A Gaggle of Band Geeks on a NYE Dream FINISHED! 2/28

[mom2clr]

You had me at band geeks. :

Former colorguard member here! Marched drum corps for 2 summers but was mostly a winter guard girl.

Read your previous report and how cool you're related to the trumpet player from Blast! LOVED the show. I actually marched with Jodi in 93.

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

 

[hcoker1]

Can't wait to see what Tink left for Shae! I love that CMs are the biggest kids around

 

[Sooze]

Thanks for posting that picture of Cinderella's horse's ribbon. I'd read that there was a ribbon, but had no idea what it looked like. Not that I'll likely ever be on a mission to find that horse, but you never know!

Ooo, I can't wait to find out what Tink left Shae for her first toofers!

You are welcome! I remember hearing about it on the DIS and wondering what it looked like. When a CM helped me find it one slow EMH morning, I was like, "That's it?!" Well now I know!

Update coming up today!!

I wait to read about what Tink brought Shae and the dinner at Ohanas, so hurry back.

Sorry for the delay! I'll be updating today... thanks for hanging in there with me.

You had me at band geeks. :

Former colorguard member here! Marched drum corps for 2 summers but was mostly a winter guard girl.

So glad you found me! What corps did you march?!

Read your previous report and how cool you're related to the trumpet player from Blast! LOVED the show. I actually marched with Jodi in 93.

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

That Jodi comment should give me a hint about where you marched, but while I knew her, I didn't really KNOW her... she spent a weekend at my house after tour one time! Such a small world!

Thanks for checking in! Update coming today!

Can't wait to see what Tink left for Shae! I love that CMs are the biggest kids around

It makes me even more jealous that I'm not a CM... what a GREAT job(for most, anyway!)

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

I am here! Can't wait to read all about your cruise.

Love that Shae is still wearing those princess ears--adorable!!!

Can't wait to see what Tinkerbell leaves...

 

[Sooze]

I am here! Can't wait to read all about your cruise.

Love that Shae is still wearing those princess ears--adorable!!!

Can't wait to see what Tinkerbell leaves...

Only my truest fans can relate to those princess ears! And to think I almost didn't buy them!

Update below! Enjoy!

 

[Sooze]

Well, we made it to the last night before the cruise, and our Gaggle of Band Geeks was FINALLY all together! We had one last family left, and they have a home in FL. Why were they the last ones here?! Well, they have ‘grown-up’ kids, and they had spent the past few days on the beach… were ‘grown-up’ kids want to be at Christmas time!

So joyous reunions were everywhere, as we shared hug after hug in the lobby of they Poly. The euphoria was in the air, as we knew were about to embark on the most amazing of experiences… a cruise on the Dream? No! Dinner at ‘Ohana, people!!

Just look at this crazy group of band geeks!

Ok, I guess we weren’t THAT crazy… yet! I couldn’t even fit the whole group in the picture!

The pre-teens were happily sitting by each other, and ignoring all adult conversation as best they could:

Shae and I had our own little corner of the table (and thus began my night of always seeming to be with the kids! It’s the teacher in me, I’m thinking!)

Notice the bread and butter on Shae’s plate. This girl ate bread and butter for 6 straight days!!

I asked the server if Shae could have some drink umbrellas. She put them to good use!

Soon, the delicious food was arriving. My FAVORITE part of ‘Ohana is the peanut sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

The good thing about sitting with the kids is that these three sauces were ALL MINE! They wanted nothing to do with them!

We were seated right next to the big flaming grill, so I had quite the entertainment to enjoy, when I wasn’t prodding Shae about the tooth fairy….

Soon, my Lapu Lapu arrived, and I didn’t care WHERE I was sitting, or WHO I was talking to!!

Soon, the ukulele player was out, and since the pre-teens were just too cool to participate, Shaelyn took the spotlight!

Honestly, I think she only did this so she could get a ‘flower necklace’.

We had the BEST of meals as a complete ‘band geek family’ and were just SO giddy that this was to be the first of many over the next few days!

Here are a happy Dean and Adrianna:

And Shae having some cuddle time with Beast:

What was I doing? I was busy taking care of EVERY LAST DROP of the amazing dessert at ‘Ohana:

As a group, we decided to head over to the Grand Floridian to check out their Holiday Lobby. It was stunning!

I had another moment where it hit me that I was cruising around the lobby with all of the KIDS, and the rest of the adults were having the most pleasant of times without them (or me). I think I yelled across the lobby, “Why am I always with the kids?!?!” It was funny. Seriously, I’m pretty sure it was always my fault. I just always seemed to migrate to them, probably to make sure they were behaving. Ah well!

To wrap up the evening, we were going to spend some time at the Top of the World lounge at the BLT. We planned on watching Wishes from the top of the tower, and enjoying some of the DVC perks.

But first, we decided to stop in our room and ‘drop off our things’. AKA “seeing what Tinkerbelle left”!

It was fabulous! The villa was dark, and Shae ran straight to the room. In the dark, she could see the shadow of a helium balloon floating above her bed. When we turned on the light, we not only saw the Tinkerbelle balloon, but 10-15 celebrate buttons scattered on her bed, and a cute little box tied up with a bow. Inside the box was a beautiful charm bracelet, loaded up with 4 Tinkerbell charms!! Shae was beside herself with excitement, and I was beside myself with appreciation for the Concierge CMs who took a humble request and went ALL out with it!

Here are some of the buttons:

And here is Shae showing off her very special bracelet!

After celebrating and sharing our tooth fairy experience with everyone, we headed up to the lounge. It was just beautiful, and since we went up pretty early, it was not crowded at all. We all got a few drinks and just enjoyed being in this stunning setting. Soon, we made our way out side, where it was QUITE chilly! We enjoyed a wonderful fireworks show from an amazing vantage point. We knew that we’d be getting up the next morning to head to Port Canaveral and our very first cruise EVER… and we were going to be on the brand new Disney ship.. and we were going to be with some of our best friends ever. We had SO MUCH to be thankful for. It was a very special evening, for sure!

Shaelyn enjoyed it all from atop her Daddy’s shoulders:

She conducted the entire thing. Gotta love band geek kids!! Check her out in action:


What a great night!

And we had SO much more to look forward to… more than we EVER dreamed!

 

[mermaid764]

Wow, what an amazing job the CM's did on Tinkerbell's visit......I love the pictures.

I agree that the set up of the pool area at BLT seems strange....why they wouldn't have built it around the opposite area for that reason.

Your meal at Ohana looks delicious, and it looks like everyone was in great spirits and looking forward to an awesome vacation.

Can't wait to hear what you guys thought about your first cruise

 

[glennbo123]

Oh yeah, 'Ohana baby. Gotta love it!

You're yelling across the lobby at the very glamorous and refined Grand Floridian hotel and you wonder why you get stuck with the kids???

Yay for Tinkerbell (and her helpers)! She did not disappoint!

The video of Shaelyn directing the fireworks was very cute. She's officially a member of the Band Geeks.

 

[micandminforever]

Tink did a great job as a tooth fairy. Thats what make Disney so magicial, the CMs go out of their way to make dreams come true.

 

[howlongtildisney]

Love Tink's job as the Tooth Fairy! And it looks like your little girl may be following in the family footsteps.

 

[Sooze]

Wow, what an amazing job the CM's did on Tinkerbell's visit......I love the pictures.

I was so surprised and pleased at the effort they put into it!!

I agree that the set up of the pool area at BLT seems strange....why they wouldn't have built it around the opposite area for that reason.

I kept thinking it was probably an ok thing during the summer when it is beyond hot, but even then, I like to be in the sun when I'm in the pool!

Your meal at Ohana looks delicious, and it looks like everyone was in great spirits and looking forward to an awesome vacation.

I don't think we've ever had a bad experience at 'Ohana... and the bigger the 'family' the more fun it has been!

Can't wait to hear what you guys thought about your first cruise

Can't wait to share. I still stop myself sometimes and just think about the cruise. It was so magical!

Oh yeah, 'Ohana baby. Gotta love it!

I do! I do!

You're yelling across the lobby at the very glamorous and refined Grand Floridian hotel and you wonder why you get stuck with the kids???

Right?! It was definitely a trashy Indiana-girl moment! But fortunately, none of the golf shirt/kahki-wearing guests seemed offended!

Yay for Tinkerbell (and her helpers)! She did not disappoint!

Shae is about to lose her top teeth... I don't know how I'm going to convince Think to make a trip to Indiana... and how our 'local' tooth fairy can compete with that, I have no idea!

The video of Shaelyn directing the fireworks was very cute. She's officially a member of the Band Geeks.

One of the many memories from this trip that I'll never forget. She was so happy and just letting it show!

Tink did a great job as a tooth fairy. Thats what make Disney so magicial, the CMs go out of their way to make dreams come true.

Aren't they the best?! I took their names and made sure to let the 'powers that be' know how much I appreciated their efforts!

Love Tink's job as the Tooth Fairy! And it looks like your little girl may be following in the family footsteps.

Oh, we sure are hoping she does!! How can she escape when she is full-blooded band geek!?

 

[mom2clr]

I marched with her in Raiders from (at the time) Bayonne NJ. I think they are out of Wayne now...or south Jersey. This was before she moved on to the Cadets and became even better than she was.

 

[Sooze]

I marched with her in Raiders from (at the time) Bayonne NJ. I think they are out of Wayne now...or south Jersey. This was before she moved on to the Cadets and became even better than she was.

Cool! Yes, she was pretty amazing!

If you want to read a TR that involves Ben (the Blast trumpeter) and Matt (My DH, who was the last drum major for Star of Indiana in 93), click below!

Grand Gathering TR

 

[Sooze]

I don’t know how it’s possible, but when we awoke this morning, we were SO excited to be LEAVING! What?! Excited to LEAVE Disney World? How could that be?! Well, if you were leaving Disney property to travel to Port Canaveral, board an amazing cruise ship named “DREAM”, and spend the next 5 days eating, relaxing, laughing, and creating memories with some of your closest friends…. YOU’D be excited too!!

Since so many of us were making the transition from Orlando to Port Canaveral, Beast had done a TON of research on the best/cheapest way to get us all there, and ended up hiring a large passenger van with a trailer (for luggage). The van picked up Dean, Adrianna, Abby, Uncle Ralphie, and Dez at OKW first. Then it came on over to BLT to pick up the rest of the gang- Matt, Shae, Ty, Beauty, Beast, Chip, and me. Can you imagine us all packed into a van?! It was hilarious… but very affordable, on time, and convenient.

What about our other family? I know you don’t know much about them since they just joined us for ‘Ohana, but this family is super important. They were the only one in our large party who had actually cruised Disney before. Not just once, but many times. We were all jealous of their lanyards, for sure! Anyway, they had returned to their FL home after ‘Ohana and were just going to meet us at the port. But, wouldn’t you know it, as our ginormous van full of band geeks was speeding down the highway, an SUV begins to pass us, honking its horn like CRAZY. We look over to see the DVD family acting like complete CRAZIES in their car, waving at us and jumping around. Oh my! We, of course, have to reciprocate by acting even MORE ridiculous. Wow… the excitement was intense. The kids loved seeing the grown-ups acting insane.. and then… THEN… we spot this off in the distance:

Talk about starting a riot! Our van driver was laughing at us… we were so giddy and crazed with excitement. The DVD family (which will be known as DVD (dad), LVD (mom), EVD (brother), and CVD (sister)) drove with us all the way to the exit, then took of to park their car. Excitement was mounting as the Dream got closer and closer:

Our van dropped us off right next to the port and we unloaded our stuff. All of our luggage had been tagged already with the stickers they send you in the mail. So our luggage was taken away and we were ready to head into the port. As we walked in, my eyes were immediately drawn out the back windows, where the huge ship stood, taunting us with its enormous size and impeccable beauty:

We had no problems checking in, and were all given the same boarding group (except for one family, but they chose to wait and board with all of us). We got all of the children signed up for kids clubs, and they were given their special wrist band that served as a check-in device and a type of GPS locater for when you picked up your kids at the clubs. I was worried that Shae might find hers uncomfortable or bulky, but she had no problems with it. She actually wore it the entire cruise, swimming, sleeping, whatever!

We had quite a while to wait before boarding, so we made ourselves at home in the terminal. Thankfully, there was plenty to look at and much to discuss!

Shae and I found Minnie, and loved her ‘ugly’ Christmas sweater:

(Please note Shae's pose. Never, at any time, did I cue her to pose in any way... this is pure princess-ness with a touch of sass. You'll see many more poses during this TR, for sure!)

We spent time studying the model on display, but were wishing it was the Dream, not the Magic/Wonder model:

The crowds began to build, and anticipation was in the air. This was a FULL cruise (and we would know that very well by the end of it!)

We couldn’t stop looking at the ship and trying to pinch ourselves. We just couldn’t believe we were going to get on that thing!

After a long wait, it was FINALLY time to board!!

We made our way into the ‘photo’ area. I was so dead-set on not buying all of those expensive photos they offered, but by the end of the cruise, I totally caved. Darn those Disney people… they just know how to make you part with your money, don’t they? After the pictures, we were on the gangplank… about ready to BURST with excitement!!

View of the ship from the gangplank:

Heading onboard!

Looking down over the gangplank… yikes!

And, off the other side of the gangplank…

Our entire group went on before us, so when it was our turn to be announced, we had a large cheering section waiting for us! Check it out:



As soon as we were on board, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed on so many levels. 1- this trip was finally here. We had been planning for almost two YEARS… and it was HERE! 2 – how blessed we are. I don’t even know what to elaborate on with this, but my cup was OVER FLOWING. 3 – what the heck do we do now? HA HA! Seriously, I just wanted to stand in the lobby and take it all in. But lunch was calling, the pool was calling, the anticipation of seeing our room and watching the ship pull away was calling… yes… overwhelming! So, what did we do? Well, duh. We were on a cruise ship, so… WE ATE!

We headed up to Cabanas, where they had a huge spread of food. We loaded up our plates and headed to the aft seating area (the butt of the ship, as we like to call it) to eat.

It was very chilly, especially in the shade, but we sucked it up and enjoyed our food:

Yes, those would be remnants of bread on Shae’s table. LOTS of bread and butter on this trip. LOTS.

View from our dining location (off the rear of the ship):

DVD and family found a table more in the sun, but they had to stand. DVD had LOADED his plate with shrimp and was going to town on it. I caught this lovely father-daughter moment with DVD and CVD:

And here I am, enjoying a French fry (EVD is in the background, also working on some shrimp!):

And I’ll wrap this up with Shae. This picture embodies everyone’s mood this day.

And that mood lasted for the next 5 days SOLID!!

 

[micandminforever]

Your picture are full of cheer, I wanted to shout and yell along with the video to welcome you on board.

Shae is cutie on each trip. I love her different poses..

 

[hcoker1]

Yeah! You're on the ship now! Cruising is wonderful but Disney and cruising is the perfect combination!

 

[howlongtildisney]

I love all the excitement!

 

[Sooze]

Your picture are full of cheer, I wanted to shout and yell along with the video to welcome you on board.

Shae is cutie on each trip. I love her different poses..

It was so amazing!! Don't you just love when you're at the BEGINNING of the adventure and you know you have SO much to look forward to!? I get giddy just thinking about it!

And thank you, I am enjoying her cutie-ness! Not sure when that transition will come when she won't be into that anymore... not looking forward to it!

Yeah! You're on the ship now! Cruising is wonderful but Disney and cruising is the perfect combination!

This was my first cruise EVER!!! I am HOOKED!

I love all the excitement!

Thanks! Words really can't express how ridiculously excited we all were!

 

[Jacksonev1]

I LOVE the shadow boxes at Pop! I could also spend a day looking at them!

 

[glennbo123]

I loved this update! The picture you painted of the everyone going crazy heading down the highway -- fantastic.

I'm glad that you took those gangplank pictures. Everybody who's been on a cruise always looks down, but no one ever takes a picture.

What a great father/daughter moment with the shrimp scraps!