A Hop, NO Skip, and Many Mishaps to a Disney Dream!

[jenseib]

All this bad weather everywhere is crazy! Our neighbors shed blew over onto Kadence's little tykes playhouse 2 weeks ago. All four walls split apart. It's just sitting in a pile now.
I can't get a hold of thier landlord (it's a rental) so I'm still waiting till I can speak to him.

I hope you get your trampoline fixed soon.

I hope so too. Skip took the netting off and the poles I see. It's sitting upright now, but still a mess of metal. I don't think it's fixable. Claire has yet to see it. I hope we get through the night at least before she notices it's not in the backyard.

This last storm slid just north of us, and right toward you. We were in the basement for a little while, too.

Poor Claire won't want to hear this, but at least everyone is O.K., right?

It rained hard for quite some time, but I thought most even went north of us too. Then all of a sudden the wind just sounded so bad.
Skip pointed out where the trampoline went over the house,....it messe up the eaves there as well and missed the satellite dish by a few inches.

What made me mad the most was his laughing about it...like a boy thinking it was cool. My thoughts were "my DD is going to be crushed."

 

[petals]

Wow those winds must have been strong to lift the trampoline that high and far! Poor Claire as well at least you are all ok though.

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Since it damaged your house some too, then would it be worth filing on your homeowner's insurance? I know we had a bad wind storm once that flipped our swing over into our vinyl fence and cracked the fence. Between the ruined swing and the fence repair, it was enough to file a claim. We didn't get much after our deductible was taken out, but it was enough to buy a new swing and the materials to fix the fence (which we did ourselves). Just a thought.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Sad to hear of more storms. Sorry about Claire's trampline and damage to your home and farm to those around you.

 

[jenseib]

Wow those winds must have been strong to lift the trampoline that high and far! Poor Claire as well at least you are all ok though.

was blowing hard.

Since it damaged your house some too, then would it be worth filing on your homeowner's insurance? I know we had a bad wind storm once that flipped our swing over into our vinyl fence and cracked the fence. Between the ruined swing and the fence repair, it was enough to file a claim. We didn't get much after our deductible was taken out, but it was enough to buy a new swing and the materials to fix the fence (which we did ourselves). Just a thought.

I don't think we had enough damage to even cover our deductible.

Sad to hear of more storms. Sorry about Claire's trampline and damage to your home and farm to those around you.

I am so sick of rain and the threat of storms. I swear we can never have anything nice, as it gets ruined in a summer storm or over the winter.

 

[Stefy]

Sorry to hear about the storm, hope you guys are ok

 

[jenseib]

Sorry to hear about the storm, hope you guys are ok

We're all OK.

Skip and I did get into an arguement last night. He was basically being a baby. (which men do so well). He doesn't get that this is going to make Claire upset. He just kept saying, "what do you want me to do...cry" and no I don't want him to cry, but I want some compassion. Of course he threw in the kicker of letting me go to this Disney trip in Aug.
It came down to this morning he is going to try to put the tarp on the old trampoline fram. He says it wil lwork, but I'm 99% sure it won't, as the old ine was a tad bigger, but I didn't argue about it. I'll let him work it out.
I am also in a bummed mood because there is a chance that I won't be able to go on this trip after all. The requirements said we had to be a graduate of the College of Knowledge, but after we signed up it said also to have some certain certification number and certificate. Our trusty leader said we should be able to go with a copy of the companies certificate. But I guess she found out that may not be true, so she is working on it. In the past, other agents didn't need one, but that may no longer be the case.

 

[jenseib]

During dinner, I had secured the Light up Tink onto my camera bag so we wouldn’t lose her. I leave you with that to ponder on….. LOL!

When we left Royal Palace, Claire and I jumped in another line for more Pirate pictures. This time the girl we liked was taking them.

I asked if she could do the Captain Hook one that I had seen on the boards, but she gave her Tink instead.

And then I got in for a few

After we were done we noticed Pirate Minnie was still out for Pictures, so we jumped in a short line. It was cut off shortly after that, so we had just made it!

Minnie seemed a little puzzled

She called the CM over. The CM said that our last signature was from Minnie. I said, Yes we saw her earlier that day in her Princess outfit. So the CM wanted to know if we still wanted her signature. Now I thought this was a dumb question. Why would we have brought our book up there if we didn’t? I told her yes, so they flipped the book back a few pages so the signatures wouldn’t be back to back.

We met back up with Mom, actually I think she came back out to check on us, and we headed over to the shops. Claire went off with Mom. I think she thought she had a better chance of mom buying her something than me! LOL! I looked around and picked several things up, but in the end put it all back. I was debating on another sweatshirt, but none of them just appealed to me the same way. I needed it to say Dream, or DCL cruise line and they were too generic.
Mom picked out a Dooney wristlet for her friend and then she said I could pick one too. YIPPEE! My FIRST Disney Dooney and Bourke!

Mom ended up getting Claire a hat. It was cute, basic white. What was weird was the logo said WDW. You would think it would’ve said DCL.

 

[jenseib]

After our purchase we headed up for the Buccaneer Blast, which is the fireworks show. I mistakenly kept calling the earlier show that when in REALITY that was the “Pirates IN the Caribbean” party.

We went up to deck 12 on the starboard side. We went up in FRONT of the funnel that has the big screen on it. I don’t recommend doing this. They had the deck blocked off at one part, so we couldn’t work our way over to see the screen or stage. We knew we could see the fireworks there though, and many other were also standing in that area. BUT we could not see the little show that went with the fireworks, nor could hear it very well. I have heard Captain Jack Sparrow ziplines down, but I never saw it….and at that point I had yet to find the dear Captain. I had even asked earlier in the day where he would be…after all it was pirate night, but we found he wasn’t listed for an appearance that night for pictures, but he would be at Castaway Cay the next day.
Anyways…. We stood and waited for the fireworks. We could hear the show going on, but again, hard to make heads or tales of it really without watching it.

Then the fireworks started. I had mixed feelings. They were wonderful and very exciting. Who would think you would see fireworks while on a cruise ship in the ocean…but they were smaller than I thought they would be. As they went on, they did get bigger and better. It kind of started small and slow. By the end I was loving it.

I have not mastered the fireworks shots yet…basically haven’t even tried to…..plus I don’t bring along my tripod on trips, so that makes it next to impossible to get a good shot. I should practice this summer with 4th of July shots and see if I can get it down.

After the fireworks ended, we exited the area with about 5 million others. There was a dance party going on after, but I don’t think many people stayed. We took the stairs down because it was next to impossible to even get close to the elevators.

We made a stop at Shutters and checked out all the new pictures taken that evening.

We headed back to the room. I had asked earlier that evening what time the Aqua Duck was closing and they told me 11:45.
We got back to the room about 10:45ish. We found this guy on our bed.

When we got back to the room I realized that glowing Tink was no longer on my bag! UGH! Claire wasn’t too happy with me, but I told her that I would ask about it tomorrow and see if we could get another one. I was hoping they would give us one, but even if I had to pay I would.

I’m not sure exactly what else we did, but I know we (Claire and I) changed into our suits and headed to the Aqua Duck, but it was 11:30 by the time we got there. So we must’ve just done it slowly. We went to get in line and the CM informed us that it was no longer open! WHAT?????? I had asked earlier and they said 11:45! I guess they close the line off early though so they can get the riders through by closing time….Would’ve been nice to know that ahead of time. We walked away with my little girl in tears. I told her that when we got back to the room we would see what time it opened tomorrow and we would go on it as soon as it did.
The Pirate dance Party was wrapping up too. I’m sure we walked through Cabanas, but I don’t remember seeing the buffet, so it must’ve closed up too. I have read that it is NOT open very long on pirate night. I think a lot of people are not even aware it is, and are to full to even go anyways. If it was right on deck there I think some people would make an effort to get a bit of this or that, but when you have to walk a little ways they just forget about it.

We headed back to the room and changed in to our PJ’s. Claire did some more crying and I found out the Aqua Duck was to open at 11 AM the next day. We told her we would probably go on the island for a bit and then come back for the opening of it. But NOT to worry, we would ride it!

I did make one last walk down to the Atrium and prepurchased the CD of pictures. I went and put some more money on my ship account at Guest services. I also asked about getting a replacement Tink and they said they would leave a note for the Royal Palace and they would get back to me in the morning after it opened.


I think Claire fell asleep with in 2 seconds of laying down. It had been a VERY busy and long day. We still had one more to go! I started to write down some of the days activities, but I think I gave it up after 2 minutes myself. The lack of sleep was catching up to me….It was after midnight and I was beat and my body was sore. The stairs and the all day walking was starting to take a toll on my out of shape body!

 

[JPFamilyMom]

I'm finally all caught up. Boy oh boy did I get behind, love the all the food, yummy. Especially liked the look of those sandwiches and the wraps sounded good too. Pirate night looks like a lot of fun. Can't wait to read about your aqua duck adventure. Hope your school trip works out, I know another DISer that either went to one already or is going.

 

[petals]

I love the pirate minnie pics and the snake towel. Claire makes a very cute pirate. Bummer that they wouldn't let you on the Aquaduck though

 

[jenseib]

I'm finally all caught up. Boy oh boy did I get behind, love the all the food, yummy. Especially liked the look of those sandwiches and the wraps sounded good too. Pirate night looks like a lot of fun. Can't wait to read about your aqua duck adventure. Hope your school trip works out, I know another DISer that either went to one already or is going.

It was very fun. I hope it works out too. I swear if I didn't have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

I love the pirate minnie pics and the snake towel. Claire makes a very cute pirate. Bummer that they wouldn't let you on the Aquaduck though

I loved the towel too. It was so cute.

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

First of all, I hope everything works out with your trip.

The pirate pictures are really good. I like them all. It's too bad Skip wasn't there for those. It would have been cute to have a whole pirate family portrait done. But the mother/daughter pics are very nice too!

So do you get some kind of discount for buying the photo CD early? You mentioned that you went down to prepay for it, so I'm wondering what the reason for that was.

Pirate Minnie!! it!

I also your D&B!!! Very nice of your Mom.

Fireworks are something to photograph aren't they. I too have realized that I will never get any great shots without a tripod. However, I don't know if even a tripod would do much good on the ship since it is moving. Another problem with fireworks is that there are very few opportunities to practice since most people only see them once or so a year.

I think that snake towel animal is one of the best ones I've ever seen! I love the gold coin eyes! Very cool!

Stuff like the Aquaduck episode is a real pain in the rear isn't it? When you have young kids, little things like that can turn into a meltdown moment very quickly. I would have been a little irritated by that myself.

I am so excited to see your CC day!!

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Love your D&B wristlet, it's so cute. The pirate pictures of Claire were very well done.

We didn't have any rain here yesterday thank goodness! It's too bad about the trampoline. Friends of ours were told by their insurance company that there homeowners policy would be cancelled if they didn't get rid of the trampoline. Company didn't want the liability.

 

[PrincessBetsy]

Great update! Too bad you didn't get to see most of the show during the fireworks... I'm glad you liked the fireworks though. Oh, and I love your Dooney and Bourke wristlet. So cute!

 

[Caretames1]

First, I really hope you do get to go on your Aug trip. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Claire makes a very cute pirate, and the Mom & daughter pics are so nice. I can't wait to see your Castaway Cay photos.

 

[jenseib]

First of all, I hope everything works out with your trip.

The pirate pictures are really good. I like them all. It's too bad Skip wasn't there for those. It would have been cute to have a whole pirate family portrait done. But the mother/daughter pics are very nice too!

So do you get some kind of discount for buying the photo CD early? You mentioned that you went down to prepay for it, so I'm wondering what the reason for that was.

Pirate Minnie!! it!

I also your D&B!!! Very nice of your Mom.

Fireworks are something to photograph aren't they. I too have realized that I will never get any great shots without a tripod. However, I don't know if even a tripod would do much good on the ship since it is moving. Another problem with fireworks is that there are very few opportunities to practice since most people only see them once or so a year.

I think that snake towel animal is one of the best ones I've ever seen! I love the gold coin eyes! Very cool!

Stuff like the Aquaduck episode is a real pain in the rear isn't it? When you have young kids, little things like that can turn into a meltdown moment very quickly. I would have been a little irritated by that myself.

I am so excited to see your CC day!!

No discount, but I wanted to do it before I forgot. And at that point I knew I had enough to make itworht wild. You do have tp have it purchased by a certain time so that they have enough time to get it made befoe you disembark. Claire loved the choclates each night. That was a major hit and she would ask us if we wanted ours too. Of course we did.

Love your D&B wristlet, it's so cute. The pirate pictures of Claire were very well done.

We didn't have any rain here yesterday thank goodness! It's too bad about the trampoline. Friends of ours were told by their insurance company that there homeowners policy would be cancelled if they didn't get rid of the trampoline. Company didn't want the liability.

Yep. We aren't really supposed to have one. We tried to change the pilicy on our old house several years ago and were told they won't insure with a trampoline.

Great update! Too bad you didn't get to see most of the show during the fireworks... I'm glad you liked the fireworks though. Oh, and I love your Dooney and Bourke wristlet. So cute!

I love it too, but really I don't use it much. I't so small I can only carry a small wallet and not my phone. But I usually take it in the grocery store and stuff like that. I kind of just keep it in my regular purse.

First, I really hope you do get to go on your Aug trip. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Claire makes a very cute pirate, and the Mom & daughter pics are so nice. I can't wait to see your Castaway Cay photos.

I hope so too. Basically the sales manager has to send an approval in to let us go. I guess in the past, thre were never any problems, but it sounds like they are doing things differently. I am holding to the thought that I am going. I have everything paid for already!!! I HAVE to go.

 

[dizneeat]

Caught up again! Wow! Took quite a while! Your thread sure moves FAST!!!!!!!!!

Okay, first things first:
I SO hope you get to go on the TA trip! We arrive on the 13th and would L-O-V-E to meet you. We'll have a car, so meeting wherever you want will not be a problem.
We can decide on what to do and where to meet when everything is settled.

Now, the Pirates in the Caribbean show looks different from what I remember from the Wonder - guess we will need to check the Navigator to see both parts.

I am not too impressed with the villains show. But we'll have three shows, so I guess we will grow with it!

Sorry about the trampolin - hope sweet little Claire can either use the old one or that she gets a new one soon!

Still dancing with the thought of meeting you in August!

 

[jenseib]

Caught up again! Wow! Took quite a while! Your thread sure moves FAST!!!!!!!!!

Okay, first things first:
I SO hope you get to go on the TA trip! We arrive on the 13th and would L-O-V-E to meet you. We'll have a car, so meeting wherever you want will not be a problem.
We can decide on what to do and where to meet when everything is settled.

Now, the Pirates in the Caribbean show looks different from what I remember from the Wonder - guess we will need to check the Navigator to see both parts.

I am not too impressed with the villains show. But we'll have three shows, so I guess we will grow with it!

Sorry about the trampolin - hope sweet little Claire can either use the old one or that she gets a new one soon!

Still dancing with the thought of meeting you in August!

I'm behind a lot too on many threads. Don't feel bad.

I think we can order some replacement parts for the trampoline, but of course the one thing we need is backordered, so I don't know how long that will take to come in...if ever.
You might like the Villains show. Many people do. It just wasn't for me.
It would be exciting to meet up. I am hoping to go to MK that night if it works out that I can get a ticket for one day early. If I have to pay for a full price one,then I'm just gonna do other onsite stuff. I do want to hit DTD that day too. My preliminary plans are to check in, and then go to DTD and have lunch at EOS. Then go back to AS Movies and get my geer for the night at MK. I think I may bring my tripod along and try some night shots....all just thoughts right now. I also thought of going to the campfire sing along....and about 30 other "thoughts!" Once I get my "thoughts" together, I should know more. And you can let me know what your plans for the say are officially too and we can go from there.

I mostly want to go to MK because it is EMH that night till 2 AM. Going early in the afternoon doesn't appeal to me so much because it will most likely be crowded and hot. And being alone will give me some time to do some exploring and picture taking that I can't do with others.

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Ok, had some more catching up to do. Now let's see if I can remember everything I was going to say!

I so hope you get to go on your TA trip!! Man, I can't imagine how anxious you are to know for sure!

I love all of Claire's pirate pictures - and the ones with you both in them are just SO precious. I agree with Skip - that one of Claire doing a pirate scowl would make the cutest Cmas card. I can just picture it, maybe in B&W with a cheesy saying (I say that as someone who typically makes a card with a total cheeseball pic of the kids with equally cheeseball saying)

It's probably wrong of me to say this, seeing as how it's 8:30am and I'm responsible for 3 small children right now but man, I could totally go for one of those orange/pineappley drinks. They look too good!

Pirate Minnie's outfit is super cute!!

Sorry to hear Claire's trampoline got hit - that was a heck of a weather week last week, wasn't it?? We didn't get much other than some minor wind and thunderstorms but I know you guys further north sure got it!