August 22 2010 - WONDER

[doombuqqy]

This time next week we will be on the ship.....let the vacation begin

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Yup....the final countdown begins!!!!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hi all,

Car arrives in an hour to take us to the airport and then our WDW/cruise journey begins!!!!

See you all on the 22nd at 3pm at the promenade lounge!!!!

 

[doombuqqy]

We got a call from the TA this afternoon and were offered a complimentry upgrade. Our new cabin number is 2014! See everyone SOON!

 

[Tinkified]

Congrats Doombuggy!
Glad I saw that...have to change my fish extender gift label!

2 days everyone! We leave tomorrow morning! Doing my last minute packing and shopping

 

[richmo]

We've been in Orlando since Wednesday and did two days at Universal. Harry Potter was definitely cool! If anyone else is going today, hit Harry in the afternoon; much, much less of a line. Hanging around the hotel and maybe Downtown Disney today, then driving to the Port tomorrow morning.

It's time!

 

[doombuqqy]

On our way to ci&s in pc now.

 

[richmo]

To the port!

Looks like a great trip; TD #6 won't be an issue until several days after we're back.

Happy sailing!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Hi everyone,

I might be the first one home. Trip was fantastic. We did four days at WDW prior to the cruise. It was hotter than heck.....we literally wilted our way around the parks. I had to buy more shirts - I had packed one per day and my shirt was drenched with sweat by the afternoon.

The cruise was fantastic. I was thrilled to get the first day Navigator and read that Christiaan was our cruise director. I had sailed with Christiaan before and he is my favorite DCL cruise director.

It was great to meet those who made the DIS meet on Sunday. Felt like we could have talked all night.

We loved all the fish extender gifts - you all are so creative. Its just such a treat to come back to your stateroom and be surprised to see something in your fish extender.

Our servers were very nice but very softspoken which made it hard to have a lengthly chat with them.

Did anyone else notice that most of the dinner main courses had mashed potatoes as the side dish? I ordered the vegetarian meal as well just to get a variety of vegetables to go along with my meat.

I was very happy with the Castaway Club gift - great duffle bag and those water bottles are a huge improvement over previous water bottles which badly leaked and I had to throw them away.

Did like the change in the pricing of pictures at Shutters....that old system of the "A" package versus the "B" package was just too confusing. Like the new system of points depending on the size of the picture. And I like the idea that you can purchase all your photos on a CD. I thought it was a bit too expensive, but glad it is at least offered.

Did anyone else melt at Castaway Cay.....wow, that was a hot day.

For those of you interested in a great snorkeling trip at Nassau, I highly recommend going through Stuart Cove. We did their three reef snorkel and it was fantastic. The best snorkeling/diving sites in Nassau are located at the opposite side of Nassau and we felt the snorkeling rivaled Grand Cayman/Cozumel. Its about a 45 minute ride to Stuart Cove's site and I must say that once you get out of the "downtown" part of Nassau where the cruise ships are located that the island is actually very pretty.

Okay.....couple of negatives....I had read on the DIS boards that pirate bandanas are no longer given out on pirate night. I can understand DCL doing that. But I was very disappointed that we don't get to keep the pirate night menu printed on the special paper that we used to get. Glad I kept some of my old ones.

I was very disappointed that DCL changed the Castaway Club party. It used to be a nice way to get together with a large group of passengers and grab a bunch of Mickey rice krispie treats and hope you win the DCL clock raffle. Not anymore.

Okay, enough with the negatives.....for those of you sailing on the Dream....I'm hearing that the new DCL Captain is supposed to be good looking and quite charming. He's from Venice, Italy. Sounds like he's going to give cruise director Brent a run for his money for the hearts of the female passengers.

Well enough for my post....it was a wonderful, wonderful cruise thanks to you all. Can't wait to hear how it went for you.

 

[richmo]

I'm not sure if Ski and Sea was the first home; we arrived back at PHL last night around 9:30. We went down to MCO the Wednesday before the cruise and did a couple of days at Universal. It was our first time at Universal and our first Disney cruise. (Actually, other than DW, it was the first cruise for all of us)

Since this was our first cruise, all I can say is: Wow!

There were 4 of us (DW and me and two teenagers) and I thought we pretty easily fit in a Category 11 inside room. Much larger than I anticipated. The main bed, I think, is advertised as a queen, but seems to be much closer in size to a king. The kids did fine too.

We were thrilled with our stateroom host (Noel) and our serving team (Joel and Jenny). They definitely lived up to the Disney name. The food was great and we are having trouble at home now that Joel and Jenny aren't serving us and Noel isn't turning down the bed while we're at dinner.

Since we hadn't gone before, there were no cutbacks to us concerning Pirates or any other night. Personally, I wouldn't want a bandana anyway.

We didn't do an excursion at Nassau. We walked around downtown and up to the Queens Staircase for a bit, then came back to the ship mid-afternoon. Castaway Cay was simply spectacular, and I didn't find it all that hot. Its been at least that hot in Philly all summer anyway.

The kids enjoyed Aloft and they did the Wild Side excursion at CC, which is well worth it. I think that may have been the highlight of the trip for them.

We also did a brunch at Palo on the at sea day, which was very good.

I don't know if we're doing another cruise, but if we do, I'd do Disney again without hesitation, even if the kids aren't along. I'd like to see some other "short" itineraries: maybe Key West and CC on a 4 nighter (not sure if that's possible distance-wise), or maybe a CC double dip with no Nassau. We liked Nassau, but have no overwhelming desire to go back...Atlantis might be fun, but for four its pretty expensive.

Anyway, welcome back everyone and I hope you had as good a time as us!

(Side note: if you get to Universal anytime soon, follow the advice on the boards and hit Harry Potter mid-afternoon. The line is MUCH shorter.)

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Richmo....thanks for the advice regarding when to visit Harry Potter....my Girl Scout troop is making plans to visit Universal next summer.

We've done the "double dip" aka twice to Castaway Cay cruises several times and highly recommend them. It gives you a chance to do so much more on Castaway Cay (like bike riding). And if you happen to have bad weather on one of the CC days, you'll likely get better weather on the other CC day.

We hear you on stopping at Nassau.....its one of the main reasons we're taking a break from DCL next year. Even though the Dream sounds wonderful, we've been to Nassau so many times that we're tired of it.

For everone else.....did anyone use the onboard airline check in service? I just happened to carefully read over my onboard stateroom account and was absolutely shocked to find we got charged $170 for onboard airline check in baggage fees

I'll admit I haven't been reading the main DCL DIS boards and maybe its been mentioned there, but if I had known I'd get charged $170 for checking in my bags, I would have declined and taken the bags off the ship myself and take them on the DCL bus to Orlando.

Well....that rocking motion in my head finally stopped over the weekend but that post-cruise-depression is setting in. Man it stinks to have to do things like emptying the dishwasher.

 

[Dream426]

We had an awesome time. Glad you guys did as well. We are already planning our next trip. As for the onboard airline check in I only got charged $30 because of my extra bag. I know if you bags weigh more than the limit they give you you will be charged the fees for that as well.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

We had an awesome time. Glad you guys did as well. We are already planning our next trip. As for the onboard airline check in I only got charged $30 because of my extra bag. I know if you bags weigh more than the limit they give you you will be charged the fees for that as well.

I bet you're right about the excess weight - I wasn't as careful about splitting the weight between all our bags like I did on the flight to WDW. I also packed more of my books in my checked in luggage on the flight home rather than putting them on my carry on bags.

Lesson learned - put the books in my carry on bags.

 

[richmo]

Speaking of rocking, wasn't it a very calm cruise? The only time I felt any motion was dinner the first night. With an inside stateroom, it was hard to tell when we were moving...had to listen when it was quiet to listen for the engines.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Speaking of rocking, wasn't it a very calm cruise? The only time I felt any motion was dinner the first night. With an inside stateroom, it was hard to tell when we were moving...had to listen when it was quiet to listen for the engines.

I totally agree......extremely smooth cruise. You feel some rocking on the first night as the ship crosses the Gulf stream, but even that was minimal.

On the sea day, the seas were so smooth that I thought we had actually stopped moving completely.