mickeyfan4444
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2003
- Messages
- 34
We really enjoyed our third Disney cruise ( 3 day & 7 day western previously ) . There were 9 of us that went - myself, DH, DS14, DD13, DS10, DD8, DM, DF & DF's DM. We had 3 cabins of deck 6, two with portholes and my mom had the veranda this time. My mom really enjoyed the veranda and so did our sons who stayed in Grandma's cabin. What a difference having the window as we had stayed both times before on deck 2 inside cabins. But, I'm getting ahead of myself I need to start at the beginning of our trip.
We left Ohio on Thursday with only snow flurries predicted but it turned into a lot more snow than they had thought. Our plane was de-iced twice before we could take off but, all went well. We stayed two nights at Pop Century before the cruise and went to Magic Kingdom on Friday. We were all impressed with Pop Century as we were worried about staying there when we have stayed at the Contempory, Polynesian and Caribbean Resort before. Maybe because it was January it was not too crowded or too loud at night. ( These were the concerns I had read online ) Our day at Magic Kingdom was fun for most of our group but, our oldest two ( 13 & 14 ) thought the rides were not thrilling enough. We live close to Paramounts Kings Island and they both go there often so that is what they are comparing the rides to. But, the rest of the group loved it.
Finally, it is Saturday and time to get on the cruise. It is so exciting to arrive at the port and to see the Disney Magic. Everyone enjoyed the lunch and our boys just can't get enough pizza, hamburgers, scoops ice cream etc. This is what they talk about the most from the previous cruises - all the food. Our dinner rotation is LAP so our first dinner is at Lumineres and our servers are Agus ( Indonesia ) and Sganael ( France ). THEY WERE FANTASTIC ! We loved every minute talking with them, having them do magic tricks with the kids - just getting to know them. Our DS10 has been e-mailing Sganael since we have come home and Agus has gone on vacation - home for 8 weeks. We miss them a lot. What really amazed me was when we registered the kids for their clubs one of the counslers remembered our kids from last year. With so many kids they see week after week it is hard to believe they can remember them. But, we also saw our dining room server from last year and he remembered us and our stateroom host saw us in the hall and he remembered too. Just one more way that Disney excedes your expectations and makes you feel so special. The days at sea were so relaxing and we were lucky that the weather was nice. I always worry that in January you never know how nice the weather will be. When we went to St. Martin we had reservations to rent two cars for our group to tour both sides of St. Martin. This is the only regret that we have. It is so crowded driving it was hard to follow each other and forget trying to park. We learned our lesson that it is better to take a taxi where you want to go. But, we did get to shop so the ladies enjoyed St. Martin. That night was Pirates in the Caribbean Party and was it ever fun. We really enjoyed every moment of it. I had read a lot about it but, to see the "show" unfold as the pirates take over the party and then Mickey rescues the party with fire works it was great. Then next we went to St. Thomas and we took the ferry over to St. John and it is everything we had heard it was. It is a very beautiful island and our only disappointment was that we went to Trunk Bay and the water was so ruff that there was no beach that day. It was totally under water. So we explored St. John ( shopping ) and then went back to St. Thomas and of course more shopping. Dad took the kids back to the ship and left us to shop. Our day at Castaway Cay was - we believe - the best we have had there. The weather was great( until late in the day ), the kids went swimming, we rode bikes on the island and just throughly enjoyed a relaxing day. Our kids did not do the clubs as much this time - I really don't know why. Our youngest DD8 went to her club the most but, even she went less this year than last year. Our DS10 went very little as he was always exploring the ship, going to a movie or EATING. Our oldest DS14 has never gone to the clubs much and that stayed the same. But, now our DD13 met a "boy" friend (14 ) at the stack and they spent a lot of time together. I do believe that they need to split the teen group up as 13 is very different than 17. When they have dances that start at 12:00a.m. and go until 2:00a.m. that is just to late for 13. Our daughter was very disappointed that she could not go to the stack for the dances. It would have been nice if they could have the dance start earlier for the younger teens and the older teens could still have their dance at the later time. We have now been home a little over a week and they are talking on the phone and e-mailing each other. Our trip was everything we had hoped and planned it would be but, our biggest disappointment is we came home without rebooking!! It was hard but with the price increase for the Disney cruise we just had to pass. So my best advice for anyone planning a Disney cruise is-
overdoor shoe holder
power strip
battery clock to see time in the dark
buy light up necklaces, bracelets etc. before you go
think twice about renting a car
Oh, by the way we forgot one of our suitcases at the Disney terminal when we were going home and Disney sent it to us UPS at no charge. I really expected to be billed for the cost of shipping it to us but, so far we have the suitcase but, no bill. Again, Disney excedes your expectations. Sorry I have gone on so long but, I have enjoyed remembering all the fun we had.
Patti
We left Ohio on Thursday with only snow flurries predicted but it turned into a lot more snow than they had thought. Our plane was de-iced twice before we could take off but, all went well. We stayed two nights at Pop Century before the cruise and went to Magic Kingdom on Friday. We were all impressed with Pop Century as we were worried about staying there when we have stayed at the Contempory, Polynesian and Caribbean Resort before. Maybe because it was January it was not too crowded or too loud at night. ( These were the concerns I had read online ) Our day at Magic Kingdom was fun for most of our group but, our oldest two ( 13 & 14 ) thought the rides were not thrilling enough. We live close to Paramounts Kings Island and they both go there often so that is what they are comparing the rides to. But, the rest of the group loved it.
Finally, it is Saturday and time to get on the cruise. It is so exciting to arrive at the port and to see the Disney Magic. Everyone enjoyed the lunch and our boys just can't get enough pizza, hamburgers, scoops ice cream etc. This is what they talk about the most from the previous cruises - all the food. Our dinner rotation is LAP so our first dinner is at Lumineres and our servers are Agus ( Indonesia ) and Sganael ( France ). THEY WERE FANTASTIC ! We loved every minute talking with them, having them do magic tricks with the kids - just getting to know them. Our DS10 has been e-mailing Sganael since we have come home and Agus has gone on vacation - home for 8 weeks. We miss them a lot. What really amazed me was when we registered the kids for their clubs one of the counslers remembered our kids from last year. With so many kids they see week after week it is hard to believe they can remember them. But, we also saw our dining room server from last year and he remembered us and our stateroom host saw us in the hall and he remembered too. Just one more way that Disney excedes your expectations and makes you feel so special. The days at sea were so relaxing and we were lucky that the weather was nice. I always worry that in January you never know how nice the weather will be. When we went to St. Martin we had reservations to rent two cars for our group to tour both sides of St. Martin. This is the only regret that we have. It is so crowded driving it was hard to follow each other and forget trying to park. We learned our lesson that it is better to take a taxi where you want to go. But, we did get to shop so the ladies enjoyed St. Martin. That night was Pirates in the Caribbean Party and was it ever fun. We really enjoyed every moment of it. I had read a lot about it but, to see the "show" unfold as the pirates take over the party and then Mickey rescues the party with fire works it was great. Then next we went to St. Thomas and we took the ferry over to St. John and it is everything we had heard it was. It is a very beautiful island and our only disappointment was that we went to Trunk Bay and the water was so ruff that there was no beach that day. It was totally under water. So we explored St. John ( shopping ) and then went back to St. Thomas and of course more shopping. Dad took the kids back to the ship and left us to shop. Our day at Castaway Cay was - we believe - the best we have had there. The weather was great( until late in the day ), the kids went swimming, we rode bikes on the island and just throughly enjoyed a relaxing day. Our kids did not do the clubs as much this time - I really don't know why. Our youngest DD8 went to her club the most but, even she went less this year than last year. Our DS10 went very little as he was always exploring the ship, going to a movie or EATING. Our oldest DS14 has never gone to the clubs much and that stayed the same. But, now our DD13 met a "boy" friend (14 ) at the stack and they spent a lot of time together. I do believe that they need to split the teen group up as 13 is very different than 17. When they have dances that start at 12:00a.m. and go until 2:00a.m. that is just to late for 13. Our daughter was very disappointed that she could not go to the stack for the dances. It would have been nice if they could have the dance start earlier for the younger teens and the older teens could still have their dance at the later time. We have now been home a little over a week and they are talking on the phone and e-mailing each other. Our trip was everything we had hoped and planned it would be but, our biggest disappointment is we came home without rebooking!! It was hard but with the price increase for the Disney cruise we just had to pass. So my best advice for anyone planning a Disney cruise is-
overdoor shoe holder
power strip
battery clock to see time in the dark
buy light up necklaces, bracelets etc. before you go
think twice about renting a car
Oh, by the way we forgot one of our suitcases at the Disney terminal when we were going home and Disney sent it to us UPS at no charge. I really expected to be billed for the cost of shipping it to us but, so far we have the suitcase but, no bill. Again, Disney excedes your expectations. Sorry I have gone on so long but, I have enjoyed remembering all the fun we had.
Patti
