The Little Disney trip that kept growing…Magic Western 01/24/2009 COMPLETED 04/19 [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

Sophie_2003

12-05-2008, 05:47 PM

Soooooo...I wasn't sure about posting my PTR, however I am spending so much time (and $$$) planning this cruise I may as well write about it. Plus I love reading these things so I thought I would contribute!!! Here goes! :surfweb:

An intro: we are a small family of 3: :cool1: DH works for the airlines, I like to say I married well, because we get good vacation deals. princess: DD is 4 ½. She is quite the spirited one with a great passion for life in general and anything Disney in particular. :surfweb: I am Sophie, and I recently left my job to be a stay-at-home mom to my DD for the last year before she goes to school.

Our very first family Disney trip was a trip to WDW in October 2007. We have since gone back several times for a few days at a time, including a hop to DLR in Anaheim, which we surprisingly enjoyed.

A bit more background: this began as a family trip to WDW, with my sister and her family (DSis, DBIL and 2 girls, age 8 and 11). They were staying a week, we were going to join them for 5 days. However, I started getting the Disney cruise bug a while back. But I couldn’t bring myself to pay THAT MUCH for a cruise…we usually cruise Carnival (I know, I know :scared1:) , which for us is about half the price of a Disney cruise. We're cheap.

So we came back from our Carnival Mex Riviera cruise on November 16, and I immediately checked to see if the Disney cruise prices had dropped…and they HAD! :banana: After much discussing, cajoling and convincing, DH agreed to book the cruise on the Magic, 1/24/2009, which means 4 days at WDW at the Wilderness Lodge, and a great 7-day cruise to top it off!!! :cloud9: Here is a pic of us with our servers on the Carnival "gasp" cruise. yes, we managed to have fun!!!
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0334.jpg

next: the beginning of the planning stage...what the heck is an FE? :confused3

Sophie_2003

12-05-2008, 10:12 PM

So I get DH to call and book our cruise. As I said we are cheap :lmao: . Our last Carnival cruise for 7 days ended up being less than $1,100 for 3 of us with a balcony. I can’t resist adding a pic of my beautiful redhead on our balcony.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0265.jpg

This Disney cruise started as a Cat 12. Then DH is on the phone with the nice lady at DCL who mentions Cat. 10 are at the same price. Woo hoo. Deluxe interior. We decide to book a guaranty, hoping the upgrade fairy will maybe perhaps grant us a small small porthole…pretty please?

Next dilemma: dining. We always eat early with DD. Seriously early. The kid would have dinner at 3pm if she could (she only watches TV after dinner, maybe that’s why…notice she is watching TV on the balcony pic above? :happytv: ) Now this late dining is worrisome. Until I ask the nice folks here and they suggest 1) there are ways to get early dining even of you don’t get early dining 2) late dining is not so bad cause the show is before. Now DD is pretty adaptable, so we figure maybe we will be ok. In either case, getting to the port early becomes a must.

Did I mention we’re a bit cheap? We already figured the DCL transfers are not the cheapest option to go from the Wilderness Lodge to the port. So DH booked a car at Hertz. $40 all taxes in, drop at the port. We can therefore get to the port by10am, get in early and make our way to Rockin Bar D to see the maitre d’. I totally would agree to bribe the man as someone suggested. DH is deadset against it. :headache: No surprise here. Maybe I can sneak to Rockin Bar D without him...:idea: And his one request on embarkation day: stopping somewhere at a Walmart supercenter so he can shop around. He loves Walmart. We do have Walmarts in Canada, just not SUPERCENTERS!!! I’ll wait in the car…:cool2:

Next I found my cruisemeet thread. It’s a nice bunch of people, not crazy busy, but with a fair amount of people looking to join the “FE exchange”. The what? Fish extender…oooookkkkkk. A quick search on the disboards, I get all caught up, and I start obsessing about it. I start talking about it to ALL my friends. They’re nice people. They all pretend it’s REALLY interesting ;) . Sure. Or the honest ones look at me like I have gone over the deep end. Case in point, a good friend and I went to Toys r Us to get some xmas shopping done, and right at the entrance were very appropriate FE gizmos (which will remain a secret, in case my thread mates come on over) and I feverishly started going thru the bin looking for a lot of these. Like it’s food and I have been at the Biggest Loser ranch for a few weeks (btw, I would love to go to the Biggest Loser ranch. But I am Canadian, there is no such thing here). But I disgress.

That’s it for now. Back to snowy, cold reality. See what we are doing for fun these days???

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/PB260058a.jpg

And our yearly :santa: Santa Claus visit. I thought about asking him for early dining and Palo brunch availability...:rotfl:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/PB270075.jpg

Next up: excursions, spa treatments…RASUL, what is that! And my passporter arrives :dance3:

jagmom

12-06-2008, 11:47 AM

Great start!:thumbsup2

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 01:44 PM

Great start!:thumbsup2

ooohhhh, my first reader!!! Thank you for the reply!!! :yay:

cyndik1111

12-06-2008, 02:37 PM

ooohhhh, my first reader!!! Thank you for the reply!!! :yay:

Here's some more attention..... Thanks for the report, tell your DH we all want to hear what you have to say.

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 02:43 PM

Here's some more attention..... Thanks for the report, tell your DH we all want to hear what you have to say.

Hey Cyndi!!! :wave2:

Tks. I also caught up on the thread that confirmed Jay was moving on to the Magic. We're trying to see if we could possibly leave DD at OC while we run our 5K.

I should have more updates tomorrow; pesky everyday life is takng up my time today: :laundy:

cyndik1111

12-06-2008, 03:00 PM

/Users/greg/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2008/ymca:buffalo turkey trot 2008/PB270007.JPG
Sophie,
Here's a picture of Jill. She just turned five and is looking forward to meeting your DD. She has already seen your pictures. We too are cheap or a frugal as you like to call it. We are bringing our own wine. We are going to the terminal early also (10am) to see if we can get spa and Palo. We'll look for you. If Jill and Elsa hit it off, we can leave them (together) in the OL while we all run the 5 K.

BTW that is a picture of Jill waiting for me at the finish line for this year's 8K Turkey Trot. Poor thing had to wait a looong time. Mommy is a very sloooow runner. And it was cold- after all it is Buffalo , but thankfully no snow that day.

cyndik1111

12-06-2008, 03:02 PM

OK, I give up. I don't know why the picture didn't post. I'll try it a different way.

cyndik1111

12-06-2008, 03:05 PM

http://s496.photobucket.com/albums/rr329/cyndik1111/?action=view&current=PB270007.jpg

cyndik1111

12-06-2008, 03:12 PM

http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr329/cyndik1111/PB270007.jpg

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 03:18 PM

She's adorable! Very patient too! And there is no shame in being slow (the first marathon I did...let's say Dh finished, went to the hotel, showered, changed and came back to the finish line in PLENTY of time to see me finish!) everytime I bumble on the treadmill I tell myself 99% of people in North America cannot run a mile.

Elsa ran her first 1k fun run this September:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/DSCI0350.jpg

I also struggled to post pics when I started this. Now I am post-happy!

I hope they hit it off. Elsa is a shy one, though, and will probably be hiding behind my legs when we introduce them!

anewmac

12-06-2008, 03:28 PM

i love pre trip reports with tons of pics.. Im hooked cant wait to read more!

Oh and we must have the same friends as they can not see WHY I need a f/e what its for or for that matter why I want to go on another DISNEY cruise... LOL

javaj

12-06-2008, 08:59 PM

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 09:57 PM

Great Pre-Trip so far! We also have only cruised on Carnival before (just once though!). I thought we got a great deal when we got our Carnival 8 day cruise with a balcony for about $2000 with the military rate, back when we only had 1 child. I need lessons in how to get a 7 day for about $1100! I'm guessing you had an interline rate?

yes interline, + an extra 15% off because we had "issues" on a prior Carnival cruise. There was an awful noise in our cabin and prevented us from sleeping 3 nights in a row. And that was before there was a fuel surcharge! I don't think we could get that again. :rolleyes: Anyway after Disney I think it may spoil us for future "cheaper" cruises!

javaj

12-06-2008, 10:16 PM

Anyway after Disney I think it may spoil us for future "cheaper" cruises!

I'm afraid of that too! I'll let you know in about a month :lmao:

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 10:28 PM

I'm afraid of that too! I'll let you know in about a month :lmao:

Please let us know! And those boys are too cute!!!

Sophie_2003

12-06-2008, 10:34 PM

I may have forgotten to mention we are planning a MAJOR kitchen renovation starting mid-February. Major as in rip out the counter and cupboards, rip out the floor, throw out the appliances and buy new ones…rip out the light fixtures, etc etc. :scared:

The best part: :lmao: we were partially paying for this with my employee stock from the publicly traded company I worked for, which shall remain nameless, because you could look up the stock symbol and be worried I will steal your money when you are not looking because the darn stock TANKED in the past 2 months. I know, like every other stock.

So as you can imagine our plans were somewhat downsized, Sears no-interest plans started looking VERY interesting and maybe our lighting would be ok as is. Maybe we could live without the winerack, spice drawer and stainless steel finishes…:teacher:

Back to how this actually belongs in a trip report. We are doing a lot of shopping for contractors, appliances, flooring, etc. Very expensive items. And what do I bring up as a topic at the dinner table: “Honey, I found this lady on ebay who can make us a really kicking Fish Extender”…or “Hey, we may get our fuel surcharge back…I think I want to parasail on Castaway Cay”…or “Can you swing by the dollar store and get me more magnet paper so I can continue working on door decorations’. That is why I am writing a trip report…you all understand right??? Right??? :guilty:

All right, excursions. We are pretty seasoned cruisers, even if we are Disney Cruise virgins. Besides Castaway Cay, we’ve been to every island on this itinerary. DH and I used to love excursions like hiking, mountain biking, rafting, diving and ziplining. And now we have a 4 year old. You know how you don’t want them to grow up? Well for our cruising needs I am kinda looking forward to her being 8. So many places are “8 years old and up”.

Key West: right now the plan is between stay on board and swim, send DD to OClub and chill out…or just go out and take a walk. There is a National Park (Ft Zach Taylor) and some kind of marine exhibit that DD might enjoy. I have read so much about Key West being a bit trashy…so we’ll see, nothing set for now.

Cayman: we’ve been to 7-mile beach a few times and loved it. I keep reading about Rum Point and that sounds interesting but it’s also a lot of travel time. Kiddo likes animals, so maybe Turtle Farm, but again I hear it’s not so exciting. Hell? BTDT. Sent a postcard. Noone was that impressed, really. I think a cabride to 7-mile beach at a resort (that I can’t think of at the moment) will do it for Cayman. Besides, I want to save some $$$ so I can go to the spa. Here is a pic of DD at her first visit to 7-mile beach (just for the sake of putting up pictures…because I can!)

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/PB140031.jpg

Cozumel: We have been there at least 6 times. The place gets bigger and bigger and more crowded with each visit. The best time we had there involved extremely large glasses of margaritas at Carlos n Charlies :drinking1 . Not an option this time! Thankfully we have no pics of that, and to think of it my memory of the whole afternoon is a bit spotty. We may try Paradise beach where there is supposed to be water toys and a good beach with decent food (found that on some other boards). We also heard good things about Nachi Cocom…, but that involves a charge per person, and I cannot handle more than 1 drink in the sun, so I never end up ahead at these places where it’s all you can drink.:sad2:

Next up: Castaway Cay plans and the SPA!!! And my passporter book

Sophie_2003

12-07-2008, 05:45 PM

All right, we are done with excursions for our first three stops..sorta. Next is Castaway Cay. I cannot wait to go there :cool1: . I found a couple of threads and read up on it. At first I really just wanted to beach it. But DD won’t snorkel, and she times out on the beach after a couple of hours. Then the fuel surcharge thing happened (if oil is below $70 a barrel on Dec.18, we will get our $130 back as OBC). Of course this was just an excuse. We were gonna spend the $$$ anyway, but that’s like free money! :banana: Right? So I went ahead and booked myself for parasailing. I would really like to do this with DH or DD, but she is too young and I think the 2 of us (DH and I) together would exceed the weight limit (it’s 350lbs I believe…would be close anyway). :laughing:

I signed up for 3:30 because I figure by that time DD will want to be back on the boat and DH can chill and drop her off at the club (that’s another thing…on our last cruise we barely saw the kid she spent so much time at Camp Carnival…). Here she is with Funship Freddy (is that a dirty word here???)

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/PB150042.jpg

We were on a pristine quiet beach in Mexico (see pic below...that's Stone Island in Mazatlan.) and DD was just begging to go back on board to go to Camp Carnival. And she is Disney-obsessed, so if the activities are Disney-related we may not see her all week! Look at that beach, she only wanted to go back to the ship!

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0266.jpg

Also found on these wonderful boards that there is this guy “Jay” who organizes a Castaway Cay 5k run. At first reports were that he was on the Wonder…and we just found out (tks Cyndi!) he was switching to the Magic :dance3: . So our next mission after Rockin Bar D for dining change will be to find out if Jay has a 5k planned. DH (who has run 20+ marathons) and I (who has run 3 marathons, will never run another one, but I do like the occasional run; I ran the Minnie Epcot 5k last year) may try to get in on this. We’ll see. That’s the first thing DH got really intrigued about! Some people drink, some people are computer-addicts, my DH is run-addicted. Not a bad problem, I guess…:upsidedow

One quick note about the Passporter. I was disappointed :guilty: . There, I said it. I ordered it online the second we booked the cruise. I waited and waited for 3 days for it to show up in the mailbox. I read it…and found it to be sort of a DCL cheerleader :cheer2: . Some interesting info, but most of it I had already found out on the Dis. I am an “Unofficial Guide to WDW” fan, and I guess I missed the critique and the sarcasm!!!

Last up was the Spa reservations. Again with the cheap thing, I was looking for a good deal. And I saw this Rasul thing, and it looks like fun! So I booked it. That’s the 2nd thing DH got intrigued about ;) . I may treat myself to some pampering, but most of it I can get here for a fraction of the price…

Next up: we are going to WDW first, remember that little tidbit? :idea:

roxy84

12-08-2008, 07:24 PM

I am loving your Pre-TR. I think your family is going to have a wonderful time!

Just wanted to give you a heads up regarding your 3:30 parasailing time. The club actually moves to castaway for the day but closes down around 3-3:30 usually as they need to shut down their place on the island and then open back up on the ship (at 4). Don't worry about your time - you will just need to speak to a CM as they accommadate spa/excursions. They will probably ask that you drop her off at the spot on the island (scuttles cove it is called) and they will take her back to the ship when they close down.

Sophie_2003

12-08-2008, 07:49 PM

cyndik1111

12-08-2008, 08:13 PM

Sophie_2003

12-08-2008, 08:39 PM

I'm so jealous that you are doing WDW before the cruise. We have to spend a few days with inlaws before cruise (Boyton Beach). that's how i justified this trip
"Guess what honey, we can visit your parents for a few days before and after the cruise".

aha! But see, you could use this excuse year after year...;) I wish my inlaws were on a beach. Mine are in Toronto. Nothing exciting there once you've been up the CN tower!!!:laughing:

anewmac

12-08-2008, 10:27 PM

You probably wont see dd much.. my kids begged to be on board at their clubs also LOL... not that we minded...lol.

Something thats cheap at the spa and very relaxing the Frangapanni... its a scalp massage for something like $25... got it for DH and I and he loved it. I think its maybe 30mins but is heavenly... great for later in the cruise when your hair is dry and sun/ocean have killed it LOL. They do a nice oil type conditioning on it.

Cant wait to read more.

Sophie_2003

12-10-2008, 09:10 AM

Sophie_2003

12-10-2008, 09:15 AM

:mad: Winter…ugh. Cruise-planning interruptus.

So don’t you hate when real life interferes with vacation daydreaming/planning? :headache:

This week is DD’s last day of PreK before the holidays; we have a pageant this week :santa: . My two nieces have some kinds of Christmas recitals as well :santa: . DD’s best friend/neighbor has a pageant also :santa: . Swim and gym classes for DD are ending. This means a lot of busy evenings and shopping for miscellaneous gifts for teachers, coaches, etc :santa: . Plus I have postponed a lunchdate with some of my former co-workers too many times, I need to go this week.

And because preK is ending until January, I will need to plan more activities for DD; as I mentioned before she is quite the spirited one :dance3: and she does much better if she is kept BUSY. I, on the other hand, am a homebody and I could very well stay at home for days and days only venturing out for the occasional workout and grocery run. :cloud9:

On top of that, we have had the weather from h*ll these past few days. Down to -25C (that’s about 8 Farhenheit…brrr); and it’s been snowing non-stop for 3 days. Our Tempo collapsed last night :scared1: ; that’s where we store our lawnmower, summer furniture, etc – even though we have a 2-car garage, DH is quite the packrat, and we have room in there for only 1 car. Ugh again.

And last activity for the week was my evening in traffic court; I got pulled over for failing to make a “stop” on my street in June, and there was no way the cop could have seen me from where he was hiding. And I won: :banana: woohoo. Another $100 freed up for cruise spending.

As for anything cruise-related: I am keeping my fuel-price watch until our Dec. 18 date. Still not sure if Paradise Beach is the right spot for us in Cozumel (Cyndi and Lindaso are making me question myself…Nachi Cocom???); I kept watch on this “Big DCL announcement” which turned out to be a dud :sad2: (kids sail free on 3-night cruises). I have considered buying some more xmas presents for DD as Disneyshopping.com has a bunch of sales, but I am wondering if the prices may be better after Christmas. And DH’s bday is right before xmas, and I never know what to get the man. So I have decided to book him a CC cabana massage :flower3: . I hope he likes the idea. I will keep you posted.

I keep thinking of FE gifts, I am a bit concerned about what pre-teen and teenage boys like :confused3 . I live in a testosterone-free zone. I have a sister, a daughter, 2 nieces…Dh is useless for ideas, and my boy-dog George can’t talk. BTW here is George; I haven’t mentioned him till now because it actually makes me sad to think about what poor George has to endure while we are gone… a kennel, the horror and indignity (our regular dog-sitters, who are my sister’s inlaws, will also be on vacation when we go).

My boy:

Indignation of xmas dress-up; courtesy of DD and DH’s trip to the dollar store

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0410.jpg

With DD a couple of years ago (I know it’s been a while because DD has refused to wear jeans for at least 2 years)

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/P9020461.jpg

And I will get back to some WDW-DCL related stuff in the next post! :wave2:

lindaso

12-10-2008, 03:53 PM

Sophie_2003

12-10-2008, 04:52 PM

Hey I just found this PTR...nice job so far!! Maybe I won't do one if you're doing one, considering it takes me 7 months to write one :rotfl2: !!

I had to laugh about the jeans thing. Kevin doesn't like jeans either! I wonder if this ship is big enough for both of their personalities!?!? And I used to have a cat named George. Weird.

Don't stress about which beach on Cozumel. You can't make the wrong choice.

Keep writing!

Tks Linda! The compliment means a lot coming from you. Although I will never top your escapades with Bahar at Shutters!!!

But you did get Kevin in nice dress shirts. DD will be wearing her princess dresses on formal nights (and any other night we let her...;)

anewmac

12-10-2008, 10:23 PM

oh he will love the massage im sure.. Surprized my dh with one and he loved it.. How exciting!

MaryAz

12-10-2008, 10:58 PM

dvc4life

12-11-2008, 08:56 AM

Hi! :wave2:

Just found your report and am loving it. I love the picture of your dog. He is so cute! And your daughter is adorable.

Can't wait for the next post! :cutie:

Sophie_2003

12-11-2008, 07:42 PM

Great pre trippie. Our DD's are the same age though it sounds like my little one has more similarities in personality. We are taking our 2nd cruise next Nov. We are staying at WDW for 2 days before the cruise. Looking forward to more!

Welcome aboard! I think all mothers of spirited kids should have a secret handshake...though I do get knowing looks when things are rough in public places ;)

Sophie_2003

12-11-2008, 07:43 PM

Hi! :wave2:

Just found your report and am loving it. I love the picture of your dog. He is so cute! And your daughter is adorable.

Can't wait for the next post! :cutie:

Thank you. Yes my DD is adorable, especially in pictures! :rotfl:

Sophie_2003

12-12-2008, 09:17 PM

So if you’ve been reading, you know this started out as a WDW land trip. Ever since we’ve had our kids, DSis and I have planned to take them to WDW while they would still enjoy it – before the “blasé” years. My kid is 4; hers (both girls) are 8 and 11. Perfect timing. princess: princess: princess:

DSis and I actually went to WDW together, along with my best friend, in May. We spent 3 days, ran the Minnie ::MinnieMo Marathon 5k :yay: (had a total blast!), drank too many margaritas :drinking1 . But we still had to make rope drop and speed walk to our first attraction every morning. I always seem to go Commando, until about noon when I relax. It was pretty funny the morning at MK when I dragged them out of bed to see rope drop, and speedwalked to BTMRR…picture me practically touching the rope the CM’s were walking, and my sis and bf dragging behind doodling along :snail: :sad2: ! That day we won dream FP’s, they were so happy I wasn’t going to make them run around the park all day. That was a good day. :cloud9:

Here are a couple of pics:

My best friend and I after a few margaritas at San Angel in Mexico Epcot
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/P5030322.jpg

The 3 of us after our 5k run. They’re both smaller than me but I kicked their butt in the run!!!
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/P5030301.jpg

So Dsis and I started planning our trip right around the mythical 180-day mark. Dsis and her family are on the meal plan, and ADR’s were a must. Now my family usually decides about 2-3 weeks before each Disney trip so we do not usually make more than 1 ADR…and we end up skipping it :rolleyes1 . The planning drives me insane. But we did it. Le Cellier, Cindy’s royal table, Kona Café, Chef Mickey. I had to call at the crack of dawn to make the reservations (since I currently do not have a job I automatically won that privilege, rightly so :) ).

Now the problem is since we have had the incredible privilege of going to WDW and Disneyland 5 times in 18 months, we are not THAT excited about it. DD has seen her princesses over and over. Just for fun, some more pics.

Oct 07 My gosh she's just a baby. Sorry it's out of focus. That dress was a cheap Costco dress, but she got so many compliments on it
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/0710.jpg

Dec 07- btw she spent the entire trip in this outfit...I washed it in the sink every night and dried it with a hairdryer in the morning!!! I have learned to pick my battles with the spirited one!
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/0712-1-1.jpg

July 08
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/08jul.jpg

Oct 08 My favorite; we got her the Ariel dress with a tail as a surprise; we ordered from Disney online and had it delivered at the hotel. She spent 3 days in that itchy thing...yet she refuses to wear jeans or turtlenecks...
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/08oct.jpg

Nov 08 At Disneyland. My least fave Ariel
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/08nov.jpg

BTW, DD must look awfully spoiled...and she is, and it's all my fault. I am just so happy it is so magical for her every single time and she still has not figured out that every Ariel (and other princesses) is a different person. I will be very sad once that is over...:guilty:

So you get my point. DH is worried we are going to be so Disneyed-out we should have gone to Universal and Sea World before the cruise :scared1: . I convinced him that DD being the daredevil she is, we’ll get her on the thrill rides and try to not line up for characters too often. We also have not seen Fantasmic!, and some of the parades/shows will have changed. I think we’ll be ok. I just need to hunt down a list of DCL characters and make sure we are not over-exposed to them before the cruise. And we would LOVE to go to Blizzard Beach, hoping the weather will cooperate!

One issue we will definitely have is with Space Mountain. Disneyland SM has been redone, and the height req is 40 inches. DD is about 43 inches, and she absolutely loved it (so did we! It was fabulous! :thumbsup2 ) At MK, the height req is 44 inches. She may make it, but the seating is not side-by-side, so I am not sure she will be ok on it. We’ll see.

Seriously, though, I know we will have a blast. And I think it will be fantastic, and we will run around like we normally do, and we will get to R-E-L-A-X on the beautiful Magic. Plus we will get to experience the WDW magic with our wonderful nieces :grouphug: and create as many memories for them so hopefully they can turn into Disney addicts too!

Next up: not quite sure :confused3 …the holidays are upon us! :santa:

Salome

12-12-2008, 09:39 PM

Sophie_2003

12-19-2008, 10:03 PM

Hi Sophie:wave2:

Just found your thread and I'm hooked! Your daughter is too cute!!

I think we have some in common; I have a 4 1/2 yo daughter, I'm a Disney maniac like you probably are too and I'm an ex-Montrealer (is that how we spell in english?) but I had to exile myself in Gatineau:sad2:

Hey there!

Gatineau? I feel for you! ;) But it's nice and close to Ottawa...I love Ottawa for the skating & the tulips! :flower3:

Sophie_2003

12-19-2008, 10:14 PM

Well, as expected, this has been a quiet week cruise-wise.

1) I purchased my FE on ebay and I hope or receive it soon...it was shipped last week so it should show up soon!

2) I watched the market and called DCL this AM to confirm we had an OBC for our fuel surcharge! Yay! :thumbsup2 (but boo! to the economy :mad: )

3) I joined a photopass share group for our land trip prior to the cruise. The cost of these photos is just ridiculous, gotta love the Dis budget board! :thumbsup2

4) I sent out our Christmas cards...using a pic from our DLR trip:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0086.jpg

5) I keep watching to see if a) Palo brunch ressies will become available b) will we get moved to early dining...I think it won't happen prior to the cruise c) have they assigned a cabin yet (we have a Cat 10 guarantee, i am hoping for just 1 measly category upgrade...just a small porthole? pleeeaaasssse!)

That's all folks! Hopefully I will have more interesting stuff in the next couple of weeks! :surfweb:

Sophie_2003

12-25-2008, 10:57 PM

Merry Christmas all!

This pre-trip has slowed way down! :snail: I guess all the holiday hoopla has taken over...:santa: And I am not a baker...but I baked cookies :woohoo:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0504.jpg

Here is the loot under the tree (notice the Disney princess wrapping paper, on which DD was quick to notice Ariel wasn't on!...;)

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0622.jpg

We opened all our presents, and my nieces were officially told we were all going to WDW in 4 weeks. We promptly measured the 2 youngest girls height to see which attractions would be off-limits. We have a 44 1/2 inch and a 52-inch. Looks like DD will have to sit out RnR coaster - which she wouldn't do anyway. :scared1: The oldest (11) kinda knew, the youngest (8) was thrilled and I am very excited that my DD will have her cousins with her on this trip :flower1: . Unfortunately we were unable to book the same hotel (we're at the WL, they're at POR), but we will meet every day at the parks and have all our dinner ADR's together :grouphug:

I received my FE in the mail...

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_0606.jpg

And that is about it! Now Dsis and I have a planning date in a couple weeks to finalize our touring plans. I added an ADR to Hollywood & Vine character breakfast because DD is now into the Little Einsteins (I love the educational value of that show, when I hear my kid mumbling to herself things like "the great wall of China", "the pyramids in Egypt" or "music by Wolfgang amadeus Mozart" :rotfl: )

Still waiting on our cabin assignment. Maybe tomorrow...:upsidedow

cyndik1111

12-26-2008, 08:10 PM

"I wish my inlaws were on a beach. Mine are in Toronto. Nothing exciting there once you've been up the CN tower!!!"

- we absolutely love Toronto, we're from Buffalo- so Toronto is the BIG city. I love the waterfront, bluejays, mapleleafs (except when they play the Sabres), and all the cool restaurants. We use to love the great exchange rate for shopping, not so much now. And we love Ikea- we don't have one near us. BTW, the inlaws? they live in a retirement golf community... boring! and my inlaw want us to stay close to them, or they go with us everywhere... plus they are afraid of everything (read the beach)

"And because preK is ending until January, I will need to plan more activities for DD; as I mentioned before she is quite the spirited one"

-ditto for us too, I am actively calling anyone to make playdates. Anyone up for the bounce house place AGAIN!

"I, on the other hand, am a homebody and I could very well stay at home for days and days only venturing out for the occasional workout and grocery run."

-me too! wish I could sit on the couch and read books all day, but my 5 year old DD and 7 year old border collie wont let me.

"DH is quite the packrat"

- I bet I have you beat with my DH. He'll save empty used envelopes till they pile to the sky. I spend my days trying to get rid of stuff!

"Still not sure if Paradise Beach is the right spot for us in Cozumel"

-I'm going to throw a wrench in your plans again... check out San Fransisco beach- sounds like Paradise, but with a pool and not so rocky. In the end, we might end up going to Paradise with the other families we are cruising with, but it really is my last choice.

"what poor George has to endure while we are gone… a kennel"

- Penny (our border collie) has a sitter coming over. I actually planned the trip based on the sitter's schedule. She isn't really a dog, she's my 1st born.

"DSis and I actually went to WDW together, along with my best friend, in May. We spent 3 days, ran the Minnie Marathon 5k (had a total blast!), drank too many margaritas"

- I need to find out more about this 5k run (and the margaritas) it sound cool

"BTW, DD must look awfully spoiled...and she is, and it's all my fault"

-guilty of the same!

"have they assigned a cabin yet (we have a Cat 10 guarantee, i am hoping for just 1 measly category upgrade...just a small porthole"

Let me know ASAP when you get it, your door magnet is all ready, waiting for a cabin #

"my nieces were officially told we were all going to WDW in 4 weeks"

- are they doing the cruise too? I don't remember them on the FE list?

Sophie_2003

12-26-2008, 11:14 PM

hi Cyndi!

Looks like we will have lots to talk about! About the 5k, it is in March this year; they also have a 15k, and it is great fun (the 5k was all around the world showcase in Epcot).

My nieces are actually "just" doing WDW (they fly in 2 days before us and leave the day we board the ship). BIL is not a Disney fan and we had to twist his arm, noway would he do a Disney cruise (he's a vacation snooty, likes going to Europe...:snooty: )

off to research San Francisco beach!!!

o4me2playn

12-27-2008, 10:38 AM

I'm enjoying your pre-trip report! Can't wait for more. My DH and I will be on a Western in April and we can't wait to be "at home" again.

jdes88

12-27-2008, 10:47 AM

4 weeks from today! YAY!!! :dance3:

cyndik1111

12-27-2008, 02:17 PM

hi Cyndi!

Looks like we will have lots to talk about! About the 5k, it is in March this year; they also have a 15k, and it is great fun (the 5k was all around the world showcase in Epcot).

OOOHHH
Now I have to figure out how to swing a trip to WDW in March?!?!

MaryAz

12-27-2008, 08:12 PM

Sophie_2003

12-27-2008, 08:51 PM

Yay, updates. Where did you get that Ariel princess dress? I think my ODD will love it. Are you going to do BBB when you ae at MK?? ODD also loves the Little Einsteins. Love it when she recognizes the classical music.

Hello,

the Ariel dress with the tail is from Disneyshopping online; the one with the long sleeves we got at Disney in Dec. 07. It's Ariel's wedding dress I believe.

Re: BBB we did it on our first trip and I think DD enjoyed it but this time we are skipping it because we will be with the cousins and they are getting a little old for that. Besides, she would want the entire package now and I don't wanna spend an extra $140 for a dress, shoes and accessories since we have it all here. We had a blonde little friend and a little brunette yesterday and they all dressed up with DD's dresses (Ariel, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, it was adorable) princess: princess: princess: And now that DD knows we're going back soon, she has started campaigning for a Jasmine dress...:rotfl:

ktmetke

12-29-2008, 09:11 AM

I LOVE your Fish Extender!!!!!!

Ariel is my favorite too!

Thanks for sharing your pre-trip activities!!

Laneychris

12-29-2008, 04:46 PM

Great pics

TammyNC

01-01-2009, 09:11 AM

Loving your pre-trip report so far. Your DD is such a cutie.

modlin1024

01-02-2009, 04:05 AM

Sophie_2003

01-02-2009, 11:46 AM

I love your pre-trip report! We will be on the same cruise so hopefully we will get to meet. I am getting so excited for our cruise as I live in North Pole, Alaska, and it is freezing and dark right now! It was -40 F today and absolutely miserable! It is supposed to get down to -50 tomorrow. Yuck! Disney Magic here we come!

Can't wait to read more!

Yikes, that is cold. We have also been freezing here, but nothing like that. We had -20C for the past few nights, that is close to 5-8F I believe!

Just lookout for my redhead girl, although I hope she spends most of her time in the club (just kidding...sortof ;) ) We will try to get to the DIS meet but I know day 1 for us is so hectic we may not make it, esp. if the weather is nice and DD wants to swim!

mrp4352

01-02-2009, 12:51 PM

Please let us know! And those boys are too cute!!!

As a fellow interliner, I can tell you that, yes, Disney does spoil you to the others... :rotfl:

(side note: unfortuantely, Disney doesn't usually offer their interline rates until about a month out - but we've had incredible luck in the past just sucking it up and booking a normal fare during the off-season months, then transferring the cruise to an interline rate if the fares become available. The extra money either goes to an upgrade or becomes OBC. We went from a cat. 9 to a cat. 5 last trip and only paid $75 more dollars using this method!)

Looking forward to reading more!!

Sophie_2003

01-02-2009, 02:50 PM

As a fellow interliner, I can tell you that, yes, Disney does spoil you to the others... :rotfl:

(side note: unfortuantely, Disney doesn't usually offer their interline rates until about a month out - but we've had incredible luck in the past just sucking it up and booking a normal fare during the off-season months, then transferring the cruise to an interline rate if the fares become available. The extra money either goes to an upgrade or becomes OBC. We went from a cat. 9 to a cat. 5 last trip and only paid $75 more dollars using this method!)

Looking forward to reading more!!

ooohhhh, good method. However I could never get DH to buy - gasp - a non-interline cruise! I know we will be hooked to Disney cruising!!!

modlin1024

01-02-2009, 04:40 PM

Your little girl is such a cutie and probably won't be too hard to see with that red hair! I am sure we will run into each other on the cruise. Not too much longer! I look forward to reading more on your pre-trip plans:)

Sophie_2003

01-06-2009, 10:38 AM

You know the little feeling in the pit of your stomach? :scared1:

WE ARE LEAVING IN 13 DAYS...:banana: :scared1: :banana: :scared1: :banana: :scared1:

I have just finalized my FE gifts...I hope people like the stuff I bought. :flower3:

I have decided against getting anything "pirate-y" for Pirate night, and I may just buy somethingin MK if there is a clearance somewhere. I hope we don't look like losers! pirate:

I still need to get a pillowcase and a photomat for characters signatures, and fabric markers, and regular sharpies

Our cabin assignment saga is over; we had been assigned a cat 10 right below Rockin Bar D and decided that wasn't good for us (I had sooo hoped we would get upgraded to a 9...oh well, being 1st time cruisers, and aying bottom-dollar, perhaps that's why...princess: ); we "downgraded" to a Cat 11 deck 6 forward; close to kids camp and hopefully quieter. We won't miss the bath as DD is a shower girl on vacation and she's never seen a bath on a cruiseship cabin before. :dance3:

I also have to finalize our touring plans for the "land" portion. I am a bit nervous as I usually pplan for just the 3 of us and now I have to plan for my DSis family as well. A bit nerve-wracking, I know I am not responsible for them but I do want them to have a good time. Plus, DD being an "only", I wonder how well she will do with the other 2 sometimes deciding where we go next...:confused:

That's all for now! Nothing exciting. We're off to go skiing and shopping for kitchen tiles today, back to packing-panic tonight (WEATHER :headache: I need a crystal ball!!! How many vests, pants do I need?) :upsidedow

anewmac

01-10-2009, 12:08 PM

woohoo under 2weeks....

wait the cat 11's dont have shubs (shower/tubs) I thought the 11's just were 1 bathroom not the split... Guess ya learn something new everyday! lol

BeccaGrace

01-10-2009, 07:51 PM

Hi Sophie! I'm Sara and we will (hopefully) be on the cruise with you in 13 short days! Things are looking up over here so we are cautiously optimistic that we will be going...as evidenced by the fact that I've been packing and making lists all day today (perfect snowy day activity!).

Grace and Becca will be in the kids club with Elsa...Grace told me this morning that she is only coming out for meals and if High School Musical 3 is playing:) Becca is my shy one...Grace, well, none of you will be able to miss Grace :rotfl:

I'm loving the pre-trip report! I swear I am going to try to do a trip report but I said that about our WDW trip in '05 and that never happened:)

I have to say, I got a little sad when I saw Elsa's beautiful fish extender since we dropped out of the exchange...I may need to have to run to the fabric store to see if I can put one together. Even if we don't end up participating I can put stuff in for the girls (and my 3 year old niece Amelia, who will also be with us) so the door looks pretty:)

We don't have any pirate stuff for us (the grown ups) yet...the girls have cute pink skull outfits. So you won't be the only ones if we don't end up scrounging up something...although dh probably wouldn't wear it anyway!

And I'm so impressed with the runners we have on board...you might see me run to the dessert table and to our exotic rasul, but that's about it! I will be walking laps with MIL and SIL on deck every morning though, so I'm not a total slug:)

I can't wait to meet everyone...it's so great putting faces with names:)

BeccaGrace

01-10-2009, 07:54 PM

mrp4352

01-16-2009, 12:19 PM

Bon Voyage!!!!! :beach: pirate: :sail:

Sophie_2003

01-17-2009, 05:26 PM

Also meant to say that we were waitlisted for main dining and found out when we got our papers that we got it...so maybe there is still hope if you still want it (although I've heard great things about late dining with younger kids also).

Hi BeccaGrace,

lucky you with the dining! We're still trying to get it, no luck still as of today...:sad2:

We'll see you onboard! We are fying out Monday AM...woo hoo :cheer2:

Sophie_2003

01-17-2009, 05:27 PM

Bon Voyage!!!!! :beach: pirate: :sail:

Thank you! Bags are packed, just need to ge thru tomorrow and 5 days at WDW before we board the Magic! :thumbsup2

1stdisneycruise

01-18-2009, 06:01 PM

Great Pre-Trip so far! We also have only cruised on Carnival before (just once though!). I thought we got a great deal when we got our Carnival 8 day cruise with a balcony for about $2000 with the military rate, back when we only had 1 child. I need lessons in how to get a 7 day for about $1100! I'm guessing you had an interline rate?

We love cheap also. last year they had a deal for 5 nights and kids sail free and we only paid $550.00 for all four of us inside room. We never spend time in our room only to sleep and bath. We were on floor 7.
I am glad there is other cheap people on here.

We are scared we will not going to enjoy our Disney cruise due to the price

So we are trying to map out fun and make sure we get the most out of the trip. And hope to be hooked pixiedust: when we get back.

anewmac

01-18-2009, 06:29 PM

Have fun!! WHich im sure you will! :)

1st Disney Cruise- YOU WILL SO LOVE DISNEY! dont be scared you will be fine :)

Sophie_2003

02-01-2009, 03:12 PM

Well...we're back! :guilty: :wave2: Sad and happy because it was a great trip. I hope to start posting a real trip report sometime this week, after I get out from under all the :laundy: and the :coffee: and I start catching up with my :happytv:

Sophie_2003

02-01-2009, 09:18 PM

:) Anyone know how I can change the thread title??? I am clueless!

I cannot believe this is already over! :sad2: What a wonderful and magical time we had. It is hard to wrap my mind around all that happened, and I did take some notes, so I hope this report will be coherent enough. Keep in mind we are veteran carnival cruisers, so there will be comparisons in here that I hope may be helpful or insightful to some…here goes!

Day 1 embarkation

As a re-intro, our family actually flew down the 19th (Monday) in order to spend 4 days at WDW with my sister and her family. The weather was brrrrr cold but we managed to have a great time and get so much done, since when you have cold weather and a child that will not nap, you do not bother going back to your hotel midday. So we opened and closed a park each day of our visit. Needless to say we had a blast, tried a bunch of things we usually don’t have time to do, and were EXHAUSTED by Friday night. :crazy2:

The original plan was to get up around 8am Saturday AM, DH was going to get a car at DTD, pick us up by 9am and we would be on our way to the port to arrive by 10h15. As they say, the best-laid plans…:upsidedow

DH did get up early, got the car and returned to the hotel to get us only around 10:00. :hourglass Normally I would be livid that my plan was off track, but DD was sooooo tired, I let her watch TV in bed for a good hour and a half after she woke up, and I decided we would get to the port when we would get to the port. DH was relieved I wasn’t going to go in slave driver mode and we were on our way.

The drive took about 1hr15 minutes. DH brought out his newly-minted GPS and we did not get lost (the same heralded GPS would almost be thrown out the window a week later as we drove from Port Canaveral to Tampa airport, but I am getting ahead of myself here! :lmao: )

First impressions, the porters were so friendly! And the scene was so civilized. Every other cruise we did the porters would almost curse you out for not tipping enough (it was never enough) and it seems thousands of people would be trying to go to the terminal at the same time. It was quiet when we entered the terminal around noon, but I guess that could be because a) the cruise wasn’t full b) we were a bit late and most people were already there. DH dropped us off and I went ahead with DD to line up and check us in.

I was sooooo disappointed to get a boarding pass #15! :guilty: So long early dining, good-bye Palo ressie. We were practically last on board as far as I could tell. The check-in took about 10 minutes after a 30-35 minute wait in line. Our KTTW cards confirmed our second seating dining time with a PLAAPLA rotation. I had to keep DD busy and not looking at the Magic mock-up where Mickey and Minnie were intermittently to take pictures, because she would have run to the characters and left me standing there :scratchin . I had figured after 4 days at WDW she would be charactered-out…no such luck!

We exited the check-in and waited for DH to catch up with us from the rental location. I lined up with DD to get a Minnie picture.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1152.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1153.jpg

The first of many many many character pics. At that point they had already called our boarding number so I lined up to board, and DH caught up just in the nick of time. On board we went. No embarkation picture here, Dh has a habit of looking dopey in these pictures (but we did manage some good pics later in the week, tks for asking!)

As soon as we boarded, we took off for Rockin Bar D where I sent DH to beg for a 1st seating dinner :worship: time and I went over to the Palo table to please, please please get a brunch preferably on a sea day. Now this was our first idea that this sailing was far from full. We managed an 11:00AM Palo on Monday (1st sea day), and were immediately given a 1st seating dining with the “hot” rotation of PLAAPLA – animators on formal, Parrot Cay on pirate night. Now the pressure was waaayyyyy off! :cool1:

Next on our list was the kids’ club as we weren’t very hungry yet. Wow! The place was huge. DD started drawing, I chatted it up with another mom and we waited for 1h30 to check out our stateroom.

We had a bit of a room ordeal the week prior to our vacation. We first booked a cat 10 gty, hoping for the upgrade fairy pixiedust: to give us a porthole. Well, she didn’t come thru, and we were assigned cabin #2047. Some quick research showed that was RIGHT below Rockin Bar D and some people had reported noise between 10pm-1am. No good for us. We called DCL and downgraded to #6507 (cat 11), since they had no other cat. 10 available and were not going to upgrade us. We could pay for an upgrade to cat. 9, but the cabins were way aft and we hate to be too far forward or aft. 6507 sounded like a good location and was a “sideways” cabin, sounds like fun. Plus, DD loves to shower on vacation so the split bath was not an issue. Fast forward to the day before we flew out, and I checked prices online to see balconies had come down and would only cost us about $300 more. Hellooooo DCL! Can we have a balcony please? We were lucky enough to snag cabin #7532, midship, cat 5…woo hoo. :cheer2:

I loved our room. Didn’t love the neighbours so much though (cigar smoking, and talking to each other from the balconies on either side of our cabin. Same family, why oh why did they not get rooms next to each other, I wonder??? :confused3 ). Back to the room. Tons of storage, tons of hangers, cool h2o products, big balcony, split bath. Carnival comparison: DCL has bigger balconies, more storage space, flat screen TV, and doors that slide instead of open into the room and block access to the other people walking thru.

We went up to topsiders for lunch. Here is where we find a lack of space and choice of food in the buffet compared to Carnival. It is hard to maneuver between the tables, and with my not-quite-5-year-old handling a tray, it’s making me nervous. We ate a bit, considering it was almost 2pm and dinner was at 5:30. Free soda!!! Yay!!! We then walked around the ship a bit. Some kids were swimming but DD was not in the mood and frankly it was a bit cool. We went to the spa/gym. Nice spa, but the gym was smaller than I expected. However it was also empty the times I went, so I guess it is big enough. :lmao:

Back to the room around 3pm, all bags were already there, so we proceeded to unpack.

We sorta missed boat drill, not sure how. By the time we heard an announcement, left the room, got the life vests and dealt with a minor meltdown from DD, it was over. Oh well. :rolleyes: We also missed the dis meet because we were giddily unpacking.

We went to deck 9 for sailaway party. It was cute, but the music was waaayyy too loud for DD. She loved the streamers though, and we did stay until the characters came out to dance. Then it was time to get ready for dinner.

Day 1 part 2 coming up!

Sophie_2003

02-01-2009, 09:44 PM

Day 1 part 2

Off to dinner we went. We had Parrot Cay, table 78. We were seated with another Canadian family of 3 that also had switched on board to early dining. They were very nice and our DD loved their girl although she was much older at 9 years old. Our server team were Satish and Lee Anna. We liked them a lot and DD really took to Lee Anna. Seeing as she is not used to sitting still for dinner for 15 minutes, let alone 2 hours, let’s say dinner time was not DD’s favorite, and whenever Lee Anna sensed a “grumpy” moment she stopped and gave DD a hug, which bought us a few more minutes of peace. here is Lee Anna:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1213.jpg

I have to say we didn’t love the food :snooty: . Salads were just okay, soups were good, main courses also ok. But the breads were good and different each night. I honestly can’t remember what I ate every night, so this TR will not be full of food porn, but I can tell you both times I had crème brulee it was heavenly…Food is one area where Carnival tends to be better, in our humble opinion.

And btw, “Carnival” does seem to be a dirty word on board. People look at you funny when you say you cruised carnival…gasp, more than once!

We then headed off to the kids club for the welcome aboard party, where we had thought parents were staying. Turns out they weren’t, so we dropped off DD, a bit reluctantly at first but she seemed happy. They make the kids wash their hands as they enter, which is good – all restaurants also gave out leaning wipes as you entered to eat, and I found that was a nice touch.

We picked up DD around 8pm, and went off to search for Snow white in the lobby (anyone keeping count, we saw Snow White 3 times, plus once in the club, and once at WDW).

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1177.jpg

A note about the characters: the lines were never very long, as long as you showed up 2-3 minutes before posted time. But if you have specific characters you are looking for, do not miss the opportunity when you see it in the Navigator, because you may not get another opportunity. They also mention calling 7-pals to get detailed character appearances, in my experience they just recorded exactly what was in the navigator. ::yes::

After that we hit the show, which was the “welcome aboard”. Least fave of all the shows. They had a magician, ventriloquist and a skit about a boy who wants to be captain some day. A bit long for the kids, but we sat through it. We called it a night after that, getting ready for day 2.

Next up: DD makes a friend, as do DH and I, Palo, Key West blow-off, and formal night! ;)

mormadsmom

02-02-2009, 09:28 AM

Great TR!

Sophie_2003

02-02-2009, 07:54 PM

Day 2 Key West

Poor Key West. I had already decided I would much rather stay on board and get to know my brand new ship than to walk thru Key West to find nothing but key lime pies, trinkets stores and rocky beaches. Been there done that. We only docked past noon anyways.

Since I had received advance Navigators (tks, Mindelmouse), I had tried to find kids club activity where DD would like to go so DH and I could sneak away and have some mud-throwin’ rasul fun. Turns out today Snow White was going to come in the club and sing with the wee ones. Perfect! :thumbsup2

I had DH bring us breakfast from Topsiders to the room, where we proceeded to enjoy breakfast while looking out at the waves. We kept meaning to try room service for breakfast, but since we never know what time we will get up, we never got around to it.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1305.jpg

After breakfast was done we dropped DD off at the club and went to check out the Quiet Cove Pool before we were due for our Rasul at 11AM.

The pool area is gorgeous with the sun loungers covered with nice cushions. Except all the freakin’ loungers were taken, not by people but by towels. Chair saving was at its worst all week, and I can’t believe the gall of people to leave an old paperback on a chair for two hours on the off chance they may want to sit down. Think about it, how disrespectful is that for the ones who are at the pool now and would like to sit for a few minutes??? :mad: Off my soapbox, we proceeded to move a few towels and enjoy the chairs for a few minutes.

OK, the Rasul. For the uninitiated, this is a treatment you do to each other in this small tiled-room adjacent to a steambath. Technically it is for up to 3 people, which is downright kinky…You are shown to this room and presented with the products (exfoliator, mud, a bunch of masks, creams, shampoo, etc) and in what order to use them. Dh and I were giggly as we tried to get the instructions down before she left. Word of advice: bring a watch, because even though they knock with a ten-minute warning, you may lose track of time and not hear a knock if you are in the steam bath area. This is a g-rated trip report, suffice it to say we had a good mudthrowing time. Dh was cracking me up trying to use all the creams he could get his hands on and he ended up smelling like pot pourri for most of the day…:rotfl2:

We hurried to collect DD from the club before lunch as she probably wouldn’t eat without us (certainly wouldn’t eat anything that looked like a vegetable!). We went back to the room for our second meal of the day on the balcony. By that time we had already docked at Key West.

DH got us some pizza and fajitas from Topsiders (fajitas were really good, btw). The day was warm enough to warrant a swim in the pool, so we headed up top to check out the action. We walked past the Goofy Pool, which seemed awfully small, and we never did swim in there. We got to the Mickey Pool, which upon first sighting looks a little silly, with its Mickey face and ears, but someone really did their homework on this one because DD spent a few hours in there during the cruise!

As DD was settling in the Mickey Pool, I heard my name called and finally met Cyndik from our meet thread. We had exchanged several PM’s as we had a few things in common (running…or trying to, having an only child on the cruise, etc etc). On our PM’s Cyndi seemed sure the girls would get along fabulously as they are a couple of months apart. Cyndi’s girl is gregarious and fun-loving and very sociable. My kid tends to be more of an observer and usually will not easily make friends. Well Cyndi was right. 2 minutes in the pool together and they were fast friends, as the moms and dad started chatting by the pool. My DH went for a run in Key West (he is quite the dedicated runner!) as the other 3 parents got to know each other. I have to say meeting Cyndi and her family really made our cruise very special :thanks: and memorable and I hope we will have the opportunity to see each other again. I couldn’t help but post a pic of the girls literally minutes after they met as it really warms my heart!

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1203.jpg

We got the girls out of the pool and took them back to the club (I think it was storytime with Belle??? I forget, but it was something we figured they would enjoy) I hit the adult pool with DH, I think Cyndi and her husband rented bikes in Key West (Cyndi, btw, is supposed to jump into this report eventually, however some people are still in Florida as others have come home). I think this is when I met BeccaGrace who was also dropping the girls off. nice to meet you!

We went to dinner and I think I had beef wellington??? I know I had crème brulee for dessert which was delightful. We had already decided we wouldn’t see the show because it was a magic/illusion show and I didn’t think DD would enjoy it so much. We put her in the club and kicked around some more, only to continue our princess quest princess: ! We had Belle on our schedule, but Snow White showed up next to her so we saw her, and next to her was Cinderella, so we had all 3 princesses in about 5 minutes. We went back to the room and DD watched some tv, as we decided to keep her up to get some portraits with Donald :donald: & Daisy at 9:30. For some reason, Daisy & Donald seem to be harder to find, or perhaps our schedule just didn’t work with their appearances :confused3 . We took some portraits and were on our way to sleep.

Altogether a wonderful day, no regrets about not going ashore to Key West as the ship was much quieter than on the subsequent sea day. DH also managed to get into an unsecured wireless network to check his emails on the laptop as we had previously decided to…gasp….not take an internet package on this trip! :badpc:

Up next: Sea day, Palo that almost wasn’t, formal night & the Golden Mickeys

disneyfaninaz

02-02-2009, 10:22 PM

:) Anyone know how I can change the thread title??? I am clueless!

Go to your original post and click on edit. Then click on advanced, you can change your title there.

Enjoying your report. :thumbsup2

pmama

02-02-2009, 11:31 PM

Love all the detail!! Subbing:)

mormadsmom

02-03-2009, 09:51 AM

:thumbsup2

Sophie_2003

02-03-2009, 07:13 PM

Day 3 Sea Day Part 1

We woke up again to beautiful weather and calm seas. Dh decided he had had enough of being room service man, so he dragged DD and I on deck to get breakfast. Actually, only DD was eating because Dh and I had Palo ressies for brunch. We set her up in the Goofy pool area where they play Playhouse Disney channel on the Ariel view TV. She ate a bit and we were off to drop her at the club while we got dressed for Palo.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1241.jpg

Plans changed when we stopped by our cabin and Cyndi and family were at our door looking for DD to swim with them. DH went up to the Mickey Pool with them as I decided to take my 30 minutes and make some FE deliveries. Thank goodness Cyndi had mapped out a route to follow, it avoided so much running around . I was a bit worried DD would freak at being left with Cyndi (she is a clingy one!) but Dh managed to sneak away ;) and join me at Palo at 10:30.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to finish my deliveries and did not have time to go back to my room before heading up to Palo, so I was carrying a giant worn out Toys R Us plastic bag as we were lined up for Palo. The Maitre D :groom: gave me the evil eye :crazy2: :snooty: but he had to seat us anyway…lol.

Our waitress was Xenia and she was lovely. As she was showing us all the food (how frustrating to have all these choices from fresh fruit, breads, cheeses, caviar, breakfast hot items, pizzas and lunch entrees and know you cannot possibly taste it all???)…anyway, as we get our walking tour, Cyndi walks into Palo. As expected, DD has decided that being separated from us is no longer acceptable :sad: . I leave DH to finish the tour, I walk to the Palo entrance (kids are not allowed at Palo, so poor DD was left alone at the entrance, in a bathing suit covered with a towel and dripping wet. I wish I could have taken her picture, she was pretty pitiful!) Thankfully, after a few hugs, DD claims to be hungry and Cyndi saves the day by telling DD they should go get ice cream together :goodvibes . Bue-bye, back to stuffing myself please!

We ate some fresh berries, pain perdu, cheeses, a pizza, chicken parmigiana and veal. I meant to try the caviar but didn’t because I was scared it wouldn’t agree with me and I wouldn’t feel like eating anymore. Wayyyyy too much food. My bit of advice: try to do Palo twice, that way you can do a nice brunch, and next time eat the lunch food. On not-so-full sailings I am told it is possible. here are some desserts:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1244.jpg

We rushed out of there to join our friends and the girls at the princess gathering, which are the 3 princesses meeting & greeting in one line. It went very well, not much waiting and for DD too many princesses is never a bad thing.

We whisked the girls back up on deck for a quick lunch (seeing as we were sooo full from Palo, just sitting watching them eat was painful). We then dropped them off at the club, and DH and I chilled on our balcony and went up to the adult pool. I then went to the gym to run a couple of miles :yay: on the treadmill before getting ready for formal night. :flower3:

Next: day 3 part 2 formal night

Sophie_2003

02-03-2009, 07:28 PM

So I yanked DD out of the club and sent her to shower while I finished getting ready. Now this is a kid that will scream if a drop of water hits her eyes, but she just loooooves showering on cruise ships. Poor room steward, she also made such a mess. Now for formal night, I wear the standard LBD and DH whips out his one and only suit (the wedding-christening-funeral-formal night suit). DD, on the other hand, cannot be talked into a nice little dressy girly dress. No sirree. A princess dress must be worn for the occasion. We got her a new dress at WDW (a tradition of sorts for us), and this time she had picked out the wedding dress (which is mistaken for a Giselle from Enchanted dress all the time, btw). Now she does look adorable in that dress, however that screws up my plans completely for taking pics on the white background. Plus, I doubt we can get her to take pics with just mom and dad with no characters around! How dull.

Dinner was good if not memorable, except for my 2nd night in a row of crème brulee. This one has ricotta cheese in it and it just delightful.

Did I post this pic already?

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1277.jpg

The Golden Mickey dessert is a bit of a disappointment :guilty: . We kick around a bit after dinner and go to the Golden Mickeys to see the show. It is very well done, DD likes it a lot. We end the night with a pic with Mickey dressed in gold (how appropriate!) and off to bed we go.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1285.jpg

Next stop: Grand Cayman, which turns out to be a glorious day…onboard!

frdeb1999

02-03-2009, 07:28 PM

Wonderful TR so far....and looking forward to the rest!! You have a beautiful daughter! :)

Sophie_2003

02-03-2009, 07:30 PM

Wonderful TR so far....and looking forward to the rest!! You have a beautiful daughter! :)

Tks, writing this is like therapy!

shasess

02-04-2009, 05:52 PM

Wonderful, wonderful trip report!!!!

Sophie_2003

02-04-2009, 08:22 PM

Day 4 Grand Cayman

We must be very lucky people, because we get another gorgeous day as we anchor off of Grand Cayman. GC is a tender operation, which is a short boat ride over to the island. There isn’t much of a wait unless you wanna get off real early and do not have an excursion planned, so waiting a couple of hours is best. Before we left for the trip we had loose plans of going to 7-mile beach :beach: . We have been to GC 3 times, and twice to 7-mile beach, and that was starting to sound a bit BTDT for us (I know, how blasé :upsidedow ). We actually left the room and got breakfast with Cyndi and her gang at topsiders. Once again we all went to the Mickey :mickeyjum Pool, and the girls went swimming in the pool. The moms and dads chatted while the girls were playing, and an hour or so later my running man decided that he was going to go ashore and run in Grand Cayman. :hyper:

DD came out of the pool (starting to show signs of vacation fatigue, she merely lasted 2 hours in the pool) and stated it was lunch time. I got her a hot dog, and got myself a beautiful sandwich and fruit from Goofy’s galley. Try their panini sandwiches, they were delightful! We kinda split up from Cyndi’s family because her DD was not yet done with the pool. At that time we decided to take a walk on the wild side :lmao: : we were both going to go ashore and “gasp” leave DD at the club with no way to contact us since the pager the club provides will not work ashore. We decided that was ok since it was for such a short time, and off we went. We did warn the club we were unreachable and until when, and it seems quite a few people do that (you have to understand as parents of an only child that is a HUGE deal!!! :guilty: )

I am reading this and it does sound kinda boring, however trust me, that was a great morning, because the pool was pretty quiet, and Cyndi and I got to chat while reading her stack of magazines by the pool in the warm Caribbean sun. :)

We got a tender around 2pm. DH went for a run and we agreed to meet at the Flagship store 45 minutes later. Which was plenty of time to shop for the usual trinkets the islands offer (tshirts, cheap jewelry, ball caps, turtle souvenirs, rum cake, etc etc). I bought a small wooden treaure chest as a little gift for DD (mommy guilt for leaving her onboard). We caught a tender back and let the club know we were back onboard, however DD was having a fun time and decided to stay at the club. So much for mommy guilt leaving her there “all alone”. DH mentioned the running in GC was marginal at best, since it was hard to get away from busy traffic. :moped: :car:

Wait for it, more excitement! We did…wait for it…LAUNDRY. :laundy: Woo hoo. Since we had been gone from home for 9 days, everyone’s underwear supply was dwindling down, and to avoid having to dedicate a sink to hand washing tighty-whities (love that word, but no underwear in our house is white!), laundry was required. Now a word of warning: we were (almost) witness to underwear theft in the laundry room :scared: . Back to that in a moment. We did one wash, carefully selecting garments. The total cost was $3 ($1 for soap, $1 to wash and $1 to dry). Change machines are available anywhere, and that is the closest you will get to the sound of slot machines on a Disney ship, so enjoy! :p

Ok, I know, a lot of bad jokes on this instalment. As a disclaimer :offtopic: , I got perhaps 3 hours of sleep total last night as DD caught some kind of stomach bug and vomited in her bed 5 times between the hours of 7pm and 4am. So I am a bit tired. :faint:

Back to the theft. Cyndi can add more detail (or not…), but her DH also did laundry, and when he went back to get his stuff, his underwear, his favorite underwear, was missing. There are so many disturbing places a mind can go with these set of circumstances, let’s just say I do not believe the underwear was recovered. I think Cyndi may have thrown it out...:rotfl2:

After all the excitement, I managed to get my butt to the gym and waddle on the treadmill for what was about 2.5 miles, but felt like a marathon :yay: . I looked around at the weight machines, thought about trying one or two, and then decided against it. During that time DH had collected DD from the club and brought her back to our hangout, the Mickey Pool. We had some plans to maybe miss dinner, but seeing as this was our AP show night (we had formal night at AP the night before but without colors changing, and we did not want to miss it). So we quickly swept up DD from the pool, rinsed her off and slapped on a clean dress on her for dinner.

All right, Animator’s Palate, or Palette, or whatever. Big, big, BIG disappointment. I had seen the DVD, knew the waiters would change into colorful outfits, and read that the restaurant had cost over $4 million bucks. The only real colors that appeared (and not subtly at all) were some lights on pillars and the pictures on the wall. The ceiling remained black and white as did most of the walls. We meant to ask if that was it, but forgot. Our table mates had even changed their Palo ressies to witness this, and chose to miss Pirate pirate: night instead, and were also greatly disappointed. Oh, well.

We left dinner, and made plans to meet up with our tablemates to see the show together. We took a picture with princess Minnie, and DD deemed the Princess outfit lame, compared to the sequined dress she had on for Golden Mickey night. You be the judge.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1301.jpg

I thought it was cute. As usual I sent DH to grab front row seats for the show (Twice Charmed), which was really cute and well done, however I was beginning to feel very glad our DD is young and into all the princess princess: stuff, because a lot of older kids (like, over 8) kinda had glazed over looks during and after the show. That got us started on a discussion that Disney seems much more geared for little girls, even where there would be more “boy” type opportunities. I wonder if it I because we spend more on girls than boys…? We got back to the room to find a towel animal I could not identify (DD clued me in on its Dinosaur-shape), and went off to bed.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1304.jpg

I suppose this is as good a time as any to say we loved the room, but it was very creaky. There were creaky noises pretty much every night, which had DH scurrying around at 2m trying to locate the creak (once a desk drawer, often a ceiling tile) and try to make it go away. On top of out %$#@#$%^%^$$#@ neighbours. Seriously, people. Stop yelling in the hall past midnight, you are not alone on this ship :sad2: . You know who you are (and in this case, you are definitely not reading this as you did not speak a word of English, and DH and I debated all week about exactly which language you were speaking – we narrowed it down to Eastern European).

Nighty-night all. Please wish us a vomit-free night! :rotfl:

cyndik1111

02-04-2009, 09:35 PM

OK, just read your updated TR (instead of doing laundry & unpacking). Here's my 2 cents

1) we got off at key west at 3 pm and rented bikes for 1 hour. Rode around the island. It was terrific. we got away from the crowds and just took in the lifestyle. Plus, we had to burn off Palos brunch!

2) Grand Cayman was my favorite day because we stayed on the ship- had the place all to our selves until about 3 pm.

3) don't get me started about lounge chair saving. Are you kidding me? We opened the pool on Thursday at 745 am and already all but two of the chairs closest to the mickey pool were taken with towels, books, and bags. After 2 hours of empty 'saved" chairs, I reported it to a CM and the stuff was promptly removed. I was dying for someone to come ask me where their stuff was. I had my lecture all ready. But no one asked. But I did see a few people looking around on the floor. HA! go check guest services' lost and found for your stuff! And if you were one of the illegal savers, and you are reading this....shame on you!

4) Jill is still talking about her new friend and the dangerous wine-!

5) Stolen underwaer. DH did a white load- came back to get it 1 hour later, it was gone- who in the world would want our undies? Mine aren't bad, but DH's has holes in them???? I've been trying to throw them out for years, but he says they are all broken in and hold his boys just right. (was that too x rated?) he fretted all night- even got a migraine over the missing knickers. He reported it to guest services- I'm sure they had a nice laugh. The next morning they were found neatly folded on the table in the laundry room. Someone must have taken them by mistake. But one problem, all was returned except for 3 pairs of DH's hole-y panties. What could someone have done with those? Either they did me a favor and threw them out, or their DH has the same and just assumed they were theirs. Either way- thanks for getting rid of them.

6) Caviar? DH says it tasted like fishy tapioca- no thank you!

OK Sophie , lets hear more- and we want more photos!!!

Sophie_2003

02-05-2009, 01:04 PM

tinkerbeth

02-06-2009, 02:25 PM

Hello!

I think you guys are about as snowed in over there as we are over here. It's getting ridiculous. :p

I've just booked NEXT March for a 7 night Eastern - our first cruise ever and I'm subbing into read your report. I'm only on the 2nd page and really enjoying it so far.

Thanks! pixiedust:

Beth

Pooh's-Honey-Pot

02-07-2009, 07:36 AM

GREAT report!! You are getting me so excited! :thumbsup2

Sophie_2003

02-08-2009, 09:18 AM

Day 5 – Cozumel

All right, today was the day we would finally do something meaningful OFF the ship. There had been some discussion from the planning stages as to what we should do. We had considered Chakanaab park, but the beach is apparently rocky, and we nixed that idea. We had snorkeled previously and I think DD is too small to do it anyway, so a snorkel tour was eliminated. We basically narrowed it down to Paradise Beach, a sort of beach club that has some beach and sea toys with a nice sandy bottom. We didn’t exactly end up there, but more on that later. :thumbsup2

We got up waaayyyy late this morning. On top of that, on a rare occasion, I find Disney makes a bone-headed move of having everyone move their clock back one hour :hourglass , only to move them forward :hourglass the following night. I really don’t get it. On all our previous cruises (Carnival & RCCL), we always stay on ship’s time. Big deal, you think, right? Here is where the problem compounds: Cozumel night is pirate pirate: night. The pirate party starts at 9:45pm, and the fireworks are anytime between 10:15-10:30. Normally, I could keep DD up that late, but because we have moved the clocks back, it means the party starts at 10:45!!! That’s a big noway. Even if we could get DD to take an afternoon break and relax, I cannot have her up that late anyway, since the next morning at 8:15 is our character breakfast. Hope you got all that, needless to say I am jumping ahead and we did not attend pirate night deck festivities…:guilty:

Back to the day at hand. After some ooohing and aaahing, Cyndi and her gang and our family agree to go to San Francisco beach :beach: . Cyndi had researched the beach and suggested it because it was supposedly close to Paradise beach where her gang was headed, and San Fran beach had a pool in case the kiddoes did not like the sand-sea water combo. We met outside the gangway around 11:10, and grabbed a van :car: cab to the beach. The driver tried to suggest another place, but we stuck to it. The cost for all 6 of us was $28 cab fare, and the beach only required a $10 USD consumption pp for the use of lounge chairs and umbrellas.

The beaches (Paradise & San Francisco) were literally right besides one another, in case anyone was wondering.

The kiddoes played in the sand and the water a bit and the moms & dads chatted by the beachside. The girls got some braids done, Cyndi got a nice massage but apparently did not leave a sufficient tip, I will let her explain…:upsidedow . We drank some daquiris :drinking1 which I thought were good, and the girls got guitars from a local vendor (after much negotiating who would get what color, and may I say Cyndi’s DD was way more cooperative than ours…) we ate some fajitas, guacamole and chips, and the guys tried the pool with the kids. After a couple of hours we were done, and took a cab back to the ship. Here are some pics:

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1333.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1313.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1315.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1317.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1324.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1332.jpg

Next up: Afternoon & Pirate night!

Happy Elf

02-08-2009, 10:39 AM

Sophie_2003

02-08-2009, 11:32 AM

Joining in! Your daughter is beautiful! I have a curly, red-head myself! My DD sounds a lot like your DD! Reading about your TR makes me want to take a cruise. I think we will wait until DS is a little older though.

Yes, I would suggest waiting until they can both go to the club...although I hear Flounder's reef is just fine as well!

lindaso

02-08-2009, 12:12 PM

Hi Sophie...enjoying the trip report so far. Glad that you and Cyndi and the families all bonded. Looking forward to reading the rest of the week.

Sophie_2003

02-08-2009, 05:37 PM

Hi Sophie...enjoying the trip report so far. Glad that you and Cyndi and the families all bonded. Looking forward to reading the rest of the week.

Hey Linda! I am expecting a report from you as well...we all feel like we know your family from your 2006 report :)

cyndik1111

02-09-2009, 07:21 PM

Just a little history on the two beaches. Our DD is 5 years old. Way too young to enjoy all the "toys" that Paradise offers. (unless we spend all our time out there in the deep water with her) I really just wanted to relax on the beach and not have to be "on" the whole time. Also, i was worried that the beach might be cold, rocky, too many waves etc for a 5 year old. So when i found San Fran Beach with the pool. I thought it was what we wanted. But the other 3 families we were traveling with loved Paradise and were really pressuring me to go there instead. And of course DH was thinking we should follow the crowd. But I stood my ground.
I really liked the pool and would go back again. We just didn't stay that long to enjoy it that much.

I got the massage from the San Francisco's beach people. We were seated right next to the massage "hut". But it was the hut for Paradise Beach. So those wonderful looking massages were not what I got. An unenthusiastic lady lead me to an area under a tent. I was wearing a tankini. It was thick with one of those built in bras. she had me lay down on my stomach and she pulled the top over my head. She was not gentle! The she proceeded to give me a "masaage".

1st, she used enough oil to fry fajitas.
2nd. she was only 1/2 into this thing. She was busy talking to her partner and she was having quite the conversation is spanish. she would stop massaging, just kind of have her hand on my shoulder or back while she was in the heat of a conversation. Then occassionally she would rub a little here and there. You could tell she really wasn't putting her heart into it.
3rd. when she was done, she left me to put my top back on, with no offer to hold a towel up to give me a little privacy. So there I was trying to get the size DD girls back into a snug tankini without giving the beach an xrated show. And don't forget all that oil- that didn't help either.

Then she tells me $50 and asked for a tip. So i told her $60 total (I put it on my credit card) I figured $10 tip for 1 hour massage (that wasn't that good) was more than fair. she kept repeating to me "$10?" in a tone that suggested I was being very cheap. I just kept saying "$10" there was no way I was going to fell obligated to give more. Then she lead me to a lady at a counter where they rang it up. Again i was asked "$10?" with that usual insulted tone. I stood my ground. The bill came up something like 780 pescos. they assured me that equaled $60 american. We'll see when the bill comes. That was a lesson leaned. I liked the beach, and the pool was great and the food was really good, but DON'T GET THE MESSAGE.

Oh one more thing, i always felt like they were planning on ripping us off. Could have just been me, but I help my wallet close to me the whole time.

I found out later that I could have just asked the Paradise beach people to get a message under their tent. Who knew? Our friends did get one from them and loved it.

Also, in case anyone is interested: you can go to San Fran beach for the pool, spend the $10 per adult on food/beverage, and also buy the $10 bracelet for paradise if a person or two with your group wants the "toys" on Paradise. They are right next to each other, you'd never know they were a different beach if they didn't tell you.

Sophie_2003

02-09-2009, 07:45 PM

Hey Cyndi,

you are like Gayle to my Oprah; Regis to my Kelly...lol. Thanks for jumping in. I will try and write more tomorrow, I have busloads of laundry to fold again (how can 3 people generate so much laundry???) and I will be watching "24", which, like LOST, requires all my attention, besides the fact that Keifer Sutherland is yummy!!!

Sophie_2003

02-10-2009, 06:31 PM

All righty. We came back onboard, and since I had had some frozen concoction of a drink on the beach :hyper:, running to the gym was out of the question. I know, I know. Bummer ;) . I took DD to the club and DH, who had abstained from alcohol for an unknown reason (he is a beer man, and I think he may have had to abstain for fear I was getting tanked with one frozen drink, which has already happened, so he would need to remain sane parental authority for the afternoon :rolleyes: )…anyway, DH went to the gym. He actually contemplated gong ashore for his run, therefore completing the trifecta of running at every port of call, but the busy streets did not appeal to him, and off to the gym he went :yay: .

I waddled to the Quiet pool, got a nice padded lounger and relaxed a bit. I am actually amazed that I almost finished a 400-page (and almost 400 pounds) novel on this cruise. Interesting coincidence, the book is called “Scarpetta” by Patricia Cornwell, and my tablemate was reading the exact same 400-pound book. I fell asleep for a bit. I vaguely recall Cyndi & DH were supposed to join us but they never did? Anyhow, DH joined me at the quiet pool after his run, and our tablemates sat with us a bit at the adult pool, their DD was in the lab. Just as we marveled at the fact that DD seems to be enjoying the club and is always willing to go…well, the dreaded pager goes off, for the first (and only) time of the cruise. Those messages are so ominous :confused: "Susie Tanner would like to be picked up from the Oceaneer’s club” OK, her name is not Susie Tanner, but you get the jist. So we barrel down the 4 flights of stairs and run to get DD…who was just a bit tired.

We decide to go back to the cabin and let her take her customary 45-minute cruise shower to get ready for pirate pirate: night. Now I had not really obsessed about pirate night. DH is not a costume guy, and I would have just worn a POTC t-shirt if we had gone on the ride at WDW (we didn’t). So DD put on her princess wedding gown, we dress casual, apply some tattoos we got in our FE and put on some bandannas I brought from home, and we head for dinner. I was thrilled to have Pirate dinner at Parrot Cay, just seems appropriate. Dinner was ok, nothing amazing that I even remember. Dessert had some kind of meringue base which DD loved. That was to be our last night in the dining room, unbeknownst to us at the time, and I feel bad because we didn’t properly say goodbye to our tablemates – they were at Palo that night. Their DD had dinner with us, and I dropped her off at the club after dinner.

Some dinner photos:

a chocolate cookie smile
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1352.jpg

playing around with Pirate Menu
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1346.jpg

Pirate me and pirate DD
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1341-1.jpg

After dinner, since there was no show, we kicked around and saw a couple of characters: pirate Mickey, and Peter Pan/Wendy. We went back to the room and DH and I had a friendly disagreement :chat: about what to do about the deck party. I won (big surprise). We basically had to decide which she would enjoy most: a loud deck party with some fireworks at the end, or a character breakfast the following morning at 8:15 (keeping in mind we were going to move the clocks forward). Character breakfast won out and DD was swiftly put to bed, followed immediately by tired (and cranky) mommy. DH did walk up on deck to check the party out and said it wasn’t that busy, but that there were many many tired/cranky kids who looked (and acted) like it was waaayyyyy past their bedtime!!! :scared:

Some more pics:

Pirate Mickey
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1359.jpg

PPan and Wendy
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1361.jpg

This character in our stateroom
http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq61/Sophie_2003/IMG_1364-1.jpg

Next : sea day, DD has had enough!

Sophie_2003

02-11-2009, 06:33 PM

Day 6 – Sea Day

Aaahhhhhhhh. A sea day. Our very last sea day:cloud9: We are once again blessed with very nice weather and awaken by our alarm clock as this morning is our character breakfast. Since we have early dining, the breakfast is at 8:15. That’s a tough one!

You see, we had figured DD would be so over the characters by now, after 4 days at the parks and 5 days on this ship where you can’t avoid the fury ones even if you try. But noooooooooooooooo. This is the kid who ran into the street during our rinky-dink holiday parade hugging any reindeer/elf/Christmas Tree costume that walked by.

The breakfast was very good, and the characters a bit rushed, but that’s understandable. It is difficult to take decent pics as you are right at your table and there isn’t a lot of wiggle room. Of course, DD barely ate because anytime she sat down she would spot yet another character we hadn’t seen yet. It was over in a flash and we decided to try out the Playhouse Disney dance party at the promenade Lounge right by Parrot Cay.

A few breakfast pics:

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DD getting custom Minnie Ears
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OK, so we weren’t into it much, but it was a pretty lame party. A social host would play some tunes from Playhouse Disney shows and try to get the kids to dance. Which is fine. Then a couple of parents get in on the action and ruin it for the rest of us parents who thought we could sit down, finish our coffee and peruse the Navigator :surfweb: . Oh well. We were out of there in about 5 minutes, and I could already sense DD was going to have one of THOSE days. You know, the cranky, overtired, nothing will satisfy the diabolical preschooler day? Well. It was shaping up to be that way. :headache: :scared1: :confused3

We went back to the cabin and decided to check out the pool where we met Cyndi and her DD who had been there for hours already. We sat down as the girls went back in the pool together, and after what seems like minutes, my darling DD announces that she has had enough swimming. OK. What now? Oceaneers’ club? No, she just wants to go back to the room.

This is where I was pretty happy we had upgraded to a balcony. DH and I took turns sitting with her on the balcony. She was so exhausted, poor kid really needed to reset. She wouldn’t nap for a million dollars, but kicking around the cabin, watching cartoons, playing with FE gifts was fine with her. I ordered us some room service of hot dog, fajitas and salad and forgot to order drinks. I also figured out I had no money whatsoever, but to my surprise you can tip the room service people on the KTTW card. We ate some, and I went back to my post on th balcony reading while DD chilled out.

Dh orchestrated a rescue mission by sending in Cyndi and family; their DD was on her way to the Club and tried to coax my DD to go, but she didn’t budge right away. A few minutes after Cyndi left, DD decided that this cabin was getting too small for the both of us (:chat: after a suggestion to her that I had no intention of spending this entire sea day in the cabin and if she wanted to stay in she would have to nap as it meant she was very tired…bad mommy!) So my DD went to the club and I was freed from house arrest.

I dragged my huge novel up to the quiet pool where I didn’t have that much time since I had booked a Frangipani scalp massage. I felt like getting another spa treatment but I didn’t want to spend too much. A frangipani is 25 minutes for $25. You are sent to the locker room to take off your top and put on a robe, and you sit in the salon area as you get a wonderful scalp and neck/shoulder massage. The only complaint I would have is that you are getting this massage while sitting in a hairdresser chair in front of a mirror…I would have preferred a darker massage room, but I guess that would mean more $$$ as it takes up space. Another issue is that your hair is very oily after all this, so a double shampoo is required.

We picked up DD from the club as I figured she would be hungry after not eating much. We also wanted to sign her back in at 4pm as they were rehearsing the “Friendship Rocks” farewell show that was at 5pm. I made the decision to skip Tea with Alice that was also at 4pm. I felt bad, but I had heard some kids got to sit with Alice, and if DD hadn’t been picked, she would have been miserable, and I knew we could catch Alice and get her autograph at another time. Anyway, back to lunch where DD polished off 4 slices of pizza as we sat by the Goofy pool. Which was ok because we hadn’t planned on eating in the dining room tonight.

Back to the club she went, off to shampoo the oil off my head for me. We went to the WD theater to see the farewell show which is exactly what you can expect from a bunch of under-10’s who got 20 minutes of rehearsal time :rotfl: . A big milestone for us is that DD actually wore the yellow tshirt (she never wears tshirts, weird, I know. It is long sleeve or tank top for her). Mickey and Minnie show up and do a little dance in their Club uniform and the kids are taken off the stage and corralled off back to the Club where hordes of parents wait to retrieve said kids for dinner/show.

A pic of the show (Mickey in yellow pants)

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Our evening plans were to see the early showing of Disney Dreams, catch some Topsiders dinner and DH absolutely positively wanted to catch Bolt in 3D, and this was the last evening showing of the cruise. I had seen some of it early on in the week, and may I say 3D + ship motion is very interesting, and this 3D was really well done, not pie-in-your-face 3D.

We sat in the front row as has been our custom throughout the week and DD loved the show…and was unable to sit while bubbles came down during the Mermaid bit, and during the Lion King part. Beware, she almost got run over as performers run through the theater! The singer recognized her the following night as her number one fan! Again a very sweet show, but I can see that older kids would not appreciate as much.

After the show, we went to Topsiders but found out we needed over an hour to get dinner there, and we only had 40 minutes before Bolt started. To our dismay, our only remaining option was burgers/hot dogs, as Goofy’s galley deli closes at 6 and pizza closes at 6:30. This is one of the few times I wished there was a buffet option like on Carnival. But we made the best of it and had some burgers poolside.

DD decided to go see Bolt popcorn:: with DH which meant some alone time for mommy :cloud9: . I dropped them off at the theater and went to the Cove café to buy a frothy coffee and sit quietly on a lounger outside. I made a mental note of coming back for a hot tub dip after DD fell asleep but never did.

Ready for 3D

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Mommy's zen moment!

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DD sat through the whole movie :3dglasses (she loves Mittens – a shame that the Bolt characters at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are only Bolt and Rhino). I found out Daisy was making an appearance right after the movie so we hightailed it to the lobby, got in line for a pic and off to bed we went!

Goofy and Daisy

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Next up: Castaway Cay!

ktmetke

02-11-2009, 11:20 PM

Loved the update! Especially after a looooooooong day at work...it's nice to escape to Disney via a Trip Report!

cyndik1111

02-12-2009, 12:02 PM

Reg,
(or am I regis?)
So far so good. I have nothing else to add yet.
Looking forward to next installment

Sophie_2003

03-12-2009, 06:50 AM

Well, it's been a while, and before this TR falls into oblivion, I thought I should put in a little update...:)

My TR writing has been interrupted by our kitchen renovations, and an impromptu mini-trip to WDW last week. We had a great time, stayed at our first "value" resort (ASMusic) and chased some more characters (DD, who used to be just a princess-obsessed girlie, now is on a mission to meet and get an autograph from every character she can think of). We managed 4 new ones (Jiminy, Buzz, Pinocchio and Rafiki). And we saw wishes, twice. I love Wishes.

Anyhow, I hope to wrap up this puppy of a trip report this weekend. We have this great shot of Cyndi and I in our running gear with Donald Duck that I need to scan and post.

Have a great day everyone!

cakesnjammom

03-12-2009, 02:13 PM

I love your TR so far! Cannot wait to read the rest! Sounds likw a great trip!

swankybeth

03-13-2009, 05:03 PM

Great report, can't wait for the next installment. I love that you went to WDW again before you even finished this report! :rotfl:

Sophie_2003

03-30-2009, 09:30 PM

So I am sitting here thinking it is pretty pathetic that I have not finished my TR. :rolleyes:

So here it is!

Last Day...Castaway cay.

Boy, this place had a lot to live up to. I have been on quite a few carnival cruises, and they don't have a private island. We went on one RCCL cruise and loved their private island, BBQ and all. So I was really looking forward to this day.

Little did I know we could have altogether missed CCay. Upon returning I saw quite a few reviews saying that the Wonder had failed to dock around the day we were on CCay. :headache:

I woke up to this beautiful sight of my DD waking up from a peaceful night's sleep. :lovestruc She is so cute.

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Then I saw the message light bleeping on the phone, and I got the message that my parasailing excursion had been cancelled. This was a happy/sad kinda thing. I had been looking forward to it, but I also wanted to spend a quiet day with my little family as well. So the wind God made that decision for me. A lot of the excursions that day were cancelled. And here is the view from our room:

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I then called Cyndi's room to see if we were going to join the CC 5k run :yay: we had been talking about. For anyone keeping track of this 5k, a Cm named Jay had been running it, and word had that he had been let go from DCL a few weeks prior under murky circumstances :cool2:. Well the run was on the Navigator sked so we decided to go for it. We met a nice cm named Mark who explained the route to us and proceeded to run with the fast guy way up ahead, not to be seen until the end of our run.

There were about 10-12 runners. Cyndi and I ran sweep at the back of the pack. For anyone interested, it is just a little over 5k, I was wearing my DH's GPS running watch. It was kinda fun to run on the runway and bike path. I decided I would come back here and bike with DD if I cruise DCL when she is a bit older.

When Cyndi and I finished our run we saw the elusive Mark who handed us towels and congratulated us. We also saw a Duck...Donald Duck, and we took this great picture of two middle-aged sweaty ladies with a Duck wearing no pants. I would love to post this pic but it is now in a scrapbook and our scanned is on the fritz...so you'll have to imagine it! we also ran into our DH's who had rounded up the girls to head to the family beach. We got back on board to shower up. In the meantime, the girls cozied up with some beach bums...man, Goofy looks like he needs some food!:

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NOTE TO ANYONE WHO SAYS: I will meet you on the family beach. It is a huge beach. It is a busy beach. You may never find them. Took me a while!!!

So we finally all got together. The play structure in the water was a bit too hairy for the little ones, so they played around on the beach and with our rented floatie. The water was surprisingly warm, we had heard such harsh reports we thought we may need wetsuits, but it was fine.

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We had a nice BBQ lunch (sorry, no food porn) :sad1: I loved the ribs, corn and bread. There is something about a nice outdoor BBQ you don't have to pay for. We then send the DH's out to their cabana massages. I had reserved my DH's as a birthday present, and Cyndi decided to send Greg along. Off they went, together, hand in hand...just kidding! :rotfl: Around that time I finally met Lindaso. They seemed to ba having a good time. Waiting for an update on the TR, Lindaso!!!

Cyndi and I decided to round up the girls and send them to the club while we explored the adult beach. Another note: do not send the kid to the club wearing clothes...they will get wet! The outdoor club was ok-looking and we did feel guilty because it seemed the girls were not that much into going. But we got over it. :lmao:

We took the tram to serenity bay and found it...eerily quiet. There were a handful of people, some seaweed on the beach as previously reported, and not much else. We walked along a bit before heading back. We collected our girls from the outdoor club (as reported, DD who had changed out of her bathing suit had gotten her dress completely soaked, so we put hr suit back on) and decided we would head back to the ship without the DH's...except my Dh had kept DD's ship card, and Cyndi's DH had left HIS card with HER stuff. So we waited for them to come back from their massages.

Note #3: walkie-talkies are very handy. Had we not had them we would have wandered around looking for the guys instead of being able to talk to them on their way back.

We boarded the ship all together; the guys both really enjoyed their massages, and knowing DH is a picky one when it comes to massages, I can vouch that the ladies do a great job. When I got to the cabin I had a little certificate congratulating me on completing the CC 5k. Cute.

I vaguely remember going up to the Mickey Pool, and we planned to blow off our last dinner in the dining room because it was too early (5:30) and we didn't feel like rushing to get there. We agreed to meet Cyndi's family for dinner at Topsiders (note #4...Topsiders os CLOSED the last night of the cruise...)

In the meantime, DH decided to go for his own run on Castaway Cay. :yay::yay::yay: he said it was really cool as most people had reboarded and it was very quiet. When he boarded at 4:30 he said there were 4 passengers left on the island according to the computer when you zap in your card. Here are a few of his pics:

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I love the last one.

Up next...did we go hungry on our last night? and...till we meet again, last breakfast and goodbye Magic, hello Tampa airport, snow drifts and back to reality!!!

anewmac

03-31-2009, 10:58 PM

you already have your pics scrapbooked LOL man you good!

Love the pics! cant wait for more!

Sophie_2003

04-19-2009, 06:40 PM

And now it is time to put this TR to rest, once and for all!

As we got ready for dinner, Cyndi's gang and ours decided we felt like eating together our last night. We decided we would finally try TOPSIDERS. Mistake #1: Topsiders is not open the last night of the cruise, so we were contemplating dogs and burgers or room service but nowhere decent to sit in. Disney Magic happened. DH went to the dining Room to give our waiters their envelopes, and they graciously took our order with the promise of delivering it to Cyndi's stateroom where we were going to eat.

Cyndi's family ordered from room service and soon all the food showed up in the cabin. We decided to hightail it to the 9th deck to find someplace to eat, but it was windy and a bit coolish. Disney magic moment #2, they actually let us in to eat in Topsiders by ourselves even though it was closed. we really enjoyed out meal together!

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We then dropped DD off at the club to finish packing, and went to get her right before till we meet again. Basically most of the characters show up and scatter around for a quick autograph/pic session. DD was happy and we managed to get the last few we were missing (Hook, Alice, Dopey) as well as some last minute hugs with her current fave, Donald.

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Back to the room for our last night.

The next morning we awakened to our steward knocking on the door...uh oh. Quickly we gathered our stuff and went to Topsiders; I think we were the last group let in. I wish we could have gone to the dining room but our time was 6-something, so forget that. We ate with Cyndi and made our way off the ship, sad but happy it was a fun vacation!

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We took a shuttel to get a rental car and drove to Tampa airport. Now this was Saturday as in Tampa the day before the SuperBowl Saturday, and my DH, the most unaware man in football history followed the GPS instructions right THROUGH Superbowl traffic. What fun that was!!! But we made it to the airport on time, got on our 5pm flight and we were home by 10pm.

There was snow everywhere, it was freezing cold, laundry to do and a kid to take back to PreK on Monday. The joys of regular life...:rotfl:

As our final assessment, we were seasoned cruisers but first-time Disney cruisers. Although we really enjoyed the Disney difference, we are not sure we would do it again just because the price is so much higher, and eventully DD will stop falling all over herself for any characters. In addition, DD preferred Camp Carnival to the OClub...not sure why! Room size, staff friendliness, entertainment, heated pools, Disney wins hands down. Carnival wins food and price!

Happy Trails everyone!