Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 1/2), and DS (11 1/2), 3rd DCL cruise
Christmas Day! And our first present was the immigration check in the Walt Disney theater. We were on deck 2, so we were in the 2nd group to be screened (non-US citizens were first). I think we were to be there between 6:45 and 7:00, which was a challenge for my family. I think I actually woke up to the alarm this morning (the only one of the trip), and we were all up to the theater by 6:40. It was a relatively short line, and they had pastries, coffee and eggnog. I didn't read the flyer very well, so I had birth certificates for everyone, but I hadn't brought my picture ID. DH had his license, and the inspector was nice enough to let me go without. Note that DH had his drivers license, since that was the last time it was where it was supposed to be!
Having bribed the kids with their presents so they'd get up, we went back to open their gifts. This vacation was the vast majority of their Christmas. When we had booked it 18 months ago, they had agreed that they wouldn't get any gifts if we just took the trip, but I couldn't let it go by without something in their stockings. Both kids got a book, and DD got 2 CDs and DS got a gameboy game. We headed up to Topsiders' for breakfast, and discussed the day.
I hadn't booked anything for this day, but had printed off the coupon for Coral World, and was also considering the Tramway. DD was still feeling under the weather from her cold (her head was really stuffy that day), so we all decided to just treat this as a port day. DH and I went to the spa and bought a rainforest pass for the day (that was my gift to myself!), and we went in to enjoy. There was absolutely no one there for the whole hour we were there. Let me say that I never quite understood how people said those tile loungers were so comfortable. Tile and comfortable are two words that shouldn't go together. But they sure do in the rainforest! How to describe the loungers? Well, think of the deck 4 blue chairs, but they've got a deeper divet for your butt, and a higher back. Actually, it's kind of like a dentists chair now that I think about it
, but the tile is heated just right to work out all the kinks in your back, legs and arms (yes the arms are heated too!). It was truly heaven on earth! I had brought in a nice cup of herbal tea (fixings were set up right outside the room), and settled down with my book. DH wandered around the room checking out all the different rooms and showers. He settled down for maybe 10 minutes in each place, but he just didn't get the whole relaxation thing. He stayed about 35-40 minutes, and then went back to the room. After he left, I checked out the 3 different steam/sauna rooms. The really steamy room was a bit much for me, but I liked the other two. I had an aromatherapy shower, then went back to the changing room and used the shower there (and the great smelling shampoo, conditioner, and soap) to clean up. I was planning to be back later in the day. There still was no one in the rainforest when I left. A couple of staff people had wandered through, but no guests.
Back to the room to gather the family for the 2nd Christmas service in the movie theater. On the way there, DD and I stopped by the lobby to visit Santa, since the navigator said that was the time he'd be handing out gifts. No Santa, just our server and some others handing out cookies and spiked egg nog (we all passed, since DD was the only one who wanted eggnog anyway!). Guest services said Santa would be back shortly, so we planned to stop after the service.
The same minister from Sunday was there, and it was a nice service. One of the crew came and played for us to sing some Christmas carols. I saw him later in the day, and he told me he should have gotten a picture to show his mom he was at church on Christmas. I thanked him for playing, since I didn't think Christmas was Christmas without singing. Back through the atrium, and no Santa. DH talked to guest services, and they took our cabin number and said gifts would be left in our stateroom.
After lunch, I went ashore to look for my magnet. DH came with me, and we used the time (and the cell phone access) to call our families. His folks said that it was really cold, and they had gotten two separate snow storms for a total of about 2 feet (they live in Indianapolis). Given the pattern of storms, we probably wouldn't have been able to make our normal drive back there, so it was just as well we hadn't tried! My mom (SE Florida) was enjoying the day with her brother and sister in law who had come down while she was with us at WDW. We promised to call back so the kids could talk to all the grandparents later.
I found my magnet, and got a couple of color changing shirts for the kids at a regular souvenier store (they were MUCH cheaper than del Sol, I think it was $20 for both). It turned out that only DD's changed color, DS's was just an embroidered shirt, but he liked it anyway.
Back on the ship, no kids to be found I headed back up to the rainforest room. DH wasn't interested, so he went off to read on Deck 4. I ran into the scuba family (Jim and Sharon), who had the same destination in mind. Sharon and I had a nice, chat, but there were several other people in there, and I headed to the steam rooms to let someone else use my lounger after a while. Steamed and showers, it was off to deck 4 to join my husband with a book. I drifted into a nap, and DH went back to the room. Next thing I know, I have both kids shaking me, saying "Santa's coming to Studio Sea and we need to go there to get our gifts. Oh and how can you sleep out here anyway?" (I used that time to call back home so the kids could say Merry Christmas too, and then off to find Santa). But confusion ensued from there. No one was in studio sea, but staff kept saying "Santa's on the way". Another family came in about 5:30, already dressed nicely for dinner. Santa finally showed up about 5:45, with a Shutters photographer for pictures. Remember that my kids were over the whole picture with Santa thing, they were just looking for the gifts they were promised.
Minor gripe here. Skip it if you don't want to read it. All right, I'll admit this was a bit greedy since they'd gotten something last night. I hadn't expected a second gift, but apparently the initial Santa visit in the lobby that morning had yielded mini-radios for all the 10 and up crowd since a lot of people had them, and said they were from the ship's Santa. We left, with me reminding the kids that Christmas wasn't all about gifts, and that they had already gotten something, so let's not worry about what other people got, etc. But inside myself, it just didn't seem right. If 1) They had said "gifts are being handed out only Christmas morning", and 2) Santa had been in the atrium the timeframe listed in the navigator, and 3) Guest services hadn't told us our kids would be getting gifts, and 4) GS hadn't called a 2nd time to say that gifts were at Studio Sea, then I wouldn't have expected anything. But this whole set up made for some hurt feelings by my kids and I wish it had been handled better. A couple of times the next day, whenever they saw a kid with the radio, they said "that's the gift we were supposed to get." Okay, gripe over.
Back to the room to decide on the evening. DD wanted to see Taylor Mason on the big stage, and the rest of us wanted to see Around the World in 80 days. As you've probably figured out, DD loves the shows, and I usually enjoy them too, but this was the last showing for Around the World, and I had never seen it, and wanted to. We let DD go by herself (so I apologize to anyone who was at the 6:30 show, and was bothered by her!). She told us that Romeo (Taylor's full sized dummy) started picking on her (after the fact, I heard that story a little differently), but it sounded like overall it worked out to just be part of the show. The movie was a little farfetched, and I'm glad I didn't pay to go see it, but it filled up two hours. We met DD at family Karoake, but she had already sang.
Off to dinner at Animators' pallate. Earlier, when it became obvious that DS didn't enjoy dinners with us, I told him the only night I was insisting on was Christmas, and that he had to stay the whole time. We had another special menu, and they gave us menus to keep. DH and I had lobster and he added a steak to it. I'm sure DS had pasta, and DD probably had salmon. The dining room was really full that night. There were several people at our servers' tables who we hadn't seen before that night, so Alex and Noel were really almost overwhelmed keeping up with all of us. Dinner ran a little longer than usual that night, and we all called it a night after eating.
Christmas Day! And our first present was the immigration check in the Walt Disney theater. We were on deck 2, so we were in the 2nd group to be screened (non-US citizens were first). I think we were to be there between 6:45 and 7:00, which was a challenge for my family. I think I actually woke up to the alarm this morning (the only one of the trip), and we were all up to the theater by 6:40. It was a relatively short line, and they had pastries, coffee and eggnog. I didn't read the flyer very well, so I had birth certificates for everyone, but I hadn't brought my picture ID. DH had his license, and the inspector was nice enough to let me go without. Note that DH had his drivers license, since that was the last time it was where it was supposed to be!
Having bribed the kids with their presents so they'd get up, we went back to open their gifts. This vacation was the vast majority of their Christmas. When we had booked it 18 months ago, they had agreed that they wouldn't get any gifts if we just took the trip, but I couldn't let it go by without something in their stockings. Both kids got a book, and DD got 2 CDs and DS got a gameboy game. We headed up to Topsiders' for breakfast, and discussed the day.
I hadn't booked anything for this day, but had printed off the coupon for Coral World, and was also considering the Tramway. DD was still feeling under the weather from her cold (her head was really stuffy that day), so we all decided to just treat this as a port day. DH and I went to the spa and bought a rainforest pass for the day (that was my gift to myself!), and we went in to enjoy. There was absolutely no one there for the whole hour we were there. Let me say that I never quite understood how people said those tile loungers were so comfortable. Tile and comfortable are two words that shouldn't go together. But they sure do in the rainforest! How to describe the loungers? Well, think of the deck 4 blue chairs, but they've got a deeper divet for your butt, and a higher back. Actually, it's kind of like a dentists chair now that I think about it
, but the tile is heated just right to work out all the kinks in your back, legs and arms (yes the arms are heated too!). It was truly heaven on earth! I had brought in a nice cup of herbal tea (fixings were set up right outside the room), and settled down with my book. DH wandered around the room checking out all the different rooms and showers. He settled down for maybe 10 minutes in each place, but he just didn't get the whole relaxation thing. He stayed about 35-40 minutes, and then went back to the room. After he left, I checked out the 3 different steam/sauna rooms. The really steamy room was a bit much for me, but I liked the other two. I had an aromatherapy shower, then went back to the changing room and used the shower there (and the great smelling shampoo, conditioner, and soap) to clean up. I was planning to be back later in the day. There still was no one in the rainforest when I left. A couple of staff people had wandered through, but no guests.Back to the room to gather the family for the 2nd Christmas service in the movie theater. On the way there, DD and I stopped by the lobby to visit Santa, since the navigator said that was the time he'd be handing out gifts. No Santa, just our server and some others handing out cookies and spiked egg nog (we all passed, since DD was the only one who wanted eggnog anyway!). Guest services said Santa would be back shortly, so we planned to stop after the service.
The same minister from Sunday was there, and it was a nice service. One of the crew came and played for us to sing some Christmas carols. I saw him later in the day, and he told me he should have gotten a picture to show his mom he was at church on Christmas. I thanked him for playing, since I didn't think Christmas was Christmas without singing. Back through the atrium, and no Santa. DH talked to guest services, and they took our cabin number and said gifts would be left in our stateroom.
After lunch, I went ashore to look for my magnet. DH came with me, and we used the time (and the cell phone access) to call our families. His folks said that it was really cold, and they had gotten two separate snow storms for a total of about 2 feet (they live in Indianapolis). Given the pattern of storms, we probably wouldn't have been able to make our normal drive back there, so it was just as well we hadn't tried! My mom (SE Florida) was enjoying the day with her brother and sister in law who had come down while she was with us at WDW. We promised to call back so the kids could talk to all the grandparents later.
I found my magnet, and got a couple of color changing shirts for the kids at a regular souvenier store (they were MUCH cheaper than del Sol, I think it was $20 for both). It turned out that only DD's changed color, DS's was just an embroidered shirt, but he liked it anyway.
Back on the ship, no kids to be found I headed back up to the rainforest room. DH wasn't interested, so he went off to read on Deck 4. I ran into the scuba family (Jim and Sharon), who had the same destination in mind. Sharon and I had a nice, chat, but there were several other people in there, and I headed to the steam rooms to let someone else use my lounger after a while. Steamed and showers, it was off to deck 4 to join my husband with a book. I drifted into a nap, and DH went back to the room. Next thing I know, I have both kids shaking me, saying "Santa's coming to Studio Sea and we need to go there to get our gifts. Oh and how can you sleep out here anyway?" (I used that time to call back home so the kids could say Merry Christmas too, and then off to find Santa). But confusion ensued from there. No one was in studio sea, but staff kept saying "Santa's on the way". Another family came in about 5:30, already dressed nicely for dinner. Santa finally showed up about 5:45, with a Shutters photographer for pictures. Remember that my kids were over the whole picture with Santa thing, they were just looking for the gifts they were promised.
Minor gripe here. Skip it if you don't want to read it. All right, I'll admit this was a bit greedy since they'd gotten something last night. I hadn't expected a second gift, but apparently the initial Santa visit in the lobby that morning had yielded mini-radios for all the 10 and up crowd since a lot of people had them, and said they were from the ship's Santa. We left, with me reminding the kids that Christmas wasn't all about gifts, and that they had already gotten something, so let's not worry about what other people got, etc. But inside myself, it just didn't seem right. If 1) They had said "gifts are being handed out only Christmas morning", and 2) Santa had been in the atrium the timeframe listed in the navigator, and 3) Guest services hadn't told us our kids would be getting gifts, and 4) GS hadn't called a 2nd time to say that gifts were at Studio Sea, then I wouldn't have expected anything. But this whole set up made for some hurt feelings by my kids and I wish it had been handled better. A couple of times the next day, whenever they saw a kid with the radio, they said "that's the gift we were supposed to get." Okay, gripe over.
Back to the room to decide on the evening. DD wanted to see Taylor Mason on the big stage, and the rest of us wanted to see Around the World in 80 days. As you've probably figured out, DD loves the shows, and I usually enjoy them too, but this was the last showing for Around the World, and I had never seen it, and wanted to. We let DD go by herself (so I apologize to anyone who was at the 6:30 show, and was bothered by her!). She told us that Romeo (Taylor's full sized dummy) started picking on her (after the fact, I heard that story a little differently), but it sounded like overall it worked out to just be part of the show. The movie was a little farfetched, and I'm glad I didn't pay to go see it, but it filled up two hours. We met DD at family Karoake, but she had already sang.
Off to dinner at Animators' pallate. Earlier, when it became obvious that DS didn't enjoy dinners with us, I told him the only night I was insisting on was Christmas, and that he had to stay the whole time. We had another special menu, and they gave us menus to keep. DH and I had lobster and he added a steak to it. I'm sure DS had pasta, and DD probably had salmon. The dining room was really full that night. There were several people at our servers' tables who we hadn't seen before that night, so Alex and Noel were really almost overwhelmed keeping up with all of us. Dinner ran a little longer than usual that night, and we all called it a night after eating.
