Disclaimer: This is a very long report, but there was so much I wanted to say, that I just couldnt figure out where to cut back, so please bear with me when you read this!
A little background: Traveling, DH38, DSs 5, 7 and 9 and myself. This was our childrens first cruise, and our first DCL cruise. My husband and I have been on 2 RCCL cruises, Voyager of the Seas on the Western itinerary and Radiance of the Seas to Alaska. We were very big fans of RCCL and a little leery of sailing a different line. I spent much time reading this board, in fact I was addicted the last few weeks! Also, please remember these are just my opinions and that other peoples opinions may vary!
We had a late flight on Friday, so we stayed Friday night at La Quinta near the airport, $26 per room on priceline. Rooms were fine. We had rented a minivan from Budget both to and from the port. They were about $20 cheaper each way than avis, and their service was great. We drove to the port the next morning, stopped and had breakfast and made a trip to Target near the port to buy sunscreen and sand toys. Got to the port around 10:45.
Im not really good at remembering what we ate, or what we did each day, so I thought I would write this report based on my observations and comparing the trips between RCCL and DCL.
Boarding:
I felt the check-in process went fairly easily, the line was long to board, we joined the line at the opposite end of the terminal alongside the escalator. Once they started boarding the line moved fairly fast. I had heard a lot about how great it was for them to announce your name as you enter and they applaud. I was disappointed in this, they seemed so rushed, and there was one sorry cast member there applauding ever so often looking bored. Pretty hokey and just held up the boarding I thought.
The Ship:
Since our experience was with the new RCCL ships, both the mega 142,000 ton Voyager and the new Radiance of the Seas, my first impressions of the ship werent that great. I was used to vast open areas with 8 story or more atriums etc. so I felt the atrium was very small, only 3 stories, and the ceilings in the dining rooms and Walt Disney theatre felt closed in. The Voyager dining room was 3 stories, and the Radiance 2, as well as the theatres on those ships had balconies, and took up two plus decks. I also felt there was better artwork in the stairwells hallways etc on RCCL ships. I love Disney so I did like looking at some of the pictures on the walls, but I enjoyed the different types of art and sculptures in the stairwells of RCCL ships.
However, as the week went on, we began to get used to the ship, and appreciate how it was reminiscent of old ocean liners.
Our cabin:
Since there were 5 of us, we had a category 4 stateroom, 8586, on the starboard side just aft of the aft elevators. I was very impressed by the double bathroom; it came in very handy with 5 people. The room was well laid out with plenty of storage. One of my few complaints was the TV being hard to see from the main bed in the room. When the kids went to sleep we wanted to watch TV from bed, and it was somewhat difficult to do, and you couldnt watch it if you wanted to shut the curtain between the kids beds and the adults.
Also the balcony wasnt able to be used at night when the kids were asleep because the 5th bed blocks the door to the balcony. There really isnt any other way to lay the room out, but it is kind of a bummer.
The other problem is that every night or early morning, before daylight, they cleaned the deck above us and moved the tables around. I was the only one who heard this, but it was kind of annoying. However, since our only choice was deck 8; (I really like having a balcony, so I didnt want two category 10 staterooms) so this probably happens in most category 8 staterooms.
I had read many posts on bringing air freshener for the bathroom, and never really understood why and since I never had a problem on other cruises I didnt bring it. Well, I found out why, the smell in the bathroom with the toilet was terrible (it smelled like a sewer)! Since I was traveling with all boys, I had to dress in there, and let me tell you it wasnt pleasant. So for all future cruisers bring air freshener!!
Another tip I read but didnt follow was packing an extension cord. I really wish I had. The only plugs I could find were on the desk, and the 2 plugs were so closed together that I could only plug in one thing at a time, (everything I needed to plug in had big plugs, i.e. camera chargers, phone charger, gameboy charger etc.) It wasnt until the 2nd to last day that I found another plug behind the TV!
Suitcase storage: We had 7 pieces of luggage and a car seat booster. Two of my suitcases were the super large suitcases soft sided, but with a frame that wont collapse down. They are the maximum size that airlines will permit. We had no trouble fitting ALL luggage under the bed. The duffle bags and garment bag went into the big suitcases, and the large suitcases fit one under each side of the bed. We had to lift the beds up to slide them under but they fit. We stored out snorkeling gear out on the balcony behind the chair. My husband didnt believe that I could get everything unpacked and put away, but I made it.
A hint I learned on these boards for packing was a great success. I packed all the boys clothes in gallon size ziplock bags with a shirt, shorts and a pair of underwear in each bag. I wrote their names on the outside. When it was time to get dressed, all I had to do was hand them a bag. What a time saver that was, and I had pushed the air out before I sealed them, so the clothes took up less space and they didnt wrinkle. I will definitely do this on every vacation from now on!
Dining Rooms and Food:
We had the APLAPLA rotation, (exactly as predicted based on the chart!). The dining room was full of little ones! After a few days of dinner I understood why the rotation dining. With the amount of small children on DCL, if they had one big fancy multi story dining room the noise level would be awful. By having smaller dining rooms they can keep all the small ones together away from the rest of the population! The system works great!
We had Putu from Bali as our server and Passayu from Thailand as the assistant. Both were very good, but Passayu was the most friendly. They were very attentive wanting to make sure we felt everything was excellent, which Putu drove the point home the last day stressing at least 3 times the fact that they hoped that their service was excellent and they hoped we would say that on the survey. We did of course because we did think it was excellent, but I didnt like being reminded of it so much.
I was not that impressed with the food, for some reason I had a hard time finding entrées I liked. That was never a problem on RCCL. I especially didnt like the food on tropical night, if you dont like Caribbean food, theirs not much else. However, my husband thought the food was great every night, and preferred the menus on DCL over RCCL.
The dress in the dining room wasnt what I was expecting. On the RCCL ships, people follow the dress guidelines much more, and do dress formal for formal nights. On this trip I only saw one or two tuxes on formal night, and many people werent even dressed up at all. Our tablemates (we shared a table for 10 with another family of 5) didnt follow the guidelines at all. The father wore a short sleeve shirt(not even a short sleeve dress shirt) on formal night and his (6 year old son) wore T-shirts and shorts most nights, and one or two nights he wore T-shirts and pants with sandals. I wasnt offended and it didnt make me feel uncomfortable, I just think it makes the night more special when everyone dresses up. (My boys looked adorable in their sport coats and ties, so that made me happy! I got the best picture of them that night)
Tropical night, I was expecting everyone to dress for that as well. Only about 25 percent of the dining room was wearing tropical clothes.
Animators Palate show I think my expectations on this were too high, because I really didnt think it was that great. This was my lease favorite restaurant in regards to décor, (but my favorite menu).
Food on Deck I liked the breakfast in Topsiders, we ate there every morning. It started being self serve earlier than I had heard, either Tuesday or Wednesday. The food at Plutos and Pinocchios was great, much more variety easily available than on the Radiance
Room service - we never ordered sandwiches but we did order the cheese platter, (several times) which was to die for. When you sail definitely order it often! It is great to have when you are dressing for dinner, or later at night if you get hungry.
Palos We had brunch on Thursday. We went to Rockin Bar D after boarding around 1:00 and got our first choice of dinner and brunch, however, we ended up canceling dinner. It was very good, the smoked salmon was the best I had ever eaten, but I didnt really like the crab legs, (prefer them warm), although they sure made it easy to eat, (already split open). Gabriella was our server, she was very informative, but we prefer to be left alone once we know what were doing, buffet wise, so we didnt like her hovering around too much, which she figured out.
Crew Members I thought the crew members were about the same as on RCCL, both were excellent, friendly and helpful. No complaints from either line. I think the service is the best part of cruising, when you are a stay at home mom, the pampering is the best part!
Shows Disney Dreams was my favorite and Hercules the Muse-ical was my husbands and DS9s favorite. I had heard a lot about Disney Dreams and was hoping I wouldnt be disappointed, and I wasnt! I found myself teary-eyed watching it, not believing that I was finally there seeing it!
The production quality of the shows was definitely better than RCCL. Most of their shows are entertainers, which I enjoyed, but nothing beats a Disney themed production show. That being said, the quality of the production of Morty the Magician was good, but I found the storyline to be a bore, and finally left after 25 minutes or so. Definitely would not see that one again or recommend it to someone else.
Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? Show I had read on the board that if you want a better chance of being a contestant, pick a row where no one is sitting. I didnt tell this to my husband, because I didnt think he would want to go on stage, so I just had us daly in the store until right before the show started, and sat in row U (about the 5th row from the back.) on the right side along the isle. No one was sitting in that row, except way at the far left. Well, it was time for the second contestant to be picked, and the computer flashed row U, up ran the cast member to our isle, and then the seat number was 7 or something. No one was there, so they went back up the seat numbers to my husband!!! He wasnt thrilled of course, but what could he do, everyone was staring at him! So he went up there with my DS9. (Thank goodness the other two boys were in the club, I would have hated for him to choose who got to go on stage!). They did good, but got a really tough question at the $125 mark, What is the first Disney film Tim Rice did the lyrics for? They used the ask the panel and the 50/50 but still guessed the wrong answer. They ended up winning $80 stateroom credit! It was great fun, and free money for souvenirs is nothing to sneeze at! By the way the correct answer was Aladdin.
Kids Clubs My kids really liked the clubs, I had two in the 5-7 group and one in the 8-9 group. We went on this cruise with the attitude that this trip was for the kids so the only time we asked them to go to the club at a certain time was when we went to Palos brunch on Thursday. All other times they went to the club only when they wanted to go.
They went to the club usually for an activity in the morning, sometimes again in the afternoon, and then after dinner. The only day they didnt go was St. Thomas day, which was when they showed the movie Treasure Planet in the Disney Theatre.
DS9 liked going to the activities, i.e. flubber making, building the soap car, etc. He would sign himself in for those activities and then sign himself out and meet us when it was over. He liked to go to the shows with us after dinner, then go to the activity around 9:30 or so and be done by about 11:00 most nights.
DSs 5 and 7 liked going to the movie theatre and activities as well. They felt the free time in the club was kind of boring, but really liked the free time when they were taken to the lab. There was much more to do there.
None of the kids liked to eat with the club. DS9 ate lunch the first day, said it was ok, but preferred to eat with us. (He has an appetite like an adult and enjoyed eating all the fancy foods in the dining room). DSs 5 and 7 ate lunch twice with the club, once by choice and the second when we ate a Palos. They only did it the second time, by us promising to take them to eat again right after we picked them up. My DS7 did not like the fact that they filled their plate and didnt give them a choice. They all loved eating dinner with us so much that I would never have considered forcing them to miss a dinner so we could eat a Palos. We had reservations for Thursday night, but cancelled so we could eat with them.
The counselors were GREAT with the kids, my DS9 really bonded with a few, and my other two liked theirs as well. My only complaint was the sign in system for the 5-7 year olds. Very long lines to check in, seemed there system could be improved some way. My kids would get very frustrated if they had to wait for very long. This was not a problem with the 8-9 year olds because there were fewer kids in that group and many signed themselves in and out.
The program says no signing in the 15 minutes while they are moving from one activity to another, which makes sense, but it was really like 20-25 minutes. I waited in line at the club starting at 9:30am for an activity that was to be at the sports deck at 10:00 am. When I was almost to the front of the line around 9:37 or so, I was told, no more signing in at the club, I must now wait and take him at 10:00 am to the sports deck. Needless to say, my DS5 was not happy, his brother had signed in earlier with his dad, because he had finished breakfast faster. We then went straight to the sports deck and waited until 10, so that we were the first to sign in and he wouldnt miss the activity.
Another time I tried to sign him in at the start of a movie in the theatre, and the counselors were more interested in joking with each other than signing in the line of kids waiting. (I had signed him in earlier at the club, to avoid doing it at the theatre, but unfortunately he had a bit of an accident (not used to wearing a belt) right before the move to the movie and I had to go pick him up and change him, and then return him to the theatre right when the movie was starting.)
Overall, though, the kids club was an excellent program, top notch!!!
Oh, and do not miss the kids show at the end. You have to leave Castaway Cay a little early, the kids have to check in by 4:00 pm, but if they participate they get a free shirt, and it was absolutely adorable. Needless to say, I had tears then as well!
Ports St. Maarten We took the water taxi to the beach, rented two loungers and umbrella for $10 and relaxed with the kids all day. Shopped for a few minutes, then returned to the ship around 4:00pm. There were lots of women selling stuff and braiding hair on the beach, but all it took was a quick polite no thank you and they moved on. Very friendly polite people.
St. Thomas we had reserved a car from Budget, picked that up, stopped at a grocery store bought pop and chips, and drove to Megans Bay. Rented two chairs, $4 each, and a float $6 plus a $20 deposit for all and had a very wonderful day. Had to be the prettiest water I had ever seen. No surf at all, just gorgeous sand and blue water. The food however was very expensive, hamburgers were approx. $7.00 apiece. They were very good, but cost a lot. Next time I will take the time to bring sandwiches from the ship.
Castaway Cay Gorgeous!! Husband and DS7 waited near the gangway and were one of the first off the ship. They ran, (did not take the tram) all the way to the beach and snagged a hammock and two lounges and umbrella right in front of the kids climbing thing in the middle of the water. I followed shortly thereafter leisurely taking the tram with the rest of the kids and stuff. The beach filled up quickly, but the further down you went the less crowded it was, so for people getting off the ship late, if they went down far enough there were still loungers and umbrellas available for everyone.
The air temp in the Bahamas is cooler than the Caribbean, it was only in the lower 70s and the water temp was cold. We did venture in, but not as much as St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Lunch was delicious, and the service was excellent. The whole place was so perfect that it almost felt fake, but thankfully was not!! The only bad part of Castaway Cay was knowing I had to go back to the ship to pack.
Money we were trying to spend as little as possible but still have a good time. Our shipboard account was about $1000 for the week which included $450 for tips, $40 for brunch and $120 for bingo (my husbands weakness). The rest was spent on souvenirs, a few cocktails, and $80 for pictures. This was the least we had ever spent on a cruise, and there were 3 more of us than usual so I felt we did very very good, and I never felt like I was missing something.
Debarkation - went smoother than any other ship, DCL has a very great system. They are telling people at the debarkation talk that the porters do not work for DCL and that it is customary to tip $1.50 per bag if you use them. I dont know if this is new, but I figured it was in response to the threads about the porters and the fact that they are handing out flyers to people as they arrive at port about them being non union, or something (I didnt read it very carefully, and I tipped both ways).
Sickness This had been my biggest concern when planning this trip. I worried and worried, but thankfully we didnt see one sick person the whole week. Although we were careful and washed our hands frequently, we still swam in the Mickey pool, spent time in the kids clubs and we ate off the buffet, and thankfully we had wonderful week with no illness at all!
I know this has been a long report, and I hope there are a few who were able to make it through the whole thing! I learned so much from these boards and so much of the information helped us have a wonderful wonderful time! I hope by writing this, I can repay that help by helping someone else.
At the end of the trip we asked our kids if they preferred the cruise to a week at WDW and they all said yes! They are definitely hooked on cruising. We would like to go again next year, but are leaning toward trying an RCCL voyager class ship next. I think the kids will really like the rock climbing wall, putt putt course and the ice skating rink (that show is amazing!). Although we will miss Mickey, I felt the two lines were very comparable, and would like to take the kids on a new adventure.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, I would love to help, now that I have first hand experience!
A little background: Traveling, DH38, DSs 5, 7 and 9 and myself. This was our childrens first cruise, and our first DCL cruise. My husband and I have been on 2 RCCL cruises, Voyager of the Seas on the Western itinerary and Radiance of the Seas to Alaska. We were very big fans of RCCL and a little leery of sailing a different line. I spent much time reading this board, in fact I was addicted the last few weeks! Also, please remember these are just my opinions and that other peoples opinions may vary!
We had a late flight on Friday, so we stayed Friday night at La Quinta near the airport, $26 per room on priceline. Rooms were fine. We had rented a minivan from Budget both to and from the port. They were about $20 cheaper each way than avis, and their service was great. We drove to the port the next morning, stopped and had breakfast and made a trip to Target near the port to buy sunscreen and sand toys. Got to the port around 10:45.
Im not really good at remembering what we ate, or what we did each day, so I thought I would write this report based on my observations and comparing the trips between RCCL and DCL.
Boarding:
I felt the check-in process went fairly easily, the line was long to board, we joined the line at the opposite end of the terminal alongside the escalator. Once they started boarding the line moved fairly fast. I had heard a lot about how great it was for them to announce your name as you enter and they applaud. I was disappointed in this, they seemed so rushed, and there was one sorry cast member there applauding ever so often looking bored. Pretty hokey and just held up the boarding I thought.
The Ship:
Since our experience was with the new RCCL ships, both the mega 142,000 ton Voyager and the new Radiance of the Seas, my first impressions of the ship werent that great. I was used to vast open areas with 8 story or more atriums etc. so I felt the atrium was very small, only 3 stories, and the ceilings in the dining rooms and Walt Disney theatre felt closed in. The Voyager dining room was 3 stories, and the Radiance 2, as well as the theatres on those ships had balconies, and took up two plus decks. I also felt there was better artwork in the stairwells hallways etc on RCCL ships. I love Disney so I did like looking at some of the pictures on the walls, but I enjoyed the different types of art and sculptures in the stairwells of RCCL ships.
However, as the week went on, we began to get used to the ship, and appreciate how it was reminiscent of old ocean liners.
Our cabin:
Since there were 5 of us, we had a category 4 stateroom, 8586, on the starboard side just aft of the aft elevators. I was very impressed by the double bathroom; it came in very handy with 5 people. The room was well laid out with plenty of storage. One of my few complaints was the TV being hard to see from the main bed in the room. When the kids went to sleep we wanted to watch TV from bed, and it was somewhat difficult to do, and you couldnt watch it if you wanted to shut the curtain between the kids beds and the adults.
Also the balcony wasnt able to be used at night when the kids were asleep because the 5th bed blocks the door to the balcony. There really isnt any other way to lay the room out, but it is kind of a bummer.
The other problem is that every night or early morning, before daylight, they cleaned the deck above us and moved the tables around. I was the only one who heard this, but it was kind of annoying. However, since our only choice was deck 8; (I really like having a balcony, so I didnt want two category 10 staterooms) so this probably happens in most category 8 staterooms.
I had read many posts on bringing air freshener for the bathroom, and never really understood why and since I never had a problem on other cruises I didnt bring it. Well, I found out why, the smell in the bathroom with the toilet was terrible (it smelled like a sewer)! Since I was traveling with all boys, I had to dress in there, and let me tell you it wasnt pleasant. So for all future cruisers bring air freshener!!
Another tip I read but didnt follow was packing an extension cord. I really wish I had. The only plugs I could find were on the desk, and the 2 plugs were so closed together that I could only plug in one thing at a time, (everything I needed to plug in had big plugs, i.e. camera chargers, phone charger, gameboy charger etc.) It wasnt until the 2nd to last day that I found another plug behind the TV!
Suitcase storage: We had 7 pieces of luggage and a car seat booster. Two of my suitcases were the super large suitcases soft sided, but with a frame that wont collapse down. They are the maximum size that airlines will permit. We had no trouble fitting ALL luggage under the bed. The duffle bags and garment bag went into the big suitcases, and the large suitcases fit one under each side of the bed. We had to lift the beds up to slide them under but they fit. We stored out snorkeling gear out on the balcony behind the chair. My husband didnt believe that I could get everything unpacked and put away, but I made it.
A hint I learned on these boards for packing was a great success. I packed all the boys clothes in gallon size ziplock bags with a shirt, shorts and a pair of underwear in each bag. I wrote their names on the outside. When it was time to get dressed, all I had to do was hand them a bag. What a time saver that was, and I had pushed the air out before I sealed them, so the clothes took up less space and they didnt wrinkle. I will definitely do this on every vacation from now on!
Dining Rooms and Food:
We had the APLAPLA rotation, (exactly as predicted based on the chart!). The dining room was full of little ones! After a few days of dinner I understood why the rotation dining. With the amount of small children on DCL, if they had one big fancy multi story dining room the noise level would be awful. By having smaller dining rooms they can keep all the small ones together away from the rest of the population! The system works great!
We had Putu from Bali as our server and Passayu from Thailand as the assistant. Both were very good, but Passayu was the most friendly. They were very attentive wanting to make sure we felt everything was excellent, which Putu drove the point home the last day stressing at least 3 times the fact that they hoped that their service was excellent and they hoped we would say that on the survey. We did of course because we did think it was excellent, but I didnt like being reminded of it so much.
I was not that impressed with the food, for some reason I had a hard time finding entrées I liked. That was never a problem on RCCL. I especially didnt like the food on tropical night, if you dont like Caribbean food, theirs not much else. However, my husband thought the food was great every night, and preferred the menus on DCL over RCCL.
The dress in the dining room wasnt what I was expecting. On the RCCL ships, people follow the dress guidelines much more, and do dress formal for formal nights. On this trip I only saw one or two tuxes on formal night, and many people werent even dressed up at all. Our tablemates (we shared a table for 10 with another family of 5) didnt follow the guidelines at all. The father wore a short sleeve shirt(not even a short sleeve dress shirt) on formal night and his (6 year old son) wore T-shirts and shorts most nights, and one or two nights he wore T-shirts and pants with sandals. I wasnt offended and it didnt make me feel uncomfortable, I just think it makes the night more special when everyone dresses up. (My boys looked adorable in their sport coats and ties, so that made me happy! I got the best picture of them that night)
Tropical night, I was expecting everyone to dress for that as well. Only about 25 percent of the dining room was wearing tropical clothes.
Animators Palate show I think my expectations on this were too high, because I really didnt think it was that great. This was my lease favorite restaurant in regards to décor, (but my favorite menu).
Food on Deck I liked the breakfast in Topsiders, we ate there every morning. It started being self serve earlier than I had heard, either Tuesday or Wednesday. The food at Plutos and Pinocchios was great, much more variety easily available than on the Radiance
Room service - we never ordered sandwiches but we did order the cheese platter, (several times) which was to die for. When you sail definitely order it often! It is great to have when you are dressing for dinner, or later at night if you get hungry.
Palos We had brunch on Thursday. We went to Rockin Bar D after boarding around 1:00 and got our first choice of dinner and brunch, however, we ended up canceling dinner. It was very good, the smoked salmon was the best I had ever eaten, but I didnt really like the crab legs, (prefer them warm), although they sure made it easy to eat, (already split open). Gabriella was our server, she was very informative, but we prefer to be left alone once we know what were doing, buffet wise, so we didnt like her hovering around too much, which she figured out.
Crew Members I thought the crew members were about the same as on RCCL, both were excellent, friendly and helpful. No complaints from either line. I think the service is the best part of cruising, when you are a stay at home mom, the pampering is the best part!
Shows Disney Dreams was my favorite and Hercules the Muse-ical was my husbands and DS9s favorite. I had heard a lot about Disney Dreams and was hoping I wouldnt be disappointed, and I wasnt! I found myself teary-eyed watching it, not believing that I was finally there seeing it!
The production quality of the shows was definitely better than RCCL. Most of their shows are entertainers, which I enjoyed, but nothing beats a Disney themed production show. That being said, the quality of the production of Morty the Magician was good, but I found the storyline to be a bore, and finally left after 25 minutes or so. Definitely would not see that one again or recommend it to someone else.
Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? Show I had read on the board that if you want a better chance of being a contestant, pick a row where no one is sitting. I didnt tell this to my husband, because I didnt think he would want to go on stage, so I just had us daly in the store until right before the show started, and sat in row U (about the 5th row from the back.) on the right side along the isle. No one was sitting in that row, except way at the far left. Well, it was time for the second contestant to be picked, and the computer flashed row U, up ran the cast member to our isle, and then the seat number was 7 or something. No one was there, so they went back up the seat numbers to my husband!!! He wasnt thrilled of course, but what could he do, everyone was staring at him! So he went up there with my DS9. (Thank goodness the other two boys were in the club, I would have hated for him to choose who got to go on stage!). They did good, but got a really tough question at the $125 mark, What is the first Disney film Tim Rice did the lyrics for? They used the ask the panel and the 50/50 but still guessed the wrong answer. They ended up winning $80 stateroom credit! It was great fun, and free money for souvenirs is nothing to sneeze at! By the way the correct answer was Aladdin.
Kids Clubs My kids really liked the clubs, I had two in the 5-7 group and one in the 8-9 group. We went on this cruise with the attitude that this trip was for the kids so the only time we asked them to go to the club at a certain time was when we went to Palos brunch on Thursday. All other times they went to the club only when they wanted to go.
They went to the club usually for an activity in the morning, sometimes again in the afternoon, and then after dinner. The only day they didnt go was St. Thomas day, which was when they showed the movie Treasure Planet in the Disney Theatre.
DS9 liked going to the activities, i.e. flubber making, building the soap car, etc. He would sign himself in for those activities and then sign himself out and meet us when it was over. He liked to go to the shows with us after dinner, then go to the activity around 9:30 or so and be done by about 11:00 most nights.
DSs 5 and 7 liked going to the movie theatre and activities as well. They felt the free time in the club was kind of boring, but really liked the free time when they were taken to the lab. There was much more to do there.
None of the kids liked to eat with the club. DS9 ate lunch the first day, said it was ok, but preferred to eat with us. (He has an appetite like an adult and enjoyed eating all the fancy foods in the dining room). DSs 5 and 7 ate lunch twice with the club, once by choice and the second when we ate a Palos. They only did it the second time, by us promising to take them to eat again right after we picked them up. My DS7 did not like the fact that they filled their plate and didnt give them a choice. They all loved eating dinner with us so much that I would never have considered forcing them to miss a dinner so we could eat a Palos. We had reservations for Thursday night, but cancelled so we could eat with them.
The counselors were GREAT with the kids, my DS9 really bonded with a few, and my other two liked theirs as well. My only complaint was the sign in system for the 5-7 year olds. Very long lines to check in, seemed there system could be improved some way. My kids would get very frustrated if they had to wait for very long. This was not a problem with the 8-9 year olds because there were fewer kids in that group and many signed themselves in and out.
The program says no signing in the 15 minutes while they are moving from one activity to another, which makes sense, but it was really like 20-25 minutes. I waited in line at the club starting at 9:30am for an activity that was to be at the sports deck at 10:00 am. When I was almost to the front of the line around 9:37 or so, I was told, no more signing in at the club, I must now wait and take him at 10:00 am to the sports deck. Needless to say, my DS5 was not happy, his brother had signed in earlier with his dad, because he had finished breakfast faster. We then went straight to the sports deck and waited until 10, so that we were the first to sign in and he wouldnt miss the activity.
Another time I tried to sign him in at the start of a movie in the theatre, and the counselors were more interested in joking with each other than signing in the line of kids waiting. (I had signed him in earlier at the club, to avoid doing it at the theatre, but unfortunately he had a bit of an accident (not used to wearing a belt) right before the move to the movie and I had to go pick him up and change him, and then return him to the theatre right when the movie was starting.)
Overall, though, the kids club was an excellent program, top notch!!!
Oh, and do not miss the kids show at the end. You have to leave Castaway Cay a little early, the kids have to check in by 4:00 pm, but if they participate they get a free shirt, and it was absolutely adorable. Needless to say, I had tears then as well!
Ports St. Maarten We took the water taxi to the beach, rented two loungers and umbrella for $10 and relaxed with the kids all day. Shopped for a few minutes, then returned to the ship around 4:00pm. There were lots of women selling stuff and braiding hair on the beach, but all it took was a quick polite no thank you and they moved on. Very friendly polite people.
St. Thomas we had reserved a car from Budget, picked that up, stopped at a grocery store bought pop and chips, and drove to Megans Bay. Rented two chairs, $4 each, and a float $6 plus a $20 deposit for all and had a very wonderful day. Had to be the prettiest water I had ever seen. No surf at all, just gorgeous sand and blue water. The food however was very expensive, hamburgers were approx. $7.00 apiece. They were very good, but cost a lot. Next time I will take the time to bring sandwiches from the ship.
Castaway Cay Gorgeous!! Husband and DS7 waited near the gangway and were one of the first off the ship. They ran, (did not take the tram) all the way to the beach and snagged a hammock and two lounges and umbrella right in front of the kids climbing thing in the middle of the water. I followed shortly thereafter leisurely taking the tram with the rest of the kids and stuff. The beach filled up quickly, but the further down you went the less crowded it was, so for people getting off the ship late, if they went down far enough there were still loungers and umbrellas available for everyone.
The air temp in the Bahamas is cooler than the Caribbean, it was only in the lower 70s and the water temp was cold. We did venture in, but not as much as St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Lunch was delicious, and the service was excellent. The whole place was so perfect that it almost felt fake, but thankfully was not!! The only bad part of Castaway Cay was knowing I had to go back to the ship to pack.
Money we were trying to spend as little as possible but still have a good time. Our shipboard account was about $1000 for the week which included $450 for tips, $40 for brunch and $120 for bingo (my husbands weakness). The rest was spent on souvenirs, a few cocktails, and $80 for pictures. This was the least we had ever spent on a cruise, and there were 3 more of us than usual so I felt we did very very good, and I never felt like I was missing something.
Debarkation - went smoother than any other ship, DCL has a very great system. They are telling people at the debarkation talk that the porters do not work for DCL and that it is customary to tip $1.50 per bag if you use them. I dont know if this is new, but I figured it was in response to the threads about the porters and the fact that they are handing out flyers to people as they arrive at port about them being non union, or something (I didnt read it very carefully, and I tipped both ways).
Sickness This had been my biggest concern when planning this trip. I worried and worried, but thankfully we didnt see one sick person the whole week. Although we were careful and washed our hands frequently, we still swam in the Mickey pool, spent time in the kids clubs and we ate off the buffet, and thankfully we had wonderful week with no illness at all!
I know this has been a long report, and I hope there are a few who were able to make it through the whole thing! I learned so much from these boards and so much of the information helped us have a wonderful wonderful time! I hope by writing this, I can repay that help by helping someone else.
At the end of the trip we asked our kids if they preferred the cruise to a week at WDW and they all said yes! They are definitely hooked on cruising. We would like to go again next year, but are leaning toward trying an RCCL voyager class ship next. I think the kids will really like the rock climbing wall, putt putt course and the ice skating rink (that show is amazing!). Although we will miss Mickey, I felt the two lines were very comparable, and would like to take the kids on a new adventure.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, I would love to help, now that I have first hand experience!
