Ahoy! Sailing the Wonder 2/8/09

Hey everyone, we're finally back and dealing with post-vacation blues (and laundry!) We spent 4 days at Beach Club after the cruise and it was great although we all agree'd we liked the cruise part of the vacation more. We are thinking about October for the 3day bounce back and we booked a 7 day onboard but just a placeholder date of Dec 5 knowing we can move it once we decide when we can afford it! :rotfl2:
I'm glad you folks are interested in keeping the board going for a while. I have to say I was anxious about going on the cruise without knowing anyone but getting to know people on the boards made it so much more fun. We met some really nice people and it was great to turn around and see a "familiar" face every once in a while.
Will post pics and stuff once we get our act together. I am also on facebook and will add you all to my friends once I catch up there. Look for Laura Merritt.
TTYS
 
Hi Everyone! As DW Laura (ljm23) said....we had an awesome vacation. Back to work this morning...our son Michael is totally bummed it's over. Vacation Blues for all of us!! :sad1: I would love to see this thread continue as it would be great to see when people are going on the $99 3 day cruise! I truly enjoyed meeting Mike and Annette, Tracy and Alonzo, Brett and Deavon, Kathryn and Koren and of course Jill!! I'm really disappointed that everyone that posts didn't show up at the Goofy pool because it truly was awesome meeting everyone! It was also great seeing our new friends throughout the course of our cruise to stop and chat for a while. Our son Michael loved meeting Nick and Michael and they got along great!! :thumbsup2 Some of the things I remember about our forum friends are: meeting Brett and Deavon at the Radisson pool, meeting Tracy and Nick at the pool at the Radisson and our boys hanging in the hot tub chatting for the first time, having lunch onboard with the Meadors and Jill in Parrot Cay, seeing Jill with a drink sitting alone going over the Spa schedule with earnest, meeting Annette and my brother firefighter Mike for the first time and talking shop with Mike, watching Michael, Mike and Nick having a blast in the pool together, chatting with Tracy and Alonzo at the adult pool after our shore excursion, seeing Brett playing with the kids in the water at Castaway Cay, reading the notes left on our message board by fellow cruisers, watching Nick sing Karaoke when I went to get my son from the Oceaneer Club, seeing Michael looking so exhausted at the 6:30 breakfast on our last day....the list goes on and on. We ran into our new friends all over the place! I started to look at some threads for October and the Halloween one is 10 pages long already! :eek: Gotta run for now....
Mike
 
:sad2:

Just checked over the last few posts. Sounds like everyone had a fabulous time. As did we! We spent a few extra days in Orlando. I was disappointed we were not handed wipes everywhere we went!!! I got so used to putting my hand out, it was kind of funny. The cruise seemed like it was sooo long ago! Definitely thinking about the bounceback for $99. Gotta look into the airfare though. We spent a little more than I thought we would so I have to work my DH.:rolleyes1

Would love to read some trip reports and hear about everyone's experiences. Jill it was cool hearing about he Cruise family. Would love to hear more from everyone. I am going to try to post a trip report. If I get a little time later, I will check out how to do that.

Castaway Cay was more BEAUTIFUL than I could have hoped. I heard they are not going to stop at Nassau anymore. That would be a nice change. We didn't get off with the kids but my DH and friend did and they were not impressed.

One of my favorites was feeding the stingrays. My son wouldn't even touch them last year at Seaworld and this time he actually let them eat out of his hand. He was so proud of himself. DH's fav was the food. DS was the Kim Possible Mission and Bolt and my DD was just about everything. Including the fact she met another Franchesca Marie on the ship. What are the chances of that! She met her on the 1st night and thought she would have run into her again, but didn't. Was sad she didn't get and address or email.

And one of my least favorite things was not having enough time to do everything! :confused3 I'm glad they offer a lot but we always had to give something up to see or do something else. We missed Enchanted Dreams because my daughter wanted to see the captain and then do flubber. It was well worth it for her and it will give us something to look forward to.

Everyone's tips from our disers were fabulous. Removing the table and using the over the door organizer really saved us!!! I was afraid the size of the cabin would bother me, but it was always neat and clean and we were rarely in it. Once we got there, we did what we were suppose to and SLEPT.:snooty:

Not sure if everyone saw my previous post, but we were very excited about our magnets. Frantically tried to get everyone's cabin number while on board. But at .$75 a minute, I just didn't have enough time. It was one of the things I planned on asking everyone for before we left, but time just got away from me. I don't think i even posted the 2 days before we left because I was running around like a crazed woman. :scared1: I wish everyone would tell us who you were so we could thank you, but if you like that it was a surprise, I understand. I will load some pics and I hope everyone else will.

AVERY Franchesca will email you. That was sweet of you to have a magnet for her. I hope you continue to keep in touch.

Hope to continue chatting for just a little while longer on here. Sorry I am not on facebook. If anyone posts a trip report, just let us know. Thanks.:thumbsup2
 
Sorry we didnt get to the meet on the first day. We had my wifes mother, brother and sister in tow on this cruise and it was a chore. By the time we had them checked in, settled down and handled their last mini crissis it was time for the emergency drill, which started a whole new batch of mini crissis...LOL
I need a vacation after this vacation........:cool1:
 

Hi Everybody!
Kelly, I agree with you that there was so much to do and not enough time. That was the driving factor in my wanting to do another cruise. I wanted to do all the cool stuff we missed out on during the first one! We did get to do alot of that this time but that is certainly not stopping me from wanting to go again!::yes::
We had a great time hanging out with new friends too. DS really loved swimming with Michael and Nick and is still asking about them. Making new friends was THE best part of this whole trip!:thumbsup2
 
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Can someone remind me how to make smaller?
 
I love the POTD! Welcome back everyone! I too feel like I didn't get enough time to do everything. Maybe next time we will budget our time better. Just can't get enough!
 
I started a trip report yesterday, I know a couple of you have already seen it. It has a lot of pictures and I hope to finish a day each night.

I hope to see more reports and pictures from others soon.

Today was tough going back to work, but I did get a big smile on my face every time someone ask how the cruise was.

I need to print up some new pictures for my desk.
 
Thanks Brett for the trip report, I'm too lazy. I did post pics to my facebook account though. Looking forward to reading yours!
 
We got back late last night. After cruise we spent two days at Caribbean beach Resort. Loved it and Downtown Disney but it was busy. There were less than half that number of people our last trip. We ended up staying out of the parks.
For us the cruise was good but we had a bad day and that really tainted it for us. On Castaway day we got seperated from our 14yo DD and could not find her for 3 hours. She did go to Guest Services but they could not contact us. I am very disappointed that they did not send us a message on our kids club pager. We would have found her immediately. I went to oceaneers club and used it to send messages to DH who was looking on CC. Guest services could have used it too. :( Anyway, later that night we were running around and missed the Pirate Party food. Like I said - we had a bad day... Cruise was still fun. I should have taken more time to rest and relax. My fault completely. We are looking to do bounce back cruise first or second week of November. Laura & Mike - Nick really enjoyed Michael. It was nice to meet everyone. Thanks for the great FEs!
Saturday we drove back to Destin, FL. WOW! That place is incredible. Amazingly beautiful. It is is very upscale and soooo much shopping!!!! The beaches have soft sand and crystal clear water. We stayed at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort before and after the cruise. We can't wait to return. We want to go back to The Sandestin Resort even more than another cruise. Off season at Sandestin is like Castaway Cay with lots less people. Do you get the idea we liked it ?!?!?!
We all have vacation withdrawl. My house doesn't look like a pristine resort.. Where is my stateroom host?!?!?! Guess I'll have to clean it :( Seriously, I have a renewed desire to fix up the house. It should be like our sanctuary. Later guys!!!
 
Wow Tracey! I would have been worried out of my head too. I am glad she is fine. Sorry about the rough day. Glad you made it home.
 
so sorry to hear about your trauma on Castaway Cay day. I have to say that was also my ONLY complaint about the cruise was the counselors and kids clubs. We had a few mishaps as well. And I am probably only disappointed because its DISNEY. I am probably being only over critical because I thought the one thing they would have down pat is anything to do with the kids. There was one night they paged us and we didn't get the page and they waited a half an hour before trying us again. They made franchesca sit the entire time and wait. She couldnt go on the computers or anything else. She was in tears by the time we go there because she couldn't understand what took us so long. She thought something had happened. She kept asking them but they told her to be patient. There were a few other problems as well but nothing compared to what you went through. I hope you told someone so they can adjust that for future families who may have a similar problem.

Did you get a comment card? We did not and I was upset only because I did want to mention to kids clubs and counselors but also wanted to RAVE about our servers and all the rest I enjoyed about the cruise. I was going to go to guest services but ran out of time. I think I will call and see if its not too late.

And by the way, THANK YOU for the Dallas postcards. I assume they were from you. The kids were very excited about that.

Hope you do the bounceback, maybe they will make up for your lost day. We are definitely doing it because we had such an awesome time, I couldn't bear to wait another year or two. don't want to miss this $$ saving opportunity.
 
Well shortly after arriving back in SC, I noticed that our tulip tree was in full bloom (a SURE sign for us southern gals that cold weather is over), but then we woke up Monday to snow flurries! GO FIGURE! I am looking forward to reading the trip reports - maybe this weekend. We are going to do the bounceback - for sure - hopefully in August before we go back to school. I know that it will be hot, but I'm just looking to relax a bit. We would also like to do a 7 day, but the timing of that is tough as it is really hard to take that much time out of school and our families would FREAK! if we went over Christmas! I'd love some input from the more experienced cruisers about the best 7 day trips. More from sunny sc later . . . :cool1:
 
Finkelly - You are more than welcome for the name magnets!

Saddest sight on ship - Time to leave...


Jan_Feb2009372.jpg
 
Oh Tracey! What a terrible thing to go thru! I am so glad that everything worked out ok! I am sure there must be a way to let DCL know about the situation with your DD and your positive comments as well. They need to be aware of the issue especially since you had such an easy solution to the problem! Your son looked about as happy as mine in that picture on the last day.:sad2: My Michael had a great time hanging out with Nick and Michael M. too.::yes::
 
We love that picture of Nick, Tracey, it was so much like what we faced with Michael, he was devastated when he had to go back to school.
Regarding your troubles, you could always write Disney Cruse Guest relations and let them know what happened. Can't hurt.

Disney Cruise Vacations
Guest Communications
Post Office Box 10238
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0238
 
You did the name magnets and the postcards?? :worship: Thank you so much. My husband was thoroughly impressed! He thought they were done by the crew. I had to convince him it was done by a fellow diser. He still couldn't believe me. I said they are homemade. They were talking all about it before we left, we were too late to get into the FE. So I know it was made by one of them. He said "you make it sound like they just whipped them up in the car on the way here". These are really nice and look like they were professionally done". I know I am going on and on about it, but trust me when I tell you our conversation lasted much longer than this post. I could NOT convince him. If its not too much trouble or an invasion of privacy, PM me your address. My kids would love to send you a little of NY. It would be a nice treat for them maybe.

Now if only I could find out who gave us the "thatmouse" magnet. I would be very happy. :yay: Unless that was you again TRACEY???

As far as the Michael picture, soo cute. We don't have one of those, but everytime I come online to read a report or check in with all of you, my son exclaims....."please stop!!!......I can't bare to look at anything to do with the cruise. I miss it sooo much!!!!" I told him that just means we have to do another.pirate:

Hope to meet some or all of you on a future cruise. I'm heading towards the labor day weekend cruise. My only fear is Hurricane Season. I guess we will have to see how past cruises have been.

For me, it will be nice to be able to give the new comers some advice. I don't know when, if ever, I will be as knowledgeable as most of you, but I'm already ahead of the game.

Enjoy the thoughts of spring on its way.:flower3:
 
I'm so SAD that our vacation is over! I'm sorry we didn't get to meet everyone at the Goofy pool on sunday at 3:00, but I move a little more slowly than I used to and was just finishing unpacking when we had to go for the safety drill. We had a great time ---except for the 2 days (Monday & Tuesday) we were required to stay in our staterooms because my husband and daughter were sick:sick: They (and I) had to miss the dolphin encounter and my daughter was really disappointed tha she didn't get to go with her kids. At least I got great pictures from the ship and my friends and son-in-law got great pictures of the kids with the dolphins. They allowed us to go ashore on Castaway Cay Tuesday, but had to stay in our stateroom when we returned!!::sad2: :sad1: Thank goodness no one else got sick!!:worship:

We had a lot of fun with the FE gifts. I loved the little shoes from Holland, all of the highlighters (everyone had a different color!) the magnets, the chapsticks (really came in handy) the candy, pirate goodies, magnetic picture frame, post cards, pins, green mesh bags of goodies, just everything! I hope everyone liked our photo albums - I meant to add a note in front wishing everyone a fantastic voyage and signing it, but ran out of time.

The only complaint I had was the glass bottom boat ride. We went out at low tide and the boat was so far below the dock that the ladder didn't reach it. I've had knee replacement surgery and had a terrible time getting back out of the boat! the step from the side of the boat to the first rung of the ladder was nearly 3 feet high!! The captain of the boat moved the boat to another ladder that came down closer to the edge of the boat, but the steps on that ladder were rickety wood and about 20 inches apart. Needless to say I made it, but it wasn't pretty!:scared:

The nightly shows in the Disney Theater were wonderful -- I was so impressed with all of them. I loved shopping in the Treasure Ketch. I couldn't believe the prices on the Jim Shore Disney pieces -- 50% off!

Castaway Cay is the closest thing to paradise that I've ever seen!! I'd like to spend several days there and skip the Bahamas. The barbecue was delicious. We just didn't have time to do all of the things we wanted to do there -- like sit in the shade near the beach and read for hours!!! I'm still wearing my Mickey charm on my necklace! I hope we can come back for the $99 cruise this fall...I'll have to talk to my daughter...

Sharon
 
Geesh, Sharon, I hate that you had to stay in your room for so much! I am glad that it didn't dampen your spirits and glad that you still had fun! I too would love several days at Castaway Key. We are only about 45 minutes from Myrtle Beach, but that beach is just heavenly! You can find just what you want there - lots of action - or a quiet corner. Glad that everyone is better!
Krista
 

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