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[daddyof2]

Hi all

We got back yesterday, not sure I have the brain or right mood for a full trip report (we're all sad its over) but I'll start and see how I get on...

We flew on Thursday 11th, no issues getting to East Midlands airport for our 0935 flight but Ryanair only had one check in desk open so there was a boring and unnecessarily long queue. Then, there was a small delay with our plane arriving and being ready but the flight to Barcelona was no problem and we got a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Novotel Sant Joan Despi, which was a decent price and had a small pool but was a bit further out from the City Centre than some people may like. We spent Friday in Barcelona, dragging 2 small and slightly grumpy children around and trying to see some culture.
Then, the big day itself. A taxi to the port and the Disney Magic was waiting - as was Captain Mickey for photos. The check in process for the ship was very efficient (I assume they always are) and speedy.

A short wait in the departure hall and we were called to board...

[msRavenswood]

Welcome back! Can't wait to read the rest of your trip report! 

[daddyof2]

Apologies for the delay - been busy and also looking at including photos.

okay, so we boarded the ship and were welcomed into the Atrium on deck 3 (which is just as amazing as it looks if you find a photo online) by a dozen or so cast members applauding us and that felt special. It was about lunch time so we made our way past Lumiere's towards the aft and were told Carioca's was quite busy so should try Cabanas up on deck 9.

Up in the lift and our first experience of the extensive buffet on offer - Cabanas is open every morning for breakfast buffet and lunch time and dinner time for buffets again. We ate there most mornings and some lunch times but didn't try dinner so I'm not sure if it differs much in the evening. Certainly for lunch, there's a wide range of hot and cold food plus desserts and all the soft drinks you could need.

Suitably refreshed, we walked along deck 9 past the pools (which some people were already enjoying) and to the midship area where we took another lift down to deck 5 to check out the kids clubs. Our children are 5 and 4 and a large part of deck 5 is dedicated to two linked childrens areas, the Pirate themed Oceaneers Lab and the Oceaneers club. They very quickly decided they liked the Oceaneers Club area, with its Mickey Mouse, Pixie Hollow and Andy's Room mini areas.

By this time our "stateroom" was ready so we went to find it so we could see how it was and drop our hand luggage off (cases and big bags had been checked in to be delivered by cast members). It was very clean, well presented and just like the photos on the Disney Cruise website. The stateroom hosts do an amazing job cleaning, tidying and preparing the rooms every day, and ours always seemed to be busy in one room or another. Most of our bags arrived fairly quickly so we got some unpacking and organising done whilst the little ones watched TV. After a not very successful attempt to meet up with people off Facebook, it was time for the mandatory lifeboat drill...during which my son fell asleep.

More to follow...

[never2old]

I'm currently unable to go to sleep with all the excitement, boarding for our cruise tomorrow...

Looking forward to more!!

[daddyof2]

Sorry for the delays, going through some personal issues. Will try and update later today

[daddyof2]

...so we let my son have a little doze in the shade up on the top deck whilst the sail away celebrations took place, then went to get cleaned up ahead of dinner. Our dining rotation was LACLACL, meaning we were scheduled to eat at Lumiere's the first night, then Animators Palate the second, Carioca's the third and then repeat. Whilst you can eat at Cabanas or one of the "counter service" offerings by the pool, we chose to follow the rotation. Our servers (who follow you on your rotation) were Jonathan and Joe, and they provided great service for all of us all week. You've probably guessed that Lumiere's has a Beauty and the Beast theme, and the food is Eurpoean/French themed as well. This does sometimes include escargots, but there's a wide range of foods that would suit most palates, with such delights as Chateaubriand and Turbot.

During dinner, we'd set sail and after we'd finished eating we waved goodbye to Spain and went to find the on board shops (that have to stay closed whilst in port). We bought the children a "Cruise Minnie" and a "Cruise Pluto" as we'd promised them something. We did watch a bit of the evening show but as we were all tired and my 4 year old son has a typically short attention plan, we had to leave early and go get some sleep.

The room had been "turned down" by our stateroom host so everything was ready. Because of there being four of us, the sofa was converted into a single bed and another "dropped" out of the ceiling. There were bed rails and neither of the little ones fell out or had any issues all week. The main bed was comfy enough, there was no excessive noise and only a faint vibration to let you know you were sailing. The only comfort issue as such is that with 2 adults and 2 small children there isn't a massive amount of space to move around - though it's manageable. I would not recommend trying it with 4 adults, but I'm sure it's been done.

Whew! That's day one over. Feel free to ask any questions whilst I remember what we did on day 2

[DisneyRon]

  That's a lot of text and it's only the first day. Sounds like you had quite the adventure ahead of you.
Looking forward to reading more.

[daddyof2]

Haha thanks Ron - it was amazing. My day's reports aren't all going to be so full, I'm going to try and not make the same point over and over.

So day 2 dawned, which was a full day at sea - though we did see the islands of Sardinia and Corsica as we sailed by. We had breakfast at Cabanas, with a very comprehensive breakfast buffet on offer. If memory serves me right, I went for some of the cooked options that day, and they do have "English" bacon (i.e. back bacon) as well as the standard American style streaky so I was happy.

We had a pre-booked appointment for the Princess meet so went to the Atrium and met Rapunzel, Belle and Cinderella. You can probably guess my daughter was over the moon. After that there was a short time for a bit of a splash around at the splash zone before we all went to one of the open house activities at the Oceaneers Lab, called Super Sloppy Science where we got to make some Flubber. After lunch we also got to meet Queen Elsa, Princess Anna and Olaf (cue more smiling little girls) in the Animators Palate restaurant.

Before we'd begun our cruise, we'd agreed to be part of a Fish Extender Group. For those of you who this is new to, each stateroom has a metal fish "plaque" by the door, which can be used for vouchers/flyers/etc to be left by Cast Members for you. A Fish Extender is essentially a narrow, cloth hanger (a bit like a shoe hanger) that you hook on to your fish, with pockets for others in your group to leave you gifts. On the Sunday, we were one of the families giving out gifts so we also had to go round the ship and post them for our new friends. My wife spent a lot of time and effort making some nice and thoughtful gifts for people, and we also got some lovely gifts from the other members.

The evening was formal night as well as Frozen night, so some people were in very smart attire (the full black tie style) and others in Frozen themed clothing. We just went with the acceptable cruise casual style, as we'd not allowed for formal dress. It was Animators Palate for us, which is many people's favourite of the main restaurants. It certainly has its charms, with paintbrush shaped butter knives, a black and white décor with drawings appearing across lots of TV screens around the restaurant that change to colour during your meal. Because of Frozen night, the menu was Frozen themed - and it was probably the least enjoyable food we had at any of our dinners. It wasn't particularly bad, just not amazing.

We knew our little ones wouldn't be interested in the evening show so didn't even attempt it and instead let them burn off a bit of energy before turning in early again

[DisneyDuckLover]

Any character pictures would be great