Casey's mom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2000
Cruisers:
Me: 35
DH:45
DD5: 5-1/2
DD4: 4
We returned on Easter Sunday from a wonderful trip on the Magic and I really had a tough time going to work on Monday! We flew from NY (LGA) to MCO on Friday, March 22nd. My in-laws (snowbirds who spend the winter in Jensen Beach) picked us up at the airport and drove us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I wanted to check out this hotel as my kids love animals (we visit the Bronx Zoo frequently) and my DD5 liked the pictures of the slide. It was a great place to stay the night. Not the most spacious rooms frankly and the lighting was too dark for us, but jumping out of the pool and seeing giraffes snacking in nearby trees was a big hit with my girls! Arriving around 2pm, there were few animals close to the hotel outside our savannah balcony, but by 4:30 or 5 and again in the morning, there were TONS of animals (ankole cattle, bongos, zebras and giraffes, among others) not far from our room.
The next morning, I hit the gym (nice gym and another Magic cruiser thought so too as I saw a woman there who I later saw some mornings in the gym on the ship) then got the kids up for a quick breakfast. My in-laws drove us to the ship and headed back to their winter home a few hours south. Security was quite strict we were not allowed to drive close to the terminal for a drop off because 2 passengers in the car were not going on the cruise (my in-laws). I thought this was a little over the top, but not a huge deal. We stopped across the street in the parking lot and a porter was there to take our bags to the ship.
We checked in quickly on the Castaway Club line (shortest line!). I asked if they had any higher category cabins available (which I would have paid to upgrade to), but was told they did not. The ship was really full! We had a Cat. 6 on the port side just forward of the midship elevators (Cabin 6048). It was a great spot! Very convenient just a few decks down to the kids clubs and restaurants and a few decks up to the pools/snack bars/gym etc. I tried to take the stairs as much as I could to compensate for the fact that I ATE SO MUCH FOOD! Our cabin steward was Marlon and I hope his boss reads these boards because he was excellent! He was always very polite and friendly. Our room was always clean, our ice bucket was always full and he made us a new and more spectacular towel animal each day, which thrilled my kids. One day we even got a huge lobster that required towels and a blanket. It stretched across most of the width of our bed!
Anyway, once on board, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Topsiders buffet. The food was pretty good, but this was not one of my favorite meals of the trip (I ate a lot of the chicken fingers, fries and fruit for lunch many days). The bummer for the early afternoon was that Mickeys pool was closed as the crew was doing some fire repair work and a large crane was extended over the real funnel. The funnel looked pretty beaten up frankly the exterior red portions, particularly on the port side, were really warped up top and most of the smokestacks (or whatever you call them) extending from the red funnel looked burned or charred. The captain made an announcement that night about the fire and that the damage was merely cosmetic (rather than structural). I dont doubt it, but it looked like there had been a real fire up there. You could hear and see people working on this area of the ship throughout the cruise.
Midway through lunch (around 12:45), I got up and walked up one deck to Palo and made reservations for dinner (Sunday) and brunch (Monday). I was back at our table within 4 minutes - -no waiting no stress!!!! After lunch, we signed the kids up for the kids programs (which they both LOVED), my DH went to the spa to make some ressies for himself (I wasnt interested) and DH took the girls swimming in Goofys pool while I took a nap (!!). I took the kids up for the sailaway party. Midway through, DD4 (as was the case on our previous two Wonder cruises) fell asleep. I took her back to the room, left her with DH and returned to the party with DD5. It was cute but loud and so a little overwhelming for my DD. All of our bags arrived by the time I returned and we changed for dinner.
Our rotation was PLAPLAP, which didnt thrill me because I was hoping to avoid Parrot Cay but wanted to go to our main rotation the first night to meet our servers and, most importantly, eat with our kids! We had early seating, which was a necessity with our kids as they were often exhausted by then (although the kids club always seemed to give them a second wind). DD4 fell asleep at the table the last 2 nights. No way she could have made it to an 8:30 dinner. Our servers were Karl from Jamaica and Andrej (I think he was from Croatia). They were very nice. I sometimes felt like some nights we were served slower than other groups of diners, but I couldnt tell if that was the fault of our servers or just the order of how the kitchen served things. It was no big deal, but was certainly something we took note of. Our head server was Christophe from France. He was also very nice stopped by our table every night and asked how things were going, if we had any problems with the service we were receiving etc. The two nights we ate at Palo, he actually called our stateroom to check in with us, confirm we were eating at Palo and asked if our kids would be eating in the dining room without us.
Our dinner that night was just OK I think the menu just didnt appeal to me. I had a chicken wing and potsticker appetizer. My DD5 ate my wings and we left the rest. I had the roasted chicken for a main course. The kids got the fruit plate with sorbet from the adult menu then a main course from the kids menu. DH didnt love the menu and just ordered a regular steak, which he though was great. It came with a baked potato, which DD5 wanted to eat, and broccoli, which DD4 devoured. Karl then brought DD5 her own baked potato, which she loved. We got the more expensive wine package, which we really enjoyed throughout the week, although we rarely finished a bottle of wine in the course of one dinner. We are not big drinkers, but having the package let us choose from some nice wines during the week. I doubt it was any great savings, but we did try some good wines we otherwise would not have tried.
The kids were desperate to get to the club after dinner for the welcome festival, so we dropped them off and went to the variety show. It was fun not the greatest entertainment of the week, but we enjoyed it. After the show, it took a half hour (at least) to get the kids out of the club. DD5 was playing at a table with playdoh (making aliens) and I found DD4 in the bathroom trying to clean shaving cream (?) off herself. They had a table covered with it and evidently it is really fun to play with if you are 4 or 5. Neither of them wanted to leave. It was nice to see them playing with other kids and enjoying themselves. They had a lot of fun at the clubs during the week. More often than not when I went to check in on the kids to see if they wanted to leave they wanted to stay. It often happened just before 10 at night though when DH and I were ready to crash and they kids were begging for a little more time at the club.
Sunday, 3/24 Visited the gym a few minutes after 7am and it was packed! I had a nice conversation with a pastry chef from the Contemporary Steakhouse. We ate breakfast at Lumieres, which was nice, but it was the only day we opted for the sit-down breakfast. The buffet food at Topsiders was fine and much easier for us. After breakfast, the kids went to the clubs and we went to the Art of Entertaining series where Martin the chef chopped leeks, sliced cucumbers, sautéed shrimp and basically made a lovely looking appetizer that I could never hope to duplicate in a million years. They gave each of us a sample of the dish and some wine. I thought the most interesting part was a visit from the ships sommelier, who told us about the wine he chose to go with the appetizer. I didnt drink the wine (it was 10:45 am after all!), but just smelling it you could pick up a lot of the characteristics he described. We didnt see any more of this series, but this episode was well done.
I took the kids to the character autograph session then we hit the pools for much of the afternoon. Im sure I squeezed in a nap at some point too (!) before ordering room service for the kids (after waking them up from their naps). Then they went to the clubs DD4 to search for Tinkerbell and DD5 to explore gasses in action in the lab. We ate dinner at Palo!!! Our server was Jerry from Greece. We started with salads not the most exciting item on the menu, but I need my greens. I had the filet mignon special and DH had some kind of stuffed chicken breast. They were both great! We had the soufflés for dessert, but instead of the vanilla sauce, Jerry brought us a bowl of vanilla ice cream. It was amazing! As it was formal night, the attire ran the gamut. DH wore a jacket and tie with nice pants and I wore a dress. Others were far more casual and others showed up in tuxes and gowns. I dont think it mattered much. We had a great time. As our ressie was for 7:30pm, we missed Hercules. I guess we could have caught part of the show, but we had seen it twice on our two Wonder cruises and didnt want to rush out of Palos. After dinner, we put on comfy clothes and walked a few laps around deck 4 I needed a little activity after all that food. The lounge chairs on that deck are really comfortable great for reading or just hanging around. On our stroll, we walked by a number of people sound asleep in them! We picked the kids up a little after 10 they had just returned from a showing of Monsters Inc.
Monday, 3/25 We lost an hour of sleep last night with the time change, which meant the gym was not quite as crowded at usual. We then had breakfast at Topsiders, finishing a little before 10. We dropped the kids off at the clubs (at their request) so DD4 could be a mouseketeer in training and DD5 could be in some wacky relays. We had brunch at Palo scheduled for 11:45, but I cancelled it as I was too stuffed from breakfast to eat again 1.5 hours later. We read books and relaxed for the rest of the morning. Both girls ate with the kids club. I picked up DD4 during quiet time her least favorite time in the club. They put the little kids on mats after lunch and have them lie down and rest watching cartoons. That was boring, as far as she was concerned. DD5 left the club around 1 and we all went swimming. I had some lunch, DH got a 1pm massage at the spa (which he enjoyed) and the kids and I did some more swimming. DD5 went back to the clubs at little after 2 for some pirate stories and games and refused to come out for dinner she ate with the kids. That was another bonus of the clubs since the kids liked to go so much, it allowed us to have some good one-on-one time with each of our kids without worrying that the other DD was missing out on something as everyone was happy. It also gave the kids something to do other than fry their skin in the sun on the pool deck. Around 4pm, DD4 said she wanted to go see Snow Dogs. The theater was very crowded, but we found some seats up front and, of course, within 15 minutes, DD4 was sound asleep. It was not a great movie, but it was reasonably funny, so we stayed anyway.
Dinner on Monday was in Animators Palate. We sat right next to one of the big screens, which was broken (bummer), but enjoyed the show anyway. I had the Caesar salad and the maple glazed salmon (both excellent). DH had some lobster/shrimp roll and roasted chicken. DD4 had a steak (adult menu) and broccoli just about her favorite dinner in the world!! DD4 and I both had Mickey bars for dessert. We dropped DD4 at the club after dinner, walked around for a while and checked out the Morty the Magnificent show. Maybe this show got better, but we lasted about 20 minutes and left to pick up the kids and crash.
Tuesday, 3/26 (St. Maarten) I woke up early, cruised around deck 10 then into the gym. I watched a RCCL ship dock across from us at the pier its very interesting to watch a big ship like that maneuver. We had breakfast and got off the ship some time after 9 and took the water taxi across to the beach. We had no big plans for the day. We just rented some beach chairs, bounced on the trampoline and hung out for a few hours. It was a little annoying having to tell people that my DDs did not want their hair braided over and over, but the women were just trying to make a living, so I couldnt be too rude. It started to rain late morning. We huddled under the umbrella hoping it would pass, but it didnt seem to, so we scrambled back to the pier, took the water taxi back, and by the time we got back to the ships dock, it was beautiful again. We had lunch on the ship and spent some time swimming with the girls. DD5 went to the club (again at her request anyone seeing at pattern here?) for some eggsperiments. I came back to pick her up around 3:30, but her group was in Studio Sea playing a musical Disney trivia game that was very well done. The boys competed against the girls for gold coins and bragging rights. The host would cue the producer in the sound booth to play a song from a Disney movie and would then ask a question about it. One boy and one girl at a time were up on stage and had to ring a cow bell if they knew the answer. Winner got a coin for their team. Around 3:30pm, DD3 asked if she could eat dinner with the kids, so a little after 4 I went up to Palo to see if they had any room for dinner. They fit us in at 6. (perfect) We both had salads and soufflés with vanilla ice cream (again). I had a salmon filet on a bed of Arborio risotto with some pesto sauce around the edges of the plate. I was in complete heaven! DH had the filet mignon, which he loved as well. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and had a very quiet, relaxing dinner. Our server was Kristian (sp? - -I though there was a j in his name) from Croatia and he was great. The kids saw Return to Neverland with the kids clubs and we picked them up in the middle of the Goofy Giggle Gala/Pumbas PJ parties. They were both exhausted. DD5 had spent close to 7 straight hours at the club and I was feeling really guilty (regardless of the fact that I could not get her to leave). I also missed her the highlight of my vacations is spending a lot of time with the kids, so I was actually a little sad that they enjoyed the clubs so much and kept asking to go there .
Wednesday, 3/27 (St. Thomas) We got up a little before 7 and headed to the Walt Disney theater for the infamous immigrations check in. It was brutally early for the kids but reasonably fast, I have to say. We had a quick breakfast then caught a cab to Red Hook and the 9am ferry to St. John. We took a taxi to Trunk Bay. It is a beautiful beach, but by late morning it was really crowded. I would have chosen a less traveled beach (like Hawksnest Bay), but I wanted to make sure we had bathroom facilities etc. (important with little ones). It worked out fine. By 11:30 or so, DD4 was starting to look pink and as much as I would have liked to stay, I wanted to get her out of the sun. Nothing worse than a 4 year old with a bad burn, and I wanted to avoid it at all costs. We got a cab back to the ferry and sprinted for the noon ferry it was actually pulling away, but they stopped and waited for us to run down the pier and hop on (hurray!). We had lunch on the ship then just tried to rest and keep the kids out of the sun. DD5 went to the club to learn to draw Mickey Mouse and DD4 stayed with me until around 3 when she went to club and DH and I walked across the pier to the mall to do a little shopping. I bought a very nice watch that I had had my eye on for a long time.
I checked in on the kids when we returned (around 4:30) and DD4 wanted to eat with the kids so DD5 came to Lumieres with us. DH had the beef, which he liked. I had the sea bass, which I thought was much better on the Wonder last year. It just wasnt that great. DD5 and I had Mickey bars for dessert (yes, I did have Mickey bars every night in the dining rooms). The ships officers were roaming the dining room during dinner introducing themselves to the guests. The captain came to our table and we had a nice chat with him. We never made it to the various events where the captain/other officers attend (Castaway Club party, captains cocktail parties etc.), so this was our first time meeting him. DD5 went to the club for an hour after dinner to make 3D glasses while DD4 danced with Snow White. During the hour while the kids were in the clubs, we walked down to the clubs on deck 3 to see what was going on. We never made it to any of the late night adult activities/parties. We were always too tired and were usually asleep by 10:15 or so. We stopped in for the cabaret show time with a juggler named Rick Novell. This was the family show and it was very funny. There were a lot of kids in the audience. I know mine would have enjoyed this show. After juggling knives on a ladder, the guy wound up on a unicycle with a little boy from the audience on his shoulders. All I could think of was not my kid! We didnt make it to enough of these little shows as there were never enough hours in the day! After the comedy/juggling show, I picked up DD5 at 8:15 for the Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer Show, but DD4 wanted to stay where she was.
DD5 was very excited about this show as we had talked about it before the trip saying we were going to win a cruise. We sat in row G, seats 6, 7 and 8 and seats G1-5 were open, so I figured if any of those seats were picked, DD5 would be a contestant (she was in G6). The first contestant was from Row D and when the computer picked row G next, I almost couldnt breathe. Yes you guessed it Casey was picked as a contestant!!!! I had to go up with her, but she was sitting in the hot seat and was the real contestant. The $20 and $40 questions were easy. The questions got hard then Disney movie with the song Sister Suffragette, Disney movie with the character Aladar (Casey knew that one no problem). We had a disagreement over the movie with the march of the pink elephants she said Jungle Book and I said Dumbo. We had to use a lifeline to settle it, which was too bad. Once she got past $80, she got to keep it at least that much. She answered the $100 question on her own and we lost on the $125 question as I forgot that Angelina Jolie had been in a Disney movie (Tomb Raider). Casey was just thrilled about the whole experience and wants to do it again on our next cruise! I told her I was sorry we didnt win the cruise and she said she thought the lucky part was just getting picked. We visited the gift shop after the show was over and she chose a Minnie Mouse watch and two pins for herself with her winnings.
Thursday, 3/28 Thursday was another great day! Today was our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. The food was the usual sit down breakfast food so it was pretty good. The downside was that the characters were really rushed through the room. We have done a number of character dinners at WDW restaurants and most times the characters will linger at your table long enough for some hugs/friendly hellos, an autograph and a picture or two before they move on to the next table. At this breakfast, the characters were whisked to our table, a quick picture was taken and the character ran off. My girls tried to climb out of their chairs once to hug Minnie Mouse and the CM started barking at them not to get out of their chairs Minnie was standing behind their chairs and the ships photographer was ready to snap the pic and run. I have not figured out why it seems so much more rushed than a crowded restaurant at WDW, but it clearly was. That being said, I dont think the kids cared. They met Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale and Pluto was standing at the entrance, so we got some nice pictures with him (not at all rushed) when we left. DD5 visited the kids club for the last time to make flubber. It was a sticky mess. She wanted to take it with her when she left and I made a few excuses to leave it there. DD4 was done with the clubs as well. I was happy about this as I wanted to have 2 solid days with the girls. We went swimming, ate lunch by the pool and spent some time in the room reading. It was a much warmer and calmer day than our previous two sea days which I thought were very windy. The seas were never really rough, but those first days, the water in the pool was sloshing around a lot due to the movement of the ship and it was even a little chilly at times.
I got the girls dressed early (around 5) to go get some nice pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie in their formal attire. We had our second dinner at Animators. DD4 ordered mac and cheese and DH ordered the lobster. I had a salad and some shrimp for an appetizer. I dont generally like shrimp, but this was great! I ordered the steak and DD5, sitting next to me, ordered the lobster. We split our dinners and had some surf and turf! YUM! DD4 fell asleep in her chair before dessert. She looked very comfortable and content. DD5 and I had Mickey bars for dessert. DH took DD4 back to the room and so he missed Disney Dreams. Too bad! DD5 and I loved this show! We crashed immediately thereafter.
Friday, 3/29 -- The time changed last night (we got our hour back), so the gym was mobbed at 7am. We had breakfast as the ship backed into Castaway Cay. We packed ourselves up and headed out shortly after they started letting people off the ship. I really wanted a hammock, but we just were not moving quickly enough. However, we found a nice spot with some chairs and a big umbrella. I rented one blue float and we all had a great day. We built a big castle and went swimming. The water was certainly chillier than it had been off St. Maarten and St. John, but still OK. It was a little cloudy in the morning, but the clouds eventually disappeared and it was a beautiful day. We had lunch sometime after noon burgers, chips, fruit and cookies. We went back to the beach for a little while then went back to the ship. They were too tired to go do the Discover the Magic show (the kids grand finale), so we just relaxed until dinner. Our last night was in Parrot Cay with the small world menu. It was a very enthusiastic crowd that honored all the servers and their countries. We had fun, but my dinner was just OK. DH had the prime rib, which he said was great. I had fettucine alfredo, that I thought was a little watery. DD4 fell asleep before dessert again. We stopped in Shutters to buy pictures and went to the room to pack and go to bed. We were all too tired for the show.
Saturday, 3/30 We woke up around 6:30am, got dressed and had breakfast on deck 9 around 7am. We finished around 7:30, went pack to our room to pick up our carryon bags and walked down to deck 3 to wait for our chance to get off the ship. We waited less than 10 minutes and they let us off. We grabbed a porter, got our bags and walked out and across the street to where a Happy limo was picking us up. We were out there waiting around 7:55am. Our car came a little after 8 and took us to the Polynesian Resort. We checked in (room not ready yet), dropped off our bags and headed to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. OK the Saturday of Easter weekend yes, it was mobbed. We were there before 10 and following a search of our bag at the gate, we picked up a stroller and did some rides until 2ish. DH and DD5 headed back to the Poly for some swimming around 1:30 and DD4 and I made it back about 30 minutes later. The new pool at the Poly is very nice and the slide is fun (if a little dark). The pool was really crowded. The occupancy sign says 110 people max, but there were far more people than that in the pool it looked like the Mickey pool on the ship. It was a very hot day though so we didnt care. Following a late afternoon snooze, we had dinner at OHana at the hotel and relaxed in the room for a while. I made a quick trip back to the lobby to put together Easter baskets for the girls, which I picked up on Sunday morning. They had some ready-made baskets, but for $5 they gave you an empty basket, which I filled with stuff (not much candy, just a hat each, a plate, cookies, pretzels, Pez and some chocolate coins). The baskets were beautifully arranged and wrapped when I picked them up and the girls were very excited that the Easter bunny knew where to find them. Following some early morning nightmares about flying (yes, I was in NYC on 9/11 and it left its mark on my psyche) and an early breakfast, we met the characters in the lobby (Minnie, Baloo, King Louie and Prince John), got some fun pictures and waved goodbye to the Poly. A Happy limo picked us up around 8:45 and took us to the airport for our 11:05am flight back to NY.
We really had a great trip! It was a good mix of activity, rest, beach time and play time. Im not sure when we will be cruising again (2003 or 2004), but I would like to try the Western Caribbean cruise as I have never been to Cozumel or the Caymans. Any negatives I mentioned in this report were minor I just thought I would pass them along so that people dont have completely unrealistic expectations of perfection when they set out on their cruise. Id be happy to answer any questions.
Me: 35
DH:45
DD5: 5-1/2
DD4: 4
We returned on Easter Sunday from a wonderful trip on the Magic and I really had a tough time going to work on Monday! We flew from NY (LGA) to MCO on Friday, March 22nd. My in-laws (snowbirds who spend the winter in Jensen Beach) picked us up at the airport and drove us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I wanted to check out this hotel as my kids love animals (we visit the Bronx Zoo frequently) and my DD5 liked the pictures of the slide. It was a great place to stay the night. Not the most spacious rooms frankly and the lighting was too dark for us, but jumping out of the pool and seeing giraffes snacking in nearby trees was a big hit with my girls! Arriving around 2pm, there were few animals close to the hotel outside our savannah balcony, but by 4:30 or 5 and again in the morning, there were TONS of animals (ankole cattle, bongos, zebras and giraffes, among others) not far from our room.
The next morning, I hit the gym (nice gym and another Magic cruiser thought so too as I saw a woman there who I later saw some mornings in the gym on the ship) then got the kids up for a quick breakfast. My in-laws drove us to the ship and headed back to their winter home a few hours south. Security was quite strict we were not allowed to drive close to the terminal for a drop off because 2 passengers in the car were not going on the cruise (my in-laws). I thought this was a little over the top, but not a huge deal. We stopped across the street in the parking lot and a porter was there to take our bags to the ship.
We checked in quickly on the Castaway Club line (shortest line!). I asked if they had any higher category cabins available (which I would have paid to upgrade to), but was told they did not. The ship was really full! We had a Cat. 6 on the port side just forward of the midship elevators (Cabin 6048). It was a great spot! Very convenient just a few decks down to the kids clubs and restaurants and a few decks up to the pools/snack bars/gym etc. I tried to take the stairs as much as I could to compensate for the fact that I ATE SO MUCH FOOD! Our cabin steward was Marlon and I hope his boss reads these boards because he was excellent! He was always very polite and friendly. Our room was always clean, our ice bucket was always full and he made us a new and more spectacular towel animal each day, which thrilled my kids. One day we even got a huge lobster that required towels and a blanket. It stretched across most of the width of our bed!
Anyway, once on board, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Topsiders buffet. The food was pretty good, but this was not one of my favorite meals of the trip (I ate a lot of the chicken fingers, fries and fruit for lunch many days). The bummer for the early afternoon was that Mickeys pool was closed as the crew was doing some fire repair work and a large crane was extended over the real funnel. The funnel looked pretty beaten up frankly the exterior red portions, particularly on the port side, were really warped up top and most of the smokestacks (or whatever you call them) extending from the red funnel looked burned or charred. The captain made an announcement that night about the fire and that the damage was merely cosmetic (rather than structural). I dont doubt it, but it looked like there had been a real fire up there. You could hear and see people working on this area of the ship throughout the cruise.
Midway through lunch (around 12:45), I got up and walked up one deck to Palo and made reservations for dinner (Sunday) and brunch (Monday). I was back at our table within 4 minutes - -no waiting no stress!!!! After lunch, we signed the kids up for the kids programs (which they both LOVED), my DH went to the spa to make some ressies for himself (I wasnt interested) and DH took the girls swimming in Goofys pool while I took a nap (!!). I took the kids up for the sailaway party. Midway through, DD4 (as was the case on our previous two Wonder cruises) fell asleep. I took her back to the room, left her with DH and returned to the party with DD5. It was cute but loud and so a little overwhelming for my DD. All of our bags arrived by the time I returned and we changed for dinner.
Our rotation was PLAPLAP, which didnt thrill me because I was hoping to avoid Parrot Cay but wanted to go to our main rotation the first night to meet our servers and, most importantly, eat with our kids! We had early seating, which was a necessity with our kids as they were often exhausted by then (although the kids club always seemed to give them a second wind). DD4 fell asleep at the table the last 2 nights. No way she could have made it to an 8:30 dinner. Our servers were Karl from Jamaica and Andrej (I think he was from Croatia). They were very nice. I sometimes felt like some nights we were served slower than other groups of diners, but I couldnt tell if that was the fault of our servers or just the order of how the kitchen served things. It was no big deal, but was certainly something we took note of. Our head server was Christophe from France. He was also very nice stopped by our table every night and asked how things were going, if we had any problems with the service we were receiving etc. The two nights we ate at Palo, he actually called our stateroom to check in with us, confirm we were eating at Palo and asked if our kids would be eating in the dining room without us.
Our dinner that night was just OK I think the menu just didnt appeal to me. I had a chicken wing and potsticker appetizer. My DD5 ate my wings and we left the rest. I had the roasted chicken for a main course. The kids got the fruit plate with sorbet from the adult menu then a main course from the kids menu. DH didnt love the menu and just ordered a regular steak, which he though was great. It came with a baked potato, which DD5 wanted to eat, and broccoli, which DD4 devoured. Karl then brought DD5 her own baked potato, which she loved. We got the more expensive wine package, which we really enjoyed throughout the week, although we rarely finished a bottle of wine in the course of one dinner. We are not big drinkers, but having the package let us choose from some nice wines during the week. I doubt it was any great savings, but we did try some good wines we otherwise would not have tried.
The kids were desperate to get to the club after dinner for the welcome festival, so we dropped them off and went to the variety show. It was fun not the greatest entertainment of the week, but we enjoyed it. After the show, it took a half hour (at least) to get the kids out of the club. DD5 was playing at a table with playdoh (making aliens) and I found DD4 in the bathroom trying to clean shaving cream (?) off herself. They had a table covered with it and evidently it is really fun to play with if you are 4 or 5. Neither of them wanted to leave. It was nice to see them playing with other kids and enjoying themselves. They had a lot of fun at the clubs during the week. More often than not when I went to check in on the kids to see if they wanted to leave they wanted to stay. It often happened just before 10 at night though when DH and I were ready to crash and they kids were begging for a little more time at the club.
Sunday, 3/24 Visited the gym a few minutes after 7am and it was packed! I had a nice conversation with a pastry chef from the Contemporary Steakhouse. We ate breakfast at Lumieres, which was nice, but it was the only day we opted for the sit-down breakfast. The buffet food at Topsiders was fine and much easier for us. After breakfast, the kids went to the clubs and we went to the Art of Entertaining series where Martin the chef chopped leeks, sliced cucumbers, sautéed shrimp and basically made a lovely looking appetizer that I could never hope to duplicate in a million years. They gave each of us a sample of the dish and some wine. I thought the most interesting part was a visit from the ships sommelier, who told us about the wine he chose to go with the appetizer. I didnt drink the wine (it was 10:45 am after all!), but just smelling it you could pick up a lot of the characteristics he described. We didnt see any more of this series, but this episode was well done.
I took the kids to the character autograph session then we hit the pools for much of the afternoon. Im sure I squeezed in a nap at some point too (!) before ordering room service for the kids (after waking them up from their naps). Then they went to the clubs DD4 to search for Tinkerbell and DD5 to explore gasses in action in the lab. We ate dinner at Palo!!! Our server was Jerry from Greece. We started with salads not the most exciting item on the menu, but I need my greens. I had the filet mignon special and DH had some kind of stuffed chicken breast. They were both great! We had the soufflés for dessert, but instead of the vanilla sauce, Jerry brought us a bowl of vanilla ice cream. It was amazing! As it was formal night, the attire ran the gamut. DH wore a jacket and tie with nice pants and I wore a dress. Others were far more casual and others showed up in tuxes and gowns. I dont think it mattered much. We had a great time. As our ressie was for 7:30pm, we missed Hercules. I guess we could have caught part of the show, but we had seen it twice on our two Wonder cruises and didnt want to rush out of Palos. After dinner, we put on comfy clothes and walked a few laps around deck 4 I needed a little activity after all that food. The lounge chairs on that deck are really comfortable great for reading or just hanging around. On our stroll, we walked by a number of people sound asleep in them! We picked the kids up a little after 10 they had just returned from a showing of Monsters Inc.
Monday, 3/25 We lost an hour of sleep last night with the time change, which meant the gym was not quite as crowded at usual. We then had breakfast at Topsiders, finishing a little before 10. We dropped the kids off at the clubs (at their request) so DD4 could be a mouseketeer in training and DD5 could be in some wacky relays. We had brunch at Palo scheduled for 11:45, but I cancelled it as I was too stuffed from breakfast to eat again 1.5 hours later. We read books and relaxed for the rest of the morning. Both girls ate with the kids club. I picked up DD4 during quiet time her least favorite time in the club. They put the little kids on mats after lunch and have them lie down and rest watching cartoons. That was boring, as far as she was concerned. DD5 left the club around 1 and we all went swimming. I had some lunch, DH got a 1pm massage at the spa (which he enjoyed) and the kids and I did some more swimming. DD5 went back to the clubs at little after 2 for some pirate stories and games and refused to come out for dinner she ate with the kids. That was another bonus of the clubs since the kids liked to go so much, it allowed us to have some good one-on-one time with each of our kids without worrying that the other DD was missing out on something as everyone was happy. It also gave the kids something to do other than fry their skin in the sun on the pool deck. Around 4pm, DD4 said she wanted to go see Snow Dogs. The theater was very crowded, but we found some seats up front and, of course, within 15 minutes, DD4 was sound asleep. It was not a great movie, but it was reasonably funny, so we stayed anyway.
Dinner on Monday was in Animators Palate. We sat right next to one of the big screens, which was broken (bummer), but enjoyed the show anyway. I had the Caesar salad and the maple glazed salmon (both excellent). DH had some lobster/shrimp roll and roasted chicken. DD4 had a steak (adult menu) and broccoli just about her favorite dinner in the world!! DD4 and I both had Mickey bars for dessert. We dropped DD4 at the club after dinner, walked around for a while and checked out the Morty the Magnificent show. Maybe this show got better, but we lasted about 20 minutes and left to pick up the kids and crash.
Tuesday, 3/26 (St. Maarten) I woke up early, cruised around deck 10 then into the gym. I watched a RCCL ship dock across from us at the pier its very interesting to watch a big ship like that maneuver. We had breakfast and got off the ship some time after 9 and took the water taxi across to the beach. We had no big plans for the day. We just rented some beach chairs, bounced on the trampoline and hung out for a few hours. It was a little annoying having to tell people that my DDs did not want their hair braided over and over, but the women were just trying to make a living, so I couldnt be too rude. It started to rain late morning. We huddled under the umbrella hoping it would pass, but it didnt seem to, so we scrambled back to the pier, took the water taxi back, and by the time we got back to the ships dock, it was beautiful again. We had lunch on the ship and spent some time swimming with the girls. DD5 went to the club (again at her request anyone seeing at pattern here?) for some eggsperiments. I came back to pick her up around 3:30, but her group was in Studio Sea playing a musical Disney trivia game that was very well done. The boys competed against the girls for gold coins and bragging rights. The host would cue the producer in the sound booth to play a song from a Disney movie and would then ask a question about it. One boy and one girl at a time were up on stage and had to ring a cow bell if they knew the answer. Winner got a coin for their team. Around 3:30pm, DD3 asked if she could eat dinner with the kids, so a little after 4 I went up to Palo to see if they had any room for dinner. They fit us in at 6. (perfect) We both had salads and soufflés with vanilla ice cream (again). I had a salmon filet on a bed of Arborio risotto with some pesto sauce around the edges of the plate. I was in complete heaven! DH had the filet mignon, which he loved as well. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and had a very quiet, relaxing dinner. Our server was Kristian (sp? - -I though there was a j in his name) from Croatia and he was great. The kids saw Return to Neverland with the kids clubs and we picked them up in the middle of the Goofy Giggle Gala/Pumbas PJ parties. They were both exhausted. DD5 had spent close to 7 straight hours at the club and I was feeling really guilty (regardless of the fact that I could not get her to leave). I also missed her the highlight of my vacations is spending a lot of time with the kids, so I was actually a little sad that they enjoyed the clubs so much and kept asking to go there .
Wednesday, 3/27 (St. Thomas) We got up a little before 7 and headed to the Walt Disney theater for the infamous immigrations check in. It was brutally early for the kids but reasonably fast, I have to say. We had a quick breakfast then caught a cab to Red Hook and the 9am ferry to St. John. We took a taxi to Trunk Bay. It is a beautiful beach, but by late morning it was really crowded. I would have chosen a less traveled beach (like Hawksnest Bay), but I wanted to make sure we had bathroom facilities etc. (important with little ones). It worked out fine. By 11:30 or so, DD4 was starting to look pink and as much as I would have liked to stay, I wanted to get her out of the sun. Nothing worse than a 4 year old with a bad burn, and I wanted to avoid it at all costs. We got a cab back to the ferry and sprinted for the noon ferry it was actually pulling away, but they stopped and waited for us to run down the pier and hop on (hurray!). We had lunch on the ship then just tried to rest and keep the kids out of the sun. DD5 went to the club to learn to draw Mickey Mouse and DD4 stayed with me until around 3 when she went to club and DH and I walked across the pier to the mall to do a little shopping. I bought a very nice watch that I had had my eye on for a long time.
I checked in on the kids when we returned (around 4:30) and DD4 wanted to eat with the kids so DD5 came to Lumieres with us. DH had the beef, which he liked. I had the sea bass, which I thought was much better on the Wonder last year. It just wasnt that great. DD5 and I had Mickey bars for dessert (yes, I did have Mickey bars every night in the dining rooms). The ships officers were roaming the dining room during dinner introducing themselves to the guests. The captain came to our table and we had a nice chat with him. We never made it to the various events where the captain/other officers attend (Castaway Club party, captains cocktail parties etc.), so this was our first time meeting him. DD5 went to the club for an hour after dinner to make 3D glasses while DD4 danced with Snow White. During the hour while the kids were in the clubs, we walked down to the clubs on deck 3 to see what was going on. We never made it to any of the late night adult activities/parties. We were always too tired and were usually asleep by 10:15 or so. We stopped in for the cabaret show time with a juggler named Rick Novell. This was the family show and it was very funny. There were a lot of kids in the audience. I know mine would have enjoyed this show. After juggling knives on a ladder, the guy wound up on a unicycle with a little boy from the audience on his shoulders. All I could think of was not my kid! We didnt make it to enough of these little shows as there were never enough hours in the day! After the comedy/juggling show, I picked up DD5 at 8:15 for the Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer Show, but DD4 wanted to stay where she was.
DD5 was very excited about this show as we had talked about it before the trip saying we were going to win a cruise. We sat in row G, seats 6, 7 and 8 and seats G1-5 were open, so I figured if any of those seats were picked, DD5 would be a contestant (she was in G6). The first contestant was from Row D and when the computer picked row G next, I almost couldnt breathe. Yes you guessed it Casey was picked as a contestant!!!! I had to go up with her, but she was sitting in the hot seat and was the real contestant. The $20 and $40 questions were easy. The questions got hard then Disney movie with the song Sister Suffragette, Disney movie with the character Aladar (Casey knew that one no problem). We had a disagreement over the movie with the march of the pink elephants she said Jungle Book and I said Dumbo. We had to use a lifeline to settle it, which was too bad. Once she got past $80, she got to keep it at least that much. She answered the $100 question on her own and we lost on the $125 question as I forgot that Angelina Jolie had been in a Disney movie (Tomb Raider). Casey was just thrilled about the whole experience and wants to do it again on our next cruise! I told her I was sorry we didnt win the cruise and she said she thought the lucky part was just getting picked. We visited the gift shop after the show was over and she chose a Minnie Mouse watch and two pins for herself with her winnings.
Thursday, 3/28 Thursday was another great day! Today was our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. The food was the usual sit down breakfast food so it was pretty good. The downside was that the characters were really rushed through the room. We have done a number of character dinners at WDW restaurants and most times the characters will linger at your table long enough for some hugs/friendly hellos, an autograph and a picture or two before they move on to the next table. At this breakfast, the characters were whisked to our table, a quick picture was taken and the character ran off. My girls tried to climb out of their chairs once to hug Minnie Mouse and the CM started barking at them not to get out of their chairs Minnie was standing behind their chairs and the ships photographer was ready to snap the pic and run. I have not figured out why it seems so much more rushed than a crowded restaurant at WDW, but it clearly was. That being said, I dont think the kids cared. They met Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale and Pluto was standing at the entrance, so we got some nice pictures with him (not at all rushed) when we left. DD5 visited the kids club for the last time to make flubber. It was a sticky mess. She wanted to take it with her when she left and I made a few excuses to leave it there. DD4 was done with the clubs as well. I was happy about this as I wanted to have 2 solid days with the girls. We went swimming, ate lunch by the pool and spent some time in the room reading. It was a much warmer and calmer day than our previous two sea days which I thought were very windy. The seas were never really rough, but those first days, the water in the pool was sloshing around a lot due to the movement of the ship and it was even a little chilly at times.
I got the girls dressed early (around 5) to go get some nice pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie in their formal attire. We had our second dinner at Animators. DD4 ordered mac and cheese and DH ordered the lobster. I had a salad and some shrimp for an appetizer. I dont generally like shrimp, but this was great! I ordered the steak and DD5, sitting next to me, ordered the lobster. We split our dinners and had some surf and turf! YUM! DD4 fell asleep in her chair before dessert. She looked very comfortable and content. DD5 and I had Mickey bars for dessert. DH took DD4 back to the room and so he missed Disney Dreams. Too bad! DD5 and I loved this show! We crashed immediately thereafter.
Friday, 3/29 -- The time changed last night (we got our hour back), so the gym was mobbed at 7am. We had breakfast as the ship backed into Castaway Cay. We packed ourselves up and headed out shortly after they started letting people off the ship. I really wanted a hammock, but we just were not moving quickly enough. However, we found a nice spot with some chairs and a big umbrella. I rented one blue float and we all had a great day. We built a big castle and went swimming. The water was certainly chillier than it had been off St. Maarten and St. John, but still OK. It was a little cloudy in the morning, but the clouds eventually disappeared and it was a beautiful day. We had lunch sometime after noon burgers, chips, fruit and cookies. We went back to the beach for a little while then went back to the ship. They were too tired to go do the Discover the Magic show (the kids grand finale), so we just relaxed until dinner. Our last night was in Parrot Cay with the small world menu. It was a very enthusiastic crowd that honored all the servers and their countries. We had fun, but my dinner was just OK. DH had the prime rib, which he said was great. I had fettucine alfredo, that I thought was a little watery. DD4 fell asleep before dessert again. We stopped in Shutters to buy pictures and went to the room to pack and go to bed. We were all too tired for the show.
Saturday, 3/30 We woke up around 6:30am, got dressed and had breakfast on deck 9 around 7am. We finished around 7:30, went pack to our room to pick up our carryon bags and walked down to deck 3 to wait for our chance to get off the ship. We waited less than 10 minutes and they let us off. We grabbed a porter, got our bags and walked out and across the street to where a Happy limo was picking us up. We were out there waiting around 7:55am. Our car came a little after 8 and took us to the Polynesian Resort. We checked in (room not ready yet), dropped off our bags and headed to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. OK the Saturday of Easter weekend yes, it was mobbed. We were there before 10 and following a search of our bag at the gate, we picked up a stroller and did some rides until 2ish. DH and DD5 headed back to the Poly for some swimming around 1:30 and DD4 and I made it back about 30 minutes later. The new pool at the Poly is very nice and the slide is fun (if a little dark). The pool was really crowded. The occupancy sign says 110 people max, but there were far more people than that in the pool it looked like the Mickey pool on the ship. It was a very hot day though so we didnt care. Following a late afternoon snooze, we had dinner at OHana at the hotel and relaxed in the room for a while. I made a quick trip back to the lobby to put together Easter baskets for the girls, which I picked up on Sunday morning. They had some ready-made baskets, but for $5 they gave you an empty basket, which I filled with stuff (not much candy, just a hat each, a plate, cookies, pretzels, Pez and some chocolate coins). The baskets were beautifully arranged and wrapped when I picked them up and the girls were very excited that the Easter bunny knew where to find them. Following some early morning nightmares about flying (yes, I was in NYC on 9/11 and it left its mark on my psyche) and an early breakfast, we met the characters in the lobby (Minnie, Baloo, King Louie and Prince John), got some fun pictures and waved goodbye to the Poly. A Happy limo picked us up around 8:45 and took us to the airport for our 11:05am flight back to NY.
We really had a great trip! It was a good mix of activity, rest, beach time and play time. Im not sure when we will be cruising again (2003 or 2004), but I would like to try the Western Caribbean cruise as I have never been to Cozumel or the Caymans. Any negatives I mentioned in this report were minor I just thought I would pass them along so that people dont have completely unrealistic expectations of perfection when they set out on their cruise. Id be happy to answer any questions.
