12/09/06 Cruise Continued ~ Pirating Bananas DIS Geekorama Part 2 Part 14

[becka]

We are back home in Missouri. Allie was NOT happy being in the car (nothing new to us after this last week ) and so we decided to make the trip by driving straight through. It took us almost 21 hours. We got home at 4 AM Central Time (5 AM Eastern) after leaving the port around 8:30ish Eastern yesterday morning. We pulled my purse and the kids blanket and stuffed animals out of the car and we all walked into the house and fell into our beds. Thankfully the kids were almost as happy to see their beds as we were ours and they slept until about 8:30 this morning.

The luggage is still in the car (I have not had the energy to tackle bringing it in the house yet). Hopefully we will get it inside in the next few hours.

We looked through the pictures and we had some pretty good shots but you can tell we had a fairly new camera. I think we ended up with about 1400+ pictures. It will take some time to go through them all and pick out the good ones.

Overall we are so happy to be home. We had a real rough vacation. We had some really fun moments but a lot of not so fun ones as well. I though we would go to WDW next year but now I am not so sure. We are going to have to wait 6 months or so to see how things go here with Allie. She has hit the "terrible twos" in a big way these past few weeks and if she continues to act the same way I don't want to deal with it at WDW either. We have not totally written off a 2008 reunion cruise but right now I would not give it better than 50/50 odds.

One of the highlights of the week was just getting to finally meet everyone. I know there were many I never met and I wish I could have spent more time talking with everyone but we were all so busy. I also would like to apologize for those who never got any smilie goodies from us. I tried handing them out over 3 different days and with all the room changes, etc.. I know some people got missed. Hopefully if there is a reunion cruise for us I will come up with a better way to hand stuff out.

 

[TanaL]

Glad you made it home okay. We are back in Portland, but are staying at a hotel by the airport. We will go home tomorrow. Aaron's other grandma pick him up and will bring him back to the airport tomorrow. Our power was out for about 3 hours because of the windstorm, according to DGS, but now there is a transformer fire that has cut power to much of the area. We don't know if our house is affected. Some more transformers are blowing up and they can't get close enought to fight the fire yet! DGS will be at work until 10 pm, so we won't know about our house until later on.

Glad all of you got together for lunch. It was hard leaving PJ there alone. (sniff). We will post more later. We are close to home and are safe and sound. We love you all. Thanks for helping us to have so much fun. Thanks to all of you for everything. We love the Empress too. AND, hug that Banana.

Den n Ang n Aaron

Oh, Hi Savannah, from Aaron. He was sure sad about coming home.

oh no Dennis & Angie, that transformer fire sounds awful. I am hoping and praying that your house isn't affected and that everyone, especially the fire fighters, is safe.

 

[TanaL]

praying for a safe and smooth trip home for Aaron, he is such a brave young man!!

Did anyone buy a Shutters picture from Animators? We didn't have any taken there by them (never saw the photogs there) but we took one with our own camera and I would like to add that frame they use. If someone has one they would be willing to scan and send to me, I'd be ever so grateful! I can use photoshop to cut out the inside and add my own pic. I can do the same for anyone who has a Parrot Cay pic as I did get that one from Shutters. Thanks!!

 

[pyramid2000]

Home!!

I got as far as Fredricksberg VA last night, then only had 3 1/2 hours left this morning. Took a grand total of 15 hours driving time. Got home by 12:30 today.

Have to run though because Ibrahim just hurt his back. Have to go to my dad's to get some pills.

Had the BEST time with everyone!!!

 

[bubbasmom99]

Good morning! Or is it afternoon??

I just read through the last few pages and I was doing just FINE until I saw the twopalms screenshot and now I'm just about bawling I had such a great week and it was wonderful to meet everyone and you are all 50billion times more fun in person!

We had a rather eventful last day after we left the port... If you happened to see a silver Pontiac spin out on the 528 freeway about 9 am... that was us... It was about halfway to the airport... there was some construction going on and DH had glanced down quickly to make sure he had a $1 bill for the toll booth and when he looked up, traffic had come to a standstill. So he swerved out of the lane (thank God there was no traffic in the right lane), we went into a skid one direction, he overcorrected, we skidded the other direction and finally did a 180 spin into the grassy shoulder. PRAISE GOD we didn't hit anyone or anything -- there was miraculously nothing in our way (had it been California, we would have run into something - there are signs and crap everywhere on the shoulder). So we checked and everything was okay -- kids thought it was some sort of fun ride lol but nobody hurt and we were able to pull back onto the road and go on our way.

 

[bubbasmom99]

Then we went to the MK where it was horribly crowded in comparison to the week before the cruise. Got in one ride on Buzz, one on Stitch for DS and one on the carousel for DD... lunch at Cosmic Rays, one last Mickey bar (sucks when you have to fork out cash for it) and we were on our way home...

and then we got to ride in the front of the monorail on our last trip to the TTC! That was the perfect ending to a fantastic vacation.

 

[bubbasmom99]

I hope Aaron makes it home okay! He is a super little guy

 

[TanaL]

Good morning! Or is it afternoon??

I just read through the last few pages and I was doing just FINE until I saw the twopalms screenshot and now I'm just about bawling I had such a great week and it was wonderful to meet everyone and you are all 50billion times more fun in person!

We had a rather eventful last day after we left the port... If you happened to see a silver Pontiac spin out on the 528 freeway about 9 am... that was us... It was about halfway to the airport... there was some construction going on and DH had glanced down quickly to make sure he had a $1 bill for the toll booth and when he looked up, traffic had come to a standstill. So he swerved out of the lane (thank God there was no traffic in the right lane), we went into a skid one direction, he overcorrected, we skidded the other direction and finally did a 180 spin into the grassy shoulder. PRAISE GOD we didn't hit anyone or anything -- there was miraculously nothing in our way (had it been California, we would have run into something - there are signs and crap everywhere on the shoulder). So we checked and everything was okay -- kids thought it was some sort of fun ride lol but nobody hurt and we were able to pull back onto the road and go on our way.

OH MY GOODNESS!!! So glad you were ok! Now I have to go back and look for the screenshot, and get the kleenex out, sniff sniff.

 

[pyramid2000]

Good morning! Or is it afternoon??

I just read through the last few pages and I was doing just FINE until I saw the twopalms screenshot and now I'm just about bawling I had such a great week and it was wonderful to meet everyone and you are all 50billion times more fun in person!

We had a rather eventful last day after we left the port... If you happened to see a silver Pontiac spin out on the 528 freeway about 9 am... that was us... It was about halfway to the airport... there was some construction going on and DH had glanced down quickly to make sure he had a $1 bill for the toll booth and when he looked up, traffic had come to a standstill. So he swerved out of the lane (thank God there was no traffic in the right lane), we went into a skid one direction, he overcorrected, we skidded the other direction and finally did a 180 spin into the grassy shoulder. PRAISE GOD we didn't hit anyone or anything -- there was miraculously nothing in our way (had it been California, we would have run into something - there are signs and crap everywhere on the shoulder). So we checked and everything was okay -- kids thought it was some sort of fun ride lol but nobody hurt and we were able to pull back onto the road and go on our way.

OH MY GOD JOY!!! I am so thankful you are ok!! That must have been so scary.

It's good to read about everyone getting home safe and sound. Prayers Aaron makes it home also!

 

[pyramid2000]

This will drive me nuts if I don't get us to 67,000. It has just been sitting here for a week.

 

[pyramid2000]

Luckily my drive home was without insident. I dropped off the family at 12:30 after we stopped for lunch at TGIF. They wouldn't accept the KTTW card.

I then had to stop at Walmart to get a car charger for the phone since both DH and I forgot to charge the phones while onboard. Picked up a few little gifts to give to the Girl Scouts outside collecting for a Toys for Tots drive.

 

[pyramid2000]

I have one piece of advice for everyone.

DO NOT GET GAS NEAR THE AIRPORT HOTELS!!! It was over $1 more than everywhere else. I got just enough to get me out of Florida as I thought that was the price throughout the state ($3.53). NOT!

 

[pyramid2000]

As I started the drive up I-95 I contemplated just forking over the outrageous amount over to Amtrak as I was pretty tired. Guess my procrastination kicked me in the butt this time.

While I could have done the whole trip for free with points, trying to book the last day would have been over $550!

So instead, I pulled over into a mall and took a half hour cat nap. I really got on the road about 1:30 and didn't stop except for gas and food until 1 am in VA. See? told you I could make it to VA Kristina!

 

[pyramid2000]

I was about a 40 miles from DC when I stopped. I had been bugging a rep from Country Inn trying to get an idea on how far apart their hotels were on I-95 so I would know if I wanted to keep going or not when I reached one. I finally decided on Fredricksberg (or something like that) and called my sister to book it on-line so I would get extra points. Had fun talking with her the last hour of my ride last night.

 

[pyramid2000]

I thought it wouldd take me another 4 1/2 hours this morning, but even with more cars on the road, it only took 3 1/2. I should have just kept driving last night! I probably would have if I didn't think DH would kill me. Turns out he had expected me too. I would have been home by 4 am. Ah well...

 

[pyramid2000]

Hi Lisa!!

 

[pyramid2000]

Hi Vanessa!!

Gee, where IS everyone???

 

[lillygator]

Joy - I am glad all of you are safe!

Ang and Dennis...hope Aaron does ok on the way home, he is a sweet little guy!

Becka and Aaron- glad you guys made it home...we only had a little way to go and we all fell in bed as well! I do not envy those who had far to travel!


all the 12/8/07'ers....we'll be seeing you!!

Now we are going in the pool...we got home yesterday to 80 degrees.....in Sarasota and it is gorgeous today!! No unpacking done...most of it is in the car!!!

 

[pyramid2000]

Hi Dody!!

 

[lillygator]

Lisa is here??? Hey Lisa and Caroline!
I had such a blast....still did not get to do half od what I wanted and really.....will change how we do next year's cruise...it's a vacation for goodness sakes!!