Trip Report COMPLETED The not as bad as the Griswalds report as we go....Now with Wild Africa Trek pics!

All the PTR funtivities can be had here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/16th-anniversary-ptr-first-time-cruise-here-we-come.885906/

So my wonderful DW and I wake before the crack of dawn,04:00 to be exact, for our trek from the beautiful north Georgia mountains to the MouseHouse. If you can believe it, it was the quickest 7.5 hour trip, including two pit stops, that we've made. Pulled into the Bay Lake lot about 11:45. As soon as you walk though the doors, WHAM, probably one of the most pleasant smells you'll experience smacks you in the face. We proceed to check-in. Rooms not ready, no biggie they'll text us when it is. We leave the luggage with bell services.

On to the Kingdom!

I won't lie this, is how we felt walking to MK from BLT:

A bit warm and muggy today, no biggie as we're basking in the Magic. Park seems a little busy, I gave it and 8 out of 10, DW says 6. It's a little after noon now and we're pretty much killing time til our 1:20 BOG test ADR. We make our way to the Fantasyland via Adventureland taking in a few shops along the way. After some sight seeing and a ride on Little Mermaid we head over to eat

Be Our Guest, but only if you can provide proof you should be eating here via a live internet page:

So naturally there is a mob of confused guests at the entrance to the bridge dumbfounded that they are not allowed to wait to eat. No bother for us, we have test ADRs! Or do we..... We go to check in and give our name and are asked if it would be under another name. Nope just us. I tell the CM that I have the confirmation number to which she replies "a confirmation number does me no good, you need to log into the website and show me your reservation on the website." Not particularly thrilled, I say "ok" and just stand there going through the motions on my phone to provide proof. Page loads and I show her to which she says " ok go to the FP line, you'll probably have to reorder your food." Whatever, we just want to eat. Not the most pleasant of CMs, of course she is having to deal with this test ADR all day. So we go through the queue, reorder, and go to sit down when whoa! Whoever was complaining about this new test not making use of all the tables can stop worrying, this place was a MADHOUSE! Loud and overflowing with people it took us about 5 minutes to find a table that was being cleaned by a CM and claimed it as ours. 15 minutes later our leek soup, onion soup, and turkey Sammy arrives. Food is very good but still CS food. My DW says it smells and feels like a cafeteria now in there now and I agree. As we leave, and to our surprise, people are queued up on the bridge waiting to get in for lunch. I guess they opened up standby again.

Fast pass Space Mountain and a leisure TTA trip before our SDMT FP.

Barnstormer 2.0, I mean the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!
I was so amped up for this only to exit with a feeling of "that was it!?!?". The ride itself is very smooth and has a few quick bursts that are immediately followed up with a " ha ha just kidding" slowdown. As many have said, the mine scene is excellent but the ride itself is lacking but perfect for the wee kids. It's 3:30 and no text about our room yet, surely just a clerical error...

4:00 check-in ain't what it used to be.

So we make it back to BLT a little concerned we haven't received a text for our room, it is aft 4 now. The CM says she she can't tell me when it will be ready. I asked why it wasn't ready by 4 to which she replies "oh, we have until 5 to get it ready for you." Again, still a little miffed and confused why it's taking this long but we decide to grab some drinks at the pool bar and wait. 4:38 we get the text. So while we wait on our 8:00 Citricos ADR I figured I'd throw some words and a few pics up at ya.

We're still deciding if we hit the EMH after Citricos or come back and watch illuminations and Fantasmic from the balcony.

Beach Club Villas and HS tomorrow!

 

[lostpro9het]

After about 4 hours of sitting in the wake it was time to search out for some food, fortunately we didn’t have far to go. Serenity Bay BBQ was just at the entrance to the private beach and was hardly busy for being the peak of lunch time. The food choices were amazing! There had to have been half a dozen different types of salad, eight different grilled meat options including burgers, Mahi-mahi, ribs, Grilled chicken, and steak. A huge fruit selection was also made available if the 4 different ice creams, cookies and cakes didn’t satisfy your dessert requirements. We were thankful, again, that we had an adult’s only sanctuary to enjoy a peaceful lunch as we couldn’t imagine the madhouse that was surly going on at Cookie’s BBQ. I was honestly so overwhelmed by how good everything was, and how hungry I was, that I only snapped these two pics. It seems lounging in the water for a few hours drives up the appetite.
This was round one


What I like about this picture is the huge stack of real charcoal they have stacked behind the CM. As a shade tree BBQer, using real charcoal makes a difference!


So while we sat enjoying our lunch my DW declares that this is the second best meal we’ve had since arriving on the boat. After a second of thought I had to agree with her. Ranking time!!
To this point we’ve decided the following order of food:
1. Palo
2. Serenity Bay BBQ
3. Cabanas
4. Enchanted Garden
We still have Animators Palate to go before this ranking is finalized.

After lunch my DW opted for a more adult dessert. Konk Kooler time! If I haven’t made this aware, we were on this cruise without our DD’s knowledge so bringing back souvenirs that were not easily hidden was not really an option so rather than going “Full Konk” I opted for the Konk in a Kup. I don’t think this effected the drink as my DW seemed to enjoy it well enough:


I, on the other hand, have continued to enjoy the same mix that I have been enjoying the whole trip. 1.5 parts 90proof coconut rum to 2 parts POG juice. Premixed the morning we left for the bay and enjoyed throughout the day. There are a few things that I distinctly associate with Disney and POG juice is one of them. Now I can add Captain’s and POG to that list ;-)


A little siesta time post lunch before trekking all the way back to the water for more time in the bay:



So after a few more hours of bay time we made our way back to the boat, used the tram this time .







Notes from Serenity Bay:
Beach was beautiful and peaceful. One thing that surprised us was that NONE of the cabanas seemed to be used yet when we looked a few weeks before our trip they were all listed as "Sold Out". We were mildly interested in a cabana before our trip and were surprised to see them sold out so fast but when we arrived at the beach to see so many umbrellas available we were glad we didn't spend the money on one. The food here was OUTSTANDING! i know I'm overusing that word on this report but I cant emphasize it enough how good the food is.

Still to come: the sky opens up all over Castaway, a little room service delight then on to the Palate!

 

[imahistorygeek]

I've been asked to provide additional feedback.

Where should I start?

First, let me start by saying that we had a great time. This has been my favorite trip so far. Maybe it’s because we experienced a lot of new things (the Trek , cruise and restaurants), but overall, it was amazing.

Sean had been initially resistant to the idea of a cruise, but I finally talked him into it (read: wore him down). This meant fun at the parks and fun on a boat!

WDW is always a great trip. No matter the crowds, rude people, meh CMs, etc. This was no exception. As in past trips, we have been evaluating DVC resorts in the hopes that one day, we will be able to call one of them home. Sean has been letting y’all know my rankings for DVC. Right now, AKV is #1 and BCV is #2. I have jokingly (or not so jokingly) referred to #1 as our winter home and #2 as our summer home.

My reviews – Short and sweet:

Bay Lake Tower – Nice. I LOVED the smell of the lobby. Someone bottle that up and send it to me.

Beach Club Villas – I loved this place! Plus, I loved the easy walk to Epcot.

Mine Train – It’s cute. It fits in Fantasyland. Rode it once with FP and once through the regular line. I expected the cars to rock a bit more.

Frozen - Am I the only one who is tired of it? HS is ridiculous with the amount of Frozen. It’s everywhere.

Yachtsman – Wow. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had. We barely spoke to each other during the meal. That’s how good it was. Le Cellier who?

Citricos – Another winner. Never thought I’d try beef tongue. Surprisingly delicious.

Spice Road – It’s a hidden gem. I enjoyed it a lot more than I previously thought.

Marrakesh – Sean liked it a lot more than I did. It was ok.

Biggest disappointment #1– Via Napoli. I just don’t think they care anymore. Kids running wild, toppings thrown haphazardly on pizza, etc.

Biggest disappointment #2 – Be Our Guest – We work at a college and frequent the dining hall. Be Our Guest at lunch is the dining hall. Same smell and same large crowds. Even the clanking silverware is the same. The food was good though. I LOVE the French onion soup.

Biggest disappointment #3 – The Cronut – Take a Pillsbury Grands biscuit with layers, deep fry, and roll in sugar and cinnamon. The taste was good, but I couldn’t get past the greasy layers. I could squeeze the oil out of it.

Those didn’t lessen my enjoyment, but they did stick out as being unpleasant.

Restaurant overview: inside vs outside the park – there is a noticeable difference. While the restaurants inside the park are mostly good, the ones outside blow them out of the water.

Oh, the one thing I want to try next time is the grilled ears of corn (husk and all) in Liberty Square.

Cruise review is next!

 

[imahistorygeek]

I’m trying to catch up to Sean with my comments. He’s already at our last day!

On the morning of the cruise we ate at Kona and then we were off to Port Canaveral. Neither of us has ever been on a cruise before so we really didn’t know what to expect. Needless to say, we were very excited.

We get to port and see the Disney Dream. I’m almost speechless. She’s beautiful.

We park in the garage right where you walk in to get to the terminal. There was a little bit of a line, but nothing huge. Our port arrival time was 10:30 – 10:45. We flash our passport cards and cruise docs and we’re ready to be let in. We get inside the terminal. It’s loud and busy. The line isn’t too long. Disney knows what it’s doing and we are through the line and checked in within 10 minutes. We are boarding group 2.

We wait around for just a bit and see people crowding the entrance to the Dream. I seriously thought there was going to be a mad rush.

It’s time to board! Group 1 is called. Maybe 5 people board. Group 2 is called a few minutes later. That’s us! We board with a few more people. We’re in! We have our pics taken and we are announced as arriving on the ship.

I cannot properly explain the feeling of walking onto the Dream for the 1st time. Everything is so beautiful. Clean, and beautiful. We took a walk around to get to Cabanas, but it was nice seeing everything empty. We would appreciate that later. We get to Cabanas, eat, and then head to the adult area. There were some kids milling around, but nothing major. We sipped our drinks and waited for our room to be ready.

It’s 1:30 and we arrive at our room. We also meet Lidia, our stateroom host. She was amazing. We called her a ninja because every time we came back to the room, she had straightened everything up and made the bed. As expected, the room was clean and spacious (at least to us). I will say that if we had our daughter with us, it would have been crowded. We went back to the pool eventually and then retired to our room to get ready for dinner.

On a side note: I do not suffer from motion sickness. There have been only two times that I thought I was going to toss my cookies. Once on the “more intense” side of Mission Space (LT Dan tried to warn me) and once on the Dream. I was just trying to develop my sea legs. I found them quickly.

Enchanted Garden – Nice atmosphere. Great serving team. I echo Sean’s sentiments regarding the food.

Next day: Nassau – We stayed on the boat. Nothing interested us at Nassau. We did a Mixology instead. If you’ve even been on the fence about it, try it. You will not be disappointed.

Dinner at Palo. YES. 100% amazing.

Castaway Cay Day – So we basically did our own 5K to Serenity Bay. It was good for us. We needed to stretch our legs. The beach was SO NICE and I loved the BBQ. BBQ is one of my fav foods any way and this one did not disappoint. I also love the fact that Disney provides an adult beach and food options. Sean didn’t post the massive amount of people on the family beach. You couldn’t see the bottom of the ocean because of all the stirred up sand.

Another side note: I occasionally see people asking why to take a Disney cruise if you don’t have any kids or your kids aren’t coming with you. Let me say this. Disney is amazing without kids. It’s a completely different place without kids. We love going with our daughter, but it’s a totally different trip.

So now I believe I’m caught up. Sean will cover the thunderstorm in the next update. I was a tad bit anxious but cloud to ground lightning over the ocean is something you need to see.

 

[lostpro9het]

Rain, room service, and the disappointment of the “Deck 14 Outlook”.

So we came aboard around 5:00 and made our way to our perfectly maintained room for a quick shower and some relaxation before our late dinner rotation at Animator’s Palate. Since we had yet to utilize room service, and since we were craving a snack, we called up and requested a cheese plate, Mickey Bar and some cookies. Within 15 minutes it was at our room and looked great!



It was a perfect snack to tide us over until dinner while we enjoyed our view as we sadly pulled away from Castaway. It seems Mother Nature was most obliging with our perfect weather during our visit as she opened up a can on the island as we left.


That was far more menacing looking than where we were headed.


So during our rounds on the ship we often noted the “Overlook” on deck 14 listed on the elevator menus. We decided this would be the day we would go up to the overlook. We assumed we would navigate the elevator to Deck 14, walk out onto an intimate deck and have a great view of all around. NOPE! Upon exiting the elevator we found ourselves in a dark hallway not much bigger than a walk-in closet surrounded by a few doors. There was also a mother with her two daughters there also looking to get to the overlook. We tried, unsuccessfully, to get through a couple of locked doors before one opened up into an enclosed lounge with a piano and a few chairs. It would seem the “Overlook” was in fact a lounge. Had we paid better attention to the elevator menus it would have been a little clearer . Anyway, we did snag a few pics from the Overlook:



So with our journey to deck 14 complete we made our back to our room for a little more rest and views before our dinner.

Still to come: Animator’s Palate, more towel art, a thunder storm, and heading home

 

[mrdrift]

Room service is the best from what I hear. The Mickey bar is just awesome where ever you are. Following along.

 

[imahistorygeek]

Room Service – why did we not try this before?! The service was very quick. The person taking the phone order even gave me an estimated arrival time (about 30 minutes wait). It was considerably shorter. The plate contained a nice assortment of cheeses and crackers. I believe the highlight was the Mickey bar. My daughter loves those and if she was with us, she would have ordered one or more every day.

We experienced perfect weather at Castaway. I believe the rain waited on us. It was such a perfect day. I’m usually not one for the beach, but I would go back to Castaway in a heartbeat. I’m going to peruse the cruise itineraries for 2 stops at Castaway.

As for the Overlook…this would have been a great experience.

Oh, our trip to the Overlook reminded me. You have to pay attention to the elevators and where they take you. They all do not go to the same floors. They can also become very crowded. I’m half-tempted next time to stay on a deck closer to the restaurants and/or entertainment.

I’m not sure what night it was, but we stopped to look at our pictures. It’s a weird system were they put them in a book and you find the shelf it’s located on. I guess they have cameras and CMs watching you like a hawk. I looked like a deer in headlights in our pics, but that’s pretty much the norm for me.

 

[lostpro9het]

Storming, eating, and leaving…
While we were relaxing in our stateroom before dinner we noticed a little light show happening out on the veranda. We walked out to see we were skirting a pretty nasty storm sporting some exciting cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The ocean was pretty choppy and we could really feel the boat rock a bit for the first time on this trip. It was a pretty neat show that had a daredevil twist. While taking the storm in we noticed a small plane heading straight for the darkest part. We thought for sure the pilot would deviate from the path but nope it went right for it. We watched for a few minutes hoping to see the plane emerge from the other side of the storm but it was time for our dinner rotation.

Well, sadly, this brings us to our last dinner of the cruise . Up tonight was Animator’s Palate. Again, as fortune would have it, we were seated by ourselves in a mostly quiet little nook.




Some cool chairs


We decided to get a couple glass of Merlot to go with dinner and then they brought out our bread:

Along with some seasoned EVOO


In my haste to enjoy my meat and olive appetizer plate I neglected to snap a picture sooner, sorry


For me, I made some custom requests. I asked for penne and sauce with a filet on the side. No Problem!



My DW went with the Lemon-thyme marinated organic chicken. This was surprisingly tender and not dried out as I thought it may be.


For dessert they surprised with an anniversary treat

Followed by the desserts we ordered



Last to come: One more bit of towel art and the sad trek home…

 

[imahistorygeek]

I really enjoyed Animator’s Palate. I thought the chicken would be dry. It was really good. The one item that I really remember was the olive oil. I could have drank the little bowl of it. Very tasty. This was the first bit of chicken I had on the trip. I usually like to try different foods while on vacation, things I wouldn’t normally eat. Since I wasn’t feeling too well, I thought the chicken would be a safe bet.

This was also due to the fact that I was kinda tired of seafood. I had eaten too much of it on the boat. At Cabanas, the buffet includes a section of cold seafood. There is some type of crab claw, peel & eat shrimp, and maybe mussels (I’m not sure). I saw plates (and these are very big plates) filled completely with crab claws. I ate some of shrimp (after careful inspection – I won’t eat unless de-veined) and tried the mussel (chewy and gross). As Sean mentioned before, stay away from the sushi. It’s the worst sushi I’ve ever had and that’s including the stuff from the grocery store.

I thought AP would be something else. I guess I was thinking of another restaurant after we left. I thought we would do some type of drawing and then it would be animated. It doesn’t matter at this point; we still had a very nice time. I had specifically requested this restaurant in our rotation. It’s a great place for the kids. Lots of fun.

On a final note, since we’d never been on a cruise, much less in a thunderstorm at sea, I was convinced we were going the way of Titanic.

 

[lostpro9het]

So this is it , the last bit of our journey together. It's been a monster week at work which is why this final update has taken so long. So here it is:

After returning from AP Lydia left us a few more surprises in addition to our spotless stateroom:


We spent the what was left of our evening enjoying the thunderstorm at sea while listening to Christian go over customs and departure information on the. Throughout the trip Christian had been a great source of humor. From his Sean Connery impressions, to his advice about not feeding the gulls at CC since what goes in has to come out, to how his son’s favorite toy, Thomas the Trai…I mean Mickey Mouse Plush, should not be packed in checked departure luggage as our checked luggage would not be available again until we reached our final destination.
So this was it, we were packed, custom’s forms were filled out, and we were ready for the early departure time slot.

So we woke bright and early, I went and grabbed us a couple cups of coffee and we made our way to the lobby to queue up with what seemed like half the ship for that early departure time.



When we were given the “all clear” to disembark, I kid you not, it took us less than 10 minutes to get off the boat, through customs, and driving away! We were easily 100 people deep in the disembark line in the lobby. They were super-efficient in corralling us off the boat!

One last look before we say goodbye


So with that our first cruise was over. I never thought I’d like a cruise but I must say this was pretty awesome and I want to go back! I would much prefer two days at CC and none at Nassau but I also see as my cruise limit being 4 or at most 5 days. We discussed on the trip home how next time we would “sandwich” the cruise between a few days in the bubble. Maybe 2 nights on property, 4day cruise and 2 nights on property again to give us a little cushion with the 7-hour road trip. It may be two years before we get back on the boat, however, as we are on schedule to buy into DVC in April thanks to the DW and I picking up a few classes to teach at the college. We’re planning on paying cash for at least 160 AKL points. Once we drink from the DVC Kool-Aid, I can see us putting together a cruise every other year, or so, since we had such a great time. I can’t speak highly enough about the overall quality of EVERYTHING having to do with this cruise experience and look forward to returning soon!

 

[Mickey2006]

Have just caught up on your trip report. I really want to take a Disney cruise!

 

[imahistorygeek]

This was one of our best trips. Everything felt new and for the most part, was new. We tried several new restaurants and we went on a cruise. We didn't know what to expect with the cruise, but I'm happy to say that it surpassed all expectations.

If you're considering taking a Disney cruise and are on the fence about it, do it. We didn't care for all the cruise activities, but we had a really good time just hanging out by the pool and had an amazing time at Castaway Cay. Castaway is worth the trip alone. If you're worried about too many kids, stay in the adult areas. And lastly, if you're wondering if Disney is only for kids, it isn't. There's so much for adults to do. It's a completely different place without kids.

This may be our last trip for a while, but I'm hopeful our next trip will be as DVC owners!