resort. I have been on two cruises - one was on the Big Red Boat (this use to be affiliated with Disney before they had their own line of fleet) back when I was about 13 and one was a last minute fill-in trip with a friend and her grandmother when I was around 19. My husband had never cruised before and was interested in trying out something different, so cruise it was. I later came to find out that my husband choose a cruise because he thought it would alleviate flying and we would sail right out of New York. He hates to fly. Whoops.
Now I love Disney and think they offer the best family vacations but I promised I would be open-minded here and explore different lines and different ships. I ended up coming down to Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore Maryland, the Norwegian Breakaway out of NYC, the Celebrity Summit out of NJ, or the Disney Fantasy out of FL. After doing tons of research (because that's just me) I went with DCL, not only because it's Disney and it had the most amazing reviews, but mostly because it was the only one of the cruise lines where Jack and Ben would get to be in the same kids club. I knew this would be important to make sure we would get to spend that adults only time. Oh yeah and it's Disney.
So in late September I booked the trip and a few weeks after the airfare. I always know once I book the airfare it is official! I broke the new to my husband that we were still flying to Florida. I don't think he was really surprised I picked Disney. It was really happening. We were going on a Disney Cruise. Not it was off to planning and waiting 228 days.
Disney Fantasy 2016: Sunshine State Here We Come
I had decided to fly in the night prior to our cruise. Since our cruise all aboard time was 3:30 I didn't want to take any chances or have any crazy airport meltdowns. So we booked a flight leaving New York's JFK for 6:00pm on Friday that arrived in Orlando's MCO just before 9:00pm. I had taken the day off work figuring I'd have a lot of last minute packaging and preparing to do. Also since I work in NYC I would have had to have taken half a day regardless. I sent the kids off in the morning to their normal Friday routines (Kindergarten for my older guy and Grandmas for my youngest) and took care of some business and finished some last minute packing. I actually had mostly everything done. I had the kids all packed and zipped out the weekend prior. I had my stuff and carry on items laid out and had packed most of it the night before. I just added some last minute items. I then went to take care of routine doctors appointment I hadn't found time to fit in and went to get a pedicure. Of course, the toes needed to look good. I came home, did some last minute tidying up around the house, and actually sat and relaxed for a little bit. At around 2 I picked up my youngest from Grandmas and then my oldest early from school. We came back home just has my husband Darren got home from work, loaded up the car, and we were off to the airport.
Now I had used points to book 2 of our flights through Jet Blue but I had to wait and book my husbands a week or so after the rest of our since I was waiting for more points to accumulate. I ended up with three separate confirmations - one for me and Ben, one for Jack, and one for Darren. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't check us all in online. Since Jack was a minor and was on a reservation with no one over the age of 18 he had to check in at the desk itself. I had received a few emails and had been hearing a lot about TSA delays and since traffic wasn't great I started to get a little concerned about the time. We finally got the airport just about 4:15, less than 2 hours before our flight. We had to trek our luggage through the jet blue terminal to find the actual check-in counter and wait on a fairly long line. I started to get pretty anxious. After about 30 minutes or so we had our tickets and our luggage was checked in. Feeling quite lighter (happy to get rid of the four suitcases) we made our way over to security. Thankfully security wasn't bad at all. It actually took less time to get through security then it did to check-in. We made our way to the terminal with about 20 minutes to kill before boarding. It gave us enough time to get some snacks for the flight and all use the restroom.
The flight itself was fine. We were on one of the newer Jet Blue planes which is really nice. The interior is sleek and has a nice modern feel. Also the seats were comfy, the TVs were much larger and included lots more stations. We found Disney Jr. and the kids were pretty set for the rest of the flight. I sat next to Ben and Darren and Jack sat behind us. Both kids were really good but Ben pretty much didn't stop talking during the whole flight. He must have been excited too.
When deciding where to stay the night before the cruise I researched two different options. Either renting a limo to take us to an hotel near the port or staying right in the airport at the Hyatt MCO. Since we weren't getting into until pretty late and I figured getting a good night's sleep would be good, I decided to book the Hyatt for convenience and knowing that even though we didn't land till nearly 9 we could be in our beds shortly after.
I booked the Hyatt back in November but in April I happened to be checking out the reservation and trying to remind myself of the room rate when I realized the rate had dropped nearly $150. I cancelled the original reservation and rebooked at the new rate and even upgraded to a runway view. After quickly retrieving our luggage from the carousel we followed signs to the Hyatt. Check-in was easy and the gentleman quickly explained how their luggage program with DCL (disney cruise line) worked. See next post for more details... We got up to the room, took a few minutes to check out the balcony and view of the runway. We actually had more of a view of the roof top pool which the kids starting begging to go in. I told them it was closed already for the night. Not sure if that was true or not but there was no way we were going swimming at that point. We put on the TV, pretty limited choices and pretty quickly all dosed off and got our beauty sleep for tomorrow's big day.
When my husband Darren and I started planning a vacation to celebrate our ten year anniversary we decided to bring our two kids along, Jack age 6 and Ben age 3. We both work full time (plus) and wanted to have the opportunity to spend more times with the boys. I knew I wanted to find something that incorporated child care that would be intriguing and engaging for the boys. Many vacations include some sort of babysitting or child care but I wanted something that the boys wouldn't be able to refuse, thus ensuring we would have the right mix of couple time and family time. It came down to a cruise or a Beaches Resort. I have been on two cruises - one was on the Big Red Boat (this use to be affiliated with Disney before they had their own line of fleet) back when I was about 13 and one was a last minute fill-in trip with a friend and her grandmother when I was around 19. My husband had never cruised before and was interested in trying out something different, so cruise it was. I later came to find out that my husband choose a cruise because he thought it would alleviate flying and we would sail right out of New York. He hates to fly. Whoops.
Now I love Disney and think they offer the best family vacations but I promised I would be open-minded here and explore different lines and different ships. I ended up coming down to Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore Maryland, the Norwegian Breakaway out of NYC, the Celebrity Summit out of NJ, or the Disney Fantasy out of FL. After doing tons of research (because that's just me) I went with DCL, not only because it's Disney and it had the most amazing reviews, but mostly because it was the only one of the cruise lines where Jack and Ben would get to be in the same kids club. I knew this would be important to make sure we would get to spend that adults only time. Oh yeah and it's Disney.
So in late September I booked the trip and a few weeks after the airfare. I always know once I book the airfare it is official! I broke the new to my husband that we were still flying to Florida. I don't think he was really surprised I picked Disney. It was really happening. We were going on a Disney Cruise. Not it was off to planning and waiting 228 days.
Disney Fantasy 2016: Sunshine State Here We Come
I had decided to fly in the night prior to our cruise. Since our cruise all aboard time was 3:30 I didn't want to take any chances or have any crazy airport meltdowns. So we booked a flight leaving New York's JFK for 6:00pm on Friday that arrived in Orlando's MCO just before 9:00pm. I had taken the day off work figuring I'd have a lot of last minute packaging and preparing to do. Also since I work in NYC I would have had to have taken half a day regardless. I sent the kids off in the morning to their normal Friday routines (Kindergarten for my older guy and Grandmas for my youngest) and took care of some business and finished some last minute packing. I actually had mostly everything done. I had the kids all packed and zipped out the weekend prior. I had my stuff and carry on items laid out and had packed most of it the night before. I just added some last minute items. I then went to take care of routine doctors appointment I hadn't found time to fit in and went to get a pedicure. Of course, the toes needed to look good. I came home, did some last minute tidying up around the house, and actually sat and relaxed for a little bit. At around 2 I picked up my youngest from Grandmas and then my oldest early from school. We came back home just has my husband Darren got home from work, loaded up the car, and we were off to the airport.
Now I had used points to book 2 of our flights through Jet Blue but I had to wait and book my husbands a week or so after the rest of our since I was waiting for more points to accumulate. I ended up with three separate confirmations - one for me and Ben, one for Jack, and one for Darren. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't check us all in online. Since Jack was a minor and was on a reservation with no one over the age of 18 he had to check in at the desk itself. I had received a few emails and had been hearing a lot about TSA delays and since traffic wasn't great I started to get a little concerned about the time. We finally got the airport just about 4:15, less than 2 hours before our flight. We had to trek our luggage through the jet blue terminal to find the actual check-in counter and wait on a fairly long line. I started to get pretty anxious. After about 30 minutes or so we had our tickets and our luggage was checked in. Feeling quite lighter (happy to get rid of the four suitcases) we made our way over to security. Thankfully security wasn't bad at all. It actually took less time to get through security then it did to check-in. We made our way to the terminal with about 20 minutes to kill before boarding. It gave us enough time to get some snacks for the flight and all use the restroom.
The flight itself was fine. We were on one of the newer Jet Blue planes which is really nice. The interior is sleek and has a nice modern feel. Also the seats were comfy, the TVs were much larger and included lots more stations. We found Disney Jr. and the kids were pretty set for the rest of the flight. I sat next to Ben and Darren and Jack sat behind us. Both kids were really good but Ben pretty much didn't stop talking during the whole flight. He must have been excited too.
When deciding where to stay the night before the cruise I researched two different options. Either renting a limo to take us to an hotel near the port or staying right in the airport at the Hyatt MCO. Since we weren't getting into until pretty late and I figured getting a good night's sleep would be good, I decided to book the Hyatt for convenience and knowing that even though we didn't land till nearly 9 we could be in our beds shortly after.
I booked the Hyatt back in November but in April I happened to be checking out the reservation and trying to remind myself of the room rate when I realized the rate had dropped nearly $150. I cancelled the original reservation and rebooked at the new rate and even upgraded to a runway view. After quickly retrieving our luggage from the carousel we followed signs to the Hyatt. Check-in was easy and the gentleman quickly explained how their luggage program with DCL (disney cruise line) worked. See next post for more details... We got up to the room, took a few minutes to check out the balcony and view of the runway. We actually had more of a view of the roof top pool which the kids starting begging to go in. I told them it was closed already for the night. Not sure if that was true or not but there was no way we were going swimming at that point. We put on the TV, pretty limited choices and pretty quickly all dosed off and got our beauty sleep for tomorrow's big day.
. Darren order the Piquent Dover Sole which was filleted table side. I’m not sure if it is not order very often but Alexa had a really hard time filleting it table side. Now my husband’s family is in the fish market business and he used to work with them for many years so he know about filleting fish. He said Alexa wasn’t doing anything wrong but it was just a stubborn fish and she couldn’t seem to remove it from the bones. It was a little awkward and you could tell she was embarrassed about the situation. We kept trying to tell her not to worry and lighten the mood with some light jokes but it would have been a much better situation if it had just been prepared back in the kitchen. Also my food sat now on the table and I couldn’t help but thinking it was getting cold while we were waiting. Anyways, once it was done and we could dive in cold or not everything was delicious!!! Darren said he enjoyed his fish and even though it was a little butchered from the massacred filleting it was very tasty and he was surprised how much he enjoyed the sauce with the capers. My filet was top notch. It was perfectly cooked and served with two different sauces – a wine sauce and a blue cheese sauce. Both were good but I definitely preferred the blue cheese sauce – yummy. The filet was served with pancetta potatoes and sautéed spinach and both were also very enjoyable. Now on to the lobster pappardelle. It was amazing. I am so glad we got a side of it. I’m not 100 percent if I had to order one again which I would choice, but I’d probably lean towards the pappardelle. The flavors were to die for and the huge chunks of lobster were terrific. Before we had been served dinner Alexa asked us if we liked chocolate and if so suggested we try their famous chocolate souffle which the chef would start preparing now if we were interested. Of course, I had read and heard all about the souffle so I answered for the both of us and said yes we will each have one. Alexa asked if we also liked amaretto and since we did she said she would bring something special for us as well. The chocolate souffle was served with vanilla ice cream and Alexa also brought us an amaretto souffle which they were currently testing to perhaps add to the menu. The chocolate souffle was heavenly and just has good as it had been described. It came with both a vanilla and chocolate sauce and you could pour as much or little as you wanted into the souffle. It was also served with a scoop of vanilla gelato which accompanied it perfectly. It really was outstanding, but about half way through I decided to try the amaretto and that was it I pushed the chocolate aside and finished that amazing ramekin of deliciousness. The amaretto souffle was so good. While I loved the chocolate I definitely preferred the amaretto. So so so good. At the end of the meal we were given a complimentary limoncello shot, which I believe consists of lemon sorbet, Prosecco, apply brandy and limoncello. It was a refreshing way to end an absolutely delightful meal. We left Alexa a generous tip and thank her very much for a wonderful evening. Here are my food ratings: antipasta plate (9/10), tomato mozzarella capresse (8/10), Palo filet (10/10), lobster pappardelle (10/10), chocolate souffle (10/10), amaretto souffle (12/10).
