Well Im not a writer and I didnt take nearly enough pictures (too busy ENJOYING the vacation!), so this trip report may or may not be interesting
here are my random, disorganized thoughts:
Cast: Me, DH, My mother, DS (13) and DD (7)
This was our first Disney cruise, and first ever cruise for the kids. The adults have all previously been on one cruise.
ACCOMODATIONS:
We had 2 cabins - A verandah an and inside stateroom across the hall. LOVED the verandah cabin. I feel the need for fresh air constantly, so this helped. We also loved all the extra storage space we had vs. the inside cabin. Next trip, we booked adjoining verandahs.
We decorated our doors. I had so many compliments on our doors. We repeatedly came out and found people staring at everything. One night a girl and mother were looking as I was walking back and she wanted to know why her mom hadnt gone to the store on board yet to buy decorations for their door. The mother responded with well I tried but they didnt have anything, Im not sure where they bought them. I let them know I made them before we arrived.
Dom, our stateroom host, repeated told me all week Miss Silence, people want to buy your door! I think they may try to take it with them. He was really nice. I recommend decorating!!!
We did the FE and loved it. I so appreciated that Elaine (our board organizer) put together a map of the staterooms. Delivery for the 20 or so rooms was difficult, no matter how I tried to organize our stuff. Next time, Im downsizing the gifts though, I ordered those string/sling backpacks from Oriental Trading and put pirate goodies in them. These took up a whole suitcase. I also made magnets and goodie bags for each cabin (highlighter, magnet clip, hand sanitizer) which took up another huge chunk of a suitcase. Must think SMALLER for our next cruise. I must say though, my kids bags are STUFFED with all the stuff they got in the FE from everyone else. Glad I remembered to get them a bag too!
CHECK IN/EMBARKATION
We arrived at port about 9:30. By the time we figured out where to go and we had unloaded and parked the van, we were the first group of first time cruisers up the stairs. We were the second family to check in for this group. They were obviously training new staff, so we didnt mind the little delays as they were explaining things. They had us at 2 stations since we had 2 cabins, and there were about 5 CMs at each station. Now, since we were so early, we were each given a card that said the time our stateroom would be ready, as well as our boarding group number. One card said group 4, the other said group 20, which they found online in their computer system. My explanation for this is as follows: When I did the on board check in, one cabin I was able to select the 10:30 check in time, the other, I was only able to select the 1:30 check in time. However, they changed the 20 to group 4 for us. We walked down to wait for our turn and tried to check into the kids club. This was a fiasco, the bracelets were not ready. I followed a woman down to this line and she was told she could not wait in line, they would open the line later. She waited there all morning, and I was standing next to her, outside of the line. As the morning progressed, more and more people came and tried to form a line, the CMs changed their stance on this, and let these people form a separate line. This was a little frustrating, since we had been waiting first. What was more frustrating to me though, were the people that came up to us and asked us which was the real line, heard our story, stayed with us, and then when they opened the line up, STILL cut in front of us. Whatever, I was about to board the ship and I wasnt going to let these people ruin it for me! Since we did the online check in this process took maybe 3 minutes to get DD her gps bracelet once we got to the counter.
Since we were boarding late (the ship was 2 hours late due to rough waters), their first announcement that came over the speakers was we are now boarding all boarding numbers. Oops. There was a little bit of mayhem. Some CMs said yes, they were boarding everyone, so everyone gathered up all their stuff. However, a few moments later the correct announcement was made. I saw very few people board in groups 1-3. We were the 2nd family from group 4 to board. Went straight to Guest Services to be told no Tea would be offered. BUMMER. This was the one thing I really wanted DD to do.
DINING
Our Dining Rotation was as follows: Animators, Parrot Cay, Parrot Cay, Tritons, Tritons, Animators, Parrot Cay. This meant we had Parrot Cay for Formal Night (DH said, yay, formal night at Dennys), Tritons for Pirate Night (which felt just wrong) and Animators for semi-formal night (Yay we got one right!). Since this was our first cruise, we did not request a dining rotation we probably will our next cruise.
Our servers were Geoffrey from the Philippines and Carla from Peru. I have seen their names mentioned before. WE LOVED THEM. They took so much time getting to know our picky kids. DS does not hardly eat ANYTHING. Mac and cheese is served in a tortilla bowl. He is so picky, he wont eat it out of the bowl. So, they made sure each night it came just on the plate. DS also eats a LOT of fruit. Geoffrey brought him a fruit soup to try one night, DS, who hardly tries new food, tried it and loved it. DD ordered a baked potato the first two nights, they brought her out 2 each of the rest of the nights. They both ordered Cherry Cokes to drink, I swear, it was like a little Coke with tons of cherries. DS loved this. We saw and spoke with our head server Tektus every night. EVERY night. Our last cruise (not Disney) we never talked to the head server, so this was definitely different.
We are not gourmet food people. We like things simple. So for us, we found the food very good. We sampled new things and we really liked every meal. Breakfast was rough, the scrambled eggs were a little watery and my kiddos didnt care for them. However, the French toast with cinnamon butter at Tritons was wonderful in my opinion.
We did Palo brunch on Saturday, our last sea day. Frankly, this was over the top for us, only because again, we are simple people. It was a nice experience, our server was WONDERFUL. I just dont think we will pay for this one again though.
SEA DAYS
The pools were packed. I planned for this, we were doing excursions where the kids could swim. We did do a couple of the movies on board. I will say, the first showing of I am Number Four was a madhouse. There were no CMs working the door/theater. We arrived 25 minutes early, and seriously, along with 2 other families, sat down in the center of the theater in saved seats as those were the only seats left. (You cant reserve seats, at least not a whole row for an obviously popular event) People kept pouring into the theater and had nowhere to go. Others that were trying to save a few seats had numerous arguments with other cruisers looking for a place to sit. I just felt that someone should have been at the door telling people the theater was full, it could avoided these icky arguments. On Tuesday we went by Cabo and that was a lot of fun. They had us sail close by, we saw dolphins, whales and sea turtles while my DD got her hair braided. (note, this did hurt, but looked so pretty. DD had to hold my hand and got a little teary/weepy at times, but stuck it out and enjoyed all the compliments)
I wish we had done more on our sea days, but a lot of the things we were interested in, didnt seem to fit our schedule. I did do the Scrapbooking Class. If you scrapbook, dont go and plan on it being anything. It was sponsored by future cruise sales. They gave us an envelope with 2 DCL papers in it. They then cut up some brochures for pictures and put out foam letters, crayons and markers and some sequins and glue sticks. I took the papers, asked my questions of the sales guy and left. The women next to me were very creative though, using the sequins to make Mickey heads and the foam letters to make Pluto. Just dont expect much.
ENTERTAINMENT
We loved all the shows. To me, Toy Story was a little slow. Maybe because I have seen the movie hundreds of times? I dunno, it was enjoyable, but hard to get through. We did not watch the comedian family show, but DH and I did go see the adult show in Wavebands and enjoyed it. I missed Dreams (very sad about this) as this was the night I got a fever/chills and basically passed out in my room. However DH and my mom took DD and they said they all loved it! We were very impressed with everything Disney did. We enjoyed the Sail Away show (we arrived late and still got a good spot on deck 10 to see). Pirates night was also a blast. We had early seating and went up to deck 10 right after with our Kindles and iPad. DH grabbed a table and chairs, we got some blankets and hot cocoa and settled in. DS was playing basketball and when the early games started, DD went down and danced the night away. Maybe since we werent with her all night, but we saw adults push in front of her a couple of times. She is 7. I just found this so rude. When the main show started, we had people crowding us out of our area. Knocking over our coffee on the table they were so close and rude. It seemed to take away a little of the magic for me. However, the fireworks were spectacular. We did play one session of Bingo. Didnt win anything and DH refused to go back. HAH. Came close though, but oh well.
CHARACTERS
We did not stand in line for characters. My kids have been to Disneyland too many times to count. The only pictures I wanted were w/Mickey & Minnie on formal night (in their formal attire) and with Mickey in his Pirates gear. We saw so many characters out though, the lines were longish, but not horrendous, I have seen much longer in the parks. I dont believe the characters sign any books at the character breakfast (we didnt have ours anyways), and it was very rushed for pictures here.
PICTURES
OK, here is where I did not budget enough/correctly. Shutters takes some great shots. However, unless it is a character picture, just about everything is printed in 8x10. If it is printed in 8x10, you can have them reprint you two of the 5x7 or 6x8 size, but, you get two of them and are still charged 2 credits. So, if you like the dinner and formal shots, you will be charged 2 credits. I spent 20 minutes thinking I could have them reprint a large picture to the smaller size and only pay 1 credit, which is not the case. I should have asked first. So, rather than go through that process again, I bought the larger package. Since we didnt do a lot of characters, we didnt have enough pictures taken to justify the CD in my opinion. Oh, and the Mickey/Minnie formal picture and Mickey pirate pictures are printed 8x10. The only smaller ones we had were the embarkation photos w/Mickey and Minnie and one they took in Puerto Vallarta before getting back on the ship. Next cruise, I will either take full advantage and buy the CD, or avoid looking at any photos at all in Shutters!
OCEANERs LAB / EDGE
We took DD to look at the Lab and the Club. She stayed in the Club for 2 min and said NO, back to the other one. She never did go back to the Club. She loved the lab. The CMs knew her name each day and made her smile. She always asked to go back when she wasnt there. She did the cooking school 3 times I think though. She did say the boys hogged the wii, just like her brother does.
DS was skeptical about the Edge. He is newly 13, and boy does that kid have a 13 y/o attitude already! He said there were a lot of 11 y/o there. Im not sure he liked being one of the older kids. However, on the night they swapped spaces with Vibe, he said he liked the Edge better. Who knows, guess we will find out next cruise. He did find some friends and they were everywhere on the ship with their wave phones. He said the dance and pool parties were way too crowded. When his friends were busy, he spent all his time on the sports deck, which is soccer coach will be happy to hear.
SPA
I didnt book any massages or anything fancy. I did book 2 pedicures, 1 for me and one for my mom. I had hoped to get appointments together, but the only thing they had was like at 7PM at night. So we just kept what we had. I get pedicures all the time in the spring/summer. I have VERY ticklish feet, so Im very up front with the people touching my feet. I will say this, they didnt scrub nearly as hard as any place at home, and they only used 1 coat of polish on our toes. It was pretty over priced for what we got ($60 plus tip) although the foot rub did feel wonderful. I actually moved my original appointment to the 7PM slot (I wanted to do the scrapbooking class) and I was the only one in that area of the spa.
PUERTO VALLARTA
We did the BEACH/POOL EXCURSION and had a FABULOUS day. We went to Paradise Village which was about a 20 min bus ride. There were 4 FULL busses to this location. They had the best waterslides for the kids and beach access. Now, on the bus they told us all you can eat and 3 beverages. However, at the resort, they told us all you can drink. We never got a bill or signed for anything. I was wondering if maybe the resort charges the excursion company per beverage and they were trying to get us to drink less? Anyways, we totally loved this day at the resort. They had some Mexican dishes plus hamburgers for lunch. They did a raffle for a free week stay at the resort. Everyone on the bus was reluctant to fill out the forms. DH didnt want me to, but I did anyways. Well guess what, I won the free week! I already got the certificate in my email. Not that I know or not if we will be able to use it, but hey, I won something!
CABO day 1
When we got back from our PV excursion, I went right to the desk and asked about doing something similar on our new Cabo day. The Beach Resort was sold out, so she recommend the POOL resort. We agreed to go for it. We got off the boat later than I had hoped. I had asked what time we would return and at the desk they said by 3. Well, turned out our bus would not be leaving until after our 4:40 meeting time. Anyways, the resort is like 2 blocks away. I think we got on the bus to avoid walking up hill? Pull in to a beautiful resort and you see the mini golf area that you can use if you want. They walk us down to the pool area and tell us where lunch is and that we can use the pools and loungers and tell us where the bathrooms are. They then say here is your reserved section. Again, BUS FULL of people. There are 12 loungers set up in our reserved section. These are not their pool loungers either (wooden with nice cushions). These are white beach loungers that did have seat cushions. People rush forward and grab what they can. We didnt move, and didnt get a chair. Over ¾ of the bus didnt get a chair. The rest of the many loungers/chairs are reserved by hotel guests. Now, there is no one in the pools. No one. In any of them. I was afraid the water must be freezing or something. So at this point, Im wondering what I paid 70 per person for? No chair, no umbrella as in the description. They then tell us to go to the beach to use those loungers. My issue with this, I booked a POOL RESORT. We are not allowed near the ocean water due to currents, why would I want a lounger on the beach? So, the tour guide finally gets the hotel to bring up the loungers and set them up for us. No cushions, no umbrellas. We were told we could have free ice tea, lemonade or a mimosa. My husband asked the waiter for the mimosa and he was told no, only ice tea or lemonade. So DH said he would ask the tour guide. Well the mimosas were only available with the buffet in the restaurant area. OK fine. However, from that point on, no waiter would come near us. We were glad we had brought water with us to drink. Overall, the hotel guests were talking about us the whole time and we totally felt like second class citizens here. My kids spent the whole day in the pool (which were heated), but we were so ready to leave long before our meet time. When we arrived back at the port, our guide didnt even take us back to the tender area. There was a line that looked about 2h ours long for the CARNIVAL tenders. So glad we just kept walking and went to the Disney area. However, we almost got in that line at first, I think some from the group might have. Since we arrived back late, we did not have time for any shopping. I went to the Port Adventures Desk and told them about our experience. They refunded 25% of our money, but I still dont think it was worth it at all.
CABO day 2
We did the swimming with the dolphins. My kids loved this! We bought the CD, since there were 3 in our party, it was 149. It was 99 for 10 pictures. I ended up with 77 on the CD, so it was worth it to me. We had Frida who ended up getting two time outs for being bad and playing with her food. They had to bring over two other dolphins to finish off our group (getting the rides , dances and kisses). Im really glad we did this excursion, but I dont think it would be something I would do every time. Maybe again when the kids are older.
BEST TIP recd
Bring the over the door shoe holder! This was such a great idea and everything I needed was right there!
Im not sure what cruisers did before wave phones. We used ours non stop and it was our only way to communicate with our 13 y/o
Bring water! So wish we had, we paid a fortune for it. I thought we would just drink what they had on board .which we did. But we needed the bottled stuff for the excursions
THINGS I BROUGHT I DIDNT USE
I brought my laptop in order to download pictures. I didnt take it out once.
I brought two travel surge protectors to charge things. I only needed one, if that.
White board with the wave phones, we didnt need these.
Extra Clothes I did over pack a little. However, on our port days, my kids wore their swimsuits and cover ups, so they didnt really need clothes these days, except for dinner.
Large cups for drink station I bought these at Disneyland just for the kids, they didnt use them once. They used what was provided and if going back to the stateroom, they just got 2 instead of 1.
THINGS I DID AND SAID I WOULDNT
Laundry I did do 4 loads of laundry on our 2nd Cabo Day. We had an early tender time and I just thought, it would be nice to return home with CLEAN clothes instead of out of control laundry to do. I was not the only one with this idea, the laundry room was always packed. I was lucky though, some people had people taking out their clothes to use the washers or putting their clothes in the same dryer as theirs. EWWWW. I dunno, clean is clean but EWWWW. I timed my return to be back 2 minutes before the washer was done (27 min to wash, 45 to dry) and then sat in the laundry room with my Kindle for a bit so no one would touch my stuff.
THINGS I DIDNT DO AND WISH I HAD
Take more pictures! I mean, I take a lot of photos at normal events. I even bought extra cards for all my cameras. However, we didnt need them. Im a little bummed, but oh well. Guess it is another reason to go back!
I know there is more, but I am still not 100% over this rocking/rolling thing going on. Plus, I picked up a nasty cold and I am so glad I took today off of work!
Overall, this was our best family vacation. Our kids were so spoiled! How will we ever top it? We did book for Spring Break on the Wonder next year.
Cast: Me, DH, My mother, DS (13) and DD (7)
This was our first Disney cruise, and first ever cruise for the kids. The adults have all previously been on one cruise.
ACCOMODATIONS:
We had 2 cabins - A verandah an and inside stateroom across the hall. LOVED the verandah cabin. I feel the need for fresh air constantly, so this helped. We also loved all the extra storage space we had vs. the inside cabin. Next trip, we booked adjoining verandahs.
We decorated our doors. I had so many compliments on our doors. We repeatedly came out and found people staring at everything. One night a girl and mother were looking as I was walking back and she wanted to know why her mom hadnt gone to the store on board yet to buy decorations for their door. The mother responded with well I tried but they didnt have anything, Im not sure where they bought them. I let them know I made them before we arrived.
Dom, our stateroom host, repeated told me all week Miss Silence, people want to buy your door! I think they may try to take it with them. He was really nice. I recommend decorating!!!We did the FE and loved it. I so appreciated that Elaine (our board organizer) put together a map of the staterooms. Delivery for the 20 or so rooms was difficult, no matter how I tried to organize our stuff. Next time, Im downsizing the gifts though, I ordered those string/sling backpacks from Oriental Trading and put pirate goodies in them. These took up a whole suitcase. I also made magnets and goodie bags for each cabin (highlighter, magnet clip, hand sanitizer) which took up another huge chunk of a suitcase. Must think SMALLER for our next cruise.
I must say though, my kids bags are STUFFED with all the stuff they got in the FE from everyone else. Glad I remembered to get them a bag too!CHECK IN/EMBARKATION
We arrived at port about 9:30. By the time we figured out where to go and we had unloaded and parked the van, we were the first group of first time cruisers up the stairs. We were the second family to check in for this group. They were obviously training new staff, so we didnt mind the little delays as they were explaining things. They had us at 2 stations since we had 2 cabins, and there were about 5 CMs at each station. Now, since we were so early, we were each given a card that said the time our stateroom would be ready, as well as our boarding group number. One card said group 4, the other said group 20, which they found online in their computer system. My explanation for this is as follows: When I did the on board check in, one cabin I was able to select the 10:30 check in time, the other, I was only able to select the 1:30 check in time. However, they changed the 20 to group 4 for us. We walked down to wait for our turn and tried to check into the kids club. This was a fiasco, the bracelets were not ready. I followed a woman down to this line and she was told she could not wait in line, they would open the line later. She waited there all morning, and I was standing next to her, outside of the line. As the morning progressed, more and more people came and tried to form a line, the CMs changed their stance on this, and let these people form a separate line. This was a little frustrating, since we had been waiting first. What was more frustrating to me though, were the people that came up to us and asked us which was the real line, heard our story, stayed with us, and then when they opened the line up, STILL cut in front of us. Whatever, I was about to board the ship and I wasnt going to let these people ruin it for me! Since we did the online check in this process took maybe 3 minutes to get DD her gps bracelet once we got to the counter.
Since we were boarding late (the ship was 2 hours late due to rough waters), their first announcement that came over the speakers was we are now boarding all boarding numbers. Oops. There was a little bit of mayhem. Some CMs said yes, they were boarding everyone, so everyone gathered up all their stuff. However, a few moments later the correct announcement was made. I saw very few people board in groups 1-3. We were the 2nd family from group 4 to board. Went straight to Guest Services to be told no Tea would be offered. BUMMER. This was the one thing I really wanted DD to do.
DINING
Our Dining Rotation was as follows: Animators, Parrot Cay, Parrot Cay, Tritons, Tritons, Animators, Parrot Cay. This meant we had Parrot Cay for Formal Night (DH said, yay, formal night at Dennys), Tritons for Pirate Night (which felt just wrong) and Animators for semi-formal night (Yay we got one right!). Since this was our first cruise, we did not request a dining rotation we probably will our next cruise.
Our servers were Geoffrey from the Philippines and Carla from Peru. I have seen their names mentioned before. WE LOVED THEM. They took so much time getting to know our picky kids. DS does not hardly eat ANYTHING. Mac and cheese is served in a tortilla bowl. He is so picky, he wont eat it out of the bowl. So, they made sure each night it came just on the plate. DS also eats a LOT of fruit. Geoffrey brought him a fruit soup to try one night, DS, who hardly tries new food, tried it and loved it. DD ordered a baked potato the first two nights, they brought her out 2 each of the rest of the nights. They both ordered Cherry Cokes to drink, I swear, it was like a little Coke with tons of cherries. DS loved this. We saw and spoke with our head server Tektus every night. EVERY night. Our last cruise (not Disney) we never talked to the head server, so this was definitely different.
We are not gourmet food people. We like things simple. So for us, we found the food very good. We sampled new things and we really liked every meal. Breakfast was rough, the scrambled eggs were a little watery and my kiddos didnt care for them. However, the French toast with cinnamon butter at Tritons was wonderful in my opinion.
We did Palo brunch on Saturday, our last sea day. Frankly, this was over the top for us, only because again, we are simple people. It was a nice experience, our server was WONDERFUL. I just dont think we will pay for this one again though.
SEA DAYS
The pools were packed. I planned for this, we were doing excursions where the kids could swim. We did do a couple of the movies on board. I will say, the first showing of I am Number Four was a madhouse. There were no CMs working the door/theater. We arrived 25 minutes early, and seriously, along with 2 other families, sat down in the center of the theater in saved seats as those were the only seats left. (You cant reserve seats, at least not a whole row for an obviously popular event) People kept pouring into the theater and had nowhere to go. Others that were trying to save a few seats had numerous arguments with other cruisers looking for a place to sit. I just felt that someone should have been at the door telling people the theater was full, it could avoided these icky arguments. On Tuesday we went by Cabo and that was a lot of fun. They had us sail close by, we saw dolphins, whales and sea turtles while my DD got her hair braided. (note, this did hurt, but looked so pretty. DD had to hold my hand and got a little teary/weepy at times, but stuck it out and enjoyed all the compliments)
I wish we had done more on our sea days, but a lot of the things we were interested in, didnt seem to fit our schedule. I did do the Scrapbooking Class. If you scrapbook, dont go and plan on it being anything. It was sponsored by future cruise sales. They gave us an envelope with 2 DCL papers in it. They then cut up some brochures for pictures and put out foam letters, crayons and markers and some sequins and glue sticks. I took the papers, asked my questions of the sales guy and left. The women next to me were very creative though, using the sequins to make Mickey heads and the foam letters to make Pluto. Just dont expect much.
ENTERTAINMENT
We loved all the shows. To me, Toy Story was a little slow. Maybe because I have seen the movie hundreds of times? I dunno, it was enjoyable, but hard to get through. We did not watch the comedian family show, but DH and I did go see the adult show in Wavebands and enjoyed it. I missed Dreams (very sad about this) as this was the night I got a fever/chills and basically passed out in my room. However DH and my mom took DD and they said they all loved it! We were very impressed with everything Disney did. We enjoyed the Sail Away show (we arrived late and still got a good spot on deck 10 to see). Pirates night was also a blast. We had early seating and went up to deck 10 right after with our Kindles and iPad. DH grabbed a table and chairs, we got some blankets and hot cocoa and settled in. DS was playing basketball and when the early games started, DD went down and danced the night away. Maybe since we werent with her all night, but we saw adults push in front of her a couple of times. She is 7. I just found this so rude. When the main show started, we had people crowding us out of our area. Knocking over our coffee on the table they were so close and rude. It seemed to take away a little of the magic for me. However, the fireworks were spectacular. We did play one session of Bingo. Didnt win anything and DH refused to go back. HAH. Came close though, but oh well.
CHARACTERS
We did not stand in line for characters. My kids have been to Disneyland too many times to count. The only pictures I wanted were w/Mickey & Minnie on formal night (in their formal attire) and with Mickey in his Pirates gear. We saw so many characters out though, the lines were longish, but not horrendous, I have seen much longer in the parks. I dont believe the characters sign any books at the character breakfast (we didnt have ours anyways), and it was very rushed for pictures here.
PICTURES
OK, here is where I did not budget enough/correctly. Shutters takes some great shots. However, unless it is a character picture, just about everything is printed in 8x10. If it is printed in 8x10, you can have them reprint you two of the 5x7 or 6x8 size, but, you get two of them and are still charged 2 credits. So, if you like the dinner and formal shots, you will be charged 2 credits. I spent 20 minutes thinking I could have them reprint a large picture to the smaller size and only pay 1 credit, which is not the case. I should have asked first. So, rather than go through that process again, I bought the larger package. Since we didnt do a lot of characters, we didnt have enough pictures taken to justify the CD in my opinion. Oh, and the Mickey/Minnie formal picture and Mickey pirate pictures are printed 8x10. The only smaller ones we had were the embarkation photos w/Mickey and Minnie and one they took in Puerto Vallarta before getting back on the ship. Next cruise, I will either take full advantage and buy the CD, or avoid looking at any photos at all in Shutters!
OCEANERs LAB / EDGE
We took DD to look at the Lab and the Club. She stayed in the Club for 2 min and said NO, back to the other one. She never did go back to the Club. She loved the lab. The CMs knew her name each day and made her smile. She always asked to go back when she wasnt there. She did the cooking school 3 times I think though. She did say the boys hogged the wii, just like her brother does.
DS was skeptical about the Edge. He is newly 13, and boy does that kid have a 13 y/o attitude already! He said there were a lot of 11 y/o there. Im not sure he liked being one of the older kids. However, on the night they swapped spaces with Vibe, he said he liked the Edge better. Who knows, guess we will find out next cruise. He did find some friends and they were everywhere on the ship with their wave phones. He said the dance and pool parties were way too crowded. When his friends were busy, he spent all his time on the sports deck, which is soccer coach will be happy to hear.
SPA
I didnt book any massages or anything fancy. I did book 2 pedicures, 1 for me and one for my mom. I had hoped to get appointments together, but the only thing they had was like at 7PM at night. So we just kept what we had. I get pedicures all the time in the spring/summer. I have VERY ticklish feet, so Im very up front with the people touching my feet. I will say this, they didnt scrub nearly as hard as any place at home, and they only used 1 coat of polish on our toes. It was pretty over priced for what we got ($60 plus tip) although the foot rub did feel wonderful. I actually moved my original appointment to the 7PM slot (I wanted to do the scrapbooking class) and I was the only one in that area of the spa.
PUERTO VALLARTA
We did the BEACH/POOL EXCURSION and had a FABULOUS day. We went to Paradise Village which was about a 20 min bus ride. There were 4 FULL busses to this location. They had the best waterslides for the kids and beach access. Now, on the bus they told us all you can eat and 3 beverages. However, at the resort, they told us all you can drink. We never got a bill or signed for anything. I was wondering if maybe the resort charges the excursion company per beverage and they were trying to get us to drink less? Anyways, we totally loved this day at the resort. They had some Mexican dishes plus hamburgers for lunch. They did a raffle for a free week stay at the resort. Everyone on the bus was reluctant to fill out the forms. DH didnt want me to, but I did anyways. Well guess what, I won the free week! I already got the certificate in my email. Not that I know or not if we will be able to use it, but hey, I won something!
CABO day 1
When we got back from our PV excursion, I went right to the desk and asked about doing something similar on our new Cabo day. The Beach Resort was sold out, so she recommend the POOL resort. We agreed to go for it. We got off the boat later than I had hoped. I had asked what time we would return and at the desk they said by 3. Well, turned out our bus would not be leaving until after our 4:40 meeting time. Anyways, the resort is like 2 blocks away. I think we got on the bus to avoid walking up hill? Pull in to a beautiful resort and you see the mini golf area that you can use if you want. They walk us down to the pool area and tell us where lunch is and that we can use the pools and loungers and tell us where the bathrooms are. They then say here is your reserved section. Again, BUS FULL of people. There are 12 loungers set up in our reserved section. These are not their pool loungers either (wooden with nice cushions). These are white beach loungers that did have seat cushions. People rush forward and grab what they can. We didnt move, and didnt get a chair. Over ¾ of the bus didnt get a chair. The rest of the many loungers/chairs are reserved by hotel guests. Now, there is no one in the pools. No one. In any of them. I was afraid the water must be freezing or something. So at this point, Im wondering what I paid 70 per person for? No chair, no umbrella as in the description. They then tell us to go to the beach to use those loungers. My issue with this, I booked a POOL RESORT. We are not allowed near the ocean water due to currents, why would I want a lounger on the beach? So, the tour guide finally gets the hotel to bring up the loungers and set them up for us. No cushions, no umbrellas. We were told we could have free ice tea, lemonade or a mimosa. My husband asked the waiter for the mimosa and he was told no, only ice tea or lemonade. So DH said he would ask the tour guide. Well the mimosas were only available with the buffet in the restaurant area. OK fine. However, from that point on, no waiter would come near us. We were glad we had brought water with us to drink. Overall, the hotel guests were talking about us the whole time and we totally felt like second class citizens here. My kids spent the whole day in the pool (which were heated), but we were so ready to leave long before our meet time. When we arrived back at the port, our guide didnt even take us back to the tender area. There was a line that looked about 2h ours long for the CARNIVAL tenders. So glad we just kept walking and went to the Disney area. However, we almost got in that line at first, I think some from the group might have. Since we arrived back late, we did not have time for any shopping. I went to the Port Adventures Desk and told them about our experience. They refunded 25% of our money, but I still dont think it was worth it at all.
CABO day 2
We did the swimming with the dolphins. My kids loved this! We bought the CD, since there were 3 in our party, it was 149. It was 99 for 10 pictures. I ended up with 77 on the CD, so it was worth it to me. We had Frida who ended up getting two time outs for being bad and playing with her food. They had to bring over two other dolphins to finish off our group (getting the rides , dances and kisses). Im really glad we did this excursion, but I dont think it would be something I would do every time. Maybe again when the kids are older.
BEST TIP recd
Bring the over the door shoe holder! This was such a great idea and everything I needed was right there!
Im not sure what cruisers did before wave phones. We used ours non stop and it was our only way to communicate with our 13 y/o
Bring water! So wish we had, we paid a fortune for it. I thought we would just drink what they had on board .which we did. But we needed the bottled stuff for the excursions
THINGS I BROUGHT I DIDNT USE
I brought my laptop in order to download pictures. I didnt take it out once.
I brought two travel surge protectors to charge things. I only needed one, if that.
White board with the wave phones, we didnt need these.
Extra Clothes I did over pack a little. However, on our port days, my kids wore their swimsuits and cover ups, so they didnt really need clothes these days, except for dinner.
Large cups for drink station I bought these at Disneyland just for the kids, they didnt use them once. They used what was provided and if going back to the stateroom, they just got 2 instead of 1.
THINGS I DID AND SAID I WOULDNT
Laundry I did do 4 loads of laundry on our 2nd Cabo Day. We had an early tender time and I just thought, it would be nice to return home with CLEAN clothes instead of out of control laundry to do. I was not the only one with this idea, the laundry room was always packed. I was lucky though, some people had people taking out their clothes to use the washers or putting their clothes in the same dryer as theirs. EWWWW. I dunno, clean is clean but EWWWW. I timed my return to be back 2 minutes before the washer was done (27 min to wash, 45 to dry) and then sat in the laundry room with my Kindle for a bit so no one would touch my stuff.
THINGS I DIDNT DO AND WISH I HAD
Take more pictures! I mean, I take a lot of photos at normal events. I even bought extra cards for all my cameras. However, we didnt need them. Im a little bummed, but oh well. Guess it is another reason to go back!
I know there is more, but I am still not 100% over this rocking/rolling thing going on. Plus, I picked up a nasty cold and I am so glad I took today off of work!
Overall, this was our best family vacation. Our kids were so spoiled! How will we ever top it? We did book for Spring Break on the Wonder next year.
As for me, I ended up about two rows back which I actually felt pretty good about given the chaos. Ended up in line next to another DIS person, just didn't realize it until the meet. 
But it was more like 12 groups in front of us. It was crazy. Wish it had just been open when we arrived.
We have been considering booking a trip there and we did the excursion on our 2/13 cruise. We LOVED it and I was sooooo hoping we would win the raffle. We didn't get lucky, but congrats to you!!
