The Land, The Sea and The Dark Side ... With a Toddler! The (cruise) TR! UPDATE 2/20!

[mammacaryn]

Originally Posted by ariel1025

Once we were done we switched places with my parents so they could get their check-in taken care too. Since this was their first cruise they had to go through the regular line, where there was a slight wait. Still, it was less than 10 minutes before they were heading back to our seating area to await boarding.

Just wanted to add a note (I know this no longer applies to your situation since you are back now, but may help others in the future).....

We took our inlaws last year, our reservations were linked. It was their first cruise.

We checked in at the castaway club line and just brought them with us and asked if they had to go in the other line....the lady said no, I can just take care of you here since you are all together.

Now, I do not know if it was simply because we were linked, or because my daughter was in their room (6 at the time but she is a Castaway club member).

At any rate, that info may help someone else.

[ariel1025]

Originally Posted by amandaw

I have a question about the Castaway Cay check-in line at the terminal: Do you have to have a certain level of Castaway Cay membership before you can use that line to check-in? Or is it for any Castaway Cay member? We've only gone on one Disney cruise and will do our 2nd one this coming June. Just wondering if we can use that line for check-in.

So glad y'all made it on the ship! I love the way Disney announces families onto their ships. So fun!

I'm glad to hear that your dad started feeling better. Especially before y'all started sailing.

And that's great that y'all got to check out the nursery & confirm the reservation.

Sounds like y'all definitely got a lot done before the muster drill & the Sail Away party!

Any returning cruiser can use the Castaway Club line, whether it's your 2nd or 22nd cruise What cruise are y'all doing?

I was so relieved when my Dad started to feel better. He rarely gets sick, but when he does it's usually brutal

It definitely put me at ease to be able to check out the nursery and give James a chance to explore it with us in there. I'm a crazy Mama who has never left him with anyone besides my parents or my in-laws. Even then, I'm calling way to often just to make sure everything is ok

Originally Posted by SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

Hi Shannon! I'm joining in! I'm so excited to read about the cruise part of your trip because I know nothing about cuising - Disney or otherwise! I can't wait to find out all about what a cruise vacation entails!

Yay, so glad to see you over here!! How are you feeling? How's baby girl doing?

With this being our 3rd cruise I will say, you absolutely must give one a try. It's such a different experience from WDW but still amazingly awesome

Originally Posted by mammacaryn

Just wanted to add a note (I know this no longer applies to your situation since you are back now, but may help others in the future).....

We took our inlaws last year, our reservations were linked. It was their first cruise.

We checked in at the castaway club line and just brought them with us and asked if they had to go in the other line....the lady said no, I can just take care of you here since you are all together.

Now, I do not know if it was simply because we were linked, or because my daughter was in their room (6 at the time but she is a Castaway club member).

At any rate, that info may help someone else.

Thank you for the info! We are planning on having newbies with us on our next cruise as well, so I will definitely inquire about them checking in with us

[amandaw]

Originally Posted by ariel1025

Any returning cruiser can use the Castaway Club line, whether it's your 2nd or 22nd cruise What cruise are y'all doing?

That's great to know! Thank you!

We are going on the June 1st Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Fantasy!

[SoonerGirl]

Hey Shannon, jumping over from the land portion of the trip, I'm so excited to hear about your cruise! Sounds like arriving at the port a little later is the way to go, minimal lines, no long waiting period to board and your room is ready right away!

[ariel1025]

After the muster drill I finished unpacking our suitcases real fast and then we made our way up to the top deck...it was party time!



We debated for a minute if we should stop at the pool deck, giving Cinco a chance to hang out where most the other kids would be. But, I was worried that he (as well as all us shorties ) wouldn't be able to see anything except on the big screen, so we headed up to the top deck as originally planned.

It was already somewhat crowded, as expected, but we were able to find a spot just big enough for all of us to stand against the railing. At this point James was getting pretty tired, so I wasn't sure how long we would be able to hang around. I was just hoping that he stayed awake (and calm!) long enough to see the characters come out. And, perhaps, even do a little bit of dancing for me. Beyond that, I wasn't concerned as we could go onto our verandah when the ship began pulling out of port, if needed.



About 15 minutes after we got out there the party began and at first James wasn't too sure how to react.


Chubby baby hands and arms make me all giddy inside



At one point while all the CMs were dancing around trying to get everybody excited I went to adjust my ponytail and noticed how hot my hair/head was. That's when I realized that we forgot James' hat back in the room. I hated for anybody to miss the party, but the sun was beating down way too hard for him not to have it. Candi offered to run back and get it since it was my parent's first Sail Away party and he wanted me to enjoy it with them. While he was gone I noticed that they were only passing out the streamers on the pool deck and I wished I would have grabbed one for James when we were down there. I could have tried going down there at that point, but it was so crowded that I didn't want to deal with it. And, at that moment, I don't think James would have cared to play with it, as he was downright exhausted.



His poor little eyes kept falling shut and then he would shake his head and pop them open like he knew he would be missing out if he fell asleep. I kept looking for cues to see if I needed to take him back to the room. But, he wasn't irritable or fussy so I decided to just wait it out and see what happened.

A few minutes later Candi returned with James' hat and it was perfect timing because it was right as the Cruise Director came out, so I knew the characters would be following shortly.


Sadly I don't remember his name







Everybody was going crazy...laughing...screaming...cheering...and counting down to the beautiful cruise horn telling us we were headed out to sea!





There is really no way to explain the excitement. It's just a rush of happiness. It's kind of like the feeling you get when you wake up on vacation day knowing all the excitement that lies ahead of you. But, with all the other people around it makes you even more giddy, if that's possible


Yeah, wanna guess who slept through all that

Once the dance party went into full swing we made our way to the opposite side of where we were standing so we could watch the ship make its way through the water. The party gets me all pumped and full of adrenaline. But, seeing the ship gliding through the ocean makes me feel calm and serene and a whole different type of happy.





And that's how we spent the next twenty minutes or so; just going back and forth between watching the party and watching the ocean.




I love that my Mom was enjoying herself


And my little man even woke up enough to join in on the action





Soon enough, James officially declared that he was done with the party so we let my parents know we were headed back to the room to give the baby time to rest before dinner. They chose to stay at the party a while longer, which made me super happy. One of my biggest worries going into the trip was that they would always feel like they had to follow our schedule, thus missing out on things if necessary for James. So, them staying behind really put my mind at ease and allowed me to let go of that fear

When we got back to the room it quickly became apparent that James had no plans of taking a nap so we just relaxed on the verandah hoping he would cuddle and stay calm long enough to be rejuvenated for the show and dinner...

[ariel1025]

Originally Posted by amandaw

That's great to know! Thank you!

We are going on the June 1st Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Fantasy!

Ahhhh, so jealous I can't wait to cruise both the new ships!!

Originally Posted by SoonerGirl

Hey Shannon, jumping over from the land portion of the trip, I'm so excited to hear about your cruise! Sounds like arriving at the port a little later is the way to go, minimal lines, no long waiting period to board and your room is ready right away!

Hello, hello! I know several people that push to get to the port early and be some of the first in line. To each their own. But, I much prefer being able to sleep in a little, enjoy some breakfast and have minimal crowds at the port when I arrive

[amandaw]

Those Sail Away parties sure get crowded, don't they? When we went on the Dream last year, we went above the pool deck too. It does seem like the best place to actually see the show.

So glad y'all enjoyed the party & are off at sea!

[LuvEeyore]

Love the update. I am a broken record...James is so cute!!

[lar42]

I believe the cruise director was Peter. We sailed on the last "Magic" cruise out of Port Canaveral in May before she set sail for New York.

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I love all of the party pictures! All of the characters look so cute in their cruise outfits! It looks like so much fun. I'm so glad that your parents were enjoying themselves as well! I love that picture of your mom!

[ariel1025]

Originally Posted by amandaw

Those Sail Away parties sure get crowded, don't they? When we went on the Dream last year, we went above the pool deck too. It does seem like the best place to actually see the show.

So glad y'all enjoyed the party & are off at sea!

The Sail Away party is really the only time I feel congested on the ship. Even prior to James we never stayed on the pool deck. I would much rather have some breathing room; plus I'm too short to see the action from down there

Originally Posted by LuvEeyore

Love the update. I am a broken record...James is so cute!!

Aw, thank you so much

Originally Posted by lar42

I believe the cruise director was Peter. We sailed on the last "Magic" cruise out of Port Canaveral in May before she set sail for New York.

Peter! That definitely sounds correct, thanks! I'm not sure if we were the last cruise prior to going to New York, but if not we were next to last. Our serving team was talking about it a lot during our meals. Poor them, they were so nervous.

Originally Posted by SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

I love all of the party pictures! All of the characters look so cute in their cruise outfits! It looks like so much fun. I'm so glad that your parents were enjoying themselves as well! I love that picture of your mom!

Thanks Courtney! The Sail Away is so crowded, but so fun! I love how Disney is so great at making sure the characters always fit in with the atmosphere around them

[donaldseeyore]

Hi!!! Joining in on this one as we will be sailing in Feb with a 19 month old and really cant wait to see how this turns out!!!! Your little man is a cutie!!

[ariel1025]

Originally Posted by donaldseeyore

Hi!!! Joining in on this one as we will be sailing in Feb with a 19 month old and really cant wait to see how this turns out!!!! Your little man is a cutie!!

How exciting!! What cruise will you be sailing?

[ariel1025]

While my parents were enjoying the end of the Sail Away party my little family of 3 was enjoying some relaxing time on the verandah watching the ocean move beneath us. Several times it looked like James might zonk out, but as soon as he realized he was falling asleep he would wake himself up and fuss. From experience the night prior I knew it was worse to have to wake him from his nap than it was not to have one, so I decided we should just get moving to prepare for that night's events.

Candi and the baby went inside to take baths (love, love, love that DCL has bathtubs!!) and I grabbed our clothes and headed to the laundry room to get everything ironed.

One of the things I really wanted to do each night on the cruise was take the professional pictures they offer to hopefully end up with some good family pictures. I have been great about taking millions of pictures of James (since I do all of them; whether it's day-to-day or professional) but I've been quite the slacker when it comes to scheduling family pictures ::hangs head in shame::

So, with family pictures on the agenda ironing was a must. Clearly it was a must for many other families too, as the line was out the door and down the hallway. Several people walked up, asked if I was in line for the iron, laughed at how long the line was and walked away. As I stood there (not moving) I kept checking the time on my phone and started getting nervous about making the show in time. I suppose I could have ironed them after the show instead, but I figured at this point I may as well wait it out. Luckily, the remaining people in front of me must have only needed touch ups as they were super quick and I was ironing my clothes 10 minutes (or so) later.

Once I made it back to our room I ran inside and gave Candi everybody's clothes (reminding him not to put the baby's polo on if he was still snacking/drinking anything) and jumped in the shower real quick. It was an uber speedy shower for time purposes, but man did it feel good, I came out feeling a million times more revitalized and ready to conquer the night!

Knowing that the humidity mixed with the wind wouldn't be kind to my hair I opted to throw it into a ponytail (still mostly wet) and focus on doing my make-up instead. Once we were all spiffed up we headed next door to grab my parents and head to the show.

Unfortunately, when my Mom opened the door I could hear the shower running (my Dad was in there) and her hair was still wet and wrapped in a towel. Uh oh! Either she had heard me incorrectly or I wasn't very clear, but they didn't realize that the show was before dinner and thought they just needed to be ready in time for dinner. My Mom does this thing where when she's really upset (sad) about something she gets flustered and "attitude-ish" which is what she started doing while we were standing there. I really felt in a bind because I felt rude taking off to the show without them, but I really wanted to use tonight to gauge how Cinco would behave in the theatre the rest of the week.

Ultimately, we decided to head to the show. I tried to calm her by letting her know that tonight was more of a variety preview of the shows to come and it was the best one to miss so not to stress out about it. But, if they could make it we would sit near the back so they could find us.

We made it to the show just minutes before it started and grabbed seats as close to the back (and aisle) as we could find. Luckily, there were also a few seats near us that were vacant, so hopefully my parents would be able to sit there if they showed up.

I don't have any pictures as they very clearly stated that you weren't to take photography or video of any kind, so I left my camera in my lap. If I were to confess, I was secretly glad this happened as it kept me from trying to enjoy the show from behind the camera.

This night (as I had told my Mom) wasn't a full-run show. It started with our Cruise Director talking about the week to come, had a short act from Comedians Alfred & Seymour which was pretty funny and had some appearances from Disney characters. James did amazing, ooh'd and aah'd over the characters, clapped when everyone else clapped and laughed at things he didn't even understand just because everyone else was I honestly couldn't have asked for better. I have to admit though, I caught myself looking over my shoulder a lot trying to see if my parents had made it.

A little less than an hour later the show ended and I still didn't see any sign of my parents. We had talked about going back to the room to look for them, but since we had reminded them what time to meet for dinner, decided to go take our pictures instead. I knew if we waited until after dinner either our clothes would be ruined or the baby would be tired/irritable/uncooperative ... or all of the above, yikes!

We easily found one of the picture set-ups for that night and walked right up since there wasn't a line. The set-up we found was for the all white background which I was excited about because it was perfect for the clothes I had picked out. Since the flooring was white as well they asked for us to remove our shoes and then quickly began snapping away. They happily accommodated our request to do family pictures as well as pictures of just James, and even asked to do a picture of just Candi and too. The only thing that made me (kind of) sad was that James didn't want to smile; but I was still happy with a handful of the pictures which is all that matters.




His little baby feet make my heart melt



They had tried to get a shot of James laying on his belly, but he wasn't having it. At that time he had just started walking full-time so he wasn't content to be sitting still, let alone laying down!

While they were doing the last of James' pictures I had seen my parents roaming around so we easily located them once we were all done. It was still a little ways before dinner and I had seen that the statue of Mickey at the helm wasn't crowded so I suggested we all go take pictures there.




Aggghhh, I wish I would have thought to set my camera down

With all the "hoped for" pictures out of the way we made our way towards our restaurant for the night, Animator's Palate. Since we were still early and it was such a beautiful evening we all quickly voted to wait on the deck just outside the restaurant until they started seating people.




It had started to get quite windy


I am so lucky!!!



While talking, we learned that my parents did make it into the show just a few minutes after it started; which left me with a sense of relief!! Soon enough, it was time to get our handy wipes and make our way inside to enjoy some delicious food.



Prior to the cruise I had hoped that we would start our dining rotation at Animator's for two reasons. The first being, I think it is the funnest meal to kick-off the cruise. But, also, because it was the one restaurant I would have been sad to miss on Palo night. I know that it is possible to make requests prior to sailing, but I decided to leave it to chance, and was ecstatic when we got our assignments and I saw this was the rotation we had!

We were lead to our table, on the left side of the restaurant, right by the aisle, a table just for us. Normally, I'm excited to sit with other passengers, but I was glad to be at a table with just my family for this cruise. The table was a four-top, with a highchair on the end for James, and his glass of water had a lid with his name on it. Gotta love the little details!

Within seconds our Assitant Server, Roman, came to introduce himself and take our drink orders. I decided a cherry coke sounded fantastic and everyone else followed suit. Well, except James, who got milk, because Momma said so

At some point in between receiving our drinks and placing our food order James decided he absolutely had to sit by Mom and Dad so I swapped around his highchair and my chair. When our server, Sadhir, came to take our orders he was worried we were upset with the seat placement and asked several times if they should change the seating the remainder of the cruise. We emphasized that we were completely fine with the baby being at the end of the table, that he just wanted to switch seats that night and they could set-up however was easiest for them. I felt bad knowing that he thought we were upset and hoped he believed us that they didn't do anything wrong.

As always, once our orders were taken the food came at a nice, pleasant pace; never a moment were there was a lag in the service. I didn't do food pictures, nor did I keep track of what everyone ordered. But, I can say that everyone enjoyed their choices. Especially Cinco and his chicken noodle soup, he finished his appetizer before any of us, complete with several rounds of "mmmmm's" to accompany his feast

But, as good as the food was, the real reason I was so happy to start in Animator's was for the show










I melt!

As the show came to a close, our Serving team quickly came over to make sure we were satisfied with everything. When we said we were, they wished us well and we started grabbing our belongings to allow them to clean up. As we started to walk away, they frantically stopped us, asked if we would be in Palo the next night, and when we said we both would, required us to stay put for a minute ...


Another Birthday surprise for my Mom!


Our Server and Assistant server on the far left; our Head Server on the far right

Everyone was already stuffed to the gills, so we thanked them for making my Mom feel so special, each took a bite and then waddled out of the dining room and headed to the shops to decide where my souvenir money was going to go this week

Not seeing anything I just had to have and feeling sleepiness set in, I decided to leave my purchases for another day and we all headed up to our rooms.


DVC goodies



A quick face wash and jammies for everyone and then lights out where we all quickly fell into a blissful slumber as we swayed with the gentle rocking of the ocean

[LuvEeyore]

Great update!!