COMPLETE Diary of a reluctant first-time cruiser WITH VIDEO 5 night Magic W Caribbean March 2017

[CaptainCook]

G0020280 by carriecook, on Flickr

I should start this trip report off by warning you that my last trip report on the Disboards is incomplete. We took our last Disney World trip in 2014 and I think I managed to write up about 8 or 9 days of our 11 day trip before quitting. But, our first cruise on DCL was only 5 nights, and I think I can muster the discipline to keep it up and write about our entire first time cruising experience.

The cast of characters for this trip includes me, DH (the trip planner), DS11 and DD9.

We are a family of both Disney lovers and travelers. While we enjoy Disney experiences every few years, having three family trips to Disney World under our belts as well as visits to Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort and Disneyland, we also enjoy planning adventurous trips to see spectacular scenery and have traveled to Belize, Costa Rica, and Utah as a family.

I will admit that the idea of cruising has never really appealed to me, but I enjoy the Disney resorts and am willing to try anything once. We were looking for an idea for a March Break trip, and there happened to be a 5-night DCL sailing from Miami that coincided with our 2017 school break. We figured that even if we didn't enjoy cruising itself, we would enjoy the Disney service that we have come to know and love, and it was a short cruise so a great way to test the waters, so to speak.

As for why cruising has never appealed, I would chalk it up to a couple of things. First, we enjoy planning our trips to destinations that are a bit off the beaten path and not too crowded (Disney trips notwithstanding), so the idea of being on a boat with thousands of other people always made me feel a bit claustrophobic. Also, we have always planned our trips ourselves, opting to arrange our own transportation and accommodations rather than going through a travel agent or all-inclusive package. Going on a cruise felt like giving up control over where we would be, and to some extent, what we would be doing. Finally, we tend to pack a lot of go-go-go into our trips; we don't typically lounge and relax on vacation, and those are the images that always came to mind when I thought of cruising.

Nonetheless, we were booked, and super excited when boarding day finally arrived.

 

[saxmangeoff]

As for why cruising has never appealed, I would chalk it up to a couple of things. First, we enjoy planning our trips to destinations that are a bit off the beaten path and not too crowded (Disney trips notwithstanding), so the idea of being on a boat with thousands of other people always made me feel a bit claustrophobic. Also, we have always planned our trips ourselves, opting to arrange our own transportation and accommodations rather than going through a travel agent or all-inclusive package. Going on a cruise felt like giving up control over where we would be, and to some extent, what we would be doing. Finally, we tend to pack a lot of go-go-go into our trips; we don't typically lounge and relax on vacation, and those are the images that always came to mind when I thought of cruising.

Love it. I pretty much could have written that paragraph before my first cruise. Get claustrophobic on a boat with nothing to do. Oh the joy.

Looking forward to reading this report!

 

[CaptainCook]

GOPR0297 by carriecook, on Flickr
I had hoped to start writing this sooner, but shortly after we got off the ship I developed a case of 'land sickness'. I did not see that coming! That, combined with the mountains of work to catch up on at the office, put me out of commission for most of the week. I am finally starting to dig out from beneath both.
GOPR0303 by carriecook, on Flickr
We flew into Miami on March 11th and boarded the ship on the 12th. Our port arrival time was 12:30 but we got there early in the hopes of being able to board early. They did allow us to check in when we arrived, and as a result we boarded around 12:30, right when our arrival window was opening. I think we were in group #11. We had checked all but one of our carry on bags at the curb, so we didn't have too much stuff to lug around the ship with us. They were directing everyone into Cabanas for lunch when we boarded, and we hadn't really had any breakfast that morning, so we were ready to eat. First order of business was therefore a plate from the buffet:
IMG_1898 by carriecook, on Flickr
Cabanas was not the madhouse I had read it could be on embarkation day, but then again there was a steady stream of people boarding all afternoon, so perhaps we beat the rush.

After our first meal we spent several hours just walking around exploring the ship.
IMG_1943 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_1914 by carriecook, on Flickr
Yep, pretty sure we are going to have some fun.

IMG_1922 by carriecook, on Flickr
We continued our tour of the ship and checked out the sports deck...

IMG_1951 by carriecook, on Flickr
Figured out where we would be dining...

IMG_1958 by carriecook, on Flickr
Took in the 'must-see' attractions...

IMG_1970 by carriecook, on Flickr
Admired some of the ship's architecture and design details...

IMG_1983 by carriecook, on Flickr
...and got a start on some R&R. Shuffleboard, anyone??

We had gone to our cabin to check it out fairly early on, perhaps even right after lunch. All of the bags except for my carry-on were delivered quite early. I kept checking back and it finally turned up. It held all of my camera batteries/charging cords etc. so I was pretty relieved to see it! Not sure how it got separated from the rest of the crew.

G0030327 by carriecook, on Flickr
Before we knew it, it was time for the muster drill.

Next up: sailing away!

 

[saxmangeoff]

shortly after we got off the ship I developed a case of 'land sickness'. I did not see that coming!

This caught me by surprise, too! Didn't have problems on the ship. Didn't have problems on port days. Then end of the cruise and Bam! the ground won't stop moving for 2 days.

Geoff

 

[stacaka4321]

Your photos are great, really good quality! What camera were you using?

 

[CaptainCook]

Your photos are great, really good quality! What camera were you using?

Thanks. I mainly shoot with a Canon 70D DSLR, and used a GoPro for some of the action shots on this trip (as well as some wide-angle selfies). There may also be a few iPhone 6 photos mixed in.

 

[CaptainCook]

This caught me by surprise, too! Didn't have problems on the ship. Didn't have problems on port days. Then end of the cruise and Bam! the ground won't stop moving for 2 days.

Geoff

I'm surprised it doesn't strike on port days. Thank goodness, though; the port days were my favourite days of the trip.

 

[CaptainCook]

IMG_9322 by carriecook, on Flickr
Sailing away!

We got up to deck for the sail away party right after the muster drill. I expected the deck to be packed (though did not have any cruising experience to dictate what 'packed' might mean) and wanted a reasonably good spot. We chose deck 10 and got a spot by the railing perhaps 20 minutes in advance. Right at the last minute someone was trying to edge us out. If she had asked nicely I would have let her kids go in front, but I didn't take kindly to the side elbowing, so I held my ground.

IMG_9342 by carriecook, on Flickr

We'd also had a 70% chance of afternoon rain in the forecast, and I was really hoping for our sailing away experience to occur outside on deck. So we lucked out there - the weather wound up being perfect.

IMG_9388 by carriecook, on Flickr

What I didn't realize during the sail away party was how frequently we would see these same cast members over the course of the cruise, and the variety of jobs they would be performing along the way. (The CMs, that is. Not the characters!)

IMG_9407 by carriecook, on Flickr

We stayed out for the entire party, and then to enjoy the scenery as we left the port and headed out to sea. I was hoping to spot some dolphins or something along the way, but no such luck. On the bright side, I took note of all the other cruise ships we passed, and was extra glad we had booked a Disney cruise. The other ships' design schemes (from what we could see) just seemed dated or garish by comparison. I really love the Disney ships' classic ocean liner appearance. It made me feel a bit like being on the Titanic, though I was hoping for a much better ending to our voyage!

We went back inside for another amble around the ship. We ran into Captain Mickey and the kids jumped in line for a photo. I was surprised to see how much they still enjoyed doing character photos on this trip. DD was kind of 'over' the princesses, but both DD and DS really liked seeing the classic Disney characters.

IMG_2014 by carriecook, on Flickr

I didn't take great notes this first day, so I can't really recall what else we did. Lots of exploration, and we went to the show, which was a variety show that first night. We had the late dinner seating so the show definitely came before dinner. I just can't remember what else accompanied it.

One thing that caught me a bit off guard was just how cold it was on the ship with the AC blasting. We had planned in advance NOT to dress up for dinners, but I did have a selection of some reasonably nice tops on hand. But I think every single night they were covered up by either a sweatshirt or a hoodie. There were always others dressed like me in attendance, so I did not feel like I stuck out, but if I were to do it again, I might plan to bring something a little bit nicer to wear to dinner. At least my logo was in keeping with the cruising theme.

IMG_9458 by carriecook, on Flickr

Dinner our first night was at Lumiere's, and it was my favourite dinner of the entire trip. Every course was excellent. The first of many big meals to come!

IMG_9460 by carriecook, on Flickr
IMG_9473 by carriecook, on Flickr

One note about dining before I leave that topic behind: our servers were good. Maybe even great. But not as great as I expected after reading so much on the Disboards in the months leading up to our cruise. They were kind, they remembered our names, they joked with the kids. But they never had a drink ready for us when we got to the table, or brought us an extra serving of something we enjoyed, or did anything really extraordinary. On our departure morning we saw all these families in tears, embracing their servers like they were parting ways with lifelong friends. We said a simple goodbye and were on our way.

IMG_9474 by carriecook, on Flickr

 

[Stacey1980]

I am enjoying reading your trip report so far! We are going on our first cruise on the Fantasy in April, and we are also reluctant cruisers. Our kids really want to go on a Disney cruise, and my husband and I really want to go to the Caribbean so we booked the cruise. Like you, we'll try anything once. I am anxious to find you how your trip went!

 

[CaptainCook]

IMG_9521 by carriecook, on Flickr

After our first night dinner, we wandered around the ship some more. There were lots of characters milling about, all in their sailors' costumes. The kids wanted to get some pictures with them and I was happy to oblige. We never waited more than about 10 minutes for a character photo during the whole cruise. There were lines, but they moved quickly, much more quickly than they do in the parks.

IMG_9479 by carriecook, on Flickr

We also had a few chance encounters with characters like running into Pluto out on the promenade (deck 4). He was goofing around and playing shuffleboard with another family. It was fun to see them do more than the formal meet and greets.

IMG_9535 by carriecook, on Flickr

We went up to Deck 9 for a bit to see what was happening there. Maleficent was on Funnelvision so we watched a bit of that. Funny story, one of the teachers at my kids' school was on this cruise and we ran into her watching Funnelvision. We said hello once but I tried to keep my distance from her for the rest of the trip. I'm sure the last thing she wanted to see on vacation was some of her students!

IMG_9547 by carriecook, on Flickr

Then we wandered over to the gift shops to take a browse. They had a nice selection of stuff to choose from and we would drop in several more times over the course of the week to help narrow down our choices.

IMG_9552 by carriecook, on Flickr

Finally we decided to call it a night and head back to our cabin. The view down the hall:

IMG_9561 by carriecook, on Flickr

And once we got into our cabin, the kids' beds, made up for the night:

IMG_9562 by carriecook, on Flickr

And one of the many towel animals to come:

IMG_2175 by carriecook, on Flickr

Overall, it was a great first day!

 

[CaptainCook]

DAY TWO

I got up before the rest of the family and went for a run on Deck 4. I had a great view of the sunrise, at least when I was running on one side of the ship. I knew I started by muster station N and was determined to keep track of how far I was running but it was no time at all before I completely lost count of how many laps I'd done. Oh well. Traffic around that deck moves in one direction only, which is a good thing because the passageways into the bow and stern of the ship narrow down quite a bit.

IMG_2049 by carriecook, on Flickr

I went back to the cabin as the others were getting up, and we all got ready for the day and headed to breakfast at Cabanas together.

Following that we ran into some princesses, so even though they weren't a top priority, DD jumped into some photos with them.

IMG_9567 by carriecook, on Flickr
IMG_9569 by carriecook, on Flickr

The kids went back to the cabin and changed into their swim suits. It was a nice day outside so we headed up to Deck 9 to enjoy the weather. Blue skies and sunshine are the whole reason behind getting out of Canada for March Break!

IMG_9619 by carriecook, on Flickr
IMG_9634 by carriecook, on Flickr

One of the aspects of the cruise that I liked the best was the freedom the kids had. I was plenty comfortable letting them roam the ship on their own. They had the floor plan figured out pretty quickly so I was OK with letting them run off to get an ice cream or a drink or to check something out. They thought this was a riot, too.

IMG_9652 by carriecook, on Flickr

I started a new book - very apropos for a cruise holiday. Though I hoped there would be no murders on *my* ship...

IMG_2061 by carriecook, on Flickr

We had lunch from Cabanas - at least, I did - DH and the kids may have grabbed some counter service from the pool area. It was nice that you could bring Cabanas food outside to eat amongst the counter service tables so we could all eat together even if our meals came from different places. Lunch was followed by ice cream:

IMG_9703 by carriecook, on Flickr

And then more shuffleboard:

IMG_9738 by carriecook, on Flickr

And another swing through the gift shop to narrow down which pins we might add to our collections:

IMG_9777 by carriecook, on Flickr

We went to the Promenade lounge for a bit, and discovered some good entertainment there. First, the kids made their own pins, and had a lot of fun with that.

IMG_9790 by carriecook, on Flickr

Then, a CM hosted a game show called "Who Am I?" DD got called up to participate.

IMG_9794 by carriecook, on Flickr

Back out on deck, we had a chance encounter with Mickey.

IMG_9799 by carriecook, on Flickr

And then the moment of truth arrived - we had to decide whether or not to ride the Aquadunk. We hadn't rushed onto this to beat the lines when we first boarded the ship, and we figured it would be packed on a warm sunny day at sea. But there was practically no line when we went by. So DD decided to go for it, which was a bit of a surprise, because she is usually a big chicken. But she did it. Then DS reluctantly decided that he should do it, too. I don't think he really wanted to, but was not about to be outdone by little sister. She went on it a second time with him and DH tried it once. I was going to do it, I swear, but SOMEONE had to be the official photographer.

IMG_9811 by carriecook, on Flickr

Good to know - if you want video of someone on the ride, the ride operator will shoot it for you if you ask (in my case, she offered). I brought a GoPro and the kids were not allowed to take it on the ride, nor was I allowed to cross the line into the loading area to film; but the CM took the camera from me and shot DD loading into the ride and dropping, and she panned the camera to follow her descent down the slide. Two thumbs up to that CM, she did a great job.

IMG_9821 by carriecook, on Flickr

We ran into Goofy out on deck. I guess the Hawaiian shirts are official 'pool deck' costumes.

And with that... the day was nearly gone. It was time to get cleaned up for the show and dinner. We were assigned to the late dinner seating, and had done a lot of discussing whether or not we should switch to the early seating. In the end we kept our original assignment and I am glad we did. I think we felt a lot less rushed in the evenings having the late seating, even though we went to the show in the theatre each night before dinner. The show that night was the magic of Justino Zoppe and we all really enjoyed it. It very much reminded me of the David Blaine street magic shows.

 

[CaptainCook]

IMG_9841 by carriecook, on Flickr

Dinner on our second night was at Animator's Palate. Luckily our dining rotation would bring us here twice, on this night and on Pirate Night. I was looking forward to the show and it did not disappoint. It did make me wonder how non-Disney people can stomach a Disney cruise though. No, you don't have to get in line to go meet the characters if you aren't into Disney stuff, but the Disney references in this restaurant are really in your face.

IMG_9853 by carriecook, on Flickr

The food here was excellent. I had read so much about the pasta pursiettes that I had to have them as my appetizer.

IMG_9856 by carriecook, on Flickr
IMG_9858 by carriecook, on Flickr
IMG_9886 by carriecook, on Flickr

Soup - check.
Pork chop - check.
Dessert - check.
I enjoyed it all.

The next day would be an early morning as it was our first port day at Grand Cayman. We didn't know what to expect, what with this being our first cruise. We had booked a non-Disney excursion to Stingray City with Dexter's Fantasea tours. We knew we wanted one of the first tenders off the boat to meet him; he had another party booked in the afternoon, and if we were late to our morning rendezvous, it would cut our excursion short.

The next morning dawned quite beautiful - here's the view from our cabin, with Grand Cayman visible in the distance.

IMG_9901 by carriecook, on Flickr

We set our alarms for something like 6 a.m. so that we could be up early, grab breakfast at Cabanas, and be in line at the theatre for a tender around 7 a.m. The first tender was due to leave the ship at 7:30 a.m. We arrived at the theatre around 7:05 a.m. and here is what it looked like:

IMG_2102 by carriecook, on Flickr

There was exactly one other family in line ahead of us, and in fact, no CMs had arrived yet - so we were just guessing as to where to start lining up. A CM showed up 5 or 10 minutes later and it was a bit disorganized (especially because they do this ALL THE TIME and yet were acting like this was a first) - but finally we got our tender ticket, were lined back up more or less in the order in which we had arrived at the theatre, and were walked down to the first deck as a group. We boarded the tender and off we went to shore fairly quickly. Our tender boat was mostly full and we actually got away from the ship a bit early, which was nice.

GOPR0374 by carriecook, on Flickr

Dexter was actually not at the port when we got there. It was already pretty hot outside, so we sat the kids under an awning and DH and I roamed around a bit asking some of the local tour operators where we could find Dexter. They kept saying they hadn't seen him yet that day. We were a bit nervous of course that we had booked a trip with him and if he didn't show, we'd be stuck trying to arrange something at the last minute. Luckily he did show up pretty quickly, led us to his van, and drove us over to the marina where his catamaran was waiting.

GOPR0385 by carriecook, on Flickr

We decided to use some money we had received as a Christmas gift to splurge on a private charter for this trip. Dexter's boat was lovely, and having it all to ourselves was such a treat. ESPECIALLY when we pulled up to Stingray City after about a 40-minute trip there, and saw the throngs of people coming off the other boats.

IMG_9930 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_9939 by carriecook, on Flickr

Here is our group in the foreground (Dexter took some pictures from the boat with my camera, while his first mate Aster was in the water with us, handling the rays.) You can see the much larger tour groups around us. A few times other people tried to join our group and Aster thankfully shooed them away.

IMG_9948 by carriecook, on Flickr

We got some great shots in the water with the GoPro camera.

G0040410 by carriecook, on Flickr
G0090472 by carriecook, on Flickr
G0090488 by carriecook, on Flickr

The ray we saw has recently been renamed to "Scarlette" - she is a ray with a big split in her face thanks to a run-in with a boat propeller. We got to feed her some squid which was pretty cool - she sucked it up like a vacuum cleaner.

G0110558 by carriecook, on Flickr
G0110580 by carriecook, on Flickr

The nice thing was that, because it was a private charter, we got to call the shots in terms of how long we wanted to stay at Stingray City. We enjoyed interacting with Scarlette and feeding her for perhaps 45 minutes or so, and finally decided to move on.


G0120727 by carriecook, on Flickr
G0110677 by carriecook, on Flickr

 

[DisneyGirlSara]

I am loving your posts! We are doing our first disney cruise in January and I didn't book through a travel agent and I am feeling like a total fish out of water.

Besides the pushy lady at the sail away party did you have more instances like that or not? That is one of the reasons I didn't want to do a Disney cruise... We do wdw every year and deal with that stuff that it seemed like it would be nice to get away from that but my DH wanted to do the Disney one. (Ppl say disney cruises are the best)

How were the shows? Did you need to arrive early to get seats. Did the ever fill up and ppl get turned away like in the parks?

What Disney cruise book were you reading under that novel. Was it helpful?

You were in boarding group #11, how do they go about with placing those groups? When will I find out my group?

 

[CaptainCook]

Thanks @DisneyGirlSara!

To answer your questions...

The pushy lady at the sail away party was really an anomaly. DH and I discussed this a couple of times - the Disney Cruise was, overall, a step up from a Disney World vacation. I mean, I love going to Disney World, but people on the boat were better behaved, there were fewer meltdowns and screaming kids, less line cutting and rude behaviour, etc. It just seemed like it drew a more civilized group of passengers than you would encounter in the parks. YMMV!

The shows were great. Even if the plots sometimes veered into cheesy or trite, the production quality was astounding - the costumes, music, special effects, etc. Pyrotechnics onstage, the actors coming out into the audience and using the whole theatre for the show, etc. There was never any doubt that we would go see the show each night. We would show up perhaps 15-20 minutes before the show started and the theatre would be perhaps half full at that time. It did get fairly full each night but I would venture to guess there were always a few empty seats.

The book under the novel is the one you find in your cabin - it provides some information about the ship and the cruise, and a whole lot of advertisement for OTHER Disney cruises you might be interested in.

As far as the groups go, when you do your online check-in at 180 days out from your departure date, you will be assigned a port arrival time. I would guess that concierge guests and those who are return cruisers get the earliest times, but you can do what you can to get the earliest possible port arrival time by completing your online check-in as soon as you can. Then when you arrive at the port (they will give you an arrival window) and check-in there, they will assign you to a group number. I would guess again that the earlier you arrive at the port, the lower your boarding number will be. We actually arrived at the port BEFORE our arrival window opened, but they allowed us to check-in anyway, and as a result we were pretty much boarding the ship right when our arrival window was opening.

(After reading your question I had a lot of discussion with DH, because he was the one handling booking and check-in, and I had to confirm some details with him. I went back and edited my second post based on the information he shared. Sorry if it caused any confusion!)

 

[CaptainCook]

G0180765 by carriecook, on Flickr

After we'd had enough of the stingrays at Stingray City, we moved a short distance away - no more than 5 or so minutes; I think that's still Stingray City you can see in the photo above over DD's shoulder - to do some snorkeling. Stingray City is a large sandbar, and the best snorkeling is located on the reef. I'm not sure what the name of the area we went to is, but there were a number of other tour boats there (though they were spaced far enough away from us that it didn't feel crowded) so I'm sure it's a well known spot.

G0180770 by carriecook, on Flickr

We got our gear on (gear that Dexter provided) and jumped in. The water was warm and pretty shallow; in some areas we got into, we had to quickly backtrack because the water got very shallow and we were worried about cutting ourselves on the coral or damaging it. As long as we watched where we were going though and didn't get distracted and just swim into a shallow spot, we were OK.

G0180790 by carriecook, on Flickr

There were not a ton of fish in the area we were in, but we did see plenty of coral, sponges, plant life, etc.

G0211017 by carriecook, on Flickr

And the scenery above the water was spectacular.

IMG_9990 by carriecook, on Flickr

After perhaps 45 minutes or so of snorkeling, we'd had enough. We got back on the boat, rinsed off with fresh water and towelled off. Initially we had wanted to go to Starfish Point, but Dexter indicated that there really wasn't much there to see any more. He did say he would find us a spot with some good starfish and true to his word he did. Aster dove down and brought this one up for us to inspect, though we kept it under water.

IMG_0011 by carriecook, on Flickr

As we started to boat back to the marina, Dexter pulled out a fun little souvenir for the kids - a baggie for each one of them that contained a local dollar bill and handful of coins.

IMG_0050 by carriecook, on Flickr

This was pretty cool because DS collects local currency from the places we visit and we had planned to stop into a shop to exchange some money and get him some to take home. Dexter's little surprise meant we didn't have to make that stop. So thank you, Dexter!

IMG_0053 by carriecook, on Flickr

Dexter had some sodas and granola bars for us to snack on on our return trip.

IMG_0082 by carriecook, on Flickr

I would never tire of the view!

IMG_0097 by carriecook, on Flickr

Booking the catamaran was a great call for this excursion. We enjoyed laying out on the trampolines and we saw many starfish beneath us as we went.

G0301197 by carriecook, on Flickr

Before we knew it, our excursion was over. We were back at the marina, off the boat, and back into the van for the 20-minute or so trip back into Georgetown.

G0361227 by carriecook, on Flickr

I'd seen a website with a great family photo taken in front of their Disney ship in port at Grand Cayman. On this day there were 9 cruise ships in port and our ship was one of the furthest away. So we couldn't replicate the shot as well as I would have liked... this is the best one we got.

IMG_0102 8x8 by carriecook, on Flickr

This mural is right outside the port area - perfect place for a souvenir photo.

IMG_0142 by carriecook, on Flickr

We took a brief walk along the beach and through the touristy port area, but the kids were hot and tired, and we had already decided that rather than spending money on a local meal, we'd wait and have a late lunch back on the ship. So we caught a tender pretty easily and were back on the ship by perhaps 2:30 or so, and headed straight into Cabanas for something to eat.

 

[CaptainCook]

Back on the ship, we had some lunch and then headed up to deck 9, probably for ice cream and to check out what was on Funnelvision, etc. I don't think we spent too long though because it was Pirate Night and we had some getting ready to do.

IMG_0173 by carriecook, on Flickr

We all bought pirate shirts at home, and then as luck would have it, both the kids' shirts did not get packed for the trip. We would have to meet all the pirate characters in our regular Mickey gear. Definitely a waste because I am not sure how much use our pirate shirts will get in our everyday lives (let's just say neither kid has worn theirs once since we came home.)

IMG_0179 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_0183 by carriecook, on Flickr

Now the bandanas make an appearance...

IMG_0188 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_0191 by carriecook, on Flickr

We spent some pre-show time browsing in the gift shops. The pirate pins caught my eye, appropriately enough, though I didn't buy one. DD talked her dad into buying her a pirate set of Goofy ears, too.

IMG_0201 by carriecook, on Flickr

We went to see the show. I think I was wrong earlier; I already said we went to the magic show, but I am pretty sure that happened on pirate night. I think Twice Charmed was the show I should have referenced last. Regardless, the magic show was good, but when we got back to our cabin late that night, I realized my phone was missing. I ran down to Guest Services and thankfully someone had turned it in. Apparently it had gotten left behind at the Walt Disney Theatre. Funny enough, the very next day, DD misplaced her ipod, which we were using in lieu of the Wave phones to communicate while the kids were off on their own on the ship. Ran to guest services and, you guessed it, she left it behind in the Walt Disney Theatre the very day after I did! Too funny. Thankfully we had some honest fellow cruisers who turned both of them in.

Anyway. After the magic show, we went up to deck for the pirate party, and found a spot along the rail on deck 10, pretty similar to where we'd been for the sail away party.

IMG_0204 by carriecook, on Flickr

There were parts of the show that I liked but I recalled having read someone's comment about it just being a whole lot of wailing rock n roll music, and in the end, I think that sums it up pretty well. The pop music dance bits were fun but some of it just seemed lost on this crowd.

IMG_0221 by carriecook, on Flickr

It was still fun when Mickey came in to save the day, and the fireworks were good. I mostly video'd the party rather than taking photos. That's actually the part of the video I am stuck on editing right now; I am not having an easy time deciding how to tell the story.

IMG_0255 by carriecook, on Flickr

I'd had a read of the dinner menu ahead of time, and initially I thought the pirate night menu sounded really good. I think I got through the appetizer and salad courses, but before our entrees came, DD said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to go back to the cabin. I was disappointed to leave but what can you do? DH and DS stayed to finish their dinners and I took DD back to the cabin after requesting that my entree and dessert be delivered via room service. The meal took forever to arrive and was really not very good when I got it. Maybe I shouldn't have ordered the fish; who knows.

I will say, before the cruise I thought we would order room service ALL the time. As it turned out, we never ordered it once, except for this single meal delivery. We never even tried the oh-so-popular All Hands on Deck! I guess we just got busy with other things.

IMG_0295 by carriecook, on Flickr

DH and DS eventually came back to the room after a dinner that seemed to take an extra long time, right in time for DD and I to be leaving. As much as she was tired and didn't feel great, she so wanted to go meet Goofy again and take her photo with him, now that she had the pirate Goofy ears. So I ran her to the lobby for a quick photo, and she was pretty pleased with it, so all was well.

IMG_0279 by carriecook, on Flickr

In summary, I thought pirate night was fun, though the food was a bit disappointing for me. The deck show had its ups and downs. I'd say the majority of guests dressed up, but there were still plenty who didn't, and some went full-out costumer while others just put on their kerchief or wore a themed t-shirt. I do think it is pretty brilliant marketing for Disney to spin off the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise on their cruises. We walked down to the Jack Sparrow photo op just to check it out but the line was a mile long and my kids were not into getting their photo with him, so we kept on walking. As an aside, they also were not interested in having pictures taken with Marvel characters, and thank goodness for that, because Spiderman and Captain America seemed to command much, much longer lines than the Disney character lines we stood in.

Anyway, that was it for our first port day. Two thumbs up for port days - they were definitely my favourite days of the trip.

 

[CaptainCook]

IMG_2154 by carriecook, on Flickr

I'm back with the next installment! The next day was our second sea day on the trip. We woke up late, after being up late for Pirate Night the night before. I headed down to Deck 4 for a run first thing. This day was the roughest sailing weather of our trip with 7-8 ft waves per the captain. It was perhaps a bit more noticeable than prior days, and we could feel it, but were not sick per se. It was a bit cooler out with some clouds; definitely not as warm as it had been in Grand Cayman.

After my run I went back to the room where everyone was starting to get ready for the day. We all headed up to Cabanas for breakfast together. Afterwards we wandered around the ship aimlessly for a bit. It wasn't really nice enough for swimsuits and to be in the water on Deck 9, so we just puttered around to see what was happening. We went to the Promenade Lounge where there was trivia happening; we did Disney Trivia and Cruisin for Trivia there. Generally speaking my kids really enjoyed the activities in the Promenade Lounge and would often want to swing by there to see what was happening. After the trivia, we went up on deck for pizza and ice cream, and watched Funnelvision for a bit.

IMG_0318 by carriecook, on Flickr

There was a character dance party in the lobby that DD wanted to go to, so we went, but she hung back and didn't really want to participate. Eventually we decided to go to the towel folding class that was on the Navigator. The kids really enjoyed this. We got there late so we didn't do the full gamut of animals, but we did learn how to fold a few.

I will be honest - this was probably the low point of the cruise for me. I would rather be out exploring a new place than learning how to fold towels. While there were lots of activities to do on the ship, I still felt a little bit confined on the ship. It's not that I was bored, I just wished that I were on an island rather than out in the middle of the ocean folding towels. I'm probably not doing a great job of explaining how I felt, but if I were to cruise again, I would pick an itinerary with more port days and fewer sea days. The port days were the highlight for me and the sea days were the lowlight.

IMG_0323 by carriecook, on Flickr

There was an open house at the kids' clubs, so we headed up there. Generally speaking, our kids did not spend much time at the kids' club. At the time of our cruise, our kids were 9 and 11. They were in the Oceaneer's Lab, and the age range there is 3-12. That is a pretty wide age range, and they found that most of the activities were really geared toward younger kids. While DS could have gone to Edge since he was 11, they didn't really want to split up from each other. I should also say that our kids aren't the type to make friends with other kids on vacation and take off and give their parents some peace and quiet - they are more likely to spend time with us. So I was not entirely surprised that we didn't make great use of the kids clubs.

DS did enjoy attempting to virtually dock the ship at Castaway Cay...

IMG_0331 by carriecook, on Flickr

...and DD did spend some time doing artsy/craftsy stuff.

IMG_0335 by carriecook, on Flickr

Back to wandering around the ship - we found a few characters in their cruise wear, and hopped in line for photos with them.

We found out that there was a 90s music trivia challenge and so we headed to O'Gills's pub for that. DH and I are big on 90s music. It was HARD and we did not win. <sad face> The kids came with us; they were allowed in the pub.

IMG_0341 by carriecook, on Flickr

DS was getting hungry again, so we picked up some snacks and took them back to our cabin before heading to the show that night - Tangled. Tangled was excellent and we all really enjoyed it.

IMG_0352 by carriecook, on Flickr

When we came out of the theatre, the Officer Pin Trading event was underway. The event was right outside the theatre door but it started perhaps 20 minutes before the show ended. I was a bit frustrated by that. I think that the early bird gets the worm at those sorts of events, and it's too bad that they didn't wait until half the guests were out of the show before they began - it gave the leg up to guests who weren't in the theatre. However... I was then pleasantly surprised by some of the nice pins the kids were still able to find. So, all was well in the end, and my frustration was not necessarily founded.

IMG_0392 by carriecook, on Flickr

Seeing the officers all out in their dress whites was pretty impressive.

IMG_0398 by carriecook, on Flickr

Group photo with our Cruise Director, Lesley, and a bunch of others whose names and roles I never got to know.

IMG_0402 by carriecook, on Flickr

After picking up some nice new pins, it was time for dinner. Tonight's rotation had us in Carioca's. I found the food here to be pretty good, but Lumiere's was still my favourite.

IMG_0405 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_0409 by carriecook, on Flickr

IMG_0411 by carriecook, on Flickr

This coconut cake was probably the single best thing I ate on the entire cruise. It was fantastic.

IMG_0413 by carriecook, on Flickr

After dinner, our waitstaff made us all our napkin headgear. DD was Minnie Mouse...

IMG_0422 by carriecook, on Flickr

Can you guess the rest? Ha ha.

IMG_0424 by carriecook, on Flickr

For whatever reason, DD was stuffed this night, and so when they came to take dessert orders, she didn't want anything. Imagine her surprise when they brought her out a big plate with a cover and she opened it only to find... NADA! It was a hoot.

IMG_0428 by carriecook, on Flickr

After dinner, we went to the D Lounge for a game show called "So You Think You Know Your Family". Speaking of hoots - this was so entertaining. We really lucked out with both the hosts - Derrell was the MC and we loved him; I think the CM really makes or breaks this event - and also the people who were chosen from the audience to participate. There were some very funny people involved and this wound up being a great way to spend our night.

And with that... sea day #2 was in the books. Next up: Castaway Cay.

 

[TestingH2O]

if I were to cruise again, I would pick an itinerary with more port days and fewer sea days. The port days were the highlight for me and the sea days were the lowlight.

I think that is totally reasonable! That's great that you realize that. I suspect I might feel differently when DD is older, but right now I love sea days because they are so easy.

 

[belle0517]

Great trip report!

 

[scrappydew]

Enjoying your report!