IndianaPrincess
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2008
- Messages
- 469
Okay - I really want to do a trip report this time. I've done so many trips to WDW, DL and various cruises with every intention of coming home and typing it all out, but it never has happened with any seriousness. If I make this post and start our trip out, I hope that it will be the public committment that I need to actually do it!!! I'm not as cool and witty as so many others on here, but I hope that I am able to give insight and info to future cruisers on the Mexican Riveria. I'll be honest about the good and the bad and do my best to answer any questions that pop up!
WITH THAT...
My cast -
My family consists of me, Michelle (32) and my husband Bryan (33) along with our two kiddos, Krissy (7) and Miles (4.5). Bryan and I have been together forever (since I was 14) and dated through high school and college, then getting married and honeymooning in Disneyworld. That was the beginning of the madness! I've been to WDW seven times since we've had kids and last year we went to Disneyland instead. To me, there's nothing better than the pure happiness that you see on your kids face when they are at Disney. Sorry Grand Canyon, but you just didn't do it for my kids. Soon enough they will lose the magic but until then, I'm hooked on the mouse!
I never thought that we'd go on a Disney cruise because I am really super very cheap. People just don't believe how cheap I can do Disneyworld or a NCL cruise, but I've been able to work our credit card rewards and seasonal discounts into pretty much dirt cheap vacations for my family. So when Disney came out with their Kids Sail Free promotion, we booked within about 2 hours of its release. We are at the silver level on NCL (cruising pretty much once a year since we got married) but the price of the Disney cruise was the same with the KSF discount. Can you say no brainer?!?!
Now for the exciting addition - my dad (Mike) and stepmom (Patty) decided to join us!!! I won't say their ages, but they aren't old at all.
They've been married almost 20 years, I think (gosh, I should know the exact number but it's more of being bad at math than not remembering). Not being traveling people, this is really their first "relaxing, tropical" type of vacation.
Day negative one!
I want to start with -1 because we fly out the Saturday before the cruise and this will allow my report of the actual cruise to correlate with the way that Disney numbers the days. Make sense??? Good!
I went all out with this trip - cruise meet up thread, fish extender group, a pile of tinker bell gifts, pirate costumes, things for autographs, friendship cards, tip envelopes, etc etc etc etc etc. Pretty much I planned for the cruise as a full time job (I have a business but this is the extremely slow time). So day -2 comes and I have almost every detail ready to go, but nothing is packed! Bryan and I pulled an all-nighter and got our three huge bags, two small duffles and four carry-ons all ready to go. I decided we were just going to overpack and be done with it. I didn't want to have to sacrifice anything!
Anyways, Krissy wakes up at about 5AM to her parents still packing and "helps" us by packing her little carry-on suitcase with what we later found out was 16 books and some naked princess dolls. I must admit that Bryan is not happy with me at this point, because I've been researching this cruise for about 8 months and seriously planning for 2 months... and yet it's 6AM and I'm shoving 12 pairs of shoes into a suitcase while discovering that our son really doesn't have enough summer clothes that fit. Oops... but hey, we have some rocking pirate costumes and enough door magnets to cover then entire 7th floor.
Finally we are all done packing, Bryan has loaded up the car, the kids are all dressed and I have thrown enough waffles into the toaster to qualify as making breakfast. We are flying out of Indianapolis, connecting in Chicago where we will meet my parents and landing at LAX. We head to the airport hotel that we always use for parking. It is cheaper for us to book one night there because they let you park for up to 14 nights! We never have actually used the room - we just check in and out right there and go on our way. We get on the shuttle and make our way to the airport. Feel free to laugh at us... we checked 7 things! That is all our luggage plus two booster seats (our kids don't ride in even shuttles or vans without one). I told you we were overpacking. Thank goodness we are loyal to Southwest where bags fly free! I also want to mention that we flew for about $200 total roundtrip as we used awards and our companion pass from Southwest's credit card use alone!
Miles & Krissy
A slight snag to start our travels. I guess there was a security breach at the Baltimore airport which caused them to hold off flights for awhile. Since our plane was coming from there, we obviously had a delay. I was stressing that we would miss the flight that we coordinated with my parents, but Southwest held all flights at Midway until out plane got there. We did have to run to the gate, but we still made it in time for family boarding and got seats together.
Another delay was announced when we were getting settled on the plane - there was a strong headwind and our flight was going to take longer than usual. Urgh! Oh well, we were on our way to Mickey's boat!!!
Grandpa (Mike), Grandma (Patty) & Krissy
Now here's a short personal story - my daughter got me this book for Christmas and I saved it for the trip. It's the final book in a trilogy and I've been waiting to read it for a long time. I fell asleep on take-off and my hubby completely stole the book from me and wouldn't give it back! RUDE! The worst part was that he finally finished it a couple days later, but I didn't get much good reading time on the ship so I haven't even finished it yet!
Bryan reading MY book
Back to day -1... After a long flight, we finally landed and Krissy was very impressed with the hand dryers that they have in LA. I do believe that "We don't have fancy things like this in Indiana!" was stated to the population of the ladies restroom.
This is how the movie stars dry their hands
I prebooked a share ride with Karmel shuttle, which ended up being a private ride! The driver was there within minutes of calling the number that they give, despite the fact that we were about 2 hours late. He was really nice and got our massive amount of luggage into the van - impressive! I believe the rate was $132 for the roundtrip (kids were free).
We headed to Crowne Plaza San Pedro. I got the rooms on priceline for $65 each and I called in to request nonsmoking and two double beds. Turns out the entire place is nonsmoking so that was a moot point. At the desk, we asked that our rooms be on the same floor if possible. We ended up with nice rooms on the 6th floor - everything was great - clean, nice view, comfortable, etc.
We wanted to do a liquor and water run, so I found a Vons (grocery store) nearby and also found a pizza place on the internet that had a great family dinner deal that was across the street from Vons. Large pizza, large pasta, garlic bread and salad for $35. The hotel shuttle took us there and gave me their card for calling for a pickup. Everything going good... but here comes a fail. Don't go there to Buono's Pizzeria. The food was decent, but the dine-in concept was a joke. We were sitting inside a nook of a carry-out pizza place on patio type chairs. We were given paper plates, which disintergrated under the spaghetti. The salad came out after the pizza and the garlic bread came out when we were done eating. I would recommend this place to a local for carry-out, but for a cruiser I would suggest finding another place.
Also, at this point came the first indication of a major problem. Our son (Miles) was not handling the time change well as he was bawling through dinner for no reason. He told me "I just need to cry. I don't know why!" Our daughter (Krissy) was able to ride the excitement of vacation more than he was so she did okay, but little did I know that this was a heads up of trouble to come.
After dinner, we headed about a block away to Vons where we stocked up! We got 6 bottles of wine, some premade margarita yumminess, a bottle of vodka, two bottles of cranberry juice and two bottles of sour mix... to go along with the bottle of midori that we brought from Indy. I give you such a detailed report because Bryan discovered early that morning that we didn't have a rolling carryon like he thought, so he carried 75 pounds of alcohol in his arms all morning and afternoon the next day. He's a superstar!
The hotel shuttle picked us up shortly after I called. We headed to our rooms, Bryan readjusted our suitcases and then we hit the sack!
In review:
Doing lots of planning and research
Not packing until last night
Extended Stay America Indianapolis
Southwest Airlines
Karmel Shuttle
Crowne Plaza San Pedro via Priceline
Buono's Pizzeria
Von's for liquor
Next up... DAY ONE!
WITH THAT...
My cast -
My family consists of me, Michelle (32) and my husband Bryan (33) along with our two kiddos, Krissy (7) and Miles (4.5). Bryan and I have been together forever (since I was 14) and dated through high school and college, then getting married and honeymooning in Disneyworld. That was the beginning of the madness! I've been to WDW seven times since we've had kids and last year we went to Disneyland instead. To me, there's nothing better than the pure happiness that you see on your kids face when they are at Disney. Sorry Grand Canyon, but you just didn't do it for my kids. Soon enough they will lose the magic but until then, I'm hooked on the mouse!
I never thought that we'd go on a Disney cruise because I am really super very cheap. People just don't believe how cheap I can do Disneyworld or a NCL cruise, but I've been able to work our credit card rewards and seasonal discounts into pretty much dirt cheap vacations for my family. So when Disney came out with their Kids Sail Free promotion, we booked within about 2 hours of its release. We are at the silver level on NCL (cruising pretty much once a year since we got married) but the price of the Disney cruise was the same with the KSF discount. Can you say no brainer?!?!
Now for the exciting addition - my dad (Mike) and stepmom (Patty) decided to join us!!! I won't say their ages, but they aren't old at all.
They've been married almost 20 years, I think (gosh, I should know the exact number but it's more of being bad at math than not remembering). Not being traveling people, this is really their first "relaxing, tropical" type of vacation.Day negative one!
I want to start with -1 because we fly out the Saturday before the cruise and this will allow my report of the actual cruise to correlate with the way that Disney numbers the days. Make sense??? Good!
I went all out with this trip - cruise meet up thread, fish extender group, a pile of tinker bell gifts, pirate costumes, things for autographs, friendship cards, tip envelopes, etc etc etc etc etc. Pretty much I planned for the cruise as a full time job (I have a business but this is the extremely slow time). So day -2 comes and I have almost every detail ready to go, but nothing is packed! Bryan and I pulled an all-nighter and got our three huge bags, two small duffles and four carry-ons all ready to go. I decided we were just going to overpack and be done with it. I didn't want to have to sacrifice anything!
Anyways, Krissy wakes up at about 5AM to her parents still packing and "helps" us by packing her little carry-on suitcase with what we later found out was 16 books and some naked princess dolls. I must admit that Bryan is not happy with me at this point, because I've been researching this cruise for about 8 months and seriously planning for 2 months... and yet it's 6AM and I'm shoving 12 pairs of shoes into a suitcase while discovering that our son really doesn't have enough summer clothes that fit. Oops... but hey, we have some rocking pirate costumes and enough door magnets to cover then entire 7th floor.
Finally we are all done packing, Bryan has loaded up the car, the kids are all dressed and I have thrown enough waffles into the toaster to qualify as making breakfast. We are flying out of Indianapolis, connecting in Chicago where we will meet my parents and landing at LAX. We head to the airport hotel that we always use for parking. It is cheaper for us to book one night there because they let you park for up to 14 nights! We never have actually used the room - we just check in and out right there and go on our way. We get on the shuttle and make our way to the airport. Feel free to laugh at us... we checked 7 things! That is all our luggage plus two booster seats (our kids don't ride in even shuttles or vans without one). I told you we were overpacking. Thank goodness we are loyal to Southwest where bags fly free! I also want to mention that we flew for about $200 total roundtrip as we used awards and our companion pass from Southwest's credit card use alone!
Miles & Krissy
A slight snag to start our travels. I guess there was a security breach at the Baltimore airport which caused them to hold off flights for awhile. Since our plane was coming from there, we obviously had a delay. I was stressing that we would miss the flight that we coordinated with my parents, but Southwest held all flights at Midway until out plane got there. We did have to run to the gate, but we still made it in time for family boarding and got seats together.
Another delay was announced when we were getting settled on the plane - there was a strong headwind and our flight was going to take longer than usual. Urgh! Oh well, we were on our way to Mickey's boat!!!
Grandpa (Mike), Grandma (Patty) & Krissy
Now here's a short personal story - my daughter got me this book for Christmas and I saved it for the trip. It's the final book in a trilogy and I've been waiting to read it for a long time. I fell asleep on take-off and my hubby completely stole the book from me and wouldn't give it back! RUDE!
The worst part was that he finally finished it a couple days later, but I didn't get much good reading time on the ship so I haven't even finished it yet!Bryan reading MY book
Back to day -1... After a long flight, we finally landed and Krissy was very impressed with the hand dryers that they have in LA. I do believe that "We don't have fancy things like this in Indiana!" was stated to the population of the ladies restroom.
This is how the movie stars dry their hands
I prebooked a share ride with Karmel shuttle, which ended up being a private ride! The driver was there within minutes of calling the number that they give, despite the fact that we were about 2 hours late. He was really nice and got our massive amount of luggage into the van - impressive! I believe the rate was $132 for the roundtrip (kids were free).
We headed to Crowne Plaza San Pedro. I got the rooms on priceline for $65 each and I called in to request nonsmoking and two double beds. Turns out the entire place is nonsmoking so that was a moot point. At the desk, we asked that our rooms be on the same floor if possible. We ended up with nice rooms on the 6th floor - everything was great - clean, nice view, comfortable, etc.
We wanted to do a liquor and water run, so I found a Vons (grocery store) nearby and also found a pizza place on the internet that had a great family dinner deal that was across the street from Vons. Large pizza, large pasta, garlic bread and salad for $35. The hotel shuttle took us there and gave me their card for calling for a pickup. Everything going good... but here comes a fail. Don't go there to Buono's Pizzeria. The food was decent, but the dine-in concept was a joke. We were sitting inside a nook of a carry-out pizza place on patio type chairs. We were given paper plates, which disintergrated under the spaghetti. The salad came out after the pizza and the garlic bread came out when we were done eating. I would recommend this place to a local for carry-out, but for a cruiser I would suggest finding another place.
Also, at this point came the first indication of a major problem. Our son (Miles) was not handling the time change well as he was bawling through dinner for no reason. He told me "I just need to cry. I don't know why!" Our daughter (Krissy) was able to ride the excitement of vacation more than he was so she did okay, but little did I know that this was a heads up of trouble to come.
After dinner, we headed about a block away to Vons where we stocked up! We got 6 bottles of wine, some premade margarita yumminess, a bottle of vodka, two bottles of cranberry juice and two bottles of sour mix... to go along with the bottle of midori that we brought from Indy. I give you such a detailed report because Bryan discovered early that morning that we didn't have a rolling carryon like he thought, so he carried 75 pounds of alcohol in his arms all morning and afternoon the next day. He's a superstar!
The hotel shuttle picked us up shortly after I called. We headed to our rooms, Bryan readjusted our suitcases and then we hit the sack!
In review:
Doing lots of planning and research
Not packing until last night
Extended Stay America Indianapolis
Southwest Airlines
Karmel Shuttle
Crowne Plaza San Pedro via Priceline
Buono's Pizzeria
Von's for liquor
Next up... DAY ONE!
I am so glad you are doing a report as well. Can't wait to hear everything you did on and off the ship! I love the start, so keep it up!
I hope that gives you some incentive! lol 
