twinsyippee
Busy scrapbooking all our great character photos!
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2005
- Messages
- 27
We're back to business as usual after our 7-day cruise last week. Seems weird to think I was sailing the seas just a few days ago.
We had a good time on the cruise. Our family is made up of me, DH, and twin daughters who are 3 1/2. We were in a category 4 room on deck 8. We were actually in 8074, which was a few doors down from the aft stairwell and a super quick flight of stairs from the Topsiders buffet and the open soda/juice machines. That was very nice and convenient!
As for something that didn't work out quite so well - we were in late seating dinner. We thought we could just switch our kids' schedules and it would work out for us. Not so much... We did shift their schedules, but sitting at a dinner table from 8:30 to 10pm each night just did not work. We loved our table servers, but we found the dinner service was S-L-O-W. So, we ended up feeding the girls around 5pm with chicken fingers from Pluto's and then we would put them in the kids' club while DH & I ate alone. Even though I wished we could eat together each night, all of us were happier with that arrangement.
Unfortunately, we felt that the late seating really messed up the kids' club experience. The schedule of the club is geared for early dinner seating. For the 3-4's, they have active activities from 9-11am. Well, because of dinner, our girls needed to sleep until about 9:30am. By the time we dressed and had breakfast, we were getting them to the club around 10:30am. The club goes to lunch around 11:30am. Needless to say, our kids were not hungry in the slightest. After lunch, they have a quiet time activity, which is a movie where the kids lay on cots to watch. Pretty much every single day we got paged during this time to come pick up the girls because one of them was bored. DH & I were hoping for a little more "relaxation on deck with a book" time. And, we usually couldn't convince the girls to go back after the quiet time movie because I don't think they thought it was going to be fun. They went back in the evenings because the club was much more fun than sitting at the dinner table with mom & dad!
I wasn't too happy with the pager system in the kids' club. Oh, it worked - too well. My experience is that if your child goes up to a counselor and says, "I want mommy," they call you. OK, I like spending time with my kids and we planned a lot of family time (including dinner even though that didn't work). So, don't think I wanted to leave them in the club all day. But, most 3 year olds will whine for their parents at some point and just need to be redirected or encouraged to join in the activity of the moment. EVERY TIME we answered a page that said one of the girls wanted to be picked up, we would arrive and find our kids happily playing and enjoying the club. So, I wish the counselors were a little slower to page the parents. But, that is just my perception of the situation.
Other than that, we loved the counselors in the club. They always recognized the girls when we arrived and would call them by name. I felt pleased with the reception.
Palo's is just incredible. We had dinner and brunch there and I wish we had gone back for more dinners. I just wasn't sure how many times we were "allowed" to have dinner there. I wanted to make sure there were reservations available for other people, KWIM? Oh, but I could have eaten there every day. I would have gained 100 lbs, of course, but that doesn't count on vacation, right?
The greatest time to get photos (w/your own camera) with characters is on the last night. It was at 10:15pm - again - late for those of us with little kids. But, since we had late seating, we were just picking up the girls from the club when it started. So, we walked down and got photos with all kinds of characters. There were basically no lines for anyone. Fantastic. The rest of the cruise had 30-45 min lines every time we saw a character. We waited in a couple of those lines, but that is way too tough for 3 year old children. It was definitely a case of "who is this for - me or my kids?" The scrapbooker in me wanted those photos!!
The character breakfast was nice because Mickey and the gang each came right to your table. A photo op without standing in line! It was a little rushed because they had to get to each guest, but that was to be expected. We had fun.
Anything else??? Let's see - bring your own hairdryer. There is one in the stateroom, but it is the worst! It's a hot air hose basically. It was the first time I had travelled without a hairdryer because I was certain there was one in the room. We bought a hairdryer in Key West.
DH & I each had a massage in the spa. Nice indulgence. The couples massages were full, so we didn't try that.
The embarkation process was something to be endured. I think we arrived at the terminal around 10:30am. DH was in line for an hour. At least they had multiple tvs and couches with Disney cartoons playing. That helped keep the kids occupied. We signed up for the kids' club at the terminal, which was another 30min line (at least). But, I heard someone say that they did it on board on a previous cruise and that wait was longer.
We loved having continuous Disney movies on two channels in the stateroom. We have to do breathing treatments on our girls because they have asthma and it was great just to turn on whatever Disney movie was showing and do the treatments. The girls were always mesmerized.
DH was craving nachos and we found out that they have hot dogs, chips, cheese dip, salsa, jalapenos, etc. in Diversions every night. (That's the sports bar - I think that is the right name.) We didn't find that until Wed or Thurs, but it was a nice find.
We only saw two shows from beginning to end (because of the kids), but both Golden Mickeys and Disney Dreams were really wonderful. I was impressed with the productions. Both of these shows had matinees at 2pm - I think they were on days at sea. We had decided to keep late seating dinner so that we could go to shows at the early time with the girls, but now I know we could have seen those during the day.
If you find your stateroom pillows to be too fluffy, your host can bring you feather pillows!
Bring pillowcases/t-shirts/picture mats/whatever in a plastic bag and take it to guest services for autographs. It's a regular thing and the person helping us was excited that we brought something. She had a preprinted form to fill out for just that purpose. I read about that on these boards and the girls got back signed pillow cases on the last night. They are so cute. We opted for "whatever characters they could get" and we have signatures from Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, and Snow White. Neat little extra souvenier.
If you are still reading this by now, I'm amazed and thanks for "listening." Hope some of my info helps some of you out there!
We had a good time on the cruise. Our family is made up of me, DH, and twin daughters who are 3 1/2. We were in a category 4 room on deck 8. We were actually in 8074, which was a few doors down from the aft stairwell and a super quick flight of stairs from the Topsiders buffet and the open soda/juice machines. That was very nice and convenient!
As for something that didn't work out quite so well - we were in late seating dinner. We thought we could just switch our kids' schedules and it would work out for us. Not so much... We did shift their schedules, but sitting at a dinner table from 8:30 to 10pm each night just did not work. We loved our table servers, but we found the dinner service was S-L-O-W. So, we ended up feeding the girls around 5pm with chicken fingers from Pluto's and then we would put them in the kids' club while DH & I ate alone. Even though I wished we could eat together each night, all of us were happier with that arrangement.
Unfortunately, we felt that the late seating really messed up the kids' club experience. The schedule of the club is geared for early dinner seating. For the 3-4's, they have active activities from 9-11am. Well, because of dinner, our girls needed to sleep until about 9:30am. By the time we dressed and had breakfast, we were getting them to the club around 10:30am. The club goes to lunch around 11:30am. Needless to say, our kids were not hungry in the slightest. After lunch, they have a quiet time activity, which is a movie where the kids lay on cots to watch. Pretty much every single day we got paged during this time to come pick up the girls because one of them was bored. DH & I were hoping for a little more "relaxation on deck with a book" time. And, we usually couldn't convince the girls to go back after the quiet time movie because I don't think they thought it was going to be fun. They went back in the evenings because the club was much more fun than sitting at the dinner table with mom & dad!
I wasn't too happy with the pager system in the kids' club. Oh, it worked - too well. My experience is that if your child goes up to a counselor and says, "I want mommy," they call you. OK, I like spending time with my kids and we planned a lot of family time (including dinner even though that didn't work). So, don't think I wanted to leave them in the club all day. But, most 3 year olds will whine for their parents at some point and just need to be redirected or encouraged to join in the activity of the moment. EVERY TIME we answered a page that said one of the girls wanted to be picked up, we would arrive and find our kids happily playing and enjoying the club. So, I wish the counselors were a little slower to page the parents. But, that is just my perception of the situation.
Other than that, we loved the counselors in the club. They always recognized the girls when we arrived and would call them by name. I felt pleased with the reception.
Palo's is just incredible. We had dinner and brunch there and I wish we had gone back for more dinners. I just wasn't sure how many times we were "allowed" to have dinner there. I wanted to make sure there were reservations available for other people, KWIM? Oh, but I could have eaten there every day. I would have gained 100 lbs, of course, but that doesn't count on vacation, right?
The greatest time to get photos (w/your own camera) with characters is on the last night. It was at 10:15pm - again - late for those of us with little kids. But, since we had late seating, we were just picking up the girls from the club when it started. So, we walked down and got photos with all kinds of characters. There were basically no lines for anyone. Fantastic. The rest of the cruise had 30-45 min lines every time we saw a character. We waited in a couple of those lines, but that is way too tough for 3 year old children. It was definitely a case of "who is this for - me or my kids?" The scrapbooker in me wanted those photos!!
The character breakfast was nice because Mickey and the gang each came right to your table. A photo op without standing in line! It was a little rushed because they had to get to each guest, but that was to be expected. We had fun.
Anything else??? Let's see - bring your own hairdryer. There is one in the stateroom, but it is the worst! It's a hot air hose basically. It was the first time I had travelled without a hairdryer because I was certain there was one in the room. We bought a hairdryer in Key West.
DH & I each had a massage in the spa. Nice indulgence. The couples massages were full, so we didn't try that.
The embarkation process was something to be endured. I think we arrived at the terminal around 10:30am. DH was in line for an hour. At least they had multiple tvs and couches with Disney cartoons playing. That helped keep the kids occupied. We signed up for the kids' club at the terminal, which was another 30min line (at least). But, I heard someone say that they did it on board on a previous cruise and that wait was longer.
We loved having continuous Disney movies on two channels in the stateroom. We have to do breathing treatments on our girls because they have asthma and it was great just to turn on whatever Disney movie was showing and do the treatments. The girls were always mesmerized.
DH was craving nachos and we found out that they have hot dogs, chips, cheese dip, salsa, jalapenos, etc. in Diversions every night. (That's the sports bar - I think that is the right name.) We didn't find that until Wed or Thurs, but it was a nice find.
We only saw two shows from beginning to end (because of the kids), but both Golden Mickeys and Disney Dreams were really wonderful. I was impressed with the productions. Both of these shows had matinees at 2pm - I think they were on days at sea. We had decided to keep late seating dinner so that we could go to shows at the early time with the girls, but now I know we could have seen those during the day.
If you find your stateroom pillows to be too fluffy, your host can bring you feather pillows!
Bring pillowcases/t-shirts/picture mats/whatever in a plastic bag and take it to guest services for autographs. It's a regular thing and the person helping us was excited that we brought something. She had a preprinted form to fill out for just that purpose. I read about that on these boards and the girls got back signed pillow cases on the last night. They are so cute. We opted for "whatever characters they could get" and we have signatures from Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, and Snow White. Neat little extra souvenier.
If you are still reading this by now, I'm amazed and thanks for "listening." Hope some of my info helps some of you out there!
It remained pretty windy and I believe that explains some of our choppy seas when we were leaving. 
But, after I read your question, I realized that my DDs' pillowcases didn't wrinkle. So I checked and they are a 60% cotton, 40% poly blend. 
