Disneyzell magical christmas cruise 2008-4/7/11:TR from my 8 year old pg 9 COMPLETED!

[DisneyZell]

Hi everyone! So we are 12 days from sailing and DW told me that if I'm going to do a pre-trip report I better do it before actually sailing. Go figure! As I love to bore everyone with my adventures I figure we may as well start now!

Soooo, without further ado, here are my cast of crazy people...er I mean characters. We are, once again, travelling with our neighbors so they are part of the cast!

DH - That's me, Andrew. Because we are lazy and refuse to come up with a separate log-in, DW posts all the time under Disneyzell, so it's hard to tell who is who. Here is a tip: if there is something useful posted....that's DW. If you are bored out of your mind...that would be me!

DW - My lovely bride, Deanna. She is the all-knowing planner. I'm pretty sure she spends 28 hours a day on the DIS answering and asking questions and hooking up with all those people who are going on our cruise (hooking up in the strictly non-prostitute meaning of the word).

DS10 - Our son Nick, he is fired up to go on his 3rd cruise. holy cow we have given alot of our money to Disney. He is currently in 5th grade and recently made high honors at school! Thank the lord he got DW's brains. He also just finished up football where his team won the state of New Hampshire . I was a coach. Yet we still won. Crazy. Thankfully he got his mother's athletic ability as well!

DS6 - Our son Connor. He is also excited for cruise #3. The first one he was just a baby, Flounders for him (booooooring, wait, did I say that out loud??? He also just finished football...yes, he is 6 playing tackle football. and yes, Child Protective Services has considered visiting our house. Now, if your lucky we will post a picture of him in his uniform and bore you even more....

Now our neighbors.

DNH - Mike. Mike is the man with all the tools. He is always around to help and has saved me from myself on multiple occassions. We have lived accross the street from them for 4.5 years and have somehow managed to remain friends. they did, however, put up a fence. Hmmmmm, but that is a story for another time!

DNW - Kim is the better half of that relationship (don't go there). She is an avid runner, even in the cold of winter (did I tell you we are from New Hampshire?). 6-7-8 miles are no problem for her. I would join her on those runs, but I'm a much better and just wave as I drive by and splash her. DW tried to run her off the road one day. She claims is was an accident as she came around the corner...but maybe she is jealous about how much Kim exercises?

DNS12 - Chris. To be honest, not entirely sure if he is 12. Luckily I can correct this if he isn't. And I'll erase this note anyway, so you won't have any idea that I'm not always the smartest guy in the world. Or just don't pay attention. or all three. both, whatever.

DND8 - Kathryn. Same thing here on the age. I suck at this. I'm sure your asking yourself why DW isn't writing this. She is much better at the facts. Funny, I asked the same thing. Yet here I am. Kathryn is our resident soccer player and noter of all things that you might not have thought about. She will ask you questions you didn't even know should be asked. And naturally they are things, as an adult, you should know. Guess what? yup, I have no idea of the answers on those. DOH!

So that's it, although both families have dogs which will play a role later because they have to go somewhere while we are on a trip.

DDOG (Disney Dog???) - ours is Harley. He is just over a year old and is a Maltese. so, do you think of Maltese dogs as lap dogs? we did to. We are pretty sure he has ADD. We've considered drugs.

DNDOG (Disney Neighbor Dog?) - Theirs is Mulan (yup, named after that disney character). She is a Tibetan Terrier. She's a great dog, but a bit of an old biddy, and is the dog that keeps all the other dogs in their place in the neighborhood.

We head down to Orlando on the 17th, several days in advance!

More later on our preparations!

 

[DisneyZell]

Yes, it is DW here and DNS Chris is 11 not 12. I don't know how many times I have to correct DH on this one. But, not only did he manage to get DND Kathryn's age right, he got the spelling right as well. That is another one he usually gets wrong. But he tries...I'll give him that. We cannot wait to get down to Orlando...DH is in Atlanta right now, but he left us behind and at the bus stop this morning, with wind chill it was -5 degrees New Hampshire sure was not my choice of states to live it! Hopefully we won't bore you too much and will enjoy our report.

 

[DisneyZell]

Today is December 15th. We leave in two days for Orlando where we will spend several glorious days at Disney's All Star Resort! Woohoo!

However....

our adventure really started last thursday night. We live in New Hampshire and as some of you may know we had an ice storm...but let me set this up for you...

My two boys play tackle football. Thursday night was the celebration for the end of the year where we go to a place called Chunky's which is a movie theater/restaurant (yeah, very, very cool!) to eat dinner and watch their highlight video on the big screen. We knew that we had freezing rain coming our way but were hoping it would hold off. It did.

On the way home it had started raining. For those of you who don't know what freezing rain is (as I didn't until two years ago), it's basically where up in the sky it is too warm to freeze the water and turn it to snow...but on the ground it is below or at freezing. So when the rain comes down it freezes. It attaches itself to everything, by the time we got home and I let the dog out, our basketball hoop was frozen solid. Overnight everything had about 1/4 inch of ice on it. By the way, tree's after freezing rain are beautiful, they shine in the sun...very nice! but I digress.

Two years ago when we had freezing rain we lost power for a day and a half. I remarked to DW when we got home that I was surprised power had not gone out yet. We got home just before 9pm. At 9pm the power went out.

We put the kids to bed and were doing the same when the power came back on...(dang it! think of thing things you can do in the dark with nothing else to do.... )

We watched TV for a bit and then crashed. At some point during the night the power went out again. Um, that was Thursday night (for those of you not following along very well, today is Monday). The initial estimate was 2-3 days to restore power.

So a little power outage never hurt anyone, right? Well, there is a kicker to the whole thing, my Dad was coming in on his way back from a visit with my sister in Germany and was due in Friday night at 6pm, and staying until Tuesday afternoon.

So, let me recap...We lost power Thursday, due to be out 2-3 days and we have grandpa coming in for the weekend. That has interesting written all over it.

So I got ahold of his wife and left him messages on his cell to call me when he landed in Dulles airport. He landed late, and didn't make his original connection. We chatted and he decided to go ahead and come because he had not seen the kids in a while, which is cool. His reschedule plane was due to land at the Boston Airport (about 45 minutes from me) at 11:30pm

Now, luckily for us, we have nice neighbors. In fact they happen to be DNH and DNW who are going on the cruise with us. and they agreed to take us in, granpa and all. whew! They have one of those standby generators so they had everything except cable.

How many of you have gone 3 days without cable and internet? I have not done that in a while. It's amazing how out of touch you feel. No idea what was going on with the world, and missing all my shows! And on top of that, the last episode of this Survivor season was Sunday night. we didn't even get to see the prior Thursday's episode because we were out (Thank god for DVR's), so we were behind. What can we do! AND, the Patriots were on. Oh bother. So we went to a bar to watch the patriots, and then bought rabbit ears (Woohoo! it's not February yet, so rabit ears still work!) and watched fuzzy Survivor. Crises avoided. But I digress.

Sorry about that, but if you are going to read that you will just have to put up with it.

So it is Monday, we still don't have power and they are saying it might be next Saturday before we get it. Well, we will be on the cruise then! and hopefully our houses will survive the electricity coming back on!

One more thing before I sign off today...My dad appears to have the flu.

You ever have the feeling that hopefully things get better from here???

Hope I didn't bore you too much. There is a slight chance we might be able to go live from the Magic.

Next up: no idea because I don't know if I'll have power!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Whew - I just saw your post on the DIS Meet Thread -- ay yi yi about the power outage -- you can definitely say this will be an adventure! And just think, it won't be long til you're in WDW and then on the ship - that's THIS WEEK! See you all soon!

 

[DisneyZell]

We woke up this morning to electricity! Glorious, wonderful electricity. Who would have thunk it? The Sailing Shamu's were more than happy to get rid of us (of course we will be in close quarters when we have adjoining rooms anyway! ).

Actually it was incredible to have such good friends as someone willing to take us in for 4 nights. It was better than a bed and breakfast! Thanks Sailing Shamu's!

So tomorrow we are off, flying down to Disney for a couple days before we hit the ship. I can't believe it's already here! sorry for this sad excuse for a pre-trip report...but I blame the electricity! really! Hopefully this whole thing will get better??

maybe, just maybe we might go live on this trip. time will tell. Until next time! go make someone's day!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Yay for electricity. Yay for leaving for WDW. Yay for Saturday being just two sleeps away! Yay for great friends. Yay for new friends! Yay for DISBoards! See you soon.

 

[strega7]

Hi DisneyZell, while searching for our stateroom number, it come up that you had ours that we will have in Feb. Then I noticed you started a pre trippie report. How was that location...did you feel a lot of the ocean? And, If you have any pics, I would love to see my upcoming room . Welcome back, I can't wait to read your trip report. marci

 

[DisneyZell]

it was a great room, and assuming they don't change hosts, P is a GREAT host..the best we have had so far.

I'll be starting my trip report either today or tomorrow, so look for it! sorry I didn't go live...just too much going on...ok, maybe a bit of relaxing too!

 

[Bytor01]

it was a great room, and assuming they don't change hosts, P is a GREAT host..the best we have had so far.

I'll be starting my trip report either today or tomorrow, so look for it! sorry I didn't go live...just too much going on...ok, maybe a bit of relaxing too!

Still waiting for the TR...

 

[DisneyZell]

OK, it took forever and a day for me to sort through my pictures and get ready to post (alot longer than I thought it would!), so that added a few days, and, well, I've been distracted. what can I say, but you get what you pay for!

So when last I left off, we had just gotten our electricity back . You have no idea what it's like to not have electricity. Even just the every day sounds are different. Your house really makes more noises than you would think...and when there is no electricity it is complete and total silence and darkness. This is very cool when trying to sleep, but when the temperature of your house drops down to 30 degrees you start to worry. We turned off the water main and ran all the water out so that nothing would freeze, but still it was scary!

But I guess I don't need to bore you with that. As I had mentioned, my dad was here during the outage and had the flu (or something). I took him to the airport Tuesday morning to sent him home to Oregon. Naturally I managed to pick up whatever he had, and could barely talk. I felt like half my lung was full of water, and each time I woudl cough, the other half would come up. lovely! Today is January 2, 2009 (happy new year everyone!), and I still have the cough. I also managed to have what I call Mickey's Revenge, but more on that later!

Back to the story...

We woke up on Wednesday, December 17th...it was time to go to Orlando! Naturally overnight it had started to snow...it was like New England wanted to grab us with it's icy glove and not let go! but we managed to get packed up and jam ourselves into our neighbor's minivan (yeah, we do sponge off our neighbors alot apparently, and these are different neighbors than the ones we dragged with us on the cruise. I recommend it). She drove us to the bus stop and we waited for our fellow cruising neighbors to arrive. Time ticked by and DW finally called to see where they were...they were just leaving, no way they would make the bus stop where we were...but they could make the next stop. Whew! time to board the Boston Express, this was quickly turning into an episode of Trains, planes and automobiles.

In the interest of good (mediocre?) story telling I'd love to say that the bus ride was terrible full of white knuckle moments, car crashes and drama. But the only drama we got was from DNW (Kim) who kept having a whole bunch of Holy Crap moments. She thought she had left her Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party tickets at home and spent time frantically searching and finally calling another neighbor (see, we aren't the only ones who sponge off of our neighbors) to go see if they were on the table. Luckily she had them, so no real crisis involved there!

We got to the airport no problem and went to check in. We were flying Airtran airways. Have any of you flown on them? They love to get out the measuring tape to ensure your bag is the correct size and shape to go on the plane. I've travelled alot but have never seen anything like that before. But we got Santa Clause who grabbed our bags and threw them on the belt without a second look. Our neighbors, however, were not so lucky and failed the weight test and had to do the luggage shuffle. Ah, the wonders of travel.

Can someone explain to me why they can't let a pound or two go? I understand the overweight bag thing (they need to limit the weight on the plane, and thus far real people are moving the bags on and off the planes (why they haven't come up with robots for this I'm not sure. The way these guys toss the luggage around they may as well let machines squish everything!). But if your bags are 51 pounds, does it really make that big of a difference? is the money that important??? I fly US Scare alot, and they charge $2 for a coke. what is this world coming to??). But I digress.

And now, wait for it...the first picture of the trip report!

Everyone is hard at work in the airport doing Soduku. Notice you don't see me in this picture (well you don't know what I look like, but trust me, I'm not there).

Our flight was uneventful, we travelled through Atlanta and sit and wait for a bit, I continued to cough (sorry to everyone on the plane), and DS6 (Connor) had to have M&M's. Breakfast (or evening snack) of champions! I actually like Airtran, the people are nice and the seats are generally pretty comfy. and if you don't get a luggage Nazi you can have a pretty good experience.

We landed on time and made our way to Disney's Magical Express. DNH (Mike) had the best comment of the trip when he pointed out that if it was truely magical we wouldn't have to ride on a bus! I've been on the "Express" before and had to wait forever for us to leave the airport. I believe this is one area where Disney could improve. You have a bunch of kids on a bus with no entertainment of any kind...makes for a bad start to the trip if you ask me! But again I digress (I will stop being negative shortly...really. I will. I promise). We were finally off and driving. The driver was pretty funny, throwing out some trivia before the "movie" started. That was entertaining. Then the movie started.

*warning* *warning* more negativity coming...

the last time I rode the magical express they showed cartoons the whole way. Apparently Disney realized they were missing an opportunity with a captive audience and it has now become a non-stop commercial. I'm a marketing major, so certainly understand why you would want to do this, but couldn't you mix in one or two cartoons as well??? I mean...the kids don't want to see that stuff. Really they don't.

Ahem. back to the story.

DW had booked us at the All Star Sports resort. I had no idea what that was going to be like, but was excited to stay on-property which we have never done. We arrived around 10. The outside of the resort is very cool, and very well thought out in the theme of the hotel. This is pretty impressive. The lobby is very bright and inviting. We stood in line for a bit and get checked in and got that first of two allmighty key to the world cards! woohoo! I'm pretty sure whoever designed Las Vegas with the chips also worked at Disney. It's not like spending money...it's all free! except when you check out.

We were all hungry so figured we would stop by the food court before we were heading to our rooms (our luggage was not there anyway, those of you who have not done it, one of the perks of the magical express is that you put these luggage tags on your bags and Disney picks them up and delivers them to your room within 2 hours of your arriving at the resort. this is a nice little touch except...well, I'll get to that). The food court was basically a giant cafeteria with several stations. I got Pizza, DW, DS10, and DS6 all got cheeseburgers. We also splurged and got refillable mugs for soda. I want to say it was about $14 for each mug (we bought 2), but we know how much soda we drink so we figured it would pay for itself. What I didnt' realize is that the mug only holds a shot of soda. Another interesting Disney trick.

OK, so before I go on, let me say that I'm a HUGE disney fan. I know it doesn't seem like it based on what you are reading above. There are things that bug the heck out of me, and you, lucky reader, get to hear about it!. Again, I realize WHY they do some of this stuff, but it still annoys me!

Time to go to the rooms! We were in the Baseball section of the hotel (the boys were bummed, they really wanted to be in Football). We walked through football on the way and again I was floored by the details of the resort. There will be pictures a bit later (it was nighttime so I want to try to keep things in order a little bit). Then we got to baseball and there was a pool in the middle of our portion of the hotel shaped like a baseball diamond with Goofy on the pitching mound shooting a cannon toward home plate (there was a fountain of water coming out). Again, a very neat design.

Then we got to the rooms. Have you ever sat next to that person on the plane that decided to use too much perfume or cologne? That was the experience when we walked into the room. Whoa! Not sure what they sprayed in there (or what they needed to cover up ), but it was pretty gross. Now, keep in mind that I am a hotel snob. I travel 80-100 nights per year, so I'm pretty picky. This room was only a slight step above a motel 6. Pictures:

Connor and the Mickey Shaped towel (let the towel animals commence!)

The room (that good looking guy standing up in striped is me. No, I'm not just out of jail, I really like that shirt!)

Alas, but it is only a place to sleep. I always hear people say things like "you won't spend much time in the room anyway". I guess this was Disney's way to make sure that was the case! Get out there and spend! Ahem.

So by midnight (2 hours after we had arrived), we were looking for our luggage and really wanting to go to bed. I called and was told that it just arrived and they would expedite it over to our room. True to form it arrived 15 minutes later. Let vacation Begin!!!

Hope I'm not boring you too much...

next up: Day 2 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

 

[DisneyZell]

Still waiting for the TR...

Sorry! Life got in the way. chapter 1 is up for you to review!

 

[DisneyZell]

Today I'm running a two for one special. If I don't get another chapter out it might be a while until the next one!!

Sleep wasn't the best on the first night in the All Star Sports resort. I was still dealing with fluid filled lungs, first night in a strange bed, too hot, too cold, brain pondering all the things to come, ah the joys of vacation, and the exact reason we came several days before the cruise so we could wind down toward our actual vacation!

We got up around 8:30, cruised over to the food court, grabbed some muffins, etc. to eat, it didn't cost us anything, just the swipe of the magical card (cha-ching) a quick fill up of a shot of soda in our refillable mugs (I'd like to see the mugs that aren't refillable. is that sort of like those movies that you can watch for 48 hours and then the disc destroys itself? Caution, this mug will self-destruct in 10 minutes. But again I digress.

Then it was time to hit the pool. As I mentioned the pool was cool (yes I love to rhyme). The kids had a great time playing around, climbing on Goofy (which of course they were not supposed to do), and naturally collapsing and becoming bathing beauties.

DS10 Nick (Left), and DNS 11 Chris (right) collapse by the pool.

DS6, from the moment we walked in, was far more interested in the giant football helmets, drink cups, and footballs that were used to hide the staircases at the hotel. Again, a very cool design. He bugged me for 10 minutes before I finally let him wander up the stairwell and into the giant cup. You know how when kids are younger and they actually play with the box more than the toy that you bought? Same concept here. DS6 could have wandered inside the giant cup for hours.

That's him, that spec right next to the cup.

And here are DS6 (Connor) and DND8 (Kathryn) in a bit tighter shot.

Then it was time to wander the resort a bit and take some pictures.

The Giant Football helmets. Our kids are there. Really.

See, I told you!

The football field in the middle of the football portion of the hotel was a big hit, and later in the trip a football game took place there with the kids running around. The "field" was a rubberized field...again, very cool.

At the entrace to the resort.

So, tired of not spending money (except those magical cards), DNW (Kim) had discovered that we were not far from McDonalds. Woohoo! So we saddled up and headed over there for lunch figuring we would save a few dollars for the adventure at the Magic Kingdom. The picture above was taken as we walked over. I also discovered that McDonalds had their own version of the refillable mug, it was called a cup and only cost $1.50. Amazing. Needless to say I used my refillable mug (er...cup) over and over in our short stay at McDonalds even though it held more than a shot of soda. It's a wonder that McDonalds stays in business

After that it was back to the resort for a bit to get ready to go to....wait for it...

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

We were all very excited for this event and the opportunity to hang out in one of the parks. We love Magic Kingdom. Prior to this we had done Mickey's Halloween party (October 2006 before our last cruise!), and the Pirates and Princesses party (February 2008) during the February break for our kids, so we were well versed in the parties and knew we could go in at 4pm even though the even didn't start until 7. or was it 6? I'm sure DW will correct me if I'm wrong (she is much better at that stuff anyway).

OH! before I forget, big props go to DW. She wrote everything down in a handy dandy journal type thingy which I am liberally "repurposing" for my own use, so I figure I'd give her credit. Thanks Baby-Cakes!

We saddled up at 2:30, figuring that we would end up on the slow boat to china (or in this case the slow motor coach to the magic kingdom) given that we were at a value resort. We got to the waiting area and only had to wait about 5 minutes for the bus to show up, and for some reason we didn't make any stops at all on the way to MK. We arrived at 3pm. Harumph. That's way to early.

Hoping for some pixie dust we figured we would try anyway. REJECTED! naturally we played dumb OH, we can't go in yet? darn! the CM very nicely told us we could go ride the monorail to pass the time...an excellent idea! so we scooted over to the monorail. We asked about riding up front (something we have never done, but heard you could do!), and we waiting way up in front. Unfortunately when the Monorail arrived only 4 could go up there. We did what any self-respecting parent would do and we packed all our kids in the front while we went into the next car! Yeah! they loved it and even got a pilots license for their efforts. Very cool, I recommend it if you get the chance.

We rode over to the transportation center and got off. We still had some serious time to kill. To list off what we had ridden so far: Minivan (to the bus station), Bus (to the airport), Airplane (from Boston to Atlanta and Atlanta to Orlando), Train (from the terminal to baggage claim in orlando), Bus (to All Star Sports), Bus (to MK), Monorail (from MK to the transportation center), what was missing??? AH! Boat! We hopped on the Ferry, jumped to the top deck and rode. Very cool. I had never done this before (I don't think), and it's very relaxing.

Kathryn (left), Chris, Nick and Connor on the Ferry with MK in the background)

We still had more time to kill when we arrived, so we just stayed on the boat. We went back and forth 3 times, relaxing and just taking in the sights and watching people (holy cow the people watching is fantastic at Disney!). Finally it was time to go in!

The kids in front of the Christmas Party sign

We slid our tickets into the readers like pro's, waited patiently for the fancy Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party bracelets to go around our Wrists and off into the park.

Our family on Main Street, USA

DW and the boys in front of the giant tree.

Us and our Neighbors at a photo spot

So one thing we did bring with us this year was our Nikon D50. We bought this Digital SLR camera after the Cruise in 2006 because we loved the pictures and were tired of waiting and waiting and waiting for pictures to take on the smaller cameras. One tip if you do this, the CM's in the park who take photo's will gladly take one with your camera which will save you a ton of money, and they do a great job. But I digress.

part 2 coming right up (I used too many pictures!)

 

[DisneyZell]

Part 2
We still had 3 hours to kill until the party officially started, so we hit the rides. Pirates was first, and as usual one of the best. I don't know what it is about this ride, but it is just fantastic.

We then grabbed fast passes for Splash mountain and ran off to Big Thunder Mountain for our first roller coaster ride of the day. After that ride we discovered something wonderful. You can buy popcorn with the magical card! Apparently at some point in the past Disney added the ability to pay with your Key to the World card to it's carts. Woohoo! free popcorn! Disney just keeps giving and giving .

Back to splash mountain to ride. I have to be honest, I'm not normally a big fan of splash mountain or any log rides. I have issues when I'm not seat-belted in riding down a 5 story drop. Not sure why that it...it's a sickness I guess. But I discovered if you throw your arms up and scream at the top of your lungs on the way down it is much better! Go figure!

We grabbed dinner at Cosmic Ray's and discovered another little known Disney bonus...the cheese sauce! over by the topping bar there is a little nozzle where you can get cheese sauce. All you want! What better thing to have than cheese fries in the park. Sad, isn't it, that I get so excited by the little yummy things.

Finally the party started, and things got even better because the crowds thinned out. The weather was beautiful (especially given that it had snowed 9 inches overnight back in new Hampshire) and we were ready to have a great time. We hit the Laugh Floor (which is fantastic and not to be missed if you ever go to MK). For those of you who have never done it I won't ruin it, but let's just say that each show us unique which makes it very, very fun). We also went on Space Mountain for the first of 3 times (each kid HAD to ride in the front car),

Everyone else on Space Mountain

and finally Buzz Lightyear would round out our visit to Tomorrow land.

Deanna and Kim

Mike and Kathryn

Nick and Chris

Connor and Me

Buzz was an adventure, it kept breaking down as we were getting going. a CM wandered out onto the ride at one point, then came back and they tried to reset it. She had to reset it maybe 6 times to finally get it going. Pretty funny, too, that she had to say the same thing EVERY time she reset the ride. Oh for the love of scripts! The last time we got stuck Connor and I were able to shoot and score, so I was naturally running up my score so that I could win. MUHAHAHAHA All a part of my diabolical plan. Finally we got going and we successfully defended the earth against Zurg.

But they put the kids in jail because they wouldn't behave!

It was nighttime now and the castle was lit up. Holy cow...what an amazing sight. I'm a big christmas light guy, and I HAVE to figure out what kind of lights they use on the castle, the whole thing was lit up. maybe fiber optics? not really sure, but it was incredible!

The Castle

the benefit of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party wasn't just the lack of crowds, but it was also free cocoa (or apple juice) and cookies! We only took advantage of this once, however...

The rest of the night was spent doing rides and shows (mickey's philharmagic), and of course watching Holiday Wishes, the fireworks show.

fireworks light up the night

We were headed out when we bumped into the show at the end of the night (not sure what this one was called), so we watched that before we headed out. Disney sure does put on one heck of a show, no matter what you may think of the Mouse, you can't help but be entertained by that!

That was it, the night was over, and a bus (excuse me, motor coach) ride back to the hotel was it for the night. What a great day, tiring but a ton of fun.

Hopefully this one was more positive for you!

Next up: A short one, Downtown Disney, some drawings, and the last day at All Star Sports!

 

[Bytor01]

Great reading...looking forward to the TR as we are leaving on DCL on the 17th so it will be nice to read a long as our day gets closer.

Tim

 

[DMMarla07860]

great reading so far, and you got some great pictures

 

[nzdisneymom]

Sounds like you guys enjoyed your pre-cruise relaxation time. We noticed quite a few families who were frazzled the first day because of travel woes. Going down a day or two early really does help you get ready for the cruise! Looking forward to upcoming chapters! Can you believe this time last week we were at Castaway Cay? And the Wonder was sailing by?

 

[strega7]

Yeah!!! I was looking forward to your trip report, and you have already posted two segments. Can't wait for the cruise part. The MK was beautiful! Can't wait to read more. Marci

 

[DisneyZell]

Great reading...looking forward to the TR as we are leaving on DCL on the 17th so it will be nice to read a long as our day gets closer.

Tim

Thanks

great reading so far, and you got some great pictures

I'm telling you, it is all about the camera. If someone like me can take pictures like that...you know the camera has to be good. and no, I don't work for Nikon!

Sounds like you guys enjoyed your pre-cruise relaxation time. We noticed quite a few families who were frazzled the first day because of travel woes. Going down a day or two early really does help you get ready for the cruise! Looking forward to upcoming chapters! Can you believe this time last week we were at Castaway Cay? And the Wonder was sailing by?

I have chosen to not believe that I'm off the Disney boat. Of course this time last week was one of the saddest days of my life...so it's all relative! And DS6 and I felt like we were still on the boat up until yesterday...but that will come later! One more chapter to go and then we will be on the boat. You know I have to do the setup!

Yeah!!! I was looking forward to your trip report, and you have already posted two segments. Can't wait for the cruise part. The MK was beautiful! Can't wait to read more. Marci

Thanks! I enjoy typing...work may get in the way next week...but hopefully not too much!

thanks for your comments everyone, keep them coming, and let me know if i'm boring you...my goal is to try to keep it somewhat entertaining, but no promises!

 

[Kurby]

ahhhh i'm totally into your report (you're a great story teller) but it ended.

don't you know you're not allowed to have a life until you finish the report - the whole report - and nothing but the report????

now i have to wonder what happened at DTD, what did you draw.

hurry back

 

[TotallyAngelic]

it was a great room, and assuming they don't change hosts, P is a GREAT host..the best we have had so far.

I'll be starting my trip report either today or tomorrow, so look for it! sorry I didn't go live...just too much going on...ok, maybe a bit of relaxing too!

WOW - we had P looking after us on deck 6 in October - he was great! Really looked after us well!