I am loving coming here everyday (yeah, I said it, everyday sometimes multiple times a day!) and reading everyones comments and seeing the pictures. I feel like I am getting to know you guys already and now feel like not everyone that cruises is ubber wealthy, sitting around eating bonbons and waiting for the infamous "james darling" to load the luggage after he picks it up from the cleaners, etc. . .anyone else ever have that perception of people who could afford to cruise? Silly I know, but this being our first cruise I've only ever had to defend WDW trips evey year or 2/3x a year
before this as a good use of our vacation time and money! You should hear/see the reactions when I get brave enough to tell others we are cruising (saying quietly on the end ~ with Disney~ that has it own reputation!)
I am soooo glad we are all such normal people, well aside from our Disboard obsession that is
And now for a funny story about life with a big family who loves to travel. . .
About that car top carrier for our over stuffed van? I dream of such space. The DH has done it 2x now and each time he says it was under great pressure and he will never do it again. . .
We borrowed a friends soft sided carrier once and drove through rain/sleet/snow/ice with it only to arrive with it
frozen solid to our roof top, not a pretty situation. BUT, in case anyone is wondering, every thing inside was completely dry!
Next time we were drving 1000 plus miles to drop off college age son to campus for first time with tons of stuff and leaving him with the vehicle (we flew home) BUT we had a newborn premmie with us on heart moniters and all her equipment as well. . . we were stuffed into that van. The carrier was our own that time, I had purchased 2 different types, both soft sided (FYI,they all have very different dimensions and shapes!). We needed to overnight near Chicago suburb and my DH was a wreck all night that even though we had locks on the thing, someone would steal the stuff. And we missed out on going to the local mall because he was sure the carrier would not fit through the parking garage. . .uumm, he was right
We then needed to get the thing up and down and secured on/off a high roof which was something less then easy to put it mildly.
Thus the never again comment. Best part of the story is the carrier we bought and used, folded nicely to be brought home in luggage on the plane and when we got home? I was able to return it to the store as it had developed a large tear in one side! so at least I didn't pay anything for the privledge of using it!
Moral of that story? If you are overnighting at Country Inn and Suites at the Port the night before our cruise? You may want to be in the parking lot when we arrive for some comic relief if you've had a rough trip down the road. . .
That was us for the last cruise! 4 adults, and DS was 4-5 months at the time...filled the back of the rental Ford Expedition AND still had to load the stroller up on the roof! You know, y'all could get one of those roof bags from WM and store A LOT of gear in it! We have one and it's great...extra thick vinyl-coated fabric, totally waterproof and stays securely in place (especially if you have cross beams on your roof rack). We've traveled across several states with it with nary a problem.
