A cruise for New Year and a surprise trip to WDW - Update Post 103

[MeMom]

Office is closed and we are 1 sleep away from the start of our trip. WOOHOO.

My first real vacation since last summer.

Packing is just about complete, Declan will open a few gifts in the morning and we will be on our way.

I hope it is everything you want it to be and more!

 

[declansdad]

Have a great time! We are here now and go home tomorrow. the weather has been nice the last few days, but was chilly when we got here on Sat. I think it's supposed to get cooler next week. Have fun on your cruise too! DS has even been swimming!

Thanks and I hope you had a great trip. Little worried about the temps but it won't matter all that much.

So exciting!!

I take it you guys are ok from all the flooding...again...did you ever think we would use the word flood in December??

Have a wonderful safe trip and can't wait to hear all about it when you return.

HAVE FUN DECLAN!!!!

We were spared but we have bad storms that have caused heavy flooding and massive storm surges the past two Mondays. I don't know if you remember much about Parlee Beach in Shediac but the surge this week washed away most of the dunes and last week the flooding in the St George area has swamped many homes.

I hope it is everything you want it to be and more!

I'm sure it will be! For me, just getting away is much anticipated. I gave up my vacation when I changed jobs in August so will be just what the doctor ordered.

 

[declansdad]

Leaving in an hour or so, talk to you all later.


Have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

 

[MeMom]

Have a most magical trip!

 

[declansdad]

We leave for the ship in about 15 minutes. Disney was a fast few days but fantastic as always, even if it was cold and we had record lows each night we were there.

See you all soon.

 

[declansdad]

And we're back. 14 days of traveling sure is a long time, especially when the last 3 hours of the drive turned into 4 and a half.

We had a great time at WDW and really enjoyed our first cruise. After leaving Orlando we had great weather. No rain on the cruise and we had some great stops. Hopefully I will get to work on some pictures tomorrow and post some to start things off.

 

[MeMom]

And we're back. 14 days of traveling sure is a long time, especially when the last 3 hours of the drive turned into 4 and a half.

We had a great time at WDW and really enjoyed our first cruise. After leaving Orlando we had great weather. No rain on the cruise and we had some great stops. Hopefully I will get to work on some pictures tomorrow and post some to start things off.

I am looking forward to hearing all about it.

Sorry about that drive back. I know you were ready to get home!

 

[Queenofallthings]

Happy New Year and welcome home! Cannot wait to hear all about your adventures!!!

 

[declansdad]

Well our trip has come and gone and we can now relive the memories and start planning for the next trip; after all, it is only 7 months away.

First a little background.

Last year, pooksma proposed that we take a cruise over the Christmas holiday. There were to be five of us; Declan, pooksma, myself and pooksma's parents. We booked with Carnival for an eight day Southern Caribbean cruise leaving on Dec 29th and returning Jan 6th. Over the next few months, our 5 grew to 21 friends and family.

Pooksma's parents, aunt and uncle, and another couple decided to do two cruises back to back with the first leaving on Dec 21st. Since they would be gone for Christmas, we decided to see what we could do. We came up with a quick visit to WDW and planned on keeping it a surprise for as long as we could. There would be the three of us plus a couple of friends who had never been to the World.


School ended on December 23rd and I closed our office on the same day. We planned to have our Christmas gift opening on the morning of the 24th before leaving for Portland Maine.

It was pretty low key, including our tree. Our trees ( yes trees) would normally resemble the Griswald family Christmas tree. Here is our tiny tree for this year:

Most of the gift opening was for Declan. He was pretty excited to open most of his gifts as he knew the Santa gifts would be waiting when we returned.

Here are some shots of him opening gifts with some help from Luca and Betsy:

After cleaning up, we got everything ready to go and headed out for Maine around Noon. One stop for coffee at Tim Hortons, and quick food stop in Bangor and we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Portland around 5 pm. Our traveling companions had checked in so we had some refreshments and decided on a plan for supper. We decided on a traditional Christmas Eve supper, IHOP. Declan was ecstatic; being a pancake lover he always wanted to go to IHOP.

After a great supper, we returned to the hotel, made arrangements for the shuttle to the airport and turned in.

DECEMBER 25th - Merry Christmas

This was to be our travel day, a great way to spend Christmas. We were flying JetBlue for the first time and our flight was scheduled for 11 am with a layover at JFK and on to Orlando for 7:30. Declan headed down to breakfast with our friends while pooksma and I decided to reveal to Declan the surprise at breakfast. We figured the counter agent would give it away when she gave us boarding passes and we added our ME luggage tags.

With the help of a postcard obtained for us by MeMom and a Pop Century pin pooksma's brother found for us on Ebay, we set up our big reveal. I turned on the camcorder and got ready for the big moment. Check it out, it was amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG5ZHQG35F8


Think we can get that one on Disney commercial?

Our flights were uneventful, JetBlue was great, and our first time using ME was very easy. We were in our rooms by 8:30 (one room over from the same room we were in the last two times at Pop). We had some food in the food court, picked up our mugs and Declan went for a swim. He was pretty excited to be swimming on Christmas Day. This was the only evening that was warm enough for a swim.

Here are a few shots to finish off Part 1. Stay tuned for Day 2 at WDW where some of us will do three parks in one day.

 

[Queenofallthings]

That video was great, it made me cry!! Great pictures of him opening his gifts before you guys left for the states!! I can't wait to hear more....Pop is a great resort isn't it?

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

Love the reveal! I think my girls would swim at Pop no matter the temperature.

 

[declansdad]

That video was great, it made me cry!! Great pictures of him opening his gifts before you guys left for the states!! I can't wait to hear more....Pop is a great resort isn't it?

He wasn't sure if we were still going on the cruise. He was a bit worried about that. Pop is one of my favourite resorts

Love the reveal! I think my girls would swim at Pop no matter the temperature.

Declan wanted to but the last couple of nights were so cool that steam was coming off the water.

 

[MeMom]

The look on his face was so cute. I'm glad you guys got to go to Disney World and take the cruise.

Did it feel surreal to be sitting back out by the Pop pool again?

 

[declansdad]

The look on his face was so cute. I'm glad you guys got to go to Disney World and take the cruise.

Did it feel surreal to be sitting back out by the Pop pool again?

We were only at the pool the first night but it was great seeing the Pop sign, and pools again. He wasn't really sure what to think when he read the postcard. We were watching it last night and he said that was his " I don't really understand" look.

Thanks again for your help with the postcard.

 

[pooksma]

First day back to work with students. They all wanted to know how Declan reacted. I didn't show the video but told them about it.

Thanks MeMom for your help. Sure you can squeeze in a quick trip in August?

 

[declansdad]

Evening all. Just uploading the rest of the pics from Boxing Day and then I will post some more and an update. We've been working on the August trip and the possibility of adding 3 days for SeaWorld.

 

[declansdad]

A cool Saturday evening here in the not-so-snowy North, just finished a delicious Subway sub so I may as well add an update to the report. But first a future trip update. We purchased our tickets with Delta for August last night; another great deal out of Portland. We're leaving on the 16th so now we just need to book that SeaWorld part of the trip for the first few days.

So back to the Christmas trip. On the 26th MK was having EMH so they opened at 7. We discussed, well I did anyway , getting up for being there for 7. Our traveling companions said you guys go when you are ready and we'll catch up later. Pooksma said we'll see about the 7 am thing. I'm sad to report it was just after 8 when we arrived.

Surprisingly, it wasn't very crowded and it stayed that way throughout the day everywhere we went.

We had no wait for the bus, very little wait anywhere in the Park, and had done all the big rides before 11 (except Splash - too cold). Now cold is relative for us Canucks; it was still in the mid 50s but keep in mind, we usually visit in August.

A few pictures for you.

Our traditional start of the day picture of Declan.

Main street as we arrived, just after rope drop.

The Castle

Fantasyland

We decide to head to Space Mountain first. We missed this last visit because of the rehab. Along the way we ran into a couple of friends.

Then on to a fun ride through space. This was a walk-on.

Grabbed some FPs for later and headed for Buzz. Another walk-on.

We caught old Zurg once again and put him in the slammer. Buzz was waiting to thank us when we emerged from our sortie.

Next we headed for BTMRR and of course someone needed to take pictures along the way.

We also met some new friends.

Continued in next post.

 

[declansdad]

we made our way to BTMRR and it was another walk on.

Next up, Pirates (one of our favourites!)

Declan wanted to do this on the way but we said NO, BRRRRRR!

Some pics from POTC.

Next up was our longest wait, maybe 10 minutes. Guess where?

Sing along everyone:

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
All the birds sing words and the flowers croon
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!
If we weren't in the show starting right away,
We'd be in the audience too
All together!

It was time ride Space Mountain again courtesy of the FPs. Even without them, it was a walk on again.

We still hadn't found our travel mates so we headed to Mickey's Philharmagic. Probably the best 3D show (I think)

As we were exciting the gift shop, I mean show, we spotted our friends. They had been there wandering around taking in there first visit the WDW and enjoying themselves a great deal. We all decided that we would head over to AK and try to catch some animals moving around and the best show at WDW, FOTLK.

Some more pictures for you was we exited the park and I'll be back later to provide park number 2 of the day. I will leave you to ponder this question, Who will do three parks on this cool Boxing Day?

​

 

[Queenofallthings]

Great update! Declan has sure grown in the year since we saw you guys! Your pictures remind me of our Jan/Feb trip when it was really cool....today however, I would take that over the -40 we woke up too

Great pictures....I love the one of Declan and Buzz....that needs to be in a frame!!!

Can't wait for more

 

[MeMom]

Sing along everyone:

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
All the birds sing words and the flowers croon
In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room
Welcome to our tropical hideaway, you lucky people you!
If we weren't in the show starting right away,
We'd be in the audience too
All together!

Brooklynn thinks this song is fun, so I'll just sing it 'out of the blue' sometimes.

Some more pictures for you was we exited the park and I'll be back later to provide park number 2 of the day. I will leave you to ponder this question, Who will do three parks on this cool Boxing Day?

I will guess you and Declan, but not Ma.
Or maybe just you.