bnickle

Wow! Simply, wow! Some people think this world exists solely for them. Sorry you had to deal with bad neighbors. I've enjoyed your review.

They were not actually in the room that much when we were awake, to be fair. At port stops, we were off the ship, and at sea, the casino was open and that's where they were. I can easily see this story becoming a family Hall Of Famer vacation story on down the line, right up there with The Time I Lost My ACL In Florida and The Time I Got Off The Train in England And My Husband Didn't Before It Took Off. Mainly, it was just...really? Ya'll think this is just fine and normal?

Can you get your kids perspective on their room?

Absolutely! Middle is up and about and had these comments: the room was fine, even for three people, because it was mainly just a room to sleep in. They had keys to our room and that's where we hung out onboard. The beds were comfortable, and she loved the various pillow choices. The one disadvantage is that the sofa that makes into a third twin bed full faces the door to the restroom, which has no nightlight, so if someone had to get up in the middle of the night the person on the sofa bed was awakened by the bathroom light. There was plenty of storage room, and lots of lighting. The bathroom was ok. They were provided bath salts even though all they had was a shower and they thought that was hilarious. Please understand that she lives on campus in a dorm room that's in a 60 year old building, so the Eurodam small inside rooms seemed pretty palatial to her. Oldest lives in what passes for a studio apartment in NYC so ditto on the Eruodam seeming like an upgrade. Middle also noted that their room steward seemed just as attentive to them as ours did to us, so that they did not feel as if they were, in the hierarchy of things, Leo DiCaprio to our Kate Winslet onboard ship. Which would have been bad anyway because of the whole sinking thing. And there was room on that door for both of them.

Back to the room...Middle doesn't think they turned on the TV one time in their room; they checked their account on their IPads, and watched TV in our room. (Everyone loved the interactive system and the On Demand movies). When Youngest surfaces from his cave I will ask him about the room. I know the sofa facing the bathroom bugged him but I think everything else was ok.

Loving your review so far, and I'm following along! I will be doing a similar trip next year with my hubby and 21 and 23 year olds, but on N.A. instead of Eurodam from Vancouver instead of Seattle...will have Skagway instead of Sitka. We have the same issue with getting everyone together at the same time. Right now we have a regular balcony and an inside, but have considered a SS.instead of the balcony for the room for all 4 of us to hang out during the day. So far I haven't found any hugely discounted prices and we have to save some $$ for excursions. That NS looks amazing!! I will keep watching for sales.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Can't wait to read more!!

Actually we had originally booked a SS for us, and an inside for the kids. Then we received an upsell offer that we felt was worth it and that's how we ended up with the NS, and, for having three other adults along it worked great! So happy you can do this next year! I bet you'll have a wonderful time.

Ok, now for a funny story. Or, depending on your perspective, "tragic". Or, as Oldest referred to it, "surreal."

So we are just sitting on our balcony, having enjoyed a lovely morning in Ketchikan, and watching people running up to the ship as it was time for the All Aboard. The stateroom next door we think was occupied by two couples. We didn't see them very much, but we heard them a lot all week. They were onboard on some kind of casino package, so they were in the casino a lot when we were out at sea. We know about the casino package because apparently drinking makes them deaf and they have to shout to whoever is standing 8 inches away. So it's 12 noon, and they and some friends who were also along on a casino deal were out on their deck. We think there were at least 6 of them. They were drunk. Not "I've had a beer too many" drunk, but more, "now, see, I had no idea 12 tequila shots on an empty stomach made me stupid" drunk. They were loud, and they were laughing hysterically right up to the point that someone in the balcony above leaned over and shouted down, "Hey! Aren't you that guy that played the $500 dollar chip last night at the table? Don't EVER do that again!" Which immediately began arguing between the inebriated people next door because the wife of whoever played the $500 chip had no idea he had tossed down a $500 chip and my friends, the chips got real about then. There was arguing, screaming, the distinct sounds of someone hurling on the deck, and running feet and slamming doors. Then it got quiet for a few moments, then everyone came rushing back out onto the deck. Apparently, one of the men needed to use the restroom for a normal bodily function, but couldn't make it across the room to the bathroom, and now there was a big smelly mess on the floor in the stateroom. I am not making this up. The women were complaining, and the thing that made them the most angry was that now it smelled in the stateroom. Not the actual act, or the $500 chip, or the fact that they had somehow married someone raised by wolves, but that it was stinky. So Oldest, Middle and I are there, looking at each other, and I'm quietly motioning for us to just retreat into our room when one guy, perhaps the one needing the diaper, starts laughing and says as he jiggles the partition between their balcony space and ours, "hey! We can get the room guys to unlock this and make it one big deck!" At which point I shot up and said, "Oh hell no." And we went into our room and shut the door. Oldest saw them leaving the room about an hour later when she was leaving to go to her room and they were careful to not make eye contact. The moral of this story is, ya'll...don't drink and sail. Or maybe, try to not be hammered by noon. Or...if you think it could be a problem, invest in Depends. Because whatever they pay those room stewards it's not enough to put up with LITERAL crap.

I am enjoying reading your review. We took our two adult daughters last June on a similar 7 day cruise out of Seattle.

 

 

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Isn't it just the best when you can spend that time with your kids? We had spent two days in Seattle before, and had such a wonderful time. I'm so glad you were able to do that with your family!

#3: In Which I have Fallen Behind in Posting and Wish to Discuss The Food.

I am so genuinely apologetic about my silence of the last few days. We have dealt with a colonoscopy amongst us (everything came out ok in the end) and with the eminent arrival of my third daughter; the lovely French foreign exchange student from 5 years ago who comes back to visit us periodically and is coming tomorrow for a two week visit. Anyhoo, on to the FOOD! If there is one word to sum up our dining experience, it’s “inconsistent.”

When we boarded, we sped up to the Lido Deck because mainly, my 19 year old youngest hadn’t eaten in almost an hour and he was DYING of starvation. The Lido Deck is laid out well, with stations set up in a double situation, back to back, so you can access the offerings from either side of the main service area. There is a cadre of a wait staff who fills your drinks, and a bar staff to see to your soda and alcohol wishes. We noticed throughout the week drink service, both bar and dining room, can be pretty spotty. The food was ok; it was Lido Deck food (and my rule all week was, “I’m on a cruise with my family. Everything is great.”). We enjoyed the times we ate breakfast there. The omelette station was always efficient and the omelettes came out really tasty. The fruit was very fresh; bread and pastry offerings were fine. The times I asked for scrambled eggs I thought they were pretty good, actually, as was the bacon. My vegetarian oldest asked for veggie links with her eggs and said they were pretty good. We ate lunch up there most days. I LOVED the salad bar. The veggies for the salad bar were fresh and plentiful; you could really have a nice selection. The Asian offerings each day were really good at the Lido Deck as well. I don’t think any of us ever got the main hot service; it was salad, Asian, Pizza, or the Dive-In every day that we ate lunch there.

The Dive-In and New York Pizza were very inconsistent. One day my daughter got the Veggie burger there and thought it was delicious. She ordered the same thing two days later and said it wasn’t nearly as good. Same thing with the pizza. That’s what my two youngest ordered on embarkation day for lunch and thought it was delicious. Two days later, burnt crusts and bland toppings. Not sure what the deal was but overall food service seemed somewhat hit and miss at the Lido Deck.

We ate breakfast at the Pinnacle Grille one morning, just Liverpool and me, for some needed quiet time. It was lovely, and there is something special and commemorative about the high level of service there. Two other times we ordered room service breakfast off the door-hanger menu, and actually it ended up being our favorite breakfasts. Both times it was delivered promptly and hot, and the coffee was very very good. (I used the coffee maker in our room a couple of times; I really liked the room service coffee better.)

Dinner was really a mixed bag. Twice in the main dining room, once in the Pinnacle, once in the Tamarind, once on our own in Juneau, and the rest at the Lido Deck. I have no foodie pictures; I was eating. Our first evening at the MDR was ok. We had excellent service from Mo, but, and I’m prepared to take the beating for this, we found the food completely unremarkable and unmemorable. The seafood bisque was a cream base and nothing else; no bits of seafood. Liverpool, Oldest, and Middle are the dessert eaters in the family and they were not impressed. I realize how snotty that sounds, but again, not real memorable.

Our main issue with the MDR was with our second meal there. The first evening my daughter asked to see the “vegetarian menu”, and was told that there is a vegan menu, which is also vegetarian, but that you have to order a dish off of it by 9 in the morning for your dinner that day. There were one or two vegetarian offerings on the main menu each evening, but I feel they could step their game up a bit on the selections. Having one or two choices off of a menu doesn’t make a restaurant vegetarian friendly, and actually a lot of people who are not vegetarian enjoy vegetarian dishes as much as they do meat dishes. So, three days later Oldest and I trot down to the MDR and speak with the dining room manager, as instructed, to place an order off of the vegan menu. The manager did his best to discourage Oldest from even looking at the menu, much less ordering from it. She was about to fold like a card table, but before I knew it I had the mom face on and she got the menu. She was uncomfortable and I felt bad for her, but she ordered. That night at dinner, the other four of us received our appetizers and she did not. I finally flagged down our waiter (whose name I will not mention here, but believe me it’s all over my opinion form HA sent me) and, impatiently, he told me, yes, yes, she used the special menu and it takes longer. She told us to go ahead and eat, and our appetizers were eaten and our main dishes set in front of us before her appetizer showed up. Our plates had been cleared away totally before she ever saw her dinner. It was uncomfortable for her. She felt like she had been high maintenance in asking to order off of the vegan menu that HA has posted on their website, (and this is current) https://www.hollandamerica.com/assets/cruise-vacation-onboard/Vegetarian_Menu.pdf. So I am not sure what the problem was. Also, she was told to place her order the morning of, and on the website it asks for it the day before. I have ranted a bit about this, and to be honest if it had been for me I would have blown it off, but it was for my daughter so I am probably coming off like Shirley McClain shrieking at the nurse that it’s time for Debra Winger’s shot. Sorry about that. It just seems like an inefficient system set up to be able to meet the needs of what really is not an unusual dietary request.

We ate dinner at the Pinnacle our last evening on board, and again with the weird wait staff experience! Middle asked for a Caesar salad with no anchovies. Our wait person told Middle that she needed to eat them; they were delicious! Then Middle wanted a steak with no sauce and our waiter, who, except for this ONE THING was lovely and a good waiter, forced peppercorn sauce on her, but agreed to put it on the side. Then, weirdly and randomly, informed us she was adding Brussels sprouts to our order in addition to the other vegetables we had ordered “because they are so good.” They were tasty, but it was kind of discomfiting to have our words ignored. She had no trouble when my Youngest ordered a steak with no sauce, it was just Middle that she seemed to feel needed guidance. Middle is 23, ya’ll.

Far and away, there were two dining experiences we will be fondly remembering for years to come. First, was Oldest’s birthday dinner at the Tamarind. From the moment you are seated right up through the wonderful assortment of desserts, the Tamarind provides a memorable meal that is very much worth its distinction as a supplemental restaurant. Every bite was delicious, the vegetarian options were many, and it was just a relaxed, wonderful evening. Had we known it was absolutely that good I think we would have shrugged off the fee and eaten there a few more times. The second amazing experience was ordering High Tea to be delivered to our stateroom. It was just perfect and delicious and very lovely. Savory sandwiches, small delightful scones, and treats and petit fours that were gobbled up happily. I am so happy that we did that; it was special and very memorable.

I guess for us, the food quality overall was just all over the place on the scale. We had wonderful, mediocre, and, in a couple of instances, just bad food. I very much realize that any number of people would love what we disliked and possibly not been impressed with what we liked; food appreciation is very very subjective. At the end of the day, I was on vacay, and I was fine.

Yeah, we just yesterday morning disembarked from the Eurodam in Seattle after a 7 day Alaska route, and SEATAC was bonkers. I had chosen expedited disembarkation, so we were off the ship at 7:30, through Customs by 7:40, and at SEATAC by 8:45 to catch a 11:00 AM flight. We had TSA precheck and that helped, but it was just chaotic and insane.

Enjoying your review so far! I loved Eurodam and Alaska.

We've been home a month tomorrow and I'm still glowing from that trip.

 

Can't wait to read what you post next!

 

 

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I'm suffering withdrawal. I woke up this morning and wandered to the dining room in our house, surprised that no one offered to lead me to a table and to offer me a selection of already cooked food.

#3: In Which We Discuss Embarkation, Our Room, and the Internet.

I feel the need to insert a disclaimer here. I should qualify my opinions with two points: One, I am typically easy going and let a lot roll off of me. And Dos, overall the negative experiences on this trip were exceedingly minor, and at the end of the day, I was on vacation with my family. So what may seem like an overly appreciative or cheerlead-y viewpoint is really just me thinking, the entire week, “Doesn’t matter. I'm with my family on a cruise to Alaska and some nice young man just brought me a cocktail.”

To return to more pertinent matters. Embarkation was a breeze. Our Already There town car picked us up at exactly 10:30, as scheduled, and we zipped along to Pier 91. A Princess ship was also loading that morning, and the pier was already bustling. Luggage checked in, pronto. Health forms filled out, took a minute, tops. No one was in line at the desk when we went to check in, and they kindly let our kids check in with us, at the PS and NS desk. Liverpool and I had boarding group “A”, and the kids had “F”. HA began calling groups at about 11:30, and we were in our room by 11:40. The kids were knocking at our door about 15 minutes later. We had asked the nice lady at the gate if our “F” kids could board with their much cooler “A” parents, and she was very nice and very apologetic and said that really, they needed to control the crowds by sticking to the plan. I thanked her and assured her it was no problem at all; we thought it couldn’t hurt to ask. She seemed to relax and thanked us for being understanding, to the point where I thought that the embarkation staff must take a lot of crap from people, that someone being ok with being told no made her feel relieved. So if you are one of those people who verbally beat up whoever is helping you when you don’t get your way, knock it off. We had received the email detailing a scheduled boarding procedure, which actually would have put us on the ship about 1:30 ish, but we had to be out of the condo at a certain time, and lunch would have been difficult to get to in time. We received no trouble at all by showing up when we did.

The room was amazing. It’s a step up from what we usually do, but with five of us hanging out in the room during the day the spaciousness was greatly appreciated. The sofa was comfortable, the bathroom and dressing area was nice, lots of storage space in the closets, and our port-side room had a great view of the marina and some pretty impressive Yachts.

Our room stewards were Dani and Made, and they were professional and courteous every single time we saw them. They were both really pleasant and prompt with any assistance. They checked the room twice a day for cleaning, emptied the cooler for us to store our own drinks, and always had a nice smile and ready offer of assistance when we saw them.

And this is what made the room perfect for us:

The deck was just amazing. Easily our favorite feature of the room. We hung out on the deck A LOT. When weather permitted, it's where we ate breakfast and lunch, and it was just the most wonderful spot for us all to gather.

I really didn’t think we would use the Neptune Suite that much, but we ended up getting drinks there quite a bit, and there were always snacks in a small serving area, replenished and changed out every four hours. By that I mean there are breakfast snacks in the morning, lunch snacks at noon switched out for tea time snacks mid afternoon, and evening appetizers and small bites, followed by desert treats until the Neptune Lounge closes. There was always a nice selection, and fresh juices, ice tea, and hot drinks available. The concierge duties were shared by Rommel and Michael, and both were enthusiastic and professional in our dealings with them. They answered many questions for us, looked into a suspected double Pinnacle Grill booking and fixed it, and just truly made life a little easier for us on the cruise. Again, we could have done fine without the Neptune Lounge, but having access to it was a lovely and trip enhancing touch.

On to the Internet. Very very very helpfully, HA had, waiting for us, an Internet FAQ waiting for us in our room, and truly explained things well. We had an internet credit as part of our Explore4 promo, but really didn’t use it that much. We checked what we needed to check in port, so really didn’t use that much of our internet allowance. When we did, it was easy to use and not that slow, but then we had a repeater on the ceiling in our room.

If you have a tablet or smartphone, HA has made accessing all the information you need very easy to do, and without using internet minutes. It’s all explained in the handout:

By using the Navigator, I was able to build my day’s activities and not have to worry about continually looking at a When and Where to be reminded of stuff. The Navigator made it much easier to track our account, double check charges, and even provided full free access to the New York Times, all without needing to be in front of the TV or to be using the internet.

Enjoying your review. I also am so thankful for the many informative posts by fellow cruisers. I have learned so many tips everything from, packing, on board credit, future cruise credits and i think best of alll.. alcohol algebra for cruising! Thanks to all for your posts!!

Explore4 tends to make one less capable at alcohol algebra and more capable of alcohol multiplication. Or maybe it was just us...

Very well presented and useful references!

Thanks for the feedback.

 

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Thank you! I really look at a lot of the reviews I read here as a Pay It Forward thing. I got help from others; hopefully my info will help someone else.

#2: In Which We Travel. A Lot.

Our flight left KC, bound for Seattle, via Chicago, at 10 in the morning. (Youngest, 19: “Ten in the morning? That means we have to leave by 8? That means I have to be up at 7? I’ve worked THREE DAYS IN A ROW, MOM.” Me: “Please go offer that complaint to your father, but wait until I can watch so I can see his face when you complain about working three days in a row.”). We had arranged for a local shuttle service to pick us up because 4 people + luggage and 1 teen attitude was just not going to fit in my jeep. Smooth pickup and delivery to the airport, uneventful plane ride to Chicago, and a reunion with Oldest, then on to Seattle. Quick note, the layover in Chicago was literally 20 minutes. Knowing this, I bought a cheap cooler that looks like a nice tote bag and we packed sandwiches and snacks to eat for lunch on the plane. It worked out fine. We walked right off the plane and right onto the next (Early Bird purchase is so worth it) and were off to Seattle.

The check in process at our condo was smooth and efficient, and the condo exceeded our expectations.

We grabbed a cab to our condo and chillaxed a bit before wandering down to the Hard Rock Café, which was just two blocks from us, for a 6:00 dinner reservation, made through Open Table. Great burgers, and really great local beers. Pricey, but it’s vacay, and Youngest got an attitude boost from the visit (he loves Hard Rock, and, also, does not like the stink eye from his mom).

Seattle is one of my very favorite places to visit. Pike Place Market was literally one block away, and we were up bright and early to enjoy breakfast at La Panier (my husband, known on CC as Liverpool, ADORES La Panier). Really great pastries. We tooled around the market all day then headed up to the Pacific Science Center, where I had purchased advance tickets to see Wonder Woman. It’s rare to find a movie that all five of us want to see, and this was opening day for it. We saw it on an IMAX 3-D screen and it was AMAZING. Afterwards, dinner and to bed because the next morning, we embarked on our Big Adventure aboard the Eurodam.

Thanks for the great review. We leave for our Alaska cruise on the NA on 1 July. I read both of the reviews you mentioned

Allan

I cannot stress enough how those two reviews helped me plan. Also, have a wonderful time! So excited for you! It was just truly amazing and way beyond anything we expected.

#1: In which I bore you with exposition and trivial details.

We are, post-travel, the three E’s: Exhausted, Exhilarated, and Envious (of anyone about to take this cruise). We just arrived home last night from our seven day Eurodam Alaskan cruise, and this morning, sipping coffee and admiring our non-sea view from our back deck in land-locked Kansas City, I’m happy to be home, but truly thrilled that we took this trip. I’ve been thinking on how to present all the info, and I’ve decided just to offer what basics I can. There are two travelogues posted here within the last month that far surpass anything I could hope to do in detailing our trip, and I used them both extensively in my obsessive planning for our own journey. Scubacruiserx2 posted an amazing photo journal of his trip here at CC, entitled Eurodam to Alaska: We Came, We Saw, We Photographed. (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2497409). TheSecondSister detailed her adventure traveling this itinerary with her sister in her post, Eurodam to Alaska With Two Cruising Sisters (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2501822 ) Her sister also has a lovely blog, Two Cruising Sisters, at https://twocruisingsisters.wordpress.com. Before I offer my own information and experiences, I want to say that those resources were invaluable in my planning, and truly were just plain enjoyable to read and both parties have my sincere thanks.

Purchase and Planning

We purchased this cruise last August, when it first became available. HA was running an Explore4 promo and we had decided to surprise our three kids, 24, 22, and 19, with this trip as two are in college and one is Out In The World, Adulting, and it’s going to become more and more difficult for the five of us to be able to align our schedules for something like this. Our oldest lives in NYC and could not come home for Thanksgiving last year, so we took Thanksgiving to her and sprung this trip on the family during our Thanksgiving dinner.

I booked through HA online, and it was painless and easy. I am pretty comfortable using the internet for my day to day stuff, but the times I needed to call with a question, the staff was friendly and efficient.

We booked an inside room for the kids, #6075, and a Signature Suite right across the hall, #6081, with the idea that our room would be Party Central. About a month before the cruise, we got an email offering an upsell, and I called for information. The offer was to go from a SS to a NS, for $600. The brochure price difference was $1200. After talking about it, we decided to splurge and accept the upsell, and we were able to select from a number of NS still available. Our new room, #7052, ended up being directly above our former location, and near the stairs, so it was easy for the kids to pop up from their room. It was also directly across from the Neptune Lounge, and overall, a great location. I realize that the upsell wasn’t necessary, but it ended up being a good choice as it really did provide more room for the five of us. Our kids had keys to our room and it was where we all hung out.

I purchased four excursions, three through HA and one independently. The plan was: in Juneau, a helicopter ride to a glacier, for the five of us, purchased independent through Coastal Helicopters (http://www.coastalhelicopters.com) after reading very positive reviews of their services on TripAdvisor, and a recommendation from Tinknock50 on our roll call. It was the same company used by HA, but significantly more inexpensive to arrange on our own. In Sitka, I booked the Vino’s Palette for my daughters and myself, and the Alaska 4X4 Nature Safari for my husband and my son. In Ketchikan, we booked the Rainforest Canopy Zipline for the five of us through HA. I reserved a dinner for 5 at the Tamarind for the evening we were in Sitka, and the Pinnacle Grill for the 5 of us the night of our visit to Victoria. I bought a Fodor’s guide to Alaskan cruising, but actually ended up using Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor to help me do the majority of my planning.

We decided to fly in two days early and sightsee in Seattle. I actually would have planned for a day or two more, but all five schedules couldn’t meet on that point so two days it was. What I learned about airfare to Seattle is that it’s never cheap, and rarely, for summer travel, is it on sale. We typically go with SouthWest, but I also have heard positive things about Alaska Airlines, and they do seem to have sales and cheaper airfare to Seattle. We chose SW because we have their credit card and we can rack up reward points pretty quickly with them. Four of us round trip from KC and one of us from NYC. Oddly enough, our flight routed us from KC to Chicago to Seattle and in Chicago we met up with our oldest and flew with her on to Seattle, so that was kind of a nice jumpstart to our family get together.

In Seattle, I found a great condo downtown, right off of Pike Place Market, through VRBO. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and was in a perfect location. (https://www.vrbo.com/443070?utm_campaign=VRBO_TRV_RES_HASC_reservationaccept_PPS_hascPropertyQualifier-test_db88&utm_content=propid_text_o_lprop&utm_term=20161110&utm_source=SYS&utm_medium=email). The cost was actually what it would have cost for two adjoining rooms for two nights at most hotels I was looking at in the downtown area.

Through recommendations from CC (and people who post their experiences and opinions really help the rest of us, so thanks!), we booked AlreadyThere Town Car Service to pick us up from our condo and take us to the ship on Saturday, and to pick us up at Disembarkation and take us to the airport a week later. (https://alreadytheretowncar.com)

I set up a separate folder in my email titled, Alaska 2017, and stored all of my email receipts and correspondence. I read blogs and reports. And my husband gave much thought to what bottle of Port he would take. It’s an important decision, folks. And that was pretty much my planning in a nutshell. Now…on to the realities.

We always did.

Excellent, thanks! Appreciate the response. We thought so but were not sure.

Is it appropriate to tip your guide or excursion leader? For example, the pilot from a helicopter ride to a glacier; should we tip at the end of the tour?

Thank you very much! You've provided eloquent musings and really well done photography! I hope our trip is as lovely as the time you and your sister had.

Thanks for the pictures of some of the artwork! I shared them with my daughter and we've decided to do an art crawl while onboard next week.

Great pictures, all the way throughout your report! This will be us in two weeks!

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Contrary to earlier post in this thread I've now received the message - roughly three weeks out. We had planned for a special champagne toast in the MDR at 1pm PDT to coincide with 3pm CDT - approximately 40 years to the minute from our "I do's." A 1:30pm boarding time would certainly put a kink in that plan. I think we will stick to the 11-11:30 arrival and let HAL board us with the other wheelchair passengers at their discretion and take our chances.

Celebrate! Congratulations! Have a wonderful trip, and hope that the bubbly is raised at just the right moment!

There has to be something like 200 current on demand movies in multiple genres. The latest are Lala Land, Split, and Founder. The movie categories are Action/Adventure, Drama, Comedy, Family, and Destination. Hopefully,your kids will look out the window once in a while:D

Oh, they will. We're going to have FUN, dammit. Seriously, thanks for the info. Oldest lit up at LaLa Land. Maybe I will actually get a few minutes alone with my husband! It would be nice to enjoy a quite drink and laugh about all the things we've been keeping a straight face about.

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I've used the Disney wrist bands. Minimal advantage and sometimes awkward to use. From what I have read on Princess, their medallions will do far, FAR more than Disney's bands.

Oh, absolutely, the Princess program is more far reaching in function, but also in a more contained area of operation. We did really find the bracelets helpful; they worked great for us for the functions they were supposed to do.

If you wouldn't mind, enquiring minds whose names I will not mention (Emi and Andrew) would like to know what movies are playing on demand. Because that's only slightly less important to them than OMG INTERNET.

June 6 British Isles!

This sounds very similar to what DisneyWorld has rolled out over the last couple of years and it's great. It made several things a little more efficient throughout the parks and resorts. I kept our bracelets; if you take care of them they can be used over and over, so purchasing a trip on down the line that's one step taken care of.