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

[Disney owl]

Great report & photos

 

[brack]

To Be Continued…..

Great trip report Becka!

I love looking at the background of our pictures to see who shows up in them.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your story. It is making me think of doing mine soon.

 

[lillygator]

Becka....move to Sarasota....DH could get pics of this every day!!


I am so sorry to hear that you felt it was too long (as in 7 days) to cruise with little ones...I guess I feel I strugele enough daily with these two that, hey on vacation, they are going to work around us!!

 

[seb1104mom]

Incredible story. I'm so enjoying your report I can't wait for the rest, please don't keep me waiting.

 

[Bella2000]

Hi Becka! I am just getting around to reading everyone else's trip reports. I love the pics (the ones in port hole and pluto on all 4s are too precious). I am SO sorry you were feeling yucky. I hade no clue. That one night at Animators Palate got me but it did on the 4 day as well. I just must feel the engine and the movement or something there. Cheers to Ginger ale!!

I also feel terrible that you had such a stinky CM at port check-in! I must have seen you around that time and you were so positive - I can't even imagine someone being so rude. I hope you write to DCL. There is no excuse for that behavior and as someone said the CM was apply named.

I look forward to reading more of your report!

 

[becka]

I woke up early on Tuesday and I pretty much knew immediately that there was a problem. I know that Monday I tried to ignore the all too familiar signs of a UTI but by Tuesday morning it was too late. I was in quite a bit of pain and I knew that it would get bad very fast. I pulled out the Navigator and the medical center would not open until 9 AM plus I had the little fact that my DH was due to meet a large group of DISers down in the atrium about 7:15 in order to go on a ruins tour which would leave me with the kids by myself.

I quickly took some pain meds but I knew that it would be a while before they started to kick in. I was trying to stay positive but I knew that DH was disappointed because he thought he was going to have to cancel his ruins tour to watch the kids. This ruins tour was the thing he had been most looking forward to for the entire cruise and I was about to make him miss it.

The original plan had been for him to get up early, grab breakfast and meet the group while I ordered room service breakfast for me and the kids and then I might take the kids to the pool or just spend some fun time with them. That obviously was not happening now. DH spent about an hour agonizing over whether to leave me and the kids at all. I really didn’t know what to tell him. I had taken some pain meds but it usually takes a while for them to work and in the meantime I knew I was going to be feeling progressively in more and more pain. In the end he decided to go and he left right at 7:15 to go meet them so he had no time to eat. I wanted to order room service for the kids but honestly I was in so much pain shortly after he left that I could not even really manage to leave the little bathroom for more than a minute or so at a time. During that time my two rambunctious little ones where playing with the phone, the remote, etc.. and I really couldn’t do a whole lot about it. In desperation I ended up digging some of the candy from the kids goodie baskets for them for breakfast. That did pacify them for a little while…

It must have been around 8:00 that the kids clubs and Flounders opened so I somehow managed to get them dressed and take them down the hall. I got to the OC and the doors were closed. I could have sworn the Navigator said they were open. I decided to walk down to Flounders and pray that they had a spot for DD. I really was not sure I was going to be able to take care of her very well for the next few hours and I really didn’t want to have to bring her down to the medical center. Thankfully after a bit of checking they were able to fit her in until 11 AM. DD was nervous and she really didn’t want to leave me. That seemed like unusual behavior for her but I figured that she was probably reacting to me being in pain. I hated leaving her while she was crying but I really didn’t feel like I had much of an option in my current condition.

I was taking DS back to the room to check the Navigator when about halfway there I remembered that it mentioned something about the Lab so that is where we headed and it turns out that is where the OC kids were at during that time. I was so thankful that he was happy and that I had a place to take him. I ended up going back to the room and waiting for the medical center to open. I could barely walk from all the pain by the time I got back to the room. I spent a really miserable 50 minutes or so before I went down the medical center.

They opened right at 9 AM and I was the only one there. Thankfully they were pretty quick and they got the lab work done and I saw the doctor in about 30 minutes. They gave me some more pain meds and some antibiotics and sent me on my way. I have to say that I was pretty happy with the medical center. It is a place I never wished to visit but I was so thankful they were there and that they were so quick.

I dragged myself back to my room, took my meds and then laid down to try to take a nap. I figured about a few hours of sleep the antibiotics/pain meds would have had time to work and I would be feeling much better. I never did manage to really get to sleep but I did lie down and watch a little TV. Shortly before 11 I got up and went down to Flounders to pick DD up. She seemed pretty happy to see me and they did not really have anything to report. I figured she would probably be hungry so we were going to go get some lunch at Topsiders. I thought I should probably pop in on DS and see if he wanted to go to lunch with us or eat lunch in the Club.

When I got to OC and told them who I was there to pick up they said they were glad I was here because they were about to page me again. Excuse me? I had the pager right there on the stroller and it had not gone off all morning or I would have heard it. They said that sometimes the first page does not go through so they have to page a second time. The reason they had paged me was because Nathan had gotten hurt. He apparently had been in the “closet area” with the computers, etc.. and he had stood up on top of a desk and touched one of the lights with his finger. It was obviously hot and made a nice big painful blister on his finger. It looked pretty bad. They had not applied any first aid at all and they told me they paged me to see if I wanted to take him down to the medical center. I was not sure if it required a trip back down there again. They at that point offered me some band aids and some antibiotic ointment. I took that and bandaged up his poor little finger. You could tell he had been crying but by this time he had stopped although he told me that his finger still hurt pretty badly. I bet it did…..

Before I left I looked down at the pager and hit the button and there was a message on there. It was dated from Monday night and it was from Flounders saying that Allie was crying a lot and they could not get her calmed down!!!!! I was shocked to see it there. I told the guy on the desk that I thought maybe the pager was broken or something because we never heard any page on Monday night although there was this message and we never got the page for Nathan. He took the pager and it turns out it was set to vibrate which is why we did not hear it! I didn’t even know there was a vibrate option on these pagers. We don’t wear it but we kept it attached to our stroller, etc.. so we would never know if it went off. I really don’t think they should hand out pagers to parents at the beginning with the vibrate option turned on and not tell the parents that is even an option. We had no idea. It also kind of ticked me off that apparently after we never answered the page that they didn’t even mention anything to us when DH picked her up the previous night. I guess they figured we just ignored the page or something. Plus they never told DH that they had any problems with her at all.

After we took care of DS’s finger he said he did want to go to lunch with us so I checked him out and we headed up to Topsiders. There was a small line to get in but we lined up and waited. We got to wear they were handing out the trays and I had the most difficult time trying to get the CM there to understand that I needed two trays with three plates and three sets of silverware. She seemed completely unable to understand what I was saying. She kept giving me the wrong things and she seemed a little annoyed that I was trying to get what I needed. While I was trying to get it all figured out DD grabbed a fork off of one of the trays and promptly proceeded to jam it right into her face. She started screaming and she was holding her hand up to her face near her eye! OMG! I had to leave the trays there while I pulled her off to the side with DS so those behind us could go and so I could check on her. It turns out that thankfully she had mostly just scared herself and she had poked the fork just under her eye. We were lucky. She calmed down after a few minutes so we tried to get back in line. The same CM still seemed to be having trouble understanding what I needed so I ended up with just two plates and two trays.

Now trying to navigate the buffet line with two little kids by yourself is normally difficult but with the CM's trying to serve you it was even more so. I was trying to get stuff that each kid would like and you had to keep getting their attention to get your food. It seemed like it took far too long to get through the line. Of course by the end I had two trays, two kids a stroller, no drinks and only two hands to get to the table. I manage to see one real close and thankfully a CM jumped in to carry one of the trays. I still didn’t have drinks but thankfully the table was so close that I was able to run up – grab something – and get back to the table while still being able to see them. The kids ate a little but I honestly was so frazzled by this point that I just could not really eat. After about 5 minutes Nathan decides it would be fun to display his worst restaurant behavior by jumping around on the chairs and screaming, etc.. People around us were giving me that real disapproving look and all I wanted to do was to just walk away and have a good cry. At this point I was really regretting our decision to cruise….things just seemed to be getting progressively worse and I was really afraid of what was still to come.

Nathan refused to calm down so I took his hand and we left Topsiders even though they were not finished eating. I just could not deal with it right then and I didn’t want to be subjected to nasty looks from others while I was trying to do my best. I took them back down to the stateroom so I could talk to Nathan about his behavior and to see if DD would take a nap. DH was due back by about 1:00 and I was so ready to have him back. The kids shared a little bag of goldfish crackers and then Nathan requested to go back to the Club. I put DD in the stroller and dropped DS off. When we got back to the room DD was telling me that she was still hungry so I made a call to room service to order some lunch. It showed up pretty quickly and DD and I were able to eat a little. I then tried to get her to settle down for a nap but that was no-go. She did sit quietly for a while so I was thankful.

We waited and waited for DH but he never showed up. I was starting to wonder a little bit about him when he finally showed up about 2:45ish. We had planned to go see the matinee of Twice Charmed with the kids when he got back but since he got back so late we didn’t have time especially since he was starving since he had not eaten since last night. We decided to try to see the evening show and he went up to the pool to get some pizza. He brought it back to the room while I tried to fill him in on my morning.

To Be Continued…..

 

[lbgraves]

Becka, I'm sorry you were going thru all of that when we were at the ruins. David tried to contact his reps at the port to advise DCL that we were later than we had planned. Vanessa and another person had their kids in Flounder's and they closed at 2.

 

[lillygator]

At this point I was really regretting our decision to cruise….things just seemed to be getting progressively worse and I was really afraid of what was still to come.

Becka, I am so sorry!! Sounds like you had quite a handful on this trip! Hopefully you won't give up on cruising.

 

[kevinsmom]

becka: i love your detailed trip report, but so sorry you werent feeling well!! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[kevinsmom]

becka: i forgot to ask, what room where you in? we will be on deck 5 - little concerned about noise.....

 

[becka]

becka: i forgot to ask, what room where you in? we will be on deck 5 - little concerned about noise.....

We were in 5000. I liked the location in a lot of ways but I would not book it again because I am afraid it contributed too much to my motion sickness issues. I think we will still with Deck 2 more midship on any future cruises.

The noise from the WDT was really loud and it did end up impacting us because we spent a lot of time in the room but honestly if we had not been stateroom-bound for so much of the cruise it would have been a very minor issue. We would not have been in the room during big show times normally. However, if you plan to spend a lot of time in your room I might rethink staying in that particular location if noise bothers you.

 

[becka]

We spent the rest of our Tuesday afternoon in our stateroom watching TV and resting. We picked DS up from the club about 45 minutes before dinner so he could get dressed. I had everyone dressed and ready to go in plenty of time so the kids were getting a little stir crazy although DD seemed to enjoy getting ready for dinner in her new dress.

DH decided to take them on down to see some characters in the Atrium while I finished my last little bit to get ready and I would meet then down in Lumiere’s. In the Atrium that night was Sorcerer Mickey so my kids got pictures with him before dinner.

I believe Tuesday night was the first time since Saturday that our tablemates joined us for dinner (Is that right V? ). Nathan as usual was in a hurry to get to the Club so he ate fairly quickly so he could get out of there. Allie did fairly well although she did not eat a whole lot of her dinner. I spent most of the dinner time playing with a little dollar store slinky toy that just made her giggle like crazy. She was really pretty cute about it. Tuesday night was the Master Chef menu and I remember not being too thrilled about when I looked at it before the cruise. I was not sure what I was going to order but our server recommended the chicken so I took a chance. It was really, really good. In fact I believe it was the best dish I had on the cruise. I was really surprised.

After dinner we wanted to see Cinderella in the lobby so we all lined up. At the time we lined up Princess Minnie was actually the character but we figured by the time we were at the front she would be gone and Cinderella would be there. Sure enough with about two people in front of us Cinderella came out. The first princess DD learned to recognize was Cinderella or “Rella” as she calls her. Allie was mesmerized and just kind of whispered “Rella” with such awe when she saw her. She went right up to her and gave her a big hug. She wasn’t really smiling – she just seemed kind of in shock. Unfortunately we didn’t really get a great picture but we did get a few.

After Cinderella we knew that Snow White was going to be outside the WDT before Twice Charmed so we went up to wait. We were hoping to be one of the first in line. When we got there there were many families just kind of milling around with no real order. We didn’t know where the actual line would end up forming so we tried to stay in a fairly central location. When Snow White got there we were probably about 7-8 families back. While waiting we ran into Marielle (87Heel) from our DIS group and we had a great time just visiting with her and her oldest daughter. When it was Allie’s turn for Snow White she was kind of the same way with her that she had been for Cinderella – just kind of in awe.

We checked out the gift shops and DH ended up buying a new Pirate t-shirt while we killed time before the show. About 20 minutes before the show we went to check out DS from the Club and take him to the show. We managed to get decent seats and we didn’t have to wait too long. DD was getting really tired and I was trying to keep her awake so she would not miss the whole show. We really liked Twice Charmed and we felt it was done very well. Even DS who has a princess aversion enjoyed it. DD’s face lit up at the beginning of the show and she loved the dancing and singing. She bounced and clapped along for about 15-20 minutes before exhaustion finally overtook her.

After the show DD and I headed back to the stateroom to get her in bed while DH took DS back to the Club for another hour or so since DS was begging to go back. We got DD to bed and DH and I took the chance to look over the Navigator for Wednesday to try to plan our day. I was really hoping that since we did not have plans to disembark that we could perhaps get in a lot of character pictures. I was very disappointed to find that there really was nothing much going on and hardly any characters during the day when we were in Port. I know most people do choose to disembark but it would be great if they could have more activities for those who wish to stay on the ship.

About 10:15 or so DH went down to the Club to pick up DS and bring him back to get to sleep. DS was thrilled to find that our stateroom host had left him his favorite towel animal – the monkey. Unfortunately DS was in a very crazy mood and he had a very hard time calming down to go to sleep. I was really afraid he was going to wake up his sister. It took probably 30 minutes of us dealing with him before he finally calmed down for the night. Thankfully even though we had left Costa Maya around dinner time I had noticed very little movement and I had been just a little light headed. I was hoping that maybe finally I was getting my sea legs or that the medicine/Seaband combination was finally working.

 

[lillygator]

I believe Tuesday night was the first time since Saturday that our tablemates joined us for dinner (Is that right V? ).

Sun we had Palo and Mon you had Palo right? I thought we ate in the dining room Mon as well? I'll have to look at my notes!!

 

[mruhaak]

I could relate to your daughters photo experience!

My DS, who was 2.5, had the same reaction to the characters. I only bought one character photo of him and it was with goofy on castaway cay. He looks a little scared in the photo!

 

[87Heel]

Yeah! More report to read!
Oldest DD Elizabeth was so excited to meet Allie. She always said how cute Allie is everytime your sig appears on my computer (the old ponytail photo was her favorite!) So that night she had a chance to have a photo with Allie WITH ponytails (better than any princess)!

 

[kevinsmom]

More Please!!!

 

[ldeninge]

Becka,
thanks for sharing your trip report - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I hope all in all you enjoyed the vacation, in spite of the trials.
Lauri

 

[becka]

Sorry for the delay in getting more of this trip report up. I have been sick for about two weeks and I finally ended up going to the doctor last week only to find out I have walking pneumonia. I have been feeling pretty bad and I have not had the energy to do much more than just getting through my days but hopefully I can spend some more time over the next few days and get this trip report finally done before I forget everything.

Day 5 arrived bright and early as we headed into Cozumel. Last night had not been nearly as bad for me so I was thinking that maybe I was finally getting my “sea legs” – although I was certainly not going to risk it and I was going to keep taking double doses of Dramamine and constantly wear my latest fashion accessory – Sea Bands.

We had mostly planned for today to be a sea day for us since there was not much in Cozumel we wanted to do with the kids. The kids were up early so we got up, got dressed and decided to go to Lumiere’s for breakfast. DH had Eggs Benedict for the first time in Palo on our last cruise and loved them. I knew that Lumiere’s had them on their breakfast menu and once I mentioned that to DH he knew were we had to go. We were quickly seated at a table for 4 and got our juices and pastries. I wish I could remember the name of the waiter who served us that morning. He was really, really good especially with the kids. He must be one of the waiters that you hear so much about on the boards. He was really outstanding and he really made our regular serving team pale in comparison. Breakfast was pretty good and the kids were mostly well behaved.

DH really wanted to get off the ship and explore the pier area but I told him I would prefer if he could wait until that afternoon. DS immediately started in on wanting to go to the Club but when we mentioned the possibility of swimming in the Mickey pool he changed his mind. We took the kids back to the room to get them dressed for some pool fun. It was hard to believe that we had been on the ship this long and still had not been to the pool.

DS was in his element. He loves the water and couldn’t wait to hit the Mickey slide as soon as it opened. DD also seemed happy to be there but she was NOT happy when she figured out she was stuck in the splash ear. She also loves the water and really wanted to be out in the pool with her brother. It was hard to try to keep her distracted. If the splash ear had been the only thing available she would have loved it but knowing that right there was a big pool that her brother was playing in made the splash ear seem restrictive to her and she didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have hoped.

While we were at the pool we ran into Lisa (lbgraves) and her two kids. It was nice to get a chance to chat with Lisa since I had not seen her much up until that point. The kids continued to play and about an hour after we started the sky opened up and it began to RAIN! Since the kids were already wet and it was not lightening I just let the kids continue to play for a while. After a little while we decided the kids had had enough water and we took them back down to the room to get dry and change. Of course as soon as he was dry DS wanted to head to the Club so DH took him down there while I finished getting DD dressed while she watched movies on the TV.

DH decided to go into town to just check out the pier area and maybe do a little shopping. DS was in the Club and showed no signs of ever wanting to come back and since I was a little tired and because DD was so happy just watching Disney movies on TV we decided to just set up camp in the room. DD ended up falling asleep after a little while so I let her rest and I decided to order a room service burger for lunch. It was pretty good and it was nice to get some alone time.

DH really enjoyed getting off the ship and shopping but he was a little overwhelmed at first by the bargaining especially when they kept asking him for his shoes and watch. : He came back to the ship in late afternoon and he just kind of hung out in the room with me and DD. About 5’ish we went to the Club to get DS so we could get ready for Pirate Night. DH has been obsessing about his costume for months and he was excited that Pirate Night was finally here.

DH has this griffin thing that moves and looks really creepy that he made part of his costume. He tormented several in our DIS group with pictures of it on our group thread and the griffin kind of took on a life of its own. DH had a lot of fun with the griffin that evening. Lots of people were very interested in this unusual “thing” on his shoulder and he freaked out a lot of people when they realized it could move. I have not seen DH have so much fun in quite a while….

Pirate Night dinner was fun and the food was decent. We had arranged to have DD in Flounders from 7-11 that evening so we could enjoy the Pirate party. DS wanted to go to the Club instead of the party so after we dropped DD off at Flounders we had some alone time. I played a round of Pirate bingo (unfortunately I didn’t win ) and then we had some time to kill before the actual party. Unfortunately we had left Cozumel by this time and I was starting to feel light-headed again. I figured I would go back to the room and lay down before the party in hopes that I would feel better. When it came time for the party I was just too tired to get up. DH went up to watch a little of the show before picking up the kids. DS didn’t want to leave but we knew he was tired. DD has been asleep since about 8:30 and they told him she had a good night. About that same time I got a phone call from Flounders confirming DD’s reservation from 11:30 – 1:30 the next afternoon.

Tomorrow was our second day at sea and we hoped to be able to just relax a little. We had Palo brunch scheduled for 11:30 and DH and I were so looking forward to it. In fact it was one of the things we had most been looking forward to since we booked. Unfortunately during that same time was the big Princess Event and the Captain’s signing events but we decided that brunch was more important.

 

[kevinsmom]

Hope your feeling better ! Glad to see some more of your report, i was wondering what happened to u!

 

[willoughbyclan]

Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry you felt so bad. Your kids are adorable. Waiting for more....