Mike & Missy's Grand Adventure! 9/5/09 DCL Western & WDW TR w/ pics! Updated 04/19 [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

UGAFan0829

09-22-2009, 02:37 PM

Arriving in Port Canaveral, Checking Out the Beach, and Luggage Chaos!

Since Brandi and Gayle wouldn't be joining us for the WDW half of the trip, we decided to drive seperate cars. (It was probably best since all 4 of us could never have fit into one car along with all our luggage!) So, the plan was for them to meet us at our house at 4:30 a.m. that morning. (We live only a few miles from the interstate, so it only made sense that way.) After finally finishing up our packing at midnight the night before, we finally made it to bed only to be up at 3. By the time Gayle and Brandi made it there, we had all our luggage by the door, ready to go...
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After Mike finally got everything loaded in the car and we double-checked the house one last time, we were on the road!
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I was pretty happy that we were on the road so close to our planned time!

Since I was driving and it was still dark out, that kinda hampered my plan to try and get some pics of landmarks throughout our drive. Once we got into Atlanta, Mike tried to take a couple, but they didn't turn out so well. It's a good thing there weren't that many cars on the road--as I was trying to tell Mike what I wanted pictures of and then him trying to show me the picture after he took it. Needless to say, my attention wasn't as focused on the road as it should have been. Though I've been to and through Atlanta a zillion times, I still love seeing the skyline, especially at night. So, even though they're terrible quality, I'll still share what pics we did get:
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We'd been on the road for a couple of hours when we all started to get a little rumbly in our tumblies! We'd made it to Warner Robins and was looking for a Chick-fil-A. Well we found one, but then realized that it was in a mall. Of course with it being so early in the morning, the mall wasn't open yet. So, instead, we ended up at McD's. It wasn't bad, but it sure wasn't the good ol' chicken biscuit that I was craving! After our short detour, we were back on the road!

We made it to the Flordia Welcome Center and decided that we needed to stretch our legs. It was a good feeling to finally be in Florida! We took our time and has some fresh orange juice while we browsed around all the guide and brochures that they have available there. We picked up a couple of guides for Key West and checked those out before we left. We finally made it back to the car about 30 min. later, and Mike took the wheel this time.

It was about 1:00 when we finally arrived in Port Canaveral to the Country Inn & Suites.
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Check-in time wasn't until 4, so we had a few hours to kill.

We were all starving, so we decided to park one car and all ride together to find some lunch. We decided on Chili's, but didn't see one in the area, so we pulled it up on the GPS. Turns out there is one just a few minutes away in Merritt Island, so we made the short trek over there. Sorry, I don't have any pictures from lunch, but it was really good and we were way stuffed!

After lunch, we decided to kill a little time by sightseeing a little. Brandi wanted to go to Ron Jon's later that night, so we found it so that we'd know where to come back to later. By that time, it was pretty close to 4, so we decided to head on back to the hotel to try and check-in.

Continued in next post...

UGAFan0829

09-22-2009, 02:38 PM

We made our way into the hotel and checked-in. I was pretty impressed with the lobby of the hotel and was excited to see our room.
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I don't know why, but this was the only picture that I took inside the hotel, which is very unusual for me. Anyway, the room was nice and clean, and there was room enough for all 4 of us.

After resting in the room for a little while, we decided to head back out. Gayle had some things that she needed from Wal-Mart, so once again we all rode together to make it easier. After Wal-Mart we headed to Steak N' Shake for a shake. We were still so full from lunch that we decided we would skip dinner. After Steak N' Shake we made our way to one of the public beach acccess areas just to check out the beach. Again, for some reason, I didn't even think to take pictures! It was starting to rain while we were there, so we didn't stay very long. Next we decided to check out Ron Jon's. Brandi had been wanting to go there for a while, and I kinda wanted to see what they had too. I have to admit that I was a little disapppointed. The store was huge, but everything was really expensive. I don't think any of us bought anything. Sopping trip over, we decided to finally head back to the hotel. One of the nice things about this hotel is that not only is it so close to the port, but it's close to everything else as well.

Since we didn't take the time to unload our luggage when we first arrived, we had to do it now. Thankfully the hotel had plenty of luggage carts! As we were unloading our luggage at the front of the hotel, Stacy, NYCDVClover2000! She and I had been texting before we arrived back at the hotel and had planned to meet up. She was giving me a hard time because I thought we had a lot of luggage, which turned out to be nothing compared to what she had!! After we took all our bags back up to the room, Mike and I went back down to the lobby to chat with Stacy and her family for a little while. I LOVED talking to her and hearing her New York accent! After we finished our chat, we decided it was time to head up to the room and get ready for the morning.

Since we still hadn't tagged all our luggage with our DCL tags, we figured we should do it now. And this is where the luggage chaos began! For some reason, when our luggage tags arrived in the mail, I took them out and looked at them thinking that we had 4 luggage tags each, which would = 8 pieces of luggage total...WRONG!!! I don't know what I was thinking, but there were only 2 luggage tags each! As you can probably tell from my previous picture, we had a little more than 4 pieces of luggage. So I immediately get on the phone with DCL. I thought surely there would be more luggage tags available if we needed them...WRONG AGAIN! Turns out, they only send you 2 luggage tags a piece because that's all you're allowed!:scared1: This never even crossed my mind until now, so I panicked a little. We had done well to fit everything in the suitcases that we already had. How in the world did they expect us to only have 2 pieces of luggage each??? Not only that, but they also told us that the carry-ons have to be a certain size, which I totally did not realize either!! A couple weeks prior to our trip, I had bought myself a new Large Duffel bag from Vera Bradley. Now I was afraid to take it in case it was too big!! Yes, I am a worrier, and it probably would have been fine, but I was afraid they wouldn't let me carry it on! So we throw all our suitcases on the bed and totally re-group. Thankfully, Mike worked his magic and we were able to get it down to 4 suitcases and a carry on!

After the fiasco, we finally got everything tagged and ready to go. It was about 11 when we finally hit the hay. I just hoped that the next day wasn't going to start as badly as this one had ended!!! When we checked in, they put us on the list for the first shuttle over to the port, which didn't leave 'til 10:30. I was very nervous that we wouldn't make it onboard in time for me to get a hair appt. for formal night. As tired as I was once we finally got to bed, it took forever to finally go to sleep. There were a million things going through my head! Will I get that appointment? Will everything go smoothly with boarding? There's only one way to find out...

UGAFan0829

09-24-2009, 03:15 PM

Today was the day that we had waited for, for a very long time!!

We were all up and ready by 8. Gayle and Brandi got ready 1st so that they could head on down to breakfast and give us time and privacy to get ready. We met them downstairs in the breakfast room at about 9:00. Our shuttle didn't leave until 10:30, but the front desk staff asked that we be in the lobby with our luggage by 10:15. We had plenty of time to eat breakfast and enjoy ourselves. As we sat there, I watched everyone and wondered just how many of them would be joining us on the Magic. At about 9:45 or so, we headed back to the room to make sure we had everything packed back up and were ready to go.

We made it down to lobby at about 10, and were the 1st ones there. It didn't take long for lots of others to join us. We eventually moved outside to the front of the hotel to wait for our instructions. There were already shuttles bringing people back to the hotel. As everyone gathered around, our shuttle driver, Duane explained how the process would work. When we checked-in, we were given a pink slip of paper that had our last name and the number of people in our party. We were told to hold onto the paper until all our luggage was loaded and we were seated on the shuttle. Duane asked that we bring our luggage to him, so that he could stack it inside the trailer. (They had a small enclosed trailer that they were pulling behind the shuttle that stored everyone's luggage.) He asked that we take all of our carry-on items with us onto the shuttle. It was only a matter of minutes before we were all loaded and ready to go! He then collected our slips and told us our instructions for the return from port. (They had given us another piece of paper at check-in as well...This one was orange, but had the same info as the first piece of paper. The only difference is that the shuttle driver's cell phone numbers were listed at the bottom, and we were instructed to call them as soon as we were off the ship and ready to be picked up. Worked for me!)
This was the first sign that we saw just before we crossed the bridge:
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And it was just a few minutes before we had our first glimpse of the Magic...
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Seeing the ship for the first time is soooo exciting!
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And I was even more excited that Brandi and Gayle were experiencing DCL for the first time! I had to get a quick shot of them seeing it for the first time...
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Just beautiful!!
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We arrived at the port around 10:45 or so...To be honest, I was so excited that I really wasn't even paying attention! We all got off the shuttle and waited for our luggage to be unloaded. Between Duane and the porter that was there, they had everything off in just a minute. We tipped both Duane and the porter for all their help and were on our way into the terminal!!

There was a huge line to go through the security screening, but thankfully it didn't take too long. Once we finally made it up the escalators, we found a CM to make sure we had all our paper work together. We also had to sign a health questionnaire bascially asking if we had any flu-like symptoms. After that, Mike and I jumped into the Castaway Club line and Brandi and Gayle went to the regular line. As we got in line, we were handed boarding pass #5! I was a little disappointed, but was surprised that it wasn't a higher number considering the amount of people who were already there. Even though the terminal was already crowded, the check-in process was pretty fast. Once finished with check-in, we headed over and had our picture made which was another quick and painless process. Just as we were leaving the photo area, Gayle and Brandi had just finished with their check-in. I noticed that Captain Mickey was out for photos, and since we'd never seen him in the terminal before, Mike and I headed over to get in line while Gayle and Brandi had their photos done. They were done pretty quickly and then came over to join us in line.
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I snapped this shot while waiting...
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The details of the terminal are really cool!
I was surprised at how short the line for Mickey was, and it moved pretty quickly.
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In just a matter of minutes we had our first official vacation photo!!

After meeting Captain Mickey, we decided to head outside so that we could check out the ship a little closer.
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I noticed that Crush had swam up to welcome everyone...
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It was a little warm outside, so we decided to head back in and wait until time to board the ship. There was no where to sit, so we found a corner over by the kids-club area to stand. I was standing there with my back turned when I heard someone call my name. I turned around, and it was Mel, also known as aussieinvasion here on the boards!! I was SO excited to finally meet her in person. She was the one who started our cruise chat way back in December of '07. At that time we thought we were going to be the only ones on the ship-boy were we wrong!:laughing:Between talking here on the boards and chatting through e-mail, we had gotten to know each other, so I was SOOOO excited to finally meet her in person!:cheer2: We chatted with Mel and her family for a few minutes and before long, it was time to board the ship!!!
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I couldn't believe that we were finally on the Magic!!!
Continued in next post...

UGAFan0829

09-24-2009, 03:18 PM

As we were walking into the Atrium to be announced, Mike and I were behind Brandi and Gayle. After they called their names and welcomed them aboard, I just kept walking right behind them. I was so excited to see what they thought of the ship that I just walked off and left Mike standing there. He called out to me, and I turned around to see him laughing. I got so caught up in the moment that I didn't even care that they didn't annonce us. So, I turned around so that we could be "properly" introduced!

Once we were finally onboard, we headed for Parrot Cay for lunch, but then we all decided that we'd rather go up to Topsider's instead. Just before we got on the elevators to go up, it suddenly hit me that I needed to go to the Spa to try and get a hair appointment. I told everyone to go ahead and I would catch up with them later, but they told me they would wait. I took off by myself in hopes that I could find my way to the Spa without getting lost. (I have a TERRIBLE sense of direction and can get lost in a mall!) Mike caught up with me a minute or so later and said he'd go with me in case I got lost...He knows me pretty well!! There was a Spa employee already in the elevator when we got on. She asked if we were headed to the Spa, and we told her yes. She asked what I wanted to make an appointment for, and I told her that I wanted an updo for formal night. She said that she wanted me to have Alex because he was the best, so she led us into the Spa and told the lady at the counter what I wanted. In a matter of seconds she told me that I could come at 3:30 on Monday afternoon, which was formal night! YES! I was SOOO excited and relieved that I was able to get something!

After leaving the Spa, we headed back to where we left Brandi and Gayle and headed up to Topsider's. It was really crowded in there, but we were finally able to find a seat inside. I was stil so excited about everything, so of course I didn't think to take pictures. We finished up at about 1:20 and decided to walk around a few minutes since the rooms weren't ready yet. So we took Gayle and Brandi down to the secret space on deck 7. I snapped a couple pics while we were taking in the view...
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At 1:30 on the dot, our rooms were ready! I couldn't wait for Gayle and Brandi to make it to their room to see their surprises. Brandi had ordered the Birthday Stateroom Celebration for Gayle, and Mike and I had ordered the Bon Voyage for the both of them.

Their room was the first that we came to, so we waited at the door while they found their surprises. Both of them were totally excited. We were happy to be able to do something special for them. Here's what the Bon Voyage looked like...
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It's kind of hard to see exactly what was in the tray, but it was a selection of Petite Fours and Chocolate Covered Strawberries. It also came with Champagne, but since they don't drink it I chose the Sparkling Cider for them.

Next, we headed over to our room to check out where we'd be spending the week.
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Our Castaway Club gift was waiting for us on the bed...
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We had verandahs on both our other cruises, but this time we finally had a plexiglass one which wa really nice!
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After taking a couple more photos, it was time to head up to the Promenade Lounge for our much awaited DIS meet! I was so excited to finally be meeting everyone. aussieinvasion and her family were already there, and shortly after ibela (Irene) found us as well. The three of us had been chatting for so long, so I was reallty glad to have finally met them both. Mike got a pic of the three of us...
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Then it was time for our big group photo...
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I was really overwhelmed at the number of DIS'ers on this cruise. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. It was so great meeting all these people face to face!! Everyone was sweet and friendly!

The meet started to dwindle down and I knew we had to go get ready for our Lifeboat drill, so we headed back to the room. We assumed that since we were right next door to Gayle and Brandi that we would be at the same muster station, but we weren't. So we met out in the hall for a quick pic or two before we headed off to our stations.
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The drill seemed like it took forever! I think it was mostly because we were outside this time but had been inside on our other cruises. Thankfully it was over fast enough and we headed back to the room.

When we got back, most of our luggage had arrived, so I was able to decorate our doors.
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I had planned on making more signs, but I just never got around to it, so those were all that we had--but I thought they were cute enough!

Not long after we'd made it back to the stateroom, it was time to head up for Adventures Away! On our way outside we grabbed a Bon Voyage, my absolute favorite drink ever!!! I think I sucked mine down and everyone else was still sipping on theirs. Those things are SOOO good!:thumbsup2 Both decks 9 and 10 were really crowded, but we managed to find a spot against the railing facing the stage. First out was our Cruise Director, Brent.
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I've seen lots of good things about Brent here on the DIS, so I was really excited that we were cruising with him. Not to mention, he has the coolest accent ever!!
It wasn't long before the characters made their appearances...
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The countdown had begun and we were about to sailaway!!! I couldn't believe that this trip that we had planned so long and worked so hard for was finally a reality! I think I teared up a little!!

UGAFan0829

09-24-2009, 03:21 PM

In the excitement of getting started on my report, I think I left out one small, yet exciting detail...

A few days before the cruise, a couple of people on our meet thread had mentioned that they's logged in to the DCL site and noticed that they'd been upgraded. I never really thought much about it, but after I noticed a few more people mentioning the same thing, I decided that I'd take a peek just to see if we'd been upgraded by some small chance. Honestly, I was happy with what we had booked-A Cat. 6, so an upgrade really didn't matter much to me. So I logged in, and guess what I found...We HAD been upgraded...to a Cat. 4!:woohoo: It was really cool, because Gayle and Brandi were upgraded also. It turns out that before the upgrade we were a few rooms down the hall from one another, but after the upgrade we were right next door! Pretty cool!! We definitely received our fair share of Pixie Dust!!:wizard:

(By the way, have you noticed a pattern with me just totally forgetting things when I get excited about something!?)

Sorry that I forgot to include this in my report!!:rolleyes:

UGAFan0829

09-28-2009, 10:05 AM

Sorry for the delay in getting an update added. I had planned to do one over the weekend, but we had our niece and nephew, so I didn't have time! But, as Mickey would say...On with the show!!!

After Adventures Away was over, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. On our past cruises we always had late dinner, so I was anxious to see how the early seating would work out for us this time. It seems as though DCL has changed their dining times since the last time we cruised. From what I remember, there were 3 different times for each seating, but this time there was only one for each-ours was at 5:45. Our rotation was PLAAPLP, which meant we were at Parrot Cay tonight.

We arrived right on time and had to wait to be escorted to our tables. Soon after, we met our serving team. Dennis from the Philippines was our Server and Abrahim from South Africa was our Assistant Server. It didn't take long until we had all placed our orders and the food started coming.
For appetizers, I had the Baked Crab Martinique:
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Mike had the Island Spice Seared Ahi Tuna:
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He LOVED this. I know it doesn't look like a whole lot, but he savored every bite! Mine was pretty good as well.
Next was the soup/salad selection. I chose not to have anything as there really wasn't anything on the menu that appealed to me. Mike decided to go with the Cream of Asparagus soup.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/123.jpg
I like asparagus as long as it's cooked right, but a soup version of it didn't sound to tasty to me. I tried a bite anyway, and it was actually pretty good!
For our main course, I decided to go with the Island Spice Grilled Rib Eye of Beef:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/125.jpg
And Mike had the Mixed Grill:
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The best part was next!! For dessert I had the Creme Brulee Cheesecake:
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While Mike had the Lemon Meringue Pie:
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I didn't care for the Cheesecake at all. Mike tried it and liked it, so we switched! The Lemon Meringue was very good (without the meringue, of course!)
I apologize for the quality of the pics...I got a new camera not long before the trip, and I still haven't figured out how to use it.:confused3 Most of the time, I had to use it without the flash which sometimes made it a little dark. Hopefully they'll still give you an idea of what we had!

Stuffed, and with our first dinner behind us, we decided that we definitely wanted to catch the show that night-All Aboard. Because our previous cruises were so short, we didn't do so well in seeing the shows on those trips, but we planned to change that on this voyage. We still had a little time to kill before the show started, so we decided to check out some of the shops just to see what we might want to come back and get later in the week. Before we made it to the shops, we made a quick stop in Shutters to see what our Embarkation photos looked like. On our other cruises, I ended up buying waaay more pictures than I needed, and most of them are still sitting in a box in the closet, so I decided that we weren't going to do that this time. Our Embarkation photo was one that I for sure wanted, especially since it lists the dates of the cruise along with our ports, so we went ahead and got it. I hadn't planned on buying anything in the shops tonight, but there was a nice 5x7 picture frame in Mickey's Mates that I wanted for my desk at work. There were only 2 left on the shelf, so I decided to go ahead and get it just in case there weren't any left later in the week. We also scoped out the pins so that I could think about which ones I wanted.

With our shopping for the night being done, we headed on into the Walt Disney Theater for the show. From the description on the Navigator, this was to be a "variety" show of the entertainment that was to be offered for the week. Instead of giving more details about the show and ruining the surprise for anyone else who may see it, I'll just add some pictures instead:
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It had been a pretty long day by this point, but we weren't done yet. There was still another show that we wanted to catch, but again, we had some time to kill before then. So, we headed back to the room and decided to unpack a few things. Here's what we found awaiting us when we returned:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/164.jpg

After unpacking and getting things settled a little more, we thought it would be nice to check out the upper decks and maybe get some ice cream. Gayle and Brandi were pretty tired, so they decided to call it a night.
While walking about the upper decks, I took a couple shots along the way:
I think this may have been the Carnival ship that left Port Canaveral right before us:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/165.jpg
A couple no-so hidden Mickeys...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/166.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/167.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/170.jpg
The ship is SO beautiful at night. Everything's so calm and quiet...walking around up there is quite peaceful.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/169.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/168.jpg

We only had a few minutes left before Match Your Mate started, so we headed on down to get a good seat before the show. Since we were a little early, we ended up catching the end of Magic Quest. I had seen this listed on the Navigator, but didn't pay it much attention, and really had no idea what it was. I sure wish we would have been there for the whole thing. It was absolutely HILARIOUS! It was definitely for the adults, but man was it funny. Turns out, it was actually somewhat of a "scavenger hunt". There were several teams that had been formed, and the host would issue all kinds of challenges. I'm telling you, this was beyond funny...there were several times that Mike and I both were in tears. One example of a challenge that the teams were issued was for a MALE member of the team to come to the front holding their team number wearing women's shoes, a bra and lipstick. You just had to see it for yourself. I HIGHLY recommend this show for some good laughs!!
After Magic Quest was over, and the winning teams were awarded their prizes (which DIS'er Stacy and her hubby happened to be part of), Match Your Mate got underway. This was another great show. There were definitely more laugh-so-hard-you-cry moments in this one as well!! As tired as we were, I was glad that we decided to tough it out and see these shows.

With the shows over, we were finally starting to feel the effects of the long and exciting day we'd had, so we decided to head back to the room for some much needed sleep.

Next up-Our day in Key West!

UGAFan0829

09-29-2009, 12:42 PM

Exploring Key West-Walking, Shopping and More!

We started off the day with a wake-up call from Mickey at 8:30 sharp. Even though we were still a little tired from the late night before, we were excited about seeing Key West for the first time. Since we didn't have anything booked for the day, we were able to take our time and do things at our leisure, which was really nice. Before we headed to breakfast, we stopped by Guest Services to take care of a couple of things. I had a couple gift cards plus some Disney rewards that I wanted to apply to our account, as well as drop-off my pillow cases that I wanted to have signed. The CM that I spoke to was very sweet. I had 2 pillow cases that I had folded and put into a Ziploc bag along with several different colors of permanent markers. She asked me a few questions about which characters I wanted and if I wanted them to use my markers or theirs. I told her that I would like to have as many characters as I could get, and for them to please use my markers. She wrote my instructions down on a slip of paper and then placed the slip inside the bag. She told me that everything would be left in our room on the last evening.

With everything taken care of at Guest Services, we headed up to Topsider's for breakfast. I apologize for not having any pics of the buffet, but I left my camera in the room!

Full of Mickey waffles and bacon, we headed back to our rooms to get ready to head off the ship. I snapped a couple pics from the verandah before we headed out:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/174.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/175.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/177.jpg

We were off the ship by 12:15 and ready for some exploring by foot. When we first started planning the cruise, we'd thought about renting an electric car, but after reading that parking was scarce, we decided against it. The water near the dock was really pretty and clear.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/178.jpg
I snapped a couple shots of the Magic as we walked away:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/179.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/180.jpg

We really didn't have much of a plan for the day, other than to follow the maps to a couple places that we wanted to go. As we got closer to the shops, we decided to make a stop at the Coach Factory. We had a coupon for 20% off, but none of us were able to find anything that we HAD to have. As we were walking, we spotted this guy standing on the corner.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/183.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/184.jpg
We noticed a couple people who went up and let him put the snake around them. Ummm...No thanks!!!! As you can tell, we kept our distance!

Gayle and Brandi had picked up some coupons that morning at a shopping excursion that were good for a free pair of pearl earrings. I don't remember the name of the store, but we decided to check it out just for the heck of it. It was a small store, but we walked right in, handed over our coupon and were given our earrings. Here's a picture in case anyone's interested:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/207.jpg
I've never owned any pearls, so I have no idea what kind of quality these are, or if they're even real. After the pearl store, we made our way into Diamonds International to pick up another freebie. For $5 you could get a charm bracelet, a charm, and a little card that would allow you to get a free charm from any Diamonds International store in any of the other ports. I have no idea why I spent $5 on this as I know I won't ever wear it again...But again, here's a picture in case anyone else wants to see...
This is the bracelet with the charm for Key West:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/208.jpg
And this is the card that would get you the free charms in all the other ports:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/209.jpg

It was SO stinkin' hot that day, and I think after just a couple hours of walking, we all regretted not getting that electric car!!
Pretty soon, all the water that we'd been drinking was finding us in need of a restroom. Now, the only reason I'm bothering to tell y'all this is so that anyone who goes to Key West will be more informed than we were. There are no public restrooms in Key West-at least none that we found. We'd noticed that in most of the shops that we'd been in that there were signs reading "Restrooms are for customers only", but never thought anything of it. So we stopped and asked a gentleman at one of the information kiosks, and he told us in a very unfriendly manner that we would need to buy something from a store or restaurant to be able to use their facilities. Okey dokey...guess we had to find something to buy. So we headed into a little store and Gayle bought a bottle of water. Gayle told the lady that she just needed to use the restroom, so the lady handed her a key and told us to walk across the parking lot. Thank goodness we finally found a place!!!

After our restroom adventure, we decided that we'd like to have some of that famous Key Lime Pie that was advertised everywhere. So, we made a stop at one of the Blond Giraffe stores.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/201.jpg
Mike and I had just a plain piece of pie, while Gayle and Brandi had the frozen version on a stick.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/186.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/185.jpg
And in case you're wondering--it really was as good as everyone says!

Our next quest was to see the one place that I wanted to see the most...The Southernmost Point. After leaving the Blond Giraffe, we checked our maps and found that we were still a few blocks away, so we continued south on our journey. Once we finally made it there, we were greeted by a pretty long line. I don't think any of us really wanted to stand out in the sun at this point, but we'd come all that way, so we stuck it out. Of course the family of 14 in front of us had to do every pose imaginable! After about 15 minutes or so, we finally made it!!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/188.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/190.jpg

By this time, we were so stinkin' hot and sweaty, so we decided to take a break on the sidewalk for a few minutes. I don't think we really knew what we were getting into by walking! After our break we decided that it was time to head back towards the direction of the ship. On the way, we found the lighthouse that I'd been wanting to see.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/191.jpg
I've never been inside a lighthouse before, so we decided to check it out.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/195.jpg
We made our way out of the heat an inside the office/gift shop. I really wanted to climb to the top, so Mike and I bought a ticket to go in, while Gayle and Brandi decided to hang out there. We made our way back outside and to the bottom of the lighthouse. It never crossed my mind that I would actually be too scared to climb to the top...but once we got inside and tried climbing those narrow little stairs I chickened out. I'm really afraid of heights anyway, so being able to see down the whole way up was not appealing to me. Not to mention that the stairs were so narrow that it was almost impossible to let anyone pass who was going in the opposite direction. I really wanted to do this, so after letting some people make it all the way to the bottom, I tried going up just a little. Not only were the stairs really narrow, but they were also very shaky and unsteady. I made it up about 25 feet and realized that I didn't want to go any farther!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/194.jpg
You can somewhat see the stairs in this picture. I told Mike that I was too afraid and he was fine with it. He knows how freaked out I can get. So he made me climb back up so that he could take a pic and told me that we would fib and tell everyone that we did it anyway!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/193.jpg
I was really disappointed, and looking back now, I wish I would have made myself do it. It wouldn't have been as bad if there had been room to let others pass, but that made me a little uncomfortable--almost afraid that I'd get "stuck"! Mike even told me after the fact that he wasn't too crazy about climbing all those stairs either after he's seen how shaky they looked!

Done with the lightouse, we continued back on our path towards the ship. We spotted this sign along the way:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/197.jpg
We stopped in a few more shops, and then finally made our way back to the ships...but not before we got just a couple more photos to help remember our day in Key West...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/205.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/206.jpg

UGAFan0829

10-01-2009, 03:32 PM

We finally made it back onboard right around 4. Since we didn't have too long until dinner, we headed straight to our rooms to get ready.
Tonight, dinner was in Lumiere's. I was looking forward to eating here since Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies.
We arrived at our table right on time, and Dennis and Abrahim were ready for us. I loved this light fixture, and thought it was a really neat touch:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/212.jpg
To start off our meal, I had the Applewood Smoke Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/213.jpg
I love mushrooms and bacon, so this was an easy choice for me. It was really good, too!
Mike had the Duck Confit-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/214.jpg
Next, we both chose the same thing for our soup, which was the Tomato and Basil Soup-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/215.jpg
It was pretty good, but had a bit of a different taste to it. I couldn't put my finger on what made it different though.
For our main course, I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/216.jpg
While Mike had the Lumiere's Seared Sea Bass-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/217.jpg
Lastly, for dessert, I decided to go with the Chocolate Mousse:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/218.jpg
And Mike had the Lumiere's Sweet Temptations-
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/219.jpg
I really enjoyed my Mousse-it was quite yummy, and Mike liked his as well.
Dinner seemed to move fairly fast, which made us happy as I was hoping to make it out in time to see the famous Key West sunset.
After Leaving Lumiere's we took a quick stroll up to deck 9 just in time to see the officers steering us away:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/235.jpg
I also managed to get a somewhat-sideways shot of one of the Spa Villa rooms:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/234.jpg
I would so love to take advantage of these one day when I win the lottery!:laughing:
We strolled around for a few minutes, and it wasn't long until the sun was setting.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/220.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/223.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/232.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/225.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/221.jpg
We tried to take a couple of pics with the sunset behind us, but it didn't work out so well. I'll post them anyway--
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/229.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/230.jpg
I have to say-this was one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd ever seen. The pictures really don't do it any justice.

After watching the sun melt away, we decided that we wanted to catch Ricky Kalmon in the Walt Disney Theater. He was part of the "All Aboard" show the night before, and it looked like it would be pretty good. He's actually a hypnotist, and the show was quite funny. I didn't take any pics mainly because we were too enthralled with the show. It was definitely different than anything we'd ever seen before, but it was great by all means. It was pretty hilarious!

Once the show was over, we decided to try and catch a few of the characters in the lobby.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/211.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/243.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/244.jpg
Chip and Dale were really cute! We had a lot of fun with them!

Done with the characters, we decided to head up to Goofy's Galley for more of that yummy ice cream. Once we finished our ice cream, Gayle was itching to try out those comfy chairs on deck 4, so we headed down there for a few minutes. It was so peaceful just sitting there watching the ocean go by. We lounged around there for a little while, but the day had been long and tiring, so we decided to retreat back to our rooms for the evening. Here's what we found waiting on us:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/240.jpg
Along with our Navigator was a little reminder to set our clocks back 1 hour...Yeaaaa, and extra hour of sleep!!:thumbsup2
We watched TV for a little bit, then hit the hay with the excitement of tomorrow being our first day at sea!

UGAFan0829

10-06-2009, 10:13 AM

Our 1st Day at Sea and Gettin' Gussied Up!

Today was one of the days that I was most excited about! It was nice to not have anything planned for the day except relaxing and doing whatever we wanted!!!

We slept in until around 9:30, which was nice!! Normally we don't sleep late on vacation as we don't want to waste any time, but today was a different story!

After taking our time with getting ready, we finally headed up to Topsider's for some breakfast. And this time I actually remembered to take my camera and get some pics!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/249.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/250.jpg
I was so excited to finally have a Mickey waffle. Either they only offer them on certain days, or I just somehow missed them on all the other mornings.

Gayle and Brandi had already had breakfast and were at the pool by the time we even made it to breakfast, so we decided to stroll around a bit before meeting them at the Quiet Cove pool.
I love this shot of the back of the ship that I grabbed as we were leaving Topsiders:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/251.jpg
As we mosied around, I took a couple pics of the DCL logo in different places...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/253.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/254.jpg
This one was another one of my favorites from the day:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/255.jpg

After our walk around the ship, we headed back to the room and suited up for the pool. Gayle and Brandi were relaxing up on deck 10, so we joined them for a little while. I love being in the sun, but I've never been one to just lay out in it...especially when there's a pool around. So Mike and I went down and enjoyed the nice cool water. Both aussieinvasion and ibela's mom were there, so we had a nice chat with them for a while.

After soaking in the pool for a bit, we went back up to sit with Gayle and Brandi for a while. Between the swimming and sun, we'd gotten a little hungry. Since we were right there, we figured we'd just run down and grab a cheeseburger. It was so nice to be able to walk right up, tell them what you want, and then them hand it to you. After we'd finished our yummy cheeseburgers, we lounged around and chatted with Brandi and Gayle a little more before we packed up and headed back to the room. I had a hair appointment, and I wanted to get back to the room and shower before I went.

Originally, my appointment had been scheduled for 3:15, but I'd gotten a call a couple days before asking if I could come in at 2:45, which was no problem with me. So, I showered and headed up the the salon at 2:30. I checked in right away, but had to wait a few minutes, which I expected since I was a little early. As I was sitting there, a gentleman sat down next to me, and I noticed that he was wearing one of the lime green bracelets that had been given out at our DIS meet. I asked him if he was part of our DIS group, and he said that his wife was. Turns out, he was dibond's hubby! Too neat!! I'm normally a very shy person around people I don't know, but it's so cool how DIS'ers are just so friendly! We chatted for a few more minutes, and before long Alex had called me back. I was a little nervous about having my hair done, yet excited at the same time. I had no idea what I wanted, so Alex asked me to describe my dress to him. I trusted him to do his thing, which is another unusual thing for me. As he was doing my hair and was almost finished, he brought over these chopstick looking things that were black with rhinestones on the end. He asked if I wanted him to use them in my hair, and of course I said yes. Small mistake!!! Once he was finished, I was very impressed. He really did a good job with my hair, and I liked the fact that he left it curly. Then the bill came...As I was signing it, he told me that he forgot to add in the "chopsticks" so he had to go back and add that on as well. Turns out, those chopsticks were almost $30!! Guess I should have asked before I just told him yes! Oh well, I was still happy with my hair regardless, and this was something that I had planned on splurging on from day one, so it really wasn't a big deal. I don't remeber the exact total now, but between the actual upstyle, the chopsticks and the tip, I think my total ended up being $85 or so!

With my hair done, I headed back to the room to start getting ready for dinner. I couldn't wait to show everyone my hair!! Mike really liked it, so that made me feel good. I got Mike to snap a couple shots for me before I got dressed. The back...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/256.jpg
And the side:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/257.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/260.jpg
And the front:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/261.jpg
I'm really not trying to be vein by posting all these pics of myself. I just want to pass along as much info as I can. I remember when I was planning for this trip, I had a hard time finding any info or pictures of upstyles. Hopefully this will help someone out!!

Finally dressed and ready to go, we headed out a little early so that we could get some pics of us all gussied up. We came across Minnie first, and even though I was sad that Mickey wasn't with her, I think this one turned out to be the best pic of the night:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/266.jpg
We took a few of the professional shots with the ship in the background, but none of those turned out really well, so we didn't buy them. We then headed downstairs to get one in front of Helsman Mickey, which we liked well enough to buy:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/FormalNight-Lobby.jpg

With all the photos done with, we made our way to Animator's Palate for our Golden Mickeys dinner. I was really excited to see what was on the menu for the evening.
For our appetizer, I chose the Double Baked Aged Reggiano Parmesan Cheese Souffle:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/268.jpg
This was REALLY good. I LOVE cheese, so this was right up my alley!
Mike went with the Carmelized Bay Scallops:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/269.jpg
He really enjoyed those as well.
Next up was the Broccoli & Maytag Blue Cheese Soup for both of us:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/270.jpg
Now, I like broccoli and I like blue cheese, but I wasn't really sure how they would taste together. I'm happy to say that it was delicious!!
For the main course, I chose the Jumbo Shrimp and Porcini Mushroom Tagliatelle:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/271.jpg
While Mike had the Roasted Filet Beef of Wellington:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/272.jpg
We both really enjoyed what we picked...Yummy!!
Lastly, for dessert I decided on the Chocolate Cake:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/273.jpg
And Mike had the Trio:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/274.jpg
My cake was really good, but REALLY sweet!
As we were eating, a photog came by and got this shot of us:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Formalnight-AP.jpg
Dinner was so good, that suddenly my dress just didn't fit the same as it did before dinner!:confused3:rotfl: If anyone figures it out let me know!!:laughing:

With us being more done than our dinner, we were ready for the Golden Mickey's, but not before we waddled back to our rooms for a few minutes. We had a sweet little puppy (I think) waiting for us when we returned.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/275.jpg
The shoes that I had on were killing my feet, so I decided to change into a pair of dressy flip-flops that I'd brought for semi-formal night....Much better!!

UGAFan0829

10-06-2009, 10:19 AM

Figuring that it was going to be a crowded show, we headed to the theater a little early to try and get a good seat, but it was already filling up!! That's okay because we still managed to get a decent seat. Honestly, though...I don't think there's a bad seat anywhere in the Walt Disney Theater...It's just part of the Disney Magic! I was anxious to see this show since it had been on both the other cruises that we'd taken, but never got to see! Shortly after, the show began!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/276.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/278.jpg
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This turned out to be a fabulous show! I loved how it was themed! Disney really outdid themselves with this one!!

The show was over, and we were pretty tried. There wasn't anything on the Navigator that we were interested in for the rest of the evening, so we decided to head back to the room. The idea of getting to bed early seemed like a good one since we had to be up early for our shore excursion in Grand Cayman tomorrow.

UGAFan0829

10-10-2009, 03:17 PM

Goin' to Hell and back!

This was another day that we had been looking forward to. I couldn't wait to get off the boat and see what Grand Cayman was all about! We got ready pretty quickly, and then, like every other morning, we headed up to Topsider's for a quick breakfast. Again, no pictures, but it was the normal fare-eggs, bacon, toast, etc.

After breakfast we headed back to the room and got everything that we'd need for our day on the island. We'd decided on the Island Tour and Butterfly Farm in hopes that this would be the best way to see everything that we wanted to.

The meeting time was at 8 in Diversions, but we ended up arriving a few minutes early. The excursion staff really made the wait a lot of fun as they kept us entertained the entire time. One interesting part of the wait was when they opened it for questions and allowed everyone a chance to ask questions about what life was like working on a cruise ship. We couldn't think of anything to else, so we just listened to everyone else. Someone asked why there were so few staff members from the US compared to all the other countries, and they reply was that the employees from the US have to pay taxes on their pay, while employees from other countries do not. With all the interesting questions, the time passed really quickly, and it wasn't long until we were tendering from the ship!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/307.jpg

The tender ride over was very short, and we followed our guide over to a parking lot and boarded our tour bus. After our day in Key West, we were very happy to have an air-conditioned ride this time!!

To start the tour off, we passed by the Governor's House.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/310.jpg
Our guide told us the story of how Grand Cayman selects their governor, which was very neat. I don't remember the whole and exact story, but I do remember that they only allow people from outside of the island to serve in office. Very different from what we're used to.

The next point of interest was the oldest house in Grand Cayman.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/312.jpg
I don't remember the details of exactly how old it is, but it still looks to be in decent shape to me!

Shortly after the oldest house, we made a brief stop at a little place on the side of the road. There was a small pier that went out into the water. It was really pretty here, and we could still see the ships docked off in the distance.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/314.jpg
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After our brief stop, we re-boarded the bus and made our way on around the island. As we drove, out guide pointed out lots of places along the way and gave us a lot of history on the island. I wish I could remember what he told us! We drove a little further before we made our 2nd stop of the day-The Grand Cayman Turtle Farm!!:woohoo: I was excited about getting to see all Crush's kinfolk!! As we got off the bus we were all given wristbands, then made our way inside to meet our guide. Sorry, but I don't remember her name either. She then took us outside where we got to meet all the turtles. There were a jillion of them!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/322.jpg
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There were several, several different groups of tanks, and each group held the turtles at different ages. At one point, we were able to pick them up and hold them, which was really cool!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/329.jpg
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As we were having fun with the turtles, they had a photographer who came around and took pics as well. As we were walking along the path between all the tanks, we saw these iguanas out and about.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/337.jpg
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After our fun with the turtles, we had a little time left so we mosied into the gift shop. We found our group pic and decided to get it.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/GrandCayman-TurtleFarm.jpg
We ended up getting 2 copies-one for us, and one from Gayle and Brandi. I think it was $20 for both. They only printed one, but we asked, and they were happy to print another for us, and it was ready in just a matter of minutes. We browsed around the gift shop, then headed back across the street to the bus as our time at the Turtle Farm was coming to an end

UGAFan0829

10-10-2009, 03:19 PM

We were on our way to Hell, but not until we stopped off at the Tortuga Rum Cake store. Good grief was this place crowded. It's not very big to begin with, but people were swarming all over the place, and you could hardly move. They had lots of different flavors of rum cake available to sample, but it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to get to any of it. We managed to snag a bite of the original and the chocolate. We ended up buying a 4-pack of the smaller cakes with 2 chocolate and 2 original, and then got the heck out of that place. As crazy as it was in the place, it would be easy to mistake this place for Hell!! The bad part is that in order to keep the tour moving along at an acceptable pace, our driver would give us a time limit for each place we stopped. So unless we wanted to be left stranded in Grand Cayman, we had to make sure to be back at the bus by a certain time. Of course all the crowds here didn't allow us to have very much time to spare!:scared1:

With the madness of the rum cakes behind us, we were finally on our way to Hell!! It was a very short drive from the cake store, so we were there in no time.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1206.jpg
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And finally, here is what Hell looks like...
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The rock formations, were just like I'd expected and seen in pictures, but the area was quite smaller than I'd imagined. I was thinking that it was something that we'd be able to actually walk on, but then our guide explained how shart they were and I realized why we couldn't! Next, we headed into the gift shop where they have all kinds of things for sale that advertise Hell. We decided to send a couple postcards back home so everyone would know where we'd been! Once again, our time limit was up, so we headed back to the bus since we certainly didn't want to be stranded in Hell!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1205.jpg

Our last stop of the day was at the Grand Cayman Butterfly Farm.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1218.jpg
I'm not really sure what I expected here, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed. We met up with our tour guide who gave us a very long and detailed history on the lives of butterflies. It was pretty inside, with all of them flying around, but it was also very hot in there as well. We wandered around for a bit, and I was able to get a couple shots.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1208.jpg
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I know it's not a butterfly, but I thought this flower was really pretty...
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I think the day was starting to get to us, so we headed inside to the gift shop to cool off and wait for our time to be over. If we'd had it to do over, we would have done the island tour, but without the Butterfly Farm. It just wasn't what we expected, and was kind of boring. The butterflies were pretty, but there just wasn't that much to it. I think a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that this was the last stop of the day, and we were pretty tired and hot by this point. Not to mention, we'd gotten up pretty early that morning, which made for a long day.

After saying goodbye to the butterflies, we were on our way back to town. After disembarking from the bus and tipping our driver, we decided to do a little bit of shopping before we headed back to the ship. I managed to get a couple shots of the Magic as we headed towards the shops:
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First we headed into the Diamonds International store and picked up our free charm for the bracelets that we'd gotten in Key West. The charm was a cute little stingray. Next, we headed into the Harley-Davidson store for Gayle, the over to Margaritaville. With all our shopping done, we were ready to make our way back home. I saw this really neat fountain of stingrays, so I had to get a pic..
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1221.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1222.jpg
As we continued on our way, we had to stop and get a pic with the Grand Cayman sign:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1223.jpg

Thankfully there was a tender boat waiting at the dock once we got there. It was really neat seeing the Magic from this perspective, so I took several shots as we got closer to her:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1230.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1231.jpg
Seeing the ship from this angle, really puts it's size into perspective. At least it did for me...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1233.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1235.jpg

We were back on the ship by 1, and headed straight back to our rooms to get some rest before dinner.

UGAFan0829

10-17-2009, 01:26 PM

Once back onboard, it wasn't long 'til we started feeling a little rumbly in our tummies. It had been quite a while since breakfast, so we decided to head up to Topsider's for some lunch. The buffet selections today were of the Asian variety. This made me a little apprehensive, but we decided to try it anyway. If you can't already tell by now, I'm a pretty picky eater, while Mike likes just about anything. I'm not what you would call a "food connoisseur"...just give me some mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets and I'm happy. There were a variety of things offered on the buffet, so I "sampled" quite a few to see if there was anything worth going back for. While everyone else was able to find something that they liked, I was just the opposite. Not one single thing on my plate was the least bit appetizing to me. That was okay though, cause that just meant more room for dessert! Thankfully the dessert bar still offered the normal stuff--chocolate chip cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

After a pretty blah lunch we headed back to our rooms for a little more R&R before dinner.

We were all ready to go by 5:15. Sorcerer Mickey was out for photos tonight, so I wanted to make sure and have enough time for that before heading back to Animator's Palate.
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Now, you may notice something that's different about Mike in this picture--He has on shorts. Now, I may get flamed for this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I know that Disney requests that shorts not be worn at dinner. And while we try to respect the atmosphere of dinner as well as our fellow cruise mates, I personally think that this is kind of silly. When we had planned our outfits for dinner, the only thing Mike could wear were dress pants, which is what he wore the first couple of nights. However, we noticed that SO many people were wearing shorts to dinner--both men and women. There were guys with muscle shirts and gym shorts and girls with cheerleading shorts on. So, if they were being allowed into the dining rooms then why does DCL even bother making a dress code. After seeing what everyone else was wearing, Mike decided that he was going to wear shorts tonight. Again, I may get flamed for this, but oh well. Now, I can see where shorts can be an issue, especially if they are too short, but the same could go for dresses or anything else. Either way, I think Mike looked very nice, and he definitely wasn't out of place with his choice.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1249.jpg
The reason I'm even bothering to write about this is because before we had even left for the cruise, and were packing our clothes, Mike asked me if he could wear shorts to dinner. I told him NO-absolutely not since it was requested by Disney that they not be worn. However, once we were onboard and saw what everyone else was wearing, I changed my view. Not to mention that it really wasn't fair for him to not be comfortable. While ladies can get away with lots of other options besides shorts-capris, dresses, skirts, etc...the choices for men are a little more limited in my opinion. So yes, we broke the rules, and Mike wore shorts to dinner.:eek: I still think that he looked very nice, regardless. End of topic.;)

After meeting Sorcerer Mickey, we made our way to the dining room. Even though we'd been there last night, tonight was going to be fun since they were doing the show! I was excited to see this again, and I couldn't wait for Gayle and Brandi to see it as well!!:3dglasses

For my appetizer, tonight I chose the Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist-While it may not look very good, it definitely was!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1254.jpg
Mike went with the Ahi Tuna Tartare, and he loved it.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1256.jpg
For our soups, we both decided on the Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, which was just so-so.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1258.jpg
As we were waiting for dinner, I grabbed a couple "before" shots...
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Next came our main course. I had the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast, which was really good except for the bone being in there--I warned you that I'm picky...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1261.jpg
While the chicken was pretty good, the vegetables tasted like dirt...seriously! They were pretty gross!
Mike had the Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin...
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He let me try a bite, and it was really yummy! My stomach's growling now just from looking at it!!! Mmmmmm!
And lastly, for dessert, I tried the Buckled Warm Apple Crumble-which was good, but could have used a tad bit more sugar and cinnamon.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1263.jpg
Mike had the Double Fudge Chocolate Cake, which he really liked.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1264.jpg
By then, the change had started to happen, and everything was in color!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1260.jpg
And that included Dennis and Abrahim...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1297.jpg
Before we were finished with dessert, Sorcerer Mickey made an appearance!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1267.jpg
He was so quick that it was really hard to get a good shot of him!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1275.jpg
Now, before this, we hadn't cruised since 2006, and I don't remember Mickey making an appearance in AP the last night, so I'm wondering this this is something new since then.

Dinner over, we decided to check out Shutters and the shops again. I really wanted to see our pic with Sorcerer Mickey. And even though it turned out pretty good, I still didn't want to spend that money when I had almost the same shot on my camera. After browsing around the shops a little more and realizing that we could have gotten the same rum cakes that were in Grand Cayman for a few cents cheaper in Treasure Ketch, we decided to call it a night. It had been a long day, and we were all pretty pooped.

We got back to the room around 8:30, and just like every other night, found a cute little creature waiting for us.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1304.jpg
It wasn't long before we were tucked in an dreaming of our next day in Cozumel!!

UGAFan0829

10-21-2009, 12:35 PM

Bargain Shopping and Lost Jeep Parts!

Today was yet another day that we were all looking forward to. The Magic would be docking in Cozumel, and we’d booked the Jeep Exploration for the day. The morning began around 7. Like most other mornings, the first thing we did was head out to the verandah. Today was also Gayle’s birthday, so as she and Mike were talking on the verandahs, I snuck a birthday card under her door. We took our time getting ready, and like most all other mornings, we made our way to Topsiders for our normal breakfast routine. Since our excursion meet time wasn’t until 10:45, we were able to enjoy the morning.
After breakfast, we headed back to our rooms to check out the view of Cozumel from the verandah. These Carnival ships were already there when we arrived.
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All the humidity made it hard to keep my camera lens from fogging, so it was a little bit of a challenge to try and take pictures!
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I thought the water in Grand Cayman was pretty, but the water here was gorgeous!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1311.jpg
As we took in the sights, we noticed that they were doing something with one of the lifeboats that was below us.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1310.jpg
I imagine that it was just some kind of test that they do on a regular basis.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the verandahs and made sure that we had everything we’d need for our day in Mexico before heading down to Rockin’ Bar D for our meet. After everyone had turned in their signed waivers, we were ready to disembark. We made our way off the boat and on to the pier where we met Memo, who was our tour guide for the day.

Memo then lead us across the street and into the shopping area close to the pier. He introduced himself, and then told us what we would be doing for the day as well as went over some guidelines and rules for the tour.
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We then turned the corner and found ourselves in the parking lot where we’d board our Jeep.
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Since we were a party of all adults, Memo asked that we be at the tail end of the group. We then found our Jeep and packed ourselves in.
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Thankfully, since it was just the 4 of us, Mike was able to do all the driving which was good for us since we were in a stick shift. Finally, everyone was in their Jeeps and ready to go.
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Memo lead us out of the lot, and we headed out of town. The first store that we passed was the Cha Cha Cha Market, but I didn’t see anyone dancing! LOL
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As we edged closer to the end of town, there was a gentleman who took each Jeep’s picture as we passed him. Once we were finally through all the stores and such, there was nothing but beautiful shoreline and tropical landscaping on each side of the road. I really couldn’t get over just how beautiful the water was. I snapped a ton of pictures along the way!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1321.jpg
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It wasn’t long until we were nearing our first stop, El Cedral.
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I remember that this is the oldest Mayan settlement, but I don’t remember if it’s the oldest in Mexico, or just in Cozumel. We turned off the main road, and then onto a dirt road that lead to our destination. There were a couple different buildings on the property, and the tour began with Memo giving us a pretty detailed history of everything.
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http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1334.jpg
I do remember that one of the buildings was a church, and you could walk inside of it.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1337.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1336.jpg
The other building was closed off.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1328.jpg
Directly across from these buildings were a shop and some restrooms. One thing that I didn’t realize about Mexico is that tips are a big part of their income there. In each restroom that we went in, there was someone there with a tip jar/box. So, if any of you are going to Mexico and plan to use the restroom, make sure to take some tip money.

UGAFan0829

10-21-2009, 12:36 PM

After leaving El Cedral, we headed back out to the main road, and continued down the coast line. Our next stop, was pretty much just a place on the side of the road. There was a little hut that was a store on the beach side, and restrooms on the other.
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http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1354.jpg
The beach here was beautiful, so everyone took the opportunity to take some pics.
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After taking some pics, we mosied around in the shop. Brandi really wanted one of the Mexican blankets, so she inquired about the price of theirs. The price started out at $40, which was way more than Brandi wanted to pay. The guy kept trying to make a deal with Brandi, but it still was more than she wanted to pay. So we nicely told them goodbye and walked back to the Jeep to wait for the rest of the group. As I was getting in the car, the guy from the shop came up with the blanket, and told Brandi that he would sell it to her for $10, no less. I guess he really wanted to make that sale. We were all a little surprised that he came after them, and his attitude about it was kinda funny. He had already put it in a bag for her and everything. He told her, “Here, I take $10, no less. You want it, but you are killing me here. I have to make money to live.” Ooooookay. I think Brandi felt like she had to take it at that point, so she handed him the money and took the bag. It was a little strange to say the least. I had heard that they would try and bargain with you, but we didn’t think someone would actually follow us to our vehicle!! We all got a good laugh out of it afterwards!

Back on the road, we continued on in the same direction. The further out we got, the bumpier the roads became. There were parts that were actually a little scary. At one point, we came to a place in the road where it looked as though the road had washed out on the side leaving a really big hole. The Jeep in front of us had met an oncoming car, so all they could do was hit the bump. Right as they did, the back fender flare came flying off. It took us a minute to realize what it was, and by that time it was too late to stop. Not to mention that at times, it was all we could do to keep up with the rest of the group. We wanted to stop and pick it up, but we were too afraid that as soon as we did we’d get lost from the group. Since we had no idea where we were, we figured it was a smart idea to just stick with the group and let someone know once we got to our next stop. It wasn’t long until we came to where we’d be eating lunch. And as soon as we all got out of the Jeeps, Memo came back and was asking everyone how the ride was. The lady from the fenderless Jeep got out, looked at Memo and said, “Oh, that thing fell off”, and pointed to where the fender flare should have been! Memo kinda freaked out at that point and wanted to know where they lost it. They told them about where it was, so as we were heading to get our food he took off to go find the lost fender flare. Seeing how the lady just casually mention the lost part, and then Memo somewhat freaking out was a little funny!

With the excitement of that over, we made our way to lunch. The place where we’d stopped looked to be a small open air restaurant/bar that didn’t seem to do very much business.
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They had a buffet all set out for us under a covered patio area that was quite nice. There were several tables and chairs, so there was plenty of room for everyone.
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Of course we were right on the beach, so the view was the best part.
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We found a table and then made our way over to the line. Some of the offerings that they had were beef, chicken, steak, nacho chips with cheese sauce and salsa. Again, since I’m a pretty picky eater all I had was chips with beef. I normally like cheese sauce, but this stuff looked a little funny, so I declined. It was a decent meal, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. For our drinks, we could chose from Pepsi, 7-Up, and something else that I’d never heard of. As we were eating, there were 2 ladies who were going around offering massages. There were 2 massage tables down on the beach, but we told them no thank you. After everyone was finished with lunch, we also had the opportunity to swim or snorkel if we wanted. They didn’t have any snorkel gear or equipment to rent, so we found some chairs on the beach and enjoyed the views. As we sat there, then guy who had taken our picture at the start of the tour came by with our pictures. It turned out pretty good, and since it was of all 4 of us, we decided to get it.
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Not much longer after that, Memo signaled for everyone to make their way back to the Jeeps.

We were back on the road, and headed on around the island. We drove for a quite a while before we made what would be our final stop of the tour-The Pee Pee Station.
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This was a neat little station on the side of the road that sells all kinds of knick knacks. We spent a few minutes there before Memo gathered us all around. He then told us that due to timing issues that this would be the last stop of the day. We were supposed to make our way through the town of San Miguel, but we wouldn’t be able to because of time limits. I was a little disappointed, but we’d already seen a lot, and we were all pretty tired by this point, so it was okay.

After leaving the Pee Pee Station, we made our way into town and back to the Jeep lot. We parked and made sure that we had all our belongings before saying goodbye to our Jeep. From the parking lot, we headed back towards the mall that we’d come through that morning. Gayle and Brandi wanted to do some shopping, and we wanted to look around ourselves. We visited several stores, but time was running out on us. Gayle and Brandi still had some things that they were looking for, but we really wanted to get back to the ship so that we’d have plenty of time for dinner. Tonight was Pirate Night, and we didn’t want to be late for dinner. So we headed back to the ship and left them to do their shopping. Getting back to the pier was a little confusing, with the way the mall is configured. I’m glad that Mike had remembered which way we came, because I was definitely turned around! We frantically made our way back to the ship and managed to be onboard by 4:30.
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Look at that water...
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I had planned to be back way before now, but it didn’t work out that way, so I was definitely stressing about being ready on time. Not to mention we were worried about leaving Gayle and Brandi behind and hoped they made it back in time for dinner as well…especially since it was Gayle’s birthday!!

UGAFan0829

10-28-2009, 10:12 PM

As we were getting ready for dinner, we heard a knock on our door...Gayle and Brandi had finally made it back to the ship. Boy, were we relieved!

Tonight's dinner was back in Parrot Cay, and of course we'd have the special Pirate themed menu. We mananged to make it to dinner right on time, though we didn't have time for any pictures beforehand, but that was okay. Mike and I felt a little silly after we were seated at our table and realized just how few people that had actually went all out with the costumes like we did. That was okay though, because we did get several compliments!!pirate:

Shortly after being seated, Dennis completed our outfits by giving us our pirate hats...
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After being "capped", it was time to order our "Pirate fare" for the evening. To start off, I had the Pirates Golden Pot Stickers:
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These were pretty darn good, but you'll have to stay tuned for the land portion of the trip to see how they compare to the Pot Stickers at 'Ohana!
Mike chose the Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake:
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Next came my Jerk Chicken Salad:
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While Mike had the Caribbean Style Conch Chowder:
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And for the main course, I decided to go with the Dutchmen's Roasted Dijon-Crusted Sirloin of Beef:
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This was quite yummy...the gravy was even better!!
Mike had the Captain Swann's Red Snapper:
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He really enjoyed this as well.
Lastly was dessert...Since there was nothing on the menu that looked good to me, I went with the Brownie from the kids menu...
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Mike ended up having 2 desserts...as he was ordering, he accidentally told Dennis the wrong thing. But as soon as Dennis heard us talking about it, he brought the one that Mike had really meant to order.
First was the Shiver Me Timbers White Chocolate Cheesecake:
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Then came the Walk the Plank Triple Layered Chocolate Gangplank Cake:
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As we were being served our dessert, Dennis brough out Gayle's birthday cake. Our Head Server, Zan, came over as well and had a lot of fun with her as you can tell...
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He was actually trying to put it on her nose instead of feed it to her like it looks! He decided to be nice about it though...
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After dinner, we still had plenty of time before the Pirate Party, so we headed back to the room for a few minutes. Of course, we had more wildlife hanging around when we arrived:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1393.jpg

UGAFan0829

10-28-2009, 10:13 PM

Next up was the Pirate Party, which we'd been looking forward to ever since our first cruise. We missed the party on both our other cruises, so we were anxious to see it for the first time! By the time we made it up to deck 9, there weren't any seats left, but there were lots of places to stand near the stage. We staked out a spot and got ready to paaarrtttaay!!
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It was really hard to get decent pics of the characters. I don't know if it was because of where were standing, or because we were moving, but a lot what I took didn't turn out very well. Here's what I did manage to get...
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Then came my favorite part...
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And before we knew it, the party was over! It was really a lot of fun, and I'm glad we were finally able to take part in the festivities!!

It was around 11:30 as we headed back to our rooms, but we managed to get a couple pics of us all dressed up before the night was over...
Normal pose:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/IMG_1454.jpg
Pirate pose:
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I was pretty happy with the way our costumes turned out. For those of you who followed my pre-trippie, you may remember how hard of a time I had actually finding a costume for myself. I found Mike's waaay before the cruise, but didn't find mine until a couple weeks before we left. I thought my honey was way cute in his!!

After we returned to the room, we deadfully set our clocks up one hour. Since we were missing the dessert buffet, we decided to have our own treats and ordered a couple of Mickey bars from room service...
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We savored every bite of our bars, and then tucked it for the night. It was hard to believe that we only had 2 nights left on our magical voyage!:sad2:

UGAFan0829

11-03-2009, 11:55 AM

Silly Hats and an Anniversary Celebration!

Today was our 2nd and final day sea. We awoke early enough to get some shots of the sunrise over the ocean.
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After enjoying the beautiful deep blue sea from the verandah for a while, we had to get ready for Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast at 8:15. We showered and got ready for the day, then headed up to Parrot Cay. I wasn’t real familiar with this breakfast, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect, or even why they called it an “Island Jam” breakfast.
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We took our seats, and the food started coming right away. Abrahim gave us our pick from a basket full of breads and pastries.
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Soon after, the characters started making their rounds. First was Dale…
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Next was Minnie…
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Then came Pluto…
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After the first round of character appearances, our food was delivered. Mike and I chose pretty much the same thing…Eggs, Mickey waffles, bacon and hash browns! Yummy! I was so excited to see the Mickey waffles!
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As we were eating, Chip decided to have some fun at the table next to us…
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Poor thing was trying to place his order, but no one would pay him any attention!!
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He then decided to pay us a quick visit where he had fun playing with Brandi’s ponytail…
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Next, came our silly hats...at least that’s what I called them.
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I had no idea Abrahim was behind me in this one…I felt SO silly…
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We couldn’t stop laughing at how silly we all looked, but it was fun!!
Goofy finally decided to pay us a visit…
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Then came the Big Cheese himself…
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Dennis and Abrahim were a lot of fun, and they really got into the whole liveliness of the morning…
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Breakfast turned out to be a lot of fun. As I said, I didn’t know a whole lot about it, or what to expect, so we were pleasantly surprised…especially when all the characters made their appearance. Not to mention, it was nice to have a sit-down breakfast for once!!

UGAFan0829

11-03-2009, 11:55 AM

After breakfast, we decided to split up for most of the day. Gayle and Brandi were heading to the pool for more sun, while Mike and I decided to explore the ship while we did some much needed laundry. We headed back to the room and gathered what we needed to wash then headed down to the laundry room on deck 7. There were several people waiting for a dryer when we arrived, but we managed to find an open washer. I’d always heard that sea days were the busiest times for doing laundry, and I believe that to be true. Before we left to go back exploring, I took a couple pics of the laundry facilities, just for informational purposes.
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I believe that DCL had just recently changed the machines from being coin operated, to being operated by your KTTW card. I have to admit that using the KTTW was a lot easier and more convenient…no more hauling quarters around! As you can see, the vending machine is also KTTW operated as well…so no need for change at all!! We’d picked up a few individual packs of liquid Tide, but totally forgot about getting any fabric softener, so we ended up getting a couple packs from the machine, and it worked fine for us.

While our laundry was running, we mosied around the ship a little more. Since Ariel is my favorite princess, I really wanted to get a pic of the Sebastian light fixture in Parrot Cay. Even though no one was in the restaurant, I was too scared to go in, so Mike ran in and took a quick pic for me…
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I took a shot from the door way as well…It was kind of neat seeing the restaurant all empty…
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It was then time for our clothes to be finished washing, so we headed back down to the laundry to try and find a dryer. Thankfully there wasn’t a wait this time, so we tossed them in and left.

At 1:00 “Disney Innovations: Animation” was showing in the Buena Vista Theater, so we decided to check it out. It was a 30 minute show that featured clips from the different stages of innovation in Disney’s animated films. Now, I love Disney and it’s history, but I have to admit that this was a pretty boring show. There weren’t many people who showed up for it in the first place, and several ended up leaving before the end. We stayed for the whole thing, but were really glad that it was only 30 minutes!! It did offer a lot of good Disney tidbits and such though!

After the show, we decided that we were a little hungry, so we headed up to Topsider’s for lunch. After lunch, we decided that some of that yummy ice cream from Goofy’s Galley would be the perfect ending to our meal! After our ice cream, we found Gayle and Brandi up on deck 10, and chatted with them for a while before we headed back to the room around 4. I started to get ready for dinner, and Mike headed back down to the laundry to gather our stuff from the dryer.

Tonight was semi-formal night, and we were going back to Lumiere’s. The whole atmosphere and ambiance make this my favorite restaurant out of the 3, so I was happy to be going back again! We skipped any pictures that were going on in the lobby and headed straight to the dining room. To start our meal off, I had the Grilled Vegetables and Beef Prosciutto:
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Mike had the Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell…
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I am in no way a fan of oysters, but he LOVES them, and he said these were very good.
Next, we both had the Wild Forest Mushroom Soup:
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My main course was the Fettuccine w/ Parmesan Crusted Chicken:
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This was actually pretty good, even with the bone!
Mike decided to have the Sesame Seared Tuna Loin:
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It looks totally gross to me, but once again he LOVED it!
Right after we ordered dessert, we were presented with our anniversary cake. We were actually a little puzzled about the timing since our anniversary wasn’t until the next day. But that was okay, we were still happy that they recognized our 10 years of love and happiness!!!
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We decided to save our cake for later, so we went ahead and ordered some dessert as well. Again, there was nothing on the menu that I cared for, so I decided to go with a Mickey bar…can’t go wrong there!
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Mike had the Amaretto Cheesecake:
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Dinner turned out to be really good. We even managed a few bites of our cake, and it was very yummy!!!

As we headed back to the room, we stopped for a couple pics of us in our semi-formal wear.
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Before we’d left dinner, we decided that we wanted to finish off the night with a nice soak in the hot tubs at the Quiet Cove Pool. We knew that with tomorrow being our last night, it was probably going to be busy, so we wanted to take the take advantage of some relaxation while we could.

We returned to our room, and once again found a sweet little creature awaiting us.
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Before we changed for the hot tub, I took a quick peek over the Navigator for the next day and found that the spa was offering some pretty good deals on treatments for tomorrow morning. I told Mike about them, then we headed off to the Quiet Cove for some relaxing time. It was so nice to just sit there and soak, but the water got hot pretty quickly. As we sat there, we talked about the spa specials that I’d seen listed. I’d never been to the spa before, but really wanted to go. I’ve always been too intimidated and scared. For one, I’ve always thought massages and things like that were for people with lots of money, and Lord knows that doesn’t include me. Secondly, I’m a very modest person, so the though of exposing skin was a little scary to me as well. We soaked for about an hour before we decided that we were ready to head back to the room. Once we got back, Mike told me that he really wanted me to try the spa out, but I was still too scared. Before, I was always able to use the price as an excuse, but these really were good deals that they were offering. I don’t have my Navigator in front of me, but you could choose 3 different treatments for $55 or $60…I can’t remember the exact price. Either way, it wasn’t bad for getting 3 different treatments. So, he finally talked me into it, and he called and made me the appointment for 8:00 the next morning. As soon as he hung up, I regretted letting him talk me into it. I didn’t want to make everyone late getting off the ship, so he worked it out so that he would go with Brandi and Gayle to get breakfast, and then they would go ahead and get off the ship and head over to Serenity Bay and get a spot for all of us. I really hated to ask them to do this, but I didn’t have any excuses left…he’d covered everything. So all that was left was to go to bed and get up and go to my appointment…

UGAFan0829

11-17-2009, 07:20 PM

A Total Day In Paradise!!

The day began somewhat early as I was up at 6. Today was our 10th anniversary, so we started out with an exchange of cards. Because we'd spent so much money on this vacation, we decided not to get one another anything, which was just fine with me. Spending a week aboard the Disney Magic with my wonderful husband was about the best thing I could have ever asked for, for an anniversary! We had dreamed of taking this cruise for so long, and we were just so happy that it was finally a reality!

My spa appointment was at 8, so I was showered and ready to go by 7:30. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about fixing my hair or putting on makeup, so it was a pretty easy morning. I wasn't nearly as nervous or scared about the appointment as I had been the night before. I guess sleeping on it was a good thing. Believe it or not, I was actually excited about it!

I headed off to the spa around 7:50, and Mike was getting ready to go have breakfast with Gayle and Brandi at Topsider's. Since I wasn't sure just how long I would be in the spa, we made a little game plan for the day. After Mike had breakfast, he was going to wait for me before getting off the ship. But Gayle and Brandi were getting off as soon as possible and were heading over to Serenity Bay to find chairs for all of us.

I arrived at the Salon and checked in. I was asked to fill out a little questionaire, and thanks to the good advice from some awesome DIS'ers, I wrote "No sales pitch, please" at the bottom of my form. I had read that if you do this, they won't give you the push to try and sell the products that they use on you during the treatment. It wasn't long after I'd finished the form that I was greeted by my therapist for the day. She gave me a robe and showed me to the ladies locker room/changing area. She told me to take off only what I was comfortable with, then put on the robe. There was another lady in the locker room with me, and I was a little shy about changing in front of her, so I crossed the hall to the restrooms where I'd have a little more privacy. I left my undies on underneath my robe, just because that's what I felt most comfy in. As I was storing my things in a locker, the therapist came back to get me. We made our way to the treatment room, and I was relaxed already. Something about the room was just so calming. She then presented me with a list of treatments that I could chose from, and then asked a couple of questions to try and get a feel of which might be best for me. The choices that were are available were: Scalp massage, Neck and shoulder massage, European facial, Conditioning hair treatment, Eye collagen treatment, Hand treatment, Foot and ankle massage, and Sunglow Makeover. The price for three of these was only $69, or you could choose five for $89. Since I wasn't sure how much I'd like it, I decided to just try three this time. I seem to carry most of my stress in my neck and shoulders, so the Neck and Shoulder massage was a no-brainer. I'd also never had a facial and really wanted to try it, so that was my second choice. Lastly, I decided to go with the Foot and ankle massage. After I made my selection of treatments, she told me that she was going to step out of the room, and she asked that I remove my robe and get under the sheet. I was still feeling comfortable at this point since it wasn't just one sheet, it was actually more like getting in to bed since there was a sheet and a blanket, so I was well covered. She gave me a few minutes to get situated, then came back in. First she started on my feet and ankles, and oh my gosh...that was pure heaven. I knew that for the price of all three treatments, that more than likely they were going to be short and sweet. It sure didn't seem that way though. Next, she started working on my neck and back. Now, I will tell you, I'm not normally a person who can fall asleep in publin places, but there were a couple of times that I cuaght myself dozing. Laying there in the warm blankets with the sounds that were playing the room was absolute bliss. At this point I was so glad that Mike had talked me into this. Next, was the facial, which I had to turn over for. She came to the side of the table, lifted the sheets way up and asked me to turn over. I felt very comfortable during this process. Lastly, the facial began-again-pure bliss!! Honestly, I don't think I have ever felt more relaxed in my life! After what seemed like a good while, she was finally finished and my treatments were over. Again, she stepped out of the room and gave me time to put my robe back on while she went to get my bill. She came back and asked me if I had any questions about anything that she'd used. She then gave me my bill, asked me to sign, and that was it. Needless to say, I left her a generous tip as she was awesome. I really wish that I could remember her name, but I guess my brain was to relaxed to remember anything during that time! As I walked back to the changing area, I felt like a new person. I changed back into my clothes, then headed down to the stateroom to get ready for our day in Castaway!!

It was a little after 9 by the time I had made it back, and Gayle and Brandi were already heading off the ship. Mike wasn't in the room, but he soon returned with a huge tray from Topsider's just for me. I really didn't expect him to bring me anything, but he'd made a special trip back up just to bring me something to eat before we got off the ship. This really made my morning! And it worked out to almost perfect timing, as he got back to the room just a few minutes after I did. Of course I thanked him for being so thoughtful and briing me breakfast, but also for talking me into the spa appointment!

While Mike had been waiting on me, he went up top and took a few pics of the island.
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After I'd finished my yummy breakfast, and got changed, we were ready to disembark for our day in Disney Paradise! As we were making our way, we noticed that Jack Sparrow was out for pictures, and since the line wasn't long, we decided to jump in.
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Jack is definitely an interesting guy, to say the least. After a few minutes of walking and waiting on the tram, we finally arrived at Serenity Bay! I was surprised that it wasn't any more crowded than it was. Gayle and Brandi had managed to find 4 chairs together, right near the entrance of the beach. After getting ourselves and all our belongings settled, we decided to rent some floats and just have some fun lounging in the water. It was amazing how we could lay on the float and look down into the water and see everything. The water was crystal clear, and being able to see all the sea life was just incredible!
After we'd spent quite a while floating around, we decided to lounge under the umbrellas for a bit before trying to find some lunch. I snapped quite a few shots of the beautiful view that we had from our chairs:
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With our tummies growling, we finally decided to pack up and head out for some lunch. We'd planned to eat at Serenity Bay, but it was really crowded, and there was nowhere for us to sit, so we headed over to Cookie's. I think we all ended up with hambugers, which were just okay. As we were in line to get our food, a storm came up that seemed to have cleared out a lot of people.

After our just so-so lunch at Cookie's, we headed over to browse at the island merchandise. I had really hoped to find a shirt or something, but nothing really jumped out at me. So, with our shopping over, we finally decided to call it a day and head back to the ship. Of course, I had to snap a couple photos along our way...
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It had been a great day, probably one of the best of the whole cruise...but it was bittersweet knowing that we were getting back on the ship for the last time.:sad1:

UGAFan0829

11-22-2009, 10:35 AM

It was around 2:00 once we made it back onboard. I think the week had started to take a toll on us, as we all decided to head back to the room for a short nap before dinner. Brandi had also started to get a little sick as well. Her sinuses had really started bothering her, and she didn't feel well which is another reason that we didn't stay on the island as long as we had thought we would. I hated to see her getting sick, but was glad that it was happening now, at the end of the cruise instead of the beginning.

After our short naps, Mike and I started getting ready around 4, for our last dinner of the cruise. It was hard to believe that this was our last night onboard the Magic, so I wasn't as excited about rushing things along as I had been earlier in the week.

We were nearly late for dinner as I was having a terrible hair night!:mad:Mike took this picture of the girls as we were heading up, and you can see for yourself how bad it was...
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I just wasn't feeling the magic tonight. We finally made it to dinner with not a minute to spare. We were back in Animator's Palate, and with it being our final night, the theme for the evening was "Till We Meet Again." I LOVED the menus, and wish I could have brought one home.
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The mood tonight felt really somber. I think everyone was feeling the sadness of the last night.

Just like every other night, Abrahim brought our drinks and bread, and then Dennis came and asked how our day was before taking our orders.
I started off with the Artichoke, Spinach and Jalepeno Cheese Dip:
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I don't normally do well with hot stuff, so I was a little worried about how strong the Jalepenos would be. There was no need to worry though, as it was just right. The peppers added just enough kick!
Mike had the Grilled Chicken Satays:
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He enjoyed these as well.
Next came the Potato Leek Soup for me:
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I surprised myself when I ordered this, as the menu told that the soup came with Caviar in it, which totally grosses me out. Thankfully I couldn't see or taste it (not that I would know what it tastes like anyway), and the soup was actually very good.
Mike decided to go with the Crawfish and Lobster Bisque:
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For our main course, I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin:
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This turned out to be my favorite piece of beef of the whole cruise. It was wonderful...cooked just right, and the sauce topped it off just right.
Mike decided on the Garloc and Rosemary-Marinated Lamb Sirloin:
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He really enjoyed this as well and said the meat was nice and tender.
Lastly, came dessert, of course, and I was finally able to try something that I had always wondered about-the Baked Alaska...
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I had read so much about the Baked Alaska and how good it was, but until this cruise, I never knew what it was. So I decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did. It was VERY yummy!!
Mike chose the Chocolate Decadence, which he also liked a lot:
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He said the part in the little glass (I don't remember exactly what it was) was the best part!

As we were having dessert, the Flaming of the Baked Alaska was done. We'd never seen this before, and thought that it was very cool. It sure did smell good, too!
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Lastly, was the Parade of Nations. We definitely made some noise during this, as we thought that our serving team was surely the BEST!
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Our head server:
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By this time, the mood had definitely lifted, and smiles had returned to everyone's faces. Dennis was really in a good mood, as our cruise was his last, and he was returning home for his vacation the next day. Abrahim had only 4 weeks left before he returned home as well. We asked Dennis if he knew which ship he would be on when he returned, but he didn't. We made sure to let him know that we'd definitely be requesting him when we cruise again. Both he and Abrahim were wonderful!

With our last dinner being behind us, we decided to head to the shops to make any last minute purchases that we'd forgotten or missed earlier in the week. Turns out, Treasure Ketch had a new shirt for sale that we all loved and bought. The front has a picture of the Magic, and the back has a cool map showing all the ports of call for the Magic. Lots of people were buying them, and all 4 of us ended up with one as well. I didn't think to take pictures of it, but I ended up wearing it later in the week in Disney.

After the shops, we headed down to Guest Services to settle up our bill. We'd set up a cash account and went down from time to time throughout the week to make sure of what we'd spent. After we'd made several purchases, we always took some cash down and paid so that we could keep up with our spending. It's very easy to get out of control when you don't keep a watch on it.

UGAFan0829

11-22-2009, 10:41 AM

Our next stop after GS was back to the room to try and do a little more packing. I had meant to try and pack a little at a time throughout the week, but with all the clothes that we wore, it didn't work out that way. Once we made it back to the room, we saw our very last towel animal of the cruise:
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They had also dropped off the pillow cases that I had left with GS earlier in the week. I thought they turned out great:
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We worked on packing until just a few minutes before the "Remember the Magic" show that started at 8:30 in the Buena Vista. This was yet another show that we'd missed on both our other cruises, so we were excited to finally be seeing it this time.

We made it at about 10 minutes before the show started, and it was already getting pretty packed. Finally the show started, and it was great. Some of it tied in to the "All Aboard" show from the first night. I think there were definitely a few teary-eyed moments for me.
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This guy was pretty cool.
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He asked for a couple of guys from the audience to join him on stage for some help, and one of the guys from our DIS group (idrivealumina) went up. They were a lot of fun to watch:
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Then the show switched "themes" again...
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My favorite princess made an appearance as well:
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UGAFan0829

11-22-2009, 10:44 AM

With the final show being over, and our amount of time left on board withering away, we decided to head back to the one place that we'd visited a good bit during the week. So we headed up to deck 9 for one more cup of that yummy soft-service ice cream. Mike decided to say his goodbye to the ice cream in a unique manner:
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Gayle and Brandi said their goodbyes as well:
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After savoring our last cup of the yummy stuff, we headed back to our rooms and managed to get our luggage tagged and out in the hall before 8:30. I was sad that we missed the "Till We Meet Again" with all the characters in the atrium, but that was okay. We'd seen it before, and there was always next time. With our luggage out, the only thing left to do was to hit the hay for our last night in our DCL bed.

UGAFan0829

11-30-2009, 08:34 PM

Saying Goodbye to the Magic...But the Party Ain't Over Yet!!!

Mike and I both were awake by 5:30. Imagine that-the last day of the cruise and we decide to wake up so early. Needless to say, as we started our day we were faced with the harsh, cruel reality that this was our last morning onboard the Magic. It was so hard to believe that this trip was finally coming to an end. But--there was definitely a silver lining to those dark clouds...WE WERE HEADING TO DISNEY WORLD TODAY!! I'm so glad that we chose to do Disney after the cruise because it sure did make our last few hours just a tad bit easier to get through.

Since it was still a bit early, we hadn't docked yet, so when we stepped onto the verandah, we were able to watch ourselves pull into port. It was so serene standing there watching us pull back in.
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I admit, I definitely got a little teary eyed as I stood there and thought about the wonderful week we'd just experienced. I was so thankful that we were blessed enough to have been able to even take this trip. I know there are so many people in the world that may never step foot on a cruise ship, and here we were at the end of our 3rd one. I was also so thankful that I had a husband with whom I'd been married to for 10 wonderful years. I still haven't figured out what I did to deserve him, but the Lord sure blessed me when he brought Mike into my life! I realized just how much I had to be thankful for!

After we showered and readied for the day, we packed up the last of our belongings and said goodbye to stateroom 8550, and made our way to breakfast. Just as we'd gotten out in the hall, our wonderful stateroom host, Margaret was coming by. I know I've not commented on her very much during this report, but to sum her up as wonderful was an understatement! We just loved her! So of course, us girls got a pic with her before we said our final goodbyes. This is actually the only picture that we got of her during the whole trip, and I'm so glad that we got this one...
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I definitely had to wipe away a few tears as we walked away...

With all our bags in tow, we finally made it to breakfast in AP, right at 7:00. Mike and I had actually debated skipping breakfast all together so that we could be off the ship earlier and headed to WDW, but I'm so glad that we decided not to. It was our very last meal of the trip with Brandi and Gayle, but we also got to see Dennis and Abrahim one last time.

I apologize, but I didn't even bother taking pictures of this meal. We had everything packed up, including the camera and ready to carry off the ship, so I didn't mess with digging the camera back out. Breakfast was good though, or as good as it can possibly be knowing that it was our last meal. We ate slowly and enjoyed our time together. But soon enough, it was our time to go. We were one of the very last tables out of the dining room, as we took gave Dennis and Abrahim our farewell hugs and told them we hoped to cruise with them again someday. We also made sure to tell them just how special they made our cruise and how thankful we were to have them as our servers. As we headed out, we managed to all get together for a couple group shots. These were definitely some of my favorite pics from the whole cruise...
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We slowly made our way through the ship and back to the atrium, where we saw yet another tear jerker...
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And by the time that we passed this, it was all I could do not to just bawl...
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We made our way to the luggage area and collected all our belongings. We made it safely through customs then out to the curb to wait for our shuttle. When Dwayne had dropped us off at the port he'd given us instructions to call him on his cell when we were ready to be picked up. So Mike called, and it turns out that we'd just missed him. He told us he'd be back in about 10-15 minutes. So we dragged our luggage down to an open spot on the side of the curb and waited. As we were waiting, aussieinvasion and her family came up and were waiting for their car back to the airport, so I was able to chat with her for a few minutes before she left. It wasn't long until their car had arrived, and they were on their way. Yet another tearful moment for me!
Then just a couple minutes later Dwayne had arrived! He sure was quick! He loaded all our luggage into the trailer, and then we were ready to go. It was just us, so we had the shuttle all to ourselves. It was some what of a quiet ride back.

Within minutes we were back at the hotel. Dwayne was nice and pulled to where we were parked. He unloaded our luggage for us, and of course we tipped him again and thanked him so much. He was great! And I made sure to let the hotel know that when they sent me a follow-up survey a few days later. I admit that I was a little worried as to how the whole shuttle thing would work after we decided to park at the hotel instead of the port. And it turned out great. Not only did it save us $105, but it was nice having help with all our luggage. Everything definitely was better than I expected, and I'm almost positive that we'll be staying at the Country Inn when we cruise again!

Mike helped Brandi and Galye stuff all their luggage back into their car and we then said our goodbyes to them. They were driving straight home, so they had strict instructions to call us every few hours to let us know their status. They then set on their way home, and we were left with loading all our things back in our car. So what do you do when you've got the post-cruise blues...YOU GO TO DISNEY WORLD, of course!!

UGAFan0829

12-08-2009, 01:37 PM

The Adventure Continues…Checking-in at the BoardWalk, and touring the World!

The drive to Disney from Port Canaveral was wet, but uneventful, which was a good thing. About 30 minutes or so after we left the hotel, it had started raining on us. From the looks of the skies, it was going to be somewhat of a gloomy day. But those dark skies didn’t dampen our moods…We were headed to Disney World! And what was even more exciting is that we were about to make our first stay as DVC members! Woohoo!

We arrived in Disney around 10 a.m. and headed straight for the BoardWalk. It was still raining, but I managed to get a couple quick shots to document our arrival!
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Even though I had printed directions from MapQuest, and we had our GPS, we somehow ended up getting turned around. Since we’d never been through the entrance of the BoardWalk before, we didn’t know where to turn. So, we ended up passing the entrance and going under the water bridge around to the Beach Club. We eventually figured out where we were going and made it to the BoardWalk parking lot. As Mike always says, we weren’t lost, just sightseeing!!! Because we were so early, I knew that our room wasn’t ready, but I just couldn’t wait to get inside the resort and see things for myself. So we parked the car, and headed inside. As soon as we entered the lobby, my excitement level was kicked up a bit. It was so beautiful! I was so excited to check-in that I left the camera in the car, so I didn’t get any pics then, but I did make up for it later in the week. Thankfully, there was no line for check-in, so we were called right up. A sweet gentleman from Japan helped us, and though his English was a little broken, he was as nice as could be. Since our room wasn’t ready, he gave us all our other info, and then told me that we would receive a text message as soon as the room was ready.

It was still somewhat early, and since my plans for the day were just to tour World Showcase, we decided to head back out to try and find a grocery store for later when we needed to pick up some things to eat for the rest of the week. We used the GPS and easily found a Publix. We decided that since we didn’t actually need anything right then, that we would come back later in the week. So, we headed back to the resort, this time actually knowing where we were going! We parked the car, and then got out everything that we’d need for our afternoon in the park. We didn’t have anything planned for the day until dinner in the evening, so we had plenty of time to enjoy our afternoon.

Within just a couple minutes we were on the path from the resort to the International Gateway at Epcot. It was a nice walk even though it was still raining on and off. Before we knew it, we were headed into our first park!

Since breakfast had come pretty early that morning, we were starting to get a little hungry and we already knew just what we wanted to eat. On our trip in 2007, we’d discovered the Cantina de San Angel, and loved it. The churros there were so good that we knew we eat there again when we returned. So guess where we were headed-to Mexico for another yummy lunch!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1682.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1683.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1684.jpg
The only downside to this restaurant is that all the seating is outside. And since it had been raining all of the seats were wet. No big deal though…we just grabbed a bunch of napkins and wiped our table and seats down. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time our food was ready. I’m not 100%sure, but I think Mike had theBurrito while I went with what we had the last time-the Cantina Nachos. And of course we both had a churro for dessert.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1686.jpg
As we sat, I snapped a couple shots of some lizards who were playing on the rocks right at the water’s edge.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1687.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1688.jpg
The food was just as good as we remembered, and we were happy with our choice!

Since we were already at the Mexican pavilion, we decided that we would start our trek around WS here.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1689.jpg
So, with our bellies full, we decided a nice little boat ride on the Gran Fiesta tour would be a great way to start it off. There was no line, so we literally walked right on! Gotta love that-first ride of the trip is a walk on!!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1690.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1691.jpg

After Mexico, we wandered on our way over to another favorite ride of ours-Maelstrom! Check out the stand-by line time!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1692.jpg
Once again, there was hardly any wait! This is one of our favorite rides, and once again it didn’t disappoint! Once we were off the ride, we wandered just a bit, and I discovered the “exciting” part of Maelstrom. I don’t know why we’d never noticed this before! It doesn’t take much to amaze me!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1693.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1694.jpg

After visting Norway, we were making our way on around the world when we came upon Snow White! She was standing there all alone, so I thought I’d stop for a quick pic! She was a cute Snow White, but she didn’t have a lot to say.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1697.jpg

With our visit with Snow White done, we were once again on our way. One of the things that I had planned to try and do while in the WS was to see as many characters as possible. As I checked my times guide, I realized that Belle was making an appearance in France, so we headed there next. I snapped a couple shots along the way…
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1698.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1699.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1700.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1702.jpg

When we arrived to see Belle, I was excited to see the Beast out with her as well. I’d never seen him before, so this was a first!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1705.jpg
And right across from Belle and the Beast was Aurora! Aurora was really sweet. She asked me if Mike was my Prince, and of course I told her yes. She was really in character, and talking to her was a lot of fun!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1707.jpg

After leaving France, we headed towards England to see my favorite pals-Pooh and his gang!! They are my all time favorite, so I HAD to see them! As we went inside we were again surprised when we met Alice and Mary Poppins! We’d never seen Mary before, so once again, another first!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1708.jpg
They were both very cute…telling me to stand straight and asking me about the Mickey on my shirt. They were a lot of fun as well, and I LOVED hearing Mary’s accent. She was wonderful!! I was so glad that we had gotten there when we did, as we were one of the last to see them-they were actually on their way out! So next of course, we hopped in line for Pooh! We ended up waiting for a few minutes as they had to take a quick break, but it wasn’t very long. And I didn’t mind since I was so excited about seeing them again. I so wish that Pooh and the gang were on the cruise, but there not! Once they came back from break, we were second in line and I was so excited! Something about seeing them really brings out the kid in me!! They were so much fun even though Tigger stepped on my toe and broke a nail!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1712.jpg

We said our goodbyes to our favorite friends and then wandered for a bit. And while we were in England, we decided to make use of the phones and call home! LOL!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1713.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1715.jpg

Next up was the beautiful country on Canada! I really want to visit the real thing one day! First thing we did was head to the O’ Canada show. I love, love, love this show. Seeing it in Circle Vision is so neat. There are such beautiful scenes in this movie, and the song at the end (I believe that it’s their national anthem, but I could be wrong) is absolutely beautiful! And to boot, Martin Short is pretty funny himself!! Every time we see the movie, it only makes me want to visit Canada more and more! With our tour of Canada coming to an end, we had pretty much made our way around WS. We’d burned several hours, and since we had a 6:45 ADR for the Wave, we decided that it was time to head back to the resort in hopes that our room would soon be ready!

UGAFan0829

12-12-2009, 03:28 PM

Because I had forgotten to upload my PhotoPass pics, I didn't get to post any in my last installment, so I figured I would post a couple of them here.

Aurora and I during our conversation about Mike being my Prince:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Image017.jpg
Tigger and I...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Image023.jpg
Pooh and I:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Image025.jpg
And lastly, Eeyore and I:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Image027.jpg
This last one is one of my favorite from the whole trip. There's just something so sweet about this picture:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Image029.jpg

UGAFan0829

12-12-2009, 03:33 PM

When I last left off, we had just finished our tour around World Showcase, and were headed back to the resort. It was now 3:15, and I still hadn't received the text that our room was ready. To say that I was getting anxious was definitely an understatement!

The walk from Epcot back to the BoardWalk was so nice! I loved being able to take our time and take in the scenery. I snapped these shots as we made our way...
The Beach Club across the way:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1728.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1729.jpg
I think this was either on the end of a bench or a trashcan, but I had to take a pic of it:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1730.jpg

As we were walking along, my phone went off...FINALLY! Woo-hoo...We received the message that our room was ready, and that we'd be in # 3076!

Since our car was parked in the main lot with all our luggage still packed in it, we decided to pull it around the to front to make unloading the luggage a little easier. We were just going to use one of the luggage carts and haul it up ourselves, but we were told that Bell Services would have to do that for us. It's definitely not something that we are used to, especially since this was our 1st stay in a "Deluxe", so we let them take care of us. And while we had the car there, we went ahead and let valet take care of parking it for us. This was especially nice since the parking lot was a little further away.

With our car and luggage being taken care of, we finally headed up to check out our room for the next 5 nights! We took the elevator up to the 3rd floor, then took a right down the long hall. Our room was about midways down the hall, which wasn't bad at all. Here's what we found as we entered our room and checked it out...(Warning...lots of pictures ahead)...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1775.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1731.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1732.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1733.jpg
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http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1741.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1742.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1743.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1744.jpg

UGAFan0829

12-12-2009, 03:35 PM

Continuting to the outside-
This was our view looking straight. I'd say we definitely got a pool view:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1745.jpg
Looking left:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1746.jpg
And right:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1747.jpg
And the balcony itself:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1748.jpg

Just a few minutes after we'd arrived and finished taking pics, Bell Services called to say they were brining our luggage up. They were there right away, and unloaded everything for us right at the front door. This was a big help, especially since we had so much stuff! The gentleman was very nice, we tipped him, and he was on his way.

By this time we had a little while before our 6:45 ADR at the Wave, so we rested up a little and got settled in. I had brought my laptop along, so I logged on and checked out a couple things. Before long, we freshened up, and decided that it was time to leave for the Contemporary.

We figured that it would be easiest for us to take a bus to the MK, and then walk to the Contemporary, which ended up working out just fine for us. We arrived at 6:30, and checked-in right away. They gave us a pager so we waited outside on the cool looking furniture near the elevators. I snapped this shot of the outside while we waited:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1753.jpg
It was a really cool looking restaurant, and I was really excited about eating there!
We'd only been waiting for about 5 minutes when our buzzer went off. AS we walked in, we were lead down a hall that was really cool:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1767.jpg
At the end of the hall was this wall that was also really pretty...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1764.jpg
We were lead to our table, and I was immediately impressed with the decor of the restaurant. Though it looked a bit more upscale, it was really pretty.
Our server came within a few minutes and we let her know that we were on the dining plan. She gave us the menus, but it ended up taking us a little while to decide on our meals. To be honest, there wasn't much on the menu that really appealed to me. I guess this was partly my fault for not researching the menu before I made the reservation, but I had instead based our decision to eat here off the great reviews that I read. Our server ended up coming back to the table a couple of times to see if we were ready before we were able to make up our minds, and she seemed a little annoyed by this. Eventually, we made up our minds and ordered. Once we'd told her what we wanted, she finally brought us some pretty yummy bread:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1756.jpg
As we waited for our food, I snapped a couple more shots...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1754.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1755.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1757.jpg
The atmosphere here reminded me a lot of the California Grill.
After what seemed like an eternity, our food finally arrived. I think I went with the Grilled Beef Tenderloin:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1759.jpg
While Mike had the Cinnamon-Rubbed Grill Pork Tenderloin:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1758.jpg
For dessert, there wasn't a thing on the menu that I wanted, so I chose the Make Your Own SUndae off the kids menu:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1760.jpg
And Mike had the Creamy Indulgence:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1762.jpg
As soon as dessert was over, we were ready to go. I have to admit that this was definitely a disappointing meal. While the decor of the restaurant was beautiful, the food just didn't measure up. I'm glad that we went, but both Mike and I agreed that it's definitely not somewhere that we want to try again anytime soon!

With the two thumbs down meal over, we decided to take the monorail to the T&TC to catch and bus back to the resort. Little did we know, and I swear that this has changed since the last time we were there in '07, but there are no buses at the T&TC. Once we figured this out, we walked back to the MK and caught a bus from there.

As we pulled back into the resort, I managed to get a pic of the entrance all lit up:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1769.jpg
I love that the bus stop is so close to the front of the resort! After we exited the bus, I wanted to get a couple more night shots before we headed up for the night.
I'm betting that this is one of the most photographed spots at the BoardWalk:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1770.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1772.jpg
And of course, I had to get a pic of the beautiful light inside the lobby:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1774.jpg
As we made our way back to the room, I noticed the Mickey's in the carpet...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1777.jpg
Before long, we had made it back to our room. We had planned to try and make it to the pool before the slide closed, but it was already 8:30, and the slide closes at 8. I was a little disppointed since the pool was one of the main reasons we wanted to stay here, but I knew we still had 4 more nights to try it out!!

We lounged around the room and unpacked most of our things before we finally hit the hay for our first night in the World! The next day was our Animal Kingdom day, and I really wanted to make it to park opening, so it was no time before we were Disney dreaming in that huge king bed!

UGAFan0829

01-04-2010, 09:16 PM

From Animal Kingdom to 'Ohana...A Day of Firsts

Today was our Animal Kingdom day, and since we wanted to make it to park opening, we were up bright and early at 6 a.m. We showered and readied for the day, then headed to the bus stop right at 8. We didn't wait very long for a bus, but by the time we made stops at the other resorts, it was about 8:30 when we finally made it to the park, which was just about perfect!!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1779.jpg

Since I always use TGM's crowd calendars to chose our parks for each day, I definitely wasn't expecting the crowd that was already there.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1781.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1783.jpg

I was so excited that we were finally going to be at a park for the opening...this was the first time in 3 trips that we'd actually been successful at doing so! Within just a few minutes, the opening "show" had begun...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1785.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1787.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1789.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1790.jpg

With the show being over, and the park finally opened, we headed straight here...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1791.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1792.jpg
Before, we'd always waited until a little later in the morning or early afternoon to ride the Safari, so we decided to try it first thing off to see if it would be any different. Here's a little sampling what we saw:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1795.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1798.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1800.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1804.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1808.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1814.jpg
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I don't know that the animals were any more active than before, but I do think that we saw more different animals.

After the Safari, we decided to trek through the Pangani Forest Trail since we were already right there...
We were very entertained by this gorilla who'd found a morning snack:
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UGAFan0829

01-04-2010, 09:23 PM

After our trip throught the forest, we decided to head somewhere that we'd never been before-Rafiki's Planet Watch. I wasn't really sure what it was all about, but we decided to check it out anyway.
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We boarded the Wildlife Express Train and made our way to check out what this area was all about.
First we headed inside to get out of the heat for a few minutes. We immediately realized that there were a couple character greetings going on, so we decided to jump in line for those. First up was Rafiki, which is one of Mike's favorites:
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And then there was Jiminy Cricket:
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We'd never seen Jiminy out and about before, so it was really cool seeing him there.
Next, we checked out some of things that were going on inside before we headed out to Affection Section where I saw a real live Eeyore...
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I've been wanting a miniature donkey as a pet for quite some time, so I was really excited to see one. Of course, everyone I see I always call Eeyore!!
After trying to lure Eeyore over to us and being unsuccessful, we decided to head back to the train station to make our departure.
If you ever take the Wildlife Express, please make sure to note that no cooking is allowed aboard the train!!
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After saying goodbye to Rafiki and his planet, we were starting to get a little hungry, so we decided to try and find a quick snack. We made a quick stop at the Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery.
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I really wanted a cinnamon roll, but they were all out. So instead, we went with a muffin and a turnover.
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They were both pretty good. We sat there for a few minutes and took our time eating. It wan't even noon yet, and it was already a really hot and muggy day. As we sat there, we watched some of the dancers perform.

UGAFan0829

01-04-2010, 09:26 PM

With our late breakfast snacks finished, we decided to head over to another part of the park that we'd never visited before-Camp Minnie Mickey.
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I really wanted to get some character pics in their safari gear, so we headed to the Character Trails.
First up were Chip and Dale:
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Then good ol' Goofy:
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Next was Donald, who wasn't too happy with my shirt selection for the day. As soon as he spotted my Mickey shirt, he gave me a hard time, telling me that HE was #1!
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So this is how he made us pose...
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He was so cute!!!
After Donald, the only 2 left were Mickey and Minnie. As were were getting ready to head to their lines, I realized that the 12:00 showing of Festival of the Lion King was just a few minutes away. And since we'd never seen it before, we decided to head over to try and catch it since we knew we could always head back over to meet Mickey and Minnie later. So, we made the short walk over to the theater in the round. We had pefect timing too, as they were already letting people in and we were able to find a seat right away. Thankfully it wasn't crowded, so we were able to find a spot right away.
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It was such a good show, and I was really glad that we took the time to see it. Mike and I loved seeing Timon and Pumba, as they are a couple of his favorites as well!!

UGAFan0829

01-04-2010, 09:29 PM

As we exited the theater, it had been raining, and continuted to do so. We still wanted to catch up with Mickey and Minnie over at the Character Trails, so we headed back over there. As we were standing in line, it started to storm, so they closed the trails for a few minutes. We decided that instead of waiting it out, that we would head over to one of our favorite attractions in the park-It's Tough to Be a Bug! We love this show and couldn't wait to see it again!
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Once again it did not disppoint, though I did notice that there were a lot of scared kids there this time. Bless their hearts...there was one little boy behind us that went hysterical after the spider scene. I felt so sorry for him.

After we'd gotten our 3-D on, we decided that it was definitely time for some rides. So where did we head next...Everest, of course! Unfortunately, the wait was up to 40 minutes, so we decided to grab a fast pass. Everest is by far, my favorite ride in the park, but I just didn't want to wait in line for 40 minutes when there were other things that we could be spending our time doing. So, we decided to make the trek back across the park to check out the wait time for Dinosaur. And once again, we were disappointed-another 40 minutes. And since we'd just gotten Fastpasses for Everest, it would be awhile before we could Fastpass Dinosaur.

By this point we were pretty hot and were getting tired from all the walking, so we figured that maybe lunch would be a good choice. It was well past lunch, so we were hoping that the lunch crowds would have died down a little by now. We already knew exactly what we wanted, so we headed straight there.
But, as we were walking, I noticed a sign off the side for a character greeting with Pooh and the gang. Of course, I couldn't pass that up, so we made a quick stop to visit with my favorite friend and his pals!
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We liked Flame Tree so much after out last trip, that we already knew way ahead of time that this is where we would be eating lunch on this day. Thankfully our theory about the lunch crowds being down were right, so we quickly ordered then made our way to a table with a great view!
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I had the BBQ sandwich and beans, while Mike decided to try something different and went with the SmokedTurkey sandwich with slaw.
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Mine was as good as I'd remembered, and Mike liked his pretty good as well. For dessert, Mike had the Key Lime Pie, and I had the Chocolate Cake.
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With our bellies full, we still had some time to kill before our Fastpass return time for Everest, so we decided to check out Dinosaur one more time. We were in luck...the wait time was only 10 minutes now! I love this ride, and end up getting scared even though I know what to expect. Here's our redneck ride photo:
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With Dinosaur off the list, it was finally time to head back over to Everest for our much awaited ride!! I was brave and decided to try and take a few pics during our ride:
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I LOVE this ride...Not only is it my favorite one in AK, but also one of my favorites from all the parks! And once more, our redneck ride photo:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Animal%20Kingdom/IMG_1967.jpg

UGAFan0829

01-04-2010, 09:34 PM

With the day slowly winding down, we decided to head back towards the entrance to try and find a spot for Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade, which was yet another thing that we had yet to see. We were able to find a spot in front of one of the shops right on the parade route. We found a bench and waited for the parade to start, which seemed to take forever. I don't think it really took as long as it seemed, but it was really hot outside, and it had been a long day already! Soon enough the parade started!!
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The parade was really cute, and we ended up with an awesome viewing spot. It was like most of the characters were right there in our face. After it was over, we let the masss die down before we headed for the exit. As we made our way out, I grabbed a couple shots of the Tree of Life...
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Within a few minutes we were out of the park and waiting for a bus to take us back to the BoardWalk...We had one more thing to do tonight to add to our list of firsts...Dinner at 'Ohaha. We were so looking forward to this meal more than just about anything else on this trip. I'd read and heard so many good thing about the place, and we just couldn't wait to try it for ourselves. I was a little worried though...as picky as I am, I was just hoping that it would live up to all the hype. There's only one way to find out if it did or not...

UGAFan0829

01-10-2010, 11:16 AM

When I last left off, we were headed back to the BW to get ready for our 8:05 ADR for 'Ohana. I think this was probably the meal that we looked forward to the most!

Once we made it back to the resort, we showered and and readied for what we hoped to be a great dinner. To make it a little easier, we decided to drive over to the Poly since we planned to make a trip to Wal-Mart after dinner to finally pick up some breakfast items and snacks for the rest of the week.

Other than stopping there on the monorail, this was the first time that we had ever stepped foot on the the grounds of the Poly. Immediately, both of us were impressed. From the waterfall outside the front door...
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To the beautiful decor inside, we were just in awe!!
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Once we finally figured out where 'Ohana was actually located, we made our way upstairs and checked in.
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I really wasn't surprised by the crowded-ness of the restaurant, and the fact that there were several people waiting to be seated. I checked us in at about 7:45, and only 3 or 4 minutes later we were being led to our table!!

I'm sorry, but I don't even remember our cousins name. We were so excited to finally be eating here that we were just taking everything in. First, we were brought the bread....talk about heaven in a loaf!
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I don't know what it was about that stuff, but I could have easily eaten the whole thing by myself! We were definitely already off to a tasty start!!
Next, came the salad, which I totally forgot about until now.
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I don't even remember if this was good or not, but I'm sure it was.
As we waited for the next course, I snapped a few pics of our surroundings...
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While we were waiting, Wishes began! We had a pretty good view of the show, so I decided to take a few pics of what we saw...
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These aren't the greatest shots, but you get the idea. It didn't even cross my mind that we might get to see these, so this definitely added to the excitement!!

Once the fireworks were over, more food arrived:
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Oh my gosh...between the pot stickers and the noodles, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Those things were the best food I had ever put in my mouth...period. I didn't even care if the meat ever came or not...I was happy with just those two things!

The meat finally did arrive, which made Mike happy...
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And though I tried a few pieces of each, you can see here what I was really after:
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I could have eaten my weight's worth of that stuff-and that's sayin' something!!

Next came dessert, which to be honest, I wasn't too sure about. But I tried it anyway, and boy was I glad I did! It was fantastic as well!
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This was, by far, the best meal we had ever eaten on Disney property!! Before the meal was even over, we knew that this place would definitely be a must-do for us on each trip from now on. This place was incredible-from the food, to the service, to the decor and atmosphere! It is now our favorite Disney restaurant, hands down!!

Sadly, our meal was over, but we knew that we were coming back in the morning for breakfast, so that made leaving just a little easier. As we headed out, we took a few more pics along the way:
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Afterwards, we decided to try and walk off some of the ginormous amount of food that we'd eaten by exploring the Poly a little. As I said, we'd never been there before, so this was definitely a treat for us. We checked out the pool area, then headed over to Sunset Pointe to check out the view. We decided that even though it's not a DVC resort, it's definitely a place that we wanted to stay someday in the future.

By this point, it was getting pretty late, so we headed back to the car to make a quick trip to the nearest Wal-Mart. Our quick trip ended up turning into almost midnight before we made it back to the resort, but at least we finally had breakfast and snack food!! We unloaded our stuff then tucked in to get some sleep before our next day in Epcot Future World.

OhMari

02-03-2010, 08:52 PM

Bump to update.

UGAFan0829

02-27-2010, 12:39 PM

Breakfast with Lilo and a Little Shoppin'

After an early wake-up call from Mickey at 5:30, we were up and getting ready for another fun day in Epcot, but not before we had breakfast with a few friends!

By 7:30, we had made our way back to the Poly for breakfast with Lilo & Stitch! I have to admit, when I made this reservation, it was more about the characters than anything else, so I really had no expectations about the food! When we arrived, there were very few people there, so we were seated right away. It was kind of weird seeing the restaurant so empty after we'd just eaten there last night with it being so crowded!

The first thing we were brought was a basket of breads and pastries, and that yummy juice that I don't know the name of and a plate of fresh fruit.
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Next, came the platter of YUMMY food that included eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and Mickey Waffles.
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Then came the characters...
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Seeing Lilo & Stitch and their friends was a great way to start the morning!

By the time the characters were finished making their rounds, we were full and ready for the day! It turned out that we made a great decision when we picked this meal. The service was just as good as the night before, the food was delish, and the characters were a lot of fun! The fact that you don't have to order and wait for your meal to come really makes this restaurant a good choice for breakfast!

Since breakfast was so early, we decided to drive our own car over to the Poly. And with breakfast being done, we headed back over to the BoardWalk to drop off the car and hop a bus to Epcot.

With us having already visited World Showcase, we decided to dedicate the day, or at least part of it, to FutureWorld. We stopped for a couple PhotoPass pics as we headed inside the park.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/Image077.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/Image083.jpg
Next, was our first stop--Spaceship Earth.
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This was our 1st time riding, so I was really excited to see what it was all about. Of course, I had to take a couple pics of our future...
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I was glad that we finally took the time to ride, as it was a pretty cool experience!

After our visit to the future, we decided to walk into MouseGear.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2116.jpg
We'd passed this store on every trip before, and I always wanted to take a look around, but we never did. I was impressed with the selection of stuff in there. There was a million things that I saw and wanted, but we came out empty handed.

After our "window' shopping, we decided to take our first ride of the day, so we headed over to Mission: Space. I LOVE this ride!
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On our way over, I discovered some Hidden Mickeys in the concrete:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2118.jpg

Next, we decided to head over to one of Mike's favorite rides, Test Track. Unfortunately, the wait was 40 minutes, so we grabbed a Fastpass and decided to head over to the Land and see how the wait looked for Soarin'. As luck would have it, the wait was 40 minutes there as well. With us already being so close, we decided to head over to the Seas and check out Nemo followed by Turtle Talk with Crush.

We still had time to kill before we could head back to Test Track to use our Fastpass, so we decided to do something that we'd never taken the time to do before and check out the aquariums.
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There really is a lot to see there, so we enjoyed strolling around and discovering all the sea life.

Finally, it was time for us to head back to Test Track for a fast ride, but before we did, we decided to grab a Fastpass for Soarin' so that we could come back and ride it later.

With Soarin' FP's in hand, we made our way back across to TT. I was glad that we decided to FP it, especially since the wait was still 40 minutes!! After just a few minutes, we were buckled in and ready to ride!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/Image076.jpg
I love this ride, but I hate the outside part cause I can never manage to keep my eyes open. I guess my eyes are really sensitive to the wind, so they always end up closing on me no matter how hard I try to see where we're going.

With our vehicle testing being successfully over, we headed back to Soarin' to take our scenic ride over Cali. We were able to zoom right through and were ready to glide in no time. It was a bit of a funny ride, as we ended up beside a couple who had their granddaughter with them. Now, even being scared of heights, I've never been scared of this ride, mainly because in the back of my mind I know that we're not really that high up. But because it is so realistic, I can understand how some people get freaked out. This poor lady beside us was definitely freaked out. Her granddaughter kept leaning forward (she was old enough to know that it was freaking her g'mother out, which was why she was doing it, but yet still small enough that the thought of her falling out still scared you), and everytime she did it, the grandmother just freaked. It was funny but scary at the same time. I was laughing at the grandmothers reaction, but yet, getting a little nervous with the g'daughter leaning forward. Between all that and trying to take in the scenery, it was definitely and interesting, but fun ride!

Since we'd accomplished pretty much everything on our list for the day, we decided to head over to Club Cool on our way out. Of course we had to try all the flavors from around the world, with the exception of the Beverly of course. Mike had learned his lesson from last time, so I wasn't able to pull one over on him again!! We did decide to use one of our snack credits and get us a frozen coke to enjoy on our way out. It was very yummy and refreshing! Just what we needed after a warm day in the park!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2162.jpg

Next up, we head to Downtown Disney for some dinner and shopping!

UGAFan0829

03-02-2010, 05:09 PM

After leaving Epcot, we decided to take the monorial over to the GF and check out their shops. The last time we were there, they had some really cute jewelry in the store that's near the lobby. So, we thought we'd stop in and see what they had to offer this time around. Unfortunately, they didn't have anything that caught my eye, so we decided to try the other store upstairs. Still not finding anything that we really wanted, we decided to catch a bus over to Downtown Disney. I was sure that I would find lots of stuff there!!!

Not having a meal since breakfast had made us pretty hungry by this point, so we decided to grab a quiCk bite before we did any more shopping. Since we'd been to Earl of Sandwich before and liked it, we decided that we'd be having it for lunch again today, so we headed over. I got the same thing as last time, the Ham 'n' Swiss...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2168.jpg
And I honestly, cannot remember what Mike had, but here's a picture...note the placement of the EOS seal...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2170.jpg
For dessert, I went with the brownie thing and Mike had the chocolate mousse/pudding.
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I ended up not eating my brownie and took it with us to snack on later.

Once done savoring our sammiches, it was time for the shopping to begin. The first place we headed to was the "ear" store. I can't remember the name of it, but it's the place that has all the mouse ears and does the embroidery on them. Since our very first trip, Mike and I had been wanting to get our own set of ears with our names on them, but never had, so now was the time. I also wanted to get my great-niece her first pair of ears, so we got them all done at the same time. Here's a few pics of hers being done...
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I was really happy with the way they turned out. I had purchased some a couple years ago in the MK for my niece and nephew, and I think the names on them were done by hand, as they weren't nearly as neat!

After leaving the ear store, we headed over to Pin Traders. I picked up a couple 2009 pins along with a few others. I could spend a fortune in that place, but I try and limit myself as much as possible!! After the pin store, we checked out the new Tren-D boutique, which was really nice. They had a lot of cute things in there, but nothing I would wear.

Next, we went to my all time favorite DTD store, World of Disney. I'm sure I'm not the only one who LOVES this store, and it was pretty obvious by all the others who were there as well! I loved the castle that they had on display, and thought it would look really nice in my living room...LOL!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2173.jpg
We ended up buying a ton of stuff there, which is typical for me!!!

Shopping done, we were ready to sit down for a few, but not before we picked up something to soothe the sweet tooth that we had going on....so what better place to head than Ghirardelli!!! Mmmmm...that place is heaven! I have no clue what it was that we ordered, but here they are...
Mikes:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2176.jpg
And mine:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Epcot-Future%20World/IMG_2177.jpg
Mike's even had a hidden Mickey on top...
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They were SO yummy! We'd found a little table on the water right across from Ghirardelli and took in the view as we enjoyed our yummy treats. As we were sitting there, a yellow jacket decided to pay us a visit. So, Mike decided to shoo it, and as he did he shooed it right into my shake! I was so sad as I was only about half done with it! He tried to get me to dig him out and drink the rest, but there was no way. It would have been my luck that the stinger would have come off and then I would have ended up drinking it...so there went my yummy shake right into the trash! I have to admit I was a little irritated by the whole thing, but I know he didn't mean for it to happen that way. I sure haven't let him live it down though. Everytime we talk about the trip, I remind him that he owes me another shake when we go down again. Bless his heart, I know he felt really bad about it!

We sat a little longer and then decided it was time to head back to the resort. If we were lucky, we could make it back in time to head to the pool...but by the time our bus finally came and we made the stops at the Beach Club and Swan and Dolphin, it had gotten to late. Yet another night of unsuccessfully trying to go down the awesome slide that I so badly wanted to try! So we decided to chill in the room for the rest of the evening. I did a little surfing on the net then called everyone back home to check-in. It had been a long and fun day, so we hit the hay early, excited about tomorrow and going to Hollywood Studios and riding Toy Story Mania for the first time.

UGAFan0829

03-09-2010, 08:35 PM

Hollywood Studios and the "Elusive" BoardWalk Slide!

Making it to park opening at Hollywood Studios wasn't really a priority for us, so we were able to take our time and actually slept a little later than normal this morning.

Being able to take the water taxi over to the park was wonderful, and we made it to the park around 10, which was just about an hour after park opening.

As we walked in, we decided to stop and get a couple Photopass pics taken before we headed on our mission...
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Our first stop was Toy Story Mania. Since I'd heard so much about it since it's opening, I was really excited to try it for the first time. But before we made it, we were stopped by a CM and were given these babies:
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Whoo-hoo! That was the first time we'd gotten anything like that. Actually, after the Year of a Million Dreams had ended, I didn't even think that they did things like this anymore. Either way, we were really excited!

So, with magical Fastpasses in our hands, we were finally on our way over to Pixar Place to check out TSM.
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Since the wait wasn't that long, we decided to grab Fastpasses and then head into the stand-by line.
I LOVE the themeing and details of the ride...I think they really make it a lot of fun. Here's what we saw as we waited...
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After just a few minutes, we were ready to get our ride on. I loved this ride. It was so much fun, even if I did get my butt whipped...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2198.jpg

After a fun, fun ride on TSM, we decided to head over to Animation Academy to see if we could make it into a drawing class.
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This was one of the things that we couldn't wait to do again as we had so much fun drawing on our last trip. Unfortunately, the wait was a little longer that what we had in mind, so instead we headed over to see the characters from "Up", which I love!
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As we were heading out, we noticed that the Incredibles didn't have much of a line, so we decided to pay them a visit as well:
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It took me a while to figure out that the black thing on my head was actually Mr. Incredible's hand!:laughing:

On our way out from Animation, we realized that Mater and Lightnin' were out for pictures as well, so we had to head over there since Mater is one of Mike's favorites. I really like the way that they have changed this since the last time that we saw them in 2007. Before, they brought them out into the Streets of America, and it was pretty much a free-for-all as far as getting pictures. But with the new set up, they keep them in one area and organize a line just like with all the other characters. This was much, much nicer!
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After our visits with the characters, it was getting time for our lunch ressie, so we headed over to Sci-Fi where we would be eating for the first time. I'd heard lots of good things about the place, so my expectations were pretty high...

Stay tuned to see if Sci-Fi lived up to the hype...

UGAFan0829

03-10-2010, 11:22 AM

As we made our way over to lunch, we passed this, which I thought was a really cool way to do some advertising...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2222.jpg

After a short walk, we had arrived at Sci-Fi and were ready to see what the place was all about.
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We were a few minutes early, but went ahead and checked in since they always request that you be early anyway. There were a good amount of people waiting to be seated, and a ton that were turned away who didn't have an ADR. After a few minutes, we were finally taken to our car. There was a family already seated in the front part of the car, so we got the back. We ordered, and as we waited, I took a couple pics of our surroundings.
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Soon after, our food finally arrived. Both of us ended up choosing the Cheeseburger and fries, which were just okay in our opinions. Definitely nothing to write home about.
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For dessert, Mike went with the Apple Crumble, and I chose the Hot Fudge Sundae. Both were pretty good.
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Before we left, we asked our waitress if she would take a pic of us in the car, which turned out pretty good.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2244.jpg
All in all, I have to say that we were a little disappointed with the whole experience. Sci-Fi really isn't mine or Mike's thing, so that didn't do anything to help. Our waitress was okay, but was less than pleasant and a little slow. And to top it off the food was just okay. Again, I think I had set a certain standard after reading all the positve reviews, and for us it just didn't live up. It certainly wasn't a terrible experience by any means, but it's not somewhere that we'll be trying again anytime soon. We'd pick 50's Prime Time over it any day.

With lunch over, we decided to head back over to TSM and use our Fastpass before we went back to Animation Academy to wait for a drawing class, but not before we made a quick stop at Rock N Roller Coaster to pick up a Fastpass. We then zoomed back over to TSM, and I snapped a couple more pics that I missed before as we breezed through the line...
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And once again, I got skunked...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2249.jpg
I really need to go buy the Wii game so I can get some practice in!!;)

After leaving TSM, we headed over to Animation Academy to find that we were just in time for the next class.
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I've never been able to draw at all-but I love doing this class. Today, we were drawing Dale, which was a bit harder than I'd thought. I snapped this quick pic of Mike hard at work...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2253.jpg
Here is what the instructor's work looked like as it was progressing:
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Here's how Mike's turned out:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2255.jpg
And finally, mine--
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2257.jpg
I thought Mike's turned out much better than mine, with the exception of the dark teeth. We got quite a laugh out of that!!:rotfl:

UGAFan0829

03-16-2010, 09:12 AM

When I last left off, we had just finished our class at Animation Academy! And it was time to go use our Rock N' Roller Coaster FP's, so that's where we headed! For some reason, our redneck ride photo is the only pic I have from this ride...
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2259.jpg
After RNR, we decided to head over to one of favorite rides in all of Disney...Tower of Terror!
On our way over, we stopped to have a couple PhotoPass pics made...
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Even though the wait was only 20 minutes, we decided to go ahead and use the Fastpass that we'd been given that morning.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Hollywood%20Studios/IMG_2266.jpg
I LOVE this ride. Even though we've been on it several times before, we still get a little nervous! It's so much fun though. So of course, I had to take another RRP:
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I was holding on to Mike for dear life while laughing my head off:
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We love the ride so much that once wasn't enough. So, since the stand-by line was still only 20 minutes, we decided to go for it again. And here is our last RRP of the day:
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At this point, we'd pretty much ridden what we wanted, and seen what we wanted, with one exception. I thought it would be cool to check out the new American Idol attraction. I'm not a huge fan of the show, but I do like to watch the auditions at the beginning of each season as they are usually pretty hilarious! The next show was starting at 4, and we still had a few minutes to kill, so we decided to check out a few shops. While we didn't find anything, we did manage to kill just enough time, so we headed on over to the AI theater.

As we were waiting, they had "camera crews" out in the audience taping clips for the show we were about to see. They went to several crowds and asked them to scream and yell for a certain contestant. It made the wait go by faster and was fun to watch. After just a few minutes, we made our way inside. I didn't take any picture of the contestants--I thought it was weird to take pics of someone I really didn't know, so I just snapped a couple shots of the stage...
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It turned out to be a really good show, and I was glad that we took the time to see it. The girl who got picked from our round was absolutely AMAZING. I can't remember where she was from, but she blew the other contestants out of the water. She was so good that she got a standing ovation after her performance.

After AI, we decided to head back over to Pixar Place to see what the wait was like for the Toy Story characters. I'd been wanting to see them, but the wait was insane when we were ridining Toy Story Mania.

On the way over, we noticed that Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. were out, and the line was pretty short. So, we paid them a quick visit:
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They are too stinkin' cute.

We then made our way to our final destination over to Al's Toy Barn. Thankfully, the wait wasn't nearly as bad as it had been, so we jumped in line. I usually don't feel weird about waiting to see characters, but it seemed like we were the only adults without kids. I think sometimes people with kids look at us like we are weird or something because we're two adults standing in line with a bunch of kids to see characters. Either way, I tried not to let it bother me too much!! It seemed like it took forever, but we finally made our way up to Buzz and Woody:
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By this time, we were pretty tired, so we decided to call it a day and head back to the resort.

UGAFan0829

03-21-2010, 08:26 PM

As we were leaving the park, we decided to take a nice relaxing ride on the water taxi to get back to the resort. We didn't have any ADR's booked for the rest of the day, so we were able to take as much time as we needed. We made our way to the boat dock, and within a matter of just a few minutes we were on our way back to BWV. It was such a peaceful ride, so I thought I would take some pics along the way. Our first stop was the Swan & Dolphin:
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Next came the Beach & Yacht Club:
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Then came our beautiful resort:
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Since we still had plenty of time, we decided to hit the pool for a little while in hopes of actually getting to make it down the slide. So we headed for the room and suited up. And wouldn't you know that as soon as we got in the water and were making our way to the slide that one of the lifeguards made an announcement that there was a storm in the area, and that the pool was closing!:scared1: Yes, the curse of the Luna Park pool had hit yet again! I was beginning to think that it just wasn't meant to be for us to actually enjoy the pool and slide on this trip. Disappointed, we made our way back to the room where I sulked for a little while.

We watched a little TV and I surfed the net before I headed out to the balcony for a bit. Since we were so close to the pool, I was able to hear the water runnuing down the slide. So I took a closer look, and low and behold the pool had reopened!!!! So what did we do--We took off fast as lightning and headed for the pool, again!! Thankfully, this time we were able to enjoy the slide until the pool closed. I know those lifeguards thought we were out of our minds-we went down the slide so many times that I lost count!! The elusive slide was elusive no more!!!

After our sliding adventures were over, we had worked up quite the appetite, so we had to figure out what to do for dinner! As we were leaving the pool, we saw a lady with a pizza box, and it hit us-we were going to have pizza for dinner!!

So we headed over to the Boardwalk and hit up the pizza window.
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Unfortunately, the pizza isn't on the dining plan, but that was okay as we knew that we'd have to pay for a couple meals OOP. We decided to go with mushrooms and cheese only on ours. While we waited for our dinner to bake, we found a table right by the water. And not a minute too soon our buzzer went off letting us know that the pizza was ready!!
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As we sat there and enjoyed our yummy dinner, we just took in our surroundings and relaxed. It was such a beautiful night, and lots of people were out on the Boardwalk. I took lots of pics as we sat, though most of them didn't turn out so well...I still have to work on getting good night-time pics...
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With our relaxing dinner over, we decided to take a stroll around the resort before we headed back to the room for the evening. We were so fortunate to be able to stay in such a beautiful resort, so we wanted to take in every little bit that we could. Of course, I took a few pics along the way...
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Finally, we had made it back to our room. It had been a wonderful day with a near perfect ending, and it was time to call it a night. The next day was our last full day in the parks, and we were heading to the Magic Kingdom. Since we wanted to make it to park opening, we hit the hay, with a little sadness that our trip was slowly coming to a close.

UGAFan0829

04-12-2010, 09:18 AM

Saving the best for last...A Day in the Magic Kingdom, and dinner with friends!

We were up bright an early this morning, ready for a day in the Magic Kingdom. Our plan was to make it for park opening, which we had never done before.

After a quick breakfast in the room, we were at the bus stop at 8:00 sharp! We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time as this was the park opening that we had looked forward to the most!

And just 20 short minutes later, we were at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom! We found a spot right in the middle of the train station and waited there. One of the first things I spotted was this precious sight:
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It was so cool to see him. And he really looked like he was ready for the park to open as well!

The park was already decorated for Halloween, just as it was the last time we were there in 2007, so of course I snapped a few pics of all the pretty-ness...
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Since the PhotoPass guys were out, we decided to get a couple shots here since we'd never had the chance before:
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And before we knew it, the Mayor appeared to start the opening ceremony!!
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Next came the train carrying all the characters who would help open the park!
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Within a few magical moments, the park had been opened and we made our way under the train station and down Main Street!!
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Since Magic Kingdom is our favorite park, I can never get enough PhotoPass pics, so we stopped for a few shots...
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This one turned out to be one of my favorites from the day:
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After our pics, our first stop was Fantasyland. Our first ride of the day was It's A Small World, followed by Peter Pan's Flight, then Snow White. Once we had those done and out of the way, we decided to head over and visit my favorite princess, Ariel! We knew that her line could get backed up pretty quickly, so we got there just a few minutes before it opened, and they were already letting people in line.
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Thankfully, since we were there early, we pretty much breezed right through the line and before I knew it, I was saying hello to my favorite princess of all!!
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She was so much fun, and was really in character! When she noticed my hair, she asked if I was a mermaid too, so I played along and told her yes. Then she told me that I could be one of her sisters. She was too cute!

UGAFan0829

04-12-2010, 11:46 AM

I had said goodbye to my new sister and were headed out of the grotto, when a CM spotted Mike’s shirt. She told us that Donald was making an appearance over in Frontierland if we wanted to try and catch him. So I bet you can guess where we headed next! We got there at just the right time, as the line was pretty short. I decided to sit this greeting out, since I’d just had Ariel all to myself, I figured I would leave Donald all for Mike. Thankfully, Mike made a good decision with his shirt choice, according to Donald, and he was in a much better mood than when we’d seen him in the AK just a few days earlier!
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With two back-to-back character greetings down, we decided to hit up some rides. Since we were so close, we decided to hit up the Haunted Mansion first. It was closed for rehab on our trip in ’07, so we were excited to see the changes. The wait time was only 10 minutes, so we were in and out in just a matter of minutes. After we’d picked up our hitchhiking ghost, we decided to head over to Splash for some mountain fun!! Once again, the wait was very minimal and we were loaded in our boat in no time!!
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I usually pack my camera away in fear of getting it wet and ruining it, but this time I decided to be daring and take a couple pics along the way.
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Thankfully my camera survived, and I was able to document our ride!!

Since we’d successfully conquered one mountain-- that left only one more for us to tame (Space Mountain was closed for refurb at the time). So guess where we headed next?? I guess we were hitting things just right, as the wait time was once again almost nothing! We boarded the train and were lucky enough to be in the front!! I tried to take some pictures along the way, but the jerkiness of the ride made it a little hard, so this was all I got…
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Right after I took this one, the train took a sudden turn and I nearly smacked Mike right in the face with the camera! I guess next time I’ll keep my camera in my bag where it belongs!
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After our adventure through the mountains, we decided to head over to Pirates of the Caribbean for a quick ride. Can you guess how long the wait was? Since we’d managed to safely escape the Pirates, we decided to do something we’d never done in the MK before—so we headed over to the Jungle Cruise.
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I think by this time, the park was starting to get a little more crowded as the wait times were going up just a tad bit. Either way, we couldn’t complain as we were cruisin’ through the jungle in no time!
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It was a cute little ride, but not something I would stand in line for more than 15 or 20 minutes for.

By this time, we’d already been in the park for a little while and we were starting to get hungry. Our plan was to try and eat a little earlier to try and beat the lunch rush. We had already narrowed down our choices to Cosmic Ray’s, Pinocchio’s and a couple other places. And since we were a little closer to Pinocchio’s than everything else, that’s what we decided on. Our decision to eat a little early seemed to have been a good one as there were a ton of tables open. There were several things on the menu that looked good, but both of us decided to go with the chicken nuggets and fries, which were really good!
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I wish I’d taken more pics of the restaurant, but this one was the only one I got:
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For dessert, I had the usual chocolate cake, and Mike had the strawberry cheesecake, both of which were good.
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We really enjoyed our lunch here, and decided that we’d definitely come back on future visits!

UGAFan0829

04-12-2010, 12:00 PM

As we were leaving Pinocchio’s, we realized that the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade was going on, so we walked to the front of the castle to check it out. There were a ton of characters all around on some very colorful floats. The atmosphere was really fun and upbeat! And of course I took a ton of photos since this was our 1st time seeing it…
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All of the performers and the characters were really into it, and that made it a lot of fun to watch! I’m glad that we didn’t miss it!

With the parade over, we decided to head for some more exploring and check out another place that we’d never been before-The Swiss Family Treehouse. Mike had always wanted to see what it was all about, but we’d just never taken the time before. As we made our way from the castle over to the treehouse, I snapped this side shot of the castle, which I thought turned out really nice:
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We were then making our way around the Swiss Family Treehouse and seeing what everything was about.
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It was a neat little place to explore, but probably not something I’d want to do over and over again. There were some pretty views from the bridges and walkways though!

UGAFan0829

04-14-2010, 07:24 PM

Sooooo, when I last left off we'd just finished exploring the Swiss Family Treehouse.

We then decided that it was time to head over to Tomorrowland to spend some time on some of our favorite attractions over there.

On the way over, we noticed a Photopass photographer right outside the Tomorrowland sign at the Mickey and Minnie topiaries, so guess what we did. The photographer had an "Earning My Ears" ribbon on her name tag, but she was one of the best that we encountered during our whole trip. She ended up taking a ton of pics, but I won't bore you with all of them...
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It turns out that the "Dream Along with Mickey" show over at the castle was going on at the same time, so we had perfect timing with the fireworks, which I thought was really cool...
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After moving along from our "photo shoot", we decided to check out the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor for the first time. This turned out to be a really funny show. For anyone who hasn't been before, as everyone is waiting for the show to start, the camera person will find random people in the audience and put their picture on the screen at the front for everyone to see, along with a funny comment. One lady was caught looking around and the caption said, "I have no idea where I am." We were sitting there laughing at all the silly things they were coming up with, when suddenly Mike came up on the screen with the caption, "this guy feels like randomly dancing." Normally, Mike and I are very shy people, but for some reason, he seems to really open up at Disney. So he gets up and starts busting a move and I'm sitting there just dying laughing. I would have given anything to have captured that on video. The when he sits down the camera is still on him, and he starts pointing to me, so then I have to get up, and I am SO embarrassed at this point, but I start doing one of the moves from Saturday Night Fever. It was totally hilarious, and definitely a moment that we won't ever forget!! Now Mike calls my dance "the Disney dance"!

With the show being over and a sore tummy from so many laughs, we decide to try out another first...the Astro Orbiter. I'd always wanted to ride just to see what the views were like from up there. I have to admit that the line for this ride is really odd. I hate how you have to stand there at the bottom, then everyone in your group has to cram into the elevator only to get to the top and have to wait again. The views were pretty cool though...
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Mike almost looks scared in this one:
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I have to say that I was a little disappointed in this ride. I just thought that it was kinda lame, and definitely not worth the wait...just my opinion though--I'm sure there are lots of others who love it.

After our ride in space, we decided to take a nice relaxing ride on the TTA. This is definitely one of my favorite things in the MK!
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We were able to see some of the work going on as part of the Space Mountain rehab:
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Our nice relaxing and refreshing ride was over way too soon, and as we exited we decided that it was time for a little competition on Buzz Lightyear.
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I didn't even think to take a pic of the score, but I'm certain that I get my butt kicked, just as I always do. And of course the ride wouldn't be complete without a RRP:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/UGAFan0829/Disney%20Cruise%202009/Disney%20World%202009/Magic%20Kingdom/IMG_2480.jpg

Now that I'd officially been beaten, we both decided that it was time for some yummy tropical goodness that's a must on every trip...So we headed straight for Aloha Isle, where we picked up one of these lovely concoctions to share...
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We found a seat on the bench across the way and savored every bite of that yummy goodness!!

UGAFan0829

04-15-2010, 09:25 AM

Once we'd litterally sucked every last bit of our float down, we decided to take a little trip down Main Street and check out some of the shops there. I honestly don't remember which ones we went into, but we did stop along the way to take a pic here and there:
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Mike would probably kill me if he knew I posted this one, but since he doesn't DIS, then I'm going to do it anyway:
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Since we were finally finished loafering around at the front of the park, we decided to catch the train over to Toontown since we still had some time to kill before our 6:00 ADR at Crystal Palace.

We really weren't sure exactly what we wanted to do in Toontown, but I remembered that the Fairies were now out, so I wanted to try and see them. When we got inside, you could definitely tell the difference in the wait times between the Fairies and the Princesses. In the past, the line for the Princesses was always backed up, but not this time--and not compared to the line for the Fairies at least. The wait time for the Fairies was posted as 30 minutes, and we had about an hour to kill, so we decided to go for them. Well, what was supposed to be a 30 minute wait turned into what seemed like forever. I think the way that they only take a few people at a time through is what slows up the process. Either way, we ended up waiting nearly a whole hour for them. Thankfully, we made it through just in time to see all of them before we had to head back across the park for our ADR. Mike decided that he didn't want his picture with any of them, so he stood back and watched as I visited with each of them. And you'll have to forgive me, because I can't remember any of their names, except Tinker Bell of course.
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Tink was really cute--she was asking me about my shirt, which as you can tell is Pooh. She said, "Now you have a bear on your shirt"!. She was the most fun of all!
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Finally done with the Fairies, we hoofed it back down Main Street towards CP. Turns out, we were right on time for our ADR!
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I was really excited about this meal since Pooh is my fave. We'd eaten here for breakfast a couple of times, but this was our first for dinner. I'd heard good things about the food, so we were anxious to try it for ourselves! We did end up waiting just a few minutes before we were finally seated, but it really wasn't long at all. And before I knew it, my friends were already making their rounds:
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Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic with Tigger this time. He posed with Mike, then totally ignored me and went to the next table! Kinda weird, but oh well. Sweet Piglet made up for it though!
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The came the best for last!!
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I hate to sound negative, but I have to be honest here...I was really disppointed in the food. I barely ate anything. Yes, I am a pretty picky eater, but I can usually find something on a buffet that I like--but not this time. And to make it even worse, Mike didn't care for it either, and he eats mostly anything. We decided that we definitely wouldn't go back for dinner. I'm glad we tried it though, and the experience with the characters is the main reason we go anyway!

UGAFan0829

04-15-2010, 09:26 AM

With our tummies barely full, we headed out and decided to scope out a spot for Wishes. The last time we'd seen it, we watched from a sidewalk on Main Street, but this time we found a spot right in front of the castle, just a little ways back. I guess it's what they call the hub?? As we were waiting, I noticed all the Halloween themed statues that they had positioned all around the circle, so while Mike kept our spot I got up and took a few pics...
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Before long, it had started to get dark, and the castle began to light up. Sitting there, relaxing while watching the colors change was one of my favorite parts of the day...
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And I bet you can guess what happened next...the show began!! I was so happy to finally be seeing Wishes again!!
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Oh, I can just hear the music playing now..."and all our Wishes"...
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And this was the one that turned out the best:
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We then slowly made our way out of the park. It was a bit of a bittersweet feeling--we'd just seen such an amazing show, but yet it was our last night in Disney...I snapped a few pics as we walked out...I love seeing the park all lit up at night:
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So this is where I started to cry:
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UGAFan0829

04-19-2010, 09:45 AM

With heavy hearts, we slowly made our way to the bus stop to catch our last ride home...
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It was an uneventful ride back, and even though the bus was full, it was mostly quiet. I guess everyone else was sharing in our sadness, too!

Within a few minutes we were back at the BoardWalk. While Mike went to check on our account, I took a few last shots of the beautiful lobby that I failed to get earlier in the week.
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Once everything was in order, we made our way back to the room to finish our packing. It was nearly midnight by the time that we were finished. So, we finally hit the hay for our one last sleep in Disney. We'd be rising early in the morning to check out and pack the car before we headed over to Chef Mickey's for our last meal in Disney.

UGAFan0829

04-19-2010, 10:49 AM

Breakfast with the Gang, and heading home!

Even though breakfast wasn't until 10:10, we were still up pretty early this morning. We had to pack up all the things that we'd used to get ready, then head downstairs to check-out before finally packing everything back into the car. Since we were heading home after breakfast, it only made sense for us to take our own car over to the Contemporary.

By the time we made it to check in, we were still a few minutes early.
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So of course, we were given a pager and told that it would be a few minutes before a table would be ready. I've noticed that no matter how early or late you are to Chef Mickey's, you still end up waiting. But that's okay, since it was our last morning in Disney, I wanted to take as much time as we possbily could. I enjoyed watching the monorail come and go as we waited.
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But it also made me think of the sad accident that had happened not long before our trip. I was also bothered by all the birds that were just flying around inside the resort. I know Disney can't do anything about it with the way the monorail comes through, but I've always been afraid of birds, so having them swooping all around made me a little nervous.

Within about 10 minutes or so, we were finally taken to a table which was in the far corner with a cool view. We could see Bay Lake along with the resort pool. As we waited for our server to take our drink orders, I snapped a few shots of what we could see.
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Before we knew it, we'd loaded our plates, and the characters were all making their rounds. One thing that I like about Chef Mickey's is that there is usually someone who will take a pic of Mike and I together with the characters. First came the chef himself:
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Next was one of Mike's favorites:
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Then came the Goofster:
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And somewhere in between all these, we managed to re-load our plates:
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I only took a pic of one plate since we mostly ate the same thing. And I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with the food here. We'd eaten here a few times before, but only for dinner, so this was our first time trying it for breakfast. My favorite was the cheesy hashbrown stuff!
After we'd refilled, Minnie came by, followed by Pluto:
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We were finally stuffed, so we settled our bill and headed out. I was really glad that we decided to switch up on this trip and try breakfast. I've always enjoyed the character interaction, and the dinner food was always good, but we really liked the breakfast as well!!

Since we were so close, we decided to walk over to Bay Lake Towers and take a look around. I hope we didn't break any rules by doing this, but as we were walking around taking pics, we kept crossing paths with this same couple, and they kept looking at us like we weren't suppose to be there. I tried to ignore it...it wasn't like we were trying to get to the pool or the Top of the World lounge...we were just checking things out for heaven's sake!
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You gotta love these views:
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The pool looked really cool...
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After taking in all the beautiful surroundings of the resort, we figured it was time to head on out. We made our way back across the bridge to the Contemporary and back down to the lot to the car. We decided that there were still a few things that we wanted to get in Downtown Disney for everybody back home, so we headed there for a bit. I think we spent a couple hours in the World of Disney, which is easy to do, before we finally wrapped up our shopping. We had one last stop to make-at the Ron Jon store to pick up a shirt for my nephew before we were finally on the road home.

It may have taken forever, but I can't believe I'm finally finished with my report. Thanks to everyone who has stuck around. I hope that this was at least somewhat enjoyable! Since starting this report, we actually made a trip back down at the beginning of March for the Princess 1/2 Marathon, which I plan to write a short TR on as well--so keep a watch out for that, as I plan to try and start it soon. Again, thanks to everyone who read and posted, all your comments were great...and it was a lot of fun re-living all our wonderful memories with all of you!:grouphug: