Just back from the WONDERful 3/23-3/26 Cruise

[stiej]

We originally had booked cat 4 cabin 8014, but we really wanted adjoining rooms. Our TA said No can do, however, when we checked in at the terminal, we were able to switch to adjoining cat 5 rooms, 7100 and 7102. We were at the terminal early and were in the Group 2 for boarding. We got there right about 10:30. While we waited, we went ahead and got pagers for the kids programs. The kids, my 5 and 2 yr old and my niece 4, loved the cartoons playing. Then, Goofy and Minnie came out for pics. We were able to board at about 11:30. We went upstairs to the buffet instead of going to parrot cay. Buffet was nice, everyone seemed to enjoy it. We were able to go to our rooms at 1:30. Really glad that we got the adjoining rooms. My son got the bed and my 2yr old slept on the couch bed. We did Palo the first night and dropped the 2yr old at Flounders Reef and the older kids at the kids club. They had a great time and so did we. The food was excellent (even the yummy chocolate souffle!). We let the kids eat early from Pinocchios Pizzaria or the Grill. The last night we actually ordered them room service. We were very pleased with both of the child care facilities we used. When we got to nassau, it was storming. So, we checked the kids into their clubs and went into town ourselves. When we got back onboard, we had lunch and watched The Shaggy Dog in the Walt Disney theatre. Cute movie and the kids had wanted to see it anyway. After that, the weather was better, so we took the kids into Nassau for their souvenir shopping. My son wanted to go to the Straw Market for a hat. He ended up with a hat with his name on it and my daughter got a straw purse with Cinderella on it. It is very crowded and tight in there, so keep that in mind! The next day in castaway cay, we had a great time. The ocean water was still chilly, but that didn't stop the kids from wanting to play in it! We had the 11:15 glass bottom boat tour. My family really enjoyed it, but the in-laws got very seasick. The kids liked feeding the fish and the tour guide even let all of the children that wanted to stand on the glass. We had a great BBQ lunch at Cookies. I had the chicken, the kids had hot dogs and huge cheeseburgers. I told my husband that this was the life, sitting at a picnic table with Bon Jovi playing on the radio overhead, some yummy bbq and the beautiful caribbean at our feet. After lunch, we did some shopping at She Sells Seashells and went back onboard. The kids went to the pool which was MUCH warmer than the ocean. That evening, we played Big bucks bingo and then went to dinner. During dinner, we got paged that our son had a tummy ache and wanted to leave. So, my husband went to get him. We thought he was just overtired from being out in the sun all day. However, apparently he got a little souvenir at some point during our trip because right after our appetizers he turned to me and said, "My stomach really hurts" and proceeded to throw up. (My apologies to you if any of you reading this were around us.) However, our servers didn't flinch and within 10 minutes our head server was delivering our main courses, dessert and our anniversary cake to our stateroom. The next morning in Pt Canaveral, we had bkfast there and they were very sympathetic and sweet to my son. All he ate was toast and dry cereal and unfortunately had another episode on I-95 on the way home (ewww!). Thankfully that was the last one and he is better today. Overall, this was probably one of the most if not the most enjoyable vacation I have ever taken. Disney really knows how to cater to families, children, and adults. They have something for everyone and it isn't a Mickey all in your face experience. The characters are there if you want them, but if you want more adult entertainment, that is there too. This was a great trip.

 

[lbgraves]

Glad to hear that you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing. Hope your DS is feeling better.

 

[clovely]

My photos from this cruise are posted here!

stiej, I could almost have written your exact post! Change I-95 to I-4 and you wrote our story.

We also got there early and got group 2. We checked the kids in and colored for a while, got pictures with Minnie (we missed Goofy but saw him later). We went to Beach Blanket Buffet and had a quick lunch. We got to the Mickey Pool around 12:45 but had to wait till 1:00 before they opened it. The kids swam till they were purple and I made them get out. It was quite chilly for our Florida blood!

We changed and headed to the drill. I was worried about ds and that alarm but he had been warned about it so it was OK. We got some great character pictures before and after dinner that night. We had Animator's Palate so that was a fun first night. We were at Table #1, by ourselves, the whole cruise. Being seated by ourselves was good and bad. And it was a little hard to see all of the show or restaurant from the first table in the door. But it was OK. We really enjoyed Hercules after dinner.

After the show, we let the kids play at the club for a while and we went to one of the lounges and ended up in a Newlywed Game. We did so bad!! I think we answered one question alike. After that we got the kids and went back to the room for chocolate chip cookies and bed.

We were up early the next morning for the Princess Gathering. We got a lot of autographs and pictures that morning too. While we were waiting to see one of the characters, dh noticed the rain. It was a bummer. But we also just let the kids play in the club and we kinda just relaxed that day. I wanted to do the Rainforest Room but I was sure it would be crowded on a day like that. They had so many kids in that club that day!! My ds was there most of the day, too. Dd came out to have lunch with us and then went back for the cookie baking. We brought them back and got short naps before dinner. We had Parrot Cay that night but we just went to let the kids eat. Then we took them back to the club while we went to Palo. After Palo we went shopping and I got a long sleeve shirt! We changed and then picked up the kids for the pirate activities. Ds was exhausted, he didn't last long so dh took him back to the room and he got in bed with a movie. Dd and I stayed for the fireworks and it was a lot of fun.

I was so happy to wake up to sunshine on our Castaway Cay day!!! It was still kinda chilly but pretty. I went down early for yoga on the beach and that was really nice. By the time I met up with dh and the kids, they had played in the cold water and were pretty much over it. We got some character pictures out there and were headed to lunch. It was only 11:00 though and the sign said it was kids' club lunch from 11:00-11:30 so we dropped of the kids there to eat with the club. We also realized we'd left the pager on the ship so we went back to get that and came back out for lunch. We ate at Cookies and had that awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Soft Serve Ice cream!! We sat on the beach, took a ride out to Serenity Beach, and then decided to go back to the ship and let the kids play in the heated Goofy pool. So we checked the kids out of the club and then we all went back for another ice cream before we got back on board. We played in the pool a while and then had time for quick naps before dinner. We got the kids dressed and up to the club for their graduation and that was fun. Then we went to dinner at Triton's. After Triton's we got a pretty good family picture done. The ones of just the kids turned out awful and the ones of just dh and I were just OK. Ds for some reason didn't want to do a show. So he and dh went back to the arcade. Dd and I got good seats close and we LOVED Dreams! When we got back to the room, dh said they had been able to see the last half of it on TV in the room. We finished up packing and put our stuff out at 10:45. That was when it sounded like everyone around us started feverishly packing. Especially the people above us, back and forth, slamming doors and drawers.

I didn't sleep as well on the ship as I expected to. Too much noise! Every night I don't know if it was the engines or if they were buffing floors somewhere, that's what it sounded like but it drove me crazy. Oh well.

And I'm glad I had been told here the food was just OK. We were not at all wow'ed by Beach Blanket Buffet. All our meals in the restaurants were good but not exciting. Surprisingly, though, Palo was pretty much the same. Service was a little better but I think it was just the atmosphere as much as the service that made that meal more relaxing. But the food was about the same as the other restaurants. Except that Chocolate Souffle!! OMG that really was special. The whole time, though, I felt like our servers thought we weren't happy. We're just not accustomed to eating huge meals. We are just light eaters and we liked everything we ordered even if we weren't blown away. But we just can't eat that much at once.

We had a really great time. Sunday morning we picked up our pillowcases at Guest Services. I was told when I dropped them off to pick them up the last night. I wondered if our stateroom host would bring it but I'm not sure if they're not doing that anymore. No big deal, I picked them up and they are really really cute! Then we had breakfast and got our pictures at Shutters and then we got off the boat. We had a great time but we were exhausted and ready to be headed home. Halfway home ds got sick. We had to pull over fast on I-4! Poor baby. But I'm so glad he waited till we were almost home!! I thought maybe it was just adjusting to going from sea to land, although we hadn't had any motion sickness at all on the boat. But he threw up three of four more times Sunday afternoon so it was obviously a lot more than that. I guess somebody in the club was spreading something. I wonder if my ds was at the same table as yours for the cookie-baking. Stuff like that is inevitable. They do really try to do all they can do to stop the spread of germs.

Ds is feeling much better and I'm sending him to school this morning. We're slowly recovering. I've got all my pictures printed and even sorted in the scrapbook ready to get started. I guess at some point I'll have to finish unpacking, though. That's the worst part of vacation.

 

[taeja71]

I have a question. I just read the belated live report from the Magic March 25-apr 1. and the original poster said:

"In particular, I am told that this is the inaugural cruise for a big clamp down on health safety:
ALL buffet lines have CM servers at every point. So you are not allowed to pick up plates, get food, drinks, even silverware. Even topsiders. This is our first DCL cruise, but multiple servers tell us this is new, and most have a sad expression (I think they may be a little upset at increased workload, but are trying to come across supportive)... I have asked multiple CM and all have said that nothing has prompted this, such as a recent outbreak (let me be clear: there has NOT been any recent outbreak), but that this just happens to be the voyage picked for initiation."

Did you see this kind of service on the Wonder as well? He/she said the inagural for the Magic, but what about you Wonder sailor?

 

[clovely]

Did you see this kind of service on the Wonder as well? He/she said the inagural for the Magic, but what about you Wonder sailor?

Yes! And I was very impressed that they're taking such initiative. There were warnings everywhere about washing hands. They hand you wipees when you walk into any restaurant and they have these kiosk-type stands all over with the wipes and a dispenser with antibacterial. When the kids check in at the kids' club, they're given a hand full of soap as they come through the gate and told to go wash their hands first.

So they do all they can. But in a room full of 100 kids (and I did overhear that on that day that was rainy in Nassau they had like 96 in the 5-7 group) somebody's going to have something and some germ's going to get through all the precautions. They were also doing a chocolate chip cookie baking activity that afternoon and it's very likely that's where/how both our kids got this bug. Oh well.