Annie_has_4
The Happy Cruiser
- Joined
- May 10, 2001
We had an amazing time.
Everything went smooth from start to finish. We had little to no security wait at the airports. Not to say they didn't check, because they did, but the were efficient with it, IMHO.
We stayed at the CBR for our 3 night land portion. We were in Aruba. It was very nice, clean, and centrally located. There was a bus stop right outside our doors, and a short walk over to Port Royale. My only complaint was that when my dh went to make coffee the next morning, there were price stickers on the bags of coffee!!! Give me a break! Needless to say, we didn't make coffee in the room.
The parks were very crowded. But, we got to see and do quite a lot. The stroller congestion was enormous, and we had 2 of them!
Unfortunately, at MGM we were just about to go see the movie on Walt Disney and my 3 year old HAS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! If she had only waited, I would have known the 2 answers we didn't know on the Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer Show!
The DCL has a great last day deal for those on the 3/4 package. On your last day, since you do not leave the grounds until 12:30-12:45, you can go to the Animal Kingdom on the last day starting at 7:45 am and take the bus from there to the cruise ship. You just take your carry ons to the park, they check them for you so you don't have to carry them around the park, and then you pick them up again before you load the bus to the ship. WE LOVED THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. We really could have spent the whole day, but got to do some highlights, like the safari and the train ride.
When we arrived at the ship, a CM came on to welcome us and then let us know the Carters were going to be on our ship. The process of getting on the ship was smooth. There was a tad bit of a wait, but the sniffing dog and extra security was worth the wait. WHAT A MAGNIFICENT SHIP! We were in a Cat. 11, but it was just fine. I do not like tight spaces, so I made sure it was picked up all the time, but the lack of a port hole was not a problem at all. We had cabin 5001, one of the right to left cabins, not front to back. It seemed bigger than other family members across the hall, ie 5008, that were front to back catagory 8's. Deck 5 is a great deck.
It was our 13th anniversary the first night. They had a cake for us at dinner, and our room steward June from the Phillipines GAVE us a bottle of Champagne. He was sooooo sweet. Our severs were great. We loved Claire from England. Oral was great too. And we found the food to be wonderful everywhere even considering we ate at Palo's the first night! I had read so many complaints about the buffet, that their kids didn't like it and wondered where the hotdogs and burgers were coming from, that I made sure we got the burgers and dogs. BIG MISTAKE. We then saw the buffet, and realized we should have checked it out first. Not that the burgers and dogs were not good, they were, but the Beachblanket Buffet was always wonderful, breakfast and lunch.
The kids enjoyed their clubs, and the 9 month old did great in the nursery. I only used it twice, but they were great both times.
We went to the Blue Lagoon Island off Nassau. It was lovely. It was overcast most of the time, and the water is cool this time of year, but we had a very relaxing time. It poured on our way back and due to the 9-11 security, they have moved everyone off the docks and no water taxis are allowed, so we had a 10 minute hike in the pouring rain to get back to the boat, but what is a little water!!!
We didn't leave the boat in Freeport, except to go to the Straw Market across from the ship and got my son a pucca shell necklace and my 3 yo dd a piglet straw bag with her name on it!
Castaway Cay is gorgeous. They day started out great, but the clouds finally won around 2-2:30 and it sprinkled as we all headed back to the ship. But, we had a marvelous time. They brought drinks to the chairs, which was a good thing, because DH was building sandcastles with DS DD and DD, and baby DD was asleep in her stroller next to me, so I couldn't go get one! The lunch was good and so was the music. When the sun came out, the water was sooooooo gorgeous.
The photographers from Shutters are amazing. Don't worry about your family reunion photos. They can handle any number of people. We had 27.5 of us! And they took our pics in no time and they came out wonderful. In fact, all of their pics throughout the whole trip were so good, we spent almost $200 in pics, and that was with the discounts! I HAVE ONE SUGGESTION ON BUYING THE 6X8 PICS, BUY THE FRAMES FOR THEM ONBOARD. It is almost impossible to find 6x8 frames here. So, I will be checking the net for was to buy the DCL frames from home!
The shows were all great. Disney Dreams on the last night was really neat. I can see why it wins so many awards. I didn't get to see many others, myself, chasing after 4 kids. But, other family members saw about all between us, and the concensous was that that they were GREAT! I got to be a panelist for the Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer? show. I had a ball. We got 3 of the 5 questions right. As stated earlier in trip report, had my 3yoDD not needed to go to the bathroom before I got to see the Walt Disney movie at MGM, I would have known those 2 q's also!!
The NYE parties were spectacular. They had the ship decked and man did we rock and roll. The music was great and plenty loud! They gave us commemerative lithographs of the special cruise and a matching one at the end of the cruise signed by captain Tom. There was free champagne in special glasses at midnight. Confetti was passed around. But I was amazed at how clean it was just an hour after it all ended. You see DD number 1 left her animal balloons in one of the parties, and woke me up to go looking for it. Much to my amazement, 1/2 of my dh's family was still up and partying in the club and had her balloon waiting for her. So that is how I know how well it was cleaned up.
The trip home was smooth and uneventful. Which is a good thing, because I hate to fly!
My kids cried themselves to sleep last night because they didn't want to come home! That is a good thing right???!!! We haven't booked another one yet, but we will do this again.
If I think of anything else, I will let you know.
Everything went smooth from start to finish. We had little to no security wait at the airports. Not to say they didn't check, because they did, but the were efficient with it, IMHO.
We stayed at the CBR for our 3 night land portion. We were in Aruba. It was very nice, clean, and centrally located. There was a bus stop right outside our doors, and a short walk over to Port Royale. My only complaint was that when my dh went to make coffee the next morning, there were price stickers on the bags of coffee!!! Give me a break! Needless to say, we didn't make coffee in the room.
The parks were very crowded. But, we got to see and do quite a lot. The stroller congestion was enormous, and we had 2 of them!
Unfortunately, at MGM we were just about to go see the movie on Walt Disney and my 3 year old HAS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! If she had only waited, I would have known the 2 answers we didn't know on the Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer Show!
The DCL has a great last day deal for those on the 3/4 package. On your last day, since you do not leave the grounds until 12:30-12:45, you can go to the Animal Kingdom on the last day starting at 7:45 am and take the bus from there to the cruise ship. You just take your carry ons to the park, they check them for you so you don't have to carry them around the park, and then you pick them up again before you load the bus to the ship. WE LOVED THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. We really could have spent the whole day, but got to do some highlights, like the safari and the train ride.
When we arrived at the ship, a CM came on to welcome us and then let us know the Carters were going to be on our ship. The process of getting on the ship was smooth. There was a tad bit of a wait, but the sniffing dog and extra security was worth the wait. WHAT A MAGNIFICENT SHIP! We were in a Cat. 11, but it was just fine. I do not like tight spaces, so I made sure it was picked up all the time, but the lack of a port hole was not a problem at all. We had cabin 5001, one of the right to left cabins, not front to back. It seemed bigger than other family members across the hall, ie 5008, that were front to back catagory 8's. Deck 5 is a great deck.
It was our 13th anniversary the first night. They had a cake for us at dinner, and our room steward June from the Phillipines GAVE us a bottle of Champagne. He was sooooo sweet. Our severs were great. We loved Claire from England. Oral was great too. And we found the food to be wonderful everywhere even considering we ate at Palo's the first night! I had read so many complaints about the buffet, that their kids didn't like it and wondered where the hotdogs and burgers were coming from, that I made sure we got the burgers and dogs. BIG MISTAKE. We then saw the buffet, and realized we should have checked it out first. Not that the burgers and dogs were not good, they were, but the Beachblanket Buffet was always wonderful, breakfast and lunch.
The kids enjoyed their clubs, and the 9 month old did great in the nursery. I only used it twice, but they were great both times.
We went to the Blue Lagoon Island off Nassau. It was lovely. It was overcast most of the time, and the water is cool this time of year, but we had a very relaxing time. It poured on our way back and due to the 9-11 security, they have moved everyone off the docks and no water taxis are allowed, so we had a 10 minute hike in the pouring rain to get back to the boat, but what is a little water!!!
We didn't leave the boat in Freeport, except to go to the Straw Market across from the ship and got my son a pucca shell necklace and my 3 yo dd a piglet straw bag with her name on it!
Castaway Cay is gorgeous. They day started out great, but the clouds finally won around 2-2:30 and it sprinkled as we all headed back to the ship. But, we had a marvelous time. They brought drinks to the chairs, which was a good thing, because DH was building sandcastles with DS DD and DD, and baby DD was asleep in her stroller next to me, so I couldn't go get one! The lunch was good and so was the music. When the sun came out, the water was sooooooo gorgeous.
The photographers from Shutters are amazing. Don't worry about your family reunion photos. They can handle any number of people. We had 27.5 of us! And they took our pics in no time and they came out wonderful. In fact, all of their pics throughout the whole trip were so good, we spent almost $200 in pics, and that was with the discounts! I HAVE ONE SUGGESTION ON BUYING THE 6X8 PICS, BUY THE FRAMES FOR THEM ONBOARD. It is almost impossible to find 6x8 frames here. So, I will be checking the net for was to buy the DCL frames from home!
The shows were all great. Disney Dreams on the last night was really neat. I can see why it wins so many awards. I didn't get to see many others, myself, chasing after 4 kids. But, other family members saw about all between us, and the concensous was that that they were GREAT! I got to be a panelist for the Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer? show. I had a ball. We got 3 of the 5 questions right. As stated earlier in trip report, had my 3yoDD not needed to go to the bathroom before I got to see the Walt Disney movie at MGM, I would have known those 2 q's also!!
The NYE parties were spectacular. They had the ship decked and man did we rock and roll. The music was great and plenty loud! They gave us commemerative lithographs of the special cruise and a matching one at the end of the cruise signed by captain Tom. There was free champagne in special glasses at midnight. Confetti was passed around. But I was amazed at how clean it was just an hour after it all ended. You see DD number 1 left her animal balloons in one of the parties, and woke me up to go looking for it. Much to my amazement, 1/2 of my dh's family was still up and partying in the club and had her balloon waiting for her. So that is how I know how well it was cleaned up.
The trip home was smooth and uneventful. Which is a good thing, because I hate to fly!
My kids cried themselves to sleep last night because they didn't want to come home! That is a good thing right???!!! We haven't booked another one yet, but we will do this again.
If I think of anything else, I will let you know.
