Eastern Magic 9/2!

[CourtneyMc]

Well, I loved reading the trip reports before I left so I thought it only fair that I write one in return. DH was looking at it going- um, honey, who on earth is going to want to read about our trip in such detail?! I told him crazy people like me who can't get enough info about DCL before they go.

So, here goes. I hope someone out there enjoys it I'll post more days soon.

Day 1

The cast- DH Pete, DS Kevin, 7 ½, DD Maggie, 4 ½, and myself, Courtney.

We all woke up early and excited to get going! All of us dressed in our tie-dye Mickey shirts we’d made so we could maybe get a cute boarding photo. My dad came to drive us to the port and we were on our way by 9:30 and at the port before 10- the gates weren’t even open yet to enter the terminal. We got in a short line and by a little after 10 we could head to the terminal. We got boarding number 4! I was really surprised by that because it didn’t seem like there were that many people ahead of us in line at the gate. I wonder what time they arrived! There was a HUGE line at Castaway Club check-in and no line elsewhere, so I got in the other line while Pete stayed in the CC line. Turns out there was no reason at all to wait in the CC line. We were checked in by 10:20 and took a seat to watch cartoons. I was happy we got Castaway Club lanyards to carry our key cards in all week; that was nice. Around 11 or so Minnie came out so we got in line for a picture. Kevin’s teacher had made him a cruise journal to write in during the trip (his only homework, thanks Mrs. Albright!) and told him to get it signed if he could. He got Minnie’s autograph on his journal and a picture. Around 11:45 they started boarding groups 2-3 so we were probably on board by 12.

When we checked in our key said S1 so I thought that meant early seating and the person checking us in can’t change that of course. I was made because our reservation said late seating and we’d had it for a year. I didn’t think it would be a problem to change it since most people prefer early, but I was mad to have to go stand in a line as soon as we boarded. Turns out we did have late seating as requested, I never did figure out how you could tell from the codes that we were late seating- the S1 referred to the earliest of the late slots- 8pm. That was perfect. I’d figured out if we didn’t get that rotation I was going to request it- I wanted late seating but not too late.

So, off to Parrot Cay for lunch. The cold mango soup was as good as everyone said it would be. Kevin was sad there were no croissants- he remembered that from the first lunch when we went two years ago. We tried the much raved about mac-n-cheese, but none of us liked it. After lunch we took the kids for a dip in the mickey pool before it got too crowded. Then it was time to head to the room to maybe rest. We ran intoGoofy on the way back and got a quick picture. That was a nice treat! Someone had said always have your camera with you- you never know who/what you might see, and they were right!

Were able to get into our rooms by 1 or 1:30. we were on deck 7 right by the forward elevators. Great location. Resting, well, that didn’t quite work out. They were too excited! So we got up and headed to the promenade lounge to meet some other cruisers. After a little while Kevin was itching to check out the club so we played there for a bit. Then we went back up to deck 9 for a snack. The panninis at Goofy’s are great! And the fresh fruit is wonderful, I think Maggie ate her weight in watermelon and pineapple over the course of the week.

Time for the lifeboat drill. We’d warned Maggie that it would happen and that she’d have to wear her life vest but after about 10 min. we were all sick of it. It was hot and she was getting whiny. She’d just about reached her limit when it was over- phew! We cooled off in the room for bit before heading to sail away. Unfortunately that meant it was too crowded to get a good spot to be able to see so we didn’t stay long after the boat started moving. We headed to the front of the ship to watch the boat sail out of the port and look for dolphins- didn’t see any. It was nice and breezy up front and we got some cute pictures.

Back to the room and ordered cheese and fruit, we weren’t going to make it to 8pm without eating. For a while we thought we’d skip the first show and rest, but we rallied. It was a cute show with a ventriliquist and the characters.

Dinner was at Annimator’s. Our table mates were already seated when we arrived, and somehow we never were properly introduced. It was sort of strange, they didn’t talk to us at all that night. It was another couple and 2 boys 5 and 7. We talked more later in the week, but never really bonded with them. We quickly realized Maggie deosn’t like the kid food. We’d already tried and rejected the mac-n-cheese, which is so surprising for her, so we ordered her pizza. It was terrible. Then we ordered the ravioli, which she also didn’t like and she never eats chicken fingers so that pretty much shot the standard kids’ menu out of the water and it was only the first night. No worries though, she loved Pete’s fillet and ate her fruit and broccoli so she was fine. Kevin ate the pizza but never ordered it again. I had the mushroom pastry appetizer, squash soup and the veal chop with yummy corn risotto. All were very good. We had choc. peanut butter pie (one of my favorites of the trip!) and boston cream pie for dessert. The kids had mickey bars, with sprinkles. Our servers, Leasa from Jamaica and Viviane from Brazil were wonderful. They really seemed to like interacting with the kids. When Maggie requested sprinkles Leasa kept telling her she could only have one when she was asking for ‘lots of sprinkles!’ but of course she brought a bowlful. They liked the mickey bars ok, but went for plain old ice cream every night after that.

The kids were exhausted from getting up so early- who am I kidding, so was I- so we opted to head to bed after a quick visit with Capt. Hook in the lobby.

That's all for Day 1!

 

[racrj]

Hi Courtney. Your trip report is great! I was hoping someone would write one. It is really nice to remember the trip!! My DD also didn't favor the Mickey bars and opted for ice cream also, along with LOTS of sprinkles!!! We had the early seating 6:00. That worked out for us. My DH is a stickler for keeping the same schedule - even while on vacation. Which was an absolute PAIN!!!! Anyway - I digress - The cruise was Awesome and I can't wait to hear more!!! Thanks for writing.....

Jen

 

[HollyTyler]

Thanks for taking the time to do a report Courtney! I just don't have enough details and I'm a boring writer, but maybe I'll get around to trying one later this week anyway just for the heck of it.

 

[CourtneyMc]

Day 2- Sunday at Sea

6:15am. Ugh. We brought clips to keep the curtains closed, but it didn’t help- the kids were were up with the sun. Goofy’s doesn’t even open until 7 and topsiders at 7:30, at least on this day, so that made getting up so early even worse. We dressed and at 7 headed to Goofy's for some fruit and yogurt to tide us over for a while. The kids went in the Goofy pool, which was empty of course at this hour! And we watched some playhouse Disney on the giant “Dumbotron” TV. After that we headed to Topsiders for breakfast for the kids. We had Palo brunch scheduled so we didn’t eat much, but we did try the omelet station, yum. The Mickey waffles weren’t good. Oh well. The omelet station also did scrambled cheese eggs for Maggie. We got the kids off to the club around 10 because we had Palo brunch at 11. Our character b-fast was supposed to be today but we didn't feel like cramming it in and having to rush for Palo- we've done it at the parks more than once and it hasn't gotten rave reviews from the DIS so we didn't feel like we'd miss anything skipping it.

By the way, we discovered the first day that the red= aft blue = forward arrows on the carpet don’t always apply, at least on half of deck 7. In one hallway, the red pointed to the back, our side thankfully, but on the other side, blue did. So I don’t know what the deal is there, but I was bummed that that tip didn’t pan out. I got us all the way to the wrong end of the ship following the arrows that were supposed to point my way!

Palo Brunch, YUM! The seafood spread was great. The best bacon wrapped scallops ever, shrimp, and crab, delicious. We also had a brick oven pizza and took half of it back to the room for a snack later. The orchetta pasta and the eggs Benedict Florentine were also great. They put out a ton of desserts in sample sizes, so you don’t feel like you’re being too much of a pig but get to try lots of things. It was definitely well worth doing.

After our brunch we picked up the kids and took them to the room for room service lunch and rest time. The oatmeal cookies were great off the room service menu; I don’t remember seeing oatmeal cookies anywhere else.

Maggie and I went to the Golden Mickey’s matinee. Kevin was at the club and Pete was reading his book. That was my favorite show. There were tons of songs, video and characters. Maggie LOVED it and if I’d let her I’m sure she would’ve bought herself a Golden Mickey statuette at the gift shop. We go there early and were in the second row center. She could’ve been onstage as one of Snow White’s dwarves but she didn’t want to be a dwarf. I think later in the week she probably would’ve done it. After that we went shopping at Mickey’s Mates and after much debate she chose an Aurora (sleeping beauty) crown and wand for her trip souvenir and decided she’d be Aurora for Halloween. I refused to buy her the $60 dress though! We’ll pick one up at Target later.

After rest time, Tea with Wendy. I have to say, this was the only thing I wish we hadn’t bothered to do. It was a waste of time. There’s cold tea and a choc chip cookie and Wendy tells a brief version of the peter pan story and you get a pic. with her. Not worth spending the time at all in my opinion. I’m sure there’s something else we could’ve enjoyed more. Oh well.

Then we tried the family dance party in the Promenade lounge. The kids enjoyed it, but I was hoping for more contemporary dance music, and it was more lounge-y. We didn’t stay too long, but the kids loved any dance floor we found all week long and this was no exception!

We had room service dinner for the kids because there were club activities they wanted to do. We tried room service pizza this time. Although it was far better than the nasty pizza on the kids menu at dinner the prior night, she didn’t like it for some reason. I took her up to topsiders for some steak and broccoli. That worked out fine for her. Topsiders for dinner was quick, but with table service, so a nice alternative if you didn’t want to dress up for dinner. Kevin was off to Nestlé’s Jr. Chef at the Lab, they got to make choc. chip cookies. He really enjoyed it. Maggie had Nemo’s adventure which was something with undersea decorations and puppets which she liked.

We had Parrot Cay for formal night that night. We weren’t too excited to be all dressed up in tropical restaurant, but it didn’t matter. As far as I could tell, everyone made some effort to dress up, which was nice. I didn’t see anyone in shorts or jeans that night. We didn’t think the menu sounded that great, but the food ended up being great. Pete wanted the Caribbean chicken, but he wanted it spicier than it sounded like it would be from Leasa’s description. She ended up putting in a special order for him and it was the perfect amount of kick. I had grouper that was really good. Dessert was Banana Bread French Toast Pudding and it was fantastic. Our tablemates were at Palo that night, so since the kids were in the club, Pete and I had a table for 8 to ourselves. That was kind of nice. Maggie beeped us to be picked up around 9:30. She’s enjoying the clubs but needs some convincing to go.

We love our cabin location so far, but it’s a little noisy at times. I’m not sure if that’s b/c it’s adjoining and the soundproofing is bad, or if it’s the location. Right by the stairs/elevators does get a lot of traffic. At this point, Pete is really enjoying reading on the verandah and the kids love that there are Disney movies on TV all the time! I just wish everything I want to do wasn’t either at 10 am or 2pm---it would be nice if things were a bit more spread thru the day.

more later-

 

[RoyalVizier]

Thanks so much for sharing your vacation with us!! We're aiming for our first Eastern next April, and I can't wait to hear about your port days!!

Great job!

 

[CourtneyMc]

I just finished reading your report just before I left, RoyalViziar, so it's kind of funny that you're now reading mine. I'm just glad i didn't find yours until you'd finished it! If I remember correctly, yours took a long time to get to the last couple of days

More to come soon!

 

[jrose529]

Great report so far. Thanks for sharing!

 

[RoyalVizier]

If I remember correctly, yours took a long time to get to the last couple of days

Indeed it did...

A mistake I won't be making again. I learned my lesson. For the cruise next year, I'll be writing the entire report before I post even the first part.

I'm sure you're not going to do that to us.... are you?

 

[racrj]

By the way, we discovered the first day that the red= aft blue = forward arrows on the carpet don’t always apply, at least on half of deck 7. In one hallway, the red pointed to the back, our side thankfully, but on the other side, blue did. So I don’t know what the deal is there, but I was bummed that that tip didn’t pan out. I got us all the way to the wrong end of the ship following the arrows that were supposed to point my way!


After rest time, Tea with Wendy. I have to say, this was the only thing I wish we hadn’t bothered to do. It was a waste of time. There’s cold tea and a choc chip cookie and Wendy tells a brief version of the peter pan story and you get a pic. with her. Not worth spending the time at all in my opinion. I’m sure there’s something else we could’ve enjoyed more. Oh well.

I am so glad someone else saw the arrows!!! I believe that happened on deck 2 also or maybe it was just the "Drink of the Day". I got turned around a lot on that deck when I got off the mid elevators. One time I even turned around and headed the other direction, then the color changed and I turned around again! I just started all over again and looked for the direction of the laundry since our room was near there.

I am also glad you mentioned Tea with Wendy. I remembered about the tea on Sunday afternoon and asked if I could get tickets for Maria and myself. They were booked, but I was put on the wait list. I didn't hear anything all week so I assumed that we weren't able to go. So, on Thursday I had planned to go to the final BINGO!!! at 4:00. However, my "lovely" DH had answered the phone earlier that morning in the stateroom and it was guest services saying they had our Tea with Wendy tickets and were we still interested. He said yes! YIKES!! So, I took Maria and missed BINGO and I was very unhappy at my decision. It was a big disappointment!! We were there for about 15 minutes and then it was over. I was glad for the opportunity to get a picture with Wendy, however. But I would suggest to others to skip this if there is something else going on that they would like to go to.

 

[CourtneyMc]

I am so glad someone else saw the arrows!!! I believe that happened on deck 2 also or maybe it was just the "Drink of the Day". I got turned around a lot on that deck when I got off the mid elevators. One time I even turned around and headed the other direction, then the color changed and I turned around again! I just started all over again and looked for the direction of the laundry since our room was near there.

I am also glad you mentioned Tea with Wendy. I remembered about the tea on Sunday afternoon and asked if I could get tickets for Maria and myself. They were booked, but I was put on the wait list. I didn't hear anything all week so I assumed that we weren't able to go. So, on Thursday I had planned to go to the final BINGO!!! at 4:00. However, my "lovely" DH had answered the phone earlier that morning in the stateroom and it was guest services saying they had our Tea with Wendy tickets and were we still interested. He said yes! YIKES!! So, I took Maria and missed BINGO and I was very unhappy at my decision. It was a big disappointment!! We were there for about 15 minutes and then it was over. I was glad for the opportunity to get a picture with Wendy, however. But I would suggest to others to skip this if there is something else going on that they would like to go to.

No drinks of the day here- so the arrows just dont' work! oh well

As for Tea with Wendy, waste of time, and part of why I did it was I'd read about it on the DIS, so I wanted to tell others not to bother, at least if there's something else they'd prefer to do!

-Courtney

 

[CourtneyMc]

Indeed it did...

A mistake I won't be making again. I learned my lesson. For the cruise next year, I'll be writing the entire report before I post even the first part.

I'm sure you're not going to do that to us.... are you?

Hey RoyalViziar,
I'm doing my best to get it written within a week Glad to know someone's reading it!

-Courtney

 

[CourtneyMc]

I'm trying to work my way thru the week as fast as I can!--Courtney

Day 3- Monday at Sea.

Well, they made it to 6:45 am today; I guess that’s an improvement. We went up for yogurt and fruit at Goofy’s early and decided to try table service at Lumiere’s for breakfast. It was good, but took way too long. I won’t do that again. Kevin was ready to hit the club! It didn’t even matter what was on the calendar, he wanted to go- but especially for free time in the lab so he could play computer and video games! Maggie wanted to go in the pool, and he opted for the club. She had the pool mostly to herself and got to go down the slide several times with little wait.

Today turned out to be movie day. Maggie really didn’t feel like going to the club yet so we took her to Cars. Pete and I really liked it, but it got a little long for her. I still can’t believe Kevin didn’t like it. We took Maggie to Topsiders for lunch- Kevin ate with the club. I had the curry lamb and it was fantastic. Also, the honeycomb cake was really really good!

Finally, it was time for Maggie to head to the club b/c Pete and I were not going to miss Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at sea! It was awesome. We really liked it- and I think seeing it on a boat added something- the motion of the boat went so well with the motion on the screen. After the movie we picked up the kids for rest time. At this point Kevin had been in the club for 5-6 hours and he still didn’t want to leave.

Tonight’s show was Twice Charmed. It was good, but a little intense for my kids. The villain is an evil fairy godfather and he’s loud and there are fireworks on stage so they got a little scared. The show was well done, and we enjoyed it, but it was by far my least favorite of the week. Then we went to the family comedy/magic show of Aaron Radatz. Although he was highly touted, I wasn’t impressed. Maybe the later show for adults only was better, but I just didn’t think his tricks were innovative or all that interesting.

Dinner tonight was Lumieres. I do love the Beauty and the Beast décor in there! Scallops were the highlight that night. And, the Grand Marnier soufflé with choc and vanilla sauce was excellent. Kevin wanted to try ‘rich choc. pudding’ for his dessert. He wondered if that meant there was treasure in it =). Then Maggie insisted that she wanted ‘rich vanilla pudding’, which of course wasn’t on the menu.

However, crème brullee was, so that worked for her! Everyone got a kick out of her requests for ‘rich’ pudding. The crème brullee was very good. After dinner Kevin was ready to head back to the club. Maggie wasn’t quite ready so we took her to see Cinderella and Belle in the lobby. We didn’t have too long to wait for either one. Then we wanted to watch some of the FSU/Miami game on the Dumbotron by the pool so we took the Maggie back to the club. I tried the Mojitos, they made them with lemon Bacardi. That was an interesting switch, but I think I prefer them with plain rum. Whatever the rum flavor, it made it a lot harder to read what I’d written in my journal the next day! We picked the kids up around 11 or so, I think that was probably our latest night out.

-that's all for now. -Courtney

 

[curlybop]

Great report so far!

 

[lillygator]

thanks for posting....I love reading trip reports...!

 

[gdulaney]

Great trip report Courtney!! I feel like I'm back on the ship!!!

Ginny

 

[CourtneyMc]

Day 4- Tuesday, St. Maartan.

6:45 again… Breakfast was fruit and yogurt and cereal at Goofy’s. We were able to go ashore by the time we’d had breakfast and changed into beach clothes. We didn’t feel like doing an excursion here becuase Maggie wasn't old enough to do anything that sounded like fun to all of us. Someday maybe we'll go back and do the dolphin excursion. So, we took a water taxi ($5/adult, free under 12) to the beach. It was a narrow beach but very nice soft sand and clear water. We rented two chairs with an umbrella and bathroom access for $8; it was worth it for the bathrooms =). There were several families who did the same thing we did, so the kids had other children to play in the sand with them. We floated around in the water for a while and sat on the chairs and watched them play. The weather got a little crummy before lunchtime though, so we decided to head back and eat and clean up. We tried table service at Lumiere’s for lunch today. Too slow, just like breakfast. It was good; I just didn’t want to waste that much time on a meal. After lunch we went back to the room to rest and all of us crashed. We took a two hour nap! That was good because today was Pirate Night which goes late. The only problem was by the time we got up it was too late to go back into town to do any shopping or looking around. Oh well, we’d been there before and there wasn’t anything in particular we wanted.

We took the kids to the club so we could go see Invincible. There was no ‘show’ that night; they screened the movie in the big theater. We’d really wanted to see it, so that was nice. It was really good. We saw people in the theater with a blanket from their rooms- what a great idea! The theater was cold if you weren’t in your dinner clothes! Maggie did Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers, which she loved and Kevin had prep for pirate night. When we picked him up, his face was painted like a skeleton and he had an eye patch. We went straight over to get in line for Jack Sparrow. This was the only really long line I remember for a character; we probably waited 15 minutes. But the Jack Sparrow was worth it- he was great- he had the mannerisms of the character down pat!

We put on our pirate clothes after that- obviously with better planning we’d have had them on before the pic with Jack Sparrow, oh well. Then it was dinner at Animators again. Tonight was the pirate menu. Pete had the macadamia crusted grouper which was the only really disappointing meal we got. It was overcooked and chewy. However, Maggie had the pork, Kevin the beef, and I had the scallops and shrimp and all were excellent. We didnt' need to get Pete anything else as there was plenty to go around with the kids' having adult meals. We tried white chocolate cheesecake and the choc. cake and they were great.

The pirate party started at 9:45 so we had just enough time to finish dinner and make it up to the deck. We couldn’t get a good viewing spot from deck 10 so we went down to deck 9 so we could dance. It was hot and sweaty but fun. It wasn’t too crowded, but for the kids it was still hard to see. By the end Maggie was really tired, but I really wanted to see the fireworks so we stayed. It was fun to see the characters in pirate clothes and the music and dancing were fun. Maggie didn’t like the fireworks (as usual, too loud) but the rest of us enjoyed it. We were ready for bed after it ended.


Day 5 – Wednesday, St. Thomas

The one day we had to be up early was the day they were both still asleep at 6:45. It’s really hard to have to be there to clear border protection at the crack of dawn (before 7) on the day after the pirate party. It’s too bad they can’t do that party on a sea day. It didn’t take long to get thru the border process, just had to file thru a line and show our passports and get hands stamped. It was what I imagine communion at a mega church must be like- just constant moving of the people from their seats row by row up to the front single file. I would say we were in and out within 15-20 min tops.

We had a quick breakfast at parrot cay buffet then it was off to meet our excursion to Coral World. We had to be there at 8 am so it was no big deal we’d had to be up for the border thing anyway. We’d thought about doing this trip on our own, but ended up deciding we were too chicken to take a cab by ourselves and be sure of getting back to the boat when we needed to. It was a little more $ to do it thru DCL, but we had the assurance that they wouldn’t leave us behind if the excursion ran late and we knew the bus would come back for us at the appointed time. They drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road there, so it was a little scary on the drive up the mountain. We got a nice view from the mountain overlook, but most of the shops weren’t open yet so it was a little longer of a stop than it needed to be. Maybe later in the day when everything is open it makes more sense to stop there for 30 min. but that early it was a waste of time. Then we went to the Coral World aquarium. That was really interesting. The kids loved all the fish, and there was a shark feeding, a touch tank, and an underwater observatory in the ocean. It was cool. We had 1.5 hours to see it, which was plenty. We were back to the boat by lunch time.

Lunch was buffet at Topsiders. The ‘American’ buffet. Definitely my least favorite of the buffets, but it wasn’t bad. Just not the kind of variety I like. Kevin was off to the club and Maggie really didn’t want to go so we let her stay with us. We knew she was very tired so we put her in the stroller and went back into town to shop after lunch. we just went to the Havensite mall which is right there at the port. We got a few bottles of alcohol at very good prices. I wish we’d put more thought into it before we went there, we could’ve brought home I think 8 bottles total if we’d bought it in St. Thomas. Maggie fell asleep in the stroller for quite a while so we shopped a little more.

When we got back on board Maggie woke up so we took her up to the pool. They were showing Little Mermaid on the Dumbotron which is one of my favorites. She also went down the Mickey slide a few times- again it was a pretty empty time in the pool.

Kevin ate at the kids club. Maggie was still with us so she had pizza from Pinocchio’s. This might’ve been the first time we tried it- but we found some good pizza for her. We all ended up really liking the Pinocchio’s’ pizza actually and had it several more times before we left. It wasn’t as good as the pizza at Palo of course, but it was good. We skipped the show that night because we had Palo at 7. It was Rich Purpura doing comedy/magic. We took Maggie to the club for Do-Si-Do with Snow White and the Pumba PJ Party. That was why we scheduled Palo for Wednesday- there seemed to be several things she’d want to do at the club that night.

Palo was excellent of course. It’s not just that the food is really good, but also just the atmosphere of adults only is nice. I will say that their calamari was not at all too our liking- way too much breading. We had plenty of other things to enjoy! Pizza, Portobello mushroom over polenta, fillet for Pete and 2 (!) different risottos for me- seafood and wild mushroom. I LOVE risotto! We were paged- by Kevin!- at 8 pm. We weren’t thinking- that was when the Goofy Giggle Gala started and it’s a pj party so he wanted to change. I waited while Pete went to see what was up. By this time, a storm had started so I watched the lightening at sea while I waited. There was a LOT of lightening and heavy rain, but the ship didn’t seem to be rocking badly. For dessert of course we had to try the much touted chocolate soufflé and it lived up to expectations. We also tried the tiramisu, which was good but a little wet, and a pistachio tart.

Maggie paged us at around 9:45 and was ready to leave the club, Kevin wasn’t but we made him leave anyway so we wouldn’t have to come back for him later. We went to find another character or 2- so we have a copule of pictures of them in PJs with characters. I think at this point the only ones she doesn’t have pictures with are Alice, Daisy Duck and Pluto.

When we got back to the room the storm was really loud, but again, the rocking wasn’t bad at all.

We forgot to take the do not disturb off the door that night so there was no towel animal. The kids were bummed! But, we told Margaret (our stateroom hostess) how disappointed the kids were and she left two animals the next night so they didn’t miss any!

At this point it was sinking in that the trip was getting closer to the end, what a drag!

more later-

 

[yazee1]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. I had a feeling the kids would sleep late the one morning you need them up early.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hi Coutney, we were on the ship with you and I think I might have seen you guys at the terminal! I remember a family of four with really cute tie dyed tee shirts and commenting to my dh how great you all looked in them! I am glad that I ended up not getting a spot for Tea With Wendy, it sounds like a waste of time. I am really enjoying your report!

 

[racrj]

Courtney~ who was your driver to Coral World? We also went to Coral World via DCL because it was our first time in St. Thomas.

 

[CourtneyMc]

Day 6

Breakfast at Topsiders. I think the kids might’ve slept until 6:45, but I know it wasn’t any later than that. This time they had cheese grits- YUM! No one else in my family would even try them…unbelievable. We went to Family Kite making at Animators. I was expecting crummy paper kites, but they were nice fabric ones. The kids decorated them with markers. Then we dropped Kevin off at the club. Maggie wasn’t ready yet so we let her wander around with us for a little while. At 11 we dropped her off so we could attend the Disney Behind the Scenes talk. Disney’s VP of Synergy & Special Projects was on board. He’d done a talk earlier in the week, but I think it was during our Palo brunch so we missed it. I’d have loved to have seen both his talks. Anyway, this one was about marketing the Pirates of the Caribbean 2. He talked about the general marketing plan, and got into some detail about the cross-marketing of it betw. the various divisions of Disney. It was really interesting. He said they are really working the Pirates- they want Pirates to be to boys what the Princesses are to little girls, how if you see pink, purple sparkly you think of Disney princess, they are trying to get it to where when you see pirates you think of Disney pirates. We really enjoyed it.

Lunch was at Topsiders again. We really liked the buffets there. We tried really hard to not just grab burgers and fries and Topsiders was a great option. Then we had a little rest time and went to Disney Dreams for the matinee. I liked seeing the show in the afternoon. We took a blanket so we wouldn’t freeze sitting there in our shorts and tees. After that we let Kevin go back to the club since the trip was almost over and he was enjoying it so much. That afternoon was Celebrate the Journey- the kids’ club graduation so after wandering around a little more we dropped Maggie off to get ready for that. We wandered Deck 4 after we dropped her off. I wanted to show Pete the section where you can see the giant chains and ropes for the anchors. We thought that was cool.

We got to the theater early for the graduation because we wanted to be able to see. Maggie was very close to the front with the other little kids so we could see her. We didn’t spot Kevin until the end when he was walking out. They did a cute little program with slides of the kids. I was surprised not to see Kevin on it since he was there so much! They got much nicer hats than Kevin had gotten on the 3 day- I don’t’ know if that’s changed all over or just that the longer cruise gets you a nicer hat, but it was a nice fabric mortar board with ears, and now he has another Disney Sea University T, the old one was getting small.

After we picked them up we went to the pool. Another quiet and empty time to visit the pool is during the early dinner seating/early show. That was really nice, we hung out in the hot tub for a while. I think this was the day the mickey pool was drained and pressure washed during the afternoon. I don’t want to know why they had to do it- but it’s nice to know that they do!

We got ready for our semi-formal night dinner in Lumieres. This was a much nicer atmosphere than formal night in Parrot Cay. I had veal and yet another variety of Risotto- this time it was asparagus and blue cheese. I think that makes 4 different risottos for me on the ship. Heaven! Pete had the venison and it was very good. Dessert was the choc. lava cake. It was very tasty but not as gooey as what I would call a lava cake- and not even close to as good as the choc. soufflé at Palo. The kids got ENOURMOUS bowls of ice cream- 3 scoops to make Mickey’s head, tons of sprinkles and whip cream, and then they each got a small bowl of cherries. They were in heaven.

By this time Maggie was working on a stuffy nose so Pete took her to bed. Kevin and I wanted to go to family “secret agent training’. It was fun- silly games with funny handshakes and poses, a game of ‘stinky fish’ which is a lot like hot potatoe, etc. Then we had to find the map to Castaway Cay which had been stolen. Kevin found the thief in the DJ booth so he got a medal. Cool! Then it was off to bed to rest up for CC tomorrow.

Oh, the kids love the towel animals each night. Yesterday Maggie overheard someone talking about getting a stingray as their animal. So, she asked Margaret, our stateroom hostess if she could do one. She said that wasn’t the animal she’d normally do that day, but she’d see what she could do- of course we had not only the animal of the day but we also had a stingray. That was a nice touch!







Day 7

Castaway Cay, Finally!

We woke up early as usual…by 7am anyway. We had an early breakfast at Topsiders buffet and headed back to the room to get ready for a day at the beach. We were docking around 9 am and cleared to get off the ship by 9:30. The Flying Dutchman, used in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest was docked at Castaway Cay. Kevin loved seeing it from the balcony and couldn’t wait to get a closer look. We were among the first groups to disembark and saw Jack Sparrow standing by for a photo op. But, we’d already gotten a picture with him and were eager to see the island so we skipped it. When I saw other people’s photos from that shot with the ocean in the background, I wished we’d taken 5 minutes and gotten one too. Oh well. We did stop and get a picture with Mickey by the character buoys.

We didn’t want to wait for a tram so we started walking to the family beach. It was hot and humid, even for us Floridians! We saw the kids’ club but Maggie wasn’t ready to check in yet. We had a little time before we needed to head to Serenity Bay for our couple’s massage at 11 so we took the kids for a quick dip in the water. Then it was back to the kids’ club. They tell you to allow 40 min. to get to the cabanas from the ship and we weren’t going to chance being late. Kevin started out at Monstro’s point digging for whale bones and Maggie was in Scuttle’s Cove for sand castle building and water fun. Pete and I took the tram over to Serenity Bay and found the massage cabanas; it didn’t take long from the kids’ club. There was no one there to check in with or a sign saying what to do so we wandered around a little. Finally we pulled out the reservation form and saw that it said to take a seat and wait. It would be nice if that was marked somewhere else! We had about 25 min. so we went to the beach and swung in a hammock and watched the clouds for a little while before we went back to the cabanas. The massage was wonderful, the sea breeze and noises made a nice atmosphere. However, I think I might’ve flashed someone when I was changing, I didn’t realize the cabanas were positioned so you could see the populated section of the beach from the window! Oh well… I still like the hot stone massage best, but the cabana massage was a very nice treat.

After the massage, relaxed and happy, it was quick tram ride back to pick up the kids. They were both busily playing in sand and water. Kevin didn’t want to leave because they were in the middle of a castle building contest, but we didn’t want to have to come back and get him later. The promise of ice cream convinced him. They’d already eaten but we were hungry so off we went to Cookie’s BBQ. We sampled the burgers, salmon sandwich, ribs, and jerk chicken, and of course the usual fruit salad. The chicken was excellent. The kids had some soft serve cookie dough ice cream cones and drinks while we ate. When we finished up we were ready to hit the beach. We took the long way to get our floats, there was a much closer stand to where we ended up settling down, I guess we should’ve read the map! Most of the shaded chairs were taken at the close end of the beach so we walked a long way to find an umbrella chair. We were very hot and ready to hit the water once we picked our spot. We took the water cameras out and Kevin and Maggie loved taking pics in the water; we’ll see if any of them come out! The water was warm and fairly clear but somewhat stirred up by all the swimmers. The beach was not too crowded, which was really nice. I read for a while and tried to get a very tired Maggie to lie down and rest, but that didn’t work. Later we tried flying the kites we’d decorated the day before but there was no breeze.

By around 2:30 we were tired and ready to get out of the sun so we headed back. Thankfully a tram came quickly as I wasn’t sure Maggie would make it walking and Pete wasn’t in the mood to wait. Kevin and I stopped to buy postage for our post cards and put them in the mail and Pete and Maggie went ahead to start showering. When we came out, Pluto was there. That was the only time all trip there was a character about and Maggie wasn’t around. I felt bad because Pluto was one of the few at that point that Maggie hadn’t gotten in a picture.

We showered off and the kids laid down to rest while Pete and I started trying to figure out what we needed to do to pack, fill out our customs forms, etc. I went to get us the usual Pinocchio’s’ pizza and watermelon for a 5pm snack, and also got a couple panninis I’d been wanting to try. The veggie one was excellent! Pete stayed behind to pack while I took the kids to the final show, Remember the Magic. I think he’d had enough of the shows by then. It was cute, they brought back some of the storylines from earlier shows, and included the juggler who was great and Rich Purpura the magician/comedian. All the Disney characters were on stage at the end. It was good. By the time we got back, Pete was all packed! Amazing. We wanted to get a couple more bottles of alcohol, I really wish we’d thought thru what we might want in St. Thomas, because we could only get 2L on board and not have to pay customs- the prices were really good. So, we headed to the liquor store and Rockin’ Bar D for the Family Dance Party. Finally we found what we’d been looking for all week- a real family dance time! The ship’s band XOP was playing and they were pretty good. The kids loved it! They had so much fun dancing, and the best part was they let the kids up on stage, danced with them, let them sing along, etc. They’d even mime the kids’ dance moves from stage, which was a riot! Kevin would be doing this straight legged kick thing, and next thing you know, so was one of the singers on stage, or they’d be shaking their hips and jumping just like Maggie. I don’t know if this was the only real family disco time or just the only one we managed to attend, but I wish we’d gotten to do more. It was really fun to dance with the kids. They didn’t see a dance floor they didn’t like all week, but this was definitely the highlight for dancing.

Our final dinner was in Animators again. The kids really liked that restaurant. Could it have something to do with the TV screens on the walls that occasionally showed cartoon clips? Hmmm…. For dinner that night, Maggie had the fillet- Leasa brought her the entire adult plate with the adult potato (which was a bizarre fried thing with a gooey texture) and vegetables, plus her standard side of broccoli and her requested fries. The one adult meal would’ve been plenty- she would’ve eaten the zucchini and carrots if she hadn’t had the broccoli instead. Whatever… Kevin had meatloaf, which he said wasn’t as good as mine. =). I had seafood pasta and shared about half with Maggie, Pete had lamb and pronounced it the best he’d ever had. The kids were all over their ice cream, sprinkles, whip cream and cherries while Pete had the choc. decadence and I tried the banana crème brulee napoleon or something like that. Mine wasn’t very good, Pete’s was ok but these were our least favorite desserts all week. What I really liked was the Golden Farewell coffee drink- I don’t remember what all was in it, but it was good! At the end of the meal they did a parade of baked Alaska- Kevin was shocked that they were carrying around flaming dessert! “The pie is on fire mom!”

After long goodbyes to Viviane and Leasa in case we didn’t see them next day at breakfast, Maggie and Pete were ready to turn in. Pete was coming down with Maggie’s cold at that point. Kevin wanted a little more time in the club and I wanted to see what “Pub night” was all about as I’d heard it was fun. there was a great guitar player/singer there when I arrived. I wonder if he was there the whole trip? I thought he was great! This was my first trip to the bar at night. It wasn’t at all smoky- the fear of which was probably part of why we stayed away- and it was a comfortable nice hang out place. The little show the cruise staff put on was fun and funny, but you have to like sing-a-longs. I do, so I did.

At 11:30 I was ready to get Kevin and call it a night. He was playing computers in the Captain’s Closet area and didn’t want to go, but I was too tired to go back out. It was a nice final night on board all the way around.

I don’t think I mentioned it earlier, but we had a lot of trouble with the digital clock we brought- I think the power in the room outlets is a little low so the clock would slow down. It doesn’t do that at home, so I’m pretty sure it was the power. Word to the wise, we were almost late for a couple of things b/c we didn’t realize it for a while.
Disembarkation Day

We woke up around 6:45 or 7- the latest the kids slept all week was today of course! All we had to do was pack the rest of our clothes from the night before and toiletries. Our big mistake was trying to leave out the wet stuff to dry overnight- it was a lot more to pack than I had realized so we were sort of overloaded to head to breakfast. We ate in Animators one last time- the omelets off the breakfast menu here are nothing compared to the ones at the omelets station upstairs at Topsiders. Oh well. It’s not like I needed a huge breakfast just to drive home.

It was a breeze to get off the ship and we found a porter and our bags easily. In no time we were thru customs and outside right at 8:30 to meet Leslie for our ride home. The laundry is half done, and the bags are all unpacked. Back to reality. The good news is, I only gained about 2 lbs and as you can see if you read this, I ate a LOT. We almost never took the elevators though and I think that helped a lot. And, I ordered what sounded good but rarely finished anything.

One final note- Pete had to buy some ice cream at the store today because ‘I wasn’t ready to go cold turkey on dessert.”

Things I’d do differently next time-
1) skip tea with Wendy
2) schedule Palo brunch later in the week instead of our first sea day. There was a lot going on that day and I didn’t feel acclimated yet so I’d have rather waited.
3) try to figure out when your character b-fast is and schedule Palo brunch around that. we skipped the character breakfast because it was the same day as our Palo brunch and we didn’t’ have time to do both. Also, thanks to the DIS boards, we’d heard it was nothing compared to the ones at WDW so we knew we weren’t missing much (been there, done that).
4) hot stone massage instead of cabana massage. The cabana was nice, don’t get me wrong, but in terms of value and time, you can’t beat the hot stone massage. Also, I saw that on port days they discounted it pretty well, so that would be a great day for it.
5) get an interior stateroom. We really liked the balcony, but I think the kid’s might’ve slept a little longer if it had been pitch dark!