5/25/06- Our first stay at GF & our first cruise! (pictures added!)

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

This is my first time to write a trip report- I usually just never get around to it and while I do write in a "disney journal" for all our trips, I don't write EVERY single thing down- so after time passes I end up not writing a trip report because I've forgotten so much. Not this time- I'm going to start now before I forget anything!

My trip report might be boring- I'm not funny/etc. like some but it will be informative in the sense of what we did, what we learned and possibly some tips for others going for the first time.

(added pictures- if you're wondering why they all have a little text box-- I don't normally do that but for some reason we got home only to realize that all our pictures had some weird date on them... not sure how that happened but it wasn't intentional and the dates weren't correct! They were in Jan 2006! So I just edited them out and put little text boxes in their place LOL)

Our family includes:
Me
DH
DD1 12yrs (Ruby)
DS 8yrs (Robert)
DD1 5yrs (Rita)

Day 1: 5/25/06- Flying in to arrive at Grand Floridian!

I stayed up all night packing the night before- and I do mean all night without a lick of sleep. Fortunately even packing last minute like this I didn't forget anything we needed, except for some things for DH. From now on I'm packing and doublechecking HIS stuff also! He didn't pack his brown shoes and since he was needing those for practically every dinner except formal night- it was one thing I'd like to have had. He just wore his sandals instead but that's not as 'dressy'.

We parked the vehicle near the airport and flew out at 8:50am (CST from DFW) - our seating arrangements on the flight this time worked much better for us than previous flights. This time we had no fighting over windows from the older two- instead of all 5 of us across one row we had me, DH and Rita sandwiched between us with Ruby one row behind at the window, Robert one row in front of us at the window.
We arrived at MCO around 12:30pm and our limo driver Anthony was waiting for us. We did the grocery stop solely to get beer/etc. but it wasn't a store that had wine/alcohol like I'd requested- only beer and wine coolers. I purchased DH some beer and a few "beer" (not to be confused with "wine") coolers (in plastic bottles) for myself. We're not big drinkers so we weren't keen on the idea of paying a lot for each beer/etc. on the cruise. Money spent better elsewhere is what I think. (or thought- more later on that LOL)

We arrived at the Grand Floridian at 2pm- no one greeted us by name as others had mentioned but eventually we mentioned to the bellhop taking our luggage that we were staying concierge and asked where to go- and he took us to someone who took us up- we stayed in the main bldg concierge. I think our room was 4313 if I'm remembering correctly. We didn't get the castle view we'd requested (and crossed our fingers for) but it was still nice. Refreshments at that time was only chips and cookies but we grabbed a coke each. DH took the kids swimming- at first in the regular pool (which we did have a view of from our room) until I went down to tell him that's not the FUN pool with the slide and took them over to the fun pool. LOL We only had 2 robes in the closet- we had heard (on this board) they had some for children so we called for some and they said they only had one size (which is XL btw- kinda big and long even on myself)- so we just asked for 2 more and the older kids wore the huge robes... youngest just used her swimsuit coverup.

The room was a huge difference (ofcourse) from what we're used to at the value resorts- even though it was one room when we're used to two now. Roomy and nice- and I especially liked the light coming from the balcony. That's one thing I hate about any hotel or resort room- it's so dark even with the lights on, but not here at GF!

Afternoon tea was desserts and banana/etc. pudding (mmm!) -we hung out playing chess & such for awhile until 5pm. Then we went to get ready for our dinner at Park Fair with Cindy & the Prince! Twilight offerings were appetizers- I'm sorry I didn't list them all out but they were definitely nothing my kids were interested in snacking on. It wasn't until the next day that we realized there was another table with things more for children's palates. LOL

Dinner at Park Fair at 6:10pm was delicious as always. Only DH was really hungry though- the rest of us aren't big eaters anyway and even just snacking a bit on the concierge food had us a bit full. We made sure we fit in some dessert though. I did like the shrimp pasta.

(ps. see how little Rita is? Keep that in mind when reading this trip report later- ie: the kids "remember the journey" show later in the cruise)

We were all back in the room by 7pm and stuffed to the gills. DH took the kids swimming later after we'd had some time for our stomachs to settle and I have no idea when they returned because I fell asleep at 10pm and woke up at 12:30am with all of them in bed snoring also! I ended up staying up until 5am (I'm a nightowl anyway and I always end up staying up even later when I've slept and then woke up for some reason)- just getting things ready and set out for the next day- at MK~!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 2: 5/26/06 -still at GF, day at MK

I set the alarm for 8am but I ended up sleeping late. Everyone else was up and dressed to go (because I'd set their clothes out for them LOL) but DH let me sleep until 10am! ugh! But I guessed it was okay considering that we were surprised by the fact that MK was open for late magic hours until 3am that night! This was good news because I'm a nightowl & so are the kids- so I figured later we'd just send DH back on the monorail (possibly with the youngest if she was getting tired) and the rest of us would stay late.

Best laid plans and all that...

Early morning concierge offerings were pastries, meat and fruits- I filled up on watermelon and you all know how long that lasts in the stomach- not long! We figured if we got hungry we just could beebop back and forth on the monorail for snacks at the resort. Sure is a lot faster than taking the busses from the value resorts we're used to! That's a definite plus for staying at a deluxe!

We arrived over at MK at 11am and had some "issues" with our tickets. I still haven't figured it all out yet but apparently I was wrong about how many days we had left on leftover park hoppers- I'd purchased new 10 day ones for me and Robert thru ticketmania and one day (non park hopper) for DH on our room key upon checkin because he probably won't go to other WDW trips for awhile- but I thought Ruby and Rita still had days left on their tickets. Now I'm wondering if they are really the one day each left on their roomkeys from our last trip where we had to pay for one day each in order to get the dining pkg. Not sure. in any case- we were denied entry on those tickets and had to go pay for one day each (x2- one adult/one child) before we could get in- and I hated doing it, since I know we could have got 10 day park hoppers nonexp. tickets SO much cheaper (per day rate ofcourse) if I'd known and done that in advance.
First picture notice DH is not exactly thrilled... plbbt to him! (he's not a big fan of the parks! LOL)

He manages a semi-smile here though:

We had a great day at MK though- we head straight for Fantasyland and rode Peter Pan, IASW, Snow White, Pooh, Mickey's Philharmagic, Rita even went on HM with us for the first time and wasn't scared! (woohoo! No more having to split up at HM! Last summer was Robert's first time- this trip Rita's- now we can ALL go on HM at last!) and went to Tom Sawyer's island for the first time (believe it or not we've just never found the time to explore that in the past!).

We were all bummed that POC was closed for refurbishment.

In all that time none of us grew hungry except for Rita (because she will never eat when food is offered therefore didn't eat but one bite of a donut that morning!) and ended up paying right at $3 for the tiniest bag of cheetos just to keep her happy. ugh By 2:30pm we were hot and tired- so we just bipped right over back to GF on the monorail -just chips and cookies offered at concierge again.. we just grabbed sodas. Later the "tea" offering was desserts and no coke available- only diet sodas and sprites. *sigh*

DH took the kids swimming again at 3:10pm while I just relaxed in the room and started preparing for the next day (leaving on cruise). I also took the time to write in my Disney journal. We took this break thinking we'd still get our money's worth out of the park tickets (even the 3 one-day expensive ones we'd had to purchase) because the park was open for us until 3am! I had to go drag the kids and DH from the beach area near the pool at about 5pm. We snacked a bit in concierge -better offerings that night. The crab cakes were delicious and the kids had fish nuggets (now that we knew about the other kiddy table there that we'd ignored before LOL). DH liked the chicken & ceasar, salmon and potato salad. Had a bit of wine (me) & beer (DH) and it started raining really hard. I assured DH it would stop soon- as it did almost every day of our last trip (that trip was just me and kids- without DH). So we just head over to the room to get our ONE umbrella (I had not packed our ponchos since I figured we wouldn't need them for just ONE day at the parks- besides we were so close by monorail we could head back if the rain wasn't letting up or we got too soaked/etc.). We head over to MK and everyone was piled up under the shelter at the monorails waiting for the rain to stop before venturing out to go in the park- we walked thru them and ventured out to go into MK with it POURING down and the walkway super flooded (about 2 ft high- no lie! went up mid-calf on me). I had on cotton capris that no longer looked like capris (looked like regular pants past my ankles LOL) by the time we got thru the gates. Even with the umbrella we were pretty soaked! But we were wearing our crocs for the first time at the parks and so atleast our feet would dry out quickly (as opposed to having socks/tennis shoes on like previous trips!). Our feet did make squish noises for awhile though. Those crocs can be noisy if they/your feet are wet. LOL We were the squish squish family for awhile there.

We rode Space mountain (first time for Rita- who was BARELY tall enough to ride! They kept checking her at every place they could but her head hit that stick by gosh!) and then rode it again- she loved it! We also did the racecars, BTM, and Buzz Lightyear. We just took this opportunity to ride Splash mountain on this "visit" to MK and not be bothered if we got splashed. We ended up riding it twice. This is a big deal for me- I'm the type that normally avoids the wet rides because I don't want to get wet and walk around in wet clothes with wet hair and/or makeup running. But this time we were in crocs, already soaked from the rain- and I was only wearing sunscreen without makeup. My hair wasn't fixed either... just up in ponytail. So wet ride here we come (came) LOL We rode it twice- the 2nd time just to kill time while waiting for our picture from the first ride. After that it was actually pretty crowded by about 9pm so we head back to GF for snacks (desserts and cordials) & to the room for a bit (by that time we were pretty dry except our bottoms LOL) and again- we thought we'd end up staying late at MK so we weren't in a rush to get back to MK.

We head back over to MK about 10:30pm and it was even MORE crowded. We expected it though- I know from last summer's trips that it's crowded in the evening at the magic hours park for that day but if you stay really late it dies down considerably- families with very young children don't usually stay until 3am! So we weren't daunted- we just skipped Buzz though because even with fastpasses the line for fast pass was out the door just like the standby line! not sure what was up with that but we ended up riding Space mountain again, the racecars, and we were all starting to get tired (and Rita was doing the whining about having to walk thing... I was not about to get a stroller for that day with all the leaving/coming back and such- I'm hoping she outgrows this soon. She's almost 6 and our first trip when Robert was 5 he walked all day while she was in our stroller we brought from home! He never complained.. and she's getting too big to carry around much- although DH did carry her some when the whining got too annoying LOL)- so we just decided we'd walk back thru and ride things as we went along if they didn't have long lines until we all wanted to leave (bypassing the original idea of sending DH back with Rita and the rest of us staying- because Robert was also getting tired and so was I! Ruby wasn't tired- so we bummed her out. She's used to me being a nightowl and staying late- but I guess lack of sleep was catching up to me- plus I WAS getting blisters from the plastic rivet part of the crocs. )

We rode teacups, pooh, snow white, Mickey's Philharmagic-- we were going to do Peter Pan and IASW and keep on going but the lines were long, Rita was whining about walking (even from ride to ride!) and Robert's inner thighs were getting chapped from his shorts being so wet earlier and all the walking-- so we head back to GF at midnight without even getting the wristbands, much less staying until 3am as planned!
I still can't believe I didn't take advantage of that late night. LOL We did have to get up and get ready for the cruise the next morning though!

The monorail took quite awhile for all the stops- we got back to the room at 12:40am and were all in bed asleep by 1am- myself included!

My thoughts on our first stay concierge, first stay at GF also:
The extra price is worth it for us- but only for short stays. There's no way we'd be able to justify the price for longer stays like some of our WDW trips have been- like 12 nights and such. But for short stays it can't be beat with the monorail-- what a time saver that is! And you don't feel "stuck" at the park- because you know it won't take long to get back to your room, versus waiting for a bus and the ride back to a value resort- then wait for a bus and the ride back to the parks and such. In the past staying in value resorts- we'd never go back and forth to resort like we did on this day- it takes up too much time going back and forth by bus!

The concierge offerings weren't that great in our opinion- so we'd never stay concierge for the food... but we enjoyed how fast it was to the park, how fast it was to just go downstairs to eat dinner with Cindy (youngest's favorite character meal!), having more space in our room and the balcony, the amenities in the room (including coffee maker and iron- I ironed our double scoop shirts for the next day going on the cruise) were ofcourse better, turn down service, kids enjoyed the slide at the pool and beach area nearby, the bed was a little softer than value resort which is a definite plus, double sink in the bathroom is very helpful, bigger tub also!

We'll probably stay GF again for shorter stays or for instance stay at value (2 rooms) for awhile and end the trip at GF- but we won't stay concierge... not necessary. We didn't receive any extra help from concierge (wasn't needed for such a short stay) and the food wasn't worth it. Although we didn't buy anything but cheetos on that day- we weren't that hungry- but we didn't eat "well" either- mostly snacks and desserts all day. LOL We can stay just at the GF without concierge and still have the amenities WE want like the pool and monorail.

-- tomorrow is the day we head off for our first cruise- and a special one at that... not only a Disney cruise but the first double scoop cruise! I was so excited to meet DIS'ers!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 3: 5/27/06- Disney cruise!

We were up at 7:30am and left GF at 9:45am... limo was there for us about 5min after we arrived downstairs waiting! Getting ready to board was basically painless and we were surprised we were able to get the kids wristbands for the club/lab while waiting to get on the ship! Surprised that our 12yr old didn't get a wristband and had to carry around her card the entire time- complete with some paper STICKERS they put on the front. *sigh* That meant the .97 lanyard thingies we bought at Walmart weren't going to work for her because those aren't waterproof and her stickers on her card would get wet- so we had to buy the cruiseline lanyard for her. Honestly it ended up being quite a pain keeping up with her card. She didn't like wearing the lanyard, didn't always have a pocket- and later when she no longer had checkout privileges (more on that later) we had a hard time remembering to pass along the card from DH to myself and back and forth to whomever was going to go check her in! (and they needed it everytime). Personally I think they'd do better to just let them all wear wristbands up to age 12 (all kids in club/lab). Just my personal opinion... would have saved us some grief keeping up with her card.

We've read reports and seen pictures of lots of other DIS'ers with the same shirts on/etc. but we didn't see any of them when we were there. Well a few- but not a large group. Apparently I'm not as observant as I think I am.

Anywho- we were on the ship at 12:30pm (and our # was 9! We thought we'd have to wait a lot longer than we ended up having to wait- that was cool). I have heard mention before about the long lines before they changed this and I'm so glad they did. We were able to just sit around with the kids watching the tvs until our number was called and then practically just walked on without a wait. We ate at Topsiders. Very good buffet! Had a little bit of a snafu though where DH thought when the lady just walked by and asked if he wanted the drink (bahama mama I think?) while I went with 2 of the kids thru the buffet and he just said yes- he had no idea they weren't free. She set them on the table and walked off- just as I walked up and said what in the world did you get those for? I mean first off we're not big drinkers (hardly ever) and certainly not at lunch... and he KNEW I'd stopped by the grocery stop for him some beers so that we wouldn't pay a fortune for every drink (and gratuities) while on the cruise. We hadn't touched them though and it was a misunderstanding- so when she brought the bill for $14.30 (see what I mean by expensive? LOL) we just explained we didn't want them and he'd misunderstood thinking they were free with the buffet (later he said he didn't even realize they were alcohol- he thought it was just some fruity drink and therefore included in the buffet- keep in mind he's used to all inclusive trips like to cancun/jamaica and such LOL) and she took them off the bill. Minor snafu.

Then we just went by to check out the club and lab a bit before heading to our room. It was about 1:30pm and our luggage wasn't there yet ofcourse. We took the kids swimming from 2-3pm (during this time I remembered about dropping off the pillowcases to be signed and took them down to Guest services. We only had a princess/Cinderella one for Rita and a Tink one for Ruby - because that's all I could find at walmart before we left for the trip. I couldn't find any disney themed one for a BOY for Robert- and didn't think he'd be interested in a pillowcase signed by characters anyway- especially a plain white one... so I didn't take one for him. We had originally planned to have them pillows with iron ons of gifs made for them with their names and characters they like but the person that was doing them for me did 2 of them and never did the 3rd one... and couldn't be reached thru PMs here anymore after that- disappeared. So I gave up on that idea- wasn't going to go thru the effort of all that for only 2 of the kids. Ended up doing only 2 kids pillowcases anyway. I put them in a large baggie with 2 pkgs of fabric markers -each had different colors- with instructions written that Rita's was the Cindy pillow and she liked all princesses and minnie, Tink was Ruby's pillow and she liked fab 5 and stitch was her favorite character)

Then we we head up for the Dismeet from 3-3:30pm. We didn't mingle long though- it was so sunny & hot -and ofcourse we were back in our special double scoop group shirts not swimsuits!... so we head back to the room pretty quickly at 3:30pm. The group was huge though- very crowded. hehe It was great seeing people's faces for the first time and it was so neat of Mary/Mark to have the buttons and the pins (PDFG= pixie dust for Garry) and the "navigator" with everyone's names/rooms and such. I'm ashamed to admit I can't remember who was passing out the lime green special pens... I can see her face but can't remember her name! I'm so bad on names- but that pen came in real handy later on when our DCL pens somehow disappeared! Thanks!!!

Back to the room at 2:30pm and our luggage arrived sans ONE bag- the bag with MY clothes in it. I had a bit of a minor panic- for just a little bit... but my bag showed up a little while later. *phew*

Our room had our REAS stuff in it (robes, frame - which I just now realized we left on the counter area next to the closet behind our "opened with doorstop" adjoining door- ugh!, mickey chocolates, silver basket that it was all in. The REAS pkg also came with an 8x10 free photo certificate, champagne breakfast in stateroom, rainforest passes for both of us which neither of us used, and a rose & choice of a bottle of wine or champagne at one meal- Palo. Also we were never charged for the Palo dinner $10pp fee nor the fee for Palo brunch we ended up missing- more on that later!) and a surprise was memory boxes in each room from our travel agent- totally unexpected. They are huge and each one had a rubber "sailing" dressed Mickey figurine thingy -with no face ... you put a picture in the face area LOL and 4 photo cards w/envelopes. Very nice surprise!

Scanned over our navigator and other info papers they gave us and realized I needed to go book tea with Wendy! (I'd already booked everything else online- Palo, excursions, Vista Spa stuff, etc.) So I ran down to book that with guest services for the girls (for Thursday 4pm- almost all the spots were taken by that time!) and then we head down for the 4pm drill. The lifevests weren't bad but standing like sardines out on deck 4 (assembly G area) was not fun... sweating like crazy. LOL Sure wish we'd had an inside assembly area!

4:30pm we head down to the sailaway party by the pool. I was totally unaware (or forgot?) about the DIS'ers meeting on deck 10 and didn't know about meeting on deck 4 to wave at Garry either. Sorry GarRy! (DH was supposed to go scuba diving with GarRy and his son until he had to cancel going on this trip. We missed ya, man!)
But the kids had a blast at the sailaway party. I was able to get great pictures of the kids dancing, sans Ruby because I could never find her in the crowd! But she was out there somewhere dancing her hiney off. Rita/Robert stuck near DH (because he made them - and mostly held Rita up over the crowd).
Rita & Jeff boogeying at the sailaway party- you can also see Robert a little in the background (look for the gray shirt- kinda in front/to the side of DH). Ruby was nowhere to be seen in the crowd- but she was out there having a good time to be sure!

Couple of pictures of Rita jammin'- she was pretending to play the guitar. I guess mimicking the band on stage? All I know is she cracked me up and I took lots of pictures of it. LOL

People waving at us- from the ship we couldn't tell for sure if they had Mickey gloves on... we thought so- but werern't sure. We kept thinking why would people be out here at some restaurant waving with Mickey gloves? But I took the pictures anyway- and sure enough they did have Mickey gloves on!

And we're off! Finally on our long awaited disney cruise!

5:15-5:40pm Rita swam with DH while the rest of us went up to shower and get ready for dinner. DH & Rita got ready from 5:40-6:15pm. The show started at 6:15pm and was just one deck down underneath us- convenient. LOL It was great- the ventriloquist and magician were hilarious! The show lasted longer than they said though (they said 45min- it was more like 1hr 10min) and that kinda put us in a rush for dinner because we weren't completely ready for dinner. LOL

We had late seating at AP for our first night- and were supposed to be linked sitting near others from our DIS group-- the first night did not go well. There was a super long line to get in even though we followed the suggestion of not coming early and it was HOT in line thru shutters and the hallway after that- we were all sweating like crazy by the time we got in AP. We were seated and didn't recognize a soul anywhere around us. Our server seemed upset that our youngest (Rita) wanted 2 entree items (mac & cheese & chicken strips) and I was curious what was up with that since we'd been assured on this board that you could have whatever you wanted- even more entrees if you wanted or if you didn't like something you'd ordered/etc. We sat for what seemed like forever with just water- not even drinks or bread. They never refreshed our drinks thru the entire meal either. Our youngest (Rita) drank her chocolate milk then drank some of my coke and then drank some of my husband's tea- remember we were hot and thirsty. Ruby ordered off the adult menu- again something we'd been told wouldn't be a problem. All she ordered was the sirloin steak and fries... we all received apps, then our meals and she never received hers at all! Nothing- she had nothing to eat but bread and she's not a big bread eater. She nibbled out of hunger though. LOL

I started realizing we really were nowhere near anyone I recognized from our group after looking around a bit- so I talked to the host and he looked it up in the computer. Eventually (it was rough without me knowing people's last names and most of them only really knowing their usernames at that point! LOL) we realized we were clear across the room from our group we were supposed to be linked to. They had it in their records that we were linked to the table near us (table 12- we were table 11) because we both used the same travel agent (which I can't post on this board). What?? I don't know how that happened but he said he'd look into it and figure it out -and I went back to the table only to realize the AP "show" was starting and Ruby still did not have her meal! The server did come by with his "ordering tablet thing" (the black thing they took orders inside) and looking in it while standing at Ruby- looking a little confused- and then confirmed with me that she had ordered the steak and looked perplexed and said he'd take care of it- but we were all thru eating at that point- all of us! And the show was about to start! (and our drinks were all completely empty too- having never been refilled the entire time)

By this time it was 9:30pm and we'd sat there 1.5hrs and Ruby still had no food. We (Ruby/myself and Rita who has to go wherever mom goes LOL- DH & Robert just sat at the table to watch the show) walked to the entrance to leave to take Ruby to get her pizza by the pool and stopped to tell the host about this experience but he was busy in the show so I started telling someone else so he could tell the host- and all the sudden the asst. cruise director Christiaan walked up and asked if something was wrong. I don't know how he just showed up like that- if it was coincidence or if the guy had beeped him or something (because he'd walked away for a few minutes to look for the host then went to the front podium/computer thing, then came back to say the host was busy during the show)- I just know he was there all the sudden asking if anything was wrong. I told him what happened about our seating arrangements, how the servers seemed upset that our daughter Rita wanted 2 entree items instead of an app item and no refills on drinks so we had to start sharing with little one and how Ruby hadn't received any food yet. He said he'd take care of it all personally & get it straightened out by the next night's dinner.

We went to get Ruby pizza by the pool at 9:45pm. Jeff took the kids to the club & lab --since we were told the first night a parent had to stay with them so he was going to take them to the club first, then to the lab- and I tried to get on the internet but it wasn't working for me (first night not going well- can you tell? LOL) -so I went up to help split up with DH and the kids for "family" time at the club/lab but when I arrived I found out DH had LEFT them there- they were allowing people to leave the kids checked in there on the first night! Found him back at the stateroom- called guest services about the internet thing and they said they'd help me with it if I came to them first. They came with me to try it- still didn't work.. went back to GS and they did "something" to fix it because we went back to the internet cafe and then it worked fine. I did the unlimited internet plan for $89.99. Even though I knew I wouldn't be online much- at .75 a minute that's not much time at all to add up to $89.99

(tip: the sign says .75 a minute or $89.99 unlimited then further down it says .25 per printout- sounds like it still costs for the printouts even if you're on the unlimited plan but I printed out some things for Sherry for the scuba dive with DH/Bryce and later printed out our boarding passes on the last night- and was never charged for any printouts... so those are free if you have unlimited??)

Anywho- I was only on for a few minutes to let my sister know we were on the ship safe & sound, went to get the kids out of the club/lab at 11:45pm (only Rita was asleep) -got them in bed (and DH too) and I was back on the internet from about 12:20-12:45am just catching up on boards and emails. I went to sleep about 1am.

Our turndown had an animal- took pictures each day but we weren't sure what that towel animal were sometimes. We were just excited to have one- we've never had towel animals before in any of our WDW stays!
So what is this?

Castaway Cay tomorrow! We could hardly contain our excitement!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 4 of trip- day 2 of cruise- 5/28/06 -Castaway Cay!
(pics on Castaway Cay were all taken on waterproof cameras- I'll have to upload some of those pictures later after I get the film developed)

Pictures I took from the deck- our first view of Castaway Cay- ever! LOL

We were up by wakeup call at 8am- in swimsuits with excursion bag packed (special double scoop group one- that really came in handy let me tell you!) and had breakfast at Parrot Cay at 9:30am. The breakfast was great but this first morning the eggs were super runny-ick! Guess we like our scrambled eggs cooked a little longer. LOL Everything else was mmmmmmmmm!

We left the ship for the beach about 10am- picked up our snorkles and fins (paid for 2-day pkg for snorkeling/float/1hr bicycle ride for one adult/one child since we'd have to take turns anyway since Rita would never snorkle! They got their money's worth out of us anyway though- more on that later LOL) -- DH & Robert snorkled while Ruby swam at the family beach area in front of me/Rita on the beach making sandcastles. Or rather- moats. She just wanted to keep making big holes for the water to go in- ie: moats without a castle in the middle. LOL
Then we traded and Ruby & I went snorkeling while the other three played on the beach. Around 12:30pm Rita was starting to get red (even with lots of sunscreen applied several times- the sun was brutal on her that day) so we head up to get lunch and it was DEEE-LICIOUS! I knew we'd like that lunch. Said it before we left and I was right! That lunch was so right up our "southern" alley. Pigged out we did- good thing we weren't going back to the beach after that- we'd have sunk like bricks.

We went on the glass bottom boat from 2:15pm-3:15pm. We hadn't heard good things about this but wanted to do something as a family that Rita would enjoy- we actually enjoyed it a lot! We didn't see a whole lot of fish except for the one area where we fed them oatmeal but the kids liked it anyway and especially enjoyed getting down on top of the glass areas for pictures. Marcus was great and really educated us on this trip! We had a great time and would recommend it to others as well- atleast for sure if you have youngsters that aren't interested in other things (like snorkeling/etc.) or incapable of doing things like banana boat/etc.

We were back on the ship about 3:30pm and all showered/etc. DH took the kids to the lab/club about 4:30pm but the older two wanted to go to Ocean quest so he took them there about 5-6pm. Robert's age group w/lab was staying in OC so he stayed- Ruby had to leave so she came with us to the show at 6:15pm and then we all went to dinner at 8pm.

Dinner was at PC and they had us at table 43-- the host said he moved us with the dis group we were supposed to be with before and better servers as well. He was right about the servers- but more on the "being near dis group" later. Our servers were Peiroj and asst server Daniel and they were AWESOME! I can't imagine any servers being better than they were! They were quick to learn our "cues" (for instance the first night they told the kids they order/eat what they wanted and didn't have to listen to us- the parents- since they were on vacation too... it only took a look of displeasure from me to DH for them to never say that again. You just can't say stuff like that to my kids- they'll use it against us the entire vacation "we can do what we want and don't have to listen to you- we're on vacation too". LOL) -and other things like after the first night they knew DH wanted tea, me soda, the kids chocolate milk and had it there like in a nanosecond after we'd arrived. LOL I only had to ask once if they had more of the one kind of butter I liked- from then on out they set out bunches of that type every night-- just overall excellent service, great personalities, etc. They made dinners so much fun and really made us feel pampered!

We were in our matching "tropical" outfits that I'd purchased a long time ago (for our originally planned first cruise Feb 2005 that had to be postponed) -- the only problem is that MY dress didn't fit so well since I'd gained so much weight back.. bought those right after I'd lost weight in 2003- lost weight 2003, bought them 2004. LOL Saw others in the same outfits. But anyway- my dress was way tighter than it should be- so after dinner I changed immediately. Good thing the pictures they took of us were when we were SITTING at dinner. LOL If I'd have been standing I'd have looked like I was stuffed into the dress- because I was!
(see tropical outfits photo that Stacey showed on this thread!)
Here's the picture we had from that night:

Here's the towel animal for tonight- Robert liked getting in the pictures of the towel animals as you'll notice in this thread. LOL So again- what is this?

The kids went to the club/lab around 10-10:15pm- but about 11pm I went to get Rita to change into PJs because I knew she'd fall asleep soon (which she did!). While they were there- DH I went to Sessions- the piano man (never got his name!) was great.. we drank drinks we'd brought with us (DH beer, me wine cooler- in cups from deck 9 drink station). We spent a few lovely moments alone at the railing on deck 4 too. We're not used to having time alone without kids- let me tell ya... LOL

We picked up the kids from the club/lab at midnight and changed Ruby/Robert to checkout privileges at that point- we were thinking it would be easier to pick up Rita earlier since she fell asleep earlier than them and just let them check out and come to our room when the lab closed since our room was on the same floor and just down the hall a bit. They were only allowed checkout privileges as long as they only checked out when we TOLD them they could (ie: like to come to the room if the lab closed-- or any other time we'd told them ahead of time to come back to the room to meet us).

Good grief- I forgot to mention we had adjoining secret porthole rooms- rooms # 5522 and 5524- it was very convenient to the club/lab as well as the theatre just below us and the clubs further below us.

I cleaned up the room some (kind of a mess already -our stuff that the stateroom hostess wisely didn't mess with LOL) while everyone slept and then was on the internet for about 30min. Our stateroom hostess filled out our softcooler with ice every day which was good because we never used the "cooler" in the room- I wasn't even sure it was really on.. that's how room temperature it felt in there!

The next day was at sea day and we had our REAS champagne breakfast planned, plus formal night and REAS romantic turndown. I was in bed by 2am.

 

[tjeagle]

Loving your report! I look forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 5 of trip- Day 3 of cruise- 5/29/06- AT SEA/Formal day!

I put out for room service breakfast the next day so they'd have breakfast also while we had our REAS champagne breakfast- theirs arrived 9am and ours arrived 9:15am- perfect timing... so they could already be eating in their room when ours arrived. They were well rested (read: hyper!) but our breakfast was delicious. My glass of champagne was STILL sitting on the desk on the day we left the cruise though. Told ya I wasn't a big drinker and I guess the stateroom hostess thought I was saving it or something. The REAS champagne breakfast was delicious though- I sure wish we could order that every morning! LOL

We took Robert & Ruby to the lab-- but then had to take them to the sports deck (Robert) and teen shack (Ruby) because they had no clue how to get there to check themselves in. We didn't even really know where those places were. LOL We told them NOT to check themselves out until 5pm then come to the room.

Rita went with DH and myself to bingo at 10:45am (didn't win anything- didn't even come close, but it was entertaining). We got a beep at 11:15am that Robert was checking himself out to go to the room though- so DH left to go find out what that was about (he wasn't supposed to check out until 5pm and he didn't even have his card to get in the stateroom!) -it was rather difficult punching all those cards myself and helping Rita also. They started getting really fast calling those numbers towards the end- maybe they were running behind and that's why they sped up? I don't know. LOL

Then Rita & I went to find out what was up- no one was in the stateroom, went to lab and DH was there also.. couldn't find Robert. We didn't know where to look- but we just started going to each deck from the elevators nearest the lab (midship) and found him coming out of the bathroom on deck 4. He said they were up on the sports deck and he needed to go to the bathroom. He said he checked out and went looking for a bathroom. We checked him back in, and took away his checkout privileges. Turns out they would have taken him to the bathroom if he'd only told them that! He didn't need to check himself out and hunt down a bathroom- so obviously we couldn't trust him to do what we said... so we took away his checkout privileges.

At 12:30pm we took Rita to the club & we took Ruby with us to the "shopping" show to get the "free charm bracelets" (turns out they were certificates to get them free at Diamonds International at Costa Maya or Cozumel) and didn't make her watch the whole show. She did go up front to get "tossed" some of the color changing rings made of rubber though. LOL I took her back to the lab (while DH stayed for the shopping presentation) and I told her what happened with Robert and reminded her if SHE checked out anytime we hadn't given her permission to do so- she'd lose her privileges too. I reminded her she wasn't to check herself out until 5pm and come to the room to meet us to get ready for show & dinner.
You guessed it- about an hour later we went back to the stateroom and there was Ruby laying on the bed watching tv- she said she didn't like what they were doing in the lab at that time. So there went Ruby's checkout privileges. Took her back to the lab and took away her checkout privileges.

DH & I went to the art auction (1:15pm) for the raffles and free drinks- and even signed up for the membership thing to get the free art... which we never did get. Confused about that. but we had to leave before they actually did the raffles because it was already 2pm and they hadn't even started (at 1:20 the guy said they'd start in 20min.. that 20min got stretched out a bit LOL) and we had to take Rita to lunch because we'd taken her to the club at 12:30 (after Bingo) and the club had eaten lunch earlier than that! (Ruby/Robert had eaten lunch later with lab- more later on how weird they have the lunch scheduled for the club/lab) We got her and arrived at Parrot cay at 2:15pm- it was supposed to close at 2pm (we just realized that when we got there) but they let us fill up plates to sit and eat before tearing down the buffet- others were doing the same and they set us at tables together I assume so they could get more tables cleaned up and ready for dinner.

lunch at club/lab issue: They feed the club lunch rather early- transitioning to lunch at 11am arriving to eat at 11:15m. They feed the lab lunch later at 12 transitioning to arrive to eat at 12:15pm. However, they then feed the OLDER kids (ie: lab) dinner first at 5pm transitioning to eat at 5:15pm- and the younger kids (ie: club) eat dinner later transitioning at 5:30pm to eat at 5:45pm. I'm not sure what that is about- but it's wackety wacked. The older kids have exactly 4hrs in between the end of lunch and start of dinner? And the younger kids have breakfast so early they aren't hungry because of breakfast- then have dinner after the older kids? (span of 6hrs in between lunch/dinner). Figure that one out. You'd think they'd do it opposite- or atleast have it where younger kids have lunch AND dinner BOTH earlier than the older kids- but nope... not how they do it.
So what happens is your club child will not be hungry for lunch that early- and definitely not able to make it until dinner to eat with the club.. even if they did eat a little something at lunch.

Late dining was better for us because A) it gave us more time to get ready for dinner or get ready for show at 6:15pm and B) we wouldn't have been hungry yet at 6-6:30pm if we'd have early dining- however it didn't work well with the club/lab at all. Neither lab or club would be back from dinner in time to go to the show with you.. so basically we had to pull them out of the lab/club for Rita to have lunch later because she wasn't hungry when they had lunch and couldn't just skip all the way until our dining time of 8pm to eat and couldn't eat dinner with them either if she wanted to go to the show with us. Then later we'd have to get the kids out at 5:30pm to make sure they weren't stuck at dinner when the show started- have them out during the show- and then have dinner with us since the club/lab already ate.
And since there was no way they'd be hungry by the time they had early lunch at the club- we couldn't take them then just to go to lunch they weren't hungry for, etc. And we didn't get up early and had room service- so basically they only were able to go to the club/lab for like an hour before their scheduled lunchtime, then a little in the afternoon with taking them out to feed them lunch, then after dinner which Rita would fall asleep pretty quickly after that (dinner usually lasted until 9:45pm or so). Add to that the fact that the things are so structured with very little free time- we had kids beeping us to come get them much more often than we anticipated. Especially Robert because they kept taking them up on the sports deck in the hottest/sunniest part of the day and he wasn't interested in playing dodgeball so much. He was more interested in doing things in the lab- like computers and making flubber and things like that. Oh and all the fun stuff was always scheduled during shows or during dinner... it just didn't work out well for us. They kept missing the fun stuff during shows and/or dinner and they then would rush at dinner and have Dh & I taking turns taking child 1, then 2, then 3 (as they finished their meal and/or as their "fun stuff" started on the schedule) to take them to the club or lab during our dinner.
We all wished they had more free time for the lab and more stuff Robert was interested in. He kept getting upset because either Rita's group in the club or Ruby's age group in the lab were doing things HE would have rather have done-- like science sorcery, computer madness, pool party, etc. The things in his age group just didn't suit his fancy- even on CC- which is why he kept beeping us to come get him.

Ohwell- our next trip it will probably be better.... as the kids will be older/Robert in the 10-12 age group and probably like the things they do better then too/etc.

Okay back to our day.
I had a manicure appt at 3pm and pedicure at 4pm. I had a manicure & pedicure (and french manicure on both fingers/toes) the previous Wed in my hometown, so they really only needed a touchup on the polish that I should have just done myself... but I didn't know that in advance and my feet already could use the pedicure... calluses built up galore already. My feet took a beating on this cruise (and swelled up bad too LOL) However, the manicure didn't go well and I ended up cancelling the pedicure so she wouldn't mess up my feet also. First she asked how I wanted my nails shaped and I told her they didn't need shaping- I'd just had them done on Wed- they only really needed a touchup but she could just start over anyway. (the french manicure an extra $10 each) I thought she was just doing my cuticles and the regular manicure and wasn't paying attention- it wasn't until she started painting for the french manicure that I realized she'd shaped my nails POINTED and wasn't doing the french manicure correctly either. My nails are all different shaped- some long, some round... you can't do oval shaping because some turn out looking pointed and some don't. It looks awful (even the manager agreed later on, btw) But also she was putting the white of the french manicure only on the very tip of my nails- not covering the "white" (that isn't really white naturally) of my nails with the white. That would look awful. She did 2 nails like this when I noticed it and asked her to stop, explained how it's usually done- she was confused and asked someone else (the one that was going to do my pedicure) if she could do it how I wanted- she was confused too... so I just said that's it.. I'm leaving. Now I had to go up and do my own french manicure (thank goodness I'd brought the polish to do so!) and didn't want the pedicure because they would just mess that up and they still looked fine from the previous Wed. I really could have used the pedicure though (minus messing with nail polish) but I was running out of time now that I had to do my nails french manicure on my own. I checked out and they said I'd still have to pay for the pedicure since I didn't cancel with 24hr notice. I talked to the mgr though and she agreed the shaping was all messed up and that only putting white on the very end of my nails wasn't going to look good at all- and she said I wouldn't be charged for the pedicure and she also gave me an emery board since I'd only brought nail polish for french manicure and hadn't expected that I'd have to fix the shaping of my nails also (no charge). So I went up to the stateroom to fix my nails (much shorter once shaped properly- square rounded works best for me btw LOL) and trying to time that (with time to dry) and showering, fixing my hair, getting everyone ready, etc. for show and formal night was stressful to say the least.

However, I realized later I was never charged for the manicure either- so I guess the mgr took that off too.

I should have left my nails alone and just touched up the white that had chipped off and not messed with the manicure in the first place. LOL

Here's a picture of the sea I snapped sometime that day:

Next snafu? Well remember when I said I should always pack and doublecheck DH's suitcase of stuff? Well I'd purchased white undershirts for his formal nights since he would be wearing only a shirt shirt, tie, black pants, black shoes. His suit jacket was too huge now since he'd lost weight and we weren't going to do the expense of the tux and such. However, he'd worn one of the undershirts to a wedding we'd went to the previous weekend and put the rest of the package up in his dresser drawer. Out of sight- out of mind... neither of us remembered to pack undershirts for the cruise. No big deal you think? Well he's hairy and his hair is black- it really shows thru on his chest and back with a white shirt! LOL So I called GS and no store or even the tux rental had undershirts I could buy -so I did some calling around (this is where the double scoop group navigator really came in handy) with some of the DIS'ers in our group and Stacey came to the rescue!!! She had an extra undershirt (well her husband LOL) and she was so nice to let us borrow one... and let me pick it up when surely they were all getting ready for formal night also!
I heart Stacey!

(and her husband Jay! LOL)

Robert wore white shirt, tie, black pants & black shoes. Ruby & Rita wore dresses- I wore a black dress with pearls. The only thing notable here is that I wore heels and by that time my feet were SO swollen- it was very painful let me tell you. I took those shoes off in the hallway near my stateroom door after dinner- I couldn't take it anymore... hurt so bad. LOL I usually have very skinny feet and hands (not sure why- just how I am no matter how much weight I gain) and thus my shoes fit as such... those shoes weren't mad for the mega-chubby feet I had at that point (from swelling). LOL Retaining fluids like crazy because I wasn't drinking water hardly ever!

So it can only get better from here, right? It does.
We all went to see Golden Mickeys show (wonderful!!!) and went to get pictures before formal night at Lumiere's- lines were super long though so after standing for awhile we decided to just go to dinner. We were seated near the window where we could peek out the curtains and see when the line (for the picture in front of Mickey statue) got short and just popped out for pictures during dinner real quick.

After dinner Jeff went to the stateroom with Robert (they were both tired), Rita wanted to go to the club so I took her there in PJs as I knew she'd fall asleep pretty quickly, went to take Ruby to her group that was at deck 7 aft (star gazing) at the time but as we walked by the Buena Vista theatre she saw some girls she knew from her group going in to see "Stick It" so I allowed her to go watch it with them (no wonder they got along- they all sat very first row like she always wants to LOL) and then stay there until I came to get her (I came back before the show ended so she wouldn't be tempted to wander around or go back to the stateroom on her own). Meanwhile I picked up Rita from club and took her to bed in the stateroom with DH & Robert.

After I took Ruby to the stateroom- I spent some time on the internet, getting cash from guest services (only allowed $100 from personal check- no ATMs/etc. and I just realized I hadn't brought enough cash because I'd forgot to include $340 cash for our excursion with The Native Choice the next day at costa maya!), and getting our clothes prepared for the next day. I also had room service bring us cookies and uncrustables for the next day- turned out they weren't necessary though. LOL I went to bed at 2am.. see a pattern here? It's the same at home usually... tomorrow is Costa Maya!

(ps. up to this point I'd only seen Sherry (Daretoodream) and Amanda (dizneprincess) since the Dismeet on Saturday! I think perhaps Amanda was in a stateroom kinda near us and both Amanda/Sherry seemed to be using the same elevators or certain areas the same time as us? Or maybe we just recognized one another.. not sure. But other than those two- atleast until this point- I didn't recognize or see anyone else from the disboard. LOL

Oh yeah- our romantic turndown (for REAS pkg):

I could have sworn I took a picture of the kids room (different towel animal) that night too but I can't find it anywhere!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks Jackie- I was thinking my report is probably boring as all get out.. but I'm posting it anyway! LOL

Heyyy.. I forgot to mention someone put some magnets on our door so they weren't entirely empty! WHO was it that put the blabbermouths magnet on both doors and the happy belated anniversary magnet on our door??? I want to thank them personally- whoever it was! Very sweet.

We also got a door magnet of scoopie that said "you've been tagged". I wasn't sure what to do with that one- but I figured maybe it was supposed to be passed around "tagging" others kinda like scoopie had travelled pre-cruise- so after the first night I stuck him on Dizneprincess' door... then he ended up back on my kids door the next night and disappeared before I could put him on someone else's door later that night. LOL
(I took pictures of these magnets on the door also- but can't find those pictures either! I'm beginning to wonder if some pictures got deleted by accident or perhaps "disappeared" when I dropped my digi camera rather hard on the ground on Costa Maya day. )

Anyway- back to trip report:

Day 6 of trip- day 4 of cruise- 5/30/06- Costa Maya! (and dinner @ Palo)

We were up at 7:15am with room service breakfast for all- all ate well except all I want from their room service breakfast is toast. I had 2 pieces of toast with butter and strawberry jam and I was ready to go. LOL We left off the ship at 8:30am- no problems... no long lines or anything like I expected might happen.
We were all wearing our matching gray pluto shirts- anyone see us? huh? didya? huh?
We were supposed to be at Cat's Meow restaurant to meet for The Native Choice excursions at 8:30am- that's impossible when the first people off couldn't get off earlier than 8:15am. LOL But we took the taxi ($3 each = $15... remember our shortage of cash issue. LOL) that left us with only $30 cash after paying $340 for the excursion ($68 each for the mayan experience) and we wanted money left to tip everyone...

We had to wait around for everyone else though and we met Sandi/Larry/Caleb going on this excursion with us! After we waited for everyone- (visiting with Sandi & family while waiting) we finally left for the excursion about 10am- 50min ride (in a/c van... nice LOL) with Cataleena (Sandi- do you know how to spell her name? It sounded like catalina to me... long on the i like eeena LOL or maybe it was cadaleena how it was pronounced- no clue how to spell it though) as the 'tour guide" for the ride- she was great!
When we arrived at the ruins they gave us water bottles- which I was so grateful for later. We brought a few ourselves but it was SO hot and humid we were sweating a lot and needing replinishing. LOL
We couldn't shop there before the ruins- remember the cash issue. I really wanted to buy a hat... I had sunscreen on but I really could have used a hat to shade my face (I have an "issue" with trying to get rid of the brown mask I got during pregnancy with Robert and had recently had some facial peels -still trying to get rid of it... and getting sun on my face at all would make the brown just get worse before I could get it all peeled off eventually- hopefully. LOL). But with the cash issue- no can do.
We had Ivan as our tour guide and he was awesome! unfortuantely it was SO hot/humid (we're Texans- used to hot... not used to humidity!) and the kids were so interested in doing everything BUT listening to the guide- we missed much of what he said. In retrospect this might not have been a tour that great for younger children... especially in the heat and such.
Some ruins pictures:

Rita is so not shy. Didn't bother her a bit to just park her hiney right up front & center with Ivan. Not a shy bone in her body (except when she's pretending to be shy) and never met a stranger. LOL

Thanks goes to Sandi for letting us use some of her OFF! towelettes- because I'd forgotten to pack them on this cruise! I wiped down the kids legs and arms and necks (figured DH and I could just "deal" if we got bit LOL) and you're not going to believe this.. but I didn't realize it was wiping off my fingernail polish (remember the french manicure snafu and ended up doing it myself?) ARghhhhh... LOL so I knew I'd have to redo them again. LOL
(Later Ivan had bug spray for us to use too- in case anyone is wondering what happens if you forget. I'm glad he did too because mosquitos were buzzing around us when we went into the "jungle" part of the tour)

I had NO energy whatsoever to go up the huge pyramid thing of stairs at the end of the tour- so DH took the kids up there while I stood there with another woman not interested in that exertion at that point. The tour took about 2.5hrs I think- but it felt like a lifetime with the heat/humidity. LOL I was soaked in sweat by the end of it (and so were some other Pooh sized women like myself- I was so envious of the skinny people and kids who didn't seem to be bothered by the heat/humidity at all LOL)-- ps. crocs are NOT a good idea for this excursion. Not only because of bugs (sprayed the kids feet all over with the bug spray because of this) but when you walk on rocks with those it almost feels like you're walking barefoot on rocks. LOL In other words you can feel the rocks thru them- ofcourse your feet don't get torn up... but bruised is probably the word for it. We didn't get bit the entire time except for one ant bite on Rita's foot... that's what happens when you don't keep moving- ants get ya.

Then back to the "shop" and to the vans- they gave us juice packs for the kids, soda for the adults. Unexpected and so very nice!

Then those on the mayan experience (including us and Sandi/her family) were off to the village to have lunch with a family there. They had the outside yard set up nicely (and unexpectedly) with a table and covering so we wouldn't be sitting smack in the sun. They had the meal already cooked and set up nicely- with the mother (Victoria) cooking up tortillas. She showed us how to make them and let the kids press out some and cook them also. They cook on a flat stone on top of 3 rocks on the ground -fire in between the rocks/under the flat stone. Very interesting!

Everything was delicious (like a chicken stew- not sure what it was called) and a few other mayan dishes and desserts.

Rita wasn't interested in anything so they surprised us by bringing some banana dessert to us (that we didn't realize they had- it was covered with the desserts while we ate the lunch first). She ate that- then duh... we forgot she loves tortillas! She just wasn't interested in the chicken stew and such- so she ate quite a few of the little tortillas Victoria was making the majority of our meal. She didn't even care that they didn't have butter to put on them- they were that tasty! Cataleena (spelling?) showed us how they tear and fold up the little tortillas a certain way to use as a spoon- since most do not have or use utensils (they did have silverware for our use though LOL We're so spoiled... us foreigners). That was neat. I didn't much care for the desserts- I'm sure they were delicious and just not to my liking but I liked the one they called "coco"- they were pink hard square things that tasted like coconut.

Then we took a little "outside" tour of the buildings- they have every room in a seperate building! Like the house they sleep in (on hammocks- we didn't go inside though.. they just told us that), another building as an outhouse, another building for the kitchen (complete with stove they can't even use because they don't have gas- cataleena said the mayans purchase "modern" things sometimes that they can't even use because of no electricity or gas) and such. She showed us the big pit in the ground they use to cook in also. They cooked the chicken "stew" in the ground! They had cooked stones until red hot, put them in the ground pit, put the pot of chicken stew on top of that, covered it up with lid and leaves- then put the soil over that and leave for about 3hrs she said. Interesting! They had a few other "buildings" and one was supposed to be the older son's "house" but she told us the story of how he'd fallen off a cliff and prayed to the virgin to save him- he miraculously survived and in return he made his "house" into a shrine to her. We got to see the inside of that building.

Victoria's eldest daughter (married and lives elsewhere but was there to help serve us lunch) made beautiful embroidery and was selling them for $8 each. I sooo wanted to buy one but we were limited on cash- we needed the last $20 for $10 tip to Cataleena and $10 to ride the taxi back from Cat's meow restaurant to port area- so I couldn't buy one. Or so I thought. *pout*

Because then we left a different way back to Cat's Meow and while Robert/Ruby/Rita and myself all fell asleep in the van-- everyone else (including DH who said he got all 5 of our votes since 4 of us were sleeping LOL) took a vote on going straight back to the port instead---which they did. So when we stopped and I woke up- I realized I didn't have to pay the taxi for us back to the port and had $10 left over I could have used to buy the $8 embroidery! *huge pout* Ohwell, just tipped the driver with it... LOL

At the port about 3pm so we had some time to go around and try to get some of the free stuff (from the shopping passporter thing we'd purchased for $20 at the shopping presentation the day before on the ship) from various shops there. We only got one charm bracelet at Tanzanite- they said only one per family even though the certificates said one per stateroom and we had 2 staterooms/2 certificates for going to that presentation... they suggested we take the other one to Diamonds International which we did- so we got both charm bracelets for the girls and the free earrings at DI from the passporter- then head back to the ship and onboard at 4pm.

The kids went to the club/lab for a bit while we went back to shower/iron DH's shirt for our dinner at Palo, basically get ready for dinner. I also had to redo my nails again remember. LOL

We were a little late for our 6pm dinner at Palo (arrived 6:15pm) primarily because we couldn't figure out how to get there at first. LOL We went to deck 10 but we couldn't figure out how to get across so back to deck 9 and across then back up to Palo at aft side of ship. Um, the time on deck 10 did a number on my hair. Pretty much useless to straighten the frizzies out and curl it a bit because one minute of the very windy (and humidity in the air) on deck 10 made it a frizzy mess again. LOL

Palo was amazing! I really thought it couldn't possibly be better than the food we'd been served at dinner previously at the other restaurants but somehow it was... we had the REAS pkg so we had champagne with dinner and a rose. Rishi was recommending a champagne that I would like (I asked for a suggestion of something "fruity and non alcoholic tasting LOL) and then Marco walked up and suggested Banfi. Rishi said we should go with that- as Marco would know better being from Italy and all. LOL So that's what we had.

Funny how we both drank until it was almost all gone and yet neither of us, not even myself, felt the least bit tipsy. I'm not sure what that is about... more on that later.
I had the portebello mushroom app, we shared calamari (best I've had in my life! I usually hate calamari- tastes like fried rubber- but this stuff melted in your mouth and was delicious!), filet mignon (asked for a smaller portion but they sent the large one anyway- melted in my mouth! I'm not much of a meat eater and thought I'd share this with DH but I ended up eating it all...it was that good! Okay he got one bite just to see how great it was- but that was it. LOL)- I also had the tortellini with crabmeat and eggplant- it was good too... but the filet mignon was so great I didn't eat much of the tortellini.. did eat the eggplant though (one of my favs). Mmm! Jeff had pizza for app (Rishi our server insisted- once I told him that DH should choose that since he likes pizza and likely this would be like no pizza he'd ever had before- and I was right.. DH loved it) and he had some other app too but I forget what it was. LOL He had lamb chops and boy did he like them. He almost wouldn't let me have a taste and was making sure he ate every bit. It also melted in your mouth!
We both had chocolate souffle for dessert- Jeff had some other dessert he chose but Rishi insisted he had to had chocolate souffle also... it couldn't be missed. LOL Personally I didn't really think the chocolate souffle was all that good- or perhaps I was just too stuffed from the previous fantastic meal? I dunno. Now that I think about it- I really didn't get into any of the desserts the entire cruise and didn't finish most of the desserts I chose. I'm really a "desserts/sweets" type person but I was just too full after the meals!

I did forget to mention that at that lunch at parrot cay I mentioned above? The one where we had to fix our plates and then they tore down the buffet because it was after 2pm? Well that was one meal where I finished the dessert and wish I'd had more! The pecan pie was DEEELICIOUS! I mentioned the pecan pie the next dinner and the head server said she'd check (Alecsandra btw- she was great too!) and came back to say it was so popular that day that it was all gone- but she'd have some for me the next night. Next night was Palo and we thought we'd "double dip" on meals- but soon as we arrived at Palo late we realized we'd never make it anywhere near our 8pm dinner time- so we had Rishi call down to let them know we wouldn't make dinner. Well that means we'd miss that piece of pecan pie she was going to have for me-- guess what- after we left Palo and went back to the stateroom there was an ENTIRE pecan pie- still warm (obviously freshly made) in our room ready for us to eat. I couldn't believe it. That was definitely a magic moment! Also the kids room had pictures from Mickey -one for each signed to them- from Christiaan (asst. cruise directory) with a note from Christiaan saying he hoped our dinner was better after the first night. So sweet!

So anyway, before we went back to the room we walked across deck 10 (yes, we figured out how to do that at that point LOL) and saw Robert on deck 10 about to do dodgeball... ofcourse he wanted to leave and we were happy to oblige (that would be all we needed is for him to get hurt and need stitches or a cast while on the cruise- yes, he's the one that tends to get hurt a lot. He likes sports but like soccer and running- but he still tends to get hurt. Yes, broken elbow requiring pins and everything from monkey bars, broken finger in 4 places including the growth plate from just catching a football wrong on the playground during recess at school, stitches on forehead from falling off couch onto coffee table... meanwhile my girls -nada as far as broken bones or stitches). Anyway-- he just wasn't interested in that so we checked him out about 8:45pm-- we noticed Twice charmed had just started- we thought it started 8:30pm and we'd miss it but we were wrong- it must have been started late- so us 3 scooted on down right at the beginning and found us seats (sorta together.. Robert in row in front of us a few seats down) and watched that. It was great!

(I read the info given here wrong- when someone said there was "no show" on this night so a good night for Palo- I thought it meant no show at the theatre! I realize now they meant no show at AP because it was our 2nd night there LOL)

We took Robert back to the lab at 9:45pm for the campout they were doing. At 10:15pm I took Rita's teddy and PJs to change her but she didn't want to stay- (she wanted to go to bed) so I took her back to DH at the stateroom. I picked up Ruby/Robert at 11pm because that was freetime in the CLUB after the campout. Neither of them are interested in the baby stuff they have in the club. (Rita's age was having free time/movies in the lab- and I wonder if that was part of why she wanted to leave also.. it wasn't her cup of tea like the club was)

DH had fallen asleep with Rita at 10:15pm- he had to get up early to meet with Sherry's son Bryce for the scuba diving excursion they were going on- and the other two kids went to bed at 11pm. I stayed up a bit on the internet and getting things ready for the next day at Cozumel. While DH was scuba diving I'd be venturing out alone with the 3 kids for the submarine excursion. I went to bed around 2am. What can I say-I also got into a movie on the tv. LOL

No towel animals tonight- isn't that weird? I thought on the cruise you got them every night... maybe the stateroom host was in a hurry that night? I don't know...

Tomorrow is cozumel!
(now the tally for people I've seen since the Dismeet on Saturday is Amanda/her family, Sherry/her family, and the excursion with Sandi/her family )

 

[justmestace]

Sorry to interrupt....just wanted to post this picture that I took on Tropical night....what a bunch of cuties!

 

[lbgraves]

Bippity, I believe that everyone who said that there was no show on Tuesday night did mean in the theater. That was a guess based on the regular eastern & western cruises. I have had to fix our schedule for December based on the first DD. Glad that you were still able to see TC because it is a wonder show.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks Stacey! You rock!
I'm not sure if you have any other pictures of us- I think a few times you missed us on pictures (more about why that was- probably- later... but sometimes I think it was because you took pictures of the tables when we were running our kids to the club/lab or when we ran outside to get the pictures of us taken on formal night LOL)-- but I think you did take more than that one night? If you did- I'd love to see them when you get a chance. This picture you showed here is actually better than the picture DCL took of us on that night! You so rock.

Oh and btw- I just spent a good 45min or so posting the next day of our trip (cozumel) and it said invalid thread on the next page- ofcourse I did not copy what I'd typed and when I backpaged it was gone. I have to start all over! omg......

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

ohhh, Lisa. I thought maybe they meant no show in AP so a good night for Palo. LOL
I do wish that Rita had seen twice charmed though... that would have been a good show for her to see! Robert was all -this is a GIRL'S show. That boy... what to do with him. LOL

Okay off to retype Cozumel day again. argh

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Okay to retype cozumel day again... this time I vow to copy it before I click submit in case disboard decides to eat it again. And it was actually the best post on this trip report so far. Figures. LOL

Day 7 of trip- Day 5 of cruise- 5/31/06- Cozumel day!

Okay so DH had to get up early to go scuba diving today- but he woke up late... totally ignored the alarm. I TOLD him it's better to use the wakeup call! So he rushed out- somehow woke up my deep sleeper Rita but she crawled in bed with me so we could sleep late.. unfortunately DH left every light on in our stateroom in his haste out the door and I can't sleep like that! So I woke up at 8am- far earlier than I wanted to. I had room service coming at 9:30am-10am- so I even had to wait for breakfast. LOL

Dh rushed down at 8:40am (later than he wanted) to meet Bryce (and Sherry) to go on the scuba dive with Bryce (with Dive with Martin). Sherry went across with them to make sure they'd let Bryce dive even though my DH is not his guardian. Turns out she didn't need to but I'd have done the same thing.. just to make sure. Because if they hadn't allowed him to dive- DH would have come back with Bryce to the ship ofcourse... and neither of them would have dove! I saw her later on the ship and she said they left to dive around 10am so I expected them to come back around 4pm since they were doing 3 tanks.

Breakfast came at 9:30 and we ate in the room- the kids wanted to go to the club/lab at 10:30am. I just chilled in the room and got ready for our excursion... just me and the kids.

The kids only wanted to do the dolphin excursion this cruise but we had already planned the mayan excursion at Costa Maya and the swim with dolphins wasn't available (yet) in Cozumel- so I had to figure out something I could do with the 3 kids alone. Me, alone with my 3 kids- are you feeling me? LOL I wasn't about to do the beach with them and try to keep up with one that wanted to only play with sand and the older two wanting to swim out deep. And we're not about shopping that much- especially with miss I hate walking Rita. She is really wishing the stroller days would come back but she is almost 6 (June 16th btw) and I'm past the days of lugging a stroller with me everywhere! I can't carry her either- she weighs almost as much as Robert (skinny little man that he is- oh he looks normal enough with a shirt on.. see him with a shirt off and you'll see what I mean- skeleton! He goes thru phases- skinny when he grows, then pudges up a bit, rinse and repeat LOL). I can't carry her and put out my back. Ever since a few years ago I was rearended while stopped and pushed into the vehicle in front of me also stopped- my back injury only acts up if I over-exert my back.. and carrying her would do that.

So, we decided on the submarine tour. Nice and enclosed- no way for them to get away from me. LOL That was planned for 12:50pm though- hence the reason I thought we'd get to sleep in. Thanks for leaving the lights on DH! (not)

They said to leave 45min to time to meet for excursions- so at noon I got the kids (we all wore matching -sorta- shirts. Girls in red minnie shirts/matching caps and Robert in blue mickey shirt/matching cap- did you see us? huh? didya?
Tendering at the Cozumel port- older two engrossed in looking at everything- Rita never passes up a picture opportunity though.

However, we got over there rather quickly and had to sit in the blistering hot sun there at the port from 12:15pm until 1pm. Then we had the fun time of the various methods of transportation to the submarine. Oh let's see- first we cross 2 busy streets (um, hello... me and 3 kids including miss I hate walking Rita- no disney person helped but they did make sure to walk really really fast so we got way behind LOL) and then in a van (joy- a/c!) and then into the building to wait for the boat to take us to the submarine.

They took pictures of us coming out of the building to get on the boat- at first I thought no way I'm going to buy this- who wants a picture with the background of a door of that building? But they surprised us- more on that later.

On the boat... to the submarine. It wasn't really THAT great but it served the purpose- some type of excursion with me... alone with my 3 kids. LOL The seats were plastic preformed but some people didn't honor that space. I had to switch seats with Rita because someone's butt was in my seat- and I'm pooh sized as big as they are! They just wanted their butt there- don't ask me why. And Ruby complained the guy next to her was taking up her space so she had to sit way over and lean over too (big shouldered dude like my DH LOL). you had to lean forward- way forward- to try to glimpse any fish at all -and that hurt my thighs after awhile on that hard plastic. Not much fish to be seen- a few little ones here and there around the corals we passed- but fortunately they were wise enough to show how deep we were and the kids were impressed with how deep we went- 107ft! (haha- we ended up going deeper than DH did when he was scuba diving. neener neener- we still tease him now LOL)

Off the submarine I was too involved with making sure Rita made it up safely that I didn't realize until later that Robert scraped up his leg pretty badly while getting off up that ladder- from knee down to his ankle. Tough little guy didn't even tell me- I just noticed it later!

Back on the boat they offered the pictures- and the background was changed to make it look like we were in a submarine (not at all like the one we were in- and with fish too! LOL) I had to buy it- Robert wanted it to prove to the nonbelievers (at his school) that he really went on a submarine! LOL It was $12... and they also gave us dive certificates (much like the Disney magical moments ones) but it appeared they only gave those to the people that purchased the pictures? They also gave us (unexpectedly- unless it was mentioned online when I booked it and I just forgot?) orange juice for everyone- with the option to add some alcohol for the adults. I don't know what it was- remember I'm a nondrinker so it's not like I could recognize it from the bottle! LOL

So we head back (boat, then van, then back across the busy roads!) to tender back over to the ship. I thought I might leave them in the club/lab since DH should be back soon and I wasn't about to try to shop with them with Rita whining about walking the entire time. I wasn't sure I'd have time to come back over though- since last tender at 6pm. It was about 4pm and we got on the tender boat and after a few minutes (others boarding the boat) Ruby noticed that DH and Bryce were sitting across and one row up on the same tender boat! My how our luck has changed. LOL I quickly said you take the kids- I'm going shopping and hightailed it off the boat to go shopping.

Unfortunately it wasn't until I was returning about 5:40pm that I realized I'd neglected to give him the kids key to the world cards and I worried if he was waiting there the entire time unable to get on the ship! Fortunately I found out later that they allowed him on- he had his ID and his card- and they put the kids in on the computer somehow. Crisis averted. LOL

I STUPIDLY walked all the way down the shopping strip (about 3 miles? felt like more LOL) and all the way back- shopping and looking for the stores that you get free stuff with the coupons out of the shopping passport book. I found out later from others that it's much better to just take a taxi to the end and do your shopping while walking back. Well duh! Why didn't I think of that! *sigh* I earned some extra blisters (yes even in crocs- I managed to get blisters on the inner bone of my foot from the plastic rivet things on the crocs and blisters on the top of my feet from the crocs also!) for my stupidity! Not to mention it took longer- and it was hot. LOL

Anywho- I did well on the shopping and free stuff from the book. Some places just offered coupons for free "precious stones" but some of those offered them in settings for a cheap price. Like at Tonya Moss you got to choose the stone and I chose garnet for my daughter- free but in a silver pendant was only $8- so I bought it. At another place- Goodmark I think it was- the coupon was for a free pair of earrings- they gave me earrings with these green stones dangling from it (I think they said it was calamite or something like that) but then they mentioned they sold matching bracelets and necklaces for $12 for both- and they had red ones -deep red like ruby colored- so I asked if I could have the earrings in red and I'd buy the matching bracelet/necklace- they were happy to oblige. That set is mine- I guess it could go to Ruby also but ruby is also my birthstone. (no, that's not where her name came from- Ruby was my grandmother's name and when she died when I was 9 I swore my first daughter would be named after my mamaRuby. )

so off I went- in search of free stuff to make it worth the $20 I paid for the book. LOL I got Jeff a cigar at Havana (he doesn't smoke but he smoked this cigar! LOL), some more free "precious stones" and some free earrings, etc. I had to purchase $5 or more at Del Sol to get the free bag and I needed the free bag at that point- everyone was just wrapping stuff in paper and I only had a fanny pack sized purse with me! so I ended up buying a $10 dolphin necklace for Ruby-- and got a free ring changing color rubber ring for Rita (the same as the ones Ruby got at the shopping presentation but she lost them- I later found them when we left that Saturday... when I double checked all drawers -in the drawer next to her bed under the lamp LOL). I also got a free blown glass drink stir- why, I don't know. But it was free! LOL I also got a free mint coin for Robert- I promised him some free stuff because the girls got charm bracelets at Costa Maya (while he got nothing there) and he was all excited about me getting the coin for him. Some other places had free earrings (with some tiny stones in them- no clue what they are- but the girls were thrilled and it was free. Did I mention I like free? LOL) and one place had a pendant free- I got to choose and got the dolphin one for Ruby.

In my "scavenger hunt for stores that you get free stuff with the book's coupons" I came across a dollar store- follow the signs up the stairs and if you can manage the sauna it was up there- you're good to go. Me likes dollar stores. LOL I was able to get quite a few things there for only $8! I got Ruby a dolphin marble (small) paperweight. I got Robert a coin purse keychain (just "boy" enough for him not to complain it was girly- had coconuts on the front LOL) to put his coins in- the mint one and I exchanged $1 for as many coins as possible- breaking down the pesos like half one/etc. equalling 10 pesos for $1. I remember when it was 7 pesos for a dollar when we went to Cancun- that means a dollar is worth more pesos- that's good or bad for those in cozumel? I don't know), and a bottle with sand & a shell on it (since he wanted to keep shells at CC and I wouldn't allow it) and a necklace (black leather necklace with mayan head stone on it- just boy enough for him LOL). I also gave him one of the free precious stones (midnight sapphire I think it was)- what he'll do with it I don't know but it thrilled him. He's apparently easily thrilled. LOL
I got Rita a purse, hair scrunchie (she loves putting those in herself and does a better job of it than Ruby does! She also wore it that night even though it totally did not match her dress for dinner LOL), and some worry dolls (itsy bitsy ones- she'll probably lose them posthaste... but I knew she'd like them. She liked the little worry dolls from cancun- not quite as tiny as these, and the jamaican "double" doll we got her in the past also.

Oh and then I got the girls $1 silver bracelets- sure to make their arms green quickly but they loved them!

And I got a free tequila shot at Carlos & charlie- and a free cocktail shot (I think he said sunrise or something?) at Shrimp Bucket- compliments of the coupons in the shopper book. I don't think there was much alcohol in those though- that should have had me tipsy -if not drunk- on the tender back over but I felt nothing. Get what you pay for eh?

I head back over at 5:40pm- there were actually people getting OFF the boat! What in the world did they need that badly and that quickly? The last tender was at 6pm.

I had told DH to NOT let the kids go to the club/lab if it was time for dinner for any of them (and it was pretty close to that time) because neither Ruby or Robert was hungry... Rita was (and he could let her go to the club if she wanted- she wouldn't eat until later anyway becuase of how they schedule dinner in the club) but ofcourse he didn't listen. I went to get Robert from the lab and he'd been in there during dinner and ate ofcourse. argh! we had pirates dinner that night and he'd arleady eaten! Ruby/Rita weren't in the lab/club so we went to the stateroom and they weren't there either. I had to use my mommy deductive skills to figure out where they could be. The scattered clothing only tripped me up for about a nanosecond then I figured out that must mean they are swimming and changed into swimsuits. Otherwise why change their clothes? LOL

Sure enough they were at the pool- and DH had let them eat pizza and junk down there by the pool. argh! men... so Robert and I went up to the room (shower and get ready) and DH showed up around 7pm with the girls (no show at the theatre tonight- so we had more time!). We had dinner at Parrot Cay tonight- we didn't dress pirates though. The girls were in dresses, DH was in tropical shirt (? shirt from Jamaica so maybe it was more jamaican than tropical), Robert was in plaid black/gray button shirt and I was in black slacks and black/gray s/s blouse (kinda with button shirt attached to it that you left unbuttoned- atleast I did)- that's as piratey as we got! LOL At dinner they gave us pirate bandannas to put on our heads- which everyone did and they eventually talked me into it too. I hadn't had time to fix my hair so it was the only night I wore it in a ponytail anyway- so I covered it up with the bandanna.

Ofcourse the kids weren't hungry and wanted to go to the club/lab in the middle of dinner- so I took them and we ended up at dinner late because of it. They never serve DH anything when I'm gone taking the kids places. LOL
Snapped this picture also off Deck 4 on the way back:

During dinner I had the last glass of the Banfi from the previous night at Palo (again didn't feel anything- it was like I was drinking water. What could cause a non-drinker to all the sudden not be affected by alcohol at all? Weird) We also sent a bottle of wine to Stacey's table to thank her for letting DH borrow the undershirt- oh yeah, he hadn't returned that yet and he was still using it when he dressed formally. I planned on washing it before returning it anyway. LOL We sure did appreciate the undershirt! We were going to get another bottle of Banfi (tasted good!) but decided we'd do that the next night... dinner was almost over anyway.

After dinner we went to get the kids for the pirates party..
(walked by the buffet before it was open and snapped a picture- we never did partake of this buffet LOL)

I went to get Rita/Robert and DH went to get Ruby- she didn't want to come... she was at deck 7 aft doing something fun and wanted to go with the lab later to do glow jam (and get free glow sticks LOL) on deck 10. We were to meet on deck 10 and couldn't find one another for quite some time.. party well on it's way by the time we met up. But we finally did- and Rita did some boogeying to the music and actually enjoyed the fireworks. she usually hates loud noises, especially fireworks, but they weren't that loud over the music/etc. LOL
Rita was excited- can you tell?

Ooh- pretty fireworks and I'm not scared mom!

Boogeyed so much we all need to take a break in dad's lap- the only place to sit and people were standing literally shoulder to shoulder even on deck 10- worse on deck 9. LOL

After the party we took the younger two to get in their PJs and then went to deck 4 outside for DH to smoke his cigar. Robert wasn't keen on leaving the room in his pjs but I assured him it just looked like power rangers shirt and shorts- I don't buy them tight like you're supposed to and he's not quite big enough for this size yet.

DH took Rita to the room to go to bed- both tired.... Robert went too as he was in his PJs he wasn't about to go to the lab or something (LOL) but when I saw the pirates movie was starting when I went to get a soda -I ran back to get Robert. He was still in Pjs but just took his pillow and the fleece blanket from the room. He laid and watched the movie- I left him there later for a moment (at midnight) to get Ruby from deck 10 sports area- she wanted to watch it too. So we watched it. Ofcourse we've seen it at the movies and own the dvd- but not the same as that huge screen out on the cruise ship. LOL I thought the navigator said it was over at 12:33pm- ofcourse I wasn't thinking and should have known it wouldn't be over that quickly (in hindsight I realize I'd looked at the time another movie -casonova- ended at Buena Vista theatre) -anyway... it didn't end until 1:23am and we had to set clocks FORWARD an hour... so it was really 2:23am! and we have character breakfast in the morning? yeah right- we'll see about that. LOL

(I forget what else I typed the first time I wrote this out... I know there was something. LOL I'll edit later if I think of what it was)


Ps. didn't see anyone from the disgroup today except Amanda and Sherry -again. LOL And we didn't sit next to anyone's table that was with our double scoop group except in Parrot cay- with a curtain between us & Amanda's family. LOL

Added to report from DH about the diving trip- he thoroughly enjoyed it... got to about 87 feet he said (we went deeper on submarine- neener neener). He said they were near the drop off though and it apparently went very deep. He thought Bryce was the coolest kid and said he reminded him a lot of what he thinks Robert will be like when he's a little older like Bryce- cool kid basically. He said they saw lots of fish- some big... but only Bryce saw a shark-- by the time he got Dh's attention the shark was gone. He said he saw a lobster that was as wide (WIDE) as like an end table width- but it was inside a cave or coral or something like that and he couldn't see it's length- but that wide it had to have been huge. They saw a little eel also... lots of stuff. He enjoyed the dives at cozumel- ofcourse the highlight of the trip for him. LOL

Here's the towel animals we had tonight (same in both rooms) -now this one I know... it's a monkey hanging! LOL

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 8 of trip- Day 6 of cruise: 6/1/06 -day at sea (semi-formal)

I was up at 9am but everyone else was asleep. I let them sleep awhile and went to get on the internet for a bit. Returned to wake everyone up and ATTEMPT to make the character breakfast- but the kids didn't want to wake up and weren't in "hurry" mode (they know no such mode) -so it was a good thing we had told our servers we might not make character breakfast the night before!

We skipped the character breakfast at 9:15am and ate breakfast at topsiders around 10:30am-10:45am. Then DH took the kids swimming- and I went to bingo alone... again didn't win a darn thing but atleast I got close on one game! LOL The other bingo later is jackpot of over $4,000 but I don't think I'm going to do it- I'm just wasting money on bingo and definitely don't have a chance to win with tons of people played for that big pot when I can't win with hardly anyone in there playing on this early morning bingo session! Michael (sp?) cracks me up... yeah baby... come on Michael. LOL

I went to do the gratuities (on the advice of DIS'er to not wait until the last day!) and had to do it on room charge since we ran out of cash... I honestly thought before going on this cruise that we'd just tip the recommended amount assuming everything would be as expected with DCL's reputation (here/everywhere) but I ended up tipping extra for the 2 servers and the head server. Oh did I forget to mention that every single night after dinner she would bring us pecan pie? I couldn't keep up with it- none of us could- because she kept giving us a whole pie and sometimes just 6-7 pieces but it was still a lot. We ended up leaving Saturday with some pie left in our room. But it was sweet of her to think of us in that way. Anyway- I tipped them all quite a bit extra but only tipped a "little" extra for the stateroom hostess. She did keep our soft sided cooler full of ice every day- it probably would have been nicer if she'd done the ice at turndown instead though.. it was always melted by evening and that's when we'd be drinking those drinks (beer and wine coolers kept in there). But no complaints there- we just never saw her though. Are you supposed to ever see them? LOL

Can I just interject a moment to make a comment here? What is up with the making of the bed where it feels like you're shortsheeted? What I mean is you can't pull the sheets up like you might prefer (like we do)- I don't prefer my sheets/blanket up only to below my chest area- thanks much. LOL I was constantly tugging on it.
And btw- the beds are short. I imagine that's so it fits well into the staterooms but my husband isn't even tall (5'11) and even with his head to the headboard his feet stuck off the bed some at the end. I kept hitting his feet whenever I walked by the end of the bed when he was asleep. Okay so I am Pooh sized but still- he's not that tall and his feet are hanging off a bit on the bed? I feel sorry for tall guys. Do y'all just sleep in fetal position or what? LOL I'm 5'2 and I'd sleep just slightly from the headboard and my feet went to the bottom of the bed. I slept that way to fight the urge to yank on the sheets to pull them up higher. Fortunately I do sleep on my side in the fetal position anyway. LOL

Okay so anyway... saw Stacey (finally!!!) up on deck 9 near cove cafe-- and scubamom also came by a bit later to talk. Stacey thanked us for the wine and said it wasn't necessary- but I don't think she understands how much we appreciated the undershirt. LOL Told her I'd return it but hadn't washed it yet- she said we could keep it. Great- DH can use it for semi-formal night. Stacey rocks.
Unfortunately I didn't get to stay long after Sharon showed up because I suddently realized at that point that I didn't recall what TIME we were supposed to do Tea w/wendy that day- so I had to rush off and couldn't talk long.. had to go back to stateroom to look at my tickets. I was thinking 1'ish and it was way after 1pm already- but the tickets said 4pm. I went back down but Stacey/Sharon were gone already...

DH was still at the pool with the kids- and they'd already eaten junk food there- so I went to get some lunch at Parrot Cay and it was just at 2pm (they were about to close up there) -so I just made some plates of seafood and such and took them back to the room to eat... a little.

Oh and I had dropped by about 1pm to see about rebooking onboard and she had a line- had stopped the line actually because she wanted a break and would be back at 2pm. So after I ate- about 2:30pm I went down to rebook. Only a couple people in front of me so it didn't take long- especially because I wasn't booking anything specific since I planned on changing the dates to summer 2008. (we'd go next summer but the med cruises are just too expensive for us and the airfare for all of us too expensive too- besides, you can't do WDW before the cruise when it starts in Barcelona! There isn't a Disney World there. LOL) So I just booked it for late December 2007 and I'll change it later.
I didn't check beforehand to see if it really the cheapest (versus online what it shows with DCL and also versus the rates shown online for the travel agent we used on this cruise)- but I checked tonight and I really can't figure out how it's as cheap as they are showing. LOL it's more than 10% off (even removing/putting back on the taxes and such) than what DCL shows and even less than what our travel agent shows (which we used because it was the cheapest for this cruise). Strange. Our paperwork doesn't show the stateroom credit- as someone mentioned on the live thread (for this cruise) that we should make sure it says... but my travel agent has already emailed to call them if we rebooked onboard and they'll make sure we get the stateroom credit from DCL plus they add their own stateroom credit also! I did make sure when I rebooked to say we're going thru the same travel agent but I don't see it mentioned on this paperwork either... weird.
I rebooked next time with just cat 6 guarantee and cat 11 guarantee... I did say we'd need them across from one another. Maybe that's why it's showing more of a discount than the 10% because she put them guarantee? I don't konw. But next time we're going with the verandah and inside stateroom. The kids will be 2yrs old (oldest 14/youngest 7 almost 8)- so I think we can handle them in the inside stateroom even though it's obviously not adjoined rooms. LOL

I got the girls ready for Tea w/wendy but I was far from "decent" looking myself- so I had DH take them... at guest services they said the girls could go without me and Ruby had been with Rita last year at the tea w/alice at GF alone... so he left them there. The only thing is that we had to take them out of the club/lab -and we'd taken them there only at 3:45pm so they could do the "getting ready for Celebrate the Journey- the show the kids do after that-- but they said the tea would last only about 20min- they were sorta right.. it lasted only 30min and we took them right back to the lab/club so they could still be in the show.

We went to watch the kids show at 5pm- we couldn't see any of them except when they walked on the stage (and I missed seeing Ruby walk on- couldn't get a picture of her.. DH saw her though). They even had kids in front of little Rita- who was just as little as the 3/4yr olds sitting in the front of the stage. I kept thinking SURELY they aren't going to put a row in front of her- but they did... ohwell, can't help it that she's so little. LOL The show was cute and they liked getting the free shirt and mickey graduation caps (yes we had to bring those home too LOL). Par for the course- our kids weren't in the slideshow. Well DH swears he saw Robert in the background of one but I was looking closely and I didn't see it. I say par for the course because it's always that way with my kids- you'd think with THREE we'd see atleast one- but nope, never... not in the slideshows of vacation bible school at the end of VBS, not in the school slideshows at the end of the year (which is why we didn't cry about missing it on this trip missing the last 2 days of school and missing the slideshow) and not on this DCL one either. LOL

We picked the kids up right after the show (6pm) and rushed back to see Disney Dreams show. Dumb us- we didn't have one of us stay and save seats for us so ofcourse we couldn't really find good seats for this show. Apparently everyone else wasn't so dumb- they sent one person to go get the kids and kept their seats. LOL The show was great!

We rushed to get ready for semi-formal night at Lumiere's (lobster night!)
DH wore white shirt/Mickey floral tie (not a soul noticed his tie- he shouldn't have been embarrassed to wear it.. him and his non-Disney self LOL), black pants/black shoes. Robert wore his white shirt, tie, black pants and black shoes. Girls wore dresses and I wore black skirt/heels and black/silver sweater blouse set.. bad idea. Who said the restaurants are chilly? Nope. We found them to be barely comfortable (even in shortsleeves on nonformal nights- even in those tropical getups you see us in -in that picture above) and on this night it was intolerably hot at Lumiere's. Intolerably I tell ya- even the kids were complaining they were hot and wanted to leave dinner!

Which they did- I took Rita to the club at 8:45pm and then Robert to lab at 9pm (keep in mind that they changed out of formal wear- so who didn't get to eat much of lobster dinner? That would be me. LOL But I was relieved to get out of Lumiere's anyway- it wasn't QUITE as hot everywhere else, notice I said not quite as hot).
Oh here's the picture of the towel animals that night- this one I know is an elephant. This was taken when I took Robert back to change out of formal wear- I'm just now realizing the only picture I have of the towel animal that night has Robert practically naked! LOL He's in his undershirt and undies I think. LOL He stripped the minute we hit the door and just threw his clothes everywhere getting undressed as fast as he could- that boy was hot! LOL

BTW- we hardly ever ate the chocolates so we had a big collection going on. Robert took one of the extras and stuck it in the crease there at the elephant's butt and tried (unsuccessfuly) to convince me that the stateroom host had put it there. Elephant doodie he called it. My boy and his sick sense of humor.

We even bought another bottle of Banfi and couldn't drink hardly any of it- we were so outta there because it was so hot! Then Ruby to change into swimsuit for pool party at 10pm (had to be there 9:45pm to transition there). The lobster was really good- but gosh it was too hot to enjoy it. we were glad to be out of there...

DH & I went to sessions for awhile and it was while we were there that it all the sudden dawned on me that some day during this trip I had booked brunch at Palo! I went to the stateroom to check my notes and such- and sure enough.. it was earlier that day and we'd totally missed it. I wish they made "tickets" for that like they do tea with wendy and such- I mean that was free and had tickets but brunch has a charge and they still don't issue tickets so you won't forget! I went to GS to see about if we were charged- and we weren't... I guess it was free with the REAS pkg? I didn't know that. Anyway, nevermind that we weren't charged- I was bummed we missed it! And I'd eaten lunch in the stateroom stuff I'd grabbed last minute from Parrot cay... instead of palo brunch? We'd eaten breakfast late and I'd went to bingo- right when we should have been having brunch. I'm so bummed we missed that- that is something everyone said was a "do not miss" type thing.
(hint- if you make notes of your daily excursions and stuff- be sure you actually LOOK at it during the trip- don't just stuff it somewhere and ignore it the entire trip LOL)

Oh and btw- we never even got our rainforest passes that came with the REAS pkg. I kept meaning to do it- and then actually GO in the rainforest area of Vista Spa- but I just never did. Ohwell. LOL

Oh and also while realizing we missed brunch I also looked at our tickets for the next day at CC and realized our excursions were banana boat at 11am and parasailing at 2:30pm- and yet just realized that now our navigator said that the scuttle's cove would be closing at 3pm yet club/lab not opened on the ship until 4pm! I'm sure I scheduled those things based on all aboard time of 5pm but I had NO IDEA that the place our kids would need to be, while we were still on the parasailing excursion, would be closing during that time! So we had to ask GS to change our tickets around somehow- we couldn't be parasailing when scuttles cove was closed. She managed to change our parasailing to 11:30am and banana boat to 2pm. That would work with the scuttle's cove closing at 3pm plus it was better anyway... I'd prefer parasailing first- but that does put the two excursions closer together and we'd be pressed for time for lunch in between there!

We went back to the stateroom for awhile (not saying why ) then we went to get Rita back to the stateroom with DH at about 12:30am. Ruby and Robert didn't want to leave until it closed at 1am (guess why- they were having free time! LOL). We were all in bed by 1:15am... tomorrow is CC day and that's the last day of the cruise before we have to leave- none of us are ready for it to be over! Rita keeps saying she wants to live on the cruise- only stipulation is she'd like to bring Tramp on the cruise too. LOL

Ps. this was the night that while standing on deck 4 for a bit- I found out from talking with others (about rebooking- getting verandah next time- had adjoined rooms this time- talking about the doors a pain anyway- so might as well do verandah and inside room next time- that's the short of some of the conversation and how we got to this subject) that you can ask for door stops? What? Why wasn't I informed of this? I'm surprised our neighbors never came and told us or requested them for us what with all the banging (with lock out so the doors could easily be pushed open even by Rita) of both doors every time one of the 5 of us (and yes, that was often LOL) went thru that doorway. Not to mention the slice on my big toe when one of the kids opened their door on my foot. I called and requested them and had them that night- MUCH better with the doors kept open with doorstops! Big tip there- have adjoined rooms? ASK FOR DOORSTOPS FIRST NIGHT. LOL I can't believe we went practically the entire week banging both doors everytime (and trying not to whenever going thru those doors when anyone was asleep in either room) and watching to not slice more toes when doing so- when all along we could have had doorstops to keep them open. ugh

 

[justmestace]

Thanks Stacey! You rock!
I'm not sure if you have any other pictures of us- I think a few times you missed us on pictures (more about why that was- probably- later... but sometimes I think it was because you took pictures of the tables when we were running our kids to the club/lab or when we ran outside to get the pictures of us taken on formal night LOL)-- but I think you did take more than that one night? If you did- I'd love to see them when you get a chance. This picture you showed here is actually better than the picture DCL took of us on that night! You so rock.

Oh and btw- I just spent a good 45min or so posting the next day of our trip (cozumel) and it said invalid thread on the next page- ofcourse I did not copy what I'd typed and when I backpaged it was gone. I have to start all over! omg......

I have another couple...not all downloaded yet. Can't remember if it was Semi-formal night, or our last night??
Jay & I always got to dinner late....mostly because I waited to be sure the girls were all dressed and out of the room....so by the time we were seated, ordered our food, visited a little...I'd go around to take some pictures (not every night) and I'd look and see just Jeff sitting there....that was one night, anyway...or neither of you.... that's the way it is with kids...someone always taking them somewhere. I missed some of the "outer tables" altogether. I never did get pics of Ladypoo and Domi. And I often forgot Racheltori's table, since they were way at the end.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Aw Stacey- I appreciate any pictures you took. Atleast you had the sense to do so! I wonder why I didn't think about going around taking pictures. I guess at this point I should be glad I didn't- because I'd have taken pictures of the neighbor table that had strangers on it not even on disboards! LOL

I tried posting this response to you earlier and broke the board- or something. Ofcourse I again forgot to copy my post. LOL

Anyway, I had said that I was going to mention this on the last day's trip report but I'll just go ahead and say now that the entire time we thought the table of 12 next to us was part of disboards. I mean they said they moved us next to the large group (us blabbermouths LOL) and I figured they were just people I didn't recognize from the meet or online pictures/etc. But on the last breakfast I finally had the sense of mind to ASK them- and ofcourse they knew nothing about the disboards.

So they might as well left us at table 11 (except we prefer the servers we ended up with after the first night- thanks much LOL) because we still weren't with the group. We were seperated by the table of 12 of strangers at AP and Lumieres and were seperated from Amanda's table by a curtain off in a corner of Parrot Cay also.

I think that's why we were so warm at the restaurants is because of always being off in a corner against walls (sometimes more than one wall- sometimes THREE walls LOL) and sometimes with curtains/etc. I noticed it was much cooler in the rest of the restaurants as we walked our kids thru to take them to the club/lab and such.

Anyway, we didn't really feel like part of the group at all where we were seated- even if we'd been at a larger table with strangers somewhere else in the room maybe we could have made friends with them or something. We were so seperated- by a table of 12 strangers, curtains, off in corners by our lonesome at a table for 6 for our family of 5.

I talked to the host that last morning once I realized that table of 12 wasn't from the disboards- just to let him know he hadn't really put us with the group and might as well have put us anywhere else and we'd have been just as close (since y'all were such a large group spanning across that side of the room- even in the middle of the room we'd have been closer probably LOL) -he said that was the best he could do. I guess because there was the large group of DISers and then this table of 12- and a table of 6 (he said) is the one he moved... that's just the way the tables were arranged. I imagine if he moved any other SMALLER table near the "group" it would have been moving someone in the group -off to where we ended up and that would have seperated them! I'm not sure how we ended up with the bad luck of getting "not linked" to the group originally and then they had to try to get us as close as possible- but that's just our luck. LOL

I wonder if the people he moved from table 43 to our table 11 we had the first night had those same servers we had? If so, I feel sorry for them.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 9 of trip- Day 7 of cruise: 6/2/06- Castaway Cay!
(again pictures taken this day on the island were on a waterproof camera- took pictures while parasailing/etc. Will have to show later)

Our last full day on the cruise. *pout cry whine stomp feet*

The older two weren't cooperating on getting up and MOVING like we needed them to- so we had room service breakfast (me 2 pieces of toast only again) I told the kids not to eat much though- they'd be eating lunch shortly with the club/lab on the island! LOL They didn't really listen- cause they were hungry. *sigh*
DH took Rita to the club (on CC) because her "fun stuff" started at 10am- well... the next one not counting the fun stuff that started at 9am. LOL With the older two- the next thing starting at scuttle's cove (so we wouldn't get them down there during transition time) was at 10:45am- so we planned on meeting at 10:45am at scuttle's cove. Which we did.

The weather was nice but so humid!
Let me just add here that the entire trip I had no shorts to wear. I thought I packed shorts that fit but I should have tried them on... apparently I gained even more since the last time I wore them because they were just a bit too tight for my taste (I don't like tight clothes at all). So I ended up wearing capris I had packed- the entire trip. Now that wouldn't be so bad- as I'd packed 3 pr --- unfortunately I realized after the first (embarkation) day that I had 3 rust colored spots on the back of the only black capris (the other two were navy) I had.. not sure where they came from- appeared to be paint. I have no idea how long those spots were on the butt of my capris... could have been from somewhere at GF that morning or somewhere on the ship the rest of that day. Who knows. But I have a big enough butt without drawing attention to it with paint spots smack in the middle there. LOL So I wore navy capris- even if it didn't match my shirt and my black flipflops. Everyone would just have to deal with my nonmatching self.

Well until later in the trip when I decided I didn't care about the spots and wore the black ones anyway- look at my rust-colored spotted butt if you want- don't care. LOL

HOWEVER, I was really tired of being so hot in capris every day- so Thursday night I bought a pair of shorts at Treasure's Catch. This is a big deal for me as I'm picky about my clothes and my body is hard to find clothes to fit. I'm not a grab off the rack and purchase type gal- I have to try things on and have a hard time finding anything I like- especially since I've gained all this weight back and apparently it all decided to come back on my butt and thighs. (ie: everything that fits my butt/thighs properly is way too huge at the waist). But I ran out and tried them on at the restroom near the theatre and they were "livable".... more than that they were thin material- very breathable... perfect for wearing over my swimsuit off the ship at Castaway cay!

So atleast THIS day I had shorts.. wish I'd thought to look for shorts earlier in the trip when I realized the shorts I packed no longer fit me good. LOL hindsight 20/20...

So we're set for parasailing at 11:30am- 45min to kill.. kids at scuttle's cove (and we advised them it would be very unwise to have them beep us as we'd be off parasailing and couldn't come get them!). So we went to the beach for a few minutes to just get in the water a bit and cool off. We got out and head towards Marges Barges to parasail at about 11:10am- and got a beep saying that Robert wanted to be picked up and that they were at the lunch place just past the shopping area.
That's exactly what it said.
I did not think to look at my navigator to realize they weren't at lunch yet- we just ran over there (to tell him he has to stay-we're going parasailing) and they weren't there- Rita's age was though and we barely managed to keep her from seeing us and having her cry to go play in the sand at the beach or something. So they said Robert was over at scuttle's cove and a look at my navigator showed they were correct. We go back over there to scuttle's cove and go to talk to Robert- he says he didn't ask to leave and didn't ask them to page them- Ruby was with him still (her age group and his there together) and she said he hadn't asked to leave-- the counselors were confused why we'd receive a page saying he was at lunch when they weren't going there for another hour!
Weird- I wonder if we got a page by mistake for some "Robert" that was in Rita's age group? The 3/4's and her age group 5/7's were the only ones at lunch at that time.

Anywho- so then we rush over and get there right at 11:30am- and you're supposed to be there early for the excursions. We signed in and she said to just wait in the side area (benches) like we did for the glass boat. But we sat and sat. Around noon (30min) DH went to ask how long it would be- and she said 12:30 because we'd missed the 11:30 parasailing boat.
WHAT? She didn't say anything and just told us to go sit- for an HOUR?
So I sent DH back to ask her why in the world she sent us to sit there for an hour- and turns out she thought we just came there FOR the 12:30 parasailing... didn't realize we were there for 11:30am even though our tickets said that? So she said no, we wouldn't have to wait that long- a boat would be along shortly for us (and other people) in a group going before 12:30pm. So we left at 12:15pm (not a whole lot better than sitting there for an hour if you ask me- it's still 45min. Why not tell us that? 45min better spent elsewhere if you ask me LOL) and we really had a blast with the parasailing. It was different than when we parasailed in Cancun back when Ruby was a baby (ie: many moons ago- like 11yrs of those moons LOL) because that was on a bench thing- this was just strapped in a thing that was supposed to be under your butt- but mine ended up under my thighs. I told them it wasn't up on my butt but when I was trying to fix it- they told us to lift our feet and DH was behind me- he did so and gravity brought him down on me (this was before we were even lifted off the boat) and pushed me forward... then they lifted us up. Oh yeah, before that part the guy and the driver talked a bit about if we could both go up together- since the first trip was a woman and her pre-teen age daughter (2nd trip the husband alone) I thought they were discussing this due to my pooh size (and DH normal sized man- which is big ofcourse LOL) I asked if they were discussing it due to my size- and the guy said no, it was due to the wind or something like that- and then commented that my size was considered beautiful and preferred in the bahamas. Okay thanks -I'll remember that. LOL (and yes, I already knew that and knew why- because if you're Pooh sized there it means you are eating well and aren't poor & starving... or something like that I think)

A little uncomfortable on my thighs instead of my butt- but ohwell. It was nice up there.. and one of the other guys also parasailing on our boat took pictures of us- on our water camera.. hope they came out good! I took pictures from above with a water camera also. They had 2 other trips of parasailing on that boat before us- but we were the first ones they "dipped" in the water. It was funny because at first I was all letting my feet go in the water for about 2 seconds then I squealed and pulled my feet up when I realized- hey, my feet at in the water out here. LOL Who knows what was out there that I just wasn't seeing that might think my toes are oh- I dunno... FOOD? (like the oatmeal thrown out during the glass boat excursion that brought tons of fish swarming around LOL)

We were back at 1:15pm and this made us in a rush to eat lunch because we had scheduled the banana boat at 2pm! So we rushed over to eat a delicious bbq lunch (mmm) -saw Sherry/family again- what's up with only seeing a few people? I guess the only ones that recognized us to talk to us? LOL Made plans to bring DH's dive book to have Bryce sign it for the dives they did- that night at dinner. DH signed his but he didn't sign Bryce's- I think DH forgot to have him do it or something.
Anywho- then we rushed over to do the banana boat at 2pm.. needn't have rushed- they had us wait. LOL
It was a lot of fun... kinda scary at times... especially because people with us on that banana boat had done it earlier (some a few times) and talked about how every ride they went on they all fell off. I was not keen on the idea of falling off- let me tell you. Not out there away from shore! LOL So we all had a talk- including the gentleman across from me (DH was behind me- the kids all "claimed" the front before we even got on and we obliged for the kiddos.. by kids I do not mean mine. LOL) -about leaning in... and reminded them all- got us all chanting lean in lean in-- we were determined not to fall- all of us were. We managed to not fall off even though the driver appeared to be working hard at TRYING to get us to fall off towards the end (kept turning and turning back and forth different directions- little did he know how organized we were... yelling right lean in- then left lean in. LOL)

Some smart kids brought goggles. I'm going to be smart and do that next time. LOL Even with sunglasses on the last part of the ride I had to keep my eyes closed as the salt water that sprayed into them sure hurt! (good thing they were yelling directions of when to lean -or I'd have ended up off the thing for sure LOL) So bring goggles for banana boat- tip of the day. LOL It was a lot of fun. We did have to stop halfway thru and let one of the little girls up right in front get on the boat- she was screaming. Not sure if she was scared or didn't like the water in her face or what. She was the daughter of the man sitting next to me- he appeared to have several "youngish" children on with him- she was probably about 7 or 8 the boys slightly older. If it's only 8 and up on the banana boats I guess she's a small 8yr old. She was fine once on the boat though. We were a little further back than middle- but not the very back.

Anyway, after that we had to get the kids from scuttle's cove at 3pm but it was only 2:30pm. So I finally relented on the "don't wanna buy expensive drinks" motto I had and decided we'd try the konk coolers everyone is always talking about. We walked down to get those (with one souvienir cup- sign said those were $3 but it was only $2. Maybe it's cheaper when you buy it with the drink in it? I don't know) and mmm, those are good! DH drank his faster than I did so he shared some of mine.
Interesting thing is that since I'm not much of a drinker I can usually "feel" the drink almost immediately no matter what I'm drinking (and when I do drink it's always something fruity frou frou drink LOL)- yet on this cruise when I drank the wine coolers I brought or anything else we drank (champagne and one day I had the drink of the day- forgot to mention that didn't I? LOL and now the konk kooler) I never felt it a bit. Isn't that weird? Hmm, I may have to test this and drink one of the wine coolers (have many left) here at home soon. LOL

We also went shopping at the store there SeaShells to get a postcard then take it to the post office on the way out to have it sent to our kids with the special postmark on it... they said the post office was closed for a holiday! so it was closed BOTH days we were on castaway cay! I just read on the live thread that someone else was able to leave them with CM's on the ship or something- but no one told us about that. So I have a postcard... still. LOL

As we were walking out of the store though- I looked at the hats I hadn't seen on the trip to CC last Sunday and mentioned I should have bought one on Sunday so I'd have a hat the entire trip (did I mention I thought I had packed my straw type hat but it turns out it was really Rita's same type straw PURSE? All along I thought I had my hat set aside to pack with some other stuff in a plastic bag- it was the purse though LOL) and DH mentioned one of them in the aqua color would match my swimsuit (aqua tink 2pc but covers my tummy thanks much- what's that called? tankini? I'm not sure) and I was like that's all I need to talk me into buying it. LOL I bought it- but I really should have bought it the previous sunday. Ohwell- live and learn!

Went to get the kids just before 3pm and back on the ship.. we thought we had to be on by 4pm for the debarkation presentation... but we read wrong and it was really at 4:30pm! We should have missed it all together and stayed on the island longer with the kids or something. We were told by others that it wasn't necessary to go to it and it'd be played on the tv later anyway- but we really thought one of us should see it just in case. LOL So... the kids went to the club/lab (free time on the schedule- they loved free time) and I was out on deck 4 before starting to get ready for dinner/etc. while DH watched the debarkation presentation. That's when I saw the helicoptor set down about 4:30pm (and I know it was that time because I'd looked at my watch and knew what time it was -not only because of planning my time to get ready but also even commented back and forth with another lady there on deck 4 about how there was some people still out parasailing and how they were really cutting it close for 5pm all aboard time!) The helicopter set down, some guy from the ship in white put up 5 fingers (like wait 5 minutes) and after awhile 2 guys got out of the helicopter and walked towards the gangway area (but not all the way down the steps to it) -they were dressed like cruisers... polos and docker shorts. Weird. I yelled down at the people down there at the gangway (crew members in white) if someone was leaving the ship- one guy said yes. I asked if they were sick- he said "they are" and walked into the gangway. Both I and the other lady both mentioned we had to get ready- much as our curiosity would like to have us there watching to see what happened- so we left and didn't see what happened or who came out. Speculation by many about what happened--you'll see the rumor we heard later in this trip report!

Got ready and DH/I went to the farewell show... darnit- this was definitely one we should have had the kids go to. Rita missed the two she'd have liked the most (twice charmed and this farewell show). *sigh* I had tried to shop a bit for a few things for the kids before the show -Rita wanted a new "skirt"- of which they had none (only princess dresses- which she doesn't need more of those!) but they did have one pink skort that would look cute on her and make her happy. She'd need the shirt though. Anyway- the skirts they only had sizes XXS then small- she needs XS skort with S top. So they said they'd look- come back after the show- which I did and they had the XS one for me! So I got that outfit for Rita (like $22 and $24), stitch dressed as Elvis w/guitar for my stitch obsessed Ruby ($13), and a stitch toy for Robert ($10) because it was the only thing I could find that he'd be remotely interested in. I also bought the stuffed ship with beanies ($40 -the mickey/minnie stuffies would have been $13 each-so I figured $40 wasn't much more than $26- go for it LOL) and I also got a mickey punch (just because... I may scrapbook one day LOL $5) and a photo album (I think $18 or $16- something like that).

The girls did end up coming to dinner with us though- even though they'd went with the club/lab to dinner. Robert didn't want to come because they were doing "Make up what you missed" and he had several things to complete. He complained several times during the cruise that he didn't get to do some of the things they did while he was in the lab- things they'd said they'd make sure everyone got to do... and also that he didn't get to complete many things. He was probably not being attentive and ended up last in line to do everything every single time- that would be just like him. so he wanted to finish his animation and such.
The girls were only with us for awhile- all the sudden Ruby wanted to go back at 8:45pm because she realized her age group was in studio sea (for the first time for her) and ofcourse Rita followed suit even though she wasn't going where Ruby was. LOL She still wanted to go when Ruby did.

During dinner we still didn't finish off the bottle of Banfi. We ended up leaving almost half a bottle of that champagne in the room. Now in hindsight I wonder if it would have been okay to bring that home with us. Don't know... we'd have had to try to fit it in our carryons though and that wouldn't have worked I don't think. We also took home beer with us. I meant to talk with Sherry/her husband and Amanda/her husband and offer some of the beers to them- DH just couldn't possibly drink them all... but totally forgot to do so -because I was so busy taking the kids to the club and trying to eat! *sigh*

(found out at the end of that meal that he could have brought beers to dinner with him? I never saw anyone walking around with beer cans so DH kept just drinking them when in the room or occasionally putting a beer into one of the cups from deck 9. But now DH says he saw people walking around with beer cans in their hands. Anyway- Daniel said he could have brought it to dinner with him- but he never said if that was "okay". When I expressed concern that I wasn't sure if that was allowed or not- I mean I knew there was a corking fee for wine that wasn't purchased there- so I got the feeling that carrying around beer cans you'd brought yourself especially to dinner just wasn't allowed or was tacky or something--- or might tack on a charge for DH doing so LOL- Daniel just said stuff about how it was our vacation and okay to do stuff that wasn't allowed? Something to that affect. I get the feeling he was saying even if it wasn't allowed he would have allowed it. LOL Again- live and learn)

After dinner it was near 10pm and I only had an hour to pack everything up and have it in the hallway! ack! time got away from me... rushing around doing that -got r done (LOL) in the nick of time.. we'd still have to lug off a few bags (the suitcase of toiletries we'd still need to use before we disembarked the next morning/jewelry/etc.... the kids backpack of stuff with toys/gameboys/etc.... and the excursion bag which we stuffed with all our clothes we'd worn that evening and didn't get undressed into pjs until after 11pm plus our pajamas after we'd worn them that night/etc.) with us in the morning.

Oh and on the kids bed was the bag of the girls pillowcases that we'd dropped off on the first day and the fabric markers. They didn't really follow the written instructions I'd given for what types of characters each would like on their pillows (Rita -princesses & minnie, Ruby -fab 5 and stitch is her favorite character) but they both had lots of signatures on them including princesses and stitch (and fab 5/etc.) and they were beautiful. I put them on the pillows so the girls could sleep with them the last night on the cruise. They were excited when they saw them, poor Robert was bummed. Guess I should have brought a plain white pillowcase for him or something.

Okay what is this? Is it supposed to be a stingray or something?

Robert beeped us at 11:30pm saying he was hungry. Ofcourse. They ate dinner with lab at 5:15pm and he hadn't had any dinner with us at 8pm! So we went to get him
Here's a picture of Robert being silly when we picked him up from the lab. He was pretending he had no legs- that they ended at his knees. Yes, that's Ruby and Jeff's lower body (missing heads) you see in the picture. Lord have mercy Ruby is getting a figure- I hadn't noticed as much as this picture shows! egads..... I almost didn't recognize that was her but for the outfit... that's my baby???

and took Robert to get pizza by the pool- Bedknobs and broomsticks was showing on the screen. Do you know it took us until the last night to realize that the navigator would show under "special" the movies showing on the big screen? Geesh- live and learn is my new DCL motto. LOL DH went to get Rita from the club but Robert finished his pizza and wanted to get his pillow to watch the show- so we met DH down on deck 5 (remember we have to go practically by the lab to get to our rooms- and we came out those midship elevators in front of the lab) because he was also getting Ruby out of the lab- he checked while he was there to see if she'd like to go- and she did. Returned the beeper then too.

So then DH went to bed (& Rita too) while I took Ruby/Robert down to watch the rest of bedknobs and broomsticks on the big screen. I wrote in my journal, filled out the comment cards (that we finally received at 11pm btw -they weren't there after turn down and I'd called GS about it and they said to come get them from them? oh yeah- I'll go stand in line at GS on the last night... something I tried to avoid by paying gratuities early and such- just to get comment cards? no thanks... but the stateroom host did hand them to DH at 11pm when he was putting out the bags in the hallway. He gave her the gratuities envelope for her at that time also- we were just going to have to leave it in the room since we never saw her the entire trip- but we saw her then) and the customs form while they watched the show. We were there until 1am (um, the paper said the show was over 12:37am but I only see NOW that in tiny print it says under that -on after the game or 10:30pm- the game must have gone late? LOL). Took the kids to bed at that point and um... I was up until 3:30am! I just couldn't go to sleep... partly my insomnia, partly because of sadness and couldn't believe the long awaited cruise was almost over- but it was funny because this was the one night that I saw so many others up that late! I guess others couldn't get to sleep on the last night either! I also got the bright idea to go back down and print our boarding tickets/checking in with AA online. I got that bright idea because I listened to the debarkation presentation on the tv while packing up our toiletries (except for ones needed in the morning) and when she said the part about how you could check in with certain airlines at the port if you were using their transportation- lightbulb went off... need to check in and print our boarding passes! (yes, I now realize that DH didn't have to go listen to that in person- LOL)

I was in bed by 3:30am though- and set the alarm for 7:15am.
So don't want the cruise to be over! *cry*

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Day 10 of trip- Day 8 of cruise: 6/3/06- disembark (waaaaahhh)

Woke up with the wake up call of 7:15am.
Did I mention that sometimes if you get a wake up call- let's say 7:15am and you answer it- that later about 10min or 15min later you'd get another wake up call? Sometimes it did that- sometimes not... I'm not sure why.

Anywho- up and dressed and finish packing. Kids were not interested in getting up that early ofcourse- so it was a madhouse with DH trying to get them dressed against their wishes (Ruby showered against her wishes also LOL) and rushed to breakfast at AP at our time of 7:45am. we really shouldn't have rushed and just had breakfast at Topsiders... we'd have had a few more minutes and breakfast really wasn't that great at AP anyway. It would have been better buffet style for all of us. The look on DH's face when they brought his pancakes STILL makes me laugh out loud. We all ordered this and that- he only ordered pancakes. They brought this grown man a plate with just 2 tiny little pancakes on it- I swear I'm laughing out loud now thinking back to the surprised look on his face and the look he gave me like is this man crazy? (it was peiroj btw) LOL!!!!!!!!! I just told him well that's what I got too- with my eggs and hashbrowns I also ordered- I guess that's all you get for an order of "pancakes"- should have ordered more! But honestly- Peiroj looked really rushed/busy that morning otherwise I'd have wondered why on earth he didn't mention that to DH. He knows he's going to want to eat more than that! puhlease- even my noneater Rita ate more than that. But the kids did order more than they could eat- so he had Robert's eggs (he decided he didn't want) and one of his sausages and some of Rita's huge pile of bacon they brought her with her breakfast. Daniel wasn't there and the other asst server looked really lost. Later I noticed he has "earning my ears" under his nametag... so that must be it. I heard Peiroj tell him standing right there next to us- what we wanted to drink... DH coffee and the other 4 of us chocolate milk. Later (quite a bit later- after our food was there already) he went to bring all 4 of us hot chocolate. Please- we don't have time for that to cool down enough for any of us to drink! So he had to go back for chocolate milk. How do you get hot chocolate out of "chocolate milk"? I dunno. Maybe chocolate milk is an unusual breakfast drink request? I don't know. I missed Daniel that morning. Asked Peiroj where he was and he said something about him getting a promotion so he was up on topsiders during that breakfast? Another reason we should have went to topsiders. LOL

When we walked by to have breakfast we noticed the HUGE line to disembark. I wasn't looking forward to getting in that line. the entire lobby area was packed shoulder to shoulder (and luggage to luggage) But when we were done eating about 8:15am (we tried to hurry because limo driver said he'd be there at 8:30am even though I'd scheduled him at 9:30am thinking it would take long for us to get our luggage/etc.) there was no line at all- just walked off. We'd already put our comment cards in at the restaurant. (btw I put excellent on the cards for the dining stuff and stateroom stuff- and put down the names of Christiaan, Peiroj, Daniel and Alecsandra as people that made it more special for us/etc.)

It was amazing how fast we were outta there and in the limo. Just walked out, down the escalator, porter there waiting- and he overheard me tell DH on the way down the escalator that we needed to find gray/Daisy for our luggage- took us right there, packed it up quickly and we walked on out- almost literally! The guy there only asked for our custom form, never asked to see id or birth certificates or anything (is that normal?) and by the time I'd handed him the customs form and he waved us thru- the porter was stopped ahead with our luggage where a lady just asked us what was in our soft sided cooler- I told her leftover beer we'd brought with us- in cans- and she asked if we had sandwiches or other unpackaged food- we both said no in unison (LOL) and she waved us thru without even looking.
Darnit- I could have snuck off the REAS chocolates in the heart box that I practically forced my kids to eat (didn't take much LOL) that morning in the stateroom so they wouldn't just be left there and could have taken the 3 huge chocolate chip cookies I had in baggies that I left in the room because I thought we couldn't take them with us. darn darn darn- could have taken them with us! LOL Later I would really wish I'd taken them...

Straight outside the limo driver was waiting- off in the limo to the Hyatt for our day room. We were there by 9:20am- we could have taken any number of the earlier flights to DFW- but knowing our luck if I'd booked the 10:30ish or 11:30ish one--- we'd have been late to port or something of that nature.

So we checked in for our day room- it sure was nice and roomy! LOL WE had a balcony but our view was of the parking lot. LOL The pool could be viewed from walking down to the end of the hall though. DH took the kids to swim awhile and I ended up taking a nap for about an hour and a half. They were back in the room and ofcourse woke me up. Later they went to swim again while I went down to McD's to get lunch (no way I was paying those room service prices- $20 for a hamburger and fries- are you kidding me? Sticker shock after the food on the cruise LOL) and they ate at the pool about 2pm- I ate in the room. I was avoiding the heat and staying with a/c -thanks much. I'd had enough of sweating the past week. LOL

I had to make them come up at 3:30pm though because I was afraid they were going to get sunburned even with sunscreen. Dh never wears sunscreen but today he was a little red after yesterday (he never got red the entire cruise though- and he spent the most time out in the sun at the pools than anyone in our family! LOL).

Come to find out only Rita wanted to stay swimming- and I could only get her out (without whining- these kids got so spoiled during this trip!) by promising a "bath like a pool" in the room... which I had to make good on and fill it up right good. LOL We watched Batman on TV- and fortunately you can check your flights on the tv there because we checked again and our flight was delayed a bit! So we planned on leaving about 5pm but ended up having the bellhop come get our luggage at 5:45pm (I left with kids at 5:30pm to go get Rita something from the Disney store because only clothes wasn't cutting it with her- she wanted Ruby's stitch or Robert's stitch car toy thing constantly!). So I got her the little "magnet feet/hands" stitch. $5 and happy kid again.. spoiled I tell ya. I drew the line at her wanting the $15 princess makeup thing- solely for the fact that the previous princesss makeup things ended up with makeup stains on her carpet in her room- thanks but no thanks. Okay so I did get her (and myself) a mickey head chocolate covered (partially- you know what I'm talking about LOL)rice krispies treat for during the flight. Remember I mentioned I'd regret not taking the cookies with us? Oh yeah.. the MCd's doubel cheeseburger kids meal just didn't hold me over long. The last 2hrs in the Hyatt room I was jonesin for something sweet. Guess nonstop food and desserts on the cruise will do that to you. LOL

I head back over with the kids to meet DH with the luggage (and bellhop) on their way down- and saw Sandi and her family coming out of the Hyatt! Turns out a lot of us double scoopers had day rooms in the Hyatt- from what I have read on the board since then most of them were sleeping though and not at the pool for us to see them. LOL Our kids probably could have slept if we let them. Right before time to leave the room Ruby kept trying to fall asleep (during Batman movie) and at the very last minute Rita laid down wanting to sleep. Oh no- I'd rather they sleep on the flight if they are going to sleep early and ruin their sleep schedule! I fought to keep them both awake. I could have used more sleep though- LOL

So we took our luggage to check it in (or rather the bellhop did LOL) and the DFW area was closed-- we had to go do a different area (lots of walking down to end for no reason and back again. Poor bellhop- thank God for him though we'd have been lost at where to go!) and when checking in they acted like we were too late and that's why DFW area was closed! Finally they realized our flight did not leave at 6pm anymore- it was leaving late at 7pm (it was just shy of 6pm at that time- they thought we were trying to check in luggage when the flight was almost thru boarding time!) and that what happened is the DFW area (why does DFW get it's own check in area with AA? Is that odd to anyone else here? LOL) xray machine was down. So we check in our luggage- she tells us we need to board at 6pm. Um, quick look at my watch- it's now straight up 6pm. I said what? our flight doesn't leave for over an hour- she finally realizes the mistake she made (again- thanks for the panic attack lady!) and said we have 30min before boarding. took our luggage over to the xray- and the xray people there were all complaining we had the luggage at the wrong place since we're going to DFW. Bellhop (bless him) had to explain that xray was broke. The whole thing had me scared we wouldn't get our luggage on our flight though. I tell ya.

Oh and btw- it was the bellhop that said he'd heard that someone died of a heart attack and had to be taken off the ship at Castaway Cay. I heard here later that it was just someone with an appendix problem that left upright in a wheelchair- not dead... not heart attack... we all know how those rumors can change as they go from person to person. LOL He had us convinced he was right and someone had died of a heart attack though!

We had a little snafu with our seats changed again (didn't realize that on the boarding passes i'd printed- only realized it on the boarding passes they gave us when we checked in our luggage). Everytime I have flown into MCO with AA we get the seats we chose on the way there and the seating arrangements on the way back are changed! I really miss Delta- that never happened with Delta. Listen we chose the 6pm flight over an earlier afternoon flight SOLELY because on the earlier flights the seating would have us all seperated- so we chose it for the seating we could get on this flight! We wanted it the same as the flight down there- DH/Rita/Me on one row- Robert at window in row in front of us, Ruby at window seat behind us. That's how we had it- but they changed it to 2 of us together on one row, and the other 3 scattered all over the plane. Um that's not going to work. Hello- 3 kids... 2 parents... need to be close or everyone on the plane might regret it. LOL (atleast with my kids they would- we need to keep them in line/quiet/entertained/etc. while on the flight!)

So up we go to get the seats changed... and the guy gave me grief about it- but finally he saw I wasn't going to back down.. I needed seating that would work for us please... I got it but I also saw him giving seats on 8 once he changed us around to their seats- 3 tickets to them for first class- lucky ducks. LOL

So we're on the flight finally at 7:15pm- there were several people that had a connection that I talked to while waiting to board that weren't going to have a chance of making their connection even if we left at 7pm- much less 7:15pm (that gave them 5 minutes to make connecting flight- impossible really) and there were no more flights out from DFW that night so they'd have to stay overnight. They said on their dime- because they said the delay was caused by the airplane we were on being delayed in Boston due to weather and they said AA wouldn't put them up for the night when it's due to weather? That stinks. And exactly the reason I will NEVER fly with connecting flights with my kids. I did it once on my own and it stunk- too hard to run to catch connecting flights- impossible to do if you get delayed on any leg of the trip... trying that with kids that don't seem to understand the word "hurry". Yeah right. LOL

Now Rita is wide awake and refused to sleep the entire flight. The older two zonked out almost immediately though. I TRIED to doze off but it was hard with Rita wide awake.. LOL

We got in about 9:15pm (CST) and we had another "problem" with our complmentary shuttle to the parking area we'd used for our vehicle... they weren't showing up like ever! I finally went to call them on a payphone inside (because stupid me did not charge my cellphone the entire trip- and I should have at the Hyatt room so I'd have a phone to use when we got home!) and although I did have old phone cards with me (been in my purse since my solo trips to WDW in 2003- yes that long LOL) the cards were automatically charged 35min for using a pay phone. Only one had more than 35min on it- well one had 39min but it still said I didn't have enough minutes for the call. Anyway- one had 59 min on it- so I get thru and the phone starts ringing but Ruby runs upstairs to get me because DH sent her because the van had arrived! So I hung up -even though it had used 35min just for using the payphone.

BIG mistake- I'd told him it was AirPark DFW we'd used- but he got on a van that said parkair express. Could they possibly have the names of the parking areas any more similar? ugh! So we had to get the luggage back off that van- and now I'm sitting there fuming that I can't even go call AirPark DFW because now I only have 24min on the card and none of them have even enough for the "fee" of 35min for using a payphone. Fortunately though some other people were waiting for a LaQuinta shuttle and I asked if they had cellphone I could use and explained our situation. We called and finally the shuttle came to get us at 10:15pm. Keep in mind our flight was supposed to get in at 8:30pm -so we got back late... and there were no more flights coming in late or leaving late that night at DFW- they don't do redeyes anymore and the place is dead late at night. So we might have sat there who knows how long! Good karma to the dude that let me use his cellphone!

We were back in the vehicle, had to stop for gas (poor planning on my part- forgot to get filled up on gas before we head towards the airport before the trip- gas was almost 15 cents higher than it was before we left. argghh) and got home shortly after midnight. Everyone slept on the way home except me ofcourse (I was driving LOL).
here's a picture to prove it- this is what 3 pooped kiddos look like on the drive home (had DH take this picture shortly before he also fell asleep):

Can I just say I hate coming home to a messy house? Packing the night before and rushing out the door at 4am for our flight = messy house. Just stuff and clothes everywhere. It was not fun coming home to that.

The kids went straight to bed (most had to be carried in LOL) and DH brought the luggage in and crashed himself. Nightowl me- I was up a little late but was still in bed by 1am. We went to church today and then went straight to pick up Tramp from the boarder's.... unbelievably DH took the kids to the gym to swim after church for 2hrs. I certainly couldn't have the energy for that. I'm tired now and heading to bed soon.

I'll write some thoughts about the trip overall tomorrow- I'm so tired and there is no more school- so there will be no napping tomorrow with the kids home LOL... can I just add that am I the only one that ended up with swollen feet? I'm not sure what is up with that- but my feet are swollen more than they were when I was retaining fluids after they fed me lots of fluids during the c-section with Rita- and they had to give me water pills to get rid of that because it wasn't going away days later. My hands and feet are swollen but especially my feet- they are unrecognizable and it's painful to walk even. ugh I can't even fit my sandals on that I normally wear at home (that come up over part of hte top of my feet and go around my big toes- hard to explain- but can't get them on at all!) huge feet... anyone else or am I the freak for some reason? I know I didn't drink much water except on excursions/off the ship and hot... but geesh.

 

[disgal1]

LOVED your report!! felt like I was there!
We are going in 2 weeks on the next double dip....and got so much helpful info from your report...guess I'll take out the sweater for the dining rooms I packed!

Thanks again for the detailed report. Lots of work on your part, and we appreciate it!!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks Disgal1! I figured it was pretty boring compared to other trip reports, and long- but what the heck. I did the trip report anyway.

Here's my thoughts/things we learned/things we missed/etc.

~Do bring a soft sided cooler if you ever want to keep things cool/cold in your room... the "cooler" they provide is useless IMO and we used the soft-sided cooler to keep drinks, water bottles, chocolate milk left over from breakfast to be drank later by the kids, etc. all week long.

~Do know that you can get doorstops to keep adjoining doors open if you want- don't be door bangers like us all the way until Thursday of your trip... your neighbors will appreciate this I'm sure. LOL

~Do make detailed lists of things you want to do that you'll have no tickets or anything else to remind you. Don't be like us and miss Palo brunch! Can't believe we missed this and now I read on the live thread that many DIS'ers were at the Palo brunch we missed- guess that was our opportunity to see more from the group and we missed it!

~Do make an effort to get your pictures taken while on the cruise- even if you don't think you'll want to pay a lot for pictures.. or at the very least remember to take pictures of your family yourself or have someone do it! We skipped the first picture when boarding (map background) but the only other pictures DCL took of us from there on out was in front of the mickey statue (stood in line for that one), the one with the picture of the ship in back of us (one level above Lumiere's on formal night- and they didn't get the top of the cruiseship picture in our picture! LOL), and a few they took of the kids at the beach, and one of us at Palo.
It wasn't until looking at the pictures (later in the week) up at Shutters that I realized they took lots of pictures of other cruisers- like on CC with the ship in the background for instance... noticed our 2nd day on CC (when it was only DH & I at that point rushing to our parasailing excursion) that they were taking photos of people there... etc. etc. Odd thing is that we didn't even do any of the character pictures on this cruise and we really thought we would- Rita never even saw cinderella on the cruise except during the shows! We were just in a hurry to do other things and never wanted to stand in the lines. Okay once I tried to get the family to stop for a picture with Peter Pan- how often does that happen? And it's not a PRINCESS so Robert would even go for it- I thought... nope, no can do.. no one wanted to stand in the long line. LOL Guess the cruise is just too much fun for characters.
I don't think we have one picture of all of us with the ship in the background- for instance. I haven't gone thru our digital pictures we took but I really don't remember ever having anyone take a picture of us for that with my camera- and it didn't happen by DCL either.

~It doesn't take nearly as long as we imagined it would (before the cruise and the first evening) to go from forward to aft of the ship. So don't go thinking it will take you a long time to walk forward to aft (for meals if you're forward like we were)- because it won't!

~We liked being on deck 5 so close to the club/lab-- but they aren't always IN the club/lab and do things all over the ship... so don't expect it to always be a short walk to take them or pick them up even if you're on the same deck as the club/lab. LOL Also where we were forward was convenient and quick to get to the theatre for the show (helpful when we're running behind getting ready) but we learned throughout the trip that even on formal nights it's not necessary to be completely dolled up and dressed formal for the 6:15pm show if you're late dining-- not everyone else is dressed up yet either. Knowing this caused less stress of getting ready- we could finish up whatever else I had to do for myself and getting in formal clothes between the show and when dinner started for us at 8pm.

~For us late dining of 8:30pm would have been better and given us more time (to get ready and to be hungry! LOL) but we preferred the dining rotation we had of APLAPLA because then our formal nights were at Lumieres- we would have felt we had to dress up a little more formal/less casual if we'd had Lumiere's on non-formal nights.

~I really can't see either dining time (late or early) working well with the club/lab, when they have dinner with club/lab, trying to see the shows with the kids too, etc. The only way it might be a little better with early dining is that the club has dinner "kinda" about the same time as you would with early dining- so they'd either be eating the same time as you with the club or only missing dinner with the club if they ate dinner with you. But those in the lab would still eat earlier even if you had early dining. Plan on your eating schedule either being different from the kids (which we all know can cause problems of everyone hungry again at different times) and the club kids transitioning back from dinner right when you need to get them for the show- or just plan on having the kids out of the club/lab from 5pm on until after your dinner and show (either way that's out until atleast 9:30pm and it seems they have the funnest stuff- atleast for my kids- during the show and dinner times for some reason!).

~The only show in Buena Vista theatre that we wanted to see was Shaggy dog and it was only playing during our times for our show at 6:15pm and then again starting at 8pm when our dinner time was. Mucho bummer. LOL

~Don't plan on your kids wanting to stay in the club/lab a lot even if you think they will because they are the types of kids that will like the stuff in the club/lab- because they do a lot of structured activities all over the ship- and not always activities that both genders will like at the time (ie: if you have a boy that doesn't like girly stuff- expect that he won't like some of the girly activities planned and vice versa perhaps) and not always activities that your kids will like. If you have one or more kids (like we did) that only really liked free time, a few of the activities and time in oceanquest- with the activities they like mostly being during your dining time- expect that they won't want to be in the lab as much as you thought and/or want to go to the lab when you're trying to eat dinner with them or take them to a show.

~Don't even think you're going to be able to do even NEAR as much as you hoped- the timing schedule doesn't allow that... there's too much to do and the times don't work to do it all- just do what you can and plan another cruise to do the other stuff.

~Do not pack slightly warmer clothing for dinner because it's not always chilly in the restaurants like some people say. LOL You might end up sweating and miserable throughout dinner like we were! If you go in the summer like us- pack very light breezy dinner clothing- bring an additional sweater if you want to be safe about that- but something you can REMOVE if you're hot like we were during dinner!

~Don't even think you won't end up spending money on this or that (including alcohol if you're not drinkers really like us, souvienirs, etc.) because by the end of the trip you might be like us and start giving in to spending more. And it adds up pretty quickly. I'd figured about $1000 including the excursions we'd planned already, bringing our own beer and drinks, minimal shopping for souvienirs, didn't think we'd buy many of the pictures they took, unlimited internet/etc. and ofcourse $1250 for us to rebook on board, and around $400 for tips. We ended up spending closer to $3000 all told (not including $1250 to rebook). Even if you're tightwads like us- you'll end up tipping more I bet- unless you get poor service ofcourse. LOL Okay so this tip is just to realize you might become more relaxed about spending money than you thought you would be before the cruise.

I'll add more tips as I remember them later. My kids are distracting me. I'll also upload some pictures and post them.
But here are some additional thoughts:

~We never even used the rainforest passes that came with our REAS pkg. I don't even know what we were missing out on because I never even found the time to go check it out! LOL

~We missed Palo brunch and we're bummed about it! Can't believe we did that...

~We didn't end up washing clothes or ironing as often as I thought. I only ended up doing one load of whites (undies and that undershirt DH kept wearing LOL) and DH only ironed the boys white shirts on formal nights. I thought I'd spend more time washing clothes but I packed "just" about right. I could have packed more clothing choices for myself- and a little less for DH and Robert (they didn't wear everything I brought for them). I did just right on the girls though.

~We really enjoyed the Mayan Experience (thru The Native Choice) and recommend it to everyone! Be prepared to do some sweating during the ruins though and DO bring bug spray!

~We never even walked past the dining place and where we got the konk coolers on the 2nd day of Castaway Cay- never even saw serenity bay.. something for next trip I guess. I see now why a double dip was such a huge deal- we didn't get to do near all that we wanted to on this trip and we took TWO trips to CC! Can't imagine trying to squeeze everything in to one trip!

~Please do note the other fun stuff for the kids to do down further on family beach. We stayed on the family beach on the first CC day near the snorkeling area (since we were trading turns going snorkeling) and it wasn't until we (DH & I) were in the water for a bit to cool off before parasailing that we noticed it down there. The older two would have loved that. LOL

~We did not notice any problems having seats during our swimming times at the pools- but then we didn't need many either (and we didn't take the kids swimming nearly as often as we thought we would). We only needed one seat each time anyway- for either DH or I to sit in and we didn't sit much really. When the kids ate near the pools they just all sat along the same one lounge chair. But we saw empty seats... it was never a problem.

~The food was better than expected in every case- even thoroughly enjoyed the meals on CC.

~ always really really REALLY double/triple check the room. I thought I did and had DH do the same- but just now realizing we left behind a toy that DS had put up in the cabinet where the blankets were... didn't look there and also that I left the silver picture frame (came with REAS pkg) because I'd set it up underneath that sticking out part of the dresser thing next to the closet- which is kinda behind the door when the door is held open by the doorstops. *sigh*(interesting note- someone else left behind a swimsuit hanging on the back of our bathroom door- that was still there when we first got to our room. I guess the stateroom host didn't notice it either? We gave it to some other cm- looked like another stateroom host but not ours- in the hallway that first day. I doubt it will ever get back to the owner though) So check everywhere- really... LOL

~Even 7 days for the cruise is not nearly long enough.

We all agreed, even DH! (although I suspect it's mostly because of the scuba diving LOL) that this was by far our best vacation ever... counting all WDW and other trips even including our Jamaica trip. Even DH was gungho about rebooking. He tried to even talk me into going for the med cruises but that was just a bit over our budget in my opinion. LOL The kids didn't want it to be over- and Rita is still saying she wants to live on the cruise ship. LOL

 

[lbgraves]

Be sure to call the lost & found number to see about your picture frame & toy. I can't find it right now but the DCL 800# should be able to give it to you. People have posted about getting things back.