My April '06 Cruise Report

[nixieh]

Hi everyone,

This is the trip report from our Disney Cruise from last April, I originally posted it on the DISS but now that we have our own Cruise forum on the DIBB I thought some people might find it interesting.

Nicola

Our First (and hopefully not last) Disney Cruise.

CAST

Nigel - my long suffering DH
Rachel - DD (aged 9)
Abigail - DD (aged 6)
Emily - DD (aged 4)
and me!


Just a little background to the trip report. We arrived in Orlando on Apr 9th for a fabulous 3 week holiday staying at the Polynesian resort for a few days then a rented villa for a week and then 2 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel before heading for Port Canaveral for our first ever Disney Cruise. Our 3 DDs had no idea we were even going on holiday until the morning we left and we told them we were staying two weeks. The day they thought we were heading to Orlando Airport we in fact headed off to Port Canaveral…

DAY 1

We left the Hard Rock Hotel about 10.15 (an hour later than planned but why change the habits of a lifetime?). It hadn’t been a great morning (despite my excitement) because Emily my youngest DD had been awake several times in the night which led to a tired and cranky 3 year old and an even more tired and cranky 37 year old!

Fortunately the route to Port Canaveral is a fairly easy one, as I had to do all my navigation in secret with the girls still thinking we were heading to the airport. Unfortunately they were in a foul mood thinking they were going home and Emily managed to get travel sick on the way, all down her wonderful home made Disney t shirt that a kind Disser had designed for each of my DDs. There goes my idea of a lovely photo of the girls in matching t shirts as we entered the ship, I was beginning to worry about the whole cruise being ruined by Sea Sickness…Fortunately I had a change of clothes for her in my day bag.

When I started to see signs for Port Canaveral I began to get really excited, the cruise was really close now….Then we headed over a steep (rather scary looking bridge) and there it was in full view the Disney Wonder. Immediately my eldest DD Rachel (9) said, hey isn’t that the Disney Cruise ship (she has seen the DVD many times) can we go and have a look….which fitted in with our plan perfectly.

We drove up to the car park and I was worried that my nosey 9 year old would spot the sign saying parking $48 or hear the attendant saying “are you travelling on the Wonder?” fortunately she was too busy arguing with her sister Abigail (aged 6) – for once I was grateful for their constant bickering!

We quickly parked (it was about 11.30 by now) and got out “for a closer look” at the ship. After taking a couple of photos my DH Nigel got out the camcorder and whilst he was filming I said to the girls “wouldn’t it be great to go on the ship? ” of course they replied yes in a sort of wistful way, to which I replied “well here’s the tickets, we are going today instead of going home”. Of course you could have heard the excited screams all the way back in the UK. Here is the girls posing for their first picture with the Wonder.


So we got our luggage out of the car (after checking no food was left behind in the car, I read so much on the Disboards I was taking the ant threat very seriously! ) and headed for the terminal. The arrivals hall was quite empty still and we checked in to the non US line with no wait at all, then went to collect the pager and wristbands for the kids clubs (we had of course preregistered online). After a quick photo with Minnie in front of the model ship our boarding number (8) was called and we prepared to board the ship.

After a quick family photo (that we didn’t end up buying!) we were announced and entered the amazing Atrium Lobby, although I have to admit to not taking it all in during those first few minutes in my haste to urge everyone up to the pool for our “non crowded” swim (I told you I had been reading all the tips!). Unfortunately before we had gone three paces I realised that actually I had forgotten to pack the swimsuits in the day bag and they had all gone into the checked luggage….Oh well I figured that it wouldn’t be that crowded later on (boy was I wrong about that! ).

Instead we headed for a lovely buffet lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet (as Nigel wanted to sit outside). We couldn’t believe how lovely all the Cast Members we met along the way were and as soon as we had collected our food more Cast Members materialised to carry our trays, I knew I was going to like this…

After eating (about 1.20) I pretended I needed to visit the restroom and headed off to see if our stateroom was ready as I wanted to stick my magnetic door signs on before the rest of the family saw the room. Unfortunately the entrance to our stateroom (8528) was still roped off, fortunately I saw a CM going past (I was later to find out he was in fact our own stateroom host) and asked if he could stick the signs up on our door for us. He was quite happy to do it so I went back to the rest of the family.

We headed down to our stateroom about 1.45 after a quick walk around the top deck, the pool was really empty with only a few kids playing (obviously had better organised Dis parents than me!).

We found our stateroom very easily and I was thrilled to see my door signs sitting proudly on the door, although I don’t think the kids really took them in in their haste to get in. I think they thought that all the doors had personalised door magnets welcoming each individual family to their stateroom.

Here is the door by the end of the cruise, I had added a different door magnet for each day.




Our Stateroom was lovely and much bigger than I had imagined, the bathroom of course was tiny but very clean and shiny. A Bon Voyage Memory Box was sitting on the bed, a present from our TA (Dreams Unlimited) which ended up being very useful to keep all our souvenirs and navigators etc in. There was also a chilled bottle of wine that I had previously ordered from DCL as a surprise for Nigel. The rest of the family wondered how all 5 of us were going to sleep in one double bed but of course I knew about the convertible sofa, and the two pull down beds so I just looked smug and said “wait and see”. Then the rest of the family discovered the verandah which was amazing (although there wasn’t much to see from it yet).

Our luggage was waiting outside the door so after doing a bit of unpacking (me), jumping on beds (girls) and wine drinking (Nigel) we headed off to check out the Kids Clubs as I was hoping the girls would want to be spending a lot of time there. Not that I don’t love spending time with them but after two weeks of constant bickering I was looking forward to some quality time with Nigel (so that we could bicker with each other of course!). First we headed for the Oceaneer Club where we met a wonderful CM called Cece who was lovely, she told us that she worked with the 5-7s and so Abby was very happy, she then introduced us to Rob who works with the 8-10s and Brad who works with the 3-4s. They were all really good with the kids and the clubs looked great so I immediately felt ready to leave the kids for the next 4 days…oh hang on that wasn’t quite how it worked so I took them back to the cabin so we could all get our swimsuits on and go for that belated swim.

Of course when we arrived at the Mickey Pool it was completely mobbed so we headed for the Goofy pool which was…..also completely mobbed. The Goofy pool was too deep for Emily as well as being heaving so the two of us found the Jacuzzi which had a small gap between the three or so families that were in it. Then by some miracle everybody else left and Rachel and Abby joined us (proclaiming the Goofy Pool to be too cold and crowded) so the four of us had a few precious minutes all by ourselves in the lovely warm Jacuzzi. Of course after our few minutes other people came in and we headed off to get ready for the lifeboat drill. This was in fact the last time we got near the Jacuzzi or Pool the whole cruise (not counting the half hour I had by the side of the adult pool on our at sea day later in the cruise.) It was just too crowded and we were just too busy every day from then on.


More to follow...

[nixieh]

Here we are all ready for the lifeboat drill, which was quicker and easier than I thought it would be (apart from my imagining how awful it would actually be to have to do it for real..)



After returning to our stateroom we headed straight up to the Sail Away party, as it hadn’t started yet we got a great seat on deck 10 overlooking all the action and I headed off to get Nigel the drink of the day, which was a Pina Colada, Strawberry Daiquiri mix that looked great in the glass. I am not much of a drinker so had the first of my Strawberry Smoothies….mmmm. We all enjoyed the party and I was glad that I had remembered some bubbles for the girls as it kept them occupied for ages (especially Emily). I listened out for the horn (another thing I had read about on the Dis) and it was a great moment listening to it and knowing that our cruising adventure was just beginning.



After watching the ship sail away from Port Canaveral and waving to all the CMs with their giant Mickey Hands we headed down to our room to get ready for dinner.

Inevitably we were a bit late for our dinner at Parrot Cay (we had 6pm seating with a rotation of PTTA) and our tablemates had already arrived, it was a family of from New Jersey, they had a 6 year old daughter who was a big hit with Abby who is also 6 and Emily who loves big girls. After introductions we met our servers Miroslav and the assistant server Anastasia who were both very nice.

After a lovely meal of soup followed by beef tenderloin, the girls got a bit fidgety so I decided to use another of my Dis tips and take them up to the kids clubs. Rachel however had spotted a Mickey Mania quizshow at Studio Sessions at 7.30 that she wanted to attend so I took Emily and Abby to the Oceaneers Club and arranged to meet the others at the quiz.

For the first evening they had the 3-4s and 5-7s playing together in the Oceaneers Club so Emily and Abby were quite happy for me to go and as I left they were already busy playing together which helped my peace of mind (I am a bit of a worrier!). I sped off to find Studio Sessions and was really pleased to find that Nigel had done as I asked and requested our dessert (Banana bread and butter pudding) to go so I happily munched on it during the quiz which was quite fun although some of the questions were a bit easy…

After Mickey Mania, Rachel wanted to go to the Oceaneer Lab so I checked her in and Nigel and I had a nice wander around the Treasure Ketch and Mickeys Mates shops without having all those cries of “Mummy can I have this” “Mummy look at this great pin”…”Mummy she hit me”…..”MUMMY” that we normally have in shops with the girls. Next we headed to Shutters where I bought the photo of the girls with Minnie Mouse at the Cruise Terminal and purchased the 10 6”x 4” package for $84.95. The way this works is that they give you a slip with 10 numbers on and each time you purchase a photo they provide you with a receipt and cross off one of the numbers. I was looking forward to getting lots of lovely photos.

Just before 9pm we headed back to the clubs to pick up all three girls and head to bed.

The stateroom looked like a completely different room with the other beds our and the dividing curtain drawn, our stateroom host (who sadly I can’t remember the name of) had also left us the first of many towel animals as well as some chocolates and our Navigators for the next day. Suprisingly, we all fell asleep within a few minutes of getting into bed.

[nixieh]

DAY 2

I woke up at 7.00am but was too excited to go back to sleep so I had a quick shower and slipped out of the room after telling a groggy husband I would be back soon.

It is such a lovely feeling wondering around an almost deserted ship (although I noticed that even at that time of the morning there was still several kids in the pools! ). After picking up a hot chocolate (I am not a coffee drinker but yes I am still a nice person) I walked around the deck for a bit and then headed back to the stateroom to rouse the rest of the family.

I woke everyone up (it was suprisingly easy) and we headed to the Beach Blanket Buffet for a delicious breakfast (we love buffets as my picky DDs can see exactly what they are going to be eating). After breakfast we headed off to find out where disembark for Nassau. Part of the reason for going on the cruise was to visit one of my husbands really good friends who lives in Nassau with his family so we had arranged to meet him at 9.30 at the dock.

After we met up with our friend he told us that we would be going to, guess where…none other than the Atlantis Resort as he has some sort of pass and is able to take guests…hoorah.

We had a lovely morning there, it is a great resort and the pools and slides were nice but I was secretly quite glad I hadn’t forked out the hundreds of dollars it costs to get a day room there or the Comfort Inn. We did also spend some time at the aquarium which was interesting although I am not a huge fan of fish.

Here are some of the photos we took.


This was the lovely shallow pool



This is part of the hotel itself.

We had lunch at the Yacht Club in Nassau and then headed out for the afternoon to a little island which is just off the coast. We had visited there on our previous visit ten years before. It was a scary experience travelling by high speed motorboat, our last visit had been pre kids but I was much more frightened this time although the island itself is worth it. It really is a typical beautiful desert island with clear blue sea and white sand and we had the whole place to ourselves... mmmmm.



After a couple of hours there we headed back on the boat and our friend dropped us right back to the dock next to the Wonder. It was 5pm by now and we headed straight to our stateroom to get ready for “dress up” night and dinner at Tritons.

Before the meal we had a photo taken with Minni in her formal dress which the girls loved. We had a another delicious meal I had Vichysoisse followed by Lamb Shank and Nigel had L’Escargot followed by Tenderloin. We discussed our day with our table mates who had stayed on the ship and enjoyed a nice relaxing day, apparently their daughter had spent a lot of the day in the club and got to bake cookies. Our daughters were getting on really well and when I headed off to the kids clubs with my girls the other little girl persuaded her mother to take her too. The 5-7 year olds were in the lab (instead of the club) learning about gases which Abby really loved. Rachels group (8-10s) were at the Beach Blanket Buffet playing Bingo so we headed there. Emily had said she didn’t want to go to the club on her own but when we found out they were doing a Finding Nemo puppet show she decided she did want to after all so back I trecked to the club again.

At this point I would add that the tip I did not really pick up on before we went on the Cruise was to always use your Navigator to check out what the different clubs are doing when and where as it will save a lot of time when trying to track your kids down.

After dropping all the kids off I rushed back to Tritons just in time to eat my delicious Crème Brulee for dessert with Nigel and then we went up on deck to see the ship departing from Nassau, we missed the departure but he managed to film a little of Nassau in the distance.

We had decided that we wanted to see the 8.30pm Hercules Show so after collecting each of the kids from all over the ship we raced to the Walt Disney Theatre at the front of the ship (I never did get the hang of aft and forward!). I have to say that we all thought Hercules was a bit of a disappointment, the plot was very thin (especially as none of us had seen the film) and the jokes were pretty poor and over the heads of the kids on the whole but I know there are some people who love it.

After the show we headed to the Atrium where I had seen that they was an autograph session with the characters at 9.45pm. I hadn’t really expected that the kids would want to do character autographs and photos on board the Wonder as we had spent the previous two weeks doing loads of character meals and had pretty much met all their favourites already but boy was I wrong… Emily became obsessed with characters once we got on the ship, I think it has something to do with the fact that they are difficult to avoid if you are anywhere near the Atrium as most evenings (and mornings) there are some characters appearing, unfortunately they usually have quite long lines of people waiting for them.

After lining up for Minnie Mouse the night before only to find out that she was only doing photos and not autographs we were advised to head to an autograph session so that is what we did after the show. It was worth the wait as there was a whole table of characters signing autographs and you only had to line up once. We got Minnie, Mickey, Daisy, (No Donald, apparently they had been arguing over his nephews again!) Chip N Dale, Goofy and Pluto all in one go which was great. Then we headed back to the Stateroom to find a fabulous towel elephant on our bed and off to sleep.

[nixieh]

DAY 3

Abby and I woke up at about 7.20am and decided to go and have a wander upstairs so we went up to deck 9 to Beach Blanket Buffet as she fancied a Mickey Waffle and I wanted a biscuit (US style breakfast one, rather than a UK cookie one), we were intending on having breakfast later with the others but were just feeling a bit hungry. Having got up to the buffet we changed our mind as it all looked so good and decided to eat a full breakfast and then let the others get theirs when they got up.

We sat right at the tip of the ship overlooking Castaway Cay, it was great watching all the CMs unloading food from the ship and then heading onto the island to get ready for the day. We even saw some arriving on a little boat. It was a great view of Castaway Cay and helped me get a good idea of whereabouts the beaches on the island were. The sea looked really lovely and clear but I had heard that it is good to get to the beach early as the water gets all stirred up as the day goes on so I was determined we would be some of the first to disembark from 8.30 onwards. Of course getting the rest of the family to go along with this was another thing altogether…

We took some breakfast down to our stateroom for Emily, I thought I had seen that the “Princesses” were appearing at 8.45am in the lobby so I had planned to take Emily and Abby whilst Nigel and Rachel were having breakfast (Rachel is getting a bit old for them at 9). Sadly I was mistaken as when we got to the lobby there were no princesses in site and it appears I had remembered wrong (bad Mummy that I am).

We arranged to meet Nigel and Rachel outside the post office (having of course read on the Diss that I need to bring cash for the stamps that I was going to buy). We got off very quickly and stopped for a nice photo with Donald and Daisy in their tropical gear outside the Post Office then went in for the stamps



After that we came out and waited for the others after remembering to collect the towels, then we waited and waited and waited, about 45 minutes later Nigel and Rachel appeared, apparently there was a long line to disembark the ship. By this time of course I was quite grumpy :angry: as I had been dealing with two impatient/bored little girls and I was panicking that all the good spots would be gone (us control freaks are not good at waiting for others are we?).

I really wanted a nice family photo in front of the ship but sadly Emily decided to pick just that moment to get into a typical 3 year old “mood” over something or other and she refused to pose nicely for the photo which made me even more grumpy, yes I know I should have just been chilled and relaxed, I mean we were at Castaway Cay for goodness sake but hey I am human after all.



We had just missed a tram so decided to walk to the family beach, spotting the little shop and Scuttles Cove (kids club on the island) on the way. In the event there was loads of space on the beach (it was about 10.15 by now) and we got some loungers near the sea with a bit of shade. Rachel had been reading the navigator and wanted to head to her club for the treasure hunt that was just about to start so I dropped her at Scuttles Cove or at least I tried to but then I found out that her club were at a different place at the moment so a kind CM took me over there.

On the way back to the beach I collected 2 of the big inflatable tube things ($6 each) as the girls had said they wanted them and then I went to the drinks area near Cookies to get a free coke (it has the same drinks that they have at the free drinks dispenser on the ship). Then I struggled back to where the others were enjoying the beach…well actually they were all fighting with each other over something that I never did get to the bottom of.

Nigel headed off to try out the snorkelling in the snorkelling area with Abby (after hiring the snorkelling equipment sorry I can’t remember the price). About 10 minutes later a tearful Abby appears, apparently she hadn’t wanted to snorkel just swim with Nigel and you are not allowed into the snorkelling area just to swim so he had sent her back to us but inevitably she had got lost and had been wandering around looking for us for the last few minutes. After calming Abby down I offered to take them into the sea with the inflatable tube things but apparently they had already been in the water and found it too cold so they wanted to play in the sand instead. I don’t think the sea was that cold I think they had just been too used to the heated pool at the villa we had been staying in previously.

When Nigel got back I went to collect Rachel at about 11.15 as that was when the kids club were having lunch and she wanted to eat with us. Then Nigel and Rachel played in the sea for a bit, they didn’t take the tubes! By now Emily and Abby were really grumpy and didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves at all, I think they were just overtired after the last couple of late nights so about 12.30 I suggested lunch as they still didn’t seem interested in going in the sea.and we all headed over to Cookies where we had a delicious lunch. The buffet had salads, burgers, ribs, hot dogs etc plus some nice desserts which we didn’t have room for. We found a place to sit quite easily, it is all very efficient with lots of CMs around clearing tables and helping you.

Here is a picture of my lunch, I remember it was all very nice and the banana bread was really scrummy



After lunch the children all seemed generally grumpy so I made an executive Mum decision and suggested going back to the ship. I expected cries of “no way” but actually the rest of the family were all quite amenable to that, I think because they had spent the previous afternoon on a beautiful deserted beach they didn’t mind going back on the ship. As it was pirate night that evening I suggested we head back to the ship to try and get the kids to nap so they would be able to stay awake for the party, at least until after the fireworks at 10.30ish. We headed back to the beach to collect the towels etc and return the tubes (what a waste of $12, they didn’t even get a sniff of water the whole time we had them!). We were also able to get a lovely photo of the family with Mickey and the Wonder in the background, which made me very happy.

[nixieh]

DAY 3 cntd

When we got back to the ship I was surprised that actually there were quite a lot of people onboard, the swimming pools were still quite busy.

I herded the family back to the stateroom and showered the kids before putting them all in our bed and telling them that they had to stay in the bed for an hour even if they didn’t fall asleep, I put on some stories for them to listen to on Rachels ipod (we had some travel speakers with us) and then I drew the curtains and sat on the balcony with a good book. Of course there was the inevitable talking/giggling/fighting but within about half an hour they had all fallen asleep, probably a combination of exhaustion, heat and boredom.

After dancing a mini jig to celebrate, Nigel decided he wanted to go back to Castaway Cay and hire a bike for a ride around the island, being the non energetic type I was quite happy to stay on the verandah with a good book, a cold coke from our fridge (yes we did bring some cans with us) and a bag of pretzels (another of my weaknesses whilst on holiday in the US, I love them!).

I spent a blissful hour and a half writing notes for the trip report and reading whilst watching the mad souls going past on their “banana boats”. I had a much better time than I would have done surrounded by people and my squabbling kids on the beach so I didn’t feel at all bad about not even getting near the sea on Castaway Cay!

Around 4.00pm Abby woke up and soon after Nigel got back having had a great time cycling around the island. He said that it was really wild on the other side of the island and that he had cycled past Serenity Bay which was virtually desserted.

I showered and got everything ready for Pirates Night, I had secretly smuggled pirates outfits for the whole family in the case (I have been reading about Pirates Night in the Cruise forum for the past 9 months and I thought it sounded fun to dress up). The kids and Nigel were all thrilled at the idea of getting dressed up for the party, I did warn them that they might be the only ones as I had heard that very few people dress up on the Wonder, apparently many more people do on the longer cruises on the Magic.

In the event, we were the only people we came across who were dressed up but it didn’t matter at all, loads of people paid us compliments on how great we all looked and we all enjoyed the extra attention we got. We had decided to get a lifestyle portrait done in our outfits and I was quite pleased with the results, it certainly made for a different kind of photo. Then we had a photo taken with Minnie in her pirate outfit before heading into Tritons for our pirate dinner. The servers seemed to love our pirate outfits and the kids all put on their pirate bandanas.



. As I saved my souvenir menu I can even tell you exactly what we ate.

I had Blackbeards Jumbo Crab Cakes followed by The Black Pearl’s Oven-Roasted Beef Tenderloin and Nigel had Pearls of the Caribbean (crabmeat, shrimp and salmon mixed in pearls of couscous) and it was all delicious as usual.

After dinner I left Nigel chatting to our tablemates and I headed off to take the kids to their clubs, I had stupidly left the navigator in the stateroom so had to go to the Lab and Club to find out where the kids were at that time and then chase all over the ship dropping them all off (the 3-4s were in the lab I think, the 5-7s were somewhere I can’t remember and the 8-10s were at Beach Blanket Buffet). I had asked Nigel to pick the kids up at 8.15 and meet us outside the Walt Disney Theatre for the Golden Mickeys show so I had a quiet wander around Shutters looking at the photos and stacking all ours in a pile (I did notice signs saying not to stack the pictures, has this always been there, I thought that was what we were supposed to do.)

I headed to the theatre only to encounter a long red carpet and lots of paparazzi style CMs with cameras, I walked down the carpet wishing I had known about it so that we could all have gone down together as it would have been fun in our matching pirate outfits. Then I waited outside the theatre, watching the children being “interviewed” on film and I waited and waited and waited. I started walking around in case they were waiting somewhere else and by 8.25 I was getting a bit worried that they had got lost so headed back down the red carpet to look for them, then back down the red carpet in case they had used the back stairs that bypass the red carpet and then back down the red carpet as it was 8.30 by now and I still couldn’t find them. By now the paparazzi CMs must have thought I was just a huge attention seeker as I had been back and forth on the red carpet about 5 times!

I eventually found them on the midship stairs, apparently Nigel had been rushing around the ship as Rachels club had moved to the Sports Deck which was right down the other end and Abby had to wait for her “Flubber” that she had made in the Lab to cook! In the end we did all get to walk down the red carpet together but by then the CMs were packing up as the show had already started!

We crept into the theatre and a very helpful CM directed us to 5 spare seats that they had spotted near the front (the rest of the theatre was packed full). We crept down the side of the theatre and heard some kids chattering and pointing excitedly at us, I think they thought we were in the show because of our pirate outfits!

We loved the Golden Mickeys, it was a really nice family show with lots of characters performing popular songs, Abigail loved the Snow White bit, Emily loved the Toy Story bit (Woody and Jessie no Buzz) and Rachel loved Cruella DeVille. There really was something for everyone.


After the show we headed up for the pirate party, this time the girls wanted to be in the thick of the action so they headed right to the front of the stage which is at one end of the Goofy Pool (the pool was of course boarded over) the party started soon after with lots of singing and dancing going on, Nigel and I found a great spot just by the Jacuzzi with a nice little ledge to stand on and watch, shortly after the kids came and stood with us as it was getting really crowded near the front and they were worried Emily would get lost. In the end the spot we had was great because there was a little wooden podium just near us (to the side of the pool) where various characters came and danced throughout the evening.

Here is Minnie dancing right next to Rachel.



The party was great fun but I missed most of the fireworks as I had gone to check out the buffet to see what it was like but I hear the fireworks were great.

The buffet was just to one side of the pool and was huge, they had been preparing it all evening but it was only opened about 10.30pm. Here is some pictures that don’t really do it justice, I had thought it was only desserts but they also had lots of savoury food including, chilli, fajitas, carved ham, salads etc. There were loads of desserts including various cakes, cheesecakes, puddings and cookies. I grabbed a plate and loaded up as soon as it was open thinking we would all share some but in the event nobody else wanted any so most of it went to waste!




By about 10.45pm things were winding down and Emily and Abby were asking for their beds so we headed back to our room. Rachel wanted to go to the Pyjama Party at the lab because apparently they were going to order pizza and watch a movie so she got changed and I took her up to the lab. She was a bit worried that she would be the only one in her nightie but when we got there all the kids were wearing nightdresses or PJs (phew!). So I left her and told her one of us would pick her up around 12.30 (making a mental note to myself to set an alarm in case we all fell asleep in our room!).

I have to say that the kids clubs on the Cruise really are amazing, they do live up to all your expectations. The Cast Members that work there are fantastic, many of them greeted Rachel by name when she went in. The security is really good and does inspire confidence in an anxious mother like me, you have to sign them in and they are very strict on handwashing and using the bathroom when the kids arrive. There was always a Cast Member next to the bathroom in the Club with the little kids, the toilets and sinks are a nice small size for the younger kids to use themselves and there is loads of things for them to do in the clubs including a fabulous Pirate slide in the Club and loads of computers in the Lab.

After dropping Rachel, I went back to the cabin where Abby and Emily were already asleep and Nigel promised to stay awake to get Rachel which he did (2nd phew of the evening). Apparently the pyjama party was lots of fun and she had made some great bead things too (I think they were necklaces but they could have been for her hair I can’t always tell. )

[nixieh]

DAY 4

I had promised Nigel a lie in this morning as we didn’t have to be anywhere very early. We had brunch at Palo booked for 11.00am and the kids were supposed to be going to the club. We all woke up late (around 9ish) and then we took the kids for some breakfast at Beach Blanket (yes we do love our buffets). Unfortunately at this point Emily decided that she didn’t want to go to the Kids Club after all, panic ensued as I realised that we would miss our Palo brunch if she didn’t go, her club were watching a Winnie the Pooh movie at the theatre at 10.30 but she refused point blank to go (kids have the worst timing don’t they), fortunately after explaining the situation to a lovely CM outside the cinema they agreed to let Abby join the 3-4s for the time being so that she could accompany her sister which luckily they were both happy with. So Nigel and I set off for the back (or was it the front?) of the ship and Palo.

I had been looking forward to the brunch after reading so much about it (I hadn’t wanted to book the dinner as I didn’t want to miss any of the regular restaurants and I wasn’t sure how well the kids would do in the clubs in the evenings). There was a large selection of food for the brunch (although there was less of the traditional breakfast offerings) there was a lot of anti pasti and sea food plus lots of baked goods, fruit etc plus you could order eggs Benedict in various forms (with salmon etc), or pancakes with blueberries, then there was also entrees that you could order (beef tenderloin, pasta, salmon etc). Nigel loaded his plate with seafood and I had a bit of parma ham with melon then we both ordered some eggs Benedict. After this our server came and took our plates away and then offered us coffee or dessert and he seemed a bit put out when we said we were going to try an entrée as well, he also made the point that the restaurant closed at 12 (by now it was 11.30) which I thought was a bit rude, maybe people don’t normally eat the entrees at brunch but I wanted to try a bit of everything. As it happened my pager went off after about 3 mouthfuls of pasta and I had to leave to collect Emily who wanted to leave so I arranged to meet Nigel back at our room. I have to say that Palo didn’t quite live up to my expectations as I thought the food was not of a noticeably better standard than that served in the main restaurants.

I collected all three girls (with bribes of ice cream ) so that we could decide how best to spend the rest of the day. After eating two ice creams each (well they are free Mum ) and some delicious chocolate brownies and melon from Shutters, I took Rachel and Abby back to their clubs and agreed to collect them before the afternoon performance of Disney Dreams (they have a matinee on at sea days) as I thought it would make the evening less stressful with the packing etc.

Emily, Nigel and I had a look in Shutters and loved our Pirate Lifestyle Photos but unfortunately they were 8” x 10” rather than the 6” x 8”s that I had bought a package of. In the event there were only about three 6 x 8s that I liked so I got a refund of the package (by providing the receipt and paper that I had been given) less the price of the photo I had already paid for and then bought a nice frame to hold the two lifestyle 8x10s of us in our pirate outfits plus a few other 6x8s.

I had wanted to get a portrait photo of us all in our normal clothes with the ship background but apparently that background wasn’t going to be available on the last night, just the plain white background and a Mickey and Minnie Graduation one. I had thought that the same backgrounds would be available every night but apparently not so it is a good idea to check at Shutters at the beginning of the cruise which portrait backgrounds will be available when and what size the pictures will be as some are 6 x 8 and some are 8 x 10 and you can’t choose a different size for your photo package.

After collecting the kids we headed off to Disney Dreams which was wonderful and even brought a tear to my eye, a real classic Disney crowd pleaser with many popular characters and songs appearing including lots of Princesses which pleased Abby no end.



After the show I took all three kids back to their clubs as I had noticed that the “Celebrate the Journey” kids graduation was on at 4.45 but that the previous session in each club was preparation for it. Luckily Emily was happily enough to go to her club as she had already spent a lot of time with us so we dropped them all off at the various locations and Nigel and I headed for the adults only pool.

We only had about 45 minutes before we had to be back at the theatre to watch the “Celebrate the Journey” Graduation Ceremony and we didn’t have our swimming costumes on so we just sat by the pool and read and relaxed, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere whilst sipping a cool drink …..heaven. Of course all too soon our time was up and although we did briefly consider skipping the graduation and pretending we were sitting in the back, we headed down to the Theatre.

We were amongst the first there and so got seats just a few rows from the front which was great because when each group came down the aisle and on to the stage we were able to wave at each of the girls so they could see where we were. It was lovely seeing all the kids up on stage in their Mickey Ears graduation hats and t shirts and I would definitely recommend that you don’t miss this if you have kids in the clubs.


(Emily was sitting just under the CM with the yellow top just next to Minnie)

All the kids groups come down through the theatre and then sit on stage in their hats and t shirts and then they show some video of the kids enjoying themselves throughout the cruise and then Mickey and Minnie appear and then all the kids sing a song. Afterwards we picked the kids up from their respective clubs and went to get ready for dinner.

Dinner that night was at Animators Palette which we enjoyed a lot. Obviously I knew about the changing colours but the kids didn’t, unfortunately I did tell them that they wouldn’t be able to go to the kids clubs until the very end of the meal or they would miss the surprise. In retrospect I wished I hadn’t told them about the surprise as they spent the whole meal asking me about what was going to happen. We enjoyed it when our servers all came out and we cheered for them nice and loudly as they had been great throughout the trip, especially with the children.

After dinner I dropped Rachel at her club as she wanted to do “catch up” and make Flubber as she had missed it during one of the times she wasn’t at the club. The rest of us headed to the cabin so I could pack. One of Abbys ambitions for the cruise had been to order room service as it is not something we normally do at hotels so when we got back I ordered hot chocolate and cookies for 5 and it arrived very quickly so they munched away happily whilst watching a movie and it made me very happy that it was all free .

I packed quite quickly (advantages of travelling light) as I only had one case to do. I had watched the disembarkation talk on the tv earlier in the day (this is the filmed version of the talk that Jackie the Cruise Director gives at 11.00am on the last full day so if you don’t want to see it in person it is shown on channel 19 over and over again in the afternoon and evening. I put the luggage outside the door (remembering to leave out some clothes for the next day – if you have seen the talk you will have heard the funny story about the lady leaving the ship in a pillowcase, is that really a true story? )

I had heard that the “Til We Meet Again” gathering of characters on the last night was great and so we collected Rachel and headed up there. We got there a bit early which meant we got a good spot right in front of the stairs where the characters appeared. This is a great opportunity for photos and autographs as all the characters that have been on the ship all come down and spread out around the atrium (on the 3rd and 4th floors) and people can get photos and autographs. The great thing is, because there are so many characters the lines (if any) are really short. It is a bit hectic but we managed to get photos and autographs with Belle, Cinderella, Mulan, Snow White, Goofy, Pluto, Pocahontas, Stitch and Donald. There were loads of other characters there including all the characters from the shows. The whole thing lasted about half an hour and then all the characters line up on the stairs and wave goodbye. I was really glad that we knew about it as it was a lovely end to the Cruise and Emily got a really good fix of characters to last her.



So off we all went to bed, ready for our wake up call at 5.45am the next morning (as we are non US citizens we had to do immigration at 6.00am at the Walt Disney Theatre).

There I was in my nightdress when I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to buy the DCL photo album and photo frame that I had wanted to get so Rachel and I bounded out of bed and threw on some clothes and rushed down to the shops which don’t close until midnight on the last evening but are not open at all on the disembarking day.

We did a bit of last minute browsing and shopping, ending up with a plush Minnie in her cruise attire, an album, 2 photo frames and two Mickey and Minnie in their cruise outfit magnets. We had a lovely chat with the English CM in the shop and just after the shop shut we headed back to bed, full of the glow of shopping.

Tomorrow we were headed off the ship

[nixieh]

DAY 5

After a really bad nights sleep (Nigel and I both kept waking up in a panic thinking that we had overslept and missed immigration!) we were rudely awaken by the alarm at 5.45am and dragged the sleepy kids out of bed and into their clothes. They had told us that kids could come in their pyjamas but we wanted to go straight on to breakfast afterwards. Immigration was fairly painless but a bit boring , you file in to the theatre and fill it up row by row from the front (a CM returns your passports on your way into the theatre (non US citizens surrender their passports at check in) so don’t forget the white slip you are given when you first check in and they take your passports). Then the immigration officials come and sit on stage (about 4 or 5 of them I think) and row by row you go up on the stage to have your passports checked.

We were finished by about 6.25am, just in time to get to our 6.30 breakfast at Animators Palette (we had decided to eat a full service breakfast for our last meal so that we could say goodbye to our servers and give them their tips etc). We enjoyed our breakfast (although I didn’t get my beloved biscuits that I loved at Beach Blanket breakfast) and said our goodbyes then headed back to the stateroom.

One last look around to make sure we had everything and leave the tip for our stateroom host and off we went (nearly forgetting our door signs). Ready to disembark the ship.

We were sad to leave the ship as we had an amazing time but we were headed off for a few more days at Animal Kingdom Lodge where we had never stayed at before so that made us slightly less suicidal than we might otherwise have been. We truly had the most wonderful time onboard, so much so that we are hoping to go again, it can't come soon enough. I would love to do a 7 day cruise now let me think, my 40th birthday is coming up in 3 years, I think I feel a plan forming….now when will the dates for 2009 be released……

[Jools]

What a lovely trip report. I really enjoyed reading it. Lovely photos too

[Michelle]

Thank you so much for posting this, I have really enjoyed reading and seeing at the lovely photos.

[Bob_and_Dawn]

Thanks for the report, I realy enjoyed reading it. Great pictures of everything. I can't wait to book.

Dawn