Bill Seattle
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 24, 1999
- Messages
- 261
Rather than go into a long detailed trip report I will post a few of my thoughts and suggestions about the Mexican Riviera Cruise from March 6 – 13.
First, I am not fond of the Enterprise Car Rental system at San Pedro. They pride themselves in their “personalized service” but having to wait in line so they can walk through the car return seems to take longer than it should. In the end it did not matter because I really don’t think you need to get to the pier early. In my opinion there is no reason to get there before Noon.
Why do people get there early? I can’t figure it out. We got there after 12pm and I was very stressed up until that after reading this board about needing to be there at 9:30am. Check in was a breeze with no lines. They started boarding sometime between 12pm and 12:30pm. We had boarding card 17 and they worked very quickly up to that. It helped that we had Main Dining in advance AND we were given the coveted PTTAPTA rotation - with formal and semi-formal at Triton’s and Pirate menu at Parrot Cay. People came with doctor’s notes in hand and sob stories on why they had to have early dining. Glad I didn’t have to start crying to get Main Dining.
NOTE: Pirate Night was on Thursday Cabo which is a big change. Probably something wasn’t working on the Wed so they moved it.
Quiet Cove is awesome. After sitting in Mickey’s Pool area for just a half hour, I can’t imagine not having an adult place like Quiet Cove to go to.
Late night dining was completely inadequate in my opinion. I don’t want to order room service but I suspect Disney has got it all figured out as far as what their guests want so who am I to argue.
It was sad seeing a few empty tables on formal night. Sure it is a vacation but this is your time to teach your children about dressing up for dinner. The majority of people do participate. The majority of men and children do wear ties and jackets. I saw no tuxedos. You can still dress casual and go to main dining but you stand out like that rebel in high school who would shun spirit week. In my opinion the length of the photo line was outrageous so we had no interest in waiting that long for a photo we would have to pay for later.
I loved the Captain’s social before our formal dining time with complimentary wine and we took a glass in with us into dinner. This was a highlight for us to be able to do this since we rarely pay for wine with dinner.
We loved dining in dining rooms every night. We loved it so much we cancelled our Palo’s dinner reservation.
I love the movies they play and the theater they play in. The whole 3-D thing seems like an unnecessary gimmick to me but my DS7 loved it so that’s what it’s about. I would be happy to watch the movie the old fashion way.
We liked the tastings. We did Cognac, Martini was great and the newest one is Mojito.
DS7 kept turning on my phone so he could play Crazy Bird so I was afraid that I would get home to a thousand dollar roaming charge despite turning off my roaming because my phone kept asking. “Do you want to roam? Significant charges apply” Yes/ No. Yikes!!!
I love the ability to drop DS7 off at the club/lab and go and do our own thing at the Cove, Spa, etc. You don’t have to feel guilty about doing stuff on your own. In fact, they feel like you are doing it FOR them.
The lab/club was great. It was chaotic at times but the kind of chaos that kids like. Everyone seemed engaged in some kind of activity. If you didn’t feel like any of the many child activities going on you could sit down at one of many computer terminals and play one of their addictive games. They did serve a “light” lunch/dinner almost every day but the time was always different. Probably best to take your kid to dinner before putting them in the club.
Coming up soon….
Why we liked the Pirate Snorkel in PVR.
Toy Story sells out.
Danger at sea, as Cabo is cancelled.
Well hope this helps. Any questions and I will try to answer them.
First, I am not fond of the Enterprise Car Rental system at San Pedro. They pride themselves in their “personalized service” but having to wait in line so they can walk through the car return seems to take longer than it should. In the end it did not matter because I really don’t think you need to get to the pier early. In my opinion there is no reason to get there before Noon.
Why do people get there early? I can’t figure it out. We got there after 12pm and I was very stressed up until that after reading this board about needing to be there at 9:30am. Check in was a breeze with no lines. They started boarding sometime between 12pm and 12:30pm. We had boarding card 17 and they worked very quickly up to that. It helped that we had Main Dining in advance AND we were given the coveted PTTAPTA rotation - with formal and semi-formal at Triton’s and Pirate menu at Parrot Cay. People came with doctor’s notes in hand and sob stories on why they had to have early dining. Glad I didn’t have to start crying to get Main Dining.
NOTE: Pirate Night was on Thursday Cabo which is a big change. Probably something wasn’t working on the Wed so they moved it.
Quiet Cove is awesome. After sitting in Mickey’s Pool area for just a half hour, I can’t imagine not having an adult place like Quiet Cove to go to.
Late night dining was completely inadequate in my opinion. I don’t want to order room service but I suspect Disney has got it all figured out as far as what their guests want so who am I to argue.
It was sad seeing a few empty tables on formal night. Sure it is a vacation but this is your time to teach your children about dressing up for dinner. The majority of people do participate. The majority of men and children do wear ties and jackets. I saw no tuxedos. You can still dress casual and go to main dining but you stand out like that rebel in high school who would shun spirit week. In my opinion the length of the photo line was outrageous so we had no interest in waiting that long for a photo we would have to pay for later.
I loved the Captain’s social before our formal dining time with complimentary wine and we took a glass in with us into dinner. This was a highlight for us to be able to do this since we rarely pay for wine with dinner.
We loved dining in dining rooms every night. We loved it so much we cancelled our Palo’s dinner reservation.
I love the movies they play and the theater they play in. The whole 3-D thing seems like an unnecessary gimmick to me but my DS7 loved it so that’s what it’s about. I would be happy to watch the movie the old fashion way.
We liked the tastings. We did Cognac, Martini was great and the newest one is Mojito.
DS7 kept turning on my phone so he could play Crazy Bird so I was afraid that I would get home to a thousand dollar roaming charge despite turning off my roaming because my phone kept asking. “Do you want to roam? Significant charges apply” Yes/ No. Yikes!!!
I love the ability to drop DS7 off at the club/lab and go and do our own thing at the Cove, Spa, etc. You don’t have to feel guilty about doing stuff on your own. In fact, they feel like you are doing it FOR them.
The lab/club was great. It was chaotic at times but the kind of chaos that kids like. Everyone seemed engaged in some kind of activity. If you didn’t feel like any of the many child activities going on you could sit down at one of many computer terminals and play one of their addictive games. They did serve a “light” lunch/dinner almost every day but the time was always different. Probably best to take your kid to dinner before putting them in the club.
Coming up soon….
Why we liked the Pirate Snorkel in PVR.
Toy Story sells out.
Danger at sea, as Cabo is cancelled.
Well hope this helps. Any questions and I will try to answer them.
