2-8-07 or How the DIS created a DCL Expert/Addict:Chap 23 Up! TR Done!

Oh man!!! I can just IMAGINE Sleepydog in that tub!!!

I think you should use the lifeboat drill pic for future Xmas cards!!!

Yeah he's a tall guy (his statement) I'm a pretty short dude, that he took an actual bath and got out without the assistance of a crow bar is pretty darn impressive :happytv:

So how long did it tak you to get OUT of the tub! Good thing you tried it out, 20 years from now you would never try it!

Were you in 7014? We are going to be in 7016. How was it, quiet, I am guessing or is that hoping?

Can't wait for the next chapter!

I actually never sat down. Having gleaned the wisdom of my forebears, I felt it best for me not to acutally rest my bum in that thing. I was propping myself up with my arms. The funny thing is wife was getting ready to take the pictures when the girls called her away. It seemed like it would take forever to get back. I kept saying to myself "Must.... not.... blackout ......Must ....not .... get ..... stuck..... or ... suffer .... same ....fate ... as others!" I'm sure it was like 10 seconds :lmao: :happytv:

Room 7014 was great. The only negative was we were forward so we had to rmember to walk down to midship so as not to come up in Quiet Cove (didn't want to set off the CDA ya know ;) ) If it were just me and wife I would take this room again in a heartbeat! Geat room very quiet
 
Chapter 18 Princesses, Dolphins and Slides Oh My!

My kids are early risers, they get up at the crack of dawn without fail. Doesn’t matter how late they go to bed, if it is school time or vacation time. When the sun gets up, they get up. I was never more grateful this than on our first morning on the ship: :cloud9:

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There is something truly wonderful about seeing the sun come up on the horizon while at sea! The girls got up and their Minnie and Daisy got up:

DMmorning.jpg


I later captured a picture of the breathtakingly beautiful yet extremely elusive DW!

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This was one of my favorite shots, although if you don’t get another installment of this trip report you will know that my wife has found out about this picture and has either 1) cut off all my fingers or 2) bludgeoned me to death with a blunt object! :love: :flower3:

We went to Beach Blanket for breakfast and it was awesome. We then had awesome news for the girls. There was to be a princess gathering in the atrium that morning that coincided with our meeting time for our shore excursion. They bumped up our start time 30 minutes so we were able to get to the princess gathering. We were second in line got to meet all 5 princesses and still got to our excursion time with time to spare! :banana: :banana:

We did the Nassau Dolphin Excursion. My wife and I did this one three years ago while on a cruise with another line for our 10 anniversary. We were really looking forward to seeing the girls on this one. Here is a shot of us on the way:

OuttoDE.jpg


and a shot of the beautiful Wonder:

Wonder.jpg


I had read how so many people gush about how pretty this ship is, especially compared to others. We were tied up next to the Carnival Sensation both in PC and at Nassau and she is a very ugly ship, boxy, no real lines to her, a “feckless drinking barge” (as dubbed by Fatherforce) to be sure. I thought it was an exaggeration but when you see it up close it is obvious.

A shot of the girls with the Atlantis in between:

GirlsandAtlantis.jpg


When you get there you go through a brief orientation meeting then they split you up into groups of about 25-30 people. Our dolphin’s name was Shawn and he was great. We got hugged, kissed, asked to the prom and drenched. I wanted to ask one family why they were there, the mom didn’t want to get wet, complained about the water temp etc…. Didn’t seem like they were having a good time. Now the water was a bit brisk, shrinkage inducing even. But the trick is to just get in and get wet. When it was our turn I dipped down up to my neck. Someone asked my why I was doing it but that helps you get used to it quicker! Whenever you weren’t following directions or to be blunt just being plain dense, the trainer would have the dolphin give you a raspberry, spit water at you or both. “Why am I here?” Mom dodged several attempts of Shawn to get her but in the end got a face full while she was trying to take a picture with NONWATERPROOF camera. I mean really? I knew from both the Dis and from our experience before that you bring a waterproof camera (from home they are cheaper). I smile smugly to myself as I turn my gaze of disdain from the hapless fools who either don’t know the Dis or didn’t heed its teachings, a return to my vacation. ;) After the excursion we snack on food pilfered from the breakfast buffet to tide us over so we don’t have to buy the stuff there. Another great Dis tip. Got some great pictures from the Dolphin folks and bought the DVD of our group.

Since any and all dolphin pics are on the Waterproof Camera and we haven’t got them back from the developer yet, I will post those later if we get the chance and if the pics are any good.

On our trip back we decided we wanted to hit up the Del Sol store. Del Sol is very cool you get shirts, hair clips, watches, flip flops, etc. And they change color in the sun. (www.delsol.com) The problem was we had a bunch wet towels. Didn’t want to carry them around, didn’t want to go back to the ship then back into Nassau. I was going to hoof it back and catch up. When our tender got to the dock what was there? A DCL rep collected wet towels! This was very cool. I was very impressed with this. :wizard: We hit Del Sol get some gifts and the girls bought some stuff for themselves and head back to the ship.

We grabbed a later afternoon snack at Plutos, it was about 3 our breakfast and snacks had worn off but we didn’t want to eat too much cuz dinner was right around the corner. The girls then wanted to go to the Goofy pool cuz High School Musical was on. How cool is that, I get to swim AND watch high school musical. Here is a shot of the girls dancing at the end with Troy and Co.: :banana: :dance3:

Together.jpg


It looks like they are standing still but they are dancing.

After Shar Pei decides she likes Crème Brulee, the girls want to go back to the slide. DW goes up to get a shot from Deck 10

Sweet Child:

SCWeee.jpg


Mini Me:

MMWeeeee.jpg


DW then wanted a shot at the bottom, she told the girls to get up and do the “TA DA!” when they get to the bottom. Sweet Child being the pleaser she is obliged:

SCTada.jpg


Mini Me forgot to do the “Ta Da” so we asked her to do it again. She eventually gave us what we were looking for:

MMTada.jpg


No she isn’t having any fun at all is she? :thumbsup2 :rotfl: We wanted to get the girls to have some quiet time because we knew that after the dinner and the show, the pirate party awaited. We were at the slide a bit longer than we anticipated but we did get about 20 minutes of quiet time.

That’s all for now tune in next time for Prancing Princesses, Golden Mickey’s, Pooped Pirates, and Bouncing Buccaneer’s
 
I'm so glad you are back. I couldn't wait to see how everything went after all the build up of anticipation. I am glad you guys had a great time. Great start to your trip report, I can't wait for day #2!!!!!!!!!!
 
Keep it coming!!! I need something to get me through all this snow!!!

Oh... and have you booked your next trip yet?????
 


I'm so glad you are back. I couldn't wait to see how everything went after all the build up of anticipation. I am glad you guys had a great time. Great start to your trip report, I can't wait for day #2!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks It may be longer in between installments now. The first part of my week was fairly slow but that is changing!

Keep it coming!!! I need something to get me through all this snow!!!

Oh... and have you booked your next trip yet?????

Part of me is really kicking myself for not re-booking on board but we didn't have the money for the deposit right now and I didn't want to put it on a credit card. If I could I would several rebooked already but then again that is just about everyone else here right!
 
Yey! You guys looked like you had so much fun! I love it. Keep it up!:goodvibes :thumbsup2
 


It looks & sounds like you folks had a blast! The BIG smiles tell the story!!!! I'm looking forward to your next chapter. Hmmmpf...doesn't returning to reality put a crimp in our DISing & TRing!!!
 
At least your PFD kept your head up and above the water line of the tub had you slid right in ;)
 
It looks & sounds like you folks had a blast! The BIG smiles tell the story!!!! I'm looking forward to your next chapter. Hmmmpf...doesn't returning to reality put a crimp in our DISing & TRing!!!


It sure does! Its hard to believe that its almost been a week since we left.
 
Chapter 19: Prancing Princesses, Golden Mickey’s, Pooped Pirates, and Bouncing Buccaneer’s

I have been told by many that I have an extensive knowledge of a wide range of facts that have no practical use in society. In the spirit of that reputation I offer you the following tidbit of trivia: :sad2:

The Term Buccaneer comes from the French word “Boucanier” which was used to describe pirates who also poached pigs and cattle when pirating wasn’t as profitable. They would smoke the meat to store for use at a later time on wooden racks called “boucans” from which we also get our word bacon. Now on to our trip report, already in progress. :teacher:

I want to back up a bit too. One the first night when we were shopping I got to talk to Rahmad from Indonesia. He was very friendly and very helpful. Asked us lots of questions. Wanted to know what we were doing in Nassau. The girls excitedly told him about the dolphin excursion. This flashback will make sense, stick with me okay? ;)

We get dressed for dinner and head out for Parrot Cay. With few exceptions we took the stairs to get where we going. It was usually faster and helped burn off a few extra calories right? :rotfl: I had noticed that the girls, Sweet Child especially, had started holding the stair rail with one hand and holding her dress out with another hand. In fact on the way to Dinner, she wasn’t going fast enough for Mini Me, and Mini Me told her so, she replied, “I’m a princess and a princess doesn’t rush!” :flower3: :cutie: All throughout the cruise the staff would refer to the girls as princess, I guess that and all of the princess exposure was rubbing off! princess: It was very cute. Here is a shot of the girls in action:

APrincessDecends.jpg


Sweet Child in her glory, Mini Me was hamming it up a bit, that’s why we call her Mini Me!

Before Dinner we get shots of the girls with pirate Mickey and Minnie. Dinner that night is great! We all have the Chilled Mango soup! YUUUUUUMMM The kids didn’t care for it too much but DW and I sure did! We love the chilled soups. I was tempted to finish the girls soup but I knew we had a big night ahead of us so I decided to pace myself. DW had a salad and I got the wings which Mini Me helped me consume. For the main course DW got the prime rib which was good. The girls as mentioned before enjoyed the “big” menus. Here is Sweet Child taking on the Caribbean Chicken (very good BTW):

SCChicken.jpg


Mini Me enjoying the ribs:

MMRibs.jpg


Me with the ribs:

MeRibs.jpg


After the main course DW tummy was feeling a bit rumbly :sick: so she wanted to head back to the stateroom. Sweet Child offers to go back and keep her company. I get to hang out a bit with Mini Me. It was a very cool moment, she crawled up into my lap and we just hung out for a bit. She got a Mickey Bar for dessert, I had the Crème Brule cheesecake. They had raspberry cheesecake on the kids menu. My wife Loves raspberries so I get that to go for her. We get back to the stateroom to find the evenings animal:

2ndanimal.jpg


We get the kids dressed up in their Pirate Outfits and book it back to the atrium to get shots with Pirate Mickey before the show:

piratefamily.jpg


The ears you know about, my DW made the Mickey Tye-dye shirts. We got the idea and a link to do it from the Dis! Mickey was very impressed with the shirt! Again the Dis making a rookie family look like pros! :thumbsup2 :grouphug:

The show that night was the Golden Mickeys which was pretty good. We were in the exact same seats as the night before. The only thing I would have changed would take out the villain section, when Ursula’s tentacles come out into the audience, my kids got a bit scared. I assured them everything was okay. I think they could replace that section with a spot dedicated to sidekicks and the show would be just as good if not better. :snooty: The end of the show is very cool only one problem, Mini Me was now asleep! Didn’t get enough down time I guess! She slept through the last part of the show in my wife’s lap. After the show I pick her up and carry her back to the room while DW and Sweet Child head off to Shutters.

Our Pooped Pirate:

poopedpirate.jpg


I have too many pictures in this chapter so I will be back with Chapter 19.2 shortly!
 
Sweet Child really wanted to go to the party, and I really wanted her to go but I didn’t know about waking up Mini Me. DW said pick her up and take her to the pirate party she will be fine. I’m not so sure but I decide to trust my wife on this one :scared: , so with that decision made we make our way to the Party!:

PirateBanner.jpg


We started off carrying Mini Me and head up to deck 10 because we figure all the good spots on 9 are taken. We get up to Deck 10 and it is more crowded that 9! So we head back down. By now the party is going pretty good and we get a pretty good spot just off the goofy pool next to one of those dance platforms that look like it was used by the go-go dancers in Laugh In! (Yes I am aware that I have just severely dated myself but getting older is better than the alternatives!) Mini Me is now awake enough to get up on my shoulders:

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Dale makes his way to the go-go platform:

Dale.jpg


Sweet Child wants up on the shoulders and she wants me to jump!

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Here are the girls hanging out with one of the “good pirates”:

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Okay random soapbox rant, I’m not completely sure how I feel about this whole “good pirate”/”bad pirate” thing. I mean come on, they were criminals that were used by governments when it was convenient for them to terrorize their enemies and hunted when it wasn’t conveienent. This while glorify the pirate stage that our society is in rubs me the wrong way. That said, I still had a great time at the party I just have visions of coming up to a pirate and asking them in falsetto “Are you a gooooooooddddd pirate or a baaaaaaadddddd pirate?” :lmao: I did think is was very cool that Mickey told us that no matter what happens he was on our side and would take care of us.

Okay rant over, I feel good, deep cleansing breath. :flower3:

We got to do the Hand Jive, my wife who is a big Grease fan got in to this one, and I got another shot!:

HandJive.jpg


Sweet Child and Minnie at the go-go platform:

MinnieandSC.jpg


The party started to thin out, Sweet Child got up to the Goofy Deck and was really paying attention to the on screen instructions! :

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The girls dancing together:

Dancetogether.jpg


Finally Mickey saves the day!:

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The fireworks go off and more dancing is had by all. My wife made the right call and I'm glad I listened to her, I would have stayed with her but this way we all had fun together! :banana: The Buffet begins DW is hungry cuz she didn’t get to eat all her supper, Sweet Child is hungry from all the dancing, Mini Me wants to go back to the room. I take her back to the room, where the other two join us for a late night snack:

LateNightSnack.jpg


Notice me in background, so we know this shot was taken by our future Shutter’s Staff Member Mini Me!

Now its time for bed, of course now Mini Me has gotten her 2nd wind!

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We all get to bed with dreams of pirates and a great day at Castaway Cay in the morning!
 
Ashman,

Yes! That picture of you in the tub with life jacket IS "milk coming out of the nose funny"! (Or hot green zen tea.... as the case may be)

You are ingenious! .... or insane?....
Oh the inhumanity.... you realize that every DW is going to want their DH to get this unique photo for their scrap book?

Anyway... thanks for clearing out my nasal passages.

Database
 
HI there..

SO glad you had a WONDEFUL time...You are one beautiful family...


Enjoying your report.:dance3:
 
Oh I knew I came in out of the snow for this!!!

Keep it coming... another foot of snow and I've already threatened to book a cruise ASAP!!!!!
 

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