stampinshauna
Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Disney Cruise L
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2005
- Messages
- 2,652
Cast of characters: My husband and I, both 25.
We flew out of Utah Friday morning so we could have a night in Orlando before our cruise. Since we knew we'd have the evening there, we purchased tickets for Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween Party. We loved the Halloween Party. We had fun dressing up and enjoyed all of the kids who said "hey look, there's Peter Pan and Wendy." We had a lot of fun just smiling and waving to them as we passed by. We were able to do all of the rides that we wanted to, I think we waited for 10 minutes at Space Mountain, and just about walked on to everything else. We ended up with a ton of candy and hardly touched it on our cruise, so now we have bags of candy at home.We saw the headless horseman, saw the parade, got our picture taken (unfortunately my eyes are mostly closed), saw the fireworks, and just had a great time. I'd go again in a heartbeat.
We had great weather most of the time on the cruise. Saturday the sea was a little rough just like on our cruise last year, and I expected it to be calm after that. We went to Palo and enjoyed every bit of it (knowing to leave room for the souffle). Marco was our server and he was the greatest. He is the only one from Italy so he really knew what to recommend and he kept bringing us extra things to taste in addition to what we ordered. It was fun to be able to try so many things.
We woke up Sunday and it was just as rough as Saturday night and it rocked the whole day, it was also rainy a good portion of the day, so no swimming. We were on deck 2 with a portole in our stateroom and were shocked when a wave crashed all the way up on it (just once). I think a fair amount of people got seasick, but we were fine, although we were walking pretty crooked. We had brunch at Palo and enjoyed the food once again. We expierenced our first live auction just to see what it was like. I know art is collectible and can get expensive, but I was suprised how high the minimum bids were. Only a few pieces of art were auctioned off, I think most people were there just for the expierence. We went to the final auction on Thursday, and more bidding took place, it was fun to see. Some of the Disney artwork seemed a little pricey, so DH and I checked out the Art of Disney store in Downtown Disney and were suprised to find that the minimum bid prices were higher than the prices at the store. We learned how to play shuffleboard thanks to some friendly fellow cruisers and DH wanted to play every day. He said maybe we should make a shuffleboard court in our backyard.
Monday was a better day and it was pretty smooth sailing, so we just enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. Don "Ducky" Williams was on board. He is the senior character artist for WDW marketing. His presentation was fascinating. He did several sketches as he talked and then raffled them off at the end of his presentation. We were not among the lucky winners, but it was fun to watch a master at work. He has done a lot of limited lithographs for DCL, I wish I could get my hands on some. Well, you lucky concierge guests--treasure the lithographs you receive. Too bad everyone doesn't get them. It was fun to see most people dressed up for Halloween. We saw kids trick-or-treating. We saw Twice Charmed and both of us enjoyed it. It was fun to see something original and we didn't know what to expect (except happy every after of course). We went to the Costume Party that night, but left just after the costume contest as we aren't into dancing. There were some great costumes.
The new jumbo screen over the goofy pool is a lot of fun. I was suprised that they only used it for 2 movies each day. They play some of the classic old movies like the Absent Minded Professor and Mary Poppins along with newer movies & animated films. The show times were listed daily in our Personal Navigator. It was never too crowded out there, and it was convenient to grab a soda & piece of pizza and watch part of a movie.
Tuesday we went to St. Maarten and it was beautiful weather (almost too hot). We went on a tour of both sides of the island. It was interesting to see & learn about. Each side has seperate everything (electric company, police station, school system, etc.) It is an international phone call to call the other side, so they say it is just easier to drive over there. It seemed like there are some really nice homes and then a lot of poverty. It reminded my husband of areas of Brazil that he has been in. The island was beautiful and green and lush. We did some shopping in Marigot at a flea market. We like to get the cheap t-shirts as a momento, and you really can't beat 3 for $10. I enjoyed visiting St. Maarten as a cruise port, but don't think I'll take an extended vacation there. After lunch we took the water taxi to the beach and rented a wave runner and sped around for a while. It started raining just before our 1/2 hour was up, so we headed back to shore and it started pouring. The storm passed by the time we got to the ship. We went to the Castaway Club reception that night. It was okay, but we really didn't need more food as dinner was only an hour away. Captain Tom spoke a little bit, but didn't give any news that we haven't heard before. I was suprised to see a few people who've taken 15 cruises on DCL since they started in 1998. I wish I could cruise more often. It was pirate night, but we skipped the pirate party because we wanted to see The Greatest Game Ever Played which was showing in the Buena Vista Theater. Last cruise we didn't go to any movies, so we wanted to see at least one, and this is one we've wanted to see since it came out.
Wednesday we went to St. Thomas and took a tour that went to the Mountain Top (the highest point of the island) so we could see everything. I was a little disappointed that the balcony where the lookout was didn't go all the way around the building, so we only saw part of the island. The tour also went to Coral World which is an underwater observatory. We loved watching the sea turtles and just imagined Crush talking to us. DH got to pet a shark (I declined). The admission if you don't go as part of a tour is like $17/person. I'm glad it was part of our tour because we were there for an hour and saw everything we wanted to. After lunch on the ship we took the tram up to Paradise Point which gave us a fantastic view of the ship. It was HOT that day, especially in the tram. It felt like it was over 100 degrees because of the humidity. Maybe we should have picked a water excursion instead. We watched the bird show up at Paradise Point, and it was fun seeing birds ride a bike, roller skate, and play basketball. I though Paradise Point was a little overrated. St Thomas was a beautiful island, a lot like St Maarten, but it didn't seem like there was as much poverty there.
Thurday was another great day at sea. It was semi-formal night and that means Lobster & Chocolate Lava Cake. I LOVE the Chocolate Lava Cake. We originally had Palo reservations for Thurday, but I wanted to have the Chocolate Souffle and the Lava Cake, so we changed Palo so as not to miss the Lava Cake. The Lava Cake was just as good as I remembered, I'd say it is on the same level as the souffle, but the Lava Cake is richer. Yum, I'm drooling just thinking about it. We went back to our cabin after the show and rested up so we could go to the premier of Chicken Little that was at 12:01 Atlantic Time (so we got to see it before most of the country). We enjoyed it, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open because I was so tired. I'm glad we got to see it because I had free tickets because of my Disney Visa, but I couldn't use them because we were gone that day.
Friday was Castaway Cay. We were nervous because when we were eating breakfast it was starting to rain and the clouds were dark. So, instead of going right out to the island, we stayed on the ship until about 10:30 when it started clearing up. The rest of the day was perfect. We did the new stingray excursion where you get to feed, pet, and snorkel with the stingrays. Even though it took me a little getting used to, I really enjoyed this excursion. It is nice to have the barbeque lunch on the island, so we didn't need to go back to the ship. After lunch, we went over to Serenity Bay and enjoyed reading on the beach. We took our own snorkel gear with us so later we went out to the regular snorkel lagoon and found the sunken Mickey. I'm glad we parasailed last year because it was too windy to do it this year. Hurricane Wilma dumped a lot of saltwater on the island, so it was pretty brown, but we still loved it. It is hard to get back on the ship after Castaway Cay because it is such a beautiful island and you realize that the next land you reach will be when it is time to get off the ship. I wish there was one more sea day after Castaway Cay.
Saturday we played one last game of shuffleboard after breakfast and then got off the ship. We wanted to get right back on. We drove to Orlando and went to Typhoon Lagoon since it was a warm day and DH had never been there. We also did some shopping at Downtown Disney and added some stuffed Mickeys to our collection (that we started last year on our cruise).
Sunday was a sad day because we had to come home. We had some time so I took DH to the Wilderness Lodge since he had never seen it. I'd love to stay there on a future trip. We also went to the boardwalk and happened to be there when they were having a DVC open house. We toured a 2 bedroom villa and we loved it!!! We'd both love to join DVC sometime in the future, so it was fun to see what they have.
Now were are back at home. Everyone asks how we are and we just keep thinking that we'd be much better if we were still on the ship. Reality hit hard on Monday when I went home for lunch and looked around and thought WHERE IS MY BUFFET? I settled for Ramen Noodles and we had cereal for dinner, how pathetic is that. Now we need to get serious about going to the gym to work off the few pounds we gained.
To all of you who are planning an upcomming cruise, enjoy yourselves! DCL sure knows how to create memorable vacations.
We flew out of Utah Friday morning so we could have a night in Orlando before our cruise. Since we knew we'd have the evening there, we purchased tickets for Mickey's Not-so-scary Halloween Party. We loved the Halloween Party. We had fun dressing up and enjoyed all of the kids who said "hey look, there's Peter Pan and Wendy." We had a lot of fun just smiling and waving to them as we passed by. We were able to do all of the rides that we wanted to, I think we waited for 10 minutes at Space Mountain, and just about walked on to everything else. We ended up with a ton of candy and hardly touched it on our cruise, so now we have bags of candy at home.We saw the headless horseman, saw the parade, got our picture taken (unfortunately my eyes are mostly closed), saw the fireworks, and just had a great time. I'd go again in a heartbeat.
We had great weather most of the time on the cruise. Saturday the sea was a little rough just like on our cruise last year, and I expected it to be calm after that. We went to Palo and enjoyed every bit of it (knowing to leave room for the souffle). Marco was our server and he was the greatest. He is the only one from Italy so he really knew what to recommend and he kept bringing us extra things to taste in addition to what we ordered. It was fun to be able to try so many things.
We woke up Sunday and it was just as rough as Saturday night and it rocked the whole day, it was also rainy a good portion of the day, so no swimming. We were on deck 2 with a portole in our stateroom and were shocked when a wave crashed all the way up on it (just once). I think a fair amount of people got seasick, but we were fine, although we were walking pretty crooked. We had brunch at Palo and enjoyed the food once again. We expierenced our first live auction just to see what it was like. I know art is collectible and can get expensive, but I was suprised how high the minimum bids were. Only a few pieces of art were auctioned off, I think most people were there just for the expierence. We went to the final auction on Thursday, and more bidding took place, it was fun to see. Some of the Disney artwork seemed a little pricey, so DH and I checked out the Art of Disney store in Downtown Disney and were suprised to find that the minimum bid prices were higher than the prices at the store. We learned how to play shuffleboard thanks to some friendly fellow cruisers and DH wanted to play every day. He said maybe we should make a shuffleboard court in our backyard.
Monday was a better day and it was pretty smooth sailing, so we just enjoyed a relaxing day at sea. Don "Ducky" Williams was on board. He is the senior character artist for WDW marketing. His presentation was fascinating. He did several sketches as he talked and then raffled them off at the end of his presentation. We were not among the lucky winners, but it was fun to watch a master at work. He has done a lot of limited lithographs for DCL, I wish I could get my hands on some. Well, you lucky concierge guests--treasure the lithographs you receive. Too bad everyone doesn't get them. It was fun to see most people dressed up for Halloween. We saw kids trick-or-treating. We saw Twice Charmed and both of us enjoyed it. It was fun to see something original and we didn't know what to expect (except happy every after of course). We went to the Costume Party that night, but left just after the costume contest as we aren't into dancing. There were some great costumes.
The new jumbo screen over the goofy pool is a lot of fun. I was suprised that they only used it for 2 movies each day. They play some of the classic old movies like the Absent Minded Professor and Mary Poppins along with newer movies & animated films. The show times were listed daily in our Personal Navigator. It was never too crowded out there, and it was convenient to grab a soda & piece of pizza and watch part of a movie.
Tuesday we went to St. Maarten and it was beautiful weather (almost too hot). We went on a tour of both sides of the island. It was interesting to see & learn about. Each side has seperate everything (electric company, police station, school system, etc.) It is an international phone call to call the other side, so they say it is just easier to drive over there. It seemed like there are some really nice homes and then a lot of poverty. It reminded my husband of areas of Brazil that he has been in. The island was beautiful and green and lush. We did some shopping in Marigot at a flea market. We like to get the cheap t-shirts as a momento, and you really can't beat 3 for $10. I enjoyed visiting St. Maarten as a cruise port, but don't think I'll take an extended vacation there. After lunch we took the water taxi to the beach and rented a wave runner and sped around for a while. It started raining just before our 1/2 hour was up, so we headed back to shore and it started pouring. The storm passed by the time we got to the ship. We went to the Castaway Club reception that night. It was okay, but we really didn't need more food as dinner was only an hour away. Captain Tom spoke a little bit, but didn't give any news that we haven't heard before. I was suprised to see a few people who've taken 15 cruises on DCL since they started in 1998. I wish I could cruise more often. It was pirate night, but we skipped the pirate party because we wanted to see The Greatest Game Ever Played which was showing in the Buena Vista Theater. Last cruise we didn't go to any movies, so we wanted to see at least one, and this is one we've wanted to see since it came out.
Wednesday we went to St. Thomas and took a tour that went to the Mountain Top (the highest point of the island) so we could see everything. I was a little disappointed that the balcony where the lookout was didn't go all the way around the building, so we only saw part of the island. The tour also went to Coral World which is an underwater observatory. We loved watching the sea turtles and just imagined Crush talking to us. DH got to pet a shark (I declined). The admission if you don't go as part of a tour is like $17/person. I'm glad it was part of our tour because we were there for an hour and saw everything we wanted to. After lunch on the ship we took the tram up to Paradise Point which gave us a fantastic view of the ship. It was HOT that day, especially in the tram. It felt like it was over 100 degrees because of the humidity. Maybe we should have picked a water excursion instead. We watched the bird show up at Paradise Point, and it was fun seeing birds ride a bike, roller skate, and play basketball. I though Paradise Point was a little overrated. St Thomas was a beautiful island, a lot like St Maarten, but it didn't seem like there was as much poverty there.
Thurday was another great day at sea. It was semi-formal night and that means Lobster & Chocolate Lava Cake. I LOVE the Chocolate Lava Cake. We originally had Palo reservations for Thurday, but I wanted to have the Chocolate Souffle and the Lava Cake, so we changed Palo so as not to miss the Lava Cake. The Lava Cake was just as good as I remembered, I'd say it is on the same level as the souffle, but the Lava Cake is richer. Yum, I'm drooling just thinking about it. We went back to our cabin after the show and rested up so we could go to the premier of Chicken Little that was at 12:01 Atlantic Time (so we got to see it before most of the country). We enjoyed it, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open because I was so tired. I'm glad we got to see it because I had free tickets because of my Disney Visa, but I couldn't use them because we were gone that day.
Friday was Castaway Cay. We were nervous because when we were eating breakfast it was starting to rain and the clouds were dark. So, instead of going right out to the island, we stayed on the ship until about 10:30 when it started clearing up. The rest of the day was perfect. We did the new stingray excursion where you get to feed, pet, and snorkel with the stingrays. Even though it took me a little getting used to, I really enjoyed this excursion. It is nice to have the barbeque lunch on the island, so we didn't need to go back to the ship. After lunch, we went over to Serenity Bay and enjoyed reading on the beach. We took our own snorkel gear with us so later we went out to the regular snorkel lagoon and found the sunken Mickey. I'm glad we parasailed last year because it was too windy to do it this year. Hurricane Wilma dumped a lot of saltwater on the island, so it was pretty brown, but we still loved it. It is hard to get back on the ship after Castaway Cay because it is such a beautiful island and you realize that the next land you reach will be when it is time to get off the ship. I wish there was one more sea day after Castaway Cay.
Saturday we played one last game of shuffleboard after breakfast and then got off the ship. We wanted to get right back on. We drove to Orlando and went to Typhoon Lagoon since it was a warm day and DH had never been there. We also did some shopping at Downtown Disney and added some stuffed Mickeys to our collection (that we started last year on our cruise).
Sunday was a sad day because we had to come home. We had some time so I took DH to the Wilderness Lodge since he had never seen it. I'd love to stay there on a future trip. We also went to the boardwalk and happened to be there when they were having a DVC open house. We toured a 2 bedroom villa and we loved it!!! We'd both love to join DVC sometime in the future, so it was fun to see what they have.
Now were are back at home. Everyone asks how we are and we just keep thinking that we'd be much better if we were still on the ship. Reality hit hard on Monday when I went home for lunch and looked around and thought WHERE IS MY BUFFET? I settled for Ramen Noodles and we had cereal for dinner, how pathetic is that. Now we need to get serious about going to the gym to work off the few pounds we gained.
To all of you who are planning an upcomming cruise, enjoy yourselves! DCL sure knows how to create memorable vacations.
