Trip Report: July 24-28 Wonder VERY LONG

[Contrariwise]

July 24-28 Wonder. 3 young kids 2 parents- don’t do it
Our First Disney Cruise
Me, DH, DD8, DD6, DS19months (our eldest was booked in a room with her grandparents, but she actually stayed in our stateroom)
EMBARKATION DAY
We live in Orlando so it was an easy drive to the port. Got there at about 11am. First mistake I made- got out of the car with our 3 kids and let my husband park the car. Let me tell you it was no fun trying to organize our ID’s/documents, diaper bag, & carry on and maneuver through security. This is when I realized we had had one too many kids I also left my clipboard with my DISboard tips & folder for keeping navigators straight, in the car (did not realize this until we were in line to board-too late). My bags were overflowing (from checking, then rechecking that we had all of the documents ready and at hand) so as they go through the x-ray belt they tip over and about half of the items spill out. I had every single detail of this trip planned (I’m a list maker and an obsessive scheduler), and I started this trip a chaotic mess. I must’ve looked like a crazy person to all around me- chasing my toddler and shoving things haphazardly back into the bag while trying to get the older girls to help me out (didn’t work). So I spot an elevator and head towards it. Almost there and realize the CM is motioning everyone away from it toward the escalator. I don’t know, he must’ve noticed things were going so well for me that I needed to juggle all these things, hold two hands and carry a toddler on a moving platform. Now I know why everyone says the embarkation photos aren’t so flattering!
So I get to the top and right away things start looking up! Nice man helps me get the documents straight, makes sure they’re correct (messed up on a few!), husband shows up just in time to chase the baby as he runs away. Practically no line for checking in. I signed up for Flounders/Clubs online and the CM taking our documents told us to get the pagers/wristbands on the ship near the clubs. Ok, good enough. We went to look at the model ship and take a few pictures. Mickey shows up and we end up near the front of the line! (Woohoo great shot of all 3 kids, bought it! ). Now we get in line for boarding and trade off watching/chasing kids and standing at our spot with the bags. When the line starts moving I expect to be onboard quickly , but it took a bit- winding through back and forth then going through a checkpoint, separated into 2 lines, then taking embarkation background photos. (Saw our photo at Shutters later- I look lopsided and frizzy haired, not buying that!). We arrive in the lobby with a band playing and an announcer- that was kinda cool- but I felt like I was in a daze wandering around following everyone! Things were loud and a CM was directing a group ahead of us to go somewhere- I think, “Lets follow them.” Were walking, and walking, group ahead stops dead to plan their day in the middle of the hall- we squeeze past and walk some more, I see CM’s ahead “this is the right way after all!”- nope just cleaning. Walk more, then a CM is at the end and directs us up the elevator to Beach Blanket. We squeeze more than 12 onto the elevator and arrive on deck 9. It’s loud and crowded and we are handed a tray each & basically pushed through the buffet line. No, no, no! I have a PLAN. SKIP the buffet and proceed directly to empty Mickey pool! Where is the pool again??? Ok, ok, regroup. We’ll see if this looks good , eat quick then calmly look for the pool. Nope, this holding a baby and a tray while trying to get food for both does not work. As it turns out our girls can’t hold the trays and get food either, & the drinks are coming up fast- Ugh! I can see the spills now. DH will have to handle that, I am freaking as it is. Absolutely nothing looks appetizing. “I’m taking the baby out to the pool- hurry up and bring the kids so they can play and have food they’ll actually eat OK?” Nope he completely forgot the plan (and did regret it later when he tasted the chicken strips!) and couldn’t hear/pay attention to me now. He sat with the girls and was sorely disappointed with the crowds and food quality.
I handed my tray to a CM, said I couldn’t deal with it and the baby after all and he kindly took it away for me. Went to the Mickey Pool with the baby. I couldn’t find a good place to change him so I just stripped him on a pool chair and put him in a swim diaper and suit. I was already wearing board shorts and a tank top so I was ready. Off to the pool we go. Ok, “Empty” is not exactly how I would describe this pool at 12:30. That tip was incorrect. I would describe this as “somewhat full hotel pool”. (Though yes, I would later learn what full Mickey pool means and empty made more sense, but for now I was a little disappointed).
DS seemed to enjoy the fountain ear for about… 4 minutes. No! He’s supposed to be perfectly content with this area and not CARE about the big pool. Nope, not so much. The bigger kids wandering in from the big pool seemed to like it a lot more. I spent plenty of time grabbing him just before he attempted to get into the big pool and chasing him around deck. The CM watching the pool seemed to be relieved that I was not allowing him to step foot in the “non swim diaper” area. Yeah, I feel good about not being one of “those” mothers Ok, bring toys out… nope he just wants to throw them in the pool to trick me into letting him go in to retrieve it. DH arrives, he takes over while I get the girls dresses off (suits underneath!). They LOVE the pool and amazing slide. How will I get them to ever leave to go to the clubs?? And what will I do with DS while they’re in here?? I manage to get DS to sit in a pool chair for awhile (by bribing him with ice cream). Actually, now that I have minute’s peace in the shade… this is a GREAT cruise! Everyone is content and having fun…oh, wait I haven’t eaten- I don’t care! Supposedly there is food nonstop on this cruise! We get some drinks from the drink station and enjoy.
At about 1:30 we decide to see if we can get into our stateroom and check in to clubs etc. Our room was ready and so was our luggage. We go into our room, turn on a Disney movie for the kids, unpack a bit, clean ourselves up, and take some pictures by the huge porthole. Pretty!
Soon we went over to the clubs and got pagers etc. Two counselors were set up at a small table in the hallway with laptops; one was for the club one for the lab. We stood in a small line and gave our room number, names and passwords and received pagers and wristbands. We had to do our girls separately and that made it a little hectic, but it worked out. We received Kids club navigators for the whole cruise here (wish they had those for the adults!). We separate to do a small tour of the clubs and Flounders.
Back to the room to unpack more. Wow, the lifeboat drill comes up very fast! At the last second we managed to (poorly) put on our lifejackets and force our DS into the infant one. That one was long sleeved and difficult. My husband carried the baby to our station, all the while being pushed down the stairs- he was not too happy with me snapping pictures along the way! When the drill was halfway done the CM said we could take DS out of the jacket since it was hot. I took off mine too so I could take over for DH and he didn’t seem to mind about that either. Drill’s over, back to the cabin.
Sail Away party! I normally hate these kind of things, but I wanted the kids to have a memorable time and have heard great things about it. So we went to Deck 9 and danced for the whole thing. Our DS had the best time and literally wiped himself out dancing- he didn’t stop! Our girls made immediate friends with others on the goofy pool and learned all the dancing! My husband and I took turns getting drinks for everyone. This was absolutely the highlight of our trip. It was hot and crowded and loud, but so great at the same time. We really enjoyed our kids.
Our dinner was at Parrot Cay at 6:15 and we were on the dressy side of Cruise Casual- I wanted to look our best for any and all pictures that may be taken. As we are standing in line the guy behind us wearing shorts (Apparently seeing how we were dressed) asked his wife “Is this the restaurant I can’t wear shorts in?? No, Tritons is the one that has a dress code.” I guess Disney really wasn’t clear enough when they put “no shorts please” in the documents & navigators, LOL! But really, other than that I didn’t notice any other people except our family. Everyone could’ve been in a uniform of purple swimsuits and I wouldn’t have noticed- so much had already happened on our cruise
The ship was swaying just enough that night to make me feel drunk and uneasy (but not actually seasick) the whole time. Our waiters were nice, but the restaurant was loud and they spoke with accents (of course) so I didn’t understand a word that was said that night! The food was OK- turns out I prefer chain restaurant food without too much variety. The melon soup- great (wish I ordered 4 bowls of this and skipped the rest) Salmon appetizer- weird. I’ve never had salmon believe it or not, and figured four varieties would clear up if I liked it or not. Most of it was… tangy. Pickled fish, not my thing. The cooked one was ok though. My entrée was forgettable (yes, I forgot it) I remember trying to make it look like I ate it when I really pushed my food around. When the waiter asked how I liked it I said I was saving room for dessert. Turns out dessert was forgettable too. Our DS was completely wiped from this unbelievable day and passed out on the table- we brought his chicken and veggies back to the room and he ate some later.
I’ve heard a lot of things said on the boards about how the waiters are great with accommodating diets and kids wishes, but this was not our experience. I don’t know if it was the language barrier or what but special requests never worked out. Here are some of our dining experiences:
- Asked for absolutely no fries (extra veggies instead) for all kids. All came with Fries and no extra veggies. We took away all the fries and put them on a plate for them to take away each night- not a fry was touched. Waiters took no notice of this.
- Asked for milk in a cup at the start for the baby every night. Always received water only. Didn’t notice until DS tried it and refused to drink it at the end of the meal. Drink came too late, and he’d already lost interest (lots of late night trips to drink station for us!).
- Also, we only received the drink we ordered the first night every night thereafter. They didn’t ask again. I promised the girls they could have one special night of soda for dinner, they asked, we asked, and instead always got the juice they got the first night.
- When DD6 asked for spaghetti that wasn’t on the menu one night the waiter just said, no it wasn’t available. She sulked through dinner and didn’t eat anything but a Mickey bar that night. At lunch that afternoon it wasn’t on the menu and (a different) waiter said he’d take care of it and brought us spaghetti, yay! Odd.
- The waiter never let the kids order dessert. He just said he had something special for them. DD8 wanted strawberry shortcake since she saw it on the menu, but never got a chance to get it. It was Mickey bars with sprinkles and marshmallows every night.
- I asked for the vegetarian selection one night since nothing else looked appetizing and he flat out refused to bring it! He said “no, no, I can’t let you order that {makes face}” He moved on to my husband, then came back to me and said “And what would you like for your entrée?” I was so uncomfortable I just ordered the pasta LOL!

Hercules show! This was funny and a good starter show. Honestly liked this one best. One thing I did not care for was the joke with the song “It’s getting hot in here… so take off all your clothes.” My husband and I turned wide-eyed to each other, then looked at our girls. Luckily it didn’t quite sink in (that we know of- next week I may find them in there room singing it with their friends- just what I want repeated )
We took the girls to their clubs after the show. DD8 could not have been happier with the Lab and stayed until it closed at midnight (did the same the nights it closed at 1am). DD6 didn’t have a lot of choices in the Club after 8pm. They had a short period of play, then it was movies and more movies with everyone on mats sleeping. Lets just say she was reluctant to go back. The next day I had to carefully plan to make sure something would catch her interest- I knew she wouldn’t like hanging out with us either !
My husband and I had arranged to take turns with our family to babysit toddlers each night (only had the 8 hours of Flounders booked online). This was one of our free nights, so we wandered the ship, shopped for 5 minutes- went into Studio Sea for a bit to catch Family Karaoke (a couple sang Bohemian Rhapsody and made it worthwhile, but it was all downhill from there).
Soon thereafter we went to sleep!

Well, I thought I’d be able to do all our days in one post. Turns out, I’m prone to rambling and I’m pretty tired But here are some random things I noticed in case this isn’t long enough for you :

-When I went into the shops onboard to get a couple of cruise coloring books for the kids (and I thought I’d try out paper piecing myself for my scrapbooks!) right before the show, they were gone!! Those Ebayers are QUICK!

-I never used my highlighter (I didn’t want to mess up my navigator souvenir!) and ended up using the back of a flyer about Nassau and the inside of a Shutters folder as a place to write our schedule for the next day (no blank paper anywhere and I didn’t want to ruin anything that had Disney on it)!

-In the nightly shows I could use a little less “bumbling hosts.” Just do the show and bring out the characters already!! And I’m not a big fan of overacting- I definitely could’ve missed Disney Dreams AND the Golden Mickeys. Taylor Mason is great though

-Kids Club pagers!! Our brother in law accidentally wore his pager in the water on Castaway Cay. Yep, broken. Had to pay $150 for it. Thereafter his new pager was useless. He didn’t want to be responsible for another $150 so he just left it in the room and trusted his DD that she wouldn’t page him (didn’t leave her for long that last day).

 

[AspiringCindy]

I loved your report! It is so humorous and very informative. There is one thing that I learned about excessive planning...it is so much fun, but it almost never works out in the end! Glad to see that you had the good humor to roll with the punches and have what sounds to me "a great trip"! I give you credit for bringing a toddler! Our DDs are 4,11 & 13 and have waited since 2000 to cruise again for fear of losing my sanity(the 4 year old is still running on the same Energizers)!

* Did you do anything special at Nassau?

 

[auntie k]

Thanks for the post - it was great. It does sound like you made the best of it and had a good time.

I'm glad you were honest about the food...most people think it's "fabulous", but I've been to all the restaurants in MK...and expect about the same.
You can't feed thousands of people and not sacrifice quality - not even Disney. As long as it's edible, I'll be happy!

 

[Contrariwise]

Thanks for the responses! I was worried I sounded a little and people would avoid me!
I plan to post our other days soon (though they weren't as jam packed as the first!). I'm in the middle of it now.
Yes, in Nassau we did something special- avoided it !! My husband and I went there on a Big Red Boat cruise for our honeymoon 9 years ago. We didn't care for it then and I've heard it hasn't improved! Treated that day as a non-crowded sea day. Our extended family went without us on the Sunshine Glass Bottom Boat tour and hated it. They felt they wasted precious cruise time and their kids did not have fun (and confirmed that the hair braiding offers are nonstop!). It took too long to get there & back and wasn't exactly the "glass bottom" they were looking for.
As far as bringing a toddler- never again!! He loved it, but it was sooo much work. Not exactly a restful vacation for us, even with all the babysitting we procured! I hope to go on another Disney cruise in 2 years- when they are all able to enjoy the kids clubs fully. DD6 preferred the lab during the times the club met there, and since the Club is geared toward the younger set I'm sure DS will enjoy it at that time. We'll see!

 

[Contrariwise]

I'm glad you were honest about the food...most people think it's "fabulous", but I've been to all the restaurants in MK...and expect about the same. You can't feed thousands of people and not sacrifice quality - not even Disney. As long as it's edible, I'll be happy!

Yeah, I would describe it as "not good enough to be gourmet, but not plain enough for the typical 'meat & potatoes' husband to enjoy!" I ate the food I needed (I was hungry after those long days!) but didn't exactly gain weight on the cruise. So I guess the food was just right!!

 

[devotedchristian]

I love trip reports with Toddlers or small kids. My DS will be 3 when we go so I am gaining insight from your report.

So I am anxiously awaiting the rest of the report

 

[keef22]

Did I see a Taylor Mason reference?!

Is he a regular performer?! He's my favorite stand up comedian...great family oriented humor/ventriloquism!

That would be a great surprise if he's on these cruises often. Hmmm. How do I go about checking that out?

Anyway, great post. We're getting ready to go on our first cruise and I keep trying to tell DW not to schedule everything...maybe now she'll get it...

 

[Mickey&Co]

July 24-28 Wonder. 3 young kids 2 parents- don’t do it

-I never used my highlighter (I didn’t want to mess up my navigator souvenir!) and ended up using the back of a flyer about Nassau and the inside of a Shutters folder as a place to write our schedule for the next day (no blank paper anywhere and I didn’t want to ruin anything that had Disney on it)!

FYI...extra copies of the daily Navigators are available at Guest Services so you can highlight as much as you want!

 

[STB ON THE BEACH]

Thanks sooooooooo much for your honesty! We're going in Nov. and I truly enjoyed your report!

 

[mjejj]

We are going in October with my son who will be 16mos and two older kids. I have a feeling you have already written my trip report!!! It sounds like you had a crazy/fun time.

One question: where did your little one sleep? Did you get a Pack-n-Play or did you let him sleep on the bed and ask for some safety rails?

 

[Contrariwise]

FYI...extra copies of the daily Navigators are available at Guest Services so you can highlight as much as you want!

Ugh!! Really wish I knew that!

One question: where did your little one sleep? Did you get a Pack-n-Play or did you let him sleep on the bed and ask for some safety rails?

Our room was big as far as cruise rooms go, but I didn't think big enough for even a small crib. We had already planned for him to sleep with an alternating sister on the couch that turns into a bed. Turned out DD8 wanted him every night, and he loves to cuddle, so it worked out really well. She is very protective and slept on the outside so he wouldn't fall off. Now, breaking him of this habit when he got home... not so easy

 

[Contrariwise]

2nd Day NASSAU/ DRESS-UP NIGHT
Woke up at 7:30am- no trouble getting the kids up today (I was surprised, they stayed up the night before until midnight! They were pretty excited to start the day). We ate breakfast at Tritons at around 8:00am. Plenty of choices- though they ran out of blueberry muffins and substituted ours with chocolate chip. Yummy, but not at all the healthy start I was looking for (it also didn’t help when, before we even ordered, they brought around a huge plate of donuts and offered them to the kids! But I’d thrown out my hope for a healthy cruise when they brought the fries the night before!). They taste exactly like the room service cookies in muffin form! I had the Cream of Wheat and the waiter sprinkled lots of brown sugar on it for me. My husband only ordered the French Toast (and it was a very small serving- I think he was expecting more! But he filled up on muffins instead). DS started acting up in the restaurant – his food did not come quickly enough for him and I was reluctant to serve him donuts. The orange juice was very watered down so we just put ours into his sippy cup and that satisfied him long enough for me to quickly eat my food. I then took him for a walk up and down the stairs while the others finished their breakfast.
Everyone had just finished up in time for there to be a very long line for the Princess Gathering in the lobby. I was so completely lost without my schedules- I had barely glanced at the navigator the night before! I had wanted my DD6 to get to wear her Cinderella costume in those pictures, but it was too late to go back to the room. DD8 was not interested in meeting the princesses, she just wanted to get back to the Lab, so DH took her and DS and left me to wait in line with DD6. The line moved surprisingly quick. They had one line for Cinderella, Belle, Snow White and Aurora in the lobby (deck 3) and up on deck 4 we could see Alice and Mulan (with very short individual lines, not a lot of people realized they were up there). Once at the front of the line you moved from one princess to the other. Very simple! We then had to quickly choose either Alice or Mulan, it looked like they were both leaving soon. DD6 chose Alice and we did end up missing Mulan . I was very disappointed in the picture with Alice (I really wanted to buy a picture with her since my daughter looks so much like her). The Alice on this cruise looked NOTHING like the cartoon. Her skin was a bit too tan and she also had very dark eyebrows. Can’t put that in a scrapbook with Alice stickers anywhere near the picture LOL!
After all this running around I managed to get DD6 to go back to the club (They were doing Animation and she loves to draw- I thought we’d really lucked out after the boredom fiasco the night before!). I also told her that if she ate lunch with the club they were going to make cookies from scratch right afterward- she was pretty excited! Right after we dropped her off we went back to the room to read the navigator. I couldn’t take it anymore- I needed a plan!! Immediately I noticed Stitch was posing for pictures in the lobby at 10:00- 10:30am. I thought this was the perfect “boy” character for our DS to pose with (and it was! One of our favorites that we bought). Stitch sat right down on the floor and we placed DS in his lap- so cute!! Worth the rush back down there. We later bought him big “Stitch” hands as a souvenir, also made for some cute pictures . After that we needed to prepare to watch “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie” in the Buena Vista Theatre at 11:00 (DS loves Tigger and we thought we might actually get a rest from running around!). We went up to Deck 9, filled his sippy cups with milk, got sodas for us, then went over to Scoops to get fruit (DS hadn’t eaten breakfast after all!). We took all of this to the Theater and had a great time! There were only 2 other people in the Theater for most of it. A couple more wandered in toward the end. Perfect, since we were worried about disturbing a crowd of moviegoers with our toddler (he was quiet-ish).
After the movie we start to head to Tritons for lunch (thinking a restaurant would be easy with 2 parents able to fully concentrate on DS!). On the way, we get a page from DD6. She wants to be checked out of the club, **sigh**. Off we go to Animators Palate where the club was finishing up lunch. We walk in and DD6 is literally banging her head against her chair in boredom LOL! She tells us she was bored and lonely (in fact most of the kids looked the same, it looked like all were finished eating- and more than a few were completely turned around in their chairs shouting “La, la, blah!!!… Blah blah!!” It was quite a sight. They probably should have had music playing or something!!) We tried our best to get her to stay- “if you stay for just a few more minutes you’ll be able to bake cookies!” but once we told her that we were going to a restaurant to eat she wanted to eat with us (it was for the best, she hadn’t eaten anything there anyway). So now we were going to Tritons with 2 kids, this should be fun.
We arrive at about 12:20 to a pretty empty restaurant (oh, NO!! I was hoping for other noisy kids to distract from mine!!) and have a seat. The food was OK as usual. We ordered a Mickey bar for DS as soon as our appetizer came -his food came early and he was starting to freak out (climb out of the highchair etc.). We figured this was the only way for us to be able to finish our meal. (By the way, these waiters tried their best to entertain him- it wasn’t happening, but they were better at it then our dinner waiters). The Mickey bar came and quickly did the trick- I felt guilty plying him with sugar, but I needed to eat!! I’ll get him back to normal once we get home. DD6 seemed to be doing better (relieved to have a little familiar company & a full tummy) and decided to try the club again. When we arrived her cousin was in there- we lucked out again! She and DD8 both stayed in their clubs until we got them at 5:00pm to get ready for dinner.
Outside of Tritons we passed a bunch of men signing up for something- it turned out to be a Golf Chipping contest (and looked really fun!! Wish I could play!). I imagine all of their wives were in the spa, it was a pretty funny sight.
Now, DS normally takes his nap at noon, so he was overdue. We figured we could go back to the room and rest with him, but he wasn’t falling for it. He learned how to open the cooler door to get ALL of his drinks at once and somehow KNEW the TV in that room played all his favorite things. Another annoying thing was he learned how to open the stateroom door (and there was NO way to keep it shut- it automatically unlocks when you turn the handle on the inside- which was easy for him to do. I’ve heard good things about the high placed locks on the verandah doors- they should really do something about the door to the hallway too). Our room steward had a pretty good rapport with DS and he kept trying to escape the room to go find him for another rousing game of Peekaboo
The perfect solution to this was to go somewhere else he could fall asleep- another movie. He came close to sleep in the “Heffalump” one -but Tigger kept showing up! So we ended up going to “Herbie Fully Loaded” at 2:15pm. Having 3 kids, we hardly ever get to go to movies at home- this was great for us! It was a cute movie and DS did sleep the whole way through, Woohooo!
After the movie we did a little souvenir and photo shopping. Wandered the ship (i.e. chased toddler around ship) then up to the drink station to fill up sippy’s etc. At 5:00pm we picked up the girls at the clubs and got ready for dinner. Formal pictures with Minnie and Mickey at 5:50 (only available in expensive 8x10 form - bought one of the family with Minnie anyway). Dinner at Tritons at 6:15pm.
Small note- they have a “Meet a Disney princess” Character greeting- at 8:00 to 8:30pm we were going to TRY to squeeze in. Now I don’t know how this is a convenient time for ANYONE. The late seaters need to get to the restaurant and the early seaters need get to the show. So of course, it didn’t work out for us, DD6 missed another opportunity to wear her Cinderella dress with the princesses. (She wore it to the Golden Mickey’s instead- see what happens a little further down.)
After dinner- here’s where it get’s confusing. We have Flounders Nursery reservations for 8pm- Midnight. We need to get him there and head to the show. Wait, DD8 does not want to go to the show tonight (not too interested in the characters and seriously can’t get enough of the Lab). Problem is- the 8-9 yr olds are in a Movie until 8pm and there is “no sign in/out during movie.” So, knowing that, DH takes DS to the nursery & I go at 8:05pm to drop DD8 off in the lab. That will give us just enough time to meet outside of the clubs on deck 5 & head to the show together. I take DD6 with me to drop DD8 off. OOPS! I didn’t check the Lab Navigator- the 5-7 year olds have the Lab at this time and the CM tells us the 8-9’s meet on Deck 9 Beach Blanket Buffet for Bingo. Ugh!! Drag Kids to Flounders to shout to DH to “meet us at the theater.” as he’s in line to drop off DS. Drag girls up to BBB only to find it completely empty with kitchen staff wiping counters. I ask one of them “Is this where the Kids are having Bingo???” he replies “Nooo, no, no, no we are closed for the night.” What??? Back down to Deck 5 Lab dragging DD6 the whole way. A different CM, says “oh I’m sorry, they are in transition at this time- you’ll have to wait outside BBB until a counselor arrives and can check her in- they’ll be there at 8:15.” 8:15??? The show starts then!! Really wishing I sent DD6 with DH now- hope she doesn’t miss too much of the show! Back up to deck 9. By the time we arrive all the kids are now in BBB getting ready for Bingo. (What have I learned? Ask more than one CM every time!)
RUN to the Walt Disney Theatre to meet DH. Spot him frantically looking for us along the way- he knew I wanted to make the preshow and I was really running late- did I say meet him at the theater or did he hear wrong? (Next time, we WILL bring 2 way radios!!) Meet up and are still feeling a little rushed. We hit the red carpet and the paparazzi are snapping away- DD6 is literally open mouthed as we walk down the red carpet- they are all shouting “Cinderella! Cinderella, over here!!” snapping her picture. Hilarious and just added to my franticness LOL! Sit down to watch the Golden Mickey’s with a BIG sigh of relief. Sorry to say, the end of the Preshow we caught was better than the actual show. Oh, well- DD6 liked seeing the characters.
After the show DD6 is more than happy to go to the club to fall asleep to movies- she is exhausted! Yay! Another adult’s night out- and we need it!! After a quick stop at the stateroom to get more comfortable clothes on (and get DD6 in Pj’s), we head up to see “Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer.” at 9:30pm. I think this may be held in the Theater on the Magic- and it’s probably a better show there- but on the Wonder it is in Studio Sea with limited seats! We came in a bit late and had to sit on the floor. They gave us slips of paper with numbers on it that they randomly choose contestants from. There are only 5 questions each and the first 3-4 are extremely easy. The game was over pretty quick and we headed over to Wavebands to catch Taylor Mason’s Adult Cabaret show. Hilarious!! If you don’t want to be part of the jokes sit in the back and arrive on time!!! One of our best times on the cruise After his act it was time for the 80’s dance party- we caught the first half hour or so then needed a break. Back to our room to read all of the navigators thoroughly for the next day (not going to make that mistake twice!) and wait until the kids want to be picked up. We fill out a room service door hanger (we want to be up early to get out to Castaway Cay as soon as they will let us!) and fall asleep at 1am.

This Trip Report thing is hard work! Takes a lot longer than I thought it would (doesn’t everything??)!

Here are some more Miscellaneous thoughts:
-Flounders- Our DS loved this place (and he his going through a “mommy” phase, so this is saying something- he has been known to scream his head off when we leave him for just a little bit). The only problem I have with Flounder’s is the TV time. I try to limit the amount he has at home- they pretty much always have it on. They do lots of other activities of course, and I guess if you want some free time on a cruise- beggars can’t be choosers! He really did enjoy it there and cried very little when we left him.
-And, if you have an active toddler, when they’re not in Flounders be prepared to walk the ship, go in and out of elevators and go up and down stairs, ALOT. Even a bag full of new toys did not stop ours from wanting to “get out and go!”
-Shutters- I was really scared that if we didn’t start buying the photos at Shutters that they would throw them away (I also went up to check- whenever we had free time- to stack all our family’s photos together. Didn’t want to take any chances!) . I asked the CM’s how the package deal worked if we didn’t have enough pictures to buy 10 yet ($84.95). She gave us a card and marked the number we bought. When we bought the rest they marked those and we kept the receipt in case we needed to make exchanges- which we did. Many, many times. Right up until we left the ship at 8:00am we exchanged photos). I was disappointed that the 8x10’s were $20 each though- asked if they could be made into 6x8’s so they could be part of the package but they said “that picture will still be $20 even at 6x8 size.” Oh, well. I guess they know we’ll pay it!
- Dress-up Night. This can get a little confusing if you have Triton’s on a “Cruise Casual” night (we happened to luck out!). I can tell you that I noticed a lot of suit jackets as I walked by the late seating in Tritons on a casual night- do with that what you will.

 

[Contrariwise]

Did I see a Taylor Mason reference?!

Is he a regular performer?! He's my favorite stand up comedian...great family oriented humor/ventriloquism!

That would be a great surprise if he's on these cruises often. Hmmm. How do I go about checking that out?

Anyway, great post. We're getting ready to go on our first cruise and I keep trying to tell DW not to schedule everything...maybe now she'll get it...

Taylor Mason did at least 3 shows on this cruise- One for Adults, one for the family in the Walt Disney Theater, and a "workshop." I missed the last two, unfortunately , but I know others who went & loved it (of course!). Supposedly he performs pretty regularly on these cruises!

And good luck with getting DW not to schedule- even after all this, I'll still have the need do it next time we go!

 

[STB ON THE BEACH]

Contrariwise, I want to tell you how thankful I am you are taking the time to write your report. It has truly been helpful. I have been forwarding them to my sister & her hubby who will have a ds(19 months), dd4, ds 6. Along with myself, dh, and our ds4. I know your time is very valuable - trying to sqeeze 36hours worth of things to do into a 24 hour day,,,,so they fact you are adding us to your to-do list is truly, truly appreciated!

 

[Contrariwise]

Contrariwise, I want to tell you how thankful I am you are taking the time to write your report. It has truly been helpful. I have been forwarding them to my sister & her hubby who will have a ds(19 months), dd4, ds 6. Along with myself, dh, and our ds4. I know your time is very valuable - trying to sqeeze 36hours worth of things to do into a 24 hour day,,,,so they fact you are adding us to your to-do list is truly, truly appreciated!

That is so sweet- thank you!! I'm glad this helps- I remember religiously reading trip reports before our cruise! And... it is a bit for me, too- I plan on printing this out to save for my scrapbooks It's nice to have such a detailed account to look back on!

 

[devotedchristian]

Another awesome report! My DS (2) is very active and I am SURE we would have chased him over the ship!

 

[Ker-Bear]

Looking forward to the rest of your report. Interested to see how Castaway Cay is!

 

[Jules123]

What a great report! You're hilarious! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Contrariwise]

3rd Day CASTAWAY CAY/PIRATE NIGHT
I had marked our room service breakfast time for 7:00am so they could be our wake-up call. They came and surprised us- it was early!! SO tired. The noise didn’t wake up any of the kids, and shaking them didn’t work either- this cruise had taken its toll on all of us! But I knew we had to get started soon (plans!!) so a lot of repeated poking and prodding got them ready for the day. We got off the ship at about 9:00am. We were so busy oohing and ahhing that we completely missed the place where they give out towels. This did not turn out well later on. We stop to get our picture taken (everyone in sunglasses, girls with their eyes completely closed- the photographer had them do this since they were making weird faces squinting at the sun! We bought it anyway- you can barely tell) and head toward the tram. I notice that the beach doesn’t seem too far away and that the tram had just left so I asked a CM “Is it a long walk to the family beach- do you think it’s worth it to wait for the tram?” he replies “No, no! It’s not to far, you don’t need the tram!” Alright!! BIG mistake (yeah, turns out I didn’t heed my own advice “ask more than one CM every time!”) So we walk. And walk. And walk. Tram passes us, we walk some more, and yes… some more. We come to the place where they have the strollers and wagons- THANK GOD. We put DD6 and DS in a wagon and walk a short distance to the first family beach entry. When we hit sand, as I suspected, the wagon became useless. Left it off to the side a bit- if someone else takes it, who cares. If it’s there when we leave, great. We find a spot and have beach time until about 10:30am. We will come back later, but DH and I have parasailing (woohoo!) at 11:30-12:30 so we need to get the kids settled so we can get there on time. We booked Flounders for 11am-1pm and that is back on the ship. We sunscreen DD8 & DD6 again, grab the wagon on the way out and take the girls to “Scuttle’s Cove”. Sign them in (place looks pretty fun!), easy enough. Head for the tram. Sooo much better than walking- ugh!! On the way we hear something about “the Captain not allowing any sandy feet/items back on the ship.” So we stop by the shower area right to the side of the ship (didn’t notice that on the way out… Oh, and there’s the towel place too! Whew! Newly wet baby on an air-conditioned ship didn’t sound pleasant). I needed to get a dry diaper on DS so I stripped him completely and stuck him under the shower. DH gets a diaper and dry outfit ready as I rinse him off and we get him all fixed up- great! Looks like we don’t even need to stop at the room, we can head straight to Flounders. Whoops! I was so busy with DS that I forgot to rinse off. Ok, just a little sand on my leg here… I’ll just slip under this faucet real quick. Oh NO! Yep, DS managed to dart under me and is now completely soaked on one side. Looks like a room trip after all! I am exasperated & exhausted and DH can see that, so he offers to take DS by himself to drop him off while I go to the meeting place and get us signed in. Ok, I’ll do that- thank you!!
I wait blissfully for him at the Marge’s Barges patio. Soon after he shows back up they call for the parasailing group. We have all been anxiously awaiting this and the excitement is palpable!! The woman in charge demonstrates the harness and what NOT to do with it (my husband later did this, and had a very uncomfortable ride). We are split up into 2 groups of 10. One will take the first boat and leave now; Two will leave as soon as their 2nd boat arrives from the last parasailing excursion- which is already 10 minutes overdue. Guess what group we’re in?? So we take a seat on the patio and wait. 20 minutes later the boat shows up (problem- some plastic got wrapped around the propeller, took awhile to fix). Our turn!! We’re told to leave everything on the dock, including our shoes (camera’s are ok though). The Captain says it’s a little too windy today so everyone on the boat over 150lbs needs to go tandem. This leaves me a little relieved since DH wanted to go separate (to “lengthen the experience.”) but I wanted to go together (so I “didn’t die alone”). Oh well, have to do what the captain says! Darn. DH and I go up- I screamed to whole time. No, I take that back. When I wasn’t screaming I was hyperventilating. I really didn’t want to ruin the whole experience for my DH (I know he wanted to enjoy the “peacefulness” he’d heard about) but I couldn’t help it! There was a lot of “Don’t touch me!’s” (he tried to rub my shoulder to comfort me) and “Stop moving!!! You might unhook something!’s” and your basic “Aaaaaaaaaaagh!’s”. I tried to throw in some “it’s so preeeeettyyyy!’s” to feign enjoyment but when your screaming it half-heartedly it doesn’t really have the same believability. We were one of the only ones who didn’t get dunked in the water at the end. The captains could see my fear. Overall it was fun though- I’d do it again (Yeah, I’m the same way with Rollercoasters- it’s a love/hate relationship). We pulled up to the dock at the same time as a glass bottom boat- FULL of people. Stepped onto the dock and really started to miss our shoes! The wood was HOT and the glass bottom people were SLOW!! DH and I resorted to light pushing and dodging through the crowd (“Sorry! Ouch, hot!! Sorry, no shoes! Excuse me, sorry!”) until we got to our shoes (“Ahhhhhh!”). Along with our shoes was our beach bag with our pager going off inside. Slight panic for a moment, but it was just DD8 wanting to be picked up at Grouper Pavilion. We ran into MIL on the dock (she was searching for FIL all morning. Castaway Cay- also a place where a 2 way radio would come in handy!!) She told us SIL picked up DD6 from the club and took her and her cousin to eat at Cookies. One kid taken care of. We decided to split up- DH would pick up DS at Flounders, I would pick up DD8 and we’d meet at Cookies to eat lunch. I didn’t know where Grouper Pavilion was so I asked some CM’s- and didn’t like the responses I got. “You go past the family beach, walk straight for awhile, past the ??, well after Cookies and it’s right past the bike rentals” Ok, that doesn’t sound close (and it wasn’t… AT ALL).
DD8 had already eaten, but when we arrived at Cookies she said she could stand to eat again. I went through the line twice to get food for all of us (since, as you may have noticed before- buffets don’t really work out well for our family of 5) and sat down. DD6 was already here with her cousin- she looked satisfied, happy, splotchy and tired. SIL explained how they acquired her: They were on their way to lunch when they spotted their child (DD5) and ours sitting at the tables getting ready to eat. Every single one of the kids were covered in sand and the counselors were handing out wet wipes to each of them to get it off. Problem was, they only gave them one each (and if you have ever tried to get sand off like this you know that it just grinds the sand into your skin and doesn’t get a bit of it off!) She said the girls just looked so sad & pitiful (DD6 is good at looking that way!!) that she had to rescue them I was glad. DH came limping up shortly after this looking very grumpy. He’d stubbed his toe on one of the benches just before he got on the tram. He’d still had an unexpectedly long walk here, and was fairly sure it was broken. Yup, bruised already, looks that way. This made the rest of the beach time very hard on me
Now, here’s what I’ll say for the food and service at Cookies. The service is great- very efficient! Since no one has to pay it’s just get in and get out. Many different stations for the same food, with very small lines for each. Drinks had a longer line but I liked the way it worked and don’t think it could be done better. Everyone had to keep going back to that one of course- so thirsty!! The food… it is good. But, I really just think the reason everyone fawns all over it is because they’ve been at the beach, in the hot sun and saltwater all day. You’re hungry and anything you eat at this time will taste delicious. And it did. Very happy with the ribs. I don’t think anyone walks away disappointed. The ice cream was cookie dough (also yummy) and the strawberry frozen yogurt was very fresh tasting. Think quality TCBY. Loved it! What could be better than all you can eat ice cream at the beach???
Toward the end of the meal DS was getting antsy as usual, so I made everyone hurry up so we could get to the beach. Sunscreened everyone again (I highly recommend Bullfrog Fast Spray- it does not need to be rubbed in and lasts longer than the new Continuous sprays. With 3 kids, fast is necessary. Just make sure you actually cover every area) and off we go. One step onto the sand and DH knows he’s not going far- you really don’t think about how much you use your pinky toe when walking in sand- he’s going to have to sit most of this out. We came upon a couple who was just about to leave their prime spot and they wholeheartedly offered it to us! They were so nice! They also gave us their floats- wow! Thanks! DH settles down for a long day in the shade and I take the kids to the water. DS played nicely with the sand on the edge of the water for a long time. The girls swam around for awhile, but pretty soon spotted the play structure. DD6 can’t swim well enough for me to be comfortable with that so I distracted her by offering the inner tube. DD8 went there with another cousin and my BIL went after them to supervise. After about 10 minutes we hear a lifeguard whistle out there and wonder what all the fuss is about. Doesn’t seem to be major. A photographer comes by and takes a few pictures of us in the water (these come out nice- I bought 2). A few minutes later I hear a scream that suspiciously sounds like DD8’s, but lifeguards take no notice so no worries. Here comes BIL and the girls. They loved their time there! Here’s where I’m going to tell the full story of what happened, even though I didn’t hear it until dinner that night (my daughter does not like it repeated):
The first lifeguard whistle was for DD8. She had let go of the rope and somehow landed unexpectedly face first in the water and didn’t come up quickly. Her cousin got the lifeguards attention, but BIL got to her first. She was coughing & sputtering and it took her a few minutes to recover, but she wanted to go back on. So they let her. She did it again a few minutes later. BIL was close by and snatched her up- only this time she’s swallowed a lot of water and she vomited ALL OVER HIM. Now this is gross yet funny because… fish swarmed instantly over them both to eat it. DD8 was freaked out (as was BIL!!!) but laughed hard at the fish. Yes, she even wanted to do it again, but this time BIL refused- LOL!! So, if you were wondering about dog food and snorkeling… I'm guessing it works much like the vomit!
We stayed at the beach until about 2:30-3:00pm- which is long enough for a ton of people to leave early and give your kids all sorts of rafts! On our way out this time I spotted showers by the gift shop and decided to use those instead of walking sandy to the ones next to the ship. DH sat on a rocking chair while I got all of the kids to rinse off. This was not easy, as I now know exactly how important DH’s contributions are to our outings After a long, hot day on Castaway Cay, it was a very long walk back to the ship. Once back on board all of us took a quick shower so we’d be refreshed for the rest of the day. We hung out in the room for while and just relaxed until dinner.
Now, the night before this DD8 got to make flubber in the Lab. The 5-7 year olds didn’t get to do this until today from 7:15- 8:15pm- not a great time since our dinner starts at 6:15 and takes awhile. So she and her cousin decided they would miss pirate night to eat with their club (flubber, apparently, is very important). DD8’s group only had a movie (“The Pacifier” a little too adult for my taste) and a dance party during this time, so she wanted to stay with us.
Dinner was at Tritons for Pirate night. This was our best meal in my opinion- though certainly not because of the entrées (maybe it was because DS was wiped out from the sun and passed out for the whole meal?). The menus are rolled up burnt- look paper, and you can keep them as souvenirs, so I know exactly what I had for this one. Appetizer: The Buccaneer's Sun Ripened Pineapple- a fancy slice of pineapple covered in orange glaze- it was very ripe, yum! Soup: Chilled-to-the-Bone Honeydew Melon and Mango Soup- I loved all of the chilled fruit soups. DH liked this too, but had to stop after the first few spoonfuls. He said it was too rich or something- so I finished it for him! Entrée: I ordered Capt n Hook's Coconut Crusted Oven Baked Snapper and it was just that. Not enough coconut or fish flavor for me though, I pushed it around my plate so I looked like I was eating (I hate being harassed by waiters!), and wished I had ordered what DH had: Jack Sparrow's Fruit Marinated Roasted Loin of Pork. He complained that it was dry, tasteless and the sauce tasted more like wine than fruit (and that’s how I like my pork! ). He ate it anyway though (also does not like to complain to waiters). Fortunately my FIL was in process of sending his back, so I stole his! I didn’t want to wait the 10 minutes for a new entrée when who knows when the baby would wake up! I made a plate of leftovers for DS just in case- cut up some of the pork and added veggies- we ended up taking this back to the room (they just give you a room service cap to put over it). I knew there was going to be a dessert buffet later on so I wanted to go light on the dessert. I ordered the Floating Island of Tropical Fruit Treasures- this was going to be a fruity night! It was a very small portion of fruits and orange sauce in a hard meringue treasure box. It was a very good end to the meal.
We dropped DD8 off with her lab and went back to the room to relax a bit. We knew Taylor Mason would be doing the show tonight but we were in desperate need of some down time and something had to go. Really wish it hadn’t been this though (we heard it was great, of course)! When his show was over we dropped DS off with our SIL for another adults night out. We wandered the ship, shutters shopped etc. and asked various CM’s when exactly the fireworks would be set off. We wanted to get DD6 and DS (DD8- again more interested in the Lab) and head up to deck 9 in time for them, but miss the long, drawn out show. The consensus was that the firework portion started at 10:30-10:45pm. We ended up catching more of the show than we wanted (& DD6 couldn’t see and wanted to be on our shoulders for way too long!). But they loved the fireworks and then immediately wanted to go to sleep LOL! Dropped them back off. Since we were near our room we thought we'd wait a little while for the dessert buffet line to die down. BIL stopped by to inform us they are closing it down very shortly- we ran up and got in line, guess it's not open for too long! We piled our plates high and decided we really couldn’t eat like this in front of people so we decided to bring it back to the room. On the way we passed Pluto’s… “you know, I could go for some chicken…” We each got some chicken fingers and headed back. The Boston Cream pie was ok, but the chicken fingers were really the only thing worth bringing back to the room.
This was our last night of freedom (the Sea Day night was our turn to watch the family toddlers) so I asked DH if there was anything he’d like to do. He seemed interested in the arcade, so we headed back up to deck 9. At the arcade we paid $10 for an arcade card and played a lot of race games and air hockey on a way-too-small table. We had fun
Picked up the kids and they fell asleep at 1am. I, on the other hand realized that tomorrow was our last day and there was still so much we hadn’t done! I needed to figure a way to fit it all in- so stayed up until 2am writing out a very detailed schedule for the day to come!!

 

[LucEeyore]

Can't wait to hear the rest of your report.