angelsfort

they make everyone leave their staterooms by like 8:30 am (or so) and the stewards get started on turning them over right away... once you're out of your stateroom, you can wander the ship - have breakfast (or whatever) until they make you leave (generally around 9:30 / 10 am they start really pushing - in my experience - but every ship could be different) so it's not REALLY so quick... they have several hours to get it done by 1:30, when folks are cleared to go to their cabins. Most people check their luggage, so they don't have a bunch to carry around with them while they wait for their cabins to be ready.

a couple of months ago my daughter and her friends were on their way to the Miami cruise port (from Orlando) when their car broke down about 45 minutes away... they called an UBER and the driver understood her assignment! LOL the driver bobbed & weaved their way through the traffic, exceeded the speed limit and got them to the port with LITERALLY minutes to spare. They were rushing to the terminal just as the doors were closing... that UBER driver saved the day and got a very VERY generous tip for their dedication to getting there. I would say that the UBER drivers (at least that one!) do a good job!

I've always chosen an interior cabin on one of the upper decks... I love the darkness of the interiors (great for afternoon naps!!) but I will say that our last cruise got us a visit from the upgrade fairy and we ended up in a balcony cabin on the Lido deck. It was really great! We were close to all of the action and had our own private space on our balcony for watching the ocean or the ports or just anything!

😞 well now that this adventure has come to an end... what am I gonna read when I'm supposed to be working?!

LOL if I put on long pants, that's me dressing up. Being in Florida my attire is usually shorts and a t-shirt and my open toed sandals. (that being said, generally on a "formal" night - I will choose other dining options and not subject my table mates to my lack of participation in their fun)

I know someone laughed at this comment but it definitely has merit. Cruise lines with a casino make a LOT of money from their casino's. This allows them to offer lower fairs across the board to all passengers. the fact that DCL does NOT have a casino, means they have to make up that money somewhere... and fortunately for them, passengers are willing to pay more to sail with them. Its been a few years since I've been on a DCL cruise (pre-pandemic) but my memories are extremely fond and I cannot wait to sail them again. (funds force us to the "casino" laden cruise lines for the time being) there is literally NOTHING else out there like a Disney Cruise!

all of the bazillion folks following along on this thread (READING it, I dare say!) would certainly disagree with that statement!

wasn't likely "bones" - was probably shell, if it was made from real crab. (still a definite texture issue - bones or shell is still a hit to the soft texture you're expecting from a crab cake!)

Its not just "cakes" - it's a BAKING show, so it can really be anything cooked in an oven. and the show is more about the interactions between everyone there and for sure, the humor. Lots of terrific banter goes on between the "contestants" (amongst themselves) and the hosts as well as the "judges". and Paul... he's one of the "judges" - he's got these blue eyes... "oh my"

say "no Thanks" and then just keep walking... if they keep talking, that's when I just ignore them and keep moving. They always get the point and move on to someone else... no biggie.

I feel like my life would be infinitely more exciting if I STOPPED thinking things through before I do them... I may give that a try and see how it works out for me. 🤣

We enjoy decorating our cabin door - not only does it help to easily identify our door amongst the many but its fun to interact with other passengers that way. We always put a small dry-erase board on our door along with the other decorations and put a question on there every morning as we leave the cabin... it's fun to see what other cruisers respond! (and as the cruise goes on, and more folks participate - it gets kinda rowdy sometimes! LOL) I also put magnets around the door frame (usually resin duck magnets that I've made) for anyone to take as a memento from their cruise... the cruising ducks folks love them! We use the 3M command strips to attach everything to the door - its simple to remove and leaves no marks or residue on the door when we're done.

I feel like Elegant night is the perfect night to have halloween... they've already got all of the photo spots set up and they can likely sell MORE photos, as folks will get pics taken of themselves in costume if I was on a cruise ship on Halloween, I wouldn't want them to reschedule Elegant night because of it!

I'm wondering if it would work the same way for a tumbler that was NOT purchased on board... I design and make my own tumblers and always make myself & my BF a new one when we cruise (it's pretty much the only time I actually make them for MYSELF - the rest of the time I'm making them for others - you're welcome to find me on the book of face and check them out!) We always use our own personal tumblers for the bottomless bubbles package, with no issues whatsoever. Hand them the cup, they fill it with the drink of our choosing and VOILA! done. based on all of the comments, I'd say that it would work the same for my custom tumbler as it would for the Tervis bought on board... there's no special pricing because of the cup, they're just filling your cup instead of one of the ones they stock at the bar. Has anyone ever tried?! my daughter is cruising soon but she's not 21 until AFTER her cruise, otherwise I'd get her to test it for me!

you never know!! (it didn't hurt that you were exposed to all the germy people when you were teaching too! LOL)

I second this suggestion! During the day, the lounges are pretty much empty - they've got comfy seating and it's nice and quiet. You might have the occasional person who pops in to take a look around and wander through, but for the most part, it's super quiet.

Exactly this. I worked in a daycare for several years and when I FIRST started working there, I was sick for months... had a constant running nose! It was so annoying but... once I got through that short period and my body built up those immunities to the new germs I was being exposed to, I never got sick. I believe there was a study that showed that if you constantly use hand sanitizer or lysol everywhere you go - that you are MORE likely to get sick when do you get exposed to something because your body has not been given the chance to build up any sort of immunity. Your body is really good at taking care of you if you only give it the chance to do so!

Here's my advice. be sure to take care of yourself while you're on board, take control of your own health by making sure don't touch anything on board unless you are washing your hands very soon after. If you're on your way to the MDR for dinner and hold the handrail as you walk down the stairs, go to the bathroom and wash your hands before you sit down to eat (and use a papertowel or disposable glove to open the door to leave the restroom) bring some disposable gloves and use them if you are eating at the buffet (or anywhere that you will be serving yourself and touching utensils that others are also touching). wash your hands before putting on the gloves, grab utensils from the back of the bucket and then when you're done getting your food, etc, take off the gloves before unrolling your napkin, or touching your silverware or anything on your plate. I also bring my own drink cup, so I don't have to use the cups by the drink dispensors - we get the bottomless bubbles package and get drinks at the bars before we go get our food. (you often see folks grabbing a cup that is stuck to another cup and they grab hold of both cups to separate them and then put one of the cups back on the clean cup stack - we avoid those!) don't touch your face unless you've just washed your hands OR you are very sure that you haven't touched anything since you last washed. basically wash your hands thoroughly and often - be sure to use proper handwashing - don't touch your face if you don't have to... hand sanitizer is good in a pinch but it has been proven that it's not 100% effective against all germs, so handwashing is your best bet.

Yes! It's always hilarious! This was my boyfriends first time seeing it and I've never seen him laugh so much at other peoples jokes 🤣 (he thinks he's a comedian and tends to laugh the hardest at his own jokes LOL someone has to do it).

the Fantasy was my daughters first cruise ship and YES! that Cats lounge was awesome! Somewhere we've got a bunch of pics taken in there! LOL

during our cruise, the Cruise Director took a poll of the audience - asking for folks who were married a certain amount of time... for the newlyweds, he picked the ones married the shortest amount of time (the couple selected had gotten married that very day on Castaway Cay) then he chose the couple that had been married the longest (the couple chosen was married for 68 years! they also won the game LOL) and for the one in the middle, he had couples stand up and kiss - and then the audience got to vote on which kiss they liked the best. The couple that had the loudest cheers got chosen to go on stage.

LOL I'm sorry but I had to laugh at your post topic - Anyone have a teen with an opinion? any parent of a teen knows that they have TONS of opinions!

Good luck! I'll be on the lookout for a review from you on the Miracle!

I think you just sold me on the larger ships... I would LOVE to take a cooking class (or two!) while on board! And it sounds wonderful to be able to watch the rehearsals of the shows, I think I'd really enjoy that! we're not gamblers - on our last cruise, we allotted $20 for each of us to spend in the casino and had a good time using it up (winning and then losing it LOL) but once it was gone, so were we... we'd head off to do other things. I also like to hide things for others to find while on board and it seemed like I was struggling to find somewhere "new" to hide things as the cruise progressed.... the larger ships will give me more room to spread out my wings! (ducks, of course but I also make keychains and tumblers and other cute things to hide all around... if someone has a special door decoration that catches my eye, I have magnets to pop onto their doors to show my appreciation!) thanks for the "in detail" post, it was appreciated!

I find it hilarious that when I do a search for the nearest location to me, the only result within Florida is the Mardi Gras! 🤣 Shaqs Big chicken.pdf