3 Day Wonder Jan 31-Feb 2, 2008

[bouge]

We're getting ready to do our second DC three weeks from tomorrow. We can not wait!!! My husband wrote a journal last year to share with our kids and parts of it are so funny that I want to share it. Enjoy!

The Decision

This time, I put my foot down. I delivered my edict to your mother: there is just no way that we are going to Disney World for the 3rd year in a row. No way. There's a whole other world out there that we should see, so many other places to go, so many wonderful places on this great earth to visit. This vacation, we HAD to go some place else. Period.

Your mother knew I was serious. She had no choice but to acquiesce. She got on the internet in the days and weeks following our last trip and then promptly booked… a Disney Cruise. Ah yes, totally different. Who says a man can't get his way?

<AHEM>

And so plans for our 2008 Disney Cruise were underway. DW got back on the Disney message boards and learned all she could: how to get the best deal, the best time to go, and all that jazz. Our big decision was about the timing and whether or not we go over winter break. And so we debated: go over winter break – or save about $800 by going a few weeks earlier than that. Unfortunately, the cheaper time was Superbowl weekend. It was a tough decision – we have a party we go to every year with some of our closest friends that we would miss and you're taking a little more of a chance with the weather by going 3 weeks earlier. But ultimately, the mighty dollar prevailed and we booked it for that weekend.

We had made this decision right after the Lions had improved their record to 6 – 2 on the year and Lion fever was at a level higher than I had ever seen it in my lifetime. I thought for sure that I had just sealed their fate – I had been waiting all my life for the Lions to make the Superbowl – and now that I would be 2000 miles away at Superbowl time, there was no doubt that this was the year they would turn it around. But, alas, these are the Lions I was taking about – and they went on to lose their next 7 games and not even make the playoffs.

We didn't know any of this at booking time, but it turned out we ended up missing a lot more than just the Superbowl party – the kids had an overnighter at the church they would have gone to and there were two other parties we got invited to: a surprise 50th birthday party for our neighbor, and a going away party for some other friends who were moving to China for a few years. All that just added more pressure to make sure it was a great vacation!

 

[bouge]

On Our Way to Florida

I came home and got you kids out of school about 20 minutes early to make sure we'd make our plane on time. We had packed the night before – so it was just a matter of stopping at home, making some last minute additions and then off to the airport. The timing worked out great – we weren't too late where we had to do some OJ Simpson-style running through the airport to get to our plane yet it was late enough that we got to our gate just as they had started boarding.

Our first great memory of this vacation took place right in the hallways of the almost defunct Smith Terminal – DS and I had gone to the bathroom and your mother was making some last minute checks of our carry-ons. I returned just in time to see her pull something out of one of our bags with this incredulous look on her face: "What's this?!" she said as she pulled my large jackknife out of a side pocket of our duffle bag! Now, you have to remember, this was still in a post-9/11 security world where they won’t even let people bring hand lotion on to the plane, let alone a large ominous jackknife! I had used the same bag that we had taken camping a few weekends earlier and I must have left it in there. I told her to just throw the knife out – I didn’t even want to take the chance of asking someone about it and risk missing our flight. Your mother just laughed and shook her head and asked if she needed to check any of the other bags. She had left the actual packing of the stuff into bags to me, which made her a little nervous to begin with. I assured her that there was nothing else to worry about. Or so I thought…

So we moved on to security and made it though the metal detectors just fine – but as I was grabbing the bags off the conveyor belt, the agent asked if the duffle bag was mine. After I said yes… she said she'd have to open it. And sure enough, she reached in and pulled out DS's Boy Scout pocket knife! Ugh! I couldn’t believe it – I thought I was going to be in BIG trouble, trying to bring a knife onto the plane. And I'm guessing if I hadn't been with my 3 kids and wife and it hadn’t been a scout knife… I might have been taken to some little room in the bowels of the Smith terminal and questioned behind a 2-way mirror.

But alas, she just confiscated it and we moved on – as fast as we could!

The flight was great – very smooth, right on time. You kids were great – you just did homework and slept and played DS's game boy. Before we knew it, we were landing in the beautiful Orlando airport – with outdoor temperatures at about 70 degrees just before dusk! Woo Hoo!

We got to the luggage area and mom and the kids went to get the luggage while I went to rent the car. By the time I got back, I found most of the people had gotten their luggage and were gone – with just you guys standing looking at an almost empty luggage carousel waiting for our last bag. It never came – an employee said, "That's it, folks." And motioned us to an office where we had to go if we were missing a bag. The news couldn’t have been worse, we had checked 4 bags and the one that was lost was the most important one!

I thought I had been pretty smart while I was packing – I figured for the first night in the hotel we would only need one bag – so I put all of our toiletries and our swim suits and the clothes we wanted for the first day on the ship into one bag – the one bag that they lost! What would we do?
Oh, what a pain. There we were in Florida ready to start our vacation – but we had to first deal with this. We waited around while the Spirit woman (I wonder if they really call them that…) called around to see where it might have gotten lost. Finally, me and the kids went back to get the car while mom finished up.

It was getting late, we still had an hour drive to our hotel in Port Canaveral and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. We decided to find a place to eat near the airport – just in case they found our bag. We drove around a bit before finding a Cracker Barrel where we had a great, albeit a whiny, dinner.

With no word about our bag by the time we finished dinner, we headed out towards Cape Canaveral. It was after ten o'clock now – we were tired and didn't have a toothbrush in our possession! We stopped at a convenience store, borrowed a few more toiletries from the front desk at the Country Inn and settled in for the night.

While it was going to be a big pain, both your mother and I realized that we were at least partially responsible for the snafu – I had put the Disney Cruise tags on our luggage before we left home – in retrospect, we should have waited to put the tags on until after getting off the plane. I should have known better – and your mom should have read and retained that piece of information from the hundreds, nay, thousands of lines of cruise blogs and posts she read in the weeks prior to the trip!

 

[bouge]

The lost luggage policy was that the airline would reimburse us for anything we bought to replace the lost contents… unless they found our luggage within the first 24 hours. That's kind of a lousy policy for the consumer – especially a cruise consumer – since we'd be on the ship when the clock struck 24! So, instead of enjoying a relaxing morning making our way to the cruise docks – we instead needed to go to town and buy stuff in case they didn’t find our bag. So, after an hour inside a Walgreens, the cashier rang up our basket full of toiletries, sunglasses, flip flops, motion sickness pills, sunscreen and who knows what else… and she gave us the total: $243! Who spends $243 at Walgreens?! The line of people behind us with their prescription or their pack of gum could not have been too happy. It was actually embarrassing, although not as embarrassing as our next trip to Walgreens (more on that later!)

Next it was on to drop off our rental car and on to the shuttle that would take us – finally, it seemed – to the docks!

None of us had ever cruised before – in fact, none of us had actually seen a cruise ship in person before. And even though you're told by all the brochures about its size – its still a bit shocking to see it for the first time (and the 2nd time and the third time…) But there it was – shiny and clean and… mammoth! There were 3 or 4 ships in port getting ready to set off to sea this day, but the Disney Wonder was proudly standing there in its Disney red, white and black. Your mother was in her glory – to see months of planning and anticipation finally come to fruition with the site of the ship and the looks on your faces were seemingly all she needed. If we would have left to go home right then, mom might have been okay with it…

One thing that struck me right away and told me this trip was going to be quite different were the lines – or rather lack there of. While Disney World is famous for its lines of people and the sport created by trying to avoid or reduce the amount of time spent in them, I was amazed at how little time we spent this whole trip waiting in any lines.

There was no one in line at the first gate where we were greeted by an older gentleman who checked our boarding tickets and took the time to show us where our room will be and to make small talk with the kids. He looked like he was having so much fun – I think your mom made up her mind right then and there that we're going to retire to the Orlando area and work for Disney in our twilight years…

The ship just kept looking grander and grander the closer we got to it. We entered a building where we split up – I went to check in and your mom took you guys to sign you into the Oceaneer's Club and Lab. That's where they gave us the beeper and put the wristbands on you for the cruise. After that, we had a few minutes to rest and take pictures with Goofy and Mickey Mouse.

On the ship!

In true Disney fashion, our greeting onto the ship was top-notch, with the greeter announcing the arrival of our family red-carpet style. From there we went to check out the ship. We had worn our bathing suits (a tip mom picked up from the DisBoard – since we wouldn’t see our luggage until a few hours later. So, I took you guys swimming and your mom went to check out our room.

The kids pool was Mickey-shaped, with the 2 ears being little splash pools. There was a big slide that started from an upper level and around the side and into the pool. The pool was probably a little too small for DS, but he had a great time and we never did make it to the bigger kids' Goofy pool the entire cruise. (Although I suspect that was by design to give your mother a legitimate reason to have to come back!)

We ate a little and then all went back to check out the stateroom.

Room 8704 was bigger than I expected it to be – but perhaps because my expectations were so low. You walked in through the narrow hallway with 2 lavatories on the left, each with a sink and one with the toilet and the other with the shower. On the right was the closet and set of drawers. Next was a queen size bed followed by a couch with a desk area across from it. The TV was tuned to a channel that gave information to us about what was going on aboard the ship and instructions for the upcoming mandatory safety drill. We had about an hour until that – so we decided to rest until then. We were all tired… probably from the lethal combination of the late night, the swimming and the motion sickness pills.

Somewhere in there they had finally delivered our bags – including the one that was lost! Our suspicions were correct – the Disney folks had grabbed it when they saw the cruise tag and so now it was back where it belonged! Although curiously, they had left it a few doors down – I guess that was our punishment for messing up their system! I guess they showed us!

 

[bouge]

Next, it was time for the all important emergency drill where we were to meet out on deck by the emergency rafts to practice how we would calmly line up in order by height and be accounted for, hopefully some time before the ship capsizes. The drill, we were told, is mandated by someone who mandates such things and participation was required. So, at the sound of the rather calm emergency horn, we all calmly grabbed our life jackets from our room and calmly made our way to section P, deck 4, ushered along the way by calm Disney attendants. The Disney attendants were smiling like usual, but it was a decidedly workman-like smile. I could tell. These people were serious about getting us lined up by height so they could count us.

I'll admit that I didn’t pay too much attention to the drill. I was busy trying to figure out how on earth one of these life jackets would ever save a human of any size in the rocky waters of the Caribbean, let alone a human of my – uh – stature. I was about to file an official complaint with the proper authorities… until your mother pointed out that I had grabbed a child's jacket! I couldn’t imagine why it only came down to my nipples.

Soon it was announced that we had passed our emergency drill and the ship was cleared for take off or blast off or whatever it is that ships do. They were having a "Sail Away Party" up on deck 9 to celebrate. And so we joined a couple hundred of our new friends to celebrate. No one else seemed concerned that Disney wanted to celebrate a successful sail away. I would have thought it was commonplace by now, but I let it go.

We danced and sang and watched video on the jumbotron of ourselves dancing and singing. Everyone was having a great time. We almost didn’t even feel it as the ship broke from port and started sailing. Wow! We were off!

Next it was time to change for dinner. Our first night's dinner was at Animator's Palate – the restaurant that features a cool dining room that starts out the night in black and white and then gradually throughout dinner magically gains more and more color (uh yes, I know its not magic… I'm just playing up the Disney theme here, okay?) Even the wait staff's clothing participated – they started off with black and white vests until eventually they parade out with colored versions of the same vest. You kids got a real kick out of it. It is a brilliant idea – another one of those Disney touches that not only amazes but has the ulterior motive of keeping those with short attention spans (kids, mostly) entertained throughout dinner.

Here's where we met the waiter that would take care of us for all 3 meals and the family we would share those meals with. Our meal was fine although a bit too long for the kids liking. It was also a bit rocky – we could really feel the ship swaying back and forth. John, our table partner, even said that it was rockier than usual, but he also assured us that once they got further out to sea the stabilizers would kick in and we wouldn’t feel much more of this.

From dinner, we made our way over to the theatre for the Golden Mickeys, the first of 3 live shows we would watch after dinner each night. To be honest, I am writing this only about a week removed from being there and all the shows seem to have melded into one for me. They were all good, mind you, with great singing and dancing and Disney messages throughout. This one was wrapped around the theme of an awards show.

Of course, the other reason that this one might not have sunk into our family's collective long-term memory bank is that there were never more than 6 or 7 of our eyes open at any given time during the show. By the time we had settled into the theatre chairs, we were all exhausted from the day's activities. Who could blame us for stealing a little shut eye? The girls were completely asleep by the time the lights came back on. So, no doubt subliminally inspired by my Disney surroundings, I assumed the character of Hercules and carried my 2 six-and-a-half-year-old, forty-something pound children all the way back to our stateroom. That's from deck 4 forward to deck 9 aft, for those keeping score at home.

And so we slept. I slept pretty well – I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the faint sounds of a screaming baby in one of the adjoining rooms. Your mother never sleeps well away from home – and this trip was no exception. As for you kids? Well, let's just say we would have needed the ship's foghorn to wake you.

 

[bouge]

It's Friday!

DW and DD7 woke first and even snuck out to breakfast before the other three of us even woke up. Then the rest of us got up in time to watch our ship heading in to port in Nassau, Bahamas from our veranda. It was a beautiful morning – sunny and warm with a nice breeze off the ocean. DW took a shower while the rest of us went up for breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet (yes, DD7 went for a second breakfast, as she would do every morning!) We ate at a table at the rear of the ship and got a firsthand view of how they maneuvered the ship into port and did a one-eighty to turn the ship around so they could back in to their spot. Amazing! Here they have a thousand-foot, 83,000 ton vessel that they spun around and handled better than your mother can parallel park her car! Another example of the Disney touch – taking something as simple as sailing into port and turning it into something that astounds you and shows up the other cruise lines. I mean, ha! They were going to have to actually back out of port! How tacky!

We had decided to skip the excursion into Nassau and stay on the ship to take advantage of the lighter volume of people. We went swimming for a while in the Mickey pool and then mom came to take the girls to the Oceaneer's Club. They had some planned activities for you – the girls started by baking cookies and DS9 went to Animator's Palate for a drawing activity while they watched Toy Story II and ate some food.

Your mom and I took advantage of the fact that you guys were occupied by enjoying a relaxing afternoon – something not usually associated with our family vacations. It was great – we started with eating a light lunch from the buffet out on the deck, finished up with dessert and coffee and then went for a walk. We came across a ping pong table and your mother just had to try to show her superiority (apparently sea travel was making her delusional). Despite the fact that she had gotten a warm up against DS9 the night before – I smoked her in game 1. I took pity on her after that – I didn’t want her spending the rest of the cruise curled up in the fetal position in the corner of our stateroom, so I let her have game 2. (Hey, it's my journal, I can write it how I remember it…) Your mother suggested that we leave it at that for now and let the kids witness the rubber game at a later time, but I suspect she never had any intention of playing that rubber game. We then went to sit down and read – your mother went to our stateroom so she could fall asleep if she wanted and I went out onto the deck, laid out on a lounge chair and started reading my book. Soon, my eyelids got too heavy for the muscles keeping them open and so I shut my eyes for a few as well. I woke in time to catch a few scenes of the movie Cars that was playing on the big screen over the Goofy pool and then off I went to get DS9

Mom had gotten the girls and they ordered room service for dinner while I took DS9 to eat at the food station right outside the Mickey pool. We needed to feed you guys as this was the night your mother and I would eat at Palo, the upscale restaurant on board, instead of our assigned restaurant. That was just as fine to you guys – you could eat quickly and then get back to enjoying the cruise. I'm thinking you would have been fine doing that for every meal.

After resting a bit and then getting dressed up for dinner, we dropped you guys back off at the Oceaneer's Club and Lab so we could go to dinner. DS's group was going to see "Enchanted", something we didn’t dare tell the girls for fear of World War III breaking out right there on the ship. Actually, DD7 would have loved to see it and they would have probably let her, but twin DD7 is still very skittish when it comes to watching any movies with real people in them. Its really strange – even with the most treasured Disney classics like 101 Dalmations, she gets very emotional and doesn’t want to watch them – mostly because there's usually some bad guy in those movies that you know the heroes will eventually overcome, but they prove to be too scary for twin DD7when they are causing their trouble.

Anyway, dinner at Palo was incredible – although I was a little disappointed in the dessert that every message board in cyberspace and every Palo-experienced human we talked to had raved about. But the meal was great and the service was off the charts. About half-way through the meal, we realized that we needed to tip this guy and neither of us had brought money. Your mom couldn’t remember reading anything about HOW we were supposed to tip him – whether they would give us something to charge his tip to our room or whether we needed to give him cash.

So, it was off to the races for dad. Mind you, I was already warmish and perspiring a little in my slightly too tight dress shirt and tie from just sitting to eat dinner, let alone adding a race back to the state room. But that I did – I rushed back to get my wallet only to discover that my wallet was in the safe which could only be opened using your mother's room key! Ugh. So… the beads of sweat turned into full-scale drops during the run-walk back to the restaurant to get the key… only to discover that your mom's room key was in my sport coat pocket the whole time! Ugh… back to the stateroom and then back to the restaurant, only to discover that they would indeed give us the option of charging the tip back to our room. Good thing I can laugh about it now…

After dinner, we picked up the kids and made our way to the High School Musical Party. We missed the first 20 minutes of it but I'm guessing it was a lot like the last 40 minutes: a very excited activity director dancing and singing and teaching us how to dance just like they do in the movie. The girls and I even got picked at one point to dance up on stage – no doubt because of my superior dance moves and not at all because a 6-foot-5 double-left-footed behemoth flanked by twin High School Musical-ly dressed cuties sticks out of any dance floor like a giant sore thumb.

From there we went to that night's show: The Art of the Story. This was the World Premier for this show – it was brand new to the Disney lineup. It was very good – it was basically a montage of Disney movies and how the arts are incorporated into every Disney piece: music, song, dance, art, color, everything. We had gotten there pretty late and had to sit way up front – so the combination of sitting in front of the speakers and the fact that we all had taken naps earlier allowed to us stay awake for the whole show, well pretty much anyway.

From there, we went on to the Pirates of the Caribbean Party out on the deck. Good thing we had taken naps earlier – because even with the naps, we were kind of tired by the time we got to this point in the night. We participated a little more passively at this party – taking in the sights and sounds on stage and on the big screen from some deck chairs. Towards the end of the party, we moved into perfect position to catch the fireworks show over the water.

After that, we went back to the room and got you kids in bed – your mom was going to read for a while so I headed out to go swimming (for the record, your mom accused me of only wanting to go out to eat all the food they had out for the Pirates party – which was a complete and utter falsehood. Besides, it was all put away by the time I went to get some!) Anyway, I found the adult pool almost empty – I jumped in and swam 8 or 9 laps until I remembered that I am in no shape to swim 8 or 9 laps! There was a duo set up to provide the entertainment – a man on keyboards with a woman singing classic love songs in a slow, romantic Latin style. I moved to the hot tub and relaxed for a while. On my way back to the stateroom, I stopped for a slice of pizza or three and watched a few scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean that was showing on the big screen.

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Thanks for sharing this from your last cruise...can't wait to hear how your next cruise goes!!!

 

[alldiz]

thanks for posting...I see this is from last year...but I am going on the 3 night cruise in Dec and it is sooo nice to read about what I will be doing.
Kerri

 

[my three girls]

Great report! Always love hearing from the 'Dads' perspective. We went last February for a three day with our three girls. Loved it. We have a 7-day scheduled in late May 2009.