May 28 West Coast

[JayCee32]

Hi ..please tell me why you said no excursions. I am going on the west coast cruise in August and booked two excursions for one day. I booked the dolphin excursion for the kids and the Paradise beach break. My dh said it's too much but this is our first cruise and really didn't know what to do or expect. Please give me your suggestions thanks

Well, I'm sad already to be home, and it hasn't even been 12 hours yet!

Since this was our first cruise, I don't have anything to compare it to, but can say a couple of things that do stand out to me:

1. Get to know your Dis-ers before the trip. It really made it so magical for all of us to "know" these other families and the kids had fun! It also helps...you might get a favor from someone or get to sit w/someone b/c you know them thru Dis.

2. Your personal staff is the best! Brian our room attendant was great w/the kids and ALWAYS there to help, to clean, to do anything! Gabor and Anna our servers were fabulous all around...knew our family right away and were very helpful. I asked both of them to come home with me at the end of the cruise!

3. The Guest Service people are less than helpful in my opinion. We had a terribly noisy room under the kitchen (2626) and when I told GS, she said rather snootily, "then call maintenance". When I went to ask for statements, I did get them, but little conversation or anything w/them. No kids navigators available thru them so had to go upstairs. Not that any of them were bad, just they all reminded me of snooty hotel desk clerks.

4.Learn to love your Navigators...I could only get to about half of what I wanted to because there was so much scheduling...always carry one.

5.The stage shows are a must...every one was GREAT!

6.See as much or as little of the characters as you want...we go to the parks regularly, so pretty much avoided the characters and had fun anyway. Photographers were not out in swarms at every corner as I had feared it would be, but tended to stay in the atrium taking pictures of character meets and backdrops.

7. Always have the fish...on any dinner menu, the fish was consistently the best of whatever we ordered at the table...so we stuck w/the fish.

8. Leave a day for the beach...we did it in Cabo and now wish I had not scheduled us so much for the other ports! Next time...no shore excursions!

I'm sure I'll have more!
Thanks all!
Chris

 

[challada]

Don't get me wrong, we loved swimming w/the dolphins and touring Mazatlan as well, but due to how many things were going on during "sea days", port days full of shore excursions seemed almost too scheduled. While I am someone who schedules what we do on vacation (yes, I print tour plans of the parks when we go), even I felt overwhelmed with the amount of things to do to feel like we were getting everything done. With scheduled shore excursions, it seemed like we had no down time.

Of course, my kids are still younger and they seemed to just like playing on the beach the best of all...which made me think the $100s for the excursions could have been spent otherwise (like on souvenirs!).

 

[grammiegail]

Our cabin was horrible for noise and so was my parents right next door at 2628 which is NOT on the passporter list as one of the noisy ones....but I would say anything in the 2600s is under kitchen and therefore noisy!

We had so much noise that I never slept...but my kids did sleep thru it so was OK for them...I heard all the large tray movers (those things they stack trays on), I could hear the pounding of pots (almost like they were throwing them on the floor during the night) and one night someone must have knocked down a bunch of metal trays as I could hear them all hitting the floor. I assumed the kitchen would be OK but I realize now I must have been under the area they use for prepping for the next day.

OK, Grammiegail (Challad's mom) has to chime in. Our room was noisy, but Grampa sleeps with a CPAP machine (and would win the gold medal, if sleeping was an Olympic sport), so he didn't notice. I was sick and taking Nyquil. I also wear ear plugs whenever I sleep someplace other than my own bed. Our room (2628) was noisy. Would I choose it again? No, but if you take precautions, it's bearable.

 

[minniemoms]

grammiegail:
Thank you so much for the cookbook. I love it, I love reading all the little stories that go along with the section. I wish I would have had the time to read it on board so I could have told you about it, but I do love it. I have already made 2 of the recipes. Thank you again for your kindness. Judy

 

[grammiegail]

grammiegail:
Thank you so much for the cookbook. I love it, I love reading all the little stories that go along with the section. I wish I would have had the time to read it on board so I could have told you about it, but I do love it. I have already made 2 of the recipes. Thank you again for your kindness. Judy

You are most welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Just remember the recipes are before WeightWatchers.....not the most healthy things, but dang tasty! Enjoy!