slightlysilly

Thank you so much Shmoo! 

I'll start off by saying that I already know we are weird.  

We've been on three Disney cruises and LOVED the adult parts (Remy, Palo, Serenity Bay, etc.) but we were not so jazzed about the kid parts, or rather our tween (at the time) son wasn't super impressed.    Since our last Disney cruise we have cruised on other lines with the intention of getting back on Disney once our son turns 18. 

I'm looking at the right after Christmas Day 2021 Disney Dream (I know the official dates aren't out yet), so it should be going out on (Monday) December 27th of 2021 for a four day.  I have my TA looking out for it so we can put a deposit down.

Question #1 - The Dream is sailing on Christmas Eve THIS YEAR and the cruise is a four day which is going over the weekend.  Usually the Dream goes from Friday to Monday (three night) and then Monday to Friday (four night) but this year Christmas falls on a Friday and that is listed as a sea day.  Do they do that so there is no embarkation/debarkation on Christmas Day?  or is there another reason?

Question #2 - Which sort of involves question #1.   Is it possible, on a four day cruise, assuming the Remy champagne brunch is offered, to have Palo Dinner, Palo Brunch, Remy Champagne Brunch and Remy Dinner all in one four day cruise?   Is it something that could happen by going Concierge?  I know we would miss all of the MDR stuff and that is 100% our intention. 

Thanks for answering and I hope I'm making sense!

Totally!  In fact, we are waiting for our son to turn 18 before we sail on Disney again.  We love Remy, Palo, Serenity Bay and the adult only venues on the ship.  Disney is VERY strict about keeping the kiddos away. 

September 2021 cannot come soon enough!

This is insane, but we are waiting for our son to turn 18 for us go to back on a Disney ship.  We LOVE Disney cruising but they are VERY strict about the adult only areas and specialty dining so we are waiting for our almost 16 year old to be able to join us in all the adult venues, in particular, Palo and Remy.

Hi all! We are flying in to MIA early on the day of our cruise (I know... ). Barring any delays, we are coming in at around 8:30 a.m. We have done this before and previously ate breakfast in MIA after getting off our flight but before passing the security checkpoint to leave MIA. We may be checking bags this time or we might be gate checking bags which puts us outside security. Does anyone have a favorite outside security sit down breakfast place where we could kill an hour or two before heading over to the port? I looked into ubering over to a breakfast place, but with luggage, that seemed like a hassle.

Thanks so much in advance.

Disney brews their own and it’s really good. You can’t get it in the buffet though.

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In my opinion Holland America ships style-wise are the closest to Disney. Disney seems to have a more traditional style of ship. That’s where the similarities end though.

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Also just got off the Maasdam today (I’ll write something a bit more detailed soon). She’s a lovely ship with signs of wear here and there, and cruising with 1,200 people instead of 5000 is divine! The ports of Montreal, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Sydney, Halifax, Bar Harbor and Boston are awesome. We were on the port side with a balcony and didn’t have any trouble with our room other than some sticky drawers and a bit of hard water deposits on the faucet in the bathtub. We had KILLER weather (except for Halifax). It was a great trip!

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How nice of you! Thank you! We almost got our hands on an upgrade to a Neptune Suite but our TA didn’t make it in time. No matter! We have a vista suite which should be just fine!

My fifth grade teacher told us all about Nova Scotia while we read Anne of Green Gables so it’s been on my list for a long time!

Thank you all so much for your help in planning. I didn’t have to post much since I could get my answers from doing a search. Can’t wait to get back and tell you how my trip went!

Cheers!

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I find that getting on the destination time as soon as I step on the plane is helpful. I also spring for a business class ticket going eastbound and take a night flight. I skip the drinks and dinner and go right to sleep. Then I wake up in my destination and stay awake until bedtime. Westbound if I’m taking a morning flight I stay awake until I get home (that’s difficult since they shut the lights off on the plane sometimes and everyone else is sleeping) But I get on destination time as soon as I get on the plane.

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I'm going to agree with the poster that said it's the demographics. Back in November I was in charge of a family cruise of about 20 people. The roll call was long, there was a pub crawl organized and also a meet and greet. Also, there were hundreds of youtube videos with reviews and I even found a video tour of our actual stateroom! This was on the NCL Getaway.

This spring my husband and I are going alone on the Canada/New England cruise on the Maasdam. Not only is the roll call sparse, but there is almost nothing on youtube like there was for the Getaway. What there was regarding the Canada/New England cruise were picture montages with some music in the background. All I can come up with is demographics.

I've found that researching the area you are going to will help you decide whether to do a ship excursion over a DIY excursion. For example, in Hawaii, it made zero sense to do a ship excursion for a few reasons: car rentals are dirt cheap, DIY excursions are all over the place and they are really really good and MUCH cheaper than the ship excursions.

On the other hand, Roatan... we did a DIY excursion and I'm not sure what I was thinking on that one. The port (once you get beyond the gate, the meeting place for most DIY excursions) it's absolute chaos. Kind of like if you have ever been in the Cancun airport... it's like that. If I was going to do Roatan again, I would take a ship excursion which left from inside the port gates.

All that to say, it depends on the port, the cost, getting back to the port on time, breaking language barriers, etc. As others have said, I suggest researching each port.

I’m sitting in Club Mobay waiting for my flight out of Montego Bay. I’m happy, relaxed and I feel safe. I wouldn’t hesitate to come here again. The people of Jamaica are lovely.

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I’m on my way to Jamaica in two weeks for a land trip. I’ve been to places that had travel advisories and whenever I go to those places, it turns out to be a big fat nothing. But I’ll let you know if it was as bad as all that. You know, IF I make it back. [emoji43]

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I have a change! A happy change. My mom kindly offered to watch the house and our two and four legged children so we could go on the cruise on our actual anniversary. So switch me from 7/7 cruise to the 6/9 cruise, Maasdam, Montreal to Boston! Thanks!

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You should hang out with the Disney cruisers once in a while. They cruise commando-style: how many minutes will Goofy be in the atrium for pictures, and will he be wearing his blue tie or his red tie? How many steps is it from the AquaDuck to the sandwich counter? Do they have Diet Coke Zero Sugar Caffeine Free?

I have to laugh at this. Absolutely lovely people on the Disney board but 1. I can’t believe some of the questions and 2. I can’t believe they have the answers! Sometimes with pictures!!!

And I’m one of those who asked about tea. I just wanted to know if it was the syrup so I can bring along my personal brewer aka my thermos. [emoji23]. Most of the time my questions are answered from a simple search.

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I was on a similar tour (the buses we were on said DelValle on the back) about three weeks ago. I felt that we were safe on the comfortable, air conditioned buses. However, we had just come from a harrowing experience with the roads in Roatan so that may have contributed my sense of safety. Very sad and tragic for all involved.

"Maasdam - 07-Jul-18 - 7 day Canada & NE Discovery

slightlysilly - 1st HAL cruise - celebrating 20th anniversary correct cruise??"

Yes! That is correct! I am beyond excited to go! Thank you!

I was on the same cruise (Thanksgiving) and finally got on the ropes course on the last sea day. There was a photographer on the plank taking pictures. I bought a plank picture and also pulled the string for the selfie but the photographer said it wasn’t working. She took my picture and I bought one. It says “I walked the plank 18 decks above the sea”. I guess for future cruisers, make sure there’s a photographer up there if you want a picture of you on the plank.

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Thank you for your review! Was the Costa Maya ruins tour the beach and lunch tour through NCL?

Now that I’ve read this thread, I’m dying to try LaCucina (and we are Olive Garden fans!)

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My last NCL cruise was in 2007 in Hawaii too. Pride of Aloha which was a super clunky ship. It was such a port intensive itinerary that I barely remember that we were on a ship. But I remember that we got much better service on Carnival. (My only reference point at the time, I’ve since been on 3 Disney cruises) I’m leaving on the Getaway on Sunday, but I’m in an aft balcony which means we got the beverage package which means I didn’t pay over a grand for drinks. I’ll let you know how it goes!

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If you want to impress a date and/or have a good time, then ask your date where THEY want to dine. Let THEM pick the restaurant. You'll end up with a much better experience than you will if strangers on the Internet pick the restaurant for you.

That’s what I ended up doing and he picked La Cucina. The only restaurant that isn’t listed here. [emoji15]. Oh well, I kind of knew that was coming as he’s a big Italian food fan. Date nights are always fun no matter the venue, I was just wondering if there was an overwhelming favorite that we must try.

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I was also on this cruise, getting off the ship was terrible. You leave from deck 7, they wind you through the casino then come around the other side & back through the casino, it stunk like cigarettes. Once off of the ship you have to walk down several ramps to get to the terminal. There they had plenty of what I call cattle chutes, where you wind back and forth. You have to go through a bunch of these before you ride an escalator, where they tell you to keep moving at the bottom, which is hard if the people in front of you are backed up. Finally you get to where the luggage is, I grabbed mine then headed for customs. This was the easy part, I walked up to the line & got called over by an agent. That was the fastest that I ever went through customs. It just took a lot of walking and waiting for the people a head of you.

At FLL, I have never seen a line like that for TSA security. I did make it home safely.

For me it was a total mess.

At about what time was this going on? We are leaving in 5 days for our cruise, and we have a later flight out of FLL (4:30). We got the NCL transfer to FLL so we aren't in a rush. Can we loiter somewhere? or do they make people get in the snaky line?

We always leave ours in the stateroom safe. I'm told if you are left behind that the contents of your safe is brought ashore and left with port officials. I hope I never find out if that's true. :D

Same. I carry a copy of my passport whenever I leave the ship.

On the other hand, there aren’t people living in Nassau who were left behind by a ship and didn’t have a passport. Or are there..... [emoji15]

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