As most of you already know, we've had a Disney Cruise vacation planned since last October. For those who didn't know, we just got back from a jaunt through the Caribbean on Thursday. I'm happy to say we all made it back in one piece with lots of great memories. Erin was too busy taking it easy to take her usual hundreds of pictures, so you'll just have to enjoy the many dozen she took. We'll try to do a post a day so it's easier to digest. Skip to the end for the photos. I'm going to get my word on.
Mom drove us to the Cities Saturday night so we could get on our plane at seven in the morning Sunday. This was Sarah's second flight, but Grace's first, and we're pleased to say that neither had a problem with the process, so we can keep planning more trips like this in the future. We were on the ship by two in the afternoon, Eastern time, and spent the rest of the day just trying to take it all in. It's been four years since we've been on a vacation like this, and I think we forgot how to relax and enjoy ourselves since then. We mostly relearned that skill by our third day.
Our first day on the ship was pretty scattershot. We tried to hit everything in the few hours before bedtime and didn't end up doing a lot of anything. Every day we tried to plan things around the character photo opportunities, which we eventually learned were pretty much a waste of time. We were in the right place at the right time for a few shots with Mickey, Minnie, a princess or two and Tinkerbell, but otherwise the lines were so long we moved on to other things.
One of the awesome aspects of the trip was that our checked luggage was delivered directly to our rooms, so once we got to MSP, we were able to let loose 80 lbs. of clothes, which caught up to us before we pushed off from Port Canaveral. Unfortunately, the suitcase with the girls' swimsuits didn't arrive until we'd been on the ship nearly four hours, so we were late to the pool party. Actually, considering how much water we were around, we didn't swim very much. However, we had our own deck with a great view of the harbor and some dolphins to keep the girls attention, so we were able to keep them busy while we waited for their luggage to arrive.
To be fair, the ship had more than enough attractions to keep us busy while we waited, although we didn't find them all until later on the trip. One we did find right away was the Oceaneer's Lab, one of two "kids only" places on the ship. Basically a babysitting service so the adults could visit the adults only areas, but done right by Disney so the kids didn't notice the grown ups were gone. They had an open house when we wandered by, so we could try out the sailing simulators and other games. More on this for the post about Wednesday.
Eventually, the girls' swimsuits arrived, and they were able to try out the water attractions. The big ones the first day were the Mickey pool, Mickey's slide, Nemo's Reef, and the Aquaduck. Mickey's pool was the kiddie pool, Nemo's Reef was the preschool area (no standing water more than two inches deep), and the Aquaduck was the 700 foot long slide that went over the side of the ship. We didn't go on the Aquaduck until late at night, but it was a fun ride. Each of the girls only took one trip down it the first day. I don't think we were in the water more than an hour Sunday night.
Breakfast and lunch were buffets, but evening meals were a semi-formal table service affair. We were scheduled to eat at 8:15pm in one of the ship's three formal dining areas, rotating each night, so any relaxation had to be cut short around 7pm to get showered and dressed. We were assigned the same table number each night, which we shared with another family and we were both served by the same staff each night. This was a part of the trip I thought would be a chore, but turned out to be a real treat. We sat with a family from Virginia that had a boy Sarah's age and a girl Grace's age, and everyone really easy to talk to. Our main server, Ana, was from Croatia, and her assistant, Ahmet, was from Turkey. They were both extremely professional and made the dinner service breeze by. We were always one of the last families to leave, but it never seemed like we were there for very long.
One of the other neat parts of the trip was our evening room turndown, performed by our room host, Goodluck. It was a little odd having our room made twice a day, around the time we left for breakfast and again while we were gone to supper, but in a good way. For the turndown service, he set up the bunk beds for the girls and left us a different animal shaped out of a towel or two, which was just neat as all get out. The girls were absolutely bushed every night by the time we got back to the room, but they always looked forward to this, as well as the chocolates he left. Grace actually fell asleep at three of our four evening meals, and so didn't get to see it until the morning after.
I'm going to mention in closing my one blanket complaint about the cruise. There were a lot of people on the ship. Roughly 3000. That's not my complaint. The more people, the cheaper my fare. My complaint was that it seemed they were all at the same place at the same time. When you get on the ship, those 3000 passengers are shown to the same 6 elevators at midship. It was not until the next day that I found out there were four more elevators at each end of the ship. We ended up taking the stairs most of the time. I even hauled Grace up 7 flights after she fell asleep at dinner one night. Meals, pool times and any scheduled gatherings were the same way. Our room was on the 10th floor, and the pool was on the 11th, so this was not always an issue.
Considering this was my biggest complaint and could mostly be dealt with by scheduling around the busy times, it's a fairly minor complaint. The pools were nearly empty in the morning, room service could be scheduled for different times, and it was pretty easy to get around on the stairs most times of the day. However, it feels worth mentioning for anyone considering a vacation like this in the future, plan on being elbow to elbow with a lot of strangers if you go.
More fun pics tomorrow!
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