Disney Wonder 4 night "MouseFest" Bahamas Cruise,
Dec 5-9, 2004 
by Tim Larison, CLIA Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)
Cast of Characters: Tim, Anne, Andrew (age
10), and Joshua (age 10) Larison
Does a 4 night Disney cruise with a group of
over 180 Disney fans sound like fun? It was! In early December
2004 I sailed on my first "MouseFest" cruise. The MouseFest
cruise featured Passporter guide authors Dave and Jennifer
Marx and Deb Wills of AllEarsNet.com as our "celebrity" hosts.
As a travel agent affiliated with MouseEarVacations.com,
I had many cabins booked on this cruise. This would be my first
experience sailing with many clients I had only met through email
and phone calls previously. My wife Anne, who had just become a
travel agent three weeks before, and our 10 year old sons Andrew
and Josh joined me on the cruise.
Below I will review different aspects of the cruise.
For a condensed version see the pictures I took on the cruise by
clicking on camera icon.
Pre-cruise night stay
We flew into Orlando the night before the cruise and
stayed at the AmeriSuites Orlando Airport Northwest (5435 Forbes
Place). This worked out very well.After we got our luggage we called
AmeriSuites and they sent their shuttle to pick us up. We had only
a 10 minute wait and we were on our way to our hotel.
We had a "suite" with two double beds, a refrigerator,
microwave, sitting area, and good sized desk. High speed internet
was available at $9.95 for 24 hours or $39 for the week - I used
this to check up on my email and it was simple to setup with a good
connection. The room was clean and plenty big enough for our family
of four. That night we walked to a TGI Fridays that was nearby (10
minute walk) for dinner. TGI Fridays offered a variety of menu items
and satisfied my hungry family.
On Sunday morning the hotel had a plentiful breakfast
buffet at no extra charge. Waffles you could make yourself, cereals,
scrambled and hard boiled eggs, a variety of pastries, yogurt, juices
and more were plenty for us to fill us up for the long day ahead
of us (we would not eat lunch on the ship until the mid-afternoon).
Overall I would recommend AmeriSuites as a good place
to stay if you are looking a reasonably priced place to stay close
to the Orlando airport.
Dining
This was my 4th Disney Cruise and I thought the dining
was the best yet. The opening buffet on embarkation day was very
good with the succulent peel and eat shrimp the highlight for me.
The first evening we also ate at Parrot Cay and I thought the ribs
I had were tasty. My wife Anne enjoyed her steak this first night,
and the boys quickly ate their kids meals.
We were pleased with our food at the other dining
rooms (Animator's Palette and Triton's). Triton's had always been
our favorite of the three but for this cruise our experience at
Triton's ranked behind Parrot Cay and Animator's Palette. Our food
at Parrot Cay and Animator's was excellent, while our entrees at
Tritons were average.
On this cruise my wife and I got a rare treat on
our "at sea" day - the chance to eat at the adults only "Palo" restaurant
twice in one day! We first co-hosted a brunch at Palo for 10 lucky
winners of a free brunch drawing ($10 cover charge normally) with
Deb Wills. We had an interesting mix of first time Disney cruisers,
veteran cruisers, and Disney World fans in our dining party. The
food at the brunch was excellent. Anne had filet mignon and I had
chicken cacciatore. There were plenty of other food options including
shrimp, pastries, a variety of pizzas, and desserts. I would highly
recommend the Palo brunch.
Our dinner at Palo was also very good. I was slightly
disappointed with my shrimp and pasta dish. After having excellent
shrimp the whole cruise at the Palo brunch, at Parrot Cay, and for
appetizers at other meals I was surprised that my shrimp with the
pasta was not of the same high quality I had earlier. I did not
go to bed hungry, though, as there was plenty to eat at the Palo
dinner (pizzas, appetizers, sampling other entrees,and the signature
chocolate soufflé for dessert).
Breakfast at Triton's was great one morning. The
buffet breakfast at Parrot Cay was good, too (I especially liked
the cooked to order omelet station). If I had to choose between
Triton's and Parrot Cay for breakfast, though, I'd pick Triton's
every time.
One other dining surprise for us was Cookies Barbeque
on Castaway Cay. We at at the barbeque shortly after 12 noon yet
we had a minimal wait. The quality of the barbeque was better than
I remembered on my past Disney cruises. Disney seemed to have more
employees helping at the barbeque than I remember in the past which
helped us get our food quickly even though we dined at the busiest
time for lunch.
At dinner we had great dining companions - the Zigners
from Wisconsin. The Zigners were on their first ever Disney cruise
and it was interesting to hear the stories of their adventures and
impressions at dinner each night.
Children's Programming
Our 10 year olds had last sailed on the Disney Cruise
when they were 6 years old. We were interested to hear their impressions
of the older "Oceaneer's Lab" as compared to the younger kids club
they were in last time.
At first our boys didn't like the club. There were
so many children in their age group that the kids had to take turns
playing computer games. Our boys are more quiet and reserved, and
they did not like the dance parties and karaoke night offerings.
At a couple of times during the cruise the 10-12 age group were
brought to the teen area that used to be the ESPN club. While this
area looks to be great for teens for this age group there were few
computer terminals and not alot to do that interested our boys.
This initial dissatisfaction with the kids club may
have been more due to our boys' personalities than the quality of
the club. The 10 year old daughter of our dining companions loved
the kids club while participating in the same activities.
Our boys' longest stint in the kids club was on the
last night of the cruise and this is the time they enjoyed the most.
On this last night the kids made chocolate chip cookies, and there
were less kids in the club which allowed for more computer time.
One BIG improvement over past Disney cruises we saw
was that you could register your kids in the cruise terminal before
you got on the ship. The kids program registration was in the area
of the terminal where the coffee shop used to be. Pre-registering
the kids in the cruise terminal gave parents one less thing to worry
about once they got onboard - this is a good change for Disney.
Disney's childrens program is open for more hours than any other
cruise line I have sailed on - from 9 am to 1 am on most days. This
is particularly helpful if parents want to eat at the adults only
Palo restaurant as we did twice in one day. The kids program takes
care of bringing the kids to the buffet for their meals. On other
cruise lines like Princess and Royal Caribbean I have found the
kids programs shut down at meal times and are not open late except
for an extra fee.
Overall our kids liked the Disney childrens program,
though they rated Royal Caribbean and Princess programs a little
better. On these other two cruise lines our boys were able to make
friends easier because there were a small number of kids in their
age group, and they also had better access to computers and video
games.
Life onboard
What made this cruise extra special were the wonderful
people we met from the MouseFest group. I really enjoyed meeting
so many of my clients, putting faces to names. Our celebrity hosts,
the Marxs and Deb Wills, went out of their way to make everyone
feel welcome and to chat with the members of their fan base on the
cruise.
There were special activities as part of the MouseFest
event - such as a Sunrise Walk with Deb Wills, Nassau Walking Tour
with Dave Marx (more on that below), adults only meet at Wavebands
for a 70's party, group breakfast with Deb, Dave, and Jennifer,
Hidden Mickey hunt with author Steve Barrett, and a farewell party
with prize drawings.
I had written in one of my past cruise reviews that
I particularly enjoyed the deck chairs on deck 4 at sail away -
a quieter spot than the party going on at the top deck. While I
was sitting in a comfy deck chair enjoying the sail away I heard
this voice say "there's the guy responsible for me being in this
spot! Are you Tim Larison?" It was Jay Richardson (a reader of this
list) - guess my secret is out!
On this cruise the shows in the Walt Disney Theatre
in the evening featured Hercules, Disney Dreams, The Golden Mickeys,
and a comedy/juggler act on different nights. We had seen Hercules
and Disney Dreams several times on past Disney cruises so we skipped
those shows this time. The Golden Mickeys was new for us and I thought
it was outstanding! A good mix of classic Disney film clips and
live singing and dancing. The Golden Mickeys is now my favorite
Disney show onboard. We didn't see the comedy/juggler show but heard
good reports on it from several of our fellow cruisers.
This is my first Disney cruise where I didn't see
a movie. I think the Disney ships have the best movie theatres at
sea, and I wanted to see National Treasure and the Incredibles on
this cruise. My busy schedule did not allow for that. Disney continues
to impress me by showing 1st run movies on their ships (movies currently
playing in theatres). Typically on other cruise lines the movies
are 2 to 3 months old.
I did get a chance to see some nfl football in the
new Diversions sports lounge. Diversions is located where the "dueling
pianos" were located previously. Diversions was a BIG improvement
over the old ESPN club. The state of the art video monitors gave
a good view of the game, and the area was far less smoky than the
ESPN club used to be. Smoking is allowed in Diversions but only
in the bar area - I watched a few minutes of NFL Football at the
opposite end of the room and it was relatively smoke free.
Ports
At Nassau Anne and I joined Dave Marx of Passporter
for a free 2 hour walking tour of Nassau. We had been to Nassau
four times before but on this tour we saw many new areas and learned
some of the history of the port. We found the tour interesting.
At Castaway Cay we did not purchase any shore excursions.
We received a wonderful gift from Peggy Sue and David (clients of
mine and readers of this list) of a bottle of wine for the adults
and sand castle toys for the kids. Andrew and Josh made good use
of the two buckets and assortment of toys as they built their own
sand castles on family beach. In addition to time on the beach we
enjoyed playing ping pong at the Grouper pavilion.
I have been to Castaway Cay four times and I have
had perfect weather on each visit. The temperatures felt like the
low 80's to me with a cool breeze keeping it from getting too hot.
Anne and the boys reported that the water was cold but that didn't
prevent them from enjoying their beach time.
We liked the extra "at sea" day on this cruise compared
to the two 3 night Disney Cruises we had taken previously. That
extra day makes a big difference in allowing you more time to enjoy
more activities and features of the ship. If you are debating between
a three or four night cruise I highly recommend taking the 4 night!
Our Stateroom
Our stateroom was a category 11 inside stateroom,
7539 on deck 7. This was the first time we had a smaller cat 11
room (184 square feet compared to 214 square feet for a cat 10 inside
room). We liked being on deck 7 (close to the pools on the upper
deck and the kids club on deck 5), and we liked the midship location.
It seemed we never had to walk too far to get to our stateroom.
However I would recommend the larger cat 10 stateroom for a family
of four compared to a cat 11 - we missed the split bathroom in the
cat 10 (two sinks in two separate rooms vs one small bathroom in
the cat 11) and we could definitely tell we didn't have as much
space in the smaller cat 11 room. Usually a cat 10 deluxe inside
stateroom is only $100 or so more in price - the price difference
is worth it.
Internet Cafe
Disney is the only cruise line I have sailed on that
offers unlimited internet access for the length of the cruise. For
this four night cruise the cost was $40. This was a good deal that
I took advantage of. I would have spent far more on internet access
had I paid the 75 cents a minute rate also available.
Transfers
We used Quicksilver transfers to take us from AmeriSuites
to the port, and after the cruise from the port to Disney World
and back to the airport at the end of our trip. Our private towncar
was comfy and our driver Carlos was courteous and on time. For a
family of four Quicksilver will price cheaper than Disney's transfers.
With Quicksilver you get more personalized service and get to your
destination faster.
Summary
This was a great cruise at a bargain price (among
the least expensive 4 night Disney cruises all year). The "extras"
on the cruise because of Mousefest made it an even better value.
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