almost there
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2002
- Messages
- 3
Just got back from our cruise, because of all the information that everyone put out on these boards we had a very smooth trip and saved some money too. I want to help others as we received so much..so here is a short trip report with my input and some that I didn't find detailed in others:
We used Tiffany town cars to get to the ship. Shirley was excellent. She stopped at a drugstore for me to run in quickly as I forgot 2 things.
We got to the port around 11:00 and got right in. There was only one person in front of us and we got checked in very quickly. Then we went to the line in front of the entrance for the ship. I should have had my husband go stand on line as soon as they saw his id, but I wasn't aware of the second line. There were only about 50 people in front of us. They let us on the ship before 12:30 and my husband went to turn off the kids charge privledges and I went to sign up for Palos. We were both done within 5 minutes and headed up to the Mickey pool.
It was cold out, but the pool was warm. All pools were kept at at least 77 degrees. The mickey was always around 84 degrees. We were the only ones in at the time and the slide was closed. It opened about 20 minutes later. The kids got a lot of the slide in as we had heard that it got crowded later in the cruise (which was very true). Once I walked by the Mickey pool and all you could see was little heads everywhere. it was packed.
KEY WEST:
The week was pretty cold. Our first stop was Key West. We did the trolley rides. You can book them online. It is 10% off the regular price (which is cheaper than the Disney excursion price). You just print out the ticket and it is good for up to one year from the date of printing. You can pretty much wait until the last minute to decide and then print them. It was very easy to just show the eticket and get the tickets you need to board.
Mallory Square was very cool. The acts were great and are located behind all the stores right on the water. Because of the cold they all stopped right after sunset.
Grand Cayman:
Captain Marvins was great. We did the 3 hour excursion with our 4 and 7 year old. The 4 year old stayed on the boat the whole time, but was happy to be there. It was choppy at the first stop so the 7 year old stayed on the boat too. The second stop he came in the water, but soon wanted to get out, I told him I would gladly take him back to the boat after he stuck his head under once. After a few minutes of arguing, he stuck his head under and he was off towards the fish. He even got to see a Moray Eel.
Stingray city was a little overwhelming, but very cool. It was wavy so it was hard to stand still. The stingrays were everywhere. My 7 year old didn't last very long and I too left once because there were so many. The videographer lets you see the tape on the way back to the dock so you can decide if you want to purchase it. It came out great and we're looking forward to getting it within the next 2 weeks.
We had Captain Marvin arrange for a taxi to take us to the turtle farm. They taxi was waiting for us when we got in to the dock. It was $10 each (instead of $15 at the docks). The guide took us to the turtle farm, to Hell, and then took us to a restaurant to try turtle (we just took out a meal). He was great!
The Shopping in Paradise guide said that you could buy duty free liquor at Turtuga's. This is untrue. Disney won't allow them to send the purchases on board. After asking a bunch of people we found that you can buy duty-free liquor at Shellections. Which was located right at the pier. When we got off the ship and walked to the street, it's a little place on your right. The rum was around $9 per bottle.
Cozumel:
We went to the miniature golf that we had read about on the boards. It was great. The place was very nicely kept and the lizards were so cool. We all had a great time. We then put the kids on the ship and went shopping. You really need to dicker there. I wanted this wood round calendar and the first place I saw it in had only one and said it was $850 USD. Needless to say we walked out and I found it elsewhere for $180, which I managed to get for $70, so it went down a lot. The people hound you outside of the stores, if you've never been to something like that it's overwhelming, though I like the bargaining.
I had heard people say it was a great place to shop for jewelry, but upon looking I found it expensive. I think it's cheap for those coming from Europe, but I have a jewler in NY that gives 40% off MSRP on watches and in Cozumel they were only giving 20% off. Needless to say we didn't buy jewelry.
I really like tequila and found the prices very expensive. We even took a 15 minute walk to a liquor store only to find it was pricey. We ended up buying it on the ship.
A lot of people we spoke to on the ship took taxi's to Chakanaab and loved it. They had a great day there. Not one person had anything bad to say about it. We probably should have gone, but we were using this as our one place to get shopping in.
Castaway Cay:
We didn't get to go. We hit a storm on Thursday afternoon and never made . Very disappointing, but Disney did a great job with indoor activities. Free drinks and characters everywhere. The kids were just as happy being inside with all the fun.
DAY CAMP:
It's everything everyone says. If you go to one Mickey activity a day they give each kid a special gift at the end. It really got the kids motivated to go and they loved it. I don't want to give it all away, but the activities were great and the kids were very excited.
They let my 4 year old go into the 5-7 group with his brother (he had 2 more months until he was 5). They didn't even question it, but did make me sign something saying it was on a trial basis to make sure he could keep up with what they were doing. He did fine with it all week. I would have had a lot of problems if they were split. It made it very easy to put them in as long as they were together.
The counselors were really nice and very fun.
Sickness:
We saw one family get kicked off in Key West. They were given a free cruise for another time. The mother said the son just had too many hot dogs, but Disney was not taking a chance. Disney was very into cleanliness at the start of the trip. I heard a few more people were given the choice of leaving. Our server also told us that they had a room were the kids that were sick could go so they didn't infect the rest of the camp.
I did see one other girl sick with the flu.
Then a friend of mine's daughter came down with a fever for a couple of days. On Thursday night my son got the fever and a lot of the kids were coughing. He was a trooper and still saw some shows, but slept a lot.
Needless to say on the plane ride home I started feeling ill and the next day my Husband was sick. We both stayed home Monday and Sunday I had laid there all day. The only thing that helped was Codine. I'm still not feeling too well.
Disney got mroe lax with the cleanliness as the week went on. You were allowed to scoop the food onto your plate 1/2 way through the cruise and they stopped giving you wipes with each meal.
Do I think that is what caused the sickness, probably not. There's just a lot of people in a small space. The cruise line was constantly cleaning the rails and glass outside.
Onboard tips:
If you bring a Disney item, or plain t-shirt to guest services you can get them signed by all the characters. We heard you can get items signed so in Cozumel we bought t-shirts only to find out that they had to be blank or be Disney. Next time I would buy plain t-shirts and bring them with me. Disney was very accommodating and I did get t-shirts signed, just not the ones I purchased.
I was in a Cat 6 room and found there was a lot of storage space. We bought a behind the door shoe rack with us, but didn'd need it. There was a lot of space to put stuff. I was amazed at how they fit it all in.
There was nothing bettet than sleeping with the verandah door open and hearing the sound of the ocean every night.
Food:
Palos is not to be missed. The High Tea was excellent as was the dinner. The fried calamari was the best I ever had. The service was outstanding.
As for the rest of the meals, some were very good, some just ok. If you like fish to be cooked rare, you must tell them or it is very well done. I didn't like the meals in Parrot Cay, but was told that only one kitchen cooked each night, so it might have just been the choices those nights.
The room service was good. It took 20-2 minutes to get.
The liquor at the duty free on board was very reasonable. A bottle of tequila 1800 was around $18, Chambord was $14 (usually $30 in CT.)
Getting back to the airport:
We rented a car from Avis for the day. This was very easy. There were no lines. I jumped on an Avis shuttle at the port (you can also use the Radisson shuttle) and as long as I brought my Key to the World card I got right back into the port to get my family. It was also an easy drop-off at the airport.
This is what I can remember for now. It was a great time and we booked the Eastern Cruise for 12/04. Hope I helped!
We used Tiffany town cars to get to the ship. Shirley was excellent. She stopped at a drugstore for me to run in quickly as I forgot 2 things.
We got to the port around 11:00 and got right in. There was only one person in front of us and we got checked in very quickly. Then we went to the line in front of the entrance for the ship. I should have had my husband go stand on line as soon as they saw his id, but I wasn't aware of the second line. There were only about 50 people in front of us. They let us on the ship before 12:30 and my husband went to turn off the kids charge privledges and I went to sign up for Palos. We were both done within 5 minutes and headed up to the Mickey pool.
It was cold out, but the pool was warm. All pools were kept at at least 77 degrees. The mickey was always around 84 degrees. We were the only ones in at the time and the slide was closed. It opened about 20 minutes later. The kids got a lot of the slide in as we had heard that it got crowded later in the cruise (which was very true). Once I walked by the Mickey pool and all you could see was little heads everywhere. it was packed.
KEY WEST:
The week was pretty cold. Our first stop was Key West. We did the trolley rides. You can book them online. It is 10% off the regular price (which is cheaper than the Disney excursion price). You just print out the ticket and it is good for up to one year from the date of printing. You can pretty much wait until the last minute to decide and then print them. It was very easy to just show the eticket and get the tickets you need to board.
Mallory Square was very cool. The acts were great and are located behind all the stores right on the water. Because of the cold they all stopped right after sunset.
Grand Cayman:
Captain Marvins was great. We did the 3 hour excursion with our 4 and 7 year old. The 4 year old stayed on the boat the whole time, but was happy to be there. It was choppy at the first stop so the 7 year old stayed on the boat too. The second stop he came in the water, but soon wanted to get out, I told him I would gladly take him back to the boat after he stuck his head under once. After a few minutes of arguing, he stuck his head under and he was off towards the fish. He even got to see a Moray Eel.
Stingray city was a little overwhelming, but very cool. It was wavy so it was hard to stand still. The stingrays were everywhere. My 7 year old didn't last very long and I too left once because there were so many. The videographer lets you see the tape on the way back to the dock so you can decide if you want to purchase it. It came out great and we're looking forward to getting it within the next 2 weeks.
We had Captain Marvin arrange for a taxi to take us to the turtle farm. They taxi was waiting for us when we got in to the dock. It was $10 each (instead of $15 at the docks). The guide took us to the turtle farm, to Hell, and then took us to a restaurant to try turtle (we just took out a meal). He was great!
The Shopping in Paradise guide said that you could buy duty free liquor at Turtuga's. This is untrue. Disney won't allow them to send the purchases on board. After asking a bunch of people we found that you can buy duty-free liquor at Shellections. Which was located right at the pier. When we got off the ship and walked to the street, it's a little place on your right. The rum was around $9 per bottle.
Cozumel:
We went to the miniature golf that we had read about on the boards. It was great. The place was very nicely kept and the lizards were so cool. We all had a great time. We then put the kids on the ship and went shopping. You really need to dicker there. I wanted this wood round calendar and the first place I saw it in had only one and said it was $850 USD. Needless to say we walked out and I found it elsewhere for $180, which I managed to get for $70, so it went down a lot. The people hound you outside of the stores, if you've never been to something like that it's overwhelming, though I like the bargaining.
I had heard people say it was a great place to shop for jewelry, but upon looking I found it expensive. I think it's cheap for those coming from Europe, but I have a jewler in NY that gives 40% off MSRP on watches and in Cozumel they were only giving 20% off. Needless to say we didn't buy jewelry.
I really like tequila and found the prices very expensive. We even took a 15 minute walk to a liquor store only to find it was pricey. We ended up buying it on the ship.
A lot of people we spoke to on the ship took taxi's to Chakanaab and loved it. They had a great day there. Not one person had anything bad to say about it. We probably should have gone, but we were using this as our one place to get shopping in.
Castaway Cay:
We didn't get to go. We hit a storm on Thursday afternoon and never made . Very disappointing, but Disney did a great job with indoor activities. Free drinks and characters everywhere. The kids were just as happy being inside with all the fun.
DAY CAMP:
It's everything everyone says. If you go to one Mickey activity a day they give each kid a special gift at the end. It really got the kids motivated to go and they loved it. I don't want to give it all away, but the activities were great and the kids were very excited.
They let my 4 year old go into the 5-7 group with his brother (he had 2 more months until he was 5). They didn't even question it, but did make me sign something saying it was on a trial basis to make sure he could keep up with what they were doing. He did fine with it all week. I would have had a lot of problems if they were split. It made it very easy to put them in as long as they were together.
The counselors were really nice and very fun.
Sickness:
We saw one family get kicked off in Key West. They were given a free cruise for another time. The mother said the son just had too many hot dogs, but Disney was not taking a chance. Disney was very into cleanliness at the start of the trip. I heard a few more people were given the choice of leaving. Our server also told us that they had a room were the kids that were sick could go so they didn't infect the rest of the camp.
I did see one other girl sick with the flu.
Then a friend of mine's daughter came down with a fever for a couple of days. On Thursday night my son got the fever and a lot of the kids were coughing. He was a trooper and still saw some shows, but slept a lot.
Needless to say on the plane ride home I started feeling ill and the next day my Husband was sick. We both stayed home Monday and Sunday I had laid there all day. The only thing that helped was Codine. I'm still not feeling too well.
Disney got mroe lax with the cleanliness as the week went on. You were allowed to scoop the food onto your plate 1/2 way through the cruise and they stopped giving you wipes with each meal.
Do I think that is what caused the sickness, probably not. There's just a lot of people in a small space. The cruise line was constantly cleaning the rails and glass outside.
Onboard tips:
If you bring a Disney item, or plain t-shirt to guest services you can get them signed by all the characters. We heard you can get items signed so in Cozumel we bought t-shirts only to find out that they had to be blank or be Disney. Next time I would buy plain t-shirts and bring them with me. Disney was very accommodating and I did get t-shirts signed, just not the ones I purchased.
I was in a Cat 6 room and found there was a lot of storage space. We bought a behind the door shoe rack with us, but didn'd need it. There was a lot of space to put stuff. I was amazed at how they fit it all in.
There was nothing bettet than sleeping with the verandah door open and hearing the sound of the ocean every night.
Food:
Palos is not to be missed. The High Tea was excellent as was the dinner. The fried calamari was the best I ever had. The service was outstanding.
As for the rest of the meals, some were very good, some just ok. If you like fish to be cooked rare, you must tell them or it is very well done. I didn't like the meals in Parrot Cay, but was told that only one kitchen cooked each night, so it might have just been the choices those nights.
The room service was good. It took 20-2 minutes to get.
The liquor at the duty free on board was very reasonable. A bottle of tequila 1800 was around $18, Chambord was $14 (usually $30 in CT.)
Getting back to the airport:
We rented a car from Avis for the day. This was very easy. There were no lines. I jumped on an Avis shuttle at the port (you can also use the Radisson shuttle) and as long as I brought my Key to the World card I got right back into the port to get my family. It was also an easy drop-off at the airport.
This is what I can remember for now. It was a great time and we booked the Eastern Cruise for 12/04. Hope I helped!
