noahsmom
17 and counting
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2002
I will try not to make this too long but we had such a wonderful time it will be hard to keep things out. Our trip started with 3 nights at WDW. We stayed at the Polynesian, conceirge level. Fabulous. Even though it was terribly hot we had a lot of fun. My travel party was my family, me (40) dh (38) and ds (4). The day we arrived at the Polynesian was my dh's birthday and the conceirge staff had a cake with balloons and party hats waiting for us in the room. It only got better from there. However, since this is a DCL message board I'll skip ahead.
Our town car picked us up at the Polynesian promptly at 9:30 am. We used Happy Limo and I highly recommend them. After a short grocery stop (for things we ended up not even using) we arrived at the the terminal around 11:00, just ahead of the DCL busses! Checkin was breeze and the line was relatively short, we were just at the start of the seating area which worked out great because ds could watch cartoons just a few feet away from us. It wasn't long before Goofy came out to meet people, this was the 1st of many photo ops. At about 12:15 they started boarding the ship. Being announced was very cool, after that I did feel a little like a heard of cattle as we were all directed to Beach Blanket Buffet. By the time we sat down it was about 12:45 and I was starting to feel anxious about our Palo reservations so I ate quickly and headed down to Wavebands. I was the 2nd in line at 11:00, they started taking reservations at 11:30. The wait wasn't bad, we had some nice conversations going on. I was the 1st reservation for the night we wanted (Wednesday). I then met the family at our stateroom 6088. I had ordered a gift for dh from the place mentioned often on this board, however the name escapes me right now. It was wonderful! Far more than I expected. Ds was thrilled, the card was signed from Captain Hook (one of his favorite Disney characters). After unpacking we set out to explore. Oh yes, while I was getting the Palo reservation, dh registered our ds at the Oceaneers Club.
Our dining rotation was APTA with a 6:00 seating. Our servers were Anita and Raka, both were great. Noah (our ds) loved them both. We were seated with a very nice family from Maryland who had an almost 3 yr old ds. We really did like all the restaurants, I think it would be hard to choose one over another, they each have there own "thing". Palo was by far the best meal, but that goes without saying.
Dh & I went to Hercules and enjoyed that. We all went to Lilo & Stitch which they showed in the Walt Disney Theater, we also saw Monsters, Inc. Both movies we had already seen but it didn't seem to matter to any of us.
Nassau day, we only got off the ship to take a picture of it. We spent the morning at an empty Mickey pool - had a wonderful time. Noah asked to go to the Oceaneers Club for the afternoon which was fine because dh surprised me with reservations for the Surial bath!!! I was shocked at how small the chamber was but we enjoyed the experience. I'm not much for steam rooms so dh spent more time in there than I did. But after it was over my skin did feel great. However, I'm not sure we would do this again. We had a great day on the ship and didn't feel at all like we missed anything. That night our table mates told us they went to Atlantis and never got in. They wanted $25.00 a person just to look around so they came back to the ship. They were very upset about that.
Castaway Cay, I don't think there is anything I can say about this island that hasn't been said before. It was great! The only thing I didn't like was the food but by this point I wasn't hungry anymore so it didn't much matter. Noah wanted to eat lunch with the "kids club" as he now called it. So we had a few hours alone to float on the water. The Konk Cooler was great! That night we ate at Tritons and had another great meal there. They also celebrated our anniversary that night since we would be at Palo the next night. Our 15th wedding anniversary was July 25th, which is the reason we took this trip.
Day at Sea, was again a very wonderful day. We spent the morning at the pool, leaving at lunch time. By lunch time it was getting very hot and very crowded. After lunch Noah went to the kids club for one last stretch. We went back to the room and started packing. The kids clubs put on a show in the afternoon so we went to that and we were thrilled that he actually participated! It was a fun little show. After which we went back to get ready for Palo. I had calamari (the absolute best I've ever had) and filet mignon. However, the best part was the chocolate souffele - unbelievable! After the meal we picked up Noah so we could all see Disney Dreams together. This is a great show - not to be missed! At the end of the show Noah asked the cruise director if he could have Captain Mickey turn the ship around so we could do this all again. It truely was the BEST vacation we've ever taken.
Debarkation day seemed again like a cattle drive. The breakfast was marginal and very rushed. Before we knew it we were standing in a hot parking lot 45 minutes before our car was due to arrive.
We definately want to go again, most likely for a 7 night cruise. It won't be for a couple more years. Even though it was by far our best vacation it was also the most expensive. We had veranda room which I would want again. We did send some nice evenings sitting out there after Noah went to sleep.
If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask. The service was fabulous as well.
Sorry this got so long, but like I said in the beginning we had a great time!
Kelli
Our town car picked us up at the Polynesian promptly at 9:30 am. We used Happy Limo and I highly recommend them. After a short grocery stop (for things we ended up not even using) we arrived at the the terminal around 11:00, just ahead of the DCL busses! Checkin was breeze and the line was relatively short, we were just at the start of the seating area which worked out great because ds could watch cartoons just a few feet away from us. It wasn't long before Goofy came out to meet people, this was the 1st of many photo ops. At about 12:15 they started boarding the ship. Being announced was very cool, after that I did feel a little like a heard of cattle as we were all directed to Beach Blanket Buffet. By the time we sat down it was about 12:45 and I was starting to feel anxious about our Palo reservations so I ate quickly and headed down to Wavebands. I was the 2nd in line at 11:00, they started taking reservations at 11:30. The wait wasn't bad, we had some nice conversations going on. I was the 1st reservation for the night we wanted (Wednesday). I then met the family at our stateroom 6088. I had ordered a gift for dh from the place mentioned often on this board, however the name escapes me right now. It was wonderful! Far more than I expected. Ds was thrilled, the card was signed from Captain Hook (one of his favorite Disney characters). After unpacking we set out to explore. Oh yes, while I was getting the Palo reservation, dh registered our ds at the Oceaneers Club.
Our dining rotation was APTA with a 6:00 seating. Our servers were Anita and Raka, both were great. Noah (our ds) loved them both. We were seated with a very nice family from Maryland who had an almost 3 yr old ds. We really did like all the restaurants, I think it would be hard to choose one over another, they each have there own "thing". Palo was by far the best meal, but that goes without saying.
Dh & I went to Hercules and enjoyed that. We all went to Lilo & Stitch which they showed in the Walt Disney Theater, we also saw Monsters, Inc. Both movies we had already seen but it didn't seem to matter to any of us.
Nassau day, we only got off the ship to take a picture of it. We spent the morning at an empty Mickey pool - had a wonderful time. Noah asked to go to the Oceaneers Club for the afternoon which was fine because dh surprised me with reservations for the Surial bath!!! I was shocked at how small the chamber was but we enjoyed the experience. I'm not much for steam rooms so dh spent more time in there than I did. But after it was over my skin did feel great. However, I'm not sure we would do this again. We had a great day on the ship and didn't feel at all like we missed anything. That night our table mates told us they went to Atlantis and never got in. They wanted $25.00 a person just to look around so they came back to the ship. They were very upset about that.
Castaway Cay, I don't think there is anything I can say about this island that hasn't been said before. It was great! The only thing I didn't like was the food but by this point I wasn't hungry anymore so it didn't much matter. Noah wanted to eat lunch with the "kids club" as he now called it. So we had a few hours alone to float on the water. The Konk Cooler was great! That night we ate at Tritons and had another great meal there. They also celebrated our anniversary that night since we would be at Palo the next night. Our 15th wedding anniversary was July 25th, which is the reason we took this trip.
Day at Sea, was again a very wonderful day. We spent the morning at the pool, leaving at lunch time. By lunch time it was getting very hot and very crowded. After lunch Noah went to the kids club for one last stretch. We went back to the room and started packing. The kids clubs put on a show in the afternoon so we went to that and we were thrilled that he actually participated! It was a fun little show. After which we went back to get ready for Palo. I had calamari (the absolute best I've ever had) and filet mignon. However, the best part was the chocolate souffele - unbelievable! After the meal we picked up Noah so we could all see Disney Dreams together. This is a great show - not to be missed! At the end of the show Noah asked the cruise director if he could have Captain Mickey turn the ship around so we could do this all again. It truely was the BEST vacation we've ever taken.
Debarkation day seemed again like a cattle drive. The breakfast was marginal and very rushed. Before we knew it we were standing in a hot parking lot 45 minutes before our car was due to arrive.
We definately want to go again, most likely for a 7 night cruise. It won't be for a couple more years. Even though it was by far our best vacation it was also the most expensive. We had veranda room which I would want again. We did send some nice evenings sitting out there after Noah went to sleep.
If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask. The service was fabulous as well.
Sorry this got so long, but like I said in the beginning we had a great time!
Kelli
)
Laurie
