The Maher's 7 night Disney Western Caribbean Cruise - April 2005

2 adults and 1 child age 6

First let me thank Tim for the wonderful bon voyage gift we found in our stateroom.  We really enjoyed it.  We took our bottle of champagne to the cast off deck party.  We made lots of people jealous.  Several asked us if we were on our honeymoon and we proudly said, "No our wonderful travel agent sent this to us." 

 

We had a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!  The room was perfect size for us and in a fabulous location.  The window was great!  My only compliant with the room was, that although there were lots of drawers, most of them were small.  My daughters clothes fit in them well, but adult sized clothes did not.  I over packed and next time wouldn't take as much.  Also, my husband is 6'3".  He fit, but just barely, in the shower.  A taller person, or a large sized person would not fit into the bathrooms. 

 

As for dining.  The first seating was great for us.  Our daughter would have been asleep by the second seating.  We had great table mates, a lovely couple from New York City, with a 13 year old special needs child.  They were very nice and have already sent us several emails.  The service was wonderful.  The food was excellent.  We much preferred the sit down service as opposed to the buffets.  The only problem we encountered with the first seating was the feeling of being rushed on excursions.  We missed dinner completely the day we went to Tulum.  We got back to the ship around 5 PM but wanted to hit a couple of shops in Cozumel, which closed at 7, so we opted to shop and not eat.  We ordered room service that night.  We enjoyed being able to order room service for breakfast also.  I need my coffee first thing in the morning.

 

Our cabin host was wonderful. He left us great surprises every day.  I have pictures of all the towel animals he left each night.  Its our own little towel zoo.

 

As for excursions.  We loved the Grand Cayman Island tour and snorkeling with the stingrays.  The weather was perfect, calm seas, just great.  We loved the stop at the turtle farm.  Katie wasn't quite brave enough to try and hold one, but she did touch the turtle Mike picked up.  As for kissing stingrays, not for me.  It is a little strange at first but after a while it was really fun.  We would definitely recommend it.  Be sure to remind people to take some cash.  The tour company provided a photographer to take pictures.  She downloaded them onto a CD rom.  It was $20 for 1 picture and $10/each additional.  She only took cash or travelers checks.  Also small bills and coins for the stop at Hell if they want to send postcards.

 

The Tulum excursion was very interesting.  At first we didn't think Katie got much out of it, but surprisingly its all she's talked about since we got back.  She really was paying attention.  I would not recommend this tour for anyone with any kind of health condition.  We had an overcast day, which everyone said made it cooler, but it was at least 90 degrees and extremely humid.  We had taken 6 bottles of water with us and we had to purchase more.  It did not say to wear swimsuits, but I would recommend it to anyone that goes.  The beach is spectacular there, although the stairs leading down the side of the cliff are very narrow and steep.  They gave us about an hour after the guided tour to go to the beach and we wished we had had our suits.  We let Katie get her clothes wet.  Definitely recommend hats, sunscreen and lots of water.  I wouldn't recommend this for anyone older, it was very hot and a lot of walking on uneven ground.  Same for small children. 

 

In Key West we loved the butterfly conservatory.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.  Katie loved it.  It was really the only thing we could find for kids in Key West.  We had never been before and we found it to be a very adult town.  The funky, artsy shops were great, but kids will only shop so long.  It was a very long walk to the southernmost point.  We wished we had rented one of the little golf cart type cars.  They looked fun. 

 

We absolutely loved Castaway Cay!  If they took the ship there and parked for a week I think almost everyone on board would have been happy.

 

Mike and I did the wine tasting seminar one day.  We had a lot of fun.  I learned a lot about picking wine for dinner and enjoyed tasting the dinner wines.  I also did the Disney Dinning series.  It was fun, and I got to go on the galley tour.  Very interesting.  My Mom is a professional chef, and I have worked catering and restaurant so it was really fun. 

 

We were surprised at the number of people that were very dressed up for formal night.  Mike gave me a hard time about ordering a tux for him to wear but when we went upstairs to the atrium we were surprised at how many people had gotten into the spirit of the night.  We have lovely pictures of our family all dressed up in front of the Mickey Statue. 

 

What would I do differently?  Get to the port earlier.  We got there around 11:30 am and I stood in line for over an hour to get us all checked in.  We boarded around 1:00 and immediately got in line for Palo reservations.  They were almost completely booked by the time I got to the front of the line but I did get a reservation for dinner on Friday.  Tea was completely booked and brunch only had a few openings.  I did get brunch reservations too, but our table mates at dinner didn't get any so we gave them our brunch reservations.  They were very appreciative and had a great brunch.  Our dinner was fabulous. 

 

I would not get the weekly pass for the rain forest room at the spa.  There was so much to do on the ship I really didn't have time to go the spa, and the few times I did go the room was packed full of people having loud conversations.  Definably not relaxing. 

 

I would have a massage.  We had talked about having a couples massage but never got around to booking it.  It would have been nice.

 

I would not pack as much.  We definitely took too many clothes.  Next time a couple of basic shorts and shirts and money for the laundry machines.  On sea days and Castaway Cay day we only wore swim wear.  I was fun to dress up for dinner.  Men can probably get by with a pair of khaki's and some golf shirts.  They definitely did not enforce the dress code. 

 

Needless to say was had a great vacation.

 

Again thanks to Tim for all his help.   He was great, I will definitely recommend  his services to friends.

   

Janet, Mike and Katie Maher