Nice weather disney and non hurricane for cruise

[disneyholic family]

i just booked my august 18th cruise!! woo hoo!!
nothing like booking after final payment - you get to pay the whole thing at once!!

 

[eeyorefanuk]

i just booked my august 18th cruise!! woo hoo!!
nothing like booking after final payment - you get to pay the whole thing at once!!

Oh exciting. How long for and to where?

 

[disneyholic family]

Oh exciting. How long for and to where?

7 night cruise on the allure of the seas - the eastern itinerary.

it's not a very exciting itinerary, but in the case of the allure, the ship is pretty much the destination - which i also found to be true on the disney dream...i didn't really care where we were, i just wanted to be on that beautiful ship....and when we got back to port canaveral i really really really didn't want to get off!!!!

the itinerary on the allure is as follows:
Nassau - DH and i will stay on the ship, DD and DSIL are booked for the blue lagoon dolphin swim

St thomas - DD and DSIL will go on their own to Coral World, where they've booked the seal lion swim, turtle encounter and are hoping for the shark swim - i don't know if they'll have time for that..
DH and I are going to take the ferry over to st john, walk around there a bit, then head back to charlotte amalie in st thomas for a bit of window shopping (and we'll stop for a drink somwhere)...then back to the ship...i like just exploring on my own..

st. martin - we'll go into philipsburg for some window shopping and coffee or whatever....then over to the infamous Maho Beach by noon, to watch the planes coming in....then back to the ship...
DD and DSIL are going snorkeling in the morning (off a sailboat i think), then heading over to maho beach by 12:30 or 1:00 when the big planes come in...

there are 3 sea days, so that's nice...

but i've been poring over the cruise compasses (same as dcl navigators) and there is so much to do on the ship at any given moment, you will always end up missing something that you want to do..

since you have to make reservations for the big ticket on-board entertainment, we have at least the basis of our week planned out..
(the 5 shows that are best reserved in advance are: Chicago (the broadway musical), OceanAria (a kind of cirque de soleil show, with high diving and acrobatics), Blue Planet (not sure what it is, from what i've understood, also a cirque sort of thing maybe), the Comedy club, Ice Games (an ice skating show - the story revolves around monopoly which is why they call it ice games)... all 5 shows get rave reviews, so i'm looking forward to it)..

also, even though we took "my time dining", i've made advance reservations for dinner each night already, so that's planned out as well...

you should see the spreadsheet that is our schedule!! it's insane!!!

i am really reallly excited about this cruise....i've been wanting to sail on the allure since i first read a trip report about her, here on the dis...
i have truly been lusting after this ship...
i can't wait...
i know the drive down from orlando to fort lauderdale on sail day is going to be difficult, but i'm sure we'll be fine...

 

[disneyholic family]

this is the trip report i was talking about from the Dis cruise board..

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2810383

.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Sounds fab Beth . Love the things your daughter is doing, dolphin, turtle etc

 

[disneyholic family]

Sounds fab Beth . Love the things your daughter is doing, dolphin, turtle etc

well after watching a bunch of youtube videos, i broke down and reserved the blue lagoon dolphin swim in nassau and the st martin catamaran and snorkel excursion in the morning (then maho beach in the afternoon)..

i'll probably break down in the end and head over to coral world on st thomas too

 

[alliejb]

We did our first 3 night Disney cruise last October on the Dream, myself, husband & daughter really looking forward to a wonderful time, especially Castaway Quay. Unfortunately Hurricane Sandy happened & Disney in their wisdom decided to go ahead with the cruise instead of cancelling it. We trusted the judgement of Disney, but it turned into a disaster with my daughter spending most of the cruise in bed being ill. We were unable to dock anywhere and spent most of the time trying to walk in a straight line. We went to bed about 7pm on our last night absolutely terrified as the ship tried to return back to Port Canaveral. Once we got back to our villa my daughter spent the next 5 days having panic attacks and it did impact on the remainder of our holiday. Obviously I know we were very unlucky & I read so many glowing reports of cruises, which made our cruise even more upsetting.
Hope you have a great time on your cruise & don't hit any hurricanes
Allie

 

[disneyholic family]

We did our first 3 night Disney cruise last October on the Dream, myself, husband & daughter really looking forward to a wonderful time, especially Castaway Quay. Unfortunately Hurricane Sandy happened & Disney in their wisdom decided to go ahead with the cruise instead of cancelling it. We trusted the judgement of Disney, but it turned into a disaster with my daughter spending most of the cruise in bed being ill. We were unable to dock anywhere and spent most of the time trying to walk in a straight line. We went to bed about 7pm on our last night absolutely terrified as the ship tried to return back to Port Canaveral. Once we got back to our villa my daughter spent the next 5 days having panic attacks and it did impact on the remainder of our holiday. Obviously I know we were very unlucky & I read so many glowing reports of cruises, which made our cruise even more upsetting.
Hope you have a great time on your cruise & don't hit any hurricanes
Allie

did disney compensate you in any way? discount on a future cruise? on board credit? anything?

 

[alliejb]

Originally offered us 25% off another cruise to be taken by 2014, but there was no way I would get my daughter back on a ship! After a lot of complaints from passengers, we even had a facebook page set up where we all complained together, they agreed the 25% could be used against a WDW hotel 7 night stay. We are returning to Florida this November but we had to ring a special phone number in USA to qualify for the discount and after investigations it worked out better for us to book online through the UK site & get the free dining plus other offers. To be honest we were really disgusted and surprised with the way Disney handled the whole situation, they didn't seem to care at all, which we felt was completely at odds with the image they portray. Hopefully our faith will be restored this year.
Allie

 

[disneyholic family]

Originally offered us 25% off another cruise to be taken by 2014, but there was no way I would get my daughter back on a ship! After a lot of complaints from passengers, we even had a facebook page set up where we all complained together, they agreed the 25% could be used against a WDW hotel 7 night stay. We are returning to Florida this November but we had to ring a special phone number in USA to qualify for the discount and after investigations it worked out better for us to book online through the UK site & get the free dining plus other offers. To be honest we were really disgusted and surprised with the way Disney handled the whole situation, they didn't seem to care at all, which we felt was completely at odds with the image they portray. Hopefully our faith will be restored this year.
Allie

i'm not surprised...they have a bad reputation in these sorts of disputes...