Trip Report 4 Vacations in One (Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise, and Vero Beach)

DisneyAndrew827 · Jul 11, 2018

Looks like you guys are off to a great start! Then again, how can it not be with Wizarding World and Disney in the same day?

brifraz · Jul 12, 2018

Part 1C - Universal Day Two and Port Canavarel

With only the two rides open during Universal 'EMH,' we decided to sleep in a little bit...or, more accurately, take our time with breakfast and packing up. Even with that approach, we were in Universal a little before 9am so that the girls could start the morning with a ride on Rip, Ride, Rockit. They actually had an emergency stop while they were on the ride and sat for a minute or so about 2/3 of the way through before finally finishing the ride a little slower than usual. We then headed over to Simpsons for a ride (all the while, keeping an eye on the morning World Cup games via our phones). Even though the line was pretty short, we still had time for a quick family selfie from the portion of the line that is outside the front of the building about halfway up.

This was only our second time on the ride and we now know that the experience from the front row of a car is vastly different from the back row. From the back row, you miss quite a bit of the image that is projected meaning that you miss some of the good Simpson-y fun! Next we headed to Men in Black - still, in our opinions, a great version of Buzz/Midway Mania. It was only 10am, so we caught the Hogwart's Express again so the girls could do Forbidden Journey one more time - most likely the last time for a while as our APs are about to expire and I think it'll be a couple years before we head to Universal again. After a Boddington's for the adults and a Butterbeer for our daughter, we headed out of Universal and hit the road to Port Canavarel.

It was right about noon when we got to the Country Inn and Suites right across from the port and much to our delight the room was ready! We loaded in all our luggage for the cruise and relaxed for a couple hours before doing a little last minute shopping (new sunglasses were a big priority). Since we had skipped anything real for lunch, we headed to dinner a little after 3pm at Fishlips Waterfront Bar and Grill. While it didn't have the best reviews on Trip Advisor, we decided that the proximity to the cruise ships and the ability to watch the comings and goings of the port was a big draw. Here's the view from our table on the second floor deck.

Drinks were fun and nice and cold in the heat of the deck. And the food was good, although nothing spectacular.

We took our time with eating and shipwatching and enjoyed the evening fully. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and decided to get up very early the next morning to go watch our ship come in (the Disney Fantasy was due to arrive in port a little after 5am) before getting ourselves ready for the cruise so we got to bed pretty early.

brifraz · Jul 14, 2018

Part 2 - Day 1, Cruise Departure

As planned/expected, we were up crazy early and drove over to the port. Rather than pay to go out on the jetty, we just found our way out to the deck of one of the restaurants that was closed at the time (yeah, 5:30am is a little early for breakfast seatings). But, here it was...our ship was coming in!

We then headed back to our hotel to try to relax for the few hours before heading to the port. We had some breakfast right at 7am, got everything packed, and then...waited until our 10am shuttle to the port. As you can tell, I was very relaxed.

The shuttle took us over and once the porters took our bags, we found ourselves in the big line. The big, big line to get into the terminal building. Did I mention how big the line was? But...for once in our lives we made good line choices. First to go left when the line split up and then to follow the cast member who took a few folks to the DCL bus entrance while they were between busses. Ended up getting in pretty quickly, through security, checked in, and then ready to board. I was surprised to find that the ship was smaller than I expected when I got up close to it.

We were in boarding group 6 and found ourselves on aboard right around 11:30am. Our first stop was some lunch. While the masses made their way up to Cabana's for the buffet, we headed down to Enchanted Garden for a relaxing, seated lunch.

We had the Chicken Caesar Salad, Grilled Salmon Salad, and the Roasted Beef Sirloin. All were more than satisfying.

And then for dessert, we had the Carrot Cake, the Cookies and Cream Cheesecake, and the Welcome Aboard Sundae. Again, all enjoyable!

After lunch, we still had a good hour before our room was ready. Despite our carry-on bags being a little heavy, we decided to walk around the majority of the ship to get a feel for where things were for the week. Our room was on Deck 5, just behind the Oceaneers Club and as we headed that way, I thought I had found the room and was a little worried about the door size.

Turns out that this is the room onboard for Pepe, the King Prawn (form the Muppets).

At 1:30pm we were in our room and doing a little relaxing before the 2:30pm DVC Welcome Party. I'll see you there shortly!

brifraz · Jul 14, 2018

Part 2 - Day 1, Cruise Departure continued...

Here's our room. For those who haven't cruised before, this is a Deluxe Family Stateroom with Extended Verandah.

But, thanks to extensive research from @MeffysMom we had the 'uber' verandah. The room just behind the Oceaneer's Club has not only extended verandah, but DOUBLE WIDE verandah. So, our verandah actually had more square footage than our room!

There are only 2 rooms like it on the ship and no, I won't tell you the room number! But, it was pretty awesome. Still an hour before the Guest Assembly Drill (here's where to go if something bad happens), we headed to the D Lounge for the DVC Member Welcome event. Pluto was there to greet us! And, so were a few drinks (Paradise Punch) which were on the house...and we took advantage by having a couple each. There were some games and prizes as part of the party and we ended up with new DVC hats as well as a nice drawstring backpack.

Next up was the assembly drill followed by some unpacking in the room and actual departure. It was pretty stormy out, so the Sailing Away party was moved inside and we decided to just stay in the room and enjoy the storm and departure views from our verandah.

Next up was a Disney Animation class where we got to draw Mike Wazowski and Baby Groot with Mars (we will see more of him later in the trip). We always loved the animation classes at Studios in WDW and so we wanted to enjoy this one as well - lots of fun as expected. Next up was dinner in Animator's Palate. The experience in that dining room is fun, with Finding Nemo characters swimming by on large screens and talking to different guests (think Turtle Talk). Also, since we are just a family of three we were paired with a family of five that we got to talk to a bit each night during dinner. Sorry, no food pics this time!

After dinner, our daughter headed up to Vibe for the evening (this will be a recurring theme for the week) and we went to the Tube for our first adult game with Chris, the adult entertainment director. If you get a chance to cruise on the Fantasy, he is quite a bit of fun and there is no way you will forget his name (if you do multiple activities). The game was 'The Quest' and involved some silly scavenger hunt things. It did get a little cutthroat at times and at one point my glasses got stepped on! But, all is good in fun and games and we have no idea if we won or lost! Following the game, we headed over to Skyline to enjoy some more calm fun with Mario, the bartender from Estonia (more from him later, too). We decided to get one of their Passports as it basically saves you one drink worth of expense if you get 7 over the week. Night one we decided to visit with the two drinks from St. Petersburg, Russia. Both very enjoyable!

After our drinks, we decided to turn in for the night. Or at least head back to the room to wind down and wait for our daughter to get back from Vibe. Sure signs you are getting older...you are in bed reading when your 14 year old gets back a little after midnight...

lostpro9het · Jul 14, 2018

brifraz said:
There are only 2 rooms like it on the ship...

There are actually more than two but since we're not sharing...

Did you notice any noise from the adult area during the evening?

brifraz · Jul 14, 2018

lostpro9het said:
There are actually more than two but since we're not sharing...

Did you notice any noise from the adult area during the evening?

I know some of the aft rooms have the extra long and some have the obstructed view, plus there's the wheelchair accessible ones, but I thought that only extended and double wide verandahs in regular rooms were the two that bordered Oceaneer's. Interesting if there are some more, certainly couldn't see them from off the ship (while ours was quite obvious).

Certainly no noise from the adult area. When we opened our door, we could clearly hear everything going on in the Club next door, but couldn't hear it in the room on on the verandah.

LeighM · Jul 16, 2018

I had that same unmentioned room booked for our cruise next year but I changed it because I read a lot of reviews saying that the knocking on Pepe's door was very irritating. I can't wait to read about your thoughts about it.

brifraz · Jul 16, 2018

LeighM said:
I had that same unmentioned room booked for our cruise next year but I changed it because I read a lot of reviews saying that the knocking on Pepe's door was very irritating. I can't wait to read about your thoughts about it.

We were on the opposite side of the ship from Pepe's door, so we didn't deal with the knocking issue. Honestly, the room was very quiet - right outside the door you could hear the movie/activity next door, but once inside it was very quiet. Since it is the end of that hallway (unlike the room by Pepe's door), there was almost no foot traffic except Cast Members coming through on rare occasion.

brifraz · Jul 16, 2018

Part 2 - Day 2, Sea Day

Woke up nice and early on our Sea Day to enjoy this.

We got some bread, coffee, and fruit from room service to enjoy (since it was still a while before Cabana's would open) to enjoy on the verandah during sunrise. Soon as Cabana's was open, I picked up some more substantial food for the three of us and then headed to O'Gill's very early for the World Cup soccer game between England and Panama. Quite the enjoyable win for a couple of Tottenham fans to watch! After the game, the girls headed to the Tiffany Grand Opening Event to enjoy some hospitality (and window shop a little).

After the Tiffany's event, we split up again - our daughter off to Vibe for most of the day, while we headed to the Tube for some trivia. First up was Villain's Trivia and next was Pixar Trivia - despite no chance of winning, we still had a good time playing! We then grabbed some lunch and headed back to O'Gills for a little more trivia - Movie Quotes this time - as well as the later World Cup game. And, purchased some beer mugs at the time!

With our daughter still enjoying time at Vibe, we went up to the adult only area on deck and relaxed a little at Satellite Falls.

Late afternoon, we all met back at the room to get cleaned up for Formal Night! We headed to the Captain's Welcome Reception, followed by seeing the Wishes show, the Wheel 'game show' in the Tuba, and then to dinner. Along the way, we happened to meet up with Tiana (and Belle as well) and get some nice pictures at the reception.

And some pictures from dinner at Enchanted Garden.

After dinner, we once again went our separate ways with our daughter back at Vibe and us grown ups back at the Tube for some more games (Snippets) and then once again to Skyline for a nightcap before back to bed...yes, long before our daughter...

jaques21 · Jul 16, 2018

you sir have inspired me to book a vacation like this! awesome so far!

LeighM · Jul 17, 2018

brifraz said:
We were on the opposite side of the ship from Pepe's door, so we didn't deal with the knocking issue. Honestly, the room was very quiet - right outside the door you could hear the movie/activity next door, but once inside it was very quiet. Since it is the end of that hallway (unlike the room by Pepe's door), there was almost no foot traffic except Cast Members coming through on rare occasion.

That's the room that I wanted to get but it was unavailable

Fankle · Jul 17, 2018

Really enjoying catching up on your report.

brifraz · Jul 18, 2018

Part 2 - Day 3, Cozumel

No surprise, we found ourselves up early to enjoy coming in to port at Cozumel. Got some breakfast and just enjoyed the scenery pulling in to port.

Once in port, we did as all the tourists do, and enjoyed some Mexican heritage on the way in. This was even more special for us as @MeffysMom's grandfather was a huge mariachi fan.

(and, yes, we tipped them very generously)

We walked through some of the shops right at the port and then headed to Chankanaab Park for our day's adventures. We actually walked half of the 3 miles just to get a feel for the island (us grown ups had visited Cozumel almost 20 years ago, but our daughter had never been anywhere in Mexico, so she needed to see first hand some of her heritage!). Along the way, we did get to check out a few lizard friends!

We caught a cab for the second half of the trip and upon arrival at Chankanaab, we got all checked in and changed into swimwear for our dolphin experience.

We booked this one NOT with Disney - found that booking direct with Dolphin Discovery actually got us a package with more experiences that cost about half as much. Obviously, it did mean finding our own transportation to the park, but it also meant that we got a little more dolphin time! Once ready to go, our group (the three of us with five people) headed out to one of the enclosures and got into the water. There were some specific instructions about how and where to stand, but pretty quickly we got to meet Apollo and Freida. Our time in the water with the dolphins was close to a full hour and well worth it! Of course, the way they really make their money is by taking hundreds of pictures and charging you for all of them. We planned to just get a picture of our daughter with the dolphins, but decided to go ahead and splurge on the full CD-ROM of all our pictures. So, here are a few to give you an idea of the experience that we had!

We also each got 'pushed' by the pair of dolphins (their noses pushing on the bottom of our feet) up and out of the water. None of those pictures really came out that great but wanted to make sure you knew that was part of the experience.

After our time with the dolphins, we had a little lunch and then explored through Chankanaab for a while. We walked through the Mexican heritage tour in the jungle (with some faux Mayan buildings and artifacts), then walked along the beach for a bit and went over to the alligator pens. We were pretty tired from our morning, so we caught a cab mid-afternoon back to the port and headed back onto the ship.

I don't have any pictures from the evening, but...we hit 80's music trivia before dinner (almost won this time!) and back to the Tube for a game called Majority Rules at the Tube. It was lots of fun, with a guy who looked a lot like Thanos as our team captain. We decided to pass on the next game in the Tube and headed for longer relaxation at Skyline (while our daughter again enjoyed The Tube). Definitely a great day!

ScarletBegonias · Jul 18, 2018

Sounds great so far! I love reading Cruise TR's. Maybe i'll get to do one some day!

brifraz · Jul 20, 2018

Part 2 - Day 4, Grand Cayman

Once again, up early and ready for the day we watched as the ship pulled in to Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

We had a Disney booked excursion here, so we met up with everyone else on the excursion at The Tube and then hopped aboard the ferry to tender to port and then took a bus to our Stingray City Snorkel and Sail adventure. It was a nice excursion aboard a decent sized catamaran. We headed out to the sandbar where the stingrays hang out, did a little snorkeling, and then had a nice slow sail back in. Got to hang out with a couple stingrays while snorkeling and enjoy the sailing despite the water being pretty choppy (and a little rain coming through at one point).

Once we got back into town, we headed back to the ship as we wanted to see the Aladdin show prior to our dinner at Palo. The show was quite enjoyable, but the real highlight of the evening was dinner! The food at Palo was excellent and the service was outstanding. We didn't get pictures of everything, but here are a few highlights. By the way, even though it's not quite our anniversary, yet - this dinner was our romantic anniversary dinner and the cast at Palo made sure to treat us very well!

During our dinner at Palo, our daughter went to the usual dining rotation at Animator's Palate and enjoyed the 'show' there (your drawings are scanned into their animation system and brought to life) with the family that we shared a table with all week. After dinner, she headed to Vibe and we headed to the Tube for more fun 80s music trivia. Not really sure anymore who won or lost this round of trivia, but a good time was had by all. And, I'm sure it will come as no shock to anyone, we were once again back in the room and asleep before our daughter got back!

brifraz · Jul 21, 2018

Part 2 - Day 5, Jamaica

We find ourselves now pulling in to Jamaica on the morning of June 27th. Early on in the planning, we had decided that the Jamaica day was going to be our day to relax and enjoy a relatively empty ship. We toyed with a couple of the possible excursions, but didn't end up doing any of them. Of course, we were up early as usual and headed to O'Gills to watch the world cup match (S. Korea vs. Germany). After the match, we did go ashore and just visited the shops in the port area. The main reason was so our daughter could say that she had really been to Jamaica! But...what does this mean to you? Well, we don't really have any pictures from Day 5 of the cruise. In fact, most days we have about 100 pictures that I'm sorting through to pick out the best...day 5 - 3 pictures total and all of the same thing.

That's our verandah right above the clock! We got back on the ship and grabbed some lunch at the fast food places on the pool deck (loosely Cars themed) and then headed to the movies to see Avengers:Infinity War (saw it opening weekend also, but couldn't resist another chance for some escapist fun). After the movie, our daughter headed to Vibe for some afternoon activities there (trivia and a scavenger hunt) and we headed back to O'Gills for a little more World Cup action as well as Theme Park Trivia. At 5pm, there was a DVC member mixer at the Tube, so we headed over there for a few free drinks (bonus!!) as sat and talked with some of the same folks we have been playing trivia with for much of the cruise. In fact, we were all planning to do the 90s Music Trivia later, so we had a little fun and tried to come up with what the 20 songs would be. After the mixer, we just relaxed for a little bit.

90s Music Trivia was right before dinner, so we headed to that while our daughter caught a nap in the room. Quite impressively, our little group came up with 12 of the 20 songs that were in the game. Chris (the CM host of most of the adult events) was very entertained by our turning in our responses before the game started and quite a bit of fun was had with that. After trivia, we headed back to the room to get our daughter before going to dinner. When she got up from her nap, she wasn't feeling well so we decided not to head to dinner and I just picked up some things from Cabanas. Turns out that she hadn't really had any water for most of the day and had just gotten dehydrated, but we decided that it was best for all of us to just chill out in the room and on the verandah, drink some water and have a light dinner followed by turning in early.

It was Pirate Night up on deck, but to be honest, we weren't really interested in most of the offerings of Pirate Night and while the fireworks off the side of the ship are likely pretty cool (yes, we missed them), we knew that we would have some good fireworks at WDW so we decided it was okay to take it easy for the night.

brifraz · Jul 22, 2018

Part 2 - Day 6, Sea Day

Our second Sea Day of the cruise started off with a movie. We headed to the theatre and saw Incredibles 2 at the 8:30am showing. Following the movie was one of the highlights of the time on ship and that was brunch at Palo.

If you are considering a cruise, we HIGHLY recommend the brunch at Palo - well worth the added cost. And, well worth quite a few pictures. These are of the buffet tables. The dessert table, then the bread table, followed by the seafood table, and last the Italian-style appetizers. There is also a fruit table, but that picture didn't turn out.

In addition to the buffet, you get to order your own main courses (and in my case, 2 main courses). Here are our plates both from the buffet and of our main courses - lasagna bolognaise, salmon eggs benedict, and the chicken parmesan. Everything was amazing.

And, of course, the view is pretty darn nice!

After brunch, we went back to the room to get a little more casual and then went to O'Gills to catch some of the world cup match of the morning. Next up in the afternoon was our private mixology class. Well, private is a bit of a stretch - it was actually organized by the Facebook group we were a part of for the cruise and was for 25 people, but only 20 actually showed up (not sure I can imagine booking and paying for a drink class and then not showing up...). Be back shortly with that!

brifraz · Jul 22, 2018

Part 2 - Day 6 continued...

So, the mixology class. Our second amazing activity of the day! Run by our friend, Mario, the bartender at Skyline, we got the chance to help make and sample 5 different mixed drinks. Heck, the set-up alone was pretty beautiful to look at.

Here's the drink menu for the event that we were a part of (the menu varies each class they hold as we got copies of the menu from another class in addition to this one).

Since our group was a little bit undersized, @MeffysMom got to bartend twice and I did once. Mario was an excellent teacher and the drinks were both good (and surprisingly strong).

(sorry no picture of the martini)

After the class, we went back to O'Gills and watched a little more of another world cup game. Then we relaxed a little in the room and changed for semi-formal night. We went to see the stage show, Disney's Believe before our dinner at Enchanted Garden. After dinner, our daughter was back to enjoying Vibe and we were back to silly adult games in The Tube followed by a little of the comedy show and another late visit to Skyline. Knowing the next morning would be a little hectic, we got to sleep a little early. See you on Castaway Cay!

brifraz · Jul 24, 2018

Part 2 - Day 7, Castaway Cay

I'm sure it is no surprise to anyone at this point, but we found ourselves up early in the morning watching the ship pull in to Castaway Cay.

Our daughter had booked the Teen Excursion on the island, which featured a boat ride, snorkeling, and bike riding on the island. We didn't book an excursion, but we did decide to run the 5K in the morning! This a picture pre-race and then of our medal back on the ship.

While it was very hot and humid, we enjoyed getting to run a little bit on the island. After the run, we headed to the adults beach and spent the morning relaxing in the water or on beach chairs. The adult beach was great, with not too much of a crowd, crystal clear water (with lots of little fish swimming between legs and toes).

For lunch, we headed to the dining area that is also just for adults. And the food was excellent - lots of different grilled meats and side dishes that were all quite good. We also enjoyed some of the wildlife in the area.

After lunch, we walked around the island for a while and took in all the different area. Here's a selfie from just off the main beach, looking back at the ship.

After exploring and shopping around the island a little more, we headed back to the ship to relax a little for the afternoon before our beer tasting in the early evening. The tasting was in O'Gills and run by the main bartender. While it didn't hit any new ground for us (we do have a pretty extensive beer history), it was quite enjoyable and thanks to being chatty with the bartender and knowing some ship trivia, we got an extra pint each at the end!

After the tasting, we went back to the room and got cleaned up for dinner. Following dinner, I was feeling pretty exhausted, so I turned in early while our daughter enjoyed one last night at Vibe and @MeffysMom went back for one last cocktail at Skyline. Next up, leaving the ship behind and heading to Vero Beach!

brifraz · Jul 26, 2018

Part 3 - Vero Beach, day 1

Of course, we were up somewhat early again and watched as the ship came in to port. One of the lucky things about having the later dinner seating is that we got to have the later breakfast seating as well for the last morning. So, we enjoyed watching the unloading of luggage and then the loading of supplies from our verandah for much of the morning - pretty impressive work! After breakfast, we headed off the ship, gathered our luggage, caught our shuttle back to the hotel from before the trip and then started driving south to Vero Beach.

On the way down, we stopped in Indialantic - the town where my grandparents had lived for their retirement. I have quite a few good memories of visiting them just about every winter for a few days. I guess in the 20+ years since they were in the house, it has changed quite a bit - but still recognized it and could share some stories with my daughter about our visits there. Next up, we were going to stop off at Sebastian Inlet Park, another childhood memory location, BUT didn't realize that there was now an entry fee which really made a planned 15 minute stop off a bit pricey so we just drove by very slowly. Despite my reminiscing, our daughter found that all the late nights on the ship had caught up with her a bit.

We arrived at the Vero Beach resort late morning and, after checking in, walked around the resort and also across the A1A to the nature walk around the pond. There was some interesting wildlife in the walk in the form of a couple swarms of bright red caterpillars with yellow dots. Also, the standard Florida lizards, but in this case with some cool lighting, and nice flora as well.

Back to the resort, we walked all around the area and took a few more pictures before getting some lunch.

We just grabbed a pizza at the quick service and sat in the lobby area and ate it while catching some World Cup highlights on the tv. We then explored the resort a bit more and then got a deck of cards from the front desk and played a little cards while waiting for our room to be ready. Once it was ready, we got everything moved in and relaxed a little before heading into 'town' for dinner. Our dinner was at the 'infamous' Waldo's at the Driftwood restaurant. It's got quite an odd backstory and food was decent (nothing really all that interesting, though). We walked around Vero Beach a little bit and then headed back to the resort where we walked a little on the beach - mainly checking out the turtle nests and hoping that some were close to hatching time and then went to the campfire sing-along with s'mores. Lots of fun, but also LOTS of bug bites! If you are going to be out at night on the beach make sure to get fully sprayed up with some serious bug spray!

Next up in one of the earliest mornings of the trip for me!

Trip Report 4 Vacations in One (Universal, WDW, Disney Cruise, and Vero Beach)

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