Villainous Voyage - May 20th, 2006 7-night Western Caribbean **Completed, No Lie**

[RoyalVizier]

Hey y'all, :wave2:

I've been lurking around here for the last several weeks in preperation for our Disney cruise vacation. I've read through what seems like hundreds of tips and numerous trip reports and had such a fun time doing it I thought I would go ahead and do one of my own.

It is EXTREMELY long and I'll try to keep it all to one thread for easy access...

The Background Info:

This was our second cruise, both on Disney Cruise Line. We took a 4-night cruise on the Disney Wonder three years ago, loved it, thought it was the best vacation experience ever, so decided to shoot for a 7-night straightaway. Unfortunately it took three years to get to the point where a 7-night Disney cruise was plausible. Funny how finances, work, school, and pretty much all of life tend to get in the way of the fun stuff sometimes. So here we go…

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the darling wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Saturday, May 20th - Day 1 Part 1: The Arrival

Cheri and I woke up at 6am and I must say that I am shocked that we slept that late. I was sure that we wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink and would be up by two or three a.m. We got our showers and got Sadie up to start getting ready. I ran to the bank. I figured we might need a little bit of money to take with us. My dad agreed to drive us over to the Port so that we wouldn’t have to leave a car there for the week so we arranged for him to pick us up at the house at about 9:30. We were all ready by 9am so we just had to sit around and be all excited!! He came right on time and we were off! :yay:

I’ve read numerous Disney cruise trip reports in the last several months leading up to our vacation and almost every single one of them talks about seeing the ship as you come over the bridge approaching Port Canaveral. I’m afraid I’m not going to be unique in any respect. The sight is one of awe and wonder for sure. As if the excitement level in the car could have been any higher, the sight of the ship and knowing that within the next several hours we were going to board that luxurious vessel to have the time of our lives was just amazing. In my eyes, the most beautiful ship on the seas for sure.

So we got there at about 10:30am and my dad dropped us off at numbered stations right in front of the terminal. This is just a bit different from when we went on our 4-night Disney cruise three years ago when he dropped us in the parking lot where they loaded your bags onto a truck and you crossed the street over to the terminal building. This time we got right out of the car, unloaded our bags and a porter was immediately at our side offering assistance (which we gladly accepted). I firmly believe that the Wells family of Orlando has the largest and heaviest luggage on the planet. Must have something to do with the fact that my wife and daughter think there are shoes for the morning, shoes for the evening, and shoes for every hour in between. Mental tip for next time: A suitcase devoted entirely to footwear… theirs numbering in the double digits and my three.

Anyway… as the porter was loading our behemoth bags onto the cart, my wife was giving me that you-have-a-bunch-of-ones-right(?) look. Ah tips! Right… I forgot about that aspect of things. Amidst all of the excitement of the arrival, tipping slipped my mind. :blush: I quickly pulled out my wallet and luckily I had some singles in there which I handed to the nice man (who absolutely looked like he was glad that my wife had that look down pat). It was then that I made another mental note to make Guest Services one of my first stops after boarding to get many many more singles for the rest of the journey. We said so long to my dad and the porter took our bags one way and we went another way heading towards the terminal.

Now, a brief pause for some more background information… May 23rd is our wedding anniversary, so the timing of the cruise worked out perfectly to be able to spend our eighth anniversary at sea on the Disney Magic. I wanted to get my wife something special, so a few weeks prior to the cruise I got her a gold three diamond drop necklace and put it away to surprise her with on the cruise. She had no idea that I bought it or bought anything at all and I had hidden the necklace at home. On this morning as we were packing up to leave, I finally pulled the gift from its hiding spot and not really knowing what to do with it; I put it in my pocket. I didn’t want to put it in the luggage for fear that she would find it. Okay, we now return to the regularly scheduled programming…

Upon entering the terminal we had to go through security. I walked through the metal detector and of course beeped, so I went back through and had to empty my pockets into a dish. I put my wallet in the dish and my keys. I was so worried about the jewelry box in my pocket because I really didn’t even want Cheri to know that it even existed. I wanted it to be a total surprise. So somehow when she wasn’t looking I managed to get it out of my pocket, into the dish and sent the dish on its way through the X-ray machine thingy. So I went back through the metal detector and beeped again! So they made me come off to the side and wave the magic wand all over me while in the meantime the dish comes out the other side of the machine with my wallet and the jewelry box and my wife is over there picking up our other things. Turns out my belt was causing all of the mayhem and I was allowed to go. I got over to the dish right as my wife’s eyes set upon it. I just grabbed it and put it back in my pocket. I know she saw it and now she knew I had it. :sad2: I was really upset but ah well, what are you going to do. I’m not the quickest of thinkers sometimes, so I wasn’t about to think of something to say or some grand story. I didn’t say anything and she didn’t say anything so…

We made it through security and there was a nice lady at the base of the escalators handing out the numbered boarding passes. This is another of those new items since our last cruise. We got boarding number four which we were fine with and headed up the escalator. As the moving steps take you higher and higher the wavy metallic ceiling comes into view, the dull roar of excited guests becomes clearer and clearer and then you reach the top where the enormous terminal opens up before you, brilliantly blinding aquamarine floors and walls, an ocean before leaving land. So beautiful!

We headed over to the check-in and were greeted by a Cast Member there making sure that we had filled out all of our forms. We told her we had done that online using the new online check in process and she told us that we still had to fill out all of the forms in the booklet. So we went to one of the freestanding tables in the middle of the terminal and worked on our forms. We didn’t really understand why we had to do this if we’d already done it, but no big deal. :confused3 Check in was quick and painless. We were assigned stateroom 5646 deck 5 aft with a PLAPLAP (my new favorite word!) late dining rotation. Again, we were absolutely fine with this as we really didn’t have anything to compare it too. We’re pretty easy going people, plus Parrot Cay is my wife’s favorite restaurant so it worked out great!

So there we were all checked in. We went over and grabbed some seats next to the window. By this time it was about 11am and the terminal was fast filling up. At check-in we were given some information and the events of the first day so we read through that and just sat staring out the window. The Carnival Miracle was docked just next door and I wandered the terminal a bit. Checked out the kid’s clubs registration area, went outside to watch them load pallets upon pallets of food onto our ship (Yay!), grabbed an introductory sheet on the events of the Stack for my daughter. Goofy and Mickey came out so we watched them interact with the kids for a while. Pretty much just hung out waiting for boarding to begin! :bounce:

Up Next: Boarding and a Door Issue.

[Babs417]

I loved my first cruise with my family. It takes people to make a Dream a Reality! Thanks for your report.

[Dixielady908]

:thumbsup2 Enjoying the report so far....but hurry I need to read more....


Denise

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Saturday, May 20th - Day 1 Part 2: Boarding and a Door Issue

At about 11:50am we noticed a large hoard of people starting to gather around the roped off section near the Mickey-eared entrance to the gangplank so we decided to join the masses. :crowded: We saw the Cast Members tending to the group making ones and twos motions with their hands so we guessed that they were letting people holding those numbers onto the ship. A few moments later they did make the boarding announcement over the loud speaker, but it was very difficult to hear. The time between when they first called for boarding and when they got to boarding pass number four was only about five minutes. When called, we pried our way through the group as best we could without smashing toes or throwing anyone to the ground and moved through the archway. This was a very quick process. By noon we were on our way in!

They scanned our Key To The World (KTTW) cards and we stopped for that very first photo in front of a giant old style Caribbean map. I’ve discovered that there are a couple of reasons for the photo op right there before you board the ship. One: it is a fantastic first milestone to mark the true beginning of your magical Disney voyage. Two: it also serves to spread families out so that a gigantic clump doesn’t form as you actually enter the ship so that the announcement of your family is all the more special. Anyway… we then headed into the ship where we were announced (so magical! :wizard: ) and we soaked in the sight of the marvelous atrium. We couldn’t hang around for long… they sorta keep you moving through the atrium towards Parrot Cay. We knew that we really wanted to dine up on deck 9 at Topsiders so we wanted to find the elevators. As we were walking through the Promenade Lounge, one of the bartenders told us that they staircase we were headed to was closed and that we had to keep moving… me (the pushover gullible one) took him at his word and started to move away, but it turns out he was just joking with us and showed us the way to Topsiders. :blush:

There really weren’t very many people up there. We practically had the whole place to ourselves. They have Cast Members outside of each restaurant handing out wet naps for you to quickly wash your hands. This is fantastic. There’s Disney’s sense of safety for ya! Sadie got her first plate of mac & cheese and Cheri and I had a wide assortment of tasty odds and ends. We ate outside in the gorgeous sun. We were practically alone at first, but it wasn’t long before many others began to trickle in. Bahama Mama’s were offered right away! We hadn’t been sitting there for more than a couple minutes when they started bringing them around. We skipped on this round but it was the sight of the Bahama Mama’s (for some reason) that hit it home that we were sitting there on the Disney Magic on a gorgeous day getting ready to set sail for 8 days to the Caribbean!!

When I was done eating lunch, I excused myself and went down to the Rockin’ Bar D to try and make reservations for Palo. I had tried to do this online prior to the cruise but it just wasn’t working out. I wasn’t too entirely worried about obtaining reservations as I didn’t have any problem last time. There were a few people in line when I got there and got the date that I wanted with no problem: May 23rd at 8:30. Our anniversary! :lovestruc Perfect! I headed back up top to meet up with the girls and passed by Goofy’s Galley on the way where I spotted the blessed ice cream machines. It was SOOOO time for the first cup of ice cream of the voyage. I got chocolate (of course) and went along my way to meet up with the girls. For any of your familiar, the chocolate ice cream tasted almost exactly like a Wendy’s Frostee! YUMMMM!

We wandered around on deck 9 for a bit and went into the Stack to see where Sadie would be living for the next 7 days. This is a super cool place perfect for the teens. We met Shirley, one of the teen counselors who talked to us and showed us around a bit. I wandered off a bit looking around the Stack where I found a bulletin board with biography’s of this cruises three teen counselors. Turns out that Shirley’s favorite car is a Hummer and her favorite actor is Orlando Bloom. Well well well… there it was right there folks. Sadie and Shirley would be getting along famously for sure!

We knew that we could get into our stateroom at 1:30pm so at about 1:15ish we began to head back that way. We went to deck 5 aft but the door to our hallway was shut so we wandered back towards the atrium and watched some families being announced and coming on board, we sat in some comfy chairs and just lounged about for a bit. While lounging, Max appeared out of a doorway somewhere so we took the opportunity to grab him right away and Sadie got her picture with him. He must have been on his way to meet his dad Goofy or greet the guests as they came on board. Then we headed back down to check on our room.

Like Disney magic, right at 1:30pm on the dot, the door to our hallway opened and the few of us that were waiting began the trek down to our room. We were so excited. This was our first trip in a room with a verandah, last year having stayed in an outside stateroom with a large porthole (which was great!). Our room was pretty much all the way at the end on the left, three rooms from the end. The staterooms are so beautiful and it all came rushing back when we entered. The colors, the look, and the feel of it is so Disney that I couldn’t help but smile when I entered the room. :) That privacy curtain that cuts the room in half is a life saver when you’re traveling with children and the pictures in the room would be in my luggage so fast if I could have only gotten them off the wall! Kidding! Don’t call security…

Okay, now for the verandah… (Special note: it’s been a blast writing this trip report so far and sharing all of our wonderful memories with you. I wanted to get that out of the way now because after you read about my stupidity that ensues you’ll realize exactly what a moron I am and may not read any further.) To us, the room was all about the verandah so I headed right for it. The door has a twisty lock on the upper right hand side and a door handle that turns to the left. I undid the lock (I think. The diagram was a bit much for my intellect evidently) and I turned the handle and pushed. Nothing happened. So I turned the lock the other way… still didn’t open. I pushed on the handle, I banged on the lock, I turned the door handle this way and that way and pushed and pushed and pushed. My wife came over and pushed on the door some… my daughter came over and pushed on the door some. I tell ya… the verandah sure did LOOK beautiful over there on the other side of the glass. I even had the thought cross my mind that I would have to call Guest Services and tell them that our verandah door was broken and that we would need to change rooms. To be completely honest, I don’t know which of the three of us it dawned on first, but yeah… I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now… the door SLIDES! Uh… yeah, it’s a sliding door that slides to the left. :rolleyes1 And you know what? If I were to have used a few of my brain cells (hey I was on vacation) I would have possibly realized that there isn’t even enough room out there on the verandah for the door to open outwards. Anyway, once we got the door open and went out there it was great. The verandah had a solid wall and was just a hint smaller than the other verandahs due to the narrowing of the ship. Again, we were almost all the way aft. The only thing about the verandah that I can see the downside of is that solid railing. When I sat down (and I’m 6’4”) I couldn’t see over the railing, which isn’t a huge deal, but ah well…

So after the exhausting run-in with the door it was time for a well deserved nap… NOT! No way… we didn’t want to sit around waiting for the luggage to arrive so we left the room and went back up top to deck 9. This time as we passed by Goofy’s Galley, the chicken wraps looked awfully tasty so we got a few of those and some more ice cream and had a seat next to the Goofy Pool. DJ Hollywood was spinning some tunes and working the crowd. He ended up pulling a grandma and grandpa from Canada up on stage and made the grandma sing O’ Canada while the grandpa danced. It was great! Hey, they got a spa certificate out of the deal! At this point it was about 3pm so we decided to head back down to the room to see if perhaps any of our luggage had arrived yet. There was a bag there when we got down to the room and the other three arrived within the next ten minutes. So we spent some time unpacking and getting situated. While we were making ourselves at home our Stateroom Host Craig stopped by to deliver my tuxedo that I had ordered. He was super friendly and told us to make sure we let him know if we needed anything. I decided it would probably be best if I went ahead and tried on my tux so as not to have any incidents later when I needed it. Amazingly enough, it fit perfectly! I was worried because I’ve never worn a tux before except at my wedding and I have also lost a lot of weight recently so I wasn’t too sure on sizing. I did one of those halfway-try-on deals where I just sorta threw the pants and shirt on but didn’t get all tucked in and stuff. But it fit perfect… all was well!

Up Next: Sailing Away, Blown Away, and “Take This Thing Away” :sail:

[tjeagle]

:thumbsup2 Love your report! You must be in Marketing??!
I've read all of day one on your blog.........LOVE IT! Keep it coming!!

[ThePhantomsGirl]

You're good at this - very entertaining! popcorn::

Now get writing and do the rest of the report - NOW! (I'm not impatient.... :rotfl2: )

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Saturday, May 20th – Day 1 Part 3: Sailing Away, Blown Away, and “Take This Thing Away”

After the joy of discovering my tux fit, it was almost 4:30pm which meant time to head for the mandatory boat safety drill. We took the three life vests from our closet and put them on which was very easy and I must say that you all are right… they are much more comfy and user-friendly than they used to be. Thanks Disney! :thumbsup2 Our safety station was down in Animator’s Palate so we headed down there and sat at a table while the Safety Crew did their thing, checking us in and making their lists. It all took about 10 minutes I think. A very smooth and beneficial process! We saw an infant all wrapped up in a full body life preserver, the poor thing! When they released us, we flew back up to our room, threw out life vests back in the closet and headed up top for the Sail Away party at the Goofy Pool.

This is such a high energy show and a joy to be a part of. We went all the way up to deck 10 so that we could overlook everything. When we were about ready to leave, a lady was pointing over the side of the ship at some dolphins that were playing at the side of the ship. WOW! What a neat thing to see. I considered it a preview for our Dolphin Watch excursion we had scheduled in Key West the next day. Once the ship began to move and we started heading out to open waters, the wind really started to kick up. We really got a kick out of it and were giggling the whole time but man… there is some WIND out there on the water. We made our way along deck 10 to the forward section of the ship (struggling just a bit to walk) to watch us enter the great blue beyond. We could almost lean into the wind it was whipping so fast!

We had some pizza around 6pm and were just a tad worried that we wouldn’t be hungry come dinnertime at 8:15pm, but we got over it. Excellent Hawaiian pizza by the way. We headed back to the room to get showers and dressed for dinner. There was an invitation on the door from the Stack inviting Sadie to the “411”, an informational session that night outlining her programming for the week. We had found out from the Navigator and Shirley that there were teen activities scheduled until about 2am every night. Sadie couldn’t stop talking about how she was going to live in the Stack for the week and be gone until the wee hours of the morning. Such a change from our normal everyday lives of 10pm bedtimes for all of us.

After showering and getting dressed for the evening we had some time to kill before dinner so we decided to hit Mickey Mania in Studio Sea. We went into it not knowing exactly what it was going to be and it turned out entertaining enough. Two members of the cruise entertainment staff, Pikey and Jeremy, acted as hosts and called for family contestants and asked basic Disney trivia for prizes. It was a fun time. :crazy: When the game show was over I realized that I have left our dining tickets in our room so Sadie and I went back down to get them while Cheri waited outside of Parrot Cay. When Sadie and I got back to the room we caught sight of the first of many magnificent sunsets that was going on outside of our window so we stepped out onto the verandah (got the door open just fine this time) for some pictures, then rejoined Cheri at Parrot Cay for dinner.

Now, I was just a little bit worried about how the dining was going to work on this cruise because I knew that there was the possibility of sitting with other people. Three years ago, somehow we were lucky enough to get a table just the three of us and I was sorta hoping for that again. We’re pretty much keep-to-ourselves kinda people and not too good at branching out and meeting new people so we were just a little worried. We were led to table #20 at the back of Parrot Cay and it turned out to be a table for eight and another couple was already there. They were Bonnie and Jim from Orlando and they were super nice people. Our fears diminished right away. The other three chairs went unoccupied for this meal (we later found out that they were at Palo that evening). Our Server was Octavian from Romania and our Assistant Server was Jean Michel from France. They were totally superb wonderful fantastic to us the entire week. Sadie ordered mac & cheese (of course) and Cheri ordered the ribeye steak. I have to say that when the main course came, Cheri’s steak… well… it just didn’t look quite right. :crazy2: Bonnie, one of our tablemates also got that steak and hers looked fantastic, but Cheri’s didn’t really resemble a steak. It was more like raw roast beef or something. The chicken breast that I had was fabulous so Cheri asked Octavian if she could get that instead. She didn’t actually say “Take this thing away” but it made for a good teaser title. Well of course Octavian was all too happy to help out so he took her plate away and immediately brought her the chicken. All was again right with the world. For dessert we had the French Toast Bread Pudding with Coconut Ice Cream and it was DELICIOUS! We said adios to our tablemates and headed back to the room to get out of our dinner clothes.

Sadie left us to attend the 411 at the Stack and we went to Sessions to listen to some live piano tunes. Sessions is a great place! This sorta thing is definitely our speed. The lighting was right, the comfy chairs were right, the music was right…. Right on! We hung out there for a bit and then went to change into our swim suits and went to the hot tub. We lounged in there for a bit then had some more ice cream… yes, more, and then decided to call it a day. We went back to the room and got ready for bed and pretty much collapsed into bed. Sadie came in from the Stack at 12:30pm and typical kid-style said she had fun and offered pretty much no detail. At times thinking back over the week, it seems that she was on an entirely different vacation. Then we hit the hay ending a perfect first day!

Up Next: The First Morning

[Tiggery]

Great report. What a perfect first day :sunny:

[MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER]

Great report--I'm really enjoying it. :thumbsup2

[curlybop]

Great report so far! I love reading them. The photos are wonderful too. :sunny:

[disgal1]

Great report!! Thank you so much for taking the time!
Keep going!!!!!!

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Sunday, May 21st – Day 2 Part 1: The First Morning

I awoke in the night to pitch blackness which I am not at all used to. Between small night lights and hallway lights and street lights there is always some sort of faint light to get around. Not so in the stateroom. At sea there is just blank black empty nothingness out the window. So there I was lying in bed wondering what time it was. I evidently hadn’t read far enough on the DISboards to the posts that recommend taking some sort of digital glowing clock. All we had were our watches. I took my watch and ever so carefully attempted to make my way into the bathroom. Now take the pitch blackness and introduce suddenly the harsh brightest of white bathroom lights that you can imagine searing into a groggy dream induced mind and you have me, standing there blinded, crumpled against the stateroom door as I try to figure out how I’m going to tell my family that I can no longer see for all eternity.

Anyway… it was 3am so I went back to bed (stumbling the whole way.) I kept having visions of me stubbing my toe on the bed and falling through the closed privacy curtain right onto the sofa holding my dozing daughter. Luckily, I just sort flopped unceremoniously back on the bed hoping for the best.

I woke back up at 5:30am and knew that the sleep was over. So I got up, left the girls sleeping, got my shower and got dressed. I went up to deck 9 and decided to try the beverage station out. I pretty much lived on fruit punch for the journey. I took it up to deck 10 (watch those deck steps at 6am in the morning!) to try to find a place to sit. Disney is obviously a 24 hour round the clock operation and things aren’t any different on the ship. I passed many guys in yellow suits hosing and wiping and painting and doing all kinds of things to prep the ship for the day ahead. I ended up down in the sitting area of Topsiders and had a seat just looking. The sky was just beginning to light that soft first light of day and you know what? It is more beautiful when seen from the middle of the ocean. I admit I got a tad bit reflective sitting there all by myself staring out at the vast blue thinking about things. The ocean really is remarkable… an alien planet in a way. There is a whole other world underneath the surface and here we are, on a man-made ship just serenely gliding over the top of everything. Uh, sorry… enough of that… onward! :blush:

I sat there for awhile before I realized that Goofy’s Galley was open for pastries so I got a few to take down to the room for the girls. They were still asleep but I deemed it wake up time so they got up and got ready while I ate cream cheese and cherry Danish to pass the time. Cheri was pretty much bouncing off the walls as she had been for weeks because today was our excursion through Dolphin Watch. :Pinkbounc :bounce: We decided to go to the Key West shopping seminar at 9:30am in the Promenade Lounge with cruise shopping guide Rochelle. As we had never been to Key West before we needed to learn how to shop. It was mildly helpful I guess. To be completely honest, I had absolutely no idea that the Caribbean = Jewelry. Jewelry was the focus of the seminar which was interesting, but there wasn’t any information on where to find a gaudy coconut carved birdhouse which is something more our speed.

After that, Sadie and I went to Animator’s Palate for some drawing lessons. There were only three other people there and Simone showed us how to draw Mickey Mouse. Mine was deformed, of course, but it was fine trying. The experience was just a tad strange because when I went I guess I mistakenly assumed that our leader would be an artist or at least be able to draw but Simone didn’t. I mean, she was great and all… but she was struggling just as much as we were. :artist:

We went up top again to deck 9 to see that we were pulling into Key West so we ran back to our stateroom and got all of our things together and went down to deck 1 aft where we would disembark. By this time we had been pulled in for about 5 minutes or so. The Cast Member down there said that it would be another half hour at least before we could leave and suggested we to up top and have some lunch… so we did! We ate chicken fingers and pizza. The first of many platefuls for the week. We ate next to the railing soaking in the sights and took some pictures when I looked down and saw that they were letting people off. It was time!!

Chickens and cats. That is pretty much the population of Key West. Chickens tried to follow us right through the door of the mall that we visited. They have some really interesting stores (some devoted to cats!) and we pretty much just wandered around until it was time to head to Harbor Street for our excursion. We were scheduled for the excursion at 1pm and arrived there very early because we didn’t really know where we were going. We had to ask for directions twice so wanted to allow plenty of time to get lost. We got to the dock at about 12:20pm or so, so we were very early and it was blazing hot outside. :sunny: The shade didn’t even help any, it was just baking out there so we went in and out of a ice cream shop there at the dock but felt strange just standing in there for their air without buying anything. This is where I first noticed the infamous Key Lime Pie on a Stick. What a concept! Another mental note for later! So there we stood, baking in the sun, waiting to see some dolphins.

Up Next: Seasick with Patty C. and the First Soufflé

[anty30]

I was on the same cruise. Had a ball. I cant wait to read more of your report. :thumbsup2

[RoyalVizier]

Anty, I've read your report also. It inspired me to start working on mine!! :thumbsup2

Next installment coming right up!

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Sunday, May 21st – Day 2 Part 2: Seasick with Patty C. and the First Soufflé

Our guide arrived and helped us to board the boat, the Patty C. :boat: This was a private excursion so it was only the three of us and another couple on the boat. Our guide (I can’t remember his name) took us out about 8 miles to Dolphin Bay where we were hoping to see some dolphins playing. Three dolphins showed up and swan around our boat and played with each other. It was the most amazing sight! They came so close! We were all sitting on the back of the boat with our feet dangling down and they sometimes swan right underneath our feet, under the boat, out again… all over the place. Cheri loved it!! It was about two hours into our four hour excursion at this point. The guide said that this experience could pretty much be anything we wanted it to be. We could stay as long as we wanted and we could move on to the next part, which was snorkeling, whenever we wanted. The guide radioed another of his partnering boats to let them know that we found where some dolphins were so they showed up and we just sat there, watching the dolphins play and relaxing. Amazing!

We told him that we could move on, so he took us to the other side of the island for some snorkeling. Now, up until this point I had been fine. I had been up on deck, moving around, moving from the front of the boat to the back just fine. But for some reason it was this leg of the journey that I began to feel nauseous. :faint: :crazy2: :headache: Not enough to actually get sick, but just kinda dizzy and loopy and pretty much wanting nothing more that to lie down. So I sat there on the back of the boat with my head down for a long time while the guide told my wife everything he knew about dolphins. It turns out that he knows Richard O’Barry, the man who trained Flipper for television. Cheri has become more and more enthralled with the world of dolphins lately and had just gotten done reading O’Barrys book, Behind the Dolphins Smile.

So we arrived safe and sound to the other side of Key West where the water was not quite as clear as it was in Dolphin Bay and it was really very choppy which didn’t help my state any. We dropped anchor just a ways of shore. The guide told us that there were beautiful coral in this location. I was never certain that I was going to snorkel on this excursion. I’m weird with the ocean. I like to be on top of the ocean and I’m pretty okay with being in the ocean as long as I can stand up. Other than that, I’m iffy. There was never any question with Cheri, she was getting it. So the other couple went first then it was Cheri’s turn. Sadie decided to stay with me on the boat. The sea was really rough and the boat was lurching side to side which made it difficult for Cheri to get over the end of the boat onto the small platform and down the ladder. The three of them were out there for maybe 5 minutes when the couple came back in. Cheri stayed for a little longer then began to come in as well. That’s when Sadie decided that she wanted to try, so Cheri stayed out with her but Sadie really didn’t like it so was out there for a total of about 3 minutes. Better than me!

We pulled back into dock at 6pm and we were pretty much exhausted and starving. Sun and water do that to you, right? We shopped our way back to the ship poking our heads into Diamond’s International. We were told by a friend before we left for vacation that we had to go to Keno’s because they have the best sandals in the universe but they were closed. In fact, that whole section of the alleyway was closed off. I was okay with that because quite honestly… it looked a little scary and I was tired.

On our way back to the ship, we ran into the Blonde Giraffe, the key lime pie factory, which we’d heard about during our shopping presentation. That sounded so good right now as we were starving not having had any lunch. This is a really cool place! :thumbsup2 I really wanted a piece of pie with whipped cream but they were out, so one without was fine. Sadie got hers frozen and dipped in chocolate. They were awesome!! Another note for next time: Buy many many many slices to bring back to the ship with you and put them in your cooler. Not that you need any additional sweets on the ship, but hey. By the way, who knew key limes were so small? I didn’t. It was educational as well as scrumptious!

We got back on the ship at about 7pm after a quick stop in a very interesting Mallory Square Market where we got that gaudy coconut souvenir. When we got back to the room, I pretty much collapsed on the bed not wanting to move for the rest of eternity. :faint: The only thing that could entice me from the cool sheets was the thought of a shower and dinner, so we showered and got dressed for dinner. It was Lumiere’s night tonight so we headed that way and we seated at table #20. This time, our tablemates Bonnie and Jim were the ones that were missing and the other three had arrived. They were Hector, Mildred, and daughter Nicole from Orlando. I had rigatoni pasta and Normandy salad but Octavian pretty much brought us everything on the menu to try. For dessert: the Grand Mariner Soufflé. Octavian made a spectacular show out of poking a nice little well in that soft cake and dramatically pouring the chocolate sauce in! I should have been videoing that!! It was eaten in five seconds flat! So good!

After dinner, Sadie ditched us for the Stack and we went back to the room. We were so tired. I admit that I don’t recall much if anything that happened after that because I am told that I literally went into the room, flopped on the bed and was zonked out. Fade to black… :faint:

Up Next: Sadie the Hired Killer and the Death Spray of Doom

[abitjaded]

Hey, where's the rest? Hurry up!

Carla

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Yes hurry up! NOW! (why is there no smilie graphic with a whip?!!! Note to self: bug moderator for smilie graphic with a whip....)

Seriously, I am enjoying your writing style! :thumbsup2

[YesGrumpy]

Fantastic trip report - can't wait to hear more. Great perspective. Keep 'em coming. :banana:

[Verandah Man]

Great TR, keep it coming!!! :thumbsup2 Also enjoyed looking at your photos!!! :teeth:

[seashells]

Entertained by your writing.
Would love to hear the "reflective" thoughts.
Cant wait to read the rest.

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Monday, May 22nd – Day 3 Part 1: Sadie the Hired Killer and the Death Spray of Doom

It was just a bit easier waking up in the total darkness this second time but I was a bit spaced out at first due to how hard I’d slept. I didn’t even recall getting back to the room even the night before. Cheri later told me that I was pretty much asleep coming into the room and was out before my head had even hit the pillow. So here it was 5:30am again. I just couldn’t sleep past that time the entire week. Not that it was a completely bad thing, but I wonder if I’d have been better off in the evening hours if I had been able to sleep later in the mornings. Ah well…

So I got up at 5:30am again and as I was getting dressed Sadie woke up after her extremely late night in the Stack. I asked her what she had done and she told me that she had gotten a mission to kill someone. :scared1: Interesting. The teen counselors had evidently presented a week long game that was going to occur amongst the teens called Gotcha! Each teen was assigned another teen to “kill” by weeks end. You know… one of those wholesome family-values sorts of games. :rolleyes: Two of the ways that you could “kill” someone is by stabbing them in the stomach with a paper spoon (which you had to make yourself… resourceful) or you could serve the unlucky and unsuspecting teen some poison ( :stir: by writing poison on the cup the teen is drinking out of.) I asked if she was allowed to shove someone overboard but alas Disney thinks that is taking the game a bit too far. Seems the only rules were that you couldn’t kill someone in the Stack, in a restaurant, or in their stateroom.

So Sadie and I began my morning ritual of going up to deck 9 aft, getting my fruit punch and my danishes from Goofy’s Galley and staring out over the water watching the sun rise all while my darling wife slumbers in bed. Soon, Sadie became bored with the sun so we began walking along deck 9 when her keen eye caught a foosball table. I had never played foosball in my life but she wanted to so I thought I’d give it a try. For those of you that are familiar with the ship (and those who aren’t), the foosball and ping pong tables line either side of deck 9 and are pushed very close to the windows on the sides. So there we were minding our own business playing foosball (I was winning :banana: ) when my ears picked up a dull roar gradually getting louder. The deck beneath out feet and the foosball table began to tremble slightly and the roar grew and grew when from the other side of the glass a great mechanic monstrosity slid into view ( :eek: ) spraying foam and water every which way, some of which sprayed right through the gaps between the windowpanes enveloping poor Sadie in a cloud of mist. Hold on a sec… I have to compose myself.

:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Okay… the beast continued sliding its way down towards the forward of the ship. A family sitting at a table down the way, seeing what it had done to Sadie, quickly grabbed their coffee and kids and ran for cover. Then you know what it did? When it reached the end… it turned around and came back for a second hit! We decided that was enough foosball for one morning so we skeedaddled it right on outta there! So if you take nothing away from this trip report hear me say this: In the wee early hours of the morning on the Disney Magic there is a great beast lurking about. When you hear its roar…. RUN!

So Sadie and I went back down to the room to check on Cheri. She was still asleep so we just kind of hung out and watched TV. I ended up falling back asleep and woke up again at 9:30am. Cheri was still asleep and Sadie was sorta dozing on and off as well (must have been the key lime pie) so I went to Diversions to a Future Cruise Presentation with our onboard cruise agent Danielle. She talked a lot about the ’07 Med cruises which I would LOVE to go on but it just isn’t realistic for us. :sad2: Someone in the crowd asked about a third ship which there is no plans for at the moment. Danielle said that it takes two years to build a ship so they are at least two years away from having one. She also stated that Disney takes its guest feedback extremely seriously and that factored in a lot in decided where they wanted to take the ship away from Florida. She said that Alaska was discussed as well and that she wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Alaska showed up in the itineraries someday. I filled out a card to get a quote on an 11-night Southern Caribbean cruise just for fun and then went back to the room at about 10am to find Cheri finally awake!! :bounce:

Up Next: A Loose Gem Bonanza and the Nothingness of a Day at Sea

[anty30]

:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

We all freaked out in our stateroom when that thing came by spraying our window. It wasnt early in the am, maybe around 8ish, but the kids thought we were being hit by a tidalwave. :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

[CNB1124]

I love detailed trip reports. Thanks!

[kimsue68]

Great report, why do you keep us waiting for the next chapter!! I need more :yay: Also :thanks:

[eeyoregon]

EEEEEEEEEK! I just came to the end!! :scared1:

MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE!

I can totally relate to your comment about DD experiencing an entirely different vacation. Took DS 10 and DS 13 in April and barely saw either one of them. We would meet up for dinner at night but each led our own vacation lives the majority of the cruise.

Ok, enough about me...HURRY UP ALREADY! :rotfl2:

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Monday, May 22nd – Day 3 Part 2: A Loose Gem Bonanza and the Nothingness of a Day at Sea

Now that Cheri was finally up we could go have some real breakfast at Topsiders Buffet. This morning on the buffet they had toasted ham and cheese croissants which were scrumptious! This was the first morning that they had them and unfortunately, this morning was the only morning they had them also. So as we ate we watched Cuba pass by in the distance. It looked beautiful and mountainous.

Today, being the first day at sea was full of a whole lot of nothingness. We went between the room and deck 9 probably 20 times and just lounged around a lot. This was the first day that we were able to hit the shops. We were excited to see how much pirate gear they have and I found a Jack Sparrow T-shirt that I liked an awful lot although I held off on buying it to see what the week would bring. Also in the corner of the store they had a table full of loose gems on sale. We wife and daughter freaked out pretty much at the site. :yay: Like I’ve said before, I had no idea that cruises and jewelry go hand in hand (another note for next time: be prepared). So they poured over the gems for almost thirty minutes. You should have seen them. They were so amusingly indecisive about everything. Do I want to get them set in Cozumel? Do I want a pendant or earrings? On and on and on… it was rather amusing actually. So they finally chose a few, checked out, and ran through Shutters to look at the latest pictures. We bought our Lumiere’s picture from the night before and are glad we did because it’s really the only professional picture with Sadie in it as she didn’t eat with us again for the rest of the trip.

We ended up going to another shopping presentation talking about Grand Cayman and Cozumel in the Buena Vista Theater. This one was a LIVE event being taped to be aired on the stateroom TV. There were a lot of people there, and I’m guessing that the many raffles had something to do with it. I admit it… that’s part of the reason we were there! So we listened to the seminar. Again, it was very jewelry focused and pretty much a repeat of the one we had attended the day prior and to top it off, we didn’t win anything. Ah well… we were now armed with everything we needed to know to make wise purchases all across the land.

We were hungry so we decided to see what Topsiders was doing for lunch but it was an oriental buffet that didn’t really appeal so we decided to check out Parrot Cay for lunch but it was also an oriental buffet. Well, you know what happens then, right? You pull out that trusty safety net to fall back on… chicken fingers and pizza (which we should have gone to in the first place!) We found a great table in the shade and sat down just as High School Musical was coming on the giant Goofy Pool screen. popcorn:: My wife and I have wanted to see this movie for a long time but never were able to catch it on the Disney Channel. We loved it. Just they type of movie that we like. What a perfect afternoon at sea. Lounging, eating, and watching movies… ahhhhhh heaven.

Up Next: Tarzan All Wrapped Up and We Mourn a Loss

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Monday, May 22nd – Day 3 Part 3: Tarzan All Wrapped Up and We Mourn a Loss

We went back to the room at about 4pm and started discussing the evening. We had read a lot on here about what dining rotations are preferred and which ones work out with the dress code best, but we were never too worried about it. We’re pretty easy going people. But my problem lies when I start to think too much… which, don’t worry, doesn’t happen very often (remember the verandah door debacle.) :rolleyes1 I got to worrying about being in Animator’s Palate in my tux. I knew I shouldn’t have been and that everyone would be doing it, but… I don’t know. So we decided to call and see if we could maybe get our Palo reservation switched from tomorrow night to tonight. I called and left a message and within the hour they called back and said they had a 6:30pm time open so we took it.

It was also about this time that my mind ran away with me concerning something else. My devoted readers (I really don’t expect that many people have hung on with me this long :blush: ) may remember me bringing a diamond necklace on board as an anniversary gift for my darling wife. Yeah, well… as I’ve said, I really didn’t expect jewelry to be such a big part of cruising and I really didn’t expect to be in the situation daily where I would be with my wife where she could point out jewelry that she liked and didn’t like and it turns out that she isn’t a huge fan of yellow gold but much prefers white gold. Yeah, the necklace I got was yellow gold and this was really my first experience with buying a "real" piece of jewelry. So bottom line… I became paranoid about my purchase. :sad2: I knew that we were going to be in Grand Cayman the next day and I know that jewelry prices on the islands were very reasonable so I agonized over whether maybe I should give her the necklace now in case she wanted to get something different on the islands. Well that thought ended up winning out so I went ahead and gave it to her right there in the stateroom. Not Palo, I know, with a romantic feast, but hey… I told you my mind plays crazy tricks. Well she loves the necklace and wouldn’t want anything else, which I should have known but…

Sadie left us for the evening (had I but known how the evening was going to turn out I would have told her that I loved her :guilty: ) and we started getting showers and ready for the evening. Now, I have been in a tux exactly once in my life at my wedding. Other than that day almost eight years ago to the day, I have no tuxedo experience. So I was pretty high maintenance getting gussied up for the evening. Cuff links should totally come with an instructions manual. To be completely honest, they ended up staying on the dresser unused. Sure go ahead… call me an unmade bed because I didn’t wear my cuff links. What is the purpose of a cumber bund anyway? :confused3 The button stud things proved very difficult and when I was done, I was so hot and frustrated that I just wanted to get in my jammies and go to bed!

So once we were all put together we went down to the atrium for photos. They were serving drinks so we had some while waiting for our turn with the photographer. We had our picture taken with a couple of different backdrops and then it was time to head up to Palo deck 10 aft. We were able to eat at Palo on our last cruise three years ago so we know how wonderful it is and we were very much looking forward to going back this evening. Our Server was Anne Marie from South Africa (I’ve read some of you rave about her) and she was indeed fabulous and treated us amazingly. At Palo, the food just keeps coming and coming and there is really nothing you can do to stop it. I had a grilled portabella mushroom for appetizer, shrimp scampi stuffed chicken breast, and the chocolate soufflé for dessert. My wife had filet mignon with a bowl of pasta on the side and the chocolate soufflé for dessert. I wasn’t expecting all of the palette cleansing items that were brought out between and after the courses. The ice sorbet and the lemony shot thing (which my wife adored) were pleasantly delicious and the rum filled chocolate topped off the meal nicely. We had to be rolled out of the restaurant. My tux was quite a bit more snug coming out than it was when I went in. Completely and utterly delightful misery!!

It was now time for the Golden Mickey’s which I was SO excited about since it’s one that I hadn’t seen before on the Wonder. The red carpet arrivals are very cute. We enjoyed it immensely despite a bit of a snafu during the show. This is what I am imagining is supposed to happen: During the Tarzan sequence while Tarzan is twirling at a million miles an hour in the air on his vine, the Chinese flag drops down suddenly and dramatically for the backdrop of the Mulan number. Well what did happen was Tarzan was spinning in the air and I guess the flag dropped too soon or in the wrong spot because Tarzan’s feet caught the edge of the flag as it came down and it just wrapped and wrapped around him as he spun. When he stopped it looked like he was trapped in a bright red cocoon. :eek: So the Mulan dancers came on stage and he unwound himself and struggled back to stage level and nearly fell over while exiting the stage poor guy. So there was the flag all balled up hanging in a clump. So when the number was over they announced that there would be a short break and the house lights came up. It only lasted about five minutes. A minor disruption but the show was fantastic anyway!!

After the show we went back to the room and I couldn’t get out of my tux fast enough! I was uncomfortable and hot and I wanted my jammies. I think I might have been just a tad whiny about all of this as well. :ssst: We had to move the elephant off of the bed (the towel elephant) and we just lay there reading the Navigator and Tendering information sheet for tomorrow in Grand Cayman. We dozed off and on, but couldn’t truly sleep until Sadie was back from the Stack. She came in at her usual time at 1am… or at least her ghost came in. Because that was when we found out that a boy named Ethan lured our unsuspecting daughter out of the Stack by stealing her hat and killed her having stabbed her in the stomach with a spoon. :sad: (Special Note: To those who may be reading this entry out of turn; do not be alarmed for I am not a crazy man! My daughter was pretend killed in a pretend Teen Events game. Read the previous posts.) I have to say, I didn’t expect it to end this way. If Sadie was going to kick it on this cruise I expected in would be at the claws of the Death Sprayer of Doom.

RIP Sadie. :hmghost:

Up Next: The Purple Pumbaa Paddle of Power and Soothing Chin Rubs

[anty30]

I loooooove your writing style. Very entertaining. I cant wait to hear more. popcorn::

[jerry112]

Super trip report! I'm sitting here with my morning coffee, just laughing away and can't wait to read the rest. :rotfl: Glad you all had a great time!

[Verandah Man]

This is going to be one of those trip reports you hate to see come to an end. :guilty: Looking forward to the next installment. :goodvibes Gotta to get back to work now. :rolleyes:

[CRSNDSNY]

Great report! Can't wait for more...

I'm going to go check out your pictures now. THANKS!!!

[WDWLVR]

Loving your report - thanks for sharing with us!

[appink]

You are so entertaining. I wish I could write like this. It makes me want to get on the Magic again and do it all over.

[RoyalVizier]

Thank you all so much for your kind words. Writing this trip report has been a lot of fun. I hope it's been as much fun for you reading it as it has for me writing it!

[Downrivermama]

Your trip report is awesome! :thumbsup2
Don't feel bad about the verandah door incident. I couldn't get it to slide and was getting mad, until I looked up and saw the lock! LOL I also have a key problem, where sometime I can't get the key to work in locks. The first car I got I had to go back into the dealership office and have someone show me how the key worked! So I feel your pain!!! LOL

Please keep it coming.

[Verandah Man]

Thank you all so much for your kind words. Writing this trip report has been a lot of fun. I hope it's been as much fun for you reading it as it has for me writing it!


Oh, it has!!! :thumbsup2

[pppiglet]

Gee...How do you remember all the details? Great report and pictures! I see in your sig you are going back on 4/21/07...couldn't you change it to 5/5/07 and go with us? You sound like fun!

[Babs417]

Go with us,go with us ,go with us :dance3: :dance3:

[Babs417]

Can you tell I just came back from a wedding? sorry :happytv: :rotfl2: :banana:

[RoyalVizier]

Now now... no fighting over me please! :lmao:

If y'all are willing to pay my way then I'll go whenever and with whomever that you want me too.

pppiglet - I took a small spiral bound notebook with me and carried it wherever I went. I vowed that I was going to document this trip so that I could write a good trip report not only to put up on the internet but so that I would always remember as well. When it comes to life's details I don't have the best memory which drives me crazy about myself. :sad2:

I've vowed to journal previous vacations but somehow the notebook always got left behind, pushed to the side, or forgotten about. This is the first time I've had good documented material to work with. Y'all are so nice... thanks for reading.

Next installment coming soon!! :yay:

[Verandah Man]

Next installment coming soon!!:yay:


We can't wait!!! ;)

[pppiglet]

I think I'll add a notebook to my packing list!

[churchlady]

We were on your cruise,too! I am LOOOOVing the report! It makes me feel like I am still there!

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Isn't there suppposed to be more here? Where is it!!!!!!

(I am NOT impatient...I am NOT impatient....I am NOT impatient....) :teeth:

Where is that smiley with a whip? :rolleyes:

[noahsmom]

What??!!! This is the end of the thread? It's only been a few days-----I can't wait much longer. :sad2:

We leave on July 15th, I need all your details for my planning. The notebook is a great idea, I bought one last week with your plan in mind. OMG - am I reading your mind?? :crazy:

[MBFergie]

it can't end this way...quit your job and start typing!! your new career is here entertaining the desperate..those in DCL withdraw.

hope all is well and we will hear from you soon..it's been fun reading. thanks

[Almagetty]

Subscribing to the thread so I can catch your next installment!!!

I just got off the cruise after yours and I've greatly enjoyed your comments on the "Gotcha" game. My DD16 played for the second time this last cruise. I always thought it was kind of a weird idea.

LOL at your description of poor Tarzan! :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

And, although I must confess to never having been up early enough to encounter the "BEAST", I will be on the lookout on future cruises. Poor Sadie!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Keep them coming, pleeeeeeasssse!!! :hourglass :hourglass

[zzzzjohnzzzz]

RoyalVizor is a friend of mine and he has never been on a cruise he just wanted to see if he could make a cruise report up that everyone would like!!!!! :rotfl2: :rotfl2:







Only kidding. Great report wheres the next installment :thumbsup2

[RoyalVizier]

Here you go guys! So sorry that it's taken so long to get this next installment posted. Life has a way of getting in the way of the fun stuff sometimes.

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Tuesday, May 23rd – Day 4 Part 1: The Purple Pumbaa Paddle of Power and Soothing Chin Rubs

Today is Grand Cayman day! :Pinkbounc I got out of bed at about 6am this morning (wow, sleeping in…) and went to Guest Services to check on our shipboard account total so far. :eek: We learned last time that thing can add up quickly and surprise you in the end. All seemed well so far so I went up top to watch us approach Grand Cayman. This is a port where tendering is required and we pulled up right next to the Carnival Miracle just a ways from shore. We were booked for the Island Tour and Snorkeling with Stingrays Excursion with a tender time of 9:15am in Studio Sea. So at about 8am we went up to Topsiders for breakfast (still no toasted ham and cheese croissants :sad2: ) and dined out on deck. We went back to the room to grab all of the day’s essentials and went to Studio Sea to meet for tendering.

Pikey from the cruise entertainment staff was there to help get people signed in and where they needed to be. When we were all present and accounted for, they handed out purple stickers with Pumbaa on them for us to wear (in case we got lost.) Then he raised the great Purple Pumbaa Paddle of Power ( :worship: ) high into the air and we headed off to deck 1 forward. This was our first experience with tendering and it was a turbulent one. Wow. We really had no idea that it was going to be the way that it was with the lurching of the tender boats. It was pretty scary to tell you the truth. Getting off the ship and onto the tender is enough to give mild heart attacks seeing the way that they push that metallic gangplank out to the boat all the while it sways back and forth. And you’re supposed to walk across that thing? It was a wild ride!

We were surprised by the port area of Grand Cayman once we arrived. The Purple Pumbaa Paddle of Power was handed off to another Cast Member once on shore and we made our way through a very nice shopping mall area to a parking lot where we were going to divide up into busses for the tour. We were loaded in groups of about 20 and then we were off. We drove by some of the residential houses of the island and the Governor’s house on our way to our first stop, the Cayman Turtle Farm. This place is SO COOL! We got to look at the breeding tank (which is huge) full of huge turtles, some up to 600lbs. Then the tanks with the smaller turtles that you could actually hold. So we all held turtles for awhile. The guide told us that is your turtle gets panicky that they just need to be rubbed underneath the chin (well yeah, doesn’t that calm everyone?) So of course my turtle spazzed out on me when I got him so my wife stepped in to save the day and talk nice to him. Hey, I can’t hold the thing and stroke his chin at the same time… it takes two! We were given some free time to use the restroom and get a snack or look in the store. Of course we opted to look in the store where we all bought something. Me a T-shirt (that turns out doesn’t fit in the slightest even though it is a 2XX :sad2: ), Cheri a pair of sandals (more shoes!) and Sadie some trinkets and a deck of cards. Then we got back on the bus for the next stop: Tortuga Rum Cake Factory.

This stop was literally one minute from the Turtle Farm. It’s just a small place right there next to the ocean where they have a small selection of merchandise, tons of rum and tons of rum cake that you can sample. All kinds from banana rum cake to chocolate rum cake to pineapple rum cake… they were all great! Cheri went for the free samples of rum and liked the banana rum! Now, I regret not getting some boxes of rum cake for the folks back home but I feared that we had a good portion of our journey left and it was possible that the cakes wouldn’t even make it back on board. Another bus load of people had just arrived when we were getting ready to leave and their driver ran inside and came back out with an entire tray of rum cake for their bus! How do you like that? So once we were all caked up, we boarded the bus and went straight to Hell.

I’d heard about Hell and done a little research on Hell before this trip, but still didn’t quite know what to expect. It’s really a creepy sort of lava rock formation that’s been there for thousands of years. There is now a bar on sight called the Inferno that you actually walk through to get to the viewing area. One thing that I can say for Hell… there’s an awful lot of iguanas there. We took some pictures. There was an opportunity to send postcards from the Hell post office but we passed this up and then it was back on the bus for the boat to Stingray City!!

Up Next: Free Massages and An Anniversary Surprise

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Ah....life is good. The Royal Vizier is back! :cool1:

[Downrivermama]

Yeah! All is right with the world, your back! :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:

[Esteri]

I read your trip report to my husband last night. He's not been all that interested in the cruise (after all it's two months away) until I read this to him. He just about bust a gut at your description of getting into the tux.

Thanks for inspiring him... :thumbsup2

[RoyalVizier]

Glad to be of service Esteri! :)

It's been a tremendously busy week on my end here. Sorry I haven't been cranking the reports out faster! I'm really hoping to have some time tomorrow and Sunday. Stay tuned...

[WldWcnWmn]

I'm really hoping to have some time tomorrow and Sunday. Stay tuned...

I am hooked on your trip report popcorn:: you are so funny! I have laughed out loud a few times! :lmao: Keep it coming! "Purple Pumbaa Paddle of Power" - that's brilliant! ::yes::

[my3m]

Please.... Come on, don't let us wait. You are making us more excited... :yay:

[geffric]

:bored: :sail: pirate: :bored: waiting...

[cinderella_mom]

Wonderful report. Keep it coming...

[DutchsMommy]

Bumpity-Bump :hourglass popcorn:: :rolleyes1

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

No no no no no!!!!!!!!!
I thought I waited long enough for the whole report to be here. When am I going to learn to read the last page first- skim to see if it's completed before reading it? I always do this. Get all involved in the best trip reports ever! ..(you all seem to write so well and give me belly laughs- hard) ... then I realize it's not finished... me want more, me want more.

Thanks for sharing your trip report (but me want more)- it's great!
Maybe getting up in the morning is a good thing. You certainly seemed to have more time to do things than we did! LOL That's a nightowl for ya... wasted time because DH is so not a nightowl so he kept going to bed early and I'd just waste time walking around until the kids wanted to go to bed too. LOL Then we'd get up late, have room service breakfast and barely leave the stateroom by the time "normal" people were having lunch! (atleast by the club standard lunchtime LOL) No wonder our days seemed so short.. between leaving the stateroom and members of my family (ahem- first DH then kids one by one) going to bed there wasn't a whole lot of "day time" there. LOL

Thanks for the info about your daughter! Our eldest will be in the teen shack during our next cruise and while she'll be just turned 14 at that time- unless she does a LOT of maturing by then.. I'm a little concerned at how much she'll like the teen shack and their activities. She's not about "chillin" like I read in the navigator for the teens (a lot of "chillin" time)- and had a blast in the lab 10-12 age group during our recent cruise! I'm now totally prepared for the possible demise of my dear daughter during the cruise. LOL (I wonder if they do that- especially with the rules about not in the shack, restaurants and such- to get the kids to "seek" out other teens in order to make friends, see them outside of only in the shack/activities type thing? Kind of a weird way to do it though... to pretend kill them. Thanks for the warning. LOL)

[Diamond_Girls]

This is the funniest trip report ever! I can't wait to see more! I especially love all that you've written about your daughter. I have two, 12 & 14 and can't wait for them to experience some of what Sadie has! Thanks!!

[RoyalVizier]

Y'all have been so patient... thank you so much. Here ya go... enjoy!

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Tuesday, May 23rd – Day 4 Part 2: Free Massages and An Anniversary Surprise

So we were off to the pier to hop a boat to the Stingray City sandbar. This ended up being the highlight of the entire cruise for me. :thumbsup2 I was very unsure of how I would handle this part of the excursion because of what had happened in Key West with the Dolphin Watch excursion. I was worried about feeling nauseous again when we headed out on the boat but all turned out well. We met up with another bus full of people and piled onto this boat. :boat: There were probably about forty of us on the boat and we took off into the great blue. The guides told us that it would be about 30 minutes out to the sandbar. That caused me even more worry… to me 30 minutes seemed like a long time on that boat crammed shoulder to shoulder with others. But this boat was much larger than the Patty C. was in Key West and I guess things were looking up for me because I felt absolutely fine the whole way out there. It is truly amazing that out in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight, there is a sandbar that you can stand on.

When we arrived, there were a few other boats there and already people were in the water. We could see the dark splotches, some small and some large, gliding under the surface of the crystal clear water. They were everywhere! It was so exciting to look at let alone know that we were about to be down there among them! We tossed the anchor, they handed out snorkel gear and we made our way in turn to the back of the boat to get out into the crystal clear and calm ocean full of various sized gray gliding kites! In all of the excitement ( :bounce: ) I left the camera on the boat as the three of us got down into the water. Almost immediately, as if sensing new friends, the stingrays started to come towards us. It was a bit alarming and intimidating at first. :guilty: I mean, this was a new experience, not exactly your every day occurrence, so I was a bit timid at first. I would tense up whenever one got anywhere near me. But the more people that joined us in the water and the longer I was there, the more I began to relax and move around some.

One of our guides found himself a stingray to grab hold of and keep close so that he could talk about them and show us some of the stingray’s features. He even held it up so that we could take a quick look at its underside and do you know what the guide did?! He gave the stingray a French kiss! :eek: ICK! Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of that. So after that I knew that I had to go back for the camera. I made my way back to the boat, got the camera and got back into the water. I was a little worried about having our brand new digital camera with me in the water, but my wife told me to get over it. :blush: I was worried that I’d forget it was strapped around my neck and I’d end up dipping it into the water or something. So I took a whole bunch of pictures and took it back to the boat where it would be safe. Also, our guide was telling people to step right up to get a massage from the stingray. Well Sadie was all about that! So she stepped right up and the guide slid the stingray around her back. GOOEY!

I’d say we stayed in the water for about 30 minutes or so, and then it was time to leave. We really hated to go. It was the best time ever… really! When we got back to the pier, the bus took us back to the starting point and our excursion was over. We shopped our way back to the ship and were back on board at about 3pm. We were starving!! So yep, you guessed it… we went straight up top for chicken fingers, pizza, and ice cream! It was a dream! After that, we lounged in the room for awhile, got our showers and that’s when Sadie left for the evening. We watched us pull out of Grand Cayman from our verandah and then got dressed for dinner and the evening. We had some more pictures taken in the atrium and went to the night’s show Twice Charmed.

Twice Charmed was so fantastic! I’m a sucker for Disney’s shows and this one is no different. Very magical and entertaining. I loved it although I must insert a minor complaint in here. I’m a really easygoing guy and I don’t like to complain but I just want to mention this really fast. Before the shows in the Walt Disney Theater they have drink service where Cast Members wander the theater taking drink orders and then they’ll bring it to you. Well when you have a drink brought to you the Cast Member must them fill out a bill ticket and do some math and you have to show your Key to the World card and then sign the slip. Well I am recommending that this drink service be suspended at about 5 – 10 minutes prior to show time. The people right in front of us ordered a drink about two minutes before the show was scheduled to start and I just knew that their drinks weren’t going to come in time. Well sure enough, the show starts… about five minutes pass and the Cast Member has to work their way past all the people in the row so everyone is standing to let her through and then they had to do all the paperwork that went along with it right in front of us. :furious: This is a major disruption in my opinion. Okay… enough of that. Bottom line… Twice Charmed was fantastic! :thumbsup2

Dinner was at Parrot Cay that evening and our entire table was present this evening. It was really a great dinner. It was very relaxed. By this time we had all kind of opened up and become more comfortable with each other so the conversation was good. We just ate and chatted and had a great time. Now, if you remember, this cruise was in celebration of our anniversary. Before we sailed, I had called and had a note put on my reservation that it was a special occasion. So far, no one had mentioned anything. Well Hector (our tablemate) told our server Octavian that it was our anniversary so the next thing we know… almost every server in the restaurant is around out table singing and clapping to us telling us to “kiss kiss kiss”. :lovestruc And best of all, they brought a cake for us. Well at this point, after two appetizers, and entrée and desert, we couldn’t eat another bite so we asked if it was possible if they wrap the cake up. So Octavian took the cake away and brought it back wrapped up in a beautiful swan made of foil! Of course we took a picture. We were stuffed… we were tired…. It was time for bed. So we headed back to the room, read through the Cozumel info for the next day and hit the hay.

Up Next: A Turbulent Morning and Bargain Blankets

[Babs417]

Ward I love reading about your trip my family was on that cruise.Happy fathers Day! :thumbsup2 :love:

[ThePhantomsGirl]

Oh Happy Days - The Royal Vizier is back!!! :cool1: :dance3: :yay:

Hmmm, you should get a job as a travel writer!

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Wednesday May 24th – Day 5 Part 1: A Turbulent Morning and Bargain Blankets

Have you all seen the movie Grease with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John? You know that part at the end where they’re all singing at the fair and Danny and Sandy are shakin’ it in the Shake Shack (you’re the one that I want… oooh oooh oooh!) Well if you were to affix stateroom 5646 onto the Shake Shack, you would have the state of affairs on this morning. I woke at my usual time of 5:30am and there was some majorly heavy movement going on! I could actually see the room swaying from side to side and when I got out of bed, I had to hold on to the side of the bed and shimmy my way around to the restroom or else again face falling through the curtain onto my sleeping daughter. Once enclosed into the bathroom (again blinded by the sudden harshness of the lights) I bumped from one wall to the other. My time in the shower that morning was a fun one indeed! :crazy:

Anyway, having survived the experience of dressing in the Shake Shack, I went up top to get my fruit punch and sat for a bit. It was pretty overcast so I didn’t get to see my morning sunrise which was a bit of a bummer. The first Tender into Cozumel was scheduled for 9am so I went down at 7:30am to get the girls up. How they slept through all of the swaying I don’t know. To them it must have been like the calming rock of a cradle by a loving mother’s hand whereas to me I felt like our room had been attached to a Home Depot paint mixer.

Cheri and I went up to Topsiders for some breakfast (still no ham and cheese croissants :guilty: ) and Sadie stayed in the room. Cheri went back to the room to start getting ready and I stopped by the Buena Vista Theater to see about our Tender tickets. Now I didn’t really think that they would give me all of our tickets with us all not being there but I figured it was worth a shot. Turns out I was right. They said that our entire party had to be present and that was fine so I headed back to the room. I few seconds after I had left, the lady handing out the tickets came running after me asking me if I had a brother. Why no I don’t, I told her, then she walked away. Uh huh… I don’t know. :confused3

I went and collected the family and went back to the BV Theater and got our tickets. We were told to have a seat and we would be escorted down to deck 1 to hop a Tender. A friendly note to all: the back row of the BV theater is NOT (I repeat NOT) intended for tall people. I am 6’4” and there is NO way to sit comfortably in the back row. You must splay your legs out on either side of you (ladies, do not try this) and the armrests dig into your thighs. Luckily, we weren’t kept waiting long! Jeremy collected us and led us down to the boat. Guess what?! God must have seen me waltzing clumsily around the stateroom in the wee hours of the morning and thought that I was having the time of my life because he decided that the Tender boat should move in the exact same way. The Tender almost killed me and my family. (See previous report and times by 10) :sad2:

Once we were safely ashore we hopped a cab to the end of that main street down to the Forum Shops. The ship was in view the whole time and was really beautiful sitting out there in the ocean. We pretty much just shopped around and worked our way back up the road in the direction by which we came. There was an awesome store in the Forum Shops (sorry, don’t know the name) that had tons of beautiful hanging lanterns in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Although our house is a bit eclectic we really have nowhere for such an object but I liked them all the same. We had a great time in a store called Los Cincos Soles which is in an old block-long mansion. This is where we made a remarkable discovery. They had beautiful woven blankets three for twelve dollars! :thumbsup2 So we got about seven of them I think! Souveniers for family... check! In a nutshell the shopping experience was very enjoyable but take note that a majority of the street vendors are very pushy and there are A LOT of jewelry stores… of course. At about 1pm we got back on the Tender (much smoother this time) and went back to the ship.

Up Next: A Pirate Souffle, Losing LOST, and Foreshadowing for Disaster

[Babs417]

I felt that swaying when I went tothe bathroom I thought it was in the middle of the night.That was all I felt on the wholecruise I wonder what it was. :confused3

[WldWcnWmn]

OK, A miserable day has turned out to be so happy! Thanks Royal Vizier! Happy Father's Day :cool1:

[pppiglet]

More please!

[anty30]

Going in and out of Coz. was rough. I had the same experience as you that morning. It didnt help that DH was going "woooow, we arrreee rockinnnnn and rollllllllinnnnnggggg really good today." My stomach was in my throat. Could not get off the ship fast enough that morning. Leaving Coz. was just as bad. :confused3

[taeja71]

I can't believe I am at the end....Wow, what great trip reporting. Wanna write my trip report when I get home after 9/3? I found your trip report after reading another posters post about your thread.

:hourglass I look forward to your next installment. popcorn::

[RoyalVizier]

There's a post about my post? A thread about my thread?

[Kimmielee]

Great report!!! I love your ability to convey your thoughts! You have a beautiful wife and daughter too!!

Great job!!!!! :thumbsup2

By the way... I heard of your report in another thread... so yes, you are being discussed!! All positive, of course!!! :yay:

[RoyalVizier]

Jeesh... I get talked about behind my back in real life why should the internet be any different? ;)

[WldWcnWmn]

Jeesh... I get talked about behind my back in real life why should the internet be any different? ;)

LOL :lmao: :rotfl:

We're all patiently awaiting the continuation of your report. :surfweb: Did you hear the thunderous applause and trumpets when the "Royal Vizier" came online? We heard it and came running over to see what you were posting! :wave:

[Babs417]

Waiting :happytv: :surfweb:

[taeja71]

LOL :lmao: :rotfl:

We're all patiently awaiting the continuation of your report. :surfweb: Did you hear the thunderous applause and trumpets when the "Royal Vizier" came online? We heard it and came running over to see what you were posting! :wave:

Ditto! And thanks Kimmielee for backing me up. I can't remember which thread or post it was that this cruise report was mentioned. I forgot all about that thread from laughing, nodding my head, and just loving RV's reports. My apologies for my bad memory.

hey all look a new smilies! ---> :joker: :santa:

[taeja71]

just checking in :rolleyes1

[ScouterJT]

this is great --

[abitjaded]

RV,

Love ya, mean it.

Carla

[Kimmielee]

RV,

Love ya, mean it.

Carla

::yes::

[WldWcnWmn]

We're all patiently awaiting the continuation of your report. :surfweb: Did you hear the thunderous applause and trumpets when the "Royal Vizier" came online? We heard it and came running over to see what you were posting! :wave:

He came in, took a look around and left the building... where'd he go? :confused3 I am going through trip report withdrawals :surfweb: doesn't he know the thin thread by which I hang? :sad2:

o.k. I'll fold my hands and patiently wait :crazy:

[taeja71]

He came in, took a look around and left the building... where'd he go? :confused3 I am going through trip report withdrawals :surfweb: doesn't he know the thin thread by which I hang? :sad2:

o.k. I'll fold my hands and patiently wait :crazy:

I hope not. Maybe he's taking a long coffee break away from the computer???? Maybe the heat melted him...??

[RoyalVizier]

Or maybe he's basking in the warm sun by a pool somewhere trying to imagine that he can hear the gentle waves breaking just upon the sandy shore of Castaway Cay while sipping a Bahama Mama in a swaying hammock.

No seriously... this is dragging out WAY longer than I ever anticipated. I am so sorry. I would dearly love to write the next installment but alas my notes are at home. But get this... I have a three day weekend from work this weekend so I have no excuses. I'm expecting you all to hold me accountable.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

Was it really a month ago today that I was enjoying a day at sea? :guilty:

[Live2Vacation]

I just joined DISboards yesterday and came acreoss the trip reports. I started reading threads wanting ideas for our 1st DC in January of 07. Well I came across this one around 9pm, while "working". I read untill the end and freaked out when I came to the last entry in the middle of the report. I thought I couldnt find the correct link or maybee I was so new to the site I had limited access. That would have been wrong!

Well, I had a "sliding door" moment! I noticed the postings were current and not a completed report from months passed.

Well thats my story.

Great writing by the way. Almost good enough to cancel my trip and save the money.

If only I had some fake pictures......

J/K, cant wait untill January and your next instalment!!!

[RoyalVizier]

Well, I had a "sliding door" moment!

:lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2: I LOVE that! :rotfl2: :lmao: :lmao:

Welcome to the boards and keep reading. Sorry that you had to experience my abrupt end. Check back this weekend for the continuation!

January will be here before you know it! :Pinkbounc :bounce:

[CNB1124]

Our cruise is not until October so I can wait for you to finish. I am loving your report.

[RoyalVizier]

Our cruise is not until October so I can wait for you to finish.

I promise I'll be finished by october! :)

[churchlady]

RoyalV, it was really a month ago that we were all together! Perfect weather, perfect food, perfect service! My Jessica and her friend Brittany were in the club (or Stack) with Sadie. I am seriously into Disney withdrawals. Thank you so very much for giving all of us addicts our FIX!! And BTW, we're waahhhitting.....

[RoyalVizier]

Here you go kids. Hopefully this will tide y'all over until the weekend. :)

Cast of Characters:
Ward – that’s me
Cheri – the lovely wife
Sadie – the lovely 13 year old daughter

Wednesday May 24th – Day 5 Part 2: Losing A Ball, Losing LOST, and Foreshadowing for Disaster

Well of course when we got back to the ship from shopping on Cozumel we did what we always did… go up top for some grub. What grub do you ask? Come on now. I bet by now you can say it with me. Go on… say it with me. :dance3: Chicken fingers and Ice Cream! Of course. But let me throw a curve ball at you. Instead of finding a seat up top, this time we took our food back to the room and ate lying in bed watching TV. :happytv: Yep, we lazed about eating Chicken Fingers with gobs of dripping honey mustard sauce. Okay, the subject has now come up. I have to break here to tell you exactly how much I love the honey mustard sauce that Disney uses in its restaurants and quick service locations. :love: :cloud9: It’s Ken’s Honey Mustard Salad Dressing (believe me, I’ve researched it) and it is divine! I pretty much slather it on everything! Chicken, pork, or drink it right out of the bottle. Just hook me up to an IV… I’m good. :thumbsup2

Anyway, we ate and watched Fun with Dick and Jane on TV which I’d never seen before. It was okay. I’m not much of a Jim Carey fan but it was entertaining enough to have on the tube while eating lunch and trying to keep your eyes open. After catching a few winks we got our showers and got dressed for the evening and again, Sadie left us. I’m sure you’re beginning to catch onto the routine by now, right? Cheri and I went to the lobby for portraits and then went to Sessions for awhile to listen to the piano man. It was on this trip to Sessions that I realized they had CD listening stations lined along the walls. Hey, it’s dark in there… I didn’t notice before. So we relocated from the couch we were at and went to sit next to the windows so I could listen to some Disney music. When the piano man’s session was over we went next door to Diversions where I showed Cheri how to play foosball (thank goodness the beast was nowhere in sight this time. He must live only on deck 9 :eek: ). Then something happened that I am not particularly proud of, but I’m going to come clean right here on this board in the presence of all of you fine people. I made a particularly menacing play with my spinny men and the small ball sort of ricochet violently off of the wood next to my wife’s goal and flew out of the table and into the darkness. :guilty: Uh, I don’t know where it went. We did look for it! Oh yes, I promise that we canvasses the shadowy corners for a good uh… minute or two but I say that we must have, right at that moment, passed through a portion of the Bermuda Triangle (geography, not my strong point ;) ) for the ball had completely and utterly vanished. So we hightailed it right on out of there! Again, I’m ashamed of my cowardice. :sad2: So for those of you on the cruise that followed ours… if the foosball table in Diversions was missing its ball, I am to blame. :blush:

Okay, enough drama for now (I promise there is much more to come). Dinner was at Lumiere’s and it was Pirate Night. pirate: There were bandanas waiting for us on the tables and again I needed assistance with mine. Yes, for all of you that are wondering, I pretty much always need help dressing. My first attempt at donning the headgear didn’t go so well as Hector, our tablemate, told me I looked like the pope. I had sumptuous pork tenderloin and my wife ordered the spicy chicken which turned out to be raging spicy! Much more raging spicy than anyone ever dreamed so she sent it back for pork tenderloin of her own. Our head waiter Ronald told us to prepare ourselves for he had prepared a dessert especially for our table. Why, I don’t know but we didn’t ask questions! We were brought these decadent soufflés and we were the envy of those around us. HA! As we were getting up to leave, guts busting to the extreme, Ronald reminded us that we were to move our clocks ahead one hour this evening before retiring for the night (very important) and we headed up to the Pirate Party on deck 9/10.

We really enjoyed this party very much. I think it was a blast. The entertainment was entertaining, the fireworks were spectacular, and the buffet was very buffet-like. As much as I would have loved to dive face first into that table of delights I couldn’t possibly as I was doing good just to be standing there right after dinner. There had hot and cold items. We decided that we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by so we did take just a smidgeon of cake and took it back down to our room.

It was at this point upon entering the room and seeing the television that the realization hit me and I may have physically stumbled against the stateroom wall for a moment before righting myself long enough to go sit on the edge of the bed. Tonight was the season finale of LOST! I am a total LOST freak-a-zoid. I had always known that the show was on this evening but I guess the excitement of the week managed to push it from my mind. Thank goodness the TV doesn’t have ABC or I would have been dashed to find out that I could have watched it onboard and didn’t. Yes folks, yes…. I so totally would have spent two hours of my Disney cruise vacation watching LOST on TV. True fans of the show would understand. So I regained my composure and made a mental note that watching it was priority number one when we got home (thank God for DVR’s). :worship:

As usual, Sadie came back around 1:30am… fade to black.

Up Next: A Wrinkle In Time and the Ship’s Scar

[taeja71]

I'm going to read the above r-e-a---l s-l-o-w and not rush. :tiptoe: Maybe a a couple paragraphs a day would get me through the weekend.....NAH!! :p

[Babs417]

I feel like I didnt do enough we always were eating taking pictures buying pictures going to the plays.We need more time in a day.Cant Disney give us more time? :wizard: pixiedust: Thanks for your story.

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters
Ward - that's me
Cheri - the lovely wife
Sadie - the lovely 13 year old daughter

Thursday May 25th – Day 6 Part 1: A Wrinkle in Time and the Ship’s Scar

There comes a time in all family vacations where things just go a wee bit wrong causing angst among the travel party. In family and group dynamics it’s bound to happen, right? Circumstance and decisions turn against you. Well this morning was our morning… :guilty:

I woke up at 8am (wow… really slept in this morning), got my shower, got dressed, grabbed the Personal Navigator and went up top for my morning routine. This morning we were scheduled for our Character Breakfast in Parrot Cay at 10am and I decided that I was really starving already. I decided to go through the line at Topsiders (still no ham and cheese) and got a few things to act as a breakfast appetizer. I sat up on deck eating and looking at the Navigator. It was a gorgeous morning and I was enjoying my appetizers. :thumbsup2 I noticed on the Navigator that Shutters opened at 10am and the ship’s stores opened at 9am. It was just a few minutes to 9am so I decided to head down to the stores to take a quick look around before going back to the room to get the girls up for breakfast. I took the elevators down to deck 4 and made my way forward by way of Shutters. When I got to Shutters, I was very surprised to find them open! The Navigator said that they didn’t open until 10am and it was only 9am. I guessed that they just decided to open early. So I stopped there and looked for our Pirate pictures from last night. We had one taken with Pirate Minnie in the atrium and one in Lumiere’s. I found them and liked them but decided to leave them there and purchase them at a later time. pirate:

So I ran into the stores quickly and then went back to the room. By now it was about 9:30am. I walked into a bustle of activity. The hairdryer was going and Sadie was running around finding clothes and shoes. I was glad that they were already up. But then my wife poked her head out of the bathroom and said, “Well? Did you figure it out?” Figure what out? What was she talking about? She said, “The clocks.” Now… have you all seen Finding Nemo? :fish: You know at the end where Marlin, thinking that Nemo has died, leaves Dory to go back home. And then Nemo comes up to Dory asking if she’s seen his dad. Then, when she finally realizes who he is, her eyes grow wide as her entire life (P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney) flashes before her eyes in a quick progression in a blur of epiphany. Yeah, I experienced that right at that moment. :scared: My eyes widened and behind my eyelids I saw flashes of Head Server Ronald telling us last night to turn our clocks ahead. Then time flew. It was suddenly no longer 9:30, but it was 10:30am. :teleport:

Now, the problem was not really that Cheri and Sadie were mad that we were very late for breakfast. It was that Cheri thought that this breakfast was very very important to me and that I wanted to go more than anything. Well I did want to go and yes, I was looking forward to it, but it really wasn’t a big deal. I was having a great time and I had seen the characters all week so it really was okay. She asked me if I still wanted to go and I said no that we could just skip it. Well, she said she was okay with that, but then everything changed. She told me that when she realized that we had forgotten to move the clocks ahead she came up top to look all over for me and couldn’t find me anywhere. And then her and Sadie were rushing around getting ready and now I didn’t want to go. And Sadie couldn’t have cared less. So she didn’t mind either way. When things like this happen in my family, things get weird and awkward. We just kinda get sort of quite. :sad2: It’s hard to describe but just know that the next couple of hours were sorta awkward until later when the ice melted and all was good again.

Okay, enough doom and gloom… on with the show. At about noon Sadie left us and Cheri and I went to the pool. We sat in the pool for a while and got in the hot tub. I lounged around on deck some. Pretty much just lazed about. Then we went to Topsiders for lunch and discovered it was an Oriental buffet that in all honesty didn’t look very good. Well guess what? As we were turning to walk away I noticed that the entrance to the left side of the buffet line had a sign reading Kids Buffet. Oh hallelujah! :bounce: :Pinkbounc :cool1: How could I have been on this ship for six days and not realized that there was a kid’s side? So we went down that side getting chicken fingers, and hot dogs and French fries, spaghetti… it was superb!

Next, Cheri went back to the room and I went up to Palo for the Art of the Theme Show Ship Tour. I would highly recommend participating in this tour for anyone interesting in trivia and more information about the ship. Jeremy from the cruise entertainment staff was our guide and he pretty much took us all over the ship on all decks pointing out details and telling us stories. Here is just a brief rundown of some of the things I remember:


There are 120+ different types of carpet on board. Most cruise ships average 10 - 12 styles.

There are 20 lifeboats numbered 1 – 21. There is no #13.

If you look closely at the tables in Studio Sea you’ll see the names of Imagineers.

The ceiling of deck 5 is shorter than any other deck because that is a child-focused deck. They wanted to make the children feel taller.

The large paint brushes in Animator’s Palate have the #6 on them. The #6 brush was Walt Disney’s favorite.

As most probably know, the ship was assembled in two peices then welded together. Jeremy took us out onto the deck 4 promenade to see the ship's scar where the two peices came together. Very cool.

And the best for last… the ship has wings!! Remember I know not a thing about ships, but I had no idea about STABILIZERS! There are these trap doors underneath lifeboat 11 way at the bottom of the ship and these “wings” extend out 30 feet when the seas are rough to help with the movement. WOW! I had no idea!

Up Next: $4200

[triptaker]

oh man, I read your post too fast... now I have to wait for the next one.....

and I was going to read the next one real s-l-o-w

:) Great report!

$4200 - I'm hoping thats not the extra you put on your bill on the ship.....

triptaker

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters
Ward - that's me
Cheri - the lovely wife
Sadie - the lovely 13 year old daughter

Thursday May 25th – Day 6 Part 2: $4200

After the fantastic Art of the Theme Show Ship Tour I met up with Cheri at the Walt Disney Theater for THE bingo game of the entire cruise, the JACKPOT game. :cool1: We hadn’t played bingo the entire cruise. We didn’t really want to take the time or spend the money, but we figured that we’d better participate in this one. Hey, we could get rich! There were mobs of people. We didn’t take advantage of the bingo card presale so we had to stand in line and it took about 20 minutes or so. The Walt Disney Theater was packed full of people hoping to win the big money! :cheer2: We bought all five cards to play all five games (what they hey) and took a seat. Michael, Simone, and Pikey were taking care of us during the games with Michael running the machine and calling numbers. He is so entertaining to listen to and makes it exciting. They all are. About midway through the Jackpot game Michael revealed what the prize was and you guessed it… $4200! Wow! That would have been a good early Xmas present! If I remember correctly, one woman ended up winning it. If I had one it… I’d have been right to the online booking desk booking my next cruise! Ah well… it was fun anyway.

We then went back to the room to rest for a bit and get ready for dinner. I noticed on the Navigator that they were holding an open house at Ocean Quest down on deck 2. I was very curious about this place so Cheri and I walked down there but it wasn’t open. The doors were closed and locked up tight so I’m not sure what happened. I knew we didn’t go through another time change so that wasn’t it! Ah well. :confused3

This time we made Sadie come back and meet us for pictures in the atrium before dinner so that we could actually prove that she was indeed on this vacation with us. We practically had to hold her down and hog tie her to do just this much and cooperate with the photographer. When we were done she zipped out of there fast! Dinner on this Semi-Formal night was at Animator’s Palatte. Cheri and I both had fetuchinni and chocolate lave cake! YUM!! On our way out of the restaurant that night, Octavian told us that there was a dessert buffet up top for us to take part in. Yeah right… not in our current state. I didn’t even want to go look at it. We went right back to the room after dinner and went right to bed.

Up Next: The Return of the Fish

[RoyalVizier]

Whew... there you go kids. Guess I found some extra time laying around somewhere.

We're now up to Day 7 - Castaway Cay. Sorry but I know I won't be writing anymore until Saturday or Sunday. These last three segments should tide you over.

Enjoy! :banana:

[MarkS]

Your writing style makes me feel bad about puting my report up. I am really enjoying it. I feel like I am back onboard. We took the tour of the ship with Jeremy also. Definately a must for random triva fans!

Mark

[YesGrumpy]

What a fantastic report - I have enjoyed it so much. Can't wait for the rest, but I will remain patient - at least you have 3 days to WOW us! :sunny:

[WldWcnWmn]

we have come to expect great things from you and you have not failed us. This trip report is definatley one for the archives! :thumbsup2 :surfweb:

[lindaso]

I am a huge fan of entertaining, well-written trip reports and yours definitely qualifies...thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[mcraft17]

I just started reading your report today and I love it! We took the Western last September and here is my door story......
I was in our room with my dd who was 9 at the time and watching tv while my husband was out exploring. Well I decided to go out on the veranda and enjoy the view. I thought I unlocked the door all the way but I guess it wasn't all the way shut before so I ended up locking it not unlocking it. So needless to say I locked myself out on the veranda. While my dd was too short to open the lock and was more interested in her show, I continued to bang on the door for help. I finally was able to get her to dial the phone to get help. Just as they got there my husband walks in and lets me in. Let me tell you it was the joke of the trip!!! :) So don't feel bad about your door story. Please write more I can't wait!

[BCV2002]

Yes folks, yes…. I so totally would have spent two hours of my Disney cruise vacation watching LOST on TV. True fans of the show would understand. [/B]

When I read this, I laughed out loud b/c I DO understand. I am a huge LOST fan. Great (yet puzzling) season finale. I notice that you, too, capitalize LOST. You cannot just capitalize the first letter. It's sacreligious. :rotfl:

:tigger: :mickeyjum

[WldWcnWmn]

I must admit, I've never seen an episode of LOST :sad2: I am however waiting for the continuation of this trip report. :surfweb:

[Verandah Man]

I must admit, I've never seen an episode of LOST :sad2: I am however waiting for the continuation of this trip report. :surfweb:


I've never seen an episode of "LOST" either, but I am a fan of this trip reporter!!!!! :thumbsup2

[firstmickey]

Oooh, just found this and read the whole thing. I always smugly think...well, it should be done by now...and bummer...it's not....Hurry Hurry...I leave in August! :teeth: :banana: :rotfl:


loving your report so far! :teeth: :thumbsup2

[pppiglet]

Return of the Fish? When?........We are missing the last of your report your Royalness. Can't wait to read the end! Hope everything's all right on your end.

[tksbaskets]

This sure is fun to read. I'm looking forward to the rest. :-)

[thomprod]

I noticed that you end many of your trip reports with "fade to black". Do you, by any chance, work in film or television?

I love your reports, BTW.

[RoyalVizier]

No, I don't work in film or television. Fading to black was just what frequently occured late at night while lying in bed trying to stay awake waiting for Sadie to get back from the Stack. Before I knew it my eyelids were closing and I was left in darkness.

[WldWcnWmn]

For the trip report! When are you gonna' tell us about the return of the fish? :cool1:

[Babs417]

More please, we were on that cruise I love reading about your trip.

[pppiglet]

He must be in serious cruise withdrawl and can't bring himself to write anymore yet. QUICK....someone send him some pixie dust!!!!!

[WldWcnWmn]

Oh Royal Vizier...I summon thee to come to the DIS Board and complete your trip report so us lowly fellow cruisers can continue on with our lives...So Mote it Be :stir: :rolleyes1 :laughing: pixiedust: :worship:

[eeyoregon]

Yooohooooo!!! Anytime now.... :surfweb:

[tjeagle]

I think we've scared him!! Everyone look the other way and pretend your not watching....maybe he'll come back!! :rolleyes1

[Sarangel]

Paging Mr. R. Vizer, Paging Mr. R. Vizer... Please come to the DIS Cruise Trip Reports Board, your party is waiting.

and waiting... and waiting.... and waiting.... please don't keep us in suspense much longer

[kimsue68]

I think we've scared him!! Everyone look the other way and pretend your not watching....maybe he'll come back!! :rolleyes1

That is too funny!! :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: pixiedust:

[sherrie]

best report i have ever read, subscribing for the next episode. many thanks royal :cool1: :grouphug:

[Dawn414]

I just spent the past 2 hours reading all the posts and chuckled every time someone wrote begging for more. And what happens? I've fallen into the trap! I get to the end and DAG NABBIT (Did I really say that?)...it's not over yet! ARGH!!! I can't believe it. So, I too will beg...Mr. Royal Vizier...Please finish your posting. By the way, I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the first night onboard with the light...I read it to my husband who also laughed out loud. It was just SO like him. Thanks for the laughs.

We do our first Dis Cruise with our (now) 3 yr old boy/girl twins on 4/21...Western, Magic. CANNOT WAIT!

:banana: By the way...the dancing banana has no bearing in this post other than it is one of the icons we have in our Instant Messaging service at work and it's my favorite.

Dawn McG

[abitjaded]

Anyone from his cruise know his real identity? We could spam his mailbox at work until he HAS to finish.

Carla

[Babs417]

Maybe he is over DIS! I cant beleive that> Maybe his finger hurts. :happytv:

[churchlady]

Maybe his wife accidentally washed the Royal Notebook and he had to tear out each wet page and hang it on a clothesline :laundy: and then some big Vulture pirate: took the pages one by one up into its nest and laid eggs on them and now we have to wait until the hatchlings are born and provided their first flight instructions :sad1: :sad1: :sad1: !

[pppiglet]

Gee....Hope he is ok......

[WldWcnWmn]

Anyone from his cruise know his real identity? We could spam his mailbox at work until he HAS to finish.

Carla


I like the way you think! :rotfl: :lmao: :rotfl2:

[RoyalVizier]

Maybe his wife accidentally washed the Royal Notebook and he had to tear out each wet page and hang it on a clothesline :laundy: and then some big Vulture pirate: took the pages one by one up into its nest and laid eggs on them and now we have to wait until the hatchlings are born and provided their first flight instructions :sad1: :sad1: :sad1: !

:lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2:

Oh how I wish I had such an excuse! Alas my excuse isn't quite as exciting as that, and really it isn't much of an excuse at all. I'm going to blame the delay of the final installment on work... again. My work schedule is all over the place never really knowing what is going to happen day to day.

I know, I know... you all don't want to hear it. You say, "Just finish it already!" :furious:

I actually get two days off in a row this weekend so I even have the time scheduled out on my calendar. I've inked in "Finish Villainous Voyage for fear of the DIS poster's wrath." With ink people!! INK! Non-erasable ink!

Hmmmm... although I could scratch or scribble it out... ;)

I love ya all for hanging in there and even caring so much. You rock! :woohoo:

[Verandah Man]

Thanks for the update!!! Can't wait to read the rest of your TR!!! :thumbsup2

[CNB1124]

If your trip report wasn't so fabulous, then we wouldn't be bugging you so much to get it done!! :)

[bushdianee]

subbing

[Babs417]

Good hearing from you. I hope you dont forget everything. Your next trip will be here sooner then you think.

[travelgirl06]

This TR is great. I have enjoyed reading it so far, can't wait to read the rest of it. Thanks for all of your interesting stories and catchy titles, they are greatly appreciated :).

[LindaBabe]

We DO care oh Royal one! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE hurry up!

[WldWcnWmn]

The Royal Vizier is going to be packing for his next trip in April 2007 before he finishes this Trip Report! :lmao:

Just kidding...hope all is well with you and yours..we're hanging out here for ya' :banana:

[brerrabbit70]

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next installment! popcorn::

BTW, your DW and I spell our names the same! :goodvibes It's so rare. The only place I've found our name spelled "correctly" is Disney!

[eeyoregon]

Well, I've had 3 more birthdays, sent a kid off to college and voted for a new president.....what ever happened to the Villainous Voyage author :confused3 ?????

:lmao: :hourglass :surfweb:

[Live2Vacation]

Royal, I think you had a hand in the ending of POCII.

I think he is going to finish up Cruise 1 Report while writing Cruise 2 Report, Like POTCII & III. Talk about a cliffhanger ending.

[Babs417]

I think he forgot

[cruisefreak34]

:yay: :banana: :banana: xxx idk what that is so what ever, well i just got back from a specialty cruise we went 2 cast awaycay twice it was very fun and this is my first post so give me a break and im 15 but when im on a cruise i act like im 10 i always hate when u have 2 leave its so depessing but in 21 months were going again i just cant wait its going 2 be awsome im going may 27 its going 2 be cool becuse its disneys 10 anuversarry(i dont knoe haw 2 spell that) but n-e ways i hope something spacial will happen



i jst cant wait!

[thomprod]

Cruisefreak, welcome to the DIS :wave2: . You'll find hundreds of people here who just love Disney Cruise Line. You can find a lot of information and opinions relating to your upcoming cruise on the main discussion board at http://***************/forumdisplay.php?f=9

[RoyalVizier]

I think he is going to finish up Cruise 1 Report while writing Cruise 2 Report, Like POTCII & III. Talk about a cliffhanger ending.

You have uncovered my diabolical plan... congratulations! ;) You can expect the ending sometime around May 2007 when I return from the Eastern caribbean. Kidding!

So, uh... ya'll remember a few posts ago when I noted in ink to finish the trip report? Well uh... I discovered that I accidently used disappearing ink. :blush:

Will you forgive me? :worship:

[Live2Vacation]

:grouphug:
After deliberating with the masses, I think forgiveness is warrented this time.

:surfweb:
I have to admit, my favorite part of the morning has been getting to work and sitting down with my first cup of coffee and checking the DIS for your last entry.

popcorn::
Then getting home and getting a light snack and checking again.

:hourglass
Then checking again before bed.

:stir:
And finally going to bed and plotting your torture for not posting, but looking forward to the next cup of coffee!

:thumbsup2
Seriously, I have enjoyed your posts and would rather you take your time and get the ending right. I will check again in the morning, after leaving Starbucks of course. I still have my priorities str8

[pit303]

:cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2:

Oh how I wish I had such an excuse! Alas my excuse isn't quite as exciting as that, and really it isn't much of an excuse at all. I'm going to blame the delay of the final installment on work... again. My work schedule is all over the place never really knowing what is going to happen day to day.

I know, I know... you all don't want to hear it. You say, "Just finish it already!" :furious:

I actually get two days off in a row this weekend so I even have the time scheduled out on my calendar. I've inked in "Finish Villainous Voyage for fear of the DIS poster's wrath." With ink people!! INK! Non-erasable ink!

Hmmmm... although I could scratch or scribble it out... ;)

I love ya all for hanging in there and even caring so much. You rock! :woohoo:

[Babs417]

Dont let Mr. Wells know we are looking :teleport:

[churchlady]

You know, Babs417 and I, Churchlady, were on the May 20th Western- so if worse comes to worse we are going to have to subsitute for his Royal Evilness. pirate: Okay...here goes...Ship Great! Weather Great! Food Great! Never saw the kids! There...how was that??? :joker:

Okay, I stink! :confused3 Oh please, Your Highness-BRING US THE LAMP!! :sad1: :sad1: :sad1:

[Dawn414]

It occurred to me that I hadn't read the ending and I saw that the last post was 7/21. EGADS! So, ROYAL...where is it? Just making sure you know we still want the ending....PLEASE! ;)

[Diamond_Girls]

I think he has moved on back to the real world or the end of his trip was really bad and he doesn't want to tell us. Either way, I don't expect we'll see the end of this story. It was fun while it lasted but at least we have some other double dip trip reports to read!

[pppiglet]

Yeah....like my scrapbook from my trip. Went gung-ho on it for months then took a break and haven't been back to finish it! I know how it is. Wish he would come back though!

[famof8]

Can you believe that there have been almost 10,000 "views" of his post. Yeah, I can, cause about 9,000 of them have been me checking to see if he's finished. :rotfl2:

This is like waiting two years for a sequel to a good book or movie pirate: ......ahhhhhh, don't tell me it could be two years! I'll just loose my mind before then. :crazy:

[klife132]

wow its funny im only 14 yet i love this trip reports. well when i first looked at the report i thought it would be all done i mean like 10 pages ok its done but nooooo its not and now im waiting just like everyone on the tip of my chair

[RoyalVizier]

Edit: ALERT! The planets have aligned and I was able to complete the report. I am going to leave this post instead of deleting it, but know that if you keep reading through the thread there is indeed a conclusion.

You know, Babs417 and I, Churchlady, were on the May 20th Western- so if worse comes to worse we are going to have to subsitute for his Royal Evilness. pirate: Okay...here goes...Ship Great! Weather Great! Food Great! Never saw the kids! There...how was that??? :joker:

Actually, you're really not that far off. :guilty:

Okay y'all, here's the deal. The vile and ugly head of procrastination reigns in my life and I think it only fair to all of you that I be completely honest with you. At this point, I really don't think that this trip report is going to get done. :sad2:

The sad thing is that I don't even have an excuse. It's just one of those things, ya know? I've been around here, checking the boards and reading things but I haven't posted anything at all because I thought it would look really weird to post something when my trip report is still over here hanging in the breeze. :laundy: I don't blame anyone if they never want to read anything I post again.

I'm sure I've disappointed a lot of people and for that I'm sorry. I should have never started the report in the first place knowing my history of dropping the ball.

So I'm pretty much calling this thread complete. But hey, you never know... a few months from now (oh who am I kidding... a few years from now) you may see this thread miraculously shoot back to the front page with a big THE END tag on it. Here's to hoping. :blush:

Love ya all... thank you for hanging in there for as long as you did. It was fun sharing it with ya!

Fade to Black...

[Babs417]

Oh Nooooo not those words "ITS OVER" :confused3 :sad2: :confused: :sad1: :sad: ChurchLady help

[churchlady]

Oh no, :eek: the old "IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME!" Haven't we all heard that before? :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

Babs417- I will surely intercede to the "POWERS THAT BE" :worship: on this one, but you know that whole FREE WILL thing may apply here.

Have faith all!!! As long as we are subscribers, there is always that chance the RoyalV will throw us a bone!! :surfweb: And remember, we will always have each other!! :grouphug:

P.S. I must confess a dirty little secret! :rolleyes: I've been working on my own trip report in a Word Document. It is far from finished and you definitely won't see it until it is complete. Until then, it's TTFN! :wave2: :wave2:

[RoyalVizier]

P.S. I must confess a dirty little secret! :rolleyes: I've been working on my own trip report in a Word Document. It is far from finished and you definitely won't see it until it is complete. Until then, it's TTFN! :wave2: :wave2:

Not posting a report until it's complete... what a concept. I'll make a mental note. :rolleyes2

[Windy City Heather]

Maybe he is waiting for this be become so big that it gets it's own sticky at the top???

This ranks up there as if J.K. Rowling said "you know I think I will just quit with the six book, you don't need to know how Harry Potter ends".

:sad2: :badpc: :sad2:

[zzzzjohnzzzz]

We all should have know that anyone who can't figure out how to open door (See Day 2) Wouldn't be able to complete a comprehensive report without that tiny little mind wandering on to other complex issues like raising the seat or using a fork!!!!! :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2:

[Dawn414]

Sigh...that's just downright mean! :teeth: There can't be that much left....Shouldn't take long? (OK, so I"m whining). That's like not finishing Lord of the Rings....Star Wars....Not having a Jaws 3 (ok, bad example) crazy: Seriously though, if that IS the end...it WAS fun while it lasted.

Thx for the laughs.

Dawn McG

(1st Dis cruise 4/21/07---western carribean---Disney Magic)

[RoyalVizier]

Okay, having been completely consumed and riddled with guilt over prematurely ending my trip report earlier, I've decided that all of my life's events shall cease from this moment forth until my trip report reaches its rightful conclusion. After reading the latest responses from Churchlady and Babs417, I know that it isn't fair to call it quits. Plus, being a fanatical Harry Potter fan, the comment of Windy City Heather socked me as well. I have once again pulled out my cruise journal, wiped off a fair amount of dust, and settled into my chair. So without further ado…. (if ever there was need for a drum roll…)

Cast of Characters
Ward - that's me
Cheri - the lovely wife
Sadie - the lovely 13 year old daughter

Friday May 26th - Day 7: The Return of the Fish

We awoke this morning at 7am. Breakfast was once again at Topsiders and there were STILL no toasted ham and cheese croissants. I was sure hoping that they would make a second appearance during the week, but I guess all hope was lost at that happening. Cheri and Sadie went right back to the room to start getting ready, but I decided to go out on deck for just a bit to walk around. To me, Castaway Cay is one of those islands that just pops up out of nowhere. You see nothing, and then all of the sudden a glorious and lush landscape rises from the horizon. Although a bit overcast that morning, it did not hinder the landscape any. I watched the approach for a bit, mesmerized by the serene crystalline water, then myself headed down to get ready to go.

At about 8:30am we walked Sadie up to the Stack. She was booked on the teen-only excursion, the Wild Side, where they would go hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling, so this would be yet another day that we would be on our own. We left her in the counselors capable hands and began to make our way down to deck 1. The hoard of people trying to get off of the ship stretched from deck 1 to deck 3 and it was really rather chaotic. :crowded: Sitting here now, I’m wondering why we even joined in the throngs of people instead of holding back, but I guess the draw for a hammock poisons everyone! So we stood there in the masses and made our way down the decks at a snails pace eventually reaching the delicious outdoors. We picked up some towels (yep, they hand them out) and started the lovely walk to the family beach. Since my wife and I are completely able-bodied individuals we forgo the tram for the scenic walk and photo opportunities.

Castaway Cay, to us, is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. One of life's "Happy Places". There are geographic places on the planet where you feel a sense of peace and happiness. Places where even in the darkest of times you can go and smile. In Walt Disney World, my happy place is Epcot. Specifically Italy in Epcot. More specifically, that marble patio area that juts out into the World Showcase Lagoon… at dusk when the light is just right, the torches blazing… standing there with a drink in my hand, a Nestle Toll House Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich in the other, waiting for Illuminations to start. That is my WDW Happy Place. Castaway Cay is my Disney Cruise Line happy place. I think the "staging" of the island is amazing. Disney found the perfect island with the perfect shape. Ship, sand, water, and landscape just seem to belong, ya know? They work together, stretching before your eyes in a color palette only found in the Caribbean. I love it!

We weren't able to obtain a hammock, but we set up house in a pretty prime location underneath an umbrella directly in front of Cookies BBQ and the restrooms. Perfect! We could already smelly the smoky aroma of lunch. :) Cheri and I went ahead into the water and played around a bit. It was chilly and still overcast, but not really looking like rain. For a short time, we had the ocean to ourselves. No one else had really made it that far yet. The water was crystal clear so the seeing was good. It's best early in the day before hundreds of people crowd the shore and stir up the sand tending to cloud the water quite a bit. Well that is when the fish decided to visit. I am not a fish expert so I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but it was white and yellow and big! I would say it was about two feet long and fat. He (or she I guess) swam right in-between Cheri and I. And this is where I have to pause to tell you a story:

Once upon a time there was a girl. Her name was Sadie. She was nine years old, and she was on her very first cruise vacation in 2003 with her mom and dad. She loved nature and loved the ocean, but was just a little timid at what might be lurking in the ocean's waters. She was playing in the sand on the water's edge on Castaway Cay. Her mom and dad were going into the water and were trying to get her to come in with them. She agreed a bit reluctantly and came with them. The happy family was standing in about three feet of water looking around soaking in the serene sea when another mother a few feet away started gaping and pointing near where the girl was standing. The father saw the big yellow and white fish first and every muscle in his body tensed for what he was sure was about to happen. The darling girl, Sadie, looked down into the water at her side and saw the fish, and I do believe that the entire island seized up on itself, retching from the bloodcurdling scream that erupted from the girl's throat. :eek: I do believe that seeing a massive, thirteen tentacled Kraken rise from the deep to engulf the island in one gulp would have been a more pleasing sight to her. She literally climbed her dear mother and could have possibly ended up standing on her shoulders had her mother not latched onto her. The girl screamed and screamed as the mother hauled her towards the shore. The father (evil, villainous father that he was) couldn't help but chuckle. The End.

I firmly believe that the fish… the very same fish from our first cruise three years ago, had come back to finish what it had started. Although this time without incident as Sadie was off with her crew.

We pretty much hung out all day. Isn't that what you do on Castaway Cay? We wandered out to the Heads Up Bar, a first for us. We found a few free hammocks over that way so grabbed those and laid around for awhile. We checked out the new Castaway Rays Stingray Adventure. Shopped a bit and then went to lunch. Lunch was fabulous as always. We were really looking forward to the soft serve chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! I believe that we consumed roughly five cones of the stuff between us in an hour time frame. At about 2pm we gathered our things are headed back onboard. We went right to the room and crashed for awhile. Sadie came back around 4pm and was looking very glum. Her hat was missing. She went with a Volcom baseball cap and it was missing when they came back from kayaking. We went down to Guest Services, and they said they would keep an eye out for it but there wasn't a whole lot they could do.

Dinner that night was in Parrot Cay and this would be the highlight of the entire cruise for my wife. She fell in love with a dessert on our last cruise called the Celebration Cake. It's some sort of strawberries and cream cake concoction that (I admit) is to die for. Well she had been waiting and waiting and waiting for this night to come. She knew it fell on the last evenings menu. The main course over, it was time to select desserts. I told Octavian that this was the moment my wife was waiting for. I had teased her endlessly up to this point saying that I was sure they weren't going to have it. Well not only did Octavian bring her Celebration Cake, but he brought her two to take back to the room with her! How's that for magic-making? Psst… only one piece made it back to the room.

That evening was the final show, Remember the Magic. This one was new to us. They didn't have it on the Wonder last time. Oh my gosh, talk about magical and emotional. I highly recommend this show.. Especially for the true Disney fans. A magical mixture of drama, video clips, and music, it is Disney magic at its finest. After the show, we weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves so we pondered the navigator for awhile and saw something called Pub Night in Diversions. I had never heard of this and had no clue what it was but something drew us to it. So we went… this may be the funniest thing I have ever ever EVER attended. I'm not going to say much about it for fear of ruining it (plus there is no way I could do it any justice) but all must see this! It is a skit starring your cruise entertainment staff. If only I had had my camera. :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao: :rotfl2: :lmao:

After the laughs, it was way past our bedtime. That heavy mushy sack of dread and sadness had settled in our stomachs about this time knowing that in a few hours we would be having our final breakfast before leaving for good. So it was off to bed for the last time. We put our bags outside of our room and went to sleep.

Up Next: The Conclusion

[RoyalVizier]

Cast of Characters
Ward - that's me
Cheri - the lovely wife
Sadie - the lovely 13 year old daughter

Saturday May 27th - Day 8: The Conclusion

There really isn't a whole lot left to say about this morning... it was very simple, cut and dry.

Every morning of the Disney cruise we woke elated and excited about what was to come that day, but it is hard to do that on that final morning knowing that you are going to exit the ship. :guilty: Breakfast was full of hugs and pictures. I had to tear Cheri away from Octavian, poor thing. Debarkation was uneventful and easy as usual. We checked one more time at Guest Services for Sadie's lost hat, but it hadn't turned up. My father picked us up on time and we headed for home.

To us, a Disney cruise is the vacation of a lifetime. The perfect mixture of Disney, excitement, and relaxation. It can be whatever you want it to be. It is what you make of it. It is a delight and a pleasure to also share it with other Disney fans and to be able to share ideas and stories with one another in a forum such as this. Thank you all for putting up with me and for showing remarkable patience with the progress of this report. I appreciate it.

Fade to black... :faint:

[Windy City Heather]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Also, I am so glad that Harry Potter helped get the rest of the story out of you.

It really was the best trip report I have every read.

[cinderella_mom]

Thank you for the lovely and endearing story of your cruise adventures. You are a true storyteller.

[famof8]

Thank you, Ward, for finishing this trip report. I think that waiting for it was as fun as reading it! ;)

You are a talented writer....you should consider a career as a Disney Cruise Line Trip Reporter....wouldn't that be great. Contact Disney and see what they say :lmao: You never know, they may pay you to cruise full time!!!

I will be stalking the trip report board next April...... :wave2:

[churchlady]

:grouphug:
After deliberating with the masses, I think forgiveness is warrented this time.

:surfweb:
I have to admit, my favorite part of the morning has been getting to work and sitting down with my first cup of coffee and checking the DIS for your last entry.

popcorn::
Then getting home and getting a light snack and checking again.

:hourglass
Then checking again before bed.

:stir:
And finally going to bed and plotting your torture for not posting, but looking forward to the next cup of coffee!

:thumbsup2
Seriously, I have enjoyed your posts and would rather you take your time and get the ending right. I will check again in the morning, after leaving Starbucks of course. I still have my priorities str8

I think Live2Vacation sums it up for a lot of us! :thumbsup2 The bright and cheerful bunch of DIS friends on this thread has shared a great deal of humor, fellowship, and plain old PIXIE MAGIC :wizard: together party: ...all thanks to our well-versed albeit EVIL leader, the GREAT AND POWERFUL ROYAL V.

Ward, on behalf of all of us, it has been an honor taking this journey with you :sail: (especially for those of us who were actually there!!). This thread was just what the doctor ordered for my Cruise withdrawals. :thanks: It's been over 2 months since we touched ground again and the little sparks of pixie dust pixiedust: from this thread helped me to wean myself back to reality.

Another dirty little secret.....Shhh, don't tell anyone :ssst: but...
you are all invited to meet me over on the DISNEYLAND thread as I prepare to fly our DIS family of 5 (DH44, DD's 9, 12, 14) from GA to CA for the 1st time ever Oct. 13-17. We are staying 4 nights at the DLH w/Concierge. I suppose I shall have to focus on moving forward now-but I will never forget you guys! :grouphug: :wave:

And Ward, I find it ironic that in the strange fashion of art imitating life, you have not only redeemed YOURSELF but you have also changed my feelings toward the RoyalV. I never thought that I would say this- but because of you, I have actually come to be fond of JAFAR :blush: . I shall purchase/trade for a top notch Jafar pin for my complimentary 50th Anniv. DL lanyard and wear it with pride to honor the survivors of this thread!!! :earsgirl: :earsboy: :earsgirl: :earboy2: :earsgirl: :earsboy:

:tink: Fade to black...

[carol31j]

Excellent writing. Very entertaining.

[Live2Vacation]

Now that the thread has ended, what do I need this computer for??? :badpc:

:joker: J/K :joker:

My DIS family (DW **, DD 9, DS 3, DS 1, DMIL **, DFIL 51, DBIL 32, DSIL 32, DN 6, DN 1) and I, will be departing for our first DCL vacation in January. :sail:

I wish to enlist your Services, Royal. I envision you following my family and I around the cruise ship detailing our experiences :listen:. Upon our return you may do me the honor of writing our cruise report and posting it on the DIS.

Of course, I would be unable to compensate you and I would be unable to pay for your cruise. But that aside if you are interested.....

Back to reality pixiedust:

Excelent trip report, I hope my cruise will be half as memorable as your postings. The numbers of views of this thread speak for themselves!

P.S. I would seriously consider the suggestion, posted by FamOf8, and check with Disney reguarding a writing job!

[Babs417]

I just got home from work and you finished your report. That was my trip of a lifetime I was their with my 2 DD and 5 GC. Now that you are done I have 446 days till my next great adventure. Thanks again. :thumbsup2 :sunny: ;) :goodvibes :) :grouphug:

[pppiglet]

Woo Hoo! Great report....I had been waiting patiently for "return of the fish". Thanks so much for returning to us!

[klife132]

yes thank you i waited for a day for this lol i feel really bad for the people who have probably been waiting for ages and ages cause it was for me and that was only a day lol and again thanks for all the laughs :)

[tjeagle]

Not posting a report until it's complete... what a concept. I'll make a mental note. :rolleyes2

Honestly, I have really enjoyed the day by day approach (okay, maybe waiting weeks in between days was a bit gut wrenching :rotfl: )!

DON'T CHANGE A THING!

Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your trip report!
:love:

[Diamond_Girls]

I've known since I booked our August cruise 670 days ago that I will be bitterly depressed when the cruise is over. I did not anticipate being depressed once your trip report was over... but I am. As much as I wanted you to finish your report, now I'm sorry that you did because there is nothing left to look forward to on this forum! Thanks RoyalVizier for a wonderful, fantasmic report!

[RoyalVizier]

I wish to enlist your Services, Royal. I envision you following my family and I around the cruise ship detailing our experiences :listen:. Upon our return you may do me the honor of writing our cruise report and posting it on the DIS.

Of course, I would be unable to compensate you and I would be unable to pay for your cruise. But that aside if you are interested.....

I'm flattered. :blush: But I must insist on .15 cents a word, .20 for adjectives. ;)

[zzzzjohnzzzz]

Royal truely great report. We are going on our first cruise DCL-Western in 7 days. But were starting at Grand Floridian on Tuesday. I never thought much about cruising until my DW asked what we were doing for our 20th Anniversary. It was between repeating our Honeymoon Poly and St Thomas, Going to Hawaii for my first time her third, or a cruise. Beings we have made an effort to go to WDW every year we have been married and sometimes more than once the only cruise under consideration was DCL. We had a Family vote me-Hawaii, DW-cruise, DS-9 cruise, DD-12 cruise. So I don't get to see a volcano or Pearl Harbor maybe next year. So that was April made reservations Cat 3- Rm 8086. Since then I have tryed to become an expert cruiser through these trip reports and passporter guide, and Magical Cruise Guide, etc, etc. I don't think I'll remember half of the great tips everyone has made but I'll try. We do have a power strip and cord packed.
Your report made the waiting fun and definetly increased the anticipation. I would like to think that I could write a trip report as entertaining as yours when I get back or even live if I could figure out the wireless on my laptop but I don't think I could touch yours.
I apologize for my jabs but I like everyone else really did want to hear the ending. You should print it all out becasue 2-months from now you will enjoy it too like we did. Thanks for the fun. JZ

[APB513]

Thanks for including so many details. It sounds like you, Cheri and Sadie had the time of your lives!!

[sherrie]

Thank you, Thank you royal. it was truly magical. castaway cay sounds like true disney magic, i just cannot wait to get there. thank you for finishing. any [plans on another trip yet? :dance3: :cheer2:

[Dawn414]

Thank you Ward! I'd like to think I had some part in the guilt trip having sent a message wondering where all the pleas to finish had gone... :sunny: ;) Seriously though, thanks very much for finishing. Although I wouldn't consider myself a writer by any stretch, I hope after I take my first Disney Cruise next year that I can be as funny and detailed as you were. With two four-year-olds, I'm not sure that'll happen, but hopefully...

Thanks again. It has been a joy reading this!

Dawn McG

[YesGrumpy]

Thanks Royal - the report was truly "Magical" and I for one have thoroughly enjoyed every posting - even the guilt ridden ones! You are a wonderful writer and have given new insight to cruising. Thanks. :wave2:

[WldWcnWmn]

Thanks for waving your hand {the way that you did} over to your trip report thread so I could see you finished! I am ever so sorry I failed to keep checking after the THIRD WEEK :rolleyes: of no new reports. I must say it WAS worth the wait. ::yes:: What an awesome trip report! Thanks for keeping me entertained! :cool1:

Guess I had better remove those straight pins out of the doll now... :stir: :lmao: :rotfl2:

[doccath]

:thumbsup2 All hail Royal one,
thank you so much for such wonderful writing. I loved reading about your trip.
We are leaving in 2.5 weeks and it was the perfect start to countdown.
If you ever write a book, it will be a best seller. You have a flair for story telling and coming from one who reads at least one book a week that is truly a compliment.

[RoyalVizier]

If you ever write a book, it will be a best seller. You have a flair for story telling and coming from one who reads at least one book a week that is truly a compliment.

:blush:

Thank you very much. It was so much fun to write and share.

I'm already thinking ahead to the cruise next April and how I may go about keeping a journal and documenting that trip. We'll have my wife's mom and dad with us most likely (not 100% yet) next time so there should be so much more to say. They're first time cruisers and have NEVER been on a full-scale vacation in their lives.

Should be an interesting read. :)

Street date: Next May... ;)

[Babs417]

Cant wait for your next report wish we were going but have to wait until next year :sunny: ;) pirate:

[Mollie Jo]

Loved your trip report....you definitely have a gift! :)

[Frankiesmom]

Absolutely amazing! We are also sailing next april;1st 7day cruise-3rd disney. That was a GREAT trip report! Thanks for the entertainment.Angel

[Disneygrl36]

Stumbled upon your trip report after seeing you post on another trippie & finding the link in your siggie.
I'm less than 3 months away from my cruise & so I am soaking up all kinds of DIS board magic to get me through until then.
I must say......thank you for a wonderful story. You did a great job of making me feel like I was right there with you.
I am hoping we can book a 7 night while aboard for our 4 night. I would love to see my hubby in a tux on formal night, but he is not so sure about that.
I am off to look at your pictures now.
********Edited to add-----your pics are great. What a beautiful family*********

[firstmickey]

This is a great trip report!!!!!! Definitely NOT Bleah! ;) :teeth: :banana:

[pppiglet]

I think you should enter this contest. You'd be great! www.carnivalconnections.com/contest

[TwinkieMama]

RV!!!!!!

Great report. You better be glad I found this when you were done... that fake "I quit" move would have cost you buddy- (where is that boxing smilie?) oooh! the inhumanity of it all....

anyway the cruise report peeps are VERY nice and I am glad that they forgave you and I am very glad that you finished your story... um, er, trip report.

Great job!

[disneymomto5]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!! I'm not going till November 2007 but it was a delightful read and made everything seem real.

[kandyk]

Great trip report! I found it after it was completed so I didn't have to go through the agony of waiting for it to be finished.

Thank you for sharing your story with us all!!!

[RoyalVizier]

Howdy all! :wave:

I just wanted to call everyone's attention to the ticker down in my signature. We're booked on the 3/17/07 Eastern Caribbean so if anyone is interested in another Villainous Trip Report.... stay tuned.

:banana: :dance3: :banana: :dance3: :banana:

This time we will be bringing my wife's parents who have never... ever... never... never... ever been on a vacation in their entire lives. None. Whatsoever. No vacation anywhere. Ever. So I'm guessing the reportage of this trip could be fascinating, interesting, scary, yet altogether delightful all at the same time. I can't wait to see what they make of the verandah door. ;)

So... watch this space in the coming weeks for a yet-to-be-titled pre-trip report!

:yay: :cheer2: :yay: :cheer2: :yay:

[Disneygrl36]

Woo hoo :woohoo: another RV trippie to look forward to soon!!! Thanks for the heads up....will you give us a link when you get started?

[RoyalVizier]

Thanks for the heads up....will you give us a link when you get started?

Of course I'll provide a link! I'll also send up smoke signals, telegrams, and I've been checking eBay to see what kind of deal I can get on a carrier pigeon. Believe me... when I start it, you'll know. :thumbsup2

[firstmickey]

Of course I'll provide a link! I'll also send up smoke signals, telegrams, and I've been checking eBay to see what kind of deal I can get on a carrier pigeon. Believe me... when I start it, you'll know. :thumbsup2

Yeah...Ok...Maybe I'll read it if I have some extra time. ;) :teeth: :rotfl:













:duck: :duck:

[Babs417]

We were on your last trip wish we were going with you but not until Oct full moon trip. Last May was our first cruise and we loved it. Hope you all have a great time:goodvibes :thumbsup2 ;) :) :cutie:

[discruiselovers97]

This is great!!! I was just going to tell you that your report was the first thing I read when I joined! You are the one who got me hooked to these reports! Can't wait for another great one!

[churchlady]

Hey RV, How was the Disney Hilton Head resort?

We went to DLR in CA in October. WE loved it!!!! :love: Echoqueen's been there since us, also. I am having Disney withdrawals! :sad2: Leigh(aka churchlady)

[RoyalVizier]

This is great!!! I was just going to tell you that your report was the first thing I read when I joined! You are the one who got me hooked to these reports!

How is it that I always get blamed for people's addictions? :sad2: ;)

Hey RV, How was the Disney Hilton Head resort?

It was great! :banana:

I had never been and quite honestly I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it (I have adverse reactions to nature :scared: ) But it was very enjoyable... and I gotta tell ya... getting upgraded from a one-bedroom villa to a two-bedroom villa is very enjoyable indeed! :)

[Windy City Heather]

Something to look forward to in life again!:surfweb: Just kidding but I will be waiting for your report.:yay:

[kevinsmom]

GREAATTT REPORT!!! Cant wait for the next one!!! I'm sailing on my first Disney cruise and want to write a TR, but some of these reports are sooo good, i dont think mine will compare!!! Good Job! :thumbsup2

[RoyalVizier]

I'm sailing on my first Disney cruise and want to write a TR, but some of these reports are sooo good, i dont think mine will compare!!!

Thanks you so much for the kind words. :)

YES! You must write a trip report of your own! Don't be worried about how it compares to others. Anything written about DCL is bound to be stupendous! :thumbsup2

You've only got 19 days to go!! :hyper:

[discruiselovers97]

[QUOTE=RoyalVizier;16801532]How is it that I always get blamed for people's addictions? :sad2: ;)

Since I haven't been on the boards all that long I don't know (and still don't) but I always thought that you created the whole Chapter with a name deal! I don't know, I am sure there were more before it but thanks so much for the addiction! What would I do without the famous RV? :goodvibes

[RoyalVizier]

GREAATTT REPORT!!! Cant wait for the next one!!! I'm sailing on my first Disney cruise and want to write a TR, but some of these reports are sooo good, i dont think mine will compare!!! Good Job! :thumbsup2

Alright... you've had 11 days! When can we expect a detailed TR of your cruise?

BTW... my still-yet-to-be-titled pre-trip report is getting closer. :banana:

Tomorrow I'll be in the single digits and that is always reason to celebrate and use this smilie ---> :hyper:

[Disneygrl36]

:woohoo: anxiously anticipating another Royal Vizier trippie.
It's almost time for you to GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing:cool1: :cool1:

[kandyk]

Have a wonderful trip, wish I was going too. Can't wait for another very entertaining trip report.

[disneydance]

great trip repot and in see that u r goin on another cruise here in 4 days lucky u and have fun well ill be skiing in the snow (i would rather be on a b-day cruise then ski trip (my b-days on the 21) i hate snow) have lots of fun u lucky duck

[Disneygrl36]

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: 4 bananas dancing for your 4 days left until you go.
Have a wonderful trip & make sure you give us a link for your trippie when you get back!!!!

[RoyalVizier]

Have a wonderful trip & make sure you give us a link for your trippie when you get back!!!!

Actually... I have a Pre-Trip Report going over here at this link: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1381852

Uh, did we lose the functionality to make a word or phrase the link to another thread? Or did I lose that particular brain cell? :confused3