NYDisneyMom
I need to have a vacation planned at all times...
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2003
- Messages
- 1,122
Okay...I'm just about unpacked. I can start the trip report now! 
We arrived on 5/14. ISP to MCO, no problems. Rented from Budget. The ride to Cocoa Beach was about 45 minutes, and it was much easier than we expected. The kids had fun looking out the car window for aligators! It is very exciting when you approach the Port Canaveral bridge and start seeing the HUGE cruise ships!!
We stayed at the Doubletree Cocoa Beach, right on the beach (Priceline, $36). We never did get a chance to use the beach or their pool. The room was very nice, view of the beach...and best of all were the warm cookies for everyone at check in! (I'm easy to please. )
After a late lunch we drove around, picked up some last minute items that we needed for the trip, went to Ron Jon's and then decided to drive out to Kennedy Space Center. By the time we got there, they were almost closing. A very nice security guard let us just go into the gift shop and we browsed in there for a long time. There's also an entrance/exit from the gift shop to the Rocket Garden. The boys got a kick out of that.
Just as we were getting ready to leave, the rain clouds came in.
We had at mini DIS meet planned for Grills at 7:00, so we headed on over there. It pretty much began to pour when we got to Grills. The other DIS'ers were already there, but since the place was packed (and we had never met before) I had to just stand right by the hostess and wait for her to seat the others so we'd know which table to go to meet everyone!
We had a very nice dinner with our fellow cruisers..just wish it weren't raining so hard!! We all kept our fingers crossed that the weather would be better the next day for our sailaway party!
Saturday:
FINALLY!!! Our cruise is here!!!! We packed up, had a nice breakfast at the IHOP on A1A and were on our way to the ship around 10:00. There was already a line of cars waiting and it took about 20 minutes to get to the drop off area. My DH dropped me and the boys and all of our luggage off and he went to return the car to Budget.
Just going up the escalator in the terminal is exciting!! LOL! The terminal is very nice inside. My boys sat on the couches and watched TV for a while, and I stood in line to check in. I couldn't believe there were already that many people there. They must have been waiting since 9:00!!
Check in was a breeze. I had to sign a waiver because they were filming on board during our cruise (I later found out it was for the new DCL website). The CM that checked us in was very nice. He asked me if I knew I had gotten an upgrade and I said yes, but I wasn't called about it. I told him that I had picked our Cat 6 cabin location and asked him if the Cat 4 location was a good one. He gave me a look like "you're kidding, right?" LOL! He said it was great cabin (and it was!!) He checked us in and gave me ALL of our cards. I asked him what my DH had to do after returning from Budget. He said, "nothing. You have his KTTW card." Pretty cool!
So...a little after 12:00 we finally started to board. Stepping into the atrium finally!!!! The boys immediately saw Capt. Mickey and Minnie waving to them from above. We didn't know where to go first!! I had booked the REAS package, so no need to rush to make reservations. We walked around Deck 3 for a bit, got our pics with Mickey up on 5 and then headed on up to Deck 9 and lunch at Topsiders. It was such a nice day, we didn't want to eat lunch indoors at Parrot Cay, besides we had PLA rotation and we'd be there for dinner that night.
After lunch we went to the cabin. It was better than I expected! We were in 8564. A short walk to either mid ship or aft elevators. Deck 8 is very nice and quiet. There are only cabins on one side (no inside cabins) so there's a lot less foot traffic. One flight up to Deck 9/pools/Topsiders, and we usually just walked down to the lower decks.
Our cabin steward was Paulette. She was nice but a little bit too in our face at times (seemed like every time we got to the room she was right behind us, many times NOT knocking before entering.)
After checking out the room we went to check the kids into the club. I knew my boys would love it there when we walked in. The counselors were already talking to them, and they couldn't wait to get their hands on the computers and PS2!
We got our beepers and were off. The guys went up to the pool, I went exploring.
I walked around the ship and quickly found my favorite spots -- the Cove Cafe, Deck 10 loungers and the "secret" Deck 7 aft! We had ALL of our luggage by 4:00 and I unpacked while they were all up on the deck.
The lifeboat drill was much less painful than I had imagined from hearing horror stories on the boards. We put on our life vests in the room, walked down to Deck 4 and stood in size order, listened to the 'talk' and off we go. Maybe 15 minutes, tops. I thought it was funny that the CM's announce with the bull horn the cabins that didn't show up! Pretty much telling the rest of us who to blame for standing out there longer than necessary! It was hot, but there is shade from the deck above so you're not standing directly in the sun.
After the drill we were up on the deck for the sailaway party and then on to Parrot Cay at 6:00 for dinner. I don't remember what we had for dinner that night but I will never forget meeting our wonderful servers, Sasha and Maria. What a team these two are. Sasha is from Croatia and the boys loved him! He greeted them by their name, which impressed even me! Maria is from England and is very sweet with the boys. These two hard working servers would really make our week even more enjoyable.
The kids went to the club after dinner...and I really can't remember what my DH and I did! I guess we strolled around the ship.
Here's a link to my pics. I'll post more tomorrow....
http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
We arrived on 5/14. ISP to MCO, no problems. Rented from Budget. The ride to Cocoa Beach was about 45 minutes, and it was much easier than we expected. The kids had fun looking out the car window for aligators! It is very exciting when you approach the Port Canaveral bridge and start seeing the HUGE cruise ships!!
We stayed at the Doubletree Cocoa Beach, right on the beach (Priceline, $36). We never did get a chance to use the beach or their pool. The room was very nice, view of the beach...and best of all were the warm cookies for everyone at check in! (I'm easy to please.
)After a late lunch we drove around, picked up some last minute items that we needed for the trip, went to Ron Jon's and then decided to drive out to Kennedy Space Center. By the time we got there, they were almost closing. A very nice security guard let us just go into the gift shop and we browsed in there for a long time. There's also an entrance/exit from the gift shop to the Rocket Garden. The boys got a kick out of that.
Just as we were getting ready to leave, the rain clouds came in.
We had at mini DIS meet planned for Grills at 7:00, so we headed on over there. It pretty much began to pour when we got to Grills. The other DIS'ers were already there, but since the place was packed (and we had never met before) I had to just stand right by the hostess and wait for her to seat the others so we'd know which table to go to meet everyone! We had a very nice dinner with our fellow cruisers..just wish it weren't raining so hard!! We all kept our fingers crossed that the weather would be better the next day for our sailaway party!
Saturday:
FINALLY!!! Our cruise is here!!!! We packed up, had a nice breakfast at the IHOP on A1A and were on our way to the ship around 10:00. There was already a line of cars waiting and it took about 20 minutes to get to the drop off area. My DH dropped me and the boys and all of our luggage off and he went to return the car to Budget.
Just going up the escalator in the terminal is exciting!! LOL! The terminal is very nice inside. My boys sat on the couches and watched TV for a while, and I stood in line to check in. I couldn't believe there were already that many people there. They must have been waiting since 9:00!!
Check in was a breeze. I had to sign a waiver because they were filming on board during our cruise (I later found out it was for the new DCL website). The CM that checked us in was very nice. He asked me if I knew I had gotten an upgrade and I said yes, but I wasn't called about it. I told him that I had picked our Cat 6 cabin location and asked him if the Cat 4 location was a good one. He gave me a look like "you're kidding, right?" LOL! He said it was great cabin (and it was!!) He checked us in and gave me ALL of our cards. I asked him what my DH had to do after returning from Budget. He said, "nothing. You have his KTTW card." Pretty cool!
So...a little after 12:00 we finally started to board. Stepping into the atrium finally!!!! The boys immediately saw Capt. Mickey and Minnie waving to them from above. We didn't know where to go first!! I had booked the REAS package, so no need to rush to make reservations. We walked around Deck 3 for a bit, got our pics with Mickey up on 5 and then headed on up to Deck 9 and lunch at Topsiders. It was such a nice day, we didn't want to eat lunch indoors at Parrot Cay, besides we had PLA rotation and we'd be there for dinner that night.
After lunch we went to the cabin. It was better than I expected! We were in 8564. A short walk to either mid ship or aft elevators. Deck 8 is very nice and quiet. There are only cabins on one side (no inside cabins) so there's a lot less foot traffic. One flight up to Deck 9/pools/Topsiders, and we usually just walked down to the lower decks.
Our cabin steward was Paulette. She was nice but a little bit too in our face at times (seemed like every time we got to the room she was right behind us, many times NOT knocking before entering.)
After checking out the room we went to check the kids into the club. I knew my boys would love it there when we walked in. The counselors were already talking to them, and they couldn't wait to get their hands on the computers and PS2!
We got our beepers and were off. The guys went up to the pool, I went exploring.
I walked around the ship and quickly found my favorite spots -- the Cove Cafe, Deck 10 loungers and the "secret" Deck 7 aft! We had ALL of our luggage by 4:00 and I unpacked while they were all up on the deck. The lifeboat drill was much less painful than I had imagined from hearing horror stories on the boards. We put on our life vests in the room, walked down to Deck 4 and stood in size order, listened to the 'talk' and off we go. Maybe 15 minutes, tops. I thought it was funny that the CM's announce with the bull horn the cabins that didn't show up! Pretty much telling the rest of us who to blame for standing out there longer than necessary!
It was hot, but there is shade from the deck above so you're not standing directly in the sun. After the drill we were up on the deck for the sailaway party and then on to Parrot Cay at 6:00 for dinner. I don't remember what we had for dinner that night but I will never forget meeting our wonderful servers, Sasha and Maria. What a team these two are.
Sasha is from Croatia and the boys loved him! He greeted them by their name, which impressed even me! Maria is from England and is very sweet with the boys. These two hard working servers would really make our week even more enjoyable. The kids went to the club after dinner...and I really can't remember what my DH and I did! I guess we strolled around the ship.
Here's a link to my pics. I'll post more tomorrow....
http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
