Eat Your Salad! Our WONDERful double dip June '10 UPDATE 10/14

[heatherlynn444]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my first cruise TR! Some of you may remember my way old TR's (I haven't done one in awhile!) We took our first DCL cruise on the June 13th double dip, on the Wonder, and had a fabulous time! I wanted to share our trip with you all!

Cast:

Me: almost 25 year old Disney lover, been married 3.5 years, teacher, off for the summer (woo hoo!) have been planning this trip obsessively since last September.

Bobby: My husband, 27, tolerates Disney for the food and because I need to do "research" now as a Disney TA, loves the water, grew up on boats, does not like to sit still.

Mom: Kathy (kathy04 on the boards) just turned 29 again! 2nd cruise, first Caribbean/bahamas cruise, loves Disney, very go with the flow.

Dad: Randy. No one knows how old he is. Methusela? haha!
First cruise EVER, does not like to sit still (hence why him and DH get along well!) likes to annoy me and make up his own words to Disney songs. Says he doesn't love Disney but deep down, we know it's true!

Ok, so here is what our plan was: Driveto my parents Friday, leave at 3:30 AM Saturday, drive (all 4 of us) to Orlando, spend night at POR. Sunday, board ship till Friday, get off ship, drive to Wilderness Lodge, stay club level for two nights, drive BACK to New Orleans Sunday, spend the night, drive back home to MS Monday. WHEW! confused yet? k good!

I had never left my puppies for 10 days, but my good friend was staying at the house with them so I didn't feel too bad once she got there!

**btw, you will unederstand the meaning of the title by the second night of the cruise report!

Here goes!

Friday, June 11th we were supposed to go down to my parents. Well, the day before Bobby got a new client he had to do some work for, so Bobby told me on our way out of town he needed to stop by his office. Well, we ended up being there two hours. I was trying to be patient but I was so excited and ready to go, and feeling total guilt about leaving my dogs at home. We had tried to trick them when they thought they were going too, but throwing them a treat and running out the door...yeah it didn't work. My best friend from college Lindy was coming over to stay with them for 9 days, I was so thankful! we FINALLY left about 2:30 and were on our way for vacation! About halfway to NOLA Lindy told me she made it to the house and the dogs were fine. I felt much better!
We got to the house, unloaded the car, etc. Packing was such a challenge b/c we had decided we were going to only bring one suitcase each into POR for the one night, so we had to make sure we had everything we needed for that one day, toilitries, clothes for the day going to the port, in one of our suitcases. (we each had 2 big suitcases and a carry on bag plus I had my baggalini, it all barely fit in the truck!)
Bobbys birthday had been that Monday, so I had my mom pick up a surprise cake for him, so we ate dinner in the dining room then brought out the cake.




We went to bed early b/c we were getting up at 3 AM and I selpt AWFUL. I was too excited to sleep )

We loaded up at 3 and were on the road by 3:30. I tried to sleep but couldn't and I just got more and more frustrated. It seems to happen every time!Finally I slept fo like 30 minutes, and we stopped in Pensacola for breakfast at McDonalds. I got a hashbrown and a frappe. YUM.

We stoppad at Chic fil a in Gainesville just like we did on the way down in January, but this time it was a Saturday. OH MY GOSH it was crazy. We wasted thirty minutes in there! When we told them the name for the order we said "Randy" and SOMEHOW the little high school girl behind the counter heard Brandon....so they kept calling out an order for a Brandon and finally after waiting 10 minutes it clicked that it may be ours. Hello!!!

Finally back on the road, and we are getting into the Orlando area, yay! Ok, this is where one of the funny moments of the trip happened. We get up to a toll booth, an it was a dollar 25 cents. we get in the "exact coins" lane, and are confused b/c although it said "exact coins" it also said "no BILLS larger than 20" so we pull up and its this funnel you throw the money in. Well, we have no change! just a dollar bill and a quarter. I am in the front seat and my dad is driving and he goes "WHAT DO I DO?" and I said "THROW THE DOLLAR IN!" so he throws a dollar bill into the shoot and turns and looks and me and realizes how stupid that was and has to get out of the car and get it b/c its not going in! meanwhile we are fishing around to find change and we finally found some and he threw it in. It was HILARIOUS. we joked about it the rest of the trip and my dad said I was an idiot for sugesting that and I said he was an idiot for doing it!!!! We laughed until our faces hurt, it was good times.
ok so we finally make it to Disney's back entrance as I like to call it. yyaayyy


We find Port Orleans Riverside and pull into the check in parking lot area and went into the lobby.




check in was easy, we were in Oak Manor, and the guy told us how to drive around to get there.
I had requested the mansions so I was happy to see we got it!
We pull up right in front...I swear the building wasn't een 1/4th full! We unloaded our one bag each and went up to the 3rd floor.



Bobby kept joking the whole time clinging to my dad and yelling "hey dad! we get to spend 9 days together!!"




up next: the pool and DTD
PS. photobucket is driving me nuts right now not wanting to load the page so I will post pics of the room in the next post

[moet7]

Hi Heather!

My family was on this cruise also. Had a WONDERful time. Looking forward to reading along.

[ArmandXG]

Great start (except for some missing photos)! Subscribing so I can find out who does or doesn't eat their salad!!!

[heatherlynn444]

Originally Posted by moet7

Hi Heather!

My family was on this cruise also. Had a WONDERful time. Looking forward to reading along.

We had a great time too! thanks for reading!

Originally Posted by ArmandXG

Great start (except for some missing photos)! Subscribing so I can find out who does or doesn't eat their salad!!!

haha it's a fun story!
Yeah I will be working on those missing pics, I had the photos ina default album, put them here then moved them into a different album and the lnks broke


Sorry for the delay everyone, my father in law passed away yesterday morning so things are a little crazy here, but I will resume my report as soon as I can, thanks for your patience and understanding!

[2littlegirls]

Heatherlynn,
so sorry for your loss.

[moet7]

so sorry to hear about your father in law

take your time with the trip report..........none of us are going anywhere!

[Smileneyes]

Hi, Heather...great start to the report! We really enjoyed meeting (and frequently running in to) everyone.

We're very sorry to hear about your loss. Please make sure Bobby knows y'all are in our prayers.

--Drew

[ArmandXG]

Sorry to hear of your loss Our thoughts are with you!

[blairbear]

Hi Heather

I am looking forward to your trip report. DH and I are planning to take a cruise soon. Great start!

I am really sorry to hear about your father-in-law. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

[heatherlynn444]

thanks everyone. sorry for the delay. Bobby's aunt passed away on the 4th of July, and the funeral is today at the same funeral home we were at less than a week ago. I did want to go ahead and add more while I had some time.

So we left off with us going to the pool.







it was pretty crowded but we found some chairs. We got some drinks, and relaxed and waded around for about an hour before we got hungry! We walked back to the room (beautiful walk!) and changed and headed to the food court for some grub!



I got the kids mac and cheese and a cup of potato soup


Bobby and my parents got some kind of like Thanksgiving feast platter with turkey and veggies etc.


we liked eating by the window and looking out/peoples watching.
Here is the view from our table:



HEre we are in line to get on the boat to DTD. I have ALWAYS wanted to ride down this river and take this boat but never had the chance, so I was excited to do something "new' at Disney to me!


We laughed when we got on the boat b/c I was looking forward to this nice, quiet, peaceful boat ride..well, OMG the engine is SO LOUD, it is NOT peaceful!
I took some pics along the way.
Here is where we were staying


French Quarter
(I don't think I could ever stay here btw. When you grow up in the New Orleans area you don't want to vaca to a spot that looks like it!)


Me on the boat


treehouse villas


Saratoga Springs


We really had no agenda at DTD, we jus wanted to ride the boat! We watched a street performer type guy for a bit then went into WoD and it was super crowded, so we left, then we got ice cream! My mom and dad got coke floats and me and bobby split a cookies n cream milkshake. While we were watching a girls unwrap pieces of chocolate Bobby started talking to her about how good it looked and she gave us each a piece, how nice!


We were all starting to get tired and a little cranky so we got back on the boat and headed to the hotel. It was such a pretty walk at dusk going back to our room. If I was staying here longer I would love to run along these trails! We decided to turn in for the night, we had a long day of traveling and still had to drive to the port in the morning!

[Cheryl726]

Sorry to hear of your loss, I know how hard it can be.

Enjoying your TR, looking forward to reading about the cruise!

Cheryl

[heatherlynn444]

Originally Posted by Cheryl726

Sorry to hear of your loss, I know how hard it can be.

Enjoying your TR, looking forward to reading about the cruise!

Cheryl

thank you. it's been a long couple of weeks! Thanks for reading!

Cruise day!
June 13th
We got up the next morning ready for the mickey boat! We all slept awful on those tiny beds! We decided to pack up, walk to breakfast in the food court, come back and load up and head to the port!









back of shirts


We loaded up, said goodbye to POR, and headed to the port! I was nervous about getting there since we have never been before, but it ended up being pretty easy. Man you have to go through a lot of tolls! At one booth a man had just rammed into the back of a taxi van and they were screaming at each other next to the cars, scary! We got more and more excited as we got closer. I couldn't believe we were actually going on a Disney cruise!
We went up over a hill and spotted the ship!


It was a little crazy with all the construction but we made it. We had decided ahead of time my dad and I would drop off mom, bobby, and luggage, and me and dad would go park. we pulled up to the drop off and the guy who took our luggage said they could go ahead and check us in if we had our documents and passports. So we handed them over to bobby and mom and dad and I went to park.

here I am in the parking lot before we went to the terminal


One thing we loved is how easy it all was. we paid and parked, showed our ID to get into the terminal, went through medal detector, and up the escelator. We spotted mom and Bobby and they had already checked us in, hooray! We had boarding group 11. I wanted like 5 or 6 so I was a little bummed. it took us longer to get to the port than we anticipated so we were a little later (almost 11:00) we didnt even have to stand in line, it worked out great. we looked around a little and took some pictures








people were all crowded around the ears where you get in, and I thought that was silly b/c you have to wait til your numer is called! we found a pole and put our stuff down, and sat down and ate some snacks.


We only sat for about 20 minutes, and they were on boarding number 5, when some pixie dust happened...

[2littlegirls]

can't wait to hear about the

[Dream426]

I am really enjoying your TR. Can't wait to hear about the pixie dust.

[OSUBuckly]

Great report. Definitely subscribing!