Get Off The Ship - we are running out of towel animals! Update 10/25 Day 31

[dizneeat]

How fun was that for you to do a back-to-back cruise. And then to have the ship almost to yourself for awhile.

Loved the pictures.

We both really love being able to go right back to the ship after a cruise. But how funny is it that even though we had double the time of most cruisers on board and still didn't have enough time to fit everything in.

 

[linetbo]

Hi Karin, huge fan here( I am from Puerto Rico) , just want to say that I love, love, love your trip reports, I read all of them and can't wait for your Disney land Paris report. We are going on the Med cruise on may 31.

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Now I'm caught up.... Glad to see more on the Fantasy to come... It will probably be out next "Disney" cruise. I have a feeling that there will be two non Disney cruises between now and then though. One to Alaska which Disney seems to have taken off the 2015 itinerary and then one on the largest ship in the world... Which incidentally is priced at half of our recent Dream trip for 3 extra nights.

Also thanks for joining in my TR.... As you will see this TR had an influence on a choice I made on the Dream.

 

[dizneeat]

Hi Karin, huge fan here( I am from Puerto Rico) , just want to say that I love, love, love your trip reports, I read all of them and can't wait for your Disney land Paris report. We are going on the Med cruise on may 31.

I am glad you enjoy my reports so much! I love sharing them.
The Disneyland Paris trip report has already started over on my pre-trip report. Join us there, if you haven't already.
And you are going on a Med cruise way before us. What is your itinerary?

Now I'm caught up.... Glad to see more on the Fantasy to come... It will probably be out next "Disney" cruise. I have a feeling that there will be two non Disney cruises between now and then though. One to Alaska which Disney seems to have taken off the 2015 itinerary and then one on the largest ship in the world... Which incidentally is priced at half of our recent Dream trip for 3 extra nights.

Also thanks for joining in my TR.... As you will see this TR had an influence on a choice I made on the Dream.

Yes, there is a lot more Fantasy to come. Still 7 Fantasy nights ahead of us.

You will love the longer cruise on the Fantasy. 4 nights is just FAR too short. But your other cruises sound awesome as well.

 

[dizneeat]

And here's another REAL LIFE UPDATE!!!!


News 1:
Tom's shareholder certificate was delivered yesterday. It was pure luck I caught the FedEx driver.
I had told FedEx that I needed to leave for work shortly before 12 and would they be so kind of taking a note of it. Well, the girl I talked to repeatedly mentioned that it will be delivered before 12.30. Don't know if she just didn't wanna listen or not understood, but I need to leave BEFORE noon, lady.
Well, I waited all morning for the bell to ring and it didn't. I waited as long as I could, then had to leave. Once I was on the ground floor I checked both entrances of our block of flats of any signs of the FedEx van, but nothing. So I went, got into the car, but instead of driving straight to work I drove around the block. And when I got to the main entrance I could see the FedEx van and the driver heading for the doorbell. I made myself known and it was fun as we were kind of making this an "on the road" delivery.
The frame and certificate look cool, now all we need is somewhere nice to put it.

News 2:
I have heard that to be able to get a Be Our Guest lunch fastpass, you need to be invited by email. While researching here I found a link, which got you onto the booking site as well, it just wouldn't give me a FP time.





Well, as every day I tried again today and VOILA, it offered me a few times to choose from. Not really the time I had wanted, but one that we were able to make work for us. So I booked it, even put in our order and once I was done the system asked if I wanted to make changes.
I thought it would not hurt to try and I scored the perfect time for us! So, the last part of the February vacation planning puzzle has fallen into place. I can now soon start posting our plans - and I promise we will stick far more to them then the Paris ones.

News 3:
Tom's vacation time for May has been approved!!!!!!!!!!!
So this means that our weekend trip - Thursday until Sunday to Italy is on!





















Oh, and we will leave for the US one month from today. ​

 

[jedijill]

Great real life updates! Venice looks amazing. I need to get back there some of these days but so many other places to see first!

Jill in CO

 

[Leshaface]

Sorry, I might have made something not quite clear (see - it has it's disadvantages that English is not my first language ). Fedex did not charge us for coming back but rather they were collecting some taxes. By buying the share of Disney stock I went over the allowed amount of money to import something tax free. So this is what the money was for. I kind of expected that in the first place - it was just that the Fedex driver did not divide into Euros and cents and made it look like the tax was 1707 Euros (about 2350 $)

Oh okay now I understand! Thanks for breaking it down for me.

Wow some very happy real life updates! Yay for BoG and Tom's approved vacation!!!

 

[KatMark]

Wonderful news all around, Karin.

 

[Linda67]

Yay, lots of great news Karin

 

[dizneeat]

Great real life updates! Venice looks amazing. I need to get back there some of these days but so many other places to see first!

Jill in CO

Thanks Jill!
It was awesome when finally everything fell into place.

I cannot wait to go back to Venice. We just love it there and the drive is just a little over 6 hours.

Oh okay now I understand! Thanks for breaking it down for me.

Wow some very happy real life updates! Yay for BoG and Tom's approved vacation!!!

I had been trying for so long for BoG. We have had dinner there twice and LOVED lunch, so we are VERY excited to go back.
I could not believe that his vacation was approved. They are very "funny" about them taking single days (window days = Thursday is a holiday here anyway and Friday is called a windowday) off and so I had to ask twice if I understood correctly that he got that one day off.

Wonderful news all around, Karin.

Thanks, Kathy!

Yay, lots of great news Karin

Thanks, Linda!
It is awesome when suddenly all the little pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

 

[dizneeat]

Okay, sticking with the news theme .........


Our cruise docs came today! Makes it feel so much closer

AND

we are under 1 month from our vacation. 30 more days and we'll be on the way to the US again. ​

 

[jedijill]

Okay, sticking with the news theme .........


Our cruise docs came today! Makes it feel so much closer

AND

we are under 1 month from our vacation. 30 more days and we'll be on the way to the US again. ​

Doing the cruise doc dance!

Jill in CO

 

[dizneeat]

Doing the cruise doc dance!

Jill in CO

Thank you, Jill! One of the best reasons for a dance.

 

[scottny]

That is funny about the Euros. That amount would have freaked me out too.
Gorgeous pics of the ship. Seems like an easy off and on.
Glad you got the plaque.
Glad you got the fp for BOG. You need it. LOl
Woo-hoo for Italy.
Woo-hoo for US in one month.

 

[dizneeat]

That is funny about the Euros. That amount would have freaked me out too.
Gorgeous pics of the ship. Seems like an easy off and on.
Glad you got the plaque.
Glad you got the fp for BOG. You need it. LOl
Woo-hoo for Italy.
Woo-hoo for US in one month.

The amount stated on the slip of paper DID freak me out! I should have just thought about it and known that it was WAY to high for what I had paid for the package.

Getting back on while on a back to back is just SOOOOO easy. And it feels so nice NOT to have to leave.

I can't believe we will leave for the US in just 29 days!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 11, August 17

Let’s try this again – A Fantasy cruise take 2 - Part 2

Soon the first guests entered the ship and we watched and listened for some familiar names, as this time we were looking forward to meet some new DISboards friends.







After a while we started to walk around again a bit





























until it was time to head to the Enchanted Garden for lunch. Since we had been there just in the morning we were greeted with a big smile and a “Welcome back” and then the cast member assigning tables made sure we would be at our “regular table” again. We sat down, ordered our drinks and shared a few sentences with our server before we headed to the buffet. This time we were a little more hungry and we filled our plates with yummy food,





returned to our table and enjoyed our feast. We skipped dessert and instead of it went on another walk around the ship and finally returned to our stateroom.
Raj was in the hallway delivering suitcases and we exchanged a few words before we headed back to our home for the next week. We put our things back into our room, sat outside on the veranda watching the steady stream of guests get on and then finally walked down to La Piazza to book the rest of our tastings. The cast member had a hard time getting the computer to work, then we needed to change the one reservation we had and book some more. It took forever. And while we were standing there waiting, someone from behind asked if we were Karin and Tom from the DISboards.
Yes, we were and we were happy to meet someone from our group. We chatted for a few minutes until our bookings were straightened out, then said our goodbyes and walked over to the Vista Café.





We both ordered a



Cappuccino, made sure that the cast member understood that we wanted the coffee in a china cup and sat down on one of the couches.
They brought the coffee over and Tom picked up some pastries,



an Éclair, a dense, but moist chocolate coffee cake and a piece of brownie. We sat and sipped our coffee and nibbled our baked goods and soon enough it was time to head to the DVC presentation.

To be continued ............ ​

 

[RGirl]

Okay - no matter how many times I checked this forum, somehow I still managed to miss you starting to update again! I’m here now!

I’m so glad you get to do the Italy trip; you know I LOVED reading about the last one!!! What a fiasco with FedEX - I’m glad you finally got the certificate! I cannot believe how close your next trip is!!!

I cannot imagine being at the depressing Final Breakfast and know that you weren’t actually done! How wonderful. I am so intrigued with the back-to-back thing because of you - if I can ever find a way to afford it, I am totally going to do it!

It’s amazing to see the terminal all empty like that. And the empty ship!!! What a treat to see that.

The Enchanted Garden buffet lunch looks pretty darn tasty. As do the Vista Cafe goodies!

I need to get in gear here and get my TR updated to 17 August too!!!

 

[MEK]

Lunch looks relish and so do those pastries.

How great to be back on the ship just like that. Deja Vu! Did you have the same stateroom both times?

I love that tile artwork. Just gorgeous.

 

[englishrose47]

Great [ix around the ship Karin !!That Cappacinno looked great !! As did those desserts !! Now I see you had 2 of my favs for lunch shrimp and asparagus !!! Yummy!!!

 

[perfectmatch300]

One of these days I'm going to get to do a B2B! That turnaround day would be awesome! I have thought about it for the 3 day Dream cruise we currently have booked for this fall, but I'm not sure that would be the best choice for us. I know we wouldn't be able to keep our favorite cabin, and I don't especially want to repeat the same itinerary. The 4 day does have a sea day, but I would rather go to different ports. Maybe we can book last minute if they offer some good FL resident rates. No, I haven't shared this thought with DH yet, so don't tell him!

I can't wait to see your WDW plans. Who knows, our paths just might end up crossing at some point. We haven't made many WDW runs lately so I think it's about time to get back to our regular WDW visits. Enough with letting life get in the way!

Nancy