I'm glad you had a great time Lisae, we also can't wait for our next cruise!
Loved CC and was sad not to have more time there. Even though we could stay till 6:00 they were closing everything down and folding up umbrellas and chairs at 5:00, so we felt like we had to leave.
I hated to see them closing things down too, it seemed more noticeable this time but that was probably due to the 2 hour delay in our departure. There is not much lighting on the island, so they have to have everything cleaned up before it gets dark. Also, most of the staff on the island are crew members from the ship and they have to be done and back on board by 6:00 as well. And to top things off, they had new guests arriving from the Dream at 8:30 a.m. the next morning... I imagine having the island pristine and ready to go by the next morning is already pretty hard to do without a 2-hour delay.
We actually left CC a little early (for the first time ever, they usually have to kick us off the island at the last possible minute!
) because we had the early show time (6:15) and didn't want to miss the farewell show.
I do have to say that waiting to book another trip on board was a big pain in the butt!
Agreed! We actually didn't get to book on-board because we could never get the guy's time. I never remember seeing the salesperson so busy on previous cruises... I think there must be much greater interest right now due to booking trips on the Dream and the Fantasy.
Also, I did not like having to tip the restaurant host. All he did was come over to our table each night, say hello, and then leave, and Disney recommends tipping for that.
I have to echo our disappointment with this too. I think my family has been really spoiled in the past. We had the same restaurant host for the last three cruises in a row (over a span of 5 years) prior to this one, his name was Simon and he was amazing. He would go around to every table at the start of the night, do a few tricks, get the kids to laugh, and would leave the table with a riddle or puzzle to solve. He would check in over the course of the night to see how we were doing with it and give hints if needed, and again at the end of the night to see who solved it. Our family really enjoyed working on them together as a team, and Simon made us feel so proud when we got it right! He would also draw on the tablecloths, tell jokes, dance around the dining room, and was generally larger than life and a much-loved part of our trips. We were really sad on our last cruise when he announced that after 12 years, it was his last cruise.
Our host this year was very pleasant when we spoke to him but we hardly saw him. He maybe said hello three times and never asked us how our dining experience was going. I suppose he might have provided excellent problem resolution if we'd had any complaints, but we didn't. At the end of the trip we asked our kids (13 and 17) if they could tell us who the restaurant host was and they couldn't. So it was a rather different experience than we were used to. We don't take our previous experience for granted, we know we were lucky, but we still do miss that extra bit of magic.
Ok, looking back over the length of this message, I can tell that I really miss the cruise and just want to keep talking about it!
Even though I was agreeing about a couple disappointing parts of the cruise, overall we still had a magical time!
Oh before I go, since I was talking about it being dark and
Castaway Cay, I want to share
these beautiful photos. They were taken last month by a Disney photographer, pictures of the stars at night from the beach on CC.
-Lisa
So sorry you didn't make it! Hope you had insurance or Disney somehow made it up to you.
