The Seas are full of WONDER and waves! Our first Disney Cruise - 7-night Eastern Caribbean; Feb 2018

Glad you got power back!

Love the kids clubs! I wish I had the chance to go on a Disney Cruise as a kid.

Love the S.E.A. details as well. Lord Mystic and Harrison Hightower on the far left. Hightower is modeled after Joe Rohde, not many know that.
 
Hooray for power!

The kids clubs look really fun! We are taking our first cruise this summer and our daughter informed us she would prefer to spend as much time as possible in the kids clubs as opposed to with mom and dad. I can't say I blame her. They look awesome!

Hooray indeed! I joked that when the power came on it was the 4th happiest moment of Judi's life (#1-3 where when each of the kids were born and #5 was when we got married)

That is what happened with our kids - very much with Olivia and Peter, a bit less with Emma - that all they wanted to do was stay in the kids club. Was one thing I had to adjust to during the cruise as I thought there would still be some family activities we did but by the end of the cruise I was just "fine, stay there all day if you want" :D


Glad you got your power back Phil! The kids club look really cool especially Andy's room.

Thank you - we are really glad to have power back ... now to get to all the laundry we are backed up on!

The kids Clubs really were cool and just tons of details!


Glad you got power back!

Love the kids clubs! I wish I had the chance to go on a Disney Cruise as a kid.

Love the S.E.A. details as well. Lord Mystic and Harrison Hightower on the far left. Hightower is modeled after Joe Rohde, not many know that.

Thanks Ryan - we are very glad to have power back!

I know! The clubs were so cool and they just had tons of activities for the kids to do and lots of fun and just so cool for them to hang out with a bunch of other kids their age with no parents and just have fun!

I did know that Hightower was modeled after Rohde, though I think I only found that out fairly recently. I was also glad that Albert the monkey made the picture as well, representing my favorite Disney attraction, Mystic Manor!
 
checking in to say Hi. great report so far. Wow - I really can't believe how your family has grown!
Time flies!

I'm glad your power is back. Our area was hit too, but only certain neighborhoods were left in the dark. We were lucky it wasn't ours.
 
For some reason I wasn't getting updates from your report, so here I am catching up!

Glad to hear your family is safe from the storm, and that you got your power back! :)

I love the Port Canaveral terminal. My Dad and I have gone out of Miami and Galveston, and I highly recommend just taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral. We have had pretty bad experiences in the other terminals.

My Dad and I have cruised quite a bit (on DCL and other cruise lines) to the point we know that we won't get the welcome aboard photo. I think we took it our first couple of DCL cruises, but we now pass it. We are always to excited to get onto the ship lol.

We also have started to go to the dining room (usually at the back of the ship) that is offering lunch instead of going up to Cabanas since it usually isn't as crowded as Cabanas. Every time we have done that, it has been a brunch style as well.

I have never been in the kids clubs, but some of the rooms look awesome. I really wish my parents would have taken me on a DCL cruise as a kid.

Looking forward to the rest of your Trip Report! I'm enjoying reading it! :)
 


The kids clubs look so fun! It is almost like a taste of Toy Story Land! So glad you got your power back. Let's hope for some really boring weather for you now!
 
checking in to say Hi. great report so far. Wow - I really can't believe how your family has grown!
Time flies!

I'm glad your power is back. Our area was hit too, but only certain neighborhoods were left in the dark. We were lucky it wasn't ours.

"hi" back atcha! And thank you! Yeah, kids are getting big - you don't realize it day-to-day but they are definitely getting older!

Definitely glad to have the power back - one of those things you don't fully appreciate until it is gone


For some reason I wasn't getting updates from your report, so here I am catching up!

Glad to hear your family is safe from the storm, and that you got your power back! :)

I love the Port Canaveral terminal. My Dad and I have gone out of Miami and Galveston, and I highly recommend just taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral. We have had pretty bad experiences in the other terminals.

My Dad and I have cruised quite a bit (on DCL and other cruise lines) to the point we know that we won't get the welcome aboard photo. I think we took it our first couple of DCL cruises, but we now pass it. We are always to excited to get onto the ship lol.

We also have started to go to the dining room (usually at the back of the ship) that is offering lunch instead of going up to Cabanas since it usually isn't as crowded as Cabanas. Every time we have done that, it has been a brunch style as well.

I have never been in the kids clubs, but some of the rooms look awesome. I really wish my parents would have taken me on a DCL cruise as a kid.

Looking forward to the rest of your Trip Report! I'm enjoying reading it! :)

Thanks! Fortunately we all survived the storm pretty well all things considered - even the house, other than a few spots in our fence we will need to get fixed.

I was definitely impressed with how smooth the whole check-in / boarding process was - very painless!

They did have it set up so you could skip the "welcome" photo - though people were getting confused / didn't care and would go int the "no photo" line and then try to get a photo taken anyway

I thought about doing the sit down location for lunch but figured the buffet would be faster ... plus I wanted to try the lamb chops! :thumbsup2

It definitely must be cool to be a kids and get to go to those kids clubs. I'll cover it in more detail later but I did learn that the level the kids clubs are on are purposely the shortest so that the kids feel more comfortable (that it is "their size") - it is also the top level you can see from the atrium and is part of the "forced perspective" to make the atrium appear larger than it is


The kids clubs look so fun! It is almost like a taste of Toy Story Land! So glad you got your power back. Let's hope for some really boring weather for you now!

The kids clubs did look fun! And at least my kids had a blast in them (especially Olivia and Peter, but Emma too - but I think she would want to leave sooner than the others)

haha, yeah, I'll take some "boring" weather :thumbsup2
 
Part 6) Facebook Meet-up and Muster Drill

Before leaving our Stateroom I did take one more picture which was some stuff I brought related to a DIS podcast I love a lot - Connecting with Walt. I had my t-shirt and had an episode on my phone to listen too and also a book from Jim Korkis who they recently interviewed - definitely an interesting book that is more like a reference guide than story book, but has a ton of facts about Walt's life I didn't know
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So after checking our our staterooms for a bit we headed down to the Promenade Lounger for a meet-up of the Facebook Group for this cruise I had joined. I didn't take too many pictures - but did get to meet a few people, including the organizer of the Facebook group and the organizer of the Fish Extenders - so I was happy to see them and thank them. Olivia also met a girl around her age, Claire, and the wound up being good friends and hung out a lot in the kids clubs (although there was another Claire she met in the Kids Club and I know she hung out with both but I forget which one was the one she really got close with)

Did want to get a few drinks to start with - Emma was taking a gander at the drink menu
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I used the beer card that was burning a hole in my lanyard to get a mug full of the Loose Cannon IPA from Heavy Seas Beer (located in Maryland). Also a shot of the beer taps they had in the Promenade Lounge. Overall I found every bar had at least a few decent options for beer - though nothing, OMG AMAZING!!!
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Overall I am glad we went to the meetup - we did a number of activities with the Facebook group and it was just great to start to see some faces around the boat that we recognized and would say "hi" to, etc.

We then headed back to the room to get ready for the Muster Drill. On the way we took some (of what would be many) porthold pictures - though I struggled to get great photos as the mix of dark inside and super bright out the window messed with my camera. Got a few ok ones throughout the cruise though
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When we got back to the room, Olaf wanted to help out with our drinks
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At this time I took a picture of the movie listings - really cool to get to see so many first run movies and a number they had 3D showings of. Only one we would wound up seeing is Black Panther (more on that later):
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Our rooms were pretty close to the central elevators and on our level was the bottom of a large, multi-story Ariel mural - Emma wanted her picture there on our way out to the Muster Drill
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We then headed out to our Muster Drill station, which, unfortunately was outside vs in a restaurant that I know some people get to meet in. It wasn't too bad and they try to be as efficient and painless as possible. They did introduce it as "literally the only un-fun things you will have to do for the next week!"
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After this we headed up to the Sail Away Party!
 
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Part 7) Sail Away Party

After the Muster Drill we headed up for the Said Away Party. My thought was to go up to deck 10 so we could overlook the party rather than being in the middle of it, but I gave the option to the kids as to what they wanted to do. They were fine with going up to deck 10 so that is what we did and got a pretty good spot nearly straight on to the stage. For those of you that didn't already know, the area in the middle of the photo is actually where the pool is - they have a cover that comes out form either end to make a bit of a deck that people can be on during the deck parties
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I was able to track down someone who had the little pom-poms for the kids, so they were happy and also got a drink of the day for Judi and I to help with the party! After not too long, members of the activities team came out and did some choreography and got the crowd into it.
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One of them was Brian and I would see him at a number of events during the cruise and he always seem to have that little "extra" in him that stand out. Obviously all of the CMs were upbeat and into it, but he seemed to give it just that little bit more
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Then the characters came out to join the party. Call me a sap, but I always find it cute when Mickey takes Minnie's hand
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Then they were joined by our Cruise Director, Natalie, and did some dancing - and of course streamers to end the event! (and what turned out to be one of my favorite photos I got)
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While the party was going we did start actually moving away from the port - and we passed by some waterside restaurants and bars full of people waving at us - definitely was fun and was a good kick-off to the vacation!
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Coming up - our first dinner on board! Would we be seating we another family? Would we like our servers? You'll have to stay tuned!

TTFN
 
Interested in your thoughts on the book. I haven't gotten it yet but was intrigued of course by the podcast.

Looks like a great sail away party! I have seen it a view times online. I am sure it is a better atmosphere in person.
 
The Kids Club looks awesome! I can't wait for my kiddos to check them out this summer. What a nice touch getting the sparking wine for your arrival in the room!

I am also interested in the Book- I'm always looking for good reads on anything Disney!
 
The book looks great. I love my Connecting with Walt shirt. I wear it often and spread the word.
 
The sail away party looks like a lot of fun for the whole family. You also got some great pictures. Meeting up with the Facebook group seemed like a great idea because everyone got to meet new friends that you could have fun with on the cruise.
 
So happy I found your trip report! I always find your trip reports helpful, and we are thinking of a cruise next year so excited to hear about your experience!
 
Yay for power!

Joining in! We will be on the Wonder in 24 days! We are just doing a three night cruise before a week at Bay Lake Tower, but I am so excited for the cruise portion! I can’t wait to see Tiana’s!

I have that same shirt! I am obsessed with the Connecting With Walt podcast, and I love Michael Bowling! I also have that Jim Korkis book and plan on bringing it with me on he cruise! I feel like I’m just totally copying you :rotfl2:

I think your gifs are cool. I don’t know how you do that, but it’s like looking at moving pictures and it’s neat that we don’t have to click a YouTube link, or anything.

Can’t wait to read more!
 
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Thank you! Definitely will cover the weather but *(spoiler alert*) the seas were pretty rough (thus the "and waves" part of the title of this trip report). The first few days were the worst and definitely made a difference when it got better later in the trip!

Power still out - no estimate for when it will be back, crew is starting to get restless ;)

Edit: OUR POWER JUST CAME BACK!!!!!

I was hoping the waves bit referred to the warm welcome that you got from all the friendly crew members. But I guess I'm not surprised. After our last Caribbean cruise in 2011, we vowed not to do another early March sailing again because of rough seas. But now we're booked on one because my son really wanted to do SWDAS. I guess we will have to hope that 2019 is a better weather year than 2018.

I'm glad you finally got your power back! Hopefully we're done with big storms for a while. (Or, at the very least, hopefully all the branches that were going to fall on power lines have already come down at this point).
 
For those interested in the Call Me Walt book - first, if you have Kindle Unlimited it is available and included there

Second, I am definitely enjoying it ... it is more of a reference book than story book. For example, there is a section on the different houses Walt lived in and it goes one by one and lists the addresses the number of bedrooms, the square footage, and then describes them and any work Walt did to the houses, etc. It's very interesting and I am learning a lot - just different structure than most. Here is a sample of the Table of Contents to give you an idea
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Interested in your thoughts on the book. I haven't gotten it yet but was intrigued of course by the podcast.

Looks like a great sail away party! I have seen it a view times online. I am sure it is a better atmosphere in person.

It's definitely a find atmosphere at the sail away part and everyone is excited to get going, etc. The party itself I think is a bit more for the kids, but still fun for everyone


The Kids Club looks awesome! I can't wait for my kiddos to check them out this summer. What a nice touch getting the sparking wine for your arrival in the room!

I am also interested in the Book- I'm always looking for good reads on anything Disney!

The Kids Clubs really are great and the staff there is amazing - and always seems like the kids are engaged with one thing or another whenever we picked them up


The book looks great. I love my Connecting with Walt shirt. I wear it often and spread the word.

Both my wife and myself have shirts and do enjoy wearing them, especially when out and about. I was wondering if anyone would comment on the shirt on the ship but no one did
 
The sail away party looks like a lot of fun for the whole family. You also got some great pictures. Meeting up with the Facebook group seemed like a great idea because everyone got to meet new friends that you could have fun with on the cruise.

The sail away party was definitely fun - and for the whole family, definitely a Disney type show. I think the specific show on stage is a bit more for the kids to get involved but everyone is excited to get going and that moment you first realize the ship is moving is exciting


So happy I found your trip report! I always find your trip reports helpful, and we are thinking of a cruise next year so excited to hear about your experience!

Thank you so much - I really appreciate the kind words and am glad you have found them helpful in the past! Best of luck in planning your cruise - I did find it quite a bit different than planning a trip to the parks (not better/worse, just different)


Following along and enjoying your trip report - thanks for sharing.

Thank you for joining!
 

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