zerog
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
Weather Report
A high pressure ridge offshore northeast Florida will be reinforced by a strong high pressure cell which will build south along the Atlantic Seaboard through late week. This pattern will result in a prolonged period of gusty onshore winds with elevated seas building further during the mid to late part of the week as large swells propagate into the waters. Hazardous boating conditions will continue through the end of the week with seas reaching to around 10 feet by Thursday.
It was very breezy Thursday morning. I was concerned about getting seasick, so I took as many preventative measures as possible. I didn't get seasick.
We arrived at the cruise terminal about 10:30am. I dropped off the family and luggage at the front, then paid the 36 dollars to park. In the terminal, I had my carry-on xrayed and proceeded up the escalator. At 10:30am, there were more people present than I expected. Still, we were able to walk right up to show our paperwork and get our Keys to the World. We were given a card that said we would board with Group 4.
In the terminal, there are a lot of workers to help you out. You can get your kid's wristbands (which they will wear the entire cruise) and a pager. We waited in a relatively short line for about 20 minutes.
When they called for us to board the ship (around 11:55am), the line for wristbands/pager was 4x as long.
Time to board; there was a long line which moved fast. They check your id and then you get your picture taken. We wore respectable clothes for the picture; on the other hand, many people were dressed for comfort. Once you board, they announce your family name and applaud.
We went straight to the Beach Blanket Buffet on Deck 9. If not for the strong winds, we would have taken our food outside. The view is nice. After we ate, the kids changed clothes (brought in our carry-on) and swam in the Mickey shaped pool. All front row lounge chairs were taken. Beyond that, it is difficult to watch your kids. There were several moments when I did not know where my children were. When they get in line for the slide, you can't see them. The pool didn't get busy until about 2pm. A lifeguard was watching over the water slide, but I didn't see one watching the pool.
We were on standby for Early Seating at dinner. Nonetheless, we were assigned late seating. I was there right at 1pm, when they opened up the services to change seating. I explained that I had 2 small children. They said they would try to accommodate and would let us know with a phone message after 4pm (either way). So, we got the phone message that said they didn't have an early table available - we were stuck with late seating. My 4 year old DD fell asleep at the table around 8:30pm. The head waiter came by and said he would do what he could to move us to early dinner - we had early dining the next two nites.
At 3:30pm, we went back to the room to relax before the muster drill. After the drill, we went to deck 10 for the sailaway party. If you like to dance, go to deck 9. It wasn't too crowded. If you like to observe others dancing, go to deck 10. You can also wave to folks onshore on deck 10.
The sailaway party was fun - at first. After about 15 minutes, people weren't really dancing or screaming anymore. Many folks left.
We arrived to the first show 20 minutes early as suggested. We got seats about 4 rows from the front. The first show was Hercules. Although I didn't care much for the show, you had to give the players credit - for the ship was rolling pretty good at this time. When we stood up to leave, everyone walked like they were drunk. If you didn't walk flat footed, you could easily 'fall' onto the person next to you.
Next, we went to dinner at Tritons. Food was fancy, but not very tasty. I mean, we have friends that think Red Lobster is best; these friends might have found the food to be excellent. Our server and assistant were nice - but not overly so like I had read about on other reviews. They followed us each day, even though we had moved to early seating Friday and Saturday.
After dinner, we waited in lines to take pictures with Lilo/Stitch and a few princesses. We checked our kids into the Oceaneers Lab. Getting your kids in/out of the Lab or Club can take a few minutes, depending on how many people are in line. It is a slow, methodical process. Our kids enjoyed themselves at the club/lab, but they missed all the major activities (e.g., making flubber) because these were scheduled when we were either eating or at a show.
Back to the room, the room steward had converted our couch to a bunk bed. He made us a puppy towel, I think it was a puppy, and left chocolates. Sleeping was not a problem. We just rocked and rolled with the waves - depending which way your bed was pointing. Our room was quiet, but due to the wave action, we had to close all doors and drawers tightly. The closet door had to be slammed shut.
A high pressure ridge offshore northeast Florida will be reinforced by a strong high pressure cell which will build south along the Atlantic Seaboard through late week. This pattern will result in a prolonged period of gusty onshore winds with elevated seas building further during the mid to late part of the week as large swells propagate into the waters. Hazardous boating conditions will continue through the end of the week with seas reaching to around 10 feet by Thursday.
It was very breezy Thursday morning. I was concerned about getting seasick, so I took as many preventative measures as possible. I didn't get seasick.
We arrived at the cruise terminal about 10:30am. I dropped off the family and luggage at the front, then paid the 36 dollars to park. In the terminal, I had my carry-on xrayed and proceeded up the escalator. At 10:30am, there were more people present than I expected. Still, we were able to walk right up to show our paperwork and get our Keys to the World. We were given a card that said we would board with Group 4.
In the terminal, there are a lot of workers to help you out. You can get your kid's wristbands (which they will wear the entire cruise) and a pager. We waited in a relatively short line for about 20 minutes.
When they called for us to board the ship (around 11:55am), the line for wristbands/pager was 4x as long.Time to board; there was a long line which moved fast. They check your id and then you get your picture taken. We wore respectable clothes for the picture; on the other hand, many people were dressed for comfort. Once you board, they announce your family name and applaud.
We went straight to the Beach Blanket Buffet on Deck 9. If not for the strong winds, we would have taken our food outside. The view is nice. After we ate, the kids changed clothes (brought in our carry-on) and swam in the Mickey shaped pool. All front row lounge chairs were taken. Beyond that, it is difficult to watch your kids. There were several moments when I did not know where my children were. When they get in line for the slide, you can't see them. The pool didn't get busy until about 2pm. A lifeguard was watching over the water slide, but I didn't see one watching the pool.
We were on standby for Early Seating at dinner. Nonetheless, we were assigned late seating. I was there right at 1pm, when they opened up the services to change seating. I explained that I had 2 small children. They said they would try to accommodate and would let us know with a phone message after 4pm (either way). So, we got the phone message that said they didn't have an early table available - we were stuck with late seating. My 4 year old DD fell asleep at the table around 8:30pm. The head waiter came by and said he would do what he could to move us to early dinner - we had early dining the next two nites.
At 3:30pm, we went back to the room to relax before the muster drill. After the drill, we went to deck 10 for the sailaway party. If you like to dance, go to deck 9. It wasn't too crowded. If you like to observe others dancing, go to deck 10. You can also wave to folks onshore on deck 10.
The sailaway party was fun - at first. After about 15 minutes, people weren't really dancing or screaming anymore. Many folks left.
We arrived to the first show 20 minutes early as suggested. We got seats about 4 rows from the front. The first show was Hercules. Although I didn't care much for the show, you had to give the players credit - for the ship was rolling pretty good at this time. When we stood up to leave, everyone walked like they were drunk. If you didn't walk flat footed, you could easily 'fall' onto the person next to you.
Next, we went to dinner at Tritons. Food was fancy, but not very tasty. I mean, we have friends that think Red Lobster is best; these friends might have found the food to be excellent. Our server and assistant were nice - but not overly so like I had read about on other reviews. They followed us each day, even though we had moved to early seating Friday and Saturday.
After dinner, we waited in lines to take pictures with Lilo/Stitch and a few princesses. We checked our kids into the Oceaneers Lab. Getting your kids in/out of the Lab or Club can take a few minutes, depending on how many people are in line. It is a slow, methodical process. Our kids enjoyed themselves at the club/lab, but they missed all the major activities (e.g., making flubber) because these were scheduled when we were either eating or at a show.
Back to the room, the room steward had converted our couch to a bunk bed. He made us a puppy towel, I think it was a puppy, and left chocolates. Sleeping was not a problem. We just rocked and rolled with the waves - depending which way your bed was pointing. Our room was quiet, but due to the wave action, we had to close all doors and drawers tightly. The closet door had to be slammed shut.
