Thank you! I always use the Dis for our WDW trips and it can be extremely addicting. There is so much information out there it can make your head spin!
How was your experience with the dining rooms?
We had a great experience in the MDRs. Our son has special dietary concerns, which I explained to ALL of our servers the very first night. They bent over backwards to accommodate us and help him feel at ease. Personally, I prefer to eat vegetarian and there were plenty of options for me. DH and MIL (who I forgot to mention also cruised with us) can be food snobs but they too enjoyed every single meal. The 3 of us did have dinner in Palo's one evening while our son ate in the kids club. Palo was fabulous but I'll admit that I was disappointed in the serving size of my dish. I ordered some type of lobster ravioli thing (apologies for not remembering the name) and I got a whole whopping THREE ravioli's. That was a let down because the dish was scrumptious but admittedly with the salad and everything that came before hand I probably didn't "need" to eat more than I did! Back to the main MDR's...our assistant server would see us walking into the restaurant and before we even had a chance to sit down our drinks were waiting on us. The service team would acknowledge us anytime we saw them on board and always went out of their way to make sure we were having a great time and that our expectations were not only met but exceeded. They asked about our dogs because they knew I had a hard time leaving them at home, they recommended activities for the next day, and made sure we had fun on our excursions. They left NOTHING out!
What is the dress code like? We have no problem dressing for dinner but we do like to change after dinner into more comfortable clothes.
Most people adhered to the DCL dress code requirements. Meaning, no shorts (except for little kids) etc. My family dressed for all of the special events, semi-formal, formal and pirate. DH wore a tux on formal night, and while I didn't wear a satiny gown, I did wear a long dress. We didn't feel out of place doing so and there were more people who had on formal attire than not. We also dressed up for Pirate Night along with our son and had a BLAST! If you want to connect with your inner child, I suggest dressing up too! We were surprised with how many adults were actually walking around with pirate gaaarrrrrbbb on!
I'm assuming the kids clubs are great. From what I've seen online, they look like a lot of fun.
One word - FABULOUS! I was talking to a friend today about how special the kids club really is, and how much interaction DS had with the Fab 5. He had a PJ party with Pluto one night, and Mickey the next. He danced with Chip & Dale, had a personal visit from Stitch, hung out with Minnie. I could go on and on. Let's just say that the time he spent with the characters on the Fantasy was way more than you can ever get standing in an autograph line at MK. The kids club workers learned the names of everyone in our family after the first day, and addressed us as such anywhere they saw us. I don't know how they remember since they encounter so many cruisers but the do! Phenomenal..just phenomenal!
What kind of activities do they have in the evening? Carnival is big on the bars, casino scene, which we are not. Most nights my DH and I felt lost for something to do and none of their evening activities were kid friendly.
Oh my gosh, you name it they've got it! The atrium was the place to be with characters walking around, live music being played, movies in the Buena Vista theatre, live shows in the Disney theatre, adult comedy in the lounges, and family activities in the DLounge (bingo, kaoroke, drawing lessons and a whole slew of other stuff!!). You will not be bored at and other than the pubs/lounges kids are welcome everywhere. Oh, and make sure to catch at least one movie on Funnel Vision (the huge outdoor screen on the pool deck) That was really neat to watch a movie under the stars. If your kids decide to move in to the kids club (like my son tried to do), there were wonderful adult only places to escape to, both inside and out on the decks. My husband, who is NOT a Disney fan, asked the 3rd day if we could rebook for next year! Of course, I said yes!
Sorry for all the questions.
No need to apologize! I hope this helps. If you think of anything else, don't hesitate to ask.