Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 1/2), DS (11 1/2).
Third Disney cruise (inaugural Western 5/02, 4 day Wonder 1/03)
Plans: Drive from Southern Maryland to Reagan National 12/15 and fly to MCO. Stay 3 nights at BWV on rented points (meeting up with my mom), drive to Port Canaveral 12/18 am, CRUISE, return 12/28, drive to Tampa for 12/29 return flight to Reagan National followed by drive back to So. Md.
I posted our planning and WDW trip reports on the regular trip report pages if you're interested, but now, the real vacation starts!
12/18: DH and I had our BWV studio to ourselves, since the kids had stayed with Grandma at Pop Century that night. I woke up well before the alarm (only needed it one day the entire trip!!), so I was ready to go by 8:00. We called Pop Century to verify with DM that the kids were up and moving, since we had planned to leave for the port by 9:00. BWV checkout was painless, we had the valet grab the rental SUV, and we were off. We got to Pop Century and parked in the absolutely wrong lot (Mom said she was in the 60s when she was really in the 70s), but found the room eventually. Unfortunately, when we knocked, no one was home. After a treasure hunt, we found the kids and mom down by the pool. They had gone over to the main lobby to get some bandaids for DS's toe. The kids had gone swimming in the Hippy Dippy pool and DS stubbed his little toe really badly. He tore off a good chunk of skin, and DM didn't have any bandaids.
We had the typical family confusion with DM making us open Christmas gifts before we left, etc. Of course, there was no room to pack the things she got us, so she ended up mailing them back to our house. We finally took her bags up to the lobby to meet the person she was driving home with and headed out to the port by about 9:15.
We took 417 over to 528 and it was a very easy drive. About 10:15 we were within a couple of miles, so we stopped to gas up and get a drink. I didn't want to get there before the terminal was open! I dropped off DH and the kids and went to return the rental car. I had expected DH to do that, but he didn't know where Budget was, so I got the job. Of course, we were wearing our bright blue DIS 10 day cruiser t-shirts, so DH got to meet lots and lots of DISers! Budget was easy to find, and I was back in about 30 minutes. DH hadn't gotten in line yet though. He said "Why do we need to get in line? I'm checked in already?" I knew I should have forced him to read the DIS more!
I met a few DISers, and got in line to register for the kids club while DH held our spot in the boarding line. I filled out the form, and a CM told me that since the kids were in the 10-12 group, I could just swing by and pick up a pager at my leisure once we were on board. Since the registration line wasn't moving, and the boarding line was, I moved over with DH after gathering up the kids. We skipped the embarkation photo since we haven't ever bought one, and we were on board by 12:15 or so.
We went straight to Parrot Cay for the buffet. They were going to seat us with the other blue shirted DISers, but the table was full, so we started a new table. We enjoyed the buffet (yummy peel and eat shrimp!), then the kids headed over to Beat Street. They curled up in the big portholes while we registered for Palo's on St. Lucia night. We got the LAP rotation we had requested, and I set our Palo night for a Parrot Cay night (our least favorite restaurant). They had an opening for 8:30, which was our normal dinner seating, so that's what we took.
By this time, the staterooms were open, so we headed down to 2573. It was just like I remember our last Cat 10, but DH was sure they had shrunk it somehow! Our Castaway Club towel and pins were waiting, and we met our stateroom host, Jose. Somewhere around this time, I went to the lab with DS and got our pager. They really did want the kids there so they could put a sticker on their KTTW cards, but DD just did hers on her first visit. I think that was also when I stopped by Guest Services to remove charging privileges from the kids cards.
Our first official DIS meet was at 3:00 on Deck 10. We met up with some folks we hadn't seen yet there, and had a great time until it was time for the life boat drill. Deck 2 starboard is on the sunny side of the lifeboat drill. Even though it was only in the low 70s, standing in full sun was pretty warm! The smallest to biggest order thing caused a bit of poking between my kids. I told them to knock it off "because this drill is pretty important and even though you've done it before, you have to be quiet because not everyone has." The CM came over and thanked me, saying that lots of people just don't seem to get that point. It was over pretty quickly, and the kids took off for the pool, while I did some unpacking. The next thing I knew, it was almost 5:00 and I thought "I've missed sailaway!" I grabbed the bubbles and headed to deck 10 to find out that we were delayed. Rumors ran that it was either a medical emergency, or late flights. Never did hear the answer, but I really enjoyed the DIS group until about 5:40 when the early diners headed out. I did some unpacking then and we rounded up the kids to go ready for the show.
First nights show (Late diners go to the 6:30 show, while early diners go to the 8:30 show) was a variety show and a welcome aboard skit. DD and I really enjoy all the DCL shows, but I think all 4 of us went to this one. That was when we found out that Christy Carlson Romano (voice of KimPossible) was on our cruise). DD was very excited about this! The show was cute, and it started the cruise long game of "guessing what else that CM did". The male lead in the welcome aboard skit was also Young Hercules, Peter Pan in Dreams, and was in almost every other show they did.
I think we went back to finish unpacking and get dressed for dinner since there wasn't a cabaret show that night. Our first nights dinner was in Lumiere's. We met our servers (Alexsander from Croatia and Noel from India. Alen from Croatia was our head server), and were shown to our table for 4, on the right side of the main aisle. We've never made any table size requests, and we are now 3 for 3 on being seated at a table for 4. Alex chatted with us a bit, and told us that our first server, Boris had just been promoted to Head Server for the PLA rotation. He started with a discussion of how they set a goal of Excellent service, and I thought "Oh, not the excellent speech!" But that was the last we heard about it until the last night, when he mentioned that he hoped they had met their goal for excellence.
Dinner was really good. I don't remember exactly what anyone had, but I know DD had the first of many servings of some sort of salmon. She ate off the adult menu almost every night. DS had plain pasta with parmesan cheese, which was his typical order as well. After that night, Noel didn't even ask what we wanted to drink, he remembered each of our orders.
The kids left while we were finishing dessert and coffee and checked into the lab. We stopped by and told them they needed to be in by 11, and headed off to the room. A long, but very successful day.
One note about our room. We were in a connecting cat 10. Originally, we had the connector booked for my in-laws, but had to cancel due to Dads' health at 62 days before the cruise. That first day, we really worried about the noise, because we could hear lots of yelling through the door, and at one point, something hit the door really hard. I met the dad and son in the hallway a couple of days later and mentioned that they must have booked late, since we had originally had that room. He said that they had booked about 45 days out. He apologized if they had been loud, and said that they were having problems settling in, but that he thought things would get better. They did, and we only occasionally heard them after that.
On the other hand, my kids were pretty quiet except for the nightly battle. They decided that the bottom bunk was the preferred one (because they got to have breakfast in their bed while the top bunk had to come down out of bed to eat), so they'd argue about who's turn it was. This usually happened about 11 or 11:30 at night! Then DD would insist on all the lights being out, while DS wanted the bathroom light on as a night light. After a couple of nights like that, I put my foot down, and things were more calm from then on. Of course, that was probably because I spent several nights in the top bunk, but anything for peace and quiet!!
I'll try to get the next day posted soon!
Third Disney cruise (inaugural Western 5/02, 4 day Wonder 1/03)
Plans: Drive from Southern Maryland to Reagan National 12/15 and fly to MCO. Stay 3 nights at BWV on rented points (meeting up with my mom), drive to Port Canaveral 12/18 am, CRUISE, return 12/28, drive to Tampa for 12/29 return flight to Reagan National followed by drive back to So. Md.
I posted our planning and WDW trip reports on the regular trip report pages if you're interested, but now, the real vacation starts!
12/18: DH and I had our BWV studio to ourselves, since the kids had stayed with Grandma at Pop Century that night. I woke up well before the alarm (only needed it one day the entire trip!!), so I was ready to go by 8:00. We called Pop Century to verify with DM that the kids were up and moving, since we had planned to leave for the port by 9:00. BWV checkout was painless, we had the valet grab the rental SUV, and we were off. We got to Pop Century and parked in the absolutely wrong lot (Mom said she was in the 60s when she was really in the 70s), but found the room eventually. Unfortunately, when we knocked, no one was home. After a treasure hunt, we found the kids and mom down by the pool. They had gone over to the main lobby to get some bandaids for DS's toe. The kids had gone swimming in the Hippy Dippy pool and DS stubbed his little toe really badly. He tore off a good chunk of skin, and DM didn't have any bandaids.
We had the typical family confusion with DM making us open Christmas gifts before we left, etc. Of course, there was no room to pack the things she got us, so she ended up mailing them back to our house. We finally took her bags up to the lobby to meet the person she was driving home with and headed out to the port by about 9:15.
We took 417 over to 528 and it was a very easy drive. About 10:15 we were within a couple of miles, so we stopped to gas up and get a drink. I didn't want to get there before the terminal was open! I dropped off DH and the kids and went to return the rental car. I had expected DH to do that, but he didn't know where Budget was, so I got the job. Of course, we were wearing our bright blue DIS 10 day cruiser t-shirts, so DH got to meet lots and lots of DISers! Budget was easy to find, and I was back in about 30 minutes. DH hadn't gotten in line yet though. He said "Why do we need to get in line? I'm checked in already?" I knew I should have forced him to read the DIS more!
I met a few DISers, and got in line to register for the kids club while DH held our spot in the boarding line. I filled out the form, and a CM told me that since the kids were in the 10-12 group, I could just swing by and pick up a pager at my leisure once we were on board. Since the registration line wasn't moving, and the boarding line was, I moved over with DH after gathering up the kids. We skipped the embarkation photo since we haven't ever bought one, and we were on board by 12:15 or so.
We went straight to Parrot Cay for the buffet. They were going to seat us with the other blue shirted DISers, but the table was full, so we started a new table. We enjoyed the buffet (yummy peel and eat shrimp!), then the kids headed over to Beat Street. They curled up in the big portholes while we registered for Palo's on St. Lucia night. We got the LAP rotation we had requested, and I set our Palo night for a Parrot Cay night (our least favorite restaurant). They had an opening for 8:30, which was our normal dinner seating, so that's what we took.
By this time, the staterooms were open, so we headed down to 2573. It was just like I remember our last Cat 10, but DH was sure they had shrunk it somehow! Our Castaway Club towel and pins were waiting, and we met our stateroom host, Jose. Somewhere around this time, I went to the lab with DS and got our pager. They really did want the kids there so they could put a sticker on their KTTW cards, but DD just did hers on her first visit. I think that was also when I stopped by Guest Services to remove charging privileges from the kids cards.
Our first official DIS meet was at 3:00 on Deck 10. We met up with some folks we hadn't seen yet there, and had a great time until it was time for the life boat drill. Deck 2 starboard is on the sunny side of the lifeboat drill. Even though it was only in the low 70s, standing in full sun was pretty warm! The smallest to biggest order thing caused a bit of poking between my kids. I told them to knock it off "because this drill is pretty important and even though you've done it before, you have to be quiet because not everyone has." The CM came over and thanked me, saying that lots of people just don't seem to get that point. It was over pretty quickly, and the kids took off for the pool, while I did some unpacking. The next thing I knew, it was almost 5:00 and I thought "I've missed sailaway!" I grabbed the bubbles and headed to deck 10 to find out that we were delayed. Rumors ran that it was either a medical emergency, or late flights. Never did hear the answer, but I really enjoyed the DIS group until about 5:40 when the early diners headed out. I did some unpacking then and we rounded up the kids to go ready for the show.
First nights show (Late diners go to the 6:30 show, while early diners go to the 8:30 show) was a variety show and a welcome aboard skit. DD and I really enjoy all the DCL shows, but I think all 4 of us went to this one. That was when we found out that Christy Carlson Romano (voice of KimPossible) was on our cruise). DD was very excited about this! The show was cute, and it started the cruise long game of "guessing what else that CM did". The male lead in the welcome aboard skit was also Young Hercules, Peter Pan in Dreams, and was in almost every other show they did.
I think we went back to finish unpacking and get dressed for dinner since there wasn't a cabaret show that night. Our first nights dinner was in Lumiere's. We met our servers (Alexsander from Croatia and Noel from India. Alen from Croatia was our head server), and were shown to our table for 4, on the right side of the main aisle. We've never made any table size requests, and we are now 3 for 3 on being seated at a table for 4. Alex chatted with us a bit, and told us that our first server, Boris had just been promoted to Head Server for the PLA rotation. He started with a discussion of how they set a goal of Excellent service, and I thought "Oh, not the excellent speech!" But that was the last we heard about it until the last night, when he mentioned that he hoped they had met their goal for excellence.
Dinner was really good. I don't remember exactly what anyone had, but I know DD had the first of many servings of some sort of salmon. She ate off the adult menu almost every night. DS had plain pasta with parmesan cheese, which was his typical order as well. After that night, Noel didn't even ask what we wanted to drink, he remembered each of our orders.
The kids left while we were finishing dessert and coffee and checked into the lab. We stopped by and told them they needed to be in by 11, and headed off to the room. A long, but very successful day.
One note about our room. We were in a connecting cat 10. Originally, we had the connector booked for my in-laws, but had to cancel due to Dads' health at 62 days before the cruise. That first day, we really worried about the noise, because we could hear lots of yelling through the door, and at one point, something hit the door really hard. I met the dad and son in the hallway a couple of days later and mentioned that they must have booked late, since we had originally had that room. He said that they had booked about 45 days out. He apologized if they had been loud, and said that they were having problems settling in, but that he thought things would get better. They did, and we only occasionally heard them after that.
On the other hand, my kids were pretty quiet except for the nightly battle. They decided that the bottom bunk was the preferred one (because they got to have breakfast in their bed while the top bunk had to come down out of bed to eat), so they'd argue about who's turn it was. This usually happened about 11 or 11:30 at night! Then DD would insist on all the lights being out, while DS wanted the bathroom light on as a night light. After a couple of nights like that, I put my foot down, and things were more calm from then on. Of course, that was probably because I spent several nights in the top bunk, but anything for peace and quiet!!
I'll try to get the next day posted soon!
