Pros and Cons of our 12/6 Western Cruise

[pippy]

Pros

1. The Staff was wonderful!! Every one wanted to make sure you were happy and comfortable. We were in room 6586 and Carlos was wonderful!! My daughter got a kick out of the towel animals!! Especially the towel monkey!

2. Palo was fantastic. We had the filet and it was so tender, it just melted in your mouth! My only complaint was that we did Palo on friday at 8:30 and didn't get out until 10:30 and had to run to the room to put our bags out by 11:00. Didn't get to order the chocolate souflet.

3. The food

4. Room service

5. The oceaneers club. My daughter did not want to leave! The staff is very friendly and they make your child feel like their important!! If Disney had a day care, they would make a killing $$$$.

6. The State rooms are very nice.

7. Castawy Cay!!! This was the best! It is so beautiful and we didn't have a problem at all finding a lounge chair in the sun!!

8. The Xmas decorations were beautiful.

Now the Cons

1. I wasn't too thrilled about our dining room server and assistant server. I heard so many stories about how entertaining the servers were and all ours did was serve. They seemed a little inexperienced also. Maybe after reading the thread about how everyone just loved their servers, maybe I expected too much. Probably my fault.

2. Lack of lounge chairs at Mickeys pool. I thought I got down there early enough on the first cruise day and every chair had a towel or a beach bag on it and because of the slide there are no chairs on the other side of the pool. We ended up going to Goofeys pool and the same thing. I found 1 lounge chair in the shade!! And I couldn't relax because my 4 year old can't swim. I would think that since the majority of kids on the DCL are young toddlers there would be two wading pools. No problem with the bigger kids taking over the pools though.

2. Parent using & saving lounge chairs for their kids!! I'm sorry but the lounge chairs at Mickeys pool should really be for the parents, not the kids.

3. The weather could have been warmer. Next time I think we will go more towards spring.

4. The final bill that they sneak under your door at 7:45 in the am the last day of your cruise!! OUCH!!! I didn't think my DH and I drank that much!!!

5. The line to get your picture done on Formal night. We didn't get one done because we didn't know that we needed to be dressed for dinner and downstairs an hour before dining in order to get our picture taken. The line was that long, and I didn't see a second photographer around.

6. Letting my DH use the camcorder!! he decided to play around with the special effects and taped almost the entire cruise in Black and White!!

All in all, we love the cruise and the ship and will definately go again!!!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks for the pros and cons!

That really "bites" about the lounge chairs- but you know what? What exactly would people do if you removed a TOWEL off of one to sit on it? I could understand now moving bags and personal items- but if a lounge chair just had a towel on it, I'd probably move it and plop my butt down. I don't think it's right to save lounge chairs for long periods of time with a towel! Just doesn't seem fair.

Eek about the camcorder! But does it look neat all in black/white? LOL

It seems like a LOT of people don't end up getting pictures on formal night. It's enough to make me not want to buy formal clothes and get dressed up that night- and just in the room or something. LOL After all that- I want a picture of it! So many have complained about not getting pictures on formal night just here on this board- that you'd think they'd do something about this... there's gotta be SOME way to figure out a way for everyone to get a picture taken???

 

[pippy]

B.B.B

I was up on Deck 10 later in the day when my DD was at the kids club and I asked a man if a lounge chair next to him was taken, and he told me the same thing. If you just don't take it someone else will. This was our first cruise and I wish I had the gonjas just to take a chair, but I know if I did I'm sure the person who was saving the chair would ask me to move....didn't feel like playing musical chairs....LOL

About formal night!! Yea. Next time we'll skip it and do palo. Food was better and the service. I am disappointed about not getting our picture done after all that spoofing up!!!

Still steaming about the camcorder. Least we have it on tape and I tookpictures. But black and white doesn't do the christmas lights in the atrium or the lights on "Beat Street" any justice.


Oh yes. I wasn't thrilled about the Dolphin encounter. It was great for my daughter, but $105.00 to watch a dolphin swim back and forth for 30 minutes?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Just watched it swim back and forth? That doesn't sound like an "encounter" to me!!!! I can do more than that at SeaWorld!!! What a bummer. And a costly one at that!

I guess I have the gonjas. Because if someone then asked me to move- I'd be all like "what? huh?" Then if they tried to explain they were saving the seat with a towel, if it was a disney normal towel and not a personal one-ofcourse, I'd just say you weren't using the seat and the towels here are for everyone -or something of that nature. In other words, you wanna save your seat? Better put something of a personal item nature to save it. Even then-if I was there a LONG time and noticed a seat not being used that entire time- I'd probably move a personal towel also. I think that's ridiculous to save chairs for long periods of time. A few minutes to jump in the pool and cool off- ofcourse. But for a long time just in CASE they might want a seat later? That's bull ca-ca in my opinion! I know others might disagree... but ohwell. I won't be at the pool long each time anyway I'm sure... so I won't be in their precious "saved with a towel" lounge chair anyway. LOL

I hear ya.. I'm thinking the same thing- if I go to all the trouble to buy & bring all the nicer clothes we don't usually wear- and then get everyone dressed (and it isn't just ME getting myself ready- I have to dress my kids and practically dress my husband too LOL) and don't get a picture after all that?!?? That is going to be a bummer. I'm going to be asking complete strangers to please oh please take a picture of us with my camera. LOL

 

[lbgraves]

Since we had early seating & the kids napped before dinner, we didn't get to have our pictures taken before dinner or meet the characters then. They do however, have the same set up after dinner & we were first in line for Mickey & Minnie before they even came out. We were dressed, fed, & happy.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

How old are your children? I can only imagine what mine would look like AFTER dinner... they don't always stay clean. LOL

 

[lbgraves]

They are 3 & 5. I have to admit though, that DS fell asleep before dinner even started. Our pictures are in the album page in my sig under DCL Magic 11/15 - Day 4. Oh, and DD loves stuffing the napkin in her top to keep it clean. We also only allowed vanilla ice cream & sprinkles for desert that night to lessen the chance of a mess.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Oooh, let me go look!
(boy, your kids are young too! But then it does seem like my YOUNGEST can stay the cleanest when eating than the oldest two- what is up with that? They are messier now than when they were younger! But then DH is known to "spill" something down his shirt quite often too... so maybe it's heriditary LOL)

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Okay now I'm really confused... I thought we were talking about formal night picture taking? What you directed me to is tropical night pictures? And I looked on the day 2 formal night too... kids and DH in shorts at Lumiere's on formal night? So that's okay?
Maybe I won't have to buy nicer clothes for the cruises... hmmm

 

[lbgraves]

No sorry...long week already. We had formal night in Animator's Palate. Both DS & DH were in navy suits & DD was in a pink dress. Hope this leads you right to the album page. http://community.webshots.com/album/103755540nIqaKL/1

 

[lbgraves]

I think you may be looking at our pictures taken during the day in front of Lumiere's on the Formal Night album too. We went to the character breakfast that morning & had our picture taken there.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Ugh, you're right! I'm sorry. I was just now browsing through all your pictures (they are so great- and in order, etc. I feel kinda like I was there with you!) and I JUST NOW noticed that you were dressed up more later on- and figured that was daytime photos I saw and came back here to say that.... and here you are already saying it. LOL
Sorry!
You all look VERY nice!

 

[pippy]

Originally posted by BibbidyBobbidyBoo
How old are your children? I can only imagine what mine would look like AFTER dinner... they don't always stay clean. LOL

Oh funny!!!!! My Daughter dropped a chocolate covered mickey icecream bar on her formal dress and my DH forgot to zip his zipper!!! What a lovely kodak moment that would have been!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

How old is Kaitlyn? She reminds me so much of my youngest daughter... all tucking in the napkin and bringing teddies and babies to dinner- formal night or not.. they are coming by gosh! LOL My daughter is SO that way...

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Originally posted by pippy
Oh funny!!!!! My Daughter dropped a chocolate covered mickey icecream bar on her formal dress and my DH forgot to zip his zipper!!! What a lovely kodak moment that would have been!

LMAO!
Exactly... that's my family to a tee. Okay maybe zipped up DH but my son forgets 9 times out of 10. And I might forget to check his zipper that night! LOL And DH will probably have little droplets of spilled food on his white shirt or his tie... he's so good at that because he gets into his eating and puts too much on his fork. LOL He can remind the kids to hold over their plates when eating- but he can't seem to do the same... LOL
We're also hoping to get late dinner seating. I know that isn't the "norm" for families with children but I think this would work best for us... and our kids later normal schedule/etc. So after a busy day, maybe a movie or show, late dinner... they are probably going to be crashed (just like a little young dapper man I saw in a picture just a minute ago LOL) by the time dinner is over.
Dinners are LONG too huh? I seem to be getting that from some of the posts I've read... even at nicer restaurants we usually don't take longer than an hour or slightly over an hour to eat- someone wrote 2hrs or longer?!? Surely not... ??

 

[pippy]

ibgraves

your pictures are lovely! I only have one of my daughter with Minnie mouse at castaway cay. She was too shy to go by any of the characters. We stood in line for about 20 minutes to get a pic with goofey, and when we were second in line, she backed out.

Where are the lifesize disney cardboard cut outs when needed?

 

[pippy]

my daughter (4) has to bring her stuffed animals too! She brought her white puppy to formal and got chocolate on it too!!

If I were to do it again, I would do late dinner.
6:00 was way to early. What was I thinking? Your having so much fun during the day, than you have to run off and get dressed for dinner. My daughter always seemed to get tired around 3:30 and by supper time she was cranky!!
But it was kinda nice to sit and relax after eating and watch the shows. Don't miss disney dreams!!! Awsome.

Yes the dinners are long. We were always there for at least 1 1/2 hrs. and I didn't really mind it, but the servers want you out of there for the late diners. You probably wouldn't have that problem if you eat later.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

If we end up doing the long cruise, as I hope.. we'll probably skip some of the rotational dinners- and eat elsewhere or maybe the kids will want to be in the labs/clubs instead. We'll see. I just can't see us doing 1.5hr long dinners every night. LOL My kids can't stand to sit at a table that long!

I was thinking the same thing- not only does late dinner fit our normal "schedule" but it would seem quite rushed to have to get ready so early and have dinner earlier.

You're right though... I wonder if with late dinner seating we end up missing the shows because of getting ready and all that. Hmmm...

 

[pippy]

You won't miss any of the shows. DCL has them scheduled twice. The late diners shows are before you dine and the early diners shows are after you dine.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I know... I said I wonder if we'd end up missing some because of getting READY for dinner (ie: meaning using that time to get ready instead of seeing the movie before late dinner seating)