northsouth
DIS cruiser
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2000
Friday morning we managed to dock just fine at Castaway Cay but the day was cool and cloudy, as others have noted. We had fun watching the actual docking around 9am from our portside verandah, interesting to see if you get the chance. I had decided in advance that 12 yo and I would rent bikes if the swimming was poor, so we did. First we sat around the beach waiting for the sun; when it became evident that no sun was likely we had lunch at Cookie's BBQ (not too bad but I actually missed having someone put my napkin in my lap!!! I think it's time to go home!!!) and then rented the bikes. It was fun and recommended if it fits your schedule. Got to see the adult beach which is more on the ocean than the family beach is. The teens seemed to have plenty of activities lined up at CC and we rarely saw them. By this last day they were very tight with other teens from the ship and seemed to have a lot going on all the time. But they had expressed that they were ready to go home too since they all have boyfriends and missed them. Oh, young love!!!
Well, after shopping a little at She Sells...and posting a couple of cards from the
Post Ofc we headed back to the ship. We heard the comment from others, and thought this ourselves, that it's "kind of" good that CC day wasn't perfect weatherwise, made it a little easier (not much though!!) to face going home soon.
Packing up was hanging over my head and was a really depressing thought. First though at 5pm I went to the Oceaneers program at Walt Disney Theatre to watch the kids farewell show. I paid one last visit to Rudolfo from Chile at Signals bar by the adult pool area, and skipped the last show in order to pack. Kept the disembarkation program on TV while I packed in case there was anything else I needed to know. Our cruise director Jim did a great job all week and we liked him. He presented the disembarkation show at WD theatre on Friday which they replay on the TV in case you don't have time to attend it in person. DH and girls did go to the Farewell Variety show at 630pm and said it was OK.
Here I will mention one of my few complaints about the ship, and it is a very minor one really. One thing I have always loved about "things Disney" is the background music that plays everywhere, music is so important for setting a mood. On the ship the background music got very repetitive and annoying. They have different "soundtracks" for different things on the ship, such as, on the adult pool deck they played this instrumental stuff the latter part of the week, that never changed and was boring to begin with. The earlier part of the week was a lot of 80's music, that repeated a lot more than it should have. In the hallways I constantly heard "HiHo hiho it's off to work we go" and "whistle while you work"...the poor stateroom hosts had to listen to this ALL DAY. DH and I liked to watch the "ship channel" on TV and on the last 2-3 days this channel had nonstop Barbra Streisand hits, and while I like Barbra OK (no flames please), I DON'T want to listen to her over and over again for 2-3 days. My point is, Disney has hundreds of songs that they could use and evidently choose to use the same things over and over, ad nauseum. When we sailed the Wonder I remember hearing really interesting big band sounds and Judy Garland songs in the hallways, it was charming. And the dining rooms really need some kind of soundproofing done, they are very loud and clattery, some nights we could hardly talk or hear our servers talking, and some music in the dining rooms would be pleasant also. So this is just my two cents if anyone from DCL is listening.
I was pretty much finished packing by 730pm and met DH at Sessions. The end of this trip was looming and we really didn't want it to end. We went for our last dinner at Lumiere's and our servers really celebrated with the Baked Alaska turnout and we all cheered heartily for them, they really were SO great. I can't say enough about Aleksandra and Dennis, and our head server Alen, they were just the BEST. The dining service exceeded all my expectations and then some. Made our dinners such a treat to look forward to every day. I admit the food choices were sometimes a little dicey, but it was absolutely no problem to order something different in that case and it was served so promptly and with such care.
The kids all headed to their various last bash activities, DH and I went to Sessions for a while, after I put all our luggage in the hallway for pickup. Our stateroom hosts were very efficiently moving all the hallway luggage out. (these people work really hard and deserve their tips!!). The next morning we disembarked with no trouble after a pleasant late (815am) breakfast and said goodbye to our tablemates and servers. We had made previous arrangements with the Avis shuttle to pick us up, got in that shuttle line with all our luggage and at 9am we were off to rent another van at Radisson Avis and make a last visit to Ron Jon's, then to Downtown Disney and Wellesley Inn and Suites in Orlando (priceline deal: got 2 rooms for total of $60). Wellesley is a just between WDW and the airport in the Florida Mall area, the rooms are very big and have kitchens and are very comfortable. It is more of a business hotel so was not very busy on a Saturday night. We had a very early flight on Sunday that we barely made because the airport was really packed at pre-6am!! The checkin line was long with too few agents working, then security line was long too. But we made or flight OK, just in time.
A final thought, and then this very long winded report is finished. On our very last day, while at Downtown Disney, my good camera quit working after 10 years. It would click but wouldn't focus; I suspect it got sand in it from some beach. But magically it kept working til that last day. So I got all my photos developed, only about 8 or 9 rolls including my water camera (I had thought I would take 12 rolls but got too relaxed some days). And some of my photos of Disney Dreams show (no flash of course!! I wouldn't do that!!) came back from the developer looking like closeups!! And my camera doesn't have a zoom so I can't figure it out!! Pixie dust, I imagine!!
This was a Magical cruise and we're glad we went (understatement). But teens were glad to get back to their boyfriends, and 12 yo and I were happy to see our dogs, DH would've stayed on the ship forever but we'll cruise again some day.
"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened!!"
Well, after shopping a little at She Sells...and posting a couple of cards from the
Post Ofc we headed back to the ship. We heard the comment from others, and thought this ourselves, that it's "kind of" good that CC day wasn't perfect weatherwise, made it a little easier (not much though!!) to face going home soon.
Packing up was hanging over my head and was a really depressing thought. First though at 5pm I went to the Oceaneers program at Walt Disney Theatre to watch the kids farewell show. I paid one last visit to Rudolfo from Chile at Signals bar by the adult pool area, and skipped the last show in order to pack. Kept the disembarkation program on TV while I packed in case there was anything else I needed to know. Our cruise director Jim did a great job all week and we liked him. He presented the disembarkation show at WD theatre on Friday which they replay on the TV in case you don't have time to attend it in person. DH and girls did go to the Farewell Variety show at 630pm and said it was OK.
Here I will mention one of my few complaints about the ship, and it is a very minor one really. One thing I have always loved about "things Disney" is the background music that plays everywhere, music is so important for setting a mood. On the ship the background music got very repetitive and annoying. They have different "soundtracks" for different things on the ship, such as, on the adult pool deck they played this instrumental stuff the latter part of the week, that never changed and was boring to begin with. The earlier part of the week was a lot of 80's music, that repeated a lot more than it should have. In the hallways I constantly heard "HiHo hiho it's off to work we go" and "whistle while you work"...the poor stateroom hosts had to listen to this ALL DAY. DH and I liked to watch the "ship channel" on TV and on the last 2-3 days this channel had nonstop Barbra Streisand hits, and while I like Barbra OK (no flames please), I DON'T want to listen to her over and over again for 2-3 days. My point is, Disney has hundreds of songs that they could use and evidently choose to use the same things over and over, ad nauseum. When we sailed the Wonder I remember hearing really interesting big band sounds and Judy Garland songs in the hallways, it was charming. And the dining rooms really need some kind of soundproofing done, they are very loud and clattery, some nights we could hardly talk or hear our servers talking, and some music in the dining rooms would be pleasant also. So this is just my two cents if anyone from DCL is listening.
I was pretty much finished packing by 730pm and met DH at Sessions. The end of this trip was looming and we really didn't want it to end. We went for our last dinner at Lumiere's and our servers really celebrated with the Baked Alaska turnout and we all cheered heartily for them, they really were SO great. I can't say enough about Aleksandra and Dennis, and our head server Alen, they were just the BEST. The dining service exceeded all my expectations and then some. Made our dinners such a treat to look forward to every day. I admit the food choices were sometimes a little dicey, but it was absolutely no problem to order something different in that case and it was served so promptly and with such care.
The kids all headed to their various last bash activities, DH and I went to Sessions for a while, after I put all our luggage in the hallway for pickup. Our stateroom hosts were very efficiently moving all the hallway luggage out. (these people work really hard and deserve their tips!!). The next morning we disembarked with no trouble after a pleasant late (815am) breakfast and said goodbye to our tablemates and servers. We had made previous arrangements with the Avis shuttle to pick us up, got in that shuttle line with all our luggage and at 9am we were off to rent another van at Radisson Avis and make a last visit to Ron Jon's, then to Downtown Disney and Wellesley Inn and Suites in Orlando (priceline deal: got 2 rooms for total of $60). Wellesley is a just between WDW and the airport in the Florida Mall area, the rooms are very big and have kitchens and are very comfortable. It is more of a business hotel so was not very busy on a Saturday night. We had a very early flight on Sunday that we barely made because the airport was really packed at pre-6am!! The checkin line was long with too few agents working, then security line was long too. But we made or flight OK, just in time.
A final thought, and then this very long winded report is finished. On our very last day, while at Downtown Disney, my good camera quit working after 10 years. It would click but wouldn't focus; I suspect it got sand in it from some beach. But magically it kept working til that last day. So I got all my photos developed, only about 8 or 9 rolls including my water camera (I had thought I would take 12 rolls but got too relaxed some days). And some of my photos of Disney Dreams show (no flash of course!! I wouldn't do that!!) came back from the developer looking like closeups!! And my camera doesn't have a zoom so I can't figure it out!! Pixie dust, I imagine!!
This was a Magical cruise and we're glad we went (understatement). But teens were glad to get back to their boyfriends, and 12 yo and I were happy to see our dogs, DH would've stayed on the ship forever but we'll cruise again some day.
"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened!!"
Oh well, had to return to reality sometime I guess! Patty
, but I guess there is one! Glad you had a good time.
