Poohbr1965
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2001
In case you missed the planning report...
Me (36) and mom (72), travelling with my friend from work and his 3 friends. Three night Wonder cruise, then 6 nights at WDW. First Disney cruise for all...
Sunday, May 6
Woke up at 7:00 after another rocky evening. I woke up sometime around 4am and saw us passing land pretty slowly. I wondered where we could be, until I saw one of the buildings had "(some company) welcomes you to Port Canaveral" on the roof. We're home!
Left our tip envelope for Alex (ran into him for the first time on the way out) and grabbed our carry-ons. Headed up to Parrot Cay for our 8:00am breakfast. The boys were waiting for us in the hall. One of them (the time share owner) was heading home today...he was not going on to Disney World with us. He had a later flight, so they thought they would take him to the airport to see if he could get stand-by on an earlier flight, so the boys were gonna skip breakfast (I think they grabbed something at the buffet) and disembark with the early seating gang. We said our goodbyes, and the boys gave us their tip envelopes (they charged theirs...we had cash) to give to the servers (since we were at Palos last night). We'd see the 3 remaining boys later tonight...
Breakfast was good, but they were definitely trying to move you out quickly. Had blueberry pancakes, bacon, juice, and a last chocolate croissant. Gave out tips to Ronald and John, but had to search Alain (head waiter) out to give him his. To be honest with you, if we didn't have the boys envelope for him too, I would have just left without giving it to him. It was bad enough I spent 10 minutes hunting him down (he seemed to be in the kitchen), but he never really did anything for us during the entire cruise anyway. Also, we left Ronald and John the full suggested tips. Later found out the boys didn't due to the fact that we only had them 2 times (due to Palos), and we tipped our Palos server quite well. In hindsight, I guess this makes sense. Live and learn for next time.
We were off the boat a little after 8:30, found our luggage right away, a porter came and grabbed it, asked for our customs form, moved very quickly out, and basically ythrew the form at the agent. Wow...talk about fast. Disney really does a great job of disembarkation.
We waited by the curb about 10 minutes for the Radisson shuttle, and we were off to the hotel. Took 5 minutes. Went to the Avis desk, and was driving off in a Red Grand Am by 9:00. Originally, we were gonna do the DCL transfers both ways, but when we switched our ressies to Animal Kingdom lodge, we looked at other options, since the DCL busses do not go to AKL. We would have needed a cab from another Disney hotel. I got the car for $45 for 1 day. The transfers (one way) for 2 people were $46. So, even with $10 worth of gas (and some tolls), we probably broke even. Plus, we had the convenience of a car for a grocery store shop and drive to dinner at the Poly tonight, and to visit the boys at Old Key West. The boys rented a car too, so they saved big bucks (4 times $23).
Well, since that's all for the cruise protion of the trip, I'll continue this report on the other trip report board. Hope you enjoyed it...
Final thoughts...
The good:
First Disney Cruise. It was great, and the ship was so beautiful. Would like to try it again some day, maybe 4 night this time.
Castaway Cay. The best day of the cruise. I wish the ship could spend even more time here.
Massage. Felt so good to be pampered!
Travelling with "the boys". It's always fun doing stuff with these guys, and our dinners on the cruise were so much fun.
The verandah. Won't cruise without one again.
The bad:
Nassau (mostly the shore excursion). Next time, I'll go to the shops for a little while, then spend the rest of the day on the ship...maybe doing a wine tasting and spa stuff.
The ships movement...hopefully it was just the weather. At least no one got sick.
The small bathrooms...I know they are bigger than on most cruise ships, but I felt so cramped! It was so hard to dry your hair!
Lynne
Me (36) and mom (72), travelling with my friend from work and his 3 friends. Three night Wonder cruise, then 6 nights at WDW. First Disney cruise for all...
Sunday, May 6
Woke up at 7:00 after another rocky evening. I woke up sometime around 4am and saw us passing land pretty slowly. I wondered where we could be, until I saw one of the buildings had "(some company) welcomes you to Port Canaveral" on the roof. We're home!
Left our tip envelope for Alex (ran into him for the first time on the way out) and grabbed our carry-ons. Headed up to Parrot Cay for our 8:00am breakfast. The boys were waiting for us in the hall. One of them (the time share owner) was heading home today...he was not going on to Disney World with us. He had a later flight, so they thought they would take him to the airport to see if he could get stand-by on an earlier flight, so the boys were gonna skip breakfast (I think they grabbed something at the buffet) and disembark with the early seating gang. We said our goodbyes, and the boys gave us their tip envelopes (they charged theirs...we had cash) to give to the servers (since we were at Palos last night). We'd see the 3 remaining boys later tonight...
Breakfast was good, but they were definitely trying to move you out quickly. Had blueberry pancakes, bacon, juice, and a last chocolate croissant. Gave out tips to Ronald and John, but had to search Alain (head waiter) out to give him his. To be honest with you, if we didn't have the boys envelope for him too, I would have just left without giving it to him. It was bad enough I spent 10 minutes hunting him down (he seemed to be in the kitchen), but he never really did anything for us during the entire cruise anyway. Also, we left Ronald and John the full suggested tips. Later found out the boys didn't due to the fact that we only had them 2 times (due to Palos), and we tipped our Palos server quite well. In hindsight, I guess this makes sense. Live and learn for next time.
We were off the boat a little after 8:30, found our luggage right away, a porter came and grabbed it, asked for our customs form, moved very quickly out, and basically ythrew the form at the agent. Wow...talk about fast. Disney really does a great job of disembarkation.
We waited by the curb about 10 minutes for the Radisson shuttle, and we were off to the hotel. Took 5 minutes. Went to the Avis desk, and was driving off in a Red Grand Am by 9:00. Originally, we were gonna do the DCL transfers both ways, but when we switched our ressies to Animal Kingdom lodge, we looked at other options, since the DCL busses do not go to AKL. We would have needed a cab from another Disney hotel. I got the car for $45 for 1 day. The transfers (one way) for 2 people were $46. So, even with $10 worth of gas (and some tolls), we probably broke even. Plus, we had the convenience of a car for a grocery store shop and drive to dinner at the Poly tonight, and to visit the boys at Old Key West. The boys rented a car too, so they saved big bucks (4 times $23).
Well, since that's all for the cruise protion of the trip, I'll continue this report on the other trip report board. Hope you enjoyed it...
Final thoughts...
The good:
First Disney Cruise. It was great, and the ship was so beautiful. Would like to try it again some day, maybe 4 night this time.
Castaway Cay. The best day of the cruise. I wish the ship could spend even more time here.
Massage. Felt so good to be pampered!
Travelling with "the boys". It's always fun doing stuff with these guys, and our dinners on the cruise were so much fun.
The verandah. Won't cruise without one again.
The bad:
Nassau (mostly the shore excursion). Next time, I'll go to the shops for a little while, then spend the rest of the day on the ship...maybe doing a wine tasting and spa stuff.
The ships movement...hopefully it was just the weather. At least no one got sick.
The small bathrooms...I know they are bigger than on most cruise ships, but I felt so cramped! It was so hard to dry your hair!
Lynne
