Just some random added thoughts, tidbits and a couple pictures too:
First off, I really wish Id gotten to meet and know more of the MANY DISers on our sailing. Just didnt work out for a variety of reasons I guess. Didnt help that Id forgotten to print out the list of all the mini meets throughout the week. The only one I remembered was the very first one, which we went to, but beyond that, I knew there were meets going on, just didnt know when. And I know someone was having a jewelry party too, couldnt remember where or when on that too! Note to self, print out info like that next time!!
Something I forgot about when I was writing the report Palo brunch!!!! I could not remember what wed done Monday morning when I was writing and it wasnt until several days later that I went oh yeah
We had accompanied the kids to breakfast that morning, but pretty much stuck to having simple fruit to tide us over. Brunch was really nice. I believe our servers name was something like Girish. He was very friendly, very professional and very helpful. First up was the tour of food available. It was quite overwhelming to see everything they had and, just when we thought wed seen everything, he showed us the hot food options too. We started with the cold food and everything was soooo good. Part way through, he asked if we wanted to have some of the pizza and we did share a margarita pizza. We also had half servings of the entrees. I tried the orechiette (I think thats how you spell it!) and DH had tilapia fish with an amazing sauce. My pasta was good, but DHs fish was out of this world! There was no way on earth we were going to be able to try everything we wanted. Just so many choices! Im very glad we got a chance to try out Palo.
Evian water package were really glad we bought this, however we learned we really do NOT like Evian, especially when its room temperature. The room cooler actually did a pretty decent job cooling the water. Wed brought some of those individual serving packets of Crystal Lite and Kool Ade that we could add to water bottles. Those were absolutely great!! Id highly recommend those. They weigh next to nothing and take up almost no space in the luggage whatsoever if you take them out of the box and put them in a Ziploc bag.
Im really glad a brought a pop up hamper to tuck in the closet. It held most of the laundry for the week and was much easier than trying to shove dirty laundry into the laundry bags I usually use. The pop up hamper will now go on all our vacations.
If you think you may want pictures from your trip, consider the lifestyle (white background) portraits. They come out so well and were so happy with them. The hardest part was choosing which ones to keep and putting the others down the discard slot. We all wore black pants and solid polo shirts in different colors. It was one of these pictures that we chose to have made into Christmas cards while we were on the ship (and Im so glad to have my cards already!) The girl who took our pictures took many, many poses and got us to have very natural and relaxed smiles. What a great way to get a family portrait done!
Pack a fold up duffle bag or two. We bought enough stuff that the two duffles really came in handy. I have to say though, I wouldnt have been too disappointed to buy some of the
DCL luggage they sell on board!!!
Somewhere on the boards, Ive seen someone refer to herself as pooh-sized. Id be in that category too. If you are pooh-sized also, please dont let that stop you from trying snorkeling or something similar because of bathing suits. I know that nobody was paying attention to my size and, for the most part, Ill never see any of them again anyway. My reward for getting over the bathing suit fear, was trying something, snorkeling, for the first time and having a lot of fun at it. I was bound and determined that I was not going to miss any opportunity on this trip and Im hoping to encourage others to do the same.
I wrote about our doing a dolphin encounter in Costa Maya. Curious to see what the pictures turn out like? Keep in mind, this isn't the perfect scan and the original is actually about 9x11 or so:
Packing. I had lists galore and thought and thought and thought about what to pack. Id made an Excel spreadsheet with each day of the week, each family member and specifics of what wed wear for each dinner. I had the dinners down. I was worried about over or under packing for the day clothes. As it turned out, for three of us, Id pretty much thought it out correctly and packed almost exactly the right number of day clothes. (Id taken into consideration that wed be buying tshirts along the way, so took fewer shirts.) For the fourth person in the family, we had an issue. That person kept running out of shirts to wear during the day, despite us buying more! We have two adults, a 10 year old daughter and 13 year old son. Any guesses who ran out of clothes? Anyone? Well, it was my 13 year old. He seemed to be wanting to wear two tshirts per day minimum. I didnt plan on that one! Goofy kid!
Planning. I have to agree with so many others planning for the trip is a lot of fun and really ups the anticipation. Reading these boards, fanatically at times, really added to my knowledge and enjoyment of the cruise. So, plan away, come up with a spreadsheet like I did, spelling out each dinner outfit for the week for each family member. Research the ports. Look at the menus. Read the tips. All of that! But when it comes to cruise time, just take it as it comes. Id brought my different color highliters to mark up the navigators everyday and never used them. Im fine with that now. Instead, we were rewarded with times of doing things and times of doing nothing. Our lives our so busy and programmed now that having unplanned times of relaxing can be a true gift.
If you havent gone on your first
Disney cruise yet, be prepared to, just possibly, become emotionally attached to the ship and everything and everyone about it. I knew Id read some trip reports ahead of time where some people got attached, but I really didnt expect to be one of them. Now, I understand. A ship CAN become a member of your family and a part of your heart.
I think that pretty much,
finally, finishes up my report. I'm still more than happy to answer questions though!
Kris
I enjoyed your beautiful photos also.
Kris the picture of your daughter and the dolphin is priceless. How awesome is that!!!!
