2014 DVC Members Cruise/WDW Trip

Early that evening, we said goodbye to Castaway Cay for the very last time on this cruise.

Our dinner that evening was at Palo.

The service was, of course, top notch. What was interesting was that we had the SAME server as the one who took care of us 2 years ago when we had dinner at Palo. She didn't remember us (how could she?), but she was still happy that we remembered her.

The bread service:

A couple of us ordered almost the same item we had last time. The first one is the appetizer which was the calamari, which was the most tender calamari that I've ever had.

The rest of the appetizers at our table:

The lobster ravioli

Now comes the entree. This is the tenderloin.

My entree was the same one as the one I had on the Dec 2012 cruise. I order the lamb chops which, at that time, I proclaimed as the BEST lamb chops that I've never had. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case here. The lamb chops were still good and tender. However, the flavor wasn't just as spectacular as I remembered it. The crust on the chops was not as flavorful as I remembered it. The portions were also a bit smaller. See for yourself. The first photo is the one I got from this cruise, the second photo is the one I got 2 years ago.

I think the one I got 2 years ago even looks more spectacular.

However, the desserts were as good as before. Of course, we all got the chocolate souffle. How could you not?

But we also got the pannacotta, which was a dream!

They also sent a greeting to the couple in our party who were celebrating their anniversary.

It was a lovely dinner on the final night of our cruise.

Zz.

We woke up the next morning very early. It was the last morning of our cruise. We survived a very rough voyage over night due to a local storm in the area. I think the ship was rocking in all directions. Luckily, we were warned about the large swells and it happened late at night and into the early morning when most of the passengers were asleep.

The shipped pulled into Port Canaveral around 5:30 am. Was anyone up viewing the webcam for that one? {looks at MrHub}

We showered and got dressed, and made it to Animation Palette for our breakfast at 6:45 am. {Yawn!}

It is during this breakfast that I saw one of the most emotional moment of the cruise. I was finishing my breakfast when, at another large table, and there were probably 8 people at that table, were done with their meals and were about to leave for the last time. They were saying goodbyes to their two servers who had been with them all through the cruise. When the mother (or at least, I assumed she was the mother) asked her son (I'm guessing 10 years of age) to say goodbye to the servers, he broke down in tears! He went and hugged one of them and started to sob. The first server felt this and hugged him tight and even kissed him on his head. By the time he hugged the other server, he was already wiping the tears coming down his face.

When the boy finally let go, the family bid the two servers one last goodbye and they all walked out. The mother hugged the boy very closely, and patted him on the head as they walked.

Crap, I almost broke down in tears watching all this.

Certainly, I can understand a level of attachment and fondness of the servers. They are assigned to your dining table throughout your cruise, and depending on their personality, you do get to know them quite a bit. I know that we were very fond of our assistant server who always made us laughed, made excellent wine recommendations, and always seemed to have time to talk to us every single time we were there. We gave him our e-mail address and we might be in contact with him in 4 months once he takes his long vacation back to Jamaica where he was from.

But seeing all this in front of me simply solidifies my point that cast members DO create the magic! It isn't the Disney executives, the mid-level manager, the policy makers, etc.. etc. It is the people they hired that interact with the guests every single day. They are the ones who have the most effect on creating the wonderful moments that we get when we go to a Disney park or cruise. So I want to take this opportunity to say to any Disney cast members who went out of your way beyond your duties to create a just a little bit of magic for us guests: THANK YOU!

Unfortunately, soon enough after our breakfast, it was time for us to depart. We said goodbyes to our own servers (and gave them generous tips) and made our way to the Atrium. On the way out from the restaurant, they were handing out a set of menus that were used during the Member Cruise, so we got to keep them as mementos.

The atrium was full of people mingling and making their way out.

Even the captain of the ship, Captain Henry, was there to say goodbye to the passengers. Many were thanking him for the great job he did on the last night when we had very rough seas.

We shook hand with the captain, and thanked him for a safe voyage.

We then walked out into the gangway.

Our 2014 DVC Member Cruise was officially over!! {sobbing}

Zz.

This is a review of the DCL Navigator App.

First of all, to make sure everything connects to the "Mother Ship" very well, wait till you are onboard the ship to open and initialize the app. I tried it while we were still waiting to board. While it initialized and all, it seemed to not be able to load all the necessary information. And then, each time I tried to refresh it or tried to do something, it kept waiting for things to download. I had to force-quit it and restart it. It was when I got close enough to the ship that it finally loaded.

To launch it, first put your phone into Airplane Mode. This turns off all your receptions, which are your phone carrier and wifi. Then, manually turn on wifi. Next, look at the list of wifi servers and choose the DCL-guest (or something like that). When you have connected, you are set to go. Launch the Navigator app and let initialize.

The app is basically the same set of info that you get with the daily Navigator newsletter that they leave in your stateroom at the end of each day. The app tells you practically all the activities going on throughout the entire cruise. Tapping on the activity gives you details of the activity, when and where, and if there is a fee for it. The app also has other info about the cruise and the ship.

You can add activities you want to be reminded of by adding it to your "Favorites". By tapping on the "heart" that is associated with each activity, you will then be presented by all the available time slots for that activity for the entire cruise (if there is more than one time that activity is offered). Tapping again on the "heart" for a particular time and day will add that activity and that time slot to your favorite.

Then, when that activity is 15 minutes away from starting, your phone will vibrate and will display the activity, time, and location. This was a very handy feature, especially for us since we were doing a lot of things while on the cruise. It also listed the activities going on on Castaway Cay, and the app worked normally there (at least, around the beaches that we tested it).

You have the ability to look ahead at all the days that you will be sailing and picked out activities beyond just the day you are in. So this was very handy for us especially when there were special events that will only be presented once.

This was definitely a useful app. Having all the info conveniently available on your phone at all times was quite handy, I found.

Now, a few cons. The biggest one here is that, other than selecting your favorites, there is no way to personalize this thing. This is not My Disney Experience app. It doesn't know who you are, only that you've selected to save such-and-such activities to that device. That's all. There is no way to know what the others in your party are doing, what they want to do, etc. It would be a nice feature if passengers could sign in, register their guests/family members, and be able to see what activities others in the group are interested in or planning on doing.

The other feature that would be handy is that, after being able to sign in, some form of messaging between members of your own party on the cruise is available. As it is now, the only way to contact another passenger is either via the stateroom phone, or the mobile phones in the room. Since normal text messaging is not available unless everyone pays for it, it would be nice if the app allows for simple in-app text messaging between guests who are within the family/friends circle. This would make the app a LOT more useful.

Another useful feature that I like to see if some sort of a "calendar" display of one's activities. Currently, if you put some activity on your Favorites, the activities for that day are displayed in a list. If you have only a few, this is not a problem, but if you have quite a few (which we had), then it is hard to see which ones are back-to-back, and which ones overlap. Having a display that clearly shows a "timeline" on when all the activities start and end will solve that, although I'm not sure how easy it is to be viewed on a phone screen. Currently, the app has been optimized only for the iPhone, not the iPad, so the display size might be an issue.

Last, but not least, it would be nice to be able to view the same info on the app way ahead in advanced of the cruise and on the web. We will at least know what activities will be available and can start planning on what we want to do. If we can plan 180 days in advanced for dinning at a WDW restaurant, the DCL should be able to display these activities well ahead of a cruise, rather than on the cruise day itself.

All in all, this was a useful app, and I can see a lot of possibilities for it. I am sure they'll improve it upon subsequent testing and feedback.

Zz.

OK, so you all know from the very beginning that a very big part of this Member cruise is all the goodies that they give us, both in our stateroom on each day, and the stuff they have all over the ship as part of the presentations, games, etc. So in this post, I'll try to show and summarize the stuff that we got (not the stuff that we bought) on this cruise.

You have seen the bag of goodies that greeted us when we entered the stateroom for the first time.

We also got a silver canvas bag, as part of being returning Silver members of the Disney Cruise Line. Inside the bag, we got this magnetic memo pad. I saw many staterooms sticking this on their doors, probably as a message center for people in their party.

We also found a very special edition of Disney Files magazine. For those who don't know, Disney Files is a magazine for DVC members, sent once a month. This Disney Files magazine was printed only for the Member Cruise and contained the detail description of some of the major activities and events on this particular Member Cruise, including a detailed story of the NY World's Fair, which was a panel presentation that included Marty Sklar and Alice Davis that we attended.

On the second day of the cruise, we found this in our stateroom.

Upon opening the box, we found a blank DVC journal book.

On the third day of the cruise, this is what we found in the room. It is a metal sign.

On the fourth day of the cruise, we found this DVC Scrabble game.

Later that day, since this was our last full day of the cruise, when we got back to our room after dinner, we found a thank you envelope.

Inside the envelope, we found a card with a very nice Member Cruise pin!

I've zoomed both parts of the card so that you can read what it says.

Note that all the gifts above (other than the DCL returning silver member gifts) all came in set of twos. So we both got one of each.

I forgot to mention that when you checked in at the very beginning, they give you a special lanyard to hold your key card. The lanyard comes with a very nice DVC medal.

Of course, throughout the cruise, we got freebies from many booths, activities, presentations. Early in the cruise, the DVC table was giving this away. It is a cute little thing that has a couple of white LED light, and has a motion sensor. So each time it moves, it lights up. A lot of people were wearing it on their lanyards.

By the middle of the cruise, they ran out of the LED thingy, and started to give away luggage tags. We got those too.

One of the most useful gifts that we got was from the RCI booth. They were giving away these. At first I thought it was just a pen, but it wasn't. Upon closer look, one end of it (on the right in the picture) is a stylus for smartphones/tablets.

The other end turns out to be a LED light source. It became pretty handy when we needed some light to write our answers during the few trivia games that we played during the cruise.

But wait, there's more! If you pull the two ends apart, it reveals a regular pen! Handy stuff!

I think they ran out of this by the end of the 2nd day of the cruise. Little wonder.

There were also a couple of other things that we brought home as souvenirs. Throughout the cruise, whenever we attend a presentation, the meet-and-greet with DVC executives, or order drinks from the bars, they serve them in these Member Cruise plastic cups. So we took home a few.

Along with these cups, they also were using these Member Cruise coasters.

So yeah, we brought back a LOT of stuff home! Was it any wonder that the vehicle was packed to the gills when we drove back home?

Zz.

OK, enough of the freebies. Here are some of the stuff that we bought on the trip. I'm not going to show you everything, only the ones that I think are interesting enough.

First, there was the special t-shirt for the Member cruise.

I also saw this t-shirt and thought it was cute. So I bought it. I'm wearing it right now.

OK, now let's talk about pins.

First of all, there was this Limited Edition of 1000, Member Cruise pin. Between the two of us, we got 6!

We bought other pins during the cruise, but these two are the ones we'll highlight here. The one of the left is an ordinary rack pin, but I thought it was hilarious enough that I had to get it. After all the amount of food I stuffed into myself at The Cabanas, I wanted to wear this while eating there, but I didn't. the one of the right has quite a nice design to it. It is an LE, and it was on sale. So how could I refuse?

And then, there were the mystery pins. If you purchase more than $30, you get to buy, for $4.95, these mystery pins. They were sold in each in black pouches, and you don't know what you'll get till you open it. There are 6 different pins total, and they were all in the shape of anchors, but with the motif of the various Disney characters. I don't think I need to tell you who the characters are, do I?

Between the two of us, and with trading with other passengers, we managed to get 3 complete sets. Two of those sets will be traded away.

By the last full day of the cruise, they completely ran out of these mystery pins.

We didn't buy this pin. We got it when we attended the DVC presentation.

And this set of pins were not from the cruise, but rather, were pins we found at the parks. They are not even LE pins, only limited release. But they are outstanding! They are various villains, but in the motif of the stretching room paintings from the Haunted Mansion! They may not be LE, but I still found it difficult to find all 4 of the set.

A little bit more about pin trading during the cruise. On the normal cruises that we've been, there were very little pin trading activities. The cast weren't wearing any pin lanyards. The only pin trading activities we had were with the officers during one evening of the cruise. That was it. So that's why, for this trip, I didn't bring that many pins to trade. I thought we would have some chance of doing trading with the officers, and then when we get to the parks, we'd do the rest of pin tradings there.

Boy were we wrong! The crew at the stores were wearing the new cast lanyard pins, while the DVC people, especially the executives, were wearing lanyards full of LE Artists Proof pins!! And they were doing this throughout the entire cruise! Holy cow! By the 3rd day of the cruise, we were literally running out of pins to trade, and I had to sacrifice several of the new cast lanyard pins that I traded for to continue to trade for these LE pins!

At the end of the cruise, we brought back plenty of very nice LE pins. Some we will keep for our collection, but most will be in our trading books. Not sure when I'll ever go back for another Member Cruise, but I've learned my lesson!

Zz.

After the cruise, we spent a few days at WDW. I'll just give some highlights of what we did.

This is a panoramic shot of the view from our room at SSR, Congress Park. We loved it. Wish we could have had a longer stay.

This is the new bridge that connects SSR with Downtown Disney's Marketplace. It is very convenient especially if you are staying at Congress Park. The bridge dumps you right near the Christmas store.

We had FastPass+ for Thunder Mountain Railroad, Under the Sea, and Mine Train. They were all a lot of fun, and many attractions didn't have that long of a standby line. We were pleased to see, after we got off Haunted Mansion, that Mr. Toad was back in the pet cemetery. He was gone for a while there. Look for him towards the back, left corner.

We also went off-site and visited our friends at the Theme Park Connection. Holy cow, I can go bankrupt at this place! They have so many stuff that I want. But they also have the cutest vehicle that I know of.

I hate to think the mileage they are getting with this vehicle, especially with the huge wind drag from those ears!

Zz.

One of the highlights of the few short days that we spent at WDW was our first meal at the newly-opened Spice Road Table at the Morocco pavilion. We have heard and read about it, so we kinda knew what to to expect.

We walked in for lunch, and the place wasn't busy at all. We got a terrific table by the window, and I can only imagine the view we might get to see during Illuminations.

The food, if you don't know, is Mediterranean-inspired, and they are served tapas style, i.e. in small portions/small plates. It is meant to be shared and also allows you to sample a larger variety. A quick look at the menu offers a tantalizing sampler of various things that we wanted to try.

Both of us went for the Tingis sampler, and added an order of the Greek salad, and the calamari. The Greek salad was refreshing, with a very nice dressing that didn't overpower the fresh ingredients.

Calamari was excellent, and accompanied by a couple of nice and contrasting dipping sauces.

The start of the show, though, was the sampler, which consisted of the Harissa chicken roll, lamb slider, and lamb sausage.

I started off with the Harissa chicken roll, and immediately was blown away by it. It has such a strong, unique flavor, and the pastry was warm and crispy, just the way it should be. If you've had the "lumpia" egg roll (why would you unless you are familiar with Filipino food?), this is of the same texture. I could devour several of these in the blink of an eye. It was that good. I then proceeded to the lamb slider. Again, delicious and tasty. It has a "beefy" flavor that most beef hamburgers are sadly lacking. Lastly, I went to the lab sausage, usually called merguez, which I've had before in various tagine dishes. Nothing wrong here and it had the bite and flavor that it should.

Both of us polished these off in no time. By then, we were ready to order another plate, which is a common practice when you are having tapas, and they also left a menu at our table for doing just that. We order the grilled skewered beef and chicken.

We both started attacking it with gusto before I remembered that I needed to snap a photo. So what you see here is the half-eaten skewers. Again, no complaints here, but I think I prefer the items in the sampler plate.

This was a singular, best-tasting food that I could remember anywhere in World Showcase. The food was delicious and unique. The uniqueness is a strong quality, because I tend to want to find things that I can't get anywhere else. They didn't just stick to moroccan food, but sampled a larger region of the Mediterranean. In the process, they have a menu full of tasty interpretation of the region.

I highly recommend this restaurant, especially if you are willing to try new things. And my advice is to go soon! It is a sad fact that menu items and food quality changes at restaurants in WDW, most not for the better. Things get watered down, or "dumbed down" for the tourist palette, so unique and unusual items tend to get discarded. I am skeptical that this restaurant can maintain the strong and bold flavors for a long time, so go now before the muck it up!

The only drawback of this place is that, while they have iced mint tea, they do not have the regular hot moroccan mint tea, which they always have in Marrakesh restaurant. I like the hot mint tea even when it is hot outside. It really cools you down. But the iced mint tea that we had weren't bad either.

Final verdict: Highly Recommended.

Zz.