DISBoarders in the House Raise it UP!! Whoop Whoop!!!

[JDBlair]

:thanks: First, I would like to thank everyone from the DIS! I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Without the DIS and the wonderful people on the DIS, contributing, sharing, explaining, etc., my family’s first DCL vacation would not have been the success it was! Thank you!!! :disrocks:

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Today was my first day of vacation (Whoop Whoop!:woohoo: ) so this is where I will start my TR! After all my reading on the DIS and learning from the experiences of those who have gone before me and written TR’s, I knew I’d need a day of packing!! This packing job would be like no other packing job I have ever done before. Usually, I pack the kids and me the night before a trip in 1-2 suitcases while DH packs himself in his own suitcase. This time, however, I would need to pack all 4 of us in to 6 suitcases, mixing our belongings in to all the suitcases. I explained my plan to DH many times months and months before the cruise. We would all have a little of something in each suitcase just in case a suitcase is lost in transit to the ship. I worked the weekend before the cruise doing endless loads of laundry to make sure every clothing item in the house was washed. :laundy: I was successful by Tuesday evening until, to my horror, DH produced an entirely new load of laundry for washing. :scared1: I freaked out. He tried to calm me by saying I shouldn’t worry, he’d do his own laundry and besides, he packs himself. What??? Has he not been listening to me and my plan for months and months? I explain the plan again, this time in a pitch that probably only the neighbor’s dogs could hear. DH decided, for whatever reason, to argue with me (was the sweat dripping off my brow not a clue to him that I was on the verge of breakdown?:confused: ) that my plan was silly, our bags wouldn’t be lost and again, he’d pack his own bag. So, I explain, again, the plan and remind him of Murphy's Law and ask if he thinks if Delta does lose one of our bags if they'll fly their happy butts out to us on a helicopter to deliver said bag? The smart man that DH is, he resolves that he will not win this argument and I grab the laundry to throw it in the wash!

Wednesday night, I started stacking folded clothes on the kitchen table that would need to make their way in to the suitcases. I wrote lists to keep me organized! This really helped me keep things straight in my head. :thumbsup2 Did I get socks for DD? Yes, they’re checked off on the list. Does DS have something to sleep in? Yes, check. Really, really, really kept me focused and kept the anxiety level down. :rolleyes:

So, Thursday, we wake up to get DD off to day care and DS off to school. I needed them out of my way to attack the Packing Challenge of 2007! I had been collecting items “needed for the cruise” for months and storing them in a plastic tote in the bedroom. DH had repeatedly told me there was no way I was going to fit all of that and all of our clothes in to 6 suitcases. What? Does he not know I am the Tetris Master? :sad2: Oh he of little faith!

The continuation of stacking of clothes on the kitchen table commenced once the kids were to their designated centers and I could focus. I worked for about 2 hours that morning adding things to the stacks and stacks on the table. In my wisdom:headache: , I had a dental appointment scheduled that morning (to avoid missing more time from work) and needed to leave the house around 10 for my 10:30 appointment. Around 8:30, I was starving and suggested DH and I break for breakfast. We headed off to Einsteins to enjoy bagels and coffee. While in line for our bagels, I did the “I’m on Vacation Happy Dance!” :dancer: Yes, people stared but I didn’t care. They were jealous. :rolleyes2 They’d do the “I’m on Vacation Happy Dance” too if they were on vacation! ::yes::

After full tummies, I dropped DH off at home and rushed to the dentist. I was assured my dental appointment “wouldn’t hurt” but no one told me the worst of it. When I checked in, I immediately explained I was on vacation and leaving for a cruise in the morning and had a lot to do. The receptionist smiled but probably called me bad names in her head. Soon, I was in the dental chair and as they affixed my “bib” to me, I explained, again, I was leaving for a cruise in the AM and had lots to do! I was hoping my constant reminders would encourage them to work faster. Very long story short, every time they asked how I was, I replied with, “I have a lot to do at home.” I was at the dentist for 2 hours!!! :eek:

On my way home, I called DH in a panic. He told me not to worry. Is he deaf, I was already, clearly worrying! I had lots to do and just spent 2 hours in the dental chair!!! I burst through the front door, ready to move all items collected on the kitchen table, couches and plastic totes in to the 6 opened, empty, and waiting suitcases. Before we started, I looked at all the clothes and the lists and remembered the tip about taking 1/2 of the clothing and not packing it. But which half? :confused: DH assisted in the attack, aka Packing Challenge of 2007, and one hour later, we were done. I looked around the room, empty. Table. Empty! Under the table. Empty. Plastic tote full of “things needed for the cruise”. Empty! Checked the lists, everything was checked. Odd. :scratchin That was a little too easy! Who’s ready for lunch?:hyper:

DH and I went for lunch. I felt like things were just too easy, I had to be missing something but what? Everything fit in the cases, everything was checked off the lists, the plastic tote was empty, spaces were left in the cases for the toiletry bags. Strange. Could it have been that easy???

Apparently, it was. It was that easy.:yay: I was convinced we’d get in to the vacation and realize we’d forgotten something. But that was never the case. We had it all. Everything fit and all bags weighed under the industry standards for the airlines. Wow. I am the Tetris Master!!!

[jajomo0118]

popcorn:: popcorn:: popcorn::

[CruisinEars]

Ohhh, great start. Can't wait to hear/read more. My dh would have the same argument about packing as yours did. He always packs for himself and me for the kids and me.

[disneyfaninaz]

popcorn:: popcorn:: :surfweb: Great start!! Can't wait for more!!

[JDBlair]

The alarm promptly signaled at 2:45 am that it was time to wake up. Not sure why I had an alarm. :confused3 I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I tossed and turned and turned and tossed. I was that Walt Disney World commercial where the family is too excited to sleep. :hyper: I couldn’t believe it was finally here. My Dream Come True Vacation was here. I fell in love with the Magic when I saw her in port in Nassau in March 2000. I had never had a desire to cruise until I saw her. And now, it was my turn. Our turn. I was going on my Dream Vacation with the 3 people in this world that matter the most to me and we were going to have a great time! :hug:

DH and I dressed quickly and assembled the toiletry bags-the final additions to the suitcases! DD bounced right out of bed when I asked, “Are you ready to go on the Mickey Mouse boat?” We were all dressed, car loaded and on the road in no time. It was mighty dark in Phoenix at 3:15 am and there was more traffic on the road than I thought there’d be. I asked out loud, “Why aren’t these people in bed?” We made it to the airport about 3:45 am, ahead of schedule!! DH dropped the bags, me and the kids at the terminal and went to park the car. This is easier than all 4 of us parking the car and attempting to board the shuttle together-we made that mistake on our first vacation and I’m sure other passengers laughed at the pathetic sight we were loading all of us, car seats, strollers, etc on the shuttle. Pathetic. :sad2: Our flight was at 6 am and I was a little surprised to find that none of the airline counters were open. Sky Harbor is a pretty big and busy airport and I thought they had flights 24 hours a day but I guess I was wrong? So, we waited with our bags while waiting for DH to park and catch the shuttle back to the terminal and watched the line for Delta grow longer. The other airlines counters opened and quickly emptied their lines and we watched our Delta line grow and grow. I sent DS to stand in line because DH had phoned and said he was on the shuttle en route to the terminal When DH met up with us, the counter still wasn’t open, the line was longer and I was starting to panic. We’ll skip the long, anxiety-filled story here and get to the point that the Delta counter opened at 4:20 am, I was pacing and unhappy and kept assuring DH and family I’d be fine after we got through security.

Security lines at Sky Harbor prove to be long! Very long. And I have stood in many of these long security lines listening to people panic that their flights leave in 20 minutes, 10 minutes and sometimes less time than that. And I always think, “Why didn’t you get to the airport with plenty of time? It says to get here 2 hours before a flight; there is a reason for that.” :rolleyes2 But that doesn’t stop me from freaking out while we’re in line with 90 minutes to spare! :blush: I also know that each kid has a DVD player that will have to come out of their cases to pass through security, DH has a lap top, jewelry has to be removed, shoes removed, etc. It takes us a little bit of time to get a family of 4 through security and then to regroup on the other side. But the Vacation Gods were smiling on us and we passed through security in about 15 minutes and were soon in the line for Starbucks.

The Starbucks line took longer than security, but I wasn’t panicking or pacing! I was totally calm. ::yes:: We were through the stressful part and now I could just enjoy it! I didn’t have time to finish my mocha before we were boarding the plane and the sun still wasn’t up by the time we flew east.
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Our flight routed through Atlanta where we had a 2.5 hour layover. This was fine with us, it allowed DD time to run and burn off energy and a chance to eat. Also, we had never flown through ATL before so we didn’t know how long of a layover one really needs to comfortably get from one gate to another. I was rather impressed with the ATL airport. It was bright and clean. We got a kick out of riding the little train thing there. The “Recharging Stations” located at the gates are genius!! In Sky Harbor, you have to scour about looking for some place to plug in and that is a pain when you have a toddler that needs to disengage their brain with some Disney movie!! So, the kids charged their electronics, DD watched a movie, we ate chicken for lunch and were soon boarding our flight to Orlando!! Whoop Whoop!!! The plane we flew from ATL to Orlando was HUGE compared to the flight we had from Phoenix to Atlanta and that made little sense to us since the flight from Phoenix was longer. But whatever. We were on vacation!
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Comparison of the size of plane we flew from PHX to ATL on and the plane we flew from ATL to Orlando!
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We arrived in Orlando, safe and sound and as soon as we were off the plane and in the little walkway between the plane and terminal, we were griping about the icky, wet heat! :scared: Nasty!!! A lot can be said for the “dry heat” we have here in Phoenix and we were very happy when we were back in the building, out of the wet, icky, heat! Orlando airport was BUSY! We made our way to another “train” and felt sorry for those getting off the train wearing their Disney World memorabilia and walking to their departing flight. My mind quickly raced to that scene being us in a few days but I would not allow myself to go there. Live in the moment! We were on vacation. Is there time for a Happy Dance? :dancer: No , train was here and I had to hold on.

I thought the Orlando airport was a little confusing but probably because I hadn’t been there before and it was so busy. We found our way to the baggage claim area and waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator was a man from FL Tours with a sign, “Blair”. He showed us where to go for our luggage but it appears our luggage got to FL before us because it was not on the carrousel but already off to the side. The hot pink ribbons I attached to the bags made them very easy to pick out:thumbsup2 and we soon had all 6 suitcases and were making our way to the car. DH had insisted he would not drive on this vacation and I’d have to arrange for a town car to get us to our hotel. :car: I tried to talk him out of this by explaining a car service would be more expensive but he wouldn’t budge-he refused to drive. He also told me I have never rented a car before, he has, and it's a lot of hassle. I took his word for it! (Sometimes I listen to him! There, it's in writing now!) So, I decided to surprise him with a limo! A town car would have been a tight fit for the 4 of us and our carry-ons and our luggage and I felt that after a long day of flying, we’d like to stretch out for the 45 minute drive to the hotel! The family was very excited when they discovered the car we were standing next to was actually our car and I had arranged this surprise. I’m sneaky like that.:rotfl: They were full of smiles and giggles. And just as I expected, DH stretched out! :thumbsup2 I had also arranged a grocery stop and we got water (a DIS tip that DH didn’t understand but I knew he would later come to appreciate), snacks (we were starving) a 6 pack for the hotel and a couple of bottles of alcohol for the cruise.

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We had reservations at Country Inn and Suites in Port Canaveral and after the grocery stop, we were on our way. The limo had a DVD player in it and DH put a movie on for DD. This didn’t hold her attention too much as we were all talking and laughing and snacking. At one point, DD asks, “When are we going to be out of all these bushes?” DH and I busted out laughing. :rotfl2: Guess she’s not use to seeing so much “green” in Phoenix!

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The ride to the hotel was long enough to enjoy the limo ride but not so long that we were asking, “When will we be there?” We soon arrived at Country Inn and Suites, took photos with the car and were making our way in for check in.

The girl that checked us in to CI&S never once greeted us. We walked up to the counter and she looked at us like we were aliens. I told her why we were there because she honestly looked like she needed to be told! :confused3 I don’t think she said one word to us until she told us the room number and then, I think that was the only word she said. Oh well. I was too amp’d that we were there, the Magic would be very close in a very hours and I was on vacation. No time for the dance, I needed to get these weary travelers in to the pool!!

After we toured our hotel room, a very nice, roomy, kids’ suite, we all suited up and headed to the pool. A nice, big, heated pool greeted us and we had it all to ourselves for about ½ an hour! That pool water felt so goooood after a long hard day of traveling and we were one happy family to be in it, splashing about. I sat under the waterfall in the hot tub and let it beat down on my neck and shoulders. Heaven! I was in heaven! We enjoyed the pool until it started filling up with some other guests and children that didn’t seem to notice we were also in the pool as they kicked DD in the face swimming about. Since their parents seemed oblivious to the matter:furious: , we gathered our belongings and made our way back to the room. We were starving any way. Ordered pizza and arranged for bed. Coming from the west to the east, we lost 3 hours of time but since we’d been up since 2:45, we were tired any way. It wasn’t too late when we were all fed, showered and tucked in to our beds. The kids really loved their little area with the twin bed and bunk bed. They had their own TV in there which had cable and a DVD player. This was really nice to give us all some separation and down time. And the price of this room was very, very reasonable. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling with children!!! The room was also very clean!!! (I read a lot about CI&S on the DIS and the word “clean” was used often to describe it and that was one of the main reasons I booked here. It lived up to my expectations! The DIS had not failed me!!)

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Prior to the pool and before bed, I contacted Checkered Cab to arrange transportation to the cruise terminal in the AM. Remember the pathetic story about our first vacation and trying to board the airport shuttle? Lesson learned. Us + Shuttles = Pathetic. :sad2: So, while the Checkered Cab “limo” service was about twice what we’d pay for a shuttle, the hassle-freeness of the situation was worth its weight in gold. So, I arranged with Checkered Cab for a 10 am pick-up time on Saturday

The 6 pack DH and I consumed :drinking1 helped knock me out or I would have had another night of tossing and turning and turning and tossing. I was certainly excited for Saturday, to board the Magic! The alarms were set for a decent wake up time in the AM (7, I think it was)! We all settled in just fine and soon were a snoring group of travelers.:cloud9:

[JDBlair]

It’s here, It’s Here, It’s HERE!!!!!!!!!!! :hyper: When the alarm sounds, I know that less than 5 miles from where I am laying in bed, the Magic is “home”, waiting for us to board her!! Getting the kids up wasn’t too hard, everyone was excited. DD is a girl after my own heart though. She has shared so much with me in the anticipation of this cruise!! DH and DS are “men” so they can’t show too much excitement but I could tell they were pretty excited because they were not dragging their feet in any way!!

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We set the alarm to be up early enough to go to breakfast when it opened. Wanted to beat the rush, so to speak. (I can’t remember what time this is, I want to say 7:00 or 7:30!) We make our way to the free breakfast and are pleasantly surprised with the spread. Cereal, bagels, fruit, etc. It wasn’t a “gourmet” breakfast and it was your typical fare that you’d probably have at home. We were very happy with it but also knew we could eat as soon as we were on the ship! We didn’t spend too long eating and after breakfast, I wanted to take a walk around the property. I had thought you could see the Magic from the hotel but the trees are in the way. Darn that greenery in Florida! Can’t they cut it down?? It was hot outside and the “men” were griping and it started to sprinkle a little so we went back in to our room. I noticed the luggage carts in the hotel lobby had been missing since the night before and this was distressing because we used the luggage cart to get to our room and really needed them to get our stuff out. (I figured people snagged them the night before and were keeping them in their rooms to have them for their departure in the morning. Those luggage carts never reappeared before we left so I think we’re good with my theory!)

While the kids and DH watched TV, I packed our carry-on bag (made sure to put the swim suits in there – an awesome tip from the DIS), affixed the DCL tags to the suitcases, packed the case of bottled water in the extra duffle bag we brought and made sure I had all our documents and passports. The week prior to our cruise, a member of our Meet Thread was keeping us updated and posted on the storms developing in the Atlantic. I was very freaked out we wouldn’t be able to board but there didn’t seem to be a threat of that and the news didn’t mention any hurricanes. So, I was feeling good!! Excited. Happy. Anxious. Eager. READY!!!

At 9:45, Checkered Cab called my cell and said they were outside, waiting. They were early. But like I just said, I was READY and we were rushing out the door. Another limo ride and DS starts asking if we’re rich! :sad2: Yes, son, we’ve been keeping this big secret from you! :ssst: I was like a dog in a car rushing from one window inside the limo to the other, not sure which side the surprise would be on and going absolutely mad. And then, I saw it and I think I screamed louder than DD! The Magic!!! She was there, phew! (Remember, with the storm threats, I wasn’t sure if she’d make it back to the port and I was going with Murphy’s Law! But again, Vacation Gods-they were keeping Murphy at bay!)

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The driver dropped us off and soon, we were in line to wait for a porter to take our bags. Almost as soon as we got in line, someone walks up to me and says she doesn’t know if she should hug me. At first I was confused and thinking, “Okay, I’ll take a hug, we can share the love right now!” But then I soon realized it was my friend from the DIS!!! Christa (jajomo0118)!!! We, of course, hugged and squealed. :hug: Hilarious they were just 2 people ahead of us in line. Christa and I introduce our families to one other and everyone sizes each other up to make sure we’re not sailing with crazy people! :hyper2:

It took a few moments for the porter to collect our bags, there was only one porter working out there at this time. (It’s 10 am, by the way!) Just as soon as we’re in line for security, DD announces she has to use the bathroom. So, we get through security, up the escalator, I instruct DH to take her to the bathroom and I’ll get in line to check in. First, DCL escorts me to a small desk where a man checks I have my documents in order. He seems surprised that I do! Even my Bahama slips are filled out. He smiles as though to say, “You have learned well, young Skywalker!” :darth: I give a full teeth smile back and say, “I’m on the DIS!!” and nod profusely! :disrocks: He points me in the direction of the line. The very SHORT line, I might add. I think it was 3 families deep. That’s right, 3 families deep. I see DH return from the restroom with DD and yell at him to go check her in to the children’s club, I already registered her on line. (Another DIS tip – you’re seeing a pattern here, right? I did my research!) As a good husband, he does as he’s told. It’s now my turn for the next available CM to check me in and I’m handed my boarding pass. I glance down and see “3” and do a very small Happy Dance :dancer: right there. 3 is one of my favorite numbers! I am beaming. I am excited. I am proud. I check in like a breeze and meet up with DH just as he finishes checking DD in to the clubs.

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The terminal is empty. There are maybe 50 people in it? We chat with Christa and her family, look outside at the ship, look at the model in the terminal, go to the restroom (at DD’s repeated request –no one else’s), and sit with our bags (they were heavy). It does not take long at all for the terminal to fill up and boy did it get busy in there and CROWDED!! DD made her 5th trip to the restroom and on our way there, discovers Goofy and wants to see him. She is a big Goofy fan thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney Channel! So, after we restroom, we get in line for Goofy. One CM explains to the back of the line that Goofy will be leaving soon but will be replaced by Mickey, it pays to listen when CM’s talk! As soon as it’s DD’s turn to photo-op with Goofy, she gets scared. The photographer was awesome. She encouraged DD to greet Goofy and really eased her in to it; the photographer took her time and made it sweet. I was nervous people in line were going to start rioting because the photographer was being so nice and patient about DD and easing her in to it but I didn’t hear any complaints or feel anything thrown at me. They snap a couple of photos (my camera was with DH who was waiting with our bags-I thought we were just going to the restroom) and the final photo of DD with Goofy is her kissing Goofy’s nose! Too precious. And I knew it’d be my first photo purchased at Shutters! We rush to retrieve the camera from DH and return to the line for Mickey. I’m smart because as soon as Mickey comes out, that line tripled in length! The line moved pretty quickly and DH snapped pictures of DD and I with Mickey and then of just DD with Mickey alone. DD squeezed Mickey so hard, you could just tell she was so happy to meet him! About the time we returned to our bags, floating in the clouds because we’d just met Goofy and Mickey, they started boarding and the terminal got even busier!!

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We had boarding pass #3, as I already mentioned, and it was no time before we were posing for our pre-boarding family photo. I didn’t realize it was such a short walk from the terminal to the ship! When DH and I sailed RC a couple of years ago, it was quite a hike from the terminal to the ship. So, I had to rush to get my camera out to have it ready for our announcement. I absolutely caught the video clip of us being announced on the ship and that is one of the highlights of my trip. But I didn’t have time to cry or do a Happy Dance because I had to get to Rockin’ Bar D for PALO Ressies!!

[JDBlair]

popcorn:: popcorn:: popcorn::

Christa!!! :hug:

Ohhh, great start. Can't wait to hear/read more. My dh would have the same argument about packing as yours did. He always packs for himself and me for the kids and me.

Thank you!! I appreciate that DH usually packs himself, one less thing for me to do. But this was entirely different and I'm glad he saw things my way! Not that Delta lost our bags but just in case!

popcorn:: popcorn:: :surfweb: Great start!! Can't wait for more!!

Hi Neighbor!! :wave2: Hope you enjoy it!

[granmaz]

I'm loving this, thank you!!! I'm with you with all the packing stress and panic, and all the stresses and excitement of the journey. I understand!!!;)

[ibela]

I can't believe DD got kicked in the face in the pool!!!! :scared1:

[MagicMe]

Really enjoying your TR! Can't wait for more!

[JDBlair]

I'm loving this, thank you!!! I'm with you with all the packing stress and panic, and all the stresses and excitement of the journey. I understand!!!;)

You're welcome. Thank you for reading. I know many of us here can understand the Packing Challenge! ;) But thankfully, we have a pot of gold (DCL!) waiting for us to reward us for all our hard work!!!

I can't believe DD got kicked in the face in the pool!!!! :scared1:

I know!!! It didn't bother me so much that she was kicked but that the kid didn't say sorry and that his parents didn't even say anything about it. :confused: The pool at CI&S is huge. There was no reason for these few kids to immediately come in and start dominating the entire pool. I feel like the adults in their party should have told them to stay on one side of the pool, it was big enough for that to happen. I'm just glad DH didn't witness this kick! I did tell him about it and he loudly commented on it and the adults with the kids still didn't look up from their discussion. None of the adults in that party were in the pool, just the kids, and they clearly were not paying attention to the children in their care. :mad:

Really enjoying your TR! Can't wait for more!

Thank you!!! I'm really enjoying writing it. :cutie: I will absolutely post more tonight! :surfweb:

[MiaSRN62]

Hey Jackie !
Enjoying your TR so far ! Wow...so sorry your daughter got kicked. Hope she was ok. I appreciate your comments on CI&S. I strongly considered staying there the night before the cruise and I see it's a possibility for the future (well....except for that rude lady at check-in. Why do people have to be that way :confused3 ).

Keep it comin' ! popcorn::

[JDBlair]

I told DH he and the kids could go to Deck 9 while I rushed to Rockin’ D but they tagged along with me. No worries, probably best this way since we may have lost each other. There were about 6 people in front of me at Rockin’ D and my family waited patiently. They knew what was good for them!:rolleyes: I had stressed (to them and anyone else I have come in contact with for the past 2 months) how important it was that I get Palo Brunch and change the night of Palo dinner. And besides, they were on vacation and had nowhere else to be! I scored brunch for Thursday (Whoop Whoop!) and changed dinner to Wednesday night. I was a little hesitant about a back-to-back sort of deal but my original Palo dinner ressies were Friday and I didn’t want our last night on the ship to be in Palo so Wednesday would work fine.

Mission Completion (Little Einstein’s reference there for all you Disney Channel fans) and we went back to the hall to regroup and figure out where to go from there. Took pictures of the kids in the portholes and it’s a good thing I did because we never made it back that way as a family for the rest of the week. Found the forward elevators and decided to go on up to Deck 9. First we stumbled on to the Quite Cove pool. Ooo, Ahh! Walked past the Goofy pool. Neat! The minute DD saw the Mickey pool, she wanted to go in. She has been very excited to go in the Mickey pool and ride down the slide but we needed to eat first. Priorities! And the carry-on bags we had were heavy! So, we make our way through the buffet line at Topsiders and a very nice CM helps me with the tray I have for DD and myself, I didn’t even have to ask! Talk about Customer Service. :thumbsup2 They see a need and they fulfill it, no questions asked! I love Disney! :love: We find a spot outside, aft, and start grubbing. A very thoughtful CM with a tray full of frozen yummies comes our way and yes, we will take 2! DH and I slap high-fives and congratulate each other for being on vacation. I am snapping pictures left and right because I don’t want to miss a moment. As I snap a picture of DH and DS eating lunch, a playful CM poses in the background. I thought it was a funny shot and certainly sets the tone of what being on this ship is really like!
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Many CM’s come our way offering the water package and we decline, explaining we already have water. That’s when the light goes on over DH’s head :idea: because he sees how much DCL is charging for a case of water, he knows what we paid for our case of water ($5) and he is happy! He probably fell more in love with me that day and thanked God for the DIS! I bet he did!

We don’t eat too much because one tip I read (on the DIS, nowhere else!) is to be careful about what you eat the first day until you know how the seas will affect you. The kids have never cruised and the jury was out on whether or not DH and I get motion sickness. So, I tried to take it light and easy and encouraged the family to do the same. DD was bouncing up and down and wanted to go in the pool so I changed her in to her suit and we made our way to the Mickey Pool. An absolute smart tip is packing your suits in your carry-on because there are a lot of kids lined around the edge of the pool looking on with envy because their parents didn’t know to pack their suits! Only DD got in to her suit but taking advantage of an empty Mickey pool is something to not be passed up (I learned this reading TR’s!)! It wasn’t too long before they opened the slide and she was rushing down it. You knew, in that moment, her little dream was fulfilled. I would have given her a high-five if she had stood still long enough. As soon as she’d come down the slide, she’d rush to get back in line. Can’t blame her when the line is less than 5 kids deep at any given moment, “Ride like the wind, Bullseye!!” (Toy Story reference, just in case you aren’t sure!!)
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We sat there awhile, watching her slide and watching the deck get busier and busier. DS asked me to walk him over to the Stack so we did a little field trip. He was greeted by a very friendly and welcoming CM who explained how things worked there and the activities they had planned, I kind of stayed near the stairs so it didn’t seem like his “Mommy” was intruding, even though he asked me to be there, nobody else had to know! She encouraged him to attend and get involved, showed him a Navigator and gave him one. Welcomed him to stay but there were only a couple of kids in there and he wasn’t ready to stay so he left with me but on the way out, told me he was going to the activity she mentioned. I was really impressed with how welcoming she was and inviting. Definitely did not have a laid back approach and that is good, sometimes teen-agers need a little push, at least my teen-ager!

It was about this time we could get in to our room and we were more than ready to dump our carry-ons. So, off to the room we went!! A couple of our suitcases were already there! We were in room 2606 and I would totally book this room again. Right off the aft elevators/staircase, great location!! Our room was so much bigger than I thought it would be and the port hole was huge!!! No complaints at all. I ordered baskets from The Perfect Gift for all 3 of them but the cards were signed by characters so I didn’t take credit. DD showed the most excitement over the baskets but remember what I told you about men, they have some sort of code about showing excitement.:sad2: They made comments like, “Cool” and stuff like that. I knew they’d be more excited about their treats as the week went on! DH tried to thank me for the basket and I said, “You need to send your thanks to Mickey and Minnie, signature on the card. I know not of what you thank me for!!”
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We didn’t stay in the room for too long. From here we went and checked out some things; Studio Sea and Oceaneer’s Club. I wish I was a kid to play in this club! I am just in awe of how much detail Disney puts in to everything, even the things they don’t have to, for example, the girls bathroom in the Club. It is so cute!!!! I even took a picture of it! You may be asking yourself why I was in the girls bathroom but remember all the restroom visits in the terminal? The most important thing DD needed to know about the Club is where the restroom was so it was the first place we showed her!
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I believe this is also the afternoon we made a stop at Guest Services. I dropped off our photo mats for signatures (a DIS tip!) and needed to pass along a message to the manager at Guest Services. Someone posted on the DIS asking a favor of anyone sailing in the future couple of weeks and the favor was to pass along a message to Jonathan, a manager at Guest Services. I agreed to pass along the message, as long as it didn’t make me Jonathan’s Enemy #1, because it sounded cute and a way for 2 friends to say hello in a distant way! When I relayed the message, Jonathan, the manager, just grinned ear to ear and thanked me – stating it had made his entire day! It made me feel good as I am sure it isn’t often those employed at Guest Services have their day made!

We then went up to Deck 4 and overlooked the atrium. We watched as people were announced on the ship and DD and I clapped and “Whoo hoo’d” for them. DS didn’t understand why we were doing this for strangers but my question was, “Why not?” We only did this for a moment or two and then we walked around a bit outside on Deck 4. The comfy chairs I have read about were not out, then it occurred to me they were put away for the Boat Drill. Darn, and I told myself I would need to remember to return to Deck 4 to sit in the highly talked about comfy chairs!

3 pm rolled around pretty quickly and it was time for the DIS meet in the Promenade lounge. It is always great to finally put names with faces and meet the people you have been planning your vacation with for the past year! GrumpyGramps made us all door signs and those were super cute!! DisBoarders (our group name) ducked in and out introducing themselves and saying hello! But the meet was short because, as we all know, there is the Mandatory Boat Drill!

We’ve all done the boat drill so no point in really reporting on it. It was relatively painless but the siren sounding really made my stomach flip flop and heart jump to my throat. I had flashbacks to the Titanic movie that I quickly had to dismiss and think about something else. I also noticed that not many people do as they’re told by leaving their life vests on until they’ve reached their staterooms. Only DD would pose for the obligatory photo while in her vest. Men! I guess that bright orange just wasn’t their color!!
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We tossed the vests back in to the closet and rushed, rushed, rushed to Deck 9 for Adventures Away. DH didn’t want to be in the thick of things so we found a spot on Deck 10 overlooking the stage. I think he could tell I was disappointed in this location and encouraged DD and I to go to Deck 9, he didn’t have to recommend this twice. We were off, down the stairs and “in the thick of things” in no time. We danced and danced but that icky, wet Florida heat did not make this a pleasant experience. I pushed off the “grumpiness” I was feeling about this and reminded myself I had nightmares about missing this party and wasn’t going to let some stupid, icky, wet heat ruin it for me. So, I pushed through with Disney spirit and sweated my booty off. Hey, if those characters can get up there and boogie, I can boogie, too! (But it was hard, it really was hot and nasty and my heart went out to those CM’s like you would not believe! God bless them for keeping the spirit and starting our vacation off right!) I knew the characters would make an appearance, just as I saw them coming down the stairs, I pushed DD up on to my shoulders. Oh brother, this made the hot, icky heat worse as I am now adding 40 pounds of pressure literally to my head and shoulders. But at least she could see and I knew it’d be over soon-Disney spirit and Pixie Dust. She was so excited to see her favorite characters and would slap me on the top of my head to announce who she was seeing. I smile up at DH and to my horror, noticed he did not have a camera in his hands. I motion to him to take pictures and he snaps away.
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(You can find me in this picture by looking towards the middle. Behind me, there aren't very many people around, I'm wearing sunglasses and have an excited, 40 pound child on my shoulders!)
Then, the horn blows. It was loud. But it was one of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard. DH and DS had joined us on Deck 9 by this time and DH brought me a soda because he figured I’d have to be dying of thirst having had DD on my shoulders. That was extremely thoughtful and greatly appreciated because I was very thirsty!!

The party was over and we rushed up to Deck 10 to watch the Magic pull out in to the open sea. It was windy!!!!!!!!!! But we found that if you duck down by the plexiglass=no wind! Problem solved. DD and I yelled good-bye to everything we could think of. Good-bye Florida, home, our bed, work, friends, family, silly guy in the small row boat:boat: , trash on the beach, fishy’s we couldn’t see – you get the idea!

Time to eat!!

Before we enter the restaurant, we are handed our hand wipey thing and DS exclaims, "My kind of a ship! Sweet!!" DS is obsessed about washing his hands and other people washing their hands. Knowing that DCL was going to force people to wash their hands probably made his entire vacation! (My kids are strange, what can I say?? But at least his hands are clean!!)

We had the 6 pm rotation, which I had requested, and we were linked with 2 families from the DIS! Christa, whom we previously met, and Irene (Ibela) and her family! Our dinner this evening was in Lumiere’s. We were lead to our table and as soon as I saw our tablemates were already seated, I yell out, “DISBoarders in the house raise it UP! Whoop Whoop!” Everyone laughed and thus the ice was broken. Whoop Whoop!

I know you are going to ask what I ate but honestly, I don’t remember. I did take pictures. When Christa and I whipped out our cameras to take pictures of these meals, our families had to start in with the jokes and teasing us. They don’t necessarily understand the DIS, I think you have to be a DISer to truly appreciate it. But Christa and I did explain such pictures would make us GODS on the DIS! They laughed but I can tell you, as the week progressed, they would remind us to take pictures of the food and then ask how many “posts” we would get in response to the particular picture. Ah…they can be convinced to come over to the dark side!!!
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The most memorable part of our meal was DS tried the escargot. He ate 2 of them but that was enough. This kid is a plain cheeseburger kind of kid so for him to try this dish was very impressive. He didn’t like it, per se, but at least he can answer, if he is ever asked, “No, I do not care for escargot” with a clear conscience. How many of us can say that?? :confused: Let’s talk about yummy tastes in our mouths.:cutie: The soufflé I had that evening was about the best dessert I have ever had!!! So yummy!!!! I ordered 2 desserts, because the DIS told me I could:disrocks: , but the crème brulle paled in comparison to this soufflé!
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During dinner and by the time dinner was over, you could feel that this ship was rocking!!!!! I believe Christa’s children were really affected by this and had little to no appetite. I kept checking in with my family and everyone seemed fine. From dinner, we went to see “All Aboard” and if you didn’t notice the rocking yet, you noticed it now. The theater was not very full and you could hear people around us talking about “so-and-so went back to the room” and “so-and-so was sick”. DD needed to visit the restroom repeatedly and every time we were in there, someone was sick or rushing in to be sick or got sick in the hallway. Walking up the stairs from the theater to the restroom was quite the challenge and left DD and I exclaiming, “Whoa!!!” (with giggles) as we’d be forced from one side of the aisle to the other, people bracing themselves for us to land in their laps. We would laugh, apologize and keep moving. We visited the restroom a few times (maybe DD is going to grow up and write TR’s about the restrooms she visits in her life!) and after the first couple of visits, I grab a couple of the barf bags to keep with me “just in case”. A poor little girl got sick all the way from the theater to the restroom and I didn’t know if I felt worse for her, her Dad or the CM who had to clean it up! :sick: I continually checked in with the family but all seemed to be going well.

The show was very cute, funny and I was in awe of the CM’s being able to maintain their composure with the ship rocking in such a way. Even the theater curtain was swaying to and fro. Good times!!! After the show, we stopped in to the very empty Mickey’s Mates. A CM seemed bewildered we were there and asked if we were all feeling okay. We exclaimed we were, aside from not being able to maintain our balance. :tilt:

We walked back to our room and the worst part was smelling “sickness” in every hallway all the way back to our room. Those poor CM’s!!! DS went off to join the teens for whatever teens do in the Stack (apparently, it’s Top Secret and we’ll get to that later). The rest of us went to bed. I don’t think our heads hit the pillows before we were fast asleep! :cloud9:

[MiaSRN62]

We walked back to our room and the worst part was smelling “sickness” in every hallway all the way back to our room. Those poor CM’s!!!
Ohhh....boy.....what a doozy that first night was.......:eek:

BTW, I had never seen the bathroom in the kids' clubs. Even when my kids were involved in the Oceaneer's Lab a few years ago. Thanks so much for posting that. It is really cute.

PS: Jackie....I can spot you in the crowd ! Cute pic !

[JDBlair]

Hey Jackie !
Enjoying your TR so far ! Wow...so sorry your daughter got kicked. Hope she was ok. I appreciate your comments on CI&S. I strongly considered staying there the night before the cruise and I see it's a possibility for the future (well....except for that rude lady at check-in. Why do people have to be that way :confused3 ).

Keep it comin' ! popcorn::

Thanks for reading it!! I'm glad you're enjoying it!!!
DD was okay - she has a tough head.
It's not that the lady at CI&S was rude as much as she just didn't seem "all there". DH and I joked she was either at the end of her shift or :confused3. Maybe she was tired of talking??

Ohhh....boy.....what a doozy that first night was.......:eek:

BTW, I had never seen the bathroom in the kids' clubs. Even when my kids were involved in the Oceaneer's Lab a few years ago. Thanks so much for posting that. It is really cute.

PS: Jackie....I can spot you in the crowd ! Cute pic !

:lmao: I'm glad you appreciate the picture of the bathroom. I really thought it was cute!!! Here is a picture of the stall area, it is equally as cute!!
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You must be good at Finding Waldo, too!! :thumbsup2

[jajomo0118]

I love that you are doing all the work...lol...:lmao:

I just sit back and read.....:surfweb: ...you do rock...:thumbsup2

and i do have some wonderful "character breakfast" pictures of you...:banana: ...that i will be posting soon

[JDBlair]

I love that you are doing all the work...lol...:lmao:

I just sit back and read.....:surfweb: ...you do rock...:thumbsup2

and i do have some wonderful "character breakfast" pictures of you...:banana: ...that i will be posting soon

You need to write a TR because you have an entirely different perspective to the cruise. I will read it if you write it!:surfweb:

Why do you hate me?? (But thanks for saying I rock!!) Do we not remember that I rushed to character breakfast because we overslept? I think I came to breakfast in my pj's!!! :scared1: But we're not to that part in my TR just yet!! :upsidedow

You better start posting those food pics on the food thread. I just posted my first one!

[disneyfaninaz]

Loving the detail and the pictures. :thumbsup2

I could almost feel the humidity, but you know us Zonies, anything above 10% is sticky! ;) Out of curiousity, what did you have "Mickey and Minnie" put in the gift baskets?

[JDBlair]

Loving the detail and the pictures. :thumbsup2

I could almost feel the humidity, but you know us Zonies, anything above 10% is sticky! ;) Out of curiousity, what did you have "Mickey and Minnie" put in the gift baskets?

Zonies!! :rotfl2: I've never heard us referred to in that way but I'm going to start using that!!! :thumbsup2 I think I'm going to take DH to Florida every summer so he can come home and appreciate our dry heat.

In the baskets, they had a ton of sand toys (DH and DS happily handed theirs over to DD!) and a big box of "movie" candy (DH had Reese's pieces and DS had Skittles). They also had some fruit snacks, peanut crackers, smaller pieces of candy and things like that. There was quite a bit. In the base of their baskets, DH had 4 cans of Dr. Pepper and DS had 4 cans of Coke. DD's basket had the same candy and snacks (her movie candy was Nerds) but her drinks were 2 bottles of water and 2 juice packets. I wasn't sure how much of this food they would eat since you figure you'll eat so much on the ship. But they ate everything. The juice came in handy when we'd be sitting in the room or before bed. (Saved me trips to Deck 9, that's for sure.) The men used their soda for movies and lounging around the room.

Now that we're home, DD can use the sand toys to play with her Play Doh!

[CruisinEars]

Still here and reading. You are a very enjoyable writer. Looking forward to the next installment. Btw, I spotted you in the crowd too. ;)

[lovmy2girls]

MORE MORE MORE:goodvibes Great trip report! Look foward to the rest.

[MagicMe]

Yes - MORE!!! I'm really enjoying your report and seeing the pictures. I love that bathroom in the club!

[JDBlair]

I woke up around 7:30 am and the family was sound asleep. I was a little surprised DD was still sleeping as she usually wakes with the sun. I didn’t want to go back to sleep because I wasn’t about to sleep away the Dream Vacation. Besides, the idea of walking about Deck 9 and 10 really appealed to me. So, I slipped on my Mickey Crocs and told DH I’d be back in a little while. He went back to sleep and I snuck out the door!

I’d read in other TR’s about how empty the decks are at this hour and the TR’s didn’t lie!! I grabbed some coffee on Deck 9 and was greeted “Good morning” by just a couple of people. Good morning, indeed!!! I think there were more CM’s bustling about than there were cruisers. I went up to Deck 10long enough for a picture or 2 but it was raining here and there and since I had my glasses on and my camera in my hand, well, water and these 2 things do not mix well!
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So, back down to Deck 9 and back (or is that forward?) to Quiet Cove. I don’t recall anyone ever talking about how comfy those chairs are, the ones lined up to overlook the ocean, but they are very comfy!!! Yeah!!! I sat in those and sipped my coffee. Did a lot of deep breaths in and out to get that good, clean ocean air in my lungs. Hey, I’m from Arizona so I need to filter out some of the dust!! For most of my vacation, I developed a strong case of ADHD and just could not sit there for too long before I had to rush off and explore some other empty area! I did some walking outside – took pictures. On one side of the ship I saw land so I snapped a picture of that so I could show DH we passed land (never showed him the picture until we were home from the trip)! I went inside and took pictures of different areas like the lobby, Rockin’ Bar D, and a picture of my Mickey Crocs propped up in one of the large portholes.
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I returned to the room and don’t remember if the family was awake or if I had to wake them. Either way, we dressed and went to Topsiders for breakfast. The night before, I had highlighted the Navigator with a different color for each person and the activity they wanted to attend that day (DIS tip). I let DH highlight his own, though, because he’s a big boy with a mind of his own!! The first thing I wanted to attend was the Art of Entertaining The Appetizer because Irene (Ibela) and I had discussed prior to the trip how much we wanted to do these. DD went to the club, DS was off to the stack and DH went along with me since nothing else that morning grabbed his attention.

It’s a good thing DH went with me because Irene stood me up. :confused3 Her loss! ;) Chef Brett Hill prepared Grilled Sea Scallops with Cous Cous Salad and Curry Sauce and while he slaved away over a hot stove, we dined on his delicious appetizer. We were also given a small bit of wine that was paired with the scallop. DH didn’t care for his scallop so I scored and got to eat 2!! I thought they were delicious!!! He did, however, like his wine so I didn’t get lucky there!
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After scallops, we headed over to the Buena Vista Theatre for the “Disney’s Behind the Scenes: From Sketches to Reality.” It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be; I thought they were going to show us drawings of characters and then how they get those from paper to the movie. But instead, he talked about how the geniuses at Disney come up with ideas and how they magically make their way in to rides at the park. A lot of it was about stuff at Disney World and I’ve never been there so that was fun. He also talked a lot about the park in China? I think it was China?? So, that was fun, laid back but now we were hungry and fetched DD from the Club.

People on the DIS and in TR’s always seem to suggest you do a sit-down lunch at one of the restaurants instead of Topsiders every time. So, the three of us went to Parrot Cay. Except, this was buffet so I don’t quite know if this is what everyone meant when they said “sit-down” lunch? Either way, Parrot Cay had an Italian buffet but I didn’t think it was anything really special. The best part was the ice cream a CM was giving out scoops of, if you asked, of course. DD enjoyed a big bowl of this. I enjoyed some yummy desserts they had as opposed to the ice cream, but I did steal bites of the ice cream from DD’s bowl.
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I didn’t take pictures of our lunch plates because we were sitting at a table with strangers!!! I’m sure they were already annoyed with DD’s inability to sit still, my constant attempts at raising DS on the walkie talkie (all of which failed. Bringing the walkie talkies proved to be absolutely pointless and I don’t recommend dragging them along with you!), and just the fact they had to sit across from us. We made polite conversation but it would have been a more comfortable lunch had we been seated alone. Lesson learned.

After lunch, we all dressed for the pool and made our way there. As expected, the Mickey pool was insane. The line for the slide was very long and the kids were ruthless, DD got pushed out of the way and started to cry. So, we went to the Goofy pool. This wasn’t any better as people were ignoring the “No Jumping” :mad: rules and the pool was full. The best you could do was stay in one position but nobody was doing that and we were being bumped in to, splashed, jumped on, and kicked. Ugh! :sad2: Was not in the mood for this because I have a pool at home I can enjoy, we didn’t need to torture ourselves in this way. I bribed DD to return to the room by offering her a bubble bath. She agreed and we were off. :woohoo:

While DD splashed about in her bath, I began curling my hair for formal night. DD and I had tickets for Tea with Alice at 4 so DH left the room to explore the ship. DD and I just hung out in the room before our tea. She watched TV and I curled my hair. About 3:45, we were ready to head up to Studio Sea and to my horror, I was unable to open the safe where I had tucked the tickets. DH locked the safe with his KTTW!! :scared1: Oh no!! Panic!!! Think-Think-Think. Surely, DCL wouldn’t deny me entrance? Would they? Think-Think-Think!! :idea: I phone Guest Services and they instruct me to stop at the desk and they will reprint tickets! Phew!!! We rush to Guest Services and get our tickets. We wait outside of Studio Sea for Christa because she was joining us. She arrived shortly after we did and we went inside to find a seat.


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Tea with Alice was super cute!! DD was very engrossed the whole time and that is saying a lot!!! She doesn’t sit still for very much at all and she never once asked to go to the restroom!!! She was a little scared of the Mad Hatter but I was really impressed with him!!
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He and Alice sounded just like they do in the movie!!! We dined on very yummy cookies and learned how to properly serve and drink tea! It was cute and I’m really glad we went and really glad Christa joined us!!!
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[JDBlair]

We met DH back in the room and he was dressed for formal night!! Handsome man!!! :bitelip: DD and I quickly dressed since I had done my hair and make-up before Tea with Alice. I quickly curled DD’s hair and we were out the door in no time. Left a note for DS on the bed explaining where to meet us and included the comment that I was not happy!

On Deck 4, we stood in line to have our portrait taken. I had reservations about having our photo taken without DS but I couldn’t help but think we looked so nice, DD looked so pretty in her dress I’d been saving for her all year, and I wanted a memory of it. While waiting in line, a CM approached us with a tray full of drinks, compliments of the Captain. Hello!! We are not people to pass up free drinks so we both took a Mai Tai. :drinking: Yum!!!!!!!!!!!! After we finished with our photo, we were on our way to Deck 3 when we were offered another drink. Don’t mind if we do!! :love2: Deck 3 was crazy busy. We posed for a portrait with the captain and then went back to Deck 4 for 2 reasons. Reason 1: It was less crazy there and Reason 2: we saw where the CM’s with the free drinks were coming from and they didn’t seem to care at all how many we had! :woohoo: Score!!! So, we watched all the frenzy on Deck 3 while sipping on our free drinks from Deck 4. (See how smart we are?!) DD felt all grown up sipping on her oj!
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A very nice gentleman offered to take a picture of the 3 of us and we returned the favor for him and his lady!
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I think DH and I had 4 Mai Tai’s before it was time to head to Animator’s Palate for dinner. :rolleyes1

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I was looking forward to dining in Animator’s Palate from the moment I heard about the restaurant. I know a lot of people report they don’t think it lives up to the hype, especially after you see the special on the Travel Channel, but I couldn’t disagree more. I really loved it. DS walked:tiptoe: in to dinner around 6:15, dressed and looking scared. I’m sure the note left for him on the bed informing him that I “wasn’t happy” is what tipped him off! But that’s just a guess. :confused3 Having had 4 Mai Tai’s before being confronted with a DS who had been MIA all day long; I just wasn’t in the mood to say too much about it. Imagine that! :cool: Besides, I was on vacation and it was partly my fault for not making it clear what time he should return to the stateroom. It’s not his fault the walkie talkies didn’t work and lesson learned.

Tonight, I sat across from Christa’s boys and I think they, DD and I had the best time!! (Christa's boys aren't on the DIS so you have to take my word for it that they had the best time, too!) DD was to my left and we were up against the wall. (I don't think I had to zoom for this picture!)
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(This is also the night I informed DH that I think I need to have my hearing checked because if you weren’t sitting across from me or right next to me, I could never hear a word anyone was saying!! :listen: And no, it wasn’t the Mai Tai’s. The hearing issue happened every night!!!)

But Christa’s boys, DD and I really had a great time pointing out the color changes and the differences around the room!! We’d find sketches on the walls next to us to point out to each other. We just had a blast. Who’d have thunk it? Disney just turns me in to a big ol’ kid so it’s not too surprising to me that this night I had the most fun sitting with the kids. Christa’s boys are really great. I couldn’t have asked for better tablemates that evening!!
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In all our excitement, I didn’t take a picture of my meal. I did, however, take a picture of our desserts and DD dining on her Mickey bar. DH ordered 2 desserts because I told him the DIS said he could!!
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A quick change of DD’s clothes and we were off to The Golden Mickey’s!! But on the way, we scored another round of free Mai Tai's!!! :thumbsup2 :dance3:
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What a cute show!!!! I took pictures (without flash) and they’re blurry but you get the idea!!
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(The women in the crowd went wild over that Tarzan.)

After The Golden Mickey’s, we had a schedule conflict. On the Navigator I highlighted for the family the “Golden Mickey’s After Party” but DH highlighted for adults the “Golden Mickey’s After Party with Live Music and the Comedy of Rich Purpura.” Wanting DH to enjoy his vacation and not give him any reason to regret agreeing to take us on the Disney Cruise, we took DD to the club and we were off to Rockin’ Bar D!

Rich Purpura had performed the night before at the All Aboard show and we thought he was funny so this should prove to be a good time. We weren’t wrong! We laughed our butts off. (That’s good for burning a few of those soufflé calories, right? Not to mention calories from the Mai Tai’s I’d had!!) While it was aimed at adults, they still kept it Disney clean and while I am not easily offended, I did appreciate this “cleanness” because the crowd was a mixture of all ages “adults” and sometimes comedians can take it a little too far-if you know what I mean. It was just good, clean, adult fun! I thought I was going to fall off my chair, pee my pants and die of laughter when he did his final set and had this buffalo animal cracker do a poopy!!! For anyone who saw it, they know what I am talking about and I really wish I could explain it but it was literally a “had to be there” kind of thing but trust me, the room was roaring with laughter and Rich busted out laughing a few times during this set! It was great!!! He was funny and I’m glad we attended!!!!

After Rockin’ Bar D, DH and I went outside on Deck 4 and sat in the comfy chairs!!!
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It was so nice out there with the ocean and the ship and the joggers!! Had we sat there too long, we would have comfortably fallen asleep with our full bellies, exercise (laughing burns calories, remember?) and Mai Tai’s!!! We went back in and retrieved our DD from the club and it was off to bed for we 3.

I’m sorry if today seemed a little less exciting than the previous 2 days but it was a little less exciting. We chose this itinerary because the 2 days at sea to start off our vacation really appealed to us. With our hectic “normal” life and the year we’ve had, we needed some down time. Sunday afforded us that down time even though we still did a few things. I don’t look back on Sunday and regret anything. It was a great day at sea, except for DS being MIA and not in very many of my pictures, but at least we all had fun!

[JDBlair]

Still here and reading. You are a very enjoyable writer. Looking forward to the next installment. Btw, I spotted you in the crowd too. ;)
Thank you for sticking around!!! And thank you for the compliment. :hug:
Great job on the Finding Waldo adventure!!!

MORE MORE MORE:goodvibes Great trip report! Look foward to the rest.

Thank you!!! :hug: This is a lot of fun!!!

Yes - MORE!!! I'm really enjoying your report and seeing the pictures. I love that bathroom in the club!

Thank you!! I especially love TR's with pictures so I knew I'd have to include pics with my TR!!! I'm glad people appreciate the bathroom picture. I posted it on the DCL Picture of the Day thread, as well!! It really is adorable and I'd never seen a pic of it before!

[MiaSRN62]

Enjoying your TR Jackie. The photo of your dd and you at Tea With Alice is so cute. Your hair looked so pretty !
BTW, we had formal night in AP too. I love the show as well (and this was our 3rd cruise). Your pics of the Golden Mickeys came out great. Mine were much darker.

[JDBlair]

Enjoying your TR Jackie. The photo of your dd and you at Tea With Alice is so cute. Your hair looked so pretty !
BTW, we had formal night in AP too. I love the show as well (and this was our 3rd cruise). Your pics of the Golden Mickeys came out great. Mine were much darker.

Maria - I'm glad you're enjoying it!!!! :) It really is a pleasure writing it! And thank you for the compliments on my hair. :hug:
I think you and I had the same servers just at different dining times - Alexander and Erwin? (I think Erwin was his name!) I was really disappointed we didn't get to eat in AP again :guilty: but we ended up having Palo that night :) .

I tried really hard to get good shots of the shows and definitely followed the rules of no flash. I posted the best shots in the bunch but trust me, there are some dark - extremely blurry ones. I have a shot of Tarzan when he's spinning around that vine! (WOW!!!!! :eek:) The shot is cool because it's blurry but you'd have to know what you had been watching in real life to appreciate the picture. I can post it tonight if you'd like to see it. Did your crowd scream out when Tarzan took the stage? :rotfl2:

[MiaSRN62]

Yes....we did have the same servers. They were awesome. Erwin seemed a little shy inititally----but we brought him out of his shell.

Did your crowd scream out when Tarzan took the stage?

Yesindeedy ! I believe I did hear a few "hoots" ;) :rotfl:

[JDBlair]

:idea: Word to the wise: It may be in your best interest to just quickly look at your Navigator or Passporter before you lay your head down at night. This way, you know if you need to request a cheerful wake-up call!:idea:

That said, I woke up Monday morning to the snoring sounds of my loved ones and thought it strange I could see light outside. I thought, surely, it was still the middle of the night. I stumble across the room to the propeller clock and see the time as 8:20, must be 8:20 AM since there is light outside. Then I start to think, “Isn’t there somewhere we’re supposed to be this AM? Isn’t today the character breakfast?” I pull out my Passporter (tucked nicely on the shelf in the nightstand next to my bed!) to confirm the information on my meal tickets. Oh no! :sad2: First, I consider getting back in to bed because the breakfast began at 8:15 and it was 8:20. But then I started to feel guilty thinking about DD missing the character b-fast and how I would regret it, whether she knew about the b-fast or not. Well, DH is now awake, thanks to my paper shuffling, and asking about my obvious internal-struggle. I explain the situation to him and he says we should go. So, I wake DD and quickly dress her, leave DS (but tell him where we are going) to sleep because DH says he got in around 2 am :eek: , and we rush to Parrot Cay – with me still in my pj’s. Fortunately, for us, Parrot Cay is one floor above our stateroom! (The location of our room really worked to our advantage in more ways than one!!) We come rushing in and just as we do, our server, Alexander, almost runs right in to us. He jumps (I think with excitement or maybe it was fear because I was in my pj's?) when he sees us and escorts us to our table. I really was surprised to see that all of our tablemates were there! For the past two nights, I’ve had to share my Navigators with them so they know where to go from dinner but they all remember our character b-fast?? :rolleyes1
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Mickey’s Island Jam breakfast was cute. DD was too scared to join in the dancing and such. She seems a little timid of the non-human looking characters. (Maybe it’s because they don’t talk? Maybe she’s star-struck?)
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She was content to watch everything right from her chair or standing next to the table. I’m glad I didn’t crawl back in to bed and blow this off, though. She enjoyed it and that’s what matters. Besides, I can sleep when I get home – right??
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(It's fitting DD's crown is tilted. While she is truly our princess, she's a bit unruly!)

After breakfast, we returned to the room so I could dress. :p Before DS ditched us again, we all reviewed the Navigator to determine a time we’d need to meet for pictures and dinner-having learned our lesson from the day before. This is when we realized a HUGE scheduling conflict. Tonight was Twice Charmed and we all loved the shows so that was a “do not miss”. At 11, I needed to meet with the DISBoarders to stuff the goody bags we arranged for the kiddies. At 12, I had the DISBoarders luncheon. Ratatouille was only showing during 2 time slots (both evening times – not sure why being that this is a cartoon and they ran a PG-13 movie at 12:30 in the afternoon!) in the Theatre and we all wanted to see that, even though we saw it in Arizona when it came out. The dilemma quickly became that the evening activities were being spoiled by dinner! We could do what we wanted to do if we skipped dinner in Parrot Cay and just did a drive-by at Topsiders or room service. So, that’s what we agreed to do. Skip dinner. ::yes::

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So, DS ditched us for the Stack and the 3 of us remaining toured the lobby for a little bit until DD announced she wanted to go to the club. I’m pretty sure this is the first time she suggested going there herself. So, we took her up on the offer and escorted her there. I was soon off to meet my DISBoarders at 11. DH highlighted the “Wild Hogs” movie on the Navigator for 12:30 to keep him busy while I was busy with my DISBoarders. We parted ways and I told him I’d find him in the theater when I was finished with lunch.

Our great group of DISBoarders :wave2: rallied together and contributed items to make up goody bags for our precious children. pirate: Those of us able to stuff the bags, met at 11 in the Promenade lounge. Thinking we could stuff there, we were wrong. The idea was to “drink :drinking1 and stuff” but Bingo was taking place and then after Bingo, they started up another activity. So, we set up camp in front of Animators Palate, thinking we’d be out of the way and for the most part we were. We had an assembly “circle” and stuffed the bags. It was fun. Towards the end, we had to quickly finish because a CM came through and said the children’s club would be coming through on their way to lunch at AP! Hey!! I want to lunch at AP!! We finished up what we needed to do and returned to the Promenade for that much-talked-about-before-we-even-got-on-the-ship drink. :drinking1

We had lunch together in Lumiere’s at 12. I think 40 of us showed up for lunch, altogether, and the restaurant seated us relatively close together. It was about this time that it was becoming obvious to me that I was not getting enough sleep. I just felt blah!! I was so happy to be there and meeting my friends and talking about our vacation but I also couldn’t help but want to take a nap!!! Maybe it’s because this is the first time I had sat still for so long! Service was a little slow so some of the other tables in our party finished up before those of us at my table finished (or in some cases, were even served). I was sitting next to Christa and her family and explained to her we’d miss dinner tonight. I didn’t want them to think we were ditching them when we didn’t show up. After lunch, one of our DISBoarders was having a little birthday party in her room for her DD and invited the children. I rushed up to the club to gather DD but they said she had checked out, almost ½ an hour after she checked in!! This alarmed me and I rushed back to the room thinking something was wrong!

On my way back to the room, I bumped in to Irene and she told me her Palo brunch was amazing! I told her we would miss dinner that night and why. She suggested we just attend the matinee show of Twice Charmed. DOH!! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Me, the one with the Navigator! I felt like the White Rabbit because I had to rush away from Irene and our chat to check on DD and DH-hopefully in the room! I get to the room - nothing was wrong. DD and DH were sitting on the couch, watching a movie, while she snacked on pizza. Poor DH-didn’t get to see his movie! I asked him why he didn’t just come find me with my group, they were certainly invited to join and he said he couldn’t remember where I was. Silly me. I made sure to know where everyone else was going to be but didn’t bother to let them know where I would be. DH was hungry so DD and I joined him up on Deck 9 while he ate lunch and DD and I had ice cream!

Since Irene was a genius and recommended we see the 2 pm showing of Twice Charmed, we did just that. We sat in the front on the left side of the stage. I chose this spot because I wanted to get good, clear photos of the show!! I took MANY photos, 50 to be exact! We liked the show, it was very cute. Cinderella is one of DD’s most favorite princess movies! It’s fun to sit that close and see the up-close real facial expressions on the cast and see if they ever break character. Can’t say I caught a single one of them breaking character. They are that good!!! :cool2:

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[JDBlair]

Yes....we did have the same servers. They were awesome. Erwin seemed a little shy inititally----but we brought him out of his shell.


Yesindeedy ! I believe I did hear a few "hoots" ;) :rotfl:

This was one of the most impressive performances of the show and I don't say it because Tarzan was ripped! It was just IMPRESSIVE!

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[Jennifer48]

Hi :wave:

I'm really enjoying your trippie. I can't wait to hear more! :goodvibes

Jennifer :flower3:

[Brianne&Sami'smom]

I am loving your trip report! Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

[ibouncetoo]

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more. :thumbsup2

I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat. :sunny:



.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

[disneyfaninaz]

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more. :thumbsup2

I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat. :sunny:



.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

Amen to that neighbor! Afterall, this is why we live here right? :goodvibes

[JDBlair]

From the show, we wandered outside on Deck 4 but didn’t stay there long. I really don’t know what we did or where we went after Deck 4! :confused3 I think this is the day we ordered a lot of food from room service (BLT, fruit bowl, Big Island Cookies, Mickey Bars :mickeybar , and milk) but I don’t have any pictures of it to prove my theory of what we may have done. Maybe it’s also the day my camera battery died and I had to charge it? So, now we’ll just skip to 5 pm and dinner time.

DS showed up on time to dress for pictures-glad he decided to not press his luck and show up late. Since we had seen Twice Charmed at 2, we could still go to our regular dining rotation and then see Ratatouille at 8:15. So, we went to the lobby and had our family portrait done with the lifestyles background.
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DS was full of attitude (teen-agers :sad2: ) and basically complained every step of the way. This seriously annoyed :headache: DH because we had hardly seen DS since we got on the ship and he felt DS should at least be pleasant when forced to be with us! There is no reasoning with a teen-ager but there is threatening :idea: and he lessened the attitude after I threatened if he didn’t straighten up, he’d stay with us the rest of that night! :scared: That was met with a, “NO!!” and a small attitude adjustment. After the lifestyle portraits, we got in line to have our photo taken with Cinderella. DD is a huge Cinderella fan and I will admit, she is probably my favorite princess. (She has a good work ethic, believes in her dreams and maintains a positive attitude – even at the worst of it all! Good role model! princess: ) I tell DS he’s going to be in the picture but he strongly objects and then proceeds to ruin our picture because he stands about 2 feet away from Cinderella and smirks in the photo. (I told you the attitude adjustment was small! When I saw the professional portrait in Shutters the next day, I resigned to not ask him to pose with princesses any more (you have to pick your battles, right?) and I did not buy the picture! This was very disappointing because it was a very cute picture of DD, me and Cinderella!)
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We make our way to Parrot Cay for dinner and our tablemates had already told our server we wouldn’t be there. Well, imagine their surprise when we sat down! And then, it happened. Alexander, our server, asks us why we were going to miss dinner, our tablemates had told him we would eat at Topsiders and he wanted to know if we had a problem with service or the food or anything? (I should have taken a picture of his face when he said Topsider. It looked like he had bitten in to a lemon or something!) As he asked, I am sure there were tears welling up in his eyes, I kid you not!!!! :sad1: We emphatically deny it has anything to do with him or the food or anything like that but there were too many activities we wanted to do that evening! Trust me; we had to convince him we weren’t lying but even having too many activities to do did not seem like reasonable justification, to him, to skip our dining rotation. Even as he walked off, I’m not sure he believed us. We felt awful and guilty :sad: for even considering skipping our dining rotation!! He really looked crushed! I believe everyone at the table then vowed they would not skip a dining rotation as none of us wanted to crush Alexander’s heart!!! We truly felt the love with our server that night!!!

I know some people say they don’t care for Parrot Cay but we liked it. DS commented that he thinks it’s decorated to resemble the Tiki Room and we like the Tiki Room. (Too bad they didn’t have Dole Whips or Floats, though!!) We teased with our tablemates, “Weren’t we just here?” because, as you know, we all had our breakfast in this dining room for Mickey’s Island Jam! I remember liking some of my meal and disliking some of it. The salmon appetizer, half of it I didn’t like. The wings, they were good but Christa’s DH and I both agreed we could have used more sauce. And that’s all I remember about what I ate.
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I also know during this meal, DD would not sit still and I finally took her to the club and returned to enjoy my meal in peace. Nothing on the dessert menu jumped out at me so this is the night I decided to try out another DIS tip. I asked Alexander if it would be possible to have the soufflé being served in Lumiere’s.

Voila! He magically made it appear and I magically made it disappear. I walked away from that meal so happy!!!! I truly love that soufflé!! I really felt like Alexander bringing me the souffle was his way of showing excellent customer service as well as showing me he had forgiven me!

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(DH's desserts. He's taking full advantage of tips learned on the DIS!)

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Since DD was at the club, I wanted to leave her there – she needed to burn off some energy! So, DS, DH and I went to see “Ratatouille”. Did I feel guilty about not having DD along? Nope!! With the way she was acting, she would not have sat through the movie and would have just made us, and the rest of the crowd, miserable. DS and DH brought along soda and snacks they had from their baskets and we all enjoyed the movie. That was until a group of teen-agers came in to the theater and decided to act like little children. :furious: I realize teen-agers are children but the 6 year olds in the theater were behaving better than these “teen-age children” were! :sad2: Fortunately for all of us, they didn’t stay long but long enough! During their disruption, I felt DCL should maybe sit a CM in there to address such disturbances or put a system in where you can hit a button if some jerk-head is ruining your movie-watching! The movie was cute, even the 2nd time around!

DH and I parted ways with DS and made our way to Rockin’ Bar D for John Charles. He had performed in the All Aboard show on Saturday and we liked him. Yeap, we laughed our butts off, again. It was a good time. A nice way to help unwind an evening!

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After John Charles, we stayed for the beginning of the Spring Break Bash. When I say “stayed”, I mean we were there long enough to grab a free Jello-O shot (and they were the biggest Jell-O shots I have ever had!) and I danced to 1 song with my fellow DISBoarder girl pals. party:

We collected DD from the club and returned to our room. Tomorrow morning would find us back on land at St. Maarten. While I hadn’t missed seeing land, at all, the other people in my party seemed pretty excited by this notion!

[JDBlair]

Hi :wave:

I'm really enjoying your trippie. I can't wait to hear more! :goodvibes

Jennifer :flower3:

Hi Jennifer!!
Thank you for reading and saying Hello!! :wave: I'm really glad you're enjoying it!!! :woohoo:

I am loving your trip report! Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

I see you're sailing in a week. :banana: I am wicked jealous. You're going to have an amazing time!!! Maybe I'll get my report finished before you leave for your vacation!!! Thank you for the kind words and thank you for reading!! :grouphug:

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more. :thumbsup2
I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat. :sunny:
.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

Thank you!!! So glad you could stop by and say hello!! :surfweb:

Well, my answer to S. CA is that's what they get for invading our space when they can no longer afford theirs and then they drive here like they do there! :car: :drive: :lmao:

And yes, it's a beatiful day today!!! :sunny: Just wish the pool water was warm enough to truly enjoy outside right now!

Amen to that neighbor! Afterall, this is why we live here right? :goodvibes

::yes:: ::yes:: ::yes::

[ashman]

Good read keep it up!

[JDBlair]

We didn’t have any excursions for St. Maarten planned so we had nowhere to be this morning. We weren’t up until 8:30 am. When I woke up, the first thing I did was look out our window and thought, “I wouldn’t mind waking up to a new ocean view every morning!” The view from our room was beautiful!!!
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We ate breakfast at Topsiders and it wasn’t busy so I figured the “rush” to get off the ship had happened prior to our arrival at Topsiders. Hallelujah!! We loaded our trays with yummy food and found a spot aft to take in a view of St. Maarten while dining.
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The Liberty of the Seas (RC) was docked next to us and it was a huge ship but kind of ruined our view! Pretty little, white butterflies fluttered around us while we ate breakfast. How cool is that?

DS’s small attitude adjustment from the night before was quickly diminished with his lack of sleep. Asked what time he got in, he grunted. Asked what he did the night before, he answered, “Hung out.” :sad2:

It was hot that morning and looking back, the vibe from the kids at breakfast should have been a warning sign. We embarked from the ship and made our way up the pier in to St. Maarten. We were greeted by a steel drum band that DD and I enjoyed and tried to dance a little to but DS kept yelling at us to stop it. Where is his sense of vacation??

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The kids and I posed for the obligatory picture in front of the “Welcome to St. Maarten” sign. This was no easy task as we were sharing the pier with the “Liberty of the Seas” crowd and they didn’t seem to have very much patience for us, very happy, DCL cruisers! Party poopers. (Just because your ship is bigger does not make it better – and no, I’m not bitter – just don’t like Royal Caribbean!)

The water taxi sign was unavoidable and we made our way there. The woman that took our money to pay our fare never looked up at us or acknowledged our presence, I had to wonder who she was listening so intently to on her IPOD, but we still said “Thank you”. I also had to wonder if she hates vacationers and if she does, and she can’t be bothered to look at you or even grunt in your general, happy direction, why does she work there? :confused3 Okay, maybe the kids negative attitudes are starting to rub off on me because I’ve felt frustration twice now since we’ve left the ship! Maybe I should have run back to the Magic because the Pixie/Happy Dust apparently quits working when they swipe your KTTW card to check you off the ship!! ***SWIPE*** ***Deactivate Pixie/Happy Dust*** See Ya Real Soon! :mad:

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So, the short water taxi ride drops us off at a pier and you’re instantly surrounded by taxi car drivers and women with backpacks which turn in to beach towels (or it’s the other way around?) and women with necklaces and women with hats and women hair braiders. My first impression of this area is a negative one! It’s a little overwhelming and immediately sends the kids clinging as close to me as they can get. We round the corner from the pier and discover the beach and the kids and I kick our shoes off and rush to the water. I happen to notice the sand is buzzing with something flying directly above it and I quickly try to remember the “lice” warning posted outside the Magic. What did it say exactly? :confused: I wish I had stopped to read it but I hadn’t planned to touch a beach!!! The kids and I put our feet in the water and DH is approached by a woman to buy a towel. Don’t need one, thanks. She offers a purse. Don’t want one, thanks. Let’s move on. But moving on wasn’t any better because every 5 feet, you’re greeted with another woman offering you the same things the woman 5 feet ago offered you. I know this is their culture and their way of life but it’s not really how I like to spend my vacation. I don’t even like being followed in stores (here at home) by sales people and will shop places where I don’t have to deal with that. (That helps give you insight to the type of person I am so you don’t think I’m just a jerk!:cutie: ) I have a hard time ignoring people, I have to say, “No, thank you!” (If you’ve ever been to Vegas and walk down the Strip, I’m the person they’re able to give all their pamphlets to because I can’t seem to just ignore that the people are there and keep moving!)

We didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing. DH and I weren’t there to shop; the objective was simply to get off the ship! We walk down the strip in front of the beach and wind up at the pier where the water taxi will pick you up. (It drops you in one location and picks you up in another location further down the beach. I think they do this to force you to walk the gauntlet!!) There’s a liquor store there on the corner of the pier and one thing DH and I had discussed purchasing was some rum pirate: . So, we go inside and instead of rum, or even looking at rum, DH stops at the cigar case. I love the smell of a cigar and he likes to, on special occasion, smoke cigars so I encourage him to buy one. He’s offered help by a sales lady but she is neither pushy nor rude so I leave him in her care (not like he needed my protecting!) and I mosey over, with children in tow, to look at the perfume they have. Liquor store/perfume shop – you can’t get that in the states! I check the prices and they are exactly the prices I’d pay back home – moving on and out! DH makes his purchase and finds us out on the pier. The kids are whining but mostly when DH is out of ear range. They’re hot, they’re tired, what are we doing here, where are we going, they’re hungry, they’re thirsty, they want to go back, how long are we going to be here? DH offers to return to the ship but I have a real dilemma here – do I make the kids happy or do I make DH happy? :scratchin We’d spent $15 on the water taxi, we needed to spend more than an hour on the island and I don’t believe DH truly wants to return to the ship so I push forward and we walk further in to town. We visit a gift shop and I pick out some post cards and DH buys a lighter for his cigars. He then suggests we find a place, overlooking the ocean, to get a drink. :thumbsup2 We had passed a few places on our walk and we backtrack.

We stumble across a sign advertising a bar offering shots for $3 and you get to keep the glass. Yes, a shot! At this moment in time, I could use a shot!!! A very nice gentleman serves us our shot and tells us if we return, shots are a $1 refill. Good to know.
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We walk a little further down to an outdoor bar with tables and we sit, order Coke for DS, Mai Tai’s for DH and me and water for DD!
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While we’re enjoying our drinks, we’re approached by a woman who offers the bag/beach towel combo. No thanks. Then she dangles necklaces in front of DD who reaches out to grab one. DH agrees to purchase a necklace for DD and the woman leaves us alone. We finish our drinks pretty quickly because it really was hot out there. I poured some of DD’s water on the back of her neck to help cool her off and this also seemed to help her mood. We return to the other bar for our $1 shot refill and by this time, I am feeling the affects of Shot #1 and the Mai Tai. The kids are still whining a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be bothering me in the same way it was before!! In fact, it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. The bartender asks how we like the Royal Caribbean ship and I’m speechless. I’m wearing a Tinker Bell hat, carrying a Tinker Bell purse, wearing a Jack Sparrow shirt, and DH has a “Grumpy” hat on. The bartender immediately notices I have hesitated and he begins laughing and telling us and the patrons that he knows we’re on the Disney cruise and tells a story of how he asked another family earlier, who were clearly from the RC ship, how they liked the Disney cruise and how they got a little nasty with him when they told him they were sailing RC! (They had RC lanyards on, he said!) I start taking pictures of the little bar/shot area and the bartender offers to take our picture with the Magic in the background.
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I’m actually disappointed we leave this area because the bartenders were very engaging and nice. The patrons were also very friendly and chatty. Had we left the kids on the ship, DH and I probably would have stayed in this little bar spot awhile. I’m thankful for the short experience we had at this little bar. It was about the highlight of my visit to St. Maarten!
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(The bartender on the left is our storyteller and the bartender on the right was our photographer. I took a picture to remember them!)

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(I'm feeling happy!!!)
We take the water taxi back to the pier where we can board our Magic and I see a sign that says “frozen drinks”! Well, I am feeling my 2 shots and Mai Tai so I scream out, “Frozen Drinks!! We totally have to get those” and rush over. So, DH orders us a round of frozen drinks – virgin ones for the children.
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We find a table in the shade by the shops to sit and enjoy our frozen yummies! Unfortunately, DS was not feeling the affects of my drinks and he was growing grumpier and grumpier by the minute. I don’t know what they do in that Stack but it must be so good that he couldn’t stand being so close and not being able to get on! :hyper: He encouraged me to drink, quickly!! When that didn’t work, he encouraged me to stop drinking by saying I was buzzed enough! :rotfl2: (I wasn't that buzzed. I simply felt good enough that his attitude no longer bothered me!)

We make our way back to the ship, this time we’re in a hurry to let DS ditch us, but first I want to rush to the front of the ship to take a picture – why not prolong his agony?! Well, it begins to sprinkle and by the time I reach the front of the ship, it’s a full on downpour.
(I kept the original size of the picture so you can see the rain!)
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We get to the canopy area to board the ship and I pull the KTTW cards for myself and DD out of my back pocket, just recently used them to pass through security at the pier, and I only have DD’s card. I must have dropped my card on my sprint back from the front of the ship. :scared1: So, I walk back to the front looking on the ground for my card and DS walks back towards security to see if he can find it there. It’s pouring but I really enjoyed the rain because it had been so hot all day long! I’m not really panicked about losing my card because I am happy and there, in the rain, I’m alone and can’t hear DS complaining! I get back to DH and DD, DH said he allowed DS back on the ship :woohoo: and neither of us found my card. I take DD’s card back from him and tell him they should just go on in without me and I’d work it out with DCL. When I go to hand the card back to him, I realize DD’s card is stuck to mine!!! Phew. In we go! ***SWIPE*** ***Reactivate Pixie/Happy Dust*** We are home!!! And I am soaking wet! :laughing:

[Verandah Man]

Really enjoying your TR, it is brining back many memories from our first Eastern Caribbean cruise. I think we lasted all about one hour on St. Maarten before we headed back to the ship. We really only needed to get our ST(stinky teen, 13 at the time) a dress for Tropical Night, which is now Pirate Night. Yes, reading your report brought back several ST moments as well for me, we also had many attitude adjustments during that first cruise........:laughing: Heck, our ST is now 17 and we just went through an attitude adjustment Friday evening, so be forwarned!!! ;)

Can't wait to read more about your adventures!!! :thumbsup2

[JDBlair]

Good read keep it up!

:worship: That's a high compliment coming from you!!! :blush: Thank you!!!

Really enjoying your TR, it is brining back many memories from our first Eastern Caribbean cruise. I think we lasted all about one hour on St. Maarten before we headed back to the ship. We really only needed to get our ST(stinky teen, 13 at the time) a dress for Tropical Night, which is now Pirate Night. Yes, reading your report brought back several ST moments as well for me, we also had many attitude adjustments during that first cruise........:laughing: Heck, our ST is now 17 and we just went through an attitude adjustment Friday evening, so be forwarned!!! ;)

Can't wait to read more about your adventures!!! :thumbsup2

I was truly bewildered with DS's attitude on the ship. Usually, DD is our little pill and DS is pretty laid back. It's like they swapped roles when we got on the ship in Florida and DD (for the most part) became laid back and DS became a pill!!! (I can tell you they swapped roles again just as soon as we were back in Florida!) So, my mother calls last night (she's also reading my TR) and she asks if I ever find out what they did in the Stack. I can honestly tell you, without ruining a surprise, that the answer is NO! DH and I both feel DCL swears the ST's to Top Secret that they will never divulge what occurs in the Stack because it's so good that if we knew, we adults would be fighting to get in there, as well! What else explains it?? Quite honestly, I love that DS had a good time doing the things he wanted to do. I was very worried before the trip he'd be bored and hate sailing DCL. I just wish his attitude would have been more pleasant when he was around us.

Thank you for reading and the compliments!!:woohoo:

[ashman]

Oh can I just add your little girl is one cutie patootie

[JDBlair]

After I changed in to dry clothes, we were off for lunch-we were starving! We tried to go to Lumiere’s but were told at the door they were closed. Wow, didn’t even notice it was 2 pm! So, it was up to Deck 9 for burgers, hot dog, fruit and ice cream!!! We sat at a table next to Christa and her family and shared our experiences on St. Maarten. It was pouring rain and we could no longer see the island! So cool!!
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(Clouds in the sky. Can you see what we saw?)
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Christa and I teased each other about who would make it to see Captain Jack Sparrow first. I have been looking forward to the Pirates In the Caribbean festivities since we booked the cruise. I am a HUGE fan of the ride and HUGE fan of the movies and HUGE fan of Johnny Depp. So, combining these 3 things together was a little piece of Heaven on Earth!! Why Christa thought she’d beat me to meet the legendary Capt Jack was beyond me!!! :confused3

This is the afternoon I decided to do laundry! :laundy: I had 2 loads I needed to do to get us through the rest of the trip. So, while I waited on laundry, we watched TV and did things around the room.

Before we knew it, it was time to dress and get in line for Capt Jack! DH wasn’t interested in having his photo taken with the man DD and I scream about every time we catch a glimpse of him on TV so we left him to finish dressing and rushed to Preludes. We get to the back of the line and see Christa and family at the elevators. They had already had their pictures taken!! She beat me!!!! The line moved quickly and soon, we were in sight of Capt Jack and DD was in awe!!! She couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

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Sadly:sad1: , after I took this shot, my camera battery decides to die!!!! I secretly blamed DH for putting a curse on my camera battery! While standing in line, DD learns about autographs and looks up at me and asks for something for him to sign. A co-worker gave me an autograph book for my birthday knowing I was going on this cruise. The autograph book was in our stateroom and I had never thought to put it in the little purse I carried around with me. DS had never gotten in to the autograph thing and I didn't think DD would be interested. So, I’m kicking myself for not having the book and come up with the next best thing – my Navigator. (I never had a moment that I did not have a Navigator on me (unlike my tablemates :rolleyes1 ) and was picking up extra copies of them every day at Guest Services.) I didn’t have a pen, however. So, I ask the people behind us if we could borrow their pen but the little girl informs me I must return it! :rotfl2: No problem!! It was our turn to have our picture taken with Capt Jack and when we approach him he says, “Love your shirt, Love” and my knees went weak. :faint: (See picture below of me at dinner and the shirt I had on!) DD gets his signature but she is speechless!! Our photograph is cheesy but we love it!!! DD and I float away, after returning the pen, and float down the hallway to the atrium.

DD & I have a lifestyle portrait taken – a Mommy & me photo! Then we quickly rush to the room to charge my camera battery and return to Lumiere’s for our Pirates in the Caribbean Dinner –pirate: Arrrrgh!!! I had brought along my Mickey Pirate ears I got at Disneyland in 2000 – before the big Pirate thing became so popular! We each had our pirate menu and pirate bandanas at our place setting and nobody hesitated in putting the bandanas on. However, Christa’s boys decided to be Gangsters more than Pirates and they had us rolling. DS participated in their fun and would sport his sunglasses and make fake gang signs. There was a good, fun vibe at dinner. Before we left dinner, DH explained to Alexander we would not be at dinner the next evening because we had Palo, didn’t want him to get upset with us!! Alexander told DH we would greatly enjoy Palo! Phew.

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Our beloved Alexander!
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Hidden Mickey!
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After dinner we returned to the room. We weren’t interested in the show that evening, the movie, “GamePlan” was showing. I had laundry that needed to be finished so we just hung around the stateroom waiting on that and preparing for the party! I brought along glow necklaces, bracelets, etc, after reading that tip on the DIS! So, before we headed out to the party, we decked ourselves out in glow attire!! We went up to Deck 10 because we absolutely did not want to be in the insane “thick of things” that was happening on Deck 9.

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It was another wet, icky heat issue going on and I could not believe how nasty it was out there! After all that rain, one would think the area would have cooled off but one would have been wrong. (Not the first time I’ve been wrong!) We spotted Christa and her DH, their DS’s were asleep on lounge chairs behind them, and we squeezed in to their spot with them! The deck party isn’t what I expected (I didn’t expect all that dancing!) and I started feeling pity for the CM’s and characters having to dance in this wet, icky heat! When it winds down to the end with Captain Hook and then Mickey and finishes with the fireworks - that was cool!!!! We liked that a lot!!

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When the show was over, we made our way to the Buena Vista Theatre for the 11 pm showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. We had seen the movie when it came out in the theaters but we saved seeing it for a 2nd time so we could see it on the ship! I loved the idea of seeing this movie on the ship!!! (Believe it or not, this is one thing DS did not ditch out on me! In fact, he had continually reminded me that evening about the movie and kept asking if we were still going to see it.) While DS held spots for us, I rushed to the room for some snacks and things, a pillow and blanket for DD, and grabbed the last load of laundry from the laundry room! (Let me tell you, people in that laundry room were ruthless. Someone had left their belongings in a dryer and those were moved from the dryer to the table. Then someone left their belongings in a washer and someone took those 2 loads of wet laundry and moved them to one dryer. When I returned, all wet clothes, that had previously been in the dryer but abandoned, were mixed in with the dry clothes on the table. I am so glad I kept my eye on my watch so I could return to the laundry room and move the clothes around so nobody else touched them!! So, another word to the wise – make sure you get to your clothes before someone else does!) I also had time to run up to Deck 9 and see what yummies I could score from the Pirate Buffet. That line was far too long and the only thing I scored was a turkey leg. I left the turkey leg in our room because I didn’t think it’d be allowed in the theater. Finally, settled in for the movie and I think it’s totally sweet we didn’t have to sit through all the advertisements you have to sit through at a regular theater!! I don’t think we were an hour in to the movie before DH and DD were asleep and then excused themselves back to the room. DS and I remained, curled as close together as we could get because it was freezing in there, but we were wide awake and enjoying this much anticipated movie-at-sea. This time spent together was really nice and kind of melted away the other attitude moments he had given. He could have been at the Stack but instead, he was here with his mom, watching the movie we had planned on watching before we ever left for the trip. It was very trippy to be on a ship that was moving and then watching a movie that was showing the affect of being on a ship moving. The movements of real life and the movement of the ocean in the movie didn’t flow together so it made me a little dizzy at times but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle!! We loved the movie!!! We waited until the credits were over so we could see the “secret” scene after the credits. Only a few other people stayed for this part and then we all headed out but on our way, discovered a young, sleeping boy in the middle of the theater. Nobody claimed him so a lady tapped him to wake him up. He looked confused, gathered his stuff and left! Someone said they heard his parents tell him he wouldn’t make it through the movie but he refused to leave.

DS and I returned to our room and jumped in to bed. The poor turkey leg was never touched. :sad2:

[JDBlair]

Oh can I just add your little girl is one cutie patootie

You did and you can! Thank you! She is quite a character and I think it comes through in her pictures, as well! :cutie:

[ibela]

Since Irene was a genius and recommended we see the 2 pm showing of Twice Charmed, we did just that. We sat in the front on the left side of the stage. I chose this spot because I wanted to get good, clear photos of the show!! I took MANY photos, 50 to be exact!

popcorn:: Glad I could assist! And no one should miss that show.


We make our way to Parrot Cay for dinner and our tablemates had already told our server we wouldn’t be there. Well, imagine their surprise when we sat down! And then, it happened. Alexander, our server, asks us why we were going to miss dinner, our tablemates had told him we would eat at Topsiders and he wanted to know if we had a problem with service or the food or anything? (I should have taken a picture of his face when he said Topsider. It looked like he had bitten in to a lemon or something!) As he asked, I am sure there were tears welling up in his eyes, I kid you not!!!! :sad1: We emphatically deny it has anything to do with him or the food or anything like that but there were too many activities we wanted to do that evening! Trust me; we had to convince him we weren’t lying but even having too many activities to do did not seem like reasonable justification, to him, to skip our dining rotation. Even as he walked off, I’m not sure he believed us. We felt awful and guilty :sad: for even considering skipping our dining rotation!! He really looked crushed! I believe everyone at the table then vowed they would not skip a dining rotation as none of us wanted to crush Alexander’s heart!!! We truly felt the love with our server that night!!!



I was going to write this up in my TR but figured it I'd save it for you since you were the guilty party. It was just funny and no one else can possibly understand how we all agreed to not skip dinner ever because it seemed like his feelings were genuinely hurt. :sad1:

Just for the record: pretty nervy of you guys to try and bail that night!! :sad2:

[SweetSpot]

You're making me so sad that Alexander won't be on the ship when we sail in 2 weeks. We loved him so much last year I would have loved to request him as our server this year.

Great trip report! I love reading about your son it helps me know I'm not alone. My DS is the most amazing, loving, wonderful boy at home but when we get on the ship he is a horrible teen. He wants nothing to do with us. It seems as if we are torturing him to spend a minute with us but then there will be those moments that will melt your heart and make your forget that terrible teen with the horrible attitude. I guess we should be grateful that they love the Stack as much as they do.

Keep the report coming. You have me so excited about getting on the ship again!

[JDBlair]

popcorn:: Glad I could assist! And no one should miss that show.
I was going to write this up in my TR but figured it I'd save it for you since you were the guilty party. It was just funny and no one else can possibly understand how we all agreed to not skip dinner ever because it seemed like his feelings were genuinely hurt. :sad1:

Just for the record: pretty nervy of you guys to try and bail that night!! :sad2:

It's not "bailing" if you tell people your plans. We just wanted to do too much and didn't think about the 2 pm show. What's important here is we made it to dinner, Alexander didn't cry and everyone learned it was unacceptable to ditch dinner!

You're making me so sad that Alexander won't be on the ship when we sail in 2 weeks. We loved him so much last year I would have loved to request him as our server this year.

Great trip report! I love reading about your son it helps me know I'm not alone. My DS is the most amazing, loving, wonderful boy at home but when we get on the ship he is a horrible teen. He wants nothing to do with us. It seems as if we are torturing him to spend a minute with us but then there will be those moments that will melt your heart and make your forget that terrible teen with the horrible attitude. I guess we should be grateful that they love the Stack as much as they do.

Keep the report coming. You have me so excited about getting on the ship again!

I'm sorry Alexander won't be there for your sailing! :sad1: But maybe you can request Kendell (explanation on that coming up!)! :)

I have a feeling a lot of us parents here with ST's can relate to one another. We can use this thread for a support group! :hug: And I'm with you. We should probably be grateful they had an amazing time or we would have all heard about it every moment of the day and our vacations would have been completely ruined instead of just spoiled here and there for a moment or two!!

Thank you for reading!!! I'm working on the next installment and will hopefully post it tonight!

[JDBlair]

4 hours and 45 minutes after I had gone to bed, the phone begins to ring but I am far too exhausted to realize it’s truly the phone and not my dream. However, I sense DH is out of bed and getting dressed and then I hear, “Babe, it’s time to get up. Babe, get up!” Huh? Think, think, think. pooh: Why is he up before me?? Oh, yes, Customs Inspection. I slowly push myself out of bed by saying, “I don’t want to sleep my vacation away” and we make our way to the Walt Disney Theatre, the kids and I still in our pj’s! We’re seated to the right of the stage and we wait. The CM’s explain the Custom Inspectors are on the way and we’ll be out of here in no time, they also explain those seated in the middle section would go through customs first. When the Inspectors arrive, they look serious and like they mean business. The main Customs Inspector guy is big, bad and I seriously would not mess with him. :eek: He approaches the people sitting in the front row of the right section and people in the middle section start yelling at him (seriously, they were YELLING at him), “NO, no, NO!!! Wait!!” and big, bad Inspector man takes a defensive stance of, “Do not mess with me”, turns to the middle section and he yells back something like, “DO YOU MIND??” My eyes were as big as the saucers Alexander used the night before to turn me in to Mickey (I’m awake now!) and I can’t help but think, “They did not just yell at Big, Bad Inspector guy?” So, I ask DH and he confirms they did, indeed, yell at the man who holds the power of whether or not we leave this room!!! Wow!!! This is the moment I realize that people (adults) on the ship are beginning to lose their Disney Spirit and are having more meltdowns than the children! Wow!

They didn’t finish the middle section before they started helping our section and we were quickly out of there. Having the Passports really helped because I noticed those with birth certificates and photo ID’s were taking a little longer to be dismissed. We make our way back to the room and DS gets back in bed. The plan today was to leave the ship, without DS, and go to Maagen’s Bay. I tried to talk DS in to going with us, telling him it wouldn’t be the same as St Maarten, we were going to the beach but he either doesn’t believe me or doesn’t care. I feel seriously torn about leaving him behind, worried we will have a good time without him and he’ll miss out on it, worried he won't be safe on the ship and maybe I should just force him to go. I’m not too worried about his safety on the ship, I truly felt he was safe on the ship and I knew there was no way he could leave the ship without us. It was a tough decision. My head said one thing (let him stay) but my heart said another (take him with us). My head won.

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DH, DD and I dressed for the beach and packed our carry-on bag. We went to Lumiere’s for breakfast because we were in no hurry to leave. We had a lovely breakfast and met a CM that truly stood out as a diamond in the rough. (I can’t say enough about CM’s on the ship. I rarely passed one that didn’t greet me, ask if they could help, etc. For the most part, every interaction with a CM, big or small, was incredible. I say “for the most part” because some of the CM’s at the food stands near the pools really seemed like they hated their jobs. I don’t know if it was just me but most of these CM’s seemed to be going very slowly and really seemed like they wished we would go away. While they were never rude, they just didn’t strike me to have that CM Disney Spirit!) But I digress, back to the CM at breakfast. Kendell!!
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He was so friendly and attentive and pleasant. We had a lovely chat with him! This was the third time I wanted to take a picture of a CM on the ship so we could always remember him!! (The first being Alexander, then Sara (our stateroom hostess that I never got a picture of), and now Kendell!) We really, really loved Kendell and for those of you who had him as part of your dining rotation for dinner – I envy you! I think he and Alexander would make the perfect serving-team combo!

So, after our leisurely breakfast, we make our way off the ship and I am armed and ready to be approached like St. Maarten. Imagine my surprise when we made it a little ways from the ship and nobody had approached us. (Although DH says he was approached for braids!) Wow. Less than 5 minutes on the island, 100 feet from the ship and I already like this place a million times more than St. Maarten. We actually had to ask a clerk in a shop where we could catch a taxi!!

We load an open-air taxi taking us to Maagen’s Bay. There were other people on the taxi and I think they were from the RC ship also in port. The ride to Maagen’s Bay scared me to death!!!! While it’s a scenic drive and I told myself if I died, it’d at least be in a pretty setting, it even scared DD! DD maintained a death-grip on both DH and I for the entire ride! I had to keep telling myself we were on the Jungle Boat ride at Disneyland and nobody dies on that ride! I was very thankful when we reached our destination and nobody en route died!! What I wasn’t prepared for was the price of $8 a person for the taxi ride, they were kind enough to not charge us for DD. (My Passporter said the ride would be $3 a person!) Then our fee to get on the beach was $4 a person and I don’t believe we had to pay for DD. I had forgotten they didn’t provide lounge chairs and we’d have to “rent” those. So, DH rents 2, we decide against the floats, and we drag our chairs down to our spot. We didn’t bring towels and we could have “rented” them but by this time, we’d paid far more than I had anticipated and we could drip-dry! While the price was a little steep, we were on vacation and when would we have a chance to go to Maagen's Bay again??

Maagen’s Bay is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(view to the left of my chair)
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(view to the right of my chair)
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The water temperature was perfect!! I was so envious of the homes overlooking the bay, what a lovely view they have. It was about 9:30 by the time we settled in at Maagen’s Bay and we began playing with the sand toys and trying to build castles. We were having a great time.
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It was so peaceful and relatively quiet. A small rain shower came in and it was hilarious to watch people run from the ocean to the shelter. It’s not like there was lightening! During this very brief shower, DH, DD and I were practically alone out there in the water! We really loved laying in the ocean and letting the small waves move us towards the beach and then slightly away from the beach!

I probably spent 10 minutes on the lounge chair we rented and DH never sat on his! The rest of the time was spent playing in the sand or swimming in the ocean! We were there for about 2 hours and it was getting busy and loud. We were relatively tired and starting to get hungry. Not wanting to spend money on food there, we decided to head back to the ship! We were rallied together by a taxi driver claiming he would be leaving very soon. So, we rushed to jump in his taxi. But he lied, he wasn’t leaving soon. He was very busy trying to rally together more people. He seated another 8 people after us and went back for more. The people sitting behind us, already in the taxi when we got in, were clearly unhappy and kept yelling, at the top of their lungs and directly behind my ear, at the driver to, “Come on! Let's GOOOO!!! Hurry up!!!” They were more annoying than the actual wait! It actually took the lady sitting in a chair, across from our taxi, listening to a ghetto blaster, surrounded by 2 other men yelling at our taxi driver to get it going before he actually “got it going”! Soon, we were on the return version of Death Drive – Pretend You’re on a Disney Ride 2007!

The Death Drive – Pretend You’re on a Disney Ride 2007, coupled with being covered in sand and salt, made for an uncomfortable ride home but with the Magic in view, I could survive!
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But the “ride” wasn’t over yet. Once off the taxi, the driver explained to another family it was $8 per person, including the children. What? (They had 4 or 5 children with them + the 4 adults! :mad: ) So, the 2 men in that family started explaining they weren’t charged that to get to the beach. DH wasn’t going to stand and argue, he handed the driver $16, said, “TWO!” and we walked away. I surely hope that unsuspecting family didn’t pay $8 a person!! (I later saw them in the trip at the dining table next to us for dinner and was going to ask but I felt it would be rude!) We shortly debated shopping, went in to one shop and decided to just get back on the ship!

I had the genius idea to go on up to Deck 9 and use the outdoor showers there to rinse off! On our way to the Goofy pool, we noticed the Mickey Pool was empty and the line for the slide was non-existent so DD got in a quick slide or two!
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We rinsed off at the Goofy pool area showers and jumped in the pool for a quick swim! Nice!!! We dined on pizza for lunch and enjoyed the near-empty deck. While we were dining, a single line of teen-agers passes us and I notice at the end of the line is DS! :cool2: Yeah, he’s alive and well!!!! I scream out, “Jacob!” and all the teens smile and stop and DS blushes. I jump up and hug him! :hug: He commented he thought we were going to the island and I told him we were back. (You know that scene in Grease where Sandy and Danny are reunited with each other at the Pep Rally and there's the awkward little meet and greet where they're surrounded by the Pink Ladies and the T's? This exchange between DS and I was kind of like that!) I asked what he was doing and he said they were going to the Stack. Is that code?? Not wanting to embarrass him any longer than I probably already had or hold up the group, I say good-bye and we’ll see him later, remind him he’s on pager duty that night and when to meet us. He quickly leaves.

DD is showing signs of being near a meltdown and DH is clearly tired so we head back to the room for a nap. I’m in no mood to nap (remember the “not sleeping away my vacation” deal?) and suggest I go to the pool while they nap! DH agreed and I was off. Told him I’d be back in a couple of hours (allowing him enough time to sleep but to return in time to prepare for, say it with me, PALO!!!). I gather my belongings and rush to the Quiet Cove Pool!

Earlier in the week I was starting to feel like I would never have a chance to do all the things I had read so much about on the board. The Quiet Cove Pool was one of those things! I know DH and I made a brief visit to the hot tub earlier in the week (not sure which day so it’s not in the report) but not long enough to truly appreciate it. So, I made a stop for a plate full of pineapple (my favorite fruit), a drink from Signals, and I slipped in to the incredibly warm pool! The pool water was warm enough to be a hot tub but it felt good!!!!!!!!!! I struck up a nice conversation with a lady in the pool and we talked about her previous cruises and the current cruise. I kept dreaming of my “someday” talking about my previous DCL cruises. We talked about packing obstacles, they’re able to drive to the terminal and I am not! It was a nice talk but my ADHD kicked in and I wanted to go to Deck 7!

I find the secluded deck there and to my surprise, only 1 other person is out taking advantage of it. It was so quiet and peaceful, until some kid comes out there and starts using the railing for a drum set! I had a lovely view of the island, clouds and RC’s bridge. :sad2:
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I tried to write a little in my journal but the ADHD kicked in again (the rail-drum playing didn't help). So, I was off to Deck 4! I find a comfy chair to sit in and watch CM’s practice lowering one of the lifeboats.
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This is where I encounter “Stupidest Mother of the Cruise!” Stupid Son (SS) and Stupid Mother (SM) come out on deck and notice the lifeboat. SM walks a little further up the deck ignoring SS! SS has used his gripping Crocs to help him climb up the Plexiglas and overlook the rail! (Maybe he thought he was Spiderman with his Crocs on? :charac4: ) I am half tempted to rush over and explain he should not do this until I clearly see that SM sees, obviously, what he is doing but does not instruct him to do otherwise. :eek: I look around, in a panic of sorts, and do see signs that say not to climb! I hear SM speak in very clear English with no accent so I am only to assume it isn’t a language issue and she knows how to read! At one point, SS is using his gripping Crocs to climb further up the glass and he slips and lunges forward. :scared1: My heart nearly stops! I know SM sees this heart-stopping-moment occur because she makes some comment to him about not climbing up "so high"!! SM is busy taking pictures of the drill and comments to SS and tells him to lean in to pose for a picture!! He leans further over the railing, after being prompted by his SM's hand signals, so she can get him in the picture with the boat (lowered almost completely down) and the ocean! I had already started snapping pictures of SS and SM in the event DCL needed them to use against SM when/if the child falls overboard! (I don’t believe I am an over-protective parent, I mean, HELLO! I left my DS on the ship while we went ashore. But I never once allowed DD to lean over the railing (when she was in my arms) for fear of being bumped and losing my balance or anything like that and I sure did not allow her to climb up the Plexiglas. I had also stressed the importance to DS about safety around the rails and how deadly it could be!) While this little incident occurred, there were other people on the deck and quite a few of us looked around at each other with expressions of, “Can you believe what we’re seeing?” Freak accidents can and do happen! Thank God nothing happened to this SS! As soon as this moment was over, they left, and I had to gather my belongings and return inside before I witnessed another incredibly stupid moment! People need to Think-Think-Think! In hind-sight, I should have said something to SM instead of taking her picture. If I ever see anything like this happen again, I will say something because I’d rather have some SM think I’m being nosey than to watch their SS fall overboard and have that on my conscience!

I still had some time before I promised to wake DH and DD so I wandered around inside. I found the doors to AP open and went inside. I was worried a CM would be along soon to “shew” me out so I snapped quickly and made my way!
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The ship was starting to become busy with the return of the St. Thomas visitors and I made my way back to our room! I believe I had to wake DD and DH and while got their bearings, I snapped our view!

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[JLSE50]

4 hours and 45 minutes after I had gone to bed, the phone begins to ring but I am far too exhausted to realize it’s truly the phone and not my dream. However, I sense DH is out of bed and getting dressed and then I hear, “Babe, it’s time to get up. Babe, get up!” Huh? Think, think, think. pooh: Why is he up before me?? Oh, yes, Customs Inspection. I slowly push myself out of bed by saying, “I don’t want to sleep my vacation away” and we make our way to the Walt Disney Theatre, the kids and I still in our pj’s! We’re seated to the right of the stage and we wait. The CM’s explain the Custom Inspectors are on the way and we’ll be out of here in no time, they also explain those seated in the middle section would go through customs first. When the Inspectors arrive, they look serious and like they mean business. The main Customs Inspector guy is big, bad and I seriously would not mess with him. :eek: He approaches the people sitting in the front row of the right section and people in the middle section start yelling at him (seriously, they were YELLING at him), “NO, no, NO!!! Wait!!” and big, bad Inspector man takes a defensive stance of, “Do not mess with me”, turns to the middle section and he yells back something like, “DO YOU MIND??” My eyes were as big as the saucers Alexander used the night before to turn me in to Mickey (I’m awake now!) and I can’t help but think, “They did not just yell at Big, Bad Inspector guy?” So, I ask DH and he confirms they did, indeed, yell at the man who holds the power of whether or not we leave this room!!! Wow!!! This is the moment I realize that people (adults) on the ship are beginning to lose their Disney Spirit and are having more meltdowns than the children! Wow!

They didn’t finish the middle section before they started helping our section and we were quickly out of there.......

We had an EARLY excursion to St. John.

We got up EARLY and were some of the first into the Walt Disney Theater theater.

We were TOLD by the CMs to sit in the middle as Customs Officials would check us out in the order we had been seated. The CMs knew we had early excursions and said this would let us get out in time to get some breakfast.

The Customs Officials did not board the ship when they were expected so we SAT and WAITED.

That is why people in the middle section were upset. We did not see the POC movie, we went to bed early, we got up early, we followed the CMs' directions and saw the Customs Officials start to check out the late-comers first.

We were NOT quickly out of there and we had a deadline to meet. The excursions can and do leave without people if they are not at the meeting place on time.

As it was, we had to go to Parrot Cay, get a plate of food and eat standing in the back of Buena Vista Theater while waiting for our excursion to be gathered and head out to the ferry.

It was a nerve wracking time and we suggested (on the comment card for the cruise) that they not scheduling excursion departures so tightly with the Customs inspection.

Now you know that there were reasons why the center section was melting down.

Jan :earsgirl:

PS: We saw MANY teenagers wandering around the ship Friday night, hugging, crying, sad faces and promising they would never forget each other and would always stay in touch. Yup--The Stack sure has something going on for those kids.

[LovableGluttons]

Fantastic trippie!

St Thomas sounds so nice!


More please!

[LITTLEKID58]

TFS pics are awesome

[JDBlair]

PS: We saw MANY teenagers wandering around the ship Friday night, hugging, crying, sad faces and promising they would never forget each other and would always stay in touch. Yup--The Stack sure has something going on for those kids.

:scratchin Wonder if one of those teen's was mine. I don't think he came in until 3 am that evening! :sad2:

Fantastic trippie! St Thomas sounds so nice! More please!

Thank you for reading!!! St Thomas, particularly Maagen's Bay, was beautiful. We would do this again but I hear a lot of great things from my other shipmates/DISBoarders about Coral World and Coki Beach - I think are the names.

I'm hoping to post the St Thomas (PM) tonight.

TFS pics are awesome

Thank you for reading and for the compliment!! :)

[Gr00vyChc]

Hi Jac :wave:
I L-O-V-Ed your trip report. I could feel your excitement as you were writing it. Very well done! I wish we could've spent more time with you guys :mad: I should've done what you did.. just relax and not rush into every little thing. I think I changed my DD 2 or more times a day, morning, portraits, dinner... uuuggh.. my DH thought that we'd get to relax more.. I said.. maybe on the next cruise :lmao: I didn't know that my DD will get to see the characters more during the week, instead, I kept rushing at every photo op and she begged me to let her go to the club. And of course, the time that we had our Palo dinner was when the only time that she paged us! (It was pirate night and they were playing pirates which she didn't like). We did however go to the pirate show.. this she liked!
Thanks for the trip report!

Pauline:hippie:

[JDBlair]

Tonight was, say it with me, PALO dinner and I was very ready for this experience. I dressed and took DD to the club while DH finished dressing. (Has anyone noticed that sometimes men take longer to get ready to go out than women?? :rolleyes1 Or is it just me?) DD’s club was having a “Breath of Fresh Air” on Deck 7 aft so we made our way there. The kids were listening to a story, one boy was having his face painted and other people were out there watching the ship pull away from St. Thomas. I watched a family taking pictures with the father and mother taking turns posing with the children. Having had this dilemma ourselves throughout the entire trip, I walked over and offered to photograph them all together. Oh boy, you would think I had just offered the parents a hundred dollars. They were so happy and thankful and told me how all their pictures were either one or the other of them with the children. I told them it was the same for us and I completely understand how that can be a little disheartening when you look back over your vacation photos. I really hope that picture came out nicely for them because the mother and father were just beaming!!! :goodvibes

It was fun to stand out there on the deck and listen to the RC people scream and wave good-bye to us. Of course, I waved back feeling sorry for them that I was on the better ship! :laughing: DD is running back and forth between me at the rail and her club. I told her she needed to sit down and listen to the story and be quiet or stay with me but not back and forth. That’s when she used her weapon, “I need to go potty!” I started to leave and take her but the CM that checked DD in immediately told me that one of the female CM’s would do it. Wow!!! I wish they could live with me forever because DD usually likes to ruin a nice, peaceful moment with a trip to the restroom!

While DD was gone on her adventure to the restroom, I made my exit. I return back to the room to find DS sitting on the couch with pager in hand. We begin the drill! We explained if the pager went off, he had to get his sister and bring her back to the room! We went down the list of no fighting, no arguing, treat her like a princess, order room service (here’s tip money!), let her watch what she wants on TV but whatever you do – do not ruin our PALO!!! This was followed with the threat that if he ruins our PALO or we return to a nightmare in the stateroom, he will spend all day Thursday with us!! Since we all know by now that the Stack has a hold on him, we knew he’d make it his top priority to follow our rules to avoid the dreaded punishment of having to spend time with his family! He was given a time to meet us back in the stateroom to return the pager and relieve him of his duties!

It was too early for our dinner so we went out to get a drink at Signals and sit in the comfy chairs on the deck in Quiet Cove and watch the ship sail away from St. Thomas. What a handsome man I have!! ::yes::
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Vacation ADHD can be a real pain sometimes. It’s very, very hard to just sit still. When the kids are with you, they don’t let you sit still. When the kids aren’t with you, you start thinking of all the things you want to do that you normally can’t do because the kids are with you and you have to do what they want to do! It’s such a dilemma!! DH, however, can completely chill when the kids aren’t there and it takes him no time whatsoever to ease in to it.

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We arrived at Palo at 5:45 pm because I didn’t want to be late to the most anticipated meal of the year! We were seated a little after 6. Sylvester was our server and he promptly greeted us. This is what I think happens in Palo; they give you your menu and go stand around the corner and observe you reading the menu. If you look like you have an idea as to what you are reading, they leave you alone. However, if you look at the menu, then look up at your companion and you both looked dazed and confused, the server quickly returns and takes the menus away from you! Disney doesn’t want you to hurt yourself trying to figure such things out (you’re on vacation, after all!) and they don’t want you to get all stressed in the process. So, they train their Palo staff to be very, very observant of the guests and teach them how to read people like the FBI can! (It’s true, go with me on this.:teeth: )

DH and I truly had no idea what we were looking at on the menu. It was a little overwhelming and so many choices. Sylvester begins asking us questions about the types of foods we enjoy, what kinds we don’t like and repeatedly tells us he’ll take care of us. Works for me!!! I love anyone that can order me food that I actually enjoy. Not that I’m a picky eater but I kind of am. So Sylvester leaves us bread with these plates with dips and other stuff.
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(I’m a real class act, right? I’m sorry, I know they told us what it was but I truly have no clue what it was!) Oh my gosh was it good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sylvester quickly returned and ordered us not to fill up on bread so we immediately stop eating it. Later he returns and tells us we can keep eating the bread but he doesn’t want us to fill up on it.

One of the reasons I booked Wednesday night is because I read a tip that said to do Palo for dinner on a port day because you can see the island lights as you sail away. We saw no lights! While we had a window seat, we were eye level with the hand rail outside. The hand rail blocks the horizon.
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I’m not complaining at all but just wanted to add this bit just in case someone ever feels bad they don’t have a window seat or they have a Palo dinner on a sea day. Once the sun set, we couldn’t see anything in the window except our reflection!

Back to the food. I didn’t take pictures of all of it because it was a little weird whipping out a camera to photograph your food when you’re the only person in the room doing it. Next time, I’ll make sure Christa and her DH go to Palo dinner with DH and me so Christa and I can be Picture-Taking-Partners-in-Crime! The pictures I did take in Palo were done while DH kept an eye out and I snapped as quickly as I could, without using flash! I can tell you that we absolutely loved every single dish Sylvester put on our table. Yum-o-licious! I really wish I had taken more pictures of the food because I would like to remember what we ate, share it with you and drool over it now!! So, another word to the wise – take pictures of what you want (even if it’s food) and don’t worry about what others think. That’s a tip I’m going to use next time!

For appetizer, he brought me a portabella drizzled with chocolate and lying on a bed of cous cous – I think it was cous cous. It was yummy!!!!! We had the 5 cheese pizza and I think DH died and went to heaven for a split second. He is a big fan of pizza and this definitely was a hit with him!!! It was a hit with me, too! I may be a picky eater but I’m a simple-picky eater! Makes sense?? We kept taking bites of things and going, “Oooo, this is soooo gooooodd. Here..Try it!!”

I did order the chocolate martini Sylvester recommended and upon first sip, DH was worried I was going to reenact the scene in, “When Harry Met Sally.” We all know the scene; I don’t need to go in to details. I couldn’t help but take a picture of this perfection because I most definitely wanted to remember that moment!!!

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DH and I both had the filet for dinner and what an excellent choice Sylvester made for us.

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When it came time for dessert, Sylvester asked if I liked chocolate. Have you seen, “American Beauty” when Kevin Spacey finishes working out and his daughter’s friend is admiring him? She compliments him on his physique and he asks, “You like, muscles?” Sylvester asking me if I liked chocolate was kind of like that in the tone and voice inflection and it made me giggle!! Obviously I like chocolate, I had the chocolate portabella and martini and since he’s trained in reading people FBI style, he knew to only ask the questions he knows the answers to. He brought the soufflé as well as two other yummies. Let the flames begin, I am ready, but the soufflé in Lumiere’s was far superior to the one in Palo. Sad but true. I don’t think I even finished my soufflé in Palo but I did finish the yummy chocolate dessert Sylvester brought me!!

Before
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After
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Palo was everything and more and I am glad we had a dinner reservation. I know my main priority was brunch and I didn’t care if we had dinner reservations or not but now I’m glad we did!!! Sylvester was very sweet and definitely catered to our likes and dislikes. While we rolled out of Palo, DH asked if we’re allowed to have Sylvester as our waiter for Brunch the next day. I told him he can be requested but there are no guarantees (a tip I learned on the DIS)!! So, DH stops and requests Sylvester for brunch in the AM, they make the note and we roll to the elevators. With all the wonderful service offered on the ship, you’d think DCL would have their own special Oompa Loompa’s to roll you back to your rooms when you’re finished with dinner at Palo. I don’t know of too many people who actually “walk” out of Palo so the Oompa Loompa rolling service would be a great touch. I’d tip for that!! :thumbsup2

We braced ourselves at our stateroom door, not because we were full, but because we had no idea what waited for us on the other side of that door. We had such a wonderful dinner, so relaxing and indulgent. It was nice to have this time to just DH and I to enjoy a meal with no repeated restroom visits!! I had even managed to overcome my Vacation ADHD during the meal and just sit and enjoy it. What a lovely evening. :love: We couldn’t hear anything from the hallway so that was half the battle. We open the door and are greeted by an empty room! It was as though the clouds parted, the sun beam shined down and the Angels sang!! :angel:

To greet us on our bed was our towel animal, invitation to the Disney Vacation Club (in a cute plastic bottle thing!) and a scroll with a Tinker Bell pin attached to it. What’s this??
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The Tinker Bell pin reads, “Where Dreams Come True” and the only words visible on the scroll were “Magical Moments.” I’m intrigued; this is nothing like the other goodies left on our bed any other evening! Quickly we unroll it to read, “Magical Moments Across the seas and over the years, may you always remember celebrating this Magical Moment with the Cast and Crew of Disney Cruise Line (Awarded To) The Blair Family (Your Disney Cruise Line Magical Moment) Your 1st Magical Disney Cruise!! (Presented By) Jonathan, Your Magical Concierge Team (Date) October 2007”. Jonathan, the manager at Guest Services!!! We had given him a little smile at the beginning of the trip and now he was returning the favor!!! Very sweet, very unexpected but very much appreciated and treasured!!! :thanks:

DS returned right on schedule, quickly tossed us back the pager, asked how dinner went (I don’t think he really cared because he didn’t stay around long enough to hear the answer), and DH and I were alone again. I sat on the edge of the bed to change my shoes and as soon as my booty hit the bed, my eyes closed. I shot straight up, Not Sleeping Away my Vacation, and it was too early to go to bed.

After I changed my shoes, we decided to get DD from the Club, or at least check on her. As we make our way there, I notice Belle is in the lobby. I tell DH I’ll go get in line for Belle, he needs to get DD out of the Club and meet me in line. I rush to the line and just as soon as I reach the back of the line, the “closing the line” CM immediately gets behind me. I ask if I’m the last person in line, and you know he thinks to himself, “DUH!!” but he confirms I am! I do the Happy Dance and DH and DD join me. Closing-the-Line CM has to tell quite a few people the line is closed but they can return the next day at 11 am where they will have an opportunity to see all the princesses. I’m just stoked I was the last person in line because Cinderella may be DD’s favorite but Belle runs a very close 2nd, if not tied for 1st!!! When it’s finally our turn to greet Belle, DD is glowing!!! I think the pictures speak for themselves!!

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While we were in line for Belle, and immediately after we parted ways with Belle, DD continually announces she is hungry. I have no doubt of this since she ate with the club and realistically that means she didn’t eat but played instead. We return to the room to decide what we’re going to do for the rest of the evening. I sit on the edge of the bed and my eyes close immediately, again. Isn’t this a problem only 90 year old men have?? DH starts commenting that I’m tired and I argue that I have to go to 80’s night tonight. He doesn’t insist I’m tired any more but instead asks what time the 80’s party starts. This was his secret way of arguing! It’s currently somewhere around 8:30, 80’s night is at 10:45 and there is clearly no way I’m going to make it. Giving in to being tired was far easier than trying to fight it and insist I wasn’t, because I was. I really, really was. The idea of pulling on my pj’s, ordering DD room service, snuggling up and watching TV really sounded good!!!! So that’s what we did. I ordered DD dinner and chocolate chip cookies for everyone. When the food arrived, I situated DD with her dinner tray and grabbed a cookie for me and jumped in to bed.
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Propped up on my side with pillows, very yummy cookie in hand, I fell asleep. :cloud9:

[JDBlair]

Hi Jac :wave:
I L-O-V-Ed your trip report. I could feel your excitement as you were writing it. Very well done! I wish we could've spent more time with you guys :mad: I should've done what you did.. just relax and not rush into every little thing. I think I changed my DD 2 or more times a day, morning, portraits, dinner... uuuggh.. my DH thought that we'd get to relax more.. I said.. maybe on the next cruise :lmao: I didn't know that my DD will get to see the characters more during the week, instead, I kept rushing at every photo op and she begged me to let her go to the club. And of course, the time that we had our Palo dinner was when the only time that she paged us! (It was pirate night and they were playing pirates which she didn't like). We did however go to the pirate show.. this she liked!
Thanks for the trip report!

Pauline:hippie:


Hi Pauline!!! Thank you for stopping by and reading my TR!!! So glad you are enjoying it!!! It sounds like you ran around like a crazy person on the ship! :crazy2: You must have suffered from Vacation ADHD, too!! :hug: One main tip I kept in mind was, "You can't do it all so don't try!" Maybe you missed that tip?? :rolleyes: So, now you know, on the next cruise, let DD go to the club more, don't go to every photo op, chill more and bribe some Stinky Teen to have Pager Duty on Palo night!!! :idea:
:hug: Jac

[disneyfaninaz]

I started to leave and take her but the CM that checked DD in immediately told me that one of the female CM’s would do it. Wow!!! I wish they could live with me forever because DD usually likes to ruin a nice, peaceful moment with a trip to the restroom!

It must be a girl thing. My DD does that all the time!!

[JDBlair]

I started to leave and take her but the CM that checked DD in immediately told me that one of the female CM’s would do it. Wow!!! I wish they could live with me forever because DD usually likes to ruin a nice, peaceful moment with a trip to the restroom!

It must be a girl thing. My DD does that all the time!!

:sad2: I can't wait until she's old enough to get to and from the restroom by herself. I am so sick and tired of visting every restroom everywhere we go!!! But if you ask my mother and aunt, they say it's pay back from when I was little. :confused3 I don't remember that so it shoudln't count! :rotfl2:

[Jillpie]

I laugh every single time you mention ADHD on the cruise:rotfl: , because you are seriously describing ME. I can completely and utterly relate to what you are saying about wanting to just keep going. I was the first one up, and the last to go to sleep, but really, sleeping was such a waste of precious time, wasn't it?? I could hardly ever rest, and when I stopped, I was thinking. What should we be doing now? I swear, I really know what you're talking about. I LOVE your report. And I also understand everything about your DS (we have 3 teenage boys, they are terrific, but I do get the attitude thing). Can't wait for more!:)

[JDBlair]

I laugh every single time you mention ADHD on the cruise:rotfl: , because you are seriously describing ME. I can completely and utterly relate to what you are saying about wanting to just keep going. I was the first one up, and the last to go to sleep, but really, sleeping was such a waste of precious time, wasn't it?? I could hardly ever rest, and when I stopped, I was thinking. What should we be doing now? I swear, I really know what you're talking about. I LOVE your report. And I also understand everything about your DS (we have 3 teenage boys, they are terrific, but I do get the attitude thing). Can't wait for more!:)

::yes:: ::yes:: Sleeping was a total waste of time and I, like an infant and toddler, fought my sleep as much as possible. I'm so glad you can relate to my Vacation ADHD! I never suffer from ADHD except when we're on vacation. And then after vacation, I come home and crash and burn for almost 2 weeks. :sad2: But hey, at least we can look back and say we had the BEST vacation ever and we wasted no time sleeping!!!

I love my DS with all my heart and soul and he is such a great kid. I think it just really surprised me how he acted on the ship because it was completely abnormal for him. :confused3 That's why I hold the Stack responsible. I don't know what goes on there but I'm sticking to my theory that it's some good stuff!!!

Thanks for reading!!!

[granmaz]

I am really enjoying your reports - so newsy and fun.

I'm like you and just can't keep sleeping the time away. I think my husband will want to though, so I forsee a bit of trouble.:lmao:

I read a blog of a family on the Transatlantic Repo cruise in May, and honestly they just seemed to either sleep till lunch time or keep going back for a sleep. I know the clocks were against them, but I would just feel I had wasted my vacation.

[JDBlair]

I am really enjoying your reports - so newsy and fun.

I'm like you and just can't keep sleeping the time away. I think my husband will want to though, so I forsee a bit of trouble.:lmao:

I read a blog of a family on the Transatlantic Repo cruise in May, and honestly they just seemed to either sleep till lunch time or keep going back for a sleep. I know the clocks were against them, but I would just feel I had wasted my vacation.

I say you kiss sleeping DH on the cheek and tell him you'll check in with him in a couple of hours!!! :rolleyes: If I had to stay in the room with the sleeping beauties, I would have started banging things together to wake them up!

I read that same blog and I believe 2/3 bloggers were teen-agers!!! I think the mother with them did quite a bit of stuff but she also napped here and there. But didn't they have like 10-14 days? If I had 10-14 days, I may have taken a nap or two but not for longer than an hour!!!

Thank you for reading and the compliments. :hug: Writing it is fun but it also allows me to relive the moments a little!!

[jajomo0118]

Come on slow-poke.....:rotfl:.....when ya gonna finish, it's not like you have a life out side the DISboards.....:surfweb:
and I didn't miss your reference to sailing in X-mas '09...:grouphug:

[JDBlair]

Come on slow-poke.....:rotfl:.....when ya gonna finish, it's not like you have a life out side the DISboards.....:surfweb:
and I didn't miss your reference to sailing in X-mas '09...:grouphug:

I think I have writers block!!! :headache: Every time I start Thursday, October 4th, I get about half way through the morning report and :mad:. I'm trying to inspire myself now to write it but I'm 2 sentences in to it and already want to toss it out the window! I'll keep at it and will hopefully post the AM part of Thursday, October 4th tonight!

[JDBlair]

Our last day at sea and we still had exciting things to anticipate. When I woke up this morning, the cookie I fell asleep with was inches from my face. I took a nibble (hey, I’m on vacation and chocolate chip cookies on vacation are a perfect item for pre-breakfast) and got out of bed to check the time. It was about 8:30 so I didn’t want to waste any more precious Dream Vacation time sleeping. I absolutely felt refreshed, reenergized and ready to finish out the remaining portion of our vacation with the excitement, energy and enthusiasm I had started with!

I leaned in to the bed to tell DH I was going to go up on deck and he said he’d go with me. So, I woke DD, we all dressed, I kissed DS good-bye, told him where we were going, reminded him he had pager duty again later in the morning and told him what time to meet us in the room. DD, DH and I made our way up to deck 9. We grabbed DD some breakfast, a little something for DH and I to nibble on to tide us over and we found a spot outside to enjoy our breakfast. I was a little surprised to find the deck practically empty being that it was almost 9 and the last day at sea. I assumed people would be up at the crack of dawn to take advantage of all there was to do today. I certainly didn’t expect to find an empty Mickey pool – I thought it’d be full with every lounge chair reserved for the day! Wow. Where was everyone?

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When DD saw the Mickey pool was empty, she had no interest in eating. Who can blame her? She is a smart girl and quickly caught on that an empty Mickey pool is a treasure to behold and totally taken advantage of! Also being a smart girl, she knew come that afternoon, the Mickey pool would be far too crowded to be enjoyed.

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However, I had a bit of a dilemma. DH and I had Palo, not to be missed, at 10 and it was nearing 9. As we stood about, our feet soaking in the pool, mentally debating what to do, I saw the CM’s open the Mickey slide. DD clearly saw this blessed moment occur because she looked up at me, eyes wide open, jaw dropped to the pool floor and speechless. I grab her by the hand, tell DH I’m taking her to change and we rush to the room. DD giggled and laughed the entire way to the room and back. She was truly pleased and approved of my decision. Upon our return to the pool, DD quickly races up the stairs to the slide and makes her way down! She never had to wait in line this morning. She’d slide down and quickly race up to slide back down! Realizing this would probably be her last time in the Mickey pool and on the slide, I took as many pictures as I could! Her love for this slide was something I wanted to remember forever!

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DS joined the living and was out on deck eating his breakfast while DD slid her heart out. I sat with him a little bit and did the 20 Question game. Those of you with teen-agers know that teen-agers know how to play the 20 Questions game to the T! Rules: Only one to two word answers allowed and never divulge answers that are not asked.

Me: Are you having a good time?
DS: Yes
Me: What do you do in the Stack?
DS: Hang out
Me: Do you have friends?
DS: Yes
Me: What are their names?
DS: I don’t know
Me: What time did you get in last night?
DS: What’s with all the questions?
End of Conversation

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It’s past time we need to return to the room and prepare for Palo so DH, DD and I rush to change and get her to the club. DS isn’t far behind us to take possession of the pager but he doesn’t need the drill, he informs us he knows what’s at risk and he knows what to do. Good because I don’t have time for the drill!!! We race DD to the Club and race to Palo to meet our 10 am reservation. (How we gained weight on this cruise is beyond me! With all the running around I did, I don’t understand how it didn’t balance out!)

We were a minute or two late but since we were wicked early for dinner, I felt it balanced out! Fortunately for us, they hadn’t begun seating anyone yet. The host recognized us and motioned at Sylvester who then greeted us, escorted us to the tray of champagne and showed us to our table. We sat for a moment before he said he would give us a tour of the buffet. I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. Palo was nearly empty and Sylvester said this would be my only opportunity to take pictures with the buffet all full and nobody in my way! Score!!!

Since I took quite a few pictures, I can remember what I ate and I’ll tell you my favorites. The Salmon Mousse (it’s presented on the spoon) - I think I had 8 of those spoons. YUM!!!! Shrimp Cocktail in a Bloody Mary mix – delicious! Chocolate Cream de Pot – my new favorite dessert. I overheard another waiter said it’s the same thing the soufflé is made of. Well, the cold version was far superior to the baked one! The Omelet was surprisingly very good, the eggs benedict were lacking in flavor, I didn’t have any of the pizza but DH did and loved it, the pasta dish was absolutely mouth-watering, and fish dish was shockingly yummy! Our main entrees were ordered by Sylvester, he didn’t ask what we wanted! He served me veal and DH chicken marsala. I am semi anti-veal but I threw caution to the wind, When in Palo, and I ate ½ of what he brought me. It was good but the semi anti-veal kept nagging at me and I just could not finish it. However, it was delicious. DH wasn’t crazy about his chicken, it was tasty but not as tasty as some of the other plates on our table. Sylvester treated us to a 2nd glass of champagne, he became my new best friend, and I also ordered another chocolate martini!! WOW! What an absolutely delicious meal. DH and I were very happy and genuinely enjoying our time together in this wonderful restaurant, with excellent service, the pleasure of each other’s company and delicious food.

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[JDBlair]

We most definitely had to roll ourselves out of Palo, again, but you knew that because you saw all the pictures of the food! We were on a Food High as we waited for the elevator and decided where to go from here. I reviewed the Navigator (never leave the stateroom without it!) and confirmed the Princesses were still in the atrium. I told DH I would run to get DD and asked if he’d go secure us a place in line. When DD and I joined DH, I noticed the “closing the line” CM was 1 person behind him. DH was all smiles and pointed to the back of the line and said, “Guess who got in right behind me?” I looked at the woman behind him and looked back at DH confused. :confused3 DH explains she was a split-second behind the CM when he joined the line so the CM showed some Disney Magic to her and let her in. While we waited, quite a few families approached the line and CTL CM would have to turn them away. Some would beg, some would plead, but CTL CM stood his ground. I started teasing with him and asked if he sometimes wishes he could just say, “You snooze you lose?!!” He laughed back! We did some small talk and I commented out loud about missing some event and he quickly jumped me with, “You snooze you lose!” This sent us in to hysterics!!!! (We later gave KUDOS to this CM on our Comment Card at the end of the trip. He was very engaging and funny. Even though our time with this CM was brief, it was memorable and that is what matters!)

One of the greatest things about being at the back of the line for the Princesses meet and greet is that you seem to get much more time with the Princesses because you don’t have a line of pressure behind you!! :woohoo: DD first greeted Cinderella and they gave each other quite a few hugs.

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Next was Snow White and they talked, hugged, talked a little more, hugged a little more.

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Last, but not least in our book, was Belle and I nearly fell over when Belle addressed DD by name and commented on how many times they’d seen each other! Belle was our favorite.

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Another great thing about being at the end of the line is the opportunity to take pictures of the Princesses all by themselves before they glide away!!!

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After all the hugs and lovin’ with the Princesses, DD was ready for lunch so we escorted her to Deck 9 for some pizza. We sat near the Goofy pool and DD participated in Goofy Fitness. I tried to take pictures of this activity but DD was becoming annoyed with all the picture taking and refused to participate if I insisted on taking pictures!! I’m not sure where she gets her stubbornness from but I refused to stop taking pictures so we were at this stand still! :rolleyes1

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At 2, we saw Disney Dreams and DS joined us – what a treat. I think we all loved the show. What’s not to love?? The only part I didn’t love was my inability to snap very many decent pictures!!

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After Disney Dreams, we bumped in to Christa and her DH near Guest Services. I believe they had just seen the show and asked if we were going to the Beer Tasting. :drinking1 I said we weren’t, I didn’t get tickets and should probably pack. Beer Tasting piqued DH’s curiosity and he wanted to go. Since we were right near Guest Services, we quickly asked if there was space available and there sure was. DH ordered up a ticket and tried to talk me in to going but I was still so full from Palo, I thought I’d burst. We parted ways with Christa and her DH and took DD to the club. DH and I returned to the room to see if we could pack anything before his Beer Tasting. He didn’t want to leave me alone if I was going to do nothing but pack. I vowed I would not pack after DH convinced me we’d be able to do the packing in no time flat and he’d help me! :love: So, he was off to the Beer Tasting with Christa and her DH :drinking1 :drinking1 :drinking1 and I was left alone in the room to curl my hair for semi formal night.

Close to 5 pm, I made my way to the Walt Disney Theater to retrieve DD from the club. I was curious as to what they’d be doing in there even though the Navigator listed it as, “Celebrate the Journey.” I thought the kids were being treated to their own special show or something. As I got closer to the theater, I saw all the kids in their t-shirts and Mickey-ear graduation caps and I almost freaked out. I knew instantly what was happening because I’d seen all the pictures in the Trip Reports on the DIS!!! I quickly called the room and left DH a message explaining where I was and to come quick with the camera. I didn’t have time to return to the room and didn’t want to miss seeing DD in the show. Besides, I was worried she’d get out on stage, look around for me, not see me and cry!! The show began and DH hadn’t shown up. I was starting to worry he didn’t see the message light blinking and then started to feel upset that he was going to be so disappointed he missed this. About the time I decided to stop looking for him and stay focused on the stage, the crowds parted and it was as if DH was sailing in on a white horse with camera in one hand and glass of beer in the other! He handed the beer to me as I pointed in the direction of where I thought DD was on the stage and he rushed up to take pictures of her. She most certainly was on stage looking for us because when she saw her Daddy, she hollered out to him and was all smiles!!! Phew!! Daddy was her hero, again!

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[Jillpie]

just fantastic, as always:) . But I do fear its almost over:sad1: . You do have one or more up your sleeve, right? I sure hope so!:thumbsup2

[JDBlair]

Because I had not anticipated “Celebrate the Journey” being a must-attend event, my original plans for the evening were a little hosed now. When we returned to the room, DS was waiting for us dressed and ready for family portraits. However he was not so pleased that we had been MIA (a taste of his own medicine, perhaps?) and had developed the Stinky Teen attitude. Earlier at Disney Dreams, he was so sweet and pleasant while he sat next to me, enjoying his Mickey sucker and watching the show with us. Teen-age mood swings, good times!!!

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We raced to the atrium. Okay, I raced, the family attempted to keep up with me. The place was crawling with people. Lines for each background were long! DS was complaining at every turn. We were limited on time because dinner was at 6 so we needed to find the shortest line possible. I should have scratched the picture-taking idea when DS’s ST attitude reared its ugly head because while you can force them to stand there in front of the camera – you can’t force them to smile. The smiles he did give for the professional portraits are more like smirks and so, I was disappointed and frustrated and defeated. Let’s eat!

There was a funky attitude at dinner this night. Hard to describe, maybe you had to be there, or maybe I’m the only one that felt it? :confused3 It just wasn’t the fun, good times, laughter-filled dinner the others had been. Yes, we had a good time and yes, we enjoyed our tablemates but something was off. I, for one, didn't like very much about my meal so maybe I was having Palo-Withdrawal? :confused3 So, let’s skip over dinner and get to the good times!!! :thumbsup2

I saw the 8:30 showing of Disney Dreams by myself. I wanted to get better pictures of the show and wanted to sit up front! DS was back to the Stack, DD went to the Club and I don’t recall what DH did. However, DH and I agreed to meet at Studio Sea at 9:45 for Who Wants to be a Mousketeer.

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I loved Disney Dreams, even for the 2nd time around, but was grateful I had seen the matinee show. The family behind me allowed their non-English speaking young child to talk, at the top of her lungs, throughout the entire show!! While I understand young children talk out loud at the most inopportune times, there are ways to encourage them to hush and whisper in their ears. The talking was extremely annoying and I have to believe even the performers could hear her! :eek:

DH was waiting for me in Studio Sea when I arrived. The show was cute and fun to watch. It was very nice that the hostess helped the 1st contestant along in giving her very obvious hints when she had to use one of her lifelines! A young girl, about the same age as the Contestant #1 (9 or 10) in the hot seat, was having the biggest fit over these hints. She and her famiy were about 3 tables away from us and she was distracting me from watching the show! She was speaking, very loudly, to her mother about the unfairness, exclaiming they were cheating and she went on and on! :mad: She was clearly upset over the entire thing, throwing her arms up in the air, laying her head down on the table, her face was turning red – DRAMA! Well, wouldn’t you know, Little Miss Drama Queen was the 2nd contestant. :sad2: And wouldn’t you know it; she was given the same help with obvious hints and just like Contestant #1, Little Miss Drama Queen won, as well. She collected her prizes, with pride, and returned to her seat. Wow! :eek:

DH and I decided we’d leave Studio Sea, DH may have been worried I was going to give Little Miss Drama Queen the lecture her parents hadn’t given her :rolleyes1 (I wouldn't do that but I would have liked to!), and join the adults in Rockin’ Bar D for Cabaret: Michael Harrison. He had performed the evening before in the Walt Disney Theater but I had fallen asleep and we missed that show. So, we didn’t know what to expect but the bar was packed - a good sign. This guy was awesome. He was hilarious! He picked on this very good-spirited gentleman (Patrick, I believe, was his name) in the front row and I wouldn’t be surprised if people in the audience wet themselves this evening!! It was a show not to be missed and if you were on this sailing and missed this show, you missed the best show of the week!! If you are sailing soon and see Michael Harrison on the billing – do not miss his show!!! Who would have thought adults would enjoy a ventriloquist so much???

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We joined DD in the Club. She was laying on a mat, in front a big screen, watching a movie. I lay down next to her and marvel at the ceiling. I found Sorcerer Mickey in the twinkle lights in the ceiling and again, wow, Disney really adds touches in the places they don’t have to.

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DD was ready to leave the Club and I didn’t want to disturb the other children around us who were watching the movie. We decide we’ll join the crowd in Lumiere’s for the dessert buffet. The line was seriously backed up because of a malfunction with the chocolate fountain. You would think people had never seen a chocolate fountain before! Maybe they hadn’t, I didn’t know but what I knew is it took a very long time to make it down the buffet and I didn’t see very much that appealed to me. DD fell asleep on chairs at our table!

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What? An opportunity to stuff her face with sugar and she goes to sleep? I did return to the fountain, after the crowd had disappeared, for some strawberries. Wouldn’t you know it; the strawberries were a bit bruised and did not taste well – even covered in chocolate. It was a bit disappointing and next time, I’ll just skip the buffet and order Mickey bars and chocolate chip cookies from room service!! :mickeybar

DH lifted Sleeping Beauty in to his arms and carried her back to our room. I walked behind them, snapping pictures of this precious site. I guess I win the Stubborn War with DD because I never did put the camera away and have the pictures to prove it!!

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[JDBlair]

just fantastic, as always:) . But I do fear its almost over:sad1: . You do have one or more up your sleeve, right? I sure hope so!:thumbsup2

Thanks for sticking around!! :thumbsup2 With Thursday posted, I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to post. That will finish up the TR. I hope to get "Friday" posted some time this weekend!! The closer I get to the end of this TR, the more pressure I feel to rebook a cruise so it doesn't feel truly over!! :rolleyes1

[reigle4]

As I read your report I get more and more excited about our little 3 day cruise. (Nov 29th til Dec 2nd) This will be our 1st Disney cruise so we thought we would start out slow to see if our DGD (3 soon to be 4) could handle cruising. I have gained 15 lbs just hearing you describe the food and seeing the pictures.

[disneyfaninaz]

Thanks for sticking around!! :thumbsup2 With Thursday posted, I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to post. That will finish up the TR. I hope to get "Friday" posted some time this weekend!! The closer I get to the end of this TR, the more pressure I feel to rebook a cruise so it doesn't feel truly over!! :rolleyes1


Hey neighbor, it's Monday!! Where have you been. :confused3

Say, if you want to book another cruise, there's always Spring Break!! ;)

Looking forward to more! :surfweb:

[JDBlair]

As I read your report I get more and more excited about our little 3 day cruise. (Nov 29th til Dec 2nd) This will be our 1st Disney cruise so we thought we would start out slow to see if our DGD (3 soon to be 4) could handle cruising. I have gained 15 lbs just hearing you describe the food and seeing the pictures.

Thank you for reading!!! You are going to have an amazing time on the cruise. I sure wish I had a cruise to look forward to right now!! I think your DGD is the perfect age to go. If she's anything like my DD, she's going to love that Mickey slide! As far as the weight gain goes, you're in good company! :rotfl2:

Hey neighbor, it's Monday!! Where have you been. :confused3

Say, if you want to book another cruise, there's always Spring Break!! ;)

Looking forward to more! :surfweb:

Unfortuantely, :sad1: , I'm not going to be able to update this in the next week. My grandmother passed away last night and I am leaving today for the funeral. I promise to update this TR when I return home!

[disneyfaninaz]

So sorry for your loss. :hug:

Don't let us DISers rush you. Take your time. We'll still be here.

[reigle4]

You and your family will be in my prayers. Have a safe trip.

[JDBlair]

So sorry for your loss. :hug:

Don't let us DISers rush you. Take your time. We'll still be here.

You and your family will be in my prayers. Have a safe trip.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I am home now. I'll probably start working on "Friday" now! :cutie:

[MiaSRN62]

Jac ~
You're doing a supurb job with the TR :thumbsup2 I am thoroughly enjoying it.

I also wanted to add my condolences on the loss of your grandmother. Prayers to your family.

[JDBlair]

A great tip learned on the DIS is to order breakfast for room service on port days. Knowing how popular Castaway Cay is and how short of a visit you have on this island, I knew the restaurants would be insanity. So before bed on Thursday, I filled out our room service card and put it on the door. :thumbsup2 Bright and early Friday, we were greeted with breakfast in bed – kind of!

We hadn’t pulled in to Castaway Cay yet so we took our time eating and preparing for the day. DS was scheduled for the Wild Side excursion and needed to meet his group at 9. Right before 9, I could feel the ship slowing down and told DH we should rush up on deck to watch us pull in to CC. So, that is what DD, DH and I did. Having done my research on the DIS, I knew the ship “backs in” so we found a good spot aft. We had the aft deck almost to ourselves for quite awhile. I did all I could to take in the beauty of the island.

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As soon as the ship lined up with the pier, it started to turn around – that is a very neat experience!! Just as the ship completed turning around, the group that was forward all began to rush aft. I maintained my spot. You snooze, you lose!! Then I was very proud of myself for seeming to know something they didn’t know! I win!!

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Before we were completely docked, we went back to the room to finish tidying up and pack our day bag. We took the elevators to Deck 2 and it was almost impossible to get out of the elevator. The crowd that had gathered was enormous. We had to weave in and out of people who were standing, sitting, laying down, you name it – they were doing it to maintain their “spot in line.” Getting through this cluster was quite a mess and at one point, a woman instructs her children to stand up and not let me through. I said, “Would you mind allowing me to get to my room? My room is over there!” She just glared at me with disbelief. I could not believe the insanity. People really LOVE this island!!

(View from our porthole!!)
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DS was gone for his excursion when we made it back to the room and I forgot to remind him to put on sunscreen so I kept commenting I hope he remembered! I found his sunglasses and started to worry he didn’t remember the sunscreen if he didn’t remember his sunglasses. :headache: I didn’t believe I would be able to make it back through the massive amount of people to find him so I just hoped for the best.

When we were ready to leave the ship, we made our way out to the stairs and while the crowd was still insane, we blended right in. To our surprise, Christa and co. were just a few families behind us and I could see on Christa’s face she was not enjoying this moment on DCL! It was anything but Magical! However, it wasn’t long until we were outside and free of the masses!!!

Instantly grabbed our towels (a DIS tip not to be missed) and made our way to the Post Office. I had read the lines in the afternoon are very long so I wanted to get it done and over with. There were only a few people inside. I already had my post cards ready and cash in hand so I made my quick purchase, affixed stamps, and we were on the way.

DH, DD and I posed for a picture with the ship in the background. It is a cute photo but heart breaking DS isn’t in it. :sad1: After smiling for the picture, we waited for the tram. I told DH it would be best to take the tram because I read the walk is longer than it appears. He trusted me and so we waited. DD found a little crab crawling on the road and went in to hysterics. She’s quite a tom boy until you get to bugs and things like that. The smallest fly will send her screaming bloody murder! She definitely entertained me while waiting for the tram. When she suggested someone stomp on the little crab, the little girls who had gathered to “oooo’ and “ahhh” over the crab went hysterical. Good times at the tram stop!!!

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We decided to drop DD off with the club so she could dig (since she enjoyed doing this so much in St. Thomas) and we could hit up Serenity Bay. A quick stop to drop her off and we were on our way. When we arrived at Serenity Bay, the beach was a little busy but not too crazy. We rented an inner tub and a floating mat and walked about ½ ways down the beach until we found available chairs. We dropped our belongings, with tube and mat in hand, we rushed to the ocean. Ahh!!!!! Pure perfection!! Nothing gives this beach justice. Pictures, words, video clips – nothing. It truly is something you must experience for yourself and I can say that now that I have been there. We took turns floating on the mat and tube. We floated for quite a while – the only thing missing were Mai Tai’s but neither one of us wanted to leave the water to go get them! I could have really relaxed and dozed off if my Vacation ADHD hadn’t started kicking in. What is up with this problem of mine? :confused3 We returned for the chairs to pull them to the ocean and sit in those. That was fun. I was using mine as a rocking chair and then DH tipped me back so far I couldn’t pull forward again. It wasn’t long before I noticed the beach was filling up and getting louder. Since my Vacation ADHD was really starting up, the guilt of dropping DD in the club started kicking in. Here we were, in paradise, and I dumped her to play in dirt. :guilty: What kind of a mother am I?? I convince DH I need to relieve my guilt by retrieving DD from the club. He’s game.

As we waited for the tram, DH and I grabbed a soda and then topped off our drinks with our rum. Yum!!! We saw a group of bicyclists approaching and I wondered, out loud, if maybe that was DS with his Wild Side group. As the group grew closer, it became obvious it was nothing but teen-agers and DH spotted DS. I’m screaming like a crazy person for DS and when he finally decides to acknowledge me, I’m already on the tram. The tram is preparing to pull away and I’m struggling to find DS’s sunglasses. As we begin to roll, I throw him the sunglasses. I had wanted to spray him down with sunscreen but it was too late. The sunglasses would have to appease my guilt in regard to DS and the missing sunscreen application and sunglasses.

We find the club eating lunch but DD is missing. The CM explains DD is in the restroom. Ah yes, but of course! CM’s tone indicated to me they were far too familiar with DD’s love of restrooms. I’m betting DD had toured at least 3 different restroom facilities during her time with the club on the island! We tell the CM we will go have lunch and retrieve DD shortly.

(My tray)
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(DH's tray)
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Wow! Lunch!!!! First, going in to lunch, I seriously wondered what was the big deal DCL Veterans make on the DIS. I mean, come on, it’s a BBQ! Most of us, if not all, have been to BBQ’s! Yes, BBQ food is good but I was starting to think people on the DIS had never eaten BBQ before with the way they went on and on about Cookie’s. However, now, I am now a believer. Cookie’s BBQ was amazing. My tray was loaded and no, I didn’t have anything to share with the children. It was all mine and I intended to eat it all!!! When we stopped for soda, we bumped in to Kendell! (You all remember Kendell from our breakfast in Lumiere’s before we departed the ship in St. Thomas, don’t you?) He instantly recognized us, greeted us and helped us with our drinks. He’s amazing!!! :love:

We found a seat and set down our trays. I returned to the club, still eating lunch, to pick up DD and DH got in line for a Mai Tai – for me, not for him! Upon our return to the table, DD didn’t want to eat so I got her some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream since we were sitting right near the machine and there wasn’t a line!

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There was quite a bit going on here so I may mess up the chronological order. DH tells me, at one point, I need to take DD over to see Kendell so I do and he gets her a Sprite and they pose together for a picture. We love Kendell!

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DD also announces she needs to use the restroom so she leads the way to the closest one. What’s cool about her going to the restroom with the club is she knew there was this rolling “stand” under the sinks that can be pulled out that she could stand on to wash her hands. How cool is that? Later in the day, when we made another restroom visit, we pulled out the stand and women gathered around to marvel in our “discovery”!

Lunch was fabulous. I nibbled everything on my tray. It was yum-o-licious! I saved room for dessert because I had to find out what was the big deal about this chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. If there’s one thing DIS DCL Veterans know it is food. They do not lie when they say this stuff is marvelous. Yum!!! I regret I had just one cone!

With full tummies, we wandered over to the beach. Houston – we have found the masses! :scared1: The beach was swarming with people. I had serious doubts about finding a seat but we not only found seats, we found seats under an umbrella!! Score. :woohoo: DH had wandered off to retrieve a mat and tube from the rental place. (We rented our original ones at Serenity but returned them there. We were told we could show our receipt at the family beach and recover new ones!) DH returned with mat and tube and soon all 3 of us were in the ocean, floating as far away from the masses as we could get. Amazing. You float out just a little ways and you really can’t hear the noise from the beach. Paradise found, again! :cloud9: We had a great time floating out there. DD had her arm floaties on and that was a big help or we would have been stuck sitting in the shallow end.

After spending some time floating in the ocean, we made our way over to the boat rental. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to rent anything because the minimum age was 5 and DD was just 3. Oh well – money saved. After looking around the shop a little, we returned to our chairs to dig in the sand. DH took the mat and floated back in the ocean. After a little digging, it was hot so DD and I splashed a bit in the shallow end.

Some dark clouds looked to threaten our day at the beach and it was about 2. I suggested to DH we make our way back to the ship so we can beat the crowd and do some packing. We rinsed in the showers, did a little shopping and made our sloooow walk back to the ship.

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I say “slow” because I stopped about every 5 steps to take a picture of The Flying Dutchman. Have I mentioned how much I love the Pirates ride, the Pirates movie and Johnny Depp as Capt Jack Sparrow??? pirate: The slowness of our walk bothered DD more than DH. DH had a cigar to smoke he had purchased in St. Maarten so he didn’t mind, one bit, our leisurely walk.

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Just as we hit the gangway, the rain hit. I don’t know how much it rained, I don’t know if it sent the masses in to hysterics but what I know is we didn’t get caught in it! :woohoo:

[JDBlair]

Back in our room, we went in to “work mode”. We showered, rinsed the sand off the toys and ordered room service for a snack. Playing on the beach can work up an appetite, you know!! We weren’t in the room for too long before DS popped through the door. I was happy and surprised to see him. I thought, for sure, he wouldn’t make an appearance until last call on the island. Immediately he begins questioning where we’d been all day. This line of questioning confused me because 1) we had seen him to pass off the sunglasses and 2) he hadn’t asked us all week where we’d been. Then he starts to explain he’d been looking for us. Why? He wanted to hang out with us, he answers. Excuse me? Is there salt water in my ears? I did not expect him to say he had wanted to hang out with us!!! So, I started to feel guilty that I had not made arrangements with him to meet up on the island. My plan, at the beginning of the trip, was to give him a place and time to meet us after Wild Side. However, his attitude during the week on the ship made me dismiss that idea as a bad one and I didn’t want to ruin anybody’s time on CC. So now, I struggled with confusion, guilt and frustration. Teen-agers, when someone figures them out – please PM me!!!

Thankfully, DS did not return with a sun burn! He has never burned in his entire life and when I realized he went out on the island without sunscreen, I tried to calm my nerves with that bit of information. He was a little pink, however, and exhausted. He sat on the couch to watch TV with DD and quickly slumped over – sound asleep!

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DH and I packed the room rather quickly. Maintaining organization in the room during the week contributed to our ability to pack things away quickly and efficiently. It wasn’t long before we were packed and ready to leave the room and enjoy the rest of the day!

We left DS to sleep, I called in a wake up call for him so he wouldn’t miss dinner, and the 3 of us vacated the room! We went out on to deck 4 to take in the scenery. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Walked around inside and bumped in to Christa’s boys. I made them pose for a picture with the Mickey statue in front of Lumiere’s because the area was empty! Did I take a picture of my own family at this time? No! Just Christa’s boys!

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Before dinner, we went to the club to return the pager and drop off a bag of candy and thank you note for the club CM’s. When I reached my hand out to turn in the pager, the CM begged us not to. She pouted and said, “We don’t get to play with Daelyn tonight?” I did not expect this at all! I thought, for sure, they’d be very happy to retrieve the pager – one less kid to worry about!! DD perked up and announced she wanted to go to the club. I did not expect this either. I really can’t/won’t argue with DD when she wants to go to the club!!! DH and I shrug at each other, I put the pager back in my bag and DD rushes in to the club. I hand over the large Ziplock bag of candy and one of the CM’s standing at the desk asks if she sees Pirate fruit snacks. I’m worrying she’s allergic or something but answer there are some Pirate fruit snacks in the bag. She screams, “Those are mine!!!” They both thanked me for the candy, they affixed a print out label on the bag and we said our “see you later”!

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Dinner came too soon and we all commented to one another the “excitement” of not having left the island as scheduled. We also agreed we should have been allowed to stay outside on the island since we were still there! A little before dinner, an announcement was made over the intercom that there had been a medical emergency and we were waiting for the Coast Guard helicopter to arrive and retrieve the injured. Christa and her DH explain there had been a jet skiing accident near the rocks and perhaps that is what was keeping us. (Much later, we learned through a news article that a man had a heart attack on the beach and had to be rescued. No word on what happened with the jet ski injury)! One would think the mood at dinner would have been somber being our last night. It was actually a good time. Everyone was happy, a little sad but nobody seemed to let that get in the way of enjoying our time together. There were no good-byes at dinner because we’d see each other for breakfast!

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DH, DS and I went to the shops in search of a souvenir for DS. My kids are very good about not asking for things in stores. We took them to Disneyland last year and I practically had to force the children to pick out souvenirs! We roamed around the shops a bit but didn’t really come up with anything. I told DS we could always look at the Disney Store in the airport and he was content with that. It was during this roaming time that DH said he wanted to get me a present for planning us such an amazing vacation. Just him saying those words to me was present enough. Nothing really grabbed my attention in the stores. I had already purchased the photo album and key chain I wanted. I asked if we could check out the Disney Store in the airport later and he said that was fine.

We didn’t retrieve DD for the show and instead went without her. Our favorite part of “Remember the Magic” was Michael Harrison, the ventriloquist we had seen the night before in Rockin’ Bar D!!! When Michael took the stage, DH and I were screaming and clapping so loud - we knew we were in for a great show!!! DS thought we’d lost our minds! It didn’t take long for DS to understand what we were so excited about as all three of us were laughing so hard there were tears rolling down our cheeks. Michael Harrison does this bit where he picks a child from the audience to be his “dummy”. He puts a silly mask and hilarious accessories on the “dummy”. Then he makes the “dummy” talk and it is “wet your pants” funny!!!!

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After the show, we parted ways with DS – he had Stack business to tend to. DH and I returned to the room to wrap up the packing and set the bags out for pick up. I refused to allow myself to think about the cruise being over. I think 7 days for a cruise is a perfect number. While 10 days may be better, 7 days was enough to make me happy!

Before we knew it, it was time to officially turn the pager in and collect DD to attend ‘Til We Meet Again. The club was pretty empty. I had to wonder if many families were locked up in their staterooms going through the packing frenzy. Thanks to the DIS, I knew to plan ahead and shorten some activities in order to participate in more activities by getting the packing done sooner rather than later!!

‘Til We Meet Again is fun in that it’s not attended by a huge mass of people. But enough of the “right” people attend that it can make you crazy. Ever hear the expression, “The Freaks Come Out at Night”? While we waited for the show to begin, DD and I were near the ropes at the stairs on deck 3 – we were to the left of the Mickey statue if you are looking at it dead on. (DH stayed at the back, along he wall – he didn’t want to be in the “thick of things”) It never ceases to amaze me that tall, grown adults will stoop to the level of a toddler to get front and center. Never mind that in their quest for this position, they actually block the view of an actual toddler. 2 grown men took advantage of the small space between me and DD and squeezed themselves right in. What is wrong with people? Then when the characters appear and spread out in to the crowd, it’s like the piñata at a children’s party has exploded and it’s a mad scramble!!! DD rushed to the Princesses – her beloved favorites. In this scramble, DD was shoved out of the way more than once by an adult in a frenzy to have their photo taken with the object of their desire. I have to say, the children behaved better with this craziness than some of these adults did. We left the insanity on the 3rd deck and went up to deck 4. DD had her picture taken with Chip and Dale and then wanted to rush over to see Peter Pan. The line for Peter Pan was rather long and the Character Scramble was coming to a close. The announcer was calling for the characters to return when DD made it to the front of the Peter Pan line. Peter Pan motioned for DD to hurry and she rushed up and had her picture taken but it’s blurry – I tried to hurry too!

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DH had reserved us a spot overlooking deck 3 for the final farewell. We joined him and then another woman decided to join us. She stood with half of her body in front of mine and elbow in front of my face while she took pictures. I looked at DH and told him I was officially ready for this vacation to be over. I don’t recommend missing ‘Til We Meet Again but I do recommend coming in your football gear – you’re going to need it!!!

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It was off to bed for the 3 of us. Morning would come too soon. Vacation time was almost over.

[Jillpie]

Once again, a fantastic report. But I am SO sad it is over. I have really, really enjoyed your way of writing and completely relating to everything you said! thanks and also, I am so sorry for your loss. You have a wonderful family.

[jerry112]

Absolutely loved, loved your T.R. It brought back so many memories of our first Disney cruise back in 2004. We've since been on 3 others, but nothing beats the "magic" of the first.

Glad your family had such a great time!

[Jennifer48]

I'm enjoying your trip report!

I hear ya about the Till We Meet Again show. I was originally on deck 3, perfect spot right in front of the ropes before people started showing up. As soon as the characters came out I got pushed forward and almost took out the rope stand! I decided to head up to deck 4 and watch from up there. No one in front of me and I got some nice shots.

Thanks for sharing your vacation experience :goodvibes

[JLSE50]

Sorry about your Grandma.

Great report. Thanks for sharing. Lovely photos!
Nice to relive the cruise we were also on from the experiences of a family with kids.

Jan :earsgirl:

[JDBlair]

Once again, a fantastic report. But I am SO sad it is over. I have really, really enjoyed your way of writing and completely relating to everything you said! thanks and also, I am so sorry for your loss. You have a wonderful family.

Thank you for all the compliments!!!! Especially the one about my family. :goodvibes

Absolutely loved, loved your T.R. It brought back so many memories of our first Disney cruise back in 2004. We've since been on 3 others, but nothing beats the "magic" of the first.

Glad your family had such a great time!

3 more since 2004? I'm wicked jealous. Do you think the cruises get better every time?

I'm enjoying your trip report!

I hear ya about the Till We Meet Again show. I was originally on deck 3, perfect spot right in front of the ropes before people started showing up. As soon as the characters came out I got pushed forward and almost took out the rope stand! I decided to head up to deck 4 and watch from up there. No one in front of me and I got some nice shots.

Thanks for sharing your vacation experience :goodvibes

:headache: I'm glad you found safety on Deck 4!!

Sorry about your Grandma.

Great report. Thanks for sharing. Lovely photos!
Nice to relive the cruise we were also on from the experiences of a family with kids.

Jan :earsgirl:

:) It was a great cruise, wasn't it? :)

Now that the holidays are over and my life is slowly returning to normal - I'm ready to finish my TR! Will probably post about Saturday this weekend. One really fun thing DH and I did this week was book our next DCL! Didn't really think this would happen until DCL makes a home on the west coast but DH really wants to return to the Magic! So, October 10, 2009 we get to do it all over again!! Whoop Whoop!!!:woohoo:

[jajomo0118]

:thumbsup2 ...Congrats on the booking...but I am sad.:sad1: ..its not gonna be the same with out you!
Maybe if the stars align...:wizard: ... just right we will get to be on one of the "new ships" together in the future....:hug:

[ibela]

Now that the holidays are over and my life is slowly returning to normal - I'm ready to finish my TR! Will probably post about Saturday this weekend. One really fun thing DH and I did this week was book our next DCL! Didn't really think this would happen until DCL makes a home on the west coast but DH really wants to return to the Magic! So, October 10, 2009 we get to do it all over again!! Whoop Whoop!!!:woohoo:

I'm finally all caught up! Great TR and congrats on rebooking! :cool1:

[Zane_Anthony]

Nooo...Jac you need to come on the 8/15 Tortola cruise!! :cool1: We need a reunion. Christa will be there too. Irene you ready? Pauline where you at? Shannon??? Come on guys this will be fun. Oh yeah and sorry I can't remember your name (Laura/Laurie?? ) Maddie and Lydia's mom you need to come too. Zane misses all of his girls. :thumbsup2

[purplepeg]

Great Tr:)

[JDBlair]

:thumbsup2 ...Congrats on the booking...but I am sad.:sad1: ..its not gonna be the same with out you!
Maybe if the stars align...:wizard: ... just right we will get to be on one of the "new ships" together in the future....:hug:

You could always reconsider and go in October. It's cheaper than your sail date! ;)

I'm finally all caught up! Great TR and congrats on rebooking! :cool1:

:hug: Thank you. It's all Keith's fault we re-booked. I was thinking Disney World.

Nooo...Jac you need to come on the 8/15 Tortola cruise!! :cool1: We need a reunion. Christa will be there too. Irene you ready? Pauline where you at? Shannon??? Come on guys this will be fun. Oh yeah and sorry I can't remember your name (Laura/Laurie?? ) Maddie and Lydia's mom you need to come too. Zane misses all of his girls. :thumbsup2

Wish I could go in August but that's my company's fiscal close and working in Accounts Payable - time off in August is strictly not allowed. :sad2: Don't have too much fun without me!

Great Tr:)

Thank you!!!

[taramarie]

When I say “stayed”, I mean we were there long enough to grab a free Jello-O shot (and they were the biggest Jell-O shots I have ever had!)

Okay...you will have to tell how you get all this free adult beverage! We are going on our first cruise in a few weeks and I want to cash in on this too! :rotfl:

[taramarie]

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(The bartender on the left is our storyteller and the bartender on the right was our photographer. I took a picture to remember them!)

:

I don't know how you couldn't remember them! :love:

[JDBlair]

Saturday morning’s wake-up call came dark and early. The sun wasn’t even up yet and we weren’t docked. We quickly dressed and gathered the rest of our belongings and made our way to Lumiere’s for breakfast. Once again, we were the last of the tablemates to arrive. We blame it on DS and his 3 am return to the room – I guess saying good-bye to the Stack members took a long time! We had a nice breakfast but we tried to rush. Alexander insisted we didn’t need to rush, take our time, and enjoy our breakfast. We begin hearing announcements explaining that due to our late departure from Castaway Cay, we were late coming in to Port Canavaral and nobody could leave the ship until we cleared customs. This is when I started feeling better and better about not booking us a flight home for Saturday! The lines to leave the ship were growing longer and longer and Deck 3 was wall-to-wall people and the tension was mounting. :mad: We bid our farewells to our servers and tablemates and decide we’ll go hide up on Deck 9. We were in no hurry to leave the ship – had no real place to be so we weren’t in a rush, thank goodness.

We found a table on Deck 9 to crash and relax. DS went through Topsiders and got some pineapple for DD and me. Yum!! We had family picking us up at the port so we could spend the day together and we connected via the phone with them to explain the delay. We watched the deliveries to the dock – baskets from Perfect Gift, flowers, and seafood. This view certainly beat the madness on Deck 3.

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When our “color” was called to debark, we made our way to Deck 3. What a nightmare that was. We battled our way through and made our way back to solid ground in no time. What I wasn’t prepared for was the warehouse full of suitcases and crazy people!! :scared1: When DH and I sailed RC, we debarked, went through customs and calmly found our bags and left. I did not like DCL’s version of finding your bags and then trying to get through customs. Is this normally a nightmare?? I had to wonder if it was completely insane because of the late departure or if it’s always like this? We couldn’t even grab a porter! In the middle of this chaos – guess what DD says she needs to do!! That’s right, potty! For crying out loud!! This was not the way I wanted to be reintroduced to the real world! :sad2:

After customs we made our way outside, found DD the bathroom and connected with our patiently waiting family. We stopped for a visit at Jetty Park. We didn’t change in to our suits but put our feet in the water and enjoyed the fun crashing surf. The waves were a sight to behold – didn’t have waves in St Maarten or St Thomas and DD didn’t understand why she couldn’t go out as far in to the water as she wanted. We took many pictures and played for a bit in the sand. Ate a snack picnic and spoke about the yummy lunches we’d had on the Magic.

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From Jetty Park, we headed back towards Orlando but detoured for an air boat ride. This was a fun surprise our family did for us. We really had fun on the ride but I couldn’t help but worry about the boat malfunctioning or us falling in the water. The fear of being eaten by hungry alligators never escaped me. For whatever reason, DD felt this ride was a good time to nap. We saw a couple of alligators but they were skittish and would quickly rush in to the water to hide. The most exciting thing we saw were two bald eagles circling above us. Amazing.

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Our hotel reservation for Saturday evening was with the Hyatt in the airport and our family dropped us here close to 3 pm. I chose the Hyatt because of the convenience. The idea of simply going downstairs to the airport was extremely appealing with its sense of ease and less stress! We checked in and were in our room in no time. Our room had a view of one of the runways and downtown Orlando. The room was very clean and pretty. It was certainly huge in comparison to the room we’d just spent the past week in but I think the room in the Hyatt made us miss our room on the Magic! We put our suits on and made the way to the pool – which turned out to be a disappointment! The pool wasn’t heated and there was no hot tub. It was too cold to swim so we didn’t.

Instead of swimming, we dressed and went to the shopping mall in the airport. We had dinner at Macaroni Grill and when DD began to act up, complained there wasn’t a club to drop her off in while we finish our meal in peace. We shopped in the Disney Store (both of them)! DH bought me a beautiful Mickey watch to thank me for planning such an amazing vacation for the family. I love my watch and had to buy matching earrings and a necklace. Every time I wear it, I am reminded of the amazing time we had on our cruise. Most importantly, I am so grateful the family enjoyed the cruise!

We had a late morning flight out on Sunday and Hyatt sent a porter to our room to help us downstairs with the bags. The porter was amazing! :hug: He loaded all of our bags and walked us to the ticket counter of Delta. He was very friendly and helpful. It was no time that we were checked in and through security. Soon, we were the sad people leaving their vacation and watching the new vacationers making their way in to Orlando – trading spaces on the train! Our flight home was easy and painless!

Disney really doesn’t prepare you to enter the real world! A week on their ship and you become accustomed to every CM you pass addressing you with a “Good ____.” Constantly being asked if there’s something someone can do for you. Pixie Dust :wizard: and smiles all around – certainly not present in the real world. DD cried as we debarked the ship. Within 24 hours of being off the ship, she cried because "someone else was hugging my (her) Belle."

We had an amazing vacation from beginning to end :love: . It was more than I ever dreamed it would be. I tried to soak in every moment of every day and have over 1,200 pictures to prove it. I know when/if we sail DCL again, it will never be the same as our first and future sailings will have big shoes to fill. But I truly believe if those shoes are left to be filled by DCL, we will not be disappointed! :mickeybar

[JDBlair]

Okay...you will have to tell how you get all this free adult beverage! We are going on our first cruise in a few weeks and I want to cash in on this too! :rotfl:

It was during the Spring Break party in Rockin' Bar D. They came out with trays full of Jell-o shots and passed them around the room. :goodvibes

I don't know how you couldn't remember them! :love:

:laughing:

[JDBlair]

We bought a package but here are some of my favorites!
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/DisneyGoofy-Daelyn.jpg
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/DisneyMickey-Daelyn02.jpg

When my cousin saw this picture, she was so thrilled for me I had finally met Johnny Depp! My aunt then explained if I had met Johnny Depp-I would have made a ship-to-shore call!
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/JackSparrow-JacandDaelyn.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/Whitescreen-JacobandDaelyn.jpg http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/Whitescreen-Family01.jpg

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/CastawayCay-KeithJacandDaelyn.jpg

[Zane_Anthony]

We bought a package but here are some of my favorites!

Love the pics! I can't wait to go back.

[JDBlair]

Love the pics! I can't wait to go back.

That makes 2 of us! Contemplating whether or not we'll tell DD or just completely surprise her. She so loved this cruise that surprising her may just be the cherry on top. But keeping the surprise for 20 months would likely kill me!

[purplepeg]

Boy I loved reading this TR. I loved all your pictures, especially the kids club bathroom;) I'm so excited for you that you booked again. We are going on our first Disney cruise on Jan 26! I am so excited and your tr really bumped my excitement up. It's good to hear from a first timer your impressions and opinions. Thanks again:thumbsup2

[JDBlair]

Boy I loved reading this TR. I loved all your pictures, especially the kids club bathroom;) I'm so excited for you that you booked again. We are going on our first Disney cruise on Jan 26! I am so excited and your tr really bumped my excitement up. It's good to hear from a first timer your impressions and opinions. Thanks again:thumbsup2

You are going to have an amazing time!!! :) Come back and write a TR about your experience. I learned the most from reading TR's!!! :) Thank you for reading my TR!

[Zane_Anthony]

That makes 2 of us! Contemplating whether or not we'll tell DD or just completely surprise her. She so loved this cruise that surprising her may just be the cherry on top. But keeping the surprise for 20 months would likely kill me!

I know I thought about surprising Zane but I knew I couldn't do it!! I am horrible with surprises.

[JLSE50]

.....
When our “color” was called to debark, we made our way to Deck 3. What a nightmare that was. We battled our way through and made our way back to solid ground in no time. What I wasn’t prepared for was the warehouse full of suitcases and crazy people!! :scared1: When DH and I sailed RC, we debarked, went through customs and calmly found our bags and left. I did not like DCL’s version of finding your bags and then trying to get through customs. Is this normally a nightmare?? I had to wonder if it was completely insane because of the late departure or if it’s always like this? We couldn’t even grab a porter!

Indeed it was.

Our late arrivals have been like this. Our on-time arrivals are smoothe and easy. Bags are easy to find and we were out the door in no time.

On our RCCL cruise we had to wait on the ship until our color was called, go to carousels to find them but no one told us there were several carousels so we waited and waited but found no luggage. That was insane and was a bad end to a poor cruise.

Jan :earsgirl:

[Ciciwoowoo]

I loved, loved, LOVED your trippie!!! :goodvibes

Thank you for sharing all the fun you had with us, and the good tips too! I'm hoping to book DCL cruise for my family in the next few years and I'm trying to be a good DISer and find out all the tips I can!

[Marc A.]

Just a quick question....I'm sure I missed it.
How old is your DD and does she know how to swim or is that slide by the pool just not deep at all?
Just wondering how my DD (will be 4 when we go) will handle it.
Thanks and great report!!!!

[JDBlair]

Our late arrivals have been like this. Our on-time arrivals are smoothe and easy. Bags are easy to find and we were out the door in no time.

Jan :earsgirl:

Here's hoping our next cruise returns on time but if it doesn't, at least we know what to expect this time!

I loved, loved, LOVED your trippie!!! :goodvibes

Thank you for sharing all the fun you had with us, and the good tips too! I'm hoping to book DCL cruise for my family in the next few years and I'm trying to be a good DISer and find out all the tips I can!

:goodvibes The DIS is invaluable when it comes to tips planning your first (or 20th) DCL! Thank you for reading and I am so glad you enjoyed it. I loved writing it because it forced me to relive it!!

Just a quick question....I'm sure I missed it.
How old is your DD and does she know how to swim or is that slide by the pool just not deep at all?
Just wondering how my DD (will be 4 when we go) will handle it.
Thanks and great report!!!!

My DD was 3 when we sailed (she turned 4 shortly after we returned home) and she cannot swim but she has no fear of the water. The slide empties in to a very shallow "tub" and there is a lifeguard right there watching the children emerge. Nobody is allowed to come down the slide until the child at the end is on their feet and making their way out of the tub area. The Mickey Pool itself isn't too deep but depending on how tall your child is - it may feel deep to them. My DD didn't always like the Mickey Pool because the older kids were pretty scary at times. She did wear her arm floaties in the pool - but cannot be worn on the slide. The slide does not empty directly in to the Mickey Pool. I attached a picture below to give you an idea of where the slide ends, how high deep it is and how it is separated from the pool!! I can tell you, your DD is going to love, love, love the slide!
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t122/JDBlair/DSC00910.jpg

[Marc A.]

One more question about the slide.
Can an adult go with a child the first time or do they have to go solo.
Just checking for the anxiety level for her.
Thanks again

[LITTLEKID58]

Love your Tr.. txs so much for sharing

[JDBlair]

One more question about the slide.
Can an adult go with a child the first time or do they have to go solo.
Just checking for the anxiety level for her
Thanks again

They have to go solo. They never allowed any adults on the slide which is a bummer because I would have loved to slide!! I think once your DD sees the other kids going - she'll want to join in. My DD is a bit of a thrill-seeker so she had no issues. But if yours is a little more timid, just watch the other kids doing the slide and I'm sure she'll want to hop in there with them in no time!

Love your Tr.. txs so much for sharing

Thank you so much for reading!!!! :goodvibes