3/18 Wonder: The Very Merry Unbirthday "Lovely Cruise" **PICS!**

[nenner1]

Part 1 : Sea Cruise

“So be my guest, you’ve got nothing to lose…won’t you let me take you on a sea cruise?”

First, an introduction. I’m sure many a Disney Cruise Line adventure begins, as ours did…with the Travel Channel. It was a hot, lazy holiday…Labor Day in fact. On TV was one of the “ten best” shows, the ten best water parks in the US or something like that. It was on in the background -on our back patio set- as we lounged in the pool . At the top of the hour a feature on the Disney Cruise Line came on. First my husband noticed it and made his way from the grill to check it out. Then the kids swam up to the side where they could see. Before I knew it I was up off the float and under the lanai. None of us had ever been on a cruise before, or had even really thought about taking one. But the show was only a few minutes in before we knew what our next vacation would be.

Being from central Florida, Disney is part of growing up around here. Both my husband, Ron (32), the kids (son Brendan, 7; daughter Savannah, 6) and I have been lucky enough to be frequently spoiled by the magic of the Disney Parks since we were little. http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/babyjendisney.jpg
(Me in my mouseketeer days, and in the pic on the right that’s me (far right) at about 2 years old pondering whether or not I really wanted to go up to that huge mouse!)

Some of my most vivid childhood (and adult!) memories are of my frequent visits to the Magic Kingdom. We go every year, usually in March for my birthday if for no other reason than it’s a good time of the year to go (weather-wise, not crowd-wise). Here are the kids, Brendan & Savannah in our March 2006 trip: http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/DSC01756.jpg


In 2005, we decided to make our annual trip a mini-vacation. Instead of going for one day, we stayed for several – at the UnContemporary. (we have a long running joke between us about the 70’s architecture at WDW- in particular the Contemporary and “Yesterdayland” which is what we called the pre-renovation Tomorrowland.)
From the 2005 trip: http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/DSC01162.jpg
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Anyway, we had a fantastic time at the resort and realized it couldn’t be too long before we did a Disney vacation again. So fast forward to Labor Day ‘06, we are out on the patio with the laptop checking stateroom availability. (I think that was before the show even ended). We actually didn’t end up booking until a week or two later. We had selected March to sail, again usually a good weather gamble. Also, having two kids who hate to miss school we decided it would have to be during spring break. And it didn’t coincide with a possible Jimmy Buffett concert in our area, and those always take precedence and have to be scheduled around. (Though it came close to this one in February at Florida State University in Tallahassee)

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/feb07028.jpg

You can see we are serious about our Parrothead pre-show parties:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/nov06046.jpg
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Okay, back on topic. So now it was time for research. The rates during March (which is, of course “season”) were very high, so a 7–day was soon out of the question. We were admittedly pretty obsessed with the restaurants and the rotational dining concept. We didn’t want to miss a single thing, especially not a restaurant. We absolutely HAD to do Palo, and besides those 3 night cruises just seem too darn short! A 4-night it was. And so that left only one departure date, March 18, 2007. Only 3 days after my 33rd birthday – PERFECT! It was to be a “very merry unbirthday” for me!

On to the logistics. Admittedly I am an obsessive pre-planner. I want to know absolutely everything about everything. I want to have everything I might possibly need. Some might call me a control freak. I call it prepared (in fact the motto of my Brownie Troop 454 was “Be Prepared”).
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/browniegirl.jpg
But please do not confuse prepared with organized. There IS a difference. I began my research by trolling first DCL websites, then the DISboards. I became addicted to trip reports and bought both Birnbaum’s Guide to DCL and also the Passporter. I was sure I knew everything there pretty much was to know about DCL.

The selection of our stateroom was where I first planned to implement my new found knowledge. Money was an issue, as even the cheapest staterooms were pricey (spring break- ugh). We weighed the whole verandah/porthole vs place to crash issue and decided since we are would be out and about the ship or in port most of the time that we didn’t need a more luxurious stateroom. Since there didn’t seem to be too much difference in square footage among the higher categories (i.e. our price range) we decided to choose a higher category. I would have taken a Cat. 12, but they were all on deck 2 and I had read deck 2 was noisy. I chose a centrally located (deck 7 midship) Cat. 11, and decided to forgo any hope of an upgrade by selecting a specific cabin. 7539 would be our home away from home. Only much smaller. Much, much smaller. Just how much smaller would not be evident for six months yet.

I worried that come 75 days prior to sail, (when us first timers get to make our excursion, Palo, and spa selections and reservations) everything we wanted would be booked up. I made sure to go on the website after midnight on day 75, but it was still telling me it was not time yet. Now I know they let you do it sometime around 3am. But thankfully getting up in the middle of the night was not necessary. In the morning around 10 am, I got right on and was able to make our Nassau Dolphin Discovery Excursion booking, our Palo dinner reservation, and our Banana Boat ride reservation. We even changed Palo the next evening and had no problem getting what we wanted. I did check back a couple of weeks prior to departure and discovered all of the excursions in Nassau were booked, as were all Palo slots! I was pretty surprised at that seeing as we what we wanted so easily. I was hoping to book a Palo brunch but discovered if we wanted that, we would have to do the ressie scramble on the boat.

Another of my cruise obsessions was our dinner rotation and all that entails. Knowing a night at Palo was a must, we knew we would be missing a regular rotation restaurant menu. (On the 4 night cruise, you repeat one restaurant but the repeated night is Pirate Night, which has its own special menu). We tried as hard as we could to plan which night would be the best to miss for Palo, but it was really hard finding out which night was the repeat. The guides and literature I had indicated the repeated restaurant was the last night of the cruise, but I had read on DIS some cruises repeated the 2nd night, some the 3rd. Calling Disney didn’t clarify that, as again they could not confirm which night would be Pirate night as cruise itineraries are subject to change (aaaarrrgh). So we made an educated guess that Pirate Night would likely be the 3rd night and we didn’t want to miss that. We selected Monday (2nd night- Nassau) for our Palo ressies and hoped for the best. Compound all that with the claim that “they don’t do the show in Animators the 2nd night” and we were really way too stressed out about this dinner issue. A few weeks out I was able to find copies of some recent Navigators online and was happy to see that Pirate Night was in fact night 3. Whew. So we called Disney to see if they could tell us what our rotation was, to make sure we didn’t have Animator’s Palate on night 2, since we didn’t want to miss the “show”. And of course…..we did. So we put in a request to have our rotation changed. They said they would put in the “request” but could make no promises. We would find out for sure when we checked in, and could try to reassign on the boat.

Before we knew it fall had arrived , Halloween passed….then Thanksgiving…Christmas…Valentines Day….Buffett Show (YES, those ARE Holidays!),

March was here. Sail date was approaching…time to shop! Because as you may or may not know, if you are going on a cruise you have to buy things for said cruise. Like clothes. Shoes. And jewelry. More luggage to hold all the other crap you are buying. Stuff like that. I am pretty sure we spent more money actually buying things we needed for the cruise than we spent on the cruise itself. Then all that stuff has to find its’ way into the luggage..?!? I’m up to a challenge though. Two weeks to go and our cruise documents arrive. Departure day is creeping up on us quick. Then a week to go, still a few things to buy and a dining room full of stuff to cram in less than 8 suitcases.

Panic began to set in on Tuesday the 13th, only a few days to get all this done. Oh the stress! Somehow I managed to get a decent amount of prep done Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, my birthday, was going to be spent ironing. You see, I never saw ironing discussed on the boards or in any of the books. I This bothered me because you aeren’t supposed to bring travel irons on board or use them in your room. Ironing boards would be provided in the laundry rooms on the ship. I knew two things for sure. I did not want to do any laundry on that ship nor did I want to stand in a line in my drawers in the laundry room ironing dress clothes when I could be up on Deck 9 with a Bahama Mama. So I spent literally ALL DAY Thursday ironing every stitch of clothing that was going with us on that ship. Ron came in from work shaking his head at the futility of it all, though I swore it would make a difference later. (I WAS RIGHT, btw). But just in case I was going to smuggle on the travel iron. The worst they could do was confiscate it, right? And that is IF they could find it in the mountains of toiletries and styling tools crammed in that gigantic duffel.
Friday was spent doing last minute shopping, and packing. Emergency trips to Wal Mart for wire coat hangers, silly me not realizing the fat plastic ones won’t fit in the garment bag! Oh and did I mention the packing? Yeah. We ended up with what I thought was five full size suitcases, a duffel bag, and a garment bag…which should add up to seven. Inside one of the suitcases was an empty duffel bag to fill with souvenirs and such, which means we would come back with eight bags (note: foreshadowing). The rest of Friday and Saturday went smooth, and before I knew it, it was after midnight on Saturday and I could not sleep. But of course I couldn’t! The day we had been awaiting for six long months had arrived! It was departure day!!!! :yay:

[RoyalVizier]

Oh my gosh... this is great! :rotfl2:

Please... keep going!

[DreamCruiser100]

UGH!!! I hate having to wait!!!:headache:

This has been GREAT so far, especially since I grew up near the world myself and am still blessed enough to visit often.

and I guess I can ignore the FSU references..........;)

[Babs417]

Yo Im a New Jersey Parrot head:goodvibes :thumbsup2 ;) :) :cutie:

[LovableGluttons]

Oh wow! Your pics from your childhood made me tear right up!:sad1:




Your kids are beautiful!


Great trippie!


I've got my popcorn and my tea.


Ready for more!

[nenner1]

LOL I'm actually a Gator fan!!!!
(That's just where the show was!!!! :) And I go where Bubba goes, Babs knows what I mean!!!)

Working on part 2.......:thumbsup2

[nenner1]

“Tomorrow mornin', I know there'll be hell to pay,
Hey, but that's all right
I ain't had a day off now in over a year.
Our (Bahamanain) vacation's gonna start right here.
If the phones for me,
You can tell 'em I just sailed away.”

The alarm was set for 5 AM, and I was anticipating its’ glorious bells as I had been tossing & turning all night. It is not unusual for me to be awake at 5 AM, but I am usually going TO bed at that time, not getting UP (I work nights). But this particular morning was different- it was Sunday March 18th….CRUISE DAY! I tried really hard to get some sleep, knowing that adjusting to a normal “day person’s” schedule would be difficult under normal circumstances, let alone with all the excitement that awaited us onboard the Wonder! It was well after 1 AM when I shut the TV off- any other night it would put me right to sleep. No matter. I hit the clock the split second it began to ring, and luckily I remembered to unplug it and squeeze it in the last available spot in my jam packed seven (eight? Hmmm….) bags of luggage. (Tip: You will want to bring a digital alarm clock with you. The clock provided in the stateroom – although shaped like a really neat propeller- is not visible at night). I was the first one up, which is a good thing since I am the most high maintenance in our family and I usually require about 20 minutes more time than I budget myself when I have to be anywhere at any particular time. I am out of the shower by 5:30 and so far the morning is running on schedule. According to the Yahoo map, we only needed 2 hours driving time to reach Port Canaveral from our home in north Tampa. I planned to arrive at the terminal between 9:30 and 10:00, so adding about an hour for breakfast, we needed to be out of the house by 7. One by one Ron & the kids get up and we are bouncing off the walls! Of course, the next thing I know, the car is loaded and everybody is ready…except me. Oh well. Nobody is going to give me a hard time TODAY, right? Shortly before 7 am, we are out the door into the dark (yes still dark! Thank you Daylight Savings Time for coming early this year and adding lovely daytime hours to my cruise! Wooo Hoo!) and we walk right into problem # 1….our newspaper. Ron had called them to hold delivery, but, SURPRISE! So the fussing begins already. You see, Ron & I have been together literally forever…..
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/prom.jpg Senior Prom, 1992

well we were high school sweethearts and started dating at 16, so you can imagine after like 17 years together we can and do have our moments . One of them started right then. He did not understand why I was so worked up over silly newspapers being delivered (and left out…in front of our empty house…..for FOUR DAYS) After all, we live in a nice virtually crime free community, with good neighbors that would neatly stack our papers inconspicuously on our porch if need be, so why get worked up over it? But that wasn’t the point of course. I insisted he call them which we tried to do but customer service didn’t open until 7. :headache: Grrrr. A few miles down I-275 we got through and they assured us there would not be a bunch of copies of the St. Pete Times in our driveway when we returned. Crisis averted. On to the next thing to fight about- breakfast. We had pretty much decided to stop at Cracker Barrel, since that is like a tradition for us when we are on vacation (keep in mind this is our first cruise…most of our other vacations have been road trips!) There were two on the way, I had planned to stop at the first one, in Seffner. Of course, he wanted to wait until 40 miles down the road in Lakeland. My logic is that the earlier we stop the faster it would go…wait until later and you have to worry about prime breakfast hours and pre-church crowds. Plus, I was mildly concerned about traffic. It’s not often I lose an argument, and this was no exception. Like the wonderful intelligent hubby he is, he grudgingly agreed to stop at the closer Seffner restaurant. I had already pulled directions for both and knew the exit number, and as we approached we noticed the tall Cracker Barrel sign on the left of I-4. As we pulled off onto the exit, something about this seemed familiar. In fact it was, we had been in the area in October for one of Savannah’s cheerleading competitions. So we should have been accustomed to the area, but we immediately had trouble finding the Cracker Barrel. Unbelievable. How hard is it to find a Cracker Barrel on a highway exit….when you could see the place from the road…and had been there before???? Oh leave it to us. We went up & down that road (301?) and through the Flying J Travel Plaza, back over by I-4…where in the world could they be hiding the Cracker Barrel? FINALLY Ron spots a teensy, tiny sign in the median pointing us into the Lazy Days RV Center. Sure enough, they hid the Cracker Barrel in the middle of Lazy Days. Go figure. :confused: Once in the parking lot, we step out of the car, and immediately…FREEZE OUR BUTTS OFF. :scared: We look at each other with that “Oh crap” look, cause here we all are in our shorts and short sleeve shirts, no jackets and it is literally 49 degrees outside. This was quite distressing, as I had been umm, mildly obsessed with how the weather would be for this trip. When selecting our sail date, we knew March should be pretty warm, high 70’s days high 60’s lows at night. I was so concerned it would be too cold or rainy. A cold front did push through on Friday the 16th bringing cooler (yeah, pretty cold) temps, gusty winds, and a tad bit of rain. I wasn’t concerned though, as I thought the worst of the front would have moved through by Sun. And here it was, still cold. It was, in fact, still only a little after 7 am, it should warm up to be a beautiful day, we reasoned. And ran our butts right inside to get some coffee and warm up!!!! We found the CB service quick and efficient as always (certainly not Disney caliber, but quite capable) I had fantastic pecan pancakes with the little bottles of pure maple syrup (and asked for a few extra to pocket) and sausage and biscuits. And I ate the whole darn thing. What was I thinking? I guess it was something along the lines of “This is the only meal I am paying for this whole trip and I am dang sure getting my money’s worth” or something like that! Ha! And the kids ate virtually nothing. I told them in no uncertain terms that they had better eat up because we weren’t getting lunch until we were on the boat, and I did NOT want to hear “Mommy, I’m HUNGRY” the second we walk in the terminal. My threats had little effect, and so we headed off into the sunrise in search of paradise. Or at least in search of the way out. (They do NOT want you to leave that exit until you have bought an RV, it was like that labyrinth in The Shining, only it was made out of motor homes instead of snow covered bushes!) :scared1: Finally back on the road, I was watching closely for our next exit off of I-4.. See, I knew the “toll road” would take us right to the Port, I was just hoping that the particular one that did so was also the one referenced in my Yahoo map, cause I did not want to get lost and miss out on a decent boarding number. Everyone had given me advice to take the “Beeline” which some said was called the “Beachline”, or the “Greenway”, I saw no references to any of the above roads anywhere. We got even more fidgety when approaching WDW, the sign said Port Canaveral Exit (one of the Disney exits). Ron looked at me. I shrugged. My map had us getting on the toll road at the International Blvd Exit , which is well past the throng of WDW exits. I decided we should follow the map, and he gave me the “you know we are going to miss the boat because of this” look. :mad: Thankfully, the Int. Blvd exit takes you to the same road as the WDW exits…WHEW! But aaaugh! Everyone had also told me my Sunpass (toll transponder) would work on this road, and it is asking for some “E pass” thing! So we had to stop and ask if the SunPass would work, and nice toll booth lady looked at us like we were nuts- DUH- OF COURSE it works. Well a big 'ol Steve Martin excuuuuuuuuse me, lady. It’s not like they are called the same thing. With that drama over, we can now chill and relax our long way down this expensive road. (It actually didn’t turn out too bad but the toll booths were pretty frequent in the beginning). We stopped at 7-11 for more coffee, and anxiously awaited the big dramatic emotional moment when we would go over this hill or around the corner and see the boats! And of course, leave it to us…it was pretty anti-climactic. Our own fault, you see, because we spotted the boat when it was so far away, and so tiny we could hardly tell what it was…And as it came closer into view it became obvious that yep….the boat…..cool. Not that we weren’t stoked…we were there, afterall ! I might add that any emotional variances I might be encountering were entirely unpreventable. There really isn’t a good way to put this, but ladies…don’t try to tinker with your medication thinking you can play mother nature and get Aunt Flo to visit you a week later than she thinks she’s coming cause it just might not work. And it didn’t. So that’s where I was at. :upsidedow But more important was where I WAS AT, RIGHT NOW which is Port Canaveral!!!! YIPPEEE!
It was about 9:35 AM…perfect! We followed the clearly marked signs in, and spotted the terminal on the left. We saw all the sad sacks disembarking the 3 night lugging out to the parking lot, and sympathized that all good things must come to an end. Of course like Semisonic once said “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” And since this was our beginning, all was right with the world. There wasn’t much traffic, and we didn’t see a line, or clearly where we should go. We pulled up to the Disney Cruise Line Entrance Gate on the left, where Grumpy the terminal gate guard sat. Okay, she wasn’t really GRUMPY per se, but she had a strange attitude about her when we asked where to go. She replied with a Disney smile and annoyed attitude “Well, you are too early. You can not enter the Port at this time. You have about 20 minutes”. And smiles. O-kay. (As IF we are the first ones EVER to arrive EARLY, yeah, right) It was strange, almost as if we were acting suspicious or something. Were we? So we asked just where should we go, then, since she made it crystal clear we aren’t going in there yet. She replied we should go “over there” by “that SUV” and to do so “VERY CAREFULLY” cause they just had an accident (two cars bumped by the luggage area). When she is done directing us with her forced tone and pinched smile, Ron looks at me, “You got that, right?”…WHO ME? :confused3 Ummm..no? Okay wrong answer. We spotted the other offending early arrivals in the burgundy SUV and followed them into the long term parking lot where I suppose we were supposed to form a line, which neither of us did. Thoroughly confused, Ron got out and walked across the street to get a better idea of how this worked. While I sat in the car, and while the parking lot security guy grove his golf cart up and parked right in front of our car like we did something seriously wrong and we are not getting out of here alive. :guilty: Then I spotted it! The LINE! To get in! It was forming in the turn lane and we weren’t in it!!! And I didn’t have the keys and there is a golf cart in front of me and so help me I am going to get a boarding pass no higher than 6 if it’s the LAST thing I do!!!!! So Ron comes running- no barreling- up cause he saw the line starting, and we scurried off to get in it. Somehow Burgundy SUV saw it too, and slid out in front of us. (They didn’t have golf cart guy to maneuver around). We got concerned at the street, cause all of the people in “the line” formed in the turn lane were now turning in, blocking us off from driving straight across into the gate. Oh no you di’int. Burgundy SUV guy was savvy and he just slid right in front of them, and we followed right behind. YEAH! Grumpy guard lady was no longer cranky (Since it was officially 10 now, I suppose), she checked our ID’s and ushered us in to an old guy waiting under an umbrella. Umbrella Guy checked our ID’s again and searched his manifest for us. Yep there we are…..Zip A Dee Dooh Da! In lightning speed we are dropping off the luggage, and it suddenly all seemed real. We had arrived!:yay:

[sherry]

I am enjoying your trip report, thanks for sharing.

[pppiglet]

Keep on writing!

[lisa6373]

Subscribing!

[nenner1]

“We're gypsies in the palace, they’ve left us here alone
The order of the Sleepless Knights will now assume
the throne
We ain't got no money, we ain't got no right
But we're gypsies in the palace, we’ve got it all tonight”

So we had arrived at the terminal and were escorted through the gate right at 10 AM. There did not seem to be many people around yet as we were unloading our seven (right?:confused3 ) pieces of luggage. We were still right behind the family from the burgundy SUV, we found ourselves right behind them many times throughout the cruise for whatever reason. Strange how that happens. Though the line in the turn lane to get in was growing, there still was not a lot of foot (or vehicle) traffic in our immediate vicinity. Isolated people were entering the terminal here and there but there was no mass exodus towards the doors yet, so I figured we could park and all walk across together. We parked next to and walked across the street behind burgundy SUV guys. After crossing the street, there is a little podium where another CM checks your ID’s and the manifest again. As we approached, a MASSIVE, GIGANTIC throng of folks amassed near the luggage drop off area to the right, and it appeared they were charging the podium area, encroaching on our empty space like some sort of dark cloud of humanity!:scared1: Oh they were NOT going to slide in from the right and get in front of us, no way!!! Where did all these people come from?? Just 10 seconds ago the place was calm and quiet. Luckily we sidestepped and they had no choice but to fall in behind us.:cool: Once greeted and meticulously checked over by podium guy, who was mildly concerned that my drivers license had my maiden name on it, which was not included on the manifest. I convinced him that I really was me, and I was not a terrorist threat (as long as I can get in that terminal and get my boarding pass QUICKLY anyway), and with a big smile he said “Enjoy your trip!” And we scurried off into the terminal door, leaving podium guy and the huge mass of fervent cruisers eager to begin their trips behind. I can’t express how ecstatic we were at that moment, I think I was literally jumping up & down :hyper: (yeah, I did have to use the restroom really bad too). Right as you walk in, you encounter security and it is pretty much just like airline security (though no shoe removing thank goodness!). We plopped our bags on the x-ray conveyor and stepped through the metal detector. Of course Ron set it off, but that was fine, it gave me a minute to get ahead of him and get up that escalator and plan my attack. At the top of the elevator I quickly scanned the upper level of the terminal looking for a conspicuous CM handing out boarding passes. Hmm. Nope. No one. The only CM I spotted was behind the first round table assisting some folks filling out their paperwork. I had read that they hand out the boarding passes upon your arrival in the terminal, I hoped I hadn’t overlooked them. I stopped at the table and asked the CM where they were handing out boarding passes. Smiling she replied, “Over there” and gestured behind towards the check in counters. Interesting. Was it too early to be handing them out en masse yet? I wasn’t gonna hang there by the escalator and find out! I scooted over into the check in line, which was only about 4 families long, it hadn’t snaked into the queue yet. Of course, I ended up right behind our parking lot buddies from the burgundy SUV. Ron and the kids had caught up and he asked me why we were not in “that line over there”, which was shorter. I pointed out to him that it was the Castaway Club line, and said “Next time…” As we waited in the line I staked out the terminal. It was still pretty empty, I’d say only 30 to 40 people were scattered about in other areas (concentrated down at the boarding end by the snack bar). But more and more folks were arriving by the second and CM’s darted over to direct the line into the queue. The line moved very quickly as each window was fully staffed with CM’s. We probably only waited about five minutes before it was our turn. I was worried about the boarding pass, paranoid that they would start handing them out by the escalator and somehow we would get skipped over. As soon as we approached the CM, I asked her if this is where we got our boarding passes. She smiled and figured she’d better placate me quick, before the terrorist threat went up to orange! And she handed me the most glorious thing (or at least I thought it was at the time):

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07605.jpg

(And you thought I was just going to show you pictures from my family photo album!)

Now, I had pretty much assumed that BP #’s 1 & 2 were reserved strictly for concierge guests. So getting a 3 was about as good as one could do (I have since read of non-concierge early arrivers snagging a 1 and 2 BP’s, so they CAN be obtained). I was happier than a pig in poop! She checked us in swiftly and handed over the next best thing to the #3 BP:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/kttw.jpg


Our KTTW! And we were super happy to see that our request for dining rotation had been filled: we had the 8:15 seating APPT! That could not have worked out better! Animator’s Palate the first night, and the repeated restaurants on nights 2 & 3 just like we had hoped & planned. (Tip: DO NOT HESITATE to call up Disney and make a request prior to sailing! They just might fill it!) Our friendly & knowledgeable CM whose name I don’t recall then pointed us to the snack bar area to sign the kids up for the Oceaneer’s Club. She did forget to give us a Navigator but Ron quickly went over to another CM and snagged one. In all the excitement I had forgotten how bad I had to use the restroom, and we moved over that way to get in that, much longer OC line. This one was snaked in the queue, and I’d say had about 15 families in it. It was about this point I heard what I had feared all morning was coming…”Mommy! I’m HUUUUNGRY!” We are but an hour and a half away from all the free glorious wonderful food we could eat and find ourselves facing a dilemma – give in(the weak spineless parents that we are) and buy some overpriced fritos at the snack bar, or listen to “mommyimhungrymommyimhungrymommyimhungry”
for the next 90 minutes. :sad2: So Ron jumped out into the snack bar line. (You pick your battles). With the little monsters sated we advanced in the OC line, though not a quickly as the check-in line It wasn’t too bad, maybe 10-15 minutes and it was our turn. Since we had registered online (TIP: Fill out everything you can online. It really streamlines things) it only took a minute or two to get the wristbands on, (not the huge clunky things, just little white plastic ones) get our pager, and set our password (Ron did not pay any attention to any part of that conversation, which will come into play later) and we were done! They released us into terminal, and into the throngs of cruisers that had since gathered! Wow! It got packed quick! :crowded: We got a spot on one of the couches. We went to the restrooms. The kids checked out the model of the ship. And then I heard the next worst thing to ‘mommyi’mhungry’…..”MOMMY i’m BORED”

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07001.jpg

You have GOT to be kidding me.
So I dragged out our new camera to busy them with picture taking activities. It was brand spanking new right out of the box. We had just bought it Friday. And we didn’t know how to use it. Probably not the best idea. (TIP: If you buy a new camera or camcorder for the cruise, be sure you read the instruction manual BEFORE you leave on the trip!). We had previously had a Sony Cybershot, which is a point & shoot, but we had upgraded to a Canon Powershot 300si (or something like that), which is like one step below the Canon Rebel, and it has a million and a half features we totally could not figure out. We did figure out which button to push to actually take the pics, though and that was all we needed to know for the time being. So we got some pictures by the embarkation ears…

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar02.jpg


And out by the boat…..

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar04.jpg

And right then Goofy bounded out! The kids got to meet Goofy, and get some pics (including our first of many Shutters photo ops!)

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar06.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar08.jpg

You know one thing the terminal could use is those CM’s that walk around asking you if you need a drink. Cause I certainly did at that point! “….Hey Snake, we need more wine” :drinking1

And not long after that, I heard “Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys……” And BOLTED up off the couch! It was almost noon, and I knew what was coming! “….Boarding passes one and two please approach the embarkation area. Once again boarding passes ONE and TWO….” Oh I was up! We gathered our stuff as quick as we could. Even though I have my reputation as an over-packer, we had light carry ons, just a small tote for me and the laptop bag for Ron to carry (some families it seemed, had whole sets of luggage!) (TIP: only take what you absolutely need in your carry on. You can’t put it in your stateroom ‘til 1:30, and you will have to navigate the boat -including the decks and the buffets- with it). But we couldn’t gather our stuff quick enough. It was literally no more than one minute later that we heard “Boarding passes THREE and FOUR please approach the embarkation area, THREE AND FOUR”.. Yikes! Look out! Outtamyway! That’s us!!!!!!!! I blasted my way through the gathering crowds of folks waiting to board, the family trailing behind trying to not lose me. The CM at the ropes checked my pass and nodded us in! We are finally getting on that boat!!
:jumping1:

[oceangirl]

Love your trip report! I have a couple of questions. We haven't cruised yet, but I've been reading the boards trying to figure it all out. Are you not allowed to bring travel irons onboard? I hadn't seen anything about that......did they confiscate yours or was it okay? Also, I had read that they hand out the boarding passes before you go up the escalator. Does this change? How do you know where to get your boarding pass? Thanks. Looking forward to your next installment....!

[parrotheadmom]

Hi! I feel like were friends already. I'm a fellow parrothead from Utah! I have pictures of my parakeets with the same mask on at a Buffett show in Vegas. My family travels to Vegas and San Diego just to see Bubba! I'm a little bit of an obsessed fan, my daughters names are Delaney and Marley! Wish you were cruising in October for the Halloween cruise with us. Love the trip report so far, I can't wait to read the rest. Lynette

[nenner1]

Love your trip report! I have a couple of questions. We haven't cruised yet, but I've been reading the boards trying to figure it all out. Are you not allowed to bring travel irons onboard? I hadn't seen anything about that......did they confiscate yours or was it okay? Also, I had read that they hand out the boarding passes before you go up the escalator. Does this change? How do you know where to get your boarding pass? Thanks. Looking forward to your next installment....!

Hi Oceangirl, happy to answer your Q's... About the iron, I read in the books (Birnbaum's and the Passporter) that ironing was not permitted in the staterooms due to fire regulations. We actually called Disney and asked them if we could bring a travel iron and they said absolutley not. But I smuggled it on anyway, well hidden in my checked luggage with my hairdryer and curling irons. They did not confiscate it, even though I left it in plain view of my stateroom host a couple of times. My advice would be go for it and bring one on but you never know if they might catch it. I can't confirm but I have a feeling they don't x-ray, scan or inspect checked luggage in any way. As far as the boarding passes, your guess is as good as mine. I had also heard that they have handed them out at the top of the escalator, the bottom of the escalator, and now I know at least on one occasion they handed them out at check in. I can only guess that where they decide to hand them out depends on how full the cruise is (or maybe how many CM's called in sick that day). :sick: All I can say is they always seem to be changing things, just keep reading TR's and when you arrive keep your eyes and ears open and ask the first CM you see!!

Glad you are enjoying the TR!

[nenner1]

Hi! I feel like were friends already. I'm a fellow parrothead from Utah! I have pictures of my parakeets with the same mask on at a Buffett show in Vegas. My family travels to Vegas and San Diego just to see Bubba! I'm a little bit of an obsessed fan, my daughters names are Delaney and Marley! Wish you were cruising in October for the Halloween cruise with us. Love the trip report so far, I can't wait to read the rest. Lynette


Happy to meet you Lynette!!! Always love to meet new PH friends:hug:

We are probably about as obsessed as you.:cool2: I practically grew up in the keys, we vacationed down there four weeks a year, so I was born & raised a PH. Both mine & hubby's parents were lucky enough to have gone to the Eagles/JB tour in the late 70's.
We started going to concerts for the Fruitcakes tour in 1995 (well, I started at OTSTL tour in 89)...have been to at least 40 of them since, traveling to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Atlanta several times, Raleigh, Manassas Va, and Boston several times. My son Brendan went to his first concert at 5 mos old, and my daughter's scheduled labor induction was postponed so we could attend a concert!! LOL, my doc was not happy about that. And luckily she held off, I went into labor the next night! Her name is, of course, Savannah!!:thumbsup2 Have you ever noticed how many PH's you find on the DIS? It's great!
We can't sail in October with you unfortunately, but it's not too late for you to join us on the Alt. Western Double Dip sailing Sept. 27, 2008! We could check out Margaritaville Cozumel together!;)

I'm sure you will enjoy this TR! :flower3:

[ibouncetoo]

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07001.jpg


OH, the drama! This picture just cracked me up!
Can't wait to read the next installment.

[granmaz]

Your trip report is brilliant! Thanks for sharing. Love the pictures too you make a whole life story here!!

You have 2 lovely cute children and that picture of your bored daughter is wonderful.

Looking forward to more.

[lunsusie]

WONDERful trip report! Thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to your next instalment!:sail:

[lincolnsparents]

:happytv: i am enjoying your trip report you could write a book

[Dixielady908]

totally enjoying your report...dont leave us hanging too long...


Denise:banana:

[nenner1]

:happytv: i am enjoying your trip report you could write a book

Thank You! Actually, I am in the research portion of doing just that. :) Its what I call a "serious hobby" and I was anxious to see the reaction to my TR to see if I was good at it or not! ;) At times I can be a bit too wordy! :hyper2:

Sorry to leave you hangin' now that we've finally gottento the part in the TR where we are on the boat! We took a mini-vacation to MK on Fri.:earsboy:

Working on the next part now...hang in there!:hourglass

[mickeyluv]

We are taking our first cruise (me, DH and DD age 10) in November on the Wonder and I am loving your TR!!! :love: You have had me laughing my head off!! I am actually copying this to a word document now and printing it out so I can take the rest of it to my bed and read while lying down!! Nothing like reading about Disney Cruise's to hopefully lead to "sweet" dreaming about Disney Cruises. I'll be back looking and patiently waiting for your next installment. BTW, you are a wonderful TR writer!!!

Your children are beautiful!!

[nenner1]

"Nautical Wheelers who call themselves sailors
Play fiddle tunes under the stars
Petticoats rustle, workin' shoes scuffle
Shuffle on down to the bar..."

We bounded through the mouse ears, right behind (guess who?!) the burgundy SUV gang! Right inside, to the left and to the right are the backdrops for the embarkation pictures. Small lines were gathering here. We got in one, and they moved swiftly. The photographer arranged us, first a family group shot of all of us, then one of just the kids. The one of the kids turned out better. We bought both, even though Ron & I look kindof tired in the family shot (we were). Here it is:


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/embark-1.jpg


Right past the photography backdrops, is where the enclosed gangway to the ship is located. We stopped the kids for a picture as we embarked:


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Though it looks like we are alone, there was actually another family right before us inside the boat to the right. They were telling a Cast Member on the right their last name, to announce their arrival. After we crossed the gangplank, the CM on the left asked me our name. They announced the family before us, to a round of applause from the welcoming CM’s in the lobby atrium. As soon as “Welcome the whoever family" rolled off their lips, they immediately announced “Welcome the Fredericks family”…to only a smattering of applause. ?!?!?:confused3 They ran both announcements so close together like one big run-on sentence, there was only one round of applause, and our announcement was at the tail end of it. But it didn’t even matter that we didn’t get a real round of applause, because I was so happy to finally be on the ship! And I still don’t know how they did it, if the female CM who asked me our name must have been miked or wearing those secret service agent earpieces, because she never told anyone else our name, and a male CM made the announcement almost immediately as the words were coming out of my mouth. How did they do that? (It must be that Disney magic!):wizard: So, again, the big emotional moment of our embarkation pronouncement was anti-climactic…I wasn’t expecting it to happen so fast.

We moved into the atrium past about 15 CM’s (the ones doing -or not doing- the clapping). There were hardly any passengers hanging out in there. They were being shepherded rather quickly towards Parrot Cay for the embarkation buffet. I didn’t want to go there so quick. I wanted to get my bearings, as I was already overwhelmed by all the action, excitement, and the grandeur of the atrium. I also had a little list of the things I wanted to do upon embarking. One of which was inquire about the Palo brunch availability. I knew we had to go to Wavebands at 1:00 for that. It was only a little after noon at that point, so I suggested we go see if they had started early so we could get that out of the way. I headed in what I thought was the direction of Wavebands, and as soon as we rounded the corner by Guest Services, I was lost. It seems no matter how many diagrams and layouts of the ship you look at, or how many photos you pore over, you can’t be totally familiar with it until you see it. I had such a fixed idea in my head of how the ship would be. I had pictured a very open floor plan, with big open areas. With the exception of the atrium and the upper decks that isn’t the case. It never occurred to me that there might be hallways to confuse me! Normally I’m pretty good with acclimating myself to an area and directionals. Ron looked at the map and headed us down the little empty hall devoid of any guests or CM’s and around to the entrance to WB. It has the back end of an old car and an old-fashioned gas pump as landmarks across from the entrance, which I duly noted in case I ever wanted to find my way back there again. (By the end of the cruise I knew how to find the back door!!!) Unfortunately, they were not taking reservations yet. We decided to head to the buffet. The plan was to eat quick and come back to get the brunch ressie, head up to our stateroom and drop off our carry-ons and then out to deck 9 to the pools and the Bahama Mamas! We backtracked up the hall where this time we passed a few CM’s, all of whom gave us the “What are you doing here when you aren’t supposed to be?” look. :sad2:

There were quite a few more people in the atrium by now, and I was all too happy to follow them towards Parrot Cay. We walked through the Promenade Lounge(which , thankfully was open space and not a hallway) and arrived at the entryway to PC, where the sound of tropical birds serenade you as you cross the threshold (it reminded me of Rainforest Café). CM’s greet your party at the door and seat you at a table. A server asked us what we wanted to drink. I knew how the rotational dining worked and I knew that this would not necessarily be our server, assistant server or head server that would be with us at dinner time. What I did NOT know was how to handle tips for these “accessory” servers. I decided to watch the people at the table next to us and see how they handled it. We waited at the table for our drinks and plates for the buffet. Our server returned with our drinks and told us we could go ahead and help ourselves to the food, plates were up at the buffet line. We rushed up to it (even though we were still full from breakfast) and filled our plates with goodies. Literally. My plate had nothing but desserts. There was a chocolate cake, an apple cobbler, a pastry puff that resembled an éclair, a cheesecake, a cream pie – lemon I think, a tiramisu type of layered trifle bar, and cookies. (Sorry I didn’t take pics of the food. You will have to go to RV’s or SaintTaris’ TR’s for that!) Oh and there were little sundae glasses with white chocolate pudding. I found these little puddings intriguing as the glasses were fluted and narrow and the spoons were wide. After trying to jam my spoon down into the neck of the glass to reach the last spoonfuls of deliciousness, I realized that I was not going to find a way to make it fit. I looked at the girl sitting at the table next to ours. Lo & behold she had a dessert glass that also had an uneaten, unreachable pudding puddle in the bottom of it. Hmm. But ***I*** had an iced tea spoon! Ah HA! No uneaten pudding for me!. My second trip up I got more of the sweets, and a roll...you know, for balance.:rolleyes1 I didn’t have anything else, but there were deli meats and cheeses, a full salad bar, some yellow rice, I think there was roast beef, and of course, the peel & eat shrimp. There was a little kids section off to the right that had chicken fingers, macaroni & cheese, and spaghetti & meatballs. Also out in the dining room, not far from the main buffet, was an ice cream table. I didn’t stop there, though…I was full of cake and pudding! It was about this time we noticed we were near our assigned dinner table, #66. We were curious as to whether or not we would have company or would be dining alone. Not that we’re anti-social, it’s just we would have been more comfortable on our own. And at least for our first cruise we wanted to relax and enjoy our meals without worrying if we’re snorting soda, dribbling ketchup, or completely missing the fork while taking a bite of food... and if our tablemates noticed if you know what I mean. Plus our kids can be crazy. Especially if eating a meal with other kids! :hyper: When we located it we saw it was a 7-top. Unusual. We must be seated with a party of three. Ron & I gave each other an uh-oh look. It would be interesting!
Meanwhile, I watched the table next to us, and I never saw them hand over a KKTW, sign anything, and they did not leave a tip on the table. I looked at hubby, like what are we supposed to do and he said “We can’t use cash on the boat”, which I assume translates as “We have no choice but to stiff the guy, duh” Oky doky, whatever you say. I wonder what happens at lunch & breakfast, when it’s full service????:confused: So after completely stuffing ourselves to the point of near explosion, we rolled on back to WB and now they were taking and changing ressies. We had to wait in line while the people being helped decided they needed to read the entire menu and ask every question you could possibly imagine before making their reservation. Of course, when it was our turn it was:

“Do you have brunch reservations available?”
“Yes”
“What times?”
“10:00 and 10:30”
“We’ll take 10:30”
“Okay”

In & out in less than 90 seconds (not including the 10 minute wait). I’m sure the people behind us appreciated it! Quite a line had amassed while we were waiting.

Now that the to-do list was complete, we had planned to go to the stateroom and check it out and drop off our bags, but it was only 1:15. Hubby says, “Well, let’s go see. Maybe we can get in early”. (Didn’t we do this one time already? Plus I’d read on the DIS that they are pretty strict about the 1:30 thing). But okay. Sure enough when we arrived on Deck 7, the blue “ropes” were still up. We decided to go up and scope out deck 9, then come back after 1:30. We went up the midship stairs to 9. When I booked our stateroom, I knew we wanted to be closer to the top of the ship, where the pools and all of the “activities” were. I wanted deck 8, but that is the penthouse of the boat. Deck 8 has only categories 1-4. So I settled for deck 7, midship. It was a good thing. The elevators were somewhat of an issue. It seemed like every time we were several (or more) decks away from where we wanted to be and needed an elevator, one would never come. Or when it did it was either a) full or b) other people beat us to it. So we traveled the stairs a lot. While midship was an okay location, I would have preferred to be more aft. The beverage station is aft, as is the Mickey pool where we spent most of our time when we were on deck. We came out of the deck 9 lobby by the arcade and walked around to see the Dumbotron. We were wondering if the Wonder got one when it was in dry dock, and there it was…
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07004.jpg

It’s pretty cool, it automatically adjusts to the amount of light outside so that the display is always bright, clear, and easy to see (unlike my supposedly HD projection set at home that you have to close the blinds to see anything). We got some drinks, and played a little ping pong while we waited.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07005.jpg
It wasn’t long before it 1:30 arrived and we walked back down to the deck 7 lobby. We had entered the elevator lobby from the other doors, and as I headed for the hallway and our stateroom, I headed to the wrong side. OOPS. If you think I had trouble down on deck 3, imagine how hard it was for me to find my stateroom on a deck full of nothing but identical hallways and room doors. I looked at the carpet ‘cause in the old (they have since updated it...I just saw the new one the other night) DCL special on the Travel Channel it tells you that the red anchors in the carpet point aft and the blue ones point forward or something like that. But all of the anchors on this carpet pointed the same way. And they were all silver on blue background. Looks like replacing the carpet was something else they did during dry dock. I never did get oriented as to what way was aft and what way was forward, starboard, or port, not even by the end of the cruise. I’m thinking I need a 7-night in order to master those skills!

When I finally got in the right (correct) hall, our stateroom, 7539, was only a few steps from the midship lobby. We opened the door and went in. :scared1: We had read the Disney staterooms were 20% larger than the industry standard. If that’s the case, then the industry standard is smaller than my closet, and this room is hardly bigger than my master bathroom. Wow. :crowded: I was thinking it would be difficult with a space so small, but we could manage (the ship was full, what choice did we have?)...that is, until the luggage arrived. Which, BTW, was only minutes later. All (seven?) pieces of luggage were delivered by 2:00. We brought it in, and resisted the urge to unpack. In fact, we resisted that urge the entire cruise. There wasn’t anywhere to put all that stuff anyway. We got our swim suits on, and while the kids were getting ready, I decorated our door. We got the paint chips from Home Depot. I had to cut out the mickey ears shape, and I put an adhesive magnet on the back of each one. The large magnet I made myself in Word. I was doubtful I could make a decent looking one, some of the ones posted on the DIS are so awesome, but I got some practice making Savannah’s dance recital program ad, and I think it came out pretty good. In fact, I heard many comments out in the hall. Most people thought DCL actually provided it! HA! :smooth: Here is a pic:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07111.jpg


Now that we were settled, it was time to find the party. Did I mention there is a deck chair and a Bahama Mama with my name on it awaiting me? :cool1:

“And it's dance with me, dance with me, Nautical Wheelers
Take me to stars that you know
Come on and dance with me, dance with me, Nautical Wheelers
I want so badly to go”

[MagicMe]

I'm really enjoying your trip report. Feel like I'm back on the Wonder!! Also loved your early pictures - again reminds me of my own photo album!!

[nenner1]

“The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful
The skies are too clear, life’s so easy today
The beer is too cold, the daiquiris too fruitiful
No place like home when you’re this far away
I don’t care what they say!”

The weather was there, alright. Only problem was, it wasn’t quite what we had hoped it would be. The sun was out and the skies were clear, but boy was it COLD!:scared: Go ahead and shake your head at me, northerners...but I’m a born & raised Florida cracker, and to me anything below 75 degrees is chilly. It probably topped out around 70 that day. In & of itself the temperature would be tolerable, maybe even nice…but tornado-like gusts of wind were blowing on deck. Anything that wasn’t tied down was airborne (napkins, empty ketchup packets, towels, straws, cup lids, french fries..(!) We ventured over to the Mickey Pool, which was busy but not crazy yet.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07050.jpg


(If you think that’s bad, just wait till you see the pictures from the at-sea day!).

We quickly discovered the first DCL myth : no saving seats, deck chairs, or lounges. Yeah, RIGHT. Every single chair had something other than a person on it. Clothing articles, bags, towels, drinks, food, magazines, etc. Actually a couple of chairs did also have people on them. The kids ran off to the pool and its wonderful 86 degree water, while we surveyed the area. I spotted one lounge in the middle of the back row with nothing but one of the white towels on it. To me, that is not enough to call it occupied and I dragged it out, behind, and around to the end of the front row into the sun. The back row was in shade and it was too cold to be there. Soon a CM happened by with some Bahama Mama’s in a souvenir cup. Now that’s what I’m talking about! I chatted a bit with the woman in the lounge next to me, she had two young boys in the pool. (In fact every time we walked by the Mickey Pool the entire cruise we saw her sitting right there in the same lounge. We wondered if she had saved money by not booking a stateroom and just slept on that lounge chair! :lmao: !) She said she thought the people next to her were gone and moved some drink cups and slid over so we had two lounges. Perfect. One thing I noticed is each pool area on 9 has its’ own soundtrack..The adult pool area played some soft relaxing background muzak or was quiet, the Mickey pool had kids favorites (including a slightly annoying kidz-bop version of “Mickey” by Toni Basil…you know “Oh mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind..Mickey, Hey Mickey!” Yeah. I heard that one a few too many times over that four days!) The Goofy pool had my favorite background music. The first time we walked on deck we heard Barenaked Ladies and Dave Matthews Band so we thought it was only a matter of time before we heard some Jimmy Buffett! We were wrong though. Even though the Goofy pool has the best soundtrack, it is hardly ever playing because there is always a movie on the dumbotron. Oh well. Anyway, we relaxed, enjoyed our tasty drinks, and watched the kids have fun in the pool:

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Brendan enjoyed the slide but Savannah would not try it, even though she goes on much larger slides at Adventure Island, the water park back home. She claimed the air was too cold to get out of the water. It was.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07037.jpg


Brendan found himself a little girlfriend in the pool. In just two hours he got a huge crush on her! They were playing some sort of tag game, it was so cute! Her name was Courtney, but he didn’t ask her where she was from. He looked forward to playing with her throughout the cruise! (Sadly, we never ran in to her again) That’s her in the pink bikini:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07026.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07034.jpg


As we sat and drank, we noticed the deck emptying out. It was getting close to 4:00, time for the boat drill. We dragged (literally) the kids out of the water and back to the stateroom. We dried and dressed the kids and I also changed my clothes. (I had brought enough to change three times daily.) Inside the closet we found three adult and one child life jackets. That would have to do. We put them on and went out in the hall to find our muster station. CM’s were stationed in the lobbies and halls pointing which direction to go. I wondered how they knew where to direct us to, then I noticed the big “C” printed on the front…oh…! Our station was out on deck 4, and we arrived quickly. Although we were about 10 minutes early, many other people were already there. They placed us in order by room #’s, and we chatted with the people in the room next to us, and with some others from Tampa. More and more people kept arriving to that small area of the deck by the midship lobby doors. They weren’t all from deck 7…some were from the same area of decks 6 and 8. As more and more arrived, our CM’s squeezed us tighter and tighter together. In fact they said “Shoulder to shoulder is not close enough. Squeeze in tighter and get to know your neighbors!” I’m sure they thought that was funny. And for a cool breezy day it was like a stifling furnace on that little section of deck. I can’t imagine having an outside muster station on a hot July day…ugh! The only amusement provided was the view of the Royal Caribbean ship docked next to us doing their drill. It was fun to watch them mustering up, almost like a mirror image of us, only in yellow jackets. (I wanted to take a pic of them but we were sandwiched in so tightly I couldn't raise my arms. No joke.) We had to stand out there for a very long time. All of the other TR’s I read reported the drill as quick and painless. Our experience was anything but that. At least I can offer advice : Don’t arrive early. You might as well stroll in fashionably late, as you won’t get dismissed until everyone is there anyway. They called out the stateroom numbers that they hadn’t already accounted for, the horn blew, and finally we were done. Maybe ours was unusually long, but it took a half an hour.

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Happy to be free, we ran back up to 7 to get rid of our clunky orange fashion statements and get up to the deck party! Even though we wasted no time and got back up to 9 in short order, the sail away celebration was in full swing. Did nobody else on this ship go to that safety drill? Or more likely, was everybody else on board released before us? It was already so packed. I had thought deck 10 would be the best place to be, and I would have been right as it was much less crowded. However, if you have kids, you might want to stay down on the dance floor over the Goofy pool on 9, because they get to go up on stage and dance towards the end. When we arrived we slid into the back of the crowd on the dance floor.

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All of the characters were already dancing up on stage to “Celebration”.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07054.jpg

Streamers shot out at the crowd and the kids shrieked and ran after them. (they are easily amused)

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We danced some more, and then they called for the kids up on stage to dance to the YMCA and the Casper Slide:

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I love this pic, look at the all the girls’ hair!
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07073.jpg



Right after the kids were done, we heard the ship’s horn go off to “When you wish upon a star”, and my eyes welled up! I felt silly being so emotional, but as you know my hormonal imbalance was in full swing and for the duration of the cruise I would find my eyes filling with tears at all kinds of strange moments! The boat didn’t move for a while, though, and as we waited we walked around deck 9. Finally we started moving slowly, following the Royal Caribbean and the Carnival ships down the channel. I totally forgot about looking back to the CM’s at the port waving their huge white gloved hands. Instead we headed all the way forward, as did much of the entire population of the ship. Most people were too cold to stay right out on the bow and huddled behind the plexiglass. We walked right up to the rail and got the best spot dead center. This first pic really shows the effects of the wind:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07087.jpg

A view of the coast of Florida as we are pulling away:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07012.jpg


And a super zoom of NASA, as seen from the boat:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07047.jpg

The view from the front:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07079.jpg



The trip was off to a great start, but it was moving really fast! It was already time to go get ready for the show and dinner!:eek:

“I need time for to play...”

[mickeyluv]

I may have stated this earlier, but we go on our first cruise in November on the Wonder and I am lovvvvving this trip report!! :banana:

[nenner1]

I may have stated this earlier, but we go on our first cruise in November on the Wonder and I am lovvvvving this trip report!! :banana:

I'm so glad!! I'm trying to put in all the details I can recall, and my hopes are its' perspective from a first time cruiser will help out those who are planning their first cruise. I hope I can remember it all, I didn't take any notes...:sad2:

[nenner1]

“Great God almighty which way do I steer?”


We headed back to our room to get ready for the show. Having been assigned the late dinner seating, we would catch the first show at 6:15 then on to dinner at 8:15. This is when things got a little hairy. There was a lot of stepping over and around each other as we tried to get ready, as the room was not really wide enough for two of us to pass at once (small room, hurried parents, hyper kids, way too much luggage!) It was semi-controlled chaos. Somehow we managed to get done with about 20 minutes to spare before the start of the show. As we headed out, we encountered our stateroom host, Dewa from the Philippines. I cannot say enough about Dewa. He did a fantastic job navigating our disaster twice daily. He actually picked up the room a little for us! (Normally you might expect a stateroom host to do this sort of thing, but our mess was SO cluttered I can’t imagine how he even knew where to start).:eek: We warned him of what he was about to encounter and headed downstairs.

We arrived at the Walt Disney Theater about 15 minutes before showtime, and once again were re-acquainted with the Disney-No-Saving-Seats-Myth. The place was alredy pretty much packed and every time we thought we’d spotted good seats, we’d see the lone family member seat-saver hovering over the kill and shooting the “don’t even think about it” look. It wasn’t really a big deal, though. Thankfully, everyone in the theatre also followed the “slide all the way in” Disney rule, and I spotted four aisle seats just right of center about 10 rows from the back. We headed down the aisle, and that’s when it happened. The swaying, swooping and tilting. I hadn’t felt the boat moving ‘til now, and it was suddenly intense and overwhelming. It came out of nowhere. I wasn’t sure if I could even make it to the seat, and I don’t know how I did. :guilty: We had brought Dramamine and Bonine with us for Ron & the kids…not for me, because I was relatively certain I would not feel sea sick. I mean after all, I had grown up on the water, had owned a boat a good portion of my life. I had well established sea legs…or so I thought. I felt dizzy and woozy, lightheaded and heavy all at once. I didn’t really feel nauseous, but definitely unsettled. From the door down the aisle to the row was the longest fifteen feet of my life! It reminded me of the scene in Poltergeist where Carol Ann’s mom is running down the hall and the hall keeps getting longer and longer. Finally I reached my chair, collapsed into it and held on to the armrests tightly as if that would stop the profound movement. Oblivious to our predicament, the kids saw other kids with popcorn, and of course insisted they should have some (they were never affected by the rough seas, not for the entire cruise). popcorn:: I needed some water also, so Ron headed to the snack bar, with a stop back at the room for Dramamine. Meanwhile I sat in a transfixed daze watching the curtain lurch to the left…right…..left…..right. It was almost as if the whole theater noticed it instantaneously, because suddenly there was an audible buzz. Ron returned, perturbed that he could not find the Dramamine, only the Bonine. He passed me some and took some himself. I wondered how it was even possible for the actors to perform with the stage pitching so much. Mercifully we did not have to wait long for distraction. Hercules the Muse-ical began. I have never seen the movie Hercules, so I wasn’t too familiar with all the characters nor with the story line. I don’t know if that really would have helped, as preoccupied as I was with the boat shifting. Still, the show was fantastic. Maybe it was because I had lower expectations, having heard raves about Golden Mickeys and Disney Dreams. I loved it, though. Hercules is the most comedic of the three, and I was laughing my you-know-what off! The fourth Muse – who is a dude- was a trip. Pain & Panic were also excellent, but Hades stole the show. An example, at one point Hercules, in his “skirt” is pinned to the ground (by something I can’t recall) and Hades says “Hey Britney!” and motions for him to cross his legs (a reference to Britney Spears and her pantyless paparazzi scandal). I do the joke no justice in my retelling, but it was hilarious! All in all, a wonderful show. Afterwards we had about an hour to kill before dinner, so we stopped in the Atrium for some photos. We got lucky and happened upon Mickey & Minnie, one of only two times they appear together the entire cruise:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/mickminfamily.jpg

The kids also got to meet Lilo & Stitch and we took some pics in the Atruim:


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07092.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07097-1.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07095.jpg


I don’t care how seasick we were. We were HUNGRY. We had been waiting six months for this food! And it was finally time. We walked towards Animators Palate, and found ourselves passing smack dab through the middle of Shutters! (A-HA! I found it!) We had spent a lot of time in the atrium, and were a little late for dinner, so we didn’t stop to look at our embarkation photos yet. We arrived at Animators and were escorted to our table. So far, our dining partners had not arrived yet. I wondered if they were at Palo, or if we were going to get lucky! We were then introduced to our serving team. Jeff was our head server (I want to say he was from South Africa, but I could be wrong). Simona from Romania was our Assistant Server. She quickly poured us water, obtained our drink order, and served the bread. Simona did a very good job throughout the cruise. She was sweet and pleasant, and very attentive to the kids. She made origami with the kids’ menus and they really liked that:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07102.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07107.jpg

JoJo from the Philippines was our main server. He was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. He made the mistake of doing magic tricks for the kids (only a mistake because the kids demanded he keep doing them over & over!). We were very happy with our serving team. We ordered our food, and sat back to enjoy the “show”. In Animator’s Palate- for those who don’t know- dining is a whole sensory experience, with a visual show for the eyes, and a fantastic choreographed symphony playing in the background for the ears, and of course…the meal for your taste buds! Both Ron and I selected the Wild Garlic Mushrooms appetizer. It was to die for! Mushrooms in a creamy garlic sauce served over a puff pastry shell. We devoured it. It was about this time JoJo asked us is anyone was joining us. I said I did not know. I guess he had meant were there any more people in our party, because he then cleared off the extra three place settings. Woo-hoo! We were on our own! I no longer had to suck my stomach in (as if that was even going to be possible after too much longer!) The dinners moved along rapidly and it was time for our next course, which for both of us was the Caesar Salad with shaved parmesan and focaccia croutons. I am not a huge fan of Caesar salad, but this one was great. We ate all that up , and awaited our main course. Again, we had chosen identically, the Bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon with Seafood filled Pastry Shell (No, not a cheeseburger!). The filets were cooked traditionally, bacon wrapped and seared to perfection. The meat was tender and flavorful. I truly have to say that up until that point was the best steak I’d ever had. The seafood filled pastry shell I had thought I probably wouldn’t eat. I had pictured it as a traditional stuffed shell, but it wasn’t that at all. It came out as a fish shaped patty- almost like a hash brown- with a small amount of seafood in the center and a drizzle of tomato/feta sauce. It was really good! I cleaned my plate, as did Ron. Brendan had pizza, which he surprisingly ate very little of (too much popcorn), and Savannah had macaroni & cheese, and she only ate one bite (it is the more traditional cafeteria style- not Kraft Dinner!). They had fries but didn’t eat many of them. Bring on my favorite- dessert! I chose Boston Cream Pie and Ron got the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. We each tasted each others but ate mainly our own. The Boston Cream Pie was delicious with soft, spongy yellow cake, dense Boston cream filling, and rich chocolate glaze. The chocolate peanut butter pie was also sinfully rich, but a bit too peanut-buttery for me. The quality of our first meal was excellent, and we were both stuffed to the gills. But don’t forget, this is the Merry Unbirthday cruise, and next thing I know, I had a Happy Birthday serenade from our servers and was presented with a HUGE chunk of Celebration Cake!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07105.jpg



I could only manage to eat one bite of it. It is a cheesecake-type fluffy thing, not really cake. Kindof a cross between a jello mold and a cheesecake. It wasn’t bad tasting, only bland after the other rich desserts. The best part is the wide white chocolate curl with the Wonder and Happy Birthday printed on it! I brought it back to the room to eat later (I never would be hungry enough to eat it) . We stopped by Shutters on the way out and snagged our embarkation pics. We didn’t realize at the time we could make stack our pictures in one place and they would stay the entire cruise. (I thought if we didn’t grab them, they might take them down...it is posted that they may possibly do that but they don’t). Since I was terrified of losing pictures, I selected the ones I wanted and purchased the $299.00 package, which was I think six 6x8’s and ten 8x10’s. Then we walked around on deck. It was chilly and very windy.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07108.jpg
We were tired, and gorged, and a bit seasick. We had an early morning the next day, so we headed back to the room to call it a night. Dewa had turned down our beds, turned the TV on to the Nassau shopping presentation, and left us chocolates and a surprise:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07089.jpg

And just like that, the first day was already over.

[wilma-bride]

Just ventured over here for a look-see and happened upon your trippy. All I can say is I so need to go on DCL now. I am going straight home after work to tell my husband we are going cruisin' next year :thumbsup2

Your report is great, really detailed and your kids look adorable - and I have to add that I am soooo jealous that you live so near the magic :)

Please post some more very soon.

[1sttimecruz]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing!

We were getting off the Wonder the same day that you boarded.:sad1:

[pppiglet]

Wow...you got some really great pictures!

[nenner1]

Wow...you got some really great pictures!


Thank you! In fact, we got only 659 of them! :scared:

It's really hard to narrow down which ones get posted. I get a lot of the kids but not enough of the ship itself...was looking for one of the quiet cove/pool to show my mom and we didn't take a pic of that area at all! And I laugh at the onesin the other TR's I see of the food, only cause when I got my food I wasn't waiting around to take a pic of it! :rotfl2:

We were getting off the Wonder the same day that you boarded.

Awww. We were there really early and saw a lot of folks disembarking. I said to my husband "Look, they look like a bunch of sad sacks cause they're leaving" We felt the same way when we left!!!!

[catecrew]

Hey Nenner1 we'll be with you on the 9/27/08 cruise!!!

Having fun reading this TR. This is what I do now every night is search for other people's TR's to tide me over till we get to go.

I love seeing our ticker go down a week at a time:woohoo:

[nenner1]

Hey Nenner1 we'll be with you on the 9/27/08 cruise!!!

Having fun reading this TR. This is what I do now every night is search for other people's TR's to tide me over till we get to go.

I love seeing our ticker go down a week at a time:woohoo:

Have you seen the thread for that cruise? Its huge! We have lots of company! Check it out! :dance3:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1344864&goto=newpost

[catecrew]

Oh yes indeed I already know about our thread, I have been on it since the end of February. I was reading your TR and I then I remembered reading your post about booking your cruise on our thread. :goodvibes

[j_cwayman]

DH and I are really enjoying your trip report! We have been on 2 Disney cruises and are planning our third for January 2008. We await your next post! :cool1:

[nenner1]

Next Installment Up Tonight!

Sorry, I have been very busy with kids and work and activities this past week.

I am about halfway done with the next chapter...and I do mean chapter....I should be able to put it up tonight after work (which is tomorrow for most of you:) )

Hang in there!!:hourglass

[nenner1]

“Can’t you feel ‘em circlin’ honey,
Can’t you feel ‘em swimmin’ around?
You got fins to the left….
Fins to the right…
And you’re the only girl in town”


Monday March 19th dawned dark and dreary. Okay, it was dark & dreary to me because I stayed in the stateroom (standard INSIDE….not recommended if you need daylight to regulate your circadian clock). I am a night owl, however (well I work nights so I don’t have a choice), and I could care less. I can sleep when it’s dark, and I can sleep when it’s bright. Anyway, the rest of the family went up to deck 10 for the sunrise, and I stayed in bed for an extra 20 minutes. They said it was spectacular when they returned, and looking at the pics I have to agree it looked pretty cool:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07153.jpg
(Approaching Nassau)


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07133.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07141.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07129.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07137.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07113.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07149.jpg



But as you can tell from the pictures, most of the cruisers were still in the same place as me, face down on a mattress. The good thing was, the ship was not rocking as much. It was still moving, but not swaying. I theorized that the reason the pitch was so prominent last night was because we were moving at a higher speed, obviously now – close to Nassau- we were going slower….hence less rocking. It had been so bad overnight that the closet doors (sliding ones in cat.11) would slide open and shut with every rock of the boat. Swoooosh BANG…Swoooosh BANG. Swooooooosh BANG! I was too exhausted for it to keep me awake all night, it only disturbed me when the BANG!’s were especially thunderous.

Somehow I managed to drag myself up and into the shower before they returned. I was already running a little behind, due to my extended slumber. We had no hope of making sit down breakfast and I had to move it if we were going to even have time for the buffet at BBB. I thought I got ready as efficiently as possible, with everyone running around, stepping on & over & under each other. But once again they were all ready before me. I had about 10 minutes to go -all I had to do was dry my hair- but Ron was getting anxious. We had to be in Wavebands at 9:30 to meet for the Dolphin excursion. It was a little after 8:30 at this point. I thought we had plenty of time, but told him if he just couldn’t wait, to go ahead and take the kids up to BBB. He did, and I was done about 5 minutes after he left. So I hesitated, wondering if I should go to try & find them, or if they were coming back with food to eat in the room. (Usually when we stay in hotels, we bring the continental breakfast up to our room and eat there). But we didn’t have the 2-way radios to communicate, and I was afraid we’d be endlessly circling the decks looking for each other. I waited a few more minutes and decided they must be eating in the restaurant or on deck, and I headed up to find them. Of course, immediately upon arriving up to deck 9, I got lost. I found myself in a maze of deck somewhere near the Quiet Cove that ended in a dead end. I took a stairway up, so now (I think) I was on 10, and hopefully headed in the direction of BBB. Next thing you know, that ended in a dead end, with a stairway down, and I quickly saw why I wouldn’t be taking that stairway down: it led to the little mini-bridge sticking out the side of the boat. I was so pre-occupied with where I was going, I hadn’t even noticed we were docking in Nassau. The Captain and First Officers were all out on this little area of deck which protruded out. It had glass-bottom panels so the Captain could see where the dock was below him.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07110.jpg


I stopped long enough to snap the picture, then backtracked to the first set of stairs down. Once back on 9, I was a little bit more oriented and headed aft towards BBB. As I approached the Mickey Pool, I heard someone yell “JEN!”, and I looked across the deck. Sure enough, there was Ron and the kids, heading in the opposite direction. When I went over there, I got chastised for my ill-advised Boat Exploration Adventures. Ron reminded me that I did not have my KTTW card, and said “What would you have done if you didn’t find us?” I replied that I would have met them in Wavebands at 9:30, of course! (He gives me is the sarcastic eye roll that said “as IF you could find your way down there”) Heh. From the right set of elevators, I could (!) So I told them I had seen that we were docking in Nassau. We went back up to 10 and took some pictures, as I ate a plate of doughnuts and muffins they generously grabbed for me at the buffet:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07157.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07161.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07162.jpg



We made the trek down to Wavebands on deck 3 to meet for the Dolphin Encounter excursion. We were early once again. (TIP- though I certainly recommend arriving to things on time, there really isn’t a need to arrive so early to excursion meetings. Its just more sitting around you have to do). We were one of the first 10 families there. As our eyes adjusted to the very dark lighting of WB, we selected a table up front and gathered our excursion tickets and participation waivers. We waited about 20 minutes for everyone to arrive, and I was shocked at how many people were in this excursion! Wavebands was completely packed with anxious, excited, and slightly impatient excursioners. Ron trekked back up to the beverage station on 9 to grab us all some drinks, as we were all thirsty and bored. He had plenty of time and arrived back prior to it getting started. (I did feel the jealous glances of other parched cruisers wishing they had thought to do the same thing!!). Not too long after that, two CM’s arrived on stage to begin the pre-excursion information inundation! We recognized one of them as the same male CM who ran our boat drill the day before. Ron whispered to me (we were seated directly in front of them) “He looks like Kovac” (Dr. Luka Kovac on ER, played by Goran Visnjic for those of you who don’t know, and for those who are thinking Suzanne Vega “My name is Luka, I live on the second floor”- wrong Luka.) He then said that he thought the very skinny blonde female CM was the same one singing and dancing to “Mickey” at the sail away party. Both had the British accents, but I thought Mickey girl had brown hair, this one had blonde. (Both wore pigtails, maybe that was what seemed familiar?) Anyway, finally they began the speech telling us all about the Dolphin Encounter. They didn’t say anything I didn’t already know, and I amused myself watching some cute girls dancing and playing noisily on stage. As the girls grew in numbers and got louder behind the CM’s on stage, I wondered how long it would be before they were told to sit down. Heee. Not long! Next they had one person from each stateroom bring the filled out waivers to them at the table in the front. We were right there, so we were among the first few done with that. Then, the girls from the Dolphin Encounter came in and sat at a table near the back. They announced for all people participating in the excursion needed to line up at that table to get wristbands. There was a mass exodus and somewhat of a rush to the table. Unfortunately, where the table was situated was a bad area that allowed the line to branch out in a Y. Of course we were in one branch of the Y, trying to merge in, and nobody was letting us. We were kindof thinking it would go like merging on a highway..each car lets one in. But that wasn’t happening. After a few groups went by, we decided we had to just wedge ourselves in there. Ron was first and I don’t know what was transpiring with the folks we slid in front of, but suffice to say he was grumbling under his breath about it. All parties involved got over the merge madness and it was forgotten quickly. After we got our wristbands, we returned to our table. As the line snaked about the room we realized again and were glad that we were lucky (or pushy!) enough to be in the first 20 or so done. A CM arrived and sold bottled waters with DCL lanyards/bottle holders. I already had a water, but I wanted one of those lanyards. I thought about getting one, but it soon didn’t matter, because they sold out of them in minutes. After what seemed like quite a while (in all, beginning to end it was about 45 minutes to an hour), we were ready to head off the boat. When they called for us to rise and follow the DE girl, yet again we were one of the first few up. She led us out the back entrance of WB to (I think!) the forward stairs. We went down to the little embark/disembark lobby, which was just a small nondescript room with a security scanner in the middle and many little scanner terminals staffed with CM scattered around. We handed our KTTW cards to the CM, and we were scanned and exited the boat down the gangway. We waited in a group on the dock for everyone to get scanned out. The weather was good- about 75 degrees. Sunny, but still very windy. While we waited, we took some pics at the dock area:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07167.jpg


Once everyone had disembarked, we followed the DE girl holding up the sign, down the dock, into the Festival Place building. I guess this is supposed to be some kind of big touristy shopping mecca, but nothing was ever open. We just passed through it and back out to the other side by the dock. We approached a ferry and prepared to board. I already had to use the restroom, and I remembered hearing that that boat would have a bathroom on it. We were the first people up onto the ferry, and I looked around quickly for a bathroom, or anything that might pass as one (!) and didn’t see one. We headed up the stairs and to nice seats in the back row (this ferry was a double decker, but there was a roof on the top deck. It had plastic roll up windows up a little high. Sitting in the rear, though we could look – and take pictures- out the back. Everyone seemed to enjoy the ride over, as we were all taking in the scenery. As seen from the Ferry Boat:

The Wonder

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07173.jpg

Nassau Coastline
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07175.jpg

Atlantis
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07176.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07177.jpg

The Mailboat
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07178.jpg

We stopped at a dock on Paradise Island to pick up more passengers. Ron & I tossed around the idea of getting off there on the way back, walking over to Atlantis, and catching the later ferry returning from the 2nd DE back to Nassau. I wasn’t optimistic that I could handle the amount of walking that would require, so we decided against it. (I had worn a new pair of flip flops for a very short time that morning -the boat adventure- and had developed some nasty blisters.) After about 10 minutes we were back on our way to Blue Lagoon Island. The whole ride was about 35-40 minutes. As we approached BLI, we could see the dolphins swimming in the crystal clear water. It was beautiful! (FYI Blue Lagooon Island was used for the beach scenes in the movie Splash, and several of the inhabitants are also famous for starring in movies: some of the sea lions were in Andre and some of the dolphins starred in the 1990’s remake of Flipper) (continued)

[nenner1]

"Fins to the left...
Fins to the right"

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07205.jpg

As soon as we got off the ferry, we were directed to a large outdoor porch-type room for instructions. We grabbed seats, and I took Savannah to the bathroom. By the time we had returned the informational talk had begun. It was fairly short, about 15 minutes, and basically it just prepared us for the encounter and how to handle the dolphins. After that, we were split into two groups and taken down to the floating square platforms where our encounters would take place. First, we were instructed to sit down on the platform with our legs in the water. We were then introduced to our dolphin, Stormy:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07184.jpg

He swam around the platform splashing us with his flippers.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07180.jpg
Then group by group we were led into the water for our kiss/photo op. (Tip: Wear water shoes! The ladder steps and underwater platform are coated in algae and are extremely slippery!) The water was REALLY. FREAKING. COLD! Ron &I had to get down on our knees onto the platform and the kids were in up to their chests. Everyone was shivering and I was so cold my teeth were chattering. Savannah was whining and he only thing that shut her up was telling her she would get the kiss from Stormy. She did and we practically sprinted out of the water to the relative warmth of the tropical air. The picture turned out pretty good:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/dolphin3.jpg

We are all happily smiling but don’t be fooled. What we were thinking is “WE ARE GOING TO FREEZE TO DEATH IF WE DON’T GET OUT OF HERE QUICK!”

After all of the families took their pictures, the real encounter started. We were divided into smaller groups of eight. The four of us were joined by a mother, grandmother, and two children about 8 and 12 years old. Our group was the first back into the water, which actually I was happy about. I wanted to get back in before we dried off and warmed up too much. Sure enough it wasn’t as bad getting in this time. This time we stood on the underwater plank. We took turns hugging, rubbing, and dancing with Stormy. It was quite an experience and a lot of fun!
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/dolphin1.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/dolphin2.jpg
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/dolphin4.jpg


The grandma next to me was great! She was probably in her sixties or seventies and she was having a blast! A really sweet lady. When the instructor got to me, she said something in her thick island accent, the only part of which I understood was “Shake it mama!” So I “shook it”, and Stormy quacked and flapped, nodded and splashed and everyone cracked up. Then he moved on to Ron, and after dancing with him, Stormy splashed water in Ron’s face with his snout and shook his head “no”. Everyone laughed more. Savannah was scared and wouldn’t dance with Stormy, but when Brendan did, he made a flatulent-sounding noise out of his blowhole and splashed him frantically, completely soaking him! Then Stormy swam out and did some beautiful jumps high in the air for us. That was the end of our encounter. We could finally exit the water, dry off , and warm up. As we were drying, the DE staff photographers came down and showed us our video. We already pretty much knew we were going to get it. They gave us a card to present at the register. As we waited for our pictures and video to be ready, we wandered out to a small sandy picnic area back by the snack bar and showers. It was sunny and offered beautiful views of the island, and plenty of photo ops:

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After thawing out a bit, we ventured over a wooden pedestrian bridge to the Sea Lion Habitat.
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They were brought to Blue Lagoon Island after being displaced from their home at Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. You can’t get very close to the Sea Lions, you can only view their habitat from above on a boardwalk and wooden deck. They were super cute and looked to be enjoying that beautiful and chilly water!

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Before long, we had to go check on the video and get our pictures. The picture packages were very reasonable, one 8x10, four 5x7’s and two 1x2 magnets for somewhere around $40. (A bargain compared to Shutters).

We grabbed some trinkets at the gift shop, including a blue stuffed “Stormy” for Savannah, and headed back to the ferry. The ride back was not as exciting, as we had already seen everything on the way in. I, along with quite a few others took a catnap on the way back. It was a great start to the day, and true to claim a “once in a lifetime experience”.


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[scottishwee35]

Hi

Just let you know that I love your photos of early morning with two kids and see sunshine well. Oh bless that.

Love the photos of you all with dolphins:thumbsup2

What a beautiful photos.:goodvibes

Scottishwee35:thumbsup2

[Credit Man]

Wonderful report. Thanks for posting.

[mickeyluv]

Absolutely loved all of your posts but this one, for me, was outstanding! I guess because of the pictures and their meaning!! Those pictures of your children on the boat at sunrise...priceless!!!

The dolphin excursion....priceless also!! I need to stop ready your TR because it's get me so anxious for our trip :goodvibes . We are planning on doing the dolphin excursion as well!! Seriously though, I love your TR posts!! Keep them coming!!!

[mormadsmom]

Nenner,

Great trip report! I am impressed with the photos! And adorable kids. We are Jimmy Buffet fans here too. Odd for 30 something year olds? Love the new Hoot soundtrack. We live an hour and half from Islamorada and just can't get enough florida key living. JB knows what he's singing about. Awesome!

Hope to see more photos of your great adventure. We leave for our first cruise ever next Sat. aboard the Magic.

Michelle
South Florida

[nenner1]

Nenner,

Great trip report! I am impressed with the photos! And adorable kids. We are Jimmy Buffet fans here too. Odd for 30 something year olds? Love the new Hoot soundtrack. We live an hour and half from Islamorada and just can't get enough florida key living. JB knows what he's singing about. Awesome!

Hope to see more photos of your great adventure. We leave for our first cruise ever next Sat. aboard the Magic.

Michelle
South Florida

Not odd at all!!!;) We're 30-somethings too! My favorite from Hoot is "Wondering Where the Lions Are"...I don't think I'll be able to fit that title into my trippie.....we'll have to see!:laughing:
Hope you have a wonderful cruise!!

[nenner1]

Just want to say thanks to everyone for your comments about my kids and the pics...ya'll are great! :love:

More coming shortly.....

[nenner1]

“Fruitcakes in the kitchen
Fruitcakes on the street
Struttin' naked through the crosswalk
In the middle of the week
Half-baked cookies in the oven
Half-baked people on the bus
There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us”

It was about 2:00 pm when we returned to the dock in Nassau from the Dolphin Encounter. We definitely wanted to go shopping and to check out the city a little bit. Shopping is not always the easiest thing to do with 6 & 7 year olds, let alone in a foreign country. I suggested to Ron that we hop back on the boat and check the kids into the club while we do a quick run-through of the shopping district stretch of Bay street. He agreed it would be much more efficient with just the two of us. It would also give them a chance to get acclimated to the club before they “HAD” to be there (they would be back at 8:30 that night during our Palo dinner.) So we walked back towards the Wonder. On the way is this cute picture backdrop, right there on the dock.

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That is the back of the Wonder visible right behind the kids. There was only one portal open, as we approached there was a short line to cross the gangway and enter the ship. Once back in the CM scanned our KTTW cards and barely looked at our driver’s licenses. Dropped our stuff on the scanner, and walked right in. Quick & easy. We took the kids up to the room to change and use the restroom, then we took them down to the Oceaneer’s Club on deck 5. Actually, we walked into the Lab first, and they said nope, check the Club for the 5-7’s. So we walked around and found the club. It was the first time we had been down there. I was immediately surprised by how small and DARK it was. It seemed small due to the low ceilings (in fact the ceilings on Deck 5 are the shortest of any deck on board!). We waited in a line for about 5 minutes then finally told the CM we wanted to check the kids into the club .First it took a few minutes of discussion and Navigator-checking…apparently to determine just where exactly on the boat the 5-7’s were. She told us to hold on for a moment while she asked the nearest CM “Have they started transition yet?” Transition???? Apparently that answer was affirmative because she came to us and said “They have begun to transition. You may meet the group at Wavebands at 3:00” Transition is when the group moves from one area of the ship to another and there is no checking in or out of kids while that is taking place. Problem was we had 15 minutes to wait before transition would be over. UGGGGH. :headache: We were starting to get a little nervous, watching the clock closely. We wanted to get back into Nassau and shop, but tonight was formal night, which meant getting the kids all dressed up (not to mention ourselves). That left us with a little less time than normal. Plus this evening would not go as last night , because we had Palo reservations. We headed back down to WB again. There was one other family waiting there to check their child into the club. We sat down and waited too. It was between 5-8 minutes before the OC CM’s arrived at WB. The kids weren’t there yet, though. Guess they were still transitioning. We said we wanted to check our kids into the club and the very nice CM opened up her spiral notebook and went right about assisting us (our good luck again, being first, as a decent sized line of about 10 families gathered behind us). I found it interesting how they keep track of the kids in the club the low-tech old fashioned way, by writing them down. I had read where they used to scan the wristbands and such. That is something that DCL could improve upon. The checking in & out of the club was a tedious and time consuming process. On this occasion it only took a couple of minutes, and we were on our way…hoping that the pager worked all the way into the city!

We disembarked for the second time and took the now familiar stroll through Festival Place. It wasn’t quite as deserted now. This time there was a Christmas booth open (with handcrafted Christmas ornaments and such), and a hair braider. We passed through quickly and headed out onto the street. Ron asked me if I had the map, and no, of course I did not have the map (I tend to do silly things like that). But I informed him that I paid close attention to the talk on TV last night and I knew the main shopping drag was right here a block up. As we made our way in that direction, the first thing we noticed on the island were the vehicles. Some of them were American, with regular names (Camry, Taurus, Civic, etc.) and the steering wheel on the left. Some were European- familiar models with strange names like Vista and Horizon, and had the steering wheel on the right. It was so peculiar to see them parked one right next to the other, no uniformity at all. Ron said “So which side of the road DO they drive on?” And the answer? Right down the middle, so look out! That was the next thing we noticed. The islanders drove a little crazy. Fast- for those little tiny roads teeming with pedestrians and tourists without maps.:car: And there aren’t sidewalks, at least not on most of the roads we traveled. Next thing we noticed was how much Bahamanians like to use their horns. I guess it might have something to do with people continuously walking out in front of them. It was different than in America though, when you only hear angrily slammed horns as people cut each other off and tailgate and such. This was more of a communicative style. As if to say “Hey, mon, I’m driving here” Anyway, we went quickly up a side street (at home it would be an alley). I did get a beep as I crossed over ("Fruitcakes in the street") Once on Bay street we passed all kinds of nice shops. Since we didn’t have the map, we’d have to just roam around. We decided to take a right and soon came across Del Sol. That was perfect, as I had planned on stopping there. Del Sol, for those of you who don’t know is a shop that has merchandise that changes color in the sunlight. We went in and there were several store employees who pounced and helped us find what we needed. We picked out T-shirts for the kids, and I also got color-changing hair clips, a necklace, and nail polish for Savannah. We spent over $75 which means we got a free Del Sol canvas tote bag. (I am such a sucker for freebies). We then headed back down Bay Street and before long passed another Del Sol. Whats up with that? They had two of them within a block of each other! This one was bigger, too. Oh well. As we strolled down the block, school children (teenagers) were suddenly everywhere. School must have just let out for the day. The uniforms were a riot!! The boys just wore polos and khaki’s, but the girls had full-on Catholic School uniforms, pleated skirts, knee socks, and fold-over ties. OMG. I guess the different schools wore different colors. We saw girls in red, light blue, and green uniforms. The honor students even had little “Honor Roll” pins on their collars! I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of it. It was also neat to watch them catching the buses home. No yellow school buses, no county bus system. In Nassau, the buses appear to all be privately run. And they weren’t big air-conditioned behemoths, they were simply large minivans. And certain bus companies drove to only a couple particular stops….none of the ones we saw went to any of the same destinations. ("Half-baked people on the bus")
It was really neat to be in the midst of all the everyday downtown Nassau action! After that we hung right and walked through a little plaza back towards the dock. We were basically making big figure 8 travel patterns through all the shops. We came next upon Frederick St, which I thought was cool, since our last name is Fredericks (spelled the same, minus the S). I told Ron to stand for a pic, and he grumbled “It doesn’t even have the S” . No it didn’t, but it made a good picture anyway. In fact it was our only one taken in the city of Nassau itself.

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We stopped in the Tortuga Rum Cake factory for a sample of delicious rum cake. It was a neat little shop, you can see all the girls baking in the little kitchen through a plexiglass window in the shop. ("Down island, we've got
fruitcakes. Spread them crumbs around. That's right, we want
'em around. Keep bakin' baby. Keep bakin")
We couldn’t decide which of the cakes to get so the helpful sales clerk showed us the gift pack, one of each type of rum cake. It had original, pineapple, coconut, chocolate, banana, and key lime. My favorites were original (it had walnuts in it) and key lime. I was a little surprised how expensive they were (around $35, and they were the mini ones, about 4 bites per cake), but those things were sooooooo good. It was way worth it. That goal accomplished, we bought my in-laws a shotglass from one local shop, then checked out Senor Frog’s gift shop. We didn’t find anything there, and our next stop was the one, the only, the infamous…..STRAW MARKET.
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Now I have to say, the straw market was not quite what I expected. As you can see, it is still a tent (It burned down a few years back, I’d have thought they would have learned their lesson). It was JAM PACKED with stuff. :scared1: The aisles to walk down were about two feet wide, tops. Two people could not pass at once. And the merchandise…it was almost exclusively fake designer purses. Every other stall…literally….was more of the same. Louis Vuitton, Coach, Gucci, Prada. Then every two stalls would be the little straw bags, tiny totes, meant for little girls embroidered with Hello Kitty, Dora the Explorer, PowerPuff Girls, etc. We stopped and asked how much one was (they were about 5 by 5 inches….small) and were told $20! TWENTY DOLLARS???? Ron said do you have any cheaper? She showed us a Hello Kitty with a horrible off center slanted eye for $10. We said no, thanks and walked off and she called after us “Eight dollas!” We laughed. Up the aisle a bit we saw some teen girls looking at (what else) fake Coach wallets. I heard one of them say “This one doesn’t look too bad” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that actually, it did! Every time we did find a stall with handcraft items, there was just soo much there, and nothing really caught my eye. Its funny, the merchants (or peddlers, or whatever you want to call them) watch you looking at stuff, and if you even let your gaze hesitate on an item for a second they are right there telling you the price and practically bagging it up for you. It wasn’t so much high pressure as it was annoying.
Ron was just walking straight through repeating “No thanks. No thanks. No thanks.”
I had about enough and right as we were walking out, I spotted a cute little wooden cat carving. Savannah *adores* cats.:cat: It said Bahamas Lucky Cat on it. We got it for $12. Still a bit pricey, but I didn’t care. After escaping the stifling “Fakedesignerpurse market”, we went into one of the other local shops that was featured in the onboard talk. Sure enough, as we were at the register buying Brendan a cool wooden sign with a pirate on it that said “This Room is a Wreck”, the CM that gave the shopping talk came into the store. She walked in, said hi to the clerk, they exchanged small talk, and the CM got to go and pick out some free stuff. (I wonder if she gets to do that in the jewelry store?!) As it turns out she was training her replacement, she was going on break that Friday. I told her I enjoyed her talk and found it very educational. Time was beginning to run out on us, and we had to get back to the boat to get ready for the show and dinner. As we walked back towards Festival Place, we met a barrage of hair braiders asking to braid my hair. I politely declined and we kept walking. One girl was a bit more persistent than the rest, she actually followed us, and slipped a little beaded bracelet on my wrist. Ron was saying “No, no, no thank you”. :sad2: I knew she would ask for a “donation” but I didn’t want to take off the bracelet and get into that, besides I figured he’d just give her a dollar. He gave her three! And then he said to me “Why did you keep that?” and I said “Why did you give her THREE dollars?” We joked about if that $3 would really end up with “the children” and laughed all the way back to the boat. We really did enjoy Nassau, rum cakes, fruitcakes and all. :cake:

“So I'll put on my Bob Marley tape
And practice what I preach
Get Jah lost in the reggae mon
As I walk along the beach
Stay in touch with my insanity really is the only way
Its a jungle out there kiddies
Have a very fruitful day”

[LITTLEKID58]

Your TR and Pics are awesome.. TFS

[nenner1]

“And the eighth deadly sin is............PIZZA!”

We headed back to the boat from our enjoyable shopping adventure in Nassau. I was wondering how the kids were doing in the club, and hoping that we hadn’t been paged and didn’t know it. It was late afternoon, we all had to shower and get ready, and make the 6:15 show. And on top of that, it was formal night, which meant ties, tights, glitter, and princess hair. This time as we got scanned back onboard, the CM didn’t even take or glance at our driver’s licenses at all. That was fine with me, as we were trying to get the kids and get up to the room as quickly as possible. We headed straight for the club, and of course the kids weren’t there. They were up on the Wide World of Sports deck playing games. So off we went up to 10. They were just starting a game as we arrived. The kids were split into two teams, and they were racing to see which team would run to the center, retrieve their shoes from a pile, put them on & run back. We saw they were having a lot of fun so we waited patiently as the game progressed…..very……slowly. And you know our luck, both kids (on opposite teams) happened to be at the end of the lines. After a little over 5 minutes, we noticed it was going to take quite a while to get to them, so we went ahead and pulled them out. They weren’t too happy about that, and we tried to distract them from their disappointment by telling them we got them a surprise when we went shopping. It didn’t really help. We got back to the room and started the getting ready in a tiny space scramble. I know we ran later than we had the previous night, so I have no idea just exactly when we had time to pose for pics out on deck 4…..but we did….and I have proof!
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Then we headed for Shutters, but we didn’t get too far. I guess everyone was lining up for Dinner at Animator’s. This was the first time I had seen a dinner line, as we had arrived late ourselves on Sunday and had walked right in. Quite a few others were trying to look at their pictures, too…in front of, behind, and around that line. I also took notice of everyone waiting, and how they were dressed. Even though it was “formal” night, hardly anyone was dressed up. I saw a couple of men in suit jackets with no tie, and shirt and tie with no jacket, and certainly no tuxedos. A couple of ladies wore cocktail dresses, but not very formal ones. I felt way overdressed. We gave up attempting to break through the hungry wall of humanity blocking the pictures, and decided to go up to 9 for drinks. I don’t know how we thought we had time for that, and we soon realized that we didn’t. We rushed back down to the Walt Disney Theater. As we approached, we saw the red carpet and the golden flags hanging. It looked really majestic! Tonight, of course, was The Golden Mickey’s! The next thing I noticed, though, was apart from us and the “paparazzi” (CM’s on the red carpet acting as photographers), nobody was around! The show was about to start! As we walked down the red carpet towards the theater, the “paparazzi” began to flash their cameras at us and make comments like Joan and Melissa Rivers “Look at that dress!” “How gorgeous!” At first I thought they were really taking pictures, I was fixing my hair and hiding my drink cup behind my back! When I realized they were just flashing their flashes, I felt silly and hoped they didn’t notice me primping!:confused3 We entered the theater, this time through the left doors, and immediately realized just how late we were. There were no seats, save for one or two scattered here and there. We looked at each other and noticed there were many people crowded along the back. And I noticed how nicely dressed everyone seemed. See, I told Ron, we weren’t the only ones who dressed up! Then Ron saw seats! He pointed to the far left a few rows from the back. I couldn’t believe it! Four! Right on the outside aisle! :hyper: I was so afraid some of the others in the standing room only along the back would get there first so I started scooting (there really wasn’t enough room to run!) over there as fast as I could. As I did so, I stepped or tripped over a lady against the back wall. I turned and said “Sorry!” really fast and continued to make my way over to those seats! Somehow we made it. I was so sure somebody was going to beat me to them! We plopped down with a big sigh of relief, and almost as if they were waiting for us, the lights dimmed and the show began. And then….all of the beautifully dressed standing room only “crowd” in the back began to dance and sing up the aisles! They were performers! And I stepped on one of them! My face got hot and I know I was blushing bright red in my horror and embarrassment.:blush: Thankfully, no one could see it. I sunk down in my chair a little bit in case the poor dancer whose foot I impaled with one of my kitten heels was shooting me daggers across the crowd. Well, at least no damage was done. The dancing and choreography were perfect…nobody was limping, stumbling, or bleeding. I felt so bad! :headache:
The premise of the Golden Mickey’s is an awards-show themed musical. It celebrated the presentation of Golden Mickey “awards” to several classic Disney films. It was a sentimental and stunning show with film clips, musical numbers, dancing, and stunts. The kids were awed with the acrobatics on the vines in the Hercules segment. It was very impressive. Also, if you have young kids, try to get to the show early enough to get seats in the first few rows. Young children up front have the chance to be selected to dress up and perform in the show onstage as one of the seven dwarfs. (I was kicking myself for not getting there earlier, as I knew there was one show we should sit up front for.) There are also some indoor pyrotechnic special effects. I was pretty surprised by them, and I think I jumped out of my seat a little when they went off. I was expecting the Golden Mickey’s to be a grand and magnificent performance, and I was not disappointed.

After the show we immediately went out to the atrium for photographs. We don’t get dressed up very often and I was going to make sure we memorialized it in print! On the way out we stopped to pose the kids for a picture on the red carpet. Apparently others passing by saw our stroke of genius and followed suit, lining up behind us to take pictures of their families on the red carpet. We are innovators!!

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Once in the atrium, the lines at the backdrops were not too bad. We got photos taken with the “moonlight rail” and “moonlight ship” backdrops.

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The ones of the kids came out particularly amazing, if I do say so myself:
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This is my favorite of all of the pictures from the whole cruise, and arguably the best one taken – ever!
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After that, at my insistence we went up to deck 4 to get photos overlooking the atrium. (There is no such thing as too many pictures!)

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A very nice lady offered to take one of all of us, and to whoever you are out there, thank you…even though I don’t look my best. (You get to see my pretty dress, though!)


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Now that the picture taking was done and I was satisfied we had sufficient evidence to prove we actually did dress up, we hightailed it back to the cabin. Ron & I had Palo reservations at 8:30. We had to get the kids back to the room, get them changed back into kid clothes, take them up to Pluto’s and Pinocchio’s for dinner, then onto the Lab by 8:15 for Flubber. Of all the activities in the club, Flubber is the one in particular that was a must-do. Both kids were so excited, that was the thing they looked forward to the most for the whole cruise: making flubber. Our good luck did not fail us, it just so happened that Flubber was scheduled at the exact same time we had Palo! The kids would not miss it, the only challenge was getting there on time! We went back to the room, put them back in shorts and T-shirts, and just as quickly ran (up the stairs, I recall it clearly) to deck 9 to get them some food fast. Right away we saw Pinocchio’s was closed. Brendan was very disappointed; he was hungry and wanted pizza. I had to do some quick reasoning with him and told him the only way he could get to flubber on time was if he went ahead and got chicken or a hot dog now...besides he could have all the pizza he wanted tomorrow! He agreed so we went around the corner to Pluto’s and IT WAS CLOSED TOO! :headache: What was going on here? It wasn’t even 8:00! How could they do this? There were kids in the pool, obviously many families did not eat in the main dining rooms! The sign clearly said it closed at 9:00 (Pinocchio’s was supposed to be open ‘til 11!) We looked over to Goofy’s Galley. You got it. Closed. :mad: We walked into BBB. I knew it was supposed to be sit down table service at dinner time, but we were hoping against hope somehow there would be a buffet in there so we could grab something quick. Nope, it was table service. We stood in the lobby trying to figure out what to do. :furious: We didn’t have time to go back and get room service, and there was no way I was blowing off Palo to take them to our assigned restaurant. I couldn’t send them to the club not having had anything to eat practically all day. They were only concerned with getting to flubber. We walked out and looked around the pool deck again, hoping I guess that something had re-opened. Nothing had, but I spotted the little condiment station and cooler next to Pluto’s. It had cole slaw, salad, some fruit and chips in it. We grabbed the kids some chips and fruit and hoped that was enough to hold them over until later. They shoveled it in on the way down to the Lab. They were excited to have finally arrived for they hyped-up flubber, and ran off into the lab without a look back. We breathed a sigh of relief and hoped somehow their hunger would hold off for a while. I am happy to report that this minor food snafu was the biggest “problem” we encountered the whole cruise!

As we traveled back up to the top of the ship, I noticed we were moving again. Either I was getting used to it, or the seas were not as rough tonight. It didn’t seem bad. We found Palo, on Deck 10 aft quite easily, and arrived at the same time as two other couples. We followed in last of the group, and when it was our turn to check in with the Maitre’D, Ron asked how long would the wait be for a window seat? (That smart husband of mine!) He said one moment and asked us to please wait over to the left. He came back and said he would seat us momentarily. Woo hoo! After seating the other two couples, we were led to a table for two right along the back window, almost dead center. It was a lovely spot. The restaurant was still full, but we noticed most tables were finishing up with their dinners. Our server came to our table to greet us, and for the life of me I can’t remember his name. :o (I know, ME of all people…I remember everything else!) I have never been great with names. I want to say his name was Gustavo or something similar to that. He was from the Czech Republic and he was fantastic. I’m sorry I can’t do him justice. He brought us our drinks and we ordered our appetizers. I got the grilled Portobello mushroom with the roasted shallot sauce and Ron ordered a Pizza Margherita that I was expected to help him eat. The pizza came out first and it was to DIE FOR. :banana: It was thin crispy crust with rich robust tomatoes and creamy cheese. Fantastic. My mushroom came out not long after that, and it too was terrific. It tasted very much like the wild garlic mushroom appetizer from Animator’s only without the phyllo. After devouring the pizza and the mushroom, we were admittedly almost full. Neither of us were concerned, however. Somehow, just like the luggage in our stateroom….we’d make the food fit! :thumbsup2 Like last night, we had both ordered the same Entrée, and again it was steak. This time, filet mignon in a port wine reduction in gorgonzola cheese sauce. It arrived perfectly cooked (not an easy task when you like your filet medium well like I do!), and it was so tender and juicy it literally melted in my mouth. It was THE.BEST.STEAK.I.EVER.HAD. Period. And Ron agreed. I am pretty sure it came with a beautiful little stack of vegetables; I think I only ate the carrots. I ate all the steak, though.
By now the restaurant had emptied out pretty well. It was relaxing to enjoy the nice, intimate atmosphere and the view of the sea under the moonlight. We both ordered the chocolate soufflé for dessert. Our wonderful server also brought us the Panna Cotta to try; he said it was his favorite. Now, we are both pretty serious chocoholics, but the Panna Cotta, a rich vanilla custard served with berries was really tasty. It didn’t really compare to the sinful soufflé, but honestly, what does?? The soufflé came out and our lovely server filled it with thick chocolate and vanilla sauces. Oh my gosh it was the most decadent thing I have ever laid taste buds on.:woohoo::teeth: We got our picture snapped right as dessert was served, and I am so glad right there in the picture is my delicious obsession forever preserved for my memory. It did not last long. Please try to ignore my extremely bloated stomach. This wasn’t the most flattering picture of me. Ron rather likes it though. I haven’t figured it out. It must be the un-Disneylike cleavage on display. Hmm. ?!?!?!
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After dessert, when I felt a massive Chernobyl-sized explosion of my stomach throught my dress was imminent:bitelip: , we were brought a complementary Limoncello- I likened it to a small alcoholic polar cup. I didn’t know how I could possibly consume another drop of food or drink, but I did. And it was good!!! A perfect ending to the best meal ever! We weren’t quite sure how to handle the tip. I’d read that the $10 per person “service charge” for Palo was in lieu of a tip, but I’d also read in some trip reports that additional gratuity should be left. We decided to leave a $20 gratuity on top of the $20 service charge. I hope that was a proper tip, as we had outstanding service. :goodvibes

I don’t know if the limoncello was affecting me, but I had a sudden desire to go hang out at the pool. All through the meal I had been worried if the kids were hungry and felt guilty and now I wanted to go off and leave them longer! Go figure?! We changed into our swimsuits and then went up to the quiet cove adult pool. I expected quiet, but not dead silence! It was completely empty! All to ourselves, this night just kept getting better! Ron jumped into the pool. I didn’t even check the pool water, I went straight for the Jacuzzi. It was still cool (60’s) and windy out. The hot tub felt marvelous and soon Ron joined me. Although we were relaxed and enjoying ourselves, I began to feel guilty again, so we dragged ourselves out and down to the club. It was around 11:00 pm, and after a long eventful day, I expected to find the kids conked out on a mat, but nope, they were in playing on computers. They weren’t hungry (or so they said) and did not want to leave. We had to drag them out with promises of room-service chocolate chip cookies and milk, and reminded them they would go back to the club tomorrow at Castaway Cay! Back in 7539, they got to meet Funky Monkey, our towel buddy hanging from a hanger by the curtain!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07223.jpg
Don’t even ask me how I managed to, but I did eat some cookies when they came. I had read the raves in other TR’s about the fantastic chocolate chip cookies from room service. I have to say during our cruise they did not live up to my expectations. They were good, but not fabulous. They seemed a bit overdone and were very crunchy, not chewy. Maybe it was just because anything eaten after the soufflé is bound to not compare! They did put me right to sleep, and it’s a good thing, for the world’s happiest beach, Castaway Cay was only hours away!

[Ski-and-Sea]

This wasn’t the most flattering picture of me. Ron rather likes it though. I haven’t figured it out. It must be the un-Disneylike cleavage on display. Hmm. ?!?!?!


Yup.......consider yourself lucky, some of us don't have enough to put on display.

I'm glad you dressed up, we plan on dressing up on our dress up night on the Wonder this summer.

[NCardella]

Hey, Nenner! I've been enjoying every word of your TR. (my family and I were on the same cruise) We chatted before the cruise, and I posted the "SuperShort Trip Report". I don't remember the ship being that rocky on the first day, I'm sorry you experienced that :(

Had to just chime in that I have a similar picture on formal night with a very un-Disney-like display. Although my husband told me we needed to buy the picture because "your eyes look so pretty" in it. Hmmm...my eyes? Have to admit we bought the picture, too.

[nenner1]

Hey, Nenner! I've been enjoying every word of your TR. (my family and I were on the same cruise) We chatted before the cruise, and I posted the "SuperShort Trip Report". I don't remember the ship being that rocky on the first day, I'm sorry you experienced that :(

Maybe it was just worse up higher. I think initially it was just needing to get used to it (this was our 1st cruise)but in the middle of the night when the closet doors were slamming, I wonder if that was enhanced by being higher up on the ship (we were on deck 7). I've read the higher your stateroom, the more pronounced the motion...? It did seem to level off after that...(until the last day) so I don't know how much of it was truly rough seas and how much of it was me!:confused3

Had to just chime in that I have a similar picture on formal night with a very un-Disney-like display. Although my husband told me we needed to buy the picture because "your eyes look so pretty" in it. Hmmm...my eyes? Have to admit we bought the picture, too.
Those Shutters folks are smart. They know how to make a buck. (or 600!):rotfl2:

[NCardella]

We were on deck 2, that may have something to do with us not noticing the movement so much.

btw...maybe I'll post my "display" if I get up the guts....

[nenner1]

Yes! Yes!:cheer2:

Disney is for adults, too!!!:banana:

:dance3:

[nenner1]

"I never thought of life as being breezy
I never thought of time as time to play
I never thought that I could take it easy
But all those feelings changed for me today"

Tuesday -not unlike Monday- dawned cool, breezy, and overcast. Once again, I was not there. In fact as each day of this cruise progressed, another family member dropped out of the pre-dawn activities. The growing fatigue from too much excitement, fun, and early rising would be very apparent later on today. The dark silence of the cabin was too much for myself and Brendan to resist, as we were pretty much dead to the world. Ron and Savannah made the hike up to 10, not only in time to see the daybreak, but also to see the spectacular sight of Castaway Cay approaching:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07230.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07229.jpg

The Sunrise:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07226.jpg


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The wind was only slightly below gale force this day…or so it seemed anyway:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07257.jpg


They spent a while up on deck checking out the sights, and long enough for me to fall back into a deep sleep. When they got back, I managed to drag myself out of that way-too-comfortable (and large for a queen size) bed. Thankfully I didn’t have to bother with showering and makeup and hair and things like that since today would just be spent relaxing on the beach. Of course you will note as a result of that I am pointedly absent from all of the CC shutters pictures. I resembled Cruella DeVil far too much that morning to be standing getting my picture taken…I was afraid a bunch of kids with autograph books and cameras would line up to meet me!!

After getting ready and gathering all of our beach “supplies” in the extra large beach tote I brought along, we headed up for some quick breakfast. (Note: the supplies that we packed were books, ipods, etc. and we never even used them. I had set aside our insulated refillable mugs from the Contemporary to make room for the other stuff. Turns out the mugs would have been much more useful.)

This would be my first opportunity to check out the breakfast buffet at BBB. There are plenty (what, four?) lines to choose from (all identical), and it was not very busy when we arrived. I am not sure exactly what time it was but I would venture to guess somewhere around 8:15 AM. There was no line and we approached and entered quickly. If I remember correctly first is a spread of fruits…melons, grapes, citrus, etc. Then came the main breakfast fare, sausage, bacon, eggs and the like. I grabbed an artery clogging pile of sausage and bacon, both of which were great. Next were the mickey waffles, little ones- chocolate and vanilla. Since it is my opinion that there is something just so wrong about mixing chocolate and maple syrup, only vanilla mickeys for me. (They did have whipped cream and I think strawberry sauce too.) No pancakes, which I was hoping for. Then came the muffins, croissants, bagels, and doughnuts. I took a croissant and a doughnut, grabbed a small glass of OJ, and off we went in search of a table. I mentioned that on deck it was, well…breezy and chilly. Unfortunately we had no choice but to eat out there, as all of the inside tables were full. Spots out there were easy to come by and we sat and chowed down. Overall the food quality was average. The sausage and bacon were delicious. The pastries were still cold, as if they had been refrigerated and the waffles were a bit on the stiff side. It was decent and quick meal, though. Afterwards we stopped to snap some pictures and excitedly headed down to disembark:

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The plan for CC was definitely to get out there as early as possible. I know we left the ship right around 9 AM. There was not a massive crowd disembarking yet. We grabbed a bunch of towels and started the trek up to the family beach. As we got a little ways down we noticed a tram passing and had to decide if we should go back to the tram station or just continue to walk. Ron was in favor of the tram, but I thought it looked like such a short distance we should just hike it. I’m glad we did. It only took about 7 or 8 minutes and since the tram waited to fill up, it arrived at the same time we did. Plus we got to see all the sights and take advantage of the picture opportunities along the way:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07275.jpg

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http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07287.jpg

"Palm trees and views I can't believe
Why would I ever want to leave?
I think I'll take my shoes off and go walking down beside the Caribbean Sea.
I like the funny sounds of parrots squawking
I think I hear a hammock calling me.”

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07288.jpg


The beach area appeared pretty well deserted when we got there. I wasn’t really gung-ho to get a hammock since we wouldn’t be able to sit and relax for a while yet. There were still some available, though. We pretty much had our choice of where to go.



http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07298.jpg
We selected a spot pretty much centered on the family beach. Ron made sure to get an umbrella. I suppose I gave him a quizzical look, because he said to me “We’re gonna want that later.” I’m sure I furrowed my eyebrows and gave him the squinty eyed glare since with the wind chill factor it felt like about 65 degrees outside. Just what I wanted. Shade. (Thick sarcasm intended). The kids headed for the water, but it was just as cold as yesterday so they didn’t dive right in like they usually do at home. Ron & I leisurely joined them. The three of them headed over to the water playground but it was just much too cold for me. I prefer to get used to the water slowly, so I inched my way deeper and watched them play. Before long, though I had to head out of the ocean to warm up. Which brings me to this, my main rant about CC: the sand. If you ask me, it is just not right. It feels “fake”, you know like sandbox sand. Not like real beach sand. Now I know I might be a bit harsh, but you have to remember I live by some of the best beaches in the country and the sand quality was not the silky soft powder like you find on Sand Key, Caladesi, Sanibel, Venice, Sombrero Beach and the likes. As you know there isn’t too much to complain about on that little slice of paradise, but leave it to me to find something. The water though….omg, the water on CC is some of the most beautiful, crystal-clear turquoise fantasy-island looking stuff I have seen in a very long time. You just don’t see water like this in Florida.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07297.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07295.jpg





Before too long the kids headed back, and just in time. Ron & I had a Banana Boat ride scheduled for 10:30. The clouds were burning off, the air was warming up, and It was beginning to look like a beautiful day. Oh, if only I knew what was coming….

“I think I've got a touch of island fever
I do believe I feel a bit sautéed”

[nenner1]

“I live on a big round ball
I never do dream I may fall
And even one day if I do
Well I'll jump up and smile back at you”

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/CC1.jpg

Being the thrill seekers that we are, I thought the Banana Boat ride would be fun and relatively inexpensive excursion on Castaway Cay. The jet ski eco tour was extremely pricey and the Castaway Ray’s stingray excursion didn’t interest us too much, since we already get to touch and feed stingrays for free at Tampa Bay Devil Rays games. The only downside is the BB ride is only for those 8 years old and up, meaning the kids could not go. We headed off to check them into the club, and didn’t mention to them what they were missing. They were all too happy to go anyway, because they were interested in the archaeological dig replica they have back there. This time we got unlucky checking the kids in. There were 2 CM’s there, but only one had the list. Adding to our woe, the folks in front of us had removed their children’s wristbands and new ones had to be made. Fortunately, we had arrived with plenty of time to spare. (TIP: ALWAYS overestimate how long it will take you to check the kids into or out of the lab and especially the club with the younger children.) Once they got done with that group, we were apologized to for the wait and the kids were checked in quickly. I got a look at the OC area on CC and from what I saw, it seemed well….barren, and hot. Yes, I said it. HOT. The day was warming up really fast now as we reached mid-morning, and I was no longer so concerned about getting splashed and soaked with the icy water during our excursion.

We didn’t really know where to go for the BB ride, and we didn’t want to trek all the way to the wrong side of the island. There is a convenient information hut located on the pathway between the kids’ club and She Sells Sea Shells, and we walked up and were promptly directed to the Boat Beach, right by Gil’s. (Note: included with the Navigator that day is a fantastic island map. It is easy to read and has all the info you could possibly need while on CC. Don’t forget and leave it in your stateroom!) As we arrived at the BB area, we were told the boat was currently out on a ride, and to please wait by the lifejacket area. We headed over there (in the now blasting sun) and joined a few other people waiting. A gentleman there was in one of the sand wheelchairs, they are so cool. The wheels are like heavy gauge inflatable rubber. (It did still seem hard to push on sand, however.) While waiting, Ron came over and told me “They’ve been waiting quite a while for the 10:00”, which I interpreted as the 10:00 ride had not gone out yet. We were pretty bummed thinking we would have to wait through a whole ride cycle, and it wasn’t until the group got back that we realized they had been “waiting quite a while for the 10:00” to COME BACK. Right as we could see the banana boat approaching, another boat hauling another banana boat docked on the beach. Cool. The more banana boats, the sooner we get on! The rest of our group assembled. The folks getting off offered us tips such as don’t wear hats or sunglasses, and lean in! There were about 10 of us for our ride, and we loaded onto the banana boat. Now, the banana boat is exactly that- a banana. Actually it is like two big yellow rubber bananas connected with a strip of rubber down the center. You straddle the banana (!) and hold on very tightly to the strap in front of you. It is pulled by a small power boat. Ron & I went straight for the back of the banana and slid into the last two spots. We figured the back would be the bounciest! We taxied slowly down the channel past the Dutchman, and then the Wonder. Once we got past the rocks and into the open sea, they opened it up. We traveled the length of the island then turned around and headed back towards the ship. It was bouncy and fun, but not quite as vigorous as I’d hoped. Nobody fell off. (One of the guys on the boat was watching in case someone did.) Still, it was fun – and even though it was over quick I recommend it for the price. (TIP: Although we were told not to wear sunglasses on the ride, you absolutely need something covering and protecting your eyes from the sea spray. Goggles would be best if you have them, or maybe wear a cheap pair of sunglasses that you wouldn’t be heartbroken over if you lost them. The people in front of us wore theirs and didn’t lose them)

After the ride, we walked over to Gil’s to pick up our snorkel gear. I paid the ridiculous price of $25 each to rent gear instead of bringing our own to save space. Next time I will bring ours. We suited up in our masks, fins, and silly mandatory fluorescent green vests (you don’t have to inflate them, thank goodness) and ventured into the crystal azure water. We had asked where the Mickey statue is and all they would tell is “between two buoys”. Grrr. (I know, I know, all of the “fun” is finding it, right???) We entered the water near the right hand side of the roped off snorkeling area and headed straight out. So when we went out, we traveled straight out. It was shallow for quite a while, before it branches out into the deeper waters. At first we looked around some and then met up perplexed. Like, where was everything? All we saw was some sea grass, and a couple of tiny fish.
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/underwater2.jpg


But as we got into the deep area, we discovered all kinds of beautiful fish and sea life. They come right up to you, too. (I read some people bring dog food to feed them and that is why they are so tame). The underwater shipwreck and submarine is scattered about, along with miscellaneous pots and such that the fish congregate in. We saw just amazingly huge schools of fish; these pictures don’t do it justice. They were everywhere!
You can see how clear the water is:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/underwater1.jpg

Ron at some of the underwater “shipwreck”:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/underwater3.jpg


We were out there for well over an hour and still had not come across the Mickey statue. I couldn’t believe we had somehow missed it, the water was too clear. Towards the end as we were tiring, we headed specifically to where groups of snorkelers were congregating in hopes they were at it. No luck. Finally we gave up, and as we headed back in, Ron ran across it. Nobody else was around at all. It was way over to the right hand side, and not way out into the far depths of the snorkeling area. Here are some pics: (the last one is Ron on the banana boat!)


http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/underwater4.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/underwater6.jpg

By this point I was pretty much wiped out. I had struggled at the end to keep up with Ron while snorkeling. We went to get the kids, and they were already under the pavilion eating lunch. We let them eat a little of what they already had, then told them we would get them more over at Cookie’s. That’s where we went next, and I was pretty hungry. The lines seemed a bit haphazard and there was a bit of confusion as to where to queue. We headed for one line, and then were directed to a longer one by a CM. It is buffet style, and as you move down the Z shaped line, the first stretch is the salads. I saw some cole slaw and got some of that. On the next stretch was the main entrée’s..there were ribs, hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and a blackened fish sandwich. I don’t like cheese on my burger, so that was out, as all of the sandwiches were already assembled. I didn’t see chicken of any sort, which would have been my first choice. Normally I would have taken the hot dog, but I guess I was feeling a bit adventurous and decided to go for the fish sandwich. The only issue is that I detest mayonnaise and it was slathered all over both sides of each sandwich. I probably could have asked for one without it, but there were no CM’s around in my line. Oh well. I grabbed one anyway, and took a sharp right around the corner for desserts, aaah! There was apple spice cake and cookies, yum. There might have been more, but that was all that looked good to me. After filling our trays we headed to the extremely busy beverage station. They actually had a CM pouring drinks there and quite a line was forming. We finally got served and headed to find a nice picnic table. We chose a covered table out from under the pavilion. There was plenty of seating available. The food was pretty good. The fish sandwich would have been excellent without the mayo, otherwise it was still pretty decent. Ron had the ribs, which I tried, but the meat wasn’t very tender. It didn’t fall off the bone, but the sauce was tasty and overall they had good flavor. The cole slaw had pineapple in it, which I don’t like. The apple spice cake was good, and the cookies similar to the room service ones (I guess that’s why they call them “island” cookies). The desserts were all good, but I was in search of that infamous treat that has made me drool for months: soft serve chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Just thinking those words starts the salivary glands and the tune “Oh yeah” by Yello cranks up in my head (the Ferrari song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) Yep. This stuff was so hyped could it possibly live up to its’ reputation?
OHHHHH YEAHHHHH. (chick-chickchick--ah!)

As we passed through the pavilion we saw the ice cream area and headed over. To our surprise none other than our assistant server Simona was doling out the cones! I don’t quite think she remembered us at first, since we were at Palo last night. We each got a cone of that pure icy heaven and headed back to the beach. By the way, they also serve strawberry for those of you who don’t want CCCD…which I can’t imagine. The cones were gone way too quick. I should have asked for two.

When we arrived at our spot on the beach, we were SHOCKED how crazy busy it was. I am talking worse than Clearwater Beach at Spring Break (and that is really bad).Nothing at all like when we left earlier. People had moved lounges and seats up all around us to get closer to the water so I had to re-situate our chairs (the ones that weren’t under the umbrella). It was hard to walk around, there were chairs everywhere to dodge.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/cruisemar07301.jpg

The kids had fun playing some sort of game:
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After that, it wasn’t long before the kids went back in the water, and I tried, also. It was still sooo cold, and I had dried off already so it just seemed colder. I decided to lounge in a chair and relax.

I guess this is when a shutters photographer got this shot of Savannah. We never even knew they did, we just happened upon it while browsing and it’s a good thing we did!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/CC3.jpg

Ron and the kids went to pick up our floats we rented, and they gave us a free tube, too. The kids used them a bit, but I never did get back in that ice bucket. On the way they ran into this Minnie photo op:
http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s183/nenner1/CC2.jpg

Ron took Brendan out to snorkel, and Savannah eventually came in and passed out on the lounge next to me. It was very hot out now, or at least it seemed to be with the sun belting down relentlessly. Even with lots of sunscreen on, the kids got some sun. I actually fell asleep face down on my lounge and fried the back half of my body pretty good. Unfortunately, Savannah was sleeping and I didn’t want her to get burned, so I tried to drag her up under the umbrella (we were now sharing it with some people who grabbed the lounges on the left side). That put me back out in the full sun, and I got uncomfortable, quick. I got a drink from the station, but they didn’t give me a lid and it only took minutes for the ice to melt and for it to fill with sand from the wind. I was really wishing I had brought the mugs. I tried to read a bit, but ended up just laying listening to the music. The soundtrack playing was reminiscent of the Goofy pool music, with some island flavor- a bit of Bob Marley thrown in. The group next to us packed it in, and I jumped and grabbed their chairs. I felt a little bad because I saw at least two other people making their way over to get them so they could be under the umbrella, but since I was right there I got them first. There just was not enough room under the umbrella for more than two lounges, and I had to get under there too, as I was *baking*. Savannah was still snoozing peacefully and I felt better now in the shade. By the time the boys returned from snorkeling, though, I was ready to get going. It was about 2:30 and I figured by the time we got back on the ship it would pretty much be time to get ready for the show.

Reluctantly Ron agreed. He hadn’t had much opportunity to just sit and relax on the beach, but he could see how sunburnt and uncomfortable I was, and the kids were ready to go, too. We packed up our stuff and left the snorkel gear and floats there for some other lucky souls to use. On our way back in we stopped at She Sells Sea Shells for some souvenirs. The place was packed, and it was difficult to maneuver around the store. It took us about a half an hour to gather T-shirts, magnets, a stuffed Goofy, and Post cards. I also grabbed the last CC pen. I wasn’t prepared like some people…we had not even gone to Treasure Ketch or Mickey’s Mates on the boat yet, so I didn’t have my post cards ready. I wrote them out with the pen I bought at the register while Ron checked out. After stopping at the bathroom (CC is such a big place, couldn’t they have put more bathrooms closer to the beach and eating pavilions?? I only saw the one set of bathrooms across from SSSS) we decided to take the tram back. We stopped at the post office to mail the cards, and the line was pretty long, out the door. It moved fairly quickly, though and we got our stamps from the Bahamanian postal worker and were on our way….back to another long line. The line to get back on the ship was unbelievable! It stretched well down the pathway. And it wasn’t moving like the PO line was. At least we could watch the boat getting painted while we waited. In. The. Very. Hot. Sun. What had happened to all that wind? I guess the behemoth ship was blocking it. It was stifling. As we got up closer we noticed that actually two bulkheads were open on the ship, but there was virtually no line at the far one. We broke out of line and jogged over in that direction, and it seemed like everybody saw that at once and they all ran over to the left side door. By the time we got there, a short line had formed and when we looked behind us it had managed to get just as long as the other one! Wow! Thanks to our stroke of good luck though, we were on the ship in a little more than 5 minutes (and it still looked like the other line hadn’t moved.) We went back to the room to clean up a bit, and I fell face first on the bed, head and torso only with legs dangling off the end.

“I'm riding this big round ball
I never do dream I may fall
And even the high must lay low
But when I do fall I will be glad to go
Yes when I do fall I will be glad to go”

And right there is where I stayed, apparently for over an hour. I was in a state of semi-consciousness. I know Ron and the kids went up to get snacks and go in the pool, and I was sleeping some..but I could hear what was going on around me. Namely, the people in the hall, and our poor neighbors. I had heard nothing from either side until now, so I hadn’t realized just how thin those stateroom walls were. Until, that is, I was able to clearly hear a normal-toned conversation about dinner and the show coming through from next door. Yikes, if normal voices could be heard that easily, then what about when we had to yell loudly at the kids to chill out at midnight, and early in the morning. Oooops. That is also when I heard many comments about the door sign coming through from people passing by in the hall. I felt bad about having used such loud voices (and probably un-disneylike adult language, too) and made a note to try and tone it down a bit when in the hallways in rooms. And with that, I laid my head back on the bed to continue my catnap.


“I don't even know where we are
They tell me we're circlin' a star
Well I'll take their word I don't know
But I'm dizzy so it may be so”

[scottishwee35]

Hi:goodvibes

What a beautiful photos:thumbsup2 Love the sunshine at the sea:cutie:

Scottishwee35

[Hanover]

I've enjoyed your trip report. I love the Hidden Mickey with Savannah's head (with Pluto's eyes) in the Mt. Rustmore/Minnie picture.

[Buckeye Gal]

Jen, thanks for sharing your experience! You've informed me of some good tips, too. You're the first DIS'er I've noticed scheduled for the same cruise we're taking on 9/27/08! I'm taking my mom to celebrate her 59th, and my 38th (gulp) birthday. :genie: Although this won't be either of our first cruise, it will be our first DC.

With what you've written so far, it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time, and I'm sure you're all looking forward to the double-dip cruise next year!

Kimberly

[nenner1]

Jen, thanks for sharing your experience! You've informed me of some good tips, too. You're the first DIS'er I've noticed scheduled for the same cruise we're taking on 9/27/08! I'm taking my mom to celebrate her 59th, and my 38th (gulp) birthday. :genie: Although this won't be either of our first cruise, it will be our first DC.

With what you've written so far, it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time, and I'm sure you're all looking forward to the double-dip cruise next year!

Kimberly

Thanks, Kimberly!
We will have a grand 'ol time on the DD! I'm insanely excited.:woohoo: I was on the boards last week and I noticed my ticker and I started yelling, my husband was wondering what I was screaming at, he thought I got hurt or something. No......it was just my ticker went down from 17 months to 16! HA! LOLLLLL!:rotfl:

[catecrew]

Jen, thanks for sharing your experience! You've informed me of some good tips, too. You're the first DIS'er I've noticed scheduled for the same cruise we're taking on 9/27/08! I'm taking my mom to celebrate her 59th, and my 38th (gulp) birthday. :genie: Although this won't be either of our first cruise, it will be our first DC.

With what you've written so far, it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time, and I'm sure you're all looking forward to the double-dip cruise next year!

Kimberly


Hey, Me too. Love reading this & I am with you too on the DD. I will be celebrating my 40th birthday while on the ship (double gulp) :scared1:

[Buckeye Gal]

Hey, Me too. Love reading this & I am with you too on the DD. I will be celebrating my 40th birthday while on the ship (double gulp) :scared1:

Yes...I've already become addicted to these boards! I found a board exclusively for our cruise in the "Cruise Meets" forum. Sat and Sun I got through all 460 posts! :rotfl: Sounds like we'll have some really really good people on board with us. If you haven't checked out that forum, I highly recommend it! We cruisers are already planning “games” to play with eachother’s room doors, kids to connect with one another prior to the cruise so they have some “familiar” new friends when they go to their exclusive camp activities, pulling together school supply donations to schools of the kids in the country we’ll be visiting, planning high tea and brunch dates with one another, and so much more (did I mention drinks?) :)

Since I'm not yet allowed to post a link, you'll have to combine these two lines with the "www" in the begining, and then it will take you right to our forum:

disboards.com/ PLUS

showthread.php?t=1344864

If you haven't already seen this, enjoy a new source!!

[Buckeye Gal]

Thanks, Kimberly!
We will have a grand 'ol time on the DD! I'm insanely excited.:woohoo: I was on the boards last week and I noticed my ticker and I started yelling, my husband was wondering what I was screaming at, he thought I got hurt or something. No......it was just my ticker went down from 17 months to 16! HA! LOLLLLL!:rotfl:


That is SO funny! We have another milestone coming up in a little more than 2 weeks, so you can scare him again! We'll reach the countdown day from 500 to 499!

[nenner1]

"I never used to miss the chance to climb up on his knee
and listen to the many tales of life upon the sea
We'd go sailing back on Barcantines,
and talk of things we did
The world was just a day away
for the Captain and the kid"


When we left off last, I was face down on the bed. When the kids & Ron returned from the pool, I woke up in a panic. We only had a short time to get ready for the show & dinner…and it was Pirate night…and Lifestyle Portrait night….So much to do, so little time.
There was lots of flustered scrambling about. In fact we had no choice but to double team the shub. Girls first, then boys. TWO people in one shub! Amazing!

Brendan was the only one who had a pirate costume. He had been one for Halloween last year. It was kind of an improvised thing, the top half was the Captain Jack costume from Target, the rest of it we just threw together. It was pretty cute, though. Problem was, he had gone through a pretty big growth spurt between October and March, and now it didn’t quite fit. I thought it was so bad I questioned whether or not he should even wear it. Ron’s reply? “He’s a PIRATE. It’s fine. Besides didn’t Captain Jack have his belly showing?” Hmmm. Not this much, I certainly would have noticed! Ha!


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Once again, we had to rush down to the Walt Disney Theater for the show. We were a little earlier than last night, but still late enough to have difficulty locating seats. Somehow, once again four seats magically appeared before our eyes and we rushed over to grab them. Yet again on the aisle, this time over to the right side of the theater. We scooted over there, and I was careful to not step on anyone this time. Tonight’s show was magician and illusionist Mike Super. The kids, especially Brendan, just LOVE magicians, and they were anxiously looking forward to it. Mike Super was very entertaining. The show was not cheesy, and all ages really enjoyed it. The illusions were pretty neat and involved audience participation. For instance, one audience member was levitated four feet above the ground. I don’t know how he did it, it was really cool and looked real (there was no evidence of wires or anything like that). He also made predictions about what random audience members were going to tell him, which made up a cute vacation story. The predictions were locked in a box that hung in the audience’s full view the entire show (it was one guy’s job to watch the box for the duration of the show for any evidence of tampering!). Then Mike threw a ball around in the audience and each person told him a word and when the box was opened, all of the words were magically on the paper inside it. At the end he produced “snow” from his bare hands. If I had to pick one word to describe this show, it was neato. I highly recommend if you are anywhere you can catch a Mike Super performance, don’t hesitate! He’s fantastic!

After the show, we made our usual and planned stop in the atrium for photos. Tonight was the lifestyle portraits, the white background. I had made an effort in our pre-cruise planning to have all of our outfits match tonally, so our photos would look great no matter what night they were done. Pirate night, however….? It just didn’t work out. We didn’t clash terribly; we just didn’t match as well as I had planned. Savannah had switched dresses; Brendan was in his pirate getup. It wasn’t the best night for the white backdrop but we didn’t have much choice. The line took a bit longer, as the photographer was taking many shots of each subject. When it was our turn we also got a barrage of poses, most of which we bought. They did come out pretty decent: (If you look close at my arm, you can see my two-tone sunburn!)
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Over on the other side of the atrium and down on deck 3, the sunset backdrop was set up. I have to say that this is my absolute favorite of all the backdrops. Something about that melting Mickey sun! We got some very nice shots done over there.

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Then we happened upon Snow White, and she had no line at all. Woo-hoo! And then we had another picture we had to buy.

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After that, we wandered about the lobby a bit. I know we separated for a short while, but I can’t remember why. It was during that time, I spotted Captain Henry mingling with the guests over by guest services. I wanted to get a picture of the kids with him, but I had to wait around for Ron & Brendan to get back. When they finally did, we got lucky, Captain Henry was all alone, so we bum rushed him for a quick photo.

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Unfortunately, Captain Henry- who btw was so friendly and polite- made the mistake of asking the kids if they found any treasure out on CC earlier in the day. OMG. Brendan spouted out a second to second play-by-play of the events that occurred at the little archaeological dig out in the OC. He was talking about bones, treasure, digging...oh my goodness. He didn’t even stop to breathe; he was so excited to be telling the Captain about his adventures! Finally I had no choice but to cut Brendan off, he could have gone on all night. We bid good evening to Captain Henry, who I’m sure was happy to finally escape! ;)

By then it was time for our dinner seating. Well, actually past time, again. Tonight was Pirates in the Caribbean dinner in Parrot Cay. pirate: We arrived a bit late again, which is just as well. Who wants to wait in that big line anyway? As we came in, we were shown to our table since we had been in Palo the night before. (This was the 2nd night at PC in our rotation APPT) I have to say I like the way they do the repeated restaurant and Pirate night on the 3rd night. It works out really well on the 4 night cruise.

We noticed when we sat down that all of the servers had on cool Pirate outfits. It really made the atmosphere. I think PC is the best restaurant to be in on Pirate night, too. It just makes it seem that much more authentic. We put on our pirate bandannas and got ready for a great meal. We noticed not a whole lot of folks had dressed up in pirate wear. Or should I say, had dressed down. The ones that had were in matching POTC T-shirts and shorts. It sure would have been nice to go a little casual one night, in retrospect. This was the only night we saw shorts in the dining room, though…and not many of them at that. Simona came by and brought bread, and got our drink order. She did not remember our preferences, but I am not surprised by that on the 3 and 4 night cruises. It must be difficult with such a turnaround. Tonight, she left the bread basket on the table and it had a whole lot of crusty Cuban rolls in it. There was a thing going on where you could get a souvenir glass (actually a plastic tumbler) that lights up all different neon colors. It cost $3.50 with a purchase of a “drink” (meaning the alcoholic or specialty variety). Brendan was getting a vanilla smoothie anyway, so I told her to go ahead and bring it in the flashing cup. The kids liked it. Ron was surprised, he didn’t know it cost $3.50, he thought it was like 99 cents. Oooooops! Here is a picture; you can see one of them on the table in the background, lit up in blue.

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With the silly indulgences aside, it was time to get down to business, and by that I mean food. For appetizers, Ron had the Blackbeard’s Crab Cake. I’m not too big on crab, but I tried a bite and it was good. I had the sun-ripened pineapple, which is just a pineapple wedge with a citrus and banana syrup on it sprinkled with coconut. It was a great starter, light and tasty. The kids asked JoJo for watermelon, and even though it was not readily available this evening he tracked it down. They didn’t even end up eating hardly any of it, but we remembered his effort when filling out the tip sheet.

About this time the Shutter’s photographer happened by to memorialize the pirate festivities for us. The group shots were good, and the package is upgraded yet again.
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Ron asked me later why I “messed up” this great shot with my “Arrrr” sneer. Because it was supposed to be a pirate pose, duh… (That’s a “Captain Hook” Savannah is doing, isn’t she cute?) Of course I’m buying it, too.:rolleyes1

Time for the next course, soups & salads. Not surprisingly we again ordered the same thing, Hideaway Bay Salad. It was pretty good. I didn’t eat all of it, like I had the one at Animator’s. And I don’t know why it is that I keep forgetting to wait to dig in until Simona comes by with the pepper! I was used to regular restaurants, how they serve the salad and grind the pepper at the same time. Here, all the salads are served, and then the assistant goes from table to table with the pepper. We were inevitably last and I already had a good bit of it gone by the time the pepper arrived. Oh well. As far as the salad goes, the jerk croutons and the fresh shaved parmesan are really good. I can’t recall what kind of dressing was on it, if any. Next time I think I’ll try the chilled honeydew & mango soup!

JoJo stopped by and we got some pictures of him with the kids. You might notice Brendan’s face is a little flushed. We didn’t notice it at the time, and later we were really wishing we did. Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
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The main course was on its’ way. Ron & I both had to ask for drink refills. They took a while to get, too. We didn’t know at the time that the assistant servers had to go all the way down to the galley for drinks. Would it be that hard for Disney to put at least one soda dispenser in each restaurant? Gosh. It makes it so hard on the servers. At least there is always water available, even though it has a bit of a funny taste. We had also finished the bread. I, for one was filling up already.

Now, I had checked out all the menus online prior to sailing, and aside from Palo, the one I was most looking forward to was Pirate Night. I had eaten a fantastic Macadamia crusted mahi mahi at Bonefish Grill not too long ago, and when I saw the same thing on the Pirate Menu I pretty much decided that’s what I would have. For some reason though, this night I just wasn’t in the mood, even though I had planned on it for months. Don’t ask me why. Instead I was drawn to the Pirate Island spiced chicken breast. Ron decided to get the mahi mahi, so we could split if I changed my mind. I didn’t though. A full breast of chicken, bone in rubbed with jerk-like island spices came atop a pile of red beans and rice with whole fried okra. Now the okra isn’t southern fried little nuggets, like I am used to, it was whole okra pieces only lightly dusted. Still good. The chicken was great and the red beans and rice rocked the house. I ate them all. I didn’t finish the chicken because it was a huge breast. Ron had some though. I tried a small bite of the fish and I was glad I had the last minute change of heart. It was bland, and the macadamia crust was soggy. He wasn’t impressed, either. The kids both had cheeseburgers. Savannah barely ate anything, as usual. Brendan ate the whole burger. And a lot of fries too. And don’t forget a bunch of bread. And vanilla smoothie. (You SO know where I am going with this, don’t you?)

My favorite part of the meal was next, and although I was very full I still had room for some Walk the Plank triple chocolate cake (and licked every crumb off my plate). Ron selected the Lost Banana Treasure, and his luck had not improved. It was basically one half of a banana, split, with some caramel sauce. It was supposed to be served flambé (or more accurately the flambé was to be done by the head server) but we did not see much (if any?) of Jeff that night. I did watch around and saw there were no flaming desserts anywhere in the dining room that night, so it wasn’t just him. He was still disappointed. The kids, as you have probably figured had their usual:

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There would be no plates of "nothing" on our cruise!


Simona came by and asked Brendan and Savannah if they would get up and “dance” with her after dinner. This was our first cruise so we weren’t exactly sure what that entailed. We weren’t in suspense long. Savannah was being shy, as she thought it would just be them & Simona in front of everyone. Come to find out, it is a huge conga line & limbo through the dining room set to loud festive island tunes. Too cool! All the kids were up participating (and some adults snuck in too). Lucky for us, the limbo bar was set up right by our table, so we had the best seats in the house. We saw the kids go by the fist time, still right with Simona. As they approached the second time, I was waiting with the camera, ready to snap a picture. I saw Savannah, and snapped a photo of her…but where was Brendan? I scanned the line quickly but by then Ron said “Uh oh” and had hopped up from the table. I followed his line of sight up the middle aisle of the restaurant, there was Brendan, barfing right into the conga line!:sick: Oh the horrors!!:sad2: Simona was right there one hand on his back, trying to direct the stumbling congo-ers around the ummm…mess. It caused a bit of a chain reaction behind them. Nobody fell; they all just sort of smashed into the back of one another. Ron scooped Brendan up and hauled him quickly off to the restroom. I felt terrible for the family sitting at the table right there. Fortunately for them, dinner was pretty much over and they could-and did- get out of there in a hurry. But what happened in the meantime was more of that Disney magic! As if choreographed, a group of servers descended on the vomit like vultures on prey and lickety-split had it cordoned off and covered with a “tent” made of three chairs and a tablecloth! I was impressed. I am just thankful they did not bring out the pink absorbent puke granule stuff, like they sprinkle on it in elementary school! (I did see some of that the next day out on deck by the Mickey pool!)

Savannah and I waited a few minutes and then I settled our check. We met the boys outside the bathroom and dragged back up to the room to clean up. Ron said the CM’s were all asking our room number and we hoped we would not be quarantined. In fact, it was no virus. Brendan had just eaten too much bread. This had happened twice in the past month at other restaurants. (We were not quarantined, or anything. Nothing ever became of it)

Waiting for us back in our home away from home was our new pre-Easter bunny friend chilling out with some chocolate-mint-gold-coin-booty on the bottom bunk!

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The kids almost immediately passed out. They were exhausted and with Brendan not feeling good, I wasn’t too surprised. Before they had even gotten undressed we had asked them if they wanted to see the deck party and the fireworks and the said no. They were so tired. Ron went for a drink run, and he came back gushing about the dessert buffet. He offered to go grab me something, but I too was so tired and full, I wasn’t even interested. Imagine that. That is true fatigue, folks.

:angel:

And another magical day was over.

[nenner1]

“I don’t know
I don’t know
I don’t know where I’m a gonna go
When the volcano blow”


We have arrived at our last full day in paradise. Day four, an at-sea day. After falling basically unconscious early in the evening the night before (it’s all relative; our 11 pm is a normal person’s 7 pm) and not having an early excursions or a gorgeous beach to get up early and drag out to, we thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in ‘til almost 9. When we did wake up, we had a dreary revelation. We had Palo brunch scheduled for 10:30! We kindof just looked at each other and I said “I wonder if they will charge us if we cancel” Cancel Palo brunch? I know you all must think I’m nuts, but let me explain. First and foremost, we were both about to literally physically explode in a million little pieces. We were THAT stuffed. THAT bloated. THAT gorged. We simply couldn’t fathom eating massive amounts of food. Or really, even small amounts of food. None of the several suitcases worth of clothes I dragged on board contained clothes that fit me comfortably any more. Same with Ron. We were totally distended and uncomfortable. Plus, we were all still a bit drained, and were looking forward to a day of relaxing, not running around, getting ready and scattering around the ship. I wanted to take it easy and chill out. Before the spiel of reasoning had even parted my lips, Ron was on the phone to Guest Services, and our brunch reservation canceled. I wasn’t terribly disappointed. Besides, there would certainly be another opportunity, right?

With that taken care of, we rose leisurely and dressed casual. I managed to squeeze into the pair of shorts I wore very briefly on Sunday. I didn’t bother with makeup and hair, since being on deck by the pools would definitely be part of today’s equation! Other than that though, the only thing we planned out was the Celebrate the Journey “graduation” celebration for the OC. That was at 11:30. (Good thing we didn’t go to the brunch, we would have really been rushed!). We went up to BBB for some breakfast. Maybe on the next cruise we’ll get to try breakfast in one of the full-service restaurants. The food at BBB is only so-so, and I wasn’t too hungry to begin with. I think I had some bacon, sausage, and a biscuit. There wasn’t a long line when we arrived, but yet again, no inside tables. We got a table out under the overhang so at least it wasn’t too windy. We made fast work of that meal, and on our way out, I noticed the little cereal bar for the first time. It had little individual serving boxes of cereals. Nice! Wish I had seen it the day before! Anyway as we passed it, I let my fingers do the walking and grabbed a couple of boxes of froot loops. Never know when those might come in handy. We stopped at the Mickey Pool, because of course, we had to. The kids insisted. And what the heck? This was a go-with-the-flow kind of day. They had their suits on under their clothes, so we let them jump in for a while. Ron went back to the room to get some Parrot Bay to mix with his very watered down orange juice. The OJ seemed to get weaker and weaker as the days went by. We wondered if they were running out and had to keep adding more water to the little amount of concentrate they had left. …? Wednesday was turning out to be the coolest day of our cruise. The temps did not even reach 70 degrees and the wind was blowing fiercely. Once the sun came out later though, it was very nice on deck. For the time being, however, it was downright frosty! Of course that is because I wasn’t in the heated pool. Neither were very many kids yet. That wouldn’t be the case later. You can see just how much actual pool water is visible in the photos:

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I had to go on a search for towels. Usually they were easy to find. This time they were way in the back, behind the little ice cream dispenser. After doing that, I went to get myself a drink and discovered the drink station had been roped off, and a CM was serving everyone. That caused quite a line to back up. Aside from being more time consuming, it was frustrating not being able to get my drinks the way I wanted (ice tea, in a cup filled with ice, and an extra cup of tea straight out of the tap). I drink a lot and I always get the extra “refill” cup so I don’t have to constantly make trips to the station. Grrr. I’ve read they do this when illness breaks out. I guess if that’s the reasoning behind it, then it’s worth it, but it was irritating nonetheless. The kids got to play in the pool for over an hour before we had to take them back up to dry them off and re-clothe them for the D-Sea-U graduation. I was happy to go back in and warm up. The sun still wasn’t out, and to quote Winnie the Pooh, the day was blustery at best. We got the kids dressed, and we had plenty of time yet, so we cruised down to the atrium for some pictures while it was deserted.

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After that, we decided to get them up to the club. Best to be early. Problem was we weren’t early. I remember we had to walk up the stairs from 3 because we couldn’t get an elevator, and on the way up we passed a CM going down with gobs of the mouse-ear graduation caps in her hand. They were sooo cool!
We were surprised at what we saw when we entered the club. It wasn’t quite even 11 yet, but even as we arrived, the kids all already had their shirts on, and the CM’s were already lining up the kids to go! There was a short line at the check in desk, and once again we proved lucky. The line grew exponentially and massively behind us while we were waiting. Now, I’ve mentioned the check in/out process is a bit tedious and this day would prove to not be an exception. I could tell the CM’s behind the desk were a bit frazzled by all the activity. They were trying really hard not to show it. That is, until the family ahead of us reached the front of the line. I don’t know what it is about us, but no matter where we go (the grocery…sporting events and concerts….Mc Donald’s) we somehow always manage to end up behind people who don’t know what they are doing. This family is a case in point. Turns out that no, they did not want to check their kids in for graduation. The kids just wanted to play in the club. They had to have the whole graduation concept explained to them, which they in turn re-explained to their kids. Kids were pretty emphatic that they didn’t want any part of it. The CM tried to talk them into it. They still didn’t want any part of it. So then mom & dad ask if the kids can just stay there and play. Nope- well not unless mom or dad was going to stay with them. This apparently was not part of mom & dad’s plan. They were pretty ticked off. Yeah. And.so.were.we! And the million frantic people in the gigantinormous line behind us). So then they had to find out exactly what times in the day their kids could come back and have free time in the club. My goodness. Of course that required getting out a Navigator and checking both kids’ age groups…and you get where I’m coming from by now. Meanwhile, the transition to take the kids down to the WDT had begun. I was wondering if the kids would be able to get checked in on time to make it down there. In fact, the other CM behind the desk had cut off the line a few parties back and instructed them that since transition had begun, they would have to check their kids in for Grad down at the theater. Finally the unhappy family was on their way and minutes later we were on ours. We arrived down at the theater and walked in to find it rather empty. The first couple of rows in the center were full, so we got a nice spot dead center in the third row. Sweet. We had about a half an hour to wait before the show started. It went quick, as we spent the time going over the Navigator and discussing what our plan for the day would be. Finally, it was time for the show to begin. The theater was pretty full by now. The kids started filing in from the back. Lots and lots and lots of them. The filled the stage and STILL lines of gray shirted munchkins paraded up the aisles. We began to get worried when the lines finally stopped, and we hadn’t seen Brendan or Savannah yet. Then more lines started coming in the side door. Eventually we spotted them, first Brendan, then several kids later, Savannah:

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The show was short, cute and entertaining. They showed a cute video montage that contained shots of the kids enjoying the clubs. Of course, not our kids. They weren’t there enough!
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After the show, we literally RAN back up to the club. I had read in other TR’s about the massive line to pick up the kids from the clubs after Grad, and how long it takes. We got there pretty darn fast (I couldn’t believe how many people just decided to wait for those ghost elevators). In fact, we got there before even all the kids had made it back. I saw Savannah with other kids through the “porthole” window into the kids’ secret passageway between the club and the lab. Brendan I guess, was already inside. They directed Ron, who was in line, back into the club and gathered the kids from in there. Then they exited through a side door. It was a madhouse out front, as I tried to wiggle my way against the crowd and make my way out and around to the exit door. Thankfully, we were among the first couple of families out of there. We decided to go out on deck 4 to take more pictures:

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The sun was finally out, but the wind was still blowing and the sea was choppy. According to the TV screen out by preludes, the temperature was a brisk 69 degrees. And you can guess what the kids wanted to do. Oh yeah. Mickey pool! We went back to the room to change once again. Dewa had been in and straightened things up for us. He was a godsend! When we walked out the midship lobby on deck 9, we walked right into a Donald Photo op. Awesome! There were only three or four kids in line:

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After that, we split up to grab some lunch. Ron had gotten in the Pinocchio’s line with Brendan, and as I went to get Savannah into the Pluto’s line I stubbed my toe really bad and ripped half my big toenail off! It hurt like HECK. I was bleeding all over the place. Ron came over to us in line and I asked him to take my place so I could go clean up the raw meat that was my mangled toe. I don’t know what caused the frustration, I guess the pain from my injury but next thing you know I was fuming and fretting and I dropped an F-bomb! And yes, we were right there in line, so I know the people around heard it. I got embarrassed and shut up real quick. I probably should have said I was sorry but instead I just split. Yes, everyone, that was ME with the potty mouth. My bad! Sorry! (Hey better late than never on that apology.)

Here are the kids showing off their favorite cruise food:

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Anyway once we got settled with lunch, and I had recovered from my little faux pas, we were ready to do some serious relaxing.

Who am I kidding, right?

[nenner1]

“So I'll just keep on dreamin'
Thoughts that are in my brain
You just keep on bein'
The lady I can't explain”

Early afternoon of the at-sea day on the Disney Wonder finds families with small kids nowhere else but the Mickey pool. It was unbelievable. It was a massive sea of humanity! It didn’t faze the kids a bit, they hopped right in and started having a blast. We meandered around aimlessly. There was nowhere really to sit. Of course all the lounges and chairs were taken, and even the rim of the pool itself was shoulder-to-shoulder with foot dipping adults. Ron wandered around and found a single chair up on 10. We went up there and halfway up the deck he found a lounge that he proceeded to drag all the way down to a spot where we could oversee the kids in the pool. It was kindof tricky, as up on deck 10, there are these little areas where the walkway kindof juts around (somewhat like a “Z”) but he managed to maneuver that thing through for me! We hung out up there until the stack blocked the sun and put us in a shadow. We weren’t hungry but decided to grab a quick bite anyway. I just had the Pluto’s specialty- chicken tenders and french fries, of course. Ron went into BBB and got some stir-fry. BBB has an oriental buffet on the at-sea day and we had heard and read good things about it. He said it was okay, but he’d rather have PF Chang’s. Once the shade had overtaken us, we dragged the chair around to the other side of the boat (sorry, I don’t have the SLIGHTEST idea what was port and what was starboard, but we moved from overlooking Mickey’s chin to overlooking the ears). I sat there reading a book while Ron walked around taking pictures. Now you see what I mean when I describe the endless pool of bodies:
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After a while of just relaxing on deck, we decided to head back to the room, change back into our clothes , and go down and check out the shops. We went into Mickey’s Mates first. Mickey’s Mates is the more casual of the two shops, a traditional Disney gift shop with merchandise in bright bold colors. Savannah got a stuffed DCL –outfitted Minnie and a charm bracelet with several princess charms. Brendan got a little clip on-mickey and a photo album. I bought a photo album, several magnets, and several Christmas Ornaments. Then we strolled across the way into Treasure Ketch. TK is the more upscale shop with high-end merchandise, jewelry, and dress clothes (just in case something happens to your little black dress!). Ron was looking for a T-shirt. He didn’t find one he liked in MM, but found several in TK. I also became enamored with some nice pewter and wood picture frames, and more Christmas ornaments! We bought all of those goodies, and I just happened to notice that TK sells Jimmy Buffett’s “Meet me in Margaritaville” CD. But of course we hadn’t heard any JB the whole trip, not even at CC. Thought that was interesting.

We went from the shops, back to the room to drop off our huge bags of souvenirs (and immediately knew that stuff would absolutely FILL the extra duffel bag I had brought to bring back extras in. I was not looking forward to the packing later in the evening. I was NOT about to dwell on that however. The WDT was showing a matinee of Disney Dreams at 4 pm. We thought that it would be nice to catch the early show, which we expected to be less crowded, and have time to get ready for dinner a bit more leisurely than usual. I wanted to be sure we had good (ie- close) seats for this one, so we headed down to the theater about 45 minutes before show time.
And we were surprised to see big lines already extending from the closed entrance doors! So much for this one being less crowded! The wait in line was not bad as we chatted with some folks around us from Tennessee. When the doors finally opened at 3:30, we scooted in and charged down the aisle to the front row. We didn’t run anybody over, but we did run around a few! LOL! Even so, we ended up all the way to the right of the theater. It was nice to be in the front row, but I would have liked to have been more centered. The kids found a new friend sitting next to them:

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The show began, and it was fantastic. In fact, the Disney Dreams show had just been re-done, and we were the very first people *EVER* to see the new version! I never saw the old version, so I can’t compare them, but the show was phenomenal. At one point bubbles shoot out over the crowd, the kids loved grabbing for them (that’s a benefit of being up front):
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Our pictures don’t do the show justice:
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We really enjoyed it a lot, and as we filed out of the theater, we noticed it was standing room only in there. Was anybody at all going to the later shows? We would remember this next time. We had plenty of time before dinner, so we asked the kids what they wanted to do. You guessed it, swim.

This time we went over to the Goofy pool. “The Incredibles” was playing up on Dumbotron, and we all got in the pool to watch. This was the first time I had been in any of the pools (I had been in the hot tubs), it was nice when you are in the water and brutal when you got out.

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The wind was steadily increasing as the afternoon wore on. We hung out in there for a while, and as everything started to empty out, we too headed back to get ready for our last evening on board.

Look at that happy face!

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On the way, we stopped for a few more deck 4 shots. The seas actually look fairly calm in this one. They wouldn’t be for long:

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We were glad to enjoy a more leisurely pace getting ready for dinner. Dewa didn’t like it too much, though. He had gotten all of the other rooms done, but he had to wait on us. I sped things up a bit and we headed out so he could do his thing. First stop was guest services to handle the tips. Though the lines were long, they moved rapidly and we got our tip envelopes in short order. Oh and we also got a copy of our onboard charges. Woooooo boy! The goal in the beginning was to stay under $1000. Let’s just say we revised that and the new goal was to stay under $20000. Yikes!!!!

Having accomplished that, we noticed that the lifestyle portrait background was up again. That was great, as I really wanted to get some non-pirate themed white background shots. By now the ship was rocking pretty good. I had gotten used to it and it wasn’t making me feel ill, but everybody was having a hard time standing and especially walking. Everyone looked like drunks staggering around like they were!

We headed over and got in the line for the white background pictures. There was different photographer there this time, and we had a really hard time understanding him. He actually only took two shots of us, and that was it. I had wanted to get some of just the kids but the next group was already walking out onto the paper. Dangit! So we hopped over into another line of shots being taken on the staircase. The rocking of the ship was so bad the kids had trouble standing on the steps. The photographer did a great job getting those shots taken fast!

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After the last of the pictures, we headed on to dinner. Tonight was Triton’s, and we had already seen the line forming in the lobby. We went ahead and got in the line, and thankfully did not have to wait too long. I loved the decor of Triton’s, gold and blue. Our table was close to the front door, this time. I like how your table is in a different location in each restaurant. They close the front door during dinner, so no one wanders in. I found that amusing.

Looking at the menu, I found none of the appetizers really jumped out at me. I didn’t know what to get, so I decided what the heck- this is vacation, right? Live a little. I chose the escargot.. Ron was like, “What!?!?!” He said “Are you actually going to eat snails?” Yep, well that is the plan. I don’t even know what he ordered, I was so focused on my bravado. I assume he had the shrimp assortment. The escargot arrived and here is the proof:

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Yes, I just had to memorialize the event. You see, I was one of those kids that would not eat anything when I was little. Macaroni and cheese, chocolate cook & serve pudding, and KFC. And that was about it. (I was 18 the first time I had a taco! I swear!) As I have aged, I have slowly expanded my repertoire of acceptable cuisine but I still don’t take huge risks with my food. And this would fall in that department. And so how were they? Well, they were fine, basically they tasted like a chewy mushroom. Except that is for the little crunch at the end. I don’t know what it was that crunched, and I don’t really want to find out. I ate it all, but I probably will try the quiche on my next cruise. We’ll just leave it at that!


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For salads, we both had the mixed garden salad. It was fine. Nothing special. I remember the vinaigrette was good. I didn’t even bother with the fresh ground pepper this time. I ate all the salad up, too. We both also had the Dijon-roasted beef tenderloin as our entrée. It came sliced, and covered in brown gravy with horseradish mashed potatoes. The beef was tender and flavorful. I ate it all right up, as did Ron. This was the first night we had eaten all of our dinner and were not totally full. I probably should have ordered double desserts. I was having a hard time choosing between the Grand Marnier Souffle and the Crème Brulee. In the end, I go the Crème Brulee and Ron got the Souffle. Both were good, but the soufflé does not compare to the Palo chocolate one. The Crème Brulee was fantastic and I scraped the bowl, wishing I had another one. The kids had the same as usual:
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The pictures with the Mickey bars are always Savannah becuase Brendan would immediately decapitate (or more accurately, de-ear) his.

After dinner, the servers all paraded through the dining room, and Chef Winston came out. It was finally beginning to settle in that this cruise was almost over!
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We really enjoyed our dinner in Triton’s. After passing out or tip envelopes and bidding good night (and farewell?) to our servers, we headed for Shutters. As I have mentioned (and you might have noticed in this TR), I am somewhat of a picture fanatic. I had already purchased a big package (the biggest, in fact) and now it was time for the hard work: narrowing down the selections. We grabbed our stack of photos and retreated to a spot at the front of the store, by the register. We immediately disagreed on which photos to choose. I made it clear there were quite a few I refused to part with and that we would have to buy an additional package. Ron was upset, because some of them (mainly the ones from earlier in the evening) showed movement, and because he was so drawn to those flaws, he did not want the photo. Well, I wasn’t going to budge because that was a particularly beautiful shot of the kids, and the layman’s eye would NOT detect what he was seeing (he is an x-ray tech so he is good at spotting movement in exposures). Apparently our disagreement was a little heated, and a little loud, because a nice lady come over to us from the line at the register. She said that she just wanted to say she knows how it is, because several years ago that was her and her husband on the floor arguing over their shots. She was very nice, and we immediately felt a little sheepish! Ron, in fact went out on deck, and I picked up the pictures and got in line. In the end he was still a bit upset because there was one group shot that he liked better, but I couldn’t stand it, and I didn’t get it. Eventually he came back inside, but he remained grumpy for about an hour or so afterwards. In the end the damage at Shutters was phenomenal. We spent nearly $600, but we got over 20 8x10’s and about 15 6x8’s. I promised Ron that next time I would cut back on the pictures. We headed out into the atrium lighter in the wallet, but with a brown folder full of great memories.

Time was getting away with us on our last night, but it was not over yet!

[Buckeye Gal]

I'm getting sad knowing the end of your story is near!!! I can't imagine the saddness you were all having coming to realization the cruise was wayyyyy too short! Looking forward to your next (and maybe last) TR. (sniff sniff)

[nenner1]

:goodvibes Two more!!

[mommykds]

What a lovely family you have & what great pictures!!!!

Wow! That Mickey pool sure was crowded!:eek:

[j_cwayman]

DH and I couldn't stop laughing as we were reading your TR. You are such a wonderful writer. Thank you for sharing your vacation with all of us!:)

[mormadsmom]

Whew!, Now I feel some better. I thought our $300. on photos in shutters was just too much. That's not counting buying the picture holder album with the ship at night on one side. I am glad we bought them, but $300.? ouch!

[NCardella]

Nenner...I keep looking for us in your crowd shots! no such luck yet!

[nenner1]

Thank you, j_cwayman for your kind words! I am glad you are enjoying it!!:goodvibes

Yeah, that was a lot of $$$ to spend, but I hardly bought any other souvenirs. I don't regret it a bit! I am so glad Disney is coming out with the photo pass thing (darnit I forgot what it is called) where you can buy all of your shutters photos digital on a CD for $99! Isn't that awesome!!!:yay:

NCardella, you've got to be out there somewhere!!;) I only have a few more shots to post too. Its funny how we kept running into the same people over and over again....I'm sure there were so many others we never saw!!! well, keep looking.....hmmm...and I thought it was a small world after all???!!:rotfl:

[nenner1]

“So you wonder why
You ever go home……
You wonder why you ever go home”

We stumbled, literally, into the atrium on deck 4, and literally upon a glorious celebration. The ‘Til We Meet Again show was about to begin. The cruise director Darren was down on 3 doing the introduction and next thing you know, characters are bounding past us on their way to the stairs! Exciting!

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After the short intro, all of the characters took their spots in different areas of decks 3 and 4. What was to occur next was a strange frantic scramble; I would imagine something akin to speed dating. Have you ever heard of that? It’s when a bunch of people are in a bar and change “partners” every 2 minutes or so to meet lots of people fast. That’s kind of what this was like. Except with big headed, mouse eared, fancy dressed, well…characters. (!) We were right by where Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were, and ended up first in their line:


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Right away I realized we would do best to split up, where one of us waits in a line while the other stays with the kids and takes the pictures then we swap out. It worked really well. I headed out to find a line. It was all about prioritizing at this point. We had already had some great character opportunities both onboard and on CC, but there were some characters we had not seen yet. I had no idea how long this shin-dig was going to last, plus it was getting late and ever closer to the dreaded witching hour of 11 pm (when all luggage must be in the hallway…. OR ELSE! And did I mention we had not started packing up yet?) So anyway first and foremost in the must do list were the PRINCESSES. Especially Cinderella, who is Savannah’s favorite. I went straight for her line, which as Gwen Stefani would say is hella-long. She was dead center on 3 and her line went all the way around the corner and halfway back through the promenade lounge. I walked to the end of it and immediately heard someone in close proximity tell their DD that the line was long and they “might not get to see Belle”. BELLE? Hmmm. I popped out of line and walked closer. The atrium was a hodge podge of bodies and sure enough it looked like Cindy’s line kind of converged with Belle’s. I heard another mom asking a lady if she was in line for Cindy and she said no. She turned around and asked me if I was in line for Cinderella and I said that I was looking to be. She asked another lady and lo & behold she thought SHE was the end of the line! There were only about 4 girls! Awesome! I frantically waved to Ron & the kids and they arrived just in time (or else I would have gotten a pic with her by myself!)
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Deck 3 was just a mad house, and we decided to go back up to 4 since all the lines were short up there. We made the rounds upstairs fairly quickly:

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Crowds downstairs were finally starting to thin a bit. We headed back down. Mulan had no line so we hopped right in to meet her:

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Ron & the kids stood In Mickey’s line while I trudged back over to Belle’s not–quite-as-massive-as-it-had-been-but-still-super-long queue.

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Darren had announced the characters would only be out for s little bit longer and as we waited for Belle I was mumbling to myself “Please just a few more minutes….please just a few more minutes”.

Well….we made it!
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In fact we even had time to check out Hades and his blue-tighted wing hat dude.
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It couldn’t have been more than a half an hour but we saw every character out in the lobby with the exception of the Muses from Hercules (what exactly is the plural for that anyway? Museii?). They announced the grand finale, but the clock was ticking and my suitcases were going to turn into pumpkins if I didn’t have them packed and outside that door in a little less than 30 minutes. I practically RAN back to the room (no elevator again – geez…four flights of stairs is NOT how I wanted to begin my frantic packing escapade!) And on the way up I was growling through my teeth (to the tune of “yes, we have no bananas”) “Yes, we have no elev-a-tors…we have no…ele-va-tors today!) I just can’t even imagine how much weight I would have gained if not for those stair workouts! Ha! Anyway Ron & the kids stayed for the big finale, during which I do believe they shower everyone with little silver Mickey ear confetti that to this very day is still showing up in the strangest places in my house!


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Meanwhile, I was frantically stuffing suitcases. As I expected, the extra “souvenir” duffel bag was quickly filled and I had to get creative. Dewa had left us our orange goofy luggage tags earlier in the day and I began hooking them onto our many already stuffed to the brim suitcases. Of course, he had only left us five tags even though twice daily he stepped over more than five suitcases. Not that it was a problem. They leave plenty out on a table at Guest Services. I just had to send Ron down to get some. I told him to bring back 3. We had brought seven bags filled up onto the ship (and had used 7 of our 8 original luggage tags sent to us with our cruise docs). Plus the extra, souvenir duffle made eight. He brought back a handful of them, which at first I thought was a bit silly. At first. I was throwing bags out into the hall one at a time, as I finished packing them. That’s what everybody seemed to be doing. Every time I popped out, on or another of our neighbors was bringing one of their bags out and deciding what direction down the hall to extend their pile of baggage. At one point a lady from across the hall poked out of her door to chat with me. She was from Tampa too, and had seen on our luggage tags that we were as well. We met so many people from home. This was like the Tamp-on cruise. ;) Eh, hmmmm……………….it must be “Tamp-an”….
Anyway we spoke only briefly because it was now shortly after 11 and even though we were relieved to discover that many people were still working on packing, as evidenced by the occasional flying bag tossed out blindly from quickly slamming doors. The luggage crew were already starting to cart bags off, but it was evident they would still be working for a while. I finally thought I had everything done, packed. I double checked that I had left clothes and toiletries out for us in the morning, and then tagged up the last three bags…..but wait….there were four bags. I asked Ron to check outside and make sure the ones out there had tags on them…and to count them. He counted. 3 suitcases, one duffel, one garment bag. 5. And inside I had three suitcases and one duffel. 4. Doesn’t that add up to 9? How in the heck did we end up with 9 suitcases??? We were both a bit puzzled. I was SURE we only packed 7 (plus the empty extra one)…besides we had used only 7 of our 8 original tags. We both just kind of stood there perplexed for a while, and we never did figure it out. Where there once were 8, now there were 9. They must have found the magic in room 7539 and multiplied!

With that dreaded chore complete, we settled in to relax, and then I heard something on the debark presentation (that was on TV this whole time) about turning the pagers back into the club, or else paying a fee. Ron was not happy about having to go back down to the club and drop it off, but I was already undressed. I offered to get back dressed and go do it, but he just grumbled to himself and headed down to take care of it. He was gone a while and when he came back in the room, he announced “I almost just booked our next cruise”…my reply of course, was “Almost?!?!?!? Why didn’t you??” We had been discussing our next trip, and were interested in the Eastern…but we didn’t really have the deposit $$ right now. That’s why he didn’t just go ahead and book it. Oh well. I was a little amused that the booking desk was open at this time of night, but then again, only a few hours left to get that 10% discount! We put a call into room service and got some island cookies and milk. They were overdone again. But I wasn’t complaining. Really! How could I????

We settled back into the bed for our last night, with our slithery friend “Sssssss” the terrycloth towel snake looking over us.

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Our last wavy gravy night. :sad2:

[JDBlair]

This TR has been fun to read and look at all the pictures. I love TR's with pics!!! Your daughter looks just like you! princess:

[nenner1]

“Drink it up…
This ones for you
It's been a lovely cruise
I'm sorry it's ended
It's sad but it's true
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise”


Our last evening on board turned out to be much like the first: deep sleep and rocking seas. The closet doors were slamming again, and this night they seemed to be more noticeable. Not sure if the waves were higher or if I was just sleeping a bit lighter. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’ve since read there are Velcro straps inside the closet to hold the doors so they won’t slide and SLAM like that. Oh well, now I know for next time!

The next morning, we awoke, dressed packed up our carry-on’s (or are they now carry-off’s?), and headed out of room 7539 for the last time. We left an extra special gift for Dewa. You see, we had brought our own alcohol on board, and we didn’t finish it. (DIDN’T FINISH??!?!?!?:scared1: ) We’d heard or read (?) that you cannot bring opened liquor bottles off the boat, and since we had never been through customs before we didn’t want to risk it so we left our Parrot Bay and Captain Morgan on the desk in the room. Figured if Dewa didn’t want it, he could sell it on the cast member black market for cheap! Ha! They would have been fine going back in our carry-on bag, though…. We weren’t searched. ::cop:

The biggest benefit of late dinner seating, in my opinion, is the late breakfast seating on debarkation morning. We were supposed to have gone to Triton’s at 8:15 or so (It’s some ridiculously early hour for the first seating, like 6:30 or something like that!!:scared: ) . Somehow we arose early that day and had about 45 minutes to kill before breakfast. We discussed it and overwhelmingly decided to head up to BBB instead. Next cruise I will definitely try one of the sit down breakfasts, from what I’ve read the food is much better than the usual buffet fare (which was exactly the same every single day). We headed up expecting to find long lines and were pleasantly surprised to find BBB the slowest we had encountered yet! We grabbed our trays and food and actually found a big booth inside the restaurant! Shocking, I know. I’m pretty sure we all just ate the usual, Mickey waffles, bacon, sausage, and biscuits. I think Ron got an omelet, as he tended to do daily. The orange juice was predictably watery. And a little tidbit: the soda dispensers in BBB do not have iced tea in them. So if you want tea, you have to go to the drink station to get it. Or wait….is it ice they don’t have? One or the other. I don’t recall for sure except that something was not right!! :upsidedow

When we were finished eating, we headed back down to the atrium to disembark. On the way we strolled down the deck one last time and saw all the CM’s cleaning and readying the ship for those lucky ducks getting ready to embark! It was strange to see the pool areas so empty. Once we got down to 3, we saw there was a HUGE line for the Triton’s breakfast and we were happy to have avoided it. As we gathered our things and prepared to get off the ship, Ron noticed that Savannah’s hands were sticky. We stopped by the Triton’s entrance and Ron went up to the handi-wipe station to grab some wipes to clean her off with. When he did, the wipe container popped out and flew right down the hole into the “garbage” portion of the station! Ooops! That’s our cue to run like h*ll off the boat! :tiptoe: As we turned to the gangways we saw the big banner that says “See Ya Real Soon” and there was the CM waving goodbye to us with his big white hands!

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“These moments we’re left with,
may you always remember.
These moments are shared
By a few…
There's wind in our hair
and there's water in our shoes.
Honey, it's been a lovely cruise”


But wait! It’s not over yet! Half the adventure is getting your luggage, right? Yeah….. :confused3 Once you disembark the ship, you make a sharp right hand turn and go down an escalator into what I can only describe as the bowels of the terminal. As soon as your feet touch the concrete floor, a porter is there asking who needs help, but we declined for the time being as we wanted to get our bearings and find our bags first. The luggage room is a huge, cavernous and warehouse-like. No fancy art-deco touches down here! There are lines of luggage every way you turn, but we quickly and easily found the Orange Goofy area. I began pulling out our bags. They told us on the debarkation talk that they try to line the bags up in order by room, but none of our section was in order. All of the bags were easy to find, though and by the time Ron had retrieved another porter, I had gathered all nine, yep- still nine, of them. Our friendly porter loaded up our massive pile of bags on his cart. I was afraid they would not all fit, but he managed to get them stacked on there, with the very last suitcase balanced precariously on top! He then carted the load through the baggage area to the customs area, which looked the same except for the long lines of people, people with luggage, and people with porters with carts of luggage. Amazingly enough, the lines moved fairly well, and our porter had guided us into the shortest and quickest moving one. When you finally approach the podium with the customs official, you just hand over your declarations and they ask you questions like do you have food items or vegetation in your luggage. I said no, with the exception of massive amounts of rum cake. He smiled and waved us on our way. That was simple!! No inspections, nothing. I could have easily smuggled back the booze (or even the leftover cookies!) back in my bag… Darn! With that done, we exited the terminal and headed off across the street to the car. Our friendly helper porter guy unloaded his massive load and we handed him an appropriately sized tip. Ron commented on how much money was to be made being a porter for just a few hours on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. And we loaded the trunk and headed home. Traffic was light and we were tired and excited, sad and happy, fat and- well, fat…all at once. By 11:30 am, we were home.

Until we would see our next Disney Cruise liner…..real soon….. (Or, ahem, not soon enough!)

“These moments we're left with
may you always remember
These moments are shared
By a few…
And those harbor lights
Aw they're coming into view
We bid our farewell
Much too soon
So drink it up
This one's for you
It's been a lovely cruise
Yea baby, it's been a lovely cruise
Oh darlin'……
It's been a lovely cruise!”

The END. :cutie:

(almost the end, postscript next page!)

[nenner1]

We returned home, and we adjusted to life after DCL, and it was a difficult adjustment indeed. It was almost unbearable not having the next cruise to look forward to. We kept checking the site looking for our next dream vacation, but we just weren’t finding one that would work for us. We wanted a 7-day and we were leaning towards the Eastern Caribbean, but because the Magic spends the summers doing special itineraries we just could not find one that would work. About a week later I came across the Alternate Western, which is Cozumel and Costa Maya with a DOUBLE DIP at Castaway Cay!!!!! There are only four (or five?) of these special cruises in the late summer/fall of 2008, and we were hooked the second we saw it online. By the end of the afternoon, we had it booked (and it only took that long to run through the scheduling logistics of which one to pick) and are looking forward to it with the crazed anticipation that only a DIS’er could.:disrocks:

A year and a half away? Pshaw, that will come SO FAST!! And, yes, we are still kicking ourselves for not booking on board, especially since our good friend Mr. Citibank financed it anyway! :rolleyes1

I would now like to take a moment to thank everyone who hopped onboard with us by reading this TR. :goodvibes I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it! HA HA! Thanks so much for all of your kind and encouraging comments and please accept my apologies for extending it out until Memorial Day. Like the cruise itself, I just didn’t want it to end!:p

Adios, all my newfound amigos! Hope to see you south of the border in ’08!

Ondele!

:earsboy:

[Buckeye Gal]

Loved your chronicles, Jen!! I'm sorry it's come to a complete end. :sad1:

They were very entertaining! The great news is that we will all have a chance to follow your cast again on the thread come next fall!!

Oh...and I WILL see ya south of the border in 16 months!! :goodvibes

[mickeyluv]

:sad1: I'm so sad that you're TR has ended Jen!! I very rarely read a complete TR but yours was so interesting and so well written that I would look everyday for another part!! I absolutely loved all of your pictures!!! Can't wait until Fall of 2008 for you next one!!!

We're taking our 1st cruise ever on the Wonder in November of this year and I would love to write a TR. Do you have any tips for a newbie TR writer? I thought about taking a small notebook with me and when I'm sitting by the pool, or on Castaway Cay relaxing jotting down a few notes. Did you take notes while onboard?

[nenner1]

:sad1: I'm so sad that you're TR has ended Jen!! I very rarely read a complete TR but yours was so interesting and so well written that I would look everyday for another part!! I absolutely loved all of your pictures!!! Can't wait until Fall of 2008 for you next one!!!

We're taking our 1st cruise ever on the Wonder in November of this year and I would love to write a TR. Do you have any tips for a newbie TR writer? I thought about taking a small notebook with me and when I'm sitting by the pool, or on Castaway Cay relaxing jotting down a few notes. Did you take notes while onboard?


No, actually I took NO notes!:scared1: Believe it or not! It worked out fine for the 4-night but I don't dare attempt it with a 7..too many details to remember! Actually what helped me in my recall was all the pictures I took (almost 700 of them), I put them in folders by day of the cruise and that helped keep the chronology straight. When writing the report , I had the folder with that day's pics open and just toggled back between the word window and the picture folder and the story followed the pictures! As far as the food, I went back over the menus on the Platinum Castaway Club website and that helped me remember what we ate. Also be sure to start your report as soon as you get back. Its amazing how many details I already forgot after just 2 months!!! I also kept all of my Navigators (pick up extra copies at GS to have one to keep nice for scrapbooking, etc. and one to use while on board) and was able to look back and reference them for times, etc.

I look forward to reading about your travels on the Wonder this winter!!! :cool1: :cool1:

[j_cwayman]

We have thoroughly enjoyed your TR and are sorry it is over!!! We are wondering though, what the website address is for the Platinum Castaway Club website. We have been on 2 Disney cruises and have our 3rd booked for January.

[nenner1]

Here it is....also know as the Barb & Tony site.....:)

www.******************* (http://www.*******************)

Enjoy your cruise in January!!! :goodvibes

[mormadsmom]

Jen,

I am interested in that itinerary for the western double dip in CC.Where did you find that? On the Disney cruise site?

[j_cwayman]

Thank you for the website address. We're going to check it out!!!:cool1:

[nenner1]

Jen,

I am interested in that itinerary for the western double dip in CC.Where did you find that? On the Disney cruise site?

Yes, from the homepage of disneycruise.com, select ports of call menu, then "special cruise ports" it's currently the only one listed there- Costa Maya! There are only 4 sailings, one each month in Sept, Oct, Nov, & Dec 2008. We are booked in the 9/27/08....

...And a little tidbit of trivia, that particular sailing has a HUGE DIS following, we currently already occupy 71 cabins (that's a total of over 215 DIS'ers!!!!) According to the DIS unplugged podcast those numbers are already equal to the number of DIS'ers on the 1st MED cruise, and we are still a year and a half away from sail on ours! So, not like I am trying to pimp it or anything (;) )but this is going to be 'the' DIS cruise to be on. We are already planning activities such as fish extender exchanges, ladies high tea (in the private room, I think), groups for the contests, a mochacchino meet, etc. You'll note we have also some big names from the TR board, including FatherForce and Zwiehund!

here is a link to our meet thread : Double Dip Delight Alternate Western 9/27/08 (http://http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1344864)

And our website is just getting started at: Double Dip Delight Sept. '08 (http://http://home.earthlink.net/~marfla/index.html)

You're probably already sorry you asked, but we would love to have your family join us ! :grouphug:


PS- oh, and I think I posted there, but I loved your TR!:goodvibes

[mormadsmom]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for the info, I did not know about this! We just may do this! We were interested in a 7 day Western for sure, but did not know when. We wanted to do CC more than once and thought it was only for the 4 day. We are still talking about it and may book by next week. But a whole year and half, I don't know if I can wait that long.

Thanks again,
Michelle

[Laurabearz]

Fun report... worth a bump!

[mickeyluv]

does anyone know if this "Special Cruise" to Costa Maya can be booked before leaving off the ship to be able to get the 10% discount? We're cruising in November of this year for the very 1st time and if everything goes well and we like cruising we may think about doing a rebook! That looks like a very interesting cruise with 2 visits to CC!

[BabyFavorite]

Aww, I was sad to have your trip come to an end! I am already dreading ours ending, and it isn't for another year yet! :rotfl2: I will have to make sure we have enough money on our c/c to book another trip onboard, because I KNOW we'll want to go again (and then leaving won't be so painful).

GREAT REPORT!!! :thumbsup2

[Brianne&Sami'smom]

Great report! :)

[Jules123]

Loved it, loved it, loved it!:banana:

[cinderellakh20]

I just loved reading your trip report!!! You have a gorgeous family and all your pics are just stunning!! It looked like you had a magical trip of a lifetime and now you gave me some things to really look forward to when I take my kiddos some day !!! :goodvibes Thanks for all the little details you included - you did an awesome report!!!!! :love: :cloud9:

[nenner1]

:goodvibes Wow...how cool that people are still reading and enjoying this!!:cutie:

mickeyluv, you can definitely book the Double Dip while onboard your cruise in November and take advantage of the discount and SBC! In fact we decided to book a 3 night Wonder leaving Oct. 4th and we plan to "re-book" the Costa Maya cruise while onboard the 3-nighter JUST to get the discount. (Okay...well....we *may* upgrade our room category while we're at it....:rolleyes1 )

So I guess there will be another TR on the way shortly. We plan on taking a much more laid back approach on this cruise, and try to experience some of the things we missed last time. Also we have booked the new Atlantis Aquaventure excursion so anyone awaiting details on that one, rest assured they are forthcoming!:yay:

Se ya'll real soon, indeed!:banana: :thumbsup2

[mickeyluv]

Oh, you're cruising again "this" Oct. 4th?!? I really hope it's this Oct. That way I'll get to read your TR before we take our 1st cruise ever, the Wonder Nov. 25th! I hope you guys have a great time!!

[nenner1]

Yep! This Oct 4th!!!:banana: :banana:

Eleven days and counting!!!!!!!!:thumbsup2 :cool1: :dance3:

[mickeyluv]

Oh, I can't wait!!!! Please post a TR!! I love your TR's!!

We have a 10-yo daughter and I'm debating whether to do the dolphin encounter in Nassau. I saw your wonderful pictures from your TR! The thing is that she wants to do the swim and she's not old enough. I'm wondering if we should just wait until she's old enough or wait and see if we rebook the Costa Maya cruise b/c in Cozumel the age is different for the swim and she will be old enough to do that one. Decisions, Decisions!

[nenner1]

Hmmm...good question.
I have a biased opinion, but here it goes anyway. Maybe consider both? Especially if she loves dolphins....(like I do)!
If you do the dolphin encounter (just the encounter as opposed to the swim) on this cruise, that would give her an opportunity to get her feet wet (so to speak)....to get up close and interact with the dolphin prior to actually going to the swim. I've never done the swim, but honestly I'd LOVE to in Chankanaab...I've read some wonderful TR's about it. I just have to convince the rest of the family to do it again! Back to the Nassau encounter, though....it was a fantastic experience and even though it was pricey for us all to do it, we LOVED it. My mom, who has been to Discovery Cove in Orlando, said from watching the video that the DE in Nassau was "much" better than the experience at Discovery Cove (the dancing, kissing, etc.), she was impressed. So all in all, I highly recommend it, even if you aren't actually doing the "swim" (getting the foot push). We did see a swim encounter going on @ Nassau. It was not a group from our boat, but we watched them for a short while. We did not observe the foot push or any jumps, the couple was just in the water with the instructor near the dolphin. (We didn't see any "good action")

Its a hard decision to make, especially when there are so many great excursions to choose from in both cities!!!

[mickeyluv]

Thanks for your opinions! You guys did your encounter through Disney, right? I've read that you can actually book this encounter "on your own" so to speak through the company itself. I'm not really sure if I would want to go that route though because isn't it true that if bad weather was to occur Disney would refund you your money you paid on the excursion if you book through them? Just wondering if you knew anything about this. TIA

[nenner1]

Yes, we booked through Disney. We did call the DE company directly to inquire about booking through them, b/c it was a little bit cheaper, but eventually we felt it was worth it for the few extra $$ to book through Disney in case something happens, like inclement weather or missing the water taxi back to the ship. If you book through Disney and are late for whatever reason coming back for an excursion, they hold the boat for you. If you're on your own...well....you have to meet the boat at the next port. Ive heard of occasions where Disney would refund in case of bad weather, but keep in mind at the Dolphin Encounter, the little platforms where the excursion takes place are covered, so even if it is rainy the excursion will probably go on. It should be really nice weather at the end of November though. And likely the water will still be warm! You will have a great time!!!!:cool1:

[abitagirl916]

I saw your stateroom sign (which was great BTW) and was wondering if you created the Disney Character Border yourself or printed the sign on special paper. Also, where did you find the print font?--it looks just like Disney's lettering.

Thanks for the great report. My family and I are looking forward to our first cruise in 28 days aboard the Magic!!!

[4 mickey]

Hi
Thanks for the super trip report read it all this afternoon .
Your kids are so cute always smiling on the pics .
PLEASE write a report when you come back from your oct cruise ????
Will you be able to keep your promise on buying less shutters pics lol...lol I'm the same as you are crazy about those shutter's pictures :thumbsup2

[CruisinEars]

Thoroughly enjoyed your report. All of your pics are amazing. You were able to show some different perspectives that I haven't seen before on other tr's. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you and your family. :goodvibes I love reading tr's to find out what others do and what tips they have to share. I have 7 month to go until the Magic for me and my family. :hourglass

Can't wait to read your Oct. report. I would say "hurry back and post" but I don't want to rush your vaca. :rolleyes1

[nenner1]

I saw your stateroom sign (which was great BTW) and was wondering if you created the Disney Character Border yourself or printed the sign on special paper. Also, where did you find the print font?--it looks just like Disney's lettering.

Thanks for the great report. My family and I are looking forward to our first cruise in 28 days aboard the Magic!!!

Yes, I did create the character border myself. In Word, I just copied and pasted each individual picture (they are all clip art from Disney clip art sites) and positioned each clip around the edge. It took a bit of time, only b/c I had to format each individual clip to place it where I wanted. The font I downloaded and installed from mickeyavenue "dot com" website. They have a bunch of disney fonts and pirate fonts, and fonts from the theme parks! Now I have to make a new one! :)

Hi
Thanks for the super trip report read it all this afternoon .
Your kids are so cute always smiling on the pics .
PLEASE write a report when you come back from your oct cruise ????
Will you be able to keep your promise on buying less shutters pics lol...lol I'm the same as you are crazy about those shutter's pictures :thumbsup2

:banana: A new TR is certainly forthcoming!!! I have sworn I will NOT go crazy in shutters this time! Let's hope I can keep my promise.....:rolleyes1

Thoroughly enjoyed your report. All of your pics are amazing. You were able to show some different perspectives that I haven't seen before on other tr's. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you and your family. :goodvibes I love reading tr's to find out what others do and what tips they have to share. I have 7 month to go until the Magic for me and my family. :hourglass

Can't wait to read your Oct. report. I would say "hurry back and post" but I don't want to rush your vaca. :rolleyes1

No! That's OK! I can't *WAIT* for Oct. 4th to get here! I have soooo much to do, it's scary!:scared1:

[abitagirl916]

[QUOTE=nenner1;20949094]Yes, I did create the character border myself. In Word, I just copied and pasted each individual picture (they are all clip art from Disney clip art sites) and positioned each clip around the edge. It took a bit of time, only b/c I had to format each individual clip to place it where I wanted. The font I downloaded and installed from mickeyavenue "dot com" website. They have a bunch of disney fonts and pirate fonts, and fonts from the theme parks! Now I have to make a new one! :)


Thanks so much!! I found the Disney fonts and some Disney Clip Art and have created a Stateroom Door Sign. Thanks again for your help and hope you enjoy you next cruise!!

[crash2000]

Wow, i just spent a few hours reading this, and loved it, I'm planning a 7 day western trip, for nov 2008... our first disney cruise, this really helped alot, I'm a bit worried about the crowds though...

[nenner1]

Wow, i just spent a few hours reading this, and loved it, I'm planning a 7 day western trip, for nov 2008... our first disney cruise, this really helped alot, I'm a bit worried about the crowds though...

Crash..it depends on when you go in November. Around Thanksgiving....very busy...the first couple of weeks, not so much.

This cruise was completely sold out (and being in Spring Break week during season...about as busy as it can get)...I have to say but with two exceptions the crowds were always manageable. Those exceptions were, of course the Mickey pool and deck surrounding it (on any given day at just about any given time), and also Beach Blanket Buffet at breakfast and lunch crunch times. Other than that, the ship was plenty spacious and we never really felt crowded. Hope that helps alleviate your concerns a bit. (Tip for Mickey pool: it gets very empty around early dinner seating time but we saw it closed at that time twice. Don't know if it was coincidence or not....)

Enjoy your cruise next year!:thumbsup2

[nenner1]

Hey loyal subscribers!

Just wanted to pimp out my new trip report (from the 3 night Wonder October 4th through the 7th) and let everyone know I posted the first installment.

You can find it here: The Adventures of Mom's Booty (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=21365694#post21365694)

Enjoy!!!:thumbsup2

[DisneyMama629]

Great report! I just read the whole thing!

[nenner1]

Thanks!:goodvibes

(Woo hoo gotta love the bump!;) )

[jjnshane]

Loved the report -- spent all evening reading it and was about halfway through when I realized it was from March of 07! By then I was hooked and had to finish!
Very detailed and great tips! Thank you so much!

[nenner1]

You're welcome..and thank you for reading!

From what I can tell, not a whole lot has changed on the Wonder since then...so it is still pretty relevant. We were back on in Oct '07 and it was basically the same experience (and just as wonderful!).

Glad you enjoyed it!!!:goodvibes

[NCardella]

nenner, i noticed you're going on another dcl cruise soon, i'm so cruise-jealous of you!!!!

have fun!

[nenner1]

Why thank you...we sure will have fun!!

I'm spending my day beginning to pack while watching the Rays and the Bucs.
Ron is at Home Depot as I type cleaning them out of paint chips!:rotfl2:

[mickeyluv]

nenner, i noticed you're going on another dcl cruise soon, i'm so cruise-jealous of you!!!!

have fun!

Yah!! Can't wait the TR! Are you doing a pre-tr this go around? Say yes....please....:yay:

[nenner1]

Yah!! Can't wait the TR! Are you doing a pre-tr this go around? Say yes....please....:yay:

No....(sorry!)
Everyone else from our meets thread is doing a PTR (that's them littering the front page...Double Dip Delight), but I don't have enough to talk about in advance since I do everything at the last second!:rolleyes1

I'll tell you what though, the TR will be around in about 3 short weeks!!!!:thumbsup2

[mickeyluv]

No....(sorry!)
Everyone else from our meets thread is doing a PTR (that's them littering the front page...Double Dip Delight), but I don't have enough to talk about in advance since I do everything at the last second!:rolleyes1

I'll tell you what though, the TR will be around in about 3 short weeks!!!!:thumbsup2

That's okay...I know how it is getting ready to go on vacation. At least I know I can look forward to your TR!!! :goodvibes

[nenner1]

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to let all my loyal subscribers know that I have started a new trip report covering our 7-night Alternate Western Double Dip aboard the Magic. We just got off the boat Saturday and we had a fantastic time!

Hope to see you all there! Here is the link:

Back to the Island *~* Double Dip Delight! Alternate Western 9/27-10/4!!! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1978223)

Jen