A WONDERful first Disney cruise - San Juan to New Orleans - updates x 3 including wrap up - 11/15!!!

[DisneyParkLover]

We did the open bar once on a cruise. It was a blast. What is the "chocolate" drink in your photo? Look yummy!

I believe it’s a mudslide. Definitely was delicious. We had a great time at our open bar. Lots of fun. Next time I would try not to do it right before formal night, though.

Aww, so much fun! The last pic of Annie in the porthole is great!

As kids, we visited our grandparents in New Orleans every summer and would go to Audubon Park. That hill was funny to us—created so that the children of New Orleans would know what a hill was! As our upstate New York home was on a hill, we couldn’t imagine not knowing a hill. Of course our dad also had to explain to us that he hadn’t seen snow until he was about 10, so it was even crazier that we not only had a hill but we could also sled on it in the winter.

Thanks for your report!

Thank you! Being from Alabama we almost never see snow either. . We do have plenty of hills, though!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Day 9 - More New Orleans Fun!

We didn’t rush to get up the next morning. We took our time getting up and getting ready. Once everyone was ready to go, we walked a few blocks down to the trolley stop.



The kids were excited to be on a traditional New Orleans trolley.



We took the trolley down to the French Quarter. Here’s another photo of our beautiful trolley...



We stopped for a quick photo by the fountain...



before heading to our intended destination- Cafe du Monde. We had our sights set on what I consider a mandatory treat when you are in New Orleans - beignets!







Needless to say, we all really enjoyed these and they got devoured. After our snack, we headed across the street to Jackson Square and looked around.







I’ve hit my photo limit, so I’ll add more in the next post!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Day 9 - More New Orleans Fun (part 2)

We took a few photos in Jackson Square.







Then we decided to pay for a horse/mule drawn carriage ride around the city. This one isn’t ours, but I like this photo.



I thought Annie in particular would enjoy this because she absolutely loves horses. But unfortunately, she threw a fit because she saw an outfit in a shop on Bourbon Street that I wouldn’t let her have (it was a leotard with a tulle skirt, but the leotard has a screen printed design of a topless woman). Here is the outfit...



And a close up in case you can’t see it...





So Annie spent the majority of the ride complaining and crying that she couldn’t have the “beautiful dress”. And being the one who was riding next to her, I didn’t get to hear the majority of what our guide said. . Oh well. At least everyone else seemed to have a good ride.

I’ll add some more carriage ride photos in the next post.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Day 9 - More New Orleans Fun - Carriage Ride

Here’s some photos from our carriage ride. No text you go along with them, since I couldn’t hear the guide, but definitely some beautiful scenery!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Day 9 - An Afternoon at the Park

After our carriage ride, we walked down to view the Joan of Arc statue.





Next we made a stop by this famous New Orleans place...



If you are familiar with Central Grocery, you probably know that we were buying these beauties...



Muffalettas...a classic New Orleans treat and absolutely delicious! And Central Grocery is known for having some of the best (if not THE best).

We also grabbed some unusual soda flavors from a nearby shop called Rocket Fizz (I thought they were all pretty gross...I stuck with a traditional grapefruit soda). They had pickle flavored, bubble gum flavored, bacon flavored, and so many more. Definitely a cool place. They also had a wall of bulk candy by the pound that the kids enjoyed. I forgot to take photos, so I borrowed this one from the internet...



After lunch, we rode the trolley back to the AirBNB for a rest. We got back around 1 and rested until about 4. Then we decided to check out City Park.







The kids wanted to check out Storyland, but by the time we parked and walked over there it was around 4:45 and they closed at 5. We thought we’d still have a few minutes to look around, but they had already stopped letting people in. So it is worth noting if you want to visit that they stop letting people in at least half an hour before closing.

Instead, we let the kids run off some energy at two of the playgrounds scattered around the park. But their favorite activity was climbing the trees around the park.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Day 9 - More City Park and a Final Dinner in New Orleans

A few more photos of the kids enjoying the trees at City Park.













City Park was really beautiful and there were so many things to do. I would highly recommend it, especially if you are traveling with kids.

After our time at the park, we went in search of dinner. I had read some good reviews of Liuzza’s by the Track and it was nearby, so we headed there. We lucked upon a spot right out front, but there is very limited street parking for this restaurant. This place is tiny inside and not exactly fine dining, but everything we ordered was so good!.

James and I split a bowl of gumbo, a shrimp poboy, and the BBQ shrimp poboy (the signature dish). I think the kids shared a kids’ shrimp platter.




Everything was delicious - would definitely come back here! After dinner, my parents wanted us to drop them off near Bourbon Street so they could check out another parade. Since it was getting late and this parade wasn’t as “family friendly”, James and I went back to the AirBNB with the kids. This was a good choice - my parents had a good time, but said a lot of the parade was “phallic” themed and lots of very drunk and rowdy people on Bourbon Street.

Eventually, they made their way back and we all went to bed so we could head home the next morning.


The drive home was uneventful and with that we were at the end of our trip.

I will plan to do one more “wrap up” post with things we learned, what we would/wouldn’t do again.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Our First Disney Cruise Wrap-Up!

So this post will be a wrap up of our thoughts, what we learned, what we would do the same/differently.

First off I will say that we had a fantastic first Disney cruise! The whole trip was wonderful. So don’t think that just because I may complain about something means I was unhappy. It just helps me to know what did/didn’t work well for others, so I’ll like to have full transparency in case it helps others. So here goes:

The bad/would not do again:

• Being too high strung. I was worried about making this trip “perfect”, which actually had the opposite effect a lot of times. Because Disney is such a pricey vacation, there is a lot of pressure to make the most of it. Especially with not knowing whether we’d be going on another Disney cruise, I really wanted to try do everything. And I think this sometimes made the cruise feel “overplanned”. I think if/when go on another Disney cruise, there will be less stress about trying to fit it all in.
• The whole open bar/formal night issue. Would definitely not plan an open bar immediately before formal night again (or if I did, I would limit myself to just a few drinks ).
• I would probably not book Shutters Portrait Studio again. The pictures were BEAUTIFUL and the quality was great. It’s just too high of a cost for me. Since I scrapbook, I like to have the rights to all my photos which would have been cost prohibitive for me. On my next cruise, I would be aware that the Shutters Portrait Studio is NOT included with the regular Shutters photo packages. So I would focus on getting photos taken by some of the other ship photographers on formal night.
• Late drive/early flight. Our late arrival to New Orleans coupled with the super early flight was just too much for the kids. We wanted to maximize our time in San Juan while minimizing missed school/work. But it just didn’t work well for us. I would definitely plan this differently.
• Honestly, the biggest challenge of the whole trip was just the age/attitude of our youngest. This isn’t really something that could be helped (or predicted, considering we booked this cruise over a year in advance back when she was easier ). And it really wasn’t that big of a problem, but she was just in that threenager phase where if she had her heart set on something and didn’t get her way, there was going to be a meltdown. I’m happy to say that now at 4 this phase seems to be mostly over. Thank goodness!

The good/ would consider doing again:

• Palo brunch. The food was excellent and I enjoyed our brunch here. However, I found the majority of the included food on the ship to be very good. So for $100 for the two of us after tip, I’m not sure it is an every trip thing for us. But I’m very glad we got a chance to try it.
• Cruising with Disney. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved Disney Cruise Line and there are several areas where I feel they really excel. I could spend a long time going into a comparison of Disney vs. other cruise lines we have sailed. But the bottom line is that we have enjoyed every cruise we have taken. I am not one of the people that feels that Disney spoiled me for any other line. I do feel Disney is the best for cruising with young kids. But the cost difference is significant. So that is worth taking into consideration. If I could get another great deal like I did with this cruise, I would LOVE to sail with Disney again. But I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise with another line either.
• A 5 day cruise. I think this length of cruise was perfect for our first Disney cruise. I think anything less would have been too short. Having 3 sea days was great to get to explore the ship. And I would definitely do another 5 day if the price is right, but I would love to do a longer cruise for our next one.
• A mostly sea days cruise. I loved having a lot of sea days for our first cruise, but I also love exploring a lot of ports. So I would be open to either type of itinerary.

The great/ would definitely do again:

• Puerto Rico. We loved our time in Puerto Rico. Such a beautiful island with such amazing people and culture. I am glad we chose to rent a vehicle here as it gave us the chance to explore more of the island - including the rainforest and the bioluminescent bay which were highlights for me. I would love to have even longer in Puerto Rico.
• Castaway Cay - this was unanimously the favorite part of the cruise for our entire group. Just an absolutely perfect day. Would love to come back here on a future cruise.
• New Orleans - even if it wasn’t for the fact that this is a driveable port for us (making the cost savings substantial), I would still want to come back and explore more of New Orleans. A lot of culture and fun, eclectic people. Plus the food!
• Early dining. This worked well for our young kids and lined up better with their regular schedule. It wouldn’t be a deal breaker if I couldn’t get it, but I will definitely choose it if it’s available.
• Join my cruise FB group. I loved being able to get to know some of our fellow travelers before the trip and I felt it really added to the excitement. Plus, it allowed us to meet the lovely ladies who invited us to join them for Palo brunch!
• Join a fish extender group. This was a lot of work and took up a lot of suitcase room. But the kids absolutely loved it! Delivering gifts and coming back to our room to find gifts and treats was really a highlight for them. So I’d definitely do it again.

And that covers everything I can think of right now. Thank you to everyone who has followed along. For those wondering, we did book a placeholder and are now booked to do a 7 day out of New Orleans in February 2021. Hoping it actually happens!