TR - The 'all in' family Cruise and Vaction

[flynnibus]

Forewarning:
This TR will be detail our adventure, what we did, and my commentary on some of our experiences. I am not however a travel blogger, and I do not photo document every step of our way, so this may be wordy vs picture-loaded in some opinions. I hope you still enjoy reading along and commenting with your opinions or similar experiences. Enjoy!

The setup…

So during our last cruise in Nov of 2013 on the Fantasy, we decided that we wanted to try to get our parents on a cruise with us. But how to get three families to buy-in at the same time? Do we cruise with just one of them? Is there pressure if one wants to and the other not? Neither set of parents were “big” into cruising, and we figured between the price and other factors they would find reasons not to go. Add into that, they’ve never vacationed together and we’ve never had everyone together for anything except at a party, etc. So our solution? We’d give them the cruise as a gift and invite them to join us. So I booked rooms for both sets of parents along with ours, and on the ship we bought DCL ornaments. At Christmas 2013 we gave them the ornaments with a note inviting them to a paid vacation with us on the Disney Fantasy in Nov 2014!

The gift idea went over well, and we only had to make one adjustment for schedules -- we moved our trip from the first week of November to the week of the 15th. Luckily at that time (Jan 2014) we were able to make all lateral moves with no cost or significant room changes. One advantage this this change was, the trip then ended at the start of Thanksgiving week, which gave us the opportunity for more time off after the actual cruise.

Our first decision was deciding how much longer to stay after the cruise and what to do. We went back and forth, but decided on staying through Monday, and traveling back on Tuesday, so we’d avoid the major holiday rush on the Wednesday before thanksgiving. So that gave us 2.5 days after the cruise.. what to do?

Last trip we had done Kennedy Space Center as something different… and in that grain of ‘try new stuff’, I had been wanting to try Discovery Cove. The extra days would make it easier to justify the cost of DC ($260 per person!). The other option was do Universal and the new Diagon Alley. But UNI is expensive for a single day, especially if we’d do the two park ticket, so it was DC or UNI... which to pick for the 2.5 days?

The idea was floated around the group, and surprisingly everyone’s first pick was Discovery Cove to try something new and the dolphin encounter excited everyone. I was a little worried about the weather, given it would be late November. But offsetting that concern was that the Discovery Cove/Seaworld combo would be more agreeable in intensity/thrills for our parents than maybe UNI/IOA would be. To my surprise, DC got more votes and Discovery Cove it is! Discovery Cove is booked in advance, and within 30 days there are no refunds… so back in Sept I pulled the trigger, and setup the plan as follows:

• Friday, drive to Florida
• Saturday-Saturday – 7 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise
• Saturday get off the boat and drive to Orlando, do Seaworld for the day
• Sunday, do Discovery Cove
• Monday, do Aquatica
• Tuesday, drive home

Coming from the DC area, we are still within a reasonable drive time to Florida, and paying for 5+ people in airline tickets, and all the extra luggage people take on cruises, flying becomes a challenge so driving is our first choice. We decided to take my SUV and my father’s SUV, and pile all three families into those two cars and drive. As it turns out, my in-laws needed to be home for Wednesday, so they wanted to be home sooner. This resulted in a split return, where my in-laws and my wife would drive back on Monday, while I stayed with my kids and my parents till Tuesday AM.

To minimize churn and indecision, I played Travel Agent and arranged all the hotels up front. We booked a Holiday Inn in Cocoa for the arrival night, and would stay in a partner hotel of Seaworld for the back-end of the trip in Orlando.

 

[flynnibus]

Day 2 – Saturday Departure day!

Since we were repeat cruisers, we are Silver and we were able to do online checkin and get the earliest time of 10:30am for checkin. Surprisingly, our parents who are 1st timers, were able to get 10:45am checkin times as well.

Here was my first lesson in ‘group’ planning. Most who have using Disney’s website before for DCL know that only one person at a time can be logged into your reservation. Well, unknown to me, this applies to LINKED reservations too. So when I told both sets of parents to try to log in at midnight at their 75day mark… they both experienced huge problems trying to get into the site to make their reservations… because the other person already logged in was blocking the other, etc. This resulted in both of them working till 2am or 4am to get their bookings done on their opening day.. ouch! On the upside, in linked reservations, one person can book everyone. So lesson learned, if you have multiple rooms, you should probably designate one person to log in and do all the bookings when your window opens!

Back to the trip… Our plan was to eat at the hotel, and then head to our second ritual... shopping at Ron Jon before leaving, and then head to the boat.

So we got up, eat our breakfast, and my parents were late coming down to breakfast. Turns out, they had double checked the alarm clock to ensure it set for the correct time, but had failed to notice the clock was set for the wrong AM/PM time for its CURRENT time. So no alarm for them So Lesson #2 for you all… use your phone for alarms

We checked out, and headed for Ron Jon. About halfway there, we realized my parents had left their cooler in the hotel room! So we dropped the important shopper (my mother) off at Ron Jon with the rest of them, while my father and I raced back to the hotel to retrieve the left item. No problem, just some extra running and time, and we headed back to Ron Jon. After indoctrinating the parents to the best beach shopping store on the planet… and a few bathing suit purchases we were ready to go. But we included some runs to Walgreens across the street to get some last minute items… playing cards and books to read. That’s right ladies.. Lesson #3 is, don’t forget to pack your reading material BEFORE leaving on your trip We also tried a rushed attempt to get some Kindle books on my father’s laptop before we left Ron Jon, but their anemic wifi meant we had to abort if we weren’t going to be too late to the port.

So now, after those diversions, we were not going to make our 10:30am checkin… no loss, the only interest in the early time was to maybe check for upgrades, but that was only a ‘maybe’ and I didn’t let it phase us. So it was probably 10:00 or so and we headed towards the port.

Now Disney literature said the port didn’t open till 11am… but my wdwmagic friends (@Disneyfalcon ) had already informed me that was more ‘influencing’ language and not 100% true, so I was expecting maybe some minor hurdles getting there this early.

Lucky I knew where I was going somewhat, because at this time, the digital board which told you which entrance to take, etc were not lit up yet for the Fantasy! Going on memory, I drove to the far side, and got to the point where there were some fixed signs directing us on.

Eventually we enter a gate, and a port guy directs us to turn left to unload. Now I’m just following directions, but I notice we get sent to the curb near the parking garage… and it’s a lot more crowded. It’s also not the same sequence of events (checking IDs, etc) that I had remember. I had wanted to goto the preferred parking, but we had no option for that at all with the previous guy. So we pulled up and unloaded, and were directed where to goto to park. I interjected and asked about preferred parking, where the guy informs me.. you’re in the wrong place! Now I’m miffed at the first guy… but this guy tells me how to go around and come back to the entrance and where to REALLY go. So both cars get the directions and we head back around. But now the roadway is completely JAMMED with traffic… we end up waiting another 5+ minutes in completely stopped traffic just trying to make the loop back to the entrance. Eventually we get there, and the same moron tries to point me to the curb I just came from.. but I tell him I want to go STRAIGHT to get to the preferred parking and then he waves me through. Upon going this way, things are as I remember… someone checked our IDs, we could have unloaded at the curb directly alongside the terminal building (which had NO one there). But since we had already unloaded, we just proceeded directly to the preferred parking… got front row spots and unloaded.

So lesson #4 – Tell the attendants UP FRONT you want to goto the preferred parking if that’s where you are headed. I recommend it… so close, zero pain, and worth the extra $$ for simplicity.

The preferred parking also works for a good pre-boarding photo.. here is ours from 2013

So I wanted to reproduce that for this year.. so here is the group shot (minus me) for 2014!

We headed towards the terminal where they were already letting people in. Starting the ‘it’s a small world’ theme for the cruise… the guy behind us in line was wearing a nice Under Armor+Maryland Crab themed shirt, which struck up a conversation about being from Baltimore (where all my family is from).

Once in the terminal, things were pretty busy, but not swamped yet. It was about 10:45 or so.. so no worries about making the first timers wait, and we approached the castaway club line. Zero checking of our check-in times… and no questioning my parents joining us. So we went through the line with only a handful of groups in front of us… but we had to split up at checkin.. one stateroom per agent.

Here, we had our first pro and negative CM interactions. The CM who checked us in, Eric, was completely uninterested in what he was doing and just kind of droning through things. He gave us someone else’s cards initially until I corrected him, and in general was just like some guy from the DMV. He was finishing us up, and gave me our boarding number.. which was #3. Meanwhile, two agents up, my inlaws had finished checking in. The agent at the station inbetween us picked up on the fact they were traveling with us and had gotten a later boarding group. The agent (and in the IASW theme.. from Bowie, MD) leaned over to us, gave us the checkin card with our boarding group number on it (#3) and said “give this to them and write their stateroom number in.. so you can board together”. So attentive and considerate and helping US who he wasn’t even serving! We then asked Eric for a card for my parents who were also checking in so we could do the same for them, and with no reaction + or -.. gave us a card for them.

I figured #3 was the first ‘general’ boarding group. By this time, it was about 11am, and I knew it was late but checked down at the supervisor’s desk and they already had the ‘no upgrades’ sign up. Again, based on our awesome wdwmagic intel… I knew they would start boarding somewhere around 11:30am so we just grabbed a spot leaning on the rail near the ship model and waited.

Not knowing what to expect crowd wise at this time, in hindsight I would say it wasn’t bad. The terminal was very busy with people, but the wait in line was trivial and the lines didn’t seem bad. However, waiting for boarding, the area was quite packed with people waiting. It was pleasant in that no one was pushing/cutting/etc.. but it was busy. At about 11:20 they started boarding, and within just a few minutes they had called group #3 and we were on our way!

For the first of many ‘how will they handle our combinations…’ photos questions, we had the gangway photos and they were very accommodating with our requests for family and group photos.

Stop… boarding time!

Now play.. spot the flynnibus…

 

[flynnibus]

Now having done this before.. I was ready for the early boarding and knowing I didn’t really need any day bag stuff.. there is plenty of touring you can do before your room is ready. But both sets of parents didn’t listen to my packing tips as well.. and both had quite large carry-ons that no one wanted to be hauling around to tour the boat with. In addition, we quickly found out that most stuff wasn’t open yet! Most things didn’t even start until 12pm. So the first 30mins on board or so, there was really no where to go except sit and wait.

In retrospect now… I’m not sure getting the early boarding is really all that worth it given the waiting in the terminal, and then having to wait for stuff to open on the boat. Our previous boarding times were something more like 12 or 12:30 or so.. and those seemed to serve us just fine. The early time only seems worth it for the MAYBE shot at upgrades at check-in… but being on the boat that much earlier wasn’t any help.

And now since both sets of parents were carrying around huge bags… my idea of getting them to tour the clubs/etc was quickly falling apart. Instead, we headed to Cabanas to get some food, and wait. Meanwhile my wife had to ask about 3 different people to get the correct answer on where to find the dining staff to handle our food needs we setup ahead of time.

Things started to settle down, and by 1:20 or so we went to check on our rooms and they were ready. Everyone found their rooms, we toured each others, and kind of split up.

New to us this time, we did hear there was a dedicated spot to do the Beverage reservations (Mixology, etc) on departure day. Normally we did this at Guest Relations later, but we knew there were some bookings we wanted to do, so we ran off to get those bookings in too. The inlaws are wine people.. and the wife wanted to do the chocolate+liquor tasting again. So before you know it, I think they had three events booked.. the champagne tasting, the chocolate+liquor tasting and a mixology. Phew!

Still hoping to encourage the noobs to tour the boat while things were in open house mode… didn’t really happen but everyone was trying to make the spa raffle at 3pm. The inlaws actually managed a spa tour before the raffle and were already booking massages At the raffle my mom actually won a $100 coupon towards ‘signature services’ (we’ll come back to that). As usual, the spa staff were pushing a ‘bliss’ package for departure day at a reduced rate.

After the raffle, we checked out what my mom could use her coupon for, as all the moms in the group wanted to do the bliss package. The staff kept saying the coupon could be used for any signature service, and when asked for what that was, they said ‘everything on the sheet’ pointing to the brochure. But everytime we asked to use it against something… they said it didn’t work for that. How is it works for everything, but nothing at the same time???

After much back and forth, turns out the coupon could only be used for the services in the middle of the brochure which are mostly the standard service… and did not apply to any of the packages or the rainforest stuff (which is what I really wanted). So it really felt like a bait and switch… where to use it really forced you to buy stuff you didn’t want. But eventually I think all the moms signed up for bliss packages, I signed us up for the couple’s rainforest access for the week (which is something I passed on the last cruise, but really wanted to try), and I think my mom signed up for a facial to use her coupon with.

By this time, it was already time to head for the safety drill… so now it was a rush to make that time (a recurring theme for the first two days). The kids had already bolted from us almost immediately after boarding, so the drill was the first time we had seen them since boarding. Our stateroom had us in the BV Theater again for the drill, which makes it very comfortable and relaxing if you get there early. Get there late, and you’ll be standing! The drill went by with no fuss and then we headed back to see if any luggage had shown up.

We went back to our room, to find most was already there, including some children! So we started to unpack until it was time for the ship to pull out. We saw out our balcony the boat was leaving, so we headed up on deck.

Somewhere in here, I forget when, somehow the inlaws toured Palo and Remy and made a dinner reservation too. Such a busy day!

My tolerance for general commotion noise and undesirable music has hit all new lows lately… so I had no interest in the ‘deck party’ for departure. I headed up to the front of the ship.

Here we are almost out of the inlet… following the other ships as per usual.

I found someone I knew already enjoying the loungers…

And as we headed out to sea… a final sunset over FL to say goodbye to Florida and hello Caribbean!

But continuing in the ‘rush’ theme… its already coming up on our dinner time. For this cruise we’d have early seating for the first time and that time to get dressed is already upon us.

Last cruises, I always dressed up at least in pants and a shirt for dinner.. but after seeing how DCL has been relaxing the requirements, and now with time short.. I decided my ‘cruise casual’ of button down and khaki shorts was close enough.

Dinner is one of the two constraints we put on the kids. They have a curfew time, and they must be ontime and dressed for dinner/photos. They have to eat dinner with the family on the cruise, but we usually give them one night they can bail if they want. The rest of the time, they are free to come and go as they please.

Our rotation for the cruise would be RAERAER – so we started in Royal Palace. And everyone made it!

Our wait staff would be Ygel from the Philippines and Nery from Honduras, and Whitt from Thailand as our head server. Honestly, the first two days or so, the staff was a bit shaky. Not bad, but not great either.. just kind of passing by to slightly below expectations. We never saw our head server the first two days. This was kind of a let down initially as this is an area they really need to excel in, and thinking about it afterwards, your wait staff are the staff you spend the most time with on the entire cruise. But more on that later…

After dinner, it was time to see what’s next. The women pretty much all had 8pm spa appointments so they were off to that. I am not much one for the stage shows, and after watching some of them on the Dream… I was not really interested in more. I normally like taking in the movies in the theater, but actually the list of movies for the cruise I found pretty weak. The movie list was

• Big Hero 6
• Maleficent
• Million Dollar Arm
• Planes: Fire and Rescue
• The Hundred Foot Journey
• Alexander…Very Bad Day
• Guardians of the Galaxy

Really only three films I had any interest in. So for lack of anything better, my father and I checked out the ‘A Fantasy Come True’ stage show.

The show was interesting in it was kind of a veiled ad for the different elements of the ship spun into the story of a family on the cruise, with kids not interested, stuck in their phones, etc.. the adults wanting some romantic time, etc.. and through the magic of the ship.. everyone gets what they want, and the kids find new friends, etc. All in all it wasn't that bad in the end and is suited for the noobs who need some nudging to try things out on the boat.

Pretty sure after this HECTIC day… that had started early that morning… I just headed for bed. Unlike other cruises, for some reason this day had played out as a rush from time point to time point. But everyone was on the boat and loving it so far… lots of reservations had been made… and our journey was just beginning!

 

[flynnibus]

Day 3 – First Sea day

Now, sea days are why I book the 7 day cruise in the first place. I want the extra relax time, I don’t want the rush.. yet somehow so far, we've been on a schedule like crazy. And it didn’t slow down this day either!

The wife started with an 8am spa appointment. At 12:15, the wife and her parents had their champagne tasting (not for me…). They said it was great. I started with my normal Cabanas breakfast and meal out on seating overlooking the rear of the boat. My favorite place on the boat…

One thing that stood out on this cruise vs the last was… the level of commotion on the main pool deck was way beyond my tolerance level. From the funnelvision volume, to the number of people churning about, and the general commotion… I did not want to spend any more time on that part of the boat then I had to. This leads me to spend any deck time up on the forward portion of the boat where its much more quiet and relaxing. That, along with the heated loungers, etc is what drove me to the spa this time.

Pretty sure I checked out the Rainforest Spa today. Like I said previously, I was tempted to do this on our last cruise, but passed.. but signed up this time. And I’m very glad I did.

The rainforest portion of the spa has a lot of features.

• Dry saunas and steam rooms
• The ‘themed’ showers with their different effects and reasonings
• Heated tile loungers that look out to the ocean
• Two ‘couples’ hot tubs on a private deck (in front of the lounger room)

This area was always quiet, never crowded, and the loungers and hot tubs were fantastic. It is certainly a great escape on the boat… along with the Deck 4 loungers as well. The showers are kind of neat, but most had cold water effects that were too much for me. Each time you checked in, they would give you some exfoliating scrub mixture and a pad you could use as well. The steam rooms were crazy hot, but I enjoyed the dry sauna which has a very simple, but classy box window looking out to the ocean as well.

The greatest unknown I discovered this time tho was the hidden gem that are the changing rooms in the spa. They have fresh robes, towels, and slippers for use. They even have a sauna and large showers. The changing rooms and gym are open to all.. so I assume you could use them at any time. Just sitting in the sauna alone is worth the trip to Deck 12 forward!

The rainforest access for the week was pricey… coming to nearly $228 for a couple after auto-gratuity. But I will say, if you make time for it, it is absolutely worth it. Any time I thought about going out on deck, I would just go there instead!

That leads me into my other observation about the Spa. It is by far the most sales pushy portion of the boat! Every one in the group that had any services done in the spa.. from pedicures, facials, to massages, all had pretty strong sales pushes made to buy products. Products that were typically about $75+ per bottle each! At dinner the ladies would all compare the list of product they were told they really need to buy… each being about $220 each! Now I know this is kind of par for the course, but the pitch was pretty forward, and the way EVERYONE reported back, its clear the pushes are the norm and not just because they observed a person needed something specific. It’s a shame they were so pushy in this aspect, it kind of built this image of gouging in everyone’s eyes even tho they all LOVED the services they got.

While I was off lounging.. the women had a schedule to keep and had to see the Shopping presentations. A pattern that became consistent through the cruise.

Then, in the afternoon, we had a Bingo date. Somehow on the last cruise, we got kind of addicted to Bingo, and it carried right through to this cruise. It was a fun activity that my youngest liked to do with me, so we always tried to play. At the first Bingo session, we had all three families represented.

Bingo can get to be an expensive hobby on the boat. A family pack so 2-3 can play runs you $80. And there are lots of bingo sessions on the boat… so it adds up!

The bingo sessions are ran by the cruise staff, which you get to recognize the same faces pretty quickly. Last year Bingo was ran by a French Canadian who’s name escapes me who I think did a pretty good job. This year, Lee from England was the main caller. Anthony, who we recognized from our last cruise, was his right hand man. Lee was ok, but was shockingly a bit more negative in tone at times with his jokes then I would think they would normally get away with. Not bad, but almost like.. you should only do that 1 out of 20 times, and he would do it like 8 out of 20 times.. you know?

I wasn't overly fond of Anthony on our last cruise, but he grew on me this time. The combined staff did a bit more entertainment and better jib-jab in Bingo on our last cruise but this group was passable. The parents all had a good time and they kept coming back for more. I won one of the raffles at this session and won a DVC beach bag and Aluni print.

But by the time Bingo was over.. it’s a rush to make it to dinner. Tonight is formal night, so pictures you know!! So the rapid run to appointment to appointment to appointment continued. This is a sea day, its supposed to be relaxing! No one is complaining yet, but I can see its controlling how people are vacationing…

We got everyone ready and did some photos… a mandatory thing for wife and moms.

The girls even found COMMODORE Tom..

There are lots of different backdrops you can stand in line for

Dinner was in Animator’s Palette which my mother commented “now this reminds me of Disney World”. Tonight’s show was Aladdin.. which I had coached them all they should not miss. However, I had failed to coach them on how crowded the theater would be I think we got there maybe 15mins early and we were all the way in the back near the doors A soon to be recurring theme on this cruise was… if you weren’t there early enough, you’d lose!

We had seen this on our last cruise with some of the more popular characters, where we found if you wanted to be sure, get there 5-10mins before the start time to minimize your wait. This time, with the Frozen girls on board… the Navigator said they even had ticket distribution for some of the more popular M&Gs! This time, every time I saw Mickey or Minnie in the atrium, the line always went the entire length of the atrium railing Not trying to fill the photo book this time, we didn't really do M&Gs, but the crowding and lines for that and some entertainment would become a recurring theme.

Being Sunday, it was Football day.. so I think after the show I headed down to O’Gills to catch some SNF and catch up on scores… then headed off to bed.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Great TR so far, I am going on my first cruise In sept, May I ask what you call to book ahead of time? I know I want the earliest boarding time because I am flying in the night before and I also want to go the nursery for a few hours, when can you call in?> Is there a certain day?> Also are these the only things you need to call for?? TIA

 

[flynnibus]

Great TR so far, I am going on my first cruise In sept, May I ask what you call to book ahead of time? I know I want the earliest boarding time because I am flying in the night before and I also want to go the nursery for a few hours, when can you call in?> Is there a certain day?> Also are these the only things you need to call for?? TIA

The same DCL phone number is used for all activity. Or you do online checkin online (my recommendation). Make sure you are paid in full before your 75 day window starts, and at midnight Eastern time you can do online checkin and do your activities registration.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Yay! A cruise trip report! I'll be back to read!

 

[flynnibus]

Day 4 – Sea day again!

Ok, it was time to break the rush everyone had been.. so we started off with a nice sleep in till 10am or so.. and then off to Cabanas for breakfast as usual.

But sea day.. you know what that means.. BINGO! Yup, the $5,000 Mega jackpot bingo. And for the first time ever, I got to yell BINGO! But I had to split my win with someone else, so I only got to take home $77. But it was a moral victory During the session they gave the pitch for the upcoming DVC session, so I figured I’d go listen to how they pitch it.. plus they were giving away a $200 stateroom credit.

So I went to the tube to listen to their pitch. Two sales people go through a pitch.. pretty much what you’d expect. Citing Grand Floridian rack rates as their point of comparison. But they had free drinks, and it was pretty professional.. so not a total loss.

But then it was time for some more relaxation… so instead of heading on deck I went to my Rainforest spa for a bit. SOOO worth the week pass.

Up next, was the seminar speaker. On each cruise, Disney brings some Disney employee to give talks about their field of expertise. This cruise, they had Ben Lipitz. Ben plays Pumba in the Lion King broadway show. So for the first seminar, Ben gave a behind the scenes look at the traveling Lion King show. He had tons of photos of all the puppets and costumes. He also talked about how the staging and costume changes are done and the changes for the performers. Ben was accompanied by a keyboardist and sang some songs. The insight into the Lion King show was very interesting and really made me interested in seeing the show.

After a break, I decided to give Planes: Fire and Rescue a shot. Let me preface this, I tried to watch the first Planes film on the last cruise and couldn’t keep myself awake. Didn’t like it one bit. This film had been knocked too, but I’m relaxing and it’s free, so why not. Without going into a full critique, I’ll say the film was better than I expected and I would call it passable. Not worthy of chasing down, but not a ‘turn that thing off’ film either. I think the hate for it is a bit overplayed.

By now it’s time to get ready for dinner… and it’s cruise casual again. So continuing with the ‘you’re on vacation’ I opt to keep dressing down.

After dinner, it’s Monday Night, and the Steelers are on, so plan was to head to O’Gills and watch the Steelers lose. In the bar, my father and I grab seats in front of the big screen. In chatting with the guy next to me, it turns out he lives about 30mins away from me! Further on, I find out he’s a firefighter for the county I live in.. and his home station is about 4 miles from my house. Small world strikes again!

Adding to that, we find a steeler fan in jersey in the bar. And who does it turn out to be? Staci our DVC sales assistant. Wearing a Steeler’s Jersey, so obviously I’ll never buy DVC now. And later on she’s joined by her whole DVC team. So after hours they were able to enjoy watching the game at O’Gills too. Lucky for her, the steelers pulled it out in the end.

After more rum and cokes.. it was off to bed. But more exciting stuff tomorrow, as we finally hit port!

To be continued!

 

[flynnibus]

By now, I had really been neglecting the fact the ship was decorated for Christmas. This cruise they even had more Christmas entertainment that they did not have on our last Nov cruise. They had a tree lighting ceremony in the atrium. On this day they had a 'Santas Winter Wonderland' show in the atrium for the arrival of Santa Claus.

True to my pattern on the whole cruise, I blew all this entertainment off Spoiler alert... no send off party, no pirate party, no christmas shows for me

But how about some photos?

Garland and the tree

My artistic moment

They even had a gingerbread house

The sign...

 

[flynnibus]

Day 5 – St Thomas

Well after our long sail… we reached our first port of call – St Thomas. We had stopped in St. Thomas on our last cruise where we did the Tree Limin Zipline which was pretty good. My in-laws opt’d to do that adventure while my parents did an island tour.

For us? The call was Snorkeling. We did the Catamaran Sail to Shipwreck cove. The boat met us right at the dock literally directly in front of the ship. Photo op..

(too bad my focus was off)

They loaded about 50 of us on the catamaran, and we sailed/motored for about 30mins to the site. The ride out was pretty wild on the waves… anyone worried about sea sickness probably need not apply

The location was busy with multiple boats in the area.. and LOTS of people in the water. Here is a view looking out towards one of our sister boats

The cove is over a rocky area with some live coral and the broken up pieces of an old merchant ship. The water was shallow near the shore (duh!) but was mostly about 12-30ft deep around the rest of the place. Our guides got in the water with us, and led us in groups to the various key spots in the cove. They would also retrieve some coral or creatures to show them off to us or let people touch and see some of the stuff which was neat.

This is not my video, but can give you an idea of the conditions at this location



They let us snorkel for about 30-45mins before we started collecting up for the trip home. I felt the snorkeling portion was a bit short, and the location was just ‘ok’. Nothing mind blowing, but there was live coral and fish around. It beats castaway cay, but not great. But hey, it’s warm, it’s sunny, we’re out on the water… can’t complain.

On the way back, we mostly sailed, no motor. The crew broke out the rum, and we all had rum punch or just punch. But where this boat did more than previous similar trips I had been on… they also had sodas, and would mix drinks for you from the soda, punch, and rum. They also had pretzels to snack on.

Sunning on the way back

I chatted with the captain a bit on the way back… jealous that he just lives on his 60ft sailboat there full time. That’s after spending 2 years sailing around the Caribbean. The ride home was about 45mins or so and was a great sail on a great day. They dropped us off at the same spot, directly in front of the cruise ship.

While not a mindblowing snorkel experience, for the $60/person it wasn’t a bad deal. The sailing was nice and great to be out on the water, and the snorkeling was a nice diversion. I’d probably try a different location next time, but I don’t think I’d tell people not to try this excursion.

After being dropped off, it was only about noon… and the wife had been armed with shopping ‘needs’ by the shopping people on the ship. So we headed towards the Main Street area to look around. We knew it was close, so we figured we just walk along the water front and follow the signs.

Now we were armed with the map from the shopping desk…. But let me tell you, that map SUCKS. Walking along the water front, we could not correlate the map with any of the cross streets. I even had Google Maps up on my phone, and could not reference what I saw in Google with the printed map. This ended up causing us to walk about ¼ mile too far past the main shopping district. Hindsight.. the flea market type setup with the tents in the gardens you pass.. that’s where you want to turn towards the main street!

But armed with the shopping desk info.. the women were on a mission to get their free jewelry from the different shops. All these charms… which in retrospect, are so chintzy cheap.

The shopping area was pretty busy, as apparently one of the Oasis class boats had come into port as well in addition to us and the celebrity boat next to us.

The street was full of taxis asking everyone as they drove by if they needed a ride… to the beaches, etc. It seems like if you get a taxi, expect to be driven down the main drag so they can see if they can pickup more patrons for their ride

For me tho, the ride was just beginning. See, my wife’s engagement ring had some issues about 2m back and she had to stop wearing it. But here, cheap shopping right? So direct to Diamonds International we go… or I was lead to

Before long.. she has a new engagement ring she wants. Remember.. this wasn’t in any prior plans that I was a part of! But while we were shopping, Candice from the shopping desk found us, and checked in on how we were doing. The manager had already seen us, and was working on what his discount would be off their initial price. Candice helped nudge him, and also suggested we push them for throwing in the other promotional pieces they had been offering in the shopping sessions (buy X, get a necklace, etc). There were 3 items on the promo, some of which you were supposed to buy an item from a certain collection. They quoted about 20% off their price, and he threw in all 3 promo items (a locket, a necklace, and a bracelet). The wife was set on the ring she picked… so I was stuck. So I ponied up and she bought her diamond ring. The ring had to be sized. They could deliver it to the ship, or we could come back in about 60-90mins. We opt’d to stay in town, grab a drink, and do some more shopping while we waited. We checked out the Del Sol store which has all the UV reactive color stuff which was kind of neat.. and bought the kids some color changing nail polish. Being a US territory was nice.. everything was in USD, and everything was pretty straight forward.

After heading around to all the shops on the shopping map from the boat, we headed back to DI and picked up her ring, and then headed back to the boat. She was glowing she had her ring… I was dreading paying the credit card off after that and the cruise expenses

Once back on the boat, I headed up topside to relax a bit and take in the view. Also, since we were in a territory, it was domestic internet and voice service for me on my phone. So I turned on data, and checked in on WDWMagic to share the view from the deck

By this time, the sun was setting, giving some great colors to the harbor area

Yacht row

Panoramic

(full size link - http://flynnibus.smugmug.com/Vacation/Cruise-2014/i-CGPsXLz/O)

I liked the sunset behind the boat

Then it was time for dinner again… it comes up quick!

Tonight was pirate night.. so obligatory pirate photos

Oh and watch out if you order nothing for desert… you might just get..

Modeling nothing…

The opposite of nothing… random desert

I think the plan after dinner was to see Big Hero 6, but when we walked into the theater just a few minutes before showtime the main Walt Disney Theater was PACKED. Rather than fight to find a spot.. I think we punted and just headed to relax on the rainforest spa again as a couple. Then off to an early bedtime as tomorrow was Puerto Rico!

 

[flynnibus]

Day 6 – Pueerrrttoo Rico

Well its day 6 of the adventure.. day 5 of our cruise. Today’s port was Puerto Rico, which we have never been to. We had booked the Campo Rico Ziplining adventure. We had an early start, and my father was joining us on this adventure. The in-laws and my mother had booked the Bacardi Rum and City tours.

We were at risk of rain today, but it turns out to just be mostly quick squals, but we loaded the bus on the way to the site. The bus ride was actually pretty long.. probably 30mins driving through the city. If anything, the drive reminded you that you were no longer on these tiny carribean islands, but that San Juan is a full fledged urban city. We eventually pull up to a barbed wire fence surrounding what looks like a ranch. I was slightly apprehensive.. as I don’t see any jungle.. I don’t see any terrain of size… just flat ranch.

We eventually pull up to the location, where dodging the rain squalls we get geared up for the adventure.

What’s so funny?

After gearing up, we got a short intro on riding position, and how to brake or ‘rescue’ ourselves!?! Turns out, running out of speed before the platform, or overspeeding is possible, so they give you a glove to use to drag on the line to slow down, or to pull yourself in. And our first zipline was right there at base camp.

Here’s a video showing the tower we climbed to start the fun..



There are a total of 7 ziplines. Turns out the location is an old sugar cane plantaition that is now a private recreation area.. horseback, ATVs, etc. While it looked flat initially, there were some hills that the ziplines went around and it was quite good. The adventure was a mix of ziplines, rope bridges, and some hiking inbetween. This was certainly a physical activity! The hiking was on pretty steep terrain with rocks and roots. Some places you really had to climb up.. but only like 5-8ft at once. My father who is in his 60s was able to do it, but anyone who would be shy of the outdoors or who has mobility issues would be best to not attempt this.

Here is the first rope bridge. You can see its boards about 16” apart or so



The second zipline went out over the pond and because of the wind… smaller people would have trouble making it to the far side.. so the kids actually went in tandoms. They’d wrap their legs around each other and send two out at once. That was a new one for us

Here is my oldest heading out on zipline #3. You can see from the sign, this one is 866ft long and 80ft in the air. In this video, you can see a typical zipline in this place… you go through some trees and then often are out over open areas



Here’s little one on another

 

[flynnibus]

Then, later up the climbs, they change up the rope bridges on you..



Another view of what one of the ziplines looks like



Here’s what one of the early climbing sections looked like. This one was easy as there are steps cut in, etc

Here you can see the sign for zipline #4

And zipline #5

Now true to their name.. around this time we did see an iguana in the trees. And I’m not talking about a small one people have as pets. This thing was like the size of a TIGER! It was HUUUUGE. It was no lizard, it was a dragon! I wasn’t very successful in capturing the scale of this guy with my iPhone, but let’s play ‘find the lizard’. This is the original size image, so be sure to view full size.

Hint.. he is on the big branch. Now, this doesn’t look big, but he’s about 100ft away from us! No lie, that thing was as big as a human crawling on that tree!

The view from the one of the outlooks on the hill

Zipline #6 was their highest, and longest run

It’s hard to capture the scale of this on my iphone, but it was pretty cool. This video was a lot cooler on the iphone with it’s slow mo… but here, the takeaway is look at how basically she disappears because she’s that far away



And here is a video of my ride on Big Mamma



And the details of the last zipline..

The tour ends at a small hut where they served us lunch, and they had a cash bar. Overall the experience was pretty good. The mix of the bridges and hiking made it more of a physical adventure than the ziplining in St Thomas. Value wise I’d call it ‘good’ and I would recommend it to others.

After the tour, we headed back to the ship. My wife and mom headed into the city to do some shopping while we stayed on board.

For the Bacardi Tour and city tour… they did not have the same success we did. First off, the tour operator didn’t want to do anything but the Bacardi stop, even though the excursion was advertised as a city tour as well. Second, the Bacardi tour was under whelming. We actually encountered several people over the next day or two who were also complaining about the tour operator for that excursion.

I took the afternoon break to go see Big Hero 6.

Quick commentary on BH6. I was underwhelmed. Not a bad movie, but I would say it’s forgettable. Relied too much on gags without being genuinely funny (minus some bits). In the final quarter of the film, you can see it becoming a ‘super hero’ film and where they were going with it… but it felt pretty hollow to me. No desire to see it again… which is opposite of most of the the other recent Disney films for me, both animated and live action (Maleficent excluded… stinker).

After the movie, I found myself relaxing on the loungers on Deck 4. I’m never on this deck except to/from the Vibe, but I found it a very nice quiet getaway from the commotion on the other decks. I laid down on the wooden loungers for a bit and read my book, and checked out some stuff online on my phone. The view of San Juan from Deck 4…

Random atrium photo…

 

[flynnibus]

After dinner… we had another Bingo date, so we made it to Double up bingo.

A full house for bingo..

No win for me, but my father in law won.. getting about $220 if I recall. So now at least each family has won something at bingo

I don’t recall if it was this evening, or the night before.. but twice the parents had tried to see some of the adult entertainment in The Tube and found frustration in being able to get in. They had tried to see the variety act, but the place had been at capacity well before showtime and could not get in. People who had been there from the earlier event basically didn’t leave. This happened two nights even though they had tried to get there early enough.

I think for me, I bailed early and enjoyed the wonderful bed we had in our cabin

 

[flynnibus]

Day 7 – Sea Day

Now we had to race back north after PR to Castaway Cay. I took an extra long sleep in this morning, while the wife was doing early breakfasts with her parents in the sit down resturants.

Sea day, you know what that means? BINGO! Yup, one more session of bingo. No winners this time

After bingo we had our Mixology session which was supposed to be in the Skyline Lounge. We walked in to find a session already in progress. We thought maybe they were just running late, so we sat down, along with some other folks. After a minute or two, the bartender said we were welcome to stay, but they had a class going on. We all said, ‘yeah, we are it!’ and he’s says no, he already has a class going on… our class was in the Merridan bar. But all our tickets said the Skyline! So we head up to the Merridan, where the bartender greets us to say she already has a full class! But after checking our tickets, she figures out we are the people she has booked.. so no idea how the beverage crew screwed that up.. but we were in now.

This Mixology session started a bit late.. and honestly the bartender skipped all the cocktail history stuff, and even the how to pour stuff! Instead saying we would all over pour anyways, so she just jumped into the cocktails. I think our last bartender was a bit more informative and organized, but Alexa had a personality that carried the session. My in-laws had done this session with my wife and I. Some people were going WAY over the top with the pours.. as in, glass with just rum ONLY in it, etc and no room for the other components. Session was fun, but the in-laws were really feeling the alcohol from the session With the mixology session scheduling, and after playing so much during the week, we blew off the final bingo session for the big jackpot. The jackpot was less on this cruise, with the final winner only being like $6700 or so.

So before you knew it, it was dinner time again. After dinner, Thursday night football for me. Went down to O’Gills and hung out there till closing time. This was certainly the night the parents were trying to get into the entertainment at the Tube and even though they showed up like 45mins early.. they were not letting people in! Became really frustrating that the adult entertainment was becoming so difficult to even get to see.

Day 8 – Castaway Cay

Both my wife and her father have gotten into running races in recent times.. so the thought of the 5k on CCay appealed to them. We even got my youngest into the race, and so they all made it off the boat for the race.

As you can see from the photo.. the weather wasn’t looking so good for us.. in fact it was downright borderline.

Even though it was cloudy, the rain was holding off but it was only in the low 70s. We made our way to the beach. I guess a lesson learned by luck this time was… booking beach stuff for CCay ahead of time isn’t a great idea because of weather. The teens were actually booked for their high speed boat excursion, but that and basically all the boating excursions got canceled for the day

Pretty overcast day…

For some reason even the play thing in the water was closed…

But we did basically stay on CCay all day and got on board about an hour before all aboard. But while sitting in the cabin, I get a call. My middle child needed me downstairs so they could get back to the island.. what?? Well they had left their stuff and needed to get back to see if it was still there. So now it’s 45mins before all aboard and she’s wanting to bolt back off the boat.. ugh! So we get off, and she starts RUNNING towards the beach areas. Luckily along the way she crosses the Vibe consolers.. who have their stuff! Turns out they had closed the teen area and picked up all the stuff, but somehow had crossed paths with the kids before. So crisis averted.. and we got back on board with plenty of time.

Well the last night on board is always a disjointed one because of needing to pack and get your bags out, etc. So we focused on getting ready, and doing our last shopping on board.. picking out gifts for home. Last night also means sorting out all the photos at Shutters, so the moms were all busy sorting out their photo packages and ensuring all the photos were on their CDs, etc.

On the subject of gifts, some commentary. One thing is clear, the stuff they have on board is just more classy in general than most of the merch. you see in the parks.

So we wrapped up our shopping, and I don’t think we even did any of the entertainment on board that evening.

The next morning, we were set for the early breakfast being first seating, which we were there right before they opened. We had a good meal, said good bye to our servers. By the time we were done eating, people were gathering in the atrium to disembark. We only had to wait maybe 5 minutes or so before they started letting people off.. so great timing and almost no wait at all to get into the terminal. We found our bags quickly, and there were only 4-5 people in front of us for customs. In no time at all, we were done and in the parking lot. Silky smooth!

Once off the boat, we were heading to Orlando for the next part of our adventure…

 

[flynnibus]

some random notes...

rebooking on board presented a few new challenges. First, prices! The prices for next Nov on the same cruise were about 10% higher than the cruise I had just booked in Nov 13. Second, I made my reservation all ok, and then told the agent I wanted to add my travel agent to the booking.

Last cruise, I was thinking about switching agents, so I did not put the TA on the booking when I made it. The agent told me I could add it afterwards.. so no biggie. But the agent failed to tell me you had to add them within 30 days of making the booking. In my case, about 45 days after when I went to add the TA, I was told I could not! And even though the agent screwed me in not telling me the constraints.. DCL basically said pound sand.

So now booking this new cruise... I'm told I can't add the TA to the booking!! WHAT? Because my current cruise did not have a TA on it, I could not add the TA to the new booking either while on board! So now because Disney screwed me last time, they are screwing me again! So now I need to do it after the fact, etc. Annoying

 

[DAKOTADISNEY]

Enjoying your trip report! We are cruising on the Fantasy next march and all of your details are very helpful. We are also interested in the Campo Rico ziplining so I really appreciated the pictures, commentary and videos. We have two daughters, 19 and 14. The fourteen year old is about 100 pounds. Do you think she would have to ride tandem in a few of the ziplines?

 

[flynnibus]

Do you think she would have to ride tandem in a few of the ziplines?

They said it was dependent on conditions (wind) and was really only a big issue at one of the ziplines. My youngest had to ride tandom once.. and had to pull herself in 20-30ft at least one more time. It didn't bother her at all.

I would tell you to bring some bottled water and bug spray! I had a small backpack I wore to carry the water and bug spray. The water was much appreciated as we were hiking

 

[DAKOTADISNEY]

Thanks for the advice. We will definately take both along.

 

[Nmoody1]

i hate the upselling on the cruise. i get why they do it, but after a nice relaxing treatment it is horrible to have to face a hard sell... i usually say when i go in that i wont be purchasing products on this visit. probably not what they want to hear, but i dont need to be told that my skin is dehydrated, such a product could help me slim down or reduce water retention or that something else helps cellulite! back to earth with a bump!

 

[flynnibus]

I will be moving onto our seaworld/discovery cove/aquatica portions shortly thx for reading