The Good:
- Meeting some of the Dis'ers here and there and everywhere! (Sam I am). Also, sharing my excitement, anxiety, enthusiasm, and even nightmares with others for many months leading up to this vacation.
- DD5 loved the Oceaneer's Club. She is easily pleased, but I think she loved the character visits the best. The best thing was when Belle made a surprise visit and read them a story. She didn't make any friends to speak of, but she never complained of being lonely. DD5's favorite thing to do was taking photo's with the princesses (Belle, Snow White, and Cinderella). For some reason, we didn't see Ariel or Sleeping Beauty. All in all, DD5 had the time of her life. She was happy no matter what she did. I think she will remember this cruise for a long time (how much do you remember when you were 5?)!
- DS8 enjoyed the Oceaneer's Lab. He played night dodgeball on the sport's deck, the Wii, and even sang a song at karaoke (I wish I had been there for that). He's not so much into the characters anymore. He told me that he liked Ocean Quest the best, where he could just 'chill.' What 8 year old tells you he likes "to chill?" DS8 won a trophy for the Wild Toad race in the O-Lab. The counselor told us they don't give many trophies away.
- Asking the taxi driver to take us on a personal tour of St. Thomas, and getting a history lesson to go with it. He took us up to Drake's seat and the spot overlooking the cruise ships. Such beautiful views. His van was run down; We didn't think he was going to make it up some of the hills. Putt putt, bang bang. Yes, the van back-fired a lot, but he made it!
- Feeding the fish dog biscuits at Coki Beach. Beautiful parrot fish would eat right out of your hands.
- The show theme's were great. Simon and Alfred had me in tears.
The Farewell show was very moving. I tried to be discreet - I don't think anyone saw me wipe that tear.
Grown men don't cry. Grown men don't cry.
- DW's hot stone massage. She really didn't want to go. Afterward, she admitted that it was awesome.
- The nightly towel animals with chocolate. I especially loved the sea turtle, which required a brown blanket for the body and a white towel for the head.
The Bad:
- Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't really care for the food, except at Palo's. The menu's describe some elegant fancy dishes, but all in all, the food was either too bland or too chewy. DW and I commonly taste each other's food, but that didn't do it any justice.
- I tipped our room steward well and he tried to be nice, but he always seemed to take so long to get to our room. We even put the sign out on the door for service. It seems that on our 3-nite cruise, our room was always made up when we returned from breakfast and the beds were ready right after dinner.
- The room Air Conditioner: We sleep with the A/C turned down to 74 degrees at night. I had to turn the A/C all the way down at nite, but we were always frozen when we awoke in the morning. This might have something to do with the sinus infection I developed on Friday.
- Picking up my DS8 from the O-Lab at 10:30pm when DW and DD are asleep and I am tired and ready for bed myself - only to have DS8 complain that he wasn't ready to leave the campout. Having to tell him no was hard.
- The actors: Sorry again, but neither DW or I felt the actors were great. They were just okay for us and the singing was average as well. Perhaps that's what Simon Cowell means when he says to contestants on AI that it would be suitable for a cruise ship. We saw the Broadway production of the Lion King in Orlando a couple of years ago, and it's hard not to compare the talent.
- DW enjoys laying around by the pool; I wanted to try some of the adult activities. We never seemed to get in sync.
- The rain forest: That was a waste of money for us.
- The fireworks: It's great that Disney is the only cruise line to do fireworks, but c'mon, they were a bit lame.
The Ugly:
- The folks walking around at the clothing optional beach in St. Maarten.
- No shade at Scuttle's in
Castaway Cay.
- Allowing my DW to navigate in St. Maarten while I drove the rental car around the island; especially when we were under a time crunch to get back before the parade.
- Letting my DW wait in line while I chatted with Dis'ers in the terminal (when I was supposed to be going to use the restroom). DW was NOT happy. Not a good way to start.
- Deep tissue massage: When she did my back, it hurt!! DW says I'm a wus.
- Getting a sinus infection the nite before Castaway Cay.
- Sea turtles living in captivity at Coral World. A worker gave us a story about how they rehab'ed the turtles from hatchlings a few years ago. However, she didn't realize that DW and I have done extensive work toward sea turtle conservation. There was no way those turtles were 5 years old. We didn't see any visible injuries.
- Like many, I was raised to not waste food (you know - starving people in <
insert country>). I really don't like to see all that food get wasted - I can't help it, but it bothers me.
- Having to throw away photo's at Shutters.
The Summary:
- Overall, it was an awesome vacation. That's why we booked another cruise for next year.
Called DCL this morning. The reservation number shows up on their end as someone else's name but the info on the hard copy is all ours. I'm going to fax them a copy tomorrow. Strange. 
It was both a pleasure and an honor to meet you face-to-face. It even got me in trouble with my DW at the pre-meet: I was supposed to be heading to the restroom while she waited in line for the club/lab check-in. Twenty minutes later she sent my DS to find me. When I met her in line, she got even more pissed when she found out that I hadn't even made it to the restroom yet. LOL....
....we actually met another couple that was on our cruise over at Downtown Disney yesterday who were also sick with the same cold! Not sure how that could happen with the amount of hand washing I saw while on board.
