We are back from our March 16th cruise. It was great seeing the faces behind the screen names. Our table mates were DIS board members, KathyTX from Texas. It was like were cruising with old friends!
The trip had a rough start with our plane being delayed in Des Moines for 3 hours. The entire plane missed their connections in St. Louis. Our TA was at our gate in DM and was in touch with DCL and American.(She was leaving on her trip and was surprised our plane was still there!) We ended up flying FIRST CLASS out of St. Louis at 7:00 PM. We told the kids, don't get use to this. We thought that was nice since we spent 7 hours in the St. L airport and had to miss spending our day at Epcot.
We arrived at the Airport Hyatt at 10:30 PM. Our luggage was waiting for us, it was on the 1:30 PM flight out of St. L. The Hyatt is getting more and more cruisers spending the night before sailing. They said they had a record number or rooms of DCL cruisers.
We arrived at the port a little before noon. We were on the ship close to 1:00 PM. Our luggage was close behind. All 7 checked bags were in our possession by 1:45 PM. That was a record. We had a great view of the new Carnival Pride, what a beautiful ship!
The funnel problem did disrupt the first 2 days (Sat. & Sun.) but all was well by Mon. The captain did a great job keeping us all informed of what was going on the entire cruise. We sailed late, 9:30 pm so our children got to experience sailing at night.
The wind, oh that wind. This was my 11th cruise, 4th on Disney but I never experienced gale force winds until this cruise. It was also a lot cooler than I expected. The weather did warm up nicely in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Castaway was great but the weather was not the best. We had overcast skies and a delay in docking because of a nasty storm. I heard one report of waterspouts in the storm so I am glad we were a little bit late. People were on the island just a little after 10:00 AM. The water temp at Castaway was a lot cooler than in August. So if you want warm water at Castaway Cay and warm temps I suggest summer cruising. We also felt the ship didn't feel as packed during this cruise as in August. The ship did have 2500 people but our August cruises felt a lot more crowded. Maybe people spent more time indoors?
I thought the food was the best we ever had. Our serving team was also the best we ever had. Gonzalo head server, Aleksandra server, Dennis her asst.
I can't report back on Palos or the spa area. We never do those and I will not pack our workout clothes since we never did that. And as usual I overpacked but this time of year I was not sure if we needed hot hot clothes, or clothes with sleeves etc.
I did have one small problem with our shower in our room, luke warm water and low water pressure. The handle on the shower control was also loose. I reported it to guest services and it was quickly fixed. I wondered if the previous cruisers just lived with it? If you have a problem report it because it will get fixed. Our room host did a great job. He made sure our small cooler was filled with ice twice a day and that I had lots of the wonderful choc. mints left on my pillow!
My husband and I felt the immigration in St. Thomas was a JOKE. The officials did not even read our passports or the kids birth cert's. Our 9 year old was off schedule the whole day because of the early morning waking. If they are going to do this for security then take it serious or else drop it. I will be sending our congressman a letter about it.
We are looking forword to trip No. 5 next March 15th. We are looking forword to the western cruise for a change of scenery. We even met people who are going again next Spring Break. Hopefully next year we will leave on time and won't have gale force winds! Happy Cruising to all and don't stress yourselves out on trip planning. This trip taught many people to go with the flow! Relax you are on vacation mon Kathy
The trip had a rough start with our plane being delayed in Des Moines for 3 hours. The entire plane missed their connections in St. Louis. Our TA was at our gate in DM and was in touch with DCL and American.(She was leaving on her trip and was surprised our plane was still there!) We ended up flying FIRST CLASS out of St. Louis at 7:00 PM. We told the kids, don't get use to this. We thought that was nice since we spent 7 hours in the St. L airport and had to miss spending our day at Epcot.
We arrived at the Airport Hyatt at 10:30 PM. Our luggage was waiting for us, it was on the 1:30 PM flight out of St. L. The Hyatt is getting more and more cruisers spending the night before sailing. They said they had a record number or rooms of DCL cruisers.
We arrived at the port a little before noon. We were on the ship close to 1:00 PM. Our luggage was close behind. All 7 checked bags were in our possession by 1:45 PM. That was a record. We had a great view of the new Carnival Pride, what a beautiful ship!
The funnel problem did disrupt the first 2 days (Sat. & Sun.) but all was well by Mon. The captain did a great job keeping us all informed of what was going on the entire cruise. We sailed late, 9:30 pm so our children got to experience sailing at night.
The wind, oh that wind. This was my 11th cruise, 4th on Disney but I never experienced gale force winds until this cruise. It was also a lot cooler than I expected. The weather did warm up nicely in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Castaway was great but the weather was not the best. We had overcast skies and a delay in docking because of a nasty storm. I heard one report of waterspouts in the storm so I am glad we were a little bit late. People were on the island just a little after 10:00 AM. The water temp at Castaway was a lot cooler than in August. So if you want warm water at Castaway Cay and warm temps I suggest summer cruising. We also felt the ship didn't feel as packed during this cruise as in August. The ship did have 2500 people but our August cruises felt a lot more crowded. Maybe people spent more time indoors?
I thought the food was the best we ever had. Our serving team was also the best we ever had. Gonzalo head server, Aleksandra server, Dennis her asst.
I can't report back on Palos or the spa area. We never do those and I will not pack our workout clothes since we never did that. And as usual I overpacked but this time of year I was not sure if we needed hot hot clothes, or clothes with sleeves etc.
I did have one small problem with our shower in our room, luke warm water and low water pressure. The handle on the shower control was also loose. I reported it to guest services and it was quickly fixed. I wondered if the previous cruisers just lived with it? If you have a problem report it because it will get fixed. Our room host did a great job. He made sure our small cooler was filled with ice twice a day and that I had lots of the wonderful choc. mints left on my pillow!
My husband and I felt the immigration in St. Thomas was a JOKE. The officials did not even read our passports or the kids birth cert's. Our 9 year old was off schedule the whole day because of the early morning waking. If they are going to do this for security then take it serious or else drop it. I will be sending our congressman a letter about it.
We are looking forword to trip No. 5 next March 15th. We are looking forword to the western cruise for a change of scenery. We even met people who are going again next Spring Break. Hopefully next year we will leave on time and won't have gale force winds! Happy Cruising to all and don't stress yourselves out on trip planning. This trip taught many people to go with the flow! Relax you are on vacation mon Kathy