2004-01-31 Western Cruise Afterglow

[Cap]

Well, we're almost done with the Jan 31, 2004 Seven Day Western Cruise. Tomorrow is Castaway Cay. Then it will just be the afterglow and memories.

However, some of us want to keep in touch and get updates to such deep questions as:

Gary - How long did it take to have your hair grow out to cover the "shaved in " Mickey? How long did it take to grow enought to become a "hidden Mickey"?

Randy and Annie - Of your back to back cruises, which was better, this Western or the Eastern?

Karyn - How did the post cruise move to Washington go?

Nikki and Glenn - what magical Chef tricks did you learn?

PrincessAurora - did college in Florida turn out to be as "magical" as you thought it would be?

and much more.

Keep in touch.

 

[Cap]

Is anyone home yet? Disembarkation went well for us. We were off the ship with bags loaded in the car by 7:45 AM.

 

[The4OfUs]

Debarkation was amazingly well done, once we finally started moving we were in the bus, all checked in at US Air, with our luggage in their hands and our boarding passes in ours, in 10 minutes flat, and at the airport before 9. Only to find that our flight, as well as Gail and Gary's had been delayed due to bad weather in Pittsburgh. *sigh*

We finally left at 1:30 or so, and just barely made our connection to Boston, and walked in the house at 7pm. There were tears getting off the ship, but it was so nice to walk into the house again, despite the ice storm the day before...

What an AMAZING trip, what an AMAZING vacation and what an AMAZING group of people we met through this board...I'm SO jealous that Annie and Randy and Jaclyn are still on board, but I can't wait to hear about the Eastern adventures.

Oh my, was that last night with the British Pub Night absolutely HILARIOUS! I only wish I had tape left in the video camera for the crew skit, Gary & Gail we need a copy!!

Off to unpack...a quick list of things I learned...

- over the door shoe holder idea was AWESOME, otherwise we'd have shoes/belts/things everywhere!
- suction cup hooks in the shower for the wet bathing suits, again, AWESOME, the drying line in the shower is a bit wambly (yes that's a word) and we had 2 suits each, that helped!
- extention cord is a MUST if you have a hair dryer or anything with a big square plug, we'd have been lost without it
- Deck 2 up front was wavy and a bit nosy during that Thursday when it was so rough they closed deck 4 outside...the waves were slamming against the side in a loud way. BUT otherwise, it was a quiet cabin, despite the reports of it being "noisy", which had me a bit freaked out before we went. Other than hearing the anchor drop on Grand Cayman day, and the thrusters on the other port days, which for us acted as a sort of alarm clock, it was just as quiet as any of the rooms we visited.
- LAUNDRY is tough to get - get there EARLY EARLY EARLY. DH went in at 6:15am and it was full, but he lucked out. Oh, and note to self, don't EVER get a room near the laundry, it was SO hot and humid and constant traffic, I was glad we had to walk so far!!
- Florencia in Palo's was ABOVE and BEYOND the best server we have EVER had the pleasure of meeting, and Jean and David in our regular rotations became part of the family, to the point of many tears the last night on the part of myself, DS, and I think even them!! I have to go email them next
- PUT SUNSCREEN on your ears when snorkling! *wince*
- BRING MY OWN COFFEE, cause DAMN that stuff was horrid.... *grin*

That's all for now, I'll check in later! Bye, gang!!

 

[The4OfUs]

One more thing, you cruise experts..

WHEN do I stop feeling like the earth is rocking???

Honestly, I'm walking around compensating for the waves right this second, and it's been 24 hours now!!

*tries not to fall on butt*

 

[Cap]

We're glad you're home safely. We're at Disney's Hilton Head Island today, watching the time come in. It's sunny and bright, but in the low 30's. However, when we work up this morning, the choice for where to go for breakfast was much more limited. Also, no one turned down our bed last night.

One surprise, at least for Hilton Head. When we checked in, there was a towel arrangement on the bed in the shape of Mickey. I guess we're still home.

 

[The4OfUs]

Cap, that sounds wonderful! Someone turned down our bed last night...oh wait...actually that was us not making it when we left at 3am last week....

*sigh*

Getting our puppies at 3pm today, I can't WAIT!!!

 

[dizmomof2]

We're home too! Our plane left late (of course!) and we didn't arrive home until after 2am. It was one really long day, especially because we are not U.S. residents and had to repaort at 6am for imigration!

The cruise was AMAZING! We had a wonderful time. Our servers we Ramin and Costi and they were so great that people from other tables were coming over to participate in their nightly antics with the kids. The room was great except for the nights they showed the movie late. We were in 5504 and it is directly above the Walt Disney Theatre. It got very loud during shows but we were either at dinner or at the show so it really didn't bother us much.

We did Naitive Way private excursion to Sting Ray City. I'll post the details about that later on another thread but they were abosolutly the best! Four people on the excursion with us had already done this before and they all agreed that this was so much better! I can not stress enough that this company is the way to go!!!

It was great meeting so many of you. I'll post again later with more details but for now it's off to unpack!

 

[OKWMEMBER]

I miss everybody already!!!

We got home about 10:00 P.M. last night after dinner at my cousins and a stop at work Our flight out of Orlando was a little late but the flight from D.C. to Pittsburgh was right on time!

It was an amazing cruise and it was great to meet all of you!!! We're still unpacking, too, so this will be short. My Hidden Mickey is already fading, just a shadow of his former self. We missed our cats and they sure missed us!!!

We had PLAPLAP (not to be confused with AFLAC) for our dinner rotation and Antonio and Luis were excellent, as was our room steward Nick.

The Jeep Safari at Cozumel was an absolute blast! We enjoyed carlos and Charlies that evening.

Our stateroom (7003) was fine but we missed seeing outside and the darkness made it hard to get up some mornings.

Nikki, our house is still moving a little, too! It should stop by tomorrow, I hope!

We flew to Pittsburgh with grandma_x2 and she reported having a great time!

I will scan the DIS Meet Photo (what a great turnout!!) and post it very soon for all of you who missed getting a copy. I was disappointed with how difficult it was to get a reprint of a group picture.

Well, I guess it wasn't such a short note!!! I'll post other pictures, including the Mouse himself admiring my Hidden Mickey, very soon. As I said, we miss all of you and the Magic. We are planning a trip to WDW the week of Deember 12th, the week before the 10 day cruise. It would be great to get together again so keep that in mind.

HADD!!!

 

[3 things]

First, greetings to Cap in Canton from someone just to your north in Northville!

We're just getting ready for our first cruise of any kind and it's the Western 7 day Disney on Feb. 28th so was just reading through this thread. I've pulled out an extension cord and will have to buy some suction cups based. And the laundry sounds like the busiest place on board!

And... you all sound like you had such a great time as a group! Hope the Magic is filled with cool people like you!

 

[OKWMEMBER]

Bump it up!

 

[KofPShannon]

I'm back too. I wish I had felt better during the trip. My sinus infection made me tired and unable to taste anything. Conor said it was the best vacation of his life. It was so nice to meet most of you.

We had Florencia at Palo's also. And Kristof from Belgium at a brunch. I liked the brunch a lot better then the dinner. I thought there was a bigger variety of food. Our regular servers were Gabriela and Catalin from Romania, such wonderfully sweet people. We hope to stay in touch with them too. It was very hard to say goodbye to them. It must be harder on them to meet and then lose new "family" every week. Gabriela has been on the Disney cruise ships for SEVEN years!! We had LAPLAP rotation.

I loved our navigator's verandah room. The porthole opening on the balcony helped keep the wind down. I never used my highlighters or windex, but I used clothespins for the bathroom line and our over-the-door holders.

I am going to go pick up my pictures from Costco in about an hour. Last night when the heat came on, I thought the sound was the ship's engines starting up. I absolutely loved the feeling of being at sea. I miss the swaying. We saw Calendar Girls on the ship. It was really cute.

Our return home was a long day of waiting. The shuttle didn't leave Port Canaveral till almost 9:45 because the driver insisted there was someone else on the ship. Then we couldn't check in till 4 hours before our flight, so had to wait in the airport lobby. Our flight was delayed half an hour. Philadelphia is notorious for taking forever to get your luggage. We walked in the door a little after 7 PM and the kids' dad picked them up at 7:15.

Barbara

 

[The4OfUs]

Hey you guys!

We were just saying that the house has stopped rocking, maybe we're docked now... *grin*

I downloaded all our digital photos, and will make an album soon out of them, (a digital one) - then I'll zip it up and put it on our website so anyone who wants to can download it. I need to get the music off the cruise line website as our background for when you look at the album!

Still haven't unpacked really, and the laundry is non stop, but the puppies are home with us, and Kelsey's glasses are fixed, so things are good. We had quite the ice storm here, so walking around is like trying to walk barefoot by the pool - or am I the only one who slipped all the time? *wink*

We've already watched parts of the video several times and miss everything and everyone - Gary, we showed our family your grand show of Cruella Da Ville, you got a standing O! *grin*

Check in with all later, and will try to get photos posted to our site by this weekend...

I think we'll raise a toast to Annie and Randy tonight...no wait, they are still in Paradise! I think we'll raise one for all of us who survived re-entry into reality instead!!

 

[Cap]

Shannon, you said "It was so nice to meet most of you." I really hope that you were saying that you didn't meet a few of us, rather than saying there were a few of us you wished you didn't meet.

Hope you get the sinus infection cured. No calls from the Mall team yet, right?

 

[DoomBuggieDriver]

I am so glad you all had such a great time! I hope everyone on our sailing is as nice.....I am writing the highlights and making notes as I read. Thanks so much for taking the time to report in, and I am looking forward to the photos and trip reports.
Kathy

 

[Corl4]

The4OfUs,
Just read your post....you mentioned that Jean was your server. Was that Jean from France? He was our Asst. server on our last cruise and we had a ball with him which included a food fight in AP!! We are looking forward to seeing him again this summer!
Glad to hear you had a magical time!

Beth

 

[jlawall]

Thx for the winter updates!!!

 

[grandma_x2]

sorry we mised everyone we got on ship late. we got up in the middel of the night to get there so we were so tired . we missed everything so didn't meet you all but we had a great time . the house stoped moving . getting back on night shift sleeping. cheryl

 

[The4OfUs]

Originally posted by Corl4
The4OfUs,
Just read your post....you mentioned that Jean was your server. Was that Jean from France? He was our Asst. server on our last cruise and we had a ball with him which included a food fight in AP!! We are looking forward to seeing him again this summer!
Glad to hear you had a magical time!

Beth

Yes! That was him!! We miss him already, and have watched our videos a few times...we have his email, have to send him some of the photos we took. He was the Server and David from Australia was the Asst. - David was only on for 3 weeks, and did a GREAT job once he loosened up a bit with us...which he did! *grin* Jean nicknamed the kids, and they ADORED him....

 

[jedokids]

Hi Everyone-

Well its back to the snow and cold weather! UGH!!! I have been doing laundry all day yesterday and today. We got back from Chicago airport around 5pm. We had a pretty smooth ride and everyone found all their luggage-- thats always a bonus!

I would have to say that my favorite thing on the trip was the stingrays!!! I have never done anything like that before! We too went with Native Way and we had a great time! They videotaped it and we bought the DVD. It was so great to watch when we got home. She even went underwater and taped the coral and the fish and of course the stingrays. They were so great about diving down and bringing up the stingrays for us to hold and kiss. They said that if you kissed a stingray, it was seven years good luck-- I kissed them several times!

Things I was glad I brought--
extra hangers
extra swimsuit
extra clothes (didn't do laundry on ship)
running clothes-- deck 4 at sunrise was fantastic!!!

Things I wish I brought--
extension cord (only one regular plug in for curling iron or blow dryer)
more beer for in the room for DH-- very expensive in ports!

Things I wish I would have had more time for--
kayaking with my son
going to more movies
staying up late to see the comedians
shopping in the ports

We had a fantastic time and we really miss it already. The house is still rocking for me too when I bend over! Our servers were Mack and asst. Alvaro from Chile. Our server for brunch at Palo's was Marco and he was the best!!! He is the only server there from Italy and he is definitely the cutest!!! Deep blue eyes!!!

Ok-- miss the boat-- miss the food and service-- and now I miss the message boards!
Dorie

 

[The4OfUs]

Welcome home Dorie!!

I just wanted to second the extra hangers thing - I should have thrown a few into the garment bag, because we found that there was JUST enough room for our clothes in those tiny drawers, and I "double hung" quite a few things (two dresses/shirts on one hanger, one over the other).

I'd also have brought a lighted clock, because I HATE waking up in the middle of the night and not be able to look over and see how much time I have left to sleep (or not sleep as the case might be).

I still haven't finished unpacking!! AUGH! But I'm back to work today - funny how quickly driving into downtown Boston comes back to one, isn't it... "GET OUTTA MY WAY! I was snorkling two days ago and now it's 20 degress and you DON'T want to mess with ME!" *grin*

So what would you guys say you wish Disney would change on board? I have four things..

- the coffee...my GOD it was awful, but I'm not a Nescafe fan, and I can't do the Cove espressos, too much caffeine upsets my stomach! I think I'll take a small bottle of instant coffee next time, and get hot water and make my own, seriously!! They have hot water for tea, right?
- Make the last day an at sea day - I hated coming off Castaway Cay and having to pack and plan, I lost that "happy buzz" pretty quick trying to remember all the details, but I'm slightly obsessive about things like that!!
- more than (what was it?) 12 washers for 2000+ people!
- Maybe limit the online time during the at sea days? I waited in line to try to send one email while I saw lots of teens using the Instant Messengers and playing games on the computers! I finally remembered the 5 terminals in the Cove, where the teens couldn't go, but there were about 3 people in front of me waiting that either didn't know or couldn't go there (not 18) - that was slightly annoying. Next time I'll just use the ones for the "adults only"! *grin*

Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing, and had no complaints whatsoever!! So when I consider the grand scheme of things, I'd say this was a pretty perfect vacation!