DCL Post-Thanksgiving 7nt West Carib. 11/28/12/5

[suzannecat]

PreCruise Day 1- Dinner at Chef Mickeys

We arrived at the airport (from NY) around 2pm and went straight to our Vistana timeshare. Joe and the kids hit the pool while I unpacked a bit and got ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a 7:20 res. At Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary and hoped to sit down earlier if we got there early, but no luck. It was packed as usual. We spent some of the wait time riding around on the monorail with my folks (who met up with us at Vistana and were coming along on the cruise too).

Magic Kingdom looked so pretty lit up at night from the monorail. The castle looked like it was covered in sparkly frosting. Once we got our table, we enjoyed the buffet dinner which definitely had a Thankgiving theme feel to it. The characters were great, though I think my dad managed to insult Minnie whn I asked for a “girls” picture , and he said “you know, it doesn’t have to be a GIRL under there”. We finished dinner about an hour and a half too early to stick around for the fireworks (I thought they’d be a 9, not 10), so we went back to the condo and crashed.

 

[suzannecat]

We just hung around at the Vistana pool in the morning. The kids love to swim and hadn’t been in the water since summer camp.

Next we headed over to Whispering Canyon Café in the Wilderness Lodge for a late lunch. Eliana did the stick horse race, but David decided he was too old for it this year (he’s 11 ½ now). Eliana got a chocolate milkshake that they served to her with 3 or 4 straws that she promptly used all at the same time. David had fun with his straw later drinking his BBQ sauce through it to see if the waitress would notice. She didn’t until we pointed it out- seems like they don’t do as much of the crazy waitstaff antic stuff at lunch time. The kids and Joe built a huge Lincioln Log tower on the way out, for old times sake.

After lunch we drove into the Universal area of Orlando and checked into our 2nd night hotel (we only had enough leftover timeshare points for the one night at Vistana). From there we went over to CityWalk (note, we did not go INTO any of the WDW parks or Universal itself…tricky, but saving it for another year’s trip) to walk around and then go to the early Blue Man Group Show. We had got front row seats online a few months ago, so we were in the poncho section. Got totally covered in mushed banana bits during the “twinkie eating” part of the show.. The light display board prior to the start of the show also picked on me- at one point it read” Audience member Suzanne … has a headache. Everybody say “Feel Better Suzanne”. We bet all that yelling didn’t help. Sorry. Suzanne , now picture your headache as a cow. Now kill the cow.” …or something like that. Very humorous. We waited around in the lobby to take pictures after the show with the Blue Men and their band.

 

[suzannecat]

Cruise Day 1-
We got up very early for the drive to Port Canaveral. Got there just as they were opening the doors. The “pay” upgrades we were offered weren’t worth it, so we stuck with our inside Cat 11 Deck 6 mid ship location. We were in boarding group 3 and met a few fellow DIS members while waiting. The kids got their pics taken with Mickey of course.

The kids loved being “introduced” as we all stepped on board. We headed to lunch in Parrot Cay before heading to the kids clubs for open house. We showed David around Ocean Quest and then took Eliana to both the Club and the Lab. She I also went to the DIS meetup with Eliana, where she was uncharacteristically shy, but eventually came around and started playing with a few of the girls there :^) - they all seemed to like the Mickey and Minnie Gingerbread House.

We headed to our rooms later and started unpacking. Pretty tricky to fit everything in a Cat 11 stateroom, but a few tricks definitely helped- life preservers (after muster of course) and luggage under the bed, an over the door shoe holder in the bathroom for toiletries, and a pop-up hamper for laundry. We loved our Castaway Club gift bag- though we had a slight problem that at check-in we were only allowed 3 lanyards (since I was pregnant with Eliana on our 1st Disney cruise she was not considered a repeat cruiser). The check-in people wouldn’t give us one for her, but once on board we went to guest services and explained that she felt left out and could we please have one for her and they gave her one right away. After muster we all headed up to the Sail Away party for the merriment there. Eliana had fun dancing and jumping around with her new friend Erin that she met at the DIS meet.

Our dinner rotation was LAPPLAP so we went to dinner at Lumiere’s night 1. David was thrilled to start the cruise with their Beef Tenderloin and Crème Brulee – he’s always hated ordering from kids menus and loves most “grown up” food. He tried my mom’s escargot too- but they were not a big hit with him.. You know, I can’t remember what the rest of us ate (except my mom who had the lobster mac and cheese and didn’t care for it). After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show which was fabulous as expected. They had a comic juggler (Max Winfrey) and a magician (Mike Super) on board. I also can’t remember if the kids came with us to the show but they definitely went into the kids clubs later. We picked them up at almost midnight and then ordered room service choc chip cookies and milk to eat before getting into bed.

 

[suzannecat]

Key West Day- Had breakfast all together in Parrot Cay then we all decided to split up – you know, divide and conquer. Grandma and Grandpa took Eliana ashore and they tooled around the island, winding up at the Butterfly Gardens. There were some great sculptures outside the museum right where the boat was docked.

The REAL "Sponge-Bob" at a gift shop in Key West

Joe and I took David walking around for a bit, then Joe went back to the boat while David and I went on a long walk to the Ernest Hemmingway House in search of polydactyl kitties. We passed a few roosters crossing the road on our way there.

 

[suzannecat]

Once back on boat, the kids hit the Mickey Pool.

Then Eliana started the first of her many dress-ups to go meet some princesses. Snow White, Cinderella and Belle and Tiana were first, Eliana was thrilled to match Belle and to meet the new princess!

Eliana stayed in her Belle gown for dinner at Animators Palate (her ice cream sundae dessert was bigger than her face), then both kids skipped out right after eating to go to the kids clubs again.

Girls Chill Night in the Lab meant lots of makeup and nail polish, while David’s Ocean Quest group got free games when they “invaded” Quarter Masters. The grown-ups went to the nightly show- ran into the Queen of Hearts while there. Towel Animal #1- a towel Puppy was waiting for us upon our return.

 

[suzannecat]

At Sea Day:

We started our day with our Parrot Cay character breakfast. Waiters Toney and Anna festooned us with napkin hats.

After breakfast, the kids went to the clubs and the grownups attended the cooking seminar with the guest chef from The Poynesian Resort. We watched him make kahlua crème brulee and then devoured our tasting samples.. Later in the day, Joe and I went to the Martini tasting and enjoyed those as well (a regular martini, an apple one, a cosmo, and a chocolate dessert martini).

Dinner was the Formal Night and we all dressed up. Went to have the white screen photos done, but they didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped. A few other background ones came out ok though. The show was the Golden Mickey’s – absolutely spectacular! A shame the kids missed it because they wouldn’t leave the kid’s clubs, but we enjoyed it.

 

[suzannecat]

We tendered in to Grand Cayman and were treated to a "pirate ship passing by".

After walking around the port a bit, we boarded a van for our shore excursion- a catamaran boat ride to Stingray City for snorkeling. We had beautiful sunny weather and the kids loved the boat ride. They also loved the IDEA of snorkeling, but not so much the ACTUAL snorkeling. Eliana went in briefly, then came back to the boat, David never made it in to the water. Joe and I did a bit of the snorkeling though and did get to interact with the rays a bit. I was surprised how they were mostly skimming the bottom though. The guide had to dive down to bring them up for us to touch.

After dinner (back at Lumiere’s), we found a sea turtle towel animal. Adorable.

The show was Twice Charmed (I think, unless I skipped a day...)- after missing the Golden Mickey’s we really encouraged the kids not to miss this one, and we all enjoyed it together.

I think this was also the night Elianas kids club put on their High School Musical Show- great fun to watch…they gave the kids each a signed HSM Cast photo and a shared trophy at the end which they "kept" for them in the Kids Club display case.

 

[SrisonS]

Cool!!!!!!! That guy in the glasses, Tony, was our waiter on our 10/24-10/31 Cruise. We had him and Anna.

 

[suzannecat]

Cozumel was not quite as impressive as I’d hoped. We docked at a very busy, commercial port area. The weather was very windy and we decided not to do any beaches or excursions. The kids didn’t even get off the boat (we’re actually going back to Cozumel later this winter anyhow, to the other grandparents’ timeshare). The only photo I took in Cozumel was of a pirate guy (Davy Jones style) all done up in silver paint – looking to pose with people for tips.
Basically, we just went shopping for souvenirs.

Back on board, however it was pirate night and we all dressed up. We all had fun at dinner then again posing at the photo stations on board.

Eliana went into the kids club for their deck party and glow night. David joined us for the deck party, fireworks, pirate buffet, and late night showing of Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

[DisneyCrunch]

Loving it! Can't wait for more! I wish our girls had gotten to know each other more--our kids just LOVED going to the clubs too and I bet they would have really gotten along! You have a beautiful family!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Really enjoying your trip report ..... your photos are wonderful !!!!

 

[suzannecat]

Our second day at sea- we had a quiet breakfast up at Topsiders with the kids before they headed off to the clubs.

Eliana was in an out of ther club to go get some more Princess Photo Op pictures taken. Mid-morning we missed the Art of Entertaining chef’s event because we went on our scheduled galley tour, but the tour was pretty neat. We’d never been behind-the-scenes before . It was cool seeing how all the stations and restaurants come together, and how they manage the special requests and kids meals. We got to see a wedding cake being decorated while on the tour (Nessa, was that yours???.)

In the afternoon, the Kids Clubs put on their Friendship Rocks show- we took lots of pictures and Eliana was even in one of the slides in the slideshow. I’d hoped the kids club might have copies of the pics they used available but they said they didn’t. Oh well. A very cute show, and the kids got to dance on stage with Mickey and Minnie!

At night, it was the 2nd formal night and we tried the whole white screen thing again. Much better photos this time. Good enough to buy the package, though some of our own came out ok too. Eliana especially had a blast glamming it up for the camera.

Everyone enjoyed the Disney Dreams show after dinner.

We pushed ourselves to go to the Midnight Gala Dessert Buffet at Lumiere's and were not disappointed. Then we went back to our room to be greeted by a towel lobster!

 

[suzannecat]

The week flew by. We spent the last day on Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay.We were greeted by Chip and Dale at the CC Post Office as we came onto the island.

A ways down the road, we ran into Capt Jack Sparrow for a photo op in front of the Flying Dutchman movie prop ship that’s moored nearby.

We all tried on grandma’s ancient snorkel mask. The snorkeling itself wasn’t too great, though. Not many fish unless you swam pretty far out, but we didn’t go that far because we also heard there were jellyfish out there.

David and Grandpa rented bikes and rode around the island. Eliana got her hair braided Bahama mama" style.

We all enjoyed Cookie’s BBQ for lunch, then Eliana went to kids club for an hour or so while Joe and I headed over to the quieter adult beach.

 

[suzannecat]

After an exhausting but super-fun filled week, we came to dinner the last night and Eliana promptly fell asleep. She was awakened by the Baked Alaska parade with all the waiters carrying their national flags. We said our goodbyes to Toney and Anna, watched the Farewell Show, and let kids say their goodbyes to the club counselors.

Packing was insane. Expecially with all the good loot from our FE (Friend Exchange). We loved our towel stingray and left our room steward a towel creation of our own (with some fresh fruit). Somehow we got everything into suitcases and out into the halls in time for pickup. We were all sad to go, but hopefully we can plan another DCL cruise in the next few years. Maybe the Dream…

Eliana at the Disney Store in Orlando Airport - she just still hadn't had enough of Disney...

 

[Belle402]

Great job on your trip report!

 

[bbn1122]

Great reports....great pix!!!

My family is going on the West Carib for Easter. I can not wait.

Do they always have the midnight buffet on the 7 day on formal night and is it just dessert? Everything looks delicious!!

 

[suzannecat]

Thanks! Have a great cruise in the spring! I hadn't known about the Lumiere's dessert buffet until I read about it in that day's Navigator paper, but it certainly seemed like it was a regular weekly event. That one was only dessert, but on Pirate Night, there was a late night buffet that was more inclusive- turkey legs, etc., as well as desserts. Right after the fireworks, up around the pool areas.

Great reports....great pix!!!

My family is going on the West Carib for Easter. I can not wait.

Do they always have the midnight buffet on the 7 day on formal night and is it just dessert? Everything looks delicious!!

 

[jd99]

Great report Suzanne! Fantastic pictures.

As I look out on the snow and cold in my backyard I can truly say that I'm ready to be back on that ship NOW!

 

[bunny]

Awesome trip report. Your little girl is so cute and photogenic. How was the weather during the cruise? Was it warm enough every day to swim? What about the water at Castaway Cay? We are thinking about going on this same cruise next year.

 

[suzannecat]

Thanks! She has fun posing for the camera, that's for sure.

We had warm weather everywhere except Orlando. It was unseasonable cold there, but once the ship headed out, things warmed up. I think it was high 70's to low 80's in most places. Castaway Cay water was warm enough for swimming (not super warm, but certainly fine for swimming)

I can't recommend this trip highly enough. We loved it and the timing of it right after the holiday makes if cheaper than most of the surrounding weeks!!!

Awesome trip report. Your little girl is so cute and photogenic. How was the weather during the cruise? Was it warm enough every day to swim? What about the water at Castaway Cay? We are thinking about going on this same cruise next year.