MomOTwins
The Mommy Fairy
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
- Messages
- 8,688
Have started to reply to some other threads with some info from our latest cruise, but wanted to give a mini report as I've found that so helpful from all of you who have done the same:
Miami - Pre-cruise transfers and hotel
Miami - Pre-cruise transfers and hotel
- We flew into FLL a day before and took Larry's car service to Miami --the driver was very professional, car was clean and very nice, priced at $125 base fare plus tip for a 6-person SUV. Thank you everyone who recommended Larry's!
- We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Brickell the night before. It was a bit disappointing, and I would not stay there again. To start off with, on arrival, they downgraded us from a junior suite to a standard room in order to accommodate some higher status Hyatt member. The room itself looked pretty and modern, but the beds were hard and felt more like a double than a queen, cleanliness was only so-so, and water pressure in the shower was poor. The rooftop pool was smaller than it appeared in photos, with bay views obstructed by a large condo building, and food at the hotel restaurant was pretty bland. Next time we will either spring for a higher-end hotel or save money and book a budget one, but this one felt like the worst of both worlds--not cheap but not luxurious either.
- Communication leading up to the DCL bus transfer was a bit chaotic (welcome letter said 11am departure but turned out to be 10am, and in-room luggage pickup didn't happen so we brought our bags down ourselves) but I eventually found the disney rep in the lobby that morning and got the info we needed, plus the luggage tags that were never mailed to us. Once we got on the bus it was a very nice--there was only one other family so they sent a limousine instead of a bus which was a festive start to the cruise!
- We arrived at port bright and early at the port at 10:20am--and just our luck there was a coast guard inspection and we were stuck for an hour outside before anyone was let in the terminal. On the bright side, we ended up chatting with those around us while waiting and became "cruise friends" with a family near us with kids similar ages--spent most of the cruise together, cruise friends are the best!
- Embarkation test was antigen. They said 30 minutes for results but everyone seemed to get them in 15/20 mins. The tv screens were NOT working when we arrived so we had to check on our phones--so make sure you remember your Safe Passage login info!
- After boarding the ship, there was no atrium welcome show like we had in October, but Mickey was in the atrium waving. There was also no "orientation" session in Fathoms like I've heard others mention for recent cruises. We were just told to go do our muster station check in and then head to lunch. Interestingly, Cabanas was not at all crowded, but we walked by the the sit down option was overflowing with people--wonder if that was just a fluke but definitely the opposite of our prior experiences. Perhaps going to the muster stations first makes more people walk by the MDRs and decide to eat there.
- Shows in the WDW theater were Tangled, Juggling, Turning Red, Magician, and Dreams in that order. Excellent quality for the live shows--Tangled and Dreams are the best two shows I've seen on a Disney cruise (and that's saying something as most of the shows are excellent). We skipped turning red (have Disney+ at home) but saw everything else. We always arrived 20-30 minutes ahead and got front/center seats but we could have arrived much later and still have a decent seat--there was no distancing so seating was plentiful. Preludes was open and popcorn buckets (and popcorn) are back!
- No sail away party and pirate night was not the pre-Covid full show, but they had lots of pirate-y character meets, game shows, arts/crafts, and fireworks and a deck dance party that night as well a little sing-a-long in the MDR. We felt satisfied with the activity level. So much trivia, bingo, crafts, game shows, live music throughout the cruise with multiple events at the same time--much more than our cruise last October. Bingo prizes were still a bit disappointing. We won the final round of bingo one day and the prize was $99... other days it was $200-$300, but definitely smaller than what I remember from pre-Covid.
- I didn't catch all the movies showing in the Buena Vista theater, but the ones I saw were mostly Turning Red and Encanto, with a single showing of Zootopia, Frozen 2, and Dr. Strange and maybe a couple others. The Funnel vision seemed to have a much wider variety, and we spent a lot of time on deck watching funnel vision from the hot tub. LOVED the covered hot tubs on the Magic family pool deck to get out of the sun on bright days and out of the run when it was drizzly. Why on earth did they get rid of those on the Dream class?
- Spa was awesome: I went straight there after eating lunch on embarkation day and bought length of cruise rainforest passes ($159 for a couples pass; or we could have bought single day for $19 per person, before tips and taxes). Loved the flexibility of the pass to just duck in to chill after a tiring day at the beach or a quick visit while kids were in the club. We also did hot stone massages which were lovely as always.
- My kids loved the kids club and it was completely back to normal except that kids under 5 had to wear masks. There were also two open houses each day at every club, so my 10-year olds enjoyed checking out Edge and Vibe.
- One thing they REALLY need to fix is identifying which characters are meeting in the app. It always just said "character appearance" but never what the characters would be. The characters got long lines quick so you really needed to plan to be there right when the character arrived (or early) to meet, which was hard to motivate myself to do when you didn't know who it would be.
- We did pay the small fortune for the Princess tea for my youngest son who is a huge Rapunzel fan. He went dressed as Flynn Rider and had a great time. The food was a small delicious feast of tasty tea sandwiches and pastries, the toys were very good quality, and the the princesses spent a lot of time with each guest individually from 6 feet away talking to them and posing for pictures.
- Can't speak to excursions, we just enjoyed Castaway Cay and stayed on the ship at Nassau. I kept hearing about how Castaway would feel so much less crowded on the classic ships than the Dream class, but to be honest I felt like there was zero difference. Family beach felt very crowded, but we enjoyed it all the same. Similarly, the ship didn't really feel any smaller to me than the Dream or Fantasy--I guess because I always booked rooms right next to the midship elevators, so was never too far away from anything.
- Cabanas buffet is 100% back to normal with self-serve and pre-Covid food variety--both for lunch and breakfast. We loved it as it felt a lot more flexible--can duck into whatever station has the food you want, and have greater control over how much goes on the plate, but I know this is divisive. Cookies was also back to self-serve, as were drink stations. Only the ice cream was served by a person rather than self-serve, which I appreciated as the station used to get so messy with kids spilling ice cream and breaking cones. Much more tidy and orderly when run by the staff.
- We did palo brunch and the buffet was NOT back there, but you could ask for more of anything you want/order multiple dishes to try a variety, and the food quality was off the charts. Highlights were the lasagne and panna cotta.
- The MDR experience was a bit more of a mixed bag--some things were outstanding, and some were not good--e.g., tough/gristly steak, and creme brulee that was gritty/curdled. I mentioned the creme brulee to the head server when she asked about the meal, and immediately felt bad I did because she looked livid--my husband half joked that I got someone in the kitchen beheaded, and I felt so bad! But really it was terrible--basically scrambled egg. We did not share tables with other guests but the restaurants were packed and if you pulled out your chair it was touching the chair of the table next to you. I think this also resulted in more bad locations than normal because on two nights, we were wedged on a side wall behind a serving station in both Rapunzels and Lumieres and could not see the any part of the Rapunzel show which was a real disappointment.
- Our rotation was RRLLA. There were four nights with some kind of dinner entertainment: Rapunzel's birthday show, the Animator's show where you draw your own characters, a pirate sing a long with characters on pirate night, and a mickey and gang dance around the room/appear and wave on the last night.
- Early dining meant disembarkation day breakfast was wayyyy too early for us (6:45am) so we slept in and went to Cabanas instead at 8am. They had a more limited menu the last day (e.g., no eggs benedict) but Mickey Waffles were there so I was happy.
- I hate to say it, but service was a bit of a letdown this trip. I blame the higher attendance on our cruise (about 1700 the cruise director said), as it often felt the staff could not keep up. In the MDR, drinks were not refilled, we had a couple wrong/missing food orders, no magic tricks, puzzles or other little disney touches like an extra dessert brought as a surprise or a bowl of cherries. Our stateroom TV was not working, and we had to ask three times over three days before they sent someone to fix it. Just not what we are used to with Disney Cruise Line. I really hope they bring back shared tables after this cruise--I always liked them before as I am a pretty social person, but now I really understand how necessary they are for table spacing and making the service manageable for the staff. First-world problems I know, overall I can't complain as the service was mostly good, just a few uncharacteristic errors that were not a big deal.
And hopefully they get that iceberg changed before September in case we get same room 
