7 Day Western - 11/3-11/10 with a side trip to the medical center

[love2travel]

Ok the cast of characters for this trip is myself (Teresa), DH (Ken) and DD (Rebecca). This trip was much needed by all of us. 7 weeks before the cruise DH had shoulder surgery to repair major damage to his rotator cuff and bicep area. Ok, seriously I need the vacation the most, because he has been home (out of work) since July, you get the picture. :rotfl2: Honestly, I do :love: him dearly. He came thru the surgery with flying colors and is going thru physical therapy. Ok, ok, enough background information.

Friday - 11/2

Flew from Philly on Southwest. They have great flight attendants, on this flight we played games, they told jokes and we even played a game with a roll of toilet paper. Don't ask. We arrived a few minutes early in Orlando and headed to baggage claim. Our car service (Quiksilver) was waiting in the baggage claim area for us. When I first saw the lady holding the sign with our name on it, my first thought was she looked a lot like Dog the Bounty Hunters wife. Upon meeting her, she was very nice and extremely friendly and very helpful with all our luggage. She went outside to get the car and informed us that we would be riding in a Cadillac Escalade. We had booked a Lincoln Towncar, so it was a nice little upgrade.:yay: She took us to our hotel the County Inn & Suites in Cape Canaveral, very nice hotel and very nice accomodations. We would definately stay there again. Got settled into our room and decided on where to go for dinner. We took a cab to Fishlips, we had eaten there last year and really liked it. We sat outside on the deck, boy was it windy. The remnants of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Noel. The Floridians were complaining that it was cold, but us New Jerseyans thought it was nice since when we left Philly is was 39 degrees. Dinner was good and so were the cocktails. I had a Hawaiian Martini, yummy and DH had a Pina Colada, yummy. DD had a jumbo Shirley Temple. What a way to start vacation! Got back to the hotel and just relaxed and got ready for our big day to board the MAGIC!! So far, so good. Believe me, it doesn't stay that way for the whole week.

[Babs417]

Good start we had alot of the wind:cutie:

[CraftyMouse]

Great start...and I"m so curious about the rest of your trip.

[needAcruise]

Hi love2travel! :wave:

So cool meeting you at the DIS meet! Thanks for organizing it!

You have no idea how much I loooove my grab bag gift. :)

[love2travel]

Saturday - 11/3 - The day is finally here.

Got up early and enjoyed the continental breakfast at the hotel. They had muffins, fresh fruit, cereal, bagels, pre-packaged breakfast sandwiches (Jimmy Dean), yogurt, coffee, juice, etc. After breakfast, we went back to the room to pack up our bags and get ready to go to the port. They offer a shuttle to the port but we opted to take a cab, we like to get to the port early and not be crowded into a shuttle. We arrived at the port at around 9:45, still people getting off the ship. At about 9:55 porters started coming out and they took our luggage and we were on our way into the terminal. Those porters do work hard, so we gave him a really nice tip. Got thru security with no problems (that's because we left all of our weapons at home), just kidding!!! No we didn't take any weapons with us.:rotfl: We were in the terminal at just about 10am, only about 5 other people in the terminal. Within 5-10 minutes were checked in. They do have a new policy, they give you your boarding card when you check in, instead of when you enter the terminal building. We got boarding card #2. Got our KTTW cards and yes we confirmed our upgrade. Yes upgrade, we got a call from our travel agent about a week before the cruise stating that we received an upgrade from a Cat. 9 to a Cat. 4 with a verendah. About 20 minutes later we had our DD checked into the kids club, ok let me rephrase that DH had DD checked into kids club. By 10:30, we were sitting and relaxing waiting to board. Met up with a few DISER's while waiting, we met SillySully and family, DuncanLL and family and also SweetSpot and family. We had met SweetSpot and family on last years cruise, so we knew what they looked like.:scared1: Just kidding SweetSpot! Around 11:45ish we started boarding. Stopped and took our first of many pictures and I do mean many! and then over the ramp onto the ship for the famous announcement of your family name.:dance3: We went straight to Parrot Cay for lunch, too windy to do outside at Topsider's. After lunch, we went up to Deck 9 the Goofy Pool and met up with another DISer DVCfromNJ and family and instantly her DD and our DD hit if off. Around 1:30, we decided to check out our new room #8598. We had never had a verendah before, so we were very excited to check it out. Upon arrival in our room, we found our Castaway Club gift bag and there were 2 baskets, one for DH and one for DD that Shirley at the Perfect Gift put together for me. Thanks Shirley, you do awesome work, you are the best!:hug: We also met our stateroom host, Onin from the Phillipines. Loved our room and loved the verendah, had a great view of the terminal. Around 3:00 went back up to the Goofy Pool for our DIS Meet. Met lots of nice DISER's, thisisthelife, needacruise, 3Cheers4DIS, SillySully, DVCfromNJ, Wishkidmom, DuncanLL, graygables, mommnt, michboro and whoever else I forgot, sorry I can't remember everybody's name. Too many drinks!:drinking1
Went back to our room and found almost all of our luggage there, brought that all in the room and grabbed our life jackets and headed to Animator's Palate, our location for the lifeboat drill. It was nice to sit down for it. After the drill, we went back and started unpacking until it was time for the sail away party. We met up with SweetSpot and family at the sailaway party. We took our cell phones with us because we had to make 2 important phone calls to our dear friends and DISER's cheysdad and SuzyMouse, they traveled with us last year. They couldn't make the cruise this year since they did a summer trip to Disney World, yeah, ok, whatever. We did miss them!:sad2:
DH called cheysdad and I called SuzyMouse. It was very difficult to hear them, but of course I was the bad guy because I hung up with SuzyMouse right before the horn blew, but DH had cheysdad on the line when the horn blew. Please forgive me SuzyMouse.:guilty:

After the sailaway party, we went back to get ready for our first dinner. Our dining rotation was LAPLAPL, so tonight's dinner was in Lumiere's. Got to dinner and met our server Daniel from Peru (what a cutie) and our assistant server Giovanni from Chile. I completely forgot what we had to eat, sorry If I don't write it down I don't remember, sorry. I should have taken a pencil and paper with me to dinner.:confused3 After dinner we went to Mickey's Mates to check out the Disney Pins. DD is hooked on Pin Trading, what an expensive hobby, but I guess it could be worse, she could idolize Brittany Spears :eek: LOL. We met MaryJo a Castmember from Canada and her and DD started chatting about pins. More to come about MaryJo later on in the cruise. Nice, nice lady. We were all tired from the busy day so we decided to call it a night and went back to the room. DD called roomservice for her
1st of many nightly calls to order Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk. More to come later, I need to go make some dinner.

[love2travel]

Hi love2travel! :wave:

So cool meeting you at the DIS meet! Thanks for organizing it!

You have no idea how much I loooove my grab bag gift. :)

Nice meeting you too, ok I'm curious what was your gift????

[needAcruise]

My gift was the POTC lanyard!

I forgot ALL my lanyards at home, and this was the only one I had all cruise!

Guest Services punched a hole in my KTTW card and I was good to go!

I don't care that it was a dollar store item (it said so on the packaging), but I am sure you know how handy lanyards are! :thumbsup2

[3cheers4DIS]

Teresa & Ken glad to hear you made it back home safely, it was a pleasure meeting you both,and i certainly enjoyed your company for the really close monday night football game !!!!!!! go Steelers (and the Packers win again !!) cheers Iain.

[love2travel]

Teresa & Ken glad to hear you made it back home safely, it was a pleasure meeting you both,and i certainly enjoyed your company for the really close monday night football game !!!!!!! go Steelers (and the Packers win again !!) cheers Iain.

It was very nice to meet you as well. Go Steelers, Go Packers!

[gossipgirl]

Ok the cast of characters for this trip is myself (Teresa), DH (Ken) and DD (Rebecca). This trip was much needed by all of us. 7 weeks before the cruise DH had shoulder surgery to repair major damage to his rotator cuff and bicep area. Ok, seriously I need the vacation the most, because he has been home (out of work) since July, you get the picture. :rotfl2: Honestly, I do :love: him dearly. He came thru the surgery with flying colors and is going thru physical therapy. Ok, ok, enough background information.

Friday - 11/2

Flew from Philly on Southwest. They have great flight attendants, on this flight we played games, they told jokes and we even played a game with a roll of toilet paper. Don't ask. We arrived a few minutes early in Orlando and headed to baggage claim. Our car service (Quiksilver) was waiting in the baggage claim area for us. When I first saw the lady holding the sign with our name on it, my first thought was she looked a lot like Dog the Bounty Hunters wife. Upon meeting her, she was very nice and extremely friendly and very helpful with all our luggage. She went outside to get the car and informed us that we would be riding in a Cadillac Escalade. We had booked a Lincoln Towncar, so it was a nice little upgrade.:yay: She took us to our hotel the County Inn & Suites in Cape Canaveral, very nice hotel and very nice accomodations. We would definately stay there again. Got settled into our room and decided on where to go for dinner. We took a cab to Fishlips, we had eaten there last year and really liked it. We sat outside on the deck, boy was it windy. The remnants of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Noel. The Floridians were complaining that it was cold, but us New Jerseyans thought it was nice since when we left Philly is was 39 degrees. Dinner was good and so were the cocktails. I had a Hawaiian Martini, yummy and DH had a Pina Colada, yummy. DD had a jumbo Shirley Temple. What a way to start vacation! Got back to the hotel and just relaxed and got ready for our big day to board the MAGIC!! So far, so good. Believe me, it doesn't stay that way for the whole week.
do you happen to have any pictures.

[cheysdad]

Great start to the report T. I have to tell you that hearing that horn actually put a tear in my eye....Thanks Ken.
Sorry Sue.

[cheysdad]

Forgot one thing.....

Just want to let you guys know that we missed you very much and thought about you all week.

[love2travel]

do you happen to have any pictures.

Sorry, haven't even downloaded any of my pictures yet.

[love2travel]

Sunday - Key West

Got up, had breakfast, nothing unusual there. This was our third time in Key West so we just decided to walk around a bit. Our first stop was the Blond Giraffe for Chocolate Covered Key Lim Pie on a Stick, boy was that yummy. DD had her hair braided last year by this lady on Duval Street and she wanted it done again, no problem. We found the lady and she decided on what she wanted, three braids on each side. The lady is really good at what she does and everything is very clean. Stopped in a few shops on our way back to the ship and saw some unusual sites, as you usually do in Key West, but nothing bad. Got back to the ship, had some Chicken Fingers and french fries and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon by the semi empty pool. Dinner that night was in Animator's Palate and DH decided to try something new. He ordered the Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Appetizer. Well, you should have seen his face when he took the first bite, it was priceless. Now, let me tell you he is not a fan of sushi, so when he took the first bite and realized the outside part of it was not cooked, it was funny. :rotfl: Me and DD were laughing pretty hard, needless to say he didn't eat anymore of it. After dinner DD hung out with her new friends and went to the kids club and they had movie time and watched Ratatouille. We went to Diversions to watch the Eagles/Dallas football game. The Eagles flew the coop and lost miserably.
It was a pretty uneventful day, believe me our week doesn't stay that way.

[love2travel]

Monday - Sea Day

Now being this was our 3rd cruise, we decided we weren't going to cram too much in. More relaxing. Today we went and saw the movie The Game Plan with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, it was really, really good. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD, so I can buy it. Hung out and relaxed by the pool.
At 2:00 pm we had reservations for the Tequila and Margarita Tasting in Diversions. Met up with some other people that we had met on the cruise in there also. It was a fun crowd. Let me say first, that I'm usually not a Tequila Drinker, at least not in a shot form, but I do love Margaritas!
Alex from Uruagway (sorry have no idea how to spell it) was our host for the tasting, he was very knowledgeable and it was very interesting. But for some reason, I don't remember it now.:rolleyes1 They served you 3 different shots of tequila and 2 different kinds of margaritas, 1800 Margarita and Strawberry Margarita. Guess what, I drank all 3 shots of tequila and both margaritas. Yes, the first tequila was Jose Cuervo Reposado, I really didn't like and it burned going down. The second one was Patron Silver, that was better and I really liked the 3rd one it was Patron XO Cafe, it reminded me of a Kahlua flavor. By the time that was over, I needed some food, so we headed up to deck 9 for some snacks. Dinner tonight was in Parrot Cay for the Island Dinner. While we were getting ready for dinner and tonight was formal night. DH who had packed 1 1/2 weeks before the cruise advised me that he forgot his ties at home. So guess what we had to do, go shopping. We went down to Treasure Ketch and we found a really nice tie for $10, yes $10. Off to dinner we go. When dinner started, our server Daniel came over and told us that we were going to have a new assistant server named Selma from Brazil. Our old assistant server Giovanni was requested by a family who he had served on the Med. cruise. Selma was quite shy and a little disorganized at the beginning. DD had the ribs, she loves the ribs at Parrot Cay. After dinner, we went back to change into our Steelers Garb. Tonight was Monday Night Football, Steelers vs. Ravens. Here we go Steelers, Here we go!!!! DD went to see the Golden Mickeys with our new friends DVCfrom NJ and her family, while we watched the game. THANK YOU!!!!! After the Golden Mickeys, DD wanted to go into the kids club, so she could go make pizzas. We watched the game in Diversions, lots of Steelers Fans. I think there was one lone Ravens fan and he didn't stay very long.:cheer2: We enjoyed sharing our table with 3Cheers4Dis (Iain) from England. Hi Iain! I hung out until about 11ish and decided to call it night-night time. I came to the conclusion that we are not as young as we used to be. Picked up DD from the club and she went back to the room and made her nightly call to room service. DH stayed in Diversions to finish watching the game but then came back to the room with about 10 minutes left in the game. By this time we knew that the ratbirds, oh sorry did I say that! had no chance of catching up. The Steelers won 38-7 YEAH!!!!:cheer2: :cool1:

[love2travel]

Tuesday - Grand Caymen

Slept in until about 9, it was nice!!! When we got up we went out on the verendah to see the view. I just love Grand Caymen, the water is just an incredible shade of blue!!! Went to breakfast at Topsiders, love the buffet, lots of variety. If you can't find something there to eat, there is something definately wrong. Went ashore about 10:30ish and hit some shops, just looked around. Found Margaritaville, read really good reviews on this board. They have a merchandise store downstairs and upstairs is another store, restaurant, bar and pool with a waterslide and a hot tub. Got a table, ordered some beers, tried Landshark (Jimmy Buffets new beer) and DD ordered her usual Shirley Temple. The Landsharks arrived with Lime's. DH amazed me and put the lime in the bottle. He always says "beer and fruit just don't go together". But after trying it, he said it was really good. I really enjoyed the Landshark, very lite. We decided on ordering the Volcano Nachos. While waiting for the food, we played some music trivia games with the DJ. Really fun crowd, everybodys on VACATION :banana: :banana: and having fun. The food arrived and the nachos were piled high and they were good.:woohoo: DD enjoyed the waterslide and met up with SillySullys family. Hello Everybody! After we left Margaritaville, we headed to Grand Caymen Harley Davidson. Yes, every Harley owner (DH) must have a t-shirt from every Harley dealerships in the world. I lost count at how many DH has, too many. Did I say that!:laughing: Headed back to the ship for an afternoon swim and enjoyed it very much. Dinner tonight was in Lumiere's, during dinner our new assistant server spilled a coke on me. I was not happy. She was very sorry and kept asking me if I was ok. It really wasn't a big deal, I was just kind of surprised by it. After dinner it was time for Officer Pin Trading and DD was ready to go. At 8:30 we headed to the theatre to watch Twice Charmed. DH came to the show but right before it started he decided to head back to the room to rest, I think this was the start of him not feeling well. More to come on that later on.

[dmja716]

Thank you so far for your report.

How is the pool at Margaritaville?? It sounds like a fun place. Is it good for kids???

Thank you:thumbsup2

[love2travel]

Thank you so far for your report.

How is the pool at Margaritaville?? It sounds like a fun place. Is it good for kids???

Thank you:thumbsup2

The pool was nice, it's not real big but the kids seem to be enjoying themselves. We didn't find any problems with the crowd or the people, I would definately take my DD there again.

[SweetSpot]

It was good seeing you again this year. My DD was also happy to see a familiar face in the clubs when they were there. I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment. What happened to Ken? He looked fine all cruise but I was wondering where he was on the last night at Til We Meet Again.

Did you book again for next NJ week?

[love2travel]

It was good seeing you again this year. My DD was also happy to see a familiar face in the clubs when they were there. I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment. What happened to Ken? He looked fine all cruise but I was wondering where he was on the last night at Til We Meet Again.

Did you book again for next NJ week?

You will have to stay tuned for the next installment to find out.
No we didn't book for NJ week, we are going Thanksgiving '08, how about you guys???

[SweetSpot]

My son graduates this year and those darn colleges don't take off for NJ week. There's no way we can leave him behind. We're booked on the August repo and last week we booked a phantom date to use for a summer '09 cruise. It's going to be strange not cruising with a bunch of people you know from NJ.

[love2travel]

Wednesday - Cozumel

Met up with DVCfromNJ and family for breakfast and planned to walk around together in Cozumel. Walked around Cozumel, hit some stores, looked at lots and lots of jewelry. It's amazing in Cozumel every store wants to give you a free shot of tequila, cheap tequila but tequila. No, I didn't have any. I remembered what Alex said at the tequila tasting and believe me, they weren't giving away any good tequila. We went to Senor Frogs for lunch, it was very loud in there. We headed back to the ship for an afternoon swim and needed to prepare for tonights pirate: Party.

Got dressed in our Pirate Garb and headed downstairs for pictures with all the different characters. Took numerous pictures, I had a hefty stateroom bill to prove it. We went on to dinner in Animators Palate for our pirate: Dinner.
I love the crab cake appetizer they serve on Pirate night. Yummo as Rachel Ray would say. Both me and DH had the Shrimp & Scallops with Pasta for our main course, it was good as well. DD didn't eat much again, due to the fact that she had ice cream and chicken fingers at 3:30 in the afternoon up by the pool. Oh well, it's vacation! After DD & DH wanted to get there picture taken with Pirate Stitch. Mission Accomplished on to the show with Rich Papura. He is one funny guy and loved making fun of people from NJ.
After the show, we made our way up to deck 10 for the Pirate Party. It was really windy, so we wondering if they would do the fireworks. We ventured down to Deck 9, where it wasn't so windy. The party started and out came the characters and within 15-20 minutes it started pouring rain. Well, needless to say there were no fireworks. Went back to our cabin, dried off and got into our comfy jammies. Sorry no pictures. DD made her nightly call to room service. Boy will she miss that when we get home. No room service and no stateroom host service. Maybe she'll just have to settle for Mom Service, :lmao:. After cookies and milk, we called it a night. I forgot to mention in the previous posts, this cruise was pretty rocky compare to the last 2 cruises we were on, even DH was taking some sea sicks meds and he usually doesn't have to.

[Suzy Mouse]

T...I'm loving this report!!!! even though I spent the entire week being extremely jealous of you!!! (You know you'll have finished two reports before I finished my first!

Thanks for the call...even thought I was cheated out of the horn! I always knew you like chey'sdad better!;)

Was the ship decorated for Christmas? I don't remember if you stated it. My mil was on the Wonder the same time and said it had a tree on it already??

I can't wait to finish reading your report! (Aren't you saying the same to me?) You're doing a super job!!! Say hi to the family!!!!!
:hug:

[DisVillainFan]

T...I'm loving this report!!!! even though I spent the entire week being extremely jealous of you!!! (You know you'll have finished two reports before I finished my first!

Thanks for the call...even thought I was cheated out of the horn! I always knew you like chey'sdad better!;)

Was the ship decorated for Christmas? I don't remember if you stated it. My mil was on the Wonder the same time and said it had a tree on it already??

I can't wait to finish reading your report! (Aren't you saying the same to me?) You're doing a super job!!! Say hi to the family!!!!!
:hug:

The terminal was, but not the ship, not yet. Stay tuned it gets very interesting, at least for me.:sick:

[love2travel]

Thursday - Day at Sea

We all slept in until about 9:15ish. Went to Topsiders for breakfast, can you tell we like that place. We all decided today was going to be another day to lay low and not plan too much. At home we are always rushing here and there and it was nice to just have a slooooow pace. After breakfast DH decided to go back to the room and enjoy the verendah and read his book. He wasn't feeling well, just really tired and run down. DD decided to go to the lab and make Flubber. Every year she enjoys making it. I decided to take my trip journal out on Deck 4 to the comfy lounge chairs and catch up on writing my trip notes. Honest, some days I kept really good notes, other days not so good. Today we also started packing up some of our stuff, so we didn't have to rush Friday night to pack. Tonight was semi-formal night and me and DH had Palo reservations at 7pm. We got all dressed up in our semi-formal wear and went downstairs and took some more photos. Yes, more photos. While we were taking photos DH said I'm not feeling too good, I think I'm going to go see the ships doctor. He said stay with DD and finish taking the pictures and I'll meet you at dinner, ok. So off to the medical center he went. I knew he didn't feel well because he doesn't go to the doctors for just anything. So I took DD to dinner at Parrot Cay and was still planning on meeting DH at Palo at 7. DD ate and I took her to the kids club, so I could get up to Palo to meet DH. Now keep in mind, that it was around 5:30 when DH left to go to see the doc. and it was now just about 7. So my mind was starting to race with all kind of thoughts. Well, I arrived at Palo and no DH to be found. So I waited a few minutes and called our room, no answer. Waited a few more minutes and called down to the Health Center and the nurse advised me that DH was getting some medicine and I probably should come down. Ok great, so what's happening????? We are on a ship out in the middle of the sea, between Mexico and the Bahamas, just great.:sad2: :confused3. Made my way from Deck 10 at Palo, down to Deck 1 all the way at the end of the ship to the Health Center. Upon arrival at the Health Center I was introduced to 2 different doctors, 1 male, 1 female and 2 different nurses. They informed me that he was having some issues with fluid retention and his blood sugar was pretty high. They gave him some medicine and ran some blood tests and such. After they gave him the medicine he started to feel a lot better. The care he received was wonderful. You know when your on vacation and you get sick you really worry because it's just not what you are familiar with. The Health Center is fully equipped just like a regular hospital. The nurses called Palo for us and they were very accomodating and said we could come anytime we wanted.
At approximately 8:15pm we left the Health Center and neither me or DH were in any mood or mind frame to go to Palo. We also didn't think if DH was having problems with his blood sugar that going to Palo to eat was a good idea, too much temptation. We went back to our room, got DH comfortable and I went to the kids club to sign out DD and informed her about her dad. Since they didn't have the fireworks last night, they were going to try and have them tonight, so I said to DD do you want to go watch the fireworks, she declined. I think she was worried about her Dad. I ordered room service for DH and myself since we hadn't eaten dinner yet. We also watched Disney Dreams on the TV. By 10:30, we were all exhausted from everything that went on so we went to bed. Stay tuned for Friday, another trip to the Health Center.

[love2travel]

T...I'm loving this report!!!! even though I spent the entire week being extremely jealous of you!!! (You know you'll have finished two reports before I finished my first!

Thanks for the call...even thought I was cheated out of the horn! I always knew you like chey'sdad better!;)

Was the ship decorated for Christmas? I don't remember if you stated it. My mil was on the Wonder the same time and said it had a tree on it already??

I can't wait to finish reading your report! (Aren't you saying the same to me?) You're doing a super job!!! Say hi to the family!!!!!
:hug:

Please forgive me about the call, at least next year you'll be there with me to hear the horn.:yay: and I expect you to do a trip report next year and FINISH IT.:laughing:

[gossipgirl]

Please forgive me about the call, at least next year you'll be there with me to hear the horn.:yay: and I expect you to do a trip report next year and FINISH IT.:laughing:
I may being to go on a cruise next summer. and maybe if i do go and i come back i'll do a trip report.

[Suzy Mouse]

Please forgive me about the call, at least next year you'll be there with me to hear the horn.:yay: and I expect you to do a trip report next year and FINISH IT.:laughing:

Are you kidding me???You called me!!!! You took the time out of your exciting beginnings to think of me! I couldn't ask for anything more. Actually after you called I played the horn on the cd player in honor of your sale away!

Hey big guy...no :cool1: this trip? Did you request an iv of BBC? Now that would be the perfect medicine.

I'm soooo sad to hear about your :sick: trip so far.....Now I'm really glad we weren't on the trip with you ...how would the trip be without... :cool1:

T...I don't even know if my trip report still exists?

[lindaso]

Hey guys!! What's up?? Great trip report so far, can't wait to hear the rest. Glad we didn't rebook for Jersey week if it was rougher seas than last year. Sorry to hear that Ken was sick but at least you get to write a trip report about the health care facilities...not many people can say that, right?

[love2travel]

Hey Linda, How are you? Yes, Chuck would have been green the entire time, this trip. I am hoping next trip Thanksgiving '08 will be a nice boring trip report.:lmao:. Hope all is well with you all.

[gossipgirl]

Hey Linda, How are you? Yes, Chuck would have been green the entire time, this trip. I am hoping next trip Thanksgiving '08 will be a nice boring trip report.:lmao:. Hope all is well with you all.
hope you have a great time.

[SweetSpot]

Teresa? You gonna leave us hanging? What happened to Ken?

[love2travel]

Teresa? You gonna leave us hanging? What happened to Ken?


I will be back later on today to finish up my report.

[ecomerford]

[QUOTE=love2travel;21763274]Got our KTTW cards and yes we confirmed our upgrade. Yes upgrade, we got a call from our travel agent about a week before the cruise stating that we received an upgrade from a Cat. 9 to a Cat. 4 with a verendah.

My family and I are going on the Western on 1-28-08 and I'm new to cruising and DCL. I was reading your TR (nice and prompt!) and read about the upgrade and hoped you could answer a few questions. Is this a paid upgrade (but at a discounted rate?) or does DCL give out open staterooms to people who have booked? If so, what's the process? Luck of the draw?

Any info would be great. Thanks.

[fairfax]

I'm anxious to hear what happened next!!

[love2travel]

[QUOTE=love2travel;21763274]Got our KTTW cards and yes we confirmed our upgrade. Yes upgrade, we got a call from our travel agent about a week before the cruise stating that we received an upgrade from a Cat. 9 to a Cat. 4 with a verendah.

My family and I are going on the Western on 1-28-08 and I'm new to cruising and DCL. I was reading your TR (nice and prompt!) and read about the upgrade and hoped you could answer a few questions. Is this a paid upgrade (but at a discounted rate?) or does DCL give out open staterooms to people who have booked? If so, what's the process? Luck of the draw?

Any info would be great. Thanks.

No this was not a paid upgrade, just a nice little treat from Disney!!! I'm not sure the process, i think we were just lucky.

[love2travel]

Friday - Castaway Cay Day

DH woke up and had to go back to the Health Center to be re-checked. He was feeling better and the doctor told him to go ashore and just relax and try and enjoy the day and drink lots and lots of water. After he returned we went to breakfast and then prepared to go ashore. DH was determined not to miss Castaway Cay. We watched us pull into CC from our verendah, it was a beautiful view. We even saw the parasailing vendors come in on there boats. We got off the ship and stopped at the post office to mail some postcards. DD had her picture taken with Max (Goofys Son). Took the tram to the family beach and met up with DVCfromNJ and family and hung out on the beach for awhile. Went to Cookies barbeque for lunch and while we were eating DH broke a tooth and lost a filling. OK, enough is enough!!!!! After lunch me and DD had a 1:30 reservation for Parasailing. This was my 3rd time and DDs 2nd time. Parasailing on CC is just gorgeous. While we went parasailing DH made his way back to the ship and to the Health Center to see if they could do anything for his tooth. Maybe they give return patients a discount, :rotfl2:.
Hey at this point I have got to laugh! Actually, they had a temporary filling kit that he got and was able to fix it until he could get home to see the Dentist. Upon returning to our room after the day at Castaway Cay, DD had a surprise waiting for her. It was a magical moments certificate with a Disney Pin attached to it from MaryJo, the women that I spoke about in previous posts. DD was just thrilled!!! We went to dinner in Lumiere's and said our farewells to our servers and gave them there tips. I have to say I didn't enjoy the food this cruise as much as I have on past cruises. After dinner DH went back to the room to relax and pack up the last minute items, so we could get our luggage out into the hallway. Me and DD went to the Family Talent Show, I have to say, some of those kids really were talented!
After that we went to Remember the Magic show with Rich Papura and John Charles, very entertaining!!! When that was over we went back to the room to help DH get the luggage out into the hallway, like I said in my first post he had shoulder surgery before the cruise and wasn't suppose to be lifting heavy objects and a couple of our suitcases were heavy!!! Mission accomplished with the luggage. DD was begging to go to Till We Meet Again with all the characters. Ok, so downstairs we go, she enjoyed it very much! Said our final farewells to our friends that we met and wished everyone a safe trip home.

Coming up - disembarkation and seeing a rocket launch.

[love2travel]

Saturday - disembarkation and seeing a rocket launch

Up bright and early, breakfast was at Lumieres at 7am. We decided to go and say goodbye once again to our servers. We really enjoyed our server Daniel, what a incredible gentlemen. After breakast off the ship we
went,:sad2:. Down to the terminal, got a porter to retrieve our luggage and thru customs in no time. By 8am, we were outside waiting for our taxi to take us back to the Country Inn & Suites. We had one extra day there before returning home on Sunday. Taxi came, back to the hotel and lucky for us our room was ready. We were checked in and in our room by 8:20. Looking forward to a day of doing much of nothing. Got settled into our room and went down to the breakfast room and had some coffee and muffins.
After our little snack, DD decided she wanted to go swimming in the pool. They said it was heated but it felt pretty chilly. I relaxed in a lounge chair while she swam. The sun was nice and warm compared to the chilly weather back home in the 40's. Relaxed most of the day and decided to take a trip to Ron Jon's Surf Shop, it was HUGE!!! Walked around there a while, DH & DD both got t-shirts. After we left there we decided to go back to Fishlips for dinner so we could see the Magic go out on there next voyage. Dinner was good again, this time we sat inside, it was a little cool outside. At about 5:10pm the beautiful Magic came sailing by, it's always a sight to see. When, we left there, we took a cab back to our hotel, there was another family of 3 headed back to our hotel, so we decided to split the fare. During the ride we started chatting and it was another DISer, I'm sorry but I forget her screen name something with Catfish in it and they were going on the Wonder on Sunday. Upon arriving back at the hotel, we found out that NASA was going to have a Atlas Rocket Launch that evening. A telecommunication satellite launch at 8:46pm. We were really excited because we have never seen a real launch, other than watching it on TV. At about 8pm we went out into the parking lot to prepare to watch the launch. Lots of other people were out too. At approximately 8:47 we saw the rocket start to go up, it came right up in front of the hotel and as it got closer it was really loud. I took some pictures but they didn't come out too good. It definately was a site to see. After the launch, we went back to our room and watched some tv and prepared for going home.

Sunday morning -

Up, had breakfast at the hotel, car service arrived for our trip back to the airport. Arrived with plenty of time, did some shopping at the Harley Davidson store. See what did I tell you about DH and Harley shirts.:lmao:
Well, honestly this time I did get one too. Also did some last minute shopping at the Disney Store :dance3:. Grabbed some lunch and waited for our flight. Uneventful flight home on Southwest.

We are very much looking forward to our next Disney Cruise - Thanksgiving 2008.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[SweetSpot]

I feel so bad for you and Ken. You deserved a relaxing, event free cruise. It is good to know the medical center is really prepared for most anything. Is he doing better now?

[sillysully]

Great trip report, Theresa! We enjoyed meeting you and your family. Glad to hear Ken is better - have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and just think in one year you'll be on the high seas enjoying turkey!!!!

[love2travel]

Thanks for all the kind words. Ken is feeling much better and everything is under control now.

[DisVillainFan]

Thanks for all the kind words. Ken is feeling much better and everything is under control now.

Had to comment myself,my DW was my rock and helped me feel better even when I felt terrible (God Bless Her Heart), Got my scans and labs back today, seems my Diabetes got the best of me, caused a severe sugar problem and screwed up all the chemistry. I'm back on track, and starting to get some weight off, so things are on the upswing. My goal is to loose 70 lbs by next thanksgiving, so I, and more importantly my friends and family can enjoy the cruise. Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts, they really do help. Be assured in the knowledge that the medical staff is top notch, but then why would Disney scimp there, the seem to do it all just right. Thanks again all, "see" you round the boards.

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing