The Sea Witch Stole My Voice! Our Two Week Land and Sea Adventure! COMPLETE 4/12

[jordanyosh]

Lessa,

Inside staterooms aren't bad depending on which deck you get. I had one close to the elevator banks on Deck 7 and it was only a short walk up to the SPA and the Adult Pool. In addition if you look at the deck plans, my room (7009?) was near the end of the hallway. We had very little foot traffic go by our room. It was pretty quiet.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

An inside room?! Scandalous!!! You had a verandah right? I don't know if I'd could do just a porthole, even on the outside!!

I need more updates ASAP!! I leave Thursday...but no pressure. LOL

I'll be updating tonight at work (I'm working the midnight to 8am shift).

I was away all weekend...had some catching up to do!!! More great pix from your dad's and the cruise is moving right along! Can't wait for more! Glad to hear that safety thing is short...it would drive me crazy if it were long!

Yep, it was pretty short, it really depends on how long it takes all your fellow passengers to arrive and report in. Once everybody has then they let you go.

what and how much is a cruise chit?

how did you get one for booking with dreams unlimited, and with disney, if you book with dreams, what did you book with disney?

Okay the cruise ship is a cashless society so anything you buy on the ship including your excursions, drinks, meals at Palos and merchandise gets charged to your room account.

Several travel agents (mostly online ones) will offer an onboard credit (they put money into your onboard account) as an incentive to book your cruise through them. They do this as Disney does not allow discounting of the rooms. So what happened with us was that Disney was offering a $50 onboard credit if you booked your cruise with them online. So that is what I did, I booked the cruise online with Disney and made sure everything was the way I wanted. Then I saw that Dreams Unlimited was offering $200 onboard credit if you booked/transferred your reservation through them. So since I had already made my reservation I simply transferred control of it over to Dreams Unlimited and they gave me their onboard credit. I had no problem doing this as I had already booked everything just the way I wanted so I knew the TA couldn't screw it up.

So I had $50 from Disney for booking the cruise through them online and $200 from Dreams Unlimited for transferring my reservation over to them. That means when we boarded the ship we had a $250 credit placed in our onboard account so basically the first $250 worth of stuff we bought was "free". It pretty much paid for our excursions.

I have also read that you can call up Disney and place money in your onboard account ahead of time if you wish to do so that way the onboard bill doesn't seem so shocking at the end of the cruise.

Hope that all made sense!

Lessa,

Inside staterooms aren't bad depending on which deck you get. I had one close to the elevator banks on Deck 7 and it was only a short walk up to the SPA and the Adult Pool. In addition if you look at the deck plans, my room (7009?) was near the end of the hallway. We had very little foot traffic go by our room. It was pretty quiet.

I just don't know if I would like the "cramped" quarters of an inside room and the fact that there is no natural light. But as I said if I want to cruise bad enough I could always go for the much cheaper inside rooms. My funds will be limited the next couple years.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

yep it made since, very cool, if you dont do excursions, that money just goes toward alchol and gifts right, is all the food free on board?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

yep it made since, very cool, if you dont do excursions, that money just goes toward alchol and gifts right, is all the food free on board?

Yep, the money can go towards whatever you want.

All the food on board is free except for Palo which carries a $15 surcharge.

 

[englishrose47]

I'm waiting fo the cruise to begin

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Trust me when I say this it will be very hard to go back a room category after you get used to a higher one. I got upgraded from a 9 to a 6 for the trans Atlantic and found it very hard to used to only having a 9 for the panama canal cruise. so going t5o an inside from a balcony would really be a change.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I'm waiting fo the cruise to begin

Where have you been Rosie? It has already begun.

Trust me when I say this it will be very hard to go back a room category after you get used to a higher one. I got upgraded from a 9 to a 6 for the trans Atlantic and found it very hard to used to only having a 9 for the panama canal cruise. so going t5o an inside from a balcony would really be a change.

Oh I believe that! It was so nice having a verandah.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Mom and I hurried back down to our room to drop off our life vests. We didn't even take the time to put them away in the closet we just chucked them on the bed and then we were out of there again.

The sailaway party "Adventures Away" takes place on the stage on deck 9 where the family pool is located. They have a deck that they can put over the pool so that there is lots of room for people to gather. Mom and I however were not headed to deck 9. Instead our goal was deck 10, one deck above. We didn't want to be down in the crowd, instead we wanted to grab a spot overlooking the party. This way we would get to enjoy the festivities without being crushed in the crowd.

Well lucky us, we were able to grab a table and two chairs that were set up right along the railing overlooking the family pool. There were only a few of these available and they were all taken quickly. Mom and I settled ourselves into our chairs and then I realized that we had forgotten the second camera in the room. I went down to grab it so that we could take pictures and video of the party. Mom was in charge of the video and I was in charge of the pictures.

Some shots I got of the artwork around the ship when I went back to the room.

I also took a moment to stow away the life jackets since we had secured our viewing spot already and I wasn't in as much of a rush.

I hustled back on up to deck 10 and rejoined Mom. There were CM's stationed around handing out streamers for everybody to wave around. They came in three colours, red, gold, and blue. Hey those are my school colours! "Go Gaels! Oil thigh na Banrighinn a'Banrighinn gu brath!"

The crowd had started to grow while I was gone.

I also saw that Mom had ordered a drink while I was gone.

As the time for the party got closer more and more people arrived. I soon became very glad that we had grabbed the table as people were crowding all around us but we had enough personal space because of our chairs and table. We also didn't have to worry about anybody blocking our view.

Soon the sailaway party started. It started off with the cruise staff being introduced.

First the kids clubs leaders

And then the cruise staff that lead the family and adult events.

They led the crowd in some dancing and then Brent Davies our cruise director came out. He is Australian and has an awesome accent.

Then up on the screen we got a "live" feed from the bridge. It appears that Goofy was causing some trouble up there.

Well they thought it best that Goofy go down and join the party and leave the sailing of the ship to the captain and crew.

So Goofy left to join Mickey and the gang as they came down to party to lead the crowd in some more dancing.

Continued in next post

Click here to continue

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

They started to count down to sail time. "10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1" and then we heard the horn go off to the tune of "When You Wish Upon A Star". It was insanely loud but very magical. I am sure that Mom shed a tear, she is nice and sappy like that.

Here's a 30-second clip that I took from our recording of the party. I'll post the video from the whole party separately once I get it all loaded onto Youtube.

Disney Sailaway

As soon as the horn sounded the ship started to move and we were off!

I scurried over to the side of the ship so I could watch as we sailed away. Mom joined me soon after. The CM's at the Disney terminal stand outside and wave goodbye to you.

We moved further up the deck towards the front of the ship aka forward deck.

The Adult pool "Quiet Cove" and the bar "Signals"

This is a popular restaurant/bar in Port Canaveral that people like to go to and watch the cruise ships sail away.

The Carnival ship that sailed out ahead of us

We passed a campground where families watched as we sailed by and waved goodbye.

We passed the beach and we were officially out at sea!

We walked deck 10 relishing the fact that we were finally on the cruise.

This is the Mickey pool, kids only! I think it is rather unfair that only the kids get to use the waterslide. I hope on the new ships that the adults get a fun slide to use as well.

Click here to continue

 

[GeminiAngel]

Off we go! I thought the horn sounded kinda creepy What a fun kick off show.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Off we go! I thought the horn sounded kinda creepy What a fun kick off show.

You thought the horn was creepy!

 

[Gabes_mommy]

I am so excited that you are on to the cruise portion of the trip. Can't wait for more.

 

[englishrose47]

Where have you been Rosie? It has already begun.



Oh I believe that! It was so nice having a verandah.

Lessa you are still docked I mean get out to sea !!!

 

[englishrose47]

Now you have started !!!!!

Hi Beth!!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

YAY!!! We're sailing!!!!!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

they should have a slide that goes from teh top of the stack to the pool it just keeps going around the stack till it hits the bottom, now taht would be awesome.

 

[ladybugmom]

Love the new pics and video!! I showed Claire and she was dancing to the video and she said "funny" at the end!! We watched it several times. Oh--and your cruise director looks like Anthony from The Wiggles!!

 

[princess_momma]

Your mom is a sap from tearing up while being there? Then I must be one heck of a sap because I teared up just looking at pictures!! (I can't even watch videos on this computer.) Ok...I'm going to go find a support group or something for my sappiness!!

SO EXCITED that we've just sailed away!! I'm not sure if you will update before I leave again, so don't think you've lost me!! And don't completely finish without me! I love your tr!! See ya real soon!

 

[emmaca]

Yes, I did shed a tear, to be honest I shed a few tears during the two week holiday, what can I say Disney has this effect on me.

Hi Rosie, the big count down is on!!

 

[Mysteria]

Love the horn! What beach is that?