Cruisin into Spring Training-VWL & 4 Nt Dream 3/22-28/13 COMPLETE! 8/11

[podsnel]

I was hoping that the rain had stopped enough to be outside, so I ran to the closest outdoor deck to see, and that was deck 4-



I texted my DISmoms, and said I was waving from Deck 4 under the lifeboats (like they would see me!) but, if you look at the Webcam video from that day, it is just...so sad! And wet! http://www.inletphotos.com/Sail-Awa...ideos/21144395_GgxhLn#!i=2427384018&k=c6rGnWB

Pretty funny, looking at all the videos on that page- ours is easy to find- just look for the RAIN!

Here are some more pics from my sailaway experience-



It looks so ominous, but I don't remember it being crazy rocky out there-



And then I saw- well, here it is, just so that ALL my TR posts that I have written (on 3 different TRs) in the past 3 days have one- the rainbow pic!





I think I yelled "Look! It's a rainbow! It really IS the happiest Ship on earth!"



If you haven't read the latest DISmoms TR, you probably should- or else you will have no idea whatsoever what I am talking about here. Even then, you may still not know what I'm talking about, but I digress.....

Officially out to sea, I decided it was time to visit my favorite friend on the Dream, Miss Alex......I was REALLY letting my girl Drea down today- so far, it was NOT 5:00 somewhere anywhere I had been!

 

[Nanny2004]

Love the pictures of the kid's clubs. I can't wait for my DGS to see them next June. I thought the ones on the Magic were pretty cool, but the the ones on the Dream look amazing!

 

[franandaj]

The Dream looks like a beautiful ship. You better take care of that 5:00 problem!!!!

 

[G'sMaman]

Podsnel!! So glad you're doing another trip report. Love your trip reports. Your Hawaiian adventure was one of my favorites. Not to get ahead of things, but I really hope you do one for your California trip. If you have questions about SF - please feel free to ask away although I am certain I will learn a thing or two from you.

 

[Linda67]

Yay more rainbows

 

[englishrose47]

We missed the sailawy party, but we did wave from our verandah!!!

 

[toniosmom]

Well,

Hi Toniosmom!

Hi Ellen! Antonio LOVES the kids areas.....there are so many amazing things to do there. Speaking of the Toy Story room, they have the kids pretend they are toys and the counselor shouts "Mom is coming" and they all drop to the floor, then she shouts "Sid is coming" and they all run around screaming then hide. It's so funny to watch.

Miss you -- you're right, the weather here is horrible this weekend! I can't believe how cold it is. Our pool opened yesterday, so here it is the first weekend of "summer" and we're running around with coats on. Ridiculous! I hear it's going to warm up this week and next should be in the 80's, so perhaps we can get some swimming in then. The water will be frigid, although that won't matter to any of the kids.

I didn't know that a tornado was reported at the port that day. Holy cow! I can't say I'm surprised considering how windy it became. I'm glad we were indoors at the time. We walked through the atrium during sailaway and it was just way too crowded, so we skipped it and went straight through to the kids club and I guess that's when you snapped our picture!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend -- tell Tim that Antonio says hello!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Magdalene!! Glad you found me! Did you start one yet? Are you going to?

Yes, I finally started it and you can find it here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3117206

Will take me a little bit until I get to the Wonder cruise and then the stay at WDW as the first part was at the beach.

 

[rentayenta]

Andy's room is awesome! Toy Story is still one of my family's favorites.

Cool rainbow.

That's neat they brought the sail away party inside; Disney thinks of everything. It does look very crowded though.

 

[jenseib]

The kids clubs are just fabulous. I too have done a sail away party in the Atrium. From what I was told, we were the first ones to do it on the Dream....lucky us.

 

[anewmac]

I was hoping that the rain had stopped enough to be outside, so I ran to the closest outdoor deck to see, and that was deck 4-

I texted my DISmoms, and said I was waving from Deck 4 under the lifeboats (like they would see me!) but, if you look at the Webcam video from that day, it is just...so sad! And wet!
HMMM i never got a text... whatevs LOL

Pretty funny, looking at all the videos on that page- ours is easy to find- just look for the RAIN!
I remember watching you sail away like the stalker I am LOL and hoping it would stop raining for you. Hoping you wouldnt have to PONCHO UP

I think I yelled "Look! It's a rainbow! It really IS the happiest Ship on earth!"
sure it wasnt a lil girl LMAO

Officially out to sea, I decided it was time to visit my favorite friend on the Dream, Miss Alex......I was REALLY letting my girl Drea down today- so far, it was NOT 5:00 somewhere anywhere I had been!

You vacation watch must be broken get that fixed STAT!

 

[CRdisMom]

aren't all the ships the happiest place on earth? LOL

 

[eandesmom]

BLEH on the weather and frankly double BLEH on the inside party...I'd have been hightailing it out of there too...it makes me want it to be five o'clock just looking at those crowds. Fun tour of the kids area, I really hope at some point my boys like the teen club, the tween one just didn't do it for them but K did love the teen one. I wish they'd been young enough to really use the kids ones, they look amazing.

 

[OhMari]

Our trip began on 4/22, the Friday before the cruise. Not wanting Tim to miss any more school than necessary, I ended up pulling him out that day at 12:30 for a 2:30 flight. (That was it for school missed- the rest of the week was off). I had quite a time getting decent airfare- we fly out of Newark Airport, and in case you haven't heard, United basically has a monopoly over the airport- so they can do whatever they want with their pricing. This airport is 20 minutes away from our home, which makes it sooooo convenient and soooo hard to fly from elsewhere (our next closest airport is JFK, about 1 hour away- non rush hour). In the end, we flew down on United, and home on JetBlue. The night I booked the flights, United was selling 1st class seats for LESS than coach! So...1st class for us! We had, I have to say, the MOST amazing transportation mojo this entire trip- beginning with our car service dropping us at the curb, walking right through security one two three...and down to the gate and right to our seats. Pretty cool! Once we were airborne, we were served lunch. Timmy had a cheeseburger-



While I had a shrimp salad & chicken tortilla soup-



Our seats were a little bigger, but no individual tv screens- I really wish United would finish updating their planes, it is ridiculous.



Soon it was time to get off- so my baby stood up-



Ummm, yeah- he's a little tall. Actually, he is the tallest of all our boys, beating Tyler by a hair. He REALLY enjoys that fact!

We walked right on the DME, and left right away...and soon saw-



First stop was GF, and I admired the progress over there on the new DVC-





We had no one to drop at the poly, so...WL was next! (the Contemporary was after us)



We were checking in pretty late- I had done online check in (which took about 2 hours trying to figure out on Disney's new-and-improved-for-I'm-not-sure-who website, but I was expecting to get the dumpster view studio (my guess was that anyone earlier had snagged the closer, non-dumpster rooms). But first, a pic in the MAGNIFICENT lobby-



On the way....







As I said, this was our last WDW DVC to stay at (and our 2nd to last of them all- after we stay at GCV this summer, we will have stayed at EVERY one! ). There are a couple of reasons why. First was we live in a house that backs up to acres of woods- so, a "woods" themed vacation seemed a little too familiar. Second- we own at AKV. Which we love. Which is designed by the same architect. There are a LOT of similarities between these two resorts (and Aulani, and I am sure I will feel this way at GCV in a couple of months, both of which also had the same architect, Peter Dominick). And I had kind of been thinking of WL as AKV with logs and not animals.

Sorry. I was soooo wrong.

The theming here is SO uber Disney!! The MUSIC!!! It made me feel like we were on a grand, epic adventure in the great Northwest! The scent in the air! The birds singing!! The way the lights twinkle like fireflies outside!! I NEVER expected to get so attached- to be so blown away. But I totally was. It felt AWESOME to be there!!! Not to mention, it brought back every good and wonderful memory of The Wonderful World of Disney I had watched when I was a kid- all that adventure stuff- VWL had me at "Welcome Home".

Oh. And the rooms- pictures NEVER do them justice. They are lovely and rustic.











Even when you get.....

Did you leave April 22 or March 22. If it was April 22 I missed you again by 2 days.


Edit, just got caught up. Your first post says you left on April 22, but then I read the rest and you kept referring to the week before Easter.

You always write the best descriptive TR's. My sons grew at the age of 13/14 too. My son actually fainted one day when he was that age. We had him checked out and they found out he needed to drink more water to keep his blood pumping. He grew so fast, the blood was pumping to slow from his legs and back to his heart and to his head. He was always light headed and dizzy and tired. Water did the trick.

 

[podsnel]

Love the pictures of the kid's clubs. I can't wait for my DGS to see them next June. I thought the ones on the Magic were pretty cool, but the the ones on the Dream look amazing!

They really were- I was not exaggerating in the slightest when I said it made me so sad my kids were too old for them- it was incredible in there!

The Dream looks like a beautiful ship. You better take care of that 5:00 problem!!!!

LMAO!!! Yes! I had better!

Podsnel!! So glad you're doing another trip report. Love your trip reports. Your Hawaiian adventure was one of my favorites. Not to get ahead of things, but I really hope you do one for your California trip. If you have questions about SF - please feel free to ask away although I am certain I will learn a thing or two from you.

Hey! How's my favorite San Fran tour guide? Just over two months til we arrive- and I will most definitely be doing a CA TR- I am going to do my best to finish this one in July so that I won't have so many going at once (I also have a DISmoms TR going now. that is a VERY different vacay from this mommy and me one, LOL! No 5:00 problem on THAT trip! ).

I think I have my San Fran stuff just about figured out- for a nice dinner, Pods and I are going to try Boulevard without the boys- we feel like its close enough to the Hyatt to feel comfortable leaving T&T. REALLY I wanted to go to Chez Panisse, I am a HUGE Alice Waters fan, but ultimately we did not feel right leaving the boys with that much of a distance, of course, so we'll save it for a wine country trip in the future. I have the Boulevard cookbook, so I have eaten that food and LOVED it (WOW! Is it a process to produce, but glorious results) so I am happy with Boulevard, I think. I also have Pier 23, Hog Island, Sotto Mare, and Scomas, on my list but I keep flip flopping on Scomas. I just saw a Diners drive ins dives with a cool little diner but the name escapes me- kind of a fusion of Asian and Mexican food? Very cheap, looks amazing! Dim Sum for lunch one day- any place you'd recommend for that?Planning to visit the Ferry Building often! Waffles at Blue Bottle and the pochetta Sammy from Prather Ranch. We have hired White Lion for a 4 hour tour, renting a car to hike Muir Woods one the morning, Alcatraz one morning, bikes over the bridge Sausalito for lunch and ferry back, Giants tour.....also want to do Segways through Golden Gate Park-doing Lands End and the Cliff House for lunch on our way out- hope to meet you Sat morning at the Ferry Building before we head out-really looking forward to it! I hope Timmy can stay awake!

Yay more rainbows

YAY!

We missed the sailawy party, but we did wave from our verandah!!!

Hi Rosie! I will be by your TR to catch up soon!

 

[podsnel]

Hi Ellen! Antonio LOVES the kids areas.....there are so many amazing things to do there. Speaking of the Toy Story room, they have the kids pretend they are toys and the counselor shouts "Mom is coming" and they all drop to the floor, then she shouts "Sid is coming" and they all run around screaming then hide. It's so funny to watch.

OMG, that is HILARIOUS!!!!!! I love it!

Miss you -- you're right, the weather here is horrible this weekend! I can't believe how cold it is. Our pool opened yesterday, so here it is the first weekend of "summer" and we're running around with coats on. Ridiculous! I hear it's going to warm up this week and next should be in the 80's, so perhaps we can get some swimming in then. The water will be frigid, although that won't matter to any of the kids.

Miss you, too! We should definitely plan something in July-

I didn't know that a tornado was reported at the port that day. Holy cow! I can't say I'm surprised considering how windy it became. I'm glad we were indoors at the time. We walked through the atrium during sailaway and it was just way too crowded, so we skipped it and went straight through to the kids club and I guess that's when you snapped our picture!

You didn't? Alex told me when I went to Pink after Sail away- and yes, it was CRAZEEE crowded, it was smart not to stay-

Enjoy the rest of the weekend -- tell Tim that Antonio says hello!

Timmy says hi back!

Yes, I finally started it and you can find it here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3117206

Will take me a little bit until I get to the Wonder cruise and then the stay at WDW as the first part was at the beach.

I am subscribed and have a LOT to catch up on! But I will have lots of time soon- as soon as school ends in 2 weeks, that is.

Andy's room is awesome! Toy Story is still one of my family's favorites.

Us too. I think it is Sean's favorite by far.

Cool rainbow.

That's neat they brought the sail away party inside; Disney thinks of everything. It does look very crowded though.

It was NUTS! But MUCH better than no sail away, most definitely.

The kids clubs are just fabulous. I too have done a sail away party in the Atrium. From what I was told, we were the first ones to do it on the Dream....lucky us.

Right- lucky you! If you look at the webcam pics, there are very, very few who are as lucky as us.

 

[podsnel]

You vacation watch must be broken get that fixed STAT!

LMAO, you are RIGHT!! I actually had guilt that I was letting you down not having a DOTD!

And it was NOT a little girl-

aren't all the ships the happiest place on earth? LOL

Yes!!! For me they are!! I love to cruise, I am addicted!!

BLEH on the weather and frankly double BLEH on the inside party...I'd have been hightailing it out of there too...it makes me want it to be five o'clock just looking at those crowds. Fun tour of the kids area, I really hope at some point my boys like the teen club, the tween one just didn't do it for them but K did love the teen one. I wish they'd been young enough to really use the kids ones, they look amazing.

Timmy loved Vibe- he had such a great time on this trip, I hope your boys will like it, too!

Did you leave April 22 or March 22. If it was April 22 I missed you again by 2 days.

I said April? DUH- it was March. And it is SO nice to see you, OhMari!

Edit, just got caught up. Your first post says you left on April 22, but then I read the rest and you kept referring to the week before Easter.

You always write the best descriptive TR's. My sons grew at the age of 13/14 too. My son actually fainted one day when he was that age. We had him checked out and they found out he needed to drink more water to keep his blood pumping. He grew so fast, the blood was pumping to slow from his legs and back to his heart and to his head. He was always light headed and dizzy and tired. Water did the trick.

Aww, thanks! And what fantastic advice- I bet Timmy is NOT drinking enough water- thank you for the tip, we will give it a shot!

 

[knewton64]

2 Things about your TR that just made my day are:


** SEE POSTING #162 FOR THIS ONE**
1) "my calendar says its
Moscato or margarita Monday
Tequila Tuesday
Kettle Juan Wednesday lol or wine down Wednesday
Triple Shot Thursday
Fudge Friday (what I drank all week I need some sweets now) lol

Which usually leads to Sloppy Saturday and Sleep it off Sinday lmao "





and now this one:

Originally Posted by toniosmom
Hi Ellen! Antonio LOVES the kids areas.....there are so many amazing things to do there. Speaking of the Toy Story room, they have the kids pretend they are toys and the counselor shouts "Mom is coming" and they all drop to the floor, then she shouts "Sid is coming" and they all run around screaming then hide. It's so funny to watch. OMG, that is HILARIOUS!!!!!! I love it!






ANYWHO -

Now ONLY if I could have "Andy's Room" for my spare bedroom decor.......
the "Tojo toilet" (near DL Tokyo) in my Master bedroom bathroom.......

AND.........

the heated recliners from the Vista Spa & Salon in my living room.....


WOW!!!!



I'd be set!!




P.S. In this day and age of dealing with work, etc.....
your TR's always bring a smile to my heart.


T.T.F.N.

 

[podsnel]

2 Things about your TR that just made my day are:


** SEE POSTING #162 FOR THIS ONE**
1) "my calendar says its
Moscato or margarita Monday
Tequila Tuesday
Kettle Juan Wednesday lol or wine down Wednesday
Triple Shot Thursday
Fudge Friday (what I drank all week I need some sweets now) lol

Which usually leads to Sloppy Saturday and Sleep it off Sinday lmao "


This girl Drea is even more funny in person, if you can imagine that!


and now this one:

Originally Posted by toniosmom
Hi Ellen! Antonio LOVES the kids areas.....there are so many amazing things to do there. Speaking of the Toy Story room, they have the kids pretend they are toys and the counselor shouts "Mom is coming" and they all drop to the floor, then she shouts "Sid is coming" and they all run around screaming then hide. It's so funny to watch. OMG, that is HILARIOUS!!!!!! I love it!






ANYWHO -

Now ONLY if I could have "Andy's Room" for my spare bedroom decor.......
the "Tojo toilet" (near DL Tokyo) in my Master bedroom bathroom.......

AND.........

the heated recliners from the Vista Spa & Salon in my living room.....


WOW!!!!



I'd be set!!




P.S. In this day and age of dealing with work, etc.....
your TR's always bring a smile to my heart.


T.T.F.N.

I'm glad everyone could make you laugh!

 

[podsnel]

I decided to go say hi to my friend Alex who was over there in Pink-





Seriously, how cute is she??? She really rocks that brown UPS uniform, doesn't she? I believe I had a glass of Moet Ice- but I don't have a photo, so maybe I didn't. It was great to catch up with her- and spend the first of MANY hours in Pink visiting. Then I went to check on Timmy. On the way, I saw Freedom of the Seas sailing next to us-





Kara would be sailing on her for spring break one week from that day. I actually am thinking about cruising on her next summer, but I think we are going to try Allure instead- it will be our last family cruise for a while, because Tyler doesn't think he will want to cruise if he can't meet kids in the teen club after he turns 18. (Right now we are booked on NCL Breakaway, which I am 90% sure I am going to cancel, even though it would be soooo convenient, sailing out of NY. Several things I am reading on CC bother me about her, most especially all the smoking- it is pretty much allowed everywhere, and the Casino is open to the atrium, so the smoke permeates most of the indoor spaces. I gave up smoking before I got pregnant with Sean, and I really just do not like the smell now- sorry if that offends anyone).

Back in the cabin, I woke Timmy and got ready for dinner. Tonight we were in EG, and we were pretty curious to see who our tablemates would be (on all of our other cruises we had our own table). We were second seating at 8:15 (I don't think I would ever do the earlier seating if I didn't have to, it's just too early for me personally). As it turned out, we were with 2 other families similar to ours- A Grandmother and grandson who was a year younger than Tim and a Dad and son. As soon as we were seated, we were brought a bottle of red wine- my TA, Marilyn had sent us one- so nice of her! Of course I asked the other adults if they would like to share- and Steve did. Then he ordered a white, and we all had a glass of that as well- this table mate situation was going pretty well! Actually, he and I alternated nights after this, and we all enjoyed the wine together- Grandma apparently didn't understand how the monetary system worked, and just said thank you each time. Really it was ok, she was so sweet, and I absolutely adored her grandson- he was a fantastic artist- I just think I would have had a hard time doing that myself.

The BEST part of our tablemates was, however, Steve and his son, Avery. I swear, we felt like Disney must have bugged our homes to find out about us to match us up! Tim and Avery's first conversation went like this-

Avery- So what are you into?
Tim- I like sports.
A- Me too! Baseball is my favorite- I'm a huge Yankee fan.
T- Me too!
A- We are going to a Yankees Spring training game the day we get off the ship-
T- We went to a Yankees Spring training game yesterday!
A- Do you play?
T- Yea- on 2 travel teams, one for my middle school, one AAU.
A- Me too! I play 1st base and pitch.
T- Me too! I play 1st Base and pitch!

Ok- so it was like Timmy was meeting the West Coast version of himself- it was CRAZEEEEEE AWESOME!!!!!!!

Then it got even crazier.

So we are talking about where our spouses are (no, he was not married to a CPA who couldn't travel during tax season) and Steve says his wife works for Disney in their TV programming dept (she is an attorney). This cruise was during pilot season, so it would be impossible for her to take time off. I then mentioned that a friend of mine was actually writing a pilot, but for another network. Steve started to tell me how difficult a business it is to break into, and good luck, etc, and I said, well, he actually does already write a lot of other things- in fact, he was just nominated for an Oscar for his latest film, Life of Pi. And Steve says, "David Magee?"

And timmy says, "You know David Magee?"

"Yea- my best friend is his agent!"

OMG- how small is the world, people. I am floating in the ocean on a cruise ship and the guy sitting across from me, a total stranger, knows my good friend from home.

AND his son is the west coast version of Timmy.

Too weird!

Anyway, all of this was going on while they brought out our apps, so no pics to share, sorry! Although I do remember I had •Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower
With Crispy Noodles and Wasabi Dressing , and it was very, very good. For a main course, I had Prime Rib because our lovely server recommended it- although I no longer see it on the current menu- now it is NY Strip.



Timmy tried •Marjoram Scented Organic Chicken
Half a Chicken served with Baked Sweet Potatoes and Sautéed Baby Spinach



He enjoyed it. Well- the chicken. God forbid he eat spinach or sweet potatoes. I have to admit, I felt a little stupid explaining why I was taking photos of our food- fortunately, I got over myself after this first night.



For dessert, I decided to go sugar free-•Strawberry Cheesecake
With Whipped Cream and Fruit Coulis



It was very light, I enjoyed it. Timmy and Avery took off for Vibe right after our main courses- Avery had also been asked if he would like to hang in Vibe instead of Edge (He was a few months younger than 14) so off they went. I said goodbye to my new friends, and went off to visit Alex in Pink- once again, no photos- but I do know for sure that this time I had a Moet Ice with a lemon peel. Sooooooooo good, that champagne! I decided to go into Evolution to see the Magician after that- but I never made it. When I was walking through Skyline, a girl at the bar screamed, "ELLEN!" and I got to meet the lovely Princess Bette. She was enjoying her second Ooh La La and thanked me for writing about it (along with Kara) in last year's DISmom TR. AND they were making them like martinis- not mojitos- so of course I had to change plans and have one too!



I had a really good time getting to know Bette and her DH- she was such a sweetheart! I wish I had seen more of her on the cruise.....anywho, after that it was time for me to hit the sack- it had really been a very long day. On the way to the cabin-



I really hate how crooked that pic is. In our cabin, Timmy's bed was made up, but he was not in it. I guess he was too busy having fun in Vibe with his new BFF.



That was ok- I had this cutie to keep me company-





See you soon with Day 2 in Nassau!