Halloween Eastern Caribbean Oct 28-Nov 4, 2006
Cast included Myself, DH and DD 6 "the Princess". This was our first Disney cruise, but we have cruised with other lines.
Flight/Arrival
We got up Saturday morning a 3:30am to catch our 6am flight from Little Rock to Orlando. We changed planes in Atlanta and everything went smoothly. We arrived at the Orlando airport by 11am. I understand why people fly in the day before because it was a bit stressful worrying about planes being delayed etc, but this time it worked out perfectly for us. We had purchased Disney transfers so we walked down to the meeting area for the buses and checked in. We waited about 15 minutes and we were on the bus on the way to the ship. Not having to worry about getting our luggage made the price of the transfers very reasonable in my opinion. It was very nice that our luggage just appeared on the ship!
Boarding
The first glimpse of the ship from the bus was every bit as impressive as everyone says. We were all in awe and VERY excited to get on the ship! The boarding process was very quick (we arrived at the terminal about 12:15 or so). There was almost no wait to check in and I had done all of our paperwork online, so that was helpful. We took some quick pictures in the terminal and walked thru the mickey ears. The princess felt very important as our family was announced.
We went up to Topsiders to get a bite to eat, but the princess was much too excited to eat and wanted to swim. She had her swim suit on under her dress, so she could get right in the pool. Then she decided she needed an ice cream snack from Goofy's Galley (I'm embarassed to say how much ice cream she ate during the week). She swam some more and then it was time for the lifeboat drill.
Room/Stateroom Hostess
So we went to our room. Wait, the key doesn't work, are we at the right room? Yes, try another key. It doesn't work either. Try the last key, still doesn't work. Off we went to guest services. They made new cards and we were able to get into our stateroom. We had a category 9 stateroom (2560) which is midship right at the elevators and stairs. It was perfectly situated and we never heard any noise from the halls/elevators etc. The princess was not happy about having to get out of the pool in the first place and became much unhappier when she had to put on the lifejacket and go stand in a crowded line with the sun in her eyes. The lifeboat drill was quickly over and we put away our lifejackets and headed to the sail away party.
We also met our stateroom hostess, Nova. She was fabulous all week. We had towel animals every night and she was always there to provide everything that we needed. She was very friendly.
Sail Away
The sail away party was great. Lots of dancing, singing and merriment in general. It was great fun to watch as we sailed thru the channel. Two Carnival ships had left the port right before us, so you could see them sailing off in front of us and that was neat. The somewhat cloudy weather had cleared into a beautiful evening. When we returned from the sail away party all of our bags were in our room.
Food/Dining
We had early seating dinner, so we had to go quickly to back to the room, change clothes and get to dinner. We had 5:30 seating APL. Starting in Animators Palate was the perfect start of the cruise for the princess. We were seated at a table of eight with one other family. We really enjoyed them all week. Our servers were Fernando and Matthew. Fernando was wonderful and Matthew made a real effort but you could tell he really didn't want to be on the ship. He told us later in the week that his contract ended in 75 days and he would be glad to go home. I actually liked him better after he was honest about this. My opinion of the food all week was that it was good, not great. I did eat a few things that were very good and our dinner in Palo was truly outstanding, but most of the food was just good.
We ate breakfast throughout the week at either Topsiders and Lumiere's. I didn't find one to be particularly better than the other. The made to order omlettes in Topsiders were quite tasty. We ate lunches in Topsiders, Parrot Cay and Pluto's Doghouse. I got french fries every day from Pluto's Doghouse and they were WONDERFUL. Not exactly gourmet, but hot and salty and yummy! The pasta station in Parrot Cay was the standout lunch of the week. It was very good. All of our dinners were good. I enjoyed my meal each evening. The princess tried escargot in Lumiere's and I was proud (she ordered off the adult menu most nights).
Character breakfast was a lot of fun. We got lots of good photos. We didn't eat though. Our dinner at Palo was absolutely fabulous. We were seated across from a lovely English couple on holiday for a month in the US. We had a great time visiting with them. We ate until we were stuffed. Everything at Palo was wonderful. We were disappointed that we were not able to get a brunch reservation also, but we talked to people that didn't get reservations at all, so we felt very fortunate that we got to experience Palo. We can't wait to go back!
Sea Days
We spent most of our sea days playing at the pool with the princess. She did go to the kids club usually once a day for an hour or so. She probably went down the slide into the mickey pool 50 times before the week was over. But mostly she wanted to swim in the goofy pool. We watched several movies on the dumbotron and that was a lot of fun.
The highlight of our sea days was the Art of Entertaining series. Moustapha Khetem, was a guest chef onboard the Disney Magic, from MGM Studios. He is one of their head pastry chefs so he made one desert each day we were at sea, which we all got to sample and then they paired it with a small glass of wine. He made flourless chocolate cake with a port wine sauce, baileys mousse with a praline topping and a coconut custard with an almond crust and a banana sauce. All three desserts were fabulous. He was very personable and we were fortunate enough to meet his wife and daughter who were onboard with him. I told them that the flourless chocolate cake was the best dessert I'd eaten all week!
St Maarten
In St Maarten, we decided not to do an organized tour. We got a taxi from the pier and went to Marigot. It was about $25. I wanted the princess to hear people speaking french (which she did). We walked all around the shops and marina. Because the dollar is so weak, everything in Marigot was very expensive and all priced in Euros. We asked several people for recommendations for a restaurant for lunch and the overwhelming majority recommended Tropicana. It is a cafe on the marina/boardwalk and it was soooo verry good. Very french. They gave us shots of some kind of homeade vanilla rum after we'd finished our meal and it was delicious. Lunch was about $75 for the three of us (one glass of wine) and it was worth every penny. I'd go back tomorrow if given the chance! The interesting thing that we learned about St. Maarten was that to call from the french side to the dutch side even though it is only a few miles is an overseas call. Our taxi driver told us that many people have cell phones for both sides. We had walked so much that when we got back to the port we were ready to go and rest in our room before dinner.
St Thomas
We shopped all over St Thomas. We bought the princess a watch (swatch) if she promised that she would learn to tell time. It worked, by the end of the day she could tell time. We were so excited and proud of her. Her teacher will be so proud too! My husband looked at lots of watches, but decided not to buy anything. We did buy perfume, which was a pretty good deal. We decided to do an island tour with one of the independent tour operators. It was interesting to me that they drive on the wrong side of the road in St Thomas, but they have left hand drive cars. It was about 2 1/2 hours and we went all over the island. It was $50 for the three of us. We went to paradise point, saw magens bay, saw where the people native to St Thomas live, saw lots of iguanas, heard all about the history of the island etc. It was well worth it and we all enjoyed it. After the tour, it was late afternoon and we headed back to the ship. I price compared liquor in both ports and it ended up being as cheap or cheaper to purchase it on the ship, plus we didn't have to carry it anywhere. Liquor was the biggest bargain that we found actually, so we bought 7 bottles on the ship.
Small World Coincidence
The princess and I were walking up the stairs one afternoon and a little girl walking with her mother looks at her and says, "that's Dylan's friend". Well, my daughter's best friend at home is named Dylan. Her mother and I were both astounded. She looked at me and said, "Are you all from Little Rock?" I said, "Yes!" It turns out that our daughters are both in first grade at the same school (different teachers though). They live less than a mile from us. We had to go half way around the world to meet people that live up the street from us. The girls spent the whole day playing together at Castaway Cay. It was so much fun to meet the Alexander family!
Castaway Cay
I truly can't say enough good things about Castaway Cay. In true Disney style, the island is beautiful. The fact that you don't have to tender in is a huge bonus. I loved the family beach. The lagoon is very gently sloped so that small children can play easily in the shallow water and bigger kids can swim. I loved the fact that there were lifeguards everywhere and that they were truly paying attention. I also loved that the lagoon is netted off. It made me feel safer. The snorkelers saw lots of fish. The water was coolish, but not unbearable. We didn't have perfect weather, but it wasn't pouring rain either, so it was a magical day. The princess loved that they had cookies and cream ice cream cones (she had two).
Cell Phone Service
We have Cingular service and we were able to make calls from the french side of St. Maarten (not the dutch side), St. Thomas and several times while we were at sea when the ship was close enough to an island with service (we just caught service kind of randomly). We were not able to make calls while we were at Castaway Cay, but there were others with Cingular service that were able to, so it just kind of depends. It was great to be able to call home and check in though.
Kids Club
The princess went to the kids club every day for at least a little while and she really enjoyed it when her group was in the lab, but not near as much when they were in the club. She felt like the Oceaneers Club was a little bit babyish for her. Next time I'll ask them to move her into the next age group that is in the Lab. She would have enjoyed it more. The system Disney has to keep track of the kids is amazing. This is one of the things they really do right. I was impressed.
Cast Members
We visited with lots of cast members throughout the week and they were all very friendly, informative and willing to help (as is the Disney way). We learned all about pin trading from Sean in the gift shop (my husband is now hooked). He bought like 20 pins and had done some serious trading by the time the week was over. I talked to one of the lifeguards (Shannon from Australia) and she was very willing to talk about her life and responsiblities on the ship. It was interesting to learn a little bit about how hard they work and how they live.
Shows
We went to see the shows every evening. My favorite show by far was Disney Dreams. It was amazing. The costumes and the sets were just fabulous. My husband really enjoyed them all too. We also really loved the ventriloquist/comedian Taylor Mason. He chose the princess to help him pull the leg of one of his puppets (Paco the pig) and Paco kept staring and talking to my husband (the man in the pink shirt-if you saw the show). We also saw Taylor's 'adult' show later in the week which was equally funny.
However, I must say that Pirate Night was by far the most impressive. The singing and dancing and mickey on the zip line between the stacks was amazing. And the fireworks were stunning. It was the absolute highlight of the trip for me. We loved it. We were still too full from dinner to stay up and eat the buffet, but everyone we talked to really enjoyed it. I bought a bunch of glow necklaces/bracelets at the dollar store before we went. So we handed those out to the people around us and it was lots of fun.
DIS Trick or Treat
Another wonderful part of the trip was the DIS trick or treat. I had shipped my treat bags to the room prior to the cruise and they were in our room before our luggage even arrived, so that worked well. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't be there, but they were! The trick or treat was VERY well organized. We had fun going all over the ship trick or treating (I made my husband stay in the room to hand out candy bags). We got so much candy it was insane. Everyone had put together really nice treat bags. My daughter loved it.
Disembarkation
We had early breakfast at 6:30 at Animator's Palate for our final farewell. We went to wait in the lobby for them to let us off the ship. We were off by 7:45am. We checked our bags at the port and were on the first bus headed for the Orlando airport. We were to the airport before 9am. We got there early enough that we were able to catch an earlier flight home. We were home to Little Rock by Noon.
Summary
We had a wonderful vacation. Was everything perfect all week, no. It is unrealistic to expect it to be, yes. The food was overall our biggest disappointment. But, that said, we had such a great vacation that we rebooked on the ship to come back and do the same cruise in 2007 and are bringing my brother/sister in law and their two kids also. We are super excited.
Cast included Myself, DH and DD 6 "the Princess". This was our first Disney cruise, but we have cruised with other lines.
Flight/Arrival
We got up Saturday morning a 3:30am to catch our 6am flight from Little Rock to Orlando. We changed planes in Atlanta and everything went smoothly. We arrived at the Orlando airport by 11am. I understand why people fly in the day before because it was a bit stressful worrying about planes being delayed etc, but this time it worked out perfectly for us. We had purchased Disney transfers so we walked down to the meeting area for the buses and checked in. We waited about 15 minutes and we were on the bus on the way to the ship. Not having to worry about getting our luggage made the price of the transfers very reasonable in my opinion. It was very nice that our luggage just appeared on the ship!
Boarding
The first glimpse of the ship from the bus was every bit as impressive as everyone says. We were all in awe and VERY excited to get on the ship! The boarding process was very quick (we arrived at the terminal about 12:15 or so). There was almost no wait to check in and I had done all of our paperwork online, so that was helpful. We took some quick pictures in the terminal and walked thru the mickey ears. The princess felt very important as our family was announced.
We went up to Topsiders to get a bite to eat, but the princess was much too excited to eat and wanted to swim. She had her swim suit on under her dress, so she could get right in the pool. Then she decided she needed an ice cream snack from Goofy's Galley (I'm embarassed to say how much ice cream she ate during the week). She swam some more and then it was time for the lifeboat drill.
Room/Stateroom Hostess
So we went to our room. Wait, the key doesn't work, are we at the right room? Yes, try another key. It doesn't work either. Try the last key, still doesn't work. Off we went to guest services. They made new cards and we were able to get into our stateroom. We had a category 9 stateroom (2560) which is midship right at the elevators and stairs. It was perfectly situated and we never heard any noise from the halls/elevators etc. The princess was not happy about having to get out of the pool in the first place and became much unhappier when she had to put on the lifejacket and go stand in a crowded line with the sun in her eyes. The lifeboat drill was quickly over and we put away our lifejackets and headed to the sail away party.
We also met our stateroom hostess, Nova. She was fabulous all week. We had towel animals every night and she was always there to provide everything that we needed. She was very friendly.
Sail Away
The sail away party was great. Lots of dancing, singing and merriment in general. It was great fun to watch as we sailed thru the channel. Two Carnival ships had left the port right before us, so you could see them sailing off in front of us and that was neat. The somewhat cloudy weather had cleared into a beautiful evening. When we returned from the sail away party all of our bags were in our room.
Food/Dining
We had early seating dinner, so we had to go quickly to back to the room, change clothes and get to dinner. We had 5:30 seating APL. Starting in Animators Palate was the perfect start of the cruise for the princess. We were seated at a table of eight with one other family. We really enjoyed them all week. Our servers were Fernando and Matthew. Fernando was wonderful and Matthew made a real effort but you could tell he really didn't want to be on the ship. He told us later in the week that his contract ended in 75 days and he would be glad to go home. I actually liked him better after he was honest about this. My opinion of the food all week was that it was good, not great. I did eat a few things that were very good and our dinner in Palo was truly outstanding, but most of the food was just good.
We ate breakfast throughout the week at either Topsiders and Lumiere's. I didn't find one to be particularly better than the other. The made to order omlettes in Topsiders were quite tasty. We ate lunches in Topsiders, Parrot Cay and Pluto's Doghouse. I got french fries every day from Pluto's Doghouse and they were WONDERFUL. Not exactly gourmet, but hot and salty and yummy! The pasta station in Parrot Cay was the standout lunch of the week. It was very good. All of our dinners were good. I enjoyed my meal each evening. The princess tried escargot in Lumiere's and I was proud (she ordered off the adult menu most nights).
Character breakfast was a lot of fun. We got lots of good photos. We didn't eat though. Our dinner at Palo was absolutely fabulous. We were seated across from a lovely English couple on holiday for a month in the US. We had a great time visiting with them. We ate until we were stuffed. Everything at Palo was wonderful. We were disappointed that we were not able to get a brunch reservation also, but we talked to people that didn't get reservations at all, so we felt very fortunate that we got to experience Palo. We can't wait to go back!
Sea Days
We spent most of our sea days playing at the pool with the princess. She did go to the kids club usually once a day for an hour or so. She probably went down the slide into the mickey pool 50 times before the week was over. But mostly she wanted to swim in the goofy pool. We watched several movies on the dumbotron and that was a lot of fun.
The highlight of our sea days was the Art of Entertaining series. Moustapha Khetem, was a guest chef onboard the Disney Magic, from MGM Studios. He is one of their head pastry chefs so he made one desert each day we were at sea, which we all got to sample and then they paired it with a small glass of wine. He made flourless chocolate cake with a port wine sauce, baileys mousse with a praline topping and a coconut custard with an almond crust and a banana sauce. All three desserts were fabulous. He was very personable and we were fortunate enough to meet his wife and daughter who were onboard with him. I told them that the flourless chocolate cake was the best dessert I'd eaten all week!
St Maarten
In St Maarten, we decided not to do an organized tour. We got a taxi from the pier and went to Marigot. It was about $25. I wanted the princess to hear people speaking french (which she did). We walked all around the shops and marina. Because the dollar is so weak, everything in Marigot was very expensive and all priced in Euros. We asked several people for recommendations for a restaurant for lunch and the overwhelming majority recommended Tropicana. It is a cafe on the marina/boardwalk and it was soooo verry good. Very french. They gave us shots of some kind of homeade vanilla rum after we'd finished our meal and it was delicious. Lunch was about $75 for the three of us (one glass of wine) and it was worth every penny. I'd go back tomorrow if given the chance! The interesting thing that we learned about St. Maarten was that to call from the french side to the dutch side even though it is only a few miles is an overseas call. Our taxi driver told us that many people have cell phones for both sides. We had walked so much that when we got back to the port we were ready to go and rest in our room before dinner.
St Thomas
We shopped all over St Thomas. We bought the princess a watch (swatch) if she promised that she would learn to tell time. It worked, by the end of the day she could tell time. We were so excited and proud of her. Her teacher will be so proud too! My husband looked at lots of watches, but decided not to buy anything. We did buy perfume, which was a pretty good deal. We decided to do an island tour with one of the independent tour operators. It was interesting to me that they drive on the wrong side of the road in St Thomas, but they have left hand drive cars. It was about 2 1/2 hours and we went all over the island. It was $50 for the three of us. We went to paradise point, saw magens bay, saw where the people native to St Thomas live, saw lots of iguanas, heard all about the history of the island etc. It was well worth it and we all enjoyed it. After the tour, it was late afternoon and we headed back to the ship. I price compared liquor in both ports and it ended up being as cheap or cheaper to purchase it on the ship, plus we didn't have to carry it anywhere. Liquor was the biggest bargain that we found actually, so we bought 7 bottles on the ship.
Small World Coincidence
The princess and I were walking up the stairs one afternoon and a little girl walking with her mother looks at her and says, "that's Dylan's friend". Well, my daughter's best friend at home is named Dylan. Her mother and I were both astounded. She looked at me and said, "Are you all from Little Rock?" I said, "Yes!" It turns out that our daughters are both in first grade at the same school (different teachers though). They live less than a mile from us. We had to go half way around the world to meet people that live up the street from us. The girls spent the whole day playing together at Castaway Cay. It was so much fun to meet the Alexander family!
Castaway Cay
I truly can't say enough good things about Castaway Cay. In true Disney style, the island is beautiful. The fact that you don't have to tender in is a huge bonus. I loved the family beach. The lagoon is very gently sloped so that small children can play easily in the shallow water and bigger kids can swim. I loved the fact that there were lifeguards everywhere and that they were truly paying attention. I also loved that the lagoon is netted off. It made me feel safer. The snorkelers saw lots of fish. The water was coolish, but not unbearable. We didn't have perfect weather, but it wasn't pouring rain either, so it was a magical day. The princess loved that they had cookies and cream ice cream cones (she had two).
Cell Phone Service
We have Cingular service and we were able to make calls from the french side of St. Maarten (not the dutch side), St. Thomas and several times while we were at sea when the ship was close enough to an island with service (we just caught service kind of randomly). We were not able to make calls while we were at Castaway Cay, but there were others with Cingular service that were able to, so it just kind of depends. It was great to be able to call home and check in though.
Kids Club
The princess went to the kids club every day for at least a little while and she really enjoyed it when her group was in the lab, but not near as much when they were in the club. She felt like the Oceaneers Club was a little bit babyish for her. Next time I'll ask them to move her into the next age group that is in the Lab. She would have enjoyed it more. The system Disney has to keep track of the kids is amazing. This is one of the things they really do right. I was impressed.
Cast Members
We visited with lots of cast members throughout the week and they were all very friendly, informative and willing to help (as is the Disney way). We learned all about pin trading from Sean in the gift shop (my husband is now hooked). He bought like 20 pins and had done some serious trading by the time the week was over. I talked to one of the lifeguards (Shannon from Australia) and she was very willing to talk about her life and responsiblities on the ship. It was interesting to learn a little bit about how hard they work and how they live.
Shows
We went to see the shows every evening. My favorite show by far was Disney Dreams. It was amazing. The costumes and the sets were just fabulous. My husband really enjoyed them all too. We also really loved the ventriloquist/comedian Taylor Mason. He chose the princess to help him pull the leg of one of his puppets (Paco the pig) and Paco kept staring and talking to my husband (the man in the pink shirt-if you saw the show). We also saw Taylor's 'adult' show later in the week which was equally funny.
However, I must say that Pirate Night was by far the most impressive. The singing and dancing and mickey on the zip line between the stacks was amazing. And the fireworks were stunning. It was the absolute highlight of the trip for me. We loved it. We were still too full from dinner to stay up and eat the buffet, but everyone we talked to really enjoyed it. I bought a bunch of glow necklaces/bracelets at the dollar store before we went. So we handed those out to the people around us and it was lots of fun.
DIS Trick or Treat
Another wonderful part of the trip was the DIS trick or treat. I had shipped my treat bags to the room prior to the cruise and they were in our room before our luggage even arrived, so that worked well. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't be there, but they were! The trick or treat was VERY well organized. We had fun going all over the ship trick or treating (I made my husband stay in the room to hand out candy bags). We got so much candy it was insane. Everyone had put together really nice treat bags. My daughter loved it.
Disembarkation
We had early breakfast at 6:30 at Animator's Palate for our final farewell. We went to wait in the lobby for them to let us off the ship. We were off by 7:45am. We checked our bags at the port and were on the first bus headed for the Orlando airport. We were to the airport before 9am. We got there early enough that we were able to catch an earlier flight home. We were home to Little Rock by Noon.
Summary
We had a wonderful vacation. Was everything perfect all week, no. It is unrealistic to expect it to be, yes. The food was overall our biggest disappointment. But, that said, we had such a great vacation that we rebooked on the ship to come back and do the same cruise in 2007 and are bringing my brother/sister in law and their two kids also. We are super excited.
year.
that must have been fun for you - and DD was cute onstage!!!!! 
I loved that his "adult" show was still very funny although not too "adult". He was VERY funny!!!
