Come sail away, Come sail away, Come sail away with me TR Completed 2/8/2012 - Page 27 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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It's over! I'm looking forward to your final thoughts though. I need to learn all I can about these cruises. I've been going back and reading TRs for them. I'll probably re-read this one soon too.
Sad that your vacation is over, but looking forward to your final thoughts. Very sweet that Josie is carrying Duffy everywhere and using her binoculars.
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Aww, I'm sad your trip has come to an end Thanks for sharing, it was fun to follow along (and now I REALLY want to do a Disney cruise!) Looking forward to your final thoughts.
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Extremely late to the party but I loved this trip report! I smiled really big when I read that about Oksana! She was absolutely fantastic when I spoke to her just a cope of weeks before! .
I love how you shop on our cruise! I was the same way, only I didn't spend a dime! . Not even for a drink. .
I am so glad you ended up putting the kids into the clubs for a bit, you certainly deserve couple time too.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are so many segments of this trip, I will try to be as organized as possible. God willing. One thing I will start with is ..WHAT WAS I THINKING???? From planning on not going on a big trip with the baby, this turned into the biggest trip we have taken with children!! Not in length, but in how involved it got. My thinking of staying one day before the cruise and one day after the cruise to make things easier for travel could not have been more wrong on my part. The constant shuffling of bags from ..our carry-ons the plane and what would we would need while at BC and then the morning of the cruise, to what we need in our carry on for the cruise and not knowing when we will get our bags and then getting off the ship and what we will need that morning and at AKL. The fact that someone was always coming to pick up our bags and then not knowing when we would be getting them back it was hard. Especially with a toddler and new baby. We got through it, sure, but it was constant stress on thinking ahead to what we need. If I had to do it again, with the ages my kids were at the time, I really think I would maybe take a later flight on the arrival day and opt to stay at a value resort or even a hotel closer to the port, followed by at least 4-5 days in Disney after the cruise. Because we stayed at a deluxe before the cruise, I wanted to get there early enough to enjoy all the resort had to offer, to keep our mind off of not wanting to go to a park. I never truly felt settled until the first full day of the cruise.
BEACH CLUB
What a great resort, and really SAB .can I even elaborate on how awesome that pool is? So great for little ones too. Our room was nice, the beds were so comfy, but the size of the room was small to what we have been used to at the Poly for sure. CMC, for dinner has now become a must do on our Sept trip!! Breakfast was great too, but I am trying to skip out of breakfasts for a while. The area itself was fantastic, even with all the crazies that were out and about at night. This is a resort I would like to go back to in the future.
DISNEY DREAM
It is just that ..a DREAM! Our CAT 4A room could not have been a better choice. It was huge and I loved every inch of it. The beds were by far the most amazing thing I have laid on in my life, not gonna lie. Pure heaven. I loved all the restaurants, Enchanted Garden was probably my fave, but I wish I had spent more time in Animators Palate. The kids clubs for someone who was leary of dropping off my 9 month old baby, I could not have felt more comfortable with those amazing gals that took care of him, and Josie too. How lucky are kids these days to have such an amazing place to play and explore. CC, I am so looking forward to spending more time there on a future cruise. My only complaint would be with Nemos Reef and how maybe they could try to keep the older kids out of there and with the Mickey Slide, a CM at the top of the slide would be a wise move too. Its sketchy with sending your kid up to the top of a somewhat big slide with no adult supervision.
I was overly impressed with the quality of entertainment, and just how much there was. We decided to take a cruise this year because of having little Andre, as much as I wanted to go to the parks, I figured a cruise would be a little more relaxed and being close to our room would be a great idea ..WRONG! Being close to the room was great, but the amount of things to do was overwhelming. I would feel so bad if we missed a dance party or meet and greet. It just seemed like there was always something going on. The Navigator did help, but at times I would just sit there and stare at it and be like I dont know what to choose. I chalk this not being able to make a decision mode, into my mush, just had a baby brain. Like when I planned this whole extravaganza to begin with. Not complaining at all, but boy was I just really overwhelmed with all they really had to offer.
I will again go back to Oksana from the gift shop. She just made that buying Duffy Bear so magical for Josie. I was blown away. I noted her on my comment card, but I do feel like it is worth my time to send an added note to DCL. (Anyone know how I can go about that?)
The ship, the bars, the lounges, the detective agency all amazing. I just loved the Disney Dream!
AKL
WOW!!!! Just the size alone was unbelievable, and all the beautiful animals to look at. For not going to a park, this is the place to stay. Just so many things to do and see and wander around. Its a good energy there, and I just loved it. The Mara was more than just a CS to me. So many different options of food. Boma, what a nice surprise that was. Our plan was for Sanaa, but this did work out better for us. Our room, well, dont stone me here but I kinda hated it. The view of the savannah was the most amazing view I have ever had. Maybe we didnt see a whole lot of animals up close, I knew they were there and that alone was awesome. However, that was the smallest room I have ever stayed in at any Disney resort. The big, chunky furniture didnt help either. Arnaud and I knocked into those beds with our knees more times than I can tell you in the 24 hrs we were there. I wish Disney had a resort called the Grand Poly Beach Lodge The location of the Grand, the room sizes of the Poly, a pool like SAB with the views of AKL. I would be all over that joint!!!
TRAVELING WITH 2 KIDS
This was a first and lets just re-cap those ages of said 2 kids. 4 yrs old and 9 month baby. We survived, that was the good thing. Andre was really a rock star the whole trip, except for his dinner show of shrieking every 2 seconds and grabbing at whatever was in front of him. Josie I have to say was a little more difficult this time. Not sure if it was the first time going with another baby or maybe her ASD is starting to get worse, not sure. She wasnt terrible but I feel like at times maybe she too was overwhelmed with what a big trip we were taking. We shall see what happens come Sept
Speaking of Sept. We are just about ready to make our ADRs for that trip and we have decided to keep it a secret for now with her, Andre has no clue either way. I sometimes feel like the countdown calendar was a cute idea, but after a while I think she was starting to think Are we really going anywhere?? Well see how that plays out.
I really do thank you all for following along with me. I am not a writer and at times my grammar isnt the best. My formatting for this TR was a little all over the place, but I appreciate you all for letting me relive our trip and to rant. I have learned so much from so many TRs, I hope maybe a thing or two I have said have helped one of you on a decision or question about something a for you as well.
I look forward to writing our Sept trip too, but the ongoing question still remains ..what song title can I choose this time???? Hmmmm .till then, THANKS FRIENDS
It's over! I'm looking forward to your final thoughts though. I need to learn all I can about these cruises. I've been going back and reading TRs for them. I'll probably re-read this one soon too.
I learned soooooooooo very much from reading other's TR's. It was a great tool for us!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wendyismyname
Extremely late to the party but I loved this trip report! I smiled really big when I read that about Oksana! She was absolutely fantastic when I spoke to her just a cope of weeks before! .
I love how you shop on our cruise! I was the same way, only I didn't spend a dime! . Not even for a drink. .
I am so glad you ended up putting the kids into the clubs for a bit, you certainly deserve couple time too.
So........when's your next cruise?
Yeah, thanks for joining in!
I really just beam at the thought of Oksana, she was over the top with Josie and I loved every minute of it.
Funny you ask about the next cruise as that has been a topic of conversation here. We want to go again in 2014. Our 10 yr wedding anniversary is that May, while hubs and I would like to do our honeymoon european cruise without the kids, that just ain't gonna happen. Sooo, we would like to see what DCL has for Europe then, if anything. If not, we will for sure be going on the Fantasy somehwere for a 7 night!!
Great final thoughts! So true about the cruise not always being the relaxing vacation you expect. Especially the first time out.
Looking forward to the next trip!
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Great wrap-up! I think you did an amazing job of organizing it all. The idea of a day before and a day after the cruise made perfect sense to me when you were in the planning stages.... Some things you only know in hindsight. It's hard to make people understand just how much there is to do on the DCL ships! I've been on 2 cruises, a total of 18 nights, and haven't begun to do it all. I love your idea of combining the best of all the resorts, but unfortunately we'll never see the room sizes as large as the original resorts again. The Poly rooms are huge, as are the rooms at OKW. The room size at AKL doesn't bother me, but I'm usually the only one in the room! Thanks for writing up this report-- I'm sure it will really help others traveling with small children.
One thing I will start with is ..WHAT WAS I THINKING????
This line made me giggle! I know how you feel! When we first took in our youngest two children(we later adopted), we had a huge trip planned to WDW anyway, so adding two young children would be a piece of cake. Ha!
Gabby was 8 months old, Michael was just 2 plus my 9&10 year olds. Fortunately we were at WDW the entire 10 days and even though we switched resort halfway I still had those same thoughts: what were we thinking??
I can only say one thing about it.......it only get easier. Each trip the kids are a little older and before you know it, you will be traveling easy-breezy style!
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It's over! I'm looking forward to your final thoughts though. I need to learn all I can about these cruises. I've been going back and reading TRs for them. I'll probably re-read this one soon too. 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
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Looking forward to your final thoughts! 
I smiled really big when I read that about Oksana! She was absolutely fantastic when I spoke to her just a cope of weeks before! 
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I like your idea of a GF/Poly/BC/AKL hotel! 
Thanks so much for taking us along for the ride! 
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