Magically Crossing the Atlantic May 12-26 2007

[NHdisneylover]

Cast review:

Me (Hadley) 34
DH (David) 34
DD (Marika) 10
DS (Rio) 8

Grandparents: Hank and Jan
Lots of great CMs and DISsers

Oaky, I have to start off here with an apology. Last installemnt I promised both princesses and Ducky were up next. YIKES I got my dates mixed up. They are not up now. Today was a day for goodie bags, brunch (I had that right), and high heels.

It was so peaceful and relaxing to wake up knowing that I was just starting in on 6, yes count them SIX, full days at sea. What a wonderful, wonderful, wonerful feeling that was. It was our last day sailling in the waters of the Caribean and as we expected, when we opened our verandah door the weather was cool, windy and cloudy. You thought I was going to say warm and sunny didn't you? Luckily we really had come with the expectation that crossing the Atlantic might not be very tropical in the weather department and had packed appropriately (meaning brough every thing we own) and had forwarned the children that they may not be able to swim at all after embarkation day. So for us, the cool breeze and overcast skies really were a non issue. The seas were also pretty rough (20 foot or so waves). Lukcily the kids and I are of the read in a car while driving twisting canyon roads and never get sick variety. Dave, on the other hand, can get sick on a porch swing (if you think I am kidding, you haven't sat on a swing by him). But, knowing the seas would likely be rough, he had started taking ginger pills two weeks before we set foot on the ship. Ginger is what works wonders for him and he did just fine with all the rocking that day and in the days to come.

Someone on our meet thread had organized a group of us to deliver a small gift to all of the kids on each of the many sea days. This was my day to play delivery girl! I had teamed up with a fantastically nice lady named Anita to offer little goodie bags for the day. Anita's kiddos are all grown, but she wanted to bring a smile to the little faces so she was helping with the kids' gifts anyway (how cool is that?). She had not wanted to do much shopping and just give me $$ for some things if I would pick them out. What, you want to let me go shopping with your $$??? Yeah, I was all over that Marika and I hauled the box of goodies we had bought to her room (Rio was happily socailizing in the lab and Dave was enjoying a quiet morning on the verandah). In Anita's room we assembled the bags (including awesome little notes Anita had printed up and cute Canadian pencils she had brought).

Next up, time to deliver! OMG, this was so much fun. I highly recomend finding the time to wander every stateroom hallway if you are a cruise with lots of DISsers. We all 3 (Anita, Marika and I) got such a kick out of seeing all of the door decorations and fish extenders. Our favourites were our friends' Erik and Jason's extender which was super wide and incorporated a dry erase board and cork board, our friend Deanna who made hers using a pair of jeans (too cute) and DISsers (who we only saw a few times in passing) Nicholas and Mike who had a foam treasure chest as an extender.

Delivery time passed quickly and before we were even thorugh it was time for me to rush off to my very first ever brunch at Palos. We made plans to reunite after brunch/lunch to deliver the rest and off I went.

 

[ncseric]

A fish extender? Do you have a picture of this odd creature?

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Great TR, I can't wait to read more.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hadley

You DO have the best trip reports - they are positive and really a trip report and not just a place for you to gripe. You are doing a great job and I can't wait to read about your entire adventure.

Can't believe you also do Girl Scouts.

And not true, I wouldn't say nice things just because you said nice things about Michael. Besides you have the advantage with him, I have never met him.

Diane

Diane,
Thank you for the kind commnets. I was just teasing you know. Our DIS friend Debbie got some shots of the stage shows onboard which I feel are particularly good. If you go to the thread in this link and scroll down about half way on the page there is a shot of your daughter during Twice Charmed (in rags with the prince) which I just love.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=19299969#post19299969

 

[disneydance]

enjoying this very much

 

[NHdisneylover]

Cast review:

Me (Hadley) 34
DH (David) 34
DD (Marika) 10
DS (Rio) 8

Grandparents: Hank and Jan
Lots of great CMs and DISsers

We stashed the kids away in the room, happily perusing the room service menu. Marika, my book worm, planned on spending the next ocuple of hours wrapped up in a good book and Rio, the couch potato, could watch an entire movies without anyone telling him to turn off the TV. So, all of us were looking forward to a nice, relaxing couple of hours.

Hank, Jan, Dave and I headed up and aft to Palos. I had partaken in many delicious suufles (dinner) and even quite a few scones (tea) but brunch was an exciting new experience for all of us.

We were shown to a table for four next to the windows and Marco, our waiter arrived within moments. Marco had all of us back up for a tour of the buffet style offerings.

On the center table was a variety of cheeses, olives, and other savory type thingies. To one side was a table with various pastries, stollen bread, and the like. And to the other side was the dessert table. All in all many little goodies to be had. Additionally, Marco took us by the kitchen area and showed us the various pizzas and other hot foods we could order. There was a fritatta, a chicken marsala and a lasagne option (and one other thing but I cannot remember what it was).

After our tour, were seated again, gave our drink orders and told we could start with the buffet. Everything was good, but for me nothing was outstanding. The pastries looked better than they tasted (and were identical to those available every morning in Cove Cafe on our trip). I am not fond of good, strong cheeses, but I am told those who are loved these (ie Dave). They were so good that we took a plate to go for Marika (weird kid--she loves a really good string blue cheese, etc.). Marco brough out a variety of pizzas for the table, all of which were excellent I do love Palo's pizza. For our hot entrees I had the frittata. It was only average (due largely to not being hot when it arrived). The rest of the table had the chicken Marsala which was excellent. I stole several bites from David (it's okay, he needed room for dessert).

And so, we moved onto DESSERT. Okay, I gotta say it is really hard to apprecaite desserts at Palos which are not that delectable soufle. Everything pales in comparrison. Maybe that is why none of the desserts struck me as all that heavenly. I do not care for Tiramasu, but David loved the little tiramasu cups. His only complaint was that the little cups were so--well LITTLE. He's a big guy and it seemed each cup held about one Dave sized bite

WARNING RANT COMMING ON:
Sometime during dessert, Hank (who was insiting on treating us ) asked if the tip was already incldued. Oy, I have to say this is one thing I really wish DCL would straighten out. Their literature all makes it sounds as if the $10 surcharge is the tip and no more is expected. In fact, we really believed that when we ate there the first two times ('99 and '00) and did not tip beyond that (actaully we did not tip beyond that on the thrid time either but that was because by some strange fluke we had terrible service). Once we found the DIS and realized most people tipped over that (many very highly over that) we felt awful for "stiffing" our waiters the other two times. Then again, how much over people go varies tremendously. My own personal take on it is that I have never had service that was totally over the top outstanding like I hear others have had. It is almost alwasy good, but just that --good. Whereas in the rotational dining rooms the service has been generally totally over the top outstanding. So, I figure if I break down the recommend tip for the dining room staff (all 3 together) into a per day $ then that should eb good for one meal at Palo (also because the Palo staff gets tipped extra when they work tea and brunch, my dining staff gets just the ONE tip even though they work all the darn time). Anyway, so much trauma and confusion could be avaoided if DCL would just come up with a tipping guideline for Palos (IMHO--well maybe not that humble). In the end Hank tipped $25 over and I guess that was not high enough. He and Jan had Marco as a waiter again later in the week and were treated very rudely (there friends were with them and all agreed it was just awful). Again, if he had known what he should really tip, he wouldd have and this would not have happened.

Over all we had a nice brunch. We enjoyed the atmosphere, the compnay, the food and the service. But, it did not grab any of us all that much and we probably will forgo this experience in the future. I am sure someone else will be all too happy book it in our place

 

[disneymom7851]

Hadley

thanks so much for the link. The picture is really good. Ashley did not get pictures this time so I am at the mercy of disboards to get some. Thanks a million times for that.

Just got back from Fort Hood Texas yesterday where I delivered 2100 CASES of Girl Scout cookies to wounded soldiers!

Ashley goes to Wonder to see Michael on the 28th

Diane

 

[arlenesp]

Haadley, I never tipped way over either. I must say on the Wonder we had a really sweet server and we tipped an additional amount which is no way over the top. In fact quite modest. WE have seen this server many times after and always gotten a really warm greeting, and in fact after the brunch, we came back to the stateroom and guess what was waiting for us, a thank you note from her. No, we didn't even second guess at all what we left. If you had bad service, you had bad servers.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Haadley, I never tipped way over either. I must say on the Wonder we had a really sweet server and we tipped an additional amount which is no way over the top. In fact quite modest. WE have seen this server many times after and always gotten a really warm greeting, and in fact after the brunch, we came back to the stateroom and guess what was waiting for us, a thank you note from her. No, we didn't even second guess at all what we left. If you had bad service, you had bad servers.

We were with a larger group at Palos later in the trip and had Marco again and he was really good again. It could be he just had a bad day the day my in laws went back and I wasn't there so I just don't really know. But, I do wish DCL had guidelines for tipping in Palo. I find the not knowing if my tip indicates to the waiter that their service was good or if I am inadvertantly indicating the opposite to be very stressful. The whole tipping thing in Palos kinds kills the relaxed mood for me. NOT that I mind leaving a tip, just the fact that we never know how much is appropriate and are always second guessing ourselves. It sounds like you had a great server who took your intentions to heart. How wonderful. There are so many great CMs on DCL aren't there?

 

[NHdisneylover]

Diane,
I am glad you like the photo.
About cookies: we just got a letter two days ago that Marika's troop had the highest per girl average on sales! They won a free weekend of camping. They are so excited and they did work really hard (they also shipped more gift of caring boxes to soldiers than any other troop in the area--and they are the smallest troop--but they asked EVERYONE to donate extra boxes for the soldiers). I love that you got to deliver the cookies. How wonderufl. I also love that you are still involved even though your daughter is grown now

 

[disneymom7851]

Hadley

Congratulations to your girls on their weekend at camp. Yes, Girl Scouting is one of my passions. I am currently on Council Board cookie task group and the chair of the Cookie Event Committee from that group. so I work on all events regarding cookies. Yesterday was one of the highs.

Ashley is also still a Girl Scout and got her 15 year pin last year. I have really enjoyed your trip report - it is so honest, fair and has both positive and negative without just complaining.

Thanks again

Diane

 

[disneydance]

Waiting for more as always

 

[NHdisneylover]

Cast review:

Me (Hadley) 34
DH (David) 34
DD (Marika) 10
DS (Rio) 8

Grandparents: Hank and Jan
Lots of great CMs and DISsers

Remeber that CM, Michael, we met up at the Goofy pool on day 1? Well, upon returning to our stateroom we found a note in our fish from him letting us know that there would be a High School Musical Karaoke event that afternoon as well as when the HSM dance party and a couple of family dance parties were. He had remembered that our kids like to sing and dance and love HSM and he had taken the time to write and deliver a personal note, now that is MAGIC

Marika and I rushed off to meet up with Anita and deliver the rest of the goodies in plenty of time to make it to the HSM karaoke. I know that Karaoke was not our only afternoon activity. However, I must confess I have missplaced 2 navigators and one of them was for this day and my memory is a bit foggy. It was absolutely too chilly to swim. I am sure the kids made at least one trip up to deck 9 for soft serve and I always trek up for Coke every couple of hours. But, it is the karaoke which really sticks in my mind:

BACKGROUND: Marika is generally not the performing in public type and had never done karaoke. Rio LOVES the spotlight. He tried karaoke once on our November 2005 cruise. He was almost 7 and very much a begining reader. We told him before he went up to ignore the words on the screen and just sing the song becuase he knew it. But, he couldn't help himself. He read it--and was therefore waaaay too slow singing (Rockin' Robin no less). I remember him walknig off the stage saying it was so much harder than he expected. Though we all told him how awesome he was to do it at all as his sister and cousins did not have the guts (okay, neither did any of us adults)!

Fast forward a year and a half and there we were at HSM karaoke. Marika went with Rio to help him turn in a slip while we sat around and chatted with our friends Erik and Jason. The first several singers up all sang the same, slow song. A duet (which they all did individually) called "In My Own World." Suddenly we heard Michael announce Rio AND Marika would be singing next. We were so startled to hear Marika's name and even more so to see her hop right up stage with her brother. They did a duet called "Start of Something New." And, they sang it as a duet. And they knew all the words and sang them loud and clear. And they DANCED--a whole little routine that had worked out. OMG, I knew they can reenact the entire show at home, but I was not expecting this on stage. They were so comfortable and happy up there. It was just a really cool feeling to be their mom right then and watch them be excited and be excited for them. Yep, I am totally gushing here. "It's my TR and I'll gush if I want to!" They gots lots of applause and Rio's new friend Owen (gotta be the world's sweetest kid) came over all smiles to tell them how well they had done. Rio went up again later and did "Get Your Head in the Game" with Owen (and Erik who is a much better sport than either Rio's or Owen's parents ) Oh nad ALL the CMs there (Michael, Oscar, DJ Mike and Ibby) were just so great with all the kids. We were definately feeling a part of the Disney family with these great folks around.

It was foraml night, which meant I could now dress my little stars like, well, stars. We got all gussied up and hit the captain's reception for early seating as we wanted to go to the cabaret show which was during our captain's reception. After the reception, we met up with Hank and Jan and took lots of photos

Eventaully we made our way toward the theater and the awaiting paparazzi. Marika and Rio got to be the first kids interviewed by Rona Rivers (Rio did some jazz squares for her--always the performer that one)

and we setteld in to watch the Golden Mickeys. Almost immediately Rio was asked if he wanted to be a part of the show. His response? "I'd love to!" He was the middle dwarf. Boy did he have the star thing goin' on that night It had been a couple of years since we had seen Golden Mickeys and I enjoyed it much more than I had remembered. The ship was really rockin (20-25 foot waves) and it is truly amazing how well the dancers do in those conditions. The evening was off to a wonderful start.

After the show, we went to Rockin' Bar D for family cabaret time with John Charles. We have been lucky to have John Charles on 3 of our DCL sailings (and one Princess). He can mimic just about anything with his voice and guitar (from Kingston Trio to Emeniem). And, he is so funny

Well entertained and lookin' swell we headed off to dinner. In the hallway we passed a DISser whose major entertainment for the evneing was just sitting there wathcing all of the women TRY to walk in heels on that rolling ship I gotta admit we were a sight Poor Marika was wearing heels for the first time that night, though I think she fared as well as any of us. I just love being all dressed up with somewhere to go Iketut knew us well already and had two iced teas with lemon ready and waiting for me and two gingerales ready and waiting for David. I lifted the milk and water only at meals rule for the kids, in honor of formal night, and shirley temples appeared almost instantly. I don't remember what we ate, but I know it was yummy. Once they were filled, the kids were almost asleep before they made it to the room. Dave and I enjoyed a few laps around the ship in the sea breeze before turning in ourselves. It was easy to let the waves rock us right on to sleep.

Up Next: The NEW breakfast, Ducky and Belle's party.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I almost forgot one very important detail about formal night! When we returned to the stateroom after dinner, there was a special gift waiting on the bed next to our navigator. Each cabin was given a really nice hard, bound, coffe table style book called "Crossing the Atlantic" which has all kinds of great history about DCL, classic cruiselines, etc (okay I have only scanned it thus far and not really read it). It is a really nice souvineer. We (and many others) toted it around for the next several days having various CMs sign it. We even left it in the Lab for two days and all the staff there signed it for the kids. It is a really neat memory. We did manage to miss one of our favourtie CMs, Oscar (we never caugth up to him when we had the book). I am sorely tempted to take it along on our next cruise on the off chance he is there so I can get his signature in there as well!

 

[disneymom7851]

Hadley

If you need any help with the book, Ashley knows Oscar pretty well and he really helped us in april when we had her Godparents on board. They are both in wheelchairs and needed special help for each show. He was exceptional - getting us to the front - driving electric wheelchairs, etc.

She keeps up with most of them so we should be able to find out where he is. When is your next cruise.

Diane

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hadley

If you need any help with the book, Ashley knows Oscar pretty well and he really helped us in april when we had her Godparents on board. They are both in wheelchairs and needed special help for each show. He was exceptional - getting us to the front - driving electric wheelchairs, etc.

She keeps up with most of them so we should be able to find out where he is. When is your next cruise.

Diane

Thanks Diane--that is so sweet. Our next crusie isn't until Speteber of 2008 Several of us on this crusie rebooked for that one and we are all hoping, hoping, hoping that several AWESOME CMs are still there (it is so far off half of them may have moved on with their lives by then). When the time gets closer, I may see if you and Ashley can find out if he wil be aboard. If I KNEW he'd be there I would absolutely haul the book down.

If Ashley emails him anytime soon and she is willnig please ask her to let him know Rio's family misses him also (everyone knows us by Rio ). He and Michael were our favs (but there were lots of particularly fantastic CMs this time around). Rio has always refused to answer "what do you want to be when you grow up" kinds of questions. The otehr day he actually answered one for hte first tiem ever, I was so shocked. He said he'd like to work on a Disney ship for a few years, but only if he could be a "party host like Oscar and Michael" or else be a performer (but only if he got to be Peter Pan--which I can totally see--or the wicked fairy step father ).

 

[NHdisneylover]

Cast review:

Me (Hadley) 34
DH (David) 34
DD (Marika) 10
DS (Rio) 8

Grandparents: Hank and Jan
Lots of great CMs and DISsers

It was great getting to wake up to a second relaxing sea day in a row. We had never had 2 (much less 6) in a row before and I gotta say, this is the life. It was cloudy and a bit cool again. The seas were still rocky, though not as much as the day before. And as always we had many places to be.

Our dining tickets had let us know that this was our day for the "Mickey's Island Jam" breakfast. We had decided to skip the character breakfast becuase it is so very, very rushed on the ship (we have done many character meals on land and they tend to move through quickly but it does not come close to the lightening speed of the fly bys that the DCL characters make). Luckily for us, our servers the night before told us this was a new and different experience. It was repeatedly stressed that this was NOT a character breakfast.
Would there be characters there? Yes. But it's not a character breakfast? True. Okay, then what is it? It's somehting new, we think you'll like it, come.

Always up for something new, we donned tropical attire and headed into Parrot Cay (Hank and Jan opted to sleep in, they are not always "up" for something new and we had lost another hour to time changes that evening).

The new breakfast had the exact same menu as the Character Breakfast. Pretty basic stuff. You're not there for the food anyway are you? I think both kids had the Goofy plate (pancake, mickey waffle, scrambled egg and sausage). I went with basic scrambled eggs with potatoes--all came piping hot. Dave had???

Pretty soon two "hosts" came out and started introducing characters. I really wish I could remember the order and exact type of all the skits, but alas too many late nights seem to have taken their toll on my memory. Characters came out in three waves with about 10 minutes in between each wave. Each time characters were out the children (and parents) were encouraged to get up and join in with various dancing and games. They did not have to go up only once or wait to be called--all were welcome at all times (that's the nice thing about a "party" at a breakfast--there can't be more than 1/6 the passengers there at any one time so there is more room for participation by all ).

A few of the activities: When Stitch came out, all the boys were given "Elvis glasses" to sing and dance to Elvis along with Stitch. Lilo taught the girls a hula dance. There was a fun coconut passing game. Percussion instruments were handed out to dance with. Conga line (but of course). Some of the characters: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Lilo, Stich, Chip and Dale.

All in all we had a fabulous time and found it to be a vast improvement over the rushed photo op of old. The kids had a blast and we were so glad we went. As an aside: some of our friends traveling with out kids did not enjoy this meal. I can certainly see that if you did not have children you would feel left out in this. They also had not been warned that it was no longer a "Character Meal" and came in expecting to get signatures. It can be hard to readjust your expectations on the fly. In retrospect, we heard they have learned they tested the new breakfast on the previous cruise and were met with a lot of anger from people who wanted those signatures. We feel the heavy stress on "this is not a character breakfast" was an attempt to nip some of this in the bud by changing the expectation. So, the experience is probably not for everyone--but for our family it was a fun time that we hope to repeat.

Next up: We fianlyl saile with Don "Ducky" Williams

 

[ncseric]

As to signatures, I'd heard the best way to get signatures was to make up a book, pillowcase, or something else, and get it to guest services. They would put all the signatures on it so you don't have to spend time hunting down characters.

 

[NHdisneylover]

As to signatures, I'd heard the best way to get signatures was to make up a book, pillowcase, or something else, and get it to guest services. They would put all the signatures on it so you don't have to spend time hunting down characters.

Yep, we have never done that, but I know a lot of people who have Good tip to include here--thanks for thinking of it. Also, there are so many character meets for photos (and you can do signatures then) throughout the ship. There is a much bigger range of characters then ,and they do spend more time interacting at those than they did at the old style meal. So, to my mind, there is no great loss here--just a fun party to be gained.

 

[ncseric]

The funny thing is that it's probably one or two cast members making all the signatures, but the kids won't know that or care.