After getting our staterooms all settled, the kids changed into their bathing suits and we headed up to the Holy Grail- The Mickey Pool! Sarah, being an accomplished potty trainer, could now enjoy it too!
I am happy to report we had no experience with UFOs (unidentified floating objects) this cruise!!! Thats right- NONE! We did not experience the Mickey Pool closed once the entire week (and we would find ourselves there often!) Our last cruise it seemed like it was evacuated constantly for scrubdown!
The first one of these for the day! Its time for me to catch up on my frozen drink drinkin if you know what Im saying! (This was a DOTD- a Malibu Bay Breeze)
Before we knew it, it was time to head downstairs to the Promenade Lounge for our Dis Meet. I tried to arrive a little early, however I think it was 3PM on the dot when I arrived. I coordinated the group lanyards so I had 200 lanyards to hand out. As soon as I got everything arranged, a massive line of Disers queued up. At first I thought I could handle the distribution easily myself, however handing out that many of anything is no simple task. I was grateful for the offer and accepteed when fellow cruiser Nicole helped me get them all passed out.
A note on lanyards, we were inspired to do this from the last cruise we were on, the Double Dip Delight in 08. The lanyards are an awesome conversation piece and allow you to easily identify members of your meet group at a glance. And for those of us who are bad (um
like REALLY BAD) with names like me, it can be a lifesaver!! They are also pretty convenient for holding KTTW cards. I do have to say though that I underestimated the amount of work it takes to undertake a project like that. I would definitely recommend that if you are coordinating something like this that costs money that instead of having everybody pay for their own, instead take a committee of 10, 20, however many volunteers and have them split the cost evenly. It would have been so much easier for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being the time saved cashing, moving, tracking, and balancing all the payments. When you are dealing with items like custom lanyards that are priced by quantity, the price varies on the amount ordered and dropouts can leave you holding the bag later. Luckily this group was awesome and we had no issues like that (except when a couple of folks had to cancel last minute, but those were issues that couldnt have been avoided). Also we had built in a buffer to the per-item cost to ensure that the lanyards would remain fully funded, and those overages greatly helped finance our private Dis Trick or Treat event, which Ill talk more about that in a later installment.
Here is an example of how the lanyards turned out. They were designed by me and purchased through Lanyard Lab, a company I would recommend working with wholeheartedly!!! I also designed, printed, and assembled the tags myself. I think they came out pretty cool, and it seemed like everyone in our group really liked them too!!!
Our Lanyards:
A closer look at mine:
A look at a large quantity of them prior to printing the tags:
Here are some snapshots of everyone chit chatting away at the meet. If you look closely you may see some familiar faces in here. And if not, you will probably recognize all these folks by the end of the TR, because you will see their pictures a lot. All of our excursions we did this trip were among the amazing company of our new Dis friends. I cant really say enough about this fantastic group of people, and this wonderful website that brought us all together and helped us experience and enjoy our cruise in a way you just cant do on any other cruise line, or with any other group. Man, I love the Dis!!!!!!
Pretty much the entire Dis Meet for me was spent doling out the lanyards and my only regret was that I was a little harried and did not have the time to really chat with or enjoy anyones company much (LOL, except Nicole!), but it was great to at least have the opportunity to at least meet everyone once that way!
At 3:30 we moved out to the atrium to assemble for our group photo. My big mouth came in handy here. Ha ha! Except that I was in the front with Judy and a few others arranging folks when they started snapping away shots, and there was nowhere to go, so I had to run to the Midship stairs and up to deck 4 and back down the Atrium staircase to get in the shot. Several of the early frames show me running down the stairs! Too funny! Due to that though, our family was split up for the photo as well. You can find my kids near Helmsman Mickeys head and integrated into Ellens family (LOL), while Ron and Sarah made their way over by me, near the top of the staircase on the right.
It really turned out awesome, didnt it?
After a little bit more chit chat, we finally disbanded to make our way to the mandatory muster drill. We were lucky to know ahead of time that our muster station would be station T, inside Animators Palate (thanks to the muster station thread from the main board). We were so happy to finally be comfortable for a muster drill. Squeezing together like sardines on the hot sweaty deck was the pits compared to this, where we could sit comfortably in A/C, and even be entertained by the CMs!
The drill was over after about 15-20 minutes, and another nice thing they did was allow those that needed assistance, the disabled, elderly, and very small children exit first, prior to the mass dismissal. Because we had Sarah, we were included. I dont recall this happening up on Deck 4, and Sarah was a tiny baby the last cruise. Kudos for that Disney, we appreciated it!
We ditched our vests quickly and got our necessary equipment for the sailaway party! Necessary equipment, you ask? Well, Mickey gloves to wave farewell to Florida with, of course!!!
Coming Next: Bom Bom Bom Bom Bom Boooooom!*
*(OK Loyal readers and the very observant may have been noticed that I have been touting this segment as next for several installments now. Sorry about that, it is because I am limited to number of pictures in a segment and it just took a bit longer to get there than I thought! This time I promise that is the next installment and then you will finally know what that is all about!