January 8, 2006- 4 night Wonder- Anybody else coming with?

[Cruisin]

No, I am not the lady sitting next to you in the picture but I do believe that she is sitting in the chairs that we left behind when we went for lunch. You probably thought we were pretty strange because my dad was napping on the lounge chair with his long pants and sweatshirt on, all covered up in the tropical paradise because he was cold

You should have said hello but I can understand that you didn't because I probably wouldn't have either. Of course I had no idea it was you at all.

Your husband drew a little circle in the sand around the crab so I could see where it was and I was right there beside you for a few minutes before we left the beach.

I remember the two of you sitting there reading your books.

I also remember the other people you were speaking of. There were two men sitting in the short chairs up further on the beach than the ladies they were with. They were smoking cigars and shouting things back and forth with the ladies. They got up and left shortly before we did, the one man had to go back and retrieve something his "wife" left behind on the chair.

 

[attagirlx2]

Where to begin....

We all had a great time on the cruise and at Disney World. My girls were so surprised by the entire trip. But were VERY sad when it was finally time to go home. I was sad that our trip was over, but couldn't wait to see my baby boy and give him great big hugs and kisses!

It was great seeing Missy (UGAFan) at random times throughout the cruise. I am so glad Vicki approached me both at Palo and on deck. I sometimes zone out and don't realize who is around. It's pretty embarassing when I do it at a place like Target and I am standing in line behind a neighbor who is trying to talk to me and I completely seem like I am ignoring them...I'm just in a daze and don't notice people around me. I think it has something to do with three kids and a million and one other things on my mind. So I apologize if I looked right through anyone on the ship without meaning to. I really am not that rude! Thanks Crusin for recommending Katelyn and I stick around for the Until We Meet Again and pixie dust. (I think that was what it was called.) Kate loved it even though she was really too tired to get her picture taken with the characters. But she did with Peter Pan and Ann Marie. She saw Disney Dreams twice and LOVED it!!! Bob took the girls to the 2:00 show while I went to the art auction. Then Bob and Emma saw Chronicles of Narnia while Kate and I saw the 8:30 show of Disney Dreams. I saw LaCourre and her family from a distance a couple of times. And I kept my eyes open for Branv and her hickies but never noticed anyone with bruises on the back of her knees I am sorry that we never had the chance to meet some of the people we've been conversing with...I guess we'll have to go again!

I have my flame retardant suit on, so I have to say that I was disappointed in the food and service. In my opinion the food wasn't great and I didn't care for the choices offered. My DH and I were really tired of red meat! As far as service, I was expecting to be WOW'ed by it all. But it was no better, no worse than service we had received in the past on other ships. We've definitely had better and been made to feel pampered. This time it was what it should be but no "extra" feeling. It's hard to explain. Our table position was LOUSY in Animators and in Tritions.

The kids clubs were WONDERFUL!! My girls couldn't wait to go. The day in Nassau they went in the morning while I showered and got dressed. Then that night and each night one of us would take them as soon as they finished eating dinner. Emma's group did experiments and made flubber. While Kate's age group had a tea party with Wendy one night, Do-Si-Do'ed with Snow White another night, etc. The day at sea they went to the club while we did Palo brunch. When I went to get Emma, she didn't want to leave, so Kate and I did some shopping.

We tried to do the Life Style portraits on the last night. Stood in line before dinner and Mickey and Minnie showed up. We didn't think we could ask them to step aside since we just wanted a picture of our family, so we left and went into dinner. Kate had to go the bathroom soon after we ordered so Bob took her out and saw the line was gone except for one family. So we all got up and ran out the door. Well, the family was doing a gazillion poses...Johnny with Grandma and Grandpa, Johnny with Dad, Johnny by himself, Dad with Grandma and Grandpa, Dad by himself, Dad and mom, Dad and Mom and Johnny, etc. You get the idea. So we went back to dinner. We kept checking and they were still there. Finally we started sending Emma out to check by herself so we weren't all getting up and down. She finally came running back in to say they were done. We all ran out...and the photographer had left. We were bummed.

The girls loved being on a cruise. I love cruising. My DH can take it or leave it. I am not sure if we will step up and spend the money for the Disney cruise next time. I am going on Royal Caribbean in February with some girlfriends. It will be my fifth cruise on RCL. I plan on checking out the kids programs to see how they compare with Disney. I imagine they aren't as good. As of now I am leaning towards doing our next family cruise on RCL.

I did overhear one woman who was traveling with her daughter and left her husband at home. I can see that happening in my future since my DH isn't as Disney crazy as I am!

One thing we also enjoyed was Serenity Bay...the girls were disappointed that we wouldn't get in the water with them so they wanted to check out the club after lunch. So I checked them in and Bob went back to the ship to get our books and I met him at Serenity Bay. It was so peaceful and quiet. Perfect!!!

The only other negative of the whole trip was when I was waiting for the tram out to Serenity Bay. I was sitting there near some cast members who were going out to their beach and waiting for the tram as well. This one girls kept going on about how she had missed a note during her song in The Golden Mickey's show. She stated that she must've had one too many on Deck 5 before the show. Then anytime another cast member appeared at the tram stop, she apologized profusely for her actions the night before. She said she was still drunk when she woke up at 9:00 that morning and couldn't believe how hung over she was. Now I realize the cast members are people too and they are young and can make mistakes, but it is her job to portray a certain image. She was one of the Princesses. And everytime I saw her after that, I had a bad taste in my mouth. She definitely tarnished her image and her character's image in my eyes. I was so disappointed in what I was overhearing. I really tried not to listen, but she was quite loud about it all. I was just glad it was on the way to the adult beach so there weren't any kids around.

I do wish I could go get a cookie on deck right about now!! I am starting Weight Watchers tomorrow...I was a lifetime member but have slipped big time since we moved into the rental house...I've gained 25 pounds! I am keeping track of my points starting today and I am so hungry!! It's all psychological though.

Sorry for the long post!!! Have a great day everyone

 

[branv]

Cruisin' - I didn't even notice your dad was bundled up Poor guy, I wish it had been warmer for him. I didn't even get a good look at you guys, what I zoned or what?

Did you see what that stupid tattoo guy did when he saw a little creature moving in the sand? He started jumping up and down on it. As my brother would say, "jack***"

AttaGirl, so are you about to move into your house? I bet this break was nice to have before you have to ramp up to moving. I know what you mean about the service. I think it gets hyped up SO much that when it ends up being, well, the same type of decent service you get anywhere here in the outside world you're a little surprised. Our people were very nice of course, but not necessarily on the ball that often. We had empty drinks at dinner quite a bit, last out of the restaurant, sort of disconnected/not rude but not friendly waiters at the other areas. Now, again, most of the time everyone was incredibly friendly, which I really enjoyed. But I still would have sacrificed a little of the niceness if it meant faster/accurate service. Now as I said, our Palo guy was one of the best servers I've ever dealt with, and he was more polite then gushing friendly. He could serve at any of the 4* restaurants we've been to and do quite well. Oh yes, and the guy server at Cove Cafe was outstanding. So generally, I can't complain about the service, but I wouldn't gush either.

BUT, having never been on another cruise line, I can't compare. When we drove up and saw the HUUUUGE Mariner, I think DH's little brain starting turning thinking what it would be like to go on that ship. I'm afraid of other ships, b/c frankly I don't care for a big party atmosphere. I like to relax, not to go crazy and drink all day long, and I've heard some of those cruise ships are like 24/7 parties.

One of my biggest complaint was all the smoking. I was surprised at how much of it there was...at WDW and the ship, and I'd heard it could be a problem on other cruise lines, I didn't expect it on Disney. My apologies in advance to anyone here who smokes, but it was like we were just cursed with always being next to smokers on deck. Now granted, I understand that's just the risk you take in the open air areas, and it's perfectly within their right. But what bothered me about it was that DH and I were careful never to stop next to someone who was smoking, but most of the time DH and I would be standing or sitting somewhere, and someone would walk up right next to us to smoke (and usually so we were downwind of it). It was kind of off putting, we were there first but we were the ones who always had to move. We probably had to just outright leave Deck 4 about 6 times.

Ok, ok, and as long as I have a chance to say this, what about that duo in the Promenade Area? The lady's repetoire seemed to be stuck on butchering Sade, Dido and Faith Hill (her singing voice reminded me a great deal of little old ladies belting out forced alto hymns in church). Although her little male buddy could sing, he's clearly way too deeply obsessed with Jimmy Buffett...sure it's a tropical theme, but man, there are other options! Everytime we passed them or stopped to get a drink before dinner, it was the same songs...over and over and over again. Then they followed us to the adult pool area during Pirate Night. So now I've got an off-tune Sade song permanently etched in my brain. In the shower yesterday I was horrified to catch myself singing, "you're given me the sweetest taboooooo" GAHHHH!!! I'm scarred for life.

 

[JoyCrazy]

Here's what our door looked like. I loved being on Deck 6 we were a few Decks from everything on the ship and it was very quite. We loved Castaway Cay, where disappointed in Nassau and loved our sea day. I'm going to try and go again before our oldest hits 10. Isn't that rediculous how they consider 10 an adult. I could understand 16 but 10?? The food was great even if our selection was limited. Our Servers Ivanna and Ganish were great. We took it slow and didn't try and do everything and we had a great trip. The kids loved MK so we spent most of our time there. I've got dinner waiting so I'll get back to you.

 

[Cruisin]

attagirl, I'm glad that you and Kate were able to stay long enough to see the pixie dust. It is kind of cool to see.

I guess that I will have to be the voice on the other side of the service and food quality debate. All of the service we received was absolutely wonderful. Our dining room guys were very personable and friendly. The first night when we arrived at the dining room our server knew our names and took the time to figure out who was who. Our head waiter showed up at our table several times during every meal to see how things were or to help out with stuff, like helping my mom take the skin (? sorry not a seafood eater) off of her shrimp one night. My mom was thrilled to have the personal touches they provided.

We also were extremely happy with the food quality and there was only one thing that I ordered that I did not like and that was an appetizer.

We recently went on a RCCL cruise (our second one) and we found the service and food quality on the Disney ship to far outstand that on the Royal Carribean. Now it could just have been the ship we sailed on but we definitely like Disney better.

To each their own, of course, since obviously there are enough cruisers around to keep all of these cruiselines in business

branv, I did not see the guy jumping on the sand creature Why do people think they have to do that. I also saw lots of people pick up things from the bottom of the ocean and then throw them far out again. I didn't think that was necessary either. Saw one woman pick up a sand dollar (I think). She made sure that she rinsed all of the sand out really well and then took it on shore with her. Poor creatures.

 

[Cruisin]

Here's what our door looked like. I loved being on Deck 6 we were a few Decks from everything on the ship and it was very quite. We loved Castaway Cay, where disappointed in Nassau and loved our sea day. I'm going to try and go again before our oldest hits 10. Isn't that rediculous how they consider 10 an adult. I could understand 16 but 10?? The food was great even if our selection was limited. Our Servers Ivanna and Ganish were great. We took it slow and didn't try and do everything and we had a great trip. The kids loved MK so we spent most of our time there. I've got dinner waiting so I'll get back to you.

I agree that deck six 6 was a nice deck to be on. We were past the front elevators on the same side of the ship as you were.

We were in one of the sideways Cat 11 cabins and we were very happy with it. We thought it felt much more spacious than a regular Cat 11 cabin (probably wasn't but gave the impression to us that it was).

 

[branv]

Wow Cruisin', you did have good servers!! We didn't see our head server but one time in passing. In fact, the last night the girls at our table asked our servers if it was normal to tip the head waiter more then suggested and our servers actually suggested that we not tip him AT ALL. In their words, "he gets a salary and he doesn't really DO anything." I was pretty shocked that they would come out and say that. Our servers would come out, take our drink order each night, suggest what food to order, take our order and then largely vanish until dessert. We never got refills on the bread either (and the bread was the one thing I always liked ) We had to wave our asst. server, Herman, over when we wanted drinks...all but the last night We had 8:30 dining, and we never got out of there before 10:30. Again, they weren't awful, very sweet, but very busy and it showed. On the last night, the table next to us who shared the same serving team called over the head waiter and appeared to be chewing him out about the service (which I thought to be a bit convenient since it was the tipping night). Nothing they did at our table deserved a chewing out, and I tipped them a little extra. And no it wasn't the burping table that was doing the complaining

 

[Cruisin]

Yes we were very lucky with our servers. We had absolutely no complaints about the service, except that sometimes our waiter brought out an extra dessert and we were "forced" to try it when we really didn't need it

Here is our dining team, Jan:assistant server, Eric:head waiter, Lito: server

Eric helping my mom with her shrimp

 

[Cruisin]

Hey, did you guys know that the DISboard famous, inkkognito and her hubby antikieg (not sure of the spelling) were on our cruise with us.

I met Tony and Barb at the Castaway Club, returning cruisers party.

 

[attagirlx2]

Thanks for asking about the move...I checked email several times while on the ship hoping for good news. We thought we might have to close on Friday the 13. But the gas lines are still not in. They started the work and hope to have that completed by the 23rd. So at this time we are looking at closing in February. Hopefully by the 10th since that is the day our final interest rate lock extension expires. The 10th is also when I leave for my cruise!

Our lovely immature, redneck neighbors where we are renting the house left my mom a nice present while we were gone. I guess she didn't realize that one of our dogs went the bathroom in their yard. Well, they picked it up and smeared it all over the front walk and step into the house. They did it not once but they did it 2 days in a row. A$$h*!%$ Did I mention how ready we were to move. I hate living in this rental!!!!

The Mariner is a beautiful ship. I don't think RCL has the party ship reputation that Carnival has. I've never had a problem on RCL with that. But have heard a lot of problems on Carnival. The other line I would like to try would be Celebrity - I've heard wonderful things about the food and service on their ships. RCL's food is okay - some better than what we had on DCL and some not as good. The alternative restaurant, Portofino, was excellent!!!!

JoyCrazy - how were your neighbors on Deck 6?? Were the kids too loud???

 

[JoyCrazy]

Thanks for asking about the move...I checked email several times while on the ship hoping for good news. We thought we might have to close on Friday the 13. But the gas lines are still not in. They started the work and hope to have that completed by the 23rd. So at this time we are looking at closing in February. Hopefully by the 10th since that is the day our final interest rate lock extension expires. The 10th is also when I leave for my cruise!

Our lovely immature, redneck neighbors where we are renting the house left my mom a nice present while we were gone. I guess she didn't realize that one of our dogs went the bathroom in their yard. Well, they picked it up and smeared it all over the front walk and step into the house. They did it not once but they did it 2 days in a row. A$$h*!%$ Did I mention how ready we were to move. I hate living in this rental!!!!

The Mariner is a beautiful ship. I don't think RCL has the party ship reputation that Carnival has. I've never had a problem on RCL with that. But have heard a lot of problems on Carnival. The other line I would like to try would be Celebrity - I've heard wonderful things about the food and service on their ships. RCL's food is okay - some better than what we had on DCL and some not as good. The alternative restaurant, Portofino, was excellent!!!!

JoyCrazy - how were your neighbors on Deck 6?? Were the kids too loud???

Nope I didn't even hear them. Our room was very nice. Our neighbors would have probably heard us Pirate nitght if they weren't at the party cause my niece had a meltdown and there was time out involved. It wasn't pretty.Lol. The kids were pretty good this trip. Until the last day when they had to get up at 5am. That was hell. Shudder and don't even get me started on United Air never flying their slow skys again. And those sound like nasty neighbors you got. I wonder if it occured to them to politely ask your mom to poop scoop. That would have surely been more pleasent for them as well! Unless they like handling doggy doo. Did your mom call the police?

 

[VickiHD]

Hi everyone ! I'm trying to post a picture from the cruise and having a hard time. Sorry..... I can't make the door sign picture "turn around". If anyone has any helpful and easy instructions for posting pictures I'm all ears.

 

[branv]

Jeez, and I thought I had redneck neighbors from hell, but I can definitely say they're a walk in the park compared to THAT!! You'd think maybe a nice little note would have been a little more, I dunno...sane? Obviously they're not THAT adverse to poop since they're so willing to fondle it.

You know what's funny? DH and I noticed that they ONLY day we heard children crying on the ship was the last day Can't really say I blame them, was tempted to do so myself.

 

[wdw1972]

We never made it to the meet on sailaway day, since silly me didn't realize FOOTBALL would be going on, lol! I don't give that stuff a 2nd thought, but the boyfriend really wanted to catch part of the game and wanted my company while staring at the tv in Diversions.

We had a nice cruise - his first, my 9th or 10th on Disney (plus others on other lines). He was expecting a boat, bobbing up and down in the waves, and was really impressed that he felt no movement at all almost the entire cruise. He didn't believe me when I said we'd just started sailing, until we got up on deck and he saw we were quite a ways from the dock and heading for the open ocean!

Highlights for us were Palo dinner, Palo brunch, Castaway Cay, and our verandah cabin. I expected him to hate Castaway Cay since he's not a beach person, but he loved it! We spent several hours there, at the far end of the family beach. Our server and all the food at Palo was excellent both meals, and we had good experiences in the main dining rooms as well (& Lido for breakfast). We slept with the verandah door open so we could hear the ocean all night long, and loved having the view those floor-to-ceiling windows provided. I'll post our trip report over in the trip report folder.

I'm ready to cruise again, but since I don't have unlimited vacation time and we have other trips planned in 2006 the best I can hope for is to find time for a cruise in 2007.

 

[txSleepingBeauty]

Wow Cruisin', you did have good servers!! We didn't see our head server but one time in passing. :

Bran, that's so funny that you say that. We ahd the same seating which means the same rotation (ptta right) and thought ERic (the HOT french head server ) was fantastic. He stopped me on the 2nd night on my way out to smoke ( sorry, I was one of teh smokers, but I made sure to never sit by anyone not smoking, and didn't smoke if there were kids standing around me, unless their parents had lit up too). He asked me how I liked the food, when I told him it was okay and that I wasn't a fan of fancy food he told me he'd make my favorite meal (chicken fingers and fries, I know, classy huh?). On weds. night he specifically invited me over to watch him flammbe the bananas foster since I missed out on the cherries jubilee the previous night and personally brought me a dish of them...by the last night he knew my name, and table and everything!

We our servers- Zoran and Arlan. Zoran told me he was going to move to Texas and marry me for a greencard they were the best part of the cruise to me!

I do agree about too much food though. god forbid you not order a course, Zoran was bound and determined to bring you something anyway. And Palo's was even worse!! we went for brunch (best blueberry pancakes I've ever had) and our server brought us extra buffet stuff (yuck if I'd wanted that I would have gotten it myself!!) an extra entre ( fish and a delicious asparagus chessy risotto) AND extra dessert. We asked her if there was a mandatory weigh in at customs, and if everyone didn't gain at least 20 pounds, none of the waiters got paid! (she of course said no)

all in all it was fantastic. Had a great room on deck 7 aft, loved the secret deck, perfect for a smoke and pics in the morning....would HIGHLY recommend the catamaran snorkeling excurscion in Nassau (although a warning about the rum punch would have been good, got a little drunk coming back in)....castaway cay was beautiful, enjoyed the jet skis ( got me fat butt up on that sucker and took off) and yep, I was one of the few who braved the water (hi lacourre!! had fun snorkeling with you)

can't wait to do it again in May!!

the only bad thing: some idiot picked up my mom's bag by mistake and took it to the airport with him . We had jsut left when disney called saying they had found our bag and could pick it up at the airport. too bad we weren't going anywhere near the airport and were already on the road to Georgia for the weekend before going home. thankfully, she had seperated out the clean clothes from the dirty and packed the dirty stuff in a different bag, so she had some clothes for the rest of the vacation!!

 

[attagirlx2]

JoyCrazy - the reason I asked about your neighbors is because we were right next to you. Cabin 6101. I saw your door sign, but didn't think about knocking. I assumed we would bump into each other sometime. I can't believe we didn't. We didn't make it up to Pirate Night - the girls were too tired. But we never heard your neice. Our youngest had 2 meltdowns - one getting dressed the formal night in Nassau and the second was the morning we were disembarking. She didn't want to get dressed either time and it was an epic battle of wills between her and my husband.

About my rental neighbors - one would think they would see that someone else had been there for the past week and maybe knock on the door and ask my mom to clean it up out of their yard. But no, they were too insane to do that. My mom was too scared to call the police. She was afraid of what would happen next. She was really freaked out by it actually.

WDW72 - we were also glued to the screen in diversions on Sunday. Immediately after boarding we went down to watch our Panthers play. Then after mustering, I took the girls to the meet and up on deck for the sailaway party while DH resumed his position in front of the big screen. We joined him to watch our beloved Steelers play until dinner. DH and Emma were not feeling great during dinner so they headed back to the room. Katelyn and I ventured back to Diversions after dinner to check on the Steelers score. We were very relieved to see that they were about to win the game. So we ran back to the room to report to DH that he could rest easy that night I was wearing my Steelers gold and black (yellow really) along with my Carolina Panthers necklace. Had it all covered!

How do you post pictures?????????HELP!!!!!!

 

[branv]

Bran, that's so funny that you say that. We ahd the same seating which means the same rotation (ptta right) and thought ERic (the HOT french head server ) was fantastic. He stopped me on the 2nd night on my way out to smoke ( sorry, I was one of teh smokers, but I made sure to never sit by anyone not smoking, and didn't smoke if there were kids standing around me, unless their parents had lit up too). He asked me how I liked the food, when I told him it was okay and that I wasn't a fan of fancy food he told me he'd make my favorite meal (chicken fingers and fries, I know, classy huh?). On weds. night he specifically invited me over to watch him flammbe the bananas foster since I missed out on the cherries jubilee the previous night and personally brought me a dish of them...by the last night he knew my name, and table and everything!

We our servers- Zoran and Arlan. Zoran told me he was going to move to Texas and marry me for a greencard they were the best part of the cruise to me!

I'm noting a pattern here, maybe we would have had better service if we had a cute young girl at our table (though ironically my last name IS actually Young, but somehow I haven't figured out yet how to make the name imbue what it signifies )

Did anyone else do the beer tasting on sea day, and get to see the little battle of wills going on btwn the pub master and the gentleman with ample liquid experience One of those things that was both hard to watch and hilarious at the same time.

 

[attagirlx2]

Lets see if this works! This is us before dinner on the formal night.

 

[Cruisin]

Lets see if this works! This is us before dinner on the formal night.

Nope, didn't work.

What site are you using to host your pictures?

I use imagestation. com

 

[Cruisin]

Gosh I can't believe it. I take a few days off of work and come back to what looks like Santa's mailbag tipped onto my desk I know if I hadn't gone away there would not have been so much mail.

Also of course the new year has arrived so all of the file folders have to be moved to make way for the new years stuff to go into the cabinets.

I have several solid days of work ahead of me just to get things the way they should be.

It's nasty cold here too

I want to go back to the Bahamas where it was warm