When we last left our adventurers, the family was finally ready to sit down and watch the
Disney Cruise Line DVD at which point I said
Let me see if I can find it.
My DSs and DW were finally ready to start getting excited about this trip. I showed them what our room would look like, the activities onboard and on
Castaway Cay and they are now asking me 101 questions about the trip.
I would like to thank the Virginia for not starting school until after Labor Day. This allowed us to schedule our trip for the last week of summer and save almost $2,000 versus what we would have paid to go just one week earlier. This allowed us to do a Land and Sea rather than just the cruise. We had never stayed on the Disney property, so this would be a trip full of new experiences for us.
I have a Scottish-Dutch background, so tend to be thrifty (my wife would say cheap), but I am also an engineer so I will spend money if I can prove the return is worth it. We had a few things to consider:
Do we need passports?
Even though the Homeland Security department relaxed the passport requirements for cruises until after this trip, I was able to justify the expense of doing passports because DD Jenny was being transferred to Germany for three years so we would need them for that. Little did I realize the fiasco getting passports would turn out to be.
My wife and I took off on Thursday of the week of Spring Break so we didnt have to take the kids out of school in order to get all the paperwork and photos together to apply for our passports. After running around all morning to get the birth certificates from the safe deposit box, filling out the applications online and printing the necessary copies, and getting the photos taken, we arrived at the post office at 2:10 only to be told that they had already closed the passport line for the day. There were still people waiting, but the office closes at 3:00 and they apparently decided at 1:30 that there were enough people in line for the day (and they wonder where the jokes about the inefficiencies of the Post Office come from).
So we inform our respective bosses that we will have to take the morning off the next day to get this done. We arrived at the Passport Center 15 minutes before they open and we are the fifth family in line (did people camp out overnight in line like this was a Rolling Stones concert?). I wasnt confident of how long this was going to end up taking because one family in front of us had at least 6 kids and a grandma and it appeared that only one of the parents spoke English. The office opened promptly at 9:30, and the first couple of families went fairly quickly and I was fairly confident that we could make it to work for at least a half day. Then the large family went in and we waited
, and waited
, and waited
. Various family members came in and out of the room, and at one point Grandma came out with one of the children and both were in tears.
Finally at 11:45 the big family left, and I wondered to my wife if they would close the office at noon for lunch and leave us stranded in line for another hour. Fortunately, we got in just before noon. The clerk was apologetic (and said that the office didnt close for lunch because they were too busy), and told us that the earlier family took so long because the father of one of the children wasnt there because he had been deported, and so they couldnt get his passport. Fortunately we had all our paperwork in order and after writing the necessary checks and signing on the appropriate lines, we were on our way in under 15 minutes. Time for lunch and a toast to reading the directions. However, we werent done with the State Departments Passport office, but more on that later.
How were we getting to Florida?
This was easy. We love road trips, and own a conversion van that is built for trips just like this. The boys can sit in the back with headphones on watching movies or playing video games while mom and I sit up front talking or listening to books on CD (see Part 2 of this trip report to see the van layout). Even with gas ~$3.00 per gallon, it was still cheaper for the four of us to drive than to fly. From Richmond, it is only 12 hours of road time to Orlando which is an easy days drive for us. This was decided even before we made our reservations, but there was one other detail to deal with.
On our only other cruise, we went out from Port Canaveral. Our group was on a tour bus to the port, but we noticed that the parking was in a deck rather than a surface lot. Our conversion van doesnt like parking decks (too tall), so we needed to consider alternatives for getting to the port. Besides, I would be much more relaxed if I didnt have to worry about driving and finding the port. There was always the Disney bus, but this didnt really appeal for a couple of reasons, getting to the port at the same time as everyone else and $60 per person seemed a little pricy for a 1 hour bus ride. Other alternatives would have to be considered.
Mousesavers had a coupon for a company called Happy Limo
we might just have to look into that.
What extra stuff do we want to do?
During our last Disney vacation, I did Dive Quest at the Living Seas at Epcot (I highly recommend this to any certified divers out there). My oldest son is now 11, and I thought it would be great if I could get his Scuba certification so we could either go on Dive Quest during the land portion of our trip or do the Stuarts Cove dive trip in Nassau. Unfortunately, with the crazy summer (more on this later), we never had a chance to get the classes and certification dives in before the cruise. Maybe next time
.
My wife and I went through all the excursions and options and finally settled on what we wanted to do on this trip. Then changed our minds, added, subtracted, went through what we thought we could afford and all the other pre-trip agonizing that everyone goes through until that final payment is made and the 90-day window (this was our first
DCL cruise) opens to make the final choices.
Even though I have been bragging about the level of planning I put into this trip, I will admit that I did NOT log on at midnight as soon as the window opened in order to make our Palo reservations and all the other excursion bookings. I calmly waited until 6:00 the following morning to do so. Interestingly, it looked like our first three choices for Palo were already taken (next time I guess I WILL log on at midnight), so I booked what I could. It turned out not to matter, but that comes later.
Shortly after booking our reservations, while trying to look at options for getting to the port and answer some questions about what to bring on the trip, I discovered the DISBoards. Oh
My... Goodness. I now had something to fill the few remaining free moments during the summer reading trip reports, keeping up with our cruise meet and learning all the tips from the pros out there.
Summer started once the kids were out of school in mid-June (this is the downside to not starting until after Labor Day, but I am okay with this). My DMIL and DFIL drove up to visit us, and we went on a weekend road trip to Hershey and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This was a fantastic trip, but the details will have to be left for another trip report on another board (theres that phrase again). There were two things that came out of this trip that will become important later on: The sale they had on Hershey Kisses, and this picture.
After the in-laws left and as July started, it was time to send the oldest off to Boy Scout camp and take the youngest to Cub Adventure camp (leaving DW with three whole days and nights with the house to herself). The story of Cub Adventure Camp is (say it with me) another trip report on another board.
Then I had to take a business trip to Texas for a week. Then the following week I had business trips to Charlotte and Harrisburg. Then at the end of the month MY parents came to spend a few days visiting with the grandkids, but fortunately they didnt want to do any side trips. During July I spent more time in strange beds than I spent in my own (Ow! Honey thats not what I meant).
Now we are into August. Is it too early to start packing yet?
[side note, I know this is going a lot into the background before the trip, but I am trying to convince everyone just how much we really needed this vacation to escape our busy lives. I promise that I have just one more report and then we will be hitting the road for Florida.]
one night
DD and her new husband (both in the Army) have been stationed in Germany, but due to a mix up at the Passport Office (his name was wrong on the first one, long story and not entirely the fault of the Passport Office) Nate came to stay with us last week and we have been re-childproofing our house to be ready for him. 
, so after a brief search, I found a great alternative, magnetic business card blanks. These are business card size magnets with adhesive on one side. With these in hand, I printed the door signs to card stock and stuck these magnets to them. One task checked off the list.
The wife said we were welcome to it, but she didnt want to wear a costume. Then she comes home with these blue and white striped Capri pants and blue peasant shirt as a casual outfit for the trip (she didnt realize it, but after I tied a red scarf around her waist she started seeing the pirate costume that was there for her). She got even more excited with the fabric I found at Walmart and some really cool accessories we picked up at Michaels. Once we started putting the costumes together, she was really getting into the idea of being a cute pirate mom.
We are into August and I am starting to get concerned since we still didnt have our passports. 
Checks on the State Department website and calls to the passport office only show that they are processing our applications. I knew they had changed the rules to allow you to use birth certificates on cruises, but we had submitted those with our passport application. When we applied, I never thought that 18 weeks wasnt going to be enough time to get the passport, so I didnt worry about getting certified copies. Now I am starting to worry, especially after I try to order myself a new birth certificate and they say it could take 30 days to get it to us. I guess it is time to call my Senator (another good tip from the DISBoards).
Just one major concern left.
Can't wait for more---we did the PandP party too...wasn't that so much fun in the rain that never stopped? 
Two minutes later, we are pulling back into the driveway so I can put the trashcan up front so we dont face the smell of garbage that has been steeping for three weeks in the August heat. 
On the way out we pull through a McDonalds for a caffeine supply 
for the first portion of the trip (iced tea for me, vanilla iced coffee for DW), and then we finally find the on-ramp to the freeway. DW was so excited that we were finally leaving town that she documented the time. 
