funkemorgan
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2008
- Messages
- 19
First, let me explain our trip. Our trip was a family reunion for twelve ppl with 5 staterooms. My Mom and Dad (who paid for the trip for everyone - thanks guys!) My Brother and his family, my other brother, my sister and her boyfriend and us: me, Catherine, Hubby Dan and daughter Isabelle.
Friday, November 14th fly to Toronto and then to Orlando. Get in around midnight. Stay at the Orlando Airport Hyatt. It was nice to be able to roll our luggage right over and get the kids to bed.
Saturday, November 15th:
Next day, we are up and ready early. Miss breakfast because we didnt know how things work. Disney check in is in a small conference room to the very right hand side of hotel. Once you check in your on a bus within half an hour. No time for breakfast.
Hour bus ride to port. Funny Disney video that passes time quickly. Security and Checking in went pretty smoothly. Groups with more than 3 state rooms cant be checked in together. We get our boarding number and keys to the world and wait. There is not a lot of seats at waiting area and not a lot for kids to do. We line up to get pics with Minnie/Mickey. Boarding numbers start being called. Turns out 8 isnt that bad of a number. Boarding went on for hours. They take your photo on the way in and the sanitizing begins. Once your on the ship there are crew members announcing your family name and the clap for you. I missed it. Too busy looking around. We head directly to Parrot Cay restaurant for some food. We havent really eaten since yesterday morning. We go in across lobby and directly left. Good thing we headed right there because it got pretty crowded, really fast.
Celiac Info: I inform one of the many cast members that I have an allergy. I have a chef within minutes taking me personally through buffet line letting me know what I can eat. There was lots!! No desserts but I am not much of a dessert person. They have a separate small buffet line to the right with kids foods. My brother who is 25 went through that line thinking it was the buffet. Funny.
We finish lunch and decide to go get the kids checked in at the Oceaneer Club. Note: you can get your wristbands inside waiting for boarding but the line was really busy and slow when we were there. Right after lunch we walked into the Oceaneer club and there was no one there. The Club isnt open until the evening for dropping kids off but we were free to explore the club and play.
We wandered aimlessly for the rest of the day exploring the ship. I planned for months but soon as I was there I couldnt remember anything!! I was too taken aback by how nice the ship was, how many areas there were etc. We ended up going to the pool level, finding a seat and relaxing with some drinks. This table would be our home for the next week. We commented that the ship could just stay at port Canaveral all week and wed have fun!
Safety Drill: Word of warning, sit with your lifevests on when they do the 15 minute countdown. We waited for the bells to put ours on and walk to our meeting point and we were one of the last ones there and we didnt even take that long! I did it like how an actual safety drill goes - you aren't prepared for it? Right?
Sail Away Party: We dropped our vests off, filled our togo mugs with rum and headed up to the sail away party. This was great fun. Even though it is when our first fight erupted. Silliness my sisters boyfriend wandered off to take pictures without telling anyone and she accused the husbands of ditching him at the pop station. Im telling you, rum in a cup of ice and coke, never tasted so good. After the party, a few of the members of our party went up to the top deck to watch pulling away. That was exciting. We spotted some dolphins and my daughter swear she saw a mermaid! The magic begins...
Allergy review, dinner: I had told our travel agent that I had an allergy and she said she let DCL know but my servers were not aware of it when I arrived for the first dining. In the future, I would call DCL myself and make sure they knew. It wasn't a problem, our great server Toby (he was fantastic - our whole party loved him.) took care of it, the Head Dining Honcho (could never remember the role names correctly) Yolande came and talked to me, told me what they could make for me that night and promised that from now on the food would be better. Because, they didn't know right away the meal was good but a little bland. But, from then on I preordered my meal for the next night. I was allowed to order anything I wanted from the menu and they would make it celiac friendly - amazing!
We were at Animators Palate for the first night and had our character breakfast in Parrot Cay the next morning.
Friday, November 14th fly to Toronto and then to Orlando. Get in around midnight. Stay at the Orlando Airport Hyatt. It was nice to be able to roll our luggage right over and get the kids to bed.
Saturday, November 15th:
Next day, we are up and ready early. Miss breakfast because we didnt know how things work. Disney check in is in a small conference room to the very right hand side of hotel. Once you check in your on a bus within half an hour. No time for breakfast.
Hour bus ride to port. Funny Disney video that passes time quickly. Security and Checking in went pretty smoothly. Groups with more than 3 state rooms cant be checked in together. We get our boarding number and keys to the world and wait. There is not a lot of seats at waiting area and not a lot for kids to do. We line up to get pics with Minnie/Mickey. Boarding numbers start being called. Turns out 8 isnt that bad of a number. Boarding went on for hours. They take your photo on the way in and the sanitizing begins. Once your on the ship there are crew members announcing your family name and the clap for you. I missed it. Too busy looking around. We head directly to Parrot Cay restaurant for some food. We havent really eaten since yesterday morning. We go in across lobby and directly left. Good thing we headed right there because it got pretty crowded, really fast.
Celiac Info: I inform one of the many cast members that I have an allergy. I have a chef within minutes taking me personally through buffet line letting me know what I can eat. There was lots!! No desserts but I am not much of a dessert person. They have a separate small buffet line to the right with kids foods. My brother who is 25 went through that line thinking it was the buffet. Funny.
We finish lunch and decide to go get the kids checked in at the Oceaneer Club. Note: you can get your wristbands inside waiting for boarding but the line was really busy and slow when we were there. Right after lunch we walked into the Oceaneer club and there was no one there. The Club isnt open until the evening for dropping kids off but we were free to explore the club and play.
We wandered aimlessly for the rest of the day exploring the ship. I planned for months but soon as I was there I couldnt remember anything!! I was too taken aback by how nice the ship was, how many areas there were etc. We ended up going to the pool level, finding a seat and relaxing with some drinks. This table would be our home for the next week. We commented that the ship could just stay at port Canaveral all week and wed have fun!
Safety Drill: Word of warning, sit with your lifevests on when they do the 15 minute countdown. We waited for the bells to put ours on and walk to our meeting point and we were one of the last ones there and we didnt even take that long! I did it like how an actual safety drill goes - you aren't prepared for it? Right?
Sail Away Party: We dropped our vests off, filled our togo mugs with rum and headed up to the sail away party. This was great fun. Even though it is when our first fight erupted. Silliness my sisters boyfriend wandered off to take pictures without telling anyone and she accused the husbands of ditching him at the pop station. Im telling you, rum in a cup of ice and coke, never tasted so good. After the party, a few of the members of our party went up to the top deck to watch pulling away. That was exciting. We spotted some dolphins and my daughter swear she saw a mermaid! The magic begins...
Allergy review, dinner: I had told our travel agent that I had an allergy and she said she let DCL know but my servers were not aware of it when I arrived for the first dining. In the future, I would call DCL myself and make sure they knew. It wasn't a problem, our great server Toby (he was fantastic - our whole party loved him.) took care of it, the Head Dining Honcho (could never remember the role names correctly) Yolande came and talked to me, told me what they could make for me that night and promised that from now on the food would be better. Because, they didn't know right away the meal was good but a little bland. But, from then on I preordered my meal for the next night. I was allowed to order anything I wanted from the menu and they would make it celiac friendly - amazing!
We were at Animators Palate for the first night and had our character breakfast in Parrot Cay the next morning.
