just back from AMAZING Disney visit and outstanding Royal Caribbean cruise (allure)

[disneyholic family]

we got back last night after a very long return (we were delayed in detroit for 5 hours due to extreme weather in new york that closed JFK)....
we ended up missing our flight (i thought 5 hours was a big enough cushion between flights!! ), but luckily were given seats on the next flight out (5 hours after the one we missed).

anyway....fantastic fantastic fantastic fantastic...
the only thing bad about our WDW visit was the very short time we were there...
5 days just isn't enough....
but the 5 days we had were perfectly perfect in every way!!!!!!

i can't even do highs and lows, because absolutely everything was a high (except for one little low that happens - we had a really really really really bad server on our second dinner at rose & crown - we ate there twice because we love it so much)....

and as for the cruise - perfection...truly truly...
this was our first royal caribbean cruise, after 4 Disney cruise line cruises..
and while i think DCL is great, i have to say - as much as i feel like a traitor saying it - that RCI outdoes DCL....at least on our cruise that was true...
everything was superb....especially the service....every single worker we encountered was friendly and always smiled and said hello.....everyone...no matter what their job....people who had no expectation to get a tip from me....just friendly and smiling and saying hi, how are you...
so pleasant..
and the people who were directly taking care of us (waiters/steward/etc) - outstanding....amazingly so....
and so much to do on the ship.....so many things to do at the same time, you have to choose...you can be busy 24 / 7 with multiple activities...
i call it camp for adults...the most fun vacation ever!!!!


but getting back to WDW....
i'm going to try to do a detailed post of what we did each day...
including comments on the magic bands and fastpass+...

i'll be back!

 

[heatherbelle]

Looking forward to the review. I can't get my head around those magic bands.

Any chance you do a review of the ship, as we were looking at that one

Did you book the cruise directly with RCL or with a UK or USA TA?

 

[PJB71]

So glad to hear you had a fantastic time Beth

Look forward to hearing more

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Enjoyed your taster, looking forward to your WDW review

 

[Cyrano]

Welcome back Beth.

Glad you had a wonderful time

 

[Lisash]

Sounds amazing. Look forward to reading more

 

[2Tiggies]

Welcome back Beth! It sounds absolutely awesome!!!

It will be really great if you are able to do the Disney portion of the trip report if you get time. And a bit more on the cruise. And some pics. (That's all for now - we don't ask for much - or should I say we will probably make our demands and requests in installments so they look better )

 

[disneyholic family]

Looking forward to the review. I can't get my head around those magic bands.

Any chance you do a review of the ship, as we were looking at that one

Did you book the cruise directly with RCL or with a UK or USA TA?

i'll review WDW first and then the cruise (i think i have all the cruise compasses - the daily schedules - so if i can figure out how to post them i will....)

as for the Magic Bands - keep in mind that we didn't use them for FP+ but just as a key and payment method (more on why that was so later)..
we really really really really enjoyed using them as our key to get into the room and for payment and for the dining plan.
They are fantastically convenient - comfortable to wear and you never forget them. they're on your wrist - so no accidentally getting locked out of your room....you always have your key with you!! and they don't fall off (i slept with mine on and we all wore them on the slides in the water park)...

So glad to hear you had a fantastic time Beth

Look forward to hearing more

Enjoyed your taster, looking forward to your WDW review

thanks - i'm going to try to write it asap, so that i don't forget any of the details!!

Welcome back Beth.

Glad you had a wonderful time

thanks Reid!

Sounds amazing. Look forward to reading more

i'm looking forward to writing it

Welcome back Beth! It sounds absolutely awesome!!!

It will be really great if you are able to do the Disney portion of the trip report if you get time. And a bit more on the cruise. And some pics. (That's all for now - we don't ask for much - or should I say we will probably make our demands and requests in installments so they look better )

we were having such fun, we didn't take any pictures - but we do have the photopass pics....so i hope that will make up for it a bit...
by the way, we used photopass + and it was fantastic!!! we saved a bundle on our attraction pictures...even in the short time we were there, we managed 8 attraction pictures....that completely paid for the photopass!!!
and of course, we had zillions of regular pictures besides (including DD participating in Belle)...

 

[disneyholic family]

before i get to the day by day review, i thought i'd do a post on all the new things we did at WDW this time...i'll do them by park, rather than in chronological order:


Magic Kingdom:
Be Our Guest - Wow!!! we ate there for dinner on our very last day at WDW (and most perfect day in the history of man).
And we ate there without a reservation. I think you can actually try getting a walk up here, but that's not how we ended up here for dinner.
Backing up - in the months leading up to our trip, i tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to get a reservation for BOG, but without success.
So it wasn't part of our dining plan schedule. I figured we'd leave it for our next trip.
But then, on the day we checked back into Pop Century (for the 2 day visit to WDW after our cruise), DD got an email inviting her to participate in a FP+ test of the lunch time counter service at BOG. woo hoo!!!! i was really excited.
But then DD tried to retrieve the invitation in her disney account and kept getting an error (on her iphone).
So i went into my MDE app and inserted the invitation number.
It allowed me to continue, so i did. But then it would only let me order food for me and for DSIL - who wasn't even on my reservation but on DD's.
So i was able to order food for me and for DSIL, but not for DD and DH.
Since we didn't really like the lunch menu at all, we decided to give up the FP+ for the restaurant and instead eat at Rays (great burgers with the great fixings bar).

But since it was a test, i felt it was important to inform disney of the glitches we had encountered in trying to use the FP+.
As i've written, we were part of the magic bands/FP+ test at pop century and did encounter some issues - every time something happened, i called them to let them know and they thanked me profusely - since it's a test, they need to know the issues.
so after lunch at Rays, we walked over to BOG - they have a podium checkin for the people with FP+ for lunch there. So we told the CMs there about the glitch and they said - "oh, you should have come to us today and we would have let all four of you use the FP+".
We told them it was ok, we just wanted them to know about the glitch, since it was a test.
So then the CMs said "please wait". They called someone and then asked us if we would like to come back that evening for dinner.
We had already used all our TS credits, so this would be out of pocket.
And since this was our last day at WDW, we had been planning on park hopping, but we quickly decided to change our plan and spend the entire day at MK and pay for BOG out of pocket.
So we said GREAT!! Thanks!!
We would have liked to eat later, but the only time they had available was at 6:00. But since wishes was at 9:00 that evening, 6 was probably a good choice anyway (that day was the start of shorter hours).

sorry for the lengthy intro to how we ended up eating dinner there.

Anyway - getting to dinner itself.

At 6 PM we walked up to BOG. The check in podium is just before the bridge to the restaurant. there we two lines, you could get into either.
We got into the one on the right. We gave the woman our name and she found us right away - and knew how we had ended up there (the glitch etc).
while standing at the podium i heard someone ask the CM standing at the entrance to the bridge if there were any walkups and she told them to get in line at the podium and ask if there had been any cancellations.
So i guess it is possible to do a walkup.

the CM gave us one of those light up beeper things and told us to wait on the bridge.
So we walked past the CM standing guard at the beginning of the bridge and waited with the other people waiting on the bridge to get into the castle.
The setting is beautiful. the landscaping really looks like you're in france!!
After about 5 minutes, our beeper thing went off and we entered through the entrance gate of the castle. The CM who met us was one of the ones who had been at the podium at lunch so she was very happy to be part of our magical moment!!
She took us into the castle (and it is very very castle like - massive doors, and everything big. She pointed out the library on the right, where we were to go after dinner to have a picture taken with the Beast.
There are 3 rooms to eat in, the west wing, the ballroom, and a third room, i don't remember the name of.
She told us we were free to walk around and visit the different rooms, and indeed i saw people doing that through dinner.
We were seated in the biggest room, the ballroom. We LOVED it (be sure to look out the window there - it's snowing!!).
It is a very big room, with lots and lots of tables, so at first i didn't know what to expect.
But they have an army of CMs serving the tables, so you get very personal service.
Our CM came to the table immediately and chatted us up making us feel right at home (i saw that she did this with all the tables she had, not just us).
Since we were paying out of pocket, we could choose anything from the menu (not worrying about what was covered by the dining plan).

DD and DH, weren't hungry enough yet (we had lunch at 2 and then had a dole whip snack), so they just ordered the salad trio. DSIL ordered the salmon and i ordered the quinoa ratatouille.
a basket of rolls was brought to the table together with our soft drinks.
Everyone said the rolls were very tasty (i can't have gluten, so i didn't taste them).
Since DD and DH were eating the appetizer as their main meal, everything was brought together. All four dishes served simultaneously.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
everything was amazing!!! the salad trio, the salmon and the quinoa all were outstanding!!!!

Then when the rest of us ordered dessert, DD ordered the salmon!!!!
the CM put a rush in on DD's salmon order so that she would be able to eat it while we ate dessert!
DSIL had the strawberry cream cheese cupcake, DH had the triple chocolate cupcake and i had the gluten free cream puff. All three were YUMMY!!!! really really good!!!!

and of course, our drinks were refilled constantly, even before we finished the one we were drinking. Even after we paid, the CM asked us if we would like another refill.
after finishing, we walked around to see the various rooms, including where the beast was. We decided to give up the picture as we only had an hour before wishes and we wanted to try to get a good spot for our last magical moment at WDW!!

all in all our dinner at BOG was perfect - both the food and the service. An outstanding experience that we most definitely hope to repeat!!!!! about a thousand thumbs up!!

 

[disneyholic family]

Continuing with new things we did at the Magic Kingdom:

Tangled - in the area where there used to be the overhead cable ride, they have built a little Tangled area. It's right between It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion. It's basically just a bathroom, but built to look like buildings from tangled (and you can see the very tall rapunzel tower from everywhere in the park).
this has to be the most charming bathroom in all of WDW. Even more charming than the Belle bathroom in the new fantasyland (and that bathroom is adorable too and a must see).
i don't know what the men's side looks like, but the women's side is so cute with all sorts of decorations from the movie.

New Fantasyland: we loved this area!!! a wonderful new addition to WDW!!
we especially loved the whole Belle section, with the cute bathroom (a must must see - at least on the women's side - i don't know what the men's side looks like). I'm talking about the bathroom right next to Gaston's.

Little Mermaid - we loved this ride. We rode it twice - both before the cruise and on our last day at WDW. Keep in mind that it's meant to be a dark ride for children. But what a wonderful dark ride it is. Even the line to get on the ride is beautiful!!!!

Photo with Gaston - we didn't actually stand in line for a picture, but we stood watching Gaston for a while as he took pictures with guests. He is HYSTERICAL!! like all the villains, Gaston gets to say a lot of terrible things and he's a scream. Even if you don't want to get your picture taken with him, be sure to stop to watch him a while. Great entertainment!!!

Enchanted Tales with Belle: we tried to see this before the cruise, but the line was an hour long. so when we came back to WDW, after the cruise, we decided that on our last day, we would begin at MK. Racing from rope drop straight to Belle.
So that's what we did. We got to MK before the little intro show. Then as soon as they let us in, the 4 of us made a beeline to fantasyland. Kind of funny for 4 adults to race to fantasyland first - but we do have our priorities!!
we weren't alone. lots of people were racing there. we managed to get into Belle's cottage right away, and only had to wait in there about 10 minutes before moving on to Maurice's workroom.
All four of us loved this experience (that is actually meant for children).
DD even got to participate (as what's her name, the closet).
This is a very well done character interaction experience.
Any child who wants to participate in the story can (they hand out dishes to children who don't get main roles).
And those children who are too shy to participate in the story itself, are brought up by the CMs to meet Belle at the end of the story - so every child gets his/her picture taken with Belle.
This is really well done and disney at its best!!

Pirates Adventure - (i think that's the name) - we LOVED this. It's an interactive game like kim possible at epcot (or whatever the new game at epcot is called). We ended up playing all 5 games, even though it was hotter than hades the day we played (our last day at WDW - the most perfect day in the history of man). basically it's an interactive treasure hunt where lots of fun things happen when you activate it. this is actually a must do in our opinion. so cool to do. even on a hot day!!
and remember, we were four adults playing. No kids. and we loved it!!!

more new things we did in my next post......

 

[disneyholic family]

i think i've covered all the new things we did at MK, i'll ask DD if there was anything else..
but in the meantime on to

Disney Hollywood Studios:

Pirates of the Caribbean - i'm not sure what this is actually called. Since i haven't been keeping up with what's new at WDW, i wasn't aware this existed.
We began our WDW visit at DHS (late in the afternoon after a very very very very long 24 hours of traveling to get to the US).
of course, our first stop at DHS is always Toy Story, which was also true on this day. But we noticed the long line for this pirates thing right near toy story ........ we continued on to toy story, but planned on coming back to check it out.
i don't remember when we finally came back to it, but one of the times we passed, we noticed the line wasn't too bad, so we got into it without having a clue what we would find inside.
we LOVED it. I don't know how to describe it. It's only 8 minutes long. You stand the whole time. It's an interactive audio-visual type experience that is very disney and very worthwhile!!
we enjoyed it so much, we returned on the second half of our trip (after the cruise) to do it a second time. Definitely a must see!!

Monster University Music - (i don't remember the actual name ) i think this may have been just during the summer, but it was really well done and a lot of fun. We participated several times. They had a big stage in front of the hat where "Scare Supply" performed, together with several monsters from monsters inc - and then followed by a DJ.
Scare Supply is played by the same musicians from mulch, sweat and shears (well - that band has varying players, but it's the same group, with a different name).
DD is kind of a groupie of Mulch, Sweat and Shears, so she always talks with them after they perform. They told her that after the summer they would be going back to their regular MSS performances.
But getting back to the monster music show- we thought it was really really well done and very much enjoyed it....singing and dancing with the band and monsters. Given the large number of people in the crowd and how much they all were clapping and dancing and jumping up and down, clearly lots of other people enjoyed it too!!

More new things we did in my next post...

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

An early post

Good to read your thoughts on the newer things. We never went to Belle or BOG in December, although we did look round the restaurant. A lot of people have really enjoyed BOG so glad you had a great meal there

 

[disneyholic family]

there were other new things, but i no longer recall...
so i'll try for a chronological review, followed by the cruise on the amazing Allure of the Seas!

Tuesday, August 13th..
Indirect flight to Orlando via JFK.
Delayed 2 hours on JFK runway due to airspace closure to orlando because of extreme weather.
Arrive orlando 2 hours late.
In Orlando, discover one of suitcases is lost (it made it to new york, so it went missing on the way to orlando)
The Jet Blue claims person saw on the computer that the suitcase was scheduled to arrive in orlando 4 hours later - promised to deliver it to pop century that evening (it did arrive, but at 5 am the following morning).

we finally headed to alamo where true to form, the agent tried to convince me that what i really needed was a cadillac.....no....i don't think so....
i stuck with my original minivan choice.
We headed out to the parking lot and the very first car in the row of minivans was a town&country!!! score!!!!! and it only had 2,300 miles....score again!!! woo hoo...
so we put our suitcases in (one suitcase short), piled in and headed for disney's pop century resort.
As always, i made a wrong turn out of the airport. How do i manage that every single time??????????????

anyway, we made it to the resort, parked the car and headed into the lobby where we were shocked to see massive lines in both the online checkin line and the regular line. really long lines unlike anything i have ever seen at pop.

i immediately surmised it must be because of the magicband/fastpass+ test there that month.
i should add that by the following week they had the lines under control. i guess they didn't realize how long and complex the check in would be at the beginning.

anyway, we began our check in, the CM found our customised magic bands that i had had shipped to the resort: Blue for DH, Orange for me, Pink for DD and Green for DSIL (with our names on the inside).
He showed DD that she could take off the gray backing to make the band smaller to fit on her wrist (and what you need to do to fit the band on a child).

I'll add here that we found the magic bands to be extremely comfortable and convenient. I never took mine off. I even slept with it on.
You can even shower, swim and go to the water park with it on.

As proof - you can see that DD and DSIL are wearing their bands on crush and gusher at typhoon lagoon in the pictures below.
they don't fall off - not even on a water slide.
They're GREAT!!

look at their right wrists and you can see their bands - green on DSIL, pink on DD

 

[disneyholic family]

so here's another typhoon lagoon picture having nothing to do with anything - completely out of order and you can't even see their magic bands -
but i just think it's fun....DD always laughs like this on crush and gusher!!!!

 

[irenep]

Great fun so far
Looking forward to more - especially the cruise

 

[disneyholic family]

Did you book the cruise directly with RCL or with a UK or USA TA?

i just realised i never answered this question - we ended up booking with an israeli TA (we live in Israel), only because they had a really really really good price for the stateroom that i wanted to book for DD - i ended up booking the same room for DH and me as well.

but i think if i had to do it again, i would book directly with RCI - it just seems to be easier to manage the reservation when it's booked directly with RCI.

Since i booked at the last minute, it wasn't as important, but if you book far in advance, you can change your booking later on - and it seems to be easier to do if you're booked directly with RCI.

for example, if there's a price drop, sometimes you can upgrade to a higher category - if the price for that category drops below what you reserved at.
This process seems easier when booked directly with RCI.
That is, unless you have a really good TA who works a lot with RCI and so knows how to deal with them. (the TA i used didn't have much cruise industry experience so it was a bit difficult working with them).

 

[disneyholic family]

i'm continuing with my WDW report first and then i'll get to the allure, but i'll just say here that we LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED the Allure.
It was the best cruise we've been on to date.

The ship is gorgeous!! The crew is fantastic. The service was outstanding throughout. and I thought the food was very good, even though i've read lots of reviews criticising the food. All four of us enjoyed the food, so i don't know what people are talking about.

We've been on 4 disney cruises before this and we all thought that the service on the Allure was even BETTER than on disney cruise lines. And that's saying a lot.

I highly recommend this cruise. i can't say enough about how fantastic the allure is.
And don't let the numbers scare you. Somehow the ship is able to handle the large numbers.
i never ever felt the crowds on board.
In fact, i felt the crowds much more on the disney dream than on the allure.

but i'll give you more details after i finish WDW. But feel free to ask any questions you like!

 

[fizz13]

just reading this thread has made me soo excited to read the rest, had a tear about you getting into BOG too I'm looking forward to seeing what made the most perfect day ever so perfect! loving it )

 

[tinkerpea]

Really enjoying reading this, it's getting me excited for our trip in just under 7wks!

Loved the fact that BOG was so amazing! We only booked out our trip a few months ago so missed the 180 day ADR mark, I looked for wks on end and could get nothing for BOG so stopped trying knowing were back in may,
Anyways on the phone to book CG and the times was rubbish but she said I have something much better for you? a BOG for 6.30!!!!! So excited somebody must have cancelled as I was on the phone

 

[Tony Bush]

Just caught up with this thread, the trip sounds amazing, can't wait for more .......

Tony