DAggiesRWe
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2007
- Messages
- 172
I was late discovering the DISBoards site (only two months before our trip was to start) thank goodness or I probably wouldnt have a job. As it was, I spent the better part of this summer keeping up with our cruise meet, and reading tips and trip reports to get fired up for our vacation of a lifetime. I dedicated an entire week to reading Sleepydoc25s epic trip report, and came out with a goal to try to match that performance.
If you missed it (and have a lot of spare time
on your hands), Sleepydoc25s trip report is a very entertaining read.
But I am getting ahead of myself here. Lets go back to the beginning to find out how we came to be on this trip of a lifetime.
It was all Nathaniels fault. Now, how could this innocent little one-year-old be to blame?
Well, our adopted daughter, Jenny, is in the Army and is a single mom to this cute little boy. However, shortly after he was born Jenny found out that her unit was scheduled for a tour in Iraq
starting shortly after Nates first birthday. That meant we would be taking care of Nate while Jenny was busy in Iraq.
Now we thought we were done with diapers since our two boys were 6 and 10, but it seemed that God had a blessing (wrapped in a rather smelly joke 
) in store for us. This is a picture we took of everyone while Jenny was home during the middle of her tour so you can see all the players in this tale.
My wife and I always joke that we stopped at two kids so we wouldnt be outnumbered. With Nathan living with us for a year or more, we would get the taste of what life would have been like if we hadnt stopped when we did.
After a couple of months, I started thinking that we needed to do something to reward our kids for putting up with their nephew for over a year with the youngest having to share his room.
With that in mind, a nice Christmas bonus
in the bank and having experienced our first cruise back in February 2005, I started looking at cruise offerings. After spending countless hours on the various cruise line websites 
looking at offerings for 2007, I almost accidentally came upon the Disney Cruise Line. The only problem was DCL hadnt released the 2007 schedule yet, but a 7-day Eastern or Western on the Magic was high on the list of possibilities. I started checking the website every day to see when they would release the 2007 schedule. With the kids, we knew it would need to be summertime, so would the 7-nighter work?
Alas, it wasnt meant to be since the Magic was being sent to the Mediterranean for the Summer of 2007 (10- or 11-days with travel to Europe was beyond our budget). So I start looking at options and printing out programs about the Land and Sea packages for my wifes approval. Of course she thought that planning this far in advance was ridiculous,
but that just meant that she was willing to go along with whatever I wanted to do(you see there is a method to my madness).
After much deliberation, we settled on the 3-night land, 4-night sea package on the Wonder. So I contacted SmallWorldVacations to make my reservations (they were recommended by Mousesavers), and two days later I get an email from Leigh...for a 3 night sea/4 night land package
(oops). Another email and she has a quote for 4 night sea/3 night land 
(almost there). Finally we get the package in the right order 
(I had read on one of the websites that you should do the cruise part last rather than ending your vacation with the hectic pace of the parks) and so I put down the deposit for a trip 535 days away. Honey, they say book early to get the best prices.
All that was left was to tell the boys, Were going on a Disney Cruise. When, NOW?!? was their reply. When I told them it was going to be August 2007 they both turned back to the TV
and put good old dad on auto-ignore.
Oh well, at least I get to spend the next 535 days dreaming about everything we are going to get to do on this vacation.
If you missed it (and have a lot of spare time
on your hands), Sleepydoc25s trip report is a very entertaining read.But I am getting ahead of myself here. Lets go back to the beginning to find out how we came to be on this trip of a lifetime.
It was all Nathaniels fault. Now, how could this innocent little one-year-old be to blame?
Well, our adopted daughter, Jenny, is in the Army and is a single mom to this cute little boy. However, shortly after he was born Jenny found out that her unit was scheduled for a tour in Iraq
starting shortly after Nates first birthday. That meant we would be taking care of Nate while Jenny was busy in Iraq. Now we thought we were done with diapers since our two boys were 6 and 10, but it seemed that God had a blessing (wrapped in a rather smelly joke ) in store for us. This is a picture we took of everyone while Jenny was home during the middle of her tour so you can see all the players in this tale.
My wife and I always joke that we stopped at two kids so we wouldnt be outnumbered. With Nathan living with us for a year or more, we would get the taste of what life would have been like if we hadnt stopped when we did.
After a couple of months, I started thinking that we needed to do something to reward our kids for putting up with their nephew for over a year with the youngest having to share his room.With that in mind, a nice Christmas bonus
in the bank and having experienced our first cruise back in February 2005, I started looking at cruise offerings. After spending countless hours on the various cruise line websites looking at offerings for 2007, I almost accidentally came upon the Disney Cruise Line. The only problem was DCL hadnt released the 2007 schedule yet, but a 7-day Eastern or Western on the Magic was high on the list of possibilities. I started checking the website every day to see when they would release the 2007 schedule. With the kids, we knew it would need to be summertime, so would the 7-nighter work? Alas, it wasnt meant to be since the Magic was being sent to the Mediterranean for the Summer of 2007 (10- or 11-days with travel to Europe was beyond our budget). So I start looking at options and printing out programs about the Land and Sea packages for my wifes approval. Of course she thought that planning this far in advance was ridiculous,
but that just meant that she was willing to go along with whatever I wanted to do(you see there is a method to my madness).After much deliberation, we settled on the 3-night land, 4-night sea package on the Wonder. So I contacted SmallWorldVacations to make my reservations (they were recommended by Mousesavers), and two days later I get an email from Leigh...for a 3 night sea/4 night land package
(oops). Another email and she has a quote for 4 night sea/3 night land (almost there). Finally we get the package in the right order (I had read on one of the websites that you should do the cruise part last rather than ending your vacation with the hectic pace of the parks) and so I put down the deposit for a trip 535 days away. Honey, they say book early to get the best prices. All that was left was to tell the boys, Were going on a Disney Cruise. When, NOW?!? was their reply. When I told them it was going to be August 2007 they both turned back to the TV
and put good old dad on auto-ignore.Oh well, at least I get to spend the next 535 days dreaming about everything we are going to get to do on this vacation.
Waiting for more!
Great report. We were on the Wonder 26-30th cruise. Is that the same one that you guys were on?
, but thought that I might get in trouble.
(grandkids are wonderful. It is a shame that you have to have children and cant skip straight to grandkids). Other than coordinating work schedules and having to get sitters when my wife and I needed to be somewhere, Nate wasnt really that much more work. 
Of course we werent too far removed from the diaper stage so we still had the necessary skills. The only thing different in this situation was since he was living with us we didnt spoil him too much. 
(I went for an IT conference and learned a whole lot
Really
For instance, I learned not to follow a deep tissue massage with a 20 minutes in the steam room and I learned that playing corners in roulette can be profitable for a while). 
This was the one and only time my wife has allowed our sons to call me butthead because she was jealous that she couldnt go with me. I took an extra couple of days and went on a helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon West Ranch. While sitting on horseback, in the middle of the desert, all I could think about was wishing my family was there to share it with me. Again, that is another trip report for another board (hmmm. I am sensing a potential drinking game here).
with just a few bumps and bruises, and left the country in late November. We celebrated her homecoming and Nathaniels second birthday 
arty: at the same time, but she wasnt with us. It took her almost a month to get herself settled back into an apartment back in El Paso. Just before Christmas she came for an all-too-brief visit with presents and parties and packing and then it was time for Nathan to leave us. 
I started to spread out some of my mickey heads to other doors because I could hear young children----"why don't we have a door like that?"---and I felt bad!
Have a great trip! You will love it! As for the door signs...the stateroom doors are metal so any type of magnets and such could be used to personalize and dress up your door. 
But my room was all the way to the front. So don't expect anyone saw my door
