All good things must come to an end and we knew that our wonderful trip was ending on Sunday morning. Linda was up early getting things together for debarkation - and her rustling around the room was the signal to the rest of us that it was time to rise and shine. Or at least to rise! It was between 6:30 and 7:00am which was very very early to the two of us who had been out until 3:30am!
We dragged ourselves out of bed and I do mean dragged, lol. The weather was dreary with a steady drizzle and gray skies and seemed to mirror our feelings about our trip ending so quickly. Linda was up and moving so she decided to run up to Beach Blanket Buffet to grab some sustenance. The rest of us got to work going through the room and finishing up our packing. Of course, we did end up misplacing a few things Duchess couldnt find her t-shirt but it was later discovered hiding in one of Susans bags. Linda had misplaced her digital camera media but found it in a pile when she arrived home. Susan couldnt find her mobile phone and still doesnt know where it is but was able to stop her service. But we ended up mostly packed and ready to go.
It was still too early to disembark so Linda and I ran up to Shutters to check out our pictures from Palo. A table picture had been taken at Tritons on our first night but I looked horrible (in my opinion) so I wanted to see if the Palo picture was better. I did prefer the Palo picture so I purchased a copy for myself. We went through the remaining pictures and discarded the ones we had decided not to purchase. We then took a detour to Parrot Cay so Linda could give her tip envelopes to Witt, Yaroslav and PJ. I spotted the gals from YMJ so I chatted with them for a few minutes while Linda took care of her business. The line for disembarkation was stretched all the way down to the aft elevator lobby at that time and it was not even 8:00am!
Linda and I hopped on the aft elevator and headed back to our stateroom. As we went up the passageway, we saw rooms being turned over for the next voyage. We observed the crew members removing not just the sheets and blankets but also the bedspreads. Returning to our stateroom, we did one last check of the room to make sure we werent forgetting anything and then made our way to the midship elevators and the atrium for debarkation.
Even though we had heard the announcement that the ship had cleared customs, the line was moving very slowly. They would allow a small portion of the queue to leave the ship and then that group would wait to have their ID checked. The line was moving very slowly at this point and I really did not understand the reason for this delay. Im not sure if people were just unprepared to have their ID inspected or what, but it definitely was a slower process than it should have been. After having our ID checked, we went downstairs to get our luggage. I grabbed a porter, who found our bags, loaded them onto his handtruck, collected our customs declaration forms and handed them to the customs officials. Then, we exited the terminal and walked across the street to our cars. After loading up the cars, we tipped our porter, hugged Duchess who was driving on her own, hopped into my car and got on the road to the airport. The weather was crappy but we had an essentially uneventful drive to MCO where I dropped off both Linda and Susan at the doors for Southwest in Terminal A. I then got back into my car and headed to church and then home.
Final thoughts:
I absolutely loved the cruise and am eagerly awaiting my next one. I will say though, that while I loved having the verandah, on the 3-day there is just not enough time to really enjoy it. It worked for us, but 2 lesser category staterooms would have worked just as well. For future 3-night cruises, Ill probably go with either a category 11 on deck 6 or a category 10 SPH stateroom on deck 5.
Our Stateroom Host was Arturo and he was a doll. He always greeted us with a smile when he saw us in the corridors or coming out of our stateroom. He made us cute towel animals a dog, an elephant and a lobster.
One thing we did that was very helpful for helping us find the stateroom as we were getting our bearings on the ship was to make magnets for our stateroom door. We printed up a magnet with the same design as the back of our embarkation t-shirts and put it on the outside of the stateroom door. We also made nametag magnets for each of us with the idea that we would put our name on the outside of the door when we were in the stateroom and on the inside of the door when we left. This would have worked wonderfully if we hadnt decided that we liked the way the door looked with all of our names up around the center magnet, lol. But as I said, it did help us to locate our stateroom.
My favorite things:
My least favorite things:
Well...thats then end of my story. I hope those of you that stuck with me through this saga enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know I tend to be a bit wordy. If you were on the cruise and saw us, Id love to hear from you. Likewise, if you have any questions about our trip or about my report, please email or PM me.
We dragged ourselves out of bed and I do mean dragged, lol. The weather was dreary with a steady drizzle and gray skies and seemed to mirror our feelings about our trip ending so quickly. Linda was up and moving so she decided to run up to Beach Blanket Buffet to grab some sustenance. The rest of us got to work going through the room and finishing up our packing. Of course, we did end up misplacing a few things Duchess couldnt find her t-shirt but it was later discovered hiding in one of Susans bags. Linda had misplaced her digital camera media but found it in a pile when she arrived home. Susan couldnt find her mobile phone and still doesnt know where it is but was able to stop her service. But we ended up mostly packed and ready to go.
It was still too early to disembark so Linda and I ran up to Shutters to check out our pictures from Palo. A table picture had been taken at Tritons on our first night but I looked horrible (in my opinion) so I wanted to see if the Palo picture was better. I did prefer the Palo picture so I purchased a copy for myself. We went through the remaining pictures and discarded the ones we had decided not to purchase. We then took a detour to Parrot Cay so Linda could give her tip envelopes to Witt, Yaroslav and PJ. I spotted the gals from YMJ so I chatted with them for a few minutes while Linda took care of her business. The line for disembarkation was stretched all the way down to the aft elevator lobby at that time and it was not even 8:00am!
Linda and I hopped on the aft elevator and headed back to our stateroom. As we went up the passageway, we saw rooms being turned over for the next voyage. We observed the crew members removing not just the sheets and blankets but also the bedspreads. Returning to our stateroom, we did one last check of the room to make sure we werent forgetting anything and then made our way to the midship elevators and the atrium for debarkation.
Even though we had heard the announcement that the ship had cleared customs, the line was moving very slowly. They would allow a small portion of the queue to leave the ship and then that group would wait to have their ID checked. The line was moving very slowly at this point and I really did not understand the reason for this delay. Im not sure if people were just unprepared to have their ID inspected or what, but it definitely was a slower process than it should have been. After having our ID checked, we went downstairs to get our luggage. I grabbed a porter, who found our bags, loaded them onto his handtruck, collected our customs declaration forms and handed them to the customs officials. Then, we exited the terminal and walked across the street to our cars. After loading up the cars, we tipped our porter, hugged Duchess who was driving on her own, hopped into my car and got on the road to the airport. The weather was crappy but we had an essentially uneventful drive to MCO where I dropped off both Linda and Susan at the doors for Southwest in Terminal A. I then got back into my car and headed to church and then home.
Final thoughts:
I absolutely loved the cruise and am eagerly awaiting my next one. I will say though, that while I loved having the verandah, on the 3-day there is just not enough time to really enjoy it. It worked for us, but 2 lesser category staterooms would have worked just as well. For future 3-night cruises, Ill probably go with either a category 11 on deck 6 or a category 10 SPH stateroom on deck 5.
Our Stateroom Host was Arturo and he was a doll. He always greeted us with a smile when he saw us in the corridors or coming out of our stateroom. He made us cute towel animals a dog, an elephant and a lobster.
One thing we did that was very helpful for helping us find the stateroom as we were getting our bearings on the ship was to make magnets for our stateroom door. We printed up a magnet with the same design as the back of our embarkation t-shirts and put it on the outside of the stateroom door. We also made nametag magnets for each of us with the idea that we would put our name on the outside of the door when we were in the stateroom and on the inside of the door when we left. This would have worked wonderfully if we hadnt decided that we liked the way the door looked with all of our names up around the center magnet, lol. But as I said, it did help us to locate our stateroom.
My favorite things:
- The Cruise Staff - I love these kids! They always maintain their energy and enthusiasm, which amazes me since they are doing the same things day in and day out for months at a time. I give them a lot of credit for the way they really make passengers feel special and like you are a cherished part of the family.
- Disney Dreams - what can you say despite Cinderella's singing being off, the show was wonderful.
- Snorkeling at Castaway Cay - I just love it. I'd never snorkeled before going on my first DCL cruise last June and it has been such fun. I just hope my pictures come out but I had a Fuji camera so I'm not holding out much hope.
- Spending time with my friends - we got to know each other over the internet because of our love for things Disney, and we have become more than just friends since that time. Anytime we can get together is a wonderful thing.
- Mike from the Cadillac Lounge - even though I still haven't heard him do "Girl From Ipanema" I really enjoyed listening to his music, bantering with him between songs and chatting with him after his last set. Anyone cruising in the next few weeks, make some time to visit the Cadillac Lounge while he is playing - you won't be sorry.
My least favorite things:
- 3 nights is just too short. My trip in June was the 4-night cruise and it made such a difference. Don't get me wrong 3 nights is better than nothing but it just goes by way too fast.· 3 nights is just too short. My trip in June was the 4-night cruise and it made such a difference. Don't get me wrong 3 nights is better than nothing but it just goes by way too fast.
- Not spending enough time with my friends. Because we all have different internal clocks and different interests, we didn't do as much together as we would have liked. Duchess and I did a lot of the night time activities together while Susan and Linda got up early and went to bed early.
- Glossy photo paper. I just don't think it looks as professional as the matte finish and I hope they go back to the matte finish for all sizes of photos, not just the 8x10s.
- Rude guests. The fellow from Miami comes to mind as do some people who just didn't seem to care about keeping their children in hand, especially during character greetings. Yes your kid is cute but so are all the rest of the kids on board and they deserve to be able to visit with the characters without your kids butting in.
- Snorkel vests. Maybe its just me, but I found the snorkel vests really uncomfortable if I tried to inflate them at all. The valve for inflating the vest kept poking me in very uncomfortable places and the vest itself kept slipping up. Just not comfortable. I ended up putting the vest on but leaving it uninflated and that worked much better for me.
Well...thats then end of my story. I hope those of you that stuck with me through this saga enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know I tend to be a bit wordy. If you were on the cruise and saw us, Id love to hear from you. Likewise, if you have any questions about our trip or about my report, please email or PM me.
Glad you had a good time, but I agree 3 nights would just be too short. Thanks for taking the time to post!
