Victoria's 1st Cruise on the Biiiiiig Boat - PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel
Victoria's 1st Cruise on the Biiiiiig Boat
About This Page: This is a discussion on Victoria's 1st Cruise on the Biiiiiig Boat within the Sharing Your Adventure: Disney Cruise Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; We just got home from 7 days on the Magic out of Galveston. Victoria(my DGD) kept telling everyone we were ...
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We just got home from 7 days on the Magic out of Galveston. Victoria(my DGD) kept telling everyone we were going on a biiiig boat and spreading her arms out wide hence the title. I will do a little intro today and sort out my notes later for the actual trip report.
Original cruisers (booked last fall):
Mary - me, 50+, 1st DCL cruise but 5th cruise
Keith, DH, 50+, 1st DCL but 4th cruise
Katrina, DD, 30+, 1st DCL but 2nd cruise
Victoria, DGD, 20 mos, 1st Cruise and 1st Disney vacation
DD decided that this would be easier and a little cheaper than a WDW trip so we booked it. THen late summer, my parents decided they would join us.
Johnnie, my mom, 79, 1st DCL but 4th cruise
Willard, my dad, 78, 1st DCL but 4th cruise
They both adore Victoria and really just wanted to see her experience it all.
Then a little over a week before departure, found out DS was having some serious personal issues and needed to leave college and return home. My parents offered to pay his fare and share their cabin. We had to drive to Austin, pack him up, get him home and then go shopping because he did not have proper clothes. It was an exciting week. We got everything done and were packed and ready to leave Sat, morning.
Last minute addition:
Travis, DS, 20 yrs, 1st DCL and 2nd cruise
I will stop here and continue (hopefully tomorrow).
We had the car packed Friday nite and we all went to bed early. My parents drove over so that Katrina and Travis could ride down with them. Victoria fell asleep and got a 45 min nap before we arrived at my sister's house. She and my brother in law were driving us to the terminal and keeping our cars at their house. We only had one glitch when a rude driver blocked the road once we got in the port. He looked right at me then scooted up so there was not room to pass by him. We got all the luggage on a cart and off it went. Didn't have to wait outside; right in and thru the first checkpoint. Katrina's hat set the alarm off but not other problems. Waited for one family at the checkin desk and were sitting in the waiting area within 5 min!!! We were in group 6. Victoria was all excited so I walked over to the kid checkin area with her and double checked that all was right. About 2 min after we returned to the seats, they called for our boarding. We were trying to show Victoria the big boat but she really couldn't "get" the big picture. I managed to not actually cry when we boarded. They do a very good job of keeping you moving without feeling like you are being pushed around. We were taking in all that we could while making our way to Deck 9. At first we were going to Parrot Cay but a CM told us it would be better to go to Topsider's. We all found something to fill our tummies (delicious chilled pineapple soup) then walked around some. While sitting outside eating, a CM came offering the Drink of the Day, so me and DH bought one in the cup. He then talked Katrina into a beer package. This turned out to not be a good thing. She prefers Corona which they do not have on tap so no beer mug. What it was - a case of 24 beers was delivered to the cabin with a plastic bucket. We had to get Charlie our room steward to fell the bucket each day to cool more beer. This is fine if you stay in the cabin all the time. It was not convenient when we went to the clubs. Who wants to carry a bucket around with them?!?!? Lesson learned. Victoria was so excited and just giggling and running from spot to spot. Walked down to Flounder's Reef; Victoria walked in and just made herself at home. The 2 CM's were just as sweet as could be. We laughed at the "YUCK BUCKETS" for nasty toys! About this time we were allowed to our cabins. We kinda just hung out and looked out the verandah for a while. Before long both mine and DH's luggage came but not Katrina's. She had messed up and only brought a couple of diapers in the carryon. For some reason, Victoria was a tinkle toad today. We made our way to the lobby and Mickey and Goofy were there. Poor Mickey squated down for Victoria to sit on his leg! Pretty sure he got a bit damp. She was not afraid of either one but didn't really want the photo taken. She was much more interested in looking at them and touching them. DH had not came down with us and he called to say Katrina's suitcases were there so he found the diapers and brought us one. I had put most of my stuff away earlier but Katrina went up to put her stuff away. She is a bit OCD and had everything well organized. We had enough room to put everything away and nothing was out in the way. Katrina and Victoria had the desk/TV area and we used the small dresser thingy by the closet. We ended up piling our dirty clothes on the top of the chest storage thingy. We always really appreciated the split bathrooms. Charlie also brought us a diaper genie. He had already put up a packand play but we let him have that back. We have ruined Victoria and she has to sleep with someone!
We were scheduled for dinner in Parrot Cay. We laughed because our dinner rotation was "PLAPPLAP" which for some reason we found hilarious. No one changed for dinner. I really like the decor in Parrot Cay - of course I like anything islandy and animals. I was very amused by the birds on the light fixtures with their cute little clothes. Our servers were Andrae (Jamaica) and Gerry (Phillipines). After we got seated we all noticed how much the ship was swaying. As dinner progressed, poor Travis got paler. Before the entree was served, he went down to medical for some bonine. He then walked around on deck for a bit which seemed to help. He ate some of his entree but not much. We were all impressed with the service. Andrae had food for Victoria within 5 min of sitting each night. She had her first Mickey Bar which Grandma helped her with. After dinner, Katrina and Victoria returned to the cabin and the rest of us made our way to Walt Disney Theater. The opening show was cute but if I had missed it - no big deal. We all turned in early that night. I did go up to Deck 9 and fixed our Tervis cups with ice water before turning in. Victoria was curled up on our bed asleep and I just cuddled up with her and off to night-night.
Victoria woke us up at 6:45 today. When I went to the bathroom, the toilet would not work. We called and someone was knocking on the door in a few minutes. He said several cabins around us were having the same problem probably caused by something bad being flushed! It was fixed within the hour but I just walked down to my parents cabin. We got ready for the day and took Victoria up to Topsiders for some breakfast. We took our time and let her play a little then Katrina took her down to Flounder's Reef. She walked right in and barely had a Bye-Bye for her mom. We had 11:00 reservations at Palo. I forgot about the dress code so we were met at the door and reminded. Back down to 6, a quick change and back up to 10. Our cabins were handily located near the aft elevators so going up to Topsiders or Palo was easy peasy. We were handed over to our waiter, Meiko from Croatia. He gave us the tour and explained every item on the buffet and explained about the cooked to order dishes. Meiko was amazing - very sweet and easy on the eyes. Palo wasn't too busy so he had time to chat and we all enjoyed the conversation. I am so thankful to all the Passporter's who recommended this so much. This meal was sooooo goooood!! We ate until we were ready to burst. Katrina and Travis tried caviar for the first time - not fans. The plan had been to pick up Victoria and head to the lobby to meet the princesses. Didn't happen! Victoria was asleep when Katrina got there so we all ended up back in the cabins for a while.
About 12:45 we headed down to Promenade Lounge for a little trivia. The hostess was very entertaining. She was from Columbia and asked everyone to correct her pronunciations to help her English. After losing, we walked over to the shops and had a look around. I didn't see a lot I really wanted for myself but for Victoria....coulda spent a fortune. Managed to leave without spending anything. Victoria was hungry so we hit the forward elevators and headed up to 9. We ran into Goofy at the gazebo and had a visit. Victoria seemed to really enjoy Goof. She sat down so Goof sat down and the scooched around. Katrina got Victoria a hot dog and some fries and we sat down by the pool while she ate. After she ran around a little, they returned to the cabin for some quiet time and the rest of us did a little touring. We returned to the cabin and got dressed for formal nite. Since neither me nor my mom remember to pack our husbands' suits; the guys wore slacks and dress shirts. This was not a problem because we saw several people much more casual than us. We went down a little early to catch some characters. Once again we got Mickey and Goofy. It was time to head to Lumiere's. This is also a very pretty space; especially liked the main entry light fixtures with the roses dropping petals. Andrae again took excellent care of Victoria. I am sorry about so little info about the food. I am terrible about photos and just forgot about keeping notes on what we were eating. The only thing I remember not being liked at all was a seafood bisque - Katrina and Travis hated it. I ordered a vegetarian entree every night. They were all good but nothing outstanding. Gerry did some brain teasers with TRavis tonite using crayons and toothpicks. We figured them all out except one - it was fun. On the first night we had asked Gerry for 2 glasses of soy milk to go for Victoria's nighttime bottle. Every night after, after they served dessert, he brought out the glasses. It was very funny when they brought Victoria's Mickey bar tonite. She looked at and started giggling and grinning. She ate almost all of it - with chocolate from ear to ear. After dinner, went back to cabin where we changed into comfy clothes (a nightgown for V) and headed to the Walt Disney Theater to watch "Twice Charmed". This show was very good. Victoria was entranced but finally just passed out about half way thru. After the show, DH, Travis and myself went to Rockin D. We watched Ed Alonzo's hilarious magic show and then Match Your Mate gameshow. The oldest couple had been married for 64 years! They were so cute. We saw them several times each day and they were always holding hands or touching. After the game show we decided that we better hit the hay. Victoria would be waking us up too soon.
About This Page: This is a discussion on Victoria's 1st Cruise on the Biiiiiig Boat within the Sharing Your Adventure: Disney Cruise Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; We just got home from 7 days on the Magic out of Galveston. Victoria(my DGD) kept telling everyone we were ...
Mary - not enough trips!
We only had one glitch when a rude driver blocked the road once we got in the port. He looked right at me then scooted up so there was not room to pass by him.
We got all the luggage on a cart and off it went. Didn't have to wait outside; right in and thru the first checkpoint. Katrina's hat set the alarm off but not other problems. Waited for one family at the checkin desk and were sitting in the waiting area within 5 min!!! We were in group 6. Victoria was all excited so I walked over to the kid checkin area with her and double checked that all was right. About 2 min after we returned to the seats, they called for our boarding. We were trying to show Victoria the big boat but she really couldn't "get" the big picture. I managed to not actually cry when we boarded. They do a very good job of keeping you moving without feeling like you are being pushed around. We were taking in all that we could while making our way to Deck 9. At first we were going to Parrot Cay but a CM told us it would be better to go to Topsider's. We all found something to fill our tummies (delicious chilled pineapple soup) then walked around some. While sitting outside eating, a CM came offering the Drink of the Day, so me and DH bought one in the cup. He then talked Katrina into a beer package. This turned out to not be a good thing.
She prefers Corona which they do not have on tap so no beer mug. What it was - a case of 24 beers was delivered to the cabin with a plastic bucket. We had to get Charlie our room steward to fell the bucket each day to cool more beer. This is fine if you stay in the cabin all the time. It was not convenient when we went to the clubs. Who wants to carry a bucket around with them?!?!? Lesson learned. Victoria was so excited and just giggling and running from spot to spot. Walked down to Flounder's Reef; Victoria walked in and just made herself at home. The 2 CM's were just as sweet as could be. We laughed at the "YUCK BUCKETS" for nasty toys! About this time we were allowed to our cabins. We kinda just hung out and looked out the verandah for a while. Before long both mine and DH's luggage came but not Katrina's. She had messed up and only brought a couple of diapers in the carryon. For some reason, Victoria was a tinkle toad today. We made our way to the lobby and Mickey and Goofy were there. Poor Mickey squated down for Victoria to sit on his leg! Pretty sure he got a bit damp. She was not afraid of either one but didn't really want the photo taken. She was much more interested in looking at them and touching them. DH had not came down with us and he called to say Katrina's suitcases were there so he found the diapers and brought us one. I had put most of my stuff away earlier but Katrina went up to put her stuff away. She is a bit OCD and had everything well organized. We had enough room to put everything away and nothing was out in the way. Katrina and Victoria had the desk/TV area and we used the small dresser thingy by the closet. We ended up piling our dirty clothes on the top of the chest storage thingy. We always really appreciated the split bathrooms. Charlie also brought us a diaper genie. He had already put up a packand play but we let him have that back. We have ruined Victoria and she has to sleep with someone!
After dinner, Katrina and Victoria returned to the cabin and the rest of us made our way to Walt Disney Theater. The opening show was cute but if I had missed it - no big deal. We all turned in early that night. I did go up to Deck 9 and fixed our Tervis cups with ice water before turning in. Victoria was curled up on our bed asleep and I just cuddled up with her and off to night-night.
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