The Secret Cruise Blog of Perdita X (Dream, 09/14/2015)

Oh, that is a super cute bag!! That's probably about as much as we'd spend on souvenirs for all of us, but, hey, if someone was into bags, that's a good one!
 
51 days!

Received almost all my travel junk from Amazon, think most of it should work well. I just (after several weeks' worth of fighting with the DCL site--and yes I could have contacted concierge or Costco or something but I'm stubborn) booked the waverunner excursion for both of us @ 9am on CC day. So I think I need to buy some sunglass straps for both of us.

Meeting with the cat sitter on Tuesday. We've had quite a few problems with friends/family/'indie' pet services in the past, went with a bigger company this time and they want to 'meet' the cats soon, heh. (We are those people who are like "if you must break into our apartment, go ahead and take our stuff but please don't let the cats out.")
 
I'm thinking of canceling my Palo brunch. I mean, I guess there's no pressing need to cancel it this soon, but I just keep thinking of how wonky my stomach was on day 2 of my cruise, and how many trip reports I've read where people mention not having much appetite for their brunch and/or being uncomfortably full but forcing themselves to eat more. Plus I just don't think I want to spend hours of a short cruise on long meals, and Palo brunch is described as very long.

Definitely not canceling Palo dinner, though. No matter what happens I'm eating some chocolate soufflé.

Hi. Glad to hear your Getaway cruise went well and you had a good experience! We love cruising!

I just want to mention that if your thinking about cancelling the brunch at Palo that in my experience sometimes its difficult or even a pain to schedule things in the middle or beginning of an afternoon. For instance, you are relaxing and continually looking at the time to see when you need to go or your in the middle of doing something else and need to stop because you have a scheduled brunch. Anyway, in my experience this has sometimes been a problem and a reason I no longer even book massages while onboard. I just dont want to be a slave to the clock during a cruise vacation day.

Im sure whatever you decide will be great for you. We are in concierge too. Id like to say hi if we see each other however the heck that can happen lol since we have never met lol
 


Couple of things ...

1) My cruise documents arrived from DCL. :) This includes luggage tages and a small three-ring binder with a bunch of printed, personalized info, including our dining plans and our bookings on CC day (waverunners and cabana). It's a very nice touch. I'm not sure how many lines still do this kind of thing.

2) I think I *may* have to swear off Cruise Critic. I'm really obsessed with cruising still, and when I get involved with a given topic I tend to dig in hard for months and spend a lot of time on forums. But the CC forums are full of a lot of people talking about how much better things used to be for cruisers (including on Disney). I feel like there are so many things I missed out on, and which will never come back. While this may be true (and I assume it IS true ... too many people on the planet now and food getting so expensive, the cruising boom, economies of scale, blah blah blah), there's no point in dwelling on it. I should just continue trying to discover if I like what cruising is NOW.

...that said, it'll be difficult to make myself stop reading the forums. :)
 
... And then cruise critic locked a thread I'd started discussing dolphin encounters and whether they are humane or not. The thread hadn't even gotten ugly, so I can't think of a reason they locked it except to protect their industry-based interests.

Yes, definitely time for me to do something else with my free time. :)
 


Hi! Back from HHI yesterday and now in planning and packing mode for Disney and Cruise. Documents were in my mail but havent opened them yet.

Perditax, Im on CC and same user name but like the dis, I dont have any interest in the debates. Yes, some are big complainers but I just ignore them. We have been cruising for about 22 years and while some things change, its not always for the worse.

We are sailing in December too between Christmas and NYE with my family, my sisters family and my mom who is taking us all as our gift. Im sailing with her on the Dream next month. We are sailing RCCL Independence, which is my family's favorite cruise line. Even when Disney cruise first came out and we sailed with the kids, they liked the structure of the clubs better. Now that they are 21 and 17, they prefer NCL and RCCL.

Havent booked car yet for from GFV to Port and Port to MCO but usually use a driver we have had the last few years or FL Tours. How about all of you? Have you booked your transportation yet?

Happy planning!!
 
Leaving three weeks from tomorrow for Port Canaveral. Here's what's been going on:

  • DCL alcohol and autograph policy changes don't affect me much, but I'll probably bring some liquor on board anyway, since it'll be the last time I can.
  • I developed some sort of weird swelling on the back of my tongue this week, and I figured it was my usual pre-vacation bad luck. It was driving me crazy so I went to an urgent care clinic last night. They said I was having some sort of allergic reaction and advised me not to eat anything spicy, crunchy, or acidic for a while. I took this as carte blanche to eat macaroni and cheese all weekend.
  • I keep buying clearance designer dresses on Amazon for $20 or $30. I have far more dresses than anyone needs for a 4-night cruise. I am not bragging; it's stupid. I have nowhere else to wear these dresses.
  • I've already started packing. I think I am 100% done shopping, though.
  • By typing this right now, I am attempting to prevent any further bad luck from happening: NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPENING TO MY PETS, FRIENDS OR FAMILY BEFORE I LEAVE. OR MYSELF, DARN IT.
  • I have an insane amount of MDR dread now. I'm no sooner on one thread where people are telling me that the food isn't that bad, when another thread pops up with people talking about what a drag it is to be begged by the waiters every night to rate them Excellent. I JUST WANT MY FOOD AND MY ICED TEA, IN LESS THAN TWO HOURS. Sigh. It's really stupid, but this is basically the only thing I'm worried about at this point.
  • That's not true, I am also slightly worried about making it to MCO in time on the last day, but we'll see. We have a backup plan, which is to do a one-way rental and drive home.
 
  • I keep buying clearance designer dresses on Amazon for $20 or $30. I have far more dresses than anyone needs for a 4-night cruise. I am not bragging; it's stupid. I have nowhere else to wear these dresses.
Direct from Amazon or another seller? I've bought some cheap tops but I've chickened out on dresses just in case they don't work out. I need at least one more warm weather dress in my wardrobe.
 
Direct from Amazon or another seller? I've bought some cheap tops but I've chickened out on dresses just in case they don't work out. I need at least one more warm weather dress in my wardrobe.

It's direct from Amazon, and free returns. Well, always fulfilled by Amazon at minimum.

My trick is to go through the clothes when I'm bored and put anything I like on wish list. Then I check the wish lists pretty often. You'd be surprised how often dresses that start out at $100+ can end up much much cheaper before they fall out of stock. Both standard designer stuff like CK, and also there are some decent import brands there. Amazon's clothing/shoes return policy is really good, and if you look in the reviews for popular items, people will often post pics and what size they are, as well as whether the item ran small/large/Etc. Been a while since I had to return anything.
 
11 days, or 12, depending on which app you look at, and which day you're counting from.

I'm mentally fairly scattered--work is enormously stressful right now, and what I distract myself with at home is--reading about cruises. :) This causes ups and downs; the downs come when I read negative stuff about DCL. (Today: various people on CC claiming that DCL does not enforce the 18+ limits in adult areas.) You could argue, and probably rightly so, that I should stop reading/obsessing, but this is what I do when I get into something. I have to know everything. Go big or go home. I've bought multiple cruising books, and just today spent a couple of hours on gambee's site. And I still spend too much time on cruise critic, but it's kind of the only game in town.

I do, however, recognize that ruminating too much over the negatives isn't healthy, so I made myself a list of the stuff to look forward to:

  • I won't be at work
  • We have a nice room and a big verandah all to ourselves
  • We have a concierge lounge nearby with snacks and caffeine
  • Croissants!
  • I may get some writing done!
  • Mimosas
  • Cove Cafe pastries
  • Concierge line for boarding
  • Nice evening drive out to Port Canaveral
  • Palo dinner/dressing up
  • Cabana on Serenity Bay. Also, I can actually go swimming.
  • Waverunners
Also, will probably be meeting @sweetpee_1993, at least if she can find me. :P (Introvert!)

What else? Pet sitting service pulled a last-minute change on us; different pet-sitter for the first two days. So we have to do the 'meet the pet sitter' routine all over again tomorrow night, explain the cats' stuff (one needs meds), hope she doesn't copy our house key and give it to robbers, etc. Pet care is ALWAYS the most stressful part of travel for us. Stuff always seems to go wrong. (One trip, someone--we're not sure who, there were two friend/family members that day--left the door unlocked/not closed and it blew open. Fortunately the cats (who may have gone outside for an adventure) knew where the food was.) So this is...disheartening.

I am as pre-organized as you can possibly be without actually packing stuff I need in real life. I have made many many lists/to-do lists and I think I know where every single item will be packed. There's still a lot to do, but it's all the stuff you can't do until the last few days (manicure, dye roots, charge up devices, the actual packing of clothing, etc).

Oh, I committed to hotel booking today--I'd been holding a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express, but the price dropped under $100 on Orbitz for a non-refundable room, so I grabbed it. (If we don't make it at this point, it will be due to something major enough that our travel insurance will kick in. And believe me, after some of these recent storms, I've been really glad I bought good trip insurance.)

I already made fun of myself for my dress-purchasing issue, I think. One of my to-do list items is to actually try on dresses on Saturday and select the ONE OR TWO that I actually need to take. ><

I've also booked air for for my December Celebrity cruise. I am not 100% certain I am going on that cruise; I will know a little more about my job situation/stress before PiF. But I only recently found out that Southwest's 'wanna get away' fares can be changed/cancelled, something the BF didn't realize (he's my flight info guru, but even he hasn't travelled much other than a year of commuting for work, and needing to change or cancel a flight never came up; he assumed the lower prices were non-refundable and so did I). One of the flights I'd need for the December cruise was about 4000 points for a nonstop, which seemed way too good not to jump on.

If I come across as being a bit about down about the DCL cruise and it makes me seem like a negative person, keep in mind that I'm really excited about the Celebrity cruise and I hope I can make that one. If I wasn't so stoked about the idea of cruising in general, I wouldn't be reading about it EVERY SINGLE DAY; I've just had the ongoing anxiety for a while that DCL isn't quite the right line for me. Maybe I will be proved fantastically wrong. I've certainly spent many enjoyable days in WDW. And I did love my NCL cruise. It can't be THAT much different from DCL. Aside from, grumble, such limited dining options on DCL.

Setting aside any difference/similarities between the two lines, having done more reading now Cozumel seems like a MUCH better port than Nassau, and I understand now why western itineraries seem to cost a bit more than eastern/bahamas. (My potential December cruise will include Cozumel and Costa Maya.)

I also probably can't afford to cruise every three months indefinitely, even solo, and I'll have to face that fact eventually, unless I get a raise soon. :) BF is being a very good sport about it so far, but it's also (so far) money we would just otherwise spend on silly consumer electronics. (Which reminds me: my celebrity cruise will include a $420 OBC, and they have Apple stores on board. I need a new iPad mini pretty badly; new models are supposed to be announced next week. Will I be able to hold out long enough to use that OBC for an iPad? Heh.) On the other hand, Elon Musk announced they'll be taking pre-orders for the 'consumer' end (affordable) Tesla next March, which is something BF desperately longs for, so we'll probably have to plan for that. He also wants a (cheap/used) motorcycle. (I made him buy extra life insurance.) So these are all things stopping me from booking even more cruises. :)

Well, this was way longer than I expected. Maybe I need a real blog.
 
Maybe DCL won't be for you, but it'll be fun finding out, right? I'd go just for the mimosas listed on your things to look forward to list! You're getting super close! Are you going to do a trip report at all? I'd love to hear how it goes and what you thought compared to your other cruise. We've never cruised before so I thought it'd be fun to mix something we love (Disney) with something new to try. I keep hearing good things about the oasis of the sea (whatever line they're with, I can't remember) and sort of wish we'd tried that for the first trip.
 
Maybe DCL won't be for you, but it'll be fun finding out, right? I'd go just for the mimosas listed on your things to look forward to list! You're getting super close! Are you going to do a trip report at all? I'd love to hear how it goes and what you thought compared to your other cruise. We've never cruised before so I thought it'd be fun to mix something we love (Disney) with something new to try. I keep hearing good things about the oasis of the sea (whatever line they're with, I can't remember) and sort of wish we'd tried that for the first trip.

I'm going to do a trip report of some kind. I'm not totally sure if I'll post it on the DIS--if things go really badly (I don't think they actually will, mind you!) I want to be able to write about it honestly without people thinking I'm being a 'hater', and I don't actually like to get in the way of other people's pixie dust. :) So if it ends up having a more negative slant, I will probably post it on CC instead. In either case, I'll tag on a link to it here in this thread.
 
If I come across as being a bit about down about the DCL cruise and it makes me seem like a negative person, keep in mind that I'm really excited about the Celebrity cruise and I hope I can make that one. If I wasn't so stoked about the idea of cruising in general, I wouldn't be reading about it EVERY SINGLE DAY; I've just had the ongoing anxiety for a while that DCL isn't quite the right line for me. Maybe I will be proved fantastically wrong. I've certainly spent many enjoyable days in WDW. And I did love my NCL cruise. It can't be THAT much different from DCL. Aside from, grumble, such limited dining options on DCL.
I don't think you seem like a negative person, but I remember just about a month ago when you were posting with lots of excitement about your cruise. You were still excited after you went on NCL. I've only noticed a change in your tone since the attitude on board got so negative. That started with the Mickey Mail and is now totally different with the alcohol policy change.

I can't imagine you being overly negative. IMO, what I've seen you write is very realistic and includes pluses and minuses. I would expect a Disney review to be the same.

I think the tone on the board is weird right now and very polarized. People are either classified as haters or devotees and there doesn't seem to be room for the middle. I hope you can put the attitude aside and focus on how to vacation in a way that maximized your own enjoyment and relaxation. I felt a lot of hate on concierge heading into my cruise, but, we loved it and booked another one because the amenities were right for our group. I'll be interested to hear what you think since you are also a new cruiser but you are starting with experiencing a variety of lines. Thank goodness for the internet so people like me can benefit from your experiences. :smooth:
 

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