macfamily5
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2003
- Messages
- 10
Okay yall here goes my view of the cruise,
Friday, 22 August
My family and I started our adventure early early Friday morning leaving Memphis heading towards Cape Canaveral. Fourteen hours later we arrived at the Radisson, I had booked a room months earlier, not bad. Well everyone was tired but I wanted to wonder around the hotel to check things out. I saw when Verandah Man and his family arrived and the set up around the pool and saw a couple of other from the pictures that he posted on his web, but I felt kinda odd so I didnt intrude. The Radisson was nice had a problem with ants and I addressed it to the front desk and they were kind enough to move us to a different room no problem.
23-30 August
I got up early and took the family over to the ship around 10:30am to be back to ride the Radisson shuttle back over to the ship. Well I missed my 11 oclock shuttle ride back, so I was standing in line for the next one, along with what appeared to be a million other folks. It was the 12-passenger van that came and if it wasnt for others sitting on each others laps I would not have gotten back over to the pier probably until 12. When I met up with my family the line was beginning to get really long, looking somewhat like the letter s, but the excitement was really starting to build. Finally around noon I think is when they started to board. Oh, if you bring any type of liquor onboard make sure that it is concealed, my family has a little ghetto in it, so we were wheeling 2-12 packs of Heineken and a 12 pack of Smirnoff; the folks at the baggage area kindly gave us some trash bags to try and cover it up. Once on the ship I made our Palo reservation for brunch ($10/person) highly recommend and dinner ($5/person), both on sea day. I then made reservations for my husband and I to get a 90 minute massage ($144/person), it was just okay, relaxing I expected more arm and it would have been nice to do the thigh area too. Got the kids all signed up for the clubs, dd-14, dd-12 (with in a month of her 13th birthday), ds-7 and asked the Common grounds to move my 12yo up, but was told that she had to be within a few days of her birthday. My 14yo enjoyed the club somewhat, but the circle of friends that she made really made the cruise the best, my 12yo thought the Oceaneer club was too childish for her and didnt want to participate in it, fortunately I was able to get her signed in the Common grounds on Tuesday and from that point on she was happy and hung out with her sister pretty much the rest of the cruise. My 7yo picked and chose what he wanted to participate in with the Lab, he felt some of the things were boring, but over all had fun and wants to go back, like now. Our cabins were great (2258/2260) not adjoining but right next to each other, easy access to the elevator, even though we barely took them, because they took too long to come down to the 2nd deck. Our room servant was OUTSTANDING, well deserved the the tip and more. We had late dining 8:30pm and I hated it because by the time I was done eating usually around 10 pm I was tired and ready to go to bed. I did however love the food and our servers Wilson and Putra from the Phillipines and our dining rotation was the best PLA, formal night was at Lumieres, Tropical night was at Parrot Cay, loved it.
I only signed my family up for the Eagle Catamaran in St Martaans($69/person) and that was well worth it, even though I got sick on the way over to the island where we snorkeled, we has so much fun. We did some shopping in St Martaans mainly for my husband, lots and lots of liquor, i.e. a liter of Absolute Vodka $5.99, a liter of Hennessy was I believe $13.99. We got enough liquor until my husband goes back out to sea late next year. Please understand we are a Navy family and my husband is a true Sailor although I am also in the Navy my duties keep me on shore. St Thomas was very pretty, we toured the island, beware of the tour service that they provide right by the ship, they tried to charge us $20/person to tour the island and allow us to shop, but only gave us 45 minutes to shop and did a very poor job on the tour, my husband only paid him $75 for the 5 of us, needless to say he was not very happy. But he got paid more than we would have, and yes we negotiated prior to getting on and was promised atleast 1 ½ hours of shopping as well as a very informative tour not showing us where McDonalds and the new Lowes will be. Castaway Cay, was gorgeous, we (me, dh, 12yo, 7yo) did the banana boats and the kayaking and some snorkeling (with our own equipment) and my 14yo did the wild side, I would have loved to have stayed longer. Overall, my family really enjoyed cruising with Disney, a lot to do in 7nights. Sometimes things overlapped others and it was hard to make up our minds as to what to attend. We spent about $3000.00 onboard and shore, for a family of 5 that was GREAT! Would I do the Disney cruise again, maybe, but first I have to cruise without the kids and without my husband, right now I am planning our vacation for next summer, we will be heading west to California.
Please feel free to ask me any questions, I will be more than happy to help make your Disney cruise as Magical as our Disney cruise was.
Cynthia
P.S. Oh, I forgot about the shuttle going back to pick up my car at the Radisson. Well I waited 1 hour and 45 minutes for the shuttle to pick me up, I called the Radisson 3xs on my cell phone and each time was told that it would be there in 15 minutes. On the last call I was told that if I take a Yellow Cab back to the hotel with a receipt that they would pay for it, well I call the cab and was told it would be 20/25 minutes, at that point guess who showed up, yes the shuttle from the Radisson. Apparently the big shuttle bus broke down and the firs/last pickup at the ship was at 7:45, well if you have late dining you will depart the ship at approx. 8:30, I didnt get picked up until almost 10:30. Just a word to the wise, check with the Radisson to ask how often and when is the latest shuttle back to the hotel.
Friday, 22 August
My family and I started our adventure early early Friday morning leaving Memphis heading towards Cape Canaveral. Fourteen hours later we arrived at the Radisson, I had booked a room months earlier, not bad. Well everyone was tired but I wanted to wonder around the hotel to check things out. I saw when Verandah Man and his family arrived and the set up around the pool and saw a couple of other from the pictures that he posted on his web, but I felt kinda odd so I didnt intrude. The Radisson was nice had a problem with ants and I addressed it to the front desk and they were kind enough to move us to a different room no problem.
23-30 August
I got up early and took the family over to the ship around 10:30am to be back to ride the Radisson shuttle back over to the ship. Well I missed my 11 oclock shuttle ride back, so I was standing in line for the next one, along with what appeared to be a million other folks. It was the 12-passenger van that came and if it wasnt for others sitting on each others laps I would not have gotten back over to the pier probably until 12. When I met up with my family the line was beginning to get really long, looking somewhat like the letter s, but the excitement was really starting to build. Finally around noon I think is when they started to board. Oh, if you bring any type of liquor onboard make sure that it is concealed, my family has a little ghetto in it, so we were wheeling 2-12 packs of Heineken and a 12 pack of Smirnoff; the folks at the baggage area kindly gave us some trash bags to try and cover it up. Once on the ship I made our Palo reservation for brunch ($10/person) highly recommend and dinner ($5/person), both on sea day. I then made reservations for my husband and I to get a 90 minute massage ($144/person), it was just okay, relaxing I expected more arm and it would have been nice to do the thigh area too. Got the kids all signed up for the clubs, dd-14, dd-12 (with in a month of her 13th birthday), ds-7 and asked the Common grounds to move my 12yo up, but was told that she had to be within a few days of her birthday. My 14yo enjoyed the club somewhat, but the circle of friends that she made really made the cruise the best, my 12yo thought the Oceaneer club was too childish for her and didnt want to participate in it, fortunately I was able to get her signed in the Common grounds on Tuesday and from that point on she was happy and hung out with her sister pretty much the rest of the cruise. My 7yo picked and chose what he wanted to participate in with the Lab, he felt some of the things were boring, but over all had fun and wants to go back, like now. Our cabins were great (2258/2260) not adjoining but right next to each other, easy access to the elevator, even though we barely took them, because they took too long to come down to the 2nd deck. Our room servant was OUTSTANDING, well deserved the the tip and more. We had late dining 8:30pm and I hated it because by the time I was done eating usually around 10 pm I was tired and ready to go to bed. I did however love the food and our servers Wilson and Putra from the Phillipines and our dining rotation was the best PLA, formal night was at Lumieres, Tropical night was at Parrot Cay, loved it.
I only signed my family up for the Eagle Catamaran in St Martaans($69/person) and that was well worth it, even though I got sick on the way over to the island where we snorkeled, we has so much fun. We did some shopping in St Martaans mainly for my husband, lots and lots of liquor, i.e. a liter of Absolute Vodka $5.99, a liter of Hennessy was I believe $13.99. We got enough liquor until my husband goes back out to sea late next year. Please understand we are a Navy family and my husband is a true Sailor although I am also in the Navy my duties keep me on shore. St Thomas was very pretty, we toured the island, beware of the tour service that they provide right by the ship, they tried to charge us $20/person to tour the island and allow us to shop, but only gave us 45 minutes to shop and did a very poor job on the tour, my husband only paid him $75 for the 5 of us, needless to say he was not very happy. But he got paid more than we would have, and yes we negotiated prior to getting on and was promised atleast 1 ½ hours of shopping as well as a very informative tour not showing us where McDonalds and the new Lowes will be. Castaway Cay, was gorgeous, we (me, dh, 12yo, 7yo) did the banana boats and the kayaking and some snorkeling (with our own equipment) and my 14yo did the wild side, I would have loved to have stayed longer. Overall, my family really enjoyed cruising with Disney, a lot to do in 7nights. Sometimes things overlapped others and it was hard to make up our minds as to what to attend. We spent about $3000.00 onboard and shore, for a family of 5 that was GREAT! Would I do the Disney cruise again, maybe, but first I have to cruise without the kids and without my husband, right now I am planning our vacation for next summer, we will be heading west to California.
Please feel free to ask me any questions, I will be more than happy to help make your Disney cruise as Magical as our Disney cruise was.
Cynthia
P.S. Oh, I forgot about the shuttle going back to pick up my car at the Radisson. Well I waited 1 hour and 45 minutes for the shuttle to pick me up, I called the Radisson 3xs on my cell phone and each time was told that it would be there in 15 minutes. On the last call I was told that if I take a Yellow Cab back to the hotel with a receipt that they would pay for it, well I call the cab and was told it would be 20/25 minutes, at that point guess who showed up, yes the shuttle from the Radisson. Apparently the big shuttle bus broke down and the firs/last pickup at the ship was at 7:45, well if you have late dining you will depart the ship at approx. 8:30, I didnt get picked up until almost 10:30. Just a word to the wise, check with the Radisson to ask how often and when is the latest shuttle back to the hotel.
, I'm sure you missed me. I was anxious to see how your trip went and happy to hear that it was Magical. Take care of you and the family and keep spreading your special Magical Pixie Dust to everyone on the boards.
