April 1 2010 cruise meet

[mmmears]

One more question (if you all don't mind)... Deb said she loves answering questions, but maybe I'm asking too many!

I saw on the Navigator that there is a casual, sit-down dinner offered at Beach Blanket Buffet. Has anyone done this? Can you tell me what they serve and if it's good?

We chose late seating for dinner because we think it will be quieter then, but I'm looking at this in case we're too hungry to eat that late.

 

[Deb T.]

One more question (if you all don't mind)... Deb said she loves answering questions, but maybe I'm asking too many!

I saw on the Navigator that there is a casual, sit-down dinner offered at Beach Blanket Buffet. Has anyone done this? Can you tell me what they serve and if it's good?

We chose late seating for dinner because we think it will be quieter then, but I'm looking at this in case we're too hungry to eat that late.

I really do love, love, love answering questions, especially about anything Disney! And, it helps to pass the time until we're finally on our cruise!!

We've never eaten dinner at BBB (or Topsiders on the Magic) for several reasons, but I hear that the food is good. We may actually try it on the formal and two semi-formal nights on our Baltic cruise this summer just so we don't have to take up valuable space in our carry-on luggage for dressy clothes.

So, back to the real reasons why we've never skipped the regular dining rotation and why you probably shouldn't either, especially on the 3-night. First and foremost, each dining room has a "show"! Of course, Animator's Palette is a "do not miss"! The other two dining rooms also have a brief "show" that is part of the dining experience. Another reason is the meal experience itself - the food is good, and you can try anything and everything! Can't decide between two entrees? Order both! All the desserts sound yummy? Order a sampler of all of them! One last reason, and it's really hard to explain this, but we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know our waitstaff and are always sad to leave them at the end of each cruise. They rotate through the restaurants with you every night, and it's amazing how attentive they are to your preferences. For example, let's say your DD loves Shirley Temples and is excited about ordering one on the first night... more than likely, a Shirley Temple will already be waiting for her at your table the second night, and the third night! Overall, we find that dinner in the dining rooms is a very relaxed, enjoyable experience every night!

If your tummy starts rumbling earlier, you can always pick up an "appetizer" of pizza, chicken fingers, hamburger, hot dog, tacos, panini, salad, fruit, etc., from the three snack places on Deck 9 (Pinocchio's Pizzeria, Pluto's Dog House, or Goofy's Galley) or from room service (almost everything on the menu is free, too, except for sodas and snacky things like popcorn) to tide you over until late dining. Take my word for it, there's no shortage of good food onboard a Disney Cruise!!!

 

[mmmears]

Thanks, Deb, again! We aren't "planning" a dinner at BBB, but with our tendency towards seasickness I'm finding other options if there ends up being just one or two of us wanting something to eat.

 

[Deb T.]

Thanks, Deb, again! We aren't "planning" a dinner at BBB, but with our tendency towards seasickness I'm finding other options if there ends up being just one or two of us wanting something to eat.

Here's pixie dust to chase away any potential seasickness.

 

[Panther]

I just dug up all my past Navigators to answer your question. (Yes, I'm a sentimental pack rat!) Last year, they had an 8am Easter Mass in the Walt Disney Theater. They also offered a 7am Easter Sunrise Interdenominational Service at the Goofy Pool Stage. "Father John" officiated both services. However, two years ago DCL did not offer any Easter services. So, we can only hope for the best this year. (As usual, I feel I need to issue a disclaimer that Disney always reserves the right to change activities without notice.)

Thanks for the information. I'll hope for the best, but have a backup plan.

 

[Deb T.]

Doin' the Document Dance!

 

[mmmears]

Doin' the Document Dance!

Lucky!!! We used a TA, so I think it's all going to take much longer to get to us.

 

[Aye-Landers]

We received our cabin # 6636 for the FE. Looking forward to the cruise !!

Ron , beth and emily

 

[Deb T.]

We received our cabin # 6636 for the FE. Looking forward to the cruise !!

Ron , beth and emily

Congratulations on getting your cabin assignment! I'll post the updated FE list now!

 

[Deb T.]

Ahoy Sailors! Everyone has a cabin assignment now, so here is the latest updated list!

FISH EXTENDER GIFT EXCHANGE:
Cabin 2104 – Mozart: Kevin & Holli, nephew Jake (6), niece Chloe (5)
Cabin 2105 – Mouseskis: Kristi & Brian, Matthew (7), Andrew (4)
Cabin 2512 – TDWZ: Trisha & Kurt, Adam (11), Hailey (9)
Cabin 2586 – MNBrooke: Charlie & Joni, Brooke (7 on April 2nd)
Cabin 2580 – Deweysgirl’s parents: Betty Sue & Austin (celebrating 38th anniversary on 4/1)
Cabin 2582 – Deweysgirl: Liz & Dewey, Tabby (15), Brianna (turning 12 on the cruise!)
Cabin 2592 – CarolinaBlue: Karen & Steve, Kelley (19), Caroline (almost 16)
Cabin 5024 – Kdlong: Kari & Russell, Bryson (7), Austin (5)
Cabin 6051 – Isi: Isabel & Jose, Bryan (8), Brianna (8)
Cabin 6566 – Deb T.: Deb & Jeff
Cabin 6636 – Aye-Landers: Ron & Beth, Emily (13)
Cabin 7123 – eastonsmom: Melissa and Easton (6)
Cabin 7127 – Bobo_UK: Deano & Katie, Jessica (5)
Cabin 7562 – mmmears: Michelle & Hans, Danielle (12)
Cabin 8530 – ppiew: Gert & Jack, Lori & Rob, Sophia (13), Olivia (8), (Gert is celebrating her April 1st birthday onboard!)

Anyone else want to join in on the fun?

 

[ppiew]

Boy, this has GOT to be some sort of record for FE's on a 3 day! It must all be due to you Deb T. You have us all cranked up! See you in 36 days! Sure hope we get to the port early!

 

[Deweysgirl]

Got our DOCS!!!

 

[Deb T.]

It’s Thursday late afternoon five weeks from today, and those of you with Main Dining are getting ready to head to your first dinner rotation restaurant! Which will it be? Animator’s Palette? Parrot Cay? Triton’s? Our table number, dinner time, and dining rotation are printed on tickets that we found in our staterooms just a few hours ago. One really nice thing about dinners onboard a Disney Cruise is that there’s no need to arrive at our assigned restaurant early. Seating will not begin before the published time (typically 5:45pm for Main Dining and 8:15pm for late dining) and we each have our very own reserved table! Seating occurs amazingly fast because all the head servers and most of the servers are lined up and ready to escort us all to our assigned tables! There’s no “checking in at the podium” or beepers to contend with, just hold up our little ticket with our table number and off we go! (After tonight, we don’t even need to take the ticket as long as we can remember our table number!) We will meet our server and assistant server who will travel from restaurant to restaurant with us each night. If you are new to DCL, you can't yet even imagine how much you will come to love your servers in these three short nights... and how much you will miss their pampering once you return home. We’ll also get to know our tablemates while looking over the dinner menu and ordering scrumptious appetizers! Remember, if you can't decide between two entrees (or appetizers, or salad/soups, or desserts), it's perfectly all right to order them all!!!

Those of us with late dining will be getting ready to go to The Golden Mickeys stage show that begins at 6:15pm. However, we’ll plan to arrive at the Walt Disney Theatre early so we can get a good seat and also so we can watch the “Red Carpet” interviews that begin at 6:00pm! A live camera will be set up outside the theater doors and an emcee will be on hand to “interview” children as they enter the theater. The entire unscripted pre-show is shown on the huge screen inside the theater and often the children’s responses are hilarious!

The whole process is repeated a little later when the recently-stuffed-to-the-gills main diners waddle their way to the Walt Disney Theatre in time for the Red Carpet interviews at 8:15pm while those of us with late dining head to our designated dinner rotation restaurant for our 8:15 seating.

The kids’ clubs are finally open for children to be checked-in now that tours and family time are over. This is good news to the kids who have been patiently waiting for their fun to begin and particularly good news for the parents who are ready to jettison their children for some fun of their own! If you’ve never watched “Match Your Mate” (around 10:15pm in Wavebands, Deck 3 Forward), I highly recommend it! It’s basically an uncensored version of The Newlywed Game with three couples chosen from the audience - most recently married, married the longest, and then any outgoing couple. Most of the time, the older couple is not only the funniest, but also the winner!

More of Thursday to follow at the 4-week mark… (Yes! There’s more!!)

 

[Deb T.]

It’s Friday evening on board The Wonder, and just 5 short weeks from today we will be getting ready for our second night on this big, beautiful ship! Excitement is building with anticipation of Pirate Night! Arrrrrgh! Did you bring some pirate garb to wear? Maybe an eye patch or bandanna? Pirate t-shirt or head-to-toe authentic outfit? Doesn’t really matter, because we’ll all have fun no matter what!

Those with Main Dining will head to restaurant #2 on their dining rotation. What was that table number?? Some servers will greet you by name as you enter the dining room! How in the world do they remember us when their guests change every 3-4 nights?!? We, in turn, greet our tablemates, asking how their day was and comparing notes. We’ll also notice that our servers wear different outfits for each restaurant, reminding us that everything Disney does is a “show” and the entire crew is part of the “cast”.

The rest of us will soon be entering the Walt Disney Theatre for the 6:00pm stage show production of Toy Story the Musical. (I’ve seen it twice and loved it both times!) But first, maybe we’ll stop by Pluto’s Dog House and pick up some piping hot french fries to tide us over until dinner… or better yet, get some ice-cream! However, we are mindful that not only is a big dinner in our near future, but also we need to save enough room in our tummies for the Pirate Dessert Buffet after the show!

Nassau’s all-aboard time is 7:00 p.m. Will everyone make it back on board? We’ll know some guests are AWOL if we start hearing names being paged over the intercom! As the ship pulls away from the dock, (hopefully with everyone aboard), keep an eye out for the Pilot Boat. It’s small and has a very thick black rubber bumper all the way around it. Once we’ve cleared the channel and are heading out to sea, watch as the pilot boat speeds closer and closer to one side of the front of the ship, careful to match our speed. When it gets within inches of The Wonder, you’ll see a person jump (yes, JUMP!) from below on our ship onto the Pilot Boat! You have to watch carefully… blink and you’ll miss it! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys, was the Nassau Port Pilot who’s job is to help guide large ships safely out to sea without a Titanic mishap along the way.

Before long, it’s time for the switch again, as the Main diners head for the 8:15pm Toy Story the Musical show and the rest of us head to our dinner. There’s always plenty of eating and entertainment on board… two of my very favorite things to do… and there’s even more to come tonight!!! Woohoo!

More of Friday to continue at the 4-week mark….

 

[Deb T.]

It’s Saturday, and five weeks from today we are getting ready for our last evening on the ship. We’ve showered all the sand from Castaway Cay off of us, and most of us are dressed in “cruise casual” for dinner tonight, comfortably dressed after a long day in the surf and sun. It is also an “optional dress-up” night, so some will be all decked out in fancy clothing, planning to have formal family portraits made by the cruise’s photographers. (Every evening around dinnertime, cruise photographers can be found in the atrium with a variety of backdrops. Oh, and characters are in the atrium each night for photos and autographs, too!)

Main diners are headed to the last restaurant in their rotation, now with their table number ingrained in their brain. We’ll greet our servers and tablemates by name tonight, having become familiar with them over the last two nights. We’ll also realize that we saw many of the servers working hard at Cookies BBQ today - - do they ever get a day off? (The answer is rarely – I’ve heard that all DCL crew work 70+ hours each week.) As we look around, we notice a few guests didn’t apply enough sunscreen during the day – ouch! At the end of dinner, we'll hand out our little tip envelopes that DCL provided the night before at our turn-down service. Some will exchange email addresses with our tablemates, planning to keep in touch.* We’ll say our goodbyes, but we will see them again in the morning for our quick breakfast before having to leave the ship.

Late diners are enjoying the 6:15 showing of the award-winning Disney Dreams in the Walt Disney Theatre. Some Dads may start out thinking this is the corniest show ever, but will soon be drawn into the story, enjoying it even more because they know their children have had the time of their lives on this wonderful vacation. One guest in particular is trying very hard to disguise the fact that she's gotten emotional near the finale. (There are three parts that get me EVERY time... and I've seen it 8 times!!!) It is truly a magical show with spectacular sets and backdrops.

Once again, we all flip-flop as the Main diners head to the theater and the late diners head to their final restaurant. The routine is easy, and we know we will soon miss it!

The rest of the evening will be very busy… more to come at the 4 week mark!

*I just wanted to add that we do still keep in contact with many cruisers we’ve met onboard the Disney ships! And, on our last two cruises, as well as on our next three cruises, we’ve already met at least one other family onboard before! For example, on this cruise, we’ve already sailed with ppiew and Isi! It is really fun to see familiar faces each time!

 

[Bullseyebaby]

Ahoy Sailors! Everyone has a cabin assignment now, so here is the latest updated list!

FISH EXTENDER GIFT EXCHANGE:
Cabin 2104 – Mozart: Kevin & Holli, nephew Jake (6), niece Chloe (5)
Cabin 2105 – Mouseskis: Kristi & Brian, Matthew (7), Andrew (4)
Cabin 2512 – TDWZ: Trisha & Kurt, Adam (11), Hailey (9)
Cabin 2586 – MNBrooke: Charlie & Joni, Brooke (7 on April 2nd)
Cabin 2580 – Deweysgirl’s parents: Betty Sue & Austin (celebrating 38th anniversary on 4/1)
Cabin 2582 – Deweysgirl: Liz & Dewey, Tabby (15), Brianna (turning 12 on the cruise!)
Cabin 2592 – CarolinaBlue: Karen & Steve, Kelley (19), Caroline (almost 16)
Cabin 5024 – Kdlong: Kari & Russell, Bryson (7), Austin (5)
Cabin 6051 – Isi: Isabel & Jose, Bryan (8), Brianna (8)
Cabin 6566 – Deb T.: Deb & Jeff
Cabin 6636 – Aye-Landers: Ron & Beth, Emily (13)
Cabin 7123 – eastonsmom: Melissa and Easton (6)
Cabin 7127 – Bobo_UK: Deano & Katie, Jessica (5)
Cabin 7562 – mmmears: Michelle & Hans, Danielle (12)
Cabin 8530 – ppiew: Gert & Jack, Lori & Rob, Sophia (13), Olivia (8), (Gert is celebrating her April 1st birthday onboard!)

Anyone else want to join in on the fun?

Hello Everyone.... Too late to join in the fun with the FE?
Cabin 8602 Janie & Dave, Riley (DS17) Sierra (DD 12 but almost 13)

 

[mmmears]

Hello Everyone.... Too late to join in the fun with the FE?
Cabin 8602 Janie & Dave, Riley (DS17) Sierra (DD 12 but almost 13)

Welcome! We've also got a CA girl who'll turn 13 right after our vacation!

 

[Bullseyebaby]

Welcome! We've also got a CA girl who'll turn 13 right after our vacation!

That's great! DD turns 13 on the 7th... so of course she already thinks of herself as a teenager! I know on past cruises she's always too shy to make friends, but we're hopeful she make new friends so I thought joining in the fun would be helpful.

What part of CA? So. or No. ? We are about an hour from Disneyland. Raining right now, so much for sunny so. cal!

 

[Deb T.]

Hello Everyone.... Too late to join in the fun with the FE?
Cabin 8602 Janie & Dave, Riley (DS17) Sierra (DD 12 but almost 13)

Welcome Aboard!

I'm thrilled to add you to our FE Exchange! Everyone has until March 20th to join in on the FE fun!

 

[Deb T.]

FISH EXTENDER GIFT EXCHANGE:
Cabin 2104 – Mozart: Kevin & Holli, nephew Jake (6), niece Chloe (5)
Cabin 2105 – Mouseskis: Kristi & Brian, Matthew (7), Andrew (4)
Cabin 2512 – TDWZ: Trisha & Kurt, Adam (11), Hailey (9)
Cabin 2580 – Deweysgirl’s parents: Betty Sue & Austin (celebrating 38th anniversary on 4/1)
Cabin 2582 – Deweysgirl: Liz & Dewey, Tabby (15), Brianna (turning 12 on the cruise!)
Cabin 2586 – MNBrooke: Charlie & Joni, Brooke (7 on April 2nd)
Cabin 2592 – CarolinaBlue: Karen & Steve, Kelley (19), Caroline (almost 16)
Cabin 5024 – Kdlong: Kari & Russell, Bryson (7), Austin (5)
Cabin 6051 – Isi: Isabel & Jose, Bryan (8), Brianna (8)
Cabin 6566 – Deb T.: Deb & Jeff
Cabin 6636 – Aye-Landers: Ron & Beth, Emily (13)
Cabin 7123 – eastonsmom: Melissa and Easton (6)
Cabin 7127 – Bobo_UK: Deano & Katie, Jessica (5)
Cabin 7562 – mmmears: Michelle & Hans, Danielle (12)
Cabin 8530 – ppiew: Gert (4/1 Birthday!) & Jack, Lori & Rob, Sophia (13), Olivia(8)
Cabin 8602 – Bullseyebaby: Janie & Dave, Riley (17), Sierra (almost 13)