Just back from NYC Inaugural cruise: info inside! UPDATE:*pics on my web site added*

[SeaSpray]

***UPDATE 6-10-12: Started working on my web page, here's the link, and I will be adding a LOT more pics tonight!

http://www.brownfamilyvacations.com/html/DCL2012.htm


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I just started to unpack and found most of the Navigators from our 8-night cruise. Here's a basic rundown:

Day 1 New York City

Port Departure 5pm

"Welcome Aboard - Let the Magic Begin" show in the Walt Disney Theater.

Recommended Evening Attire: Cruise casual

Dinner Menu:
Animator's Palate: Show Dinner
Parrot Cay: Island Dinner
Lumiere's: French Dinner

Family Events:
Adventures Away
Mickey Mania
Disney Channel All-Star Dance Party

Adult Events:
Ice Breakers
Match Your Mate
Pianist Tim Moss
GOODTIMES INC live band

 

[SeaSpray]

Recommended Evening Attire: Formal

Walt Disney Theater: Twice Charmed

Dinner Menu: Prince and Princess (at all restaurants)

Family Events:
Playhouse Disney Party
Cabaret - Lynn Trefzger
Superstar Karaoke

Adult Events:
Disney's Art of Entertaining (appetizer)
Cabaret - Max Winfrey
Formal Night After Party

 

[SeaSpray]

Recommended Evening Attire: Cruise Casual

Walt Disney Theater: Villains Tonight!

Dinner Menu:
Animator's Palate: Show Dinner
Parrot Cay: Island Dinner
Lumiere's: French Dinner

Family Events:
So You Think You Know Your Family?
Cabaret - Max Winfrey
Jackpot Bingo
Hoedown Throwdown

Adult Events:
Disney's Art of Entertaining (entree')
Innovations - Theme Parks & Resorts
Cabaret - Lynn Trefzger
Rock 'N' Country

 

[SeaSpray]

All Ashore: 9:30am (we were cleared earlier than this and able to leave the ship)

All Aboard: 6pm

Recommended Evening Attire:
Pirate or Cruise Casual

Dinner Menu:
Pirates IN the Caribbean (all restaurants)

Family Events:
Pirate Trivia Quest
Pirate Jackpot Bingo
Pirates Life for Me
Pirates IN the Caribbean Deck Party & Fireworks

There was a chocolate & dessert buffet put out after the fireworks, on deck 9

Adult Events:
Krazy Karaoke
Pianist Micah Hulscher

 

[ksloane]

Thanks so much for posting these. This is great information!

If you get time, I'm interested in which characters were listed as doing meet and greets.

 

[SeaSpray]

All Ashore: 8:15am

All Aboard: 5pm

Recommended Evening Attire: Cruise casual

Walt Disney Theater: Walt Disney - The Dream Goes On

Dinner Menu:
Animator's Palate: Show Dinner
Parrot Cay: Island Dinner
Lumiere's: French Dinner

Family Events:
Crab Races
Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer?
Decades Dance Party

Adult Events:
Run Disney - Castaway Cay 5K
Cabaret - John Charles
Pianist Tim Moss

 

[lulubella1609]

Yay!! I can't wait to hear more!

 

[SeaSpray]

All Ashore: 6:15am

All Aboard: 12 midnight

Recommended Evening Attire: Cruise casual

Walt Disney Theater: Movie Night

Dinner Menu: Master Chef
Open Seating:
Lumiere's 6-9:30pm
Parrot Cay Buffet 6:30-9:30pm
Pluto's Dog House 6pm - 12:30am
Topsider buffet 9pm-midnight

Family Events:
Superstar Karaoke
Disney Disco
Mickey Mania

Adult Events:
Magic Quest
Pianist Tim Moss
One Hit Wonders

 

[SeaSpray]

Recommended Evening Attire: Semi Formal

Walt Disney Theater: Disney Dreams

Dinner Menu: Captain's Gala (in all restaurants)

Family Events:
Jackpot Bingo
Cabaret - John Charles
Dance Party - High School Musical
Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer?

Adult Events:
Disney's Art of Entertaining - the dessert
Cabaret - Alfred & Seymour
Disco Legends

 

[SeaSpray]

Recommended Evening Attire: Cruise casual

Walt Disney Theater: Remember the Magic - A Final Farewell

Dinner Menu: 'Til We Meet Again

Family Events:
Final Jackpot Bingo
Friendship Rocks!
'Til We Meet Again
Disney Channel All-Star Dance Party

Adult Events:
Disney's Art of Entertaining - Plate Decorating
Pub Night
GOODTIMES INC live band

 

[SeaSpray]

We had table #68 in each of the main dining rooms, and I loved this location. It's in the middle of each restaurant. We were a party of 4 and this was a table for 4.

Our servers were EXCELLENT! Truly! LOL We had Aziz from Turkey as our Server, Meisa from Indonesia as our assistant Server, and a nice woman whose name escapes me at the moment was our Head Server. LOL All of them were wonderful. We saw our head server every single night. On the second or third night she even came over and made sure that our servers were doing a good job and to make sure we were happy with them. We were.

On the first night I was cutting my entree' and due to arthritis in my hands I asked my DH to cut it up for me. Aziz saw this and came running over and took over cutting my meat. He came and did this every single night after this! He was awesome, friendly, very on top of things! I explained on the second night that I might not need his assistance cutting my entree' every night, he said "I don't mind, I don't mind!" and he was fairly discreet about it, he didn't make a big deal out of it or cause a spectacle. lol

Meisa was very funny and kept us entertained every night with crayon puzzles.

I have to say that as a party of 4 adults we certainly not overlooked in favor of tables with kids. It seemed to me that they gave equal excellent service to all of their tables.


I want to add that our service during our sit-down breakfasts/lunches was also excellent! All CMs were very friendly and helpful, no matter where we were on the ship/shops, etc.

 

[lulubella1609]

Thank You So much for posting! Do you know who the DJ was?

 

[ksloane]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the information. I think many of us are stalking DIS right now for any and every NYC related posts and yours are great. Keep the information coming!

 

[SeaSpray]

Considering that we booked an 11B, this was a great cabin and cabin location for our party of 4 adults.

It's located portside, forward of the Forward Elevators.

Our Cabin Steward was Herri from Indonesia. He did an outstanding job and always had an excellent attitude when we'd see him in the hallway, which was fairly often. lol

We liked this location because it was always a quick elevator ride up to Deck 9 and the adults-only Quiet Cove pool, Cafe, and Spa.

This cabin sleeps 3 people, there is no pulldown bunk. Lots of storage space between the desk, the storage trunk, the cabinets over the TV, and the closet.

 

[SeaSpray]

Thank You So much for posting! Do you know who the DJ was?

DJ Jesse

 

[JRut]

Thanks for posting! What type of food was served for the captain's gala menu? We have our palo reservations that night and I am thinking of switching it to a day that is less formal.

.

 

[SeaSpray]

DCL gave each cabin 4 special PhotoPass cards to take to WDW with us. We were told to use these while in WDW, and then those pictures would be combined with our pics taken on the ship, and we could include those in any photo packages that we purchased. We could only buy ship photos while on the ship, but we could take home the special Photopass cards to view the WDW pics at home and order some, if we wanted to, as usual for the WDW Photopass.

We were on the 8:15am bus to the Magic Kingdom. We boarded the bus and got there in about an hour or so. (I hardly looked at a watch all week. lol).

We were dropped off in the same area where the WDW Resorts busses are; we were specifically Bus Stop #18. This is where the return busses would be located to go back to the ship. They were going to start running the return busses at 3pm and every hour after that, continually until 10:30pm, which was an hour after park close. Each of the parks had their last bus pick up an hour after park close time.

Other than the special PhotoPass, our day at WDW was like any other. Our DCL Key to the World Card was also our Park Hopper ticket, so that was convenient.

One note about the WDW bus transportation: Please be sure to bring your "excursion" ticket with you that lists your bus time and park on it. They were checking these tickets and collecting them as you boarded your bus in the morning.

The night before Port Canaveral they gave us a special small Navigator, along with the usual Navigator, and this small Navigator contained all of the info you'd need for your WDW day, including full bus schedules for each of the parks. So don't worry, they do a great job of informing you of what you need, where you need to be, etc.

 

[SeaSpray]

Thanks for posting! What type of food was served for the captain's gala menu? We have our palo reservations that night and I am thinking of switching it to a day that is less formal.

.

I don't remember the specific offerings, but it was on the formal side. I know there are links to menus somewhere here on the DIS.


One note about the dining room dinner menus:

On the menus that I had seen before our cruise, it listed only chicken breast or salmon as the items that were offered every single night. However, on this cruise we were also offered sirloin steak each night. These items came with mixed veggies and rice or baked potato.

On our last night I didn't find anything that I liked on the regular menu so I ordered a steak and it was actually fairly tender, and cooked correctly for "medium".

 

[jmurg278]

Thank you for the extremely helpful reports. I enjoyed reading them. Please feel free to add any more information that you can think of. Did you do any excursions at Nassau or CC.?? I would be interested to hear how that went. Thank you in advance. Also, in your opinion, would you say that the ship was overcrowded, in particular.... The pools.???

 

[Laurie12820]

Considering that we booked an 11B, this was a great cabin and cabin location for our party of 4 adults.

It's located portside, forward of the Forward Elevators.

Our Cabin Steward was Herri from Indonesia. He did an outstanding job and always had an excellent attitude when we'd see him in the hallway, which was fairly often. lol

We liked this location because it was always a quick elevator ride up to Deck 9 and the adults-only Quiet Cove pool, Cafe, and Spa.

This cabin sleeps 3 people, there is no pulldown bunk. Lots of storage space between the desk, the storage trunk, the cabinets over the TV, and the closet.

We have this cabin on July 8th! I'd love to see any pictures if you have them! Does the curtain divider go the whole length or just halfway? DD will be sleeping on the sofa and we'll most likely stay up a bit later than her and will not want to disturb her. TY!