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Brought to you by...
John and Donna Gross "The Full Mickey - At a Discount!" The Wall Street Journal
Pam writes: "What DO they charge for on the cruises? Massages? Alcohol? Children's programs? Snorkeling gear? Boats? and what do I have to tip for? :) Thanks again - you are TERRIFIC!!!" Well, maybe just a little bit terrific :)
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Ed writes: "how far in advance do you book the bus ride from WDW to the cruise? how much is it? where do you catch the bus?" Purchase your transportation transfers from the Disney Cruise Line: 2-way transportation for the 3- or 4-day cruise = $40 per person; 3-way transportation for the 7-day land and sea vacation (from the airport to WDW to the ship) = $50 per person. Buy them when you purchase your package, at your resort hotel, or see the Disney Cruise Line rep at the Orlando airport. Attach your Disney Cruise Line tags to your suitcases. Disney staff will gather your luggage and transport it to your Disney resort hotel or to your stateroom aboard ship. If the luggage is in your hotel room, leave it for the Disney staff who will deliver it to your cabin aboard ship. If you are heading to the ship directly from the airport, Disney staff will meet you at the airport and guide you to the Disney Cruise Line bus. Money saving tip: It will be cheaper to book your own air transportation. Give the Disney Cruise Line your airline and flight number and they will gather and transport your luggage for you. They will also meet you at the airport and accompany you to the bus. The Disney Cruise Line bus runs from the Orlando International Airport to Port Canaveral and vice versa.
The Disney Cruise Line bus runs from the following
WDW resort hotels to Port Canaveral and vice versa:
Money saving tip: Renting a car is cheaper than buying bus transfers for your entire family. Better still, why not travel worry free and in style in a town car? They will meet you at the baggage claim at the airport and at the terminal when your ship docks. See our book for very affordable town car recommendations. If you are staying at WDW before your cruise, Disney staff will direct you to the Mears booth. Mears will provide transportation via van to your resort. For more information about Mears, call 800/759-5219 or 407/423-5566.
Disney Cruise Line Vacation Trip Report
Binnie sent us a report of her Disney Cruise Line
Vacation in June, 1999. Although Binnie spent seven days at WDW prior to
departure, we will concentrate on the details that pertain to the four-day
cruise part of the vacation. Binnie traveled with her husband, Joe, her sister,
Mary, and Mary's boyfriend, Jimmie. After breakfast we ... boarded the bus at 11:30 AM to transport us to the Disney Magic. The time seemed to pass very quickly, and we found ourselves at Port Canaveral in no time at all. As the ocean came into view, we got our first glimpse of this magnificent ship. Boarding was so quick and easy, just scan your room key and walk on board, I barely got a good [look] around the terminal. The ship's main lobby was breathtaking complete with grand staircase and a statue of Helmsman Mickey. The glass elevators, which completed the beautiful picture, I would later come to consider a royal pain in the butt since they were so tiny. In fact, I ended up taking the stairs far more than I normally would have because the tiny elevators were always so crowded. Once on board we headed directly to our home away from home, stateroom 5522. This was a deluxe outside stateroom that we got for category 10 prices because the porthole view was partially obstructed. We didn't think the view was so bad, but later discovered that there may have been another reason that the room was so cheap. Anyway, the first thing I did was to grab our Personal Navigator off of the table and determined which night we would be repeating restaurants. Parrot Cay was scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Next, I rushed to Palo's to make our dinner reservations and was about the sixth person in line--so far, so good. In the meantime, I sent Jimmie and Joe to book the shore excursions to Blue Lagoon Island and rent our snorkeling gear for Castaway Cay. When they finally started taking reservations for the adults-only restaurant, I had to choose which line to get into, Thursday's or Friday's. I figured that Palo's would be a nice treat the last day of our cruise, so I chose Friday at 9:00 PM. Apparently I hadn't done my homework well enough because I completely overlooked the fact that this time would conflict with our 8:15 PM seating for "Disney Dreams." Next I ran to the Vista Spa and booked massages for Joe and I in the couple's cabana on Castaway Cay. Now I was all set to explore the ship. I met up with Joe and Jimmie at about 2:30 PM on deck 9, and we went to have at look a the "Welcome Aboard" buffet. None of us were really hungry after our huge buffet breakfast at Bonfamille's, but I grabbed few of the huge shrimp anyway since they were too scrumptious looking to turn down. After exploring the ship for a while, we returned to our staterooms to put on our life jackets and await the 4:00 PM muster. We were really glad when that was over since it was a hot and miserable experience with lots of crying children. At 5:00 PM we went up on deck 9 to watch the ship pull away from the dock. We saw about 8 cruise line employees standing on the terminal's rear balcony waving goodbye to us with large white Mickey hands. They sure do think of everything! The ship's massive horn practically deafened us as it as it bellowed "When You Wish Upon a Star" signaling our departure. We were officially on our way. Our dinner seating time was at 6:00 PM each night and on this first night, we would be dining in Lumiere's at table #69. Since Lumiere's was one of the more formal restaurants aboard ship, I spent a little extra time getting ready for dinner. Joe and Jimmie naturally complained about wearing a jacket and tie, but I insisted. This was about the time I flushed our stateroom toilet for the first time and the ear-splitting wooosssssh that emanated from it about scared the bejesus out of me. While we were dressing, there was a knock on our stateroom door and our room hostess, Anita from India, delivered a bottle of champagne to our stateroom from our travel agent, West Penn Motor Club. A few minutes later, there was another knock on the door, and this time Anita had a Disney Cruise Line picture frame for us from West Penn Motor Club. A few minutes after that there was yet a third knock on the door, and Joe and I were holding our stomachs laughing as we answered it and discovered that it was only Jimmie come to pick us up for dinner. Once in the dining room we were escorted to our table, which already had Mary's chair removed (Mary had to return home due to illness), and met our servers for the duration of the trip. Filip, our main sever, was a very charming young man from Slovakia, as was our assistant server, Erasmo from Chile, and our headwaiter, Alain from France. We later learned that the staff aboard ship was represented by 52 different nationalities. The funniest moment of the evening was when Filip came over and placed the linen napkins on Joe and Jimmie's laps. They were completely clueless how to behave. Later in the trip they became quite accustomed to having their ketchup poured for them and their syrup ladled onto their pancakes and missed the pampering when it was over. Lumiere's was a beautiful restaurant, and while the food there was good, we liked it the least of the 3 restaurants we ate... After dinner we went out on deck so that Joe and Jimmie could have a cigarette and discovered that it was quite windy, and the water was really choppy. To me it seemed somehow perfect as I stood looking out over the endless dark ocean with my hair whipping about my face and my dress blowing about my ankles. Then we headed for our 8:15 PM dinner show. Tonight's performance was by a guitar-playing comedian by the name of Dan Riley. Mr. Riley is a very talented fellow who does his own unique interpretations of songs we all know and love. We all enjoyed the show immensely and exited the Walt Disney Theater with great big smiles on our faces. Dan announced that he would be playing in the Rockin' Bar D tomorrow night, and we were very disappointed that we already had plans in Nassau and would not be able to see him again. Next we decided to check out the comedy club on Beat Street, the ships adult entertainment district. The club seemed pretty deserted this first night and after one round of drinks, we departed hoping that things would be a bit more lively by tomorrow. In all we spent time in 3 of the ships entertainment lounges over the next 4 days and never once saw anyone circulating with snacks as I have often seen described in various Disney groups and e-mail lists. Not that it really mattered to us, since we always felt way too full on the cruise anyway, but I was wondering where these people have actually seen snacks passed around at? "Rushmore" was playing in the ship's movie theater so we went in and watched about half of it before realizing how tired we actually were and departed for our stateroom. While the gentle rocking of the ship lulled me to sleep instantly, I found out the next morning that Joe was awake half the night worrying about hurricane warnings he had heard about early that day at our resort. Day 9: Tuesday, June 14, 1999 -- Nassau and Blue Lagoon Island We arrived in Nassau about 8:00 AM in the morning on Tuesday. We ordered breakfast at Lumiere's and then went immediately to the Promenade Lounge to meet up with our shore excursion group. Originally we had wanted to do the "swim with the dolphins" experience on Blue Lagoon Island, but when I called 3 months in advance to book, it was already sold out. I did a little research and found that there was also a "snorkel with the stingrays" experience on Blue Lagoon Island and there would be no problem getting reservations for that. I guess these docile lower life forms are just not as popular as their playful intelligent counterparts located on the other side of the island. Anyway, the shore excursion to Blue Lagoon Island cost $35 each and included transportation to the island and lunch. Snorkeling at Sting Ray City cost $29 for as long as you wanted to do it. We were transported to Blue Lagoon by tender, while a live calypso band sang "put the lime in the coconut" to get us into an island sort of mood. The tender deposited us on the opposite end of the island from Stingray City, and we had to make our way across the tropical paradise on foot. Already the skies were beginning to look cloudy and gray. We were given a short informative talk about stingrays and learned that they can indeed sting you, but almost never do so unless completely provoked. By the time we got our snorkeling gear on and got into the water it had already started to rain. Joe, who has never much cared for water or stingrays, was back on shore in about 5 minutes and found a very comfortable stool at the outdoor bar from which to wait for us. Jimmie and I absolutely loved this, and stayed in the water for at least 90 minutes. There were stingrays everywhere in the snorkeling park, and they seemed very friendly as a park guide hand fed them. A few of them were up to 4 feet across, and one of them was a rare albino stingray. I gave one of the guides my camera and asked if he would mind taking an underwater picture of me in my snorkeling gear. There were also many colorful fish in the park, and in my opinion, the snorkeling was much better here than at Castaway Cay. After snorkeling, we hiked back across the island to the outdoor Sea Garden Grill for lunch, and then relaxed about a half hour in one of the island's many hammocks. There were some Bahamian men doing the limbo at the Garden Grill, and they successfully passed under a bar only a foot off the ground. It was a rather painful ritual to watch. The sun was shinning brightly again, so we moved down on the beach and spent some time playing in the water. Joe, who refused to wear his sunscreen was already beginning to burn, and Jimmie was burning in spite of his, so we figured it was time to return to the ship. We caught the 3:00 PM tender back to Prince George Wharf, and I bought a beautiful huge starfish for $5 from a man selling seashells and such on the dock. Once on the boat, we dressed for dinner at Animator's Palette and then made a quick detour up to deck 9 to indulge in one of those incredible frozen Bon Voyage drinks they sold in the long narrow glass with the bowl at either end. One side of the glass contained a frozen pina colada, and in the other was a frozen strawberry daiquiri. Yummy! After finishing our drink we headed for the restaurant. Tonight's dinner standouts were the chilled crab legs and breaded veal chops, both excellent in my opinion. After dinner Joe and I had several Bailey's Irish Cream coffees with our "palette of desserts" and enjoyed the stunning light show that surrounded us. Perfect! Now it was time to catch a cab to the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island to do a little gambling. First we toured the hotel's huge predator aquariums. This place is absolutely awesome and simply must be seen if you get the opportunity. Next we entered the immense hotel casino. Joe and I had set a $100 limit for ourselves and lost that in about a half an hour at the slot machines so we wandered over to watch Jimmie at the Black Jack tables. He was already up about $150 and continued to win for the next hour. We finally managed to drag Jimmie out of there with $240 in winnings in his pocket, and in a rather generous mood, he paid for our cab back to the ship. The night was still young, so we decided to checkout the party that was already underway on deck 9. When we got there a live band was playing, and the ship was really rocking. The "Goofy" pool had been covered to create a large wooden dance floor. Promptly at 11:00 PM the Disney Magic shot a round of fireworks from its smokestack. This was followed by a fruit and dessert buffet on deck, complete with sparklers and the mandatory ice statue. We could see the passengers on the decks of the other ships in dock jealously observing our festivities. What a fun evening! I had two more huge Bon Voyage drinks -Jimmie's treat- and finally called it a night at about 1:00 AM. Day 10: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 -- Castaway Cay I woke up about 7:00 AM full of anticipation about my day on Castaway Cay. Joe had a little bit too much fun last night, and I was unable to get him out of bed. He said that he would meet us later in the day on Castaway Cay for our 1:00 PM massages. Jimmie and I headed for the Topsider Buffet and stuffed our faces once again. Snorkeling was the first thing on our agenda, but we only saw a few fish and Danielle's little sea turtle friend. We decided to make our way out to the advance snorkeling trail in hopes that we'd find more fish. It took quite a while to get out there and when we finally did the weather started turning dark and the water was getting quite choppy, so we headed back, but not before discovering the sunken treasure chest :-) It seemed like it tookabout 30 minutes to get back to shore and we were really tired when we finally did make it. We found a couple of nice lounge chairs under an umbrella and just relaxed for a good long while. Just as it had done the day before on Blue Lagoon Island, the weather was starting to turn nice again, and HOT. At noon we headed to Cookie's Barbecue for lunch and had some of the best ribs of the whole trip. The huge chocolate chip cookies and lemonade were yummy too. Oh my stuffed again! Soon it was time to meet Joe at the adult beach, Serenity Bay. This was a very nice quite secluded beach, and apparently Joe had been there for quite a while. We found him stuffing his face with fruit and the steak sandwiches that they were grilling on the beach. Joe and I found a designated spot to park Jimmy and headed for our massages at the cabana. The cabanas are elevated with 3 walls and an open end that faces the ocean, making them very private. A nice breeze was blowing in and the whole experience was heavenly. The women giving the massages were from South Africa. They told us that the Disney ship is a very difficult boat to get assigned to because the standards are so high. The cost of our massages were $69 each plus tip, and they were worth every penny. By now Jimmie and Joe were both turning a bright shade of red again, and we decided that they had just about all the sun that they could tolerate this trip. Joe actually had one of the worst burns I saw on ship that night. On our way back to the "Magic," we stopped and bought a straw purse for my girl friend Gail, and I got a bright yellow Castaway Cay tee shirt. On board, we showered the sand off and laid down to nap for about an hour. Then we dressed for our evening meal at Parrot Cay, selecting our most tropical looking outfits to wear to the restaurant. Before going to dinner we went up on deck to watch the ship pull away from Castaway Cay. We saw 3 Disney employees waving bye to us with those big white Mickey hands. The standouts from tonight's dinner were the crab cake appetizer and the lobster tail. Jimmie asked for and received a steak with his lobster tail. We also spent some time tonight getting to know our waiters. Alain, our headwaiter told us that the large phallic looking protrusion on the front of the ship was actually an icebreaker. Who knew? We also learned that the ship converts 500,000 gallons of seawater to fresh water every single day. Alain also explained that we were pretty much assured a nice day at sea tomorrow since Captain Henry would steer the boat anywhere the weather was good. After dinner we went to the Promenade Lounge, where Joe and Jimmie could have a smoke. There we met Captain Henry who we all agreed looks like John Voight. Then it was on to this evening's show, "Hercules the Muse-ical." We enjoyed it and thought that the singers were excellent. There was some real down home gospel wailing in this show. After the show we went up to deck 9 to one of the several outdoor bars for drinks. I was in the mood for another Bailey's Irish Cream coffee, but they didn't have coffee at the bar. Our waitress, Gillian from Montreal, volunteered to run to another deck and fetch the coffee so that I could have my drink. Is this service or what? When Gillian returned with my drink, she remained at our table for about 15 minutes answering all of our questions about life aboard ship. Joe was running out of cigarettes so he bought some at the ESPN Skybox, the only place on ship where they can be purchased. Then, not even close to being ready to call it a night, we visited the Rockin' Bar D just in time to see a group of volunteers from the audience doing their impression of the Village People. It really looked like they were having fun in there, but it was so packed at this late hour we couldn't get into the doorway.
Next we headed for the Beuna Vista Theater to watch
"Instinct." Finally, at 1:00 AM in the morning, I dragged myself to my stateroom
for some much-needed sleep. That is when I discovered the wonderful swan
Anita had fashioned from bath towels and placed on my bed. Disney magic was
the last thing I thought about that night before I closed my eyes to sleep. I slept in until 9:30 AM today. Joe refused to get out of bed that early once again, so Jimmy and I decided to spend some time exploring the ship. First we stopped at Guest Services and prepaid our gratuities. While we were there, we picked up a list of hidden Mickeys on the ship and set out to find them from the clues. Before starting our search, I stopped by the stateroom to pickup my camera, and Joe was still fast asleep. We followed one of the clues to the bow of the ship where we found a huge hidden Mickey constructed from 3 holes cut in the deck near the staff swimming pool. I took a picture of the cool hidden Mickey for my web page, but unfortunately my thumb was partially covering the camera lens and that Mickey will remain hidden for a while longer. After locating most of the Mickeys on the list, Jimmie and I went to drag Joe out of bed. The 3 of us went to Shutters to check out the photos and decided that we could live without most of them. Then we continued on to the ship's retail stores for some duty-free shopping. I found a beautiful Mickey medallion for only $495, but Joe refused to buy it for me. I settled for a Disney Magic tee shirt and a Disney Cruise Line photo album instead. I also purchased a Barbie and Ken family of dolls dressed in WDW clothing for Alisha that cost $60. Since we skipped breakfast this morning, we were all three now ready for lunch and headed for the buffet at Parrot Cay. For the first time during the entire voyage, we were seated at a table with other people. I ended up chatting with the older couple on my left, while Joe and Jimmy monopolized the younger couple to my right with tales from their Richard Petty Driving Experiences. (We'll post Binnie's experience with the Richard Petty Driving Experience in the near future.) After lunch we remembered that the girl who gave me my massage on Castaway Cay had recommended the Rainforest Room at the Vista Spa aboard ship. Joe wasn't too interested in saunas and steam rooms since his skin was so burnt and opted to lounge by the pool for the rest of the afternoon, leaving Jimmie and I to checkout the Rainforest Room on our own. This place was great! For only $15 you get to use the room for the entire day making it easily the best deal aboard ship. It is a large circular tiled room with 3 smaller rooms extending off from the larger room. In the center of the room is a lovely bubbling fountain. In another area of the room are 4 or 5 tiled "S" shaped relaxation loungers that felt slightly warmed and heavenly to relax in. To the back of the room are 3 circular shower rooms, each with a different type of experience, such as tropical mist, hydrotherapy, etc. Also on the back wall is a lion's head that spits out crushed ice for cooling your skin. The 3 smaller rooms consisted of a gentle sauna, a steam room and a eucalyptus sauna. The room is coed, and it really is a great place to hang out with your friends. When you purchase the use of the room, you are given a locker and a large fluffy bathrobe to wear in the hallways of the spa. Fresh towels are supplied in the Rainforest Room. Since we wore our bathing suits into the room, it was great to run in and out from the pool to the spa. Jimmie and I did this for several hours until the sky started looking ominous. We waited for Captain Henry to steer the ship to where the good weather was, but to no avail. We later found out that an annual drill with the Coast Guard had been scheduled, and the ship was required to remain right where it was. Since the weather had gotten bad, this seemed like the perfect time to get our luggage packed, so we headed back to our stateroom. I had been contemplating canceling our Palo reservations for tonight since it would mean missing "Disney Dreams." But by now I had figured out that they didn't really check your seating times at the shows, and we could probably attend the 5:30 PM show if we really wanted to. I think partly because food no longer mattered, and partly because I didn't want Jimmie to have to attend a romantic dinner alone, and partly because I just wanted to get all the packing done now, I decided to cancel the reservations anyway. I tried to call the restaurant, but didn't get an answer, and someone later told me that Palo's didn't open until 5:30 PM. We finished packing everything but our carry-on bags and dressed pretty casually for dinner at Parrot Cay tonight. I was so completely sick of food by this point I didn't even bother to note what it was we had for dinner, but I know it involved food prepared by the different chefs from around Disney World. We said goodbye to our servers of whom we had become quite fond (we especially enjoyed harassing Erasmo), and handed out the gratuities. We told Alain that we had 9:00 PM reservations at Palo's, and had been unable to cancel them. He graciously offered to take care of it for us. Next we stopped by our stateroom to give Anita her tip. We were completely delighted with the service from the staff on this ship and tried to compensate them accordingly. Time to head to "Disney Dreams." I can't say enough about this show. For any Disney lover, this is the perfect way to end a wonderful voyage. I was practically moved to tears when all the Disney characters appeared on stage at the end, and listening to the "oohs" and "ahs" of the children made me resolve that I would [be] bringing Alisha on this cruise in the very near future. Without giving too much away, I'd also like to add that the special effects in this show were fantastic. After the show, we went to our stateroom to place the luggage in the hall. We also grabbed the bottle of champagne that had been delivered to our stateroom the first day and headed to Sessions to polish it off. The waitress there brought us an ice bucket in addition to the glasses we requested, and uncorked the champagne for us. She even refused to take a tip for doing it. We noticed that Captain Henry and many of the ship's officers hung out here. Except for the piano playing, the room was very dark and quite. Little listening booths lined the wall of the lounge where one could select from about 75 different CDs to listen to. After several hours of drinking and chatting, the champagne was gone and we were ready for bed. At about 12:00 AM in the morning, we found out the real reason our lovely room was probably so cheap. We were located directly across the hall from the luggage collection room. The banging and loud talking and joking of the workers made it impossible for us to sleep most of the night. Day 12: Friday, June 18, 1999 -- Departure and Final Thoughts Since we had to be off of the ship by 9:00 AM, we got up at 6:15 AM and showered and dressed. Next we packed up all the carry-on stuff, and headed to Parrot Cay for our final breakfast aboard ship. The service was much more rushed this morning as the waiters worked feverishly to get us off the boat and prepare for the next batch of passengers coming on board. We realized at this point just how many hours of the day the staff really must work. Even though we understood the reason we were being rushed, it really was a little hard not to feel resentful because the pampering had suddenly come to a stop. After eating we said our final good byes and headed to our stateroom to pick up our carry-on luggage. Disembarkation was painless as we all had less than $600 in merchandise to claim with customs, and we quickly located our luggage and checked it with the airlines right there at the terminal. In less than 20 minutes we were sitting on the bus waiting to be driven to the airport. As the bus departed the terminal, there was one lone elderly woman standing there with a large white Mickey hand waving goodbye to us. I couldn't help thinking how "the magic" was slowing fading away. Upon arriving at the airport we made a beeline for the Disney store just in case there was something we had forgotten to buy. I saw a pretty good replica of the Mickey medallion I liked so much on ship for only $30 and used the Disney Dollars Jimmy and Mary had given me for Christmas to purchase it. Next we headed to Starbucks for some specialty coffee. While we were sitting there sipping our java, we saw the Disney Cruise Line group parade by headed for the buses. We called out to them, "You're going to have a great time." Our plane left at 1:00 PM exactly on time, and in a few hours I was sitting in my living room contemplating everything that had happened over the last two weeks." THE END
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