I've been reading over the threads since we returned from our cruise, and I've found them to be really enlightening and incredibly entertaining! It's been especially interesting to read the trip reports of the guests that were on the ship at the same time we were. (I was falling asleep on a lounge chair right at the time the Magic and the RCCL ship were having their little "one upsmanship" when we were about to leave St. Thomas. After being jolted awake, I did feel a little swell of pride when we had the "last word".)
I'm 37, DH is 43, DD is 10 and DS is 8. DH and I cruised the Western Caribbean 6 years ago on Celebrity, and this is the first cruise with the kids. I would have to say that overall, we had a terrific time, but here are some things we would have done differently:
We won't take the DCL shuttle bus from Disney to Port Canaveral. It doesn't get there till 12:45, and contrary to the other reports I've read, the embarkation lines moved incredibly slowly. Part of the problem was a family in front of us that did not fill out any of their paperwork. Instead of being sent back to the tables (like you would be if you were on line at the DMV) they were allowed to spend 10 minutes at the counter filling out their little DCL booklets. By the time we got onboard, there were only a few Palo reservations left, and nothing at the spa. I was really looking forward to a manicure and a pedicure, since it's something I rarely do (sigh). Also, we were really rushed trying to eat at the buffet, locate the lifejackets, unpack in order to get the suitcases out of way, register the kids at the Lab, attend the drill, and make an appearance at the Bon Voyage Party. I imagine that alot of this intense stress could have been avoided if we had embarked with the smart folks at noon.
Pack less. We had alot more room than the Celebrity Cruise, being in a Deluxe stateroom with a verandah, Deck 8, forward. We were only 4 rooms away from the bridge, and it was really neat to see the captain guiding the ship into port each of the 3 days. The dress code was strictly adhered to on Celebrity, so I assumed the same for DCL, judging from the literature. Each one of us needed to bring a separate suitcase, which is twice what we usually need when we go to a warmer climate. I found that DS did not need to be in a collared shirt and chinos every single night - there were plenty of kids in shorts in the dining room! I found that we wore bathing suits more than anything else. Imagine the space I could have saved!
Bring meclazine. I did this 6 years ago, but the water was like glass and I didn't need it. That was in late June, late April is a totally different story. SeaBands and Dramamine did not cut it on Easter Sunday. We were all feeling pretty rough because we were hitting 12' swells that were a remnant of a tropical storm off the coast of Fla. For such a big ship, that doesn't seem too bad at all, but maybe being on Deck 8 made it seem worse. The trick to feeling better is to get out of the room, but that is really the last thing we wanted to do. For some reason, we didn't get a Personal Navigator Saturday night or Sunday morning, so we wound up missing Easter Mass. DD and I finally mustered up enough courage to emerge at 11:00 and headed up to the pool, but I still needed to eat something and walking through the buffet was the last thing I wanted to do. I managed to eat a green apple from Pluto's and eventually felt alot better. I found out later that that is a great remedy for seasickness. On the way back to the room to motivate DH and DS, I ran into the ship's doctor, who told me about the free Meclazine at guest services! And it's chewable too! That really made the difference for all of us. With SeaBands and 1/2 a pill, DH was back to his old self. We used it for the rest of the week without incident. Thankfully the seas calmed down quite a bit too.
Cruise with other families. The Oceaneer Lab seemed like a really great idea, but DD and DS did not go for it at all. The counselors were really friendly, but we weren't there with any other families, so the kids didn't know anyone and felt uncomfortable. It would have made a difference to them if the counselors had assisted them in getting acclimated, maybe by having some icebreaker games or introducing kids to each other. It seemed more like sophisticated crowd control. The other drawback was that most of the activities were indoors and my kids are big swimmers. I was able to get away to Quiet Cove a few times, but it was hard to relax knowing that I needed to keep checking on them at the Goofy pool. I was surprised that my kids were not sold on the Lab because they are real joiners. They made lots of friends by the pool, but they still would not go with them to the Lab.
Lounge chairs: I really think they should do more to prevent people from saving 6 lounge chairs and only sitting on one. There were signs posted, but they seemed to be ignored.
Vying for position: This was not a problem on Celebrity, but I found that I was using the same crowd strategies that I use when I take the kids to the theme parks. Between the buffet, the pool, the theatre, and disembarking, there were far too many crowds to navigate through. I took the cruise to try to get away from that.
Here's what we really loved:
6:30 seating- Huuuuge difference. We had 8:30 on the last cruise, and I was falling asleep in my plate for many a meal. We had dinner and a show and were in bed for 9:45. I would have loved to have gone to the theme nights, but I was totally pooped out by that point. I think DH was a little bummed, but he was a good sport.
Ecohike: St. John - DD loved the guide, Pam. She was really knowledgable, and showed DD how to crack open a coconut and eat a termite! (They taste like almonds, according to her!) The beach was beautiful, but there were alot of snorkeling boats parked nearby. Didn't bother me as much as those who knew what the bay looked like empty.
Dolphin Encounter: Anguilla - A Jacques Cousteau Moment that was as good as any! The kids really loved this. My DD is doing a dolphin project for the school interest fair, and she got quite a bit of info, including a picture of her kissing Al, the dolphin.
Castaway Cay: It's a terrific as everyone says. Five hours wasn't enough. I'd like one less day at sea, so we can stop here on the way down on Monday, and again on the way back on Friday.
Wait staff - We loved Oliver, Gede (pronounced G'day) and Beata. Our rotation was LAP, which worked out great, since we loved Lumiere's the best. Palo's was also terrific. Gotta experience that chocolate souffle. And our server, Liz, was lovely. They genuinely wanted to please us, and we really were sorry to leave them.
Room steward - Bhupesh was terrific, and the kids loved the towel sculpture. Coming back from the show each night, we would come through the door with anticipation, camera in hand, waiting to see Bhupesh's creation. Our favorite was the monkey hanging from the ceiling, wearing my sunglasses!
Thanks for all of the tips. I imagine we will be trying the Wonder next time!
Diane
I'm 37, DH is 43, DD is 10 and DS is 8. DH and I cruised the Western Caribbean 6 years ago on Celebrity, and this is the first cruise with the kids. I would have to say that overall, we had a terrific time, but here are some things we would have done differently:
We won't take the DCL shuttle bus from Disney to Port Canaveral. It doesn't get there till 12:45, and contrary to the other reports I've read, the embarkation lines moved incredibly slowly. Part of the problem was a family in front of us that did not fill out any of their paperwork. Instead of being sent back to the tables (like you would be if you were on line at the DMV) they were allowed to spend 10 minutes at the counter filling out their little DCL booklets. By the time we got onboard, there were only a few Palo reservations left, and nothing at the spa. I was really looking forward to a manicure and a pedicure, since it's something I rarely do (sigh). Also, we were really rushed trying to eat at the buffet, locate the lifejackets, unpack in order to get the suitcases out of way, register the kids at the Lab, attend the drill, and make an appearance at the Bon Voyage Party. I imagine that alot of this intense stress could have been avoided if we had embarked with the smart folks at noon.
Pack less. We had alot more room than the Celebrity Cruise, being in a Deluxe stateroom with a verandah, Deck 8, forward. We were only 4 rooms away from the bridge, and it was really neat to see the captain guiding the ship into port each of the 3 days. The dress code was strictly adhered to on Celebrity, so I assumed the same for DCL, judging from the literature. Each one of us needed to bring a separate suitcase, which is twice what we usually need when we go to a warmer climate. I found that DS did not need to be in a collared shirt and chinos every single night - there were plenty of kids in shorts in the dining room! I found that we wore bathing suits more than anything else. Imagine the space I could have saved!
Bring meclazine. I did this 6 years ago, but the water was like glass and I didn't need it. That was in late June, late April is a totally different story. SeaBands and Dramamine did not cut it on Easter Sunday. We were all feeling pretty rough because we were hitting 12' swells that were a remnant of a tropical storm off the coast of Fla. For such a big ship, that doesn't seem too bad at all, but maybe being on Deck 8 made it seem worse. The trick to feeling better is to get out of the room, but that is really the last thing we wanted to do. For some reason, we didn't get a Personal Navigator Saturday night or Sunday morning, so we wound up missing Easter Mass. DD and I finally mustered up enough courage to emerge at 11:00 and headed up to the pool, but I still needed to eat something and walking through the buffet was the last thing I wanted to do. I managed to eat a green apple from Pluto's and eventually felt alot better. I found out later that that is a great remedy for seasickness. On the way back to the room to motivate DH and DS, I ran into the ship's doctor, who told me about the free Meclazine at guest services! And it's chewable too! That really made the difference for all of us. With SeaBands and 1/2 a pill, DH was back to his old self. We used it for the rest of the week without incident. Thankfully the seas calmed down quite a bit too.
Cruise with other families. The Oceaneer Lab seemed like a really great idea, but DD and DS did not go for it at all. The counselors were really friendly, but we weren't there with any other families, so the kids didn't know anyone and felt uncomfortable. It would have made a difference to them if the counselors had assisted them in getting acclimated, maybe by having some icebreaker games or introducing kids to each other. It seemed more like sophisticated crowd control. The other drawback was that most of the activities were indoors and my kids are big swimmers. I was able to get away to Quiet Cove a few times, but it was hard to relax knowing that I needed to keep checking on them at the Goofy pool. I was surprised that my kids were not sold on the Lab because they are real joiners. They made lots of friends by the pool, but they still would not go with them to the Lab.
Lounge chairs: I really think they should do more to prevent people from saving 6 lounge chairs and only sitting on one. There were signs posted, but they seemed to be ignored.
Vying for position: This was not a problem on Celebrity, but I found that I was using the same crowd strategies that I use when I take the kids to the theme parks. Between the buffet, the pool, the theatre, and disembarking, there were far too many crowds to navigate through. I took the cruise to try to get away from that.
Here's what we really loved:
6:30 seating- Huuuuge difference. We had 8:30 on the last cruise, and I was falling asleep in my plate for many a meal. We had dinner and a show and were in bed for 9:45. I would have loved to have gone to the theme nights, but I was totally pooped out by that point. I think DH was a little bummed, but he was a good sport.
Ecohike: St. John - DD loved the guide, Pam. She was really knowledgable, and showed DD how to crack open a coconut and eat a termite! (They taste like almonds, according to her!) The beach was beautiful, but there were alot of snorkeling boats parked nearby. Didn't bother me as much as those who knew what the bay looked like empty.
Dolphin Encounter: Anguilla - A Jacques Cousteau Moment that was as good as any! The kids really loved this. My DD is doing a dolphin project for the school interest fair, and she got quite a bit of info, including a picture of her kissing Al, the dolphin.
Castaway Cay: It's a terrific as everyone says. Five hours wasn't enough. I'd like one less day at sea, so we can stop here on the way down on Monday, and again on the way back on Friday.
Wait staff - We loved Oliver, Gede (pronounced G'day) and Beata. Our rotation was LAP, which worked out great, since we loved Lumiere's the best. Palo's was also terrific. Gotta experience that chocolate souffle. And our server, Liz, was lovely. They genuinely wanted to please us, and we really were sorry to leave them.
Room steward - Bhupesh was terrific, and the kids loved the towel sculpture. Coming back from the show each night, we would come through the door with anticipation, camera in hand, waiting to see Bhupesh's creation. Our favorite was the monkey hanging from the ceiling, wearing my sunglasses!
Thanks for all of the tips. I imagine we will be trying the Wonder next time!
Diane
We did not get to the port until 1:45!! If we would have wanted to make Palo/spa ressies we would have been out of luck. So, last time we drove ourselves and got to the port at 10:30 so we were among the first to board at noon, MUCH better!! We are going on the Wonder in January with my parents and we are going to rent a car (Avis) for a couple of days before the cruise, and we will stay at the Radisson so we can return the car right there and take their shuttle to the port early in the morning. We'll take the CDL bus back to the airport AFTER the cruise.
