Reflections On the Trip
First,
here are the Navigators from my sailing.
Now, this trip had 3 big things that we were evaluating. First, how it felt sailing for 7 days. Second, how it felt not sailing concierge. Third, how it felt sailing with a big group of Framily.
So, how was a longer cruise? Amazing. As my mom and I suspected, it was not too long at all. On the fourth night, we asked my dad if he was ready to get off the ship and he was shocked. He couldn't imagine that he'd ever felt like 4 nights was long enough. Also, we all agreed that sea days are amazing. So much relaxing and fun!
What about not being in concierge? It was great! We spent more time moving around the ship and seeing everything
DCL has to offer. We also found guest services to be amazingly helpful and efficient. Now, we made some very strategic choices like arriving after the crush of people on embarkation day. We also didn't head to guest services at any of the crazy busy times. In terms of debarkation, it was super smooth. In line by 8:30 on the curb by 9:00. How could you ask for more? I don't think we went any faster with concierge. Plus, for this trip, concierge would have been an extra $10k. Um, no.
Finally, let's talk about traveling in a big group. It was very fun and DD really liked knowing other kids on board. However, our dinner table was very big making it hard to have conversations. Also, we lost some of our family time since we were hanging out with everyone else. That's not a bad thing, but I did miss that time for just us. I would certainly do a big group trip again, but I would go into it with the understanding that I wouldn't be as relaxed at the end.
Odds & Ends
I was worried about the cabin on day 1, but we made the storage work. I missed the split bath a lot. The magic porthole was so fun though. At one point, DD told my parents she felt sorry for them because they had a verandah instead of a porthole.
Speaking of my daughter, I have to say cruising with her at this age (4 almost 5,) was a blast. We got to go to the shows and she really enjoyed the clubs. If a person knew they were only doing one cruise, I might say to wait until this age. She was able to do so many things but was still eager to spend time with us during the day too. We both had a lot of fun doing FE. I think I'll only drop once in Alaska though since we will have so many busy port days.
Room service. We loved room service. Breakfast, cookies, it was great. I still haven't tried the All Hands on Deck.
So, is it a thing that the Assistant Servers are always more personable? Every cruise this has been true for us. Our regular servers have all been good, but the assistants are the ones who really connect with us. It makes me wonder if it's intentional.
What next?
Alaska in just over a week!!! And hey, I managed to finish this before we left. YES. Go me.
ALso, we booked an Eastern on the Fantasy for next July. We have the 7A directly above where we were this year and the regular verandah that connects to it. We all love sea days so much that it made sense to do that itinerary.
If we assume we complete that cruise in addition to Alaska, that would make us gold. We would also have sailed on all the current ships other than the Magic. Can you see where I'm going with this? Yeah, my guess is that we will explore late 2018 while we are on board the Wonder. If nothing else, we will book a placeholder. We've also said a Merry Time cruise would be interesting.
So, there you have it. Thanks for reading along. I really enjoyed reliving my vacation here. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!