9/16-10/3 The trip that dreams are made of....

momoftriplets said:
Thanks for posting the photos of Hell & the Turtle Farm. I always wondered what "Hell" looked like. (Pun only a little intended!) :rotfl: How much time did you have in port? Must have been quite a while if you could go snorkling in the a.m. & then everything else in the p.m. What a great day. Thanks again for posting.
Our excursion in the morning (the snorkeling) was from about 8:00-10:30. Then we ate a very quick lunch and were back over to the island by 11:30. We spent about 30 minutes doing a driving tour. And 30 minutes in Hell ( :lmao: it still cracks me up). We then spent about 1 hour and 15 minutes at the turtle farm. After the turtle farm we only had about 20 minutes on the beach before the rain came in. We were hoping to spend about an hour and 15 minutes there...we just used the rest of that time to shop ;) Also, everything was basically along one road and we didn't ever have to wait for a cab since we had hired her for the afternoon. I think all aboard might have been at 4:00 (or 4:30). We were planning on returning by about 3:45 (and being close enough to make sure we could make it no matter what).


We weren't rushed...but we couldn't have fit in anything else extra either. We just had a great time!
 
jaycns said:
Dh is very prone to motion sickness...he cannot WATCH us ride the tea cups or a merry go round. He (and I swear this is 100% true :rolleyes: ) was at a buffet place that had a revolving buffet and he THREW UP from trying to pick out his food (this was before we knew each other...but I still take the liberty of making fun of him for it). He gets sick driving on roads that curve or zig zag. He gets sick if he is the passenger in a car. Flying...sick. Trains...sick. The poor man just gets sick. HOWEVER, with Bonine and with Dramamine and Promethazine (RX) and the behind the ear patch he was fine...okay, you cannot take all of those at once :rolleyes: but he did have them all packed.

Ok - this gives me great hope, because I am not nearly this bad! :banana: Dramamine really doesn't help me much either, but I tried Bonine on our trip last month and was able to ride everything. I still got a little quezzy on Star Tours and Mission Space (green - no way would I attempt the orange side!). I wasn't brave enough to try the Teacups, I get :sick: just thinking about those!

Thank you for the info - I'll have to start working on DH, I think we need one of these land & sea vacations!
 
Wow...I can't wait for more. I am loving your trip report. I am going to be sad when it is all over. Do you have trip reports for the last 7-8 trips you made to WDW?? Hehehhehehe ....cuz if so I wanna read them!!!

P.S. I loved the fact that your boys have tea time with you at home. How precious is that!!!!

:cool1:
 
I have to tell you that I just spent well over an hour reading your trip report, and I loved every minute of it! Your boys are just beautiful, and they must have had the experience of a lifetime judging by the looks on their faces in the pictures.

That your family was able to be blessed with so much "pixie dust" is just the icing on the (chocolate) cake!

My son (10) and daughter (12) often fight and argue at home, but our trip to Disney in May didn't bring a single argument. I am curious though about some of the extras that the kids got. Did anyone ever get a little jealous when one of the boys got some special attention from a character or CM? I have to think that my kids would feel badly if one of them was singled out for some special attention, and not the other.

Anyway...I look forward to the conclusion of your report, it's not often I read through pages of reports and then look forward to more. SO thank you...you've made me really excited for our next trip! :thumbsup2
 

:lmao: :rotfl: :rotfl2: Sorry, just imagining what your face must have looked like when the driver asked if you wanted to go to Hell. :lmao:

Loved this segment, especially the underwater pictures, just beautiful :goodvibes
 
MouseTriper said:
Wow...I can't wait for more. I am loving your trip report. I am going to be sad when it is all over. Do you have trip reports for the last 7-8 trips you made to WDW?? Hehehhehehe ....cuz if so I wanna read them!!!

P.S. I loved the fact that your boys have tea time with you at home. How precious is that!!!!


:cool1:

I have written one other trip report...and that was for our trip last September. Before that, I didn't even dream of trying to write a trip report. The last report doesn't have any pictures as before this report, I didn't kjnow how to add them. However, I am learning slowly but surely how to work with those too! As long as they are not lost ;)

If you are interested in reading the last trip report...then follow the bottom link in my siggie. :wizard:

Yep...we have tea...it's something I LOVE :love: having tea with the boys.
I am hopeful that since we started the tradition so early, it will be something that can continue...like when they come home with their own families and they take 15 minutes out to sit down with a cup of tea and chat with their old mom. At least that's the fantasy I have going for me now. ;)

But back to present time...I will get some more of the report done later tonight.

UP NEXT...the rest of the day 4 on the Disney Magic...and after that? Disney Magic, day 5, another wonderful day at sea!!
 
Wow, what an amazing trip! I found your report a few days ago and finally got to read all that is here. I can't wait for the rest. A truly magical vacation and what great pictures! I love the MGM parade ones. We are going in Dec for our kids first trip and I was trying to figure out if we could fit the MGM parade in one of the days. My son is 4 and a huge Cars fan. Seeing Mater and Lightening McQueen in your pics, well there is no way we can miss that parade. My son will be over the moon to see them!

Keep writing!

Allyson :)
 
I am LOVING this TR! I just read the whole thing. Well, half of your vacation's worth anyway! I can't wait to see it finished. I'm very impatient and tend to wait to read a TR until it's done because I can't stand waiting for installments! I can't wait for more!
 
Disney Magic Day 4, after Grand Cayman...

Safely back on board, dh ran up for some drinks ( :cool1: woo hoo for the beverage station up on deck 9..."free" soda, tea, juice, coffee and milk all day every day). Upon his return he found us getting ready for dinner.

On our way to dinner we met up with our dear friends...again, I cannot speak highly enough about vacationing with friends!! It was such a neat experience!!
Here you see our "Aladdin" and his best friend "Abu" ** Yes, they are the same age...it's just "Aladdin" is on the way tall side and "Abu" is on the short side....but they are within 3 months of each other age wise.**

You can almost see the fun they are looking forward to twinkling in their eyes!
cruisedis06grandcayman081.jpg


While "Aladdin" and "Abu" were thinking about the fun yet to come, our "Stitch and Goofy" and "Cinderella" were busy having a lot of fun that very minute!!
cruisedis06grandcayman082.jpg


Whoever would have thought that waiting in line for dinner (less then 5 minutes, we just got there early and had to wait for Parrot Cay to open) could be so very much fun??!!

Tonight would be our return to Parrot Cay for dinner...again, another great dinner. Teddy (our server) was funny, helpful and entertaining as ever. By the time we got back to Florida, I was about ready to risk packing him up in our suitcases to try and get him home with us! He was so amazingly attentive to every last detail...and he was SO good with the kids. Of course he did another magic trick this night. This time he poured water into a cup and then he placed that cup (with the water) into a stack of three other cups he was holding. Then he let the kids pick the cup they thought the water was in and he would "dump" that cup over another child's head...by the time he got to the last cup the kids just knew that the next person to sit under the cup would get soaked...none of the kids wanted to be the one under the "last cup"...so Teddy volunteered the poor unsuspecting (and unseeing) woman at the table behind us for this honor...lucky for her, his "magic" worked and not one drop came out. My boys are still trying to figure out how he was able to pull that one off!! ;)

Before our magic show :wizard: , I mean dinner, we stopped and got a family photo with main magic mouse himself!!
cruisedis06grandcayman079.jpg

Mickey was another character that took the time to make a bit of magic come alive :wizard: . Mickey made sure that "Stitch" knew that he thought he was wearing the best hat ever!! ;) :teeth: "Stitch" took the compliment very seriously and gave Mickey and extra long hug! It was a very sweet moment!!

After dinner we made our way back to the room to change for the evening...here is the towel animal that was awaiting us...
cruisedis06grandcayman085.jpg


This was one of my favorite towel animals. He just made me laugh "swimming" across our bed. Towel animals made friends of, it was time to keep our promise to the boys..they would now get to spend time in their clubs.

For "Aladdin" this meant an indoor camp out (they were supposed to do it outside, but the rain, rain, rain came down down down;) ). And for our littlest Disney loving guys it meant taking part in Stitch's Great Adventure. This was one of their favorite children's programs on the ship. They were able to help Stitch try to find 10 lost experiments before those experiments caused all kinds of trouble on the ship.

While the kids were busy doing this, dh and I went and saw "Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story" This was a very funny story about a fairy godfather helping out Cinderella's evil step mom and sisters and trying to rewrite Cinderella's happily ever after into something that never happens. Eventually they do get what is coming to them!! :rotfl: But it sure is a funny story and watching them get "theirs" in the end had me doubled over with laughter! Not to mention the incredible sets and actors! This production was one of my top two (the other being The Golden Mickeys).

As soon as the show was over, dh and I went to retrieve our boys...I had dressed them all in the clothes I wanted them in for our next activity...it was time to snap a few more family photos. On our way to the photo session, the little boys stopped and told daddy about their experiment catching exploits (the stickers you see on their shirts were badges showing which experiments they had each found).

cruisedis06grandcayman090.jpg


Then "Aladdin" paused...Walt is one of his heroes. He has read every junior biography of Walt Disney that he can get his little hands on. He saw this picture and said "IT'S HIM...IT'S WALT HIMSELF...LOOK!!". At least I can rest assured in knowing that I have done my part in helping assure that another generation of Disney lovers is a done deal. :rolleyes:
cruisedis06grandcayman089.jpg



Our favorite photographer, Jamiee was working again and that made "Stitch" very happy. She gave each of our boys a little picture of Mickey and Minnie. They were very happy to get those. As of tonight, those photos still among my boys' most precious possesions...they rest safely in each of their own little treasure boxes. They were so excited!! Jamiee made those photos even more special by telling our boys that Mickey and Minnie had asked her to deliver the pictures to their biggest fans. :)

Here is the shot we purchased from that photo set.
CMphotos064.jpg


**HINT. Bring coordinating clothes....these photo sessions are free (I think they are called Lifestyle photos) and you can dress as up or "down" as you like...we even saw a family posing in their swimsuits!) and the quality of the photos is great!**

After we took the photos we turned to walk out of the atrium and saw Belle standing there with no line. Of course we had to help her out with that!! ;)

CMphotos029.jpg


After all of our photos were snapped, it was time to return our boys to the kid's clubs and go and get a bit of shopping done.

So down to the Treasure Ketch we went. I managed to find two shirts, two framed pictures (one of Castaway Cay and the other of Capt. Mickey at the helm...a limited edition lithograph available with my other purchases) and a few other tidbits...

My spending done, we headed up to Shutters for a quick pick of the photos we wanted so far. Then it was out to take a few laps around the open deck. Ahh...the salty sea air! It was another quiet romantic stroll and by the time we had made a few laps I felt totally at peace :goodvibes and completely in love :lovestruc . We once again found some cushy deck chairs and sat gazing up at the stars (by now the rain had blown over).

All too soon it was time for us to pick the boys up from the clubs and get them into bed. But that's okay...tomorrow would be another day full of fun! We would be going to COZUMEL!!

To be continued...
 
Nice Jay and great pics! :thumbsup2

I have read and reread your installments thus far and have decided this is exactly what my family needs RIGHT NOW. It seems a perfect balance of sea and sand and Disney.........family time, kid time and couple time. :love:

Thought you'd want to know that your trip report has inspired me to make this happen for us..........and soon. The memories will be priceless. :wizard:

Now, where to find someone who know the ins and outs to help me plan??? :scratchin
 
OMG...your family portrait is fantastic!!! They definately do a professional job, but I guess that would be easy with such a nice looking family!
 
Another great installment!!! Reading your TR is like taking a mini-vacation by myself for a few minutes every installment! I'm lovin' it!!! :cool1:
 
swillis said:
I have to tell you that I just spent well over an hour reading your trip report, and I loved every minute of it! Your boys are just beautiful, and they must have had the experience of a lifetime judging by the looks on their faces in the pictures.

That your family was able to be blessed with so much "pixie dust" is just the icing on the (chocolate) cake!

My son (10) and daughter (12) often fight and argue at home, but our trip to Disney in May didn't bring a single argument. I am curious though about some of the extras that the kids got. Did anyone ever get a little jealous when one of the boys got some special attention from a character or CM? I have to think that my kids would feel badly if one of them was singled out for some special attention, and not the other.

Anyway...I look forward to the conclusion of your report, it's not often I read through pages of reports and then look forward to more. SO thank you...you've made me really excited for our next trip! :thumbsup2

They actually did pretty well with it. Better then I would have thought. "Goofy" is my little artist :artist: so when both of his brother's got chosen as "Artist of the Day" and he didn't...I thought he would be upset...but not so much as a mention. I think I felt worse about that then him.

All in all, I think they were just very happy to see magic happening...and the wonderful CMs at Disney seemed to have so much pixie dust to sprinkle that there was PLENTY to go around! :)

We even took a lot of pleasure out of watching other people that we didn't even know getting :artist: :wizard: pixie dusted. Watching the looks of amazed joy and excited happiness was a kind of fun all on it's own!

:wave:
 
Poohbear77 said:
:lmao: :rotfl: :rotfl2: Sorry, just imagining what your face must have looked like when the driver asked if you wanted to go to Hell. :lmao:

Loved this segment, especially the underwater pictures, just beautiful :goodvibes
I think the progression of my face went a little like this...
WHAT did she just say??!! :scared1: Hmm...did she really just ask me if I wanted to go to Hell...I wonder what she means :confused: Hmm...it might be fun...it must be something other people have enjoyed...she couldn't really mean "HELL" could she??:rolleyes2 Hmm...this is crazy but let's just say yes. :crazy: I hope she is not one of satan's helpers...wonder what she means.:confused3 Oh sure...let's try it out...what is it again did you say? ::yes:: Well...LET'S GO!!!:drive:

:lmao:

When we got there I was :goodvibes ... it was so beautiful!!
 
MomofCKJ said:
Wow, what an amazing trip! I found your report a few days ago and finally got to read all that is here. I can't wait for the rest. A truly magical vacation and what great pictures! I love the MGM parade ones. We are going in Dec for our kids first trip and I was trying to figure out if we could fit the MGM parade in one of the days. My son is 4 and a huge Cars fan. Seeing Mater and Lightening McQueen in your pics, well there is no way we can miss that parade. My son will be over the moon to see them!
Keep writing!

Allyson :)
I'm so gald that those pictures were helpful to someone else! We had skipped that parade on numerous prior trips and after seeing it...it now ranks right up there on our must see list! It's a great parade!!

Not only do they have Lightening McQueen and Mater in the parade...they have greeting sessions with them at other times during the day. Just ask a CM or look at the time sheet you get. We never did make it over to do that (guess we will just have to go back...right??!! ;) ) but what I think they "roll out" and then park and people are allowed to pose with them.

Hope this info helps! :)
 
paigevz said:
Nice Jay and great pics! :thumbsup2

I have read and reread your installments thus far and have decided this is exactly what my family needs RIGHT NOW. It seems a perfect balance of sea and sand and Disney.........family time, kid time and couple time. :love:

Thought you'd want to know that your trip report has inspired me to make this happen for us..........and soon. The memories will be priceless. :wizard:

Now, where to find someone who know the ins and outs to help me plan??? :scratchin
:wave: :wave2: :rolleyes1 :hyper: :hyper: :hyper: ME!! ;)

I think it is a wonderful blend of all of those things...and the best part about this blend is you can chose the portions of what time is spent how all by yourself. Disney just gives you the options...so you could spend most of your time as a couple or most of your time as a family OR most of your time busy or most of your time relaxing OR most of your time with people or most of your time with just yourselves OR most of your time on the islands OR most of your time on the ship. OR....well, you get it, a lot of great choices are open and they allow you to make the most of it for your family! :wizard:
 
For potty trained 3 year olds there is a whole lot to do!! 3-7 year old are in the Oceaneer's Club. That is where my younger two boys (ages 5 and just 7) spent time this cruise. My now 10 year old spent time at this club when he was just 4 and he loved every minute of it too! They have such fun activities and they are wonders with holding the attention of and bringing enjoyment to so many little ones!

For 8-12 year olds they have the Oceaneer's Lab. This is where my 10 year old son spent most of his time. He had another preteen area for 10-14 year olds called "The Club" (I think) that he spent some time in on a few occasions...but most of his time was spent in the Lab.

For the babies through 2 year old (or those who are 3 and not yet potty trained) they have Flounder's Nursery. This is the only children's "club" that costs to participate in and babysitting slots are at a premium! My now 7 year old always seemed happy when we picked him up from Flounder's Nursery. He turned 1 on the cruise where we used the nursery a lot. I think it cost $6 an hour six years ago for one child to be in the nursery and they had limited hours where as the other clubs run from basically 9:00 AM-1:00 AM daily (and open earlier on shore days to cover for excursions). Also, with the Oceaneer's Club and Lab you don't have to sign up...you just drop and go on your own schedule.

I wouldn't not go because I had a young one (obviously...since we did ) BUT if I had a little one who was just about potty trained and just about 3...I would wait and go when they could enjoy the Oceaneer's Club because:
1. It's included with the cost of the cruise. You pay hourly for the nursery.

2. It's open basically all of the time (9:00 AM-1:00 AM). The nursery has limited hours and you are limited to the number of slots you can reserve.

3. You can drop and run any time you want. You have to reserve time (way in advance or you most likely will not find what you want available) slots ahead of time at the nursery.

4. They will feed your kids lunch and dinner in the clubs. They will only feed your baby what you provide in the nursery.

5. They have a lot more to do for older toddlers/preschool age kids then the nursery does. The nursery was great for my very young toddler...but he was easily amused at 11 and 1/2 months and didn't need any sort of program going on to keep him happy.

Hope this helps!

Yes it certainly does! Thank you for all the great info/advice!! Those kids clubs sound fantastic!! I will definetly be taking advantage of them when we go!! Love the underwater pics BTW!! Keep the recaps coming. :banana: :banana:
 
I am LOVING your TR!!!! It's taking me awhile to read it all, but I am getting there!

Day 3 of the cruise.....I'm slowly catching up!!!
 
I am totally caught up!!! YAY!!! :cheer2: :cheer2:

I can relate to your DH, as I am the one with the horrible motion sickness! (I get sick if DH is driving!) I have been on a cruise and took Bonine every morning and was fine. I did find that when I got home, I was queasy the first day, as I still had sea legs. I took a Bonine and it all went away. :yay:

Your pics are terrific and you are making me even more anxious for my trip in Nov 2007. Keep it coming! I can't wait to read more!!! popcorn::
 
Smiling....where are you? We are waiting patiently for the next day....hahaha. I'm loving your TR! :cool1:
 




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