Coffee on the Verandah -The Last Slide, Recap & Souvies 5/29 - Link to Aulani TR 5/31

[eandesmom]

We have February and August use years...and two membership #s. It would be so much easier if they were the same!

I'd mess something up, I know it!

We shlep the bed back and forth with us - it fits nicely in a rolling carry-on with some room to spare! We actually tried OL when they first started, it's a great idea for some people, but we found it to be kind of expensive for us. We were going to WDW more frequently back then, and mostly wanted OL for the bed, but for various reasons we quit after a year.

Don't forget to pack a twin fitted sheet, it doesn't take up much room and it makes the bed more comfortable

Mary Ellen and I are considering sharing an OL, which might be the perfect compromise and bring the cost down but we will see. With the cost of checking luggage I worry about how much space the bed will take up but we will definitely need one and bring a sheet. Did you find there was enough extra pillows/blankets in the villa that a sheet was all you needed?

 

[CarolynK]

I'd mess something up, I know it!

Yeah, it totally confuses me! But, in 12 years, we haven't made a mistake (probably due to my DH, I don't have a math mind!).

Mary Ellen and I are considering sharing an OL, which might be the perfect compromise and bring the cost down but we will see. With the cost of checking luggage I worry about how much space the bed will take up but we will definitely need one and bring a sheet. Did you find there was enough extra pillows/blankets in the villa that a sheet was all you needed?

Since joining DVC, we have not checked a bag (with the exception of the trip when we filled up our OL). Even with the bed, the 4 of us travel with two rolling carry-ons and two shoulder bags. It's a personal challenge for me to travel as lightly as possible Yaay for the washer/dryer!

In the 1BR, there is supposed to be a bag in the front hall closet with a pillow, 2 sheets, and a blanket, and the sofa bed is already made up so you shouldn't need anything extra.

The bed we currently have is a double-height twin with an electric pump inside, from amazon.

 

[eandesmom]

Yeah, it totally confuses me! But, in 12 years, we haven't made a mistake (probably due to my DH, I don't have a math mind!).

Sounds like you've got it down if it hasn't been an issue in 12 year!

Since joining DVC, we have not checked a bag (with the exception of the trip when we filled up our OL). Even with the bed, the 4 of us travel with two rolling carry-ons and two shoulder bags. It's a personal challenge for me to travel as lightly as possible Yaay for the washer/dryer!

In the 1BR, there is supposed to be a bag in the front hall closet with a pillow, 2 sheets, and a blanket, and the sofa bed is already made up so you shouldn't need anything extra.

The bed we currently have is a double-height twin with an electric pump inside, from amazon.

I'll check amazon, thanks for the tip! We do end up checking 1-2 just for liquids. If it weren't for that we might be able to go completely carryon. We always seem to have something that is over the carryon limit for liquids so do check at least 1 bag. With a December trip though, and the need for layers, that becomes a much bigger packing challenge for me. I am hoping to keep it at just one checked bag but it will probably be a large one!

 

[eandesmom]

Where were we?
Back in our stateroom having wine, fruit and cheese. Sigh. That sounds so perfectly lovely right now. The E's were off to ride the Aquaduck and without them, or K, we didn't feel the need to hit the comedy show again. With arrangements made to meet back at the room prior to heading to dinner the kids took off. I finished up the FE bags for the next day and we both showered and changed. While at Palo we had peeked in at Remy, but more importantly at a lovely little lounge called Meridian that is in between the two. Our plan, now that we were unexpectedly (again!) kid free, was to have a drink before dinner there!

It had a lovely interior, and outside seating area! Though it functions as the waiting spot for both Palo and Remy dinner, it was surprisingly...empty.

It was still windy out so we chose a semi sheltered spot

Lovely as it was, the wind got to us. Or more accurately, me. My hair was whipping my face and really it didn't feel terribly good when that happened. Not to mention it then getting stuck in my lipgloss and making it hard to drink my bubbly. So we moved inside.
Clearly a climate change, check out the condensation on my glass!

We loved the travel themed interior here and tried to get a shot of the 2 of us with the cool luggage strapped in seating

We even liked the wallpaper

Sadly, with that it was time to head back to the stateroom. Where...we didn't find any children! We were literally on the verge of leaving the room when they came dashing in. Apparently Evan, who is about 80 pounds soaking wet, had gotten stuck on the Aquaduck riding solo and had gotten an earful from others waiting in line, mad apparently that he’d gotten stuck and slowed down the line. Sucks to be a skinny thing sometimes. As a result they were late and scrambled to get ready for pirate night. Dressed up as much as we were going to be, we headed to dinner. Tonight we'd be dining at:

Animators! The E's favorite.

I am not sure if Evan was tipping his hat, or what here

He does look like he’s up to something, doesn't he?

A spectacularly bad picture of everyone

Apparently I had a crab cake appetizer

Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake - with golden raisin-carrot and coconut slaw served with a spicy Calypso dressing

The interior on the Dream is VERY different than that of the Wonder so I enjoyed checking it out

One of the boys, and apparently Jeff, got pot stickers for their app

Pirates Golden "Pot Stickers" - oriental pork "dumplings" deep fried and served with a tamarind-ginger soy sauce and pickled vegetables

I think this was my entrée but am not positive. I think I’d been leaning towards the Mahi, was told this was outstanding and went with it and if memory serves…it was!

Castaway Chicken Breast - rubbed with Pirate Island Spice, rice and beans, and fried okra on rich spiced glaze

Evan's entree

Jack Sparrow's Barbecue Marinated Beef Short Ribs - Rubbed beef short rips with tamarind-barbecue sauce and served with onion red bliss mashed potatoes and plantain chip

Evan's Dessert

Fruit Cobbler - with vanilla ice cream

This one was mine

Crunch Time Sundae - Rum Raisin Ice Cream, Pineapple, Whipped Cream and Croquant

Our tablemates were getting in on the food porn pictures by this point

Rum Soaked Chocolate Cake - with raspberry glaze and whipped cream

At some point during dinner, they come by and take your pictures. I’d really liked ours from the previous year and these weren't too awful either so I did buy them!

Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

Continued from previous

Evan got a hold of my phone and thought it would be really fun to take pictures of me enjoying my dessert. I'm not sure I found it as entertaining as he did! I am sorry these are so huge, the new photobucket is a nightmare, I change the rotation and the pictures get bigger and I am not motivated to go in and try to resize things on top of it. Very frustrating

]

Dinner over, we strolled out.

Apparently Eric needed a rest after all that eating

And perked up enough for a cheesy blurry picture in front of one of the backdrops available for photo sessions (which clearly was over at this point).

On our way up for the pirate party we wandered in and out of the stores with the E's showing us all the items they were eyeing to spend their souvenir money on. We had agreed they'd wait until after our Castaway Cay day as they’d be bummed if they spent it all now, then found something tomorrow but couldn't get it and all of the things they liked seemed to have good inventory. Kendall took off to meet up with other teens in the club, they had their own fireworks party plans.

Arriving on deck we split up, boys on the lower deck in front of the actual show and adults up above. Close enough to where we could see them and the party but not get caught in the actual crush. Win win for us!
Pretty soon it was time to start (and sorry they are pretty awful pics!)

Yeah, I admit. The show didn't do much for me but it was cute.
Soon enough though, fireworks at sea! A first for us

And…that’s all I got picture wise as I could see quite quickly they weren't turning out. It was fun, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was pretty cool to be outside on deck, seeing them. We'd agreed to meet at the room immediately following fireworks and they did. We had a fun Towel Animal awaiting us.

And an orangutan still hanging around

Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

continued from previous

It was almost 11 at this point and honestly, Eric was toast. I’m not sure why, but he was. Just crabby and overwrought. Evan wasn't much far behind but was faring a little better. Both had really wanted to stay up but instead we made an executive call. Tomorrow was the day that both boys had been looking forward to for months, Eric in particular. What we didn't want was any kind of meltdown and as a result the verdict was handed down that Evan and Jeff would take off to see Avengers, Kendall was out with her friends and Eric and I would stay in. For me, honestly, it was perfect. A little alone time can be a nice thing and it was day 8 of a lot of togetherness. I put Eric to bed and settled in to take some pictures of our FE goodies that we’d received so far before they were even more spread around the room and to pack up our beach bag so we could hit the road early

So here they are, a few of the lovely gifts we received

My favorite

In fact it is on my desk next to me right now

Jeff's favorite

It's in the shop with him, being used as he builds the plane
One of our castaway club gifts

Sadly the ink wore off within a month of using it.

Fun DVC swag, these are luggage handle wraps and I use them all the time!

Nice big tote

Notebook

Pin that I'd been invited to stop by and pick up (and then wore for pirate night)

And...a funny thing we realized once the lights went out, we had a glowing balloon!

With that, I was done and went to bed. I did hear everyone come in but we all drifted of quickly enough each time.

 

[rndmr2]

Great updates! Pirate night looks like fun! Love the idea of the Fireworks at sea.

You got some nice things from the FE group and DVC. Looking forward to the Castaway Cay day!

 

[MeMom]

Fun pirate night pictures! The Mickey bandanas are cute. I like the Mickey/paintbrush plates, too.

 

[Flossbolna]

Wonderful update! The Meridian lounge looks so wonderful. I remember that when the first pictures of the Dream were available online, I thought that this was one of the spots I needed to explore if I ever got to go on that ship (I guess I would enjoy it on the Fantasy as well... ).

Those pirate nights celebrations seem to make that day a very long day. I wonder how it will work for us as pirate night will be on the day when we are at Cozumel. We have a snorkel adventure planned, so I imagine that I might have the same problem as Eric...

 

[afwdwfan]

Looks like a fun evening!!! Sorry about the Aquaduck incident. Bad enough to get stuck, but having to hear about it wouldn't make it any better.

I think I'd give up on the fireworks pictures too. Always hard to get good ones, and it is easier to enjoy them without looking through a camera anyway!

Looks like there were a lot of cool FE gifts. I wonder who the Disdads keyring was from...

 

[natebenma]

I apologize! I am really late with my birthday wishes to you!

On the other hand, I am very early in my recognition of National Margarita Day!
I'll be returning home from Mexico on 2/22, so I won't be able to send greetings to you on the actual holiday.

Been really busy keeping up with the BC/YC FAQ board, and managing some mischief over there. Oh yeah, and cleaning up after our east coast blizzard. We got around 2 feet of snow. No school again today for the boys. We are very lucky- we never lost power during the storm.

Now, off to catch up on your update.

.

 

[natebenma]

Fantastic update!!!

Love the pictures of you, and of Jeff and of you and Jeff with your drinks in and out of the lounge. The one of you on deck with your drink is awesome!!!

Dinner looked and sounded amazing. I may troll around to see if I can find a recipe for the carrot, coconut, golden raising slaw. That sounds really good.

Too funny on your "dessert series".

Nice booty! Both the FE stuff and DVC swag.

ARGH on photobucket! I just figured out that you can't resize the photos, you have to upload them at the size you want. I haven't switched over to the new version. Well, I did for about 5 minutes then I bailed. Not looking forward to being forced into the new version.

 

[englishrose47]

Can't wait for the Pirates Party in May !!!! I am gonna have to see if I can find some Pirate Eye Patches for the guys for that !! Your FE loot looks awesome !! I am just not crafty enough to come up with some of the ides !!!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

wow you got alot of really cool stuff. sounds like a fun time.

and i would have had them double up that pot sticker order.

 

[dizneeat]

Great new updates, Cynthia!

I REALLY REALLY love all the photos .... what a walk down memory lane. We LOVE Meridien and have spent quite a bit of time in there.

Pirate dinner is my least favourite, but it looks like you enjoyed your time a lot.

Cute FE gifts! And I had to LOL when I saw all the DVC and DCL gifts - another set will be collected next week.

I am glad you enjoyed some quiet time in the room, too!

 

[englishrose47]

Karin what do you not like about Pirate's night ????

 

[dizneeat]

Karin what do you not like about Pirate's night ????

Not a huge fan of the menu. It just doesn't appeal to me much, so we usually make that Palo or Remy night.

 

[jedijill]

Not a huge fan of the menu. It just doesn't appeal to me much, so we usually make that Palo or Remy night.

I'm with you Karin...I try to schedule either Palo or Remy that night as well.

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

I'm with you Karin...I try to schedule either Palo or Remy that night as well.

Jill in CO

Great minds think alike?

 

[jedijill]

Great minds think alike?

You know it!

Jill in CO