Annie12345
Cruise Lover!!!
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2002
- Messages
- 458
Part 1: January 31, 2004 Western Cruise
The cast: DH (Randy); DD (Jaclyn); and myself (Ann)
This isnt going to be a comprehensive report because I only took good notes for the first couple of days, then I slacked off I will be happy to answer any questions if Ive missed anything
We started our vacation by flying into Orlando about midnight on Jan. 28th. We stayed at the Comfort Suites Orlando airport which is a great place to stay. We were happy to leave behind 56 degrees below celcius weather (thats not a typo). We were apparently the coldest spot in the world that day. We spent the next day shopping for last minute items we would need for our cruise (DD had outgrown some of her summer clothes, etc.). Then on Friday we picked up our friends from Pennsylvania at the airport (OKWMEMBER Gary and Gail) and met up with more DISers (KABULI) at the parks. That evening we met up with another DIS family (SHINGLE) and all four of our families enjoyed the Illuminations cruise together. It was wonderful thanks Shingle for allowing us to share the experience with you.
Saturday morning we shared a stretch limo from Tiffany Town Car with Gary and Gail. Once at the port we met up with all kinds of people we had met from the DIS. There were over 100 of us that had been communicating regularly we had over 3000 posts on our thread before we left A bunch of us had purchased hats so that we could recognize each other. Waiting in line was never so much fun
Once onboard we dropped our things off in our stateroom 6592. This was four doors down from the laundry and we were happy with our room. We did not encounter any problems with being in this location at all. As we were walking to our room, we recognized Kenneth who was our Stateroom Host from last year. We were so excited to see him and found out that he would be looking after us again just the beginning of lots of pixie dust that came our way. We then did the ressie scramble and got everything we wanted, then had brunch.
Our DIS meet was great I think there were around 65 disers who showed up and we had the photographer take a group photo of us
For dinner, we were seated with our friends Gary and Gail, and some friends of theirs as well so we had a large table of 12. I had requested our server, Antonio (from Mexico) from last year (he was an assistant last year but we knew he was becoming a server). He was phenomenal It was so exciting to see him again Our assistant server was Luis (from India) and he quickly became part of our family as well. Last year our Head Server was Nadege from France and she was on the same rotation as us but our Head Server was John (from Scotland). Nadege came by to visit every night and John was wonderful, so we were fortunate enough to have two Head Servers. Our rotation was PLA (this was because we had requested to be with Antonio).
After dinner our daughter headed over to the Oceaneers Lab she was so excited to see some of the same counsellors from last year. She made some really good friends (some through the DISboards and some she met at the Lab) and she really enjoyed the freedom she had of signing herself in and out. We only allowed her to go from the stateroom to the Club and each time she left, she paged us to let us know.
During the week we went to most of the shows, and spent most nights in Rockin Bar D with our DIS friends.
We did the Palo brunch with Gary and Gail for the first time on Sunday, Key West day, so we were able to watch the ship as it arrived at the port. Brunch was phenomenal and now I see what all the fuss is about. We enjoyed it more than the dinner. Our server was Kristian from Croatia and he was wonderful. We spent a great day in Key West, took the trolley around I think it is a bit of a rip off since you could walk and see everything yourself in the same length of time they just went up and down a few blocks. Key West was neat, we found the web cam on Dorval street and waved to our family back in Canada (we had prearranged this, and we also called them from our cell phone) We had a drink from Margaritaville and watched the sunset. This was our Palo night (yes, Palo twice in one day) and at 7:00 we made our way up to Palo. We had requested Ellie as our server (we had her last year) and as always she was great. The reason we booked the dinner on Sunday was because we didnt want to miss the sunset in Key West with our early dinner seating.
In Grand Cayman we went to 7 mile beach with The4OfUs (Glenn, Nikki, Melissa and Tyler) and had lots of fun with them. The weather was perfect and the company, even better .
In Cozumel we went to Paradise Beach this is truly paradise. Everything is free including the lounge chairs, umbrellas, kayaks, floats, tubes, etc. and in the water they have a trampoline and an iceberg that you climb up and slide down. I would wear water shoes though because the sand in the ocean is a bit rocky until you get out a fair distance. I had the best Pina Colada Ive ever had and it was reasonably priced, too We completely lost track of time and realized we were going to miss our early seating. We felt bad because we hadnt let anyone know that we wouldnt be back in time for dinner and we hadnt planned to miss Tropical Night but what could we do? We finally left the beach and did some shopping in Cozumel bought lots of Vanilla, some hand painted plates, a blanket, and some tropical clothes, etc
We didnt get back to the ship until 7:30 p.m. so we went to Topsiders. We are so glad we did this. We have such a hard time leaving our serving team in the main dining room that weve never experienced Topsiders for Dinner. It was awesome!! Clive (the manager) and his team are wonderful and we became friends with Clive very quickly. It wasnt a true buffet, you pick your own appetizers, salads, etc. but everything else is served.
Friday at Castaway Cay, Jaclyn wanted to spend the day with the kids club so we dropped her off, and went to Serenity Bay this was also our first time here. (Last year we spent the day at the family beach). We had a blast with OKWMEMBER (Gary and Gail) and KABULI (Randy and Karen). I was scheduled to go parasailing but it was too windy and the boats didnt run at all that day.
That night, they had a British Pub act and it is a do not miss. It was soo funny!! It was very hard to say goodbye to all of our friends that night but we are cruising again with some of them and plan to keep in touch the one nice thing was that we didnt have to pack because we were staying on for one more week
I should mention that our at sea days were either spent lounging by the pool or on our veranda. This was our first time with a veranda and we LOVED IT! We used it a lot We also did one of the Art of Entertaining (the main course) sessions and the galley tour. Its definitely worth it!!
Part 2 is coming up...
The cast: DH (Randy); DD (Jaclyn); and myself (Ann)
This isnt going to be a comprehensive report because I only took good notes for the first couple of days, then I slacked off I will be happy to answer any questions if Ive missed anything
We started our vacation by flying into Orlando about midnight on Jan. 28th. We stayed at the Comfort Suites Orlando airport which is a great place to stay. We were happy to leave behind 56 degrees below celcius weather (thats not a typo). We were apparently the coldest spot in the world that day. We spent the next day shopping for last minute items we would need for our cruise (DD had outgrown some of her summer clothes, etc.). Then on Friday we picked up our friends from Pennsylvania at the airport (OKWMEMBER Gary and Gail) and met up with more DISers (KABULI) at the parks. That evening we met up with another DIS family (SHINGLE) and all four of our families enjoyed the Illuminations cruise together. It was wonderful thanks Shingle for allowing us to share the experience with you.
Saturday morning we shared a stretch limo from Tiffany Town Car with Gary and Gail. Once at the port we met up with all kinds of people we had met from the DIS. There were over 100 of us that had been communicating regularly we had over 3000 posts on our thread before we left A bunch of us had purchased hats so that we could recognize each other. Waiting in line was never so much fun
Once onboard we dropped our things off in our stateroom 6592. This was four doors down from the laundry and we were happy with our room. We did not encounter any problems with being in this location at all. As we were walking to our room, we recognized Kenneth who was our Stateroom Host from last year. We were so excited to see him and found out that he would be looking after us again just the beginning of lots of pixie dust that came our way. We then did the ressie scramble and got everything we wanted, then had brunch.
Our DIS meet was great I think there were around 65 disers who showed up and we had the photographer take a group photo of us
For dinner, we were seated with our friends Gary and Gail, and some friends of theirs as well so we had a large table of 12. I had requested our server, Antonio (from Mexico) from last year (he was an assistant last year but we knew he was becoming a server). He was phenomenal It was so exciting to see him again Our assistant server was Luis (from India) and he quickly became part of our family as well. Last year our Head Server was Nadege from France and she was on the same rotation as us but our Head Server was John (from Scotland). Nadege came by to visit every night and John was wonderful, so we were fortunate enough to have two Head Servers. Our rotation was PLA (this was because we had requested to be with Antonio).
After dinner our daughter headed over to the Oceaneers Lab she was so excited to see some of the same counsellors from last year. She made some really good friends (some through the DISboards and some she met at the Lab) and she really enjoyed the freedom she had of signing herself in and out. We only allowed her to go from the stateroom to the Club and each time she left, she paged us to let us know.
During the week we went to most of the shows, and spent most nights in Rockin Bar D with our DIS friends.
We did the Palo brunch with Gary and Gail for the first time on Sunday, Key West day, so we were able to watch the ship as it arrived at the port. Brunch was phenomenal and now I see what all the fuss is about. We enjoyed it more than the dinner. Our server was Kristian from Croatia and he was wonderful. We spent a great day in Key West, took the trolley around I think it is a bit of a rip off since you could walk and see everything yourself in the same length of time they just went up and down a few blocks. Key West was neat, we found the web cam on Dorval street and waved to our family back in Canada (we had prearranged this, and we also called them from our cell phone) We had a drink from Margaritaville and watched the sunset. This was our Palo night (yes, Palo twice in one day) and at 7:00 we made our way up to Palo. We had requested Ellie as our server (we had her last year) and as always she was great. The reason we booked the dinner on Sunday was because we didnt want to miss the sunset in Key West with our early dinner seating.
In Grand Cayman we went to 7 mile beach with The4OfUs (Glenn, Nikki, Melissa and Tyler) and had lots of fun with them. The weather was perfect and the company, even better .
In Cozumel we went to Paradise Beach this is truly paradise. Everything is free including the lounge chairs, umbrellas, kayaks, floats, tubes, etc. and in the water they have a trampoline and an iceberg that you climb up and slide down. I would wear water shoes though because the sand in the ocean is a bit rocky until you get out a fair distance. I had the best Pina Colada Ive ever had and it was reasonably priced, too We completely lost track of time and realized we were going to miss our early seating. We felt bad because we hadnt let anyone know that we wouldnt be back in time for dinner and we hadnt planned to miss Tropical Night but what could we do? We finally left the beach and did some shopping in Cozumel bought lots of Vanilla, some hand painted plates, a blanket, and some tropical clothes, etc
We didnt get back to the ship until 7:30 p.m. so we went to Topsiders. We are so glad we did this. We have such a hard time leaving our serving team in the main dining room that weve never experienced Topsiders for Dinner. It was awesome!! Clive (the manager) and his team are wonderful and we became friends with Clive very quickly. It wasnt a true buffet, you pick your own appetizers, salads, etc. but everything else is served.
Friday at Castaway Cay, Jaclyn wanted to spend the day with the kids club so we dropped her off, and went to Serenity Bay this was also our first time here. (Last year we spent the day at the family beach). We had a blast with OKWMEMBER (Gary and Gail) and KABULI (Randy and Karen). I was scheduled to go parasailing but it was too windy and the boats didnt run at all that day.
That night, they had a British Pub act and it is a do not miss. It was soo funny!! It was very hard to say goodbye to all of our friends that night but we are cruising again with some of them and plan to keep in touch the one nice thing was that we didnt have to pack because we were staying on for one more week
I should mention that our at sea days were either spent lounging by the pool or on our veranda. This was our first time with a veranda and we LOVED IT! We used it a lot We also did one of the Art of Entertaining (the main course) sessions and the galley tour. Its definitely worth it!!
Part 2 is coming up...
