12/09/06 Double Dip.... An Unhappy Trip Report (Completed 1/30)

[becka]

12/09/06 Double Dip...Cruising with A Preschooler, A Toddler & 150 Geeks (Original Title)

Renamed To "An Unhappy Trip Report" so those who don't like to read trip reports from those of us who did not have a perfect time can easily identify and avoid this report.

Background and Cast

We were on the 12/09/06 Double Dip cruise which we booked onboard during our first ever DCL cruise, a 4 night Wonder in February 2006. We don’t normally take two vacations in the same year but we loved the cruise and CC so much that the prospect of a double dip was too much to pass up so we booked. The cast included:

Me (aka Becka) – 31, Disney obsessed, compulsive planner and DIS addict
DH (aka Aaron) – 31, Not quite as Disney obsessed, likes to leave all the planning to me and just enjoy our Disney trips
DS (aka Nathan) – 4 going on 14; over-excited Power Ranger loving son who thinks he is far more grown up than he really is
DD (aka Allie) – 22 months; spoiled princess with an attitude and a nasty case of the terrible twos

An honorable mention should also be made to my fellow 12/9 DIS Geek cruisers – love ya guys!!! And of course no one could forget our very own Bobby Banana whose trip report should be following in the upcoming days.

Pre-Trip:

I spent many, many, many hours here on the DIS and digging through my Passporter in search of all the tips to make our cruise perfect and memorable. I also spent many, many, many, many more hours just chatting and having fun with my fellow DIS Geek cruisers under the pretenses of planning.

We originally had booked cabin 2618 on Deck 2 Aft because it was close to the same location we had on the Wonder (2614) and we loved it. I was a little concerned about noise being right off the elevator lobby instead of a few doors down so when I saw that 2608 opened up I snagged it for us. About 6 weeks before the cruise the prices on the Cat 12s dropped by A LOT! So along with many others I downgraded our reservation to a Cat 12 GTY and saved almost $1200 in doing so. Within hours of the downgrade we were assigned stateroom 6539 a Cat 11 on Deck 6 forward right next to many of my fellow DIS Geeks.

Due to my compulsive planning this last minute change in cabins really sent me into a tailspin. I immediately worried that I had made a BIG mistake in giving up our Cat 9. I loved the natural light and having a smaller cabin really worried me. Then I found out that only the sideways Cat 11s have steamer trunks. I thought I might pass out…what would I do without a steamer trunk in a smaller room with no light? I tried to calm myself down but the compulsive planner in me would just not shut up about what a huge mistake I had made. I knew we would survive but I tried to learn as much about upgrading at the port as I could in hopes of snagging a great upgrade to a Cat 9 or even to maybe a Cat 6 should we be so lucky and get a great rate.

Before we knew it it was almost time to leave. I was armed with about 12 spreadsheets over the last few days while we anxiously counted down the days. I packed and packed and repacked. I poured over the board info trying to gleam any last minute tips and I confirmed all of our reservations. I got our maps from AAA to prepare for the 21 hour drive from Missouri. We were scheduled to leave Missouri after my DH got off work on Thursday, 12/7, around 4:30 but as it turns out he was able to take off a half day of vacation that day and so we were actually on our way around 1:00 that afternoon. We drive straight through so the kids sleep a large portion of the trip and that makes it much easier on DH and I.

Cocoa Beach

We really loved Cocoa Beach. We got there earlier than I expected @ 10:30 so I never gave any thoughts about what to do there the day before our cruise except that I knew we wanted to have dinner at Grills and stay at the Radisson. We ended up having ½ day to just explore and we had a fantastic time. The combination of a beach town/cruise port and home to NASA was so quirky that it worked.

We were able to check in early at 10:30 and thankfully our room was ready. They said it was the first one they could check in for the day. Our room was very convenient to the parking lot which was nice and we were close to the pool. Unfortunately it was too cold to swim but we did just look around a little and it looked like it very nice. We had the sleep number beds which were nice since I had always wanted to try them. I was able to get my bed really, really soft which is just the way I like it. They did not have bed rails for DD so we went ahead and requested a crib for her. I expected a pack n’ play but this was more like a regular crib that was just very low to the ground. It was in decent shape and it worked for one night so that was all that mattered.

We had lunch at Zachary’s next door to the Radisson. It is a Greek/American place and I can’t say I would recommend it. It is small and we waited quite a while to be seated and they didn’t seem set up to handle families. We had to ask 4 times for the high chair before we got one. The food was OK but my DH’s sandwich (some kind of beef sandwich) came served practically raw. In fact the waitress said it was too raw and offered to get him something else so he ordered a club sandwich. I had a tuna wrap which was nothing exciting and a Greek salad – just OK. Service was slow and we were there longer than expected waiting on DH’s second sandwich and then at the end we noticed they had not adjusted our bill. They did adjust it at the counter when we paid but this is someplace I would not go back to in the future.

Since we had been driving for 21 hours we decided that a nap was in order after lunch. After a few hours of rest we set out to find some fun things to do. DH grabbed one of those tourist magazine things and found out there was a place called The Dinosaur Store. DH and DS love that kind of stuff so we set out in search of it. It was not really my thing but DH and DS loved it. DH bought some kind of fossil and the kids both got little dinosaur toys – a Dinosaur transformer thing for DS and a small stuff dinosaur for DD.

After the Dinosaur store we set out in search of Grills for an early dinner. We got there about 4:30 and we were seated right away. Our table had a great view of the channel and it kept the kids occupied since they loved looking at the boats and all the birds. Our waitress was fantastic – super friendly, made great recommendations and was good with the kids. The food was really good and quite plentiful. While we were there we saw a RC cruise ship leave and DS in particular thought that was very cool. We will definitely go back on a future trip.

After dinner we decided to drive over to Jetty Park to see if we could get a glimpse of the space shuttle. The launch has been cancelled for that night and we were not sure if we would get a chance to see it launch the next day or not so we figured we should take the opportunity while we have it. It cost $5 to park there but we did get a chance to see the shuttle on the launch pad and see the shuttle assembly buildings. It was very cool and well worth the $5 we paid for a 30 minute visit.

We left Jetty Park in search of Ron Jon’s Surf Shop just to check it out. We wandered around the place for about an hour and of course ended up buying a few souvenirs. We then went across the street to Walgreens so I could pick up some swim diapers for DD. When I got back in the car DH had noticed that the hotel across the street (Four something) has a shark aquarium that he wanted us to check out so off we went again. The kids loved seeing the aquarium but it was getting late and we had a big day ahead of us so I insisted that we head back to the Radisson and call it a night.

The next morning we were all up pretty earlier and I was going to have DH run across the street to McD’s and bring back some breakfast so we could eat before we left for the terminal. Shortly after we woke up we saw a red ant climbing up the wall by the headboard of one of the beds. DH and I don’t know much about ants but we knew that fire ants lived in Florida and we were very concerned that is what we saw. DH very carefully killed it and we decided to get the heck out of there. We hurriedly finished getting ready and we packed the car. When I checked out I mentioned the ant but the girl at the desk didn’t seem to take it very seriously. While the Radisson was certainly sufficient for our needs the new Residence Inn down the street looked so much nicer. I think next time that is where we will stay. We ended up eating breakfast at McDonalds’ which worked out fairly well because they have on of the play areas so the kids were entertained for about 45 minutes before we headed over to the terminal.

Overall we really enjoyed our introduction to Cocoa Beach and while it would be hard to plan to spend an extra full day or two there before a cruise with the allure of WDW just 45 minutes away we know we definitely want to go back and spend some time there in the future.

Check-In

We drove over to the terminal and we were there by 9:10 which was far too early. It was very confusing figuring out exactly where we needed to go and we ended up having to turn ourselves around at least twice. We finally ended up in the day parking lot across the street to wait for the terminal to open at 10:00. When we got there we saw Karen (BuzzBoyMom) right away thanks to the lime green shirts. Soon after that several other DISers joined us and we had a little mini-meet right there in the parking lot. It was very exciting to finally meet everyone that I had been talking to for months.

I had made the mistake (?) of downgrading our original Cat 9 room so I really wanted to get in the terminal as soon as possible and get a #2 boarding pass. Well we waited to get in the terminal dropped off our luggage, parked in the lot and then headed to security. At this point I realized I had made a mistake. While we were one of the first 10 cars of so inside the parking lot many, many, many people had been dropped off outside by shuttle, etc.. and they were already inside. When we got through security we got the last #3 boarding pass. We went up the elevator and I went to check in while DH and the kids wandered around and saw some characters. The regular line had a shorter wait than the CC line so that is where I went. I didn’t have to wait too long when I was called up to the counter. I had a very nice CM checking me in (I can’t remember her name) but she was “Earning Her Ears” and while she was very nice she was also pretty slow and that was stressing me out because I really wanted to get over to the upgrade line.

I was 2nd or 3rd in line at the upgrade line when I got there. Brandi (klineyqueen) from our DIS group was up with the CM at that time and I asked her if she knew what was left. She said that she got the last Cat 9 but they still had a few Cat 6’s and Cat 4’s available. She said that she actually would not have gotten the Cat 9 except that the family at the next CM next to them was giving up a Cat 9 for an upgrade and they were giving Brandi’s family that Cat 9. I was next in line when a third CM (Katrina) came out to the line and asked what we where in and what we wanted to upgrade too. I told her that we had a Cat 11 but I was wanting a Cat 9 (which I understood were sold out) or maybe a Cat 6 if they price was not too high. She then asked how many were in our party and I told her 4 and she very curtly told me that she only had Cat 6’s for 3 people. I then asked her what the cost to upgrade to a Cat 4 was. At that point she asked me “Are you sure you want to hear what it costs?” and she had a very snobby attitude when she said it like I could not possibly afford to upgrade. I said I did want to hear what it was and she told me it was a little under $1200. That was more than I wanted to spend so I was about to leave but the family at the desk in front of me overheard and said they were giving up a 4 person Cat 8 room if I wanted it. At that point Katrina very nastily stuck her hand up at me and said “No! You can’t have it!”. Wow! I was just stunned at how rude she was being. I just stared at her and then walked away in disbelief.

I went to find my family and at that point I was getting upset. I know I had downgraded and I really was prepared to deal with the consequences of that (after all I saved about $1200) but my experience with Katrina was really not nice at all. I was so stressed out already that she was the last thing I needed. I was really disappointed but I tried to put it behind me and enjoy trying to meet other DISers and wait for us to board the ship. It got very crowded in the terminal and my DS was not acting the best. The longer we stood there the more stressed out I became. While wandering around I talked to another DISer who asked me if I had tried to upgrade again because a member of her family group had just gotten upgraded a few minutes ago. Apparently some lower category rooms had become available after others had upgraded. I thought that it might be worth a shot so I head back over to the upgrade line. I am about 2nd or 3rd in line again and when I get to the front of the line guess who walks over….yep..Katrina. She gives me a kind of disgusted look while I try to explain to her that someone told me that some additional rooms might have opened up and I just wanted to check. She nastily tells me “There are no more rooms for 4 – all we have our rooms for 3”. She was really giving me attitude about this. I was about to walk away with the CM at the desk right next to her says “wait a minute we might have something let me check”. Well lo and behold there was a Cat 8 available that would hold 4 and it would cost me around $250 to upgrade. We were assigned room 5000. I was happy to have upgraded but I have to tell you my experience with Katrina had really sucked a lot of the magic right out of me. I have never encountered a CM that was so rude before.

I got back to wait and wait and wait some more. I guess because of the recent illness that had been on the ship they were doing some extra cleaning so it was a lot later before we were allowed on the ship. I understand why they needed to do that but it was frustrating when I had too little kids who were getting crabby and hungry and the terminal was just getting busier by the minute. We were finally let on board and we proceeded to Parrot Cay for lunch.

To Be Continued...... Post #11

 

[tynkerbell]

Wow, Katrina would has my blood boiling!!! Did you mention her to anyone... in a comment card or something? I don't like being confrontational but I think I would definately let DCL know they have such a nasty CM there.

I'm glad you got your upgrade afterall though.

 

[slindamood]

Becka -

Your's is the first trip report I have read - and - other than Katrina (an appropriate name for a disaster of a CM) it sounds great so far. Glad you got the upgrade!!

We were supposed to be sailing with the Geeks - but at the last minute, work got in the way. Darn lame duck session. But we did get to Florida and spent 10 days at Cocoa Beach - love Cocoa Beach!!! Just got back on Monday. I will post some photos of the Magic sailing on the Geek page. Not your sailing, but nice photos taken from the beach a little later in December.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Suzanne

 

[slindamood]

Love your photos!!! Your kids are so adorable - at least in print ; )

 

[lbgraves]

Becka, sorry to hear that your week started out so stressful. I had no idea since I was running around meeting everyone. (((HUGS))) I know that it didn't get easier for you.

 

[lbgraves]

Becka -

Your's is the first trip report I have read - and - other than Katrina (an appropriate name for a disaster of a CM) it sounds great so far. Glad you got the upgrade!!

We were supposed to be sailing with the Geeks - but at the last minute, work got in the way. Darn lame duck session. But we did get to Florida and spent 10 days at Cocoa Beach - love Cocoa Beach!!! Just got back on Monday. I will post some photos of the Magic sailing on the Geek page. Not your sailing, but nice photos taken from the beach a little later in December.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Suzanne

Hey there! It stinks that you couldn't go with us but it looks like you will be cruising with Caroline & Todd's families on the repo cruise.

 

[kritter]

Great report....Sorry that you encountered a nasty CM!!!

 

[debster]

great pics, what camera do you have?

Thanks for the report!

 

[lillygator]

wow - Becka, I had no idea your upgrade experience....

 

[becka]

great pics, what camera do you have?

Thanks for the report!

We bought a Cannon S3 a few weeks before the cruise. So far we really love it but quite a few of our pictures did not turn out as good as I had hoped thanks to user error. I wish we had bought it sooner and had more time to get everything figured out.

wow - Becka, I had no idea your upgrade experience....

Yes it was the perfect start to our week.... I need to get my letter written to DCL about Katrina and some other issues we had. With the holidays and everything else I have just not gotten around to it yet.

 

[becka]

After boarding we went straight to Parrot Cay for lunch. We were seated right next to Kristina and Andy (goofyforgoofy and goofyforlife) and their daughter Devon. Buffets are always logistically an issue when you have really little kids so what we did after being seated was DH stayed behind at the table with the kids while I went to the buffet to get plates for the kids. I was not aware that there was a separate kids’ buffet so I just went through the regular line. My kids are good enough eaters that this was not a problem. Due to the illness that had been on the ships recently there were CM’s stationed at the buffet to serve you. The buffet line is NOT designed for this and it was really slowing things down and made things very awkward. I had several of the CM’s ask me how many people were with our “lime green” group because they kept seeing people with the same shirts. I tried to explain to them that we were all friends from the DIS and that there were probably almost 200 of us. I personally think they were scared of us!

After getting the food for the kids I went back to the table while DH went up to the buffet. After he returned I was able to go up and get my own food. The kids and DH ate pretty well but by the time I got to eat the kids were already getting restless and I had been so busy I was not that hungry. The food was decent but I was not overwhelmed. The kids however did love dessert.

By this time it was after 1:30 so we could go straight to our room. Stateroom 5000 is at the very front of Deck 5 on the port side directly above the WD Theater. I was a little disappointed that our room did not have a steamer trunk but I figured we would manage. None of our luggage had shown up yet and since it had been tagged with our stateroom # before we upgraded I figured it would probably be delayed. I unpacked our carry-on bag while the kids explored and dug into the baskets I had ordered for the kids from Shirley at the Perfect Gift.

There was to be a DIS Meet at the Goofy Pool at 3:00 so we headed on up about 2:45 or so. The kids had fun dancing and playing with the other DIS kids. Nathan in particular seemed to have a fondness for Caroline’s (pyramid2000’s) two youngest daughters, Amanda and Dina. It was also another chance to meet more DISers. We had a good time and joined in for the group picture before heading back down to the room for the lifeboat drill.

The lifeboat drill was not fun but we survived. DD did better than I expected with her life jacket on but DS did not want to stand still. They wanted him at the front since he was the shortest (other than DD who was being held by DH) but that meant he kept trying to walk away. I had to grab a hold of a loop on the back of his jacket to keep him in line. He also kept saying he had to go to the bathroom because he thought it would get him out of line. Thankfully the drill was over in about 15 minutes but those of you with young kids probably understand that it felt like an hour.

We went back to the room to drop off our jackets and to find that our luggage was still not there. I was getting a little worried since I didn’t back dinner outfits in the carry-on. If the luggage did not show up soon we would be wearing t-shirts and jeans to dinner. I ran into Maricar our terrific stateroom host and she said she would make sure that Deck 6 and our old room was checked to see if our luggage was there. We went up to the sail away and just as things started DS had to go to the bathroom even though he had already gone 6 times since we had been on the ship. (DS seems to think that bathrooms are like tourist attractions and that he should visit all of them in a new location.) I figured DH would just take DS over to one of the restrooms up on Deck 9 by the pool but DH decided to try to teach him a lesson by taking him all the way back to our stateroom. He figured if DS missed the most of the party and the fun by asking to go to the restroom just for fun that he would stop doing it. Well as it turns out they did miss most of the party and I didn’t have a clue where they were. DD and I had fun dancing but I was really disappointed that DH and DS were not there for most of it. I had been looking forward to dancing with them and now half the family missed it. The one good thing is that when DH and DS went back to the room our large suitcase and one small one had been delivered and that meant that we knew we would at least have dinner clothes.

After the party we went up to Deck 10 for the actual sail away. On our last cruise we had the 5:30 dinner and so we were barely able to set sail before we had to go back to the room to change. This time we had 6:00 (LAPLAPL) so we had time to enjoy just a little. On our way up to Deck 10 I saw a guy selling the sail away drinks by the elevators. I asked if I could get one and he sold me the last one he had. He asked if I wanted alcohol and when I said yes he wisely poured quite a bit in it for me. He must have thought I looked like I needed a really good drink! We were heading upstairs when I tripped and proceeded to dump about a ¼ of my drink right on top of my DS. For the rest of the evening my 4 year old smelled like he had been drinking a lot of rum!

DH was thrilled that from Deck 10 you could see the shuttle on the launch pad at KSC. The launch was still scheduled for that evening and we were really hoping we would get a good view of it from out at sea.

We pulled some chairs up to the railing and the kids loved waving goodbye to all the people onshore while I really enjoyed my drink! We made sure to point out Grills to DS so he could wave to our waitress from the night before like he promised. She also told him that she would wave back. We watched until we cleared the channel and started heading out to sea before we went back to our room to change for dinner. When we got to our room we saw that the reminder of our luggage had arrived so we threw it in the room and then quickly I pulled out our clothes for our first dinner in Lumiere’s. While getting ready for dinner I really started to notice the ship moving. I was starting to think that we were in a really bad location this far forward. I had taken Dramamine that morning to try to ward off seasickness but I was already starting to feel light-headed. Then again I told myself it could just be that sail away drink on a mostly empty stomach.

To Be Continued…..

 

[curlybop]

I am really enjoying your report. Can't believe the rudeness of the CM though. Great photos also - keep on going!

 

[becka]

We got to dinner just a few minutes late and met V (lilygator), her DH John and their two adorable girls Samantha and Haley. We knew in advance who our tablemates would be thanks to the linked dining and the seating charts that Lisa (lbgraves) – our fearless leader – had put together in the weeks leading up to the cruise.

Our server was Carmen from Romania and our assistant server was Lisa from Scotland. They both seemed fairly nice over the course of the week but they were not the great spectacular servers that you hear about so often on the boards. They did a pretty good job with refills, etc.. but I would have loved a serving team that could help entertain my kids.

Nathan was in a big hurry to get to the kids club. He remembered the Club from our previous 4 day cruise and it was just killing him that he had been on the ship for about 6 hours and had not been to the Club yet. Nathan ordered the first of 6 gazillion glasses of chocolate milk, DD got regular milk and I ordered my usual Diet Coke (I am actually a Diet Pepsi girl but I had to compromise on Diet Coke in order to get my caffeine fixes during the cruise).

We knew Nathan would want to go to the Club immediately after he ate and we realized we had forgotten the pager back in the room and the Navigator. I decided to run up to the room real quick to pick them up while waiting for our appetizers. I was starting to feel a little more light headed and I thought we must be moving really fast because the boat was really rocking. In fact while walking down the corridor to our room I kind of fell to the side and hooked my jacket sleeve onto the hand rails….it must have made for quite a sight but thankfully everyone was busy. As I got closer to the room I then realized just how LOUD it was going to be in our room while shows were going on in the WDT. Yikes! The whole floor was vibrating and it was loud. I grabbed our stuff and managed to stumble my way back to Lumieres’ while trying to make my head stop spinning.

Dinner was decent but nothing too fabulous. I really liked the escargot, the beef was just so-so and the apple tart was not what I expected. I guess I was thinking it would be a warm apple type dessert but this was cold and tasted kind of like old apple pie after it has been refrigerated a few days. DD got chocolate pudding for dessert and she was in love. She ate every last bit of it and it became a bit of a dinner time staple for her on the cruise. At least it counts as dairy, right? Nathan got a Mickey bar with lots of sprinkles for dessert and he made a huge mess of himself. Our tablemates had ordered a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles for their DD and once DS saw that he decided that was the better deal and ordered just the ice cream and sprinkles for the rest of the trip.

Nathan went to the club after dinner and I was feeling too sick to do a whole lot so DH, DD and I went back up to the room. The early show was finished so it was quiet while I laid down on the bed with a wet washcloth on my face and tried to keep the world from rocking. DH started unpacking and DD watched a Disney movie on the TV while DH wondered if the shuttle launch was still scheduled to go. DD must have been pretty exhausted because she feel asleep watching TV so we dressed her in her PJ’s and tucked her in. DH called guest services and they confirmed that the shuttle launch was a go for something like 8:49 PM. Since I was not feeling very good at all and since DD was asleep I told DH to just go up to Deck 10 to watch the shuttle and make sure he took lots of pictures and described it to me. I had always wanted to see a shuttle launch and while I knew this was likely my only chance I was just feeling THAT sick plus I hated to wake up DD and take her up on a cold, windy deck.

About 10 minutes out DH begs me to come with him and convinces me that I will always regret not going up to watch it with him. So we pick up DD and put her in the stroller and wrap her up with a big blanket to keep her warm and we head up to Deck 10 aft. DD was so tired she never ever stirred. When we got up to Deck 10 I was surprised to find that we apparently had not gone very far. It seems the Captain has us just 9 miles offshore so we would have a great view of the launch. I was convinced with all the moving that we must have been going very, very fast but instead we had been practically stationary. The shuttle launch was really quite amazing and I am thankful that my DH drug my light-headed sick self out of the room to see it. Pictures really do not do it justice.

Immediately after the launch we started to pick up speed and as we headed down to our stateroom I could fell us moving. I was wondering if just staying stationary was actually causing the movements to feel worse but as we picked up speed things felt just as bad. We put DD back to bed while I changed for the night and tried to get some sleep. DH stayed up a little while longer watching TV and then went to pick up DS about 9:30. DS had a great time in the Club and couldn’t wait to go back in the morning. However, we reminded him that tomorrow we would be in CC and it was time for some surf and sand. Just the thought of CC in the morning made me feel a little better…..

Unfortunately it was a very rocky night and I did not sleep well. I felt sick most of the night and I really felt like I was going to roll off the bed a number of times from the terrible rocking. I was so thankful my kids’ beds were going against the roll or I would have been afraid of them falling out of bed – especially my DS on the top bunk. I really thought at some point around 3 AM that I needed to call guest services about getting some bed rails for OUR bed. Even the closet doors were banging open and shut pretty violently at some points during the night.

Finally morning arrived and we were only maybe 30 minutes out from CC. The rocking seemed to be lessening or maybe I was just wishfully finally getting used to it. We got up and tried to find all of our beach stuff (easier said than done with 7 bags and a small stateroom ). We then headed on up to Topsiders for some lunch and looked forward to a great day at CC.

To Be Continued…..

 

[becka]

I think the all ashore time was around 9 AM but we got a bit later start that we intended. We headed up to Topsiders’ for the breakfast buffet. The CM’s were still serving you and it really slowed things down and I sometimes had trouble getting them to understand what I wanted since I had several plates (one for me and 2 for the kids). I wanted to try the omelet station but we felt that we should probably just eat and get to the beach so we could get a decent spot especially since we were running so late.

After breakfast we disembarked and got our first glimpse of CC all dressed up for Christmas. They really did a great job of making the beach look Christmas-y. We stopped for some pictures with the snowman and the tree and then stopped for a picture with Donald before making our way to the family beach. The walk took a little longer than usual because DH has to stop every other step to take another picture of the Flying Dutchman. (I am not kidding when I tell you that we have almost 100 pictures of that ship along on our digital camera card when we returned. ) We knew that several of our DIS Geek crew were planning on staking out some spots toward the far end of the family beach out near the water climbing thing so that is where we headed and sure enough we spotted them. We found two chairs under an umbrella and started staking out our camp.

The kids played in the sand for a little while but then Nathan was dying to hit the water. DH took DS out in the water to play while I stayed back behind with Allie. I tried to keep her from really thinking about the water too much because I knew that when she realized she could get in the water there would be no keeping her out. She happily played in the sand for a while but surely enough it was not long before she wanted to go out too. So DH took her out and while she looked really cold she didn’t care. Both of the kids had a good time playing until I figured it was time for us to head on up to Cookie’s for lunch.

Everything had been going pretty well up until this point but I think that my fatigue was starting to get to me and I got a little not so nice with DH while we tried to get the kids ready to eat lunch. DD did not want to get out the water which did not help things along. I wanted them to change so they didn’t have to sit around in wet suits at lunch and to help DS get all the sand that was rubbing in not so good places out of his suit. This for some reason turned into a major event with me getting more frustrated by the minute with DH – some of the frustration was deserved but I will admit a lot of it was not. Anyway we finally ended up grabbing some lunch and the food was pretty good but the best things were by far the chocolate chip cookies. Yummy!

After lunch we asked DS is he wanted to check out the kids Club on the island because there were going to have water games. He said it sounded like fun so DH took him over while I finished eating lunch with DD. At this point we were hoping DD would take a nap if we put her in the stroller and walked around. We headed out toward the game pavilion and just kind of wandered around checking out little places here and there. Unfortunately DD wanted no part of a nap even though she was tired. We ended up back on the beach near the same chairs. I was still feeling really stressed from our pre-lunch time so I kind of let DH stay in charge of Allie while I tried to relax for a few minutes. We figured we would head back to the ship around 2:45ish and pick up DS on the way to try to beat some of the crowds. Just as we start packing up it starts to rain and the mass exodus begins. We got pretty wet and we walked back to the ship and picked up DS. There was a really long checkout line at the Club so we didn’t end up getting back on the ship until close to 3:30. We went up to the room where I pulled out our dinner clothes and started getting baths ready to go. We also ordered a little bit of room service (including some more yummy cookies) so we could have a snack while resting and cleaning up before dinner. I gave the kids their baths and then just dressed them in their dinner clothes and let them rest while they watched some TV and snacked. I kept hoping that DD would take a nap but she stubbornly stayed awake. I think DS nodded off a little for which I was thankful.

Dinner tonight was in AP which is the best restaurant on the ship IMHO. The food is not any better than the others but I love the décor. Nathan had been asking to go back to the restaurant where all the pictures light up for a long time so he was thrilled when I told him tonight was the night. Our tablemates were enjoying Palo so it was just us for dinner.

I had noticed the movement of the boat since we left CC but I was really hoping I would not start feeling bad again but unfortunately about the time we sat down for dinner is when I started feeling pretty rough again. The food was OK – nothing too memorable for me – but then again I really felt like I couldn’t eat all that much because the world was spinning. Nathan once again hurried up with his dinner, had a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles and then headed for the club. DD had some chocolate pudding while DH and I tried to eat some dessert. After dinner I was getting really worried that I was going to be seasick the entire cruise. I had started taking extra Bonine earlier in the evening but it was apparently not enough. I knew about Sea Bands and I thought I might give them a try so after dinner we headed for the shops to see about getting some Sea Bands and to spend money on souvenirs.

One thing that I bought that I should probably mention is that I spent $30 on a bottle of the shampoo and conditioner that was in our room. I LOVED the Spa H2O products. I loved everything about them. It about killed me to pay that kind of money for it but it really was fabulous and as an added bonus when I am having a rough day at home I wash my hair with it and I am instantly transported back to the Magic. Well worth $30 to me…

That night’s show was a variety show but we decided against going because DD looked really tired and I was not feeling all that great although the Sea Bands did seem to help a little bit. We headed back to our room where we got to “hear” the show through the floor while getting DD ready for bed. We checked out the Navigator for our day at sea activities and after a little while DH went to check DS out of the Club so we could get him to bed. I rolled over and prayed that the seas would calm down a little that night and
the next day so I could enjoy being at sea.

To Be Continued.....

 

[mruhaak]

Enjoying your report and the pics!

Your kids are the around the age my 2 boys will be when we cruise. I know it's hard work... but was it worth it?

Your daughter especially is really cute!

 

[becka]

Monday was our first day at sea and I was really looking forward to it. I thought we would have a chance to relax and just enjoy the experience of cruising. The only real “plans” we had was to see the matinee show of the Golden Mickeys and then DH and I had dinner reservations at Palo. Alone time with fabulous food and my DH….

I don’t remember what time we woke up but I know the kids were awake far earlier than I would have liked. I am guessing it was around 7:00. We had our character breakfast scheduled for this morning so we couldn’t sleep in forever anyway. I was not feeling quite as seasick as I had the night before but I could definitely tell that we were still moving. A little more concerning is that I was starting to get this very bad feeling that I was coming down with a urinary track infection. I tried to stay positive and think that I probably should just be sure to up my water intake and I would be fine.

We headed up to Parrot Cay at our designated time. On the way down we passed those really big porthole windows in the Beat Street area and the kids couldn’t resist jumping in them for a few minutes.

I didn’t know it at the time but our tablemates were not joining us so it was just the 4 of us at the table. Our servers brought out some juice and pastries and took our breakfast order. They told us to be prepared with autograph books, cameras, etc.. for when the characters started visiting the tables. We are a veteran of WDW character meals and while I had heard the cruise character meal was rushed I really wondered how bad it could be. Well let me tell you – it was FAST! The characters would barely stay for a photo and we were not even trying to get autographs. There was no real interaction at all. I really can’t understand why it is so rushed. PC is not that much larger than many of the WDW restaurants and somehow the character meals there are not even close to that rushed. I didn’t expect then to spend 5 minutes a piece at our table but time to get a 2nd picture did not seem to be too much of a request.

My DS had his little disposable camera with him because he wanted to get some pictures of the characters as well. He managed to get quick ones of a few characters right before they left for the next table. However when Pluto came to the table he took the picture of us as a family and then when DS picked up his little camera to try to get one picture (not ½ a second later) Pluto had already moved on and would not come back for the picture. He was a little upset. Nathan enjoyed the napkin waving and loved beating me with it and our servers made some nifty little hats for us but overall I was very disappointed in the character breakfast. I really just don’t understand why they can’t do a better job here.

After breakfast Nathan was dying to go back to the Club so we dropped him off and tried to figure out what to do with ourselves before lunch. Mostly we ended up just kind of wandering around the ship. We spent some more time up by Beat Street near the forward elevators so DD could play in those giant porthole windows again. She loved them and did not want to leave to do anything else. I think she could have spent the entire morning there. We also spent some time (and some money) in the gift shops.

I also decided to play some Bingo. DH and DD wandered around the ship looking at the decorations before stopping by for the last game or two when Allie wanted to play too! Unfortunately I didn’t win but I did have fun.

Before we knew it it was time to go check on Nathan and see if he wanted to eat in the club or come eat lunch with us. When we checked up on him he said he wanted to come with us so we set off in search of lunch. The buffets had been so backed up with the CM’s serving you and buffets are a big pain with little kids anyway that we decided to head to Lumiere’s for lunch. Right outside the restaurant where some character appearances so we stopped for some pictures first.

We were seated over by a window and we ordered our lunch. The server we had was not the friendliest but it was just for one meal. I ordered the burger, DH had some kind of fish sandwich. I think DS had pizza and DD had the chicken strips. When my burger was served she asked me if I wanted ketchup, mustard and/or mayo. I stated that yes I would like all 3 please. She comes back over with a try that has all three in containers with a spoon in each. I think she is going to set it down on the table but instead she takes HUGE glopping spoonfuls of each and puts in on top of my burger. Ewwww! It was just gross. It was easily 10x more than I would ever possibly put on myself. I was just kind of stunned when she did it more than anything. I manage to try to take most of it off before starting to eat. Here is a picture of it AFTER I tried to get most of it off the burger. I wish I had taken the before pic!

A few minutes later DD who is happily in the middle of her meal throws up all over the table and herself. Great! She had choked on a piece of chicken strip and everything came up. I have never seen CM’s move so fast. Before we knew it there were all kinds of people swarming around our table. I hear the server whispering to another “They are in stateroom 5000”…. This was not good especially with all the Norovirus stuff that had been going around. I try to clean up DD a little at the table which trying to stop myself from gagging and making an even bigger mess. I manage to get DD in the stroller and back to the room while DH stays with DS so he can finish his pizza.

I take her back to the room and I get her cleaned up and give her a bath. DH comes back shortly to help after he took Nathan back to the club. At this point I was really, really, really worried that they were going to quarantine us to our room for days because DD threw up. We knew she had choked on a piece of chicken but what if they didn’t believe us. Since they had been asking about our room number I figured we would be getting a phone call or a knock on the door any minute. We decided that just to be on the safe side and since it was DD’s nap time anyway that we would just stay in the room for a while and see if she would take a nap and we could make sure she was not feeling sick.

We tried to get her settled down for her nap but it was very difficult. I ended up just resting with her while she watched a Disney movie on the TV. About 1:40ish we packed things up and headed out for the matinee of the Golden Mickey’s. We stopped by the Club on the way to pick up DS and then on to the theater. It was not very busy at all and we were able to get pretty good seats. Nathan loved the Golden Mickey’s on our previous cruise and he was very excited to see it again. It is a very good show and both my kids loved it. DD sang, clapped and bounced her way through it even though you could tell she was pretty tired.

After the show Nathan really wanted to hit Mickey Mates. He had some money he had saved for toys on the ship. He looked over a lot of stuff but what he really, really, really wanted with the Cars Mac truck play set for $22. I tried to tell him that would take pretty much all of his money. I tried to convince him to wait until later in the week in case he saw something else but he could not be convinced. I let him pick it out and when we paid for it the CM told him that only Mac was in the box and that none of the other character cars were in there even though they are shown on the box. (I am guessing there had been complaints). DS said that didn’t matter because he had Cars toys at home he could use with him so we paid and he was one thrilled little guy.

By the time the show was over I was starting to notice a little more movement and so I headed back to the room to take more medicine. Nathan decided he didn’t want to go back to the Club just then since we told him he would be there most of the evening while we had dinner at “the grown up restaurant”. We took the kids back to the room and let them rest while they watched TV. I think that DD did fall asleep for just a little while but Nathan just kind of played with his new Mac toy and watched TV. After about an hour or do DS decided he wanted to go back to the Club and play. It was almost their dinner time in the Club so I told him he needed to decide if he wanted to eat in the Club or grab something else. He choose the Club so off he went….

DH was really wanting to get some pictures of the sunset at sea so we headed up to Deck 9 first to get some food for DD and then we all went up to Deck 10 forward by the sports area. DD and I lounged while she ate and DH took pictures. It was actually very nice up there with the sun setting and the breeze. It was one of those moments that you kind of envision when you think about taking a cruise. Very nice….

We had 7 PM reservations for Palo but I had arranged for our Flounders time for DD to start at 6 PM so we would have some time to get dressed in peace. We went back to our stateroom so I could get in the shower while DH took Allie down to Flounders. DH came back pretty quickly and told me that she seemed pretty happy and had no problems being left there. DD goes to daycare here at home and she is pretty adaptable to new situations so I was not surprised to hear that she walked right in.

While getting ready I noticed once again that we seemed to be rocking more than just a little bit. Getting ready became increasingly more difficult and by 6:45 I was feeling BAD. I was disappointed because we were really looking forward to our Palo dinner and at that point I was not even sure I was going to be able to make it. DH convinced me to give it a try so we went up to Deck 10. Being higher up did nothing for my seasickness – in fact I think it made me feel worse but we only had one opportunity for dinner so I tried to put on a happy face and go in.

I can’t remember our server’s name right now but when she saw me she asked what was wrong. I think I must have been 8 shades of green by then. She immediately said she would bring me some ginger ale and that hopefully I would start feeling better. I thought I had felt sick the previous two nights but that was nothing compared to that Monday night. At least on the other nights I could still eat some but unfortunately the rocking was so bad that I was afraid to eat anything. I went ahead and ordered hoping that maybe the ginger ale would kick in and I would be able to eat a least a little. I ordered the tomato/mozzarella salad, we ordered a pizza to share and I ordered the fettuccine alfredo for my entrée. She then had us order dessert at the time so I ordered the famous chocolate soufflé.

By the time we ordered I was already on my second glass of ginger ale and I was not feeling any better at all. Our server kept stopping by the table to ask how I was and she kept telling me to just drink the ginger ale and just “not think about it” and I would be fine. She told me the same thing over and over every time she brought a course or just stopped by the table to see if we needed anything. “Just don’t think about it”. “You are thinking too much”. “Just talk about something else”…… Now I realize she thought she was trying to help but being continually told that basically it was all in my head while I felt like crying because I felt like I was ruining my special time with DH was not helping. It just made me feel worse. It was also annoying and it felt like someone trying to tell you not to think about the pain when you are in labor or something. This was not something I could just make go away or ignore. It was overwhelming and it took all my concentration just to sit there and not get really really sick. I took a few bites of my food and I could barely even speak to DH. We had looked forward to that meal for a long while and I couldn’t even carry on a conversation or eat. I even ended up eating about 2 bites of the soufflé before my head/stomach rebelled.

This Palo experience was nothing like our previous dinner on our 4 night cruise. Now granted I was sick as could be but our server did not bring anything extra for DH to try. She simply brought what we ordered, filled our drinks and kept telling me I should stop thinking about being sick. Overall it was really disappointing.

After dinner we went down to Deck 4 midship so I could get a little air in hopes that would maybe help. We sat on the loungers at midship and I have to say that did make me feel slightly better. We were tired and I think both of us were afraid we would fall asleep so we decided to call it a night and just go to bed. I went back to the room to get in bed while DH went and got the kids. DD had been asleep for just a little while when he picked her up but she was tired so it was easy to get her settled in for the night. DS was being a little more rambunctious but we did eventually get him calmed down and to sleep.

The next day we were going to be in Costa Maya. DH was going to be up early to meet others in our DIS group for a big ruins tour while I spent the morning with the kids. I was also very thankful that at least for large portions of the day we would be docked so hopefully I would feel much better soon…. I was starting to feel like maybe cruising is not for me…..

To Be Continued…..

 

[becka]

Enjoying your report and the pics!

Your kids are the around the age my 2 boys will be when we cruise. I know it's hard work... but was it worth it?

Your daughter especially is really cute!

Thanks! It is nice to hear that someone is reading and enjoying my report.

Honestly this trip was harder than I imagined and in hindsight I wish we had not yet done a 7 day. It was just 2-3 days too long. We did the 4 night when the kids were younger and that went much better. By Day 5 on this cruise my DD in particular had just had enough. She still enjoyed the characters and did have some fun but she was very difficult to deal with and she did not want to have to sit for dinner, etc.. anymore and she handled it in a way that would make 2 year olds the world over quite proud.

I think so much of it just depends on your kids. I thought mine would be fine since they loved the 4 day but it was rough. Of course when you book you never know exactly where they will be the day you get on the ship so maybe it is just a tossup. I do know that we will not go back until DD is able to go in the kids club. She loves to do everything her big brother does and not getting to swim in the Mickey pool, etc.. with him upset her a great deal.

 

[kimerinc]

Thanks! It is nice to hear that someone is reading and enjoying my report.

Honestly this trip was harder than I imagined and in hindsight I wish we had not yet done a 7 day. It was just 2-3 days too long. We did the 4 night when the kids were younger and that went much better. By Day 5 on this cruise my DD in particular had just had enough. She still enjoyed the characters and did have some fun but she was very difficult to deal with and she did not want to have to sit for dinner, etc.. anymore and she handled it in a way that would make 2 year olds the world over quite proud.

I think so much of it just depends on your kids. I thought mine would be fine since they loved the 4 day but it was rough. Of course when you book you never know exactly where they will be the day you get on the ship so maybe it is just a tossup. I do know that we will not go back until DD is able to go in the kids club. She loves to do everything her big brother does and not getting to swim in the Mickey pool, etc.. with him upset her a great deal.

Oh Becka, I am so sorry about the motion sickness. Being sick over and over can just take the life out of anything and anyone. I am so sorry! Those first few nights were hard on DH too. Rougher seas that we thought they would be.

 

[87Heel]

Becka, I'm so sorry that there were so many rough spots on the cruise. Of course, now I'm thinking of all the times I saw you and I'd happily yell out "Hi Becka!!! How's everything?" If you were feeling miserable, I must have been annoying.

But your report is great! Please keep it going!

 

[becka]

Becka, I'm so sorry that there were so many rough spots on the cruise. Of course, now I'm thinking of all the times I saw you and I'd happily yell out "Hi Becka!!! How's everything?" If you were feeling miserable, I must have been annoying.

But your report is great! Please keep it going!

Marielle - don't feel bad for saying Hi - you were not annoying me at all! We did have some good fun times just some really rough times too. I had so much fun meeting all of you guys and it was one of the highlights on our trip.