Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Cruise, Oct 30th,2010 Magical Western NewTR link 4/10

[JKSWonder]

Originally Posted by podsnel

This was an EXCELLENT activity- all of the volunteers at the stations were lots of fun handing out the candy to the kids, and Jen- you DA BOMB, GIRLFRIEND!!! We can't possibly ever thank you enough for all you did- it was an entertaining ToT for every kid there, even my too-cool-for-school 13 year old. YAY JEN!!!!!!

Ditto this about a 1000 times! My kids were concerned about missing Halloween at home. "What Mom? No trick or treating? " I tried to assure them that all would be good, they would have things to do, not to worry, etc. Well, Jen managed to turn me into Supermom and I didn't even have to do anything except sign them up and show up at the appointed time! They were thrilled with the whole thing and having it be a scavenger hunt trick or treat just added a whole new dimension to it. They had a great time running around, figuring out the clues and collecting the candy.

Every cruise and Dismeet should be so lucky to have a Jen!

[kid-at-heart]

What a great way to start the morning! I am enjoying a dusting of snow out the window, a hot cup of coffee in my "Mickey" cup and entertainment from my friend Ellen.

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by CRdisMom

okay I am a total tight space person..were the rooms spacious? I can't tell from the website. I am getting a little more interested in one now after reading your and Jennifer's TRs.

Well, it's a ship- so space is at a premium. But as far as cruises go, I think Disney cabins ARE spacious- our Category 6 Oceanview Cabin with a verandah was 268 sq ft. The family cabins are bigger at 304 sq ft- but of course, more expensive. I have been on other cruise lines, and our cabin on the Magic was definitely more spacious- although, I know for a fact that the one we will be in this August on the Explorer because it's an Aft cabin, so it's configured differently. I saw it last July on a tour of the ship-





The balcony is enormous, it has 2 lounge chairs and 2 other chairs and a table.

EDTA: The bathrooms are excellent on DCL, too- it is split- one side has a sink & toilet, the other has a sink and bathtub/shower. It's a great feature unique to Disney. Also tubs at sea are a rarity- usually you have just the shower, unless you are in a suite.

Originally Posted by NikkiLovesWDW!

Okay, Ellen...thanks to the overnight extreme illness I had all of Sunday night through Monday morning, I had two sick days from school and am now all caught up on your TR!! Gotta look for the silver linings!

Anyway, I can't believe what an awful departure day you had!! I would have been a crying mess! I am just picturing you all upset at guest services, when suddenly Pods comes by with a screaming Timmy! My God, what you must have felt at that moment! I don't know how you held it together! We spent a little time with the cruise doctor, too, if you remember! Missed our Cozumel day because of it.

But, so glad things seem to be turning around and can't wait to hear the rest!

So sad you were sick, Nik! Was it a stomach thing? My family usually gets that on Christmas- although, knock on wood, I seem to be immune....

Ooh...I forgot your visit to the DR on your honeymoon....not very magical down there, is it?

Only 1 more day of school!!! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Originally Posted by erbrhenderson

subbing This is making me so excited for our first cruise in Feb!!!

Hi there!! That's awesome!! The best way to get psyched for your cruise is to read as many TRs as you can- I think there are 4 from this week on the Magic alone! You will love it- best vacation ever!

[englishrose47]

Great Updates Ellen !!I am even more excited about the possibility of a FREE Cruise in 2012 !! Hey maybe I'll even throw out hints about this year !!"cept Carol doesn't do cruises !!!!

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by tinkerbelltwins

Hi Ellen, Reading through your TR has me wanting to get back on that big boat and do it all again. I was pleased to see Sarge in your post (we missed that event) b/c the only time I ran into him was in the wee hours of the morning up at the beverage stand for much needed caffeine. I poured myself a heaping cup of java (it had been a sleepless night w/ Hope's asthma) and I looked up from stirring in cream when someone leaned over across the coffee cups and said "wake up Tink.". No kidding, first time I met Sarge.

I loved our first DCL cruise and a huge part of it was b/c of the people on board. Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!!

Beth

Oh Beth- that is soooooooo funny!! I wish I would have seen more of Sarge on the cruise- he was a hoot!

And I want to go back on the ship again, too!!! We have a dummy date booked, but we have BIG vacation plans in 2011 (a 9 night cruise on RCCI) and 2012 (Hawaii), so we probably won't be Disney cruising again until 2013. That's a LOOOOOOOONG time!! I don't know how I'm going to stand the wait- maybe we will have to cave sooner for a shorter cruise...we'll see....

PS- I hope Hope's asthma is doing ok....

Originally Posted by myelton01

Wow, I was REALLY behind! Sorry to hear about your laptop!!! At least they found it! Also sorry to hear about your son's poor finger! Doesn't seem to slow him down too much in the next posts though. Can't wait to read about KW!!! Hope you have a wonderful Christmas this weekend!

The finger slowed him down for about 24 hours- he wouldn't go out on deck and shoot hoops or play dodge ball- two of his favorite things. By Monday morning he was "cured" though- all sports were ON!

And Merry Christmas to YOU, too!!

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by JKSWonder

Ditto this about a 1000 times! My kids were concerned about missing Halloween at home. "What Mom? No trick or treating? " I tried to assure them that all would be good, they would have things to do, not to worry, etc. Well, Jen managed to turn me into Supermom and I didn't even have to do anything except sign them up and show up at the appointed time! They were thrilled with the whole thing and having it be a scavenger hunt trick or treat just added a whole new dimension to it. They had a great time running around, figuring out the clues and collecting the candy.

Every cruise and Dismeet should be so lucky to have a Jen!

Yes!! She was incredible!!

And my kids were very worried about the ToT thing, too- but after Jen's morning, they were so good with it, they skipped the DCL ToT! I was shocked!!

Originally Posted by kid-at-heart

What a great way to start the morning! I am enjoying a dusting of snow out the window, a hot cup of coffee in my "Mickey" cup and entertainment from my friend Ellen.

Well, there you are!! I was wondering where you've been! Snow sounds nice- just enough to make things pretty...hope you enjoy catching up!

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Great Updates Ellen !!I am even more excited about the possibility of a FREE Cruise in 2012 !! Hey maybe I'll even throw out hints about this year !!"cept Carol doesn't do cruises !!!!

Why not? Does she get sea sick?

[englishrose47]

Originally Posted by podsnel

Why not? Does she get sea sick?

She has clostrophobicic issues and needs to be in control of things and just can't face being surrounded by oceans !!I don't think she gets seasick as she can handle Dinner Cruises !! But she also had never flown and now has so I will work on her BUT being on a plane for 3 hours and an Ocean for 5 days is gonna be harder to convince her !!!

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by nenner1

!



No kidding, had we given them the option that is probably all ours would have had to drink.

We need to start a campaign for Smoothie packages!

Hehe- sorry we didn't see you guys at all that night! Of course we had that silly little thing you sometimes get in restaurants to distract you ....the food! And apparently ya'll didn't!!!




And Timmy didn't get trees. Did they wait so long that the kitchen was all out of the broccoli, and they had to open a can of succotash for him!?!?

I think it's so funny Sarah calls them trees- that's what I called them when I was her age. Uh-oh...if she's following in my footsteps, you guys are in BIG trouble!!


Are you kidding?!?! You guys hadn't gotten FOOD yet?!?!? AFTER the show!!!!???? OMG! I knew we were moving along, but that's just ridiculous!!!!

We had our appetizers. We were served our entrees after the show.

So glad this craziness is almost OVER!

Me too!!

I got to cruise with her and be in her TR and you di---i---int!

Yea, yea, I know- I told you I'm Zweihund's stalker! I wish she would come back- she's just not as funny when she's writing about chronic pain! I think you should call her and encourage her to write another TR.... Not that I would read it, or anything....

Hehe, I'm starting to feel kinda famous being in all these kick-butt TR's. (could I really be a TR star?!?!? ......)

You're even more famous now- did you see the last posts?

It isn't easy being a star though, sometimes it's stressful. You have to worry about what incriminating photos might show up in random places. FOR INSTANCE, I thought for sure the Nachi tequila shots pic was taken with my camera but it must have been yours, either that or its one of those that got sucked into memory card limbo, and I surely hope that was not the case, as that was a moment that needs to be frozen in time. LMAO!

Oh...that is sooooo on my camera.....soon to be on this TR....


That would have been so awesome!!!!! You guys would have really livened up that dull Match Your Mate!!

Awww...we are very good at humiliating ourselves- too bad we didn't get the chance!

Yep, you guys were definitely there first, I don't start getting foggy until after the martini.



COULD YOU IMAGINE if we had been on a team, and Jonathan and Amy, oh man we would have rocked the house!! Mr. I-already-magically-have-on-size-15-heels-so-my-day-job-must-be-a-drag-queen-winner would have been put to SHAME!!!

YES! And that was his REAL name, too!! I saw the birth certificate!!

Did I know that? Did you trust me? It's funny cause doing the lanyards helped me put faces to names to a point, but it was such a crazy whirlwind that I got some of them wrong. In Cayman, Peggy (Pegthelawyer) asked me which one was Sheri, well I accidentally told her Sheri was Kim. (ok well they DID have similar hairstyles.... ) Of course she went right up to Kim right in front of me and called her Sheri....OMG I'da liked to have died.

Yes, you knew that- but he was one of the DISpeeps I met at the meet, so I knew, too. I am VERY bad with names, but he is kind of...memorable...no?


Trust me folks, seeing this would be WORTH THE PRICE OF THE CRUISE ALONE!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTELY!!


Oh, so did we!!! They were pretty good, the younger couples were ho-hum though. They could have made better selections there, just sayin'.





MUAH! Do you find it as amusing as I do that both of our husbands were jsut standing there shooting away?!?!

Yes- they were acting like we four do this together all the time- the men talk, while the women make out and they take our pictures....hmmmmm.....just a regular Saturday night...

What the heck?!?! I missed that, and it's probably a good thing!

He was looking for candy- I told him to knock at your cabin...did he get lost?

Originally Posted by nenner1

Oh and I forgot to add Ron's opinion on the Xray. He said it was obvious it was done by someone who doesn't do many Xrays (of course you have to keep in perspective that he does hundreds a day), and that it was unusual positioning but he was impressed that they actually had a digital Xray system onboard.

I told him he should have posted that but he said apparently he already posted a reply. I should have logged in as him just to post this. Ah the joys of a dual-Diser family!

Tell him that his reply that he didn't post doesn't count!! I love that he's a DISer- Pods would never be on here- he barely talks to me, why would he want to talk to all of you?

GEEZ! I had to go back and erase like 10 smilies!!! We are waaaaay too expresive!!

[kid-at-heart]

Originally Posted by podsnel

Well, there you are!! I was wondering where you've been! Snow sounds nice- just enough to make things pretty...hope you enjoy catching up!

Oh I have been here, just knee deep in finishing up the semester thus have not had time to make comments. I had one student who was 1 point away from a 2 point and I could not get him to turn in the last two assignments. Argh. One of the assignments was worth 1 point and all he had to do was tell me if the material we covered in the class (Intro Psych) had an impact on his life. All he had to do was write "no" or "yes" and he would have had the point. I sent him four emails trying to shame him into submitting the assignment. I should not be so involved in my students' lives...

[podsnel]

Originally Posted by englishrose47

She has clostrophobicic issues and needs to be in control of things and just can't face being surrounded by oceans !!I don't think she gets seasick as she can handle Dinner Cruises !! But she also had never flown and now has so I will work on her BUT being on a plane for 3 hours and an Ocean for 5 days is gonna be harder to convince her !!!

That's too bad- she is really missing out on a great experience! Keep working on her, Rosie!

[CRdisMom]

Carol and I must be cut from the same cloth...LOL.. my trouble is as a 9 yr old I watched the original Possidion adventure (lord only knows why I would have watched that it was sooo bad) and have an unnatural fear of ships tipping upside down and me dying. The fire on the one off of Cali hasn't helped either. Guess I am just nuts.

[Elfinjojo]

All caught up again, loving the latest installments

Ouch to Timmy's finger, hopefully its all healed up now and long forgotten. What a rotten start to your cruise.

I have decided I WILL do the Dream MV TR. Not sure about a pre-trip one though, I don't have many things to report on as I don't do the organising , only the enjoying

All I will say is that its a month today til we fly out to the states(from the UK)to enjoy a few days Disney parking(and a sneaky trip to Hogwarts for the DD) before embarking on the Dream!! Cannot wait!(this will also be our first cruise as Gold castaways!

JoJo
x

[dizneeat]

Originally Posted by podsnel

YES YOU CAN!!!!Isn't that awesome? You leave the luggage with Bell Services- they will even transfer it to another hotel ( like our last cruise, we stayed at AKV before, BWV after- our luggage was waiting for us at BWV when we checked in that day). It is an EXCELLENT perk Disney offers, I think. So in your case, they will just hold it for you at...where are you staying again?....and it will be waiting for you when you return.

That is so good to know!!!

I had never thought of that! Thanks so much for letting me know - that IS and EXCELLENT perk!!!!
And by the way, we are staying at OKW again - we just love it there!!!!!

Thanks for the update! At least you had better luck and a few laughs lateron. Key West looks awesome! I love it there - we stayed at the Southernmost Hotel at the beach/beachfront room! Sorry, got side tracked!

The ToT was an awesome idea! It looked like a whole lot of fun! Can't wait to hear more!

[nenner1]

OK right off the bat...OMG I am a segment title!!!!!

(deleted to fit -crazy smilies here)

All I can think of is this scene from Wayne's World:

Originally Posted by podsnel

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="4"][COLOR="Blue"]So we were up....not so very early. Actually, we all really slept in, missing our Character Breakfast at Parrot Cay

We missed you!!!

The thing I had forgotten, and I forgot this everyday except for one, was I forgot to order a pot of room service coffee for morning delivery. That was one of my favorite things on the last cruise, the luxury of having room service deliver coffee to me every morning, to sip on the balcony before I went to breakfast. I am STILL kicking myself over that!! UGH!!

We were doing the thing where we order a carafe at night, a few nights it was good but one morning for some reason it was cold. Room service response times were pretty horrendous on this cruise. Coffee, warm milk and cookies at night was routinely 45 mins-1 hr. One night we ordered just warm milk for Sarah and it took an hour and a half.

Anyway...we had signed up on our thread to Trick or Treat this morning with a HUGE crew of other DIS families- and, God Bless her, Jen had organized EVERYTHING- she bought all the candy & hauled it on the ship, she made up the scavenger hunt around the ship including all the poems for the kids to figure out, she copied all these poems onto scrolls, she divided all the kids into four teams, she handed out the first scrolls to all the kids as they checked in and she organized all the adults into seperate candy stations....

Is it any wonder, every person on our thread thinks Jen is the GREATEST???Anyway....here she is, working away AGAIN to make everyone's Halloween EXTRA special!!

Like I said I am so not deserving of all of this praise!! You are too much!!! i am just so glad that the ToT went off well with no major problems and that everyone seemed to enjoy it. And don't forget missy, YOU were my partner in crime and without you (when it was just me and you left at the helm) I would have probably washed my hands of the whole thing. But your support in my ideas and help planning kept me excited and focused!!! And the volunteers- man what a kick butt job they did!!! They were all so great! Even if they did run off and abandon ship....{{PODS}} LOL!

I was going to be at one of the stations, but then asked Pods to man it so I could ToT with the boys- who were wearing their shirts sans 'staches. Our first stop? Pods up by the Goofy pool!

Ok there is still some candy left in this picture

The boys really got into figuring out the scavenger hunt clues- it was awesome!! Next, we were back up stairs ( I have to say- after the ToT I felt like I could pretty much eat and drink anything I wanted all day- that was a LOT od stairs!)

See? Fun for the kids, good for the parents. I don't remember but one of the colors had more up and downs than the other two. It just worked out that way.

This was an EXCELLENT activity- all of the volunteers at the stations were lots of fun handing out the candy to the kids, and Jen- you DA BOMB, GIRLFRIEND!!! We can't possibly ever thank you enough for all you did- it was an entertaining ToT for every kid there, even my too-cool-for-school 13 year old. YAY JEN!!!!!!

Awww...thanks! But we couldn't have done it without you and the volunteers, and contributors!! And even just the folks that showed up to participate and have fun, this amazing group of people we cruised with is just tops!!!

Originally Posted by JKSWonder

Ditto this about a 1000 times! My kids were concerned about missing Halloween at home. "What Mom? No trick or treating? " I tried to assure them that all would be good, they would have things to do, not to worry, etc. Well, Jen managed to turn me into Supermom and I didn't even have to do anything except sign them up and show up at the appointed time! They were thrilled with the whole thing and having it be a scavenger hunt trick or treat just added a whole new dimension to it. They had a great time running around, figuring out the clues and collecting the candy.

Every cruise and Dismeet should be so lucky to have a Jen!

Aww Jane, thank you so much!!! You are too kind! I am just so thrilled everyone enjoyed it so much! This was just such an amazing group of awesome peeps, it really made the cruise so very special!!!

Originally Posted by podsnel

OK hold up- you got a stripper pole room!!!!!! Woo hoo, way to go Pods!!! Are the boys staying home this cruise, or do they have their own room?!?! Bwaahahaha!

Originally Posted by podsnel

He was looking for candy- I told him to knock at your cabin...did he get lost?

He was looking for it, or looking to get rid of it? When I came around to close out the ToT and collect the candy we couldn't find him, I had the kids by then and I asked them to show me where he had sat they couldn't remember! I felt terrible about not getting there to get the candy and "close him out" , I wasn't too late maybe between 5-10 minutes after it ended...but I'm sure he was anxious to get on with the day. It was just hilarious, he took the candy and ran!!!! HA!

I think it's so funny Sarah calls them trees- that's what I called them when I was her age. Uh-oh...if she's following in my footsteps, you guys are in BIG trouble!!

Ah, now I beg to differ!!!

You're even more famous now- did you see the last posts?

Oh...that is sooooo on my camera.....soon to be on this TR....

RuhRoh!!

Yes- they were acting like we four do this together all the time- the men talk, while the women make out and they take our pictures....hmmmmm.....just a regular Saturday night...

Totally!!

GEEZ! I had to go back and erase like 10 smilies!!! We are waaaaay too expresive!!

This post had to lose about 10!!! I cut out a bunch of laughers, everyone knows we are laughing at each other (and ourselves)!!

Now you are ahead of me but I have been up since sometime Monday morning and I have been a shopping, baking, wrapping, cooking fool! I do have to work the next two nights too so I'm hoping for an opportunity to catch up to ya, but realisitically it will be this weekend. But don't stop, keep right on going!!!