A Honeymoon trip to conquer the World! A PTR...

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

Hi Michelle!

Finally followed the link in your siggie!

And so happy I did!
I looove your PTR!

Congrats on the wedding!
And on the test!
And on the car!
My! Your life is going really well!!!

I must admit I'm jealous about the land/sea thing... Even if I'm able to go back to Disney with Mama one day after this first trip, it'll never be a land/sea, because she's got motion sickness (oh, and just try tell her you don't feel any on those big cruise boats... she'll never try. And what would be the fun in forcing her on a trip anyways? ).
I want to do a cruise so much... it'll have to be with someone else or by myself... in a long long while!
But I'm even more jealous that you're DVC member!

I'm sure you're gonna have the Disneymoon of a lifetime! (ehhh, well it's supposed to be once in a lifetime anyway isn't it?! )

I'm going over to your google page (is that what it's called?) to lurk a little about those wedding plans!

See ya!

 

[michellem1118]

Annie-Danielle! Glad you finally made it over. I should really update this PTR one of these days, I have a few new things I could add.... maybe I'll do that after dinner with my future Mother-in-law tonight...

 

[michellem1118]

Apparently, I'm a bad pre-trippie writer! I haven't even posted useless nonsense in over a month. Well, on the bright side... I have a few updates (and some are actually trip-related)!

First... I finally got my PassPorter guidebook for DCL. We'd pre-ordered it from Amazon, and it took FOREVER to get here. It actually arrived on the day we were flying to Dallas to do some wedding stuff, and relocation stuff, and job hunting stuff... so it took us about 2 weeks to pick it up from FMIL's house.

Then, after months of waiting, our 75-day window opened on DCL - which is the time when first time cruisers can book shore excursions, dinner at Palo, and spa treatments. So yesterday, I was able to book a Palo dinner and a snorkel experience with stingrays . I also emailed a private-party excursion company about booking a dolphin swim on Nassau (the excursion through DCL is only the dolphin encounter, not a swim). And got confirmation today that we're confirmed and will be able to swim with the dolphins!!!

We're still discussing adding a couples cabana massage on one of the Castaway Cay days, but its almost $300, and we've already spent ~$500 on excursions & the Palo dinner... so we may wait until we get onboard the ship and then look into booking one, if we get enough cash as wedding presents.

In non-trip-related updates... our planning trip to Dallas went really well! DFi got a job offer the first day we were there, which he accepted, and we were able to sign a lease on an apartment for July 1. We had engagement pictures taken, and my aunt hosted a bridal shower for us as well. We also had a tasting at our venue, and chose our menu... and met with the florist and finalized our flower choices. I didn't get a job that week though... but I have one now! I got a pseudo-offer last Thursday on my voicemail, and spoke with them today. I will be teaching 9th grade world geography in August!

OK, now that the wedding (and hence, the Disney honeymoon) are getting closer, I'll try to update more frequently. I promise.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

And got confirmation today that we're confirmed and will be able to swim with the dolphins!!!

I've never been able to do this (however I have been able to swm with sea lions which was awesome). I'm sure it'll be great!

In non-trip-related updates... our planning trip to Dallas went really well! DFi got a job offer the first day we were there, which he accepted, and we were able to sign a lease on an apartment for July 1. We had engagement pictures taken, and my aunt hosted a bridal shower for us as well. We also had a tasting at our venue, and chose our menu... and met with the florist and finalized our flower choices. I didn't get a job that week though... but I have one now! I got a pseudo-offer last Thursday on my voicemail, and spoke with them today. I will be teaching 9th grade world geography in August!

Congrats to both of you! What wonderful news!

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

Congrats on the job!!! (both of you!)

And on the appartment too!

Are you happy about 9th grade world-geo though? Or just happy you found something?
(I know, it's my kind of question. My friends sometimes hate me for those... but most of the time, they appreciate it! ).

Oh, you're sooo gonna love the dolphins!!!
My first real trip was in the Bahamas in summer 2001, and I swam with the dolphins near Nassau, probably at the same place where you're going! (I mean, there can't be so many places... )
It's soooo incredible! It's a one-of-a-kind experience, something I'm sooo happy I paid too much to experience! (yeah, it's quite pricey, and I didn't have that kind of money! it was out of my range, but I couldn't resist. It was a dream come true!)
I still can feel it in my mind, I still remember it, and I'm happy I paid for the video, too. I didn't watch it more than once though, not yet anyways (just getting back, to show my parents), but I know I'll be able to and relive it. (reason I don't want to see it too much is mostly the friend I went with and who is with me on the video is no longer a friend... She was my bff, as you say in english!)
Anyways, the dolphins are amazing and the whole experience is very wonderful. One of the best memories of my life!
You can't regret it!

I'm hoping you'll be able to "maintain" this PTR alive, because it's always fun to read it! (but it's quite great for me that it went dead while I was away... no 10 pages to catch up with! ha!)

 

[michellem1118]

Hi all! Since we leave for our trip exactly 2 months from today, I'm back with a small trip-related update, and a longer non-trip-related update....

So, as I was reading Tinkerbellarella's pre-trippie a few weeks ago, she mentioned getting in the mood to shop for her trip... which reminded me that I wanted to do some shopping for our trip! So I/we did...
- First, we bought snorkel gear for the cruise portion of the trip... the two-day rental at Castaway Cay is ~$30, and we were able to buy good sets for just slightly more than that!
- Then, I went to disneyshopping.com, and I ordered some cute Pooh pajamas for me, and Mickey pajama pants for DFi... I wanted us to have nice pajamas in case we want to run to the drink station on the ship for coffee or something early in the mornings.
- As I was perusing disneyshopping.com, I noticed you can order personalized polos. DFi bought a Mickey polo on our first trip, but it wasn't pre-shrunk cotton, so it doesn't fit anymore. So I ordered him a new polo (in a larger size, so if it shrinks, it'll still fit) with Remy from Ratatouille on it. Then, I decided it would be really cute if we had matching shirts for the trip down, so I ordered myself the same polo, almost... DFi's is dark blue with Remy, and mine is pink with Remy.
- We also found two different beach bags while cleaning our place & preparing for the upcoming move, so now I don't have to buy a new bag... although I might still order the personalized duffle bag from disney, with Remy on it and DFi's last name... we'll see though...
(I'll add some pics later, gotta take them & upload them first )

And for the non-trip-related updates...
1. Last Saturday afternoon, we discovered that two of the wheels/tires had been STOLEN off of our brand-new car! The thieves were really careless as well, and because they didn't put the jack in the right place, they ended up causing ~$1000 worth of body damage to the car as well. So he's in the shop right now, until at least Tuesday. We did NOT need this added expense so close to the wedding! Between the rental car & our insurance deductible, we're out nearly $800!

2. Our wedding invitations have been mailed out! For some reason, that makes things seem so much more real. I think people should start receiving them today, so I will soon begin stalking my online RSVP site. The mailed response cards are going to my parents house in Texas since we're moving down there in a month.

3. All of our wedding vendors, except the catering, are paid in full as of last week. And, we already have just over half of our estimated catering balance in savings. I think we might actually pull off paying for this shindig without using credit cards after all!

Hmm, thats all for now. I need to get back to cleaning & packing, and possibly take DFi out for some food... we haven't eaten at all yet today, oops.

 

[michellem1118]

Are you happy about 9th grade world-geo though? Or just happy you found something?
(I know, it's my kind of question. My friends sometimes hate me for those... but most of the time, they appreciate it! ).

Actually, I'm really happy to be teaching 9th graders... It's my preferred grade. I'm not as happy about the subject, just because I've never actually taught World Geography before, and haven't taken it since I was a 9th grader! I'm thrilled though, that it is not also a coaching position... most social studies/history jobs in Texas public schools are linked to coaching, and I really didn't want to coach, or to have to try to get certified to teach in another field.

 

[michellem1118]

I've been busy doing some trip-related things the past few days. First, I went to Home Depot to liberate some LGMHs... but there weren't any! There must be a lot of DISers that frequent my Home Depot! I did liberate some other MHs though, in a few other colors.

Then, when I got home, I decided to make luggage tags for our trip. I need to convert them to jpg files so I can upload them to photobucket & post them - I'll add the pics tonight, can't upload from work. But they're black, with a LGMH, and lime green text with our names, address, and my cell phone number. Then, I'll print a double-sided one with our hotel info on the back to put inside the bags in case the outer tag gets torn off or something.

I've also been making door signs for the cruise. I'll get those converted and posted tonight as well.