Mexican Riviera 2/27 - 3/6 - DisneyZell TR new 3/31: FINISHED!!!

[DisneyZell]

It will be interesting to see if DS13 and his friend 13, spend time in the Edge. We cruised without friends in the past and he stayed in the clubs a lot. They both love video games but my son also LOVEs table tennis. He also loves to meet girls. His friend ususally tags along, so wherever the girls hang out, I guess.
I think the KSF was only for the 10 day in April. It definately wasn't the April 10 sailing. The website shows booked ship so I expect a lot of crowds.

ah girls....

some foreshadowing...every night about 9pm - 11pm...goofy pool.

Hmmmm.....

DZ

 

[princessnpirate]

This is a great report! Would love to hear more...

 

[mmmears]

Keep up the good work! I really enjoy your comments and observations about your cruise. Can't wait to read more!

 

[QuiltTeddy]

It actually only had about a two week blockout period for the Wonder, it was the last week of March and the first week of April.

I might be lucky then.

 

[IWannaBeAPrincess]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mindyjoy View Post
I'm pretty sure the KSF promotion was only for Jan-March.

I'm on the 4/3 cruise, too. It was not KSF, but it is at capacity for children.

We are bringing our 2 children. One is 7 and one is an infant, thankfully neither are unruly

 

[QuiltTeddy]

I'm on the 4/3 cruise, too. It was not KSF, but it is at capacity for children.

We are bringing our 2 children. One is 7 and one is an infant, thankfully neither are unruly

Good to know. How did you find out it wasn't KSF and is at capacity? (Just curious)

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Subbing! We are sailing on the Repo in April - looking forward to your take on the Wonder cruise - looks like a fun ride!

Sorry you had a snow delay and that stress right out of the gate -
We also have to do In-n-Out whenever we are in Calif. Double Double Animal style is hubby's fave. Have you ever had the fries Animal style? Yummo

Edit: All caught up now - Love your start. Your suite looks WONDERful - pun intended. It is nice to hear that the food is good - we sailed RCCL in October and the food was bad Looking forward to good DCL service and food!

Someone mentioned children - on our previous DCL on the Magic, there were about 1500 kids, but we really never felt any of then were unruly. We felt that they were the best behaved group of kids we'd seen in a long time! I hope we find that to be true again. Maybe each group is different.

Great tips - keep 'em coming! I really love the ice cream tip - we didn't even bother after the first one last time because it seemed too small to bother with. Now I am looking forward to making caramel and chocolate sundaes!!!

Love the 'surprise' video! I think it is "Memory worthy" even if it didn't win any prizes!

 

[LKFan]

Good to know. How did you find out it wasn't KSF and is at capacity? (Just curious)

If you go to disneycruise.com and search for a cruise putting in your child's age and nothing comes up for your week then that cruise is full to capacity for that age. If you feel so inclined, you can search for cruises, inputting ages from 1-18 to tell if it is full or not.

 

[LiserAnn]

I'm pretty sure the KSF promotion was only for Jan-March.

And April...we're on the 10 day MR and we got KSF!

 

[IWannaBeAPrincess]

Good to know. How did you find out it wasn't KSF and is at capacity? (Just curious)

I know that it wasn't KSF because I booked a year ago and checked religiously, hoping to get in on a KSF rate... our's was blocked out...

I called and added our infant when I was only 3 months pregnant on advice from a mom who posted a trip report about taking her 12 week old baby... My daughter was marked as Boy (default, cause we didn't know)TBA LastName. Then people on our meetup thread tried to add additional children and they were told that the ship had reached capacity for children. When I called back to give them Peyton's real name, age, and that she was a girl, I asked (This was December 6th), and sure enough, I couldn't add any more children, even if we had space in our room. *Phew* glad I read that trip report and took that mom's advice!

Anyway, we cruised last year at the same time and it was an Easter cruise, and the ship was fully booked. I never noticed that the ship was overrun by kids. Disney does a good job of keeping them busy.

As a friend of mine says, "Children are like toots. You can tolerate your own, but everyone else's just stink!" Not really... sometimes , but it's a funny saying, and I can relate to it.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I know that it wasn't KSF because I booked a year ago and checked religiously, hoping to get in on a KSF rate... our's was blocked out...

I called and added our infant when I was only 3 months pregnant on advice from a mom who posted a trip report about taking her 12 week old baby... My daughter was marked as Boy (default, cause we didn't know)TBA LastName. Then people on our meetup thread tried to add additional children and they were told that the ship had reached capacity for children. When I called back to give them Peyton's real name, age, and that she was a girl, I asked (This was December 6th), and sure enough, I couldn't add any more children, even if we had space in our room. *Phew* glad I read that trip report and took that mom's advice!

Anyway, we cruised last year at the same time and it was an Easter cruise, and the ship was fully booked. I never noticed that the ship was overrun by kids. Disney does a good job of keeping them busy.

As a friend of mine says, "Children are like toots. You can tolerate your own, but everyone else's just stink!" Not really... sometimes , but it's a funny saying, and I can relate to it.

That's funny
We booked our DGS that way too when DDIL was pregnant - we knew he was a boy and they had his name picked out, so he was Mason, and we used his due date for his birthdate and then corrected it.

 

[DisneyZell]

Hi all! Glad my thread has sparked lots of conversation. While I make fun if DW (don't tell her ) for all the time she spends on the boards...it is amazing the amount of information that is out there. I actually laugh at people that don't get onto the boards and read about their trips before they take them. How much better is it if you can plan and know what's going to happen? If I hadn't read the boards when we went on a cruise I would have had to put up with a stinky bathroom (yes you guessed, it, smelly thingys), and when we didn't have the suite I wouldn't have had clothespins to close the curtain to keep the kids out of view. Yes...that's another good tip. Bring clothespins. I'm not sure why they can't make curtains that are big enough to fit together. perhaps Mickey ran out of fabric??? I Wonder if this is fixed on the new ship...or if that is just a Dream. Ha! get it? *sigh*. Sorry, just came off a trip and I'm a little punchy even though DW let me sleep in this morning. We take turns getting up with our oldest. he is only 12 but has to get up a 6:30am for school. Insane. I think school should start around 9, that way I can sleep in.

Anyhoooo....sorry for the delay in getting my next installment up. But alas work does have to come first. Believe it or not I do NOT get paid to do this. Really, I don't.

So as you can gather from my note above I enjoy sleep. In fact, I enjoy sleep almost as much as I enjoy food. It's a close race, one of those photo finish type of things. But as I mentioned earlier the entire room creaked with every movement of the ship. Picture having small explosions going off every few minutes. So needless to say my sleep on that night (and the sleep of DW and DS12 was not good.

I think we mentioned also (see this is why it stinks when I can't consistently post. My memory only lasts about 24 hours and then I forget what the heck I wrote...and sometimes when I re-read it I scare myself ) that DS12 slept on the Murphy bed. Well, the Murphy bed turned out to be too small for DS12's long legs...so that was the only night that bed was pulled down and used. Also unfortunately if you look at the pictures, that bed was right up against the teak wood shelves which were responsible for all the squeaking and noise. So needless to say he didn't sleep well either.

DS8? yeah, he slept like a rock. That kid can sleep anywhere. It's rather annoying and I'm not sure where he got it from. Can you say...Mailman? Anyway, nothing bothered him. I sure hope that through the years he continues to be that way. While I can fall *back* asleep easily, I can't crash like he does..and falling asleep is not something I do well. Just like staying on topic..I don't do that well either. ahem.

So luckily for me...because I was up and not sleeping...I got to see this:

The sunrise over Mexico. At least I'm assuming it was Mexico. Baja California-ish.

DS12 joined me out on the balcony after a while

and who's that good-lookin' guy out there on my balcony at the crack of dawn?? Oh, that's me.

Once DS8 (who's name is Connor by the way. I read someone else's trip report who actually gave names. I thought that was kind of cool. So DS8 is Connor (yup, I repeat myself too!), DS12 is Nick, DW is Deanna and I'm Drew.) awoke we began our morning ritual...which included getting our neighbors kids and going to breakfast. Our neighbors didn't feel the need to spend the morning with their kids...so they were usually off running or exercising (something I *refuse* to do on vacation. I mean, I'm on vacation, right? Isn't that the point? being lazy, eating too much food???)

Well...ok...so the one rule we do have which helps a little bit with the trough (not sure about the spelling on that...you know, the place where they throw the slop for the pigs or the horses or whatever) eating frenzy...no elevators. The kids were also banned from the elevators and had to pay us $1 for each elevator button they pushed. This did a couple of things. first it forced us to walk the stairs which, I'm told, is good for you , and second it kept the kids off of the elevators so they weren't a pain in the rear. I didn't experience any kids with those issues on this cruise, but I know in the past that has been something people have complained about...and I did not want my kids to be "those" kids, know what I mean??

Anyhooo....we grabbed their kids and headed to the Beach Blanket Bingo Buffett. Now...today was the first dilemma day in my career as a Wonder Cruiser. We had Palo reservies...for Brunch....and if you have not been on a cruise and do not do Palo for Dinner *and* Brunch, you are missing out. don't worry, I'll explain about Brunch here in a minute. but don't count on pictures of food. Other than one. We don't do that. I don't know why...we always have our camera. But by the time we realize it...we have already eaten everything!

So I took control of Connor's tray and helped him get food. Remarkably I did manage to avoid the food..which is pretty good. I think the last time we cruised I ate breakfast and then Brunch. and then lunch. Ok, OK, I know that I had two lunches on Saturday before we got on the ship...but that was in-n-out so give me a break.

All the kidgits at breakfast

DS8 and DND11

DS12 and DNS13

The lovely DW sitting in her favorite place...the sun.

After breakfast we still had some time to kill so we decided to take some pictures. I think we actually were planning on hitting the stores but they were not yet open...so we got to take a classic picture. the first time we ever cruised we snapped a shot of DS8 laying down by the DCL logo between the stores...and have done so ever since. Naturally you all have to be abused and deal with the fact that I'm now going to post them all for you...

DS8 in 2004, our very first Disney Cruise. You guys have no idea that when I first started typing this report I got made fun of by DW. I put that our first cruise was 1996. I don't know why. Two issues with that date...one is that the Disney ships didn't yet exist. The second and probably more important issue was that in 1996 neither of my kids existed. So there you have it.

DW8 in 2006

DS8 in 2008...ACK, I put him on the wrong side. Darnit!

And last but certainly not least...

DS8 in 2011

HUH...that's pretty cool to look at. At least for me. Again, hope your head doesn't hurt from hitting the keyboard when you fell asleep. Go get some coffee. I'll wait. dum...de...dum....hmmmmmmm lalalalalalalalalalalal

oh, your back? good. OK, carrying on.

Since we were there, might as well take a shot of all the kids:

All the kids around Mickey's head

and of course you *have* to have this shot:

Interesting tidbit. DW later that day went on the Art of the theme ship tour. This included details about the carpet, design, art...etc. around the ship. I'm sure she can chime in on exactly what went on during this tour as I wasn't there. However, she did share with me that one thing is missing in that big picture of Walt in front of the Walt Disney Theater...a cigarette. In his hand he was holding a cigarette. That was taken out using the magic of Disney and so it no longer exists. I find that kind of funny. Why funny? Well, Disney always portrays this pure image...no alcohol in the parks (except Epcot (and I heard a rumor that this was going to change by the way...can't remember where I heard that, but I'm a full believer in spreading unfounded rumors )), etc. But yet one of the most famous pictures of Walt had him smoking. OK, maybe it's not funny...not ha-ha funny...but ironic...well forget it.

Anyway, I thought that was interesting

Shortly thereafter we gave the kids their marching orders...stay together...little kids stay together, older kids stay together...whatever, but they were to be in groups of 2...and the little kids couldn't go swimming unless the older kids were there too. We told them we would have our wave phone...but not to bother us...we would be eating!

It was off to get dressed and go to Palo. We didn't take a picture in front of Palo...I'm not sure why. Maybe we did for the dinner? See, I told you I can't remember more than 24 hours earlier. But we got there...and were seated. Our server was Vladimir (who we then also had for dinner). He was just ok (DW can weigh in here if she disagrees). It took him a while to come over to us to begin with...but at least we were entertained by another server. She came over and gave us water and took our orders for drink (you get a free mimosa or champagne with Brunch), and they then claimed that they were married. A claim that we found out the next night was not true...but more on that later. They did interact like a married couple, actually and it was pretty funny. He did finally come and get us to take us around the Brunch. Now, Brunch is not like dinner because it's a combination of a buffet and table service. The server takes you through the buffet and explains everything. They have lots and lots of very cool stuff. Some of my favorites were the salmon mouse (yummy), and the selection of cheese. They had this cheese that looked like blue cheese but they called it something else. It spread wonderfully on this crusty bread...that made my breakfast. Yum! Then on one side they have sticky buns (yummy), and some Stollen bread. I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong...do NOT miss this. To be honest I think it is better than the sticky buns. You take some of this bread, smear it with whipped cream...and oh my gosh....it's awesome. They have lots of other stuff too, like cold crab and shrimp (very large shrimp...I love shrimp. have I mentioned this???), and lots of different kinds of bread. On the other side they have the dessert table with lots of small versions of the desserts so you can try most everything. Finally they take you over to the cooked food...they have 3-4 different kinds of pizzas. The one we like best is a pizza with cheese and grapes. yes grapes. It sounds quite weird...but this is the second time we had tried it...and it was wonderful both times. I think they had a 4 cheese pizza with some unique cheeses on it that was also good. You could also order eggs Benedict, Florentine...and another kind that replaced the Canadian bacon with smoked salmon (yup I had this one). Those you ordered from your server and they were cooked on demand.

Finally they had pancakes. Big huge fluffy pancakes. OK, now I'm hungry.

Vladimir prepared them in his own special way, by layering berries and whipped cream between them...which made it really, really yummy.

Part 2 coming right up!

 

[DisneyZell]

the best, to me, were the grape pizza, the salmon eggs Benedict (which I'm sure has a fancy name that I can no longer remember), the bread spread with the blue-cheese like cheese, the stolen bread and the tiramisu. The ladies really liked the chocolate covered strawberries...which were very cool because they looked like this:

Through the magic of Disney

it's probably easy to do that...but we were all impressed!

I think I was the only one truly stuffed. Mainly because I had 3 pieces of bread with cheese on it. Did I mention I liked that???

After brunch we went back to our stateroom and did some FE (Fish Extender! and if you don't know what a Fish Extender is you clearly did not read the earlier portions of my trip report No cheating...no cutting in line...now go back to the beginning and start over) sorting and delivering. DS8 joined us for one delivery run...and soon learned it wasn't that exciting. One thing I've learned about FE (yes...fish extenders) is that the people that join like to spread themselves ALL OVER THE SHIP. It's a good way to explore...cause you get to go in every nook and cranny. Really...every single one.

Then it was time for the Wonder Quest which was portrayed as a scavenger hunt. I thought...very cool. How fun will it be to run all over the ship and do a scavenger hunt. We joined up with our neighbors and formed out team and waited in the Promenade Lounge. Our host arrived and explained the rules...there were only a certain number of teams so one team member had to run up and get a number:

DW was our runner

Most of our team except the guy behind the camera. Good looking guy.

and that while it was a scavenger hunt it was all to be played within the Promenade Lounge. So basically they would ask for things and the first team that was up there with it would be first and get the most points...then second and so-on. Luckily we had parked ourselves right up front so DW was able to shove her stuff in the ladies face very quickly. If you didn't have an item you could borrow them from someone else...ie...someone else would get credit...and you could either borrow or steal their item and claim it as your own. The items ranged from a left shoe...to a man or boy wearing a woman's shoe, to a receipt...to a baby (yes...we stole a baby). a husband and wife with their arms around each other, father and son...wave phone, camera...lots of different stuff. We only had to borrow a few things because DND11 has a huge bag of random stuff she is constantly carrying around. We also anticipated a few things...DNH had his credit card out and ready one time...and we had the wave phone out in advance...and DW was just really good at getting up there. out of the 25 or so rounds I'll bet we were first 20. And in the top 5 most of the other times. So we won. woohoo! We got several dcl key chains and a couple of other dumb-dumb things (the prizes aren't that great...more fun than anything else). yes...we rocked it out.

DW up front turning in our stuff

*************TIP*****************
you HAVE to go to the game shows and stuff. It is really fun. A lot of them will seem silly...and they are...but they are just a good time to have with your family. and you may win some silly things that will make your kids happy. The key chains are actually very cool. so do it! I wouldn't lie to you. Well, ok I would, I mean I hardly know you...but I wouldn't lie about this!

We send DW and DNW off to do the Art of the Theme ship tour. Again I can't comment on that...and I'm sure DW will chime in.

Everyone else went off to play shuffleboard. For those who do not know, Shuffleboard is on the side of the ship on Deck 4. Deck 4 is also the running track for those not-so-completely-mentally-sane people that want to exercise. I don't get it. anyhooooooo, be careful of the runners

It's actually a cool setup and prior to cruising I had never played shuffleboard. I'm not going to bore you with how good I was (well, ok, while Foosball was my sport, shuffleboard was not...I cost my team 10 points frequently by landing in the 10 off spot), I will say this. Early in the cruise we allowed the younger two to move beyond the end of the board to push their pucks figuring they needed to. Later in the cruise we learned they did not need to do this and, in fact, the two youngest were the best at shuffleboard and when I played just me against them I frequently lost. Very sad day in Drew-land. Let me tell you.

After that it was time to go get dressed for formal night. People have asked about formal night and if you have to dress up. No you do not *have* to do anything on a Disney Cruise. We have rented tuxedos before....but typically I just wear a suit which is what we did here. Other do varying degrees of getting dressed up. We like the pictures...so we like to dress up.

DW and DS12 on our balcony

Connor in front of the elevator. don't know why I took this.

The family at dinner

Pictures by DS8. Always an adventure

We were in Tritons for our formal night...everyone looked great, and we continued to enjoy our servers. I think I told you about embarrassing Maggie so I won't get into this again. We also found out that Vladimir in Palo was not married...we were duped!

That night's family cabaret show was Brokar Lee who is a beat-boxer and juggler who performed the first night. The show was good...but there is only so much that he can do. For me it got a little old since we had seen alot of it. Don't get me wrong, I was very impressed with his ability....it just...oh I don't know how to explain it. It was good, I'll leave it at that.

next one of the things I had been looking forward to for months. We went to see Tron Legacy in 3d in the Buena Vista Theater. The wives did not join us on this part of the trip as they had no interest. Why had I been looking forward to this? about a month before the trip (maybe more) I was out in California for business. I had about 3 hours to kill before I had to pick up a coworker at the airport and was going to see Tron Legacy at the movie theater. I got the "well it will be on the ship, so you should wait" speech from DW. I was going to ignore her...because I just KNEW that if I didn't see it we wouldn't find the time to see it on the ship. I was...ahem...wrong.

We had all seen the Golden Mickey's...so we didn't need to go to that show...so we were free to go...and go we did. The movie was good..not great...but definitely worth seeing. The weirdest part was about 3/4 of the way in a group of about 10 people came in and sat down (in front of us, I could no longer hang my long legs over the seat...bummer!). Not sure why you would come in 3/4 of the way through a movie.

That's the end of day one...I was headed to the stateroom with hopes of dreams instead of squeaky room! You will have to wait to see if that happens! I leave you with our towel animal for the night:

thanks for sticking with me...let me know if you have any questions!

Next up: Day at Sea #2...did we sleep? and showing my athletic prowess. Or not.

 

[moomy-san]

Thanks for another installment!
i am a bit disappointed you weren't over-the-moon impressed with Vladimir. We had him as our server in Palo for dinner and we LOVED him. Would have brought him home with me and called him my son if I could have. (though that would have resulted in some explaining since he is only 9 years younger than my husband and I) We double checked with him to make sure he'll be there when we cruise next year and we left him a monstrously huge tip we loved him so much..

Yes, I realized after I wrote that I sound a bit like a stalker. Oh well. It is what it is.

 

[IndianaPrincess]

I was at the Wonder Quest too! Just wait until you see my version of the game. It involves my son hiding under a table and my entire family giving mean looks to the winners! Hey, you got keychains (yeah, yeah I won $300 but you got keychains!)

Totally kidding!!!

 

[IndianaPrincess]

Dude, I'm so rude! Thanks for another chapter! Loved it as usual. Tell Deanna we want her thoughts on the tour when she gets some free time!

 

[DisneyZell]

Thanks for another installment!
i am a bit disappointed you weren't over-the-moon impressed with Vladimir. We had him as our server in Palo for dinner and we LOVED him. Would have brought him home with me and called him my son if I could have. (though that would have resulted in some explaining since he is only 9 years younger than my husband and I) We double checked with him to make sure he'll be there when we cruise next year and we left him a monstrously huge tip we loved him so much..

Yes, I realized after I wrote that I sound a bit like a stalker. Oh well. It is what it is.

STALKER

Just kidding. I just love that emoticon.

Thanks for the comments...and it wasn't that we didn't like Vladimir...we just did not feel like he warranted being packed in our suitcase and brought home. There were 4 of use at the table...maybe that's why? I'll explain a bit more when I get to the dinner. We did ask for him again...so obviously he didn't suck.

I was at the Wonder Quest too! Just wait until you see my version of the game. It involves my son hiding under a table and my entire family giving mean looks to the winners! Hey, you got keychains (yeah, yeah I won $300 but you got keychains!)

Totally kidding!!!

Uh huh...that makes sense...I felt it all along! It was the victory lap that I took wasn't it? Big white guy dancing just doesn't make anyone's day! and...uh..I think we will take the $300. Want to trade?

Dude, I'm so rude! Thanks for another chapter! Loved it as usual. Tell Deanna we want her thoughts on the tour when she gets some free time!

UYUH! Rude, Rude, Rude! I was very, VERY offended. I almost didn't keep reading.

DW will post about it, I'm sure...so look for that soon. Maybe. Normally she is on and posting answers to questions before I can...but right now she is standing over my shoulder and we are going downstairs to watch Survivor!

I like Survivor, can you tell?

 

[smb6]

Great update and great pics; looking forward to more!

 

[LKFan]

Our server was Vladimir (who we then also had for dinner). He was just ok (DW can weigh in here if she disagrees). It took him a while to come over to us to begin with...but at least we were entertained by another server. She came over and gave us water and took our orders for drink (you get a free mimosa or champagne with Brunch), and they then claimed that they were married. A claim that we found out the next night was not true...but more on that later. They did interact like a married couple, actually and it was pretty funny.

Was it a woman from the Bahamas? That would be Judy.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Palo Brunch sounds delicious! Especially the strawberries We may have to book that.

We enjoy all the silly games, too. Not that we are creepy, but with the two of us, we sometimes just watch the family games because kids are funny, and we miss our grandkids.

Love the yearly pics of your son with the Logo on the floor! Look how fast he's grown. I didn't even go out for coffee!

You all cleaned up pretty nice for formal night!