There's no better last dinner than having lobster! It looked like you guys enjoyed your last dinner on the cruise. It's really cool how you get the same servers throughout your cruise so your able to get familiar with each other and they can accommodate you. It was also really cool to see Olivia eat oysters.
It definitely felt "fancy" and like on a luxury cruise to have oysters and lobster. No idea why Olivia loves oysters so much - probably be a shock to the first person who takes her out on a date when the budget goes out the window
It is nice that you have the same servers - I think it helps the kids out a lot juts be more comfortable at meal time
My take on cruising in general was that I liked but I didn't love it. I think I had a few things that made it harder on me. #1 3 year old!!! If he could have gone to their kids club I think it would have been easier, but he went to the nursery. He loved it there but we paid hourly for the service. It was only like $8 an hour but we had to schedule time there and sometimes they were full. #2 we did 7 days and I think that was too long. By day 3-4 I had hit a routine (or Gus had) and it just kind of got stale. #3 I was with my huge family (11 siblings) and family drama is always present on these kinds of trips. The Oasis of the sea is a huge ship and getting around takes some time. I would recommend it though. I think your family and situation this kind of vacation really works.
Large family vacations can be tough no matter the setting - we just got back from WDW and had 11 of us and just organizing and, yeah, some drama, makes things more stressful so i can definitely see that!
I am a bit torn on the length of the cruise as I agree that by day 3 or 4 we were more in "cruise mode" but I think that enabled me to enjoy the rest of the time more. I fear like a 3 day cruise is just too short and would never really get in "cruise mode" I think now that we have done one and I get how it works and know what the kids like, etc. doing a 4 or 5 day would work, but in some ways I am glad we started with the 7 day. But I guess any length of cruise is better than none!
Okay I tried reading this beer can for awhile and I'm just confused. What is the description of this beer?
I felt a little guilty ordering so much food (lobster night I got 3 entree's but mad me wife order one so I didn't look soooo bad, and she always only ordered one) But the staff never batted an eye at it and I think it is quiet common.
You're kids are awesome!
Seriously awesome!!! what kid not only orders oysters but then goes on to say they like them. I like them, but I don't crave them. It's more like I haven't had them in a while lets go ahead and eat them again, and afterwards I'm like yeah I'm good for awhile on oysters. Love the oyster liquor though, which is what makes me want to order oysters. The texture is always off putting.
I found the staff that worked on the ship were really excellent and I couldn't give them enough praise. We gave out extra gratuities too to our dinning staff and our room attendants who interacted with us every day and made sure we were wont for nothing....oh yeah and our favorite bartender.
For shame...but nice touch.
The nursery staff were really great too. It made me so proud to hear them rave about what a great kid Gus was, especially since some times at drop off he was bawling that he didn't want to go. (which only lasted 2 minutes after we left) Makes me wonder sometimes why he is such a well behaved kid for anyone other than his parents....I kid of course...sorta.
So the beer is the Terrapin Luau Krunkles which is an IPA style but with Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava added (so, basically the "POG" juice they serve at Animal Kingdom and other places
Agree about the ordering multiple things ... I was nervous at first but the servers took it in stride and almost like pushed you to order multiple things!
Thanks! Judi and I try to push the kids to at least try new foods and if they don't like it no big deal, but every now and then they try something they really like and that happened with Oysters for Olivia. Though Peter recently out did her by eating sushi with a whole baby octopus on it!
I feel the same way sometimes about my kids - especially Peter who is more than a handful at home and like never listens to him .... and then we will talk to his teachers and they are all "Peter is such a good kid and always listens" - half the time I think they are talking about the wrong kid!
As far as any other advice you can offer, you did a great job doing that throughout your TR. I suppose I would ask was there any advice you got for cruising (specifically Disney) that you wished you would have ignored, or anything that you wish if you had to do it over you would have done differently?
Great TR, I will see you around on rumors and news. Wish I had the time to keep up and comment daily on the thread, but I don't know if I have less time for it or if you guys have taken it to another level. I keep coming back to find out that 50 pages or so have been added to it since the last time I read it and I want to catch up and comment in real time, but it's just too much. So now I've just gone back to lurking with the occasional random comment.
That is a good question as there is so much advice out there and hard to know what to listen to, etc. I guess the biggest thing is that going in I though/knew this might be our only
Disney cruise so I wanted to do the full experience ... so do the Fish Extenders, do all the character meets, do all the shows, etc. - and it is just a lot! Meanwhile my kids just wanted to be in the kids club and were like crying when I said we had to go meet Anna and Elsa, etc. So along those lines, don't be afraid to underplan and just go with it. There is always a ton going on that if you want to do something there will be something to do.
I hear you about the main news page ... I do think it is good that Rteetz tries to label the news items so that helps, but some of the conversations do go on for a while, but sometimes I do enjoy them. Definitely hope to see you around there!