October 13-17 (sorry this took so long to post)

[DisneyInOctober]

If you are doing Land/Sea package, check cruise documents at the Resort at the Cruise Line Desk on the first day of your stay.

Day 1
We arrived at the dock around 11:30. Embarkation is a breeze. We pulled up to the curb, unloaded our bags and gave them to a porter and he gave us our ticket stubs. DH parked the car (you must pay before they will let you into the parking lot). We got a very close parking space. We went through the scanning machine, went up the escalator, and then went to the left desk area and they swipe your KTTW card (this remains your KTTW card on the ship), and then you get in Disney Cruise Line queue and it moves very quickly.

We did bring along a collapsible cooler that had ice in it and some beer that we didn’t finish at the resort. We stopped at Publix on the way to the ship and got more beer and wine, and we just carried those on as well in a brown paper bag.

We were announced when we arrived. That is so cool. They have crew members standing along the side clapping when your name is announced. How cute. Go directly to lunch, but you can put your carry-on bags on the floor inside the restaurant. Everyone did this, and nothing was stolen.

Lunch was very good. We ate at McDonalds on the way (big mistake). Go without food or a light breakfast that morning, because there is plenty on the ship.

We went to our stateroom after we ate lunch. The kids and I headed for Palo reservation which was in Wavebands. You are asked which night for your reservation, and then you are given a ticket number. I was 16. I believe reservations started at 1:30, and I arrived at 1:15, and they had already started taking reservations. We wanted the last night (Wednesday) and I was able to get an 8:00 reservation. Wednesday was definitely the most popular night for reservations. The other lines were very short. If you have a very specific time in mind for your reservation, get there ½ hour early.

Our Rotation was TAPT. We had our dinner tickets waiting for us in the room as well as our excursion tickets (we only did snorkel and raft rental at Castaway Cay). The next time I will miss Animator’s Pallet because I really want to do Triton’s twice. I love to get dressed up. Palo’s was fantastic. I’ll talk about this more later.

After Palo I went to make Spa reservation (DH wasn’t interested in helping me with reservations, he needed to relax). We booked the Surial and on the day at sea, most of the reservations were almost taken. We took 11:00 AM. That worked out to be a good time and I wouldn’t hesitate to book that time again.

I think the ressie scramble is legit, and if you want to get a specific day/time, definitely get there early, and don’t let DH relax. Get him up and moving.

It was pouring when we got on the ship, fortunately we missed it when we were unloading our bags. DS, DD and I left the spa and walked around deck 9 and deck 10. It had stopped raining by then. We went down and unpacked with DH, and then we all headed up to deck 10 for the departure. They had music playing by the Goofy Pool, and EVERYONE was there. It was packed. Deck 10 wasn’t as crowded. They did blow a special tune on the horn, and unfortunately we only got part of it. They announced it the second time they blew the horn, but we missed that completely. They blow the horn several times during the trip when you leave port, and they always announce it and tell people to cover their ears if they are on deck. It wasn’t that loud, and we didn’t need to cover our ears. DD and I went to schedule her hair braiding. This line started at 5:30, and we were there 20 minutes early. Not necessary. When they woman finally showed up to schedule the appointments, there were only 3 other parties behind me. We scheduled it for 10:00 the next morning (this was the first appointment you could have).

We went and got showered and went to see Hercules. It was good, but not fabulous. The actors spoke really loud. I think they were louder than the needed to be. We could really feel the ship swaying at the show. We went back to our room and everyone but me took Bonine. I was told by my doctor to take Dramamine (I have asthma), but I didn’t buy any, so I just didn’t bother taking anything, and I was fine. Someone once wrote that the only time they felt the ship swaying was the first night at dinner. I think you do notice it more the first night. After the show (which lasts about an hour) I don’t remember what we did. We had 8:30 seating. Our first night was Tritons. When you go to Tritons, they have Mickey and Minnie there, and you get family pictures taken with them and there is a ship background.. I’d suggest your dress your best for Tritons, because you will want your pictures to look good. We did end up buying that picture (that was the only one we bought). Dinner does last about 1-1/2 hours. The food was very good at Tritons. Afterwards, I think we just went back to the room. We changed clothes, and then DS, DD and I went to the movies to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This didn’t start until 11:15. Very late night for us. DH was asleep when we returned.

Day 2
I ordered room service the next morning and packed sandwiches to take with us for our stay in Nassau. Then we went to breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet. We ate breakfast there every morning (except Thursday). It was buffet (as you would guess from the name), and it was very good. Eggs, bacon, sausage, potato patties, waffles, omelets, pastries, etc. Lots of choices. We went for hair braiding. DD did headband cornrows. Allison was the CM who did the braiding. She only put in 3 braids, so the cost was $26. I saw other girl later on the cruise who had about 30 crown rows, and theirs looked a lot nicer. If you want a lot of cornrows, I guess you need to ask for them. I don’t think DD would be able to stand getting 30, it was painful and she had tears in her eyes. She was ok with it, but it does hurt.

We got off the ship then and did the straw market. DS bought a flute, and I tried to buy a t-shirt for $5.00, but they wanted $10 and wouldn’t go any lower. We then caught a cab $4.00/pp + 1.00 bridge toll) to Atlantis. We walked through Atlantis and then went out to the beach. What beautiful water. It was so breathtaking. DS and DD loved being in the water. We go to the Delaware beaches, and they love the water, but this water is amazing. We ate our sandwiches (don’t get the tuna fish…too mushy by the time you eat it…the turkey on onion roll was much better choice…also pbj held up ok. The beach was practically empty, and we felt like we had the ocean to ourselves. I saw fish swimming around me a few times. No one else with me saw them. I guess I was pretty lucky. We saw it starting to cloud up, so we went through the aquarium and then spent $6.00 at the Casino and walked out front and caught a cab back to the ship. Once we got on ship, it had started to rain again. Tonight was the comedian, and we didn’t care to go to that. DH and I took a bottle of our wine. and went to deck 4 to relax on the wooden chairs. These are so nice. I think this night we ordered room service and got the cheese & crackers (really good). We ate at Animator’s Pallet. This was good food. We left port at 11:00. We tried to see it from Deck 7, but it was locked, so we went to deck 10. We always tried to watch the ship leave port.

Day 3
Castaway Cay day. We ate breakfast and were in line before 8:30 to get off the ship. Hustled over to the beach, and had any pick of chairs we wanted. Unfortunately DH and DS took first chairs we came to. We were close to the snorkel rental and rafts, but it got SOOOO crowded. Next time I would go to the absolute furthest chairs I could find. We did have a hammock, and I fell asleep in that. Very comfortable, and it was worth getting there early just to have the hammock. We snorkeled right away, and DD and I weren’t as into it as DS and DH were. They went twice. I’m glad we did it, but I’m not sure I’d do it again. The raft wasn’t that great of an investment either, but they are only $6.00, so I didn’t care if we didn’t use them a lot. DH and I took the trolley over to the adult beach later I the afternoon just to see what it was like. It was quiet and the water was clear, but very shallow. The water at the family side was so cloudy from the hundreds of children/adults swimming. I didn’t really think Castaway was all that. I guess we were spoiled by the water at Paradise Island. DH says “30 yards out from waters’ edge the water was perfectly clear again…there are plenty of areas the water is 2’ deep snorkeling.”

Back to the ship around 3:30 (an hour early). DS went to see Lilo & Stitch (DD didn’t want to go). We got showered and changed, but not into our dinner clothes. We went to watch the ship leave at 5:00, but it was delayed…there was a really bad storm that rolled in around 4:30. We left around 5:30, and the Captain high-tailed it out of there, and you could really feel the ship roll this night. We went to see Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer (only 3 players get to play…we weren’t one of them). The host (Rick) got everyone to at least $80.00, and then he helped them to keep any money they won after that, although he wasn’t always successful. I think 1 won $80, 1 won $100 and 1 won $125. When we left the show, we were actually swaying in the hallways. DS and DD took more Bonine this night. We changed for dinner and then DS, DD and I went to Bingo (didn’t win). I got a pin for volunteering to verify the numbers called. We all went to Parrot Cay for dinner. They make this fun by playing music during the dinner and doing a conga line. Don’t miss this night. The food here isn’t as good as the other 2 restaurants, but it isn’t bad by any means. DD and DS got their birthday cakes and birthday pins this night. They celebrated their birthdays while we were at Disney World, and DH told our head server, and they wanted to celebrate with them. BTW, our servers were wonderful. Very attentive. We told them we were going to Palo’s the next night, and they asked DS and DD to please come to dinner alone. They said OK, but ended up getting room service. I think we just did some shopping after dinner.

Day 4
Day at Sea. We ate our usual breakfast, and then did the Surial. Very enjoyable. I won’t go into details, but I did love the Instant Refreshing Gel (we bought some) and the milk lotion (we didn’t buy that, but wanted to). Their products are very nice. Try as many as you can. Leave the steam room door open…it gets very hot.

We went to Deck 10 for a few hours and the kids swam or played ping pong. We went to the Matinee of Disney Dreams. Really wonderful show. Don’t miss this. Then we went back on deck 10 with a bottle of wine. It ended up getting cloudy so we left around 4:00 and went and got showered. We went to the 7:00 signing by Captain Henry. He will sign any souvenirs you buy on the ship. My DH surprised me with a glass ornament and a DCL beach bag. I had the ornament signed. We did more shopping. We spent a ton of money. Definitely take as much as you can. Dropped the kids off at a show called Sailor’s Tales and they were told to go to the room and call us on the walkey talkey (these are a must…however, try to bring one with more than 15 channels…we were always having to change channels because someone was already on that channel). We went to Palo’s for our 8:00 dinner. It was really wonderful. This is the only time we took wine with us to dinner. They did charge $15.00 to open it. While I feel this is a rip off, we said “what the heck.” The chocolate soufflé is out of this world. Actually I’ve never had a soufflé, and now I’m hooked. We’re going to dinner next weekend to celebrate our anniversary, and they have this on their menu, and you can bet I’m going to get it. After dinner we went back to the room (kids had ordered Macaroni and Cheese). They were laying I bed watching a movie. I got changed and DS, DD and I went to see Sweet Home Alabama. Didn’t start until 11:30!!! Oh my gosh, am I going to be tired the next day. I really liked this movie.

Day 5
You go to the restaurant where you had dinner the last night. Ours was Tritons (even though we didn’t actually eat there). Breakfast for us was 8:00 (since we had late seating). We had a nice breakfast, said good bye to our servers, left the restaurant, and the Captain was standing at the doors as you leave. He said goodbye to everyone. We shook his hand, dropped off our survey form, met with a porter and he grabbed our bags and we followed him to the car. Very painless (except for the pain you feel saying goodbye to a wonderful vacation).

Miscellaneous Notes
Kids didn’t do much with Oceaneers Lab. They preferred to be with us.
Stateroom host did a great job, and we always had a towel animals on the bed in the evening.
Collapsible cooler was used the whole time. Ice melted quickly, and it did eventually leak. No big deal, just put a towel under it. Ask stateroom host to fill it twice daily and tip him.
Didn’t do many family activities. Seemed too busy or too tired or not interested. Enjoyed just walking around the ship a lot.
Bingo was at Wavebands and was VERY smokey (yuck).

 

[QJ411]

Great report! Thanks for all the details!!! Which stateroom did u guys stay in? We're going on our honeymoon in Dec. and we have the Land/Sea package...(Land first then sea) and we were curious as to how our rooms would be...did u like ur cabins? We have # 7518...( I think!)


Thanks!!!

 

[doubletroublemom]

Hi....I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise! Just curious....did you use one of the Atlantis beaches, and did anyone give you a hard time for not having a wrist band? We're trying to figure out if we should go on our own or go with the DCL beach day excursion. Thanks!

 

[DisneyInOctober]

We were in stateroom 5020 (secret porthole room). We LOVED it. That is one of my fondest memories when we all walked into the stateroom and saw the view. (Also, we went though the outside gift place and had gifts waiting for the kids...they were soooo excited to see them). We loved being able to see the ocean while we were moving. You are not in the stateroom a lot, but I would never have an inside stateroom. Stateroom 5020 is category 10 (deluxe inside stateroom). The deluxe stateroom are very nice. If I couldn't get a secret porthole room, I'd go for a deluxe outside stateroom.

We did use the Atlantis beaches. We didn't have wristbands, and we saw others who didn't have them either. You could tell they were from the resort, though, because the resort gives everyone green and white stripped towels. We didn't have towels. Make sure you bring some along from the ship. I liked going on our own because we were able to do the straw market first. If anyone says anything about you are not supposed to be here, then you just go down the beach a little further where the beach is public. I can't say enough about how beautiful the water and sand is. I'm so glad we didn't stay on the ship.

 

[nativetxn]

Great report, lots of really good information. I enjoyed reading this, thanks for posting.

 

[HawaiianGirl]

Great report! We were on the same cruise as you and I pulled number 17 at Wavebands for the Palo's reservations -- right behind you. Yes, it's amazing that you have to be there so early! But we got the reservations we wanted, day at sea - 6 p.m. to watch the sunset. And the food was fabulous. Even my picky brother in-law who is a gourmet was blown away. My husband was send to the Spa and we got the Suriel at 9 a.m. on Day at Sea -- so just a couple hours before you. And like you, I won't go into detail .

We also went to Atlantis -- we rented a room and did the pools and aquariums. Unbelievable property, but strange service (staff was a little stand-offish - like they didn't really want to be there -- also the rooms and pools were a little dirty). We left at around 4:30 p.m. -- got to the dock just when it started to downpour -- major downpour. We were drenched. And here we thought we were so smart to get all showered and changed at the hotel for our dinner at Tritons.

Our kids loved the kids club (they were able to go with their cousins who were also on the cruise with us). On the day at sea, they insisted on staying in the clubs from 11 a.m. to 8: 30 p.m.! And even after doing 10 days in the parks after the cruise, all they could talk about was the "boat" and the "Oceaneers Club." We all had a great time and are hoping to do the 7 day next.

 

[DisneyInOctober]

If I had the $1,000 with me for the deposit, I would have booked it right on the ship. I don't know when we'll be able to do the 7 day, but it is going to be our next big family vacation. We want to do the Western.

I just don't understand why our kids didn't do the lab all that much. They wanted to be with us the whole time. I didn't mind at all.

We didn't rent a room for Atlantis, but I kind of wish we had, although the weather wasn't that great the whole time. We made it back before the downpour. Are you glad you got a room? Did you get one at the Atlantis or the Comfort Suites?

Glad you had fun HawaiianGirl.

nativetxn, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. You feel kind of funny when you are writing it, "like anyone cares about what you did on vacation", but everyone on this board is sooo wonderful about sharing all their tips and secrets, I thought, "hopefully someone will read it and pull out a good tip they can use for their cruise."

 

[HawaiianGirl]

Yes, we were glad we got the room and were able to do all the pools, slides and aquarium. It was also nice to be able to get cleaned up in a normal size bathroom. For us, it was one of those situations where we were glad we did it and experienced the "ultimate resort" and our curiosity, but don't feel like we have to do it again. We got a room at the Atlantis.

Our kids probably loved the clubs so much because they had a buddy to go with. I noticed some parents checking in very reluctant kids who didn't want to go because they were by themselves.

Also, its a credit to your parenting skills that your kids prefer to spend their time with their parents -- good for you!