A Christmas Cruise '08 Story (Christmas Day Update Page 2)

[pogopossum]

I. trip to florida

the tale of our Christmas vacation '08 begins on the wdw side of dfw on dec. 16. our cast of characters is dh (me) phil, dw sherrie, dd (14) rachel, and ds (7) jordan. the suburban is road ready and just about packed, only the last few things to be added while waiting for the kids to get home from school. we are headed to gulfport, ms on the way to grandpa's house in st. cloud, for a couple of days at the world before we go to the port for the night before sailing.

the morning came and we saw that the winter weather that was a chance the night before is now a reality. dd's school district never lets the weather get in the way of a day at school, which is just as well as shee needed to take a test before missing the rest of the week, so off on the bus as usual for her. but then ds's school delays opening two hours which cancels chapel and his recorder performance. so now we decide to keep him out and get an earlier start, since the weather is headed south and east of us, just like we are. it was already slated to be a late arrival in gulfport, and if we have to drive slow that makes it even later, so to cal dd and see how early she can leave, 12:45 it is decided, which will get us on the road about 3 hours elier than we figured, perfect.

with this winter weather here we are so ready to head to warmer climes. so those of us at home spend the morning in final prep for the departure, except for the side trip to take ds's hw and note for absences to the school. dduring the whole hour and a half trip the thermostat on the mirror says 27 and drizzle freezes on the windshield off and on. c'mon 12:45.

finally it is time, and get out on the road, the temperature is finally at freezing instead of below. the roads are actually better than we feared. still wiping ice off the windshield occasionally, but we make pretty good time, stopping in shreveport for dinner, and a road atlas (having forgotten to bring the one from home). dh doesn't need it for this drive, but dw likes to track the trip. wonder what else got forgotten, guess we'll find out later.

back on the road, and headed south, aahh. after a half hour the thermostat moves up a degree, headed to 40. it was nice to track our progress south as the temperature seemed to rise a degree about every 25 miles. ds made a point to announce each rise from the back seat. finally the temperature makes it to 60 just in time to make the eastward turn at i-10.

on we go to gulfport and our stop for the night, after 9 and a half hours on the road, which is just about what it should have taken. so much for the worries about weather slowing us down, but it is nice to get a couple of more hours of rest time thanks to that earlier start.

day two on the road, a little, no make that a lot foggy this morning. and it isn't lifting for a while. about an hour in and we are in mobile, still foggy, can't even see the battleship, but on we plunge, another half hour and we make the obligatory stop for orange juice at the florida welcome center, and finally the sun begins to fight the fog, as we cross the bay bridge the fog is finally almost clear, and it starts to look like the florida that we all know and love. dw has begun to ask if i want to take a break and have her drive her usual two hours of the trip. when we stop at marianna for gas i turn the wheel over to her for a while, and take a little nap, til we get to the other side of tallahassee and close to the turn for disney, so after a rest stop break, it is back to driving, st cloud here we come. whatever happened to all those disney billboards along the freeway? they were such fun to look for, at the shark bitten ron jon signs are still there. there's the toll plaza, it won't be long now.

finally the kissimmee exit and here we are at grandpa's after another 9 hours.
everything is hunky-dory, except for the brake grinding noise that seems to be getting louder. i had those checked at home and was told that the pads had plenty on them, except that we looked at the wrong ones and the rears that had been replaced not that long ago, had gone again. but at least they aren't the primary brakes (only 20% of the work). so when i get home i'll get them fixed under warranty.

so here we are ready for some fun at the parks the next two days. let those cares wash away, as the holiday and disney magic begins to go to work.

 

[OurOhana]

Thanks for your report. I can't wait to read more.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Looking forward to reading!

 

[DisneyZell]

It's always good to read about another person's trip on the same cruise. Can't wait for more!

 

[pogopossum]

II. Walk in the Parks

thursday morning everyone is up by 7:00 and ready to go the studios by 8:00, so down 192 we go. we get to the parking lot just before 9:00 and into television row 20, and head for the tram.

what a nice day, grandpa gets us in and picks up the stroller, and away we go to get a lunch res. we decide to eat at prime time 50's, then it is off to have fun. we had to do the split up thing, dw and dd want to see beauty and the beast, and ds wants me to take him to jedi training. so we hiked over and went into tatooine traders and found that they had some great sales going on, made even greater once we got to add grandpa's discount.

but we watched the show, unfortunately ds was not picked as a padawan, maybe next august. off we head for sunset strip and since the show isn't over yet we go to animation to meet bolt, and friends. haven't seen the movie yet, waiting to see it on the cruise. but we get in and have our turn.

back to meet up with the others. now they have discovered the sales, and everyone is happy because the christmas souvenir money is going to go much farther. while they shop i head to rockin roller coaster for the fastpasses for dd and i and they are for the evening at about the time for fantasmic. this is going to take some manuervering. after a little more hollywood ave shopping, we decide to do the great movie ride, except that ds wants to see the power rangers, we head back to tatooine with grandpa to get the shirts that ds has to have, and then over to see the power rangers. we are first in line for the pink ranger and time this perfectly to get four out of five rangers autograohs and pix. next objective is fast passes for toy story mania. man i just made it, i think if i was any later then we would not have gotten any. ours were for around 8:00.

so we head back to the hat, to go to lunch, hoping to get in early if possible, nothing doing, looks like the block party will happen without us, so we have a delightful lunch, and surprisingly finish just in time to go to the corner for the block party. ds even got one of the nerf balls that the monsters threw out.

grandma and grandpa have left us, now it gets tricky to make everyone happy, dd wants to ride and ds wants to see characters. so we end up seeing mike and sully, then dd and i head for star tours, and ds and dw go to see lightning and mater. we hook back up and go to see the incredibles at animation, and then it is off to fantasmic to get our seats, and what a show once again, one of our favorites.

out we go, dd and i are headed to rockin roller coaster, and then to meet up again at toy story mania, at this point we have kind of written off the osbourne lights, because we thought they would be closed. dw and ds are over watching the lights, which are wall to wall people. i guess a lot of the people that didn't go to mvmcp at mk came over here after being run out, because the crowd has really picked up.

after getting her to the ride with cell phone technology, she couldn't get through the crowd in the easy direction and had to find an alternate route, dw and ds get there just as we get to the door. there was only fastpass line, standby line was closed down. what a fun ride, we all scored pretty well for our first time. and dd was the winner, she was pretty stoked about that. so we decide to walk back through osbourne lights on the way out, and once we got there we noticed that no one was making anybody leave, and the crowd was quite a bit thinner. so we stayed around for a couple of dancing lights numbers, one was trans siberian orchestra's carol of the bells, which is one of the best. and then got our pictures made by the photo crew, and headed out to the car, having declared the day a rousing success.

back to grandpa's to rest up for our day at the mk tomorrow.

once again we were up by 7:00, and on our way at 8:00, we got to the park a little before 9:00 and rode over on the monorail, where we got a look at the bay lake towers. how cool are those going to be. 2011 here we come, yes we have a schedule of vacations out to 2013. akv kidani village and bcv in august, ny next year, blt in 2011, dvc hawaii 2012, and new dcl ship 2013. ds wants to get dl into the mix at some point, so i guess we'll have the gcv on the schedule soon.

in we go and it is off to splash mtn for fast passes for me, while the others are on main st shopping, are you sensing a pattern here, but we do have an excuse, since the man with the discount card will leave soon we have to get that done before we can do much else.

a little disappointed that we can't find the mk themed holiday shirts, since we passed on the studios themed shirts. once the shopping was over we got down to riding the rides and grandpa and grandma left to pack up and said that they would meet us at the port hotel. we did most everything we wanted to, and are glad that we rode space mtn and the wedway, since they will both be closed down for refurb in august. so at about 2:45 we rode the train from toontown to main st, avoiding the parade crowd, and headed out to the truck to head for the port.

had a little trouble since there is a sign for every route out except 526 which is what the dcl site says to take from wdw. and actually they could have just said to take 417 and that would have been better. but i discovered that i should have taken epcot rd out and that would have gotten me where i needed to be. anyway after i got us headed the right way, the drive went rather well and we were in port canaveral in about 50 minutes. saw a whole bunch of magical express buses headed the other way from the airport, seemed like about one every three minutes.

we checked in at the radisson and hooked up with the grandparents and went to get a bite to eat, then off to the pool for ds, a little cool for the rest of us, but he had a good time and swam for about two hours, after getting the rest of them in the room for the night, it was time for a little santa's helper action, so over to walmart at merritt island for dad. had to get some candy for the stockings. mission accomplished and back to hotel to rest up for the big day tomorrow. we had had a pretty full 80 hours and the best was yet to come.

 

[pogopossum]

III. Come On Let Me Take On A Christmas Sea Cruise.

The big day arrives, it has been decided that grandpa and i will drop everyone else off curbside, and check luggage, then go park the cars and ride the shuttle back from the radisson. so we getup and get ready for breakfast. as i guess it is every sat and sun, the lobby and restaurant are really buzzing. everyone looks so excited. so we get our fill of breakfast, and at this point we get the call from the rest of our boarding party that they are not going to make it. our friends from home, who had to fly this morning from dfw, weren't able to get on the flight. i don't think that any of us will ever recommend airtrans to anybody for flights. they don't have a good way to get through check-in, and the people in front of our friends were the last to get on their flight. airtrans wouldn't do anything for them, and after exhausting all things they could think of, including calling a staff member from our church to see if he could fly them down in his plane. they weren't even able to meet in cozumel, since their dd didn'y have a passport yet. at any rate she was checking with dcl for options of a reschedule, and had called to let us know not to worry. this put quite a damper on the festivities of the morning. while all of this was going on, dfil and i were loading up our vehicles for the trip to the port, and off we go.

this is new, we pull up to the gate and produce the driver's licenses and get directed to umbrella on the side of the street, once we are confirmed, we are directed to the luggage drop off area. at the curb, the bags are checked and into the terminal goes the advance party. we drive back to the hotel and wait for the first shuttle. i know the driver must have thought we weird since we had no bags except carryons for a week long cruise. he told us on the way over that sat is the second busiest day for them to sun. there are only two ships leaving today, i believe he said 5 left on sun.

so walked over to the terminal from the dropoff area, and up the escalator to the waiting area. since it has been 3 years form last cruise dw didn't know to get a boarding number. so once i got there and we checked in at the counter, i guess i should say handed the online check in papers over at the counter, we were ready and in group 6.

now it is time for pictures with mickey, we also spent a while trying to remember if the mickey hands on the columns were there always, or were they just up for christmas. my thought was that they are always there, that the ornaments were just added for christmas. terminal employees were of no help, every one we asked had a different answer. still gotta check those old photos for the answer. now it was time to get pictures with minnie. and they finally started calling out boarding numbers. we met the big west palm beach group, very festive in their matching shirts, and ready for fun.

we finally hear our number and away we go. it was great to be making that walk up the gangway once again. wow, the atrium is so beautiul with the christmas decorations up, what a tree.

we had decided to go to parrot cay for lunch, and headed there, spying the gingerbread house at promenade lounge on the way. stopped and made some photos, and then went in to eat. the buffet was delicious, had way too many shrimp, but isn't that what this is all about. we whiled away the time waiting for 1:30 and access to our staterooms, munching off the buffet.

we finally get down to the room and take a look around, it has been a while since we didn't have a verandah. but we decide that this will work out all right. not even 15 minutes and the luggage starts arriving, i guess this is an advantage to having a low deck stateroom. so off we go claiming drawers and closet space. we got to meet our host, shaka, while he dropped off luggage, what a neat guy he turned out to be, the best host we have ever had.

i start hanging the new snowflake lights along the curtain track between bed and couch. i am using those command hooks from 3m for the lights and stockings. dw is upset to see me using her happy spray to clean the area before i put the tape strip on, (gotta remember to bring alcohol next time), but they are in place and we plug in the lights to see what they will do. we get them to do their flashing, the pattern of which will be changed many times during the week. now the stockings are hung up on the wall. these hooks worked much better than our last cruise, not sure if it is because we don't have a door opening and letting in the humidity from outside or because i swabbed the walls before putting them up.

after all this it is time to put on the life vests and do the drill. we went up to the theater and took a seat. when they called out cabin numbers that were missing, we heard our friends number and felt sad for them. we decided this was to keep us occupied till they let all of the lifeboats go and we were told there were no more. actually witht the new lifevests and sitting in the theater, this time wasn't so bad.

off to deck 9 for the sail away party, ds acted like he wasn't interested and too cool for this, till he got a place at the front and the festivities started, then i detected some movement in his legs and he started to get into the whole thing. he was right there and got to high five the characters as they came on and off. it was time to shove off, so we went to the rail on 10 to watch, and we din't start moving at five, like we should, so we were watching the dock and there seemed to be more activity than usual down there, and a little after 5 here came a worker pushing luggage toward the ship, and we thought briefly, what if our friends actually made it and they held the ship for them, that would really be a christmas miracle, but we said no they weren't coming and then saw the family that it really was come walking over and get on.

so away we go down the harbor out toward the sea. we didn't have our usual time to watch, since we had the earliest seating fo dinner. so back to the room and a quick change of clothes, for some it was quicker than others, and it was off to lumiere's for dinner. we met our servers edward from england and tj from france, they had only been working together for three weeks. but they were great together. and we had a great week with them. great step mgrandmother, had a food allergy to green vegetables, so yolande came over to talk about that, and get it worked out for for the week. she was really neat and helpful. after dinner it was off to the show and a stop on the way to get the shopping started. we enjoyed our welcome aboard, and then it was off to the pool for dw and ds, the stack for dd and dfil and i headed off to diversions for football game. i had to see what i missed by not working the last game at texas stadium. it was half time and things were not too bad, it was still anyone's game. but the cowboys made too many mistakes and lost it in the end. hearing about the weather there, i was glad to be headed out to sea, instead of out there on the sidelines and loading trucks after the game.

i stopped in to say hello to daryl lockhart at sessions after the game. i had met him the last cruise on the bus to and from the radisson, and he still remembered me and i told him we would stop in for the show later in the week. he does a great job singing and playing.

by this time everybody was back in the room and getting ready for bed. ds discovered that shaka had positioned his webkins on his bed. tomorrow was our first castaway cay day so we wanted to be ready. we were looking over the navigator, and seeing what was on the agenda. so they settled in and i went back out for my late night exploring. i ended up in diversions watching espn and getting updated on bowls and college basketball. then it was back to the room for the night.

 

[pogopossum]

IV. All I Want For Christmas Is A Real Good Tan

sunday morning and we are at castaway cay for the first time this trip. we didn't sign up for any excursions or beach packages and now we are kind of glad about that. it was a beautiful sunny morning, and as i have learned from prior cruises, i, the advance scout, am on the stairs waiting for the gangplank to open with the other early departers at 8:45.

this time i actually got up and had breakfast first, so when i get to the hammock i won't be coming back til the afternoon. i have gone back for breakfast in the past after the rest of the landing party has arrived. we had breakfast in lumiere's which will be our default position, except for character day, christmas morning and departure day. we didn't go up to topsiders once this trip, not that we don't like it, but we like the made to order option in lumiere's. so i had my over easy eggs, bacon, and potatoes, cinnamon rolls and then headed out to the gangplank.

the door was opened and off we went, made the mistake of going to the aft exit, and so i didn't get to the tram, fully decked out in reindeer drag, before it took off, so i had to walk the walk to the beach. i got to the beach and started to look for a good hammock in the shade with some chairs and umbrella. found a nice area right behind "she sells". there were two hammocks together, (maybe a little too close), under some palm trees. i covered the chairs and hammocks that we would need and laid down to wait. put on my walkman, (yes, i am old school) and listened to some tunes while i waited. after a couple of minutes i wandered over to cookies to see if i could get a coke, they were just getting set up and after the third try at a fountain i found the one that was ready. need taken care of, i head back and dj mike was up and spinning some great buffett, and beach boys, and other appropriate christmas tunes. i asked if he had kenny chesney's christmas album, and he said no he didn't have that one, i said that he should check it out. "all I want for christmas is a real good tan", available at target, check it out. it was most approppo for our current siituation.

back i went to the hammock, and shortly the rest of the party wandered up. we had forgotten our mickey mouse radios, (which we had bought for just such occasions, and would have been handy now), so they had to just look til they found me. this was one reason that i didn't look further down the beach for a spot, the other reason was that step great grandmother uses a walker or wheelchair to get around, so i didn't want to make it too hard for them to get out to the beach. mission accomplished and we were settled in for the day. ds had decided to spend most of the day at scuttle's cove, so we wouldn't be seeing him til later, when he wanted to go swimming, or so he thought. i had been down the shore and found that the water was a bit chilly, so i had decided that i would just be tanning today and not swimming. now it was the others turn to try it out, and they came to the same conclusion, too cold for swimming. even dgp, and he came from maine, didn't want much to do with it. i have since read on the dis of those that bought the packages and gotten to the cay to find out that it was too cold and no refund is given. i am glad that we didn't go down that road, since i don't think that we would have used much of the toys.

dw, dw and i spent some time shopping, after all we had that christmas present money to burn. the cruise/mickey tropical shirt wasn't in my size, cm discount didn't apply on the island and we were coming back so i decided to save my money and look in cozumel and grand cayman before cashing in. this ended up being the right call, more about this later.

then we took a little walk down to the sports beach and back. on our way the golf cart with the just married sign on back went by, there was a lady and girl in identical red with white flowers tropical dresses on board. we got down to the sports beach and off to the left they having the wedding ceremony on the beach. we later saw their dresses at mickey's mates. so we turned around and there coming out of the cast member area saw jack sparrow boarding a golf cart to go out to the picture spot, he gave a wave and off they went.

we got back to basecamp and dd now wanted to go off and get her picture with jack so we wandered down to the dutchman area and walked right up and made her pictures.

we went back to the hammock area and out came the cards and it was time to play, and play we did. oh hell is our game and we had some good games, dd even won once for maybe the first time, even with me in the game. when i wasn't in the game she usually looked to me for confirmation of her bid.

lunchtime rolled around and i was left at basecamp while the others went to get lunch, i guess i should have made them let me get mine and come back before they left. i didn't think that they would take so long. i finally got my turn and got my trayful of burger, ribs, corn, chicken, potato salad, pineapple upsidedown cake, omgosh i am making myself hungry, and back to the beach i went

dd decided to go back to the room with the grandfolks, and dw went to get ds for swimming, so they came over and we walked down to see if the water was warmer now that the sun had been up for a while, no such luck, so he decided to head back for some mickey pool swimming before dinner. we packed up and headed for the tram, hopped on and saw tj getting on to head back from his shift on the island. we showered off the sand and toweled off our hands and boarded the ship.

up we went to the pool. i managed to find a lounge chair and sat down to wait for dw to come up after she got ready for dinner, so that i could get myself ready, as well as update myself on the cowboys playoff situation, which even after the dismal loss to the ravens the night before hadn't changed a bit, since everybody else that mattered lost as well.

we didn't do the formal thing, but i showered and put on a nice christmas looking corduroy shirt and linen pants, grabbed the camera and headed off to get some character pix and family pix before dinner. ds got his pic with goofy and the three of them got their pic with daisy. we made a whole group pic with sunset background.

we headed up to ap for dinner, and had a great time with edward and tj, and if i had thought to make off with the menus before christmas day i would give more details about food that we ate. edward was excited about the menus, because they were new, just started on the canal cruise back from the west.

i do remember that i had the sirloin along with my regular entree, and enjoyed the food as always. after dinner edward made sure that we knew that our character breakfast was in the morning. so off we went to shutters to decide what package to buy and look for the pictures that were out. i also had to stop by the dvc stand for a pin. then we headed off for the theater and the golden mickeys show. one of our dd's favorites, the cast did a very good job and then we had to decide what was on the agenda for the rest of the evening. more shopping was decided on and we spent a while in the shops, after which we headed to the room.

our dvc member get together invite was in the room as well as the towel elephant that shaka had left on the bed. ds and i got ready to head to wall e at the movies, where he fell asleep, glad i insisted he put on his pajamas before we went, so back to the room wih ds on my shoulder, and then out to check on snf results to see if the giants were setup for cowboys like disappointment in the playoffs, (they were and it worked out the same way). does it say something about the nfl playoff system or league itself that three number one seeds in two years have gone down in their first playoff game? man i miss the old dynasty days. talk amongst yourselves.

after a little more sportcenter time, it's back to the room for some shuteye to get ready for the big sea day tomorrow. ok we are planning to sleep inand spend the whole day at the pools. this is looking like the most relaxation on a cruise that we have ever had.

more later...

 

[nzdisneymom]

I remember seeing the Just Married golf cart! That was so cool. We were set up on the Sports Beach for the day.

 

[pogopossum]

i forgot to mention that during my saturday night exploration just around midnight i looked outside on four and went to the rail and saw a ship passing in the other direction and wondered if it was our sister the wonder. it had a different profile than many of the ships i've seen at night. so i watched it for a while and then went up to 9 to get a coke, on my way back down to diversions, i ran into one of the officers up by the elevator, and asked if that was what i was seeing. he said where is it and we went out and up the stairs to 10, he wasn't even up to the deck and yes that's her. he said that he knew that profile anywhere, that he was on her for a while.

it was really neat and the gang told me that i should have gotten them out to see her. it was the first time since reading on here that you could spy the wonder on saturday night, that i actually saw her.

 

[nzdisneymom]

That's really cool! I know we saw several of the other cruise lines' ships but wouldn't have thought to look for the Wonder. But since she was heading to PC from CC and we were heading from PC to CC, our paths were bound to cross.

 

[pogopossum]

V. Blue Monday

Monday morning and time for our character breakfast and a dayat sea, but I wake up and have stomach troubles. having had two trips to the bathroom before 6 am, i am debating whether to check in with sick bay. i take some pepto bismol and tough out breakfast, not really eating much. it was a lot of fun otherwise and we all got the hats made for us. i ended up with a pirate captain hat, which was as close to pirate gear as i would get for the day, even with pirate night scheduled for dinner.

we went out to the pool and dw and i secured a table and ds went to town in the pool. alter that morning i went down to the dvc member get together, which was fun, hoped to get a prize in the drawings, but no such luck. got our bag with hats and lanyards, and headed back up to 9 to see what the others were up to.they were playing cards and discussing lunch. still not feeling like eating i sat at the table wgile they went to get food at topsiders.

i had taken my third dose of pb and it didn't seem to be helping much. i went back to the room and after a couple of more rounds in the toilet, i decided that i had to go to see the medics.

so down i went and described what i was there for, filled out the paperwork, and then was shown to an exam room. after to talking to the medic, and having vitals taken, it was decided i had a g-i thing and needed to stay in my room for 24 hours for observation. they gave me some immodium to take and told me to keep taking the pb. if only we had packed some immodium for the trip. i could have avoided the trip down to sick bay and confinement altogether. next time we will bring it along.

now i am a little down, no pirate night, room service food in stead of restaurant food and late disembarking at cozumel. what a day this turned out to be...

 

[nzdisneymom]

We travel with both Pepto and Immodium. And if I remember right, Monday was a bit rough at sea which I'm sure wasn't helping. I know for us when we have too much rich-food at the beginning, it can cause tummy distress.

How did the confinement work? Did they check on you? Lock you in your room? Let your family come and go but not you?

We didn't win anything at DVC Members meeting, either, and I always confuse the DVC Members party with the Castaway Club party - it's the Castaway party that has the Mickey rice-krispy treats that are my newest favorite Disney snack. At DVC there were just muffins and juice - and it was in the afternoon - I wondered if they thought we were having breakfast

 

[pogopossum]

V. Blue Monday (cont)

i went back to the room and per the medic called to order some powerade and water from room service, went ahead and ordered some soup as it was now close to dinner.

one nice thing about the medical care, the medic was very careful not to let me say the wrong thing that would get me confined to sick bay for longer than 24 hours. she was almost leading the witness on how i answered the questions.

i was waiting for the room service to arrive when the concierge called the room, she was very nice and set it up for us to get a dvd player hooked up, and told me that if i felt like it they could bring the menu from the restaurant and let me order from it. i said yes i did, now i wasn't really suffering from the things that others seemed to be due to rough seas, and as the doc had said i should already be feeling better, and i was. she actually said that i was probably better by the time i had gone in, but the two doses fo immodium had helped a great deal.

the family had gone up to eat, wearing their pirate gear, the menu and a letter from capt tom, thanking me for my cooperation arrived. and some guidelines for my confinement. then our head server yolande called the room, which surprised me a bit, and took my order. don't know whatever happened to the soup i ordered, because it never came. i ordered the jerk chicken salad, the black pearl beef tenderloins, and the chocolate cake for dessert. the chicken was delicious but the salad needed dressing, but the meal was good and it was nice to be able to get it. soon after shaka came in and told me that our room was to be the last serviced since i was confined, so i moved over to the couch while he turned down the bed and then back to the bed while he fixed the kid's beds. he had a message on his pager about what to do. he made a towel bunny with chocolate pirate doubloons on it. then did a thorough cleaning of the bath areas, oh yeah, he'll be getting extra tip from us.

while waiting for the dinner to arrive, dw comes back to the room, suffering from the rolling seas, dfil had gone back to his room and we later learned that many were suffering the effects and in their rooms or sick somewhere else on the ship. must have been quite a night for the cleaning crew. the dvd was installed and i had ordered some movies. at least the show that we missed was only the hypnotist, which was the one we looked forward to the least.

dinner comes and soon after here come the kids, dd didn't feel like eating (i've heard that this is when you need to eat the most), and ds had fallen asleep at the table, (the effects of all that pool time all day). so here we were all in this little room, what a time not to have the verandah. after a few minutes ds was wide awake again and dd took him to oceaneers club for the night. so dw ordered some soup from room service, then we settled in to watch cinderella man, what a great movie, while we ate. dd didn't come back til later, and after the movie was over we got ready for bed, and at midnight dd went back to pick up ds. so we went to bed, after a strange day at sea. it can only be better from here on out.

 

[pogopossum]

How did the confinement work? Did they check on you? Lock you in your room? Let your family come and go but not you?

as i said shaka did know and i guess he could have let them know if i was out and about, don't know if dining staff was alerted or not. i know that yolande called, but that may have just been at prompting of concierge. found out later that my kttw was blocked to me getting off the ship. but i get the idea that it is mostly up to you to abide by the guidelines. we called in so many times that i guess they knew i was in the room, but the letter did sound like they would call to check, but they didn't.

At DVC there were just muffins and juice - and it was in the afternoon - I wondered if they thought we were having breakfast

yeah, they pretty much have the same thing every time, maybe they try to schedule for morning and just don't change the order if it is afternoon. it seems like we haved had the get together in the morning most cruises.

 

[pogopossum]

i have to add that i did go to the castaway club get together in the morning on monday, and was able to get most of the answers to the gat to know one another game. i even got to be the answer a couple of times, we were inaugural sailors on the magic in the first year and second ever week long cruise. it was so neat the way they have incorporated the video into the event. i think that i want to go to a christening of one of the new ships. i managed to squeeze quite a bit in before quarantine.

but if i had better notes in the captain's log that dvc gave us then i wouldn't have to rely so much on my memory. of course i could also look it up in navigator's as well, and see that i was a day late for dvc get together as well, since i squeezed that in between beach time and dressing for dinner on sunday.

 

[pogopossum]

VIa. hello walls

i wake up and no it isn't a dream, i still have to stay in the room. so the family gets ready to go meet dgp's for breakfast and a walk over to cozumel. so i turn over and go back to sleep for a little bit. i didn't want to miss ordering from lumiere's for breakfast, so about 8:45 i called one of my guards and at first she was confused by the time change and told me that i couldn't get restaurant service, once we got her in the right time zone, i ordered my usual eggs over easy with bacon and hashbrowns, cinnamon rolls with two iced teas. so iwas watching office space and the breakfast was delivered, but strange there was two plates and ice water but no tea. so i looked and they had doublrd my order, maybe they talked to edward about my dinner portions. what can i say, i can't make up my mind. but he determined that i did order iced tea and went off to get it. but the breakfast was delicious, if not more than ample.

not long after i finished breakfast the crew returned and said that they weren't much interested in cozumel after two previous trips there. so they were readying to go to the pools, probably a good day for that, with most people off on the island. so with the interruptions i never got to finish office space, since it wasn't suitable for a general audience. and everytime dw came back we had to pick up with where we left off in cinderella man or casino royale. it was one of the most disjointed movie watching experiences, well since college, when we used to turn on hbo or showtime between classes to whatever was on, didn't finish a lot of movies then, either.

i got some ribbing from shaka about my appetite due to number of trays and dishes delivered and left outside the door. it did no good to explain that they forgot my iced tea, and i only ordered one breakfast. he was getting shots in pretty good.

so after some movie time, the gang headed off to lunch at lumiere'sand i called and asked for a menu, it never seemed to take any time for them to bring stuff to me, their service is quite quick. so iordered the burger and iced teas, and cheesecake. the burger was very good, but guess what, the iced teas were forgotten again, but this time hadn't been written down, so i called back and they sent them down, once again in good time. the cheesecake was the wrong choice, confirmed by edward at dinner. should have gone with my second choice, which i can't remember right now and i can't find the menu that we brought home. that journal thimg of disneyzell's sounds better all the time. not so long after here came the rabble back. i mean i had to stay in the room, not sure what was up with them and i know i wasn't the attraction.

it was now almost 2 pm and shaka was coming in to clean so he got to rib me some more about all the trays. i had another one from the drink order that i made to stock up the room with waters, cokes and powerades, as long as dcl was paying. shaka talked about how he liked to play with our snowflake lights and hallmark gingerbread house that played the nutcracker. then he asked what they had told me in the sick bay about when i could be let out. we determined that they had said 24 hours and we an hour ahead, so that should mean 2pm. i called down to inquire about this and they did some checking and said that yes i could go ashore now. she said that she would call and unblock my card so i could disembark. i have never wanted to leave some place as bad as i wanted out of that room...

 

[nzdisneymom]

If I hadn't written my trip report as we went, there is no way I could reconstruct it now.

We had burgers from Lumiere's on Wednesday for lunch. They are so good.

Can't wait to read what all you were up to after you were "sprung" from your room-confinement.

Remind me - did you have a verandah?

 

[pogopossum]

not this time, unfortunately. we did have the big porthole, though so it helped a little.

 

[pogopossum]

VIb. free at last

i walked to the gangplank and they slid my card and off i went (whew). i got down to the duty free shop and looked in to see how prices were for perfumes, still needed a stocking stuffer or two for dw. prices on the www were better, so i went back out and ran into shaka on his way to mega mart, which was new from the last time we were here. dw looked for it but didn't see it, they went the wrong way. since shaka had clued us in to its existence, i asked where it was and he said follow him. he was pulling a rolling carryon bag, for his purchases. the crew shops there whenever they hit port, snacks and bottled water and other essentials. it seems to be the cozumel equivalent of the wal mart super center.

we got to the store and in we went grabbing a couple of carts and riding the special escalator made for shopping carts. i grabbed some stuff that we needed, like toothbrush for dw who had lost hers somewhere; (it was back at her dd's house). i picked up some bags that had the look of frito lays and even the names cheetos and doritos on them, because there were complaints of not having snacks in the room. well they were not the same as in the states, not sure how you make cheetos and doritos different, but they did, so there is a lesson learned.

anyway, $24 lighter, just like wal mart, i headed back out and went across the street. looked in some shops, thought about using the internet or phone, but decided nah. i haggled with a lady for some opal sea turtle earrings, if she had gone down to $15 she had me, but she stopped at $20. so i headed down and saw margaritaville on the corner. if i could have gotten off earlier i probably would have gone in for a boat drink or two, but i just shopped a little, thought about buying a shirt, was a good decision as I learned later. but decided just to get a magnet. and headed back out and back down the street to the other shopping area.

went back past senor frogs, and stopped in a few shops, dodged a few raindrops. checked some more perfume prices, still not good enough. i got down to the open square area, and stopped in another silver jewelry shop, this time i got him to go to $15 for opal butterfly earrings, so at least i had a surprise stocking stuffer, or so i thought. well it was time to head back, so i walked back through the gauntlet. looked at a few geegaws, but made it back without spending any more money.

i got back to the room and the gang had gone to see hsm3, so i went to the theater and the movie was almost over, it seemed to have run long. dw told me that they had trouble starting the movie, so everybody got pompons. we went to the room to get ready for dinner, it was our night for the animator’s palette themed dinner. while we were dressing, dw put on a shirt that was just right for the earrings that i bought, so i broke them out and gave them to her early. so much for a surprise stocking stuffer. but she was very pleased with the choice.

we got up to dinner and edward and tj seemed happy to see me back, well everybody back since we had left a skeleton crew at dinner the night before. it was nice to be back in the restaurant after the last three meals in the room. even yolande stopped by to say that she missed me. we had a great meal, my usual double entrée, and the show as fun as usual. edward brought out the chocolate dessert for me without my asking, he was beginning to figure me out. ds was having so much fun watching the pictures change all through dinner, not sure if he remembered all of it from before. then we headed out for Bolt, stopping by shutters to pick up any new pics that we wanted. we also had to all take turns going by dvc with our red hat to get the pin they were giving out.

we did a little shopping on the way in to the movie, i had to replace that stocking stuffer. the movie was a lot of fun and so cool in 3D. i told ds that it was a good thing that we waited for the cruise or he wouldn’t have seen it in 3D.

so we went back to shop a little more, we were told that dgp’s 50% discount was over after tonight, so we wanted to finish most of our shopping, it turned out that this was wrong info, because we got the same discount later as well. and now back to the room, ds and i decided to go see beverly hills chihuahua, (i really did want out of that room), another movie that we put off til the cruise. after the experience with wall e the other night, we decided that he should wear his pajamas, and take a pillow, just in case. and we were not wrong, as he made it about 2/3 of the way through. after the movie finished i carried him back to the room, and then i went to diversions to catch up on sportscenter. was happy to see that the almost hometowners tcu horned frogs had beat boise st. one of these years tcu will get to go to a big bowl. they are always so close.

then it was back to the room to get some rest for grand cayman and the sting rays.

 

[pogopossum]

VII. twas the day before christmas

vacation is back on.

ship's running late to grand cayman due to rough waters. it made our excursion late, we had scheduled the 10:15 to give us some shopping time on the island, now we wondered if we had enough time for the excursion before dinner.

of course it gave us a chance to sleep in a little bit. we got up and got ready to go, then headed off to lumiere's for breakfast. once again i had the usual eggs over easy and bacon, dw once again got her eggs benedict, man we're in a rut, but the food tastes good there.

then off to promenade lounge to get ready for the excursion. we turned in all our paperwork, got our pluto stickers and then waited to be cleared to go. finally it was our turn and off we went to be tendered to the island.

it is always so neat to boat around the magic and see her sitting anchored surrounded by water, instead of tied to a pier. we got to the dock and what a zoo, how we didn't lose people in that crowd, i'll never know, but we got loaded in those toyota microbuses and finally off we went on our island tour. it was kind of warm in the bus, his ac sure was working hard in vain. we even picked up some carnival cruisers, somehow. we were shown every fast food joint on the island, along with most of the banks, and resorts, was this sponsored by the chamber of commerce? we pulled up to the drive of the governor's mansion, it was cool to see that, and then we stopped at the end of seven mile beach, where a wedding was taking place. it looked like a nice place to anchor for the day and do some tanning and swimming. alas due to arriving late, we couldn't get out and walk around, he was doing his best to give us the whole tour and get us to the boats for stingray city by 2:30. so we got to boatswain's beach and had about 45 minutes to see the turtle farm. that turned out to be plenty of time, we were even able to get some ice cream and drinks after the tour. it really neat to see all the turtles and i got right in and held a turtle, then i looked around and dd was reaching in and picking one up to hold. i felt like we had plenty of time here, and soon we were on our way to hell.

the stop at hell was a little rushed, but there isn't much there. ds was not too cooperative for pictures. we didn't spend much time in the gift shop. the rocks were neat to see, but it sure was a tourist trap.

and now for the whole reason for the excursion, off we went to stingray city. after a little drive through the flat golf courses (reminded me of some that i play at home), we reached the dock. somehow our bus got split between two different boats, which turned out to be a little annoying, when we got back and had to wait for them to get back before we could head back.

shopping was now definitely not an option, due to the wait and traffic getting back to docks. we all made our way back to the dcl tenders and loaded up and headed back to get ready for our dinner at pc, tonight was the pc menu, good thing it was a casual dress night, since there was not really time to do much but change out of beach clothes and into dinner clothes. i decided to wear my pirate hat since i missed out monday. i also had my christmas hawaiian shirt on for the day, it has santa and a reindeer at the beach and surfing on it, and says mele kalimaka. dinner was excellent; of course i could still be giddy about being allowed in the dining room. edward balanced forks in a cork on dd’s nose. we had a great time. we got our cookies and milk for santa on the way out, and i went back to the room to stow the milk.

then it was time for some last minute shopping and head into the cinderella show. hopefully i can make it through the whole show this time, the last cruise we were on was the first time we had seen it and i dozed off during part. i made it through the whole show and after it was over we all headed off for some christmas eve family time. i had to make a stop back at pc to see edward, for some apples and oranges for stockings. it is a tradition and not even a christmas at sea can stop that. dw said that dd had requested not to get the fruit, but not even that can stop a tradition. so after securing the fruit i headed back to the room where dw had made the preparations. we loved the towel angel and chocolates left on the bed for us by shaka. we always let the kids open a couple of presents before bed, and get the milk and cookies ready. of course ds always wants to open all of the gifts, and we have to slow him down.

we got done with that and i headed out to wrap a couple of things that i had brought along for dw for christmas. i was wrapping the first one, and got a little help from the girl from the shop, i guess that she was taking pity on me. but this is another tradition, dd wrapping all of dm’s presents on christmas eve/morning. meanwhile dd came up to tell me that dw wanted me to see about a gift for her step grandmother, we had forgotten to get her something and would be exchanging gifts tomorrow. so dd started on wrapping the other present and i went in to see what kind of pins or necklaces might be on sale. i picked out a couple of the gemstone necklaces; amethyst butterfly would end up being the winner. so i went back to see if dd was through yet, and we headed down to the room to tell dw about the necklace and see if it met with approval. we decided that dfil and i would go get it after breakfast, if he thought that she would like it, we’d get it or something else that he thought would be good.

so they all got into bed and i went out to get a coke and sports scores for the day at diversions. mainly i had to give the family time to get to sleep so that santa could come. i went back in a little while and made sure that the stockings were taken care of and then went to sleep, so that santa could come for sure. we left our little mickey christmas tree and snowflake lights on tonight for santa, and it was off to dreamland for visions of sugarplums.