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

[DisneyPhD]

Thanks for posting your trip report Beca. I am enjoying gettng an inside veiw of a Cruise with small kids. Sorry you weren't feeling well for so much of it.

Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[becka]

Did you ever have one of those days when moments before you actually open your eyes you get the feeling that you should just try to stay asleep? You know that nothing good can happen that day and it is best to just try to stop the day from coming? I had that feeling on Thursday (our second day at sea) but I tried to convince myself before I got up that I was on vacation and things had really gone better the day before so I should not have anything to worry about. After all we had been sailing overnight and I did not notice the bad side to side rocking very much at all the night before. In fact just laying there in bed I did not really notice much movement at all.

Of course just minutes later I started to get a funny cramping kind of sensation in my stomach. It was not the nausea that I had been experiencing for days. Nope – this was different. I thought for a second about what date it was and told myself I must be crazy. I should not be feeling bad for at least another week. However, apparently the stress I had been under the past few days made my body decide to betray me and had subsequently decided that today was the best time for me to start dealing with 48 hours of misery. Thank goodness I had packed the essential items “just in case”….

I knew that I would not be feeling great for the next two days or so but I was going to try to make the best of it. I took a big dose of pain relievers and tried to get myself ready for the day. We decided to go up to Topsiders and eat at the breakfast buffet. DH and I had brunch reservations for 11:30 so we didn’t plan to eat much more than a little snack but we knew the kids needed something more substantial. Unfortunately DD woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something. She had been cranky the night before but that was nothing compared to what she was like this morning. Every time you asked her to do something she screamed and would throw herself down on the floor. She was doing her best to make every two year old in the world proud.

After 45 minutes or so we were all ready to go except for DD who was continuing to be difficult although all that was left was her shoes which she was refusing to let me put them on. Every time you can near her with them she would start screaming and would throw herself down kicking so you couldn’t get them on. DS was complaining he was hungry so I told DH to go up to Topsiders with DS and eat breakfast. I would stay behind with DD and when she got over her fit and let me put her shoes on we would join them. Just in case it took longer than I thought I told DH that if we had not shown up by the time they were done eating to bring something back to the room for us.

DH and DS head off and DD screams because she wants to go too. I told her that when she decided to put on her shoes we would go eat breakfast with the boys. She thinks for a minute and decides to continue the fit so I sat down on the couch and flipped through the channels while trying to ignore her. After about 5 minutes she calms down and brings me her shoes so I put them on, load her up in the stroller and make the trek up to Deck 9 aft. When we get up there I look all over Topsiders and I can’t find them anywhere. I made several laps around looking inside and outside but there was no sign of them….surely they could not have eaten that fast. : I decide to head back to the stateroom to see if I just missed them on the way. We trek back to the room (DD was not thrilled to have seen food and not get any) to see if they are there. We get back to the room to find our stateroom host, Maricar, at the entrance to our room, with this confused look. She told me that DH and DS had just been there with a tray of food and had gone back up to Topsiders to find us. I didn’t feel good and at this point my nerves were starting to get the best of me. I was mad that DD had been pitching fits all morning, I was mad that DH did not listen to me, I was mad that I had been looking forward to this vacation for so long and I could not seem to catch a break….. We hike back up to Deck 9 Aft and look around and they are STILL not here!!!! I walked around inside and outside and I could not find them. I figured we once again must have missed them. We start to head back to the stateroom when we finally run into them out by the Mickey pool looking for us.

At this point I should have just been relieved and calmly went on with the rest of my morning but unfortunately I didn’t. Instead I proceeded to yell at my DH right there by the pool about his inability to follow simple directions. It was not my finest moment. We head back over to Topsiders so the kids can eat. We found a table outside and the three of them ate. At this point I was not hungry and I really was just starting to feel a terrible desire to just get off the ship. A few unlucky DISers had the misfortune of running across me that morning at breakfast and I would like to publicly take this opportunity to apologize for being so rude to them. I was not in a very friendly or happy mood.

After the kids ate DS wanted to go to the Club so we dropped him off and we headed back down to the room to try to decide what to do with the rest of our morning. When we got there all DD wanted to do was to watch TV and at that point I didn’t really care what she did as long as she was not screaming. DH and I ended up discussing our trip up until this point and trying to convince ourselves it would get better. DH reminded me that in just a little while we would have brunch and it would be 2 whole hours of kid-free us time – something we had not had in a while. It sounded like heaven about that time.

About 11 DH went up to the pool area to get some pizza for DD’s early lunch. We got dressed and ready for brunch and got DD packed up and headed to Flounders to drop her off. DD was being fussy again and I have to admit I was looking forward to a bit of a break from her constant whining that morning. We go to the desk, check her in, get her little name tag on and proceed to the door that goes to the nursery. DD is started crying and clinging to me. Just as I get to the door to open it a CM stops us and tells us that DD cannot come in until she has been medically cleared because she had a runny diaper the night before. Huh? :

She explained that around 7:30 the previous evening DD has a diaper that was runny enough that their policies would not allow her to stay in the nursery until we took her to the medical center. This diaper that was too bad to check her in on Thursday morning was not bad enough to register a page when it happened to come pick her up but they kept her there for another 3 hours that night, said nothing to DH when he picked her up and confirmed her reservation for Thursday after the diaper? : There was nothing in the computer when we checked in either just this one CM at the entrance who would not let her in. I think what really happened is that the CM did not want to deal with DD who was obviously being cranky.

They wanted us to spend $100 and take her down to the medical center then come back once they cleared her and then they would take her. Well no thanks we had brunch scheduled at 11:30 that we were now going to miss and I was not spending that money to go down and get her cleared when these were the last 2 hours of Flounders’ time we had scheduled and we would miss brunch anyway. What good was that going to do me? I have no problem with the policy and had they informed us the night before we could have made others plans like the princess event, etc.. Instead they say or do nothing until right at 11:30 when it is too late to do anything else. I was already on edge and needless to say this pushed me right over the cliff. I was extremely angry and upset and I ended up storming out crying all the way back to the stateroom.

I literally ran back to our stateroom with DD in tears. I could not believe this was happening. This was the last straw. All I wanted at that point was just to get off the ship and unfortunately we were in the middle of the Gulf at that point. DH trying talking to the CM’s at Flounders without any luck and he was back in the stateroom with me shortly after that. DD was mostly just sat there shocked and watching me and DH was at a loss as well. I was so done with this vacation at that point and I really truly wanted nothing more than for it to end.

I did end up calling Palo to let them know that we would not be able to attend because Flounders would not take DD. The CM who answered the phone was really great and asked me if we wanted to come up and get a to go box of food at no charge but at that point I didn’t want anything. They also said they would not charge us a penalty for cancelling. Palo was really great about it all.

The manager of the children’s programs, Jane, ended up calling our room shortly after and spoke to my DH and informed him of the policy. I think the CM must have called her and told her we had a problem with them not letting DD in. We explained it was not the policy that was the problem but that we should have been paged at 7:30 the night before and told there was an issue not at 11:30 the next morning when trying to check her in. If things were that bad why did they keep her an additional 3 hours the night before and then not say anything at pick-up, call to confirm the next day and not have anything about this in the computer? :

About an hour later we had a visit to our stateroom from Jane and the cruise director in charge of the children’s programs, Ian, who wanted us to know that the issue was being addressed with the staff and that we should have received a page when it happened. They had arranged for a Palo dinner for us for that evening or Friday evening if we would like after we got the necessary medical clearance for DD but we were not interested. DH had been looking forward to lobster night in the dining room (plus DS was really looking forward to trying lobster and seeing Disney Dreams) and we did not want to miss it and we did not want an 8:30 Palo dinner on Friday night. Friday night is far too crazy with packing, etc.. to be able to enjoy a leisurely dinner – at least for us. Plus honestly I was not too thrilled about the idea of letting DD go back to Flounders anyway.

I spent the rest of the day in our room either napping or feeling miserable. DD got to watch a lot of stateroom TV that day. That afternoon DH picked DS up from the club and took him up for some swim time and to watch Finding Nemo on the big screen over the pool.

Around 5:00 or so DH suggested that we get dressed for semi-formal night. I had great cute outfits all ready for the kids, plus DH had his suit and I had a dress. At that point I still didn’t really want to go anywhere. The thought of getting all dressed up and putting on pantyhose was about the least appealing thing to me in the world. Looking back it seems stupid but at the time all I really wanted to do was to just be alone. DH begged me to go so we got the kids ready but I did not get really dressed up for the evening. I felt bad for not meeting the suggested dress requirements but just getting some nice slacks and blouse on was an accomplishment.

We got to dinner and discovered that our tablemates were at Palo again that evening so it was just the four of us which was probably for the best. DD was fairly cooperative while we ate our appetizers but just about the time our entrees were served she decided she had had enough. She screamed, threw food and generally tried to make herself as unpleasant to be around as she could. I felt bad that she was bothering the others around us so I picked her up and took her back to the room. DH and DS had so looked forward to lobster night so I told them to stay at eat. Our server saw me leaving and she offered to send some food up to our food for me since she saw I had not been able to eat but I told her not to worry about it.

When I got DD back to the room she was still in a really bad mood and proceeded to continue with her fits because she wanted to go back to dinner with DH and DS. She finally settled down and said she wanted to sleep so I got her bed ready to go, changed her into her pajamas and laid her down. She then proceeded to pitch a fit about me asking her to lay down and go to sleep. DH was back after about 30 minutes after he dropped DS off at the Club. A few minutes later we had a knock at the door and our server had sent up a lobster and a chocolate lava cake for me. I know they were trying to be nice but that just made me feel worse and in the end the entire meal ended up just sitting there and going to waste because I didn’t feel like eating.

DD finally did settle down and go to sleep so I told DH to go ahead and go see Disney Dreams with DS and I would stay behind and just go to bed. They left to go see the show and the next thing I remember is them coming back from the show and getting ready for bed. I was so exhausted physically and mentally. I started mentally counting down the hours until we could get off the ship. We had CC to look forward to on Friday but for me it was just something I needed to survive.

 

[lillygator]

Oh Becka, you poor thing. I didn't realize how much you all were going through. It's amazing how different everyone's cruises really are.

 

[lbgraves]

Becka, I wish that I was there to give you a big hug! I am stressed more & more just reading your report. I feel badly because I had no idea that you were having such a terrible time. I wish that we had known so that someone could have maybe done something to help you enjoy your cruise.

 

[87Heel]

Awww. Becka.
I can understand how you got so frustrated that day. I'm so sad for you.

 

[becka]

I don't want you guys to feel bad because really there was not much anyone could have done for me. It just really felt bad to look so forward to this cruise and then to feel so bad for the vast majority of it. The only day I felt close to good physically was Wednesday and that made it very hard for me. It also just seemed that everytime I made an attempt to try to make the best of it all something else would happen. It got to be a bit demoralizing and like I said by Thursday I just wanted it all to be over. The only issue I blame DCL for was the Flounder's issue which was a big mistake on their part IMHO and came at possibly the absolute worst time for me.

It may sound that way in the report but the whole trip was not miserable. We did have some fun times sprinkled in as well especially the first half of the week - I really was trying to have a good time at that point. No one goes into a vacation thinking that you are going to be sick or that it is going to be too much for your kids. We had so much fun on our 4 night cruise and on our WDW trips that we just couldn't imagine that a 7 night would be too much. We really had no way to forsee all of the issues that occurred. A few issues like DD being too young for the pool, etc. we were prepared to deal with. We were prepared to deal with kids who got a bit tired from being out of their normal schedule. I was not prepared to deal with the level of illness or with the worst behavior I have ever seen from DD.

We kind of look at this vacation as part mistake/part lessons learned. Every vacation can't be the trip of a lifetime. We have had great vacations as a family...it may have just been our time for a bad one. With one great cruise and one not so great cruise under our belt we are not even ready to write off cruising as a family vacation option. After all we are only 50/50. DH and I have considered taking an adults-only cruise for a few days to see how that goes. We also figure that we will cruise DCL again with the kids. We know we want to wait until they are older (DD at least 4) but even with all of the issues we can still see ourselves having a great time on a cruise in the future.

A couple of threads in the last day or so have made me second guess my decision to write this trip report. I knew going in that this TR was going to be a bit more negative than others. I thought that maybe some would like to see "the other side" so to speak of cruising. I don't mean to scare anyone into not going but the reality is that not every person's cruise will be the trip of a lifetime.

 

[ldeninge]

Becka,
I for one appreciate your honesty, and think it's important for people to have a realistic idea of what can go wrong. I think you were trying to make the best of the situation, and as you say, there are always happy times that happen in there. Personally, I think every child and family is different, and sometimes I think as adults we miscalculate what we think will be fun for our kids.

Our best family 'vacations' have been the cheap weekend type - where we didn't have alot planned or invested (financially or emotionally). Not to say that people shouldn't travel on a 'big trip' with little ones - there are some fantastic opportunities, and lots of fun about it. Still, if someone's going to put down $5000, be sure that a giant-trip-of-a-lifetime vacation is the place to do it with 2 kids under the age of 5. Maybe the money could be spent on 5 $1000 weekend trips that year, instead? If parents want 'alone time', a cruise doesn't seem to be the place to get it. $200 can buy dinner and massages for both of you at home (and a sitter). That's alot cheaper than spending for a whole cruise! Plus, the kids aren't completely exhausted for 2 weeks afterward!

I don't mean to second-guess anyone's decision, or criticize in any way. I think it's wonderful to plan family times away. Those are the memories that we all treasure for a lifetime. You had certainly done a good job trying out smaller vacations, and I can see why this would have caught you off guard.

I know I for one hoped my DD5 would be 'better behaved' on vacation than at home. She had been really well behaved lately, and because we'd have so many fun things to do, I expected we might have less discipline issues. that had been the case on previous vacations. It was not the case this time. I think sometimes we as parents underestimate what disrupting our kids' sleep patterns does to them. It really puts them to the edge of their coping skills to be in a new place, with WAY TOO much stimulation and exciting things to do, and then give them new foods (often junky) and then not have them sleep enough because we want them to see everything. Carrying a sleeping child from one activity to another is still very disruptive to their rest - not nearly as good as sleeping still in their bed at home.

The other component I have sometimes encountered on this board (as wonderful as the DISBOARDS are) is an unspoken expectation to do the DCL vacation 'the right way'. Examples - to get to the terminal EARLY, to be at the RIGHT place on the beach, to be present at all the IMPORTANT activities, etc. I'm sure the response will be that those are of course just some people's experiences and not mandatory. Of course that's true, but I think it's easy to get caught up in the 'pressure to do it right'. I have heard lots of people encourage independence and go with the flow, and I think that's important to do.


Please finish your report - I am reading it and appreciate hearing your story.
Lauri

 

[becka]

Friday arrived early and the kids were excited that we had another beach day in front of us. I was excited that I was closer to the end of our vacation. We also had our only excursion planned with the CC Catamaran Island Cruise scheduled for 1:15 with a large group of DISers. It was quite windy so we were not sure if our excursion would be cancelled or not. I was kind of hoping that it would be. I was not sure I was still in any condition to socialize and although we were booked with a great group the previous reviews had not been too good.

We got everyone ready and headed up to Topsiders for the last time. We were running later than we intended so we ended up just grabbing some muffins to eat on our walk to the family beach. We headed down the family beach until we spotted the same area we were in on Sunday and there were already numerous DISers camped out at that location. I tried to distract the kids from the water for a while because I knew once DD remembered it was there that is all she would want to do. Unfortunately I was still physically in quite a bit of pain and I really didn’t want to chase the kids around. DH was trying to make the best of things so he ended up taking DD in the water and let DS go a little further away from him than he did earlier in the week. DS was really showing that he was much more comfortable in the water than he had been even earlier in the week. DH still made sure he was quite close by just in case. I stayed back up on the beach and took pictures.

We got the word after a little while that the island cruise had been cancelled and I have to say I was quite relieved. DS ended up coming back up by me to play in the sand and he was having fun until he starting pouring buckets of water all around by the chairs. He was creating a muddy mess right by the hammock that other DISers were using. When I tried to stop him he became angry and started to throw sand at me and talk back so he ended up in time out and he made sure that everyone around us knew how unhappy he was about it. It was getting close to lunch time anyway so I had DH get DD out of the water and she was as thrilled about that as DS was about being in time out.

We decided to pack things up, get cleaned up and get some lunch. The kids were both upset and were not cooperative while we tried to get everything done. Lunch at Cookies was tasty as usual and the kids really enjoyed the ice cream.

We had planned on our excursion after lunch but since it was cancelled we didn’t quite no what to do with the rest of the afternoon. We thought about heading back down to the beach but we were tired and we knew we had a busy evening of packing, etc.. so we decided to call it quits and head back to the ship. On the walk back DH ended up pushing our stroller beside another Dad pushing a stroller. They kind of shared sympathetic looks and then starting talking about what a long week it had been. This family also had a 2-3 year old and had been on a shorter DCL cruise that has been fun but the 7 day had been too much for them as well. It made me feel a little better that at least we were not the only ones.

We got back to the room, showered and ordered a big plate of chocolate chip cookies to eat while we packed and the kids watched movies. Somehow it always seems like you ended up brining back far more than you packed and it took us a while to get everything organized and back in the suitcases. I was really worried that in the confusion I would forget to leave out clothes for tomorrow and we would have nothing to wear – isn’t that everyone’s biggest nightmare?

We just tried to relax the rest of the afternoon and we watched from our window as we left CC and headed back to PC. I was probably the only person on the ship who was glad we were leaving because I knew that in just a little over 12 hours I would be on the way home.

Our last dinner was in Lumiere’s and our tablemates were with us this evening. DD unfortunately was continuing her string of bad dining room behavior. She did not want to eat, sit, play, etc.. She just wanted down and she would scream and cry until I would take her out to the lobby where she was perfectly fine. Shortly after we got there DS needed to go to the restroom so DH went to take him. They were gone quite a while and I didn’t know why. Finally DH returned after our appetizers had been brought out and DS was wearing different clothes. It turns out he had an accident and they had to go back up to the room to get him changed. This of course was made harder by the fact that all of the clothes had been packed up and DH didn’t know what suitcase held what clothes. It took him quite a while to find DS a new pair of pants. Shortly after they arrived back at the table DD decided to get worse. I didn’t want her ruining the last evening for everyone so I ended up having to take her back to the room before our entrees were even served. This is what she looked like for most of our meals from Thursday on….

When DH and DS got back to the room they decided they would go ahead and try to see the Farewell show that evening while I watched DD in the room. They both came back after about 30 minutes. DH said that the show was not that great and DS was getting bored so we decided to call it an early night since we knew we had to be up early.

The next morning I woke up as we were pulling into PC. I don’t remember what time it was but it was pretty early. DH and I were able to get up and get ready without waking the kids who chose this morning as the one they wanted to use to sleep in. We got them up and then realized just how much stuff we still had to lug off the ship with us. We felt like pack mules as we made our way down to breakfast. We still had one big chocolate chip cookie left from yesterday and since we could not bring it off the ship I took it down to breakfast. DS just wanted donuts and chocolate milk. Our asst. server told him they were all out of chocolate milk. He was shocked and we told him that he had so much this week that he drank all they had. DD didn’t want to be there at all but when I gave her the cookie (bad Mom…) it at least kept her happy for a few minutes so we could eat. We knew we needed to eat something because we had a 21 hour drive in front of us.

Disembarkation was fairly painless. We hired a porter (always a good idea) and we were out to our car fairly quickly. I was worried with our luck that we would come back to an ant infestation but thankfully our car appeared to be insect free. We somehow managed to get all of our luggage in the car. DH went then to set up the DVD player for the kids because they wanted to watch ‘Cars’ when he realized that he had put all the movies in the storage hold in the back before we left and it was now underneath all of our luggage. DH gets back out and unpacks everything to get to the movies, repacks the car again and we are finally on our way home.

The drive back home was surprisingly calm and I was just so happy to be off the ship. I didn’t feel sick now that we were back on land and I knew that things could hopefully get more back to normal. We pulled into our driveway about 4 AM on Sunday morning. We piled out of the car and all 4 of us collapsed into our beds were we all slept until about 8 AM. We were all really happy to be home. DD was thrilled to see her bed and all of her toys again.

That afternoon DH and I were discussing what a crazy week it had been. At that point we were both about ready to swear off family vacations for the rest of our lives – not just cruise vacations. We had planned to go back to WDW (our first love) late in 2007 but that afternoon we were not even sure that would be a good idea. A little while later DH went out to check our mailbox just to make sure that the post office had really stopped our mail while we had been gone. He came back in the house with something held behind his back. All of our mail had been stopped in our absence except for one thing…..the new WDW planning video had been delivered. Aaron and I looked at each other and just laughed. Was it a warning? Was it a sign? We didn’t know. We didn’t have the energy to watch it right then but we sat it aside and wouldn’t you know that less than 2 weeks later we were eagerly looking at dates in late 2007 for our next WDW trip. We just can’t stay away…… However we think we will stick with land based Disney vacations for a few more years just to be sure…..


I did make a little trip video to commemorate the better times we had on the trip. It ended up being almost 11 minutes long and the pictures are proof that although we had a really rough trip we did have some fun times…well at least almost 11 minutes worth. About 9 and a half minutes of the video is from Saturday – Wednesday. As you can imagine Thursday and Friday were not big picture days for us. This is a big file and it takes a while to download but if anyone is interested here it is. Click on the Link then click ENTER. You should then see a “Play Video” button in the upper left hand corner of the box. This will open another window where you can download the video to watch it. Several people have had trouble downloading it and it seems to be best if on the download video button you right click and save the file as something. Then when it is saved to your PC you can click on the file and play it.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2096119917

 

[87Heel]

Thanks for sharing all of it, Becka. You are always willing to share the bad along with the good. I'm still trying to get that video to work, though.

 

[lillygator]

I can't get the video to work either.

Thanks for sharing your story Becka, the good and the bad! Hope you are frozen up there!!

ETA!!! I MEAN'T AREN'T FROZEN!! D'OH!

 

[becka]

I can't get the video to work either.

Thanks for sharing your story Becka, the good and the bad! Hope you are frozen up there!!

I wish I could find somewhere else to host the video but it is too large. I will have to see if I can find a better way. I thought about YouTube but they have a 10 minute limit on clips and mine is almost 11 minutes. It is timed with the music so I hate to go back and edit it.

Yes - we are freezing up here. This morning it was 8 degrees with a wind chill of -8. The high today was going to be 19!

 

[becka]

I really wish I had more time to have gotten to really "meet" some of the Geeks. That is actually one of my biggest regrets from the cruise. Not only that but you got to see me at some of my worst. I really am not like that all the time....I think you guys can tell that from my posts on our regular Geek thread.

 

[lillygator]

I edited my post...I meant to say aren't frozen!! Gosh, you must have thought what a witch.

 

[birkner]

I wish I could find somewhere else to host the video but it is too large. I will have to see if I can find a better way. I thought about YouTube but they have a 10 minute limit on clips and mine is almost 11 minutes. It is timed with the music so I hate to go back and edit it.

Yes - we are freezing up here. This morning it was 8 degrees with a wind chill of -8. The high today was going to be 19!

If your video is not more than 500mb you might try my nephew's company which is www.vidler.com Free to upload.

 

[JOANNEL]

Becka,

Hang in there. The kids will get eaisier in some ways and a lot more difficult in other ways. I have two boys, they are both in college. We survived all the tantrums and fits. Now they are fun to be with. Enjoy the kids, I miss mine now taht they are off and in college. Treasure all those moments, because they grow up way too fast. My kids love to cruise. We didn't find cruising until 2002. So they were teenagers.

I loved reading your trip report, you write very well.

Stay warm and love on those two beautiful children.

 

[lbgraves]

I just want to add to this that the only time I saw that you were at all irritated was Friday before lunch at CC...and even then it wasn't anything that I myself haven't felt as a mom of young kids at one point or another. Whenever I saw you, you had a smile on your face & the kids were both being good. I was amazed at how much Ally played with those little slinky toys at dinner. I guess that is why it is so surprising to us as your fellow cruisers that this all happened to you.

 

[TJ_from_Nashville]

The video worked fine for me. Everybody looks happy in most of the pictures!

Our trip was a little similar to yours - we have a 4 y/o, 3 y/o and 1.5 y/o and I guess they depend on a regular schedule and naps to stay in good moods - our trip got better about halfway through though. It is tough when someone gets sick - you can't really prepare for that. I must say though that I am remembering the good times more now and the bad memories are fading away.

 

[Bubbley4Disney]

HI Becca! I am so glad you wrote your trip report, and that I was brave enough to read it, Our first Cruise is coming up in Sept. and I have been nervously planning away... I am very prone to motion sickness,
and now I am more than ever aware of how much it can affect the cruise...
I really liked all that Lauri had to say-- It was a good reminder to maybe lower my expectations and be prepared for little melt downs,
(yes, now I recall the times at MK where DD had some pretty embarassing "over load" moments...) But it is funny after you get home unpack and print the photos, You really only remember the Pixie Dust...
Thanks again for sharing!
and Lillygator glad you caught your typo! I was like HUH???? Rofl

 

[akdaisy]

I appreciate so much the time it took you to post your TR. I'm sure going back and reliving some of those times was not easy. Your pictures were wonderful...especially your DD at dinner those last couple nights. I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes pictures of my kids when they are being little pills!!!!

Anyway, you are a wonderful writer, and your TR was a joy to read. Take Care.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Becka,
I really enjoyed your trip report even though you had some rough times.
It may not help you now but I can tell you that you are not alone with all the terrible things that happened.
Having raised 4 kids I can promise you that every so often you will have a vacation where everything seems to go wrong!!! However you will find that you will have more good ones than bad and in a few years the two of you will chuckle when you look back at this cruise.

Plus now that the bad one is over, you can look forward to the next few being GREAT vacations!!

Your a very good writer, Thanks for sharing the good and the bad with us.

mom x4,grandma x4