lillygator
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2003
- Messages
- 32,741
5/13 Wonder 3 night Cruise....
Day one.....
I am not quite sure how anything can top last nights dinner and fireworks at California Grill....but we awake and I go for a run around AKL and then DH takes his turn and goes for a run. (we have to take turns because we forgot the jogging stroller) We had express checkout so no need to stop at the front desk. We had bell services get the bags and load them for us. We opted to stop at Mcdonald's for breakfast on the way to the Port. We stopped at the one on Osceola..which was amazing...huge screen tv inside and everything! Then we were on our way. The ride didn't seem to take long at all...DH got turned around once as the signs are not too clear but no biggie. The whole time I am hoping DD will fall asleep and take a quick nap but no luck. I was rereading my Passporter and checking our documents. We pulled over the hill and WOW there was the port....the ship looked fabulous. I was so excited. We pulled up and a very nice woman explained to us that we would drop off our bags then pull over to the parking lot to park. We gave the porters our bags and paid the attendant for the parking fee. We took onboard the umbrella stroller, the video camera and one large bag which held misc items in. I changed DD one last time before heading in....
We stood in a small line to enter the terminal, where they scanned our luggage. Then we hit the elevators to the second floor where they check you in. Since this was our first cruise I had one of the employees go over my documents before we lined up to check in. Everything was fine. The line was not long at all...I couldn't even tell you the time....maybe 11am....the lady checking us in was extremely nice...gave us our KTTW cards and away we were. We had our picture taken with Capt Hook and DH went to stand in line. I took DD for a stroll.....she gets ancy easy and I wanted to avoid this. There is not much to see in the terminal area. I used the restroom and then got in line with DH. We werne't too far back in line but it seemed crowded and there were tons of anxious children. I was reading over the Navigator and it did say they would be boarding early....not sure if that was always on there or not. Shortly they opened the doors and after swiping our cards, having a picture taken, walking across the gangway...we were aboard. Unfortunately they did not announce us - as we walked on, two women were in front of us and they must have assumed we were together. We were whisked to Parrot Cay for lunch. I am happy about this as it was extremely windy outside. The buffet was excellent...we sat and enjoyed our lunch deciding what we were going to do.
After lunch we headed to the spa to make our appointments. Our goal was the couples massage. After being *forced* to do the tour we had to wait for another couple in front of us to make our appointment. We got a couples massage for 7pm that evening, we had the late seating and I figured we could make it to dinner by then. What a way to start out the cruise. I say *forced* because I asked if we HAD to do the tour and they said no..blah blah..and then I could see the manager basically saying go ahead and start the tour early with them and then they whisked us away. I could have been forceful and just said we want to make an appointment but I didn't feel like it.
After securing our booking, we headed for Flounders....we were the second family outside the door as they were not open yet. I gave my top three choices although we only ended up using them twice. Then we were off to check out our stateroom!
2502 was our room - a nice upgrade from the cat 11 we booked. Upon entering the room we were greated with a huge gift basket for DD and the Fairy Tale Cuvee romance pack for DH and I......yummmm......our luggage had arrived all but one piece....the piece with the Cokes and beer....I could tell DH was a little distraught. I called the front desk and they said not to worry unless it hasn't shown up by 6:30. We checked out the room, relaxed a little popped the champagne and let DD get into her basket. We all had our swimsuits on already so we headed up to the pool, the Mickey pool.
We found one lounge chair about 2 rows back from the pool....DH sat in that while I sat on the edge of the infamous Mickey ear. I grabbed whatever tropical drink was walking by and DH had a beer. DD did not enjoy having to stay only in that ear....we stayed for a little while and then had to get ready for the safety drill....oh what fun. Our drill met in the theatre (not sure which one), DD didn't have to wear one thankfully and it was a pretty painless experience.Next we headed up one deck above the sail away party deck so DD would be able to see everything....while we were waiting for an elevator ALL the characters were about to go onstage...it was nice to have them to ourselves for 5 minutes. I got a great shot of DH and Goofy. The party started and we pulled out of port right behind the Carnival Fantasy ( I think that was the name). After the festivites died down we decided to grab a quick bite at Pinochios - DH had a burger and I got chicken fingers for DD...we sat on the deck waving to Florida coastline munching on our goodies. The food there was typical walk up Disney style...then back to the room to get ready for our massage. The last bag was there wrapped in a big garbage...most of the beer bottles were broken and the cans were smushed. They must trow those suckers around because the bottles were wrapped in towels. Oh well now we know to bring a soft cooler with us onboard.
We both took DD to Flounder's by 6 and we arrived at Vista a little early for our appt...they took us early which was nice as we would have more time to get ready for dinner....we entered the tiny room and had our massages....they were very good....it was our first time! They did have a heavy sales pitch at the end and DH ended up buying a $50 bottle of tired muscle cream?? The massages were $242...and we gave them each a $20 tip...which is almost 15%, not sure what the customary amount is. We tried to pay for the cream with cash but it turned out to be such a hassle we put it on our account as well.
We went back down to our room and got ready for dinner. We had late seating with the APT rotation. We arrived at dinner - table 78, there was a highchair waiting for DD, I was almost in tears, but knew we could survive dinner without her. Our tablemates were very different. A mother, daughter and son. The son was 4 and the daughter just graduated from grad school. The conversation felt forced but oh well....dinner was very nice. Alit was our server and he was great. The asst server forgot to bring us our drinks....she was not so great and I never caught her name. DH and I both had the prime rib yummy!
We had to pick up DD by 10 so off we went to get her and she was having a blast....
I can't remember what we did the rest of the night!! How awful - I am going to have to check my notes when I get home to finish my post!
Day one.....
I am not quite sure how anything can top last nights dinner and fireworks at California Grill....but we awake and I go for a run around AKL and then DH takes his turn and goes for a run. (we have to take turns because we forgot the jogging stroller) We had express checkout so no need to stop at the front desk. We had bell services get the bags and load them for us. We opted to stop at Mcdonald's for breakfast on the way to the Port. We stopped at the one on Osceola..which was amazing...huge screen tv inside and everything! Then we were on our way. The ride didn't seem to take long at all...DH got turned around once as the signs are not too clear but no biggie. The whole time I am hoping DD will fall asleep and take a quick nap but no luck. I was rereading my Passporter and checking our documents. We pulled over the hill and WOW there was the port....the ship looked fabulous. I was so excited. We pulled up and a very nice woman explained to us that we would drop off our bags then pull over to the parking lot to park. We gave the porters our bags and paid the attendant for the parking fee. We took onboard the umbrella stroller, the video camera and one large bag which held misc items in. I changed DD one last time before heading in....
We stood in a small line to enter the terminal, where they scanned our luggage. Then we hit the elevators to the second floor where they check you in. Since this was our first cruise I had one of the employees go over my documents before we lined up to check in. Everything was fine. The line was not long at all...I couldn't even tell you the time....maybe 11am....the lady checking us in was extremely nice...gave us our KTTW cards and away we were. We had our picture taken with Capt Hook and DH went to stand in line. I took DD for a stroll.....she gets ancy easy and I wanted to avoid this. There is not much to see in the terminal area. I used the restroom and then got in line with DH. We werne't too far back in line but it seemed crowded and there were tons of anxious children. I was reading over the Navigator and it did say they would be boarding early....not sure if that was always on there or not. Shortly they opened the doors and after swiping our cards, having a picture taken, walking across the gangway...we were aboard. Unfortunately they did not announce us - as we walked on, two women were in front of us and they must have assumed we were together. We were whisked to Parrot Cay for lunch. I am happy about this as it was extremely windy outside. The buffet was excellent...we sat and enjoyed our lunch deciding what we were going to do.
After lunch we headed to the spa to make our appointments. Our goal was the couples massage. After being *forced* to do the tour we had to wait for another couple in front of us to make our appointment. We got a couples massage for 7pm that evening, we had the late seating and I figured we could make it to dinner by then. What a way to start out the cruise. I say *forced* because I asked if we HAD to do the tour and they said no..blah blah..and then I could see the manager basically saying go ahead and start the tour early with them and then they whisked us away. I could have been forceful and just said we want to make an appointment but I didn't feel like it.
After securing our booking, we headed for Flounders....we were the second family outside the door as they were not open yet. I gave my top three choices although we only ended up using them twice. Then we were off to check out our stateroom!
2502 was our room - a nice upgrade from the cat 11 we booked. Upon entering the room we were greated with a huge gift basket for DD and the Fairy Tale Cuvee romance pack for DH and I......yummmm......our luggage had arrived all but one piece....the piece with the Cokes and beer....I could tell DH was a little distraught. I called the front desk and they said not to worry unless it hasn't shown up by 6:30. We checked out the room, relaxed a little popped the champagne and let DD get into her basket. We all had our swimsuits on already so we headed up to the pool, the Mickey pool.
We found one lounge chair about 2 rows back from the pool....DH sat in that while I sat on the edge of the infamous Mickey ear. I grabbed whatever tropical drink was walking by and DH had a beer. DD did not enjoy having to stay only in that ear....we stayed for a little while and then had to get ready for the safety drill....oh what fun. Our drill met in the theatre (not sure which one), DD didn't have to wear one thankfully and it was a pretty painless experience.Next we headed up one deck above the sail away party deck so DD would be able to see everything....while we were waiting for an elevator ALL the characters were about to go onstage...it was nice to have them to ourselves for 5 minutes. I got a great shot of DH and Goofy. The party started and we pulled out of port right behind the Carnival Fantasy ( I think that was the name). After the festivites died down we decided to grab a quick bite at Pinochios - DH had a burger and I got chicken fingers for DD...we sat on the deck waving to Florida coastline munching on our goodies. The food there was typical walk up Disney style...then back to the room to get ready for our massage. The last bag was there wrapped in a big garbage...most of the beer bottles were broken and the cans were smushed. They must trow those suckers around because the bottles were wrapped in towels. Oh well now we know to bring a soft cooler with us onboard.
We both took DD to Flounder's by 6 and we arrived at Vista a little early for our appt...they took us early which was nice as we would have more time to get ready for dinner....we entered the tiny room and had our massages....they were very good....it was our first time! They did have a heavy sales pitch at the end and DH ended up buying a $50 bottle of tired muscle cream?? The massages were $242...and we gave them each a $20 tip...which is almost 15%, not sure what the customary amount is. We tried to pay for the cream with cash but it turned out to be such a hassle we put it on our account as well.
We went back down to our room and got ready for dinner. We had late seating with the APT rotation. We arrived at dinner - table 78, there was a highchair waiting for DD, I was almost in tears, but knew we could survive dinner without her. Our tablemates were very different. A mother, daughter and son. The son was 4 and the daughter just graduated from grad school. The conversation felt forced but oh well....dinner was very nice. Alit was our server and he was great. The asst server forgot to bring us our drinks....she was not so great and I never caught her name. DH and I both had the prime rib yummy!
We had to pick up DD by 10 so off we went to get her and she was having a blast....
I can't remember what we did the rest of the night!! How awful - I am going to have to check my notes when I get home to finish my post!
