Eating our words – the UnDisney family back on DCL – 4-night Dream – May 2014 - with Bonus TR !

[Conorama]

Greetings Disboard people. I feel honour-bound to write this trip report, since when I signed off last, I declared to all who read my report that while we enjoyed our first DCL experience, we had decided not to return.

And yet, it seems, I have another trip report to write. Humble pie, here I come.

Let me begin by introductions. We are a family of 3 from medium-town-world in Ontario, Canada. We do not generally consider ourselves particular fans of “Big Mouse” as he is known in our house. Neither my husband nor I have ever been to Disney World or Land, on any continent. Our son Conor, who turned 6 just before our cruise in May, will not watch any Disney movies except for Cars (and only the first one).

We have not (wait for it) … seen Frozen.

As I mentioned the last time, I feel a little like I am taking my life in my own hands as I report on our UnDisneyness, but hey, it's New Year's Eve, and I feel like living a little on the edge.

Here is a recent mostly monochromatic portrait of us, as completed by Conor:



I'm the one with the curly hair. The Dad is wearing a nifty new hat, and Conor has one like it. Over on the left? That's a tickle fight on the couch. Behind us is the ever-so-cool Mazda 5 we drive.


Despite all of our UnDisneyness, a great friend of ours convinced us to try DCL for one of our “please get us away from all this winter for a week” vacations back in 2013, so we did. I wrote about our week on the Fantasy here, largely since these boards were very helpful in addressing my obsessive need to plan.

We had a great time, despite Conor being morally opposed to characters, and we gained respect for Uncle Walt’s general smarts. However, we did not book again on-board, mostly because we felt the need to go back to our lounge-on-the-beach-schedules-are-for-other-people vacations, which we did last year.

So how did we end up back on DCL? I blame Big Mouse, and planetary alignment.

What really happened is that I was surprised by having an abstract accepted at a meeting that was taking place in Orlando in May 2014. In a moment of giddy irrational thought, I suggested to my husband that maybe he and Conor could come too, and we could visit some parks (I gather there are more than one.)

What followed went like this:

Husband: “Um, our kid hates rides, crowds, noise, and will not talk to characters. Exactly why would we throw money away on something like that?”

Me: “Hm. Good point.” (Pausing, still giddy…) “Hey- we could do another cruise, maybe?” (I think I’m being witty and somewhat sarcastic here…)

Husband: “Sure!”

Me: (gobsmacked) “ HUH???”​

Husband proceeds to explain that he and Conor really liked the cruise, and have been talking about going back again. Hmph.

Once I recovered from my brilliant response, I thought I would check and see that there were no cruises that would work for us. I mean, I was already taking time off for the conference, so I couldn’t swing the time for a week-long cruise on top, and, really, there was no way the timing would work out… right? Right? Right?

Big Mouse is sneaky though. By luck/planning/something- there was a 4-night Dream leaving the day after my conference ended. And the price wasn’t bad. And I had vacation days to use up. And my abstract got accepted at this big meeting. And the flights weren't bad. And, well…. (looks up email address for travel agent)…. We booked.

And with that long confession, I begin my trip report.

Up next … the planning. Oh my, the planning.

Links

Pre-trip planning- or … how many spreadsheets does one human need?
More Deeply Important Decisions
The Nitty and the Gritty of Canadian Travel to the DCL with the Kiddo
The man-these-are-busy-and-annoying 2 weeks before the cruise – and a non- Disney perspective on the Swan and Dolphin
Finally- the vacation feels like it’s starting – or, why I like the MCO and its Hyatt
Where we finally embark on the floating mystery game.
Room Selection for the obsessive - and putting up with some DCL stuff and skipping others
End of Embarkation Day - in which I reveal how boring we really are
Reflections on Day 1
Day 2 – Nassau – Blue Lagoon Beach Day
Day 2 - Nassau- Pirate Night
Day 2 - Reflections
Day 3 - At Sea - Lounge-o-rama
Day 3 - Reflections
Day 4 - Castaway Cay & random meltdowns
Day 4 - In which we meet Crush
Day 4- Reflections
Debarkation & Home!
OOPS - back to day 3 - and the glory of Remy
Thoughts on Cruise #2 - and why we booked again on board, sheepishly
Afterword .... and a surprise

And now - the Secret mini-TR - January 25 to Feb 1st, 2015 - Magic - Western Caribbean

Planning to embarkation
Thoughts on the Re-imagined Magic
Days 2 and 3 - At Sea, and Couzumel
Day 4 - Grand Cayman
Day 5 - Jamaica
Days 6 and 7 - At Sea and Castaway Cay
Homeward bound
Final Reflections

 

[Conorama]

Pre-trip planning- or … how many spreadsheets does one human need?

Around the same time we booked the cruise, we started mapping out all the logistics for this trip- and these were impressive. Now, we pride ourselves on our planning skills – no challenge is too, well, challenging. But this trip required even more planning than usual.

Travel

Basically- I had to get to Orlando on Wednesday, to present my poster on Thursday. My husband and Conor would fly down to join me in Orlando on Saturday. We would board the Dream on Sunday, and return to the wilds of Canada on the next Thursday. This sounds not too bad, perhaps? HA!

After juggling all the options (we are overburdened with airport choices, all of which come with their own irritating problems), we arrived at the following plan (which practically needed a spreadsheet of its own):

1. My friend and I would drive to Syracuse on Wednesday and fly from there to Orlando. (Yippee for friends who are going to the same meeting! And who are driving their own car! Good friends.
2. My husband and Conor would drive the 3 hours to Toronto to Pearson on Saturday (what I mean by airports with irritating problems) and fly from there to Orlando.
3. We 3 would fly back together to Toronto (since that is where the car would be) on Thursday after we debarked.

Hotels

This was easier. I would stay at The Swan & Dolphin (who named that anyway?) as that is where my meeting was, and I didn’t want to be messing around with rental cars for 3 days in Florida .

On Saturday, we would stay at the Hyatt at MCO as we had done before and take advantage of the wondrous “bye-bye luggage, see you on the ship” service – so I’d shift my stuff/butt over there in time to meet the men as they got off the plane.

Finally, we booked our usual Sheraton Gateway room at Pearson so we could stay the night there after we landed back in the great white North, and not have to deal with rush hour (or rather rushing hours) from the West side to the East side of Toronto (feel the foreshadowing here…)

At least in May, we could assume we would not have to deal with this drive home like we had in February 2013...



At this point, I was feeling good. I had plans. There were bookings made. I could check things off my list (and not just everyone’s favourite “make a list” item). Progress was being made, and man, I was a planning goddess. Until, I contemplated ...

Packing

I am the Spreadsheet Queen when it comes to packing, but even I had a moment of, well, fear, when it came to the packing logistics. Traveling separately messed up The System. I am very attached to The System. It has never failed me (except the time we forgot a bag, but enough about that). However, I now had to factor in New Complications. Specifically:

1. I had to have clothing that I could wear and pretend to be professional at the conference. In Orlando. We in Canada only have our conferences when it is cold outside, so I had to have a moment of freaking out about what on earth one wears at a conference in Orlando in May. But I digress. Regardless of what it would be, I would need clothes.
2. I also had to have clothing to wear on the cruise. A few things could do both A and B, but not all. Colour-coding (of the spreadsheet, not the wardrobe) was required.
3. I had to travel with my precious poster as a carry-on, because if I arrived in Orlando without it, well, that would be just a teeny bit awkward. No checked baggage for you, my friend poster.
4. I had to then bring my poster on the cruise, as I couldn’t risk losing it since I needed it again. This was going to be one very-well-travelled poster. Oh, and did I mention it was huge?
5. My husband (a.k.a. “The Sherpa”) had to be able to manage most of the rest of the luggage on his own, whilst wrangling a very excited “I just turned 6”-year-old boy through airport checking in, security, US customs, and other gauntlets.

And to make matters worse, I have (ahem) some rotten luck (Karma?) about luggage. As a result of experience, we always make sure we have things for all 3 of us to wear for at least a couple of days in each bag, so that if one of our bags is misplaced (again), no one needs to go buy new underwear for at least 2 days. Sticking to this (the golden rule of packing) while dealing with 1) through 6) above had me spinning.

However, spreadsheets came to the rescue, as always, as I hit new and dizzying heights of colour coding glory, which will be revealed in a future post.

After that plan was developed, I rested. (Well, really, I got down to making my poster and tending to life stuff, but, you know, I rested from the whole planning/spreadsheet thing.)

Up next: More planning. Just one more post on it. I promise. Or, well, I think one post anyway.  

 

[Benchley]

I've just blitzed your previous trip on the Fantasy and loved it. Can't wait to read your Pre Trip report. I am a lady who can't dog without her spreadsheets of research too!

 

[Conorama]

More Deeply Important Decisions

Once our mad booking spree was over in January, we settled down to regular life, with occasional moments of going: “oh yeah, we need to sort that out for the cruise”. We had a few more decisions to make.


We elect not to extend our fish - or not really, anyway

I was (easily) talked out of participating in an official Fish Extender group, for many reasons. First, we were still reeling from the initial logistics of the travel planning. Second, the luggage issue was real, and none of use wanted to deal with added stuff. Finally, and most relevantly, the first FE experience was, well, comically bad at times, and involved me madly recycling baggies, trekking about the ship while trying to do laundry at the same time at 6:00 a.m., and, well, questioning my sanity (details here).

However, we knew that Conor would remember the FE experience, so we did plan to bring our FE (heck, we own it, so why not?) and we would sneak about and put (small, easy to pack) stuff in that we knew he would like. Brilliance, n’est-ce-pas?

Simply to liven up this post with a photo, I include a pic of our FE, which spends its non DCL days hanging in Conor's room, accumulating 6-year-old detritus. Please disregard the unmade bed. And no, I did not make it. I can order off Etsy like a pro. I can barely make my kid's bed - I cannot make an FE that looks like this.






Port Adventures - or rather, Ports where you lie around on a beach in an unadventurous fashion

The only decision we really had to make was about Nassau - which apparently ranks high on the most-disliked ports ever. However, I find it hard to dislike a port that has a beach, so we felt kindly towards Nassau. After the usual DisBoards and (ahem) other Boards perusal, the Blue Lagoon Beach day was a clear winner. No dolphins or other sea creatures for us. Just a beach.

We contemplated Atlantis, but, again, Conor does not love crowds or rides, and he's only really into small water slides (hello my apple - I see you have landed near to my tree!), so we quickly moved on.

As for Castaway Cay, we planned nothing. I like planning nothing. I feel like I have planned something, because I get to check something off my list: "Decide on Port Adventures on CC", but I don't have to actually do anything. It's a productive happy moment.

(Conor thinks this guy is doing yoga, so I'll stick him in here for interest: )




Travel to and from MCO

As mentioned before, we love the "say bye-bye to your bags" service at the MCO Hyatt, so we knew we would clamber aboard a cool DCL bus to get to port. For simplicity's sake (a rare event in our world) we decided to take DCL back to the MCO too.

Until ... (feel the suspense here ... ), our good friend (the DCL Dealer, or, as we will call her here- DCL Queen) found out she was going to the same conference and decided to bring her 2 boys (tween and a bit older than Conor) along on our cruise (we'll call them B1 and B2).

We would be gathering the knowledge of the great and powerful Gold Level Cruiser. She who knows all the DCL secrets. And she who has drunk much of the DCL Kool-Aid. We would get to see how REAL DCL folks do this cruise thing.

And, good dealer that she is, she talked us into using Happy Limo on the way back to MCO, shared with her family. Her argument was that this would prolong the DCL magic/pixie dust/whatever real Disney people you call it. Mostly, we liked the fact that we would not have to sit around and wait on a bus for eons.


Other bookings

Now that we knew that we would be traveling with DCL Queen, we quickly upped our game to book a Remy Brunch. There was this very complex business of coordinating with her Special Gold booking window and then our somewhat sad Silver window, and then some fancy linking of reservations. Fortunately, I did not have to strain my brain on this - DCL Queen to the rescue!

For a 4 night cruise, we figured that would be enough, though we did enjoy our Palo supper on our first cruise.

It was around this time that there was a rather horrifying thread on the boards about the worst table-mates anyone has ever had. DCL Queen also ensured that we would be at a 6-top with no other humans. Phew! We are not very social at the best of times, and that thread struck fear in my heart... if you missed it, the best scenario was people picking their teeth at supper. It deteriorated from there. I think we were wait-listed for early dining initially, but that came through fairly quickly. Late dining involves me passing out in the pasta, so we avoid that for everyone's sake.

DH and DCL Queen also sorted out issue around wine packages. I have the tolerance of a rather wimpy gnat when it comes to drinking (I stop at a half-glass of wine, every other week, or so), so I am not particularly relevant when discussing matters related to fermented grapes. I have no idea what they picked, but they did pick something.

I do, however, have strong opinions about the Rainforest Room day pass. It was how I recovered from the trauma of the laundry/FE delivery fiasco of 2013, so that was mandated. DH is in agreement with me, simply because it makes me happy ... or, as he puts it, it keeps the crazies at bay. He is hilarious, that one.

So, between the 3 over-educated adults, we managed to snag all relevant reservations, make the appropriate phone calls and emails, and line up stuff. More things were crossed off the list.

Next post- more planning? How could it be? (Should be the last planning post. I hope. Maybe. We'll see. )

 

[Conorama]

I've just blitzed your previous trip on the Fantasy and loved it. Can't wait to read your Pre Trip report. I am a lady who can't dog without her spreadsheets of research too!

Thanks! It's a pre-trip report and a trip report all rolled into one. I'm all about procrastination - or, rather, "efficiency".

Not sure why I suddenly felt the need to write about our trip from May, but the fingers are typing quickly so I will just go with the flow.

 

[Conorama]

The Nitty and the Gritty of Canadian Travel to the DCL with the Kiddo

By now, we were into March and then April, and, having ignored planning for a while, we had to get back at some of the finer details/random things that needed attention. Wait- another list? Really?

Of course:

1. Figure out paperwork so that the husband could go through US customs with the boy and not be charged with a criminal act.
2. Line up the cat sitters for the geriatric and slightly bonkers cats.
3. Make sure Conor’'s summer clothes fit. Oh, they don’t. Of course. Find new summer clothes for Conor, which is fortunately easy in March, because, of course, up here where it was still snowing, the summer clothes were all out for me to buy.
4. Call the hotels and make sure they had a rollaway cot for Conor.
5. Procure FE stuff for Conor and something for grown-ups pretending to be characters to sign (we had done the pillowcase already)
6. Contact Shirley from the Perfect Gift to get a basket- a lovely thing we learned about on DisBoards.
7. Let Conor’'s school know we were being bad parents, again, by taking him out of Senior Kindergarten for 3 days.
8. Get car tuned up for a road trip.
9. Somewhere in here, actual packing has to occur.

Most of the list items above were straightforward; paperwork for international travel is not.


Paperwork for international travel

We always have up-to-date passports, so that wasn’t an issue. Until Conor was 5, though, we didn'’t actually have a document proving that we were his parents. Oops. In Ontario, one can get a short-form birth certificate, which, for reasons I don’'t understand, does not have parental info. The long-form birth certificate does, but we didn’'t have it due to the effects of sleep deprivation in the period after the kiddo was born. Fortunately, I figured this out BEFORE the husband had to travel alone with the boy, so that was in hand.

However, we also needed a special form or lettter, ideally notarized, indicating that I gave permission for DH to take Conor out of the country alone. Keener that I was, I downloaded a form from an official government site it in April, and carefully filled it out, and put it with our other documents.

(Foreshadowing here … if you are paying attention, you will note I might have forgotten a critical step. I blame solar flares. Or something. )

School

Fortunately, Conor had an amazing SK teacher, who was always supportive of our travels (which were not really all that frequent, to be honest). We were glad he would go to school on his birthday because they throw a little party for them, and then he and DH would leave the next day. As always, we promised to send postcards from the trip to his class, and we planned for Conor to do “"une présentation"” when he returned to school (he’'s in a full French school). Happily, Conor is an actor looking for a stage, so he'’ll present anything anywhere, anytime. We introverted parents do not understand where this recessive gene came from, but we go with it.

Basket from Shirley

I am a bit sad writing this part, as I just learned that Big Mouse has determined that Shirley & The Perfect Gift will not be doing baskets on DCL anymore. Bah humbug to DCL. On our first cruise, we really appreciated some pseudo-healthy snacks & drinks in our room, and the distractions for Conor were well used. So, for cruise #2, I once again dispatched DH (I hate making phone calls) to contact Shirley’'s people to arrange another basket.


Oh, and in there, while not cruise-related, we had to plan a birthday party for Conor, which we would be hosting the weekend before I left for Orlando. Because that’s easy to do – right? While juggling work, a (much shorter) trip to another conference, making the wretched poster, and other joys in life like skating lessons in May –- the life of Canadian parents.

I leave you with a photo of Mr. “No, I’'m not tired, Mom”, a few weeks before we left for the cruise. Many actual trip photos will come- I promise! (Please ignore the fact he was desperately overdue for a hair cut. Buddy was worried that his "ear bangs" would be cut too short, as he likes his hair to "cuddle his ears". Yep ... Ear Bangs. Why am I having these arguments with my 6 year old?)

 

[astronautmom]

I think we are kindred spirits. I'm looking forward to comparing your May Castaway Cay experience to mine in November. I'd love to go again at a different time of year. Thanks for writing!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh, I remember reading your Fantasy trip report and loving it. I was really sad to read that there won't be future trip reports from you, so now I am really happy! Looking forward to hear about the trip - but reading about the planning was already great fun!

I had to laugh about you sending your husband to take care of phone calls - I hate having to make phone calls myself and always thought I was really strange for that.

 

[Conorama]

I think we are kindred spirits. I'm looking forward to comparing your May Castaway Cay experience to mine in November. I'd love to go again at a different time of year. Thanks for writing!

No problem - I actually made notes after CC day, so that's one of the more accurate days I can report about. Beach Boys & I had a good day, I'll admit.

Oh, I remember reading your Fantasy trip report and loving it. I was really sad to read that there won't be future trip reports from you, so now I am really happy! Looking forward to hear about the trip - but reading about the planning was already great fun!

I had to laugh about you sending your husband to take care of phone calls - I hate having to make phone calls myself and always thought I was really strange for that.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the other one. I will admit I had fun writing it. This one is now writing itself, so it's going well.

I've long hated making phone calls. I will happily speak in front of 100 students, or even more, and I don't even blink, but phone calls make me break out in a sweat. Don't even get me started about ordering pizza. However, since my hairdresser now has electronic booking, I get my hair cut much more often - that just about made my decade.

We're almost at the trip. Possibly tonight if I can stay awake long enough.

 

[Conorama]

The man-these-are-busy-and-annoying 2 weeks before the cruise – and a non- Disney perspective on the Swan and Dolphin

May started, and with it, our marathon. We hosted a successful spy party for 15 6 year old kids – because much to our horror, everyone who was invited (somewhat last minute) actually came.

We are brave parents, however, and thanks to nice early May weather, we could toss the 15 wild beasts outside for a chunk of the party, and heck, we can survive anything for 2 hours. I’m not sure we could walk or talk afterwards, but we did get through it. The best part was that we asked all the kiddos to come in disguise – they were hilarious.

Remember those documents?

Attentive readers will recall I had completed and printed out key forms to enable DH to take Conor to the US without getting arrested. Particularly astute readers will remember that they are supposed to be notarized. When did this clever parent remember this? At 9:00 p.m. on Monday- as in less than 36 hours before I was supposed to leave. Well crummy. After some not-so-nice words (hey, the kid was asleep!) I turned to the source of all good information- the interweb – and thanks to Kijiji, I learned that the Commissionaires will notarize documents on a drop-in basis, and they open at 8:00 a.m. Brilliant. Bring on the retired military/police folk.

Fortunately, we’re generally quite organized about most things, so we had all our documents in order. As soon as we launched the offspring on the school bus, we dashed over to the Commissionaires’ office, and, 20 minutes and $50 later, we not only had our forms notarized, but we had affidavits that our copies of our documents were not forgeries. Rock on. I was almost on time for work and all.

And then, we took a long sigh of relief. And I edited my spreadsheet to address this grievous omission.




Packing – the final stages

As soon as the party finished, I entered The Packing Zone. For me, this involves all suitcases open on a spare bed, spreadsheets open to the ready on my laptop, and a beverage to get me through it all. (If we all remember my gnat-like tolerance for alcohol, we can be reassured that the beverage is usually an iced latté.) If I’m really, really lucky, I have “help” by way of the 6 year old. Fortunately, he is much more willing to listen to my suggestions (“No, bud, I don’t think we can bring the world’s largest stuffie with us, even if you are willing to hold it on the plane. You might throw up on him,”) but he is still there to supervise and provide advice: “Hey mom, you didn’t fold that as well as dad does”. Heck, my aged cats provide more help by lying on the clothes (compression is good) than the boy.

Clearly, I try to avoid help. When I can’t, I ignore it, and I use my luggage scales frequently, which distracts him. Shiny. Beepy.

Despite the help, I succeeded with The Plan. All suitcases contained at least 2 full sets of clothing for all family members, in case my great luggage curse struck again on this trip... and no one suitcase was overweight. My bag contained appropriate clothes for conference, and for cruise. Conor's carry-on had cool distractions in it ... and Gravol (the Canadian anti-puke medicine).

I took a moment to appreciate my brilliance.

The night before I was to leave, I handed a carefully written, colour-coded list complete with little boxes for him to insert checkmarks to DH with the few things he would need to pack at the last minute on Saturday morning for Conor, including some oh-so-very-helpful suggestions about which bag they should go in. This garnered me a rather withering look, but no comments, since we are both still traumatized by the trip in which we forgot Conor’s bag at home – something we realized 1 hour into our drive, necessitating DH to drop me and 3-year-old Conor at an awful little mall for over 2 hours, while he (ahem) broke a few speed limits to go back home to get it. After that experience, I use even more lists, and NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO COMMENT.


Part 1 of the trip- My Friend Poster and I make it to the Swan and Dolphin.

On Wednesday morning, I had my helper up bright and early, to assist me with final preparations. My poster (hereinafter known as “Poster”) was rolled up in his fancy tube. Poster and I, and my other bags (one checked bag, and my backpack – they don’t get special names) got lots of hugs and kisses before we headed off with my friend, who was doing the driving to Syracuse.

My trip was wonderfully uneventful – which makes for uninteresting reading, but made me a very happy camper . We had no trouble at the border (boring and reliable ladies that we appeared to be), and our JetBlue flight was on time. After a brief stop at JFK, we left on time for MCO. Poster behaved himself on the flights (read: I could fit him in the overhead bins, and I didn’t forget him – my biggest fear). We nabbed our bags, and my friend’s rental car, and she drove us to the Swan. Or the Dolphin. Or both.

The Swan and Dolphin is full of … wait for it … swans, and dolphins. I dutifully admired them. Mostly what I cared about was that the conference was right on site, and my room was quiet and comfortable, so that I could sleep so as not to seem to be an idiot when presenting Poster.

This is a trip report, not a conference report, so I will keep this short. On Thursday, I presented Poster. I then had to move Poster to another board, and present again. I collapsed, exhausted on Thursday night. Friday & Saturday morning, I learned stuff, when I wasn't getting some exercise by walking around the S & D.

In between, I was a good parent. When I go on work trips, Conor usually sends me with one of his toys, and I take photos of his friend wherever I am, and send them back to him. We discuss these when we FaceTime every morning and every night. On this trip, "Moosie" (very Canadian) was sent along, so he enjoyed touring the Swan & Dolphin.

For example, here he is looking out of my window.



Next, (Moosie didn't make this photo), we explored outside. As you can see, the weather was horrible. Or not. At least, it was not conducive to making me want to sit in windowless conference rooms listening to lectures, but I was dutiful (mostly) and generally attended when I was supposed to.



Here we have the Swan... and then ...



the Dolphin. (Yes, that is a Dolphin, I'm told. Something about how the fins on the tail are aligned. I stopped paying attention in there.)



Overall - the Swan & Dolphin is a fairly standard overpriced hotel (I'm used to these), with good service (thankfully), many choices for eating (the tacos at lunch at the buffet place were particularly good), a reasonable array of activities and some kind of Disney affiliation I didn't figure out, not that I tried, actually. Again, this is not a conference report, so we will move along.



Boy Birthday

The Friday of the conference was Conor's actual 6th birthday. As part of the planning, we made sure we had some small birthday gifts for him on his real day that he could open before going to school (the main gift was the cruise, plus he was all Lego-ed up after his party). I made sure we had some quality FaceTime so I could watch all this (picture an I-Pad being moved around frequently so that I can't actually see anything and then dropped on the couch - yep - Highly successful Mom-Kid bonding), and was generally blown off because he was hungry and wanted to eat breakfast.

In fact, he was far more annoyed that his field trip to a classmate's farm was cancelled that day than he was that I was not physically present for his birthday. "I'll see you tomorrow, anyway, Mom, but I will NEVER EVER get to go on a field trip EVER AGAIN." OK, then.

I coped with the rejection by finding some spiffy Star Wars Disney characters (Jawas, if you care) in the gift shop to give to the boy so that he would like me again (I'm just being honest - no judging!). And, in a fit of optimism, I got him an autograph book. No fancy home-made ones, or even a "ordered while I sat at home and clicked on the right things to buy something on Etsy" for my guy, who may or may not actually deign to acknowledge a character on any given day - just a generic not-too-princessy-generic-overpriced-Disney one. I was hopeful, though, as we had a breakthrough with Elmo a few months before.

And, of course, I ended the Boy Birthday by another FaceTime session that night (more complaints about the cancelled field trip and requests to bring 47, 526 stuffies which were declined, which made me unpopular again) and then a phone call after the Boy's bedtime with DH, who humoured me as I painstakingly went through my lists/spreadsheets to make sure he knew what to do the next day. That's not annoying or anything.

(I will admit DH is a perfectly capable human being. Often more so than I am. That is not at all relevant to me, though, the night before a trip. )

I virtuously picked some sessions to attend on Saturday morning, and you can bet my bags were well and truly packed early on Friday night, so that I could beat a hasty retreat back to MCO as soon as I could possibly break free.

Which brings us to ...

Up next: The Men Arrive and the Hyatt MCO ... not quite on the ship yet.

 

[Conorama]

Finally- the vacation feels like it’s starting – or, why I like the MCO and its Hyatt


For reasons that are unclear to me, conferences always end AFTER the check-out time for the hotel- even when the conference ends on a half-day. So, as usual, this meant I had to do a bit of planning to ensure enough of a break mid-morning to get back to my room, get my stuff, check-out, find the place where they will store my bags, and still make it back in time for the next session. Of course, I am not doing this at the same time as anyone else …- oh wait, half the conference has the same idea. However, lines are better than extra charges, so I waited patiently.

After a few more lectures and one last Swan lunch (yummy taco bowl again), I ensured I was ready in plenty of time for the shuttle I had booked back to MCO. Poster was rolled up back in his/her tube, and we both tried to stay awake while sitting in a sunbeam in the lobby. We will not comment on our success rate.

Poster tubes, if you’'ve not used them before, are incredibly awkward to maneuver, so I was really hoping that the MCO Hyatt would let me check in right away. I was having a few palpitations because the reservation was in DH’s name (not the same as mine) just in case I was delayed somehow (yes, we worry about these things). The travel gods were with me, though, and I checked in right away.

Hyatt MCO

In the last review, I sang the praises of good airport hotels (here), and I still like the Hyatt MCO. I failed to take photos last time, due to dealing with the 4 year old too-tired-too-hungry-too-much-pee tantrum to rival all tantrums, so I am glad I remembered this time.

We had a room that had an outside balcony – the view isn'’t anything to write home about (airport runways - thus no photos), but it was nice to have fresh (ish) air as opposed to our balcony onto MCO from the year before.

You see here that there is room for a roll-away bed plus the King bed.




The room is not huge, but certainly fine for one night, and most importantly, it was quiet and incredibly convenient.



I then had to figure out how to kill about 3 hours before the men landed, assuming that Air Canada was running on time. Free of Poster & other luggage, I wandered around MCO, reuniting with Starbucks (none in 4 days!), buying some headphones since mine were on their last legs (ears?), and enjoying some spectacular people watching. I decided to be a grown-up for a bit, and I headed back to the Hyatt to start preparing for the Great Luggage Reorganization that would be completed once the men arrived (basically- to cram more stuff in the checked baggage, so that we only have the absolute necessities to carry on the ship).

After 10 minutes of being a grown-up, I abandoned that ship (I am so VERY witty) and got out my trusty Kobo (Canadian Kindle) and read and relaxed.

Don't judge. I was on vacation, finally, after all.


The Men’'s Traveling Tales

I had, of course, checked in on the men that morning, prior to their drive to Toronto, in part to make sure that The List had been checked. I am enough of a packing freak that I had Conor’s travel outfit picked out and marked with a post-it note before I left. This is not ridiculous. This is just sensible. Honest. it's not obsessive. Or controlling. Anyhow – they were ready to leave on time, so I felt better.

They did the same thing we all did the year before – a long, boring trek down the 401, interrupted by one stop to force - I mean ENCOURAGE - the child to pee (we still have to discuss “sneaky pee” in response to the “no, I do NOT have to go” answer we get all the time), followed by parking at the Sheraton Gateway at Pearson.

DH reports that Conor was great. First, he did not throw up (I had a back-up outfit picked out just in case). Second, he actually helped with the luggage. Third, he charmed the ladies at the check-in, and was equally polite with the US customs folk.

The third bit was important, since DH and Conor were flagged at customs, and DH had to produce all of our notarized affidavit-ed documents. Fair enough. If you read on the interweb that you don't need these things, let our story be a lesson (wow - that sounds dire) that sometimes they DO want to see it all laid out in black and white and notarized signatures.

After that excitement, and after they found a Starbucks (only milk for Conor- fear not), Conor settled down to some monochromatic art on some of my leftover conference swag from some other meeting. (Note that he got his hair cut. This, despite great angst over his "ear bangs" not being cut too short, since he likes his hair to "cuddle his ears" and he is not as handsome, he tells us, with short hair. Where does he get this???)



Unfortunately, Air Canada did not rate as highly as Conor did in DH's esteem. When we booked initially, we booked just regular old Air Canada - we're used to them. We don't love them, but we know how to hang out with them and not get (too) annoyed. They are sometimes the most convenient option. (If that is not damning with faint praise, I don't know what is....)

Then, about 2 months before our trip, I got one of those horrid emails about how our flights had changed ... and the time had changed a bit, but more importantly, I had to tell DH, who is 6'6'', that Air Canada was dumping us on ... Rouge.

For the non-Canadian readers out there, this is Air Canada's brand-new discount line. They added in about 30 extra rows of seats (OK, maybe a few less), and took away all the "perks" of regular AC flying - like in-flight entertainment unless you have an I-Pad or rent one from them. They do have cool hats. Just google them if you're interested. Pin-striped gray trilbies. Or fedoras. I can't tell the difference.

DH's frustration with the switch led him to not feel guilty about using pre-boarding, which was technically for "children under 6", and as of 11:04 p.m. the night before, Conor no longer qualified. DH determined that if A/C could stick him on the discount line he could be a severe rule-breaker and ... board early - using the analogy of the 10-second rule for dropped food - "he hasn't even been 6 for 24 hours yet..."

Anyhow- DH's review of A/C Rouge, from his Facebook page:

"A/C Rouge: Perfectly comfortable for 6 year olds, and no one else." (Yes, we give our kid Gravol on flights. Yes, you should thank us for this - not because it makes him sleep - but rather, because it's just a whole lot more pleasant for all concerned. Pukey, he is. )



(Former TR readers might recognize the feet of the ever-present Sockie, who travels with us everywhere.)

So, as you can imagine, when they arrived at MCO (I was feeling very pleased that I was able to figure out WHERE they would come out ... we are used to much smaller airports), DH was barely able to walk. Conor was fresh as a daisy (having woken up from his Gravol-induced nap) and keen to explore and chatter.

After we wrangled the luggage (it all arrived! ) we headed back to the room.




Did the Hyatt MCO live up to last year's reviews?

Conor, upon seeing his rollaway cot, announced it was just right for him, because it was a "prince-sized bed". Right on, buddy. I should note this was only the second time he slept in a cot since he had only recently outgrown his tendency to roll out of everything he slept in - yes, our kid used bedrails until he was almost 6. We no longer need to buttress his beds against solid furniture to keep him in. These developmental milestones are exciting, don't you think?

By this time, we were well past our usual supper time etc., so we did our usual quick ordering of room service and commenced the Great Luggage Reorganization for real.

(If you've not been at the MCO Hyatt before, I'll explain that to take advantage of the magically disappearing and then reappearing bags, they have to be ready to go by 8:00 a.m. on the day of departure. Thus, planning is required.)

Room service was much quicker this year, but I remembered, too late, that Conor did NOT like the spaghetti and meatballs (a rare event) so we had to improvise. We did get everyone fed (I took the pasta, and he gobbled down the rest of my burger), and we launched the boy into the bath to get ready for bed. This year, we skipped the meltdown (just a minor moment with the pasta) and we had a quiet moment of remembrance of the Hyatt Meltdown of 2013. I not-so-quietly celebrated my packing organizational skills as everything we needed for his bedtime was near the top of the suitcase. Could I find my own toothbrush? Nope. But Conor's stuff- that was good to go.

By 9:30, Conor and I were ready for bed. DH went out somewhere or other (hotel bar?) for a well-deserved beer, while Conor and I fell asleep quickly (I am a wild night owl - if by night you mean anytime between 8:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.) DH was back by 10:30 or so, he says, and neither of us budged.

Overall, the Hyatt did once again what it was supposed to do - give us a quiet, comfortable, very convenient place to sleep. Hail to the great airport hotel.

Which will bring us tomorrow (literally and figuratively in the report) when we will actually embark upon our vessel. I promise. We have a snow-day coming here, so I can procrastinate from running errands and do more trip reporting.

 

[Benchley]

I to am a fan of the Hyatt. We used it after a 9 hour flight with our then 4year old, and it was great just to let him fall into bed after a very tiring day travelling. I needed a very large dose of faith about our bags, but the pixie dust worked and they all arrived safe and well outside our cabin

 

[Conorama]

Where we finally embark on the floating mystery game.


After a pretty good night of sleep, Conor was up at his usual 6:20 a.m., ready and raring to go, having successfully NOT rolled out of bed the night before. Victory was ours.

After the usual gong-show of a morning routine and final stages of luggage rearrangement, including the mandatory quadruple checking of passports, cruise documents, DCL tags on luggage, and important stuffies, we headed off to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. DH and I were covered under a CAA deal that included breakfast, but we had to fork over …- wait for it … - $6 for Conor. He could easily have eaten enough to justify $24, but much to his annoyance, we control how much carsick boy eats before we are about to embark on a 1 hour long bus ride.

We headed back to the room, and as it was after 8:00 a.m., the bags were happily gone. Cue the happy dance.

Conor and I rounded up our carry-ons and were ready to start the day.

This is the point of the trip where I have no idea what DH does for an 30 minutes or more before we check out of a hotel room, but it drives me nuts whatever it is, so Conor and I hit up the MCO stores to amuse ourselves.

Actually, it appears from my photos that we did this the night before too, while DH was rounding up the luggage, as Conor bonded with Spiderman.




Transportation of the grounded variety

For those who were wondering, we had snagged a coveted 10:30 Port Arrival Time. This does not, mean, though, that we had any desire to sit around at Port for any more time than necessary. There are WAY too many humans in a small place for my comfort level, and I just don’t get it – you are not going to get on the ship any faster, so why rush? Rushing is not part of my vacation - since it is way too much of my regular life.

As a result, we were not part of the masses who headed to the Ground Transportation area as soon as it opened. We meandered over with our carry-on stuff at a leisurely, appropriate-for-vacation pace, at about 9:20, and were shepherded onto the very exciting DCL bus. This year, we were prepared –for no food allowed on the bus, so we had ensured that Conor was topped up with a small, motion-sickness-preventing snack ahead of time, but I did have our Gravol ready to go.

The trip to port was uneventful, except that the Disney Trivia proved that I’'d learned nothing Disney in the year since our last cruise. Uneventful also means "Conor did not get sick", so we were relieved parents.


At Port

Conor was the first one off the bus, and we found our carry-on bags, and shuffled through the various lines - this is where I always feel like a sheep.

Here, sheep- line up here to go through security, line up here to go up the escalator, and then (oh the excitement) line up here to get into the check-in line – perhaps our first time not in the newbie line, but honestly, it didn'’t register. Paperwork in order, they determined that Conor needed a new photo, but DH and I are, apparently, ageless, so no new pics for us. We picked up our Silver lanyards, and, honestly, never used them. (I have pristine lanyards if anyone is looking... for some reason, I haven't wanted to throw them out.) Nor can I recall our boarding number, but it was lower than 5. Even *I* think this is good (thus the early port arrival time) because it means we escape port earlier - the ship is bigger. I can escape humans.

Happily, we connected with DCL Queen at port, and I lost Conor to B1 and B2, who kept him occupied while we waited to board. As DCL Queen is "a “get to port before it opens”" type, they had an earlier boarding number than we did, so we arranged to meet at Cabanas, and off they went, as we reclaimed Conor.

At this point, we enter one of our least favourite experiences with DCL – the dreaded embarkation. First, we have to stand in a gazillion lines like grumpy sheep (yes they move, but still). Next, it’'s hard to avoid the photographers who take what is always a stupendously hideous photo of us, because we are dreading the final gauntlet - – the part where some CM or other announces our arrival.

Yes, we hate that part that brings others tears of joy. Conor handed his carry-on bag to me so that he could properly cover his ears as we entered. We moved through this as quickly as possible, and made haste for an elevator to Cabanas.


Priorities

At this point, Conor wanted to get to the main event. Is this a character? Nope. A show? Nope. Food? Nope. The pools? Nope. Kids clubs? Nope.

He wanted to do … the mystery game. Yep –- we travel over 1500 km so that he can drag me all over the ship solving mysteries. On the first cruise, he would have done this 3 or 4 times a day if we had let him/had the energy.

We convinced him that eating and visiting with B1 and B2 was almost as good as the mystery game, so we hit the buffet before the crowds got too bad. B1 and B2, much more experienced cruisers, were amused by Conor'’s zeal, in the wise, wise way of about-to-turn 13 year olds, and soon to turn 8-year-olds.

This trip report will not have much by way of food reviews or photos. We think Cabana's is fine. Some stuff there is occasionally really yummy – mostly, it’s totally reasonable. How is that for a rave review? (Seriously- it’s totally fine. It’s there when we need it. What more do I need in a buffet?)

As soon as the last bite of lunch was swallowed, I was asked very politely but very insistently about going to find the mystery game, so I left DH and DCL Queen with our carry-on bags, and I followed 3 boys to ice cream first, then to the game.

This a great photo, but I enjoy that it captures the "“I so want to do this game that I can'’t even wait to finish my ice cream cone”" zeal.



Tragically, we were foiled early on, as most of the clues are in the areas of the ship not yet open. Intrepid detectives (and their wise chaperone), however, are not to be thwarted in their pursuit of fun, so I was able to convince the kiddos to check out the Oceaneer’'s Lab/Club, so long as I promised to protect the very, very valuable mystery game card.

Clearly, there was work to be done at the club.



Thus, we spent all the time required to wait for our rooms to be ready. B1, at the wise age of 1-day-away-from-13, kept track of the time, and alerted me that it was almost time for rope drop/rooms available/whatever they call it, so I extricated B2 and Conor, and we located DH and DCL Queen and excavated them from the Cove Café.

Off to our room ... we crazy folk who live on the edge...

 

[Conorama]

Room Selection for the obsessive - and putting up with some DCL stuff and skipping others

This next part might be embarrassing, except somehow, it doesn't bother me. Our first cruise was on the Fantasy, and the Dream has the same layout (mostly). So, since we loved room 9120 on the Fantasy, we got room 9120 on the Dream. :

The short story about room 9120 is that it is a Category 4A room, without Murphy bed, between the mid and aft elevators. It does not have a connecting door, and we loved it for its location, how spacious it was (we do spend time in our room) and how quiet it was. We didn’t feel like going all wild and risking another room, so we amused our TA by strongly requesting this room. Happily, it was free. :

For more details on 9120, you can read my "Ode to 9120" from 2013 here.

Happily, 9120 on the Dream is, so far as we could tell, identical to 9120 on the Fantasy. It had a nice basket from Shirley, which amused Conor for a bit while we did some initial unpacking, until it was time for Stuff We Do Not Like.


Some DCL stuff we do not like

Being pro DCL-ers now (having been through one day 1 already), we were prepared for the Muster Drill, by way of not going too early (too much standing around), nor too late (we follow the rules), but rather, arriving JUST in time, Goldilocks like. Conor had his "actual noise earmuffs" (noise-cancelling headphones) so he was prepared. We got stuck on deck, again, which is nice in terms of being outside, but involves a whole lot of standing around.

Having survived that loud noise, we escaped to our room and did NOT do the Sail Away party.

(Why not? Too noisy. Too crowded. Too many annoying people who stand in front of my kid so he can't see anything. Too many grown-ups who leap in front of us to get the last thingy that kids wave at the show. Too, well, Disney. )

After UN-level intense negotiations with Conor - we're doomed, as he is polite, logical, insistent, and often right in these discussions - we agreed to a 3-stage plan.

1) We would have some quiet time in the room and on the veranda while unpacking took place (yippee! we had all the bags! And Poster too- you remember Poster, right?). Conor could watch videos, or explore Shirley's basket.

2) We would dress early for supper (rule-followers are we) and then...

3) I would take Conor on his first mystery of the trip. I mean, really, we had been on board for at least 4 hours at this point, with NO MYSTERY. Please, report us to the authorities.


Magical Mystery Tour

B2 had wanted to join in, so we collected him (they were also on Deck 9) and off we went.

In the 6 or 7 (or more) mysteries I completed on our last trip, I had mastered a strategy. For the uninitiated, let me explain.

At one of the main kiosks, one collects a coveted mystery card. One chooses which mystery (only 2 on the Dream- there are 3 on the Fantasy), and a map/suspects list, and a wee pencil.

Then, in theory, one is supposed to go where the magic art tells you to go. At each magical painting, you hold your card still (yes, picture how well that works with a jumping excited 6 year old), and you get another clue, which allows you to either find the missing puppies or whatever, or rule out one or more of the suspects :"No Conor, women don't need mustache wax, so we can rule out all of the lady villains".

(Hilariously, other than Captain Hook, Conor does not actually know who any of the bad guys are. He just knows they're bad. He could not tell you which movie they are for, nor, mostly, can I. This does not matter, in case you were wondering.)

We learned by accident last time (I was exhausted on mystery #3 and missed where we were supposed to go) that you can usually go just about anywhere, until the very last clue.

So, dear parents, here is your strategy. And you need a strategy - because as long as you keep using the same card, you will get a different bad guy on each go around with the mystery, so you can probably do a dozen mysteries if you wanted.

A) As soon as possible, get to the clue on Deck 10, forward. Definitely take the elevator for this part.

B) Then, you descend gracefully, via the stairs, to the clues on Deck 8 & 6, which are also forward.

C) You carefully negotiate the clues on Deck 4, so as to end up at the Vista Café, where you as a grown-up, have earned yourself an iced latté, and you might as well grab the frequent-caffeinate-or card. Your offspring can be distracted by looking down into the lobby or eating pastries, depending on what you feel like putting down their gullets.

D) Thus caffeinated, refreshed and rested, you can wend your way up to Deck 9, aft (elevator time again). This should be the first of 2 times you have to trek from one end of the ship to the other- rookie mistake if you end up doing it more than twice. You, once again, descend happily, via stairs, to 7, 5 (there are a few) and 3.

E) Somewhere in here, you will have collected enough clues to solve that puppy. This may involve hiking to the other side of the ship, but if you're lucky, it does not.

F) You solve the mystery in less than 30 minutes (I can do 20 minutes in a pinch if I grab my latté and run). You are a hero.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all about walking. And the first, oh, 3 times we did it, walking all over the ship was a good way to learn things. On times 4 to infinity, though, it's energy-sapping (but not, somehow for the kid), so one has to conserve.

I don't seem to have photos of the mystery games on this cruise (too busy keeping two boys moving and on point), so I've included one from the last cruise.

(For the record, 2 years later, we STILL have that card. I wondered about bronzing it the last time, but it is kept in the box of precious things in the boy's room...)



I used my strategy, and we landed at the Enchanted Garden for supper exactly on time. I am Mom. Hear me roar.

And, I leave my readers here in suspense about our first supper aboard the Dream. The meals were, well, interesting on this trip, so stay tuned!

 

[tgeorge]

I'm loving your review! This is also the first time I've heard the 0800 baggage call at the Hyatt. Good info! Our flight doesn't land until 1130pm so it was a great call to stay at the Hyatt. We will just have to make sure we're up in time. Shouldn't be too difficult since I will be super excited!

And yes, those poster carriers have a mind of their own at times. Funny, because there is a conference in Orlando that I was considering the beginning of April, but our cruise is the end of April so I will probably not go.

Thank you for taking the time to write this report. I know they take a lot of time, but they are very helpful!!

 

[Conorama]

I to am a fan of the Hyatt. We used it after a 9 hour flight with our then 4year old, and it was great just to let him fall into bed after a very tiring day travelling. I needed a very large dose of faith about our bags, but the pixie dust worked and they all arrived safe and well outside our cabin

9 hours of flight - wow. We are just beginning to contemplate this, as Hawaii is on my bucket list. I think that Conor and I would be fine, but DH, who use to fly from Japan to Toronto, feels his aged legs might not be in good shape - we might need to hire another Sherpa.

Oddly enough, my horrid luggage luck only applies to planes - not busses and ships, it seems. I had no worries about the bags ended up where they were supposed to, and even The Poster made it to our cabin unscathed, with its carefully placed DCL tag.

 

[pirateluv]

You are back!! Loved your last trip report! Looking forward to continuing with this one.

Joan

 

[Conorama]

You are back!! Loved your last trip report! Looking forward to continuing with this one.

Joan

Thanks! Yes, I'm back. I got away from the report though... so this is a good reminder to get going. Happily, tonight, the writing muse is with me so, stay tuned for the next installment or two!

 

[Conorama]

End of Embarkation Day - in which I reveal how boring we really are

Dreamy dinners?

I had not realized how long it was since I updated. Work interferes. It does, however, pay the bills.

When I last posted, we had decided to avoid the Sail Away party like the plague, and occupied ourselves with a mystery before supper.

Having appropriately attired ourselves for supper (we went old school- sticking to the former rules- pants (of a sort - see below) and a shirt with a collar for the boy, no jeans or other banned substances for the parents), we headed off to the Enchanted Garden for our first supper. As I noted a while ago, DCL Queen had linked our reservations so we were at a 6-top with no need to converse with strangers.

I thought I had written down the names of our servers, but I did not ... and well, they were entirely forgettable, as you will see. Nice, pleasant, but seemed to be just going through the motions. This did not bother the Un-Disney family per se, but it was certainly lacking in any kind of excitement.

Our dining rotation was ERRA. We didn't ask for it - but in the end it worked because Animator's Palate on the last night is a good thing for wiggly overtired boys, and by night 4, we had 3 of them, and, despite best efforts, no one would take them from us.

Anyhow- DH and DCL Queen worked out the wine package details, and we all ordered ... well, food. Of that I am sure. I'm pretty sure it was fine.

If this "damning with faint praise" EG review is boring you to tears... now is the time to wake up.


Dates are confusing?

So, on this 4-day cruise, we had Conor, who was by now 6-years-old-and-2-days, and B1, who was about to turn 13 in 2 days. In pre-trip planning with DCL Queen, after detailed review (or rather- I said: "Um, sure, whatever you want..." which was the right answer on all possible levels), she had requested birthday cakes for the 2 celebrating ones on night 2. The theory was that we would all be discombobulated (that is a spectacular word that deserves a smiley... ) on night one, so we didn't want to throw cake in the mix.

DCL Queen is a planner. I like her for this. She made the request. She followed up the request. She checked when she checked on our linked reservations.

Can you feel the foreshadowing?

As dessert came out, our server and assistant server arrived with ... birthday cakes. I was (hey, let's use it again) discombobulated, and before I could compose an intelligent thought, DCL Queen leaped out of her chair, neatly intercepting both servers, before the kiddos could see the cakes coming.

(No cake was harmed in the making of this review. Fear not. It did not crash to the ground or anything horrible like that.)

Anyhow- she was able to get them to check their info, and sure enough, they had the dates wrong. They promised to bring cake on night 2, as arranged.

And that, unfortunately, was the kind of thing that happened, albeit to a lesser extent, most nights. We learned to pay careful attention to what the kiddos ordered (and what we ordered) to ensure it all came out. The servers were always ready to fix their mistake, but mistakes there were.

However, being experienced cruisers and darned resilient, we soldiered on. Honestly- it was a very minor nuisance ... with variations every night, as you'll hear!


When you can't do a mystery ...

After supper, we got strong requests to ... go do mini-golf. If one cannot do mysteries all day, it seems, one CAN play mini-golf over and over and over.

Below, we have round one... the master golfer, looking off in the distance ... at something. B2 was particularly delighted to have a golf partner, and parents of all boys were THRILLED to not have to play themselves, and to be able to sit back, talk, and drink after dinner beverages (decaf latté for me).

Please enjoy his "pant-shorts" as he calls them. Too long for shorts, too short for pants. He picked that oh-so-subtle pair for his first day of Senior Kindergarten, accessorized with a batman belt and an Angry Birds Star Wars shirt. Always stylin', is my kid.




Habits of the Wild Un-Disney family on vacation

Previous readers will remember that the sweet boy turns into a completely wild monster if he gets over-tired. Now that he was a mature 6 (vs. 4 and 3/4), it is not as noticeable, but it is still something we try to avoid. Given the busy day, after golfing, we wrangled the child back to the room.

Fortunately, he was keen to try out the circular bathtub again, and, Mr. Big Boy Am I, he decided to try the upper bunk. DH was not keen, but we overruled him (there is a bed rail after all, and, well heck, we had stopped using our bed rails at home a whole 2 months before).

So, we instituted our bath-books-bed routine. While Conor bathed, expert DCL-ers that we were, we prepped our stuff for the morning excursion.

And just like last time, Conor was out like the proverbial light in 5 minutes after he went to bed.

I, wild child, enjoyed the fact I didn't have to sit in the dark (I LOVE that curtain) and stayed up for at least 30 minutes after Conor hit the sack (that would be 8:15 for him, 8:45 for me).

DH, I believe, went out to find a bar. He stayed out until, well, I think it was 10:00 p.m., but what do I know? I was asleep.

So nope - we didn't go to whatever show was on that night. In fact, I'll reveal here we didn't go to any shows at all. Or movies. And ... we still had a good time. We are REBELS.

Up next: The Un-Disney Family moves as far away from Atlantis as we can get and still be on a beach ... otherwise known as Blue Lagoon Island Beach Day

 

[Conorama]

Reflections on Day 1

Day 1 was an interesting comparison to our first Day 1. Knowing what you like does change Day 1. We felt zero pressure to attend that horrendous Sail Away party (yes, yes, thousands love it - and I'm really quite happy for them... so I'll give them my spot on the over-crowded-super-loud-rather-annoying-deck - nice of me, eh?).

As we did not have FABULOUS servers on our first trip, we didn't have any real standards to meet this trip, we thought, but there was a definite lack of engagement compared to our first server, anyway.

I am struggling to remember our cabin attendant (and I forgot his name too). He too was nice, but again, seemed less engaged. There were no issues at all, except that we always told him that we would be back by about 8:00 p.m., and on at least 2 nights of 4, he did not have our room ready by then, so we had to track him down for things like getting the bunk ready. However, he was sweet with Conor, and made as good a towel animal as anyone else we've encountered.

Mostly, we were happy to make it on to the ship with no unpleasant surprises, and we had a very good first day.