2-8-07 or How the DIS created a DCL Expert/Addict:Chap 23 Up! TR Done!

[lbgraves]

Originally Posted by ashman

You betcha! It would have been over $1000 for us to fly out with out the FF miles. It is cheaper to fly from Charlotte or Raleigh but once you factor in the additional cost and time of getting to and from and parking (ESP in Raleigh) it winds up better to go out of GSO. Are you here in the Triad? There are some decent non-stops to MCO and my agent said next year there was going to be non-stop to Miami available!

Actually, have you heard about the new company flying out of Kinston? They have cheap airfair that goes directly to Orlando. It's about time that we don't have to drive to Raleigh or take a puddle jumper to Charlotte!

http://www.allegiantair.com/

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

[c4alymom]

What a great read! I have been sitting here laughing as I read your pre-report. I am going to go out on a limb and say I bet most people don't get your humor, right???? I LOVE IT!

Can't wait to read the report about the trip itself!!!!

[lindaso]

OMG, I love that puzzle picture!!! But I can relate with your DW...if it's grainy, it's no good. We all have a little obsessiveness in us, don't we? Can't wait to read the rest.

[ashman]

Originally Posted by c4alymom

I am going to go out on a limb and say I bet most people don't get your humor, right???? I LOVE IT!

Can't wait to read the report about the trip itself!!!!

You are quite right about my humor, it takes a special breed to get it, I don’t know what that says about either one of us! Thanks for your kind words, I’m glad you are enjoying the show!

Originally Posted by lindaso

OMG, I love that puzzle picture!!! But I can relate with your DW...if it's grainy, it's no good. We all have a little obsessiveness in us, don't we? Can't wait to read the rest.

You got it! Great idea bad execution. I think the cheapo version of photoshop wasn’t up to the job plus the shot was one I pirated off the Dis to begin with. I think we are still gonna have a blast with the hunt. Because we usually travel on Christmas (alternate between my folks and DW folks every year ) we usually don’t put the presents out under the tree but this year we did. It has been driving the kids nuts! What a blast.

Sweet Child: “Is it an inside gift daddy?”

MiniMe: “Is it an outside gift daddy?”

Ashman: “Well one of you is right” (actually both are if you think about it)

Both kids together: “Daaaaaaadyy!”

Glad you folks have enjoyed so far. Look forward to bringing the details of the hunt after Christmas!

[ashman]

Chapter 6 The Hunt Begins!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas. As promised I will continue our trip report (currently in the pre-trip mode) with a description of the treasure hunt. First a few pieces of background info. Santa brings our girls three presents each year. He does this because Jesus got three gifts on his birthday. This year when the girls went to see Santa they told him they wanted a Doodle Bear. He asked what else did they want. My youngest said, “You can pick something out for us, you’re pretty good at that!” Needless to say he was a bit surprised. So this year Santa brought the girls Doodle Bears, which they both asked for and were very excited about. They brought Sweet Child some Mickey Mouse ear rings and a Hello Kitty Thermos for MiniMe. He also brought both girls a mask, fin and snorkel set, which they didn’t seem too excited about at the time. (They didn’t know about the cruise yet!)

Second piece of helpful knowledge, as noted before, we travel to one set of grandparents for Christmas so we usually don’t put out the family Christmas presents. Well this year we did to build the anticipation and boy did it build! The tag said that this present had to be opened last! We all opened our stocking gifts and the kids opened their Santa gifts. We then took a break from the holiday carnage to partake of breakfast to fuel our bodies and steel our nerves for the carnage yet to come. I am sitting at the breakfast table with my two precious daughters and the rest of the crew is just lolly gagging around. I announced in a semi-authoritative voice, “I guess the girls and I are the only ones who will be opening gifts this morning!” MiniMe then asked me in a very concerned voice, “But dad, if we are the only ones who open gifts the other gifts won’t get opened and we won’t get to open our special last gift!” She knew the rules and she didn’t want the others holding her back!

Here is a picture of the girls after all other presents had been opened eagerly waiting for the go ahead signal!



The girls open the gift with frenzied excitement only to find a toaster box! I said “Oh boy a toaster!” Sweet child had a sad pathetic look on her face that said, “This is it? I got all worked up for this?” No dear Sweet Child but you are learning one critical Christmas truism “Never trust the box!” We encouraged her to open the box where the two girls found matching sets of Mickey Crocs!



We took the girls to a shoe store a few weeks ago to try on the crocs to get the right sizes. You should have seen the hurt when we didn’t buy. Both girls had great attitudes and didn’t complain but you could tell they really wanted the shoes. We drove by the same store last Saturday while we were going to take the girls to see Charlotte’s Web for a surprise. The girls asked, “Are we getting the Mickey Shoes for our surprise!” We told them no as we looked at each other with a knowing smile. Needless to say the shoes were a big enough hit that we could have stopped there but no! I have been planning for to long for that! Inside the box was the following clue:

Your gift from mom and dad is an adventure so put your Mickey Crocs and lets get going! Your first clue:

“Our trip will have music and a show,
for your next clue go the piano!”


Tune in to the next chapter for more clues and pictures!

[tjeagle]

I LOVE IT!! Your report is awesome. We leave on the 3rd of Feb....we will be 2 ships passing in the night!

I am like you and love the planning ALMOST as much as the trip itself! As I shift into full cruise prep mode...my DH is planning for the crash when we get back! ("honey, is your happy pill prescription up to date"). Little does he know that I already have my dates to re-book.......I'll just shift into DCL CRUISE #2 Preparation!!

Keep it coming!

[ibouncetoo]

Ashman, don't leave us hanging!!!!!

[ashman]

Originally Posted by tjeagle

I LOVE IT!! Your report is awesome. We leave on the 3rd of Feb....we will be 2 ships passing in the night!

I am like you and love the planning ALMOST as much as the trip itself! As I shift into full cruise prep mode...my DH is planning for the crash when we get back! ("honey, is your happy pill prescription up to date"). Little does he know that I already have my dates to re-book.......I'll just shift into DCL CRUISE #2 Preparation!!

Keep it coming!

Happy Pill I like it! One of the really fun parts for me in planning this trip was learning about everything there was to do and soaking in as many details as possible. Now that the kids know its like I get to go through that fun part again. My oldest especially has been asking a TON of questions. She already has her plan of attack. Get on the ship, get in the Mickey pool!

Originally Posted by ibouncetoo

Ashman, don't leave us hanging!!!!!

I don’t plan to! There are two factors delaying the next installment:

1) I am home for the Christmas holidays. I typically close my business the last two weeks of the year to be with the family. I have a T-1 internet connection at the office. We are on dial up at home (I know I know keep the booing down will ya!) It took FOREVER to load those two pics from the first part of the hunt so I need to wait until I get back into the office for the next installment.

2) I have six weeks left until the cruise and six clues left on the hunt. I plan to upload one clue a week, along with commentary and observations of course!


One very important tip I have learned, the shorter time between when you tell the kids and the cruise the better. The kids have been WIRED and very excited. Every once in a while Sweet Child climbs into my lap with a very dreamy look on her face, “Dad I really am excited about the cruise, I can’t wait to go!”

To help the kids with the countdown (the grown-ups too!), we got a poster from our awesome travel agent. We then covered the poster with sticky notes with the days til the cruise and the day’s date underneath it. Each day the kids get to take off a sticker and place on the wall. That way they don’t have to ask us, “How many days/sleeps til the cruise?” MiniMe counts days as sleeps! Here is the poster.



The next chapter will go up when I get back to the office.

[ashman]

When we last saw our fun family, MiniMe and Sweet Child had just gotten their first clue. We told them to find the next box and bring it back. We did this because we wanted pictures of everything but didn’t want to have to run all over the house. The girls ran upstairs to find the piano when I heard………… “DAAAAAAADD we need help!” Wait this wasn’t part of the deal, they were supposed to do the running not me. I went upstairs to discover the problem, the girls had to go through two rooms that were dark to get to the piano and didn’t want to go alone. What’s a dad to do? This stuff is my job, turning on lights and making sure the kids are happy! So we turn on the two spooky lights and the girls find the next box. With a clear path to the present and lights on above, they speed to the box and head downstairs in hyperdrive!

They open the box and find two Minnie Mouse Sundresses!



My wife bought them on clearance at the end of summer at the Disney store for a song! Another advantage of booking in advance, you can buy stuff when it goes on sale off season!

Our girls like clothes but for some strange reason they don’t like to try them on. I guess they like being on the stage on their terms! Well they had no trouble trying on the dresses after the carnage was over!



But enough about the dresses and on with the hunt! They find the next clue and it reads:

“Where we are going is going to be hot,
So go to the dryer to find the next spot!”

Tune in next time as the hunt continues!

[ashman]

The girls start to run off and then come back. “Where is grandma’s dryer!?” I point out the way and they open the next box:



As you can see from the picture, well the picture just speaks for itself! Actually we didn’t get a shot of the next gift but it was a set of matching suits. Why no shots of the suits? The camera wasn’t fast enough, the lighting was bad, the girls didn’t cooperate! Actually none of the above, my wife and I were so excited about the next clue we didn’t realized we had forgotten to get a picture of the girls with the suits until later! What can I say, they whole family is enjoying the show!

Here is a picture with Sweet Child in her suit modeling her new snorkel set as well!



We the girls opened the snorkel sets from Santa they were kinda ho hum about it. I guess no one likes getting a Christmas present they have to wait five months to use! It’s a genetic thing. My wife got a bike for her birthday as a child. She grew up in Northern Michigan, her birthday is in November! They had a ton of snow so she had to ride her bike in circles in the basement for 6 months!

Once the girls understood where we were going on the cruise the light went on. We can take or snorkels to the Bahamas! Now what was considered the least cool Santa gift was the best of the bunch! MiniMe exclaimed, “This is better than what I asked Santa for! I’m glad I let him pick!"

And now for the next clue:

“On this trip you’ll be treated like a queen,
So go upstairs to where you get clean!”

See you next Chapter. Today we are one month away from our cruise! It is getting closer!

[ashman]

The girls run upstairs to the bath tub. They fling open the sliding door to find a small box resting on a towel folded over. (That was my idea the night before and I got kudos from my wife for forethought, It was a special moment for me!) . They run downstairs and open the present to find a box of plastic forks. I yell “O Boy! You got plastic forks!” Sweet Child looks at me with that “Dad, you are such a goober” look and says, “Daaad, it’s just a box!” They open to find:



Mickey Hair pieces if you can't tell! By now they are enjoying the gifts but spending more time looking for the clues! The find the next clue that says:

“This trip will fulfill many wishes
for your next clue go to the fishes!”

See you next week With Chapter 10! On a personal note today we are are 28 days out! That's right just 28 days until my cruise starts and then I can become a legitimate honest to goodness bona fide trip report!

[sleepydog25]

Originally Posted by ashman

Chapter 5: How to tell the Kids?

While researching and reading various DIS threads, including some very insightful and creative threads from Christmas last year, I cam across a great idea of how to tell the kids they were going on a cruise. We were going to take a picture of the Disney Gang on Castaway Cay with the Magic in the background (Yes I know we would be on the Wonder but the kids wouldn’t notice that type of detail) and photoshop a picture of the girls in with the gang. We would then take the picture and blow it up to 8x10 and glue it to a wooden puzzle. We would take the puzzle pieces and divide them into about 6 sets and send the kids on a scavenger hunt.

Well a funny thing happened on the way to Photo Printing Place. The picture that we put together looked great on the screen but the resolution was so poor that when blown up to 8x10 the picture looked very blocky and just didn’t give off the right vibe!

Now again some background info on our cast of characters is necessary. If left to me, (remember big picture dreamer guy) I would have said that’s just fine lets run with it. My Dear Wife would not have any of it. She like to make sure that all details are tended to. Plus she is a very Crafty person (in a home decorating, scrap booking, home gift kind of way) and I think the final product just insulted her sense of taste and crafting skills.

So back to the drawing board we went. We decided to keep the scavenger hunt idea but in lieu of puzzle pieces there will be small gifts and tokens along the way to give the kids ideas about where we are going. This is the genius of it all. Our kids have really been getting a strong Jones about going to see the Mouse. Last year at Disney Princesses on Ice, Sweet child said to her mother with a sigh, “I would really like to meet Cinderella one day” (I hate to tell her but the ship has Cindarella on it, see the incomparable SleepyDog TR for an explanation why http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1246056 WARNING! Not for the faint of heart! See page 26 Post#377 for those who don’t want to go through a tome to rival Homer’s Illiad)

To Further build up the Disney anticipation, Sweet Child has had three classmates and MiniMe has had one classmate go to Disney World this year and kid from the neighborhood to boot! We have been hearing a lot from the kids about wanting to go to Disney World. The first present is a pair of Kids Disney Crocs, along with the first clue. It is wrapped in a box with Mickey Christmas paper with the tag “To the Kids from Mom and Dad, Open Last” The kids’ attention was immediately drawn to the box the morning after it went under the tree. “Why does it say open last Daddy?” “You’ll see!” I am sure as the kids are thinking WDW and totally not thinking cruise.

So thus ends my Trip report for now. After Christmas I will post pics of the Scavenger hunt along with the clues that took us along the way. Until the next installment have a Merry Christmas, I look forward to picking up the TR with the kids reactions as we hurtle towards or sailing date less than 60 days away!

You a funny man. . .and how can one not be impressed when you have allusions to both Homer and Bill Cosby (his early stuff is so killer!)? Gosh, and folks think my TR was long. . .

[cristit14]

I am loving your TR and you haven't even left yet. Have a great time on your cruise!!!

[ashman]

Originally Posted by sleepydog25

You a funny man. . .and how can one not be impressed when you have allusions to both Homer and Bill Cosby (his early stuff is so killer!)? Gosh, and folks think my TR was long. . .

Coming from you that’s high praise indeed! Thanks for reading. I am hoping to give this trip report a good running start so I can stretch out a bit. Its been a lot fun writing about it. Now I have to just make sure to take good notes while I am on the cruise itself!

Originally Posted by cristit14

I am loving your TR and you haven't even left yet. Have a great time on your cruise!!!

Thanks so much! My wife has the scrapbook for the cruise and she is afraid she will have to do two, one precruise prep and the actual cruise itself! Only 24 more days to go! In only they were hours! At least they're not months!

Now on the clue!