Betzfamily
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2009
- Messages
- 17
Hi All... Here is my trip report ... I'm paying it forward as I did a lot of lurking over the past year or so...
Traveling Party -- Myself, hubby, our three sons (21, 20, 18) and my parents (ages 65 and 63). This was our family's 4th Disney cruise. It was my parents FIRST cruise ever. We booked two cat 5a rooms and one 11a room.
Pre-Cruise Hotel -- My parents flew into MCO and we drove down from Birmingham on Wednesday. We stayed at the Hampton Inn for the night before using hotel rewards points. The hotel was sufficient for one night. The rooms were dated, but clean. I probably would not stay there for an extended amount of time but would do so again if it is free.
Thursday Morning -- We were pretty leisure about the morning given the prior reviews of long lines at the port. My dad does not like crowds and my mom has some health issues so we decided not to subject them to an early port arrival (which is what we normally do). We checked out of the hotel around 10am and went to iHop just down the road for breakfast. Finished around 11:20 am and loaded up to head to the port. It was just a 10 minute drive from the iHop.
Disney Terminal Arrival -- We had noted our expected port arrival time on our check-in docs as the 10:30-11:00 am window. We arrived at 11:35 am. There were no cars coming into the terminal. I dropped off my parents, the kids and DH at the curb. The porter took our luggage. I drove our car about 200 yards to the parking structure located across the street from the Disney Terminal and parked on the first level. It took 3 minutes from the time I dropped them at the curb until the time I rejoined them. Parking is very easy. The cost was $15 per night.
Embarkation -- We got out our ID's for the security guard with the list of passengers at the outside gate. There was one family in front of us. We checked though easily at the first gate and headed into the terminal. Before going up the escalators, there is the x-ray machine. We waited behind one family and went right on through and up the escalators. Once on the second level, we completed our medical form and took the form over to wait in the main check-in line for Castaway Club members. There were two families ahead of us in this line but it only took like 5 minutes for them to call us to an available person.
We checked our documents with Barb - super nice lady. She reviewed our docs, signed us in, took our security photos, handed us our KTTW cards and said good bye. It took about 10-15 minutes. I reminded her that we needed a boarding group number. She was like "OH my gosh!" I winked at her and said, "Oh, anything below 10 will work for us." She gave us group #4.
We walked over to the large group of people as they had starting boarding while we were checking in with Barb. They were on group 2 by the time we joined them. A DCL rep was trying to move the crowd back to let those boarding through. One family had group 10 and were asked to find a seat. We were allowed to stay. I think it took about 10 minutes for them to call group 4 and we made our way pretty easily to the front.
As we scanned our cards, we noted it was 12:30 pm -- exactly one hour after we arrived. We stood for our picture and walked on board. A DCL rep welcomed us - she directed us to Enchanted Garden. I asked if we could go to Cabanas - she said it was closed. We went anyway.
DH went to guest services to try to get a private cabana at Castaway Cay - we were not successful but I'm glad (used the money to rebook). We went to Cabana's and of course they were open. We weren't that hungry because we didn't expect to get on the boat so quickly. But we somehow managed to eat. We explored the ship until our rooms became available at 1:30 pm. We hung out there and also went up to the top deck to watch us sail away. The sail away party is lame but we watched for a few minutes. The kids pools were crowded - which didn't matter to us because we had the adult pool and quiet cove areas. Never saw any little ones there as expected. I know there has been some discussion about the pool size - the adult pool was completely adequate. The children pool is too small for the number of kids on this ship (I heard 1000 kids were on board and it was sold out).
Our Rooms -- DH & I were in 10056 (cat 5a). My parents were in 10058 (connecting). Our sons were in 10545 (cat 11a). I have posted a stateroom report for these. In a nutshell, we liked our rooms. The location was good. Very little noise from deck 11 above - some moving of chairs around 7am and some late night running by kids but nothing that disturbed our sleep. My parents really loved having the verandah - can't imagine their cruise would have been as enjoyable without it as my dad spent a significant amount of time there. The inside stateroom for my boys was just big enough for them - can't imagine having 4 adults in there. Our rooms were mid-ship. We had absolutely no elevator or hallway noise. Would book them again as my sons eat a lot and were constantly going up stairs for ice cream.
Restaurants & Servers -- Our rotation was Royal Palace, Animator's Palate and Enchanted Garden. AP was our favorite. Our servers were Jayson and Zacky -- Both very good. Zacky went ABOVE AND BEYOND for my mother. Again, with her medical condition she needed to use the restroom during dinner. He said he would show here where to go - he took her to the restroom, waited for her and brought her back to our table. My mom gets lost easily - This excellent service was above and beyond in my opinion. On the final night, they went back to AP to get us our favorite cookies and cream shake. The head waiter (a nice lady from South Africa) came to our table every night - not what we expected as other cruises we rarely saw the head waiter. Sometimes our food was not "pipin' hot" - probably due to the walk from the kitchen or staging for so many people or whatever. But it was still good nonetheless and nothing that we felt needed to be brought to their attention. The service was excellent and we tipped accordingly.
Nassau -- We typically stay on the boat, but with this being my parents first trip, we did Discover Atlantis excursion. Left at 11:15 am -- walked to the buses, about 20 minute drive to Atlantis and then a 45 minute walking tour through the aquarium. We then spent another hour walking around the resort before heading back on the buses at our leisure. It was a beautiful resort and I recommend the excursion, but probably not something we'd repeat.
Castaway Cay -- GORGEOUS weather. We got off the boat at 830 am and headed to Serenity Bay. DH ran the 5k. We found the beach too windy and cold on that side (we're warm weather people) so we relocated to the family beach around 10am. There were plenty of chairs still at that time and there was less wind and more sun. We then went to our stingray adventure at 11am. Feeding the stingrays was absolutely amazing! We didn't snorkel because the water was too cold for us - other people did. I think we're just whimps. Lunch at Cookies was disappointing - food was overcooked. But the ice cream was good as were the Lays potato chips. We got back on the boat around 2pm, took showers and went to the 4pm matinee showing of Disney Believe. I recommend it highly.
Pirate Night, Fireworks & Other Entertainment -- Enjoyed the pirate show and recommend it highly. We watched fireworks from the bar area above the adults pool. DH & I listened to "Jet" (or whatever their names were) in the District Lounge one night - they were pretty good. It was nice to just relax and have a drink and listen to some music. LOVED the Detective Agency game even though our kids were not really little. It was a fun way to learn your way around the ship so I recommend doing it earlier than later.
Debarkation -- Seamless again. Went back to Enchanted Garden for breakfast at 6:30 am and then to Shutters to claim our reprint by 7:20 am. Then we went to get in the short line to get off the boat. We were off and through customs in about 20 minutes (if that). Our luggage was easy to find and we waited behind one family to see the customs agent.
Hyatt MCO -- We booked a day room at the Hyatt MCO for my parents as we were driving home and their flight left later in the day. This was the best thing I could have done for them -- they needed the nap as they were just worn out from all the walking.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS! I think that's plenty but let me know if I can clarify or answer any questions. We did rebook for a 7 day on Magic ... couldn't pass up the 10% off and stateroom credit.
Cindy
PS: I have no idea how to post pictures so please don't ask for some unless you tell me how to do it.
Traveling Party -- Myself, hubby, our three sons (21, 20, 18) and my parents (ages 65 and 63). This was our family's 4th Disney cruise. It was my parents FIRST cruise ever. We booked two cat 5a rooms and one 11a room.
Pre-Cruise Hotel -- My parents flew into MCO and we drove down from Birmingham on Wednesday. We stayed at the Hampton Inn for the night before using hotel rewards points. The hotel was sufficient for one night. The rooms were dated, but clean. I probably would not stay there for an extended amount of time but would do so again if it is free.
Thursday Morning -- We were pretty leisure about the morning given the prior reviews of long lines at the port. My dad does not like crowds and my mom has some health issues so we decided not to subject them to an early port arrival (which is what we normally do). We checked out of the hotel around 10am and went to iHop just down the road for breakfast. Finished around 11:20 am and loaded up to head to the port. It was just a 10 minute drive from the iHop.
Disney Terminal Arrival -- We had noted our expected port arrival time on our check-in docs as the 10:30-11:00 am window. We arrived at 11:35 am. There were no cars coming into the terminal. I dropped off my parents, the kids and DH at the curb. The porter took our luggage. I drove our car about 200 yards to the parking structure located across the street from the Disney Terminal and parked on the first level. It took 3 minutes from the time I dropped them at the curb until the time I rejoined them. Parking is very easy. The cost was $15 per night.
Embarkation -- We got out our ID's for the security guard with the list of passengers at the outside gate. There was one family in front of us. We checked though easily at the first gate and headed into the terminal. Before going up the escalators, there is the x-ray machine. We waited behind one family and went right on through and up the escalators. Once on the second level, we completed our medical form and took the form over to wait in the main check-in line for Castaway Club members. There were two families ahead of us in this line but it only took like 5 minutes for them to call us to an available person.
We checked our documents with Barb - super nice lady. She reviewed our docs, signed us in, took our security photos, handed us our KTTW cards and said good bye. It took about 10-15 minutes. I reminded her that we needed a boarding group number. She was like "OH my gosh!" I winked at her and said, "Oh, anything below 10 will work for us." She gave us group #4.
We walked over to the large group of people as they had starting boarding while we were checking in with Barb. They were on group 2 by the time we joined them. A DCL rep was trying to move the crowd back to let those boarding through. One family had group 10 and were asked to find a seat. We were allowed to stay. I think it took about 10 minutes for them to call group 4 and we made our way pretty easily to the front.
As we scanned our cards, we noted it was 12:30 pm -- exactly one hour after we arrived. We stood for our picture and walked on board. A DCL rep welcomed us - she directed us to Enchanted Garden. I asked if we could go to Cabanas - she said it was closed. We went anyway.
DH went to guest services to try to get a private cabana at Castaway Cay - we were not successful but I'm glad (used the money to rebook). We went to Cabana's and of course they were open. We weren't that hungry because we didn't expect to get on the boat so quickly. But we somehow managed to eat. We explored the ship until our rooms became available at 1:30 pm. We hung out there and also went up to the top deck to watch us sail away. The sail away party is lame but we watched for a few minutes. The kids pools were crowded - which didn't matter to us because we had the adult pool and quiet cove areas. Never saw any little ones there as expected. I know there has been some discussion about the pool size - the adult pool was completely adequate. The children pool is too small for the number of kids on this ship (I heard 1000 kids were on board and it was sold out).
Our Rooms -- DH & I were in 10056 (cat 5a). My parents were in 10058 (connecting). Our sons were in 10545 (cat 11a). I have posted a stateroom report for these. In a nutshell, we liked our rooms. The location was good. Very little noise from deck 11 above - some moving of chairs around 7am and some late night running by kids but nothing that disturbed our sleep. My parents really loved having the verandah - can't imagine their cruise would have been as enjoyable without it as my dad spent a significant amount of time there. The inside stateroom for my boys was just big enough for them - can't imagine having 4 adults in there. Our rooms were mid-ship. We had absolutely no elevator or hallway noise. Would book them again as my sons eat a lot and were constantly going up stairs for ice cream.
Restaurants & Servers -- Our rotation was Royal Palace, Animator's Palate and Enchanted Garden. AP was our favorite. Our servers were Jayson and Zacky -- Both very good. Zacky went ABOVE AND BEYOND for my mother. Again, with her medical condition she needed to use the restroom during dinner. He said he would show here where to go - he took her to the restroom, waited for her and brought her back to our table. My mom gets lost easily - This excellent service was above and beyond in my opinion. On the final night, they went back to AP to get us our favorite cookies and cream shake. The head waiter (a nice lady from South Africa) came to our table every night - not what we expected as other cruises we rarely saw the head waiter. Sometimes our food was not "pipin' hot" - probably due to the walk from the kitchen or staging for so many people or whatever. But it was still good nonetheless and nothing that we felt needed to be brought to their attention. The service was excellent and we tipped accordingly.
Nassau -- We typically stay on the boat, but with this being my parents first trip, we did Discover Atlantis excursion. Left at 11:15 am -- walked to the buses, about 20 minute drive to Atlantis and then a 45 minute walking tour through the aquarium. We then spent another hour walking around the resort before heading back on the buses at our leisure. It was a beautiful resort and I recommend the excursion, but probably not something we'd repeat.
Castaway Cay -- GORGEOUS weather. We got off the boat at 830 am and headed to Serenity Bay. DH ran the 5k. We found the beach too windy and cold on that side (we're warm weather people) so we relocated to the family beach around 10am. There were plenty of chairs still at that time and there was less wind and more sun. We then went to our stingray adventure at 11am. Feeding the stingrays was absolutely amazing! We didn't snorkel because the water was too cold for us - other people did. I think we're just whimps.
Lunch at Cookies was disappointing - food was overcooked. But the ice cream was good as were the Lays potato chips. We got back on the boat around 2pm, took showers and went to the 4pm matinee showing of Disney Believe. I recommend it highly.Pirate Night, Fireworks & Other Entertainment -- Enjoyed the pirate show and recommend it highly. We watched fireworks from the bar area above the adults pool. DH & I listened to "Jet" (or whatever their names were) in the District Lounge one night - they were pretty good. It was nice to just relax and have a drink and listen to some music. LOVED the Detective Agency game even though our kids were not really little. It was a fun way to learn your way around the ship so I recommend doing it earlier than later.
Debarkation -- Seamless again. Went back to Enchanted Garden for breakfast at 6:30 am and then to Shutters to claim our reprint by 7:20 am. Then we went to get in the short line to get off the boat. We were off and through customs in about 20 minutes (if that). Our luggage was easy to find and we waited behind one family to see the customs agent.
Hyatt MCO -- We booked a day room at the Hyatt MCO for my parents as we were driving home and their flight left later in the day. This was the best thing I could have done for them -- they needed the nap as they were just worn out from all the walking.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS! I think that's plenty but let me know if I can clarify or answer any questions. We did rebook for a 7 day on Magic ... couldn't pass up the 10% off and stateroom credit.
Cindy
PS: I have no idea how to post pictures so please don't ask for some unless you tell me how to do it.
