The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! COMPLETE 4/12

Too bad the siblings can be so annoying! (I know the feeling!) Again, even with the smoke coming in and clouding things up a bit, Canada looks absolutely beautiful!
 
Welcome back Rosie!! You've missed TONS!!!. I hope you guys weren't rained out for the whole week.
 


Hi, Lessa!
I finally got caught up on your report. We got back from our trip on Thursday, and today's the first time that I've acutally been able to get up to speed on any of the reports that I've been reading. Of course yours was the first that I wanted to check out!
I'm so loving the report! I'm so glad that you finally made it to the cruise portion. You're doing a great job with all the details. I know my report won't be anywhere close to yours!
I'm also loving reading about the trip to your Dad's. What a beautiful place! I'm sorry that the boys were being so mean to you. I hope that straightened up!!
By the way...I feel the same about the Mickey slide...It's totally unfair that the adults can't go down it, and like you I'm hoping that they have something for the big kids on the new ships!!
Keep up the awesome work!
 
REALLY GOOD pics on the drive, if you like wineries, go just over the border in MI, and hit up traverse city MI, they have like 30 some plus wineries, you would like it.

Never heard of it, I will have to look it up.


Too bad the siblings can be so annoying! (I know the feeling!) Again, even with the smoke coming in and clouding things up a bit, Canada looks absolutely beautiful!

Thanks, Canada is a beautiful country and has so much to see. The mountains in the west, the vast open prairies, the cities in Ontario and Quebec (Niagara Falls, Toronto,Ottawa,Montreal, Quebec City) and then the quaint towns of the Maritimes.
Hi Lessa I am back will try to catch up this week !! Did I miss anything ???????

Only a few updates for both the cruise and the BC trip. :rolleyes1


What a great TR! I enjoyed every minute!

Thank you, glad you are enjoying it. :goodvibes

Hi, Lessa!
I finally got caught up on your report. We got back from our trip on Thursday, and today's the first time that I've acutally been able to get up to speed on any of the reports that I've been reading. Of course yours was the first that I wanted to check out!
I'm so loving the report! I'm so glad that you finally made it to the cruise portion. You're doing a great job with all the details. I know my report won't be anywhere close to yours!
I'm also loving reading about the trip to your Dad's. What a beautiful place! I'm sorry that the boys were being so mean to you. I hope that straightened up!!
By the way...I feel the same about the Mickey slide...It's totally unfair that the adults can't go down it, and like you I'm hoping that they have something for the big kids on the new ships!!
Keep up the awesome work!

Welcome back! Hope you had a fab cruise!
 
After the animation class we decided to head back up to the pool since it had stopped raining. We saw this guy walking around the ship as we were headed back to our room to change.

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Ready for the pool we went back up to deck 9. After securing some chairs I told Mom I was going to go over to the family pool and grab some pizza from Pinoccho's Pizzeria.

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They have several different varieties available, I decided to just get some plain pepperoni.

They had The Jungle Book playing on the big screen over the family pool.

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I like the pizza, lots of people on the cruise board say that they can't stand the pizza but I thought it was pretty tasty and I am a pizza lover. The people who don't like it are probably all from Jersey and New York, they are pizza snobs. ;p

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We hung out at the pool for about an hour and then guess what happened? It started to rain again!

We packed up our stuff and went back down to the room. Mom was in a major funk now and was pouting around the room. She was just so fed up with all the rain that we had gotten on this trip. I think she even cried a little bit. I told her to cheer up and that there was no way that the rain could follow us around on the whole cruise.

I left Mom pouting in the room and I went down to the Promenade Lounge for the origami class, also being led by Oscar.

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We were supposed to be making origami flowers. Well mine turned out looking demented. This was not a true origami class. Origami is the art of folding paper and you are supposed to fashion the creations out of one piece of paper. Well they handed us 5 strips of paper and they had us using glue. This is not origami! I am really good at origami, at least I used to be. I can make origami cranes like a pro. So my excuse for my flower turning out demented is that it was not real origami. ^_^ I chucked my flower on the way back to the room, no way I was keeping that! lol

Back at the room I went out onto the verandah and the skies had cleared and it was now a beautiful sunny day! Thank god!

Mom and I decided to order some room service for lunch before heading back to the pool.

I ordered a pepperoni pizza and a Mickey ice cream bar. Mom ordered the chicken quesadilla salad and a Mickey Bar.

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We enjoyed our lunch while relaxing out on the veranda, this is the life!

When we got up to the pool all the lounge chairs on deck 9 by the pool were occupied so we grabbed some on deck 10. No big deal, it was actually nicer than being poolside, not as crowded and there are stairs right there for easy access to the pool area.

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Mom and I had brought our WDW refillable mugs up to the pool with us so I grabbed those and walked down to the drink station to fill them up. I recommend bringing your own mug as the cups provided are pretty small. You can refill them as much as you want but it is just easier to have a mug on hand.

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We spent the afternoon soaking up the sun and relaxing by the pool. Mom mostly stayed in her lounger reading but I wanted some pool time!

I alternated between the hot tubs and the pool. I was joined in the hot tub by a nice grandma who had ditched the rest of the family back at the Goofy pool for the peace of the adult pool.

The hot tub was making me feel overheated so I went into the pool. Along the edges of the pool is a very shallow area where you can sit or lay in the water, it was great. The water was nice and warm but not too warm, just perfect. So I lay there in the pool soaking up the sun and listening to the tropical music they had playing, it was perfect.

At one point the cruise staff cleared the pool for "Adult Pool Games". They chose three women and three men to compete against each other.

The first game was a "dolphin" race. They were given a ball that they had to push across the pool using their nose. The guys got a golf ball sized ball and the girls got one that was much bigger. The guys ended up winning because they cheated and instead of pushing the ball with their nose they put it in their mouth and swam with it.

The next game was a wet t-shirt race. Each team was given a t-shirt that they had to wear while swimming across the pool and back. They then had to take the t-shirt off and get it on the next member of the team and repeat until all three had done the lap. The girls won this game. So the score was now 1:1.

The last game was a treasure hunt. David (cruise staff) threw two handfuls of gold coins into the pool. The two teams then had one minute to collect as many of them from the bottom as possible. Unfortunately the guys won that round and so they won the contest.

The participants all got a free round of drinks for playing.

It was very funny to watch and I imagine to participate in as well.

As I was relaxing in the pool I ran into the Diser, Joanne, that I had been chatting with the day before in the cruise terminal. We chatted for a while and then I decided to get out of the pool and go rejoin Mom.

I had brought a book to the pool with me so I lay out and enjoyed my book while drying off. I was interrupted a few times by the cruise staff coming by and asking if I wanted a drink, again they were VERY attentive when it came to offering to get you a drink. I declined all offers.

Once I was all dry Mom and I decided to pack up our stuff, take a stroll around the deck and then head back to the room to get ready for the evening.

This is the crew pool

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The Mickey pool (Kids pool) was starting to look a little gross. Somebody told me that the discoloration is from all the sunscreen but it looks like something else to me....

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This is the outdoors seating for Topsiders Buffet

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The LONG hallway back to our room. The halls were very narrow and when the room attendants had their carts out in the hall it was pretty much single file walking.

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Click here to continue
 


Another great update!

That pool really doesn't look appealing with all that sunscreen in it. :scared1:

Love the adult pool and how you can hang out on the edge in shallow water.
 
Okay...I'm all caught up!!!!

Canada looks beautiful! You are a trooper! Hiking, stepmom, annoying brothers, fires and dad all together...you survived and that's saying something I'm sure.

The cruise....heaven. That Adult Pool is so relaxing...you can't even hear the noise from the other pools--amazing. Glad you had great tablemates--it really does make a difference.

The pizza is not that bad....
 
Another great update!

That pool really doesn't look appealing with all that sunscreen in it. :scared1:

Love the adult pool and how you can hang out on the edge in shallow water.

The adult pool was perfect. The pool was small which is pretty much necessary on a cruise ship but it was never crowded. The kids pool got pretty crowded though.

Okay...I'm all caught up!!!!

Canada looks beautiful! You are a trooper! Hiking, stepmom, annoying brothers, fires and dad all together...you survived and that's saying something I'm sure.

The cruise....heaven. That Adult Pool is so relaxing...you can't even hear the noise from the other pools--amazing. Glad you had great tablemates--it really does make a difference.

The pizza is not that bad....

I did survive, wait until you hear about our next hike and you will be surprised I did. I came home pretty banged up.

It was amazing how the sound didn't travel over. It was like as soon as you crossed into the adult area the rest of the ship's noise melted away.


Did any of the cruise staff get thrown in the pool?

Now that you mention it I do seem to remember David jumping into the pool to try and hold the guys back in the wet t-shirt race. I had forgotten about that. :laughing:

I'm so glad the sun came out for your guys. I was starting to get a bit worries.

Poor mom:hug:

You have no idea how relieved we were to see the sun. I think if the rain had lasted much longer I would have joined Mom in her pouting. :laughing:
 
sounds like a nice fun day by the pool.

that water def. did look gross, and i would not have bought the sunscreen reasoning.
did yo uever see any other boats while you were out at sea and not close to theports?
 
sounds like a nice fun day by the pool.

that water def. did look gross, and i would not have bought the sunscreen reasoning.
did yo uever see any other boats while you were out at sea and not close to theports?

The only time we saw other ships was on Pirate Night. I suspect that the reason they were so close to us was so that their passengers could view Disney's fireworks.
 
Hey!! Just finally got all caught up!! Loving your tr!! Definitely getting more focused on planning my own cruise...you can start booking for 2011 soon! Which brings me to my next thing!!

Did you see they've added new itineraries?! (I think I messed that spelling up.) One is to Alaska during the summer and the Mexican Rivera other times!! What do you think about those places? I am REALLY thinking an Alaskan one. I've always wanted to go there! But I don't know if I want the tropical cruisey thing. Hmm...

My main question is, when you book do you just have to pay the deposit and then have until how many days in advance of the cruise to pay it off?
 
Hey!! Just finally got all caught up!! Loving your tr!! Definitely getting more focused on planning my own cruise...you can start booking for 2011 soon! Which brings me to my next thing!!

Did you see they've added new itineraries?! (I think I messed that spelling up.) One is to Alaska during the summer and the Mexican Rivera other times!! What do you think about those places? I am REALLY thinking an Alaskan one. I've always wanted to go there! But I don't know if I want the tropical cruisey thing. Hmm...

My main question is, when you book do you just have to pay the deposit and then have until how many days in advance of the cruise to pay it off?

Yep, I saw the new itineraries, they are also returning to the Med in 2011.

They have sailed the Mexican Riveria in the past so they have experience with the ports and what did and did not work, you will also get the warm tropical weather. Also since the cruise sails from LA you can tack on a few days at Disneyland to make the trip extra special.

The Alaska cruise also sounds wonderful but is sure to be very popular and probably pricey as it is a new and special itinerary. If you want to book this one make sure to book it as soon as possible (the day booking opens is best). The prices only go up and the more people book the higher the price goes. Of course Disney has not released the prices for this yet, hopefully it won't be too scary! With the Alaska cruise you are going to see some beautiful scenery but you will be sacrificing the warm weather. The pools onboard are not covered and I have not heard anything about them fitting the ship to make them so. Of course I am sure that Disney will have lots of indoor activities to make up for the lack of pools. You will also have to get a passport if you want to go on the Alaska cruise as it leaves out of Canada and you need to have a passport to drive or fly across the border.

The new ship will also be sailing in 2011 so another option you have is sailing the Caribbean onboard the new ship. It will be doing shorter itineraries (3-4 nighters) so if you want a longer cruise you could always book a back to back cruise. Lots of people do this and they make it really easy for you.

When you book you have to pay a deposit. For the longer cruises it is $250 per person. It may be more though for the Alaska and Mexico cruises as they are "special" itineraries. After you pay the deposit the rest of the balance is not due until 95 days out I think? You will get a statement in the mail telling you when the rest is due and if you book through Dreams Unlimited your vacation profile page will also tell you when it is due.

Good thing you guys are patient and persistant! Hope that rain stays away for good now!

:rolleyes1
 

The only time we saw other ships was on Pirate Night. I suspect that the reason they were so close to us was so that their passengers could view Disney's fireworks.

Freakin' cheaters. They probably advertise being able to see fireworks at sea too!
 
Another early morning for us as the hike itself was going to be at least 5 hours and it was a 2 hour drive each way. It was going to be a much pleasanter drive though as Maria was not coming along so Alek, Erich and I did not have to cram together in the back seat. Instead I got to sit up front and navigate.

Dad informed us that we were driving out into the sticks and he wasn't kidding, I thought we were going to run into the Clampetts out there! We eventually turned off the highway and onto a forest service road that Dad informed us was usually used for logging but because of the recession the logging business has pretty much come to a screeching halt. Recession=No new building projects, No building projects=No logging business

Well this logging road was pretty rough, good thing Dad had an SUV to handle the roads, no way a sedan would have had the clearance to get up the mountain.

As we were driving along we randomly came upon some cows grazing. They obviously belonged to a farmer because they were branded but whoever they belonged to had just set them free to roam on the lower reaches of the mountains. He clearly was not worried about them wandering off.

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Well the further up the mountain we went the worse the road got, it was slow going. Good thing nobody else wanted to come down the road as there was nowhere to pull over to let them by, that would have been an interesting situation.

We spotted a grouse on the drive up

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We finally reached the "parking area" which was pretty much just a dirt clearing. This trail Dad was taking us on was clearly not an official BC National Parks Trail.

We started up the trail which was fairly steep. My legs were still sore from the hike two days ago so it was pretty rough going for me for awhile until my muscles loosened up again.

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Ah! Finally some flat land to walk across! My legs were grateful.

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For some reason I was feeling very much like Maria Von Trapp and I felt like running across this mountain meadow singing "The hills are alive! With the sound of music!" Well I didn't run across the field but I did sing a bit. :laughing:

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Well the flat land didn't last long and soon we were climbing up again. Now I had the song "Climb Every Mountain" from The Sound of Music in my head. I even got Dad singing along with me. :laughing:

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The Twin Lakes are within sight! Good thing too as we were all starving and Dad said we were not stopping for lunch until we got to the lakes.

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We had to go down a VERY steep hill before we got the lakes. I had to go very slowly and nearly fell several times.

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CONTINUED IN NEXT POST
 
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We enjoyed a nice lunch lakeside admiring our beautiful surroundings. Erich even took a drink from the lake. We loitered there for about thirty minutes before packing up and starting off again. There was another lake, the "twin" of the one we ate lunch at, just over the ridge. After that Dad was taking us off trail and taking us to the top of Lakeview Mountain....
 

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