kathybeany
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2006
- Messages
- 91
Thought I'd share my experience on first cruise with everyone. On the trip was myself (27), dh (28), ds (20 months) and mil (54). This was the first cruise for all of us.
Wednesday: Radisson at the port hotel. Nice hotel, but wouldn't stay there again. Had a 2 double bed room, which was right near the pool. For $179 (after taxes) I expected a nicer room. The pool was awesome though. Crib sucked big time, metal and very loud. Our son refused to sleep in it so he slept in the bed with us. Fun fun fun!
Thursday: Went to the port at exactly 10am. Checked our luggage, parked super close and went inside. We were in boarding group 2. I was told that check in would begin in about 20 minutes, so I stood online. Check in took about 10 minutes, very quick and painless. I made sure I had everything ready ahead of time and did online checkin. We boarded the boat at 11:30. Very nice considered I remembered reading some people couldn't board until 1pm. We got on board and immediately felt like royalty when the announced our family name in the atrium. Our son was just so overwhelmed and excited.
We went up to Beach Blanket buffet for lunch, the food was great. None of us had any complaints. DH & I each had a bahama mama, didn't care for it though since we really don't drink. After lunch we decided to jump in the pool. MIL & DH went to the adult pool, while I hung out with Spencer (our ds) in the mickey pool. Honestly, I was so aggrivated over that pool. It has maybe 2 inches of water in it. For a 20 month old, it was so frustrating because he wanted to be in the deeper water so I had to fight him. I can't understand why they don't allow the little ones who can walk, but aren't potty trained in the other ear. I can't understand not letting them in the other pool, but whatever. (rant done lol)
At 1pm I ran down to wavebands to change our dinner rotation, while DH, mil and Spencer were in the Oceaneer club playing. Loved that place too! Lots of fun, my fat butt went down the slide! Changing the reservations was very easy and fast. Got 5:30 seating. Loved it. Changed our Palo reservation to 6pm. Then I ran up to Flounders and confirmed Spencer and changed some times there as well. Everyone was so extremely nice and helpful.
Our room was ready at 1:30. YIPPY! I must say I was surprised by the size of the room. I really expected it to be tiny, but it wasn't bad. Our family is a little on the hefty size and we really had to problems moving around. We were in room 2624, deluxe oceanview. The only downfall of the room was that our door was directly across from the door that is used to bring baggage in & out. The first night it was pretty noisy and it seemed like our window was vibrating. After that night it didn't bother us.
Sail away party was fantastic. Spencer LOVED the characters. He danced with Chip or Dale, I have no clue which one. We all danced and sang. After that we went to Tritons for dinner. Let me just say that our family isn't big on the fancy foods. We very simple and don't need to be catered. MIL & Dh were a bit put off by the look of Tritons, they thought they wouldn't be able to eat the food. BOY were they wrong!!! I think they would have licked their plates after they ate, if they could have. I can't for the life of me remember what we ordered. If I can find a menu I'll post it. I do remember that I had the white chocolate domes for dessert. OMG!! I MUST find them or the reciped at least. TO DIE FOR!
It was pretty windy late night so there weren't a bunch of people up on deck 10. DH & I went up behind the basketball hoping for little smoochie time
I was completly panic stricken. It was so windy, I thought I was going to fly overboard. Remember the hefty comment folks...it wouldn't happen, but I thought it would. Needless to say there was no smooching action. I was holding on the windows for dear life though, if you been up there you'll know what I'm talking about.
Friday: Nassau day. We had breakfast at BBB to start our day off. Let me just say....the waffles are amazing. I think I would have smuggled them off the ship if wasn't for the fear of customs locking me up. Afterwards we brought Spencer to Flounders for the first time. He was chatting up a storm with the ladies in there. He just walked right in and didn't look back (he's never been to daycare, as I'm a stay at home mom so I was afraid of how he'd handle it). I actually cried though. LOL! We watched him from the window though and he was having a blast. DH, mil and I decided to go and explore Nassau. You can add us to the list of people who'll be staying on the boat the next time we go there. I grew up in NYC, I know pushy and rude people. I don't mind them at all, but these folks at Nassau...WHOA! We all just felt so uncomfortable. I was so happy we didn't bring Spencer with us. We walked around for a little while, went into some of the stores. I fell in love with a ring at Diamonds Int'l, but after I found out it was 6,300 bucks, I gave it back. LOL. I think we spent 2 hours off the boat.
We went back, picked up Spencer and went to lunch. Afterwards went swimming, yes I had the issue with the pool again. LOL. But what can ya do right? We checked out some stuff around the ship. Lots of neat stuff. I know I'm leaving things out, but that's ok. I'm burned and beat right now.
We had Dinner at Animators Palate. Let me just say, I think they should open up that restaurant right near my house. We'd be in every night. WE LOVED IT!!! I had the veal with amazing corn risotto! I don't eat veal at home because my husband won't eat it. He had the filet mignon and mil had the sirloin. Everything again was out of this world. Licking the plates was an option again, but it just didn't happen. Spencer has pizza and a bunch of veggies. He got the mickey ketchup plate too. lol
We decided to celebrate my birthday dinner as a whole family there since we were going to be doing Palo the next night. When they asked what we wanted for dessert, I said nothing for me. I was hoping that they would bring the "nothing" plate, but because it was my birthday they brought out an amazing raspberry mouse cake instead. I probably could have eatten the whole thing myself, but alas I refrained myself from me becoming a pig. LOL We enjoyed the changing of the colors in the room. Loved the part where all of the servers come out with the colored flags. That was just awesome. I took a picture of dh & spencer with our 2 of our servers and a chef. Spencer was covered in chocolate pudding and the servers thought it was hilarious. More on servers later.
After dinner, we enjoyed the sunset and then went to see the Golden Mickey's. Before I go into the Golden Mickey's, let me just say this...I was afraid...terribly afraid! Spencer hadn't had a nap during the day at all. He was crabby, it was his bed time...we sat in the backrow! I swore he would start having a tantrum, but Goofy must have put a magical spell on him. We all had out of this world smoothies (you MUST get them if you're going to enjoy the show). The show was fantastic!! We really loved it. I laughed and I cried. Spencer had a blast, sat like a good boy on mommy and daddy's laps. He cheered and laughed..at one point, when it was nice and quiet he just started yelling YAY and clapping. I thought for sure we'd get nasty looks, but our section though it was hilarious. Definitely a must see show!
Pirate night....now that was fun! Dh & I enjoyed ourselves a lot. The show was great, the fireworks was neat and the food afterwards was yummmmmmy!
Saturday: Castaway Cay day. Now tell me again why cay is pronounced KEY!?!?
We had our wonderful breakfast at BBB again. Loved that food! We had all of our beach stuff ready so that once we were done we could go to the beach. We were among the first group of people to get out onto the beach. We had a prime real estate. Spencer was the first one in the water! It was a beautiful day!!! Very sunny, nice and warm but a little breezy. We got a tube and floated around for a little while. The water was a little on the chilly side for dh & mil, so Spencer and I just soaked it all up. Around noon Spencer started looking like there was hope for a nap, so we went back to the room and put him down. 
a nap!! We had our 1 and only excursion booked for 2:15, and there was NO way he was going to be up for that. I went to the customer service desk and asked if we could canceld mil & Spencer's tickets (excursion desk was closed) The woman was a bit on the rude side, excursions aren't refundabale yadda yadda only way to be refunded would be if they were both sick and got a note from the ships dr's. Ok whatever, we'll just chalk it up to expericence and dh & I will just go. 2:15 comes around and we're wat Marge's Barge's for the glass bottom boat tour....low and behold it was cancelled because it was too windy and merky. OH well...no excursion for us, no loss of money. At this point Spencer and mil joined us back at the beach and we all had lunch at Cookies BBQ. We actually really liked the food. Typical BBQ food.
On a side note...strollers and wagons are FREE on the island. There's a limited supply, but they are free. Talk about shocker! Dh, spencer and I decided to take a walk to Serenity bay just to see what it was like. Loved the runway and old plane there. Very cool. We never made it down to Serenity, because someone needed a diaper change and we left that bag with mil. oops! Our experience at Castaway Cay was out of this world. That definitely made the entire trip, I'm so glad they have that as the last day of the trip.
We went back on board about 4pm. Went to the room shower and clean up. Got dressed for Palo and got Spencer ready for Flounders. Palo was just, wow I don't even know what to say....it was perfect!! We had a nice window seat booth. I had grilled chicken stuffed with shrimp scampi (that's the only thing I didn't like) with mashed potatoes and veggies. DH had filet mignon again (he loves that stuff lol) mil and had the lasanga. Everything was out of this world. Cooked to perfection. From our dining rotation server's suggestion, we ordered the chocolate sufle (sp?). I had told our server that I wasn't sure if I wanted that or the Raspberry pistachio and mil said she wanted the custard, but really wanted the sufle. Yup! We got it all. This was the first time we actually left food on the plates. LOL The sufle was heavenly. The raspberry pistachio thingy... I would have traded Spencer in for that. LOL Excellent experience there. Not a complaint at all. We enjoyed the sunset from our seat. Just awesome.
Afterwards dh & I went and checked out deck 7 aft. EMPTY!!! Someone up on deck 9 saw us and asked if that was our suite. LOL!!! Very funny. Very romantic at sunset. yes...smoochie time. lol. We went and got Spencer and enjoyed some time around the ship. We went to the shops got some great goodies. Loved those stores, I could've spent a fortune if my credit card would have let me. Afterwards, MIL & Spencer went back to the room for bed. DH & I went up to deck 9 to see if there was anything going on. It was like a ghost town. We figured there was something going on somewhere. We finally got to the Atrium and realized that "until we meet again" was about to start. That was a lot of fun. We ran around and took pictures with all of the characters. Stunk that spencer wasn't awake to be in them, but that's ok next time. Loved the song at the end and the pixie dust!! ohhh that was fun!
Our room was noisy again that night because of the baggage going into that door across from us, but it wasn't too bad. Either that or we were all just exhausted from all of the running around.
Sunday: Saddest day! We decided not to get up for 6:45 breakfast at Parrot Cay so we slept in until Spencer woke up at 7:30 then went to BBB again. NO WAFFLES!!
Afterwards we went to shutters and got our package after swearing we wouldn't. Then we left....sooooo sad! Very quick, but rather painful to say goodbye.
Our servers: Our head server was ONeil from Africe. What an amazing sweetheart. He would see us throughout the cruise and make it a point to say hello to Spencer by name. That was great! Our Assistant server was Edgar from Peru. He was just so wonderful. He made sure we were all taken care of. He was coloring with Spencer and he cut up his pizza for him. Total sweetheart! The person who oversees the two of them...I forget what they call her (or maybe I have all of their "titles" confused) was Michelle from Australia. She was just a doll! She would play with Spencer and made up his plate of Mickey ketchup. Definitely an amazing group of people. Our Palo server was Cecilia from Argentina. She was just awesome. Very friendly, warm and welcoming. Explained what the different foods were and everything. Not a single complaint about any of them.
Our room host was Christina from Australia. She was outstanding!! Loved the towel buddies and how she always left us extra pillows and towels. She would always high5 Spencer and give him a hug. Just a spectacular woman.
All in all...our trip was just perfect. Traveling with a toddler, who isn't potty trained and who still naps (at home at least) is a little bit of a challenge. There were times where it was a little stressful, but we managed and got over it. For our first cruise, it was definitely a great experience! We'll be going on another one, but not until Spencer is a little older and can enjoy it more. If you've actually read of this, you'll probably think I'm insane. I tend to ramble a bit, but there was just soooo much remember and to share. LOL. I hope enjoyed my not so little trip report.
Wednesday: Radisson at the port hotel. Nice hotel, but wouldn't stay there again. Had a 2 double bed room, which was right near the pool. For $179 (after taxes) I expected a nicer room. The pool was awesome though. Crib sucked big time, metal and very loud. Our son refused to sleep in it so he slept in the bed with us. Fun fun fun!
Thursday: Went to the port at exactly 10am. Checked our luggage, parked super close and went inside. We were in boarding group 2. I was told that check in would begin in about 20 minutes, so I stood online. Check in took about 10 minutes, very quick and painless. I made sure I had everything ready ahead of time and did online checkin. We boarded the boat at 11:30. Very nice considered I remembered reading some people couldn't board until 1pm. We got on board and immediately felt like royalty when the announced our family name in the atrium. Our son was just so overwhelmed and excited.
We went up to Beach Blanket buffet for lunch, the food was great. None of us had any complaints. DH & I each had a bahama mama, didn't care for it though since we really don't drink. After lunch we decided to jump in the pool. MIL & DH went to the adult pool, while I hung out with Spencer (our ds) in the mickey pool. Honestly, I was so aggrivated over that pool. It has maybe 2 inches of water in it. For a 20 month old, it was so frustrating because he wanted to be in the deeper water so I had to fight him. I can't understand why they don't allow the little ones who can walk, but aren't potty trained in the other ear. I can't understand not letting them in the other pool, but whatever. (rant done lol)
At 1pm I ran down to wavebands to change our dinner rotation, while DH, mil and Spencer were in the Oceaneer club playing. Loved that place too! Lots of fun, my fat butt went down the slide! Changing the reservations was very easy and fast. Got 5:30 seating. Loved it. Changed our Palo reservation to 6pm. Then I ran up to Flounders and confirmed Spencer and changed some times there as well. Everyone was so extremely nice and helpful.
Our room was ready at 1:30. YIPPY! I must say I was surprised by the size of the room. I really expected it to be tiny, but it wasn't bad. Our family is a little on the hefty size and we really had to problems moving around. We were in room 2624, deluxe oceanview. The only downfall of the room was that our door was directly across from the door that is used to bring baggage in & out. The first night it was pretty noisy and it seemed like our window was vibrating. After that night it didn't bother us.
Sail away party was fantastic. Spencer LOVED the characters. He danced with Chip or Dale, I have no clue which one. We all danced and sang. After that we went to Tritons for dinner. Let me just say that our family isn't big on the fancy foods. We very simple and don't need to be catered. MIL & Dh were a bit put off by the look of Tritons, they thought they wouldn't be able to eat the food. BOY were they wrong!!! I think they would have licked their plates after they ate, if they could have. I can't for the life of me remember what we ordered. If I can find a menu I'll post it. I do remember that I had the white chocolate domes for dessert. OMG!! I MUST find them or the reciped at least. TO DIE FOR!
It was pretty windy late night so there weren't a bunch of people up on deck 10. DH & I went up behind the basketball hoping for little smoochie time
I was completly panic stricken. It was so windy, I thought I was going to fly overboard. Remember the hefty comment folks...it wouldn't happen, but I thought it would. Needless to say there was no smooching action. I was holding on the windows for dear life though, if you been up there you'll know what I'm talking about.Friday: Nassau day. We had breakfast at BBB to start our day off. Let me just say....the waffles are amazing. I think I would have smuggled them off the ship if wasn't for the fear of customs locking me up. Afterwards we brought Spencer to Flounders for the first time. He was chatting up a storm with the ladies in there. He just walked right in and didn't look back (he's never been to daycare, as I'm a stay at home mom so I was afraid of how he'd handle it). I actually cried though. LOL! We watched him from the window though and he was having a blast. DH, mil and I decided to go and explore Nassau. You can add us to the list of people who'll be staying on the boat the next time we go there. I grew up in NYC, I know pushy and rude people. I don't mind them at all, but these folks at Nassau...WHOA! We all just felt so uncomfortable. I was so happy we didn't bring Spencer with us. We walked around for a little while, went into some of the stores. I fell in love with a ring at Diamonds Int'l, but after I found out it was 6,300 bucks, I gave it back. LOL. I think we spent 2 hours off the boat.
We went back, picked up Spencer and went to lunch. Afterwards went swimming, yes I had the issue with the pool again. LOL. But what can ya do right? We checked out some stuff around the ship. Lots of neat stuff. I know I'm leaving things out, but that's ok. I'm burned and beat right now.
We had Dinner at Animators Palate. Let me just say, I think they should open up that restaurant right near my house. We'd be in every night. WE LOVED IT!!! I had the veal with amazing corn risotto! I don't eat veal at home because my husband won't eat it. He had the filet mignon and mil had the sirloin. Everything again was out of this world. Licking the plates was an option again, but it just didn't happen. Spencer has pizza and a bunch of veggies. He got the mickey ketchup plate too. lol
We decided to celebrate my birthday dinner as a whole family there since we were going to be doing Palo the next night. When they asked what we wanted for dessert, I said nothing for me. I was hoping that they would bring the "nothing" plate, but because it was my birthday they brought out an amazing raspberry mouse cake instead. I probably could have eatten the whole thing myself, but alas I refrained myself from me becoming a pig. LOL We enjoyed the changing of the colors in the room. Loved the part where all of the servers come out with the colored flags. That was just awesome. I took a picture of dh & spencer with our 2 of our servers and a chef. Spencer was covered in chocolate pudding and the servers thought it was hilarious. More on servers later.
After dinner, we enjoyed the sunset and then went to see the Golden Mickey's. Before I go into the Golden Mickey's, let me just say this...I was afraid...terribly afraid! Spencer hadn't had a nap during the day at all. He was crabby, it was his bed time...we sat in the backrow! I swore he would start having a tantrum, but Goofy must have put a magical spell on him. We all had out of this world smoothies (you MUST get them if you're going to enjoy the show). The show was fantastic!! We really loved it. I laughed and I cried. Spencer had a blast, sat like a good boy on mommy and daddy's laps. He cheered and laughed..at one point, when it was nice and quiet he just started yelling YAY and clapping. I thought for sure we'd get nasty looks, but our section though it was hilarious. Definitely a must see show!
Pirate night....now that was fun! Dh & I enjoyed ourselves a lot. The show was great, the fireworks was neat and the food afterwards was yummmmmmy!
Saturday: Castaway Cay day. Now tell me again why cay is pronounced KEY!?!?
We had our wonderful breakfast at BBB again. Loved that food! We had all of our beach stuff ready so that once we were done we could go to the beach. We were among the first group of people to get out onto the beach. We had a prime real estate. Spencer was the first one in the water! It was a beautiful day!!! Very sunny, nice and warm but a little breezy. We got a tube and floated around for a little while. The water was a little on the chilly side for dh & mil, so Spencer and I just soaked it all up. Around noon Spencer started looking like there was hope for a nap, so we went back to the room and put him down. a nap!! We had our 1 and only excursion booked for 2:15, and there was NO way he was going to be up for that. I went to the customer service desk and asked if we could canceld mil & Spencer's tickets (excursion desk was closed) The woman was a bit on the rude side, excursions aren't refundabale yadda yadda only way to be refunded would be if they were both sick and got a note from the ships dr's. Ok whatever, we'll just chalk it up to expericence and dh & I will just go. 2:15 comes around and we're wat Marge's Barge's for the glass bottom boat tour....low and behold it was cancelled because it was too windy and merky. OH well...no excursion for us, no loss of money. At this point Spencer and mil joined us back at the beach and we all had lunch at Cookies BBQ. We actually really liked the food. Typical BBQ food.On a side note...strollers and wagons are FREE on the island. There's a limited supply, but they are free. Talk about shocker! Dh, spencer and I decided to take a walk to Serenity bay just to see what it was like. Loved the runway and old plane there. Very cool. We never made it down to Serenity, because someone needed a diaper change and we left that bag with mil. oops! Our experience at Castaway Cay was out of this world. That definitely made the entire trip, I'm so glad they have that as the last day of the trip.
We went back on board about 4pm. Went to the room shower and clean up. Got dressed for Palo and got Spencer ready for Flounders. Palo was just, wow I don't even know what to say....it was perfect!! We had a nice window seat booth. I had grilled chicken stuffed with shrimp scampi (that's the only thing I didn't like) with mashed potatoes and veggies. DH had filet mignon again (he loves that stuff lol) mil and had the lasanga. Everything was out of this world. Cooked to perfection. From our dining rotation server's suggestion, we ordered the chocolate sufle (sp?). I had told our server that I wasn't sure if I wanted that or the Raspberry pistachio and mil said she wanted the custard, but really wanted the sufle. Yup! We got it all. This was the first time we actually left food on the plates. LOL The sufle was heavenly. The raspberry pistachio thingy... I would have traded Spencer in for that. LOL Excellent experience there. Not a complaint at all. We enjoyed the sunset from our seat. Just awesome.
Afterwards dh & I went and checked out deck 7 aft. EMPTY!!! Someone up on deck 9 saw us and asked if that was our suite. LOL!!! Very funny. Very romantic at sunset.
yes...smoochie time. lol. We went and got Spencer and enjoyed some time around the ship. We went to the shops got some great goodies. Loved those stores, I could've spent a fortune if my credit card would have let me. Afterwards, MIL & Spencer went back to the room for bed. DH & I went up to deck 9 to see if there was anything going on. It was like a ghost town. We figured there was something going on somewhere. We finally got to the Atrium and realized that "until we meet again" was about to start. That was a lot of fun. We ran around and took pictures with all of the characters. Stunk that spencer wasn't awake to be in them, but that's ok next time. Loved the song at the end and the pixie dust!! ohhh that was fun! Our room was noisy again that night because of the baggage going into that door across from us, but it wasn't too bad. Either that or we were all just exhausted from all of the running around.
Sunday: Saddest day! We decided not to get up for 6:45 breakfast at Parrot Cay so we slept in until Spencer woke up at 7:30 then went to BBB again. NO WAFFLES!!
Afterwards we went to shutters and got our package after swearing we wouldn't. Then we left....sooooo sad! Very quick, but rather painful to say goodbye. Our servers: Our head server was ONeil from Africe. What an amazing sweetheart. He would see us throughout the cruise and make it a point to say hello to Spencer by name. That was great! Our Assistant server was Edgar from Peru. He was just so wonderful. He made sure we were all taken care of. He was coloring with Spencer and he cut up his pizza for him. Total sweetheart! The person who oversees the two of them...I forget what they call her (or maybe I have all of their "titles" confused) was Michelle from Australia. She was just a doll! She would play with Spencer and made up his plate of Mickey ketchup. Definitely an amazing group of people. Our Palo server was Cecilia from Argentina. She was just awesome. Very friendly, warm and welcoming. Explained what the different foods were and everything. Not a single complaint about any of them.
Our room host was Christina from Australia. She was outstanding!! Loved the towel buddies and how she always left us extra pillows and towels. She would always high5 Spencer and give him a hug. Just a spectacular woman.
All in all...our trip was just perfect. Traveling with a toddler, who isn't potty trained and who still naps (at home at least) is a little bit of a challenge. There were times where it was a little stressful, but we managed and got over it. For our first cruise, it was definitely a great experience! We'll be going on another one, but not until Spencer is a little older and can enjoy it more. If you've actually read of this, you'll probably think I'm insane. I tend to ramble a bit, but there was just soooo much remember and to share. LOL. I hope enjoyed my not so little trip report.
I cant wait
to NH Mommy! I used to live in Manchester (now live near The Mouse).
.
