10 Day Holiday Cruise! Pictures! Dec 16-26 2006

[CRSNDSNY]

DH said tuna only no shrimp.

Thanks for asking him! That concocation is a dream come true for DH. LOL

Your TR is awesome so far! Thanks for posting it!

 

[glass- slippers]

I'm loving your TR, can't wait to hear more! What a dream come true vacation!

 

[kate2961]

We were on that cruise too! Love your story and pics.

 

[mrsnesbit]

We got up and went to "church" in the Buena Vista Theatre. There was a cute very young pastor. He was very enthusiastic and had a good message about God sending the extraordinary message of Christ's birth through the ordinary shepherds.
This was a sea day and we like those! There were numerous characters strolling on deck 4 so dd and I chased them all around and took pictures. Dh went and got a seat for the final auction in the atrium. We enjoyed watching Ducky Williams describe all his work that was going up for auction. It was exciting because the bidding was hot. I think people just wanted a piece of the magic! Like I said before $18,000 for an original. It was the only original painting of Ducky's up for auction. We even bid on a few prints for they went for up to 5,000 or so! Crazy!

It was fun and as soon as it was all over Santa Clause was on his way. We found ds and he and dd were 2nd in line for Santa. Dd got a pooh pillow and ds got a sunglasses case from the elves. They also had face painting set up on the other side of the atrium. Dd got a Mickey Santa head on her face and then a Christmas tree later on! Right after Santa we got in line for the autograph session with Paris Bennett and Bianca Ryan in Preludes.

They are such cute girls! We had our Navigators from the day before, I was hoping they would have pictures to sign but when I asked a cast member they said you had to bring something of your own. I ran to our room and got Christmas cards for them to sign for my friend who really likes American Idol. As you can see dd took pictures with them. Later they were signing a picture of the two of them together in front of the Christmas tree but they were signing them to cast members. I was bummed. I wish they had made them available to purchase before the autograph session. Dd and I ran to the WDT to see the early performance of Disney Dreams. I like to have extra time to get ready for formal night. It was great as usual!

On to a Ducky Williams seminar on how to draw Mickey Mouse! DH went ahead and got front table seats (It was in Animators)That was fun! Ds and dd were fighting so ds decided to leave and go to Ocean Quest. That was better for everyone since we were sitting right in front. It didn't help our chances for winning one of ducky's drawings though. I really wanted the tinkerbell drawing it was so cute!

After that we went to get some food on Deck 9 and watch High School Musical on the Ariel screen. That was great! I love that movie and to see it on the big screen was even better.

DH wanted to see disney dreams in the front row for some reason so he got a seat and I went back to the room and got dd ready. I had bought a cute dress at the Disney store with Mickey & Minnie skating on it. It had a removable fur collar and so we removed it since dd didn't like it! Some one asked me if I made the dress! I am not a person that sews so that was funny. I brought her back to the theater and she and dh had a good time watching the show, yes she saw it twice in one day.

Christmas Eve dinner in Lumieres. We got lucky on this rotation getting both formal nights in Lumieres! There was a beautiful holiday menu that our servers let us keep and even gave us extras! If you pm me 1st I will send you one,just include your address. That's to see if anyone is reading!!

I will dig out the menus later and take a picture of one so you can see what they were serving! We had a wonderful meal and brought our own champagne to celebrate. It was nice and delicious. We gave our servers each a Christmas card with some $$ in it. Not as a tip but just as a gift. It must be difficult to watch everyone else celebrate the holiday with their family knowing that they won't be.

Right after dinner Mrs. Clause came out to read a story so my dd and the little girl at the next table went and sat down to listen. After doing 3 Disney Dreams shows today the cast came out in Holiday sweaters to sing, T'was the night before Christmas. It was lovely!

We headed back to the room to change and go to bed I thought! But no there was an amazing chocolate buffet at 10:45. DH went and brought some back but after looking at his pictures I knew I had to go just to see it. Ds and I ran down in our Pj's. It was gorgeous! Finally off to bed at Midnight. With visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

WOW! That was so nice of you and your family to give your servers special gifts. So nice!

Your pics are great! I'm loving your TR!

 

[Nana-Cabana]

[/QUOTE] When did you find time to write all of this down so it is this well presented?

 

[Madisonznana]

Another great chapter!! I really love your pictures too. Thanks again!

 

[mrsnesbit]

Gratutitous towel animal picture!

The ship from one of those windy roads in St. Lucia!

Captain Tom and the Kids!

Dawn Beach in St. Maartin where everyone keeps their clothes on!

My own personal golden mickey!

 

[mrsnesbit]

On the red carpet!

The Brown Sugar Chef!!

The Magic next to the Magic in Key West!

Ocean Quest!

Secret Deck 7 at Sail Away

 

[mrsnesbit]

A treasure in the ocean club!

Sail away

Bananas on the side of the road in St. Lucia!

the only time ds was in the pool the whole time!

 

[Caitsmama]

GREAT pics.. keep 'em comin!!

 

[mrsnesbit]

It seemed like almost every day we got a gift !


The Castaway club lanyards and pins
The Castway club bags (2 net bags and 1 tote filled with stuff for the beach)
The pirate bandanas
The exclusive Ducky Williams print of Beauty and the Beast
The ceramic Christmas ornaments from the head server with a similar Beauty & the Beast picture
A box of chocolates(yum)

Hmmm am I forgetting something? We loved it!

 

[mrsnesbit]

Love this show!

Brunch buffet cheeses I think

Another of the Palo Brunch

Okay now I am hungry!

 

[mrsnesbit]

He told us to call 1-800-emmanuel if we need anything but I don't think the number is working!

Seriously if you want the best service ever ask for him! He is going off sometime in March and rejoining once the ship is in Barcelona!

 

[kritter]

Love the pics...!!!!!! I can not wiat to hear more about the trip!!!

I want to hear about Christmas Day!!!!!!!!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Gorgeous photos! Your children are beautiful!

 

[kevinsmom]

Your family is so beautiful!! Love your T/R, keep it comin'!!

 

[Nana-Cabana]

When do we get to hear about Christmas, or did I miss something?

 

[cadcor]

Unbelievable pictures! Felt like I was actually there! What kind of camera were you using..the model, pixels, zoom, etc. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mrsnesbit]

Good thing Santa showed up during the night! The kids were so excited! They each had 5 presents just like Santa usually leaves. He left them near the teeny tree we had in our room. After opening presents and taking pictures dh went up to topsiders and got breakfast and brought it back to the room. Apparently it was very very windy so parking the ship was quite a task. Thank God we got parked and were able to head off the ship. It would have been a bummer to miss Castaway Cay. Luckily we have never missed it! Although the last time we were there it was the coldest recorded temperature there. We found that out with a bridge tour from the Captain. Very cool. I still snorkled because I didn't care how cold it was I was going to enjoy the day!

Anyway! Dh usually dashes off and gets a hammock that I lay in all day . We are not hammock hogs we actually use ours! Sometimes all of us get on! I told him that since it was Christmas I would rather have him with us and enjoy a leisurely walk over to the beach than race to the hammock. We actually took family pictures in front of the ship and took the kids pictures in front of the tree and sled. We also got some pictures in front of Fresh Catch. I noticed they took down the hurricane sign that was up in March 2005 when we were last there. Our cruise was actually cancelled in 2004 due to the hurricane so that was funny to see the sign when we finally got to rebook. Anyway we ended up taking the tram over and dh missed taking pictures with Jack Sparrow. We never take the tram so that was a nice change! As soon as we got settled (no hammocks left of course) he dashed back to get his picture with Jack. Kind of funny! We are big Shutters fans. We buy just about everything. Of course he had to have that one! I am actually not a fan of taking pictures with characters, it makes me feel silly but he likes it.

I got the kids floats and they floated around for awhile then decided to just play in the sand. They were enjoying themselves and didn't want to head up to get lunch. We being bad parents left them playing and went to get food. It was early so there were no lines. I miss the lobster burgers. The food on Castaway Cay doesn't really excite me. Except the chocolate cookie dough frozen yogurt. Also the fresh fruit is pretty good too. They had roasted chestnuts!!! I had to have some. So cool. We brought food back for the kids and they enjoyed it, in between playing and taking a few bites. The corn on the cob was a favorite. We stopped to watch some crab races, that was cute and funny.

I decided to go snorkeling but I didn't get very far as the water was very rough. I was bummed. I love to snorkel there and see all the fun stuff but it was not going to happen. I tried several times but turned back 3 times because I didn't want to get all the way out there only to have to be saved! How embarrassing would that be? I went back and told dh and he laughed. Then he saw a guy come out of the water and lay down breathing heavy. The guy said, "man that was rough". He then decided he would go and so he did. He is a better swimmer than me so he went out to the farthest part and saw lots of fish.

The kids noticed that the people with a hammock in front of us vacated so they snagged it and I got to lay in the hammock anyway!! Ds wanted to go back to the ship so dh reluctently took him. Dd and I stayed! We were going to be there until the end! As people were packing up we just laid in our hammock. Someone even walked by us and said loudly,"some people think that all aboard is at 5:00 but it is really 4:30." It was 4:15 at that point. A lifeguard came by picking up chairs so I asked him and he said no worries start heading back at 4:45 and we would be fine. So we relaxed. Then dd decided to run around and fell in a little hole someone dug near our hammock. Strangely her foot was bleeding, must have cut it on a shell. The life guard was still nearby so he dashed away to get a bandaid. He brought two which was good because dd decided to put it on herself and got sand all over the bandage. He made a joke about her being a good life guard and put the other bandage on! We decided that we would go take some pictures by the flowers since there was very few people left. Then off to the bathroom and showers. We got as much sand rinsed off as we could and then started our meandering walk back. There were still other people on the walkway with us so we knew we weren't going to be too late. We stopped and took pictures by the Flying Dutchman. Dragging our feet we let everyone pass us. Took more pictures at the tree. There was a line at the back of the ship so we asked someone if we could still get on at the forward door and they said yes. Our room was forward so that was convenient and there was no one down there. Well apparently we were walking really slow because they closed up the back and a golf cart sped up next to us and the guy said, "get in get in". I said they told me it was okay to board at the forward doors and he said, "get in!" We got in! He zoomed us over to the forward doors and we boarded. They closed the doors as we were waiting for the elevator! Yeah we did it! We were one of the last people onboard if not the last.

I expected we would sail away very soon but in reality we didn't. Dd and I had time to go back to the room drop our stuff and head to deck 7 to watch from the back as we sailed away. I think we annoyed a guy that was out there filming the island. Dd wouldn't stop talking and I guess he thought he would be the only one out there. Oh well. I tried to get her to hush but she was soooo excited and didn't want to leave. Finally we sailed away waving good-bye to the island until next time! Off to shower and start the scary business of packing. We are notoriously late packers! We came with 8 bags checked and ended up checking 11 bags going out. Didn't get the last one out until midnight. Poor dh, I left it too him and fell asleep, my final night being rocked to sleep by the sea.

Dd and I tried the show but left shortly after, it wasn't so great and dd didn't get it.

Our final dinner was at Animators and I had my final order of escargot!! Love it. No luck getting the children to try it. Maybe next cruise. Our head server came by to say good bye and stayed for a while. It wasn't until he left that I figured he must be waiting for his tip. ONLY Dh handed it too him as we walked in. I'm sure he didn't even look at it then. Kind of awkward! I told dh to just hold on to it next time. Our head server was really good so that was kind of a bummer. I hope he figured it out later. I don't even remember dinner as we knew we had lots of packing to do.

We love late seating because we can get up later and have breakfast late! Dd and I went to say goodbye to our servers. We gave Anastacsia a pin since she was bad and gave dd her "disney adventures" pin because she begged the whole cruise! The cast/crew was supposed to wear them until Dec 31. I hope she didn't get in trouble! By the time we finished breakfast ds ran in to get us. Dh was ready to disembark and there was no line. We headed off with no fanfare.

Took awhile to find all the luggage! I had to stand by the porter door and grab one. We had a lot of large bags. Why can't we learn to pack light! He was loading them onto his cart as the line moved forward to the customs dude. Well that is when it must have happened...porter guy missed a bag. He left it there at the port. We tipped him $30 and he left one of our bags! That was bad. We actually didn't notice until the next day and placed a call to disney who gave us the number to the lost and found. It was closed but I left a message describing the bag and lo and behold we got a call that it was there. They shipped it back to us and all was well again! It was full of all the pins we bought. That's a lot of dollars. Well this is the end of the trip report. The unpacking went on for days but I won't bore you with that! I will post pictures in a few!