July 1st, 2006 070106 07/01/06 20060701 07012006

[DVC98]

Patti - I'll still be around until Friday! We leave around noon-time on Friday to go to the airport. I keep checking parking because it's filling up fast - hope they save us a space :rolleyes:

Lisa (from FL) - we're on 6 too! :)

Safe travels to all today - and the rest of the week if I don't get back on. :wave2: Didn't finish my laundry yesterday :rolleyes1 - somehow I knew the girls would find something they wanted to take that wasn't clean :)

Looking forward to meeting everyone on board. :banana:

Sheila

[Husker4040]

Patti - I'll still be around until Friday! We leave around noon-time on Friday to go to the airport. I keep checking parking because it's filling up fast - hope they save us a space :rolleyes:

Lisa (from FL) - we're on 6 too! :)

Safe travels to all today - and the rest of the week if I don't get back on. :wave2: Didn't finish my laundry yesterday :rolleyes1 - somehow I knew the girls would find something they wanted to take that wasn't clean :)

Looking forward to meeting everyone on board. :banana:

Sheila

Hi Sheila. :wave2: I didn't finish my laundry yesterday either. I have 2 loads that I need to do today. One I will do this afternoon, the last one tonight after we get home from dinner. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! :rotfl:

I was talking with dh last night and he wanted to know if my stress and excitement meter had pegged. Nope. Very calm now. Packing is 99% done, and it's coasting from here. :thumbsup2 I have my last weigh in this morning, and that should go well. :banana:

Guess I should get moving. I will check back in later today! 1 more day until we leave!!! :cheer2: :banana: :cool1:


Patti

[mattmommy]

Doing a load of laundry as we speak. I'll make even the smallest loads just to have less to come home to.

Our flight is at 6:20pm tomorrow, but we're going to the airport early to see if they can put us on an earlier flight. Cross your fingers. Tomorrow is Aunt Francie's birthday and we'd all like to be there to take her to dinner.

[ldb1030]

Getting ready to shut the computer down! I'm so excited I could cry!!! :cool1: Have been up since 6am and went and walked so get rid of some energy!!!! Can't believe we still have 2 more days till we get in th ship!!! :rolleyes:

Safe travels to everyone! Hope to see some of you in the terminal but if not, I'll see you at the meet!!!!!!!! After drill/launch/starboard side/ above party!!! Hope I can remember all that!!! :lmao:

[Deb in IA]

Bye Lisa!!!


Jennifer and Alexa can share retainer woes!!! Jen has had hers for about 2 years, and still "forgets" to wear them at night!


SEE YOU ALL SOON!!!! SAFE TRAVELS TO ALL!!!

[Husker4040]

Bye Lisa!!!


Jennifer and Alexa can share retainer woes!!! Jen has had hers for about 2 years, and still "forgets" to wear them at night!


SEE YOU ALL SOON!!!! SAFE TRAVELS TO ALL!!!

LOL on the retainer woes! Sara can finally talk correctly, but Jess pronounce anything with an s! :lmao:

I weighed (I made my cruise goal today!!) and walked this morning, and have a few things to do around here. The girls need to clean out the truck. I have no idea how it gets so full of trash! I also need to call TGI Friday's and see if they will do a reservation for our big group. Less hassle tonight. :)

I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow!! It has snuck up on me all of a sudden. :scared1: I'm ready. Let's go! :dance3: Hey, I get to start reading my book in the morning also!

Do they let the kids to bubbles at the Sail Away Party? I bought the girls little bubble guns. I thought that would be fun, and less chance of a spill.



Patti

[DVC98]

LOL on the retainer woes! Sara can finally talk correctly, but Jess pronounce anything with an s! :lmao:

I weighed (I made my cruise goal today!!) and walked this morning, and have a few things to do around here. The girls need to clean out the truck. I have no idea how it gets so full of trash! I also need to call TGI Friday's and see if they will do a reservation for our big group. Less hassle tonight. :)

I can't believe we are leaving tomorrow!! It has snuck up on me all of a sudden. :scared1: I'm ready. Let's go! :dance3: Hey, I get to start reading my book in the morning also!

Do they let the kids to bubbles at the Sail Away Party? I bought the girls little bubble guns. I thought that would be fun, and less chance of a spill.



Patti

CONGRATS on your goal Patti :banana: :Pinkbounc :cool1: That's GREAT!

I don't know about the bubbles - but you are flying, right? Make sure you don't put them in carry-on.....they may not see it as a bubble gun :)

Finished getting my clothes together, I think. I really don't feel like bringing a long dress but most of mine are - I do have a short black dress (around knee length) - I think I'll bring that one. There is such a variety of clothing when it comes to formal nights.

Have to check airport parking and see how the lot's looking :moped:

Sheila

[Husker4040]

CONGRATS on your goal Patti :banana: :Pinkbounc :cool1: That's GREAT!

I don't know about the bubbles - but you are flying, right? Make sure you don't put them in carry-on.....they may not see it as a bubble gun :)

Finished getting my clothes together, I think. I really don't feel like bringing a long dress but most of mine are - I do have a short black dress (around knee length) - I think I'll bring that one. There is such a variety of clothing when it comes to formal nights.

Have to check airport parking and see how the lot's looking :moped:

Sheila

My mom has a long dress, but both of mine are knee length. I put the bubble guns in a suitcase. Trust me, they are bright yellow and green with a big nozzle on the end. If that gets mistaken for a gun, those folks need a new job! :lmao:

I packed our garment bag, and I"m so glad that I didn't buy the one that was even slightly smaller! We would have never gotten everything in it!! :sad2:
It was a tight squeeze as it was. One more thing, and it wouldn't have fit. As it was, we had to zip it up quickly before it exploded. :lmao: Sara and I were laughing so hard we almost couldn't do it!

Off to start another load of laundry. :crazy2:


Patti

[Husker4040]

We are out of here! I will see everyone tomorrow!!! :cool1: :banana: :cheer2:



Patti

[mattmommy]

We're almost out of here. Up until midnight packing. ACK.

Ok, DH coming. gotta run. see ya tomorrow.

safe travels everybody!

[MrShiny]

Sorry missed the meet. :( If anyone is online, let's try aain sometime.

[DisneyDmbNut]

I was at the port for the launch and have pictures of your sailing:

http://homepage.mac.com/momme30/PhotoAlbum47.html

http://homepage.mac.com/momme30/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2006-07-01%2019.18.48%20-0700/Image-D8C5A00F097011DB.jpg

[MrShiny]

Thanks for the great picture! Too bad the shuttle was a no go.

http://disney.jmcarey.com/

[LongIslandMouse]

Hi, we're home http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3937/tissue9eo.gif but we missed the sail away party so sorry I didn't get to meet ya'll. Did everyone have fun? I was so sad in the shower this morning I almost started to cry.

[MrShiny]

Home again - a little more weight, a lot less money (also had to have plumbing work done while we were gone!), and a sunburn I got at Castaway Cay (was fine until then!).

Sorry I didn't meet you folks (although I believe I spotted LBD's door on deck 5 a bit aft of ours). Did anyojne else the the 50th wedding anniversary door display on deck 2? It was really cute.

I'm a couple days behind in my blog of the trip, but I'll be posting soon, and will get all my pictures up now that I'm back to reliable quick internet access!

http://disney.jmcarey.com

[ldb1030]

Mrshiny-I walked past your door everyday! I realized about the 3rd day it was yours!! I never did see you go in or out though!

I'm soooooooooo tired and sooooooooooooo depressed!!!!!!
I will do some laundry and gather my thoughts and post again soon!!

[JustKaren]

Hi Laura,
I walked by your room many times...I remembered your "mousecateer" on your door! I was in 7634 at the aft end of the hall. We stayed briefly for the sailaway party, but we were so tired (from the extended magic hours the night before at MK) that we went back to the room early. :guilty: I met a few dis-ers while we were there, but never was able to find anyone again.
I loved the pictures from Betsy...I was waving to her from our balcony in our room! :wave2: I can see us in the picture!! Thank you!
We had a blast on our first cruise...I rarely saw my daughter and I was able to relax. Spent a lot of time in the spa and in Diversions (beer tasting, margharita/ tequilla tasting :drinking: ), I read two books and got a great tan. :sunny:
Hope you all had a great time together
Karen party:

[MrShiny]

I'll finish up the blog tomorrow. Found out they hired an old ex-manager of mine to lead our team - not good news!

I'll also post more pictures - took a lot. Got some great shots of the Flying Dutchman (including the back side). Managed to keep from getting sunburnned all trip until Castaway Cay and am now paying the price!

I hope this was none of you, but did anyone run into who we termed "innappropriate bathing suit couple?" I doubt she was online as it would dertract from her tanning routine. If you saw them, I think you know who I mean. If you are them, I do applaud your courage!

I must be tired. Did I mention the 50th wedding anniversary door on deck 2? That was so nice - I think they were in the early seating with us.

Anyone else in the early seating? We had Subhash and Ian at table 45. We also managed to have Zita in Palo both for brunch (Monday) and dinner (Thursday). She was great!

Anyone else at Pirates 12:01? I ended up sitting next to a couple that lives just a few miles from me! Don't think they made it until the very late end!

Hope everyone is recovering. Now to work on the pocketbook and the waistline!

Read the blog:
http://disney.jmcarey.com

[MrShiny]

I was looking high and low for any sight of the Pirates premier pin and never saw it - did anyone? I checked the stores and the pin stand and never saw it at all.

[Husker4040]

Good morning everyone! I am back at work. :sad: We had the most amazing time on the cruise! Everything was perfect! :thumbsup2

Jess did get sick on Friday. She missed all of Castaway. :sad2: I felt so badly for her. She would have LOVED it! Unfortunately, she had some intestinal thing. No vomiting, just everything else, and she slept the entire day. I had a head cold start Saturday, and by the time we got out of Atlanta, it was going full force. However, that is still better than what Rich has. He got Jess's flu stuff, and ended up in bed all day yesterday. Some help unpacking would have been nice. What are you gonna do? :confused3 Sara seems to be fine.

We got to the airport on Saturday, and they offered us an earlier flight. It would have gotten us home 4 hours early. Great! So that was a quick $100. Then, at some point in this process, they cancelled our connecting flight. We think they cancelled it because it wasn't full. They called it mechanical issues. By the time we found out, our original flight was booked, and we went stand by. We got Jess on that flight with the rest of our family. We got home at midnight Saturday night! I was livid. :furious: I will be calling the customer service number today and getting my money back! We were in the Atlanta airport for 10 hours! I was there long enough to establish residency, and another hour and I would have been eligible to vote! Holy Cow!! :lmao:

The trip itself was amazing, seeing my family even more so! :woohoo:

It was wonderful to meet the handfull of DIS people that I had the honor to meet! You guys are going to love this. Before we went, my dh was not really sure he would have a good time. About 3 days into the cruise he started talking about rebooking. When I told him there was a discount for rebooking on board, he started thinking about when he wanted to go. :lmao: While I was in Shutters one last time Saturday morning, he was at the rebooking desk! :rotfl: I knew nothing about it until he handed me the paperwork! He booked an Eastern for Christmas 2007. However, as we talked about it on the way home, he isn't sure he wants to do that. We may cancel the cruise and just pick an island to go to. We'll have to see. For now, the reservation stands. :cool1: I had forgotten how much I enjoy traveling. It's been years. We really haven't done much since we came home from England, and I had the time of my life seeing something new almost everyday!

I guess I better get to work. Since I was rather ineffective the last couple of weeks before the cruise, I have a lot to catch up on! Besides, I have almost 1000 emails! Most offering me weight loss pills and viagra, but they still need to be cleaned out!



Patti

[Deb in IA]

I'm back at work too. I can sympathize with the 1000 e-mails . . . I get the Viagra ones too, and the ones from Nigeria, offering me 10 million US dollars :rolleyes: .


I must have seen you guys on the ship, but we need a better way of identifying ourselves!!

It was an awesome cruise, wasn't it? 4th of July, Prem-EAR of Dead Man's Chest, seeing the Flying Dutchman . . . I just wish the shuttle launch wasn't scrubbed.

Our trip got off to a scary start. We get up at 3:30, out the door at 5 am for a 7:15 am flight on Friday. We get to the airport, get checked in, go to the gate . . . uh oh, no plane. After 5 minutes, they announce that the Delta flight to Orlando . . . IS CANCELLED!!!! :furious: Please report to the ticket counter for re-booking!!!!

So we get to the counter, and find out that the flight attendant GOT FOOD POISONING the night before, and is too sick to fly today!! ARRRRGGGHHH!!! We try to tell them that it was OK, and we could get our own drinks, but no, we can't go. So some people are rebooked to the next day, some are put on buses to Chicago and Cedar Rapids to catch other flights. We tell them we HAVE to be there that night, as our cruise leaves the next morning, so they rebook us on an AirTran flight . . . but it doesn't leave until 4:30 pm!! Since it is still 7 am, we decide to go back home, take a nap, finish last minute laundry and dishes, etc. then go back to the airport that afternoon. Worked out OK, except my plans to go to SeaWorld the day before the cruise is now shot . . . oh well, I have a year to use our vouchers. So we get into MCO at 8:15 pm, instead of 11 am. We still get our car and drive over to Radisson, get in by 10 pm, order some pizza, and crash.

Thankfully, the rest of the cruise was great!!! We had some great sailing weather . . . no storms at all to ride out!! Great to meet some of you, and sorry to have missed the others!!!

DS Mark is already asking to go on another cruise!! He stayed at the Oceaneer Lab until it closed at midnight on Friday night. As he and I walked out, he said wistfully, "I'm gonna miss this place . . . " :guilty:

[ldb1030]

DS Mark is already asking to go on another cruise!! He stayed at the Oceaneer Lab until it closed at midnight on Friday night. As he and I walked out, he said wistfully, "I'm gonna miss this place . . . " :guilty:


I think I'm going to go cry now!! :sad1: :sad:

[LongIslandMouse]

Hi Laura,
I walked by your room many times...I remembered your "mousecateer" on your door! I was in 7634 at the aft end of the hall. We stayed briefly for the sailaway party, but we were so tired (from the extended magic hours the night before at MK) that we went back to the room early. :guilty: I met a few dis-ers while we were there, but never was able to find anyone again.
I loved the pictures from Betsy...I was waving to her from our balcony in our room! :wave2: I can see us in the picture!! Thank you!
We had a blast on our first cruise...I rarely saw my daughter and I was able to relax. Spent a lot of time in the spa and in Diversions (beer tasting, margharita/ tequilla tasting :drinking: ), I read two books and got a great tan. :sunny:
Hope you all had a great time together
Karen party:

Karen, that is too funny. Did ya hear any yelling inside, there were a couple of times both dh and I were yelling.... about what I don't remember. Can you believe somebody stole one of our Mickey magnets with Jack's name from our door!! Friggen looser can't make your own magnet! We didn't make the sail away party because the little ones were tired and just wanted to go swimming when we got on board. We went to the spa too for a couples massage and went to both auctions thereby missing the margauerita tasting, boo hoo. But, we did win a couple of beautiful Alexander Chen paintings and had free martinis, woo hoo!

I didn't see any door magnets in my travels other than the one they gave for Disney Vacation Club which I think was a life preserver magnet. I must go catch up on my sleep before I get back to the daily grind :( :( :(

[happyatdisney]

Settling back into the grind here too. Amazing how quickly a wonderful vacation can go! :sunny: We ended up at MGM on Saturday, since we had an evening flight, and had a great day to end our vacation. I was amazed how it was quite comfortable at the park, considering it was July in FL. DH never broke a sweat. The weather the entire week was really perfect, wasn't it? I'm with whoever said the only thing to make it more perfect would have been to see the launch......... ::yes::

Mr. Shiny, we finally got a Pirates premier pin at MGM on Saturday: not what I was hoping for with seeing the PremEar on the ship, but oh well, at least we got one.

So now, we're home, the laundry is all done, got the dog, picked up the mail (YIKES, a LOT of bills), and went back to see how our store made out. Turns out they didn't even miss me! (Does that mean I can take another vacation in the near future??) :teeth:

DH, seeing the long faces and continual sighing around here, mentioned something about "planning our next vacation" as a way to cheer me up. It worked. Looking at a WDW trip in the next 6 months hopefully. :thumbsup2 Cruising for us will likely be 2008 or later, depending on what Melissa wants to do when she graduates in 2 years.

It was great meeting those of you I did meet! It was such fun to put faces to all of your posts!! :goodvibes

[MrShiny]

Mr. Shiny, we finally got a Pirates premier pin at MGM on Saturday: not what I was hoping for with seeing the PremEar on the ship, but oh well, at least we got one.

It bugs me that the Wonder (which left 7/6) did get the DCL PotC pin (Davy Jones), and I bet the 7/8 Magic did too! Guess it wasn't ready by 7/1!

[ldb1030]

Settling back into the grind here too. Amazing how quickly a wonderful vacation can go! :sunny: We ended up at MGM on Saturday, since we had an evening flight, and had a great day to end our vacation. I was amazed how it was quite comfortable at the park, considering it was July in FL. DH never broke a sweat. The weather the entire week was really perfect, wasn't it? I'm with whoever said the only thing to make it more perfect would have been to see the launch......... ::yes::

Mr. Shiny, we finally got a Pirates premier pin at MGM on Saturday: not what I was hoping for with seeing the PremEar on the ship, but oh well, at least we got one.

So now, we're home, the laundry is all done, got the dog, picked up the mail (YIKES, a LOT of bills), and went back to see how our store made out. Turns out they didn't even miss me! (Does that mean I can take another vacation in the near future??) :teeth:

DH, seeing the long faces and continual sighing around here, mentioned something about "planning our next vacation" as a way to cheer me up. It worked. Looking at a WDW trip in the next 6 months hopefully. :thumbsup2 Cruising for us will likely be 2008 or later, depending on what Melissa wants to do when she graduates in 2 years.

It was great meeting those of you I did meet! It was such fun to put faces to all of your posts!! :goodvibes

Hi Nancy!!
It was so great talking to you on our stingray trip! That day was so much fun but I felt like we hardly had any time in Grand Cayman! Would love to go back!
We rebooked on board but like you, it'll be 2008 or later before we can save enough money! :sad2: Alexa will graduate in 2009 and we told her we'd take her for graduation if she wanted! :thumbsup2

[happyatdisney]

Hi Lisa!! It was great chatting on the stingray trip! I hope poor Alexa has recovered. I felt so bad for her. Grand Cayman was indeed just beautiful, and like you, I did not have nearly enough time there. I would love to go back some day, and just spend a week there....maybe in one of those homes we saw as we left on the stingray excursion!! :thumbsup2

[Husker4040]

Hi Lisa!! It was great chatting on the stingray trip! I hope poor Alexa has recovered. I felt so bad for her. Grand Cayman was indeed just beautiful, and like you, I did not have nearly enough time there. I would love to go back some day, and just spend a week there....maybe in one of those homes we saw as we left on the stingray excursion!! :thumbsup2
We loved GC also! I would have given up Key West to spend more time in the other ports.

Is everyone back into their daily routines? I am here, but it's very hard! :sad2: I forgot how hard it was to get up for work at 4:45! By the time I walk after work and finally get home, I'm exhausted and still have many hours of stuff to do. Going back to the gym on Monday just about killed me! :scared1: I had missed 3 classes (1 1/2 weeks) and I have never missed that many in 1 1/2 years. I was just recovering from Monday, and realized today is Wednesday and it's time to do it all over again. :lmao:

Have a great week everyone!



Patti

[LongIslandMouse]

Did any of you do the Native Way excursion in GC? We went out on a 32 ft. boat with about 10 people and it was really nice. The sting rays were so cool! Then we went to rum point beach and had lunch and played in the water there, it was a beautiful beach. I think it cost us $260 for 6 people. I don't know how much the Disney excursion was because we were so late in booking, anyone know?

[Husker4040]

Did any of you do the Native Way excursion in GC? We went out on a 32 ft. boat with about 10 people and it was really nice. The sting rays were so cool! Then we went to rum point beach and had lunch and played in the water there, it was a beautiful beach. I think it cost us $260 for 6 people. I don't know how much the Disney excursion was because we were so late in booking, anyone know?

Sorry, don't know. We did Stingrays with Deb in CT. It was a BLAST! I was the only one brave enough in my family to feed one. Normally I am really weird about stuff like that, but since they wouldn't do it, I figured I had better. :lmao: However, the centipede I saw in my bathroom at 4:45 this morning was another story! :scared1: EEEWWWW! I had seen him before, but just as he was heading under the pantry door. He had a fatal altercation with a trash can this morning. You didn't think I was going to touch it, did you? :rotfl2:



Patti

[MrShiny]

Did you do G08, the Stingray City snorkel? Morning or afternoon? We were on the morning one.

[DVC98]

Hi Laura,
I walked by your room many times...I remembered your "mousecateer" on your door! I was in 7634 at the aft end of the hall. We stayed briefly for the sailaway party, but we were so tired (from the extended magic hours the night before at MK) that we went back to the room early. :guilty: I met a few dis-ers while we were there, but never was able to find anyone again.
I loved the pictures from Betsy...I was waving to her from our balcony in our room! :wave2: I can see us in the picture!! Thank you!
We had a blast on our first cruise...I rarely saw my daughter and I was able to relax. Spent a lot of time in the spa and in Diversions (beer tasting, margharita/ tequilla tasting :drinking: ), I read two books and got a great tan. :sunny:
Hope you all had a great time together
Karen party:

(2nd try - computer issues) :badpc:
Karen - I walked up to a woman and her daughter at dinner after seeing them sitting by themselves for 2 nights - and asked if she was from Mass. She said "yes" - I asked if she was from Reading and the DIS Boards (told her I was from Norton) - she said she was from Manchester (MA) and gave me a strange look about the "DIS" boards!! :rolleyes: Anyway, just a coincidence she was also from Mass. - sorry we didn't get to meet.

Sheila

[DVC98]

Hi!

We're back home - went to WDW for 3 days after the cruise, would go before the cruise next time - the cruise spoils you so much with service, cleanliness, etc that when you go to WDW and don't get that personalized attention, it's tough :sad2:

We had a great time on the cruise, probably the best one yet. We were also interested in doing the Christmas 2007 cruise but haven't decided yet. Typically we spend Christmas at WDW or HH so we'll be giving the cruise some thought. :)

The excursions we did; stingrays (GC) & jeep tour (Coz.) were a lot of fun - and I agree, I'd like to be able to spend more time on GC. Meeting those I did made for a fun time - sorry to have missed others.

Sheila

[MrShiny]

So was anyone else on the morning stingray city excursion with me? Maybe I have your picture!

[Husker4040]

Did you do G08, the Stingray City snorkel? Morning or afternoon? We were on the morning one.


We did Stingray City Snorkel in the morning. We had dh and I, my 2 teenage daughters, Deb from CT and her 2 daughters, my brother, his wife and 6 year old son. Mine was the girl in the water crying as soon as the stingrays started coming around. :lmao: She is my daredevil normally.



Patti

[Husker4040]

Hi!

We're back home - went to WDW for 3 days after the cruise, would go before the cruise next time - the cruise spoils you so much with service, cleanliness, etc that when you go to WDW and don't get that personalized attention, it's tough :sad2:

We had a great time on the cruise, probably the best one yet. We were also interested in doing the Christmas 2007 cruise but haven't decided yet. Typically we spend Christmas at WDW or HH so we'll be giving the cruise some thought. :)

The excursions we did; stingrays (GC) & jeep tour (Coz.) were a lot of fun - and I agree, I'd like to be able to spend more time on GC. Meeting those I did made for a fun time - sorry to have missed others.

Sheila


We did the jeep tour also! I loved it!! Were you in the group with the woman that said she hated the off road part? She is definately from the city and would never survive a REAL off road experience!! We thought it was fun, even though it was nothing more than a dirt road. My dh was aiming for all of the "water hazards", holes and swerving over so Sara could hit the baby trees as we went by. :lmao: It was pretty tame compared to what we are used to. :teeth:

Ok, no one else has brought it up, so I have to ask. Did anyone else see those 3 guys that thought they were the Backstreet Boys? We saw them EVERYWHERE!




Patti

[Deb in IA]

Hi Shelia!!! It was great to meet you and your DH and Brianna and Kelsie.

Mr Shiny and Patti, we were in the 7:30 Stingray City Snorkel tour at Grand Cayman!!! The Don Foster tour, right?

We were the family of 4 with the Asian mom (me, my parents immigrated from China), the Caucasian dad (my DH), the 15 year old daughter who, when she first got into the water, shuffled around, saying, "Oooooh, scary, scary, scary . . . ", and the 11 year old boy who just had a blast!!

Post your pics and I'll see if I can find us!!!

[DVC98]

So was anyone else on the morning stingray city excursion with me? Maybe I have your picture!

We were in the morning - I think there were a couple groups - we left @ 9:15ish, I know there were several different buses. The boat we were on had a couple of younger guys - they were very nice, very gentle w/the stingrays...I remember a little blonde girl next to us that was snorkeling - she was talking w/us on the boat ride.

Sheila

[DVC98]

We did the jeep tour also! I loved it!! Were you in the group with the woman that said she hated the off road part? She is definately from the city and would never survive a REAL off road experience!! We thought it was fun, even though it was nothing more than a dirt road. My dh was aiming for all of the "water hazards", holes and swerving over so Sara could hit the baby trees as we went by. :lmao: It was pretty tame compared to what we are used to. :teeth:

Ok, no one else has brought it up, so I have to ask. Did anyone else see those 3 guys that thought they were the Backstreet Boys? We saw them EVERYWHERE!




Patti

Patti - I think we were on the same tour - that woman's husband almost came into the back of us - he had to swerve on the off-road part to avoid hitting us. I drove after the off-road, in those heavy downpours, it was very tough to see with all that rain coming in.....the tops didn't go up until we were almost back at the beginning! But it was a lot of fun, we had a great time. Were those the boys w/the woman who didn't like the off-roading?

I had thought it would've been a great idea to sell (or give) the passengers t-shirts that said something recognizing we were the first to see the POTC movie - we saw so many shirts at WDW and thought how great it would've been to have had a special one just for us cruisers as a souvenir!

Sheila

[MrShiny]

I hope you were not "innappropriate swimsuit couple" (they had boys, so I think I'm safe!)

My D7 loved it, but my DD11 (skinny, glasses, blue & green suit) watched from the boat after a minute.

Here are some group shots of the boat (we aren't in these, but maybe you are!) I aso have a coule of pics of them explaining the rays with other folks in them.

http://www.jmcarey.com/sc1.jpg

http://www.jmcarey.com/sc2.jpg

[MrShiny]

OK, here are my other photos with folks in them (including my wife and daughters in the first 2):

http://www.jmcarey.com/scs3.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs4.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs5.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs6.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs7.jpg

[DVC98]

I hope you were not "innappropriate swimsuit couple" (they had boys, so I think I'm safe!)

My D7 loved it, but my DD11 (skinny, glasses, blue & green suit) watched from the boat after a minute.

Here are some group shots of the boat (we aren't in these, but maybe you are!) I aso have a coule of pics of them explaining the rays with other folks in them.

http://www.jmcarey.com/sc1.jpg

http://www.jmcarey.com/sc2.jpg

No - we weren't in your pics - different boat - yours was a larger boat than we were in.

Sheila

[happyatdisney]

Hi Sheila!! :wave: Nice to hear from you! I was wondering how your time at WDW was after the cruise: Dan and Melissa said all day Saturday when we were at MGM how they wished we had gone to the parks after the cruise.........but now after what you said, I guess I am glad we did it the way we did!

Gotta tell ya, after what you were telling us about overstuffed suitcases on the cruise: We get to MCO Saturday evening to check in our bags, and Dan's weighed in at a whopping 63 pounds!! :scared1: I nearly died. He had all our dirty laundry in his, and I guess it weighs alot. :rotfl: I was getting ready to pay the extra, rather than trying to rearrange everything, and the woman at Southwest said: "I can give you a box, and you can put some things in it. You will still be under your allowance for number of bags, and it will just take a minute." I was so grateful for the idea, I must have thanked her a hundred times. "No problem" she says. "We do this all the time after people come back from cruises. We keep a bunch of boxes by the counter just for that purpose!" You should have seen us trying to stuff all those clothes into this long box........ :rolleyes: I'm sure the people behind us were just thrilled......... :blush:

So, Mr. Shiny and Patti: I am now sooooooo curious about "inappropriate swimwear couple" and "Backstreet Boys". I feel like I may have missed some major entertainment on board!! :teeth:

[MrShiny]

We were in the morning - I think there were a couple groups - we left @ 9:15ish, I know there were several different buses. The boat we were on had a couple of younger guys - they were very nice, very gentle w/the stingrays...I remember a little blonde girl next to us that was snorkeling - she was talking w/us on the boat ride.

Sheila

We were on the 7:30 (which was great - very uncrowded at Stingray City).

[Husker4040]

We were on the 7:30 (which was great - very uncrowded at Stingray City).

We were on the 9:45.



Patti

[GAKoch]

Did any of you do the Native Way excursion in GC? We went out on a 32 ft. boat with about 10 people and it was really nice. The sting rays were so cool! Then we went to rum point beach and had lunch and played in the water there, it was a beautiful beach. I think it cost us $260 for 6 people. I don't know how much the Disney excursion was because we were so late in booking, anyone know?

We did that - Were you the group with the 2 little boys? They were so good! We were the other family with the boy and girl. We loved that excursion. When they stopped and dove for starfish we felt like it was a special treat. We had a hard time getting trent in to snorkle - he thought a fish was going to come up and attack him. Once he got started he didn't want to stop. We all snorkled again at Castaway Cay. Did you get your dvd yet? We can't wait to see that. Abby is 10 but Chris only charged he her the child rate (under 10). We appreciated that!
Georgianne

[JustKaren]

Hi Laura,
People stole magnets off our door too! They actually put them on their own door two staterooms down from us!! My daughter was floored, but I figure if they wanted them that badly then just take 'em! We just laminated the Mickey heads and threw magnetic tape on the back...not worth stealing if you ask me!! We were at the end of the hall, near that little deck off the back (which I loved by the way), so very few people would see it anyways. I never heard any yelling, by the way, although I did myself when my DD11 did not meet me at our meeting spot at CC (after my lovey cabana massage)...she went back to the ship!! I had some loud things to tell her when I found her! :furious:

How funny, Shiela, that those people were from Massachusetts! We were seated with a single Dad and his 15 year old daughter who were both very nice. I had asked to be seated at a large table with a bunch of people, but it was only the four of us. I wonder how they pick the tables? We were at the early seating at table 73 with Phillip and Kira as our servers. Phillip was great with the girls!

My DD and I would have not done well with the stingrays...I would have freaked out having them swim near me! :scared1: I am surprised so many kids did that excursion!

Karen

[Deb in IA]

OK, here are my other photos with folks in them (including my wife and daughters in the first 2):

http://www.jmcarey.com/scs3.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs4.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs5.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs6.jpg http://www.jmcarey.com/scs7.jpg


I SEE US!!!!


In this one http://www.jmcarey.com/scs5.jpg , just above the stingray, the guy with his back to the camera with the light yellow vest is my husband!! And to his right, past the tour guy, is our daughter, with the darker yellow vest, black swim suit, and the pink snorkel tube!! Is that you, Mr. Shiny, holding the stingray in that photo?

And in this one http://www.jmcarey.com/scs7.jpg, in the row of people up at the top, the 3rd one over from the left is our son, in the blue swim trunk and squinting at the stingray. Just behind him, partially obscured by the boy in the green and black trunks is ME!!!

Wow, how funny. We were on the same excursion!! I wish we had a better way of figuring out who were DIS'ers . . . I would have loved to visit with you guys on the boat! Were you sitting on the lower or upper deck of the boat that took us to the sand bar? We were on top, on the starboard side.

Mr. Shiny, did you purchase any of the photos onboard? We did, and haven't received them yet . . . hoping they aren't lost!!

Hmmmm. I'll have to see if I remember the "swimsuit inappropriate couple" . . . :confused3

[Deb in IA]

We were on the 7:30 (which was great - very uncrowded at Stingray City).


::yes::

Despite some initial hesitation, our 15 year old DD said that this was her favorite excursion!!!

[MrShiny]

No, that's not me with the ray - I was holding the camera. It was just a good shot of a guy with a ray. We bought some photos too, but I thought they said up to 4 weeks.

Here's a pic of me from the trip with the girls:
http://www.jmcarey.com/Junepirates.jpg

[MrShiny]

We were sitting on the bottowm on the port side. I think I recall seeing you actually! We'll just need lime green Mickey forehead tattoos next time!

[LongIslandMouse]

Hi Laura,
People stole magnets off our door too! They actually put them on their own door two staterooms down from us!! My daughter was floored, but I figure if they wanted them that badly then just take 'em! We just laminated the Mickey heads and threw magnetic tape on the back...not worth stealing if you ask me!! We were at the end of the hall, near that little deck off the back (which I loved by the way), so very few people would see it anyways. I never heard any yelling, by the way, although I did myself when my DD11 did not meet me at our meeting spot at CC (after my lovey cabana massage)...she went back to the ship!! I had some loud things to tell her when I found her! :furious:
Karen

Wow that's friggen ridiculous! If that happened to me I would have been knocking on their door! Holy cow I can't even believe the nerve! As you probably saw, Katie did the same thing with our mickey chips along with our names and a long ribbon so they looked like balloons. If I saw Jack's missing balloon on someone elses door I would have been banging till they opened! And yeah, I would have been p.o.'d if Katie or Ryan left to go back to the ship without telling me...kids!! They are in a dreamland sometimes ya know?

Here are a couple of photos I took from the sting-ray excursion. It was about 10am I guess and there were a bunch of other boats out there next to ours. Does anyone see themself? Mr. Shiny? ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/capookie/IMG_0336r.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/capookie/IMG_0337r.jpg

[LongIslandMouse]

We did that - Were you the group with the 2 little boys? They were so good! We were the other family with the boy and girl. We loved that excursion. When they stopped and dove for starfish we felt like it was a special treat. We had a hard time getting trent in to snorkle - he thought a fish was going to come up and attack him. Once he got started he didn't want to stop. We all snorkled again at Castaway Cay. Did you get your dvd yet? We can't wait to see that. Abby is 10 but Chris only charged he her the child rate (under 10). We appreciated that!
Georgianne

OMG that was us! I remember your son! He was hanging around by the boat when everyone else left (but us) to go snorkle right? Of course we couldn't snorkle with a 2 and 3 year old, plus my dh can't swim (hahaha!!!) So we just had the life preservers on and floated around by the boat with the little ones. I took turns snorkling with my dd when she came back and used her stuff. That was neat they dove for the starfish! Here is a pic. I took of you guys! Is that your dh? He seemed like a fun guy! Adorable kids!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/capookie/IMG_0323rr.jpg
I have to order the dvd because we didn't bring a credit card with us so he gave me his card so I could order it. They only charged the little ones $10 each too. I just tried to re-size it so it looks like the quality stinks. If you want I can email the orig. to you, PM me! Here is us:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/capookie/IMG_0316rr.jpg
I don't know why the quality is so different on these. I resized yours to 170K and mine to 122K and look how much bigger mine is.....sorry...I hate photobucket, grrr.

[MrShiny]

Here are a couple of photos I took from the sting-ray excursion. It was about 10am I guess and there were a bunch of other boats out there next to ours. Does anyone see themself? Mr. Shiny? ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/capookie/IMG_0336r.jpg

There I am! I am the very white big guy in the middle with his back to the camera in blue and white trunks.

[Deb in IA]

We'll just need lime green Mickey forehead tattoos next time!


:rotfl:

[GAKoch]

That is an awesome picture! That is not dh - I think he was one of the guys off the Carnival ship. I'm right behind Abby taking a picture. I saved that pic of yours to my pc and it looks great - don't worry about the resize. He charged $45 for each child - better than the $60 adult fee! That's nice he gave you a break for the little guys. I couldn't believe how well they did for that whole day on that little boat! Wasn't it great having so few people? He even let Abby and Trent drive the boat as we went into the beach - they loved that.
Georgianne

[Deb in IA]

Here's a pic of me from the trip with the girls:
http://www.jmcarey.com/Junepirates.jpg


GREAT pirate outfits!!! :thumbsup2

[LongIslandMouse]

That is an awesome picture! That is not dh - I think he was one of the guys off the Carnival ship. I'm right behind Abby taking a picture. I saved that pic of yours to my pc and it looks great - don't worry about the resize. He charged $45 for each child - better than the $60 adult fee! That's nice he gave you a break for the little guys. I couldn't believe how well they did for that whole day on that little boat! Wasn't it great having so few people? He even let Abby and Trent drive the boat as we went into the beach - they loved that.
Georgianne

I was sitting up on the flying bridge with my 3 yo. when he let your kids drive the boat! He also let my 3 yo. sit on his lap and drive, so cool! I should have brought my camera up there, but it was enough to hang on to a 3 yo. wiggler! Yes, the captain was very nice. I was asking him if he was from GC and he told me he was from Ecuador, I think. He had an accent that I couldn't place. But he told me he has been doing this for 20 yrs. and loves the water. Nice guy! The people who own Native way, or at least the girl, is from NY City. What a nice gig they have huh? I mean, their boat isn't as big as that catamaran, but the group was nice and small and that means alot.

Mr. Shiny, you have some great pirate outfits there dude!

[GAKoch]

Chris told us he grew up in Honduras - that was a different accent. They were all so nice. We were a bit leery when we first got there and saw the boat, but I had only heard good things about them. And they were all true - we couldn't have asked for a better day. We would go with them again in a minute.
Thanks again for the picture.
Georgianne

[Deb in IA]

There I am! I am the very white big guy in the middle with his back to the camera in blue and white trunks.


MrShiny, I think I see you in some of our pictures!!! We used one of those disposable underwater cameras, so the pictures are not digital. I'll have to ask DH to scan them for me this weekend, and I'll try to post them here next week . . .

[MrShiny]

Just got the two pics I bought on the Stingray City excursion (from Bonedry Photos - we did the DCL excursion with Dave Foster Dives). Came out great, and amazingly unbent in the standard envelope they sent them in!

I'll post them when I get a chance!

[Skuba2]

We were on the 9:45 snorkle tour with Patti. I went up and talked to the captain of the boat for a while as we were going out. We have been down diving on Grand Cayman several times but it had been awhile. Don Foster's is the only dive operation we have used. I was just checking to see if one dive master was still there. The old salty kind of character that you remember forever.

We weren't in the pics, we stayed away from the crowd. My oldest ended up early on the boat. I swear she was gonna get hurt. She would start jumping whenever one came close. The other one would almost chase them swimming after them. Go figure.

As far as the "stealing" the magnets goes, don't be too harsh on the door they ended up on. It may have been kids moving them around instead of someone actually taking them. I found one on the floor of the elevator room and put it on the closest door to it. It wasn't a home-made one, just a flounder's nursery one.

We were at the pirates movie at 12:01. We showed up late and ended up with 2nd row center. Someone was saving seats and the other party didn't show I guess. We were lucky.

I totally enjoyed meeting the people I found and sorry I missed the others. We had great seas, great weather (a little hot), great friends and a great crew.

Take Care all!

Deb-CT

[MrShiny]

Did anyone get their postcards yet? Boy they are slow! I mailed from Orlando, Key West and Castaway Cay.

[mattmommy]

We did the 9:15 turtle, hell, stingray. I noticed a lot of people wearing vests. We didn't have them--wonder why? DS loved the rays. We missed out on precious beach time. I would have booked an earlier time and skipped the turtles and hell.

Did DD in the POURING rain. But had a great time.

Finished my Janet book.

Rebooked for 7/15/07. Hoping to talk dh into a back to back, but no luck so far.

DS made it through the entire POC. We were the nuts who showed up in pj's with a blanket.

[MrShiny]

On our stingray excursion, they said Disney required everyone to have a vest, but they left it up to us how to have them on our body (most just wore them, as that was easiest, but I think a lot didn't bother to inflate them).

[Skuba2]

Just got our 2 of our 3 castaway cay postcards on 7/31. It does take a few weeks.

[MrShiny]

Just got ours too!

[mattmommy]

We got ours the other day. We always write ourselves one that reads "we'll be back".

I don't remember even seeing vests. Did anybody have time to go to a beach in GC?