Mexican Riviera Cruise with WONDERful Souvenir in the Works! 6/7 PTR Link!

[Pinkocto]

So glad you discovered that beach excursion didn't get good reviews. What a bummer for the people who didn't have a good time

Can't wait to see what your t-shirts look like!

 

[Lanie]

I just subscribed to your trippie because it just seems like an amazing coincidence that you will be doing the itinerary that we are doing in April 15-22 on the exact dates where we will be doing WDW!!!! LOVE IT!

Have fun on your cruise, and looking forward to reading about it!

 

[Shell54]

It's great you can hear about the excursions from other cruisers and figure out what you guys will really want to do..so much to do, so little time in port.. you might as well do what you really want

Looking forward to seeing your shirt designs.

 

[sica1799]

Hi Jessica!

Please, please, PLEASE come back here when you return from your trip! I need to hear all about it.

Are you the first of the Fall group to go to Mexico? Or was the first cruise this past week? I know a couple weeks ago, the Wonder was in Alaska, so i'm wondering if you're the first group to go to the MR!

I NEED to hear all about it POR FAVOR!

Oh, and I had seen that excursion, but DH was NOT for it! He hates dancing. Even if it does include unlimited margs, he still won't do it. I, on the other hand, LOVE to dance! I think it's the funnest thing in the world! Hope you enjoy it. What other excursions are you guys doing?

WE ARE THE FIRST FALL GROUP!!

I am thinking of doing a TR! I have read a bunch here & they really are super helpful!

I love dancing too! I am a latina who loves salsa, but married a white boy! He's in need of a lesson or two!

That's the only excursion we planned off ship. We were going to do the resort ones, but I think we can find a cool place to hang out for cheaper. On board we have Palo & exotic rasul LOL

 

[BlueSkyTraveler]

I would LOVE to hear about your MR trip too! We're going to MR in November and it's our first time. Please post as soon as you can! Thanks!

 

[Leshaface]

So glad you discovered that beach excursion didn't get good reviews. What a bummer for the people who didn't have a good time

Can't wait to see what your t-shirts look like!

I can't wait to see what they look like too! I requested a DISign but she's getting a little busy. Which I totally understand, her designs are fabulous! But I have a few designs from other DISigners that I'm making into magnets. I'll post them in the next post.

I just subscribed to your trippie because it just seems like an amazing coincidence that you will be doing the itinerary that we are doing in April 15-22 on the exact dates where we will be doing WDW!!!! LOVE IT!

Have fun on your cruise, and looking forward to reading about it!

WELCOME!!! Ugh, I need to get back to WDW pronto! I miss it so much!

It's great you can hear about the excursions from other cruisers and figure out what you guys will really want to do..so much to do, so little time in port.. you might as well do what you really want

Looking forward to seeing your shirt designs.

Hey Shell! That's what i'm hoping my TR will do for others wondering about specific excursions, and hopefully i'll be able to help someone out there!

WE ARE THE FIRST FALL GROUP!!

I am thinking of doing a TR! I have read a bunch here & they really are super helpful!

I love dancing too! I am a latina who loves salsa, but married a white boy! He's in need of a lesson or two!

That's the only excursion we planned off ship. We were going to do the resort ones, but I think we can find a cool place to hang out for cheaper. On board we have Palo & exotic rasul LOL

AWESOME!!!!

PLEASE do a TR! A lot of us want as much info as we can get!!!

Haha I'm a latina who married a latino, but is secretly a white boy!

I would LOVE to hear about your MR trip too! We're going to MR in November and it's our first time. Please post as soon as you can! Thanks!

^See Sica!!!

You would have another loyal reader!!

 

[Leshaface]

As I was telling Pinkocto, the design I requested from one of the DISigners is being bombarded with requests. And obviously she would, because she has some Ah-mazing designs.

But there is another DISigner who makes blank name tags that we're allowed to use so I downloaded them and am going to make these into magnets for our stateroom door:

And I haven't decided which design to use for the other, so maybe you guys can help me decide between the two:

or

So help me choose which one to use.

I'll be also adding a sombrero mickey around the number of our stateroom and a few other magnets, but i'm going to save those for my TR

But I do want to share a little bit of my mini trip to New England with you guys so here goes..

 

[Leshaface]

DH and I had free airline tickets that we needed to use by next March and there was no other possible time to use them, so we decided to use them right after the cruise. And we figure, since these are free tickets, lets go the furthest place we could possibly go in the US! I've always wanted to go to Boston and Dan has always been interested in the New England area, so it was decided that we would go there

Itinerary:

July 10, 2011 - Fly into Providence RI and rent a car; stay the night at Westin
July 11, 2011 - Drive to Portland ME; stay at Eastland Park Hotel
July 12, 2011 - Drive to Boston MA; stay at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge
July 13, 2011 - Fly back to Los Angeles; stay the night in Long Beach at Hotel Maya
July 14, 2011 - Drive back home

Let's get right on into the trip. First off, I just want to say, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES are AWESOME! It was SO weird to not have to pay for bags! I mean, REALLY WEIRD! I also like the way they load people onto the plane, by boarding number, and picking where you'd like to sit. However, I could see this being a problem for families with kids, but I think you can pay extra to have an earlier boarding number to ensure you get seated together.

Anyways, so we land in Providence RI in the early evening, I believe around 5:00ish with no problems and go and get the car that we rented.

It was a Hyundai Genesis and it was surprisingly comfortable. It came with GPS navigation, which TOTALLY helped later on in the trip

Anyways, we got our car and drove to the Westin Hotel in downtown Providence

It was a very nice hotel with pretty large rooms:

And the view outside our room

After we got settled we decided to grab some food. I had heard about a great weiner place (they don't call them hot dogs) called Olneyville NY System. It was also featured in "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" by Guy Fieri and Man VS Food. So we just had to go try it!

It was fantastic! Great weiners and coffee milk!! COFFEE MILK! Refreshing with a hint of coffee and chocolate perhaps?! I pulled out my little point and shoot to take some food porn pics, but realized it was broken. I WAS TICKED. Thank GOODNESS I had brought along my DSLR on this trip otherwise I would have died. So no pics of the food, but it was amazing.

We drove back to the hotel and decided to walk around to walk off the weiners. The hotel was connected to a large shopping mall with a movie theater and Dave & Busters via a pedestrian bridge. It was actually a really nice mall.

We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got back to the hotel, and we knew we would have a long drive ahead of us the next day, so we passed out pretty much as soon as we got into bed

 

[Leshaface]

We woke up fairly early, around 7ish since we went to bed pretty early the night before.

We decided to go grab our FAVORITE coffee ever....DUNKIN DONUTS! Man, I wish they would bring some DD's over here to Cali.

Anyways, so we got on the freeway and headed towards Portland!

I started playing around with the GPS and noticed that there was an option to select specific sites/landmarks. And somehow one of the sites was a Brewing Company. A brewing company called Red Hook! I enjoy Red Hook beer and since we had left early, we had time to spare! So I edited our destination to Red Hook Brewery in Portsmouth, NH

Unfortunately, the hours for the brewing tour were wrong on the website so we couldn't get any tours until 1 We asked if the restaurant was open, and they said yes! So we decided to do our own beer tasting and order a tasting sampler for each of us

These were some TASTY beers! Of course, Dan is a little picky when it comes to beers so I had to trade some of my beers for some of his darker beers and IPA. Which is fine with me, since I love dark and IPA beers. We also ordered 2 types of chicken wings to eat along with our beer. Everything was so good! The beer and the wings! We went to the gift shop after to purchase some pilsner glasses that were 5 bucks each and when we went to pay, the guy said, "That will be 10.00 please." "Um, ten bucks even?" "Yea, NH doesn't have sales tax." DANGIT! I wish we could have gone shopping! Pretty neat to not have to pay any tax.

After we paid, we decided to get back on the road and head towards Portland

Along the way towards Portland, I started researching on my iphone for places to grab something quick to eat, even though we weren't too hungry, we needed to have something. I found a place called The Clam Shack located in Kennebunkport ME. This place was rated highly for having one of the best Lobster Rolls in Maine. So that's where we headed!

And we found the place pretty easily!

And here's the $17.00 lobster roll

VERY small, but so delicious and buttery.

Here's the view from where we were eating

 

[franandaj]

WE ARE THE FIRST FALL GROUP!!

I am thinking of doing a TR! I have read a bunch here & they really are super helpful!

I love dancing too! I am a latina who loves salsa, but married a white boy! He's in need of a lesson or two!

That's the only excursion we planned off ship. We were going to do the resort ones, but I think we can find a cool place to hang out for cheaper. On board we have Palo & exotic rasul LOL

I would LOVE to hear about your MR trip too! We're going to MR in November and it's our first time. Please post as soon as you can! Thanks!

Please both of you! Do some TRs! and then post links over here! I am trying to get my spouse on board with a MR cruise since we live outside LA and about half an hour from the port where the cruise leaves from! The more I know the better armed I will be!

And here's the $17.00 lobster roll

Yay! We're getting your New England TR finally! The Beer flight cracks me up. Though I wouldn't trade with you, I'm probably like Daniel, as my tags say....I tend to like the ones in the middle!

I think PrincessInOz went to that same lobster place on her 2007 trip! I sooooooooo want to go there!

Keep it coming and perhaps at the end you will show us some pictures of a piece of furniture in your house?

 

[disneybarbie]

Hi Lesha!

Really enjoying your TR about New England.. there's still so much of the USA that I need to visit one day (mostly I've visited Florida, obviously! also NYC, New Orleans, Virginia, Washington DC and Atlanta lol)

Hope you're having a great weekend! Cruise is even closer!



Emma x

 

[Cheryl726]

Glad to see you doing a TR about your New England trip. It is funny though to see pics of things I see all the time in Providence. I am not far from there. Glad you enjoyed your time here! And no Dunkin Donuts in Cali? My DH would never survive!

 

[Dream426]

I love your TR from New England. My dad was born in RI. Hope you enjoyed. My husband would have loved to taste all of those beers. He goes to a brewery by us with our friend almost every weekend. Love the DD also...haha I am obsessed with DD. We have one across the street from us and I am always there.

I love Dis magnets for the doors. I went a little overboard with them last summer on our cruise.

As for which one to pick, I might go with that first one for your names just to be a little different then the one you are making with your last name and the dates of your trip. Either way though I like them both.

 

[Leshaface]

Yay! We're getting your New England TR finally! The Beer flight cracks me up. Though I wouldn't trade with you, I'm probably like Daniel, as my tags say....I tend to like the ones in the middle!

I think PrincessInOz went to that same lobster place on her 2007 trip! I sooooooooo want to go there!

Keep it coming and perhaps at the end you will show us some pictures of a piece of furniture in your house?

As I was writing about the beer tasting, I thought of you!

Oh you'll need to go the next time you're in that area! It was really small but really tasty with melted butter and mayo

AND I need to take a picture and upload it! But I do have a pic for you, but i'll post it on your tr!

Hi Lesha!

Really enjoying your TR about New England.. there's still so much of the USA that I need to visit one day (mostly I've visited Florida, obviously! also NYC, New Orleans, Virginia, Washington DC and Atlanta lol)

Hope you're having a great weekend! Cruise is even closer!



Emma x

What needs to happen Emma, is you need to make your way over to CA! Go to Disneyland, San Diego and check out the beaches of course!

Also, I feel like i'm cheating on your TR. I was looking at your FB pics last night and felt like I was getting ahead of myself!

Glad to see you doing a TR about your New England trip. It is funny though to see pics of things I see all the time in Providence. I am not far from there. Glad you enjoyed your time here! And no Dunkin Donuts in Cali? My DH would never survive!

I BARELY survive without a DD! And I got SO excited to hear they were coming out with Keurig Kcups from DD, but found out you can only get them at the DD stores They do sell the pounds of coffee at Target here, but it just tastes different to me.

I love your TR from New England. My dad was born in RI. Hope you enjoyed. My husband would have loved to taste all of those beers. He goes to a brewery by us with our friend almost every weekend. Love the DD also...haha I am obsessed with DD. We have one across the street from us and I am always there.

I love Dis magnets for the doors. I went a little overboard with them last summer on our cruise.

As for which one to pick, I might go with that first one for your names just to be a little different then the one you are making with your last name and the dates of your trip. Either way though I like them both.

Aw which brewery does your DH go to? I so wish there was one next to me. I'd probably be there every weekend too!

And totally jealous of your DD location. We have a Starbucks, but it's not the same. Even though I worked for Starbucks for 8 years and liked their coffee, there's something about DD that is just so good. And they have good donuts too! I'm a psycho when it comes to donuts. Not even joking: we're thinking about making a trip up to Portland Oregon sometime soon to visit not only the beautiful Portland area, but to check out a donut place called VooDoo Donuts. They are supposed to have some AWESOME donuts. And if I wasn't married, I would get married there because they have the authority to marry couples! ...i'm a true sucker for donuts. I think about them all the time when i'm running!

Oh my GOODNESS! Your magnets are GREAT! Were they hard to make? Did you buy the magnetic paper that you put through your printer or did you just buy magnet strips that you paste on the back? I haven't figured out which way to go for the magnet part yet.

And I didn't even think about making 'the first name' magnets different from the 'the last name with date' magnet. Thanks for point that out! I'll do that!

 

[disneybarbie]

What needs to happen Emma, is you need to make your way over to CA! Go to Disneyland, San Diego and check out the beaches of course!

Also, I feel like i'm cheating on your TR. I was looking at your FB pics last night and felt like I was getting ahead of myself!

hehe - you know I actually thought twice before uploading honeymoon photos to FB, knowing that I have a few people on there who are DIS friends and would be reading the TR! - but then I had lots of family & friends saying "when do we get to see your honeymoon pics?!" ... I've actually got many more photos than I put on FB so there'll still be more to see

CA is some we would love to go to! I've been looking into it for a while and Steve and I will be talking about next year's holidays very soon.. watch this space! .. I need to go to Disneyland one day, the original!

 

[Leshaface]

hehe - you know I actually thought twice before uploading honeymoon photos to FB, knowing that I have a few people on there who are DIS friends and would be reading the TR! - but then I had lots of family & friends saying "when do we get to see your honeymoon pics?!" ... I've actually got many more photos than I put on FB so there'll still be more to see

CA is some we would love to go to! I've been looking into it for a while and Steve and I will be talking about next year's holidays very soon.. watch this space! .. I need to go to Disneyland one day, the original!

Don't worry though, I don't know the story behind your photos on FB though

Gasp! I hope you guys will talk about coming out to CA! You guys would have SO much fun, and there will be PLENTY of people here to help with the planning part of it

 

[Leshaface]

I just got my shirt design from Shadowryter not too long ago and here it is

What do you guys think???

I decided on this design, because this is something that is not over-the-top (saving that for the stateroom door lol) and is something DH would be willing to wear.

 

[Dream426]

Aw which brewery does your DH go to? I so wish there was one next to me. I'd probably be there every weekend too!

And totally jealous of your DD location. We have a Starbucks, but it's not the same. Even though I worked for Starbucks for 8 years and liked their coffee, there's something about DD that is just so good. And they have good donuts too! I'm a psycho when it comes to donuts. Not even joking: we're thinking about making a trip up to Portland Oregon sometime soon to visit not only the beautiful Portland area, but to check out a donut place called VooDoo Donuts. They are supposed to have some AWESOME donuts. And if I wasn't married, I would get married there because they have the authority to marry couples! ...i'm a true sucker for donuts. I think about them all the time when i'm running!

Oh my GOODNESS! Your magnets are GREAT! Were they hard to make? Did you buy the magnetic paper that you put through your printer or did you just buy magnet strips that you paste on the back? I haven't figured out which way to go for the magnet part yet.

And I didn't even think about making 'the first name' magnets different from the 'the last name with date' magnet. Thanks for point that out! I'll do that!

He goes to the Barrier Brewing Co. It is by us. They have different beers they brew every weekend.

I got the magnet paper on Amazon. Here is the link to what I ordered. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006HN5Q
They came out great on it and were easy to cut. They stayed up nice on the door as well. We now have them on our refrigerator...haha We took so many pictures of them it was ridiculous. I think people look at them on my facebook page and are like ok what is with all the magnet pictures..haha But I loved how they came out. I had too much fun making them for everyone.

 

[franandaj]

I'm a psycho when it comes to donuts. Not even joking: we're thinking about making a trip up to Portland Oregon sometime soon to visit not only the beautiful Portland area, but to check out a donut place called VooDoo Donuts. They are supposed to have some AWESOME donuts.

Did you ever go to the Donut shop on 7th Street between Walnut and Gaviota across from the Bai-Plu Thai and Aki Sushi Bar in Long Beach? They have the best donuts!

If you are up in the SF Bay Area (Cupertino to be specific) you have to try the Donut Wheel on Saratoga Sunnyvale Road off the 280!

The Donut tour of California! Then you could take the 101 up to Portland!

 

[Pinkocto]

Love the shirt Disign!!! So cute! I can't see the second magnet to vote, it has a little red x, don't know if that's my computer. I was wondering if we'd get to hear about your New England trip, sounds like so much fun! You guys are just so cute together

I know how you feel about donuts, cake donuts are my favorite, blueberry and sourcream, but chocolate cake is up there too. Yummy!