Nudity and Stabbings and Hypothermia, Oh my! First DCL Cruise (Fantasy, 9.5.15) ** Slide Show 2/8

[BlueEyes78]

Chapter 10: Day At Sea

The farther away I get from the Fantasy, the more I forget! I'm going try to finish this thing up before I forget too much, but let me tell you, people, if you want to remember what you ate take pictures. From here on it's gonna be more and more "and we ate dinner. I forget what, but it was probably good. Just not as good as the sea bass or Palo."

Because we had nowhere to be, of course the kids got up early. It's just as well because we could grab a quick breakfast before the Princess gathering. But still not early enough to get to the dining room, apparently you have to be up before 8:15 to make that. Megan and I went down to Enchanted Garden around 8:30 and they were all closed up already. Back up to Cabanas we went. Megan really got into eating from their oatmeal bar. I've offered it at home and she still turns me down, but something about the Fantasy got her onto an "oatmeal with brown sugar and pecans" kick.

We ate quickly so I could get her back in her princess dress. I was pushing her to wear her Ariel dress since she'd worn Cinderella already, but her Cinderella one has glass slippers and she really wanted the princesses to see them. We came to a compromise - she'd wear Cinderella to the gathering, and Ariel to meet Anna and Elsa. No way I was going to let a packed article of clothing go to waste! We stopped by the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique to get a fresh coating of pixie dust (they had invited us to stop by any time), and then presented our tickets to get into line. This has to be one of the greatest perks of cruising. On Megan's first trip to Disney we got a Fastpass to meet ONE PRINCESS (I think Cinderella) and waited forty-five minutes before giving up and leaving - she was not even one so no big deal, but we got to meet FOUR with less than a five minute wait, and then - bonus - Anna and Elsa with just another 10 minute wait. I've heard the wait in the parks to see those two is crazy long. Next time we go back I'll just remind her she's already met them.



They work so efficiently getting kids through that line, and yet they spend time talking with each and every one. First was Tiana, who she'd already met at the kids' club when she came the night we went to Palo to read to them.

Next was the big moment – Cinderella! Megan excitedly showed Cinderella her shoes, who responded in kind and then told a delightful story about how her fairy godmother had put buckles on hers so she wouldn’t lose them anymore. Ariel was also excited to see Megan’s shoes – she told her how having shoes was one of her favorite things about being human and that she now owned lots of pairs. Ariel was so friendly and bubbly and genuine. She was probably my favorite princess! Last was Belle, whose dress is just breathtaking.


The boys had made it down just in time to see their sister’s photo ops, and then they decided to stage a photo of their own – here is Cinderella with her “palace guards.”



We needed to kill some time before our Anna and Elsa appointment at 11, so we checked at guest services to see if we could find Connor’s missing goggles (he is the most absent-minded child, I am honestly surprised they lasted six days), to no avail, so Shawn went to purchase some on Deck 11. We went back to the cabin to hang out for a little while. Megan went out onto the verandah for a moment and I happened to capture one of my favorite candids of the entire trip:



We went down to Animator’s Palate for our 11:00 meeting with Anna and Elsa. They were letting ticket-holders in by groups, and we got in a few minutes after 11 and stood in line for about ten minutes. The dining room had been transformed into a snowy Arendelle, with blue lights and scenes from the film on all the projected paintings, and of course, Frozen music played softly over the sound system. Megan was delighted to meet the sisters, and Anna was happy to “twirl” dresses together!



After our meeting, Shawn took Megan back to the room to change and chill with some cartoons, and the boys and I went exploring. All week I had been trying to figure out how the heck you can get to Outlook. It is the highest deck on the ship and there is only one elevator/staircase you can use to get there, and I just wanted to see the view. The night before I had figured out how to get to it, finally, but it was closed. Toddler time was just ending so we popped up and the CM that was cleaning up said we were more than welcome to hang out between events and take some pictures, so we did!



While we were there, the captain came on the PA and said that due to a medical emergency we were stopping at a nearby island to let a passenger off. The CM told us that the condition must be serious, because the ship kept several doctors – including a general surgeon – on board for emergencies. So if it was something they couldn’t handle it must be bad. I never did hear what it was.

We left Outlook in time to catch the last Diaper Dash of the week. We grabbed a spot on the Deck 5 balcony where we could see the track in the atrium. I have never seen a baby race and it did not fail to entertain. There was a boy heat and a girl heat, and of those, only one baby finished but they were both fast, so the “finals” was a fun race. The girl started out but about ¾ through she took a break and the boy won. The crowd was going wild, I’m shocked it didn’t scare them to death! It was really funny though, and the same CM that let “Elsa Megan” dance onstage was moderating. She was awesome! After that the boys got a Midship Detective Agency mission and we worked on that for about 20 minutes. For the Muppet one, we figured out quickly that the missions were all located at the forward and aft parts of the ship, on every other deck, and it went faster if you just moved up one staircase, stopping on every other deck, then walking to the other and going down. I have heard though that the hardest mission makes you go in specific order and takes much longer, so choose wisely!

Shawn met up with us to go to lunch around 1, but before we went to the dining room (we decided to try ONE table service lunch before the trip was over) we saw a crowd gathering on Deck 5 watching the crew prepare a lifeboat to be launched – we had stopped offshore of the island they were sending the passenger to. When I think of lifeboats launching, I think of Titanic and the ropes slowly being lowered by hand into the water. Modern-day lifeboats are very different! When it was ready to launch it practically dropped it went down so fast. It looked like a free fall! I can only imagine how it would feel to be inside one during the lowering. They lowered it to Deck 1 where the infirmary was, to load the patient, and then set off for the island.

We went to the Royal Court for lunch and ordered food of some kind. I know one of us got a burger, and that’s all I remember. Now you tell me what YOU had for lunch on September the 10th! : ) I did get a picture of whatever island we were at.



During the show the night before, the magician had put in a plug for the ventriloquist show and I thought the kids might enjoy it, so we finished up in time to get seats for the 2:00 show in the theater. Her name is Lynn Trefzger, and her show is hilarious. This was actually one of my favorite memories of the entire trip. We all loved her, and at one point Megan was just having this huge belly laugh that went on so long she could barely breathe. I love those laughs! One of Lynn’s puppets is a young girl named Chloe, who told us that her favorite thing to do in the kids’ club is to call her parents down so she can show them the craft she is working on, or sometimes just to say hello. Keep that in mind. : )

After the show, the kids asked to go to the club, realizing that this would probably be their last visit since we would spend the next day at Castaway Cay. Shawn took them down while I dove back into my book.

Upon his return, Shawn had a similar realization that this would be their last time at the club. Just about the the time he was giving me “the look” - ladies, you’ve all seen it….


(and by the way, if you haven’t seen Inside Out, or the follow up short film that this picture is from, I again highly recommend it)

…our wave phone buzzes with a text. Megan wants to be picked up. After twenty minutes. More than a little disappointed, Shawn heads down to get her. Ten minutes later, he’s back, alone. Apparently she had colored a picture she wanted to show him.

This cycle repeated itself twice more in the next 30 minutes. Apparently she was finding it amusing to be like Chloe and have us at her beck and call for little chats. Finally he actually brought her back just so she’d stop bugging us. Ironically, when we got home and collected our mail, we found a flyer advertising that Lynn Trefzger was coming to our town in April. We have already bought our tickets and Shawn is hoping to thank her personally after the show for planting ideas in Megan’s impressionable little head!

We had our final dinner that night at Royal Court, and it was semi-formal night. This was my favorite professional shot of the trip!

And then…we had food. We enjoyed it. Cornwall told us to be sure to arrive on time the next night because it was our special experience at Animator’s Palate, and we had to order quickly and make our drawing so they could be collected before the appetizer course came out, and he also reminded us about the comment cards rating the staff. Boooo! I don’t want to think about things being over yet!

After dinner we went to Shutters to review our photos to kill time before the “Pumpkin Tree” blooming took place at 7:30, and then we watched that show. It was really cool and I was not expecting the confetti that came raining down at the end. The kids enjoyed it, but they were ready for their last night of swimming. We headed up to the pool and enjoyed several more runs on the Aqua Duck. Also, Wall-E was playing on the Funnel, one of my favorites. It was warm, the skies were clear, and it was a great last night to have the pool to ourselves.

One day to go – when we woke up on Friday, we’d be at Castaway Cay!

 

[ASchwa]

I have always enjoyed trip reports that have a healthy dose of honesty. Do I want to read about every meltdown and argument, no, but if you don't mention any I might be suspicious!
One thing I haven't mentioned that plagued us all week was the "keycard in the slot" fight. Disney has come up with a great way to save energy - when you are in your cabin, a keycard had to be in this little slot by the door to provide you with lights and power. The kids were CONSTANTLY taking it out. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes absent mindedly, and often when someone was using the bathroom. So you're on the toilet and suddenly it's pitch black in there. And there's about 15 lights (reading lights and overhead) in the cabin and if the kids weren't fiddling with the key card they were flipping them off and on all over the place. It became quite a source of contention for the entire trip. It's like they had a compulsion to mess with the lights EVERY MINUTE we were in the cabin. I'm glad I can laugh about it now!

The lights being controlled by the room key card is from Europe and has been operation for over five years. Let's just say, being sleep deprived (don't sleep on planes), walking up two flights with suitcase (no bell boy or elevator) and other bags, going into room and finding out the lights don't work, made for an interesting surprise. I walked down to the front desk, left luggage in room and spoke to the person who was manning the desk. She spoke very little English, I have no Polish but she did say box and key when I said no electricity. I vaguely remembered seeing it and I nodded and when I made it back to my room it worked.

 

[BlueEyes78]

The lights being controlled by the room key card is from Europe and has been operation for over five years. Let's just say, being sleep deprived (don't sleep on planes), walking up two flights with suitcase (no bell boy or elevator) and other bags, going into room and finding out the lights don't work, made for an interesting surprise. I walked down to the front desk, left luggage in room and spoke to the person who was manning the desk. She spoke very little English, I have no Polish but she did say box and key when I said no electricity. I vaguely remembered seeing it and I nodded and when I made it back to my room it worked.

I believe I had read about it in advance and I know they told us how it worked when we checked in at the terminal, but what they DIDN'T tell us is that your children will be obsessed with this technology and often leave you locked in a pitch black bathroom. The worst was when Shawn was in the bathroom and I was taking the kids somewhere so he was by himself in there, and as we were leaving one of them swiped the card from the slot and I didn't see it. There is about a ten-second delay before the power goes out so he had an unpleasant surprise right after we all left! : ) : )

 

[BlueEyes78]

Aack. I just realized I forgot to post the semi-formal night shot we purchased:

 

[BlueEyes78]

Chapter 11: Castaway Cay
We were moving a little slowly on Friday morning. Originally Shawn and Caden had thought about doing the 5K but by this, the last day of our vacation, sleep deprivation had kicked in and we opted to be lazy. Still, it was exciting to wake up and open those curtains and see the beautiful little bay of a private island laid out in front of us. The weather couldn't have been more perfect - 80s and not a chance of rain.


Because of the medical emergency, our arrival at Castaway Cay was slightly delayed, about 30 minutes, and they extended our stay there as well. This added to our lack of urgency. Plus we had no specific plans. Usually on vacation we go to a beach and since we'd not been to one in over a year, this was our planned "beach day." I'd spent the night before familiarizing myself with a map of the island to figure out where we would set up camp.
We got up, put on suits, and headed up to Deck 11 for breakfast around 9:30.
Afterwards we went back to the cabin to pack up a beach bag and to slather ourselves with sunscreen. Today was the day I was going to try Sea Safe, the supposedly jelly-fish sting preventer. And it takes awhile to apply, it is THICK. You are supposed to put it on even under your suit but since I'd forgotten that and we were already dressed (and it took forever to rub in), I settled for all the exposed skin areas.
We were doing this on the verandah and watching them lower all the lifeboats off our side of the boat, which was highly entertaining. I don't know if they put them through their paces or if they are taking supplies in, but it was the only time all week there were no lifeboats along the whole side of the Fantasy.


By the time we were completely ready to go it was probably close to 10:30. Time had gotten away from us and I was hoping there'd be a free chair or two on the beach. We went down to Deck 1 to disembark - not too many people were about so my guess is most people had been off a good 90 minutes. The good part of that is that there were not long lines for the professional Castaway photos. I'm glad we got one, because, as it turns out, it's the only one we have from the whole day.


I had decided, to minimize worrying about our stuff, not to bring my phone, and Shawn brought the rental camera. But even though it had a full battery when he went to get it about an hour after we arrived, the heat or something had drained it. So we have no photographic evidence of the day, you'll just have to take my word for everything.
After we got our picture we stopped by the post office since they'd be closed when we got back on the boat, and picked up a card for my folks and ourselves. The CM there said they'd arrive in about 3 weeks but I don't believe we got it until close to Halloween. I'd begun to think it must have been lost!

Just past the post office there is a tram stop but I was looking for another opportunity to get my "steps" up on my Fitbit and opted to walk, I was told it was about a seven minute walk to the first beach and that is pretty accurate. We should have stopped there. There were tons of open chairs, but that's what deceived me into going on. I wanted to get closer to the water playground so the boys could go out on it, but the second beach was packed - not a chair in sight. After some hunting I finally thought I'd found two - there was nothing on or under them, so I put our bag down and we headed for the water. Unfortunately apparently they were "claimed" as part of a row of four, but the family had only put items on the first and last chairs. They got a little snippy about it when they found our stuff there an hour later, which is not really necessary. It wasn't like we were lounging around on their stuff. We'd set a bag on the end of one lounge chair. We moved it. End of story.

So anyway, after we had put our stuff down, we headed for the water. It was a great temperature. Despite my Safe Sea I was still not a fan of going out very far, and Connor and Megan just wanted to play at the edge anyway. We hadn't brought beach toys but LOTS of people had and many kids were willing to share. Soon after we got in the water a lady who was leaving me offered me the lounge chair she was sitting in that was partially submerged in the water and I took it gladly. I spent a very enjoyable hour in that chair watching the kids play and occasionally having a mild freak out about a giant fish that kept swimming under my seat to hide from them!

Shawn and Caden went snorkeling. I had thought there was a fee for the fins and mask but was pleasantly surprised when they told me they'd just been handed the equipment and told to have fun. Caden also tried the water slide a few times. After a little while I heard some kids around me complaining about the sea lice, and a Disney veteran told me that the sea lice often get stirred up by all the activity around the slide. I'd never heard of "sea lice" until doing research for this cruise, but apparently they are jelly fish larvae that easily slip into suits but their stings are pretty minor. Apparently Caden did get a few stings, interestingly all in areas under his suit that I had NOT put the Sea Safe on, so we got out of the water and recoated ourselves. Luckily, unlike real jellyfish stings, the sea lice stings are more annoying than painful.
Megan made good friends with a little girl who had some Disney princess water toys and the two of them played a long time. Shawn got us all virgin pina colladas and daiquiris to enjoy while we played. It was a very relaxing afternoon!

Around 1:30 we heard that lunch would be closing up at 2 and we'd also heard this was one meal we didn't want to miss. Turns out 1:40 is a great time to go to Cookies - no line at all, and no trouble finding a place to sit at the long picnic tables. We showered the sand off ourselves and grabbed some grub. Now this food I remember because I was so impressed with the selection - there were hamburgers and ribs, baked beans, corn on the cob, bread, and of course fresh fruit galore. And there were pop machines everywhere and an ice cream dispenser. Needless to say we had PLENTY to eat and it was all delicious.
One activity that I had thought about doing on the island was a family bike ride, something we've never attempted because only the kids own bikes at home. We did a little hunting and after one wrong turn found the bike rental place. It was pretty reasonable, I think around $10/hour for a bike. The only way we could make this work though was that if one of us took Megan on a seat. I have never done this before but it was worth a shot. She only weighs 30 pounds, and there was no extra charge for the seat. She does enjoy riding a bike but if she got tired 20 minutes in (which she surely would) we'd be up a creek. Plus the boys are beyond training wheels and she'd be so much slower with them, one of us would have had to hang back with her constantly. Turns out this was a good choice. Once I was able to get the bike going, I found it was very easy to ride with her. Just stopping and starting were tricky, and I couldn't get off the bike until someone had gotten her off without it tipping, but since Shawn was there to do that it worked quite nicely.
The bike trail is wonderful. Very level and easy to follow, and VERY doable in an hour. First we followed it to the look-out tower where we could see the entire island. While we were up there we met another family, and it turns out they only live 30 minutes away from us at home. First Ohioans we'd come across the entire week! We had a nice chat with them (I should have thought to have them take our picture and email it to us since we had no camera!) until Megan decided she needed to pee. Immediately. Of course there were no restrooms anywhere in the vicinity so I decided it was time for me to teach her an essential female skill. The outdoor squat. We stepped just off the path and found a tiny clearing in the vegetation and I showed her what to do. She was really distraught about the whole thing until she found that it actually worked. I'm afraid it might be something she makes excuses to do in the future!

So we got back on the path, and I'm happy that we survived, because as we did Shawn pointed out the giant sign warning us not to go into the vegetation because it was possibly dangerous and/or poisonous. Oops. Oh well, when nature calls! I had thought braving nasty public bathrooms was the worst part of travelling with freshly potty-trained children, but apparently I had not considered poisonous jungle vegetation.

We still had thirty minutes left so we followed another path, a quiet shady one to an area of the beach near the adults-only section, for a really spectacular view. There was a water cooler at the end of the path that we were really grateful for as it was starting to get hot.

On the way back when I made a stop at a different water cooler and put my foot down before we were completely stopped, I felt the toe of my sandal catch and the front half of the sole ripped. It was still on the shoe but just flopping there, the entire front half no longer connected to the bottom of the shoe. These were my Tevas that I had bought in 2002 for a trip the Grand Canyon. I LOVE these shoes. They have been with me through 3 Disney World trips, an Eastern Caribbean cruise, and probably thousands of miles around Cincinnati every summer. They are so comfortable and durable. I knew they wouldn't last forever, but of course, they would go out while I am 1,000 miles from home without a back-up pair of sandals! The only other shoes I'd brought were my dress shoes. With my Tevas, I never needed any others. Oh, well, I figured I'd pick up something crappy on the ship to get me through the next 24 hours.

We rode back to turn in the bikes and then the kids found a little squirty fountain to play in. We asked them what they wanted to do for the last hour (it was about 3:30 by now) and the response was unanimous - more beach. We told them we could hang out till 4:15 and then we'd need to head back because, unfortunately we did need some time to do some packing before dinner, plus all five us of us needed to shower and get ourselves presentable. We were back on the ship around 4:35, despite me having to high-step with one leg every time to keep my sole from dragging and catching on the ground (I'm sure I could have gained entry to the Ministry of Silly Walks after that hike).

Next up was our final dinner, and how better than to finish up our week than the animation show at Animator's Palate?

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Great update! I can totally see the high step walk back to the ship lol! On our last trip to WDW I let my kids pack themselves and we got to the world found out my daughter had no sneakers! Ughhhhh!!! Flip flops for a week of walking AND her Halloween costume for the Halloween party had knee socks. Fabulous! Lol

I've been curious about the bike rentals, sounds like they are pretty fun!

 

[BlueEyes78]

Great update! I can totally see the high step walk back to the ship lol! On our last trip to WDW I let my kids pack themselves and we got to the world found out my daughter had no sneakers! Ughhhhh!!! Flip flops for a week of walking AND her Halloween costume for the Halloween party had knee socks. Fabulous! Lol

I've been curious about the bike rentals, sounds like they are pretty fun!

Oh, no!! I think I would have looked for a local Payless, or do rush shipping from Amazon in that case!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Oh, no!! I think I would have looked for a local Payless, or do rush shipping from Amazon in that case!

Yep we had to do a nike store run!

 

[Torrance]

Loving your trip report! I won't comment on everything (as I'm so late to reading along), but will say that I know what you mean about favorite sandals. At least it happened at the almost end of the cruise! I'm going to be looking into the Sea Safe for our upcoming cruise, it sounds like it'd be worth a try. And lol about poisonous vegetation and freshly potty-trained kiddos (I definitely wouldn't have expected to think about that when "nature called" ). Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

 

[BlueEyes78]

Loving your trip report! I won't comment on everything (as I'm so late to reading along), but will say that I know what you mean about favorite sandals. At least it happened at the almost end of the cruise! I'm going to be looking into the Sea Safe for our upcoming cruise, it sounds like it'd be worth a try. And lol about poisonous vegetation and freshly potty-trained kiddos (I definitely wouldn't have expected to think about that when "nature called" ). Looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

Welcome, I'm glad I've provided some entertainment!
I found the Sea Safe on Amazon, I would buy it again, given that everyone's legs and arms were sea-lice free! Just allow plenty of time for application and put it on under suits too!

 

[annabug]

Loved reading your report! Beautiful family! Thanks for sharing your experience! I never thought that I would want to try a western, as the pots just never appealed to me. But now I may give it a try!

 

[BlueEyes78]

Loved reading your report! Beautiful family! Thanks for sharing your experience! I never thought that I would want to try a western, as the pots just never appealed to me. But now I may give it a try!

Thank you, that's nice to say! I had taken an Eastern and a Western once before (but no Jamaica stop on the western) and when booking I had wanted to do Eastern, but it just happened that it was Western on the week we needed (Labor Day, to minimize school absences). But Jamaica was so much fun, and I am really enjoying baking with my Mexican vanilla. I'd do western again for sure. I'm glad I gave you second thoughts!

 

[BlueEyes78]

Chapter 12: Our Last Night

We were back in good old 7600 in plenty of time for all of us to shower quickly and get dressed for our last meal on the Fantasy. Before dinner, we all went out on the balcony as the ship set sail, playing all four songs on the smokestacks as we left Castaway Cay behind. It was a beautiful view, but one that made us a little sad.

We headed down to Animator’s Palate, gearing up to order quickly so we could get to drawing. I don’t remember what any of us ordered except Shawn and Caden both got an Indian chicken dish with basmati rice. I remember because it came into play later!

We had a little time to chill so the boys “staged” the nostril stab scene for memory’s sake.


Then it was time to draw!


Cornwall collected our drawings and the appetizers arrived. Just before the entrees, the show began. It was so neat to see our characters come to life! The kids LOVED it. Shawn drew a funky looking clown (he always jokes with the kids that it is his one fear) and the boys tried to talk him into adding a knife but he didn’t think that was very Disney-ish!

Love these guys!


We tucked into our entrees, and after a bite or two Shawn realized there were macadamia nuts in his rice. Caden had only taken a bite of chicken but he FLIPPED OUT. He is really really cautious about his nut allergy and does not do well if he thinks there is a CHANCE that he touched any sort of nut. He felt fine but was really freaked out so Shawn took him to the restroom to rinse his mouth out, wash his hands and compose himself. Meanwhile I flagged down Cornwall, but it took a while since he was serving entrees. When he came over, I told him about Shawn finding the nuts in the rice and he was quick to apologize and explain that while the dish contained nuts, the chef had prepared Caden’s in a special area of the kitchen and that they had been excluded from his. That was a relief, but it would have been nice to have been told that in advance to avoid the freak-out. Normally they always pointed out which dishes he should avoid, and we never knew that there were some that he could have made nut-free. We just thought if it had nuts in it, it shouldn’t be ordered…but in this case the macadamia nuts weren’t listed as part of it on the menu. So it was a miscommunication, but one I wanted to write about in case anyone else is in the same boat (heh – see what I did there? Boat!!).

After that he calmed down but it kind of ruined his appetite so he didn’t eat much. But it didn’t ruin the meal and we all enjoyed our full-service dining experience one last time. Cornwall explained that we could have breakfast there the next day before disembarking, but as members of the first seating, we’d need to be there at 6:30. No thank you! So we made sure to say a nice goodbye to our dining staff knowing we’d not see them again.

After dinner we headed to shutters to look at our pictures one last time (we had decided to pick our ten favorites and order after getting home) and went shopping for souvenirs and shoes for me. Shawn wanted to buy some T-shirts and also the Animator's Palate butter knife for a surprise for the boys when we got home. We picked up some stuffed animals and toys for our nieces, but I couldn’t find a pair of casual sandals in the whole shopping area for less than $50! And the selection was very limited. I needed to do something – I couldn’t really envision disembarking in my shorts, tank top and heels, so I ended up picking up something up on Deck 11 – a pair of Mickey flip-flops for $15. I HATE flip-flops – the thing between my toes drives me nuts, but I figured I could put up with it for a day and a half.

Wow, was I wrong! After shopping (and posing for one last photo when we stumbled across Goofy outside one of the stores),

we headed upstairs so Megan could at least get some sleep, and Shawn could finish packing and get our bags out. It’s such a sad feeling walking down the halls and seeing all those packed bags being picked up by the porters! While he did that, me and the boys had one last “hurrah” roaming around for a few hours (we didn’t do swimming because I didn’t want to deal with the wet suits in our luggage). They completed another Detective quest and my feet were KILLING me. After ten minutes I ended up carrying the flip flops and walking around barefoot as gross as that sounds. I figured I would only wear shoes when I absolutely HAD to.


After they solved the case, we headed up to Deck 11 for one last Eye Scream.

By now we could see the Florida coast off to one side of the ship as we headed north. There was also some cool lightening in the distance. We played a game of put-put since the sports deck was virtually empty and we hadn’t done so all week.


And then it was time for bed. I kissed them all good night, and read for a while, and then peeked through the curtains to check on them. The two little ones were fast asleep, but Caden was on his side holding the verandah curtain open looking out at the ocean and the twinkling lights on the coast. I went over to enjoy the view with him and he told me he just needed to look out and see it one last time. He said he was happy but so sad to be going home. “Mom,” he said, “I think this was one of the best weeks of my life!”

I gave him a long hug and told him it was one of mine too, and I wish it could last longer. And it was worth every penny!

 

[Futurist]

My DW and I loved your trip report! We've both been on the Fantasy (in fact, we were privileged to be on the Maiden Voyage, which was an absolute blast), and we've had young children (although we're just about to become grandparents), so we empathized with many of your anecdotes.

Aside from really enjoying the travelogue, I think two things particularly impressed me. First, your spelling and grammar are impeccable – very impressive in this day and age! And second, you have what might be called the "storyteller's voice", which is the ability to make your story not only easy to read, but engrossing. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Not bad for a computer geek! (And BTW, I'm also a computer geek, although my CS degree is decades old, back when we had to stoke coal in the firebox to get the steam pressure up to run the CPU!) If your computer career doesn't pan out, you might consider writing!

Thank you for putting so much effort into this. You helped many of us relive our time on the DCL ships, as well as the trials and triumphs of being parents! Like your family with your voyage, I didn't want the travelogue to end!

All the best,
Richard

 

[BlueEyes78]

My DW and I loved your trip report! We've both been on the Fantasy (in fact, we were privileged to be on the Maiden Voyage, which was an absolute blast), and we've had young children (although we're just about to become grandparents), so we empathized with many of your anecdotes.

Aside from really enjoying the travelogue, I think two things particularly impressed me. First, your spelling and grammar are impeccable – very impressive in this day and age! And second, you have what might be called the "storyteller's voice", which is the ability to make your story not only easy to read, but engrossing. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Not bad for a computer geek! (And BTW, I'm also a computer geek, although my CS degree is decades old, back when we had to stoke coal in the firebox to get the steam pressure up to run the CPU!) If your computer career doesn't pan out, you might consider writing!

Thank you for putting so much effort into this. You helped many of us relive our time on the DCL ships, as well as the trials and triumphs of being parents! Like your family with your voyage, I didn't want the travelogue to end!

All the best,
Richard

Richard, you are so kind! I think you just made my whole day.
As a child being an author was my dream. I filled notebook after notebook of stories, and competed in writing contests. I even majored in creative writing in college (I don't think most people who work with me know that!). I ended up having such a great college experience that my career in higher education was a natural choice, but I do miss the writing! Working part-time and having three kids doesn't leave a lot of time for filling notebooks, and it's one of the reasons I love writing these reports, it reminds me how much I miss that creative outlet. Good to know the skills aren't too rusty!
Stay tuned, I do have a story or two left in me for this report...
So glad you and your wife found enjoyment in our story!

 

[Flossbolna]

I really enjoy your trip report, what a wonderful vacation! Thank you very much for sharing it with us!

 

[mlegerto]

Loving your report! Sad that I just found it, but I'm all caught up!

We've been on a few cruises but never a Disney cruise. We're planning one for NYE 2018 and your report has made me tea much more excited!!!i

 

[TestingH2O]

We dropped the boys back at the Oceaneers Club and checked Megan in at the Bibbity Bobbity.

Did you get an invitation on board for this? I've seen pictures of the official invite that comes to the cabin, but those are older. I'm curious if I should make one for her or if one is provided.

 

[BlueEyes78]

I really enjoy your trip report, what a wonderful vacation! Thank you very much for sharing it with us!

You are very welcome! I'm glad you have enjoyed reading it!

 

[BlueEyes78]

Loving your report! Sad that I just found it, but I'm all caught up!

We've been on a few cruises but never a Disney cruise. We're planning one for NYE 2018 and your report has made me tea much more excited!!!i

Yes, we will definitely do another. I think Shawn would like to wait till the kids are a little older. Truthfully the boys were the PERFECT age (especially our oldest) but unless you have multiples they can't all be the perfect age at the same time!