Hello,
Since I received such great information from these boards prior to our trip I thought I would provide a mini trip review and show you some of our pictures.
We cruised for the first time with Disney the week of 2/19 (Mexico). My kids are 9 (my son turned 9 the day we boarded) and my daughter is 4 1/2. We had such an amazing time and I'm sad Disney wont be cruising out of Port of LA next year because it makes the trip very affordable for us being able to drive in.
Some Pros and Cons to our trip...
Pros: SO many! Highlights for us included:
- The entertainment. We loved all the shows prior to dinner. The Disney Dream show was totally amazing. I was so impressed.
- We had wonderful service...Marco from Palo and Chris and Louise were are servers.
- Pirate night was a big hit with my family. The kids LOVED dressing up. They can't stop talking about that night.
- The weather! We had amazing weather all week except the last day which worked out well since we had to pack up :-(
- Interactions with the characters. My daughter was more into this than my son. She really loved the Princess Meet and Greet (get in line 45 min prior!) and the Disney and Friends Tea (book immediately when you get on board).
- Palo brunch is a MUST
- We had a stateroom with a large porthole. We loved the bunk beds for the kids and the curtain that separated their room from ours. Came in handy when my daughter napped.
- loved the layout of the separated bathroom in the stateroom
- I loved each 'drink of the day'
- My daughter really enjoyed the kids club. The staff there is wonderful.
Cons:
- Honestly I wasn't overly impressed with the food. My husband said I kept ordering the wrong thing...I don't know, it just wasn't a highlight for me. With the exception of Palo- everything at Palo was wonderful.
- I wish we packed in duffel bags as opposed to large suitcases. Our large suitcases did not fit underneath our bed and kept getting in the way in our stateroom.
- I wish we got a room with a balcony. We had late seating and in order for my daughter to get through dinner she had to nap. It would have been nice to read a book on the balcony rather than being stuck in a room while she napped.
- My son wishes the sports deck was bigger. He spent most of his time there. He's a big sports kid and isn't really into video games so he didn't want to spend much time in the kids club/lab.
The following tips I learned here!
- Prior to our trip we stayed at the Doubletree nearby. Great hotel and we parked our car there all week for free.
- Photo mats for character signatures...they turned out great and I got one with Princess signatures for my daughter and one with Disney character signatures for my son and the photo mats were delivered to our room on Sat.
- Bring costumes for Pirate night!
- We brought an entire suitcase of beer/wine/mixed drinks. Saved us a TON of $!
- Over the door shoe holder for misc items...this kept us organized!
- Candy for the stateroom host and servers. They loved this added touch included with their tips.
- Arrive to the terminal early for check in! The time they give you with your check in documents means nothing. Arrive early and get checked in, hardly any lines.
- Bring extra hangers
- spray deodorizer for the bathroom
- get your clothes dry cleaned on the ship- very inexpensive!
- Dinner rotation. We had Tritons the first night and Parrot Cay for Pirate night. Instead of going to Tritons for a 3rd time, we went to Palo. It worked out great (except we missed lobster dinner on semi formal night...oh well).
Excursions
- We booked our own swim with the dolphins excursion in Puerta Vallerta. It worked out well even with the confusing time difference. The place was clean and we had a very fun day (the food was surprisingly good there) but taking a taxi there and back without car seats for the kids was very nerve racking for me.
- In Cabo we tendered in and just shopped around and ate at a really yummy restaurant called Lobster House.
Pictures!
I posted a bunch on my blog:
http://aimeejordanphotography.com/2012/03/a-magical-trip-folsom-photographer/
I'm a total newbie to this forum...I would love to post more pictures but I can't for the life of me figure out how to insert pictures into this post! Yes, I have read the instructions...I can't get it to work! I have them posted on flickr.
Since I received such great information from these boards prior to our trip I thought I would provide a mini trip review and show you some of our pictures.
We cruised for the first time with Disney the week of 2/19 (Mexico). My kids are 9 (my son turned 9 the day we boarded) and my daughter is 4 1/2. We had such an amazing time and I'm sad Disney wont be cruising out of Port of LA next year because it makes the trip very affordable for us being able to drive in.
Some Pros and Cons to our trip...
Pros: SO many! Highlights for us included:
- The entertainment. We loved all the shows prior to dinner. The Disney Dream show was totally amazing. I was so impressed.
- We had wonderful service...Marco from Palo and Chris and Louise were are servers.
- Pirate night was a big hit with my family. The kids LOVED dressing up. They can't stop talking about that night.
- The weather! We had amazing weather all week except the last day which worked out well since we had to pack up :-(
- Interactions with the characters. My daughter was more into this than my son. She really loved the Princess Meet and Greet (get in line 45 min prior!) and the Disney and Friends Tea (book immediately when you get on board).
- Palo brunch is a MUST
- We had a stateroom with a large porthole. We loved the bunk beds for the kids and the curtain that separated their room from ours. Came in handy when my daughter napped.
- loved the layout of the separated bathroom in the stateroom
- I loved each 'drink of the day'
- My daughter really enjoyed the kids club. The staff there is wonderful.
Cons:
- Honestly I wasn't overly impressed with the food. My husband said I kept ordering the wrong thing...I don't know, it just wasn't a highlight for me. With the exception of Palo- everything at Palo was wonderful.
- I wish we packed in duffel bags as opposed to large suitcases. Our large suitcases did not fit underneath our bed and kept getting in the way in our stateroom.
- I wish we got a room with a balcony. We had late seating and in order for my daughter to get through dinner she had to nap. It would have been nice to read a book on the balcony rather than being stuck in a room while she napped.
- My son wishes the sports deck was bigger. He spent most of his time there. He's a big sports kid and isn't really into video games so he didn't want to spend much time in the kids club/lab.
The following tips I learned here!
- Prior to our trip we stayed at the Doubletree nearby. Great hotel and we parked our car there all week for free.
- Photo mats for character signatures...they turned out great and I got one with Princess signatures for my daughter and one with Disney character signatures for my son and the photo mats were delivered to our room on Sat.
- Bring costumes for Pirate night!
- We brought an entire suitcase of beer/wine/mixed drinks. Saved us a TON of $!
- Over the door shoe holder for misc items...this kept us organized!
- Candy for the stateroom host and servers. They loved this added touch included with their tips.
- Arrive to the terminal early for check in! The time they give you with your check in documents means nothing. Arrive early and get checked in, hardly any lines.
- Bring extra hangers
- spray deodorizer for the bathroom
- get your clothes dry cleaned on the ship- very inexpensive!
- Dinner rotation. We had Tritons the first night and Parrot Cay for Pirate night. Instead of going to Tritons for a 3rd time, we went to Palo. It worked out great (except we missed lobster dinner on semi formal night...oh well).
Excursions
- We booked our own swim with the dolphins excursion in Puerta Vallerta. It worked out well even with the confusing time difference. The place was clean and we had a very fun day (the food was surprisingly good there) but taking a taxi there and back without car seats for the kids was very nerve racking for me.
- In Cabo we tendered in and just shopped around and ate at a really yummy restaurant called Lobster House.
Pictures!
I posted a bunch on my blog:
http://aimeejordanphotography.com/2012/03/a-magical-trip-folsom-photographer/
I'm a total newbie to this forum...I would love to post more pictures but I can't for the life of me figure out how to insert pictures into this post! Yes, I have read the instructions...I can't get it to work! I have them posted on flickr.
). On the way there we took a van. Right when we walked off the ship there are taxis and vans lined up. We split the cost ($60) with 2 other families that were going there too. On the way back, the park called taxis for us.
