06/24/2006 - Twice the Magic Trip Report

[SuJo]

My family and I just got back from the June 24th Double Dip and it was an amazing time. We met so many wonderful families from the DisBoards on this cruise that it really made this trip something special. I wanted to start writing up my trip report so I don’t forget anything so here it goes – beware it will be a long post as I love to talk (just ask the other Disers from the trip).

The cast members of this trip report include my DH-Anthony, our DD-12 and DD-8 and myself-Susan.

Day 1 – Friday June 23rd – Our vacation finally began on Friday morning as we flew out on Southwest Airlines from BWI. The plane was packed as it seemed that everyone in Baltimore decided to head to Orlando for the week. We arrived in Orlando at 11:35 and all 5 of our bags made it as well (I tried not to over pack but it didn’t work). After getting our luggage, we met up with our limo driver from Tiffany Towncar. I have used them in the past and have always had a great experience with this company. We had a nice comfortable drive to Cape Canaveral and the Radisson at the Port. This is a great hotel to stay at the day before your cruise. The rooms are big and the pool is great for the kids. We headed to our room and pulled out the swimsuits. I wasn’t sure if I was going swimming because we had a disboard meet by the pool at 2 but I wanted to be prepared to start working on that vacation tan. We headed down to the pool area and I put a green Mickey head sticker on my cover-up to help identify myself to the other Disers. It didn’t take long. We first met up with bartjwb. Their DD and our youngest DD had been emailing each other before the cruise. The two of them headed off and were together the rest of the night. My DH and I sat with bartjwb and had our first of many drinks for the evening. My DH went to the bar and started up a conversion with someone also waiting for a drink. We come to find out it was BethA’s DH that he was chatting with. So we added two more to the merry group. After a short time, Carole88 arrived with her two DD’s and DH. Our DD’s had been emailing her DD’s before the trip as well so they were all very happy to finally meet. We spent the next 4 hours getting to know everyone and enjoying a lot of beers and drinks from the bar. Around 6ish the DHs headed off to the local liquor store to get ready for the cruise. The rest of the families headed back to their rooms to clean up and have some dinner. We pretty much crashed after that as the beers and drinks at the bar had made us all sleepy.

End of Day 1

Day 2 – Saturday June 24th – Today was my DD’s 12th birthday and the day we set off on the cruise. Everyone was very excited. We put our suits on under our clothes so the girls could go swimming after we got onto the ship. I put on my lime green shirt so that other disers would be able to recognize me (little did we know that lime green is a very popular color for this summer). We headed down for a quick breakfast and to get a bell hop to help us with all our luggage. We met up with bartjwb and BethA as we waited for the 10 o’clock shuttle (which didn’t leave until 10:20). I also met bairdbeth for the first time as she was also waiting for the shuttle (our DD’s had played the night before but we hadn’t formally met). We arrived at the port around 11ish and went straight to the checked in counter. With all the registering that we did on line, check in at the port went very smoothly. After checking in with the ship, we headed over to the kids club check in corner. There was a little line but it moved quickly. I signed both girls into the clubs. I had originally planned to only let my DD-12 be able to check herself in and out of the clubs but after some persuasion from my DD-8 and the fact that her friend was also going to have this privilege, I decided to go ahead and let her have check in and out privileges (It ended up being a great thing). Carole88’s family was already there so we went over and sat on the couches with them, bartjwb’s family joined us as well. All of our DD’s were now best of friends so they were bopping around the terminal. I saw a strange woman in green glasses headed our way and I recognized her immediately as musicgirl (she had informed us on the boards that she would be wearing these interesting lime green sunglasses). We introduced ourselves as the Radisson crew and she pointed out some of the other disers from the board. Musicgirl had made everyone a magnet that was the lime green Mickey head with the words “Double Dip Cruise”, our DisBoard name, and “June 24, 2006”. It was really great to get this and put it on our door for other Disers to locate us. She also had made up a postcard magnet with the Double Dip Cruise and date. We each got one of these as well and put it on our doors. The boarding process started and we boarded with group 5. We walked on the ship and got our picture taken and headed straight up to the Mickey pool. It felt weird not having to run off and do Palo reservations or Spa reservations, I felt that I was missing something. We had a quick bite to eat at Pluto’s Dog House and the girls went in the Goofy pool as we waited for the Mickey slide to open. The deck was pretty empty and we got a table close to the pool. The girls were the first ones down the Mickey slide when it opened. While the girls swam, I walk around the ship to find the hair braiding stand. Here are some pictures of the boat:

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This is the new jumbo TV by the Goofy pool. As you can see by the clouds in the background, we were worried about rain for the sail away party.

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Here is the Mickey pool, pretty empty as you can see.

I ran into Carole88 and her family in the spa making reservations. I told her where the girls were sitting so that the DD’s could get together. As I was walking around the ship I ran into another fellow Diser, 1happyfam. We were both wearing green and we were looking at each other as if the other was wearing green on purpose. We introduced ourselves and I told her where we were by the Mickey pool. I headed back to the pool and met up with my family as well as the other Disers. The adults started talking about the various tasting that were to be held throughout the week (martini, wine, beer, and margarita). We decided to sign up for a few so Carole88 and I headed for guest services. On our way we noticed people waiting in the hallways for the rooms to become available. This was new to me. I was very surprised to see everyone hanging out by the elevators and not up on deck enjoying the first day on the ship. We made it down to guest services and signed up for the martini and margarita tasting and then headed back to the pool. At around 1:30ish the rooms were available so we headed down to see what was in the room. I had preordered two baskets for the girls from ThePerfectGift as well as stateroom decorations for my DD’s birthday. Both the baskets and decorations were in the room and my DD’s loved them. A big Thank you goes out to Shirley as the girls loved their baskets. The luggage wasn’t there yet so the girls started checking what was on the TV. My DH decided to head down to Diversions where they were having a Meet the Pub Master. BethA’s DH had informed the men about this gathering and they all headed off for the first of many drinking sessions in Diversions. I stayed in the room and unpacked the luggage when it arrived. I also put my door signs up so everyone would know we had arrived. I have to say that I really enjoyed decorating the door. I made signs/decorations for the different days during the week and it really made coming back to the room fun.

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4:30 hit and it was time for our lifeboat drill. We put on our jackets and headed out to life boat drill station K. After the drill it was up to deck 10 and the Disboard meet. As musicgirl mentioned in one of her posts we ended up on the wrong side of the ship that we had originally planned but I think everyone found us as we were the group in lime green. This is when I met Princess VIJA, cykojoe, Tinky624, disgal, Minnie, dipdotdarlin, and many others. Here is a quick picture of some of the Disers:

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It did start to rain but we hung in there and finished the party. It was now time to head down and get cleaned up for dinner. We had early seating so we needed to be ready by 5:45. We started at Parrot Cay for dinner and our servers were Raman and Oana. They were nice but nothing outstanding. You could really feel the boat moving as the storm had come in and made the seas a little rough. My DD-8 said she wasn’t feeling well so she didn’t eat much dinner. After dinner we headed to our first show, All Aboard Let the Magic Begin. It was a great show. After the show the kids headed to the kids clubs and we headed down to Rockin’ Bar D. We met up with BethA, Carole88, and bartjwb at bar. The group performing was the Breakers. We all got our drinks and waited for the game “Mate Your Mate”. BethA’s parents were on the ship and it was their 50th wedding anniversary. When the game started they were looking for 3 couples: the longest married (which BethA’s parents won hands down), the shortest married, and the craziest. BethA’s parents were great and you could tell by their answers that they really knew each other after 50 years. We had a great time listening to the questions and the answers that each partner gave. When the points were totaled, BethA’s parents won the game (I think they didn’t even miss a question). We hung out for a short while to listen to the band but then headed back to our rooms for a good night sleep. We were due at Castaway Cay in the morning.

End Day 2

[AAOSAM2]

Great report Can't wait to hear the rest. As we are going on the Sept double dip cruise. :cool1: :Pinkbounc

[BethA]

GREAT report so far!!!
I love reliving the cruise through your posts.

Beth

[SuJo]

Before I start day three (or day two on the ship) I just wanted to say that the thing that made this cruise so much more fun than expected was all the new families we met on the Disboards (as you can see from my posts). My DDs were so busy with their new friends my DH and I actually had some time to ourselves and were able to hang out with other members from the boards. This really made the cruise that much more enjoyable.


A few things I forgot to put in the Day 2 post – First at the sail away party, Tinky624 handed out these great line green key chains to mark the Twice the Magic cruise. They were great and I have already put it on my key chain. That way I can look at it everytime I pull my keys out and remember what a great trip we had. Also at dinner they brought the birthday cake out and sang to my DD-12 for her birthday. She was very happy that they didn’t forget as she kept asking me if they were going to sing to her.

Day 3 – Sunday June 25th at Castaway Cay – We woke up in the morning with the ship docking at Castaway Cay. It has been so long since we have been back that we were all excited to get to the beach.

My DD-8 decided she wanted to get breakfast first so my DH and DD-12 headed off to the beach to grab some chairs and my DD-8 and I headed to Topsiders for a little breakfast. It was pretty crowded at the buffet as a lot of people had decided to grab a bite to eat before hitting the island. After breakfast we headed off the ship. We were told that the ship from the new Pirates movie was at Castaway Cay but we couldn’t see it as we headed to the island (we found out later it was behind the ship). We had just missed the tram so we decided to walk. On the way to the beach we ran into Mickey and Minnie and got some pictures with my DD-8. We walked along the beach until we found my DD-12 and DH. They were sitting next to Carole88 and bartjwb and their families. This worked out well since all the girls could play together. I had gotten the special 2-Day snorkel, float, and bike package for Castaway Cay so I grabbed a few strong men and headed over to Gil’s Fins and Boats to pick up snorkel gear and then the floats. With the floats we got 3 tubes and one raft. The kids grabbed the raft and headed out in the water. Needless to say we lost that raft shortly after that as the kids left it on the beach and someone nabbed it. We had 3 other floats so it really didn’t bother us too much but it was annoying that it went so early in the day. I had booked the Stingray excursion for 11:00 so at 10:30 we gathered up the crew and headed down the beach to Serenity Bay (which is where the excursion is near).

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We were given a mask and snorkel and told to wait for the briefing. We ran into bairdbeth here with her DD. The briefing was about the stingrays, how big they get, facts about them, and to let us know that they did not have their stingers as they are removed. We were told that when we are in the water we need to shuffle our feet so as not to step on the rays. They had these really neat platforms that the stingrays would swim up onto and then we could feed them on the special Mickey Head plate.

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(where did my hand go!!!)

My DD-12 would have nothing to do with this excursion. She sat on the beach and pouted the whole time. My DD-8 was scared at first but after a while I got her slowly into the water and she had a great time. This was a great way to interact with stingrays because you weren’t afraid of getting stung. Feeding them was really neat. They would swim right up and suck the food out from between your fingers; it was a strange feeling the first time. During the feeding session all of the stingrays were swimming around our feet and it felt neat.

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They are very soft on the underside and would just sweep across your feet. After we were done feeding, we went to get our masks and snorkels. The stingrays keep swimming around my toes. I think because I had dark nail polish on and they thought it was food. Once we got our masks and snorkels we went out and swam with the rays. A bit of advice to anyone doing this excursion, interact with the rays during the feeding time because once they realize the food is gone they go away and want nothing to do with you. We could see them in the sand but they tried to stay away from everyone.

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After the rays we headed back just in time to get lunch with Carole88 and bartjwb. We ate at Cookies and had cheeseburgers, ribs, and chips. The cookies were outstanding as usual.

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We headed back to the beach where I decided it was time to snorkel. I hadn’t had a chance to go out and find the Mickey statue before so I thought I would give it a try. I put on my snorkel gear and headed out. There were no fish to be seen for a long time. I found the sunken ship, sunken submarine, various cannons, and another ship like structure. I swam everywhere and finally when I almost gave up, I found the Mickey statue close to the ship mast that is in the water. There were a lot of kids there and it was hard to see with the water all churned up. I headed back to shore and saw that a storm was around us. It was about 2:30 and we decided to head back to the ship so we wouldn’t get caught in the storm. Luckily for us it never hit, it stayed around the island but never passed over us. On the way back to the ship we finally saw the Flying Dutchman from the Pirates movie. Here are some pictures:

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We went back and took showers to clean up from the beach. Dinner was at 5:45 at Lumiere’s and we had an appointment at 7:30 for the girls to get their hair braided. Dinner was great, as usually except the kids kept ordering stuff not on the menu. After a while Daman would ask at the beginning if he needed to run out and get a grilled cheese sandwich for my DD. After dinner I took the girls up to the hair braiding stand. They did really well this time as no one cried. My DD-8 still had conditioner in her hair from the shower so they had to try and rinse it out at the chairs. After the hairbraiding we headed over to the show which was the magician Mike Super with a juggler. We sat with BethA and bartjwb. BethA’s DH was picked to go up on the stage and help out with the unicycle trick. It was very funny and we told him that he should have kept the hair. After the show the girls headed to the kids clubs while my DH and I went to Studio Sea to watch Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? As you enter the bar you are given a number. When the show starts a computer randomly picks a number. Every contestant in this show was a kid and each of them won. After the show we headed to Diversions and met up with BethA’s DH (he knows most of the bartenders on the ship), Carole88, and bartjwb. We had a lot of interesting drinks and shots at the bar that the bartender Jez had created. They were very tasty and packed a lot of punch. We stumbled back to our rooms and crashed for the night. Good thing the next day was a sea day.

End of Day 3

[1happyfam]

Susan- love the report so far.Great to hear what everyone did it's like reliving it. Come join the reunion thread on cruise meets. I love your pics!!

[Babs417]

Good job on your report. What kind of camera do you have pic were great. :thumbsup2 ;)

[curlybop]

Great report so far! Excellent pictures also. Keep on going!! :sunny:

[SuJo]

Babs417 - Before the cruise I went out and purchased a new camera because my was old and kind of clunky. I bought a Canon PowerShot SD600. It is a great small camera that has a huge display screen (one of the reasons I bought it). I have always had great pictures from Canon digital cameras.

Susan

[Babs417]

Susan thank you

[jlawall]

Great pics and trip reports so far! We were originally scheduled to sail with you but we switched to another line for this year. I love hearing about your trip and CC looks amazing. We will be returning to DCL next summer for a Med cruise! Keep those reports coming! :goodvibes

[SuJo]

Day 4 – June 26th At Sea – Today was our first day at sea and the kids were really looking forward to playing in the kids clubs. It was also our first day to sleep in as we weren’t in a rush to go ashore for any excursions or beach time.

(Trip report from DD’s) - The kids started out at the sports deck where the exercised with Goofy. Then they headed back to the lab and had free time. After a while a detective came in and they had to solve the mystery of who stole the pixy dust. They had to find clues around the lab that included a bag of lays, a diet coke can, and a power bar. Then they investigated them with detective equipment. They were able to determine it was one of the councilors, Brandy. It was her dog’s birthday and she wanted to fly home and see her dog. The girls headed back to one of the rooms and ordered room service (this seemed to become a habit with the girls once they found out the food was free).

My DH and I had Palo reservations at 11 for brunch. Carole88 and her DH were also scheduled for brunch at 10:30 so we were able to combine groups and have brunch together. This is the first time I have eaten at Palo’s and I have to say that the food there is amazing. They have 3-4 tables of cold brunch food (fish, cheeses, and desserts). Then you get to order from the hot food displays which included pizza, omelets, chicken, and pasta. My DH and I split a pizza and a steak and mushroom omelet, delicious. Next was the dessert table and if you like chocolate (I love chocolate) then this is the table for you. The table consisted of a variety of different chocolate dishes. I tried to sample as many as I could . It’s been a while since we have been able to go out for a nice meal with out kids and we had a great time getting to know Carole88 and her DH. The view from Palo’s is really nice as you can see the front of the ship. It was funny to watch people walk around in front of Palo’s because it is very windy up there and ladies really needed to watch their skirts. After rolling out from brunch we changed our clothes and relaxed up on deck 9 while we waited for the Martini tasting. The Martini tasting was at 4:00 down in Sessions. Attendees included Carole88 and her DH, BethA’s DH, and me and my DH (we also saw Musicgirl and a couple other Disboard members as well). The server from Cove Café was our presenter (I forget her name right now but I think it was something Mama) and she gave us background information on Martini’s, like where they came from, where they got their name, and what types of alcohol and mixes are used to create them. The first one we tried was the original dry martini (yuck). Needless to say this one didn’t go over well. Most of us ended up letting BethA’s DH have it. We then tried the dirty martini which also didn’t go over well and we gave those to BethA’s DH as well. Next was the Chocolate Martini which has always been my favorite drink (see chocolate note above). Lastly we had a Cosmopolitan. It was a great way to learn about the various types of gin and what makes a good Martini. I personally like the flavored martini’s over the original. Mama told us that each bartender on the cruise had their own special drinks and we should make sure we go and try them if we had a chance.

After the tasting (and a good buzz) we headed back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner. Tonight was Formal night and we needed to get the girls cleaned up and dressed for dinner. We found them hanging out in the room watching movies and eating popcorn. Our dinner was in Animator’s Palate. It was really neat to watch the room change colors. This is one of my favorite places to have dinner. Something new this time was that Sorcerer Mickey came out and did a parade through the dining room.

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After dinner we tried to get a family picture with everyone dressed up in the Atrium lobby. Again there were long lines for pictures, since we had to stay to the end of dinner to watch the servers change color we now had to deal with the people with late seating getting pictures as well as everyone from early seating that was done with dinner. I guess of all the great things on the cruise the one bad thing that I didn’t like was all the lines for pictures. They had a lot of chances in the atrium with Mickey and Minnie, ship backgrounds, the statue of Mickey and the wheel but every time we went through this area it was packed. When we did finally get in line for a family picture in front of the railing it took almost 20 minutes. After the picture we ran back to the room to change our clothes and then headed to the theater for the “Golden Mickey’s”. I remember this show from the last time we cruised. It was cute. After the show we all headed to Rockin D Bar for the Golden Mickeys After Party with LIVE band and Mike Super. We enjoyed the band as we waited for Mike Super. We had a large Disboard group at this function with Carole88 and DH, BethA and DH, bartjwb and DW, and I think 1happyfam and DH were there as well. Mike Super is amazing, if you get a chance to see his show then do it. He did this amazing trick with three people’s wedding rings and interlocking them. We couldn’t see how he did this, it was pretty cool. After Mike finished the band returned. We stayed for one more drink and then called it a night. We were docking in Costa Maya the next day and needed to get some sleep.

End of Day 4

[bairdbeth]

Hi! We just got back last night late! How we miss the Magic! It was great to meet ya'll. DD enjoyed this cruise more than our first because she had friends this time on board. Tell your DD's that Taylor says "Hi!"

[Disney? Again?]

What great reports! It's like being there with you!

Suggestions for the door decorating? My husband's birthday is day 2 and we've never done that.

Thanks again! I am thrilled you had such a good time!

[SuJo]

Disney? Again? - As for door decorations. I created mine using Microsoft PowerPoint. I inserted a clipart picture of a birthday cake. I then did a google on Disney clipart. I found a bunch of sites that had really cool disney characters as clipart and was able to download them into PowerPoint. I also found the Disney font and used that to write on the picture. It is easy to download them from the web to your computer and most of the time you just double click the file you downloaded and it will be put into you Microsoft clipart/fonts. Hope this helps. I found magnetic paper at the local Giant (Xerox Color Injet Magnets). I like these better because they have glossy, water-resistant finish. I bought some on the web that were paper attached to a magnet sheet but I like the glossy better. You can probably google the Xeror Color Inkjet Magnets and see if someone sells them on line or check your local staples or grocery store. Let me know if I can be more help.

Susan

[musicgirl]

Hi Susan! :wave: I'm having fun reading all the reports!!! I think our group of disers get an A+ for the most trip reports!!!!

[tjeagle]

Great report! Looking forward to more!! :thumbsup2

[SuJo]

Day 5 – June 27th Costa Maya – Today we are docking at Costa Maya. We had booked a tour thought David and Ivan so we need to be at the Cat’s Meow by 9am. We headed up to Topsiders to grab some breakfast and then headed off the ship. We brought a small soft sided cooler with some water and juice for the DDs. After walking off the ship we headed to the end of the pier, through the little market, and out in to the street where we could pick up a cab. The cab driver took us to the Cat’s Meow which is on Majahual beach (our cab fare was only $8 for the four of us). We arrived just before 9 and were the last ones there. They put us into groups of 10 and loaded us into air conditioned vans. We ended up in a van with cykojoe and his family. The drive took about 30 to 45 minutes through Costa Maya and neighboring towns. We arrived at the Chacchoben Ruins and we were given a chance to walk around the little shopping area and to use the facilities. This is also the time that we put on bug spray. It was very hot and muggy so we figured the bugs would be out in force. There were about 40 people in our group including cykojoe’s family and 1happyfam. We were given a bottle of water for the tour. Our tour guide was Ivan and he was great. He held us off to the side while the tours from the Disney Cruise arrived and started to head into the ruins. He wanted to give us some background information about the Mayans before we started and wanted the other tour groups to be out of our way when we got the ruins. The history was amazing and it really helped when we walked through the Ruins.

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It was amazing to find out that this area had only been discovered in 1972 and was still in the process of being excavated. Most of the temples were still under a lot of earth, dirt, and trees.

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As soon as we got to the top of this big hill so we could see temple number 1, the heavens opened and it poured.

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We all huddled under trees to try and stay dry but it was a very large down pour. Once it let up we headed around the temple and down the other side. Ivan lead us through the streets of where the Mayan people would have lived and then back to the service area. It was a great experience and Ivan was an outstanding tour guide. Once back in the service area we dried off and got some water. We got back into our vans and on the way back to the boat our drive bought some pineapple from the locals selling it on the sides of the road (there were clusters of people selling food and water every few miles on the road to Chacchoben. The pineapple is sold with chili powder which you sprinkle on the top. I tried some with the chili powder but most enjoyed it plain. It was really fresh and tasted great. The van dropped us back at the dock rather than taking us back to the Cat’s Meow. It was still raining so we decided to just head back to the ship.

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We went and took a show since we were sticky from the rain and bug spray mixture. We went up on deck 9 for a soda and to grab a snack before dinner. It was hard to find a table as it was pretty crowded. I guess the rain brought a lot of people back to the ship. Dinner was at Parrot Cay again tonight and our DD-8 decided to eat in the kids club. My DD-12 had dinner with us and then helped us get seats at the Twice Charmed show. Since this was a new show we wanted to get a seat. My favorite show from the last cruise was Hercules the Muse-ical. It was a great show and really funny. I guess I was expecting something similar. Twice Charmed was a cute show but I still think Hercules the Muse-ical was much better. After the show we headed down to Sessions to listen to the piano player. We had a few drinks at the bar and then I called it an early night as I was tired from all the walking around at the ruins.

End of Day 5

PS. I am heading out to the beach for the weekend and won't have access to my computer. When I get back on Sunday I will continue with the trip report.

Susan

[BethA]

Sue--how could you go to the beach and leave me with nothing to do all week-end?

Have a good time! I guess I'll have to wait for the rest. The pictures you took are great--do i really have almost the same camera? I guess it's the operator.

Beth

[CRSNDSNY]

Can't wait for more!

[carole88]

Hey Susan,

Have a great time at the beach! Wish we could go with you!

[bartjwb]

Hello all -- Great job Susan! I'm glad someone in our group didn't drink too much, and could remember most of the entire trip. :rotfl: Have a great time at the beach. We miss hanging out with all of you.

John & Shirley

[SuJo]

Hey everyone, I am back from the beach and maintaining that cruise tan :cool1: Here is the next day on my trip report:

Day 6 – June 28th Cozumel – We woke up early again this morning as we had an excursion, Xcaret Eco Archeological Park, planned through Disney.

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There were two reasons I planned it through Disney: one, it got us off the boat first and second in case there was a problem with the excursion we were with Disney and they wouldn’t leave us behind. I had read on the boards that the boat that takes you over to the main land for the park can be pretty rough. I took some Bonine and then we headed up to Topsiders for breakfast. I didn’t eat anything in case I had problems on the boat. After breakfast we headed down to Animator’s Palate as that was the meeting place for our excursion. I was debating on whether to take my digital cameras or not. I knew it would be a good place for pictures but I was worried about leaving our stuff out while we were swimming or doing the lazy river. So I decided to only take the water camera (later I realized that I should have taken the digitals). Jeremy was working with the excursions to get them together and off the boat. We had 2 other groups meeting in the restaurant but they did a good job keeping us all together and getting us off the boat quickly. We only had to wait about 10 minutes before we were asked to head down to deck 1 and the boat. The boat was really nice. The inside seats were plush and they had a screen showing things about the area. I headed to the second level in the back outside in the fresh air. I had read on the boards that if you think you may have problems with the rocking of the boat that this was the best place to be. My DD’s didn’t want to hang out with us so they headed back down to the first level to watch the TV. When everyone was aboard we headed off. This excursion is not in Cozumel it is back on the main land so we had to head across the channel which was pretty rough. The boat was really rocking and I was glad that I was up in the fresh air and could see the horizon. After about 20 minutes my oldest DD came running up and looked very green in the face. We tried to get her in the fresh air but it was too late. She was sick. I told my DH to go check on the other DD. He came back and said she was fine but within 5 minutes she arrived and also was sick. There were a lot of people getting sick at this point in the trip. The lady was handing out baggies for everyone. Luckily I was able to hang in there and not get sick. I had brought extra Bonine for the trip back and it came in very handy with the DDs. We docked on the mainland and got off the boat. The guide for our group split us up into 4 groups and assigned each group to a bus. We had to walk through a small town towards these buses. It was a pretty long walk but the girls really needed the fresh air. We boarded the buses and headed to the park. The ride was about 15 to 20 minutes. When we arrived the guide gave each of us a wrist band. We gathered by the map of the park and the guide explained where everything was located. This park is huge. They have snorkeling, snubaing, ruins, marine life, beaches with floats, the underground river, swimming with the dolphins, and various shows. We had to meet back at the front of the park by 3 so we didn’t have much time. Our first stop was the underground river. It is about half way into the park. The first thing we did was get our life vests, everyone that goes into the river has to have a life vest. The next thing we did was to get a bag to put our belongs into. The river starts about half way into the park and goes along (under the park) to the ocean. They have you put your things into a locked bag that they take to the end of the river so you can get your stuff without having to walk all the way back. This is why I could have brought my cameras as we were able to lock our stuff in a secure bag. After bagging our stuff we headed for the river. There weren’t any lines so we headed right in. The water is pretty chilly but it felt great since we were sweating and hot. The average temp of the river is 65 degrees but considering how hot we all were it felt great. This was the neatest part of the whole day. The river has a small current so it pulls you along underground. I tried to take some pictures with my water camera but it was too dark without a flash so unfortunately I can’t show you how cool the place was. The water is crystal clear and there are hardly any fish or plant life in the water. It can be shallow in some areas. I usually just sat with my feet floating in front of me and let the current carry me. Along the way they would have camera guys there to take pictures and exits in case you wanted to get out.

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Since our stuff was at the end we didn’t get out till the end. My DD-12 did not enjoy this at all. She was freaking out thinking that there would be something in the water. We kept telling her that there was nothing there but she was worried about fish or something. She started to calm down about halfway through the river. It is hard to describe how cool this was. You could also rent snorkel gear before getting into the river but we decided not to. We had our goggles with us and we just used that to look underwater. The only time we saw any really interesting fish was near the end of the river as you get closer to the ocean. So I would recommend not renting the snorkel equipment for the river. Floating in the river takes about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how fast you decided to travel. You can just float or paddle your arms to get around. We did a little of both so we were done in about 45 minutes. When we finished the river we returned our life vests and retrieved our bag. We then headed over to see the Manatee and to look at Jaguar island. The animals on Jaguar island were mainly resting and staying out of the sun. It was very hot and sticky. We then headed over to the aquarium and sea turtles. Along the way we ran across some of the Mayan Ruins that are in the park. The girls when exploring and we rested and tried to get our bearings. The maps and signs in the park were a little tricky to navigate.

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We went through the Coral aquarium which was interesting but with us living near Baltimore we have made many trips to the National Aquarium and this one really didn’t impress us. We then went and saw the turtle exhibit. That was really neat as there were these different “ponds” that had various sizes of turtles. The baby turtles were the cutest thing to watch. They were playing with the water spout that was pouring water into their “pond.”

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We then walked through the shark area (only a few sharks) and went to see the dolphins. By this time it was close to 12:30 and we were hungry. We were given food tickets when we got off the bus and they told us which restaurants accept our food coupons. Of course all those restaurants were not near where we were located so we headed over to the area where we finished the river ride as there was a snack shack there that had hot dogs and hamburgers. There weren’t many people in line at this place but it took forever to get our food. They were very slow and constantly messing up people’s orders in front of us. There were a lot of groups there where they had many orders with only one person in line. So even though the line looked low it was a long wait. We finally got our food and sat under a shaded tree. It never rained while we were there but it was overcast, which was lucky for us because it was really hot when the sun was out. After eating we only had about an hour before we needed to be back at the bus and I wanted to do the river one more time. My DH and DD-12 were not interested in going back so I took my DD-8 and we went. Since we were rushed for time we only went halfway down the river. We met my DH and DD at the entrance and looked at the pictures from the river ride. We could only find 2 so we purchased those. We got back on the buses and headed back to the dock. I had given my DDs the Bonine during lunch so we were hoping for a less eventful trip back. We arrived back at the port closer to the dock this time so we didn’t have to walk as far. We didn’t have any time for shopping because we needed to get back to the ship. We boarded the boats and everyone headed for the 2nd level outside in the back (it seems like everyone realized how rough it was). We got seats out side and this time the trip was uneventful. I didn’t see anyone getting sick on the way back which was good. Since we didn’t have time to shop I bought three shirts on the boat that was taking us back to the ship. They had Cozumel Mexico on them and were the closest thing I was going to get as a souvenir. Once we got back to the ship it took a while to get off the boat as we had to go through security. We probably waited about 20 minutes to get back on the ship. Here are some pictures of the ship from the tender.

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We headed straight to our stateroom to get ready for dinner as tonight was Pirate night. Before we left on the excursion I put out my Pirate door signs that I had made.

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We all took a shower and put on our pirate clothes. I had bought my DDs pirate outfits but when we unpacked my DD-12 realized she left it at home in the closet. One of the nights we were up by the shops I picked up a pirates hat for her so she wouldn’t feel left out. My DH and I had pirate shirts and my DD-8 had a costume that was really cute. We were in Lumiere’s for dinner and it was really neat to see the servers all dressed up for pirate night as well.

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We had bandanas waiting for us at the table. The food was good and the servers put on a show at the end of the meal.

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My DD-8 had already eaten and was heading to the kids clubs. My DH and DD-12 headed to the theater to watch Cars. Since I had already seen the movie and wasn’t interested in seeing it again I went back to the room grabbed a book and headed to deck 9. I wanted to get a good seat for the pirate show and relax and enjoy my book. The crew was working on getting the stage ready and setting up the buffet (I don’t see how anyone ate anything; I was still full from dinner). I grabbed chairs and tables on the starboard side right next to the stage. As I was sitting there, bartjwb walked up and joined me. Then the movie ended and my DH and DDs arrived. Carole88 and her family finished dinner and also met up with us. We had a great seat to watch the show and the fireworks. Our favorite server, Brianna, was working on our side of the ship as well so she kept our drinks full and told us to have our cameras ready around 10:30. At a point in the show Mickey comes swinging down on the stage from the stacks. We were ready with our cameras and got some great shots. After the party the kids headed to the kids clubs and we were going to go down to Rockin D Bar with Carole88 and her DH. Our DD-8 found out that they were showing the Pirates in the Caribbean movie after the party and wanted to stay on deck and watch the movie so we pulled up some chairs and watched the movie on the big screen over the goofy pool. It was really neat to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movie in the Caribbean. After the movie we headed back to our rooms and went to bed. We were all really tired with the long day at the park and then the long pirate night.

End of Day 6

[SuJo]

Day 7 – June 29th At Sea – Today was my relaxation day. I woke up late and went to Topsiders for Breakfast. At 11 I headed over to the spa for my Stone Body Massage. It was the first time I had booked a Stone Massage on the cruise but I love them at home and was looking forward to the relaxation. I was not disappointed; it was great, very relaxing and soothing. It is like a full body massage except they use these really hot stones in their hands while they do the massage. It helps to relax the muscles. The massage lasted about 90 minutes. Afterwards I went back to my room and put on my swimsuit. I headed to Pluto’s Dog House for a cheeseburger and fries and to find my DH. He was hanging by the pool and the kids were in the kids clubs. After lunch I rested by the adult pool and talked to MusicGirl. It was so nice and peaceful. There really weren’t any chairs near the pool so I just sat in the water on the edge and relaxed. At 2 o’clock we had signed up for the Margarita tasting in Diversions along with the same crew from Martini tasting (Carole88 and DH and BethA’s DH). We sampled three types of tequila and then a strawberry margarita and an 1800 margarita (which is really good and tastes like a lemon drop). My DH and BethA’s DH did not like the tequila shots but we all enjoyed the margaritas. Carole88’s DH answered a trivia question at the end and won a drink of his choice (the 1800 Margarita). We all had a good buzz going after the session was over. At 4:00 I had a pedicure scheduled so I left the crew at the bar and headed back to the spa. Again the pedicure was great and my feet felt very refreshed. I headed over to the Walt Disney Theater as they were running the last Jackpot bingo for the trip. My DH and DD were already there with my card as well as Carole88 and her DH. We all got close but were not the big winners. After bingo the kids were coming in for Kids Club graduation celebration. The kids were so cute coming in with their t-shirts and Mickey graduation hats.

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After the kids were assembled on stage they showed the slide show of the pictures of the kids from the entire week. We love looking at these pictures and it is always a surprise when you child’s picture is shown. After the show Mickey and Minnie came out to officially graduate the children from the kids clubs and have them move their tassels over to the other side.

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The kids headed back to the kids clubs and we headed back to the room. Tonight we had scheduled Palo’s for dinner so the girls went to dinner by themselves. They were very excited about getting to eat in the restaurant without parents. My DH walked them down to Animator’s Palate and told the servers to make sure they behaved. We then headed to Palo’s for an amazing dinner. This was our first dinner at Palo’s. We had done the brunch earlier in the cruise but I wanted to try dinner there as well. Our server was Toni from Italy and he really took care of us. We ordered our appetizers and salads and then he would bring out a dish that he thought we should try. We would order our main course (the filet of course which is outstanding) and he brought out two dishes he wanted us to try. Then we had the chocolate soufflé for dessert and he brought out a white chocolate mouse and a banana fosters. After dinner I needed to go for a walk and walk off all the great food we just ate. We headed back to the room to change and to see where the girls were. Our DD-12 was at the show, Disney Dreams, and the other DD was at the kids clubs. BethA’s family had invited the group up to see the Roy O Disney suite at 10 so we changed clothes and headed up there. This suite is beautiful and huge compared to the state rooms. They had cheese and crackers there for us and different types of wine. Each of the Dis members had brought a bottle of wine as well so we definitely had enough to drink. One of the Disney crew members was in the room helping to serve and we got to ask him a lot of questions about working for Disney Cruise lines. I don’t know if he was ready for us and all our questions but he hung with us for the evening and answered them all. We were told from some of the crew earlier in the day that there was going to be a crew dodge ball game up on the sports deck at 11pm so we thanked BethA for having us and we headed to deck 10. This game was very funny to watch. It was the entertainment crew (Jeremy, Pike, Casey, Natalie, etc) against I think a group of counselors from the kids club. They made up all these rules for the game like no catching the balls or no using the balls to deflect other balls. I told them that I wasn’t used to the European dodge ball rules. The entertainment crew killed the counselor crew in the first two games. We then received a page that our DD-8 was looking for us and was upset that we weren’t back in the room. I left my DH at the game and headed to the kids club to pick her up. We went back to the room and got ready for bed as tomorrow was our last day full day and our second stop at Castaway Cay.

End of Day 7

[Ker-Bear]

I am enjoying your report. Thanks!!!

[BethA]

It appears I have no life--my sons are away for the whole week at Karate camp and I am here reliving our cruise through your posts Sue!! Thank God for them. I am enjoying all the pictures and your great attention to detail.

[bairdbeth]

Can we all go back and do it again next week?

[SuJo]

I am glad that I can help everyone with their cruise withdrawal :thumbsup2 . I was at my neighbors house yesterday and they were on the Disney Cruise during spring break and then signed up for the one next year that is going to Europe. We talked about the cruise all night. It really made me vacation sick for the ship. I am going to work on the final days today so I can finish my report.

Susan

[garada3]

Thank you for posting your wonderful trip report!

I would like to ask about the independence that you allowed your children on the cruise. Obviously you trust your children a great deal and they must respect your limits :goodvibes

How did you make the decision to give them sign out privelages, allow them to move around the ship unescorted and be in the cabin alone?

This is something I am struggling with and my sons will be 13, 11 and 9.

I worry about them climbing the rails and falling over as kids will be kids and do silly things without thinking. I know that the oldest will be in the teen group and luckily he is our cautious one. I also worry about them moving around the ship on their own. I just watched a show on the travel channel about safety on cruise ships and it said to treat the ship like a city - be with a buddy, don't go down dark halls etc. I wouldn't let my kids wander a city but would love for them to have a bit of independence on the ship.

Anyone else struggle with this problem?

Thanks!

[SuJo]

Day 8 – June 30th Castaway Cay – Today was our last day of the cruise (not counting debarkation day) and we were at Castaway Cay.

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It was a beautiful sunny day and we couldn’t wait to hit the beaches. Today was our Character breakfast so we headed to Parrot Cay. We had a great breakfast and all the characters stopped by. These were the most pictures we had with the characters as my DD’s never wanted to wait in line to get their picture with the characters in the Atrium lobby. We finished breakfast and grabbed our gear and headed off the boat. We lucked out this time as we were heading onto the island the tram was waiting for us. We hopped on and headed to the family beach. I stopped at She Sells to pick up our Twice the Magic shirts. I had heard from the last group that they were sold out by 12 so I wanted to make sure we got ours (Note: they did not sell out this time so you don’t need to rush). I picked up a shirt for each of us and a Twice the Magic bag (I will tell you right now that the Twice the Magic bag is not holding up well. The picture on the front of the bag is an iron-on and has already started to peel off). I had sent my DH on to find us chairs. We really liked the location we were at last time as it was close to Cookies and the bathrooms.

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My DH grabbed a bunch of chairs near the water. My DD-8 then decided that she wanted to go snorkeling so we headed over to Gils and Fins to pick up the snorkel gear. My DD-12 decided she just wanted to hang out at the beach so my DD-8, DH, and I put on our gear and headed to the beautiful blue waters of Castaway Cay. There were only a few snorkelers out in the water at this time so the water was very clear and we could see everything. Also there were more fish closer to shore this time. My DD takes my DH to all the places we found last time: the sunken ship, the sunken sub, the treasure chest, and the Mickey Statue. As we were heading to the sunken ship I noticed a large fish hanging out on the bow of the ship. It was huge. I was concerned that my DD would flip out and head for shore. It took her a while to notice the fish but when she did it was so funny to hear her yell through her snorkel tube. She backed up a little but seemed not to be too scared. Here is a picture of the ship, it is hard to see the fish but it is there.

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After that we headed over to the coral area to see more fish and then to the Mickey statue.

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I guess the big fish moved because when we got to the Mickey status he was hanging out below the life guard stand. I didn’t tell my DD that it had moved figuring she wouldn’t want to know it was following her. After we hit all the things in the snorkeling area we headed back to the beach. My DD-8 decided it was time to try her hands at the ropes on the play station in the middle of the water. She fell off the first time but was determined to make it across. On her second attempt she made it half way before she let go. On the third try she realized she needed to get her legs swinging and that helped her get all the way across.

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We headed back to the chairs and found that Carole88’s family and BethA’s family had arrived. The kids headed off together and we sat down and had some Bahama Mama’s. Our favorite waitress (Brianna) was working the beach area and made sure we were well taken care of. At around 12 we decided it was time for lunch and gathered the crew up and headed to Cookies. We had cheeseburgers, ribs, and potato chips for lunch. It tasted great. Like last time at Castaway Cay the kids sat at one table and we sat at the other. After lunch we ran into bartjwb who had spent the morning at the adult beach. Their DD was in the kids club and they were able to enjoy the peace and quite of the adult beach. They wanted to eat lunch so their DD hooked up with the group and we headed for the beach. I figured it was time to get some rafts so I headed back over by Gils and Fins and picked up a raft. Of course when I got back the girls wanted the raft so I sent my DH over to pick up some more.

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After a while we were all in the water cooling off.

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It was a very sunny day and hot. Since it was our last day everyone was just relaxing and having a great time. At around 3 they started the 2 for 1 drink sales so of course Brianna brought over our first round. The kids were starting to get tired and wanted to head back to the ship. On the way back we stopped and bought them a frozen drink and we picked up another Bahama Mama 2 for 1. We started walking back to the ship and noticed that they had moved the Flying Dutchman into the cove by the ship. We took a bunch of pictures:

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Once on board we did our usual, shower and get ready for dinner. This was our last dinner and we were in Parrot Cay again. The food was great and we gave our servers their tip envelopes. My DD-8 headed off to the kids clubs again and my DH and I headed for the stateroom to start packing. My DD-12 headed in to the theater to grab some seats for the show. She grabbed three in the middle of the theater. As luck had it the group next to us didn’t need the chairs they were saving so bartjwb was able to join us for the show. The show was Remember the Magic and it was really neat. The best part was the pictures they put up from all the days we were at sea. As we were watching the pictures Carole88 and her DH’s picture from pirate’s night was shown. It was great to see a Disboard group on the big screen. After the show I headed to Shutters to look for pictures from the day at Castaway Cay and my DH headed to the room to continue packing. I forgot to mention that throughout the cruise we would stop by Shutters to look for pictures they had taken of us. It was a good thing we did because they didn’t keep them up for very long. After a day’s worth of pictures has been up they take them down and put them in boxes. It is very hard to locate your pictures once they put them away. I would highly recommend that you stop by Shutters every night and look for your family pictures, buy the picture package and take the ones you like. You can always exchange a picture from an early day for one later but at least you have them all. I picked up all our photos and headed to Deck 4 to look into rebooking the cruise. Of course there was a line and I needed to be in Diversion by 10 as the cast was putting on a show. The line was moving slowly and I didn’t have enough time to rebook (I did run into cykojoe who was also rebooking). I asked the lady if she would be available tomorrow and she said to come down to guest services and ask for her. I then headed off to Diversions. Carole88 and her DH, my DH, BethA’s DH and Father In-Law were already at the bar.

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I grabbed a beer and joined the group. My DH had finished packing and put our suitcases in the hallway. The kids were in the kids clubs and we were in the bar, all was good in the world. It is difficult to explain the skit that they performed but let me tell you that it was very funny. They each were dressed as a different profession and the song was “What I would be Doing if I wasn’t on the Cruise Ship” or something like that. Each one comes out separately and tells what they would be doing and then does these hand motions. As each member joins the group these hand motions would interact with the other people in the skit. Like I said it is hard to explain but very funny.

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After the show we said goodbye to Casey, Pikey, and the bartenders.

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Then the group said goodbye to each other and exchanged email addresses. It was very hard to say goodbye as we had all become really good friends and we knew it was time to go home. We headed up to deck 9 so we could say good bye to Brianna. She was working at Café Cove that night. We found her over by Pinocchio’s. We exchanged email addresses with her as she was heading to Chicago later in the year and my DH was from the area. We gave her a hug and headed back to our room. I had bought iTune cards for the kids’ club counselors since I knew they didn’t except money. We headed to the kids clubs and gave the girls the cards to hand to their favorite counselors. We then headed back to our room and to bed.

End of Day 8

[BethA]

Okay--I'm ready to cry---the cruise is over--I better face it!!!

Thanks for putting so much time into yyour report Sue.

I'm going to send this link to my parents--I'm sure they will enjoy the report as much as I did.

Beth

[Disney? Again?]

Thanks so much for sharing the magic! It was great reading!

Thanks also for the iTunes idea, I'll get some tomorrow.

Good luck getting back to grind... :wave:

[yazee1]

Wow, that was a great report. The next best thing to being there. I think I'll read it again.

[SuJo]

garada3 - Orginally I wasn't going to allow my youngest to check herself in and out of the club until we hooked up with carole88 and her DD. They were allowing her to check herself in and out so we said that our DD could do it as long as she left with Carole88's DD. Mainly she stayed in the club or headed to our room. She didn't go up on deck or wander the ship. And our room was located one deck up and right off the hallway from the kids club. They also paged us every time she left the club so we knew where she was headed. Usually one of us would head to the room to make sure they were OK. Most of the time they were in the clubs so it wasn't that scary. My oldest DD was 12 and she did fine. She liked to be in the room by herself and knew not to answer the door to strangers (she would ask who it was). We also had a white board on the door and would put our location on it so they could find us if they needed. I don't think they ever used it. I would say as long as they have a buddy it's OK but it is you comfort level. Both of my DDs are very responsible and usually very cautious.


Hope this helps,
Susan

[eeyore_lover_0101]

We were on this cruise as well and had a wonderful time!!! Me being a first time cruiser!! Your cruise report is great!! It helped me remember all the MAGICal times during the cruise!! Missing all the wonderful sevice, especially from our server Raman, and Oana!!

[SuJo]

Day 9 – July 1st Debarkation Day – As all good things must come to an end, so did our wonderful cruise. We woke up this morning, early, as we had to be off the boat by 9. We changed into the clothes we kept from the night before. I headed down to the Guest Services desk to talk to the lady about rebooking. Luckily there wasn’t any line yet at Guest Services so I spoke with the lady behind the desk who made a call back into the office. The lady I spoke to the night before came out and I was able to rebook another cruise. We aren’t sure when we are going again but I wanted to make sure we got the discount. I headed over to Shutters to make sure I didn’t miss any pictures and to pick up a print that I had reprinted (it was a picture of our DD with Carole88’s DD). I noticed that Carole88 had picked up her prints and didn’t have this picture. So I bought both of them hoping that I would run into her before we left the ship. I went back to the cabin to meet up with my family and head for breakfast. We made one final check of all the draws and closets to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We grabbed our bags and headed to our last trip to Topsiders. We dropped our stuff out of the way by the front of the restaurant and grabbed a table. It was very crowded this morning as everyone was getting there last meal on the cruise. We had a great breakfast and then headed to the Atrium lobby for debarkation. When I was rebooking a line had formed to get off the ship (not sure why people were eager to leave), but when we got there this time, there wasn’t a line. We walked off the ship and grabbed a porter. He found our bags easily even though they gave us the wrong colored tags for our stateroom number. We easily went through customs and made it over to the line waiting for Budget rental cars. This is where we ran into Carole88 and her family as they were waiting for a shuttle as well. I was able to give her the picture I bought for them and the girls were able to have one last goodbye. There were a few people in front of us so we weren’t able to go in the first shuttle. We watched it leave. Carole88’s shuttle arrived and they were able to load up. As the shuttle was leaving, BethA’s family walked by the shuttle line and we were able to say one last goodbye to them as well. It was sad to be leaving such a great vacation and such great friends. Our shuttle finally arrived and we loaded into the van.

It was a short trip to the Budget Rental place. I jumped off the shuttle and headed inside to wait while my DH and DD’s unloaded the van. We had one more suitcase than we came out with because we brought an extra one for souvenirs (and we definitely needed it). I had originally booked a small SUV for our trip to Orlando but after packing before we left for the cruise I felt we could not get all our bags into a small SUV so I upgraded us to a standard SUV like an Explorer. When I checked us in at Budget they gave us a Mitsubishi. I asked if it was the same size as the Explorer and they said yes. We went out and found the car and let me tell you that it is nothing like the size of an Explorer. It was more like the small SUV’s. I went back inside to check it out but she said that Budget classifies this car as a standard SUV. Luckily I am married to the best packer in the world and he was able to squeeze all our bags into the back of this small car. I was not happy and do not plan to rent from Budget for a while. We headed out for Orlando. On the way out we saw all the cars headed on their way for the space shuttle launch. My DH is an Aeronautical Engineer and he really wanted to stay but I was worried about what we would do for the next 5 hours without a hotel or anything to do. Also I knew there was going to be a lot of people coming in for the launch and it would take forever to get to Orlando. I was able to talk him out of staying (which was lucky for us as the launch didn’t happen).

I had booked us at the Nickelodeon Hotel for the next 3 days. My kids had been asking about this place every time they saw it on TV (which was every day as their favorite channel is Nick). It has an awesome pool with slides and a bunch of water stuff. Here is a picture:

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I knew WDW was going to be really crowded for the 4th of July and didn’t want to have a bad time at the park after having such a great cruise. So I figured we could do the Nick Hotel since next time we will be staying at the parks in WDW. We arrived around 11 and checked in. Our room wasn’t ready but they were able to hold our bags. We headed to the mall that’s inside the hotel to get tickets to the Nick Show that they had at night. We found out that all the regular Nick shows were full but we could do the late night one at 9 o’clock. We then decided to head to Downtown Disney (just because we weren’t going to WDW didn’t mean we couldn’t get our WDW fix).

We went to Disney Quest to spend the afternoon. First we played Pirates of the Caribbean as this was our favorite game the last time we were there. There was a wait so I sent the DH and DDs off to Aladdin while I waited in line. I guess the line for Aladdin was very long because I got to the end of Pirates before they were done. So I stalled. Finally they showed up and we headed into our boat. Since we just got off the ship, being on the Pirate boat was real easy. DH was captain and steering the ship and the DDs and I were manning the cannons. We had a great time but my DH kept leaving my side of the ship devoid of targets. We defeated the king pirate and stole his gold but we only got to the second highest ranking for the game. We exited the ride and then got right back in line. This time I was the captain and my DH was manning the cannons. Again we only got the second highest ranking.

Next we headed over to the Invasion! An ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Last time we did this ride my DH drove and we shot at the aliens. This time I was the driver and I successfully saved all of the survivors. This is a really fun game and takes team work to get to the end. We rode it again with my DH driving. We weren’t as successful this time with the survivors so of course we had to try again. After the third time we decided it was time to move to the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam. We played this game three times in a row and each time I was the high scorer. My DH wanted to keep playing so that he could beat me but I was unstoppable.

I received a call at 2 from the Nick hotel saying our room was ready but I told them we probably would not be back until the evening. We then headed over to Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters. There was a wait for this ride as more people were starting to arrive. My DD-12 and I went into one Astroblaster and my DH and DD-8 were in another. I was driving and my DD-12 was having a difficult time figuring out how the cannons worked. Needless to say we spent most of the time spinning in a circle. The kids didn’t like this ride very much so we decided to try Pirates one more time before we left. This time we found out that we could have a ghost captain and we could all man the cannons. This was the way to play as the computer sailed us into all the great places to pillage and plunder. We blew up the other ships, the town, the trees, the fort, and anything else on the screen (the lady running the ride told us to shoot everything and we did). This time we got the high score, we were psyched.

We left Disney Quest around 6ish and stopped by Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant for dinner. We were able to get a table outside and it wasn’t too hot. I just have to say that I love the bread at this restaurant. We finished dinner and Downtown Disney was starting to get crowded. We headed to our car and headed to the hotel. We picked up our room keys and told the porter our room number. We walked to the room and dropped off our bags and headed to the studio where the Nick show was being held. It was a generation show that pitted parents against their kids. They asked questions to the kids about their parents and the parents about their kids (kind of like the newlywed show but for families). It was pretty funny to hear what the kids knew about their parents and what the parent didn’t know about their kids (the music group they like, if they have a boyfriend or girlfriend, etc…) After the show we headed back to the room for bed. We were pretty tired because it was a long day. The rooms at the Nick hotel are like suites were the kids have their own room with Sponge Bob painted on the walls.

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There are bunk beds in the room and they have their own TV and phone. There is another bedroom for the parents and a living room with a kitchenette. We had a character breakfast planned in the morning so we went right to bed.

End of Day 9

[bairdbeth]

My DD has been begging to stay at the Nick suites! She will be so jealous that your DD's got to stay there! It does look like a great place!We are rebooked for a cruise as well. I can't wait for the 2008 dates to come out so we can plan our actual date and itinerary!

[SuJo]

Bairdbeth - I will say that after being on the Disney Cruise the Nick Hotel was a little bit of a let down. It was pretty crowded due to the 4th of July weekend and it seemed that there were a lot people who live in Florida staying at this hotel. Also it seemed like a lot of people smoked. Maryland has really become a non-smoking state and we really notice it more when we go someplace that has a lot of smokers. This could be why we weren't as impressed with this place as we expected. It kind of felt like they were trying to compete with Disney but not at the same level. I would recommend that if you go, go during a not so busy time. The girls really enjoyed the pool but there was a long wait for the slides and after a while they stopped going on them.

Susan

[bairdbeth]

Thanks for the advice! I really can't see going to WDW and not staying on sight. Maybe bt telling DD that ya'll were not that impressed, she will get over it?!

[HeelMD]

Thanks for doing this SuJo. Only four more days until we leave for our Double Dip this Friday. Your report was a big help.

[SuJo]

HeelMD - I know you will have a great time. As you can see it was wonderful, I am trying to relive it as long as possible :cool1: .

Susan

[klineyqueen]

I loved the report. The pictures were wonderful! Thanks. :thumbsup2

[SuJo]

Day 10 – July 2nd DTD/Sea World – We woke up early this morning as we had a character breakfast at the Nickelodeon restaurant. When we arrived we were seated right away. Some of the characters were already out walking around. The characters for the breakfast included: Tommy, Angelica, Patrick, and Dora. Sponge Bob was upfront and you had to go up and see him separately. We got settled at our table and then headed to the breakfast bar. They had all the usual breakfast foods: eggs, bacon, omelets, donuts, cereal, etc… We grabbed our favorites and headed back to our table. The first to stop by for pictures was Tommy.

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Next came Dora, my youngest DD use to love Dora but I think she has out grown her. Next they put on a Nick song and the characters/waiters started dancing and singing. Patrick headed by next. Then I took the girls up to see Sponge Bob as there wasn’t a line anymore.

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Finally all we had left was Angelica and that was when the characters took a break. I told our waitress that we were done and all we needed was Angelica and she told us that the characters have a set path through the dining hall and would get to us when she could (not like Disney where they would bring the missed character right to you :sad1: ).

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Finally we got to see Angelica and then we headed back to our room. I had made reservations at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for 11 am and we needed to head over to DTD. If you have DDs you need to take them to this Boutique it is amazing. We got to DTD early (around 10ish) so we had time to shop. The girls went around and picked out a few things and I went to get some new Disney shirts (my old ones were starting to fade). We also needed to pick up some birthday gifts as it was my niece’s birthday when we got back. Finally it was 11 and the girls were brought back to their chairs. I had read on the Disboards about this place and someone recommended the Pop Princess style (you can chose from 3) so that is the one I told them to do. I am glad that I did. This style is amazing. Most of the girls in the store were getting some type of princess style where their hair was put up in a bun and they got a little crown. This is good for girls under 6 but not really for tweens. The Pop Princess is more outrageous as you can see from the pictures. The girls could not see what they were doing to their hair but they could see what the other one was having done.

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They also got makeup, a lot of glitter (I was still getting out of their hair when I took down their braids yesterday), and fake nails.

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After they finished with their hair they were turned around so they could see their reflections in the mirror. As you can see they were very surprised.

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We then headed out of the store and everyone was looking at them. I didn’t see another girl with this style of hair and makeup the whole time we were in DTD. We had planned on going back to the hotel and the pool but decided to head to Sea World instead. The girls didn’t want to get their hair wet and ruin their makeup. It was about 1:30 and so we piled into the car and headed to Sea World. Everyone at Sea World loved their new hairstyles, needless to say they were hard to miss. The skies were starting to get really cloudy but we decided to make a go of it. We bought our tickets and headed to the dolphin show. I hadn’t been to Sea World since I was a kid so it was great to see how the place had changed. The dolphin show was amazing. I heard some people talking about how they had just redone the show to make it more entertaining. It was great. It was hard to see everything as they had a bunch of different stuff going at the same time. They had the dolphins doing jumps and tricks while divers were diving off platforms. Different types of birds were released and flying over our heads throughout the show and they had performers doing things on stages and platforms as well as some wire acts. I really enjoyed this show.

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After the show was over we headed over to see Believe which is the Shamu show. The line for the show was long and we were headed to the end of it when they opened the show for seating. We were right near an entrance and the lady told us to just go on in. What luck, we got great seats right in the center of the theater. It started to really rain while we were waiting for the show but that was OK because we were under a cover. This show was also amazing. It didn’t have as much going on as the Dolphin show but what they did with the whales was outstanding.

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After the show we went to see some of the other animals they have in the park: stingrays, baby dolphins, sharks, and other animals. My DDs really don’t like rollercoasters so we didn’t try to do any rides. Also, since we didn’t get to the park until 2 we didn’t have much time to do both the shows and the rides. Next we headed over to the “Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island” show. This is a funny show with Sea Lions, a Walrus, and an otter. The mime that comes out before the show is amazing. He is down at the front “helping” people into the show. If you go to this show make sure you get there early enough to see him as he is a riot. The Clyde and Seamore show is also very good but people around us were saying that it is outdated. Since I don’t remember it from the last time I was there, I really enjoyed it.

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At the end of the show they tell you to come back for the evening show called “Sea Lions Tonight!” where they recap all the shows at Sea World. Of course we had to come back for that show as well. Again if you are at Sea World make sure you go and see this show, it is very funny. They dress up like the different trainers/performers from the other Sea World show and use the Sea Lions, Walrus, and otter to act them out. The mime is also involved. I don’t think we stopped laughing through this whole show.

By 9:30 we were all very tired and done for the day. We started heading out of the park. The fireworks show had begun, so we watched it as we left (we didn’t want to get caught in the traffic on the way out of the park). By the time we reached our car the fireworks were finishing. The smoke from the show started spreading across the parking lot and car alarms were sounding from the fireworks that made the loud booming sound. It was pretty funny. Once we found our car through all the smoke we climbed in and headed back to the hotel. We were all very tired. We took the girls hair down and washed off the glitter the best we could and called it a night.

End of Day 10

[bartjwb]

Susan,

Great report!!! We really do miss all of you--as you stated before, making friends with all of our group really did make this cruise something special. Anyone up for another in 2008?

John

[BethA]

John,
Just tell us when!

Beth

[SuJo]

Day 11 – July 3rd Chillin’ at the Nickelodeon Hotel

Today was the last day of our vacation and we decided to just chill out at the hotel pool, I mean the reason we wanted to stay at this hotel was to try out the pool. After the long day at Sea World yesterday we were all pretty tired so we slept in till about 9:30. The kids got up and watched some TV while my DH and I started packing the bags. Around 10:30 we put on our suits and headed to the pool. The pool area is huge. It is laid out in a sort of L shaped pattern. The slide tower is at the short end of the L and a wading pool and deeper area are on the long end of the L.

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There is also a little stage area on the side of the long L end which is where they put on slime shows. They select kids from the pool area to participate in games which involve slime. It was pretty fun to watch. There is also a basketball court and putt-putt course that lines the pool area. They have a snack shop where you can order food and drinks and this is also where the bathrooms are located.

It was already pretty crowded and most of the chairs were taken. I lucked out that a family was leaving near the slides so we put our stuff down and the girls headed to the big slide tower. I put on suntan lotion as it was the last day to work on my tan before heading back to work. It was very hot out already and it didn’t take long for me to jump into the pool. I headed into the pool area where they had the water sprayers and the deep water (around 6ft). After cooling off I headed over to the slides to meet up with the girls.

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There were long lines for the slides but they moved pretty well. I tried out all the slides (they weren’t as fast as I thought they would be) and then headed back to my chair to rest. My DH came down and took the girls to the mall for food. A waitress finally made it around to our chairs so I ordered a Mai Tai and some food. The Mai Tai was really good.

We spent the next few hours just laying around and playing in the pool. The girls only did the slides for a short time because they didn’t like having to wait in line. Around 2ish the skies clouded over and it started to rain. We packed up our stuff and headed to the room. We all took showers and decided to hit DTD again and see a movie. I also needed to pick up a birthday gift for my niece and we had forgotten to get our pictures from the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique day. We stopped at the theater and decided to go see Nacho Libre. It was a cute movie and the girls really liked it. After the movie we headed over to Rainforest Café to see if there was a long wait for dinner. It was around 7 so I was thinking if we could get in by 8 that would be enough time to shop and get back for dinner. Well the wait was 3 hours so we decided to head for McDonalds.

After dinner we did some shopping and then found the place that had the pictures that Disney takes using the photo cards. We looked at the pictures and really liked them so we bought the CD. On the way back to the car we stopped by the Christmas store. Every time we have been to Disney we purchase a Xmas ornament for the tree that has Disney on it with the date. I wanted to get one for this visit as I forgot to purchase one on the ship.

We headed back to the hotel to finish packing and to get ready for bed. Our flight the next morning was around 11.

End of Day 11.


Day 12 – July 4th Time To Go Home

We woke up early this morning and called down stairs for a porter to help us with our bags. The girls got dressed and packed their backpacks for the plane ride. The porter came up and loaded our bags on his cart. My DH and the porter headed to the car while I made one last check of the room. I did TV checkout so I wouldn’t have to go to the front desk. We gathered our stuff and headed to the car. By the time we got to the car my DH had done a great job again of getting all of our stuff into this “SUV” that we had gotten from Budget. We piled in the car and headed to the airport. We arrived with about 1 ½ before our flight so we had plenty of time to check our bags and get some lunch. The flight was full but we found seats together. The flight was uneventful. We arrived in Baltimore on time and headed to our car. We drove home and spent the rest of the day unpacking and starting the laundry.

This is pretty much the end of my trip report. We had a great vacation. Of the things that I brought and did on the cruise here is my list of musts:

• Bringing an extra suitcase with you to put all your souvenirs in
• Using a glow stick in the bathroom as a night light
• Bringing an envelope of one dollar bills to have handy for tipping on room service
• Decorating the door was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it
• Having a white eraser board on the door so the family can let everyone know where they were
• Using hanging clothes pins for drying the suits
• Using suction cup hooks for hanging cover-ups and other things around the room.
• Bringing iTune cards for the kids club counselors
• Bringing air freshener for the bathroom (really used by the DH!!)
• Ordering gift baskets through Shirley for the DDs
• Bringing small scissors to cut off tags and other things
• Bringing ziplock bags for all the little things
• Allowing my DDs to check themselves in and out of the clubs allowed by DH and I time to hang out with our new friends and have a relaxing vacation
• And the number one thing: Meeting friends from the Disboards can turn a good vacation into a great vacation. The families that we met on the boards and hung out with on the ship really made this vacation special

Well that is the end of our trip. I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully we will be back in 2008 for a reunion cruise with our new friends from the Disboards.

Susan

[carole88]

Hi Susan,

I finally got a chance to read the rest of your trip report. I loved reading it and seeing all of your pictures. Hopefully we can all cruise together again. We all had a really great time with your family! Don't forget to call me when you get to Vegas!

[carol31j]

I loved your report. And, those were fantastic pictures too. Made me relive our cruise of last year. Oh, we had a rollicking good time!

[swoosie34]

I cant wait to go on my first ever cruise, Im so excited.
How is Nassau Bahamas? We are a family of 4 (me(mom)34,DH 36,DD 10,DD 11 at the time of the trip. What should we do in the Bahamas. pirate: :wizard: