Disney Wonder 4 Night Mousefest Cruise (2004)
Does a 4 night Disney cruise with a group of over 180 Disney fans sound like fun? It was! In early December 2004 I sailed on my first “MouseFest” cruise. The MouseFest cruise featured Passporter guide authors Dave and Jennifer Marx and Deb Wills of AllEarsNet.com as our “celebrity” hosts.
by Tim Larison, CLIA Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)
Cast of Characters: Tim, Anne, Andrew (age 10), and Joshua (age 10) Larison
As a travel agent I had many cabins booked on this cruise. This would be my first experience sailing with many clients I had only met through email and phone calls previously. My wife Anne, who had just become a travel agent three weeks before, and our 10 year old sons Andrew and Josh joined me on the cruise. Below I will review different aspects of the cruise.
Pre-cruise night stay
We flew into Orlando the night before the cruise and stayed at the AmeriSuites Orlando Airport Northwest (5435 Forbes Place). This worked out very well.After we got our luggage we called AmeriSuites and they sent their shuttle to pick us up. We had only a 10 minute wait and we were on our way to our hotel.
We had a “suite” with two double beds, a refrigerator, microwave, sitting area, and good sized desk. High speed internet was available at $9.95 for 24 hours or $39 for the week – I used this to check up on my email and it was simple to setup with a good connection. The room was clean and plenty big enough for our family of four. That night we walked to a TGI Fridays that was nearby (10 minute walk) for dinner. TGI Fridays offered a variety of menu items and satisfied my hungry family.
On Sunday morning the hotel had a plentiful breakfast buffet at no extra charge. Waffles you could make yourself, cereals, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, a variety of pastries, yogurt, juices and more were plenty for us to fill us up for the long day ahead of us (we would not eat lunch on the ship until the mid-afternoon).
Overall I would recommend AmeriSuites as a good place to stay if you are looking a reasonably priced place to stay close to the Orlando airport.
Dining
This was my 4th Disney Cruise and I thought the dining was the best yet. The opening buffet on embarkation day was very good with the succulent peel and eat shrimp the highlight for me. The first evening we also ate at Parrot Cay and I thought the ribs I had were tasty. My wife Anne enjoyed her steak this first night, and the boys quickly ate their kids meals.
We were pleased with our food at the other dining rooms (Animator’s Palette and Triton’s). Triton’s had always been our favorite of the three but for this cruise our experience at Triton’s ranked behind Parrot Cay and Animator’s Palette. Our food at Parrot Cay and Animator’s was excellent, while our entrees at Tritons were average.
On this cruise my wife and I got a rare treat on our “at sea” day – the chance to eat at the adults only “Palo” restaurant twice in one day! We first co-hosted a brunch at Palo for 10 lucky winners of a free brunch drawing ($10 cover charge normally) with Deb Wills. We had an interesting mix of first time Disney cruisers, veteran cruisers, and Disney World fans in our dining party. The food at the brunch was excellent. Anne had filet mignon and I had chicken cacciatore. There were plenty of other food options including shrimp, pastries, a variety of pizzas, and desserts. I would highly recommend the Palo brunch.
Our dinner at Palo was also very good. I was slightly disappointed with my shrimp and pasta dish. After having excellent shrimp the whole cruise at the Palo brunch, at Parrot Cay, and for appetizers at other meals I was surprised that my shrimp with the pasta was not of the same high quality I had earlier. I did not go to bed hungry, though, as there was plenty to eat at the Palo dinner (pizzas, appetizers, sampling other entrees,and the signature chocolate soufflé for dessert).
Breakfast at Triton’s was great one morning. The buffet breakfast at Parrot Cay was good, too (I especially liked the cooked to order omelet station). If I had to choose between Triton’s and Parrot Cay for breakfast, though, I’d pick Triton’s every time.
One other dining surprise for us was Cookies Barbeque on Castaway Cay. We at at the barbeque shortly after 12 noon yet we had a minimal wait. The quality of the barbeque was better than I remembered on my past Disney cruises. Disney seemed to have more employees helping at the barbeque than I remember in the past which helped us get our food quickly even though we dined at the busiest time for lunch.
At dinner we had great dining companions – the Zigners from Wisconsin. The Zigners were on their first ever Disney cruise and it was interesting to hear the stories of their adventures and impressions at dinner each night.
Children’s Programming
Our 10 year olds had last sailed on the Disney Cruise when they were 6 years old. We were interested to hear their impressions of the older “Oceaneer’s Lab” as compared to the younger kids club they were in last time.
At first our boys didn’t like the club. There were so many children in their age group that the kids had to take turns playing computer games. Our boys are more quiet and reserved, and they did not like the dance parties and karaoke night offerings. At a couple of times during the cruise the 10-12 age group were brought to the teen area that used to be the ESPN club. While this area looks to be great for teens for this age group there were few computer terminals and not alot to do that interested our boys.
This initial dissatisfaction with the kids club may have been more due to our boys’ personalities than the quality of the club. The 10 year old daughter of our dining companions loved the kids club while participating in the same activities.
Our boys’ longest stint in the kids club was on the last night of the cruise and this is the time they enjoyed the most. On this last night the kids made chocolate chip cookies, and there were less kids in the club which allowed for more computer time.
One BIG improvement over past Disney cruises we saw was that you could register your kids in the cruise terminal before you got on the ship. The kids program registration was in the area of the terminal where the coffee shop used to be. Pre-registering the kids in the cruise terminal gave parents one less thing to worry about once they got onboard – this is a good change for Disney. Disney’s childrens program is open for more hours than any other cruise line I have sailed on – from 9 am to 1 am on most days. This is particularly helpful if parents want to eat at the adults only Palo restaurant as we did twice in one day. The kids program takes care of bringing the kids to the buffet for their meals. On other cruise lines like Princess and Royal Caribbean I have found the kids programs shut down at meal times and are not open late except for an extra fee.
Overall our kids liked the Disney childrens program, though they rated Royal Caribbean and Princess programs a little better. On these other two cruise lines our boys were able to make friends easier because there were a small number of kids in their age group, and they also had better access to computers and video games.
Life onboard
What made this cruise extra special were the wonderful people we met from the MouseFest group. I really enjoyed meeting so many of my clients, putting faces to names. Our celebrity hosts, the Marxs and Deb Wills, went out of their way to make everyone feel welcome and to chat with the members of their fan base on the cruise.
There were special activities as part of the MouseFest event – such as a Sunrise Walk with Deb Wills, Nassau Walking Tour with Dave Marx (more on that below), adults only meet at Wavebands for a 70’s party, group breakfast with Deb, Dave, and Jennifer, Hidden Mickey hunt with author Steve Barrett, and a farewell party with prize drawings.
I had written in one of my past cruise reviews that I particularly enjoyed the deck chairs on deck 4 at sail away – a quieter spot than the party going on at the top deck. While I was sitting in a comfy deck chair enjoying the sail away I heard this voice say “there’s the guy responsible for me being in this spot! Are you Tim Larison?” It was Jay Richardson (a reader of this list) – guess my secret is out!
On this cruise the shows in the Walt Disney Theatre in the evening featured Hercules, Disney Dreams, The Golden Mickeys, and a comedy/juggler act on different nights. We had seen Hercules and Disney Dreams several times on past Disney cruises so we skipped those shows this time. The Golden Mickeys was new for us and I thought it was outstanding! A good mix of classic Disney film clips and live singing and dancing. The Golden Mickeys is now my favorite Disney show onboard. We didn’t see the comedy/juggler show but heard good reports on it from several of our fellow cruisers.
This is my first Disney cruise where I didn’t see a movie. I think the Disney ships have the best movie theatres at sea, and I wanted to see National Treasure and the Incredibles on this cruise. My busy schedule did not allow for that. Disney continues to impress me by showing 1st run movies on their ships (movies currently playing in theatres). Typically on other cruise lines the movies are 2 to 3 months old.
I did get a chance to see some nfl football in the new Diversions sports lounge. Diversions is located where the “dueling pianos” were located previously. Diversions was a BIG improvement over the old ESPN club. The state of the art video monitors gave a good view of the game, and the area was far less smoky than the ESPN club used to be. Smoking is allowed in Diversions but only in the bar area – I watched a few minutes of NFL Football at the opposite end of the room and it was relatively smoke free.
Ports
At Nassau Anne and I joined Dave Marx of Passporter for a free 2 hour walking tour of Nassau. We had been to Nassau four times before but on this tour we saw many new areas and learned some of the history of the port. We found the tour interesting.
At Castaway Cay we did not purchase any shore excursions. We received a wonderful gift from Peggy Sue and David (clients of mine and readers of this list) of a bottle of wine for the adults and sand castle toys for the kids. Andrew and Josh made good use of the two buckets and assortment of toys as they built their own sand castles on family beach. In addition to time on the beach we enjoyed playing ping pong at the Grouper pavilion.
I have been to Castaway Cay four times and I have had perfect weather on each visit. The temperatures felt like the low 80’s to me with a cool breeze keeping it from getting too hot. Anne and the boys reported that the water was cold but that didn’t prevent them from enjoying their beach time.
We liked the extra “at sea” day on this cruise compared to the two 3 night Disney Cruises we had taken previously. That extra day makes a big difference in allowing you more time to enjoy more activities and features of the ship. If you are debating between a three or four night cruise I highly recommend taking the 4 night!
Our Stateroom
Our stateroom was a category 11 inside stateroom, 7539 on deck 7. This was the first time we had a smaller cat 11 room (184 square feet compared to 214 square feet for a cat 10 inside room). We liked being on deck 7 (close to the pools on the upper deck and the kids club on deck 5), and we liked the midship location. It seemed we never had to walk too far to get to our stateroom. However I would recommend the larger cat 10 stateroom for a family of four compared to a cat 11 – we missed the split bathroom in the cat 10 (two sinks in two separate rooms vs one small bathroom in the cat 11) and we could definitely tell we didn’t have as much space in the smaller cat 11 room. Usually a cat 10 deluxe inside stateroom is only $100 or so more in price – the price difference is worth it.
Internet Cafe
Disney is the only cruise line I have sailed on that offers unlimited internet access for the length of the cruise. For this four night cruise the cost was $40. This was a good deal that I took advantage of. I would have spent far more on internet access had I paid the 75 cents a minute rate also available.
Transfers
We used Quicksilver transfers to take us from AmeriSuites to the port, and after the cruise from the port to Disney World and back to the airport at the end of our trip. Our private towncar was comfy and our driver Carlos was courteous and on time. For a family of four Quicksilver will price cheaper than Disney’s transfers. With Quicksilver you get more personalized service and get to your destination faster.
Summary
This was a great cruise at a bargain price (among the least expensive 4 night Disney cruises all year). The “extras” on the cruise because of Mousefest made it an even better value.