Cast of characters
me, DH and DS (12) and DD (11). This was
DCL cruise #6 4 on the Magic and our second Wonder cruise.
Our trip planning began in early 2006 when the DISboards broke the news that the Magic was heading to the Med in the summer of 2007. You gotta feel for DCL that someone in Barcelona blabbed that the Magic was coming before they could officially announce it.
But our interest in the Med ended when DCL decided on the western Med itinerary and not Greece. Our wallets thanked us.
So our focus switched to the Wonder and another Land-and-sea vacation. We did the land-and-sea vacation in 2005 when the Magic was in CA. That time we did 3 nights at the parks and 4 nights on the ship. Three nights just isnt enough to do WDW so this time we opted for 4 nights at the parks. Besides, having done a 4-night cruise, I was curious to see what a 3-night cruise was like.
Ill digress a bit at this point and say that I think DCL needs to dissolve the whole land-and-sea plan and just let everyone book the parks and the cruise separately. Let people pick the number of days you want to stay at WDW and at which resort. When you do the land-and-sea you either have to start your trip on a Thursday or a Sunday. I dont know about you, but most people I know prefer their vacations to go Saturday to Saturday. DCL must think the same way since the Magic sails Saturday-to-Saturday.
Given that we made our bookings right when the 2007 dates were released, we thought wed try for something special
something unqiue
the Holy Grail of bookings
we asked if a mid-ship Category 3 room was available. Weve stayed in a Cat 3 before but never the mid-ship ones. We always hear on the DIS that these mid-ship ones are better than the other Cat 3s.
So our TA speaks with inventory control
and
and
.and
ITS A WALK OFF GRAND SLAM FOLKS!!!!!! We got 8032!!!!!! It was going to be a long 17 month wait until August 23rd.
Fast forward to mid spring 2007. We get a phone call from our TA. DCL has given her our flight information for our trip and she sees that DCL did NOT book us on a direct flight from NJ to Orlando. WHAT?????? Okay, every year between 2002 and 2006 DCL has always booked us a Continental non-stop flight from Newark to Orlando. What gives?
So my TA calls DCL and asks to switch us to a direct flight. DCL says no can do there arent any available. My rather taken aback TA reminds DCL that we made this booking 17 months in advance and there were plenty of opportunities to book a direct flight for a long-time DCL customer.
That didnt work. My TA then checks Continental herself and low and behold there are direct flights available both ways and seats available. AAAAAND
..guess what
.. for the exact same price DCL was charging us.
Our next move was a no-brainer. Our TA canceled the DCL flights and booked us on Continental. I will give DCL credit that they refunded our money right away. But we will never let DCL book our flights again.
Fast forward again to the beginning of the summer. Its a Friday night, Im walking around the house gathering up dirty plates and mugs that the family has left behind to put in the dishwasher. Ive got two mugs in the left hand and two mugs in the right hand. Im turning the corner to head into the kitchen when I walked straight into the corner of the vacuum cleaner. A Hoover Windtunnel upright, the kind with a self propelled motor, the kind that weighs a ton.
I actually felt the bones in my toe shatter. The only question was it just one toe or multiple toes and was it just the toe or further into the foot. Most of my foot turned the exact color of the water you see in the Caribbean that beautiful turquoise blue.
I went and got it checked out. Multiple fractures to the pinky toe of the left foot. You cant put a toe in a cast; so I got it taped up, given a special shoe to wear, a cane and plenty of pain killers.
(did you know your pinky toe is the second most important toe in your foot after the big toe? Your pinky toe provides your lateral support when you stand)
After the initial visit to the ER, I saw a podiatrist. He tells me the toe should heal in 6-8 weeks. I do a quick mental calculation. Yikes, thats cutting it really close to our land-sea vacation
the kind of vacation where you do loads of walking around WDW not to mention snorkeling on the cruise.
And even more pressing
..a trip to the New Jersey shore in early August.
The doc gives it to me straight the fastest way to repair the bone is to keep the toe as immobilized as possible. No running, no yard work, no swimming in the ocean. I was good with the first two but had major problems with the third. Im a Jersey girl at heart we go to the shore every summer and I live in the waves. No ocean swimming hit me like a knife to the chest.
But I had a bigger prize in mind WDW and the cruise. So I was good at the shore, though walking on the sand was a killer. And the weeds in my yard are now so tall they can conceal an army platoon.
So now lets fast forward to about a week before we leave. I see the podiatrist to check on my foot. He looks at the latest x-ray and says the bone is healing but not completely. I ask what to do about WDW. He says when indoors to wear the special shoe but outdoors to wear a sneaker. Okay Im fine with that. I just wont ride any rides where I can get wet since theres nothing worse than walking around in wet sneakers. And for good measure I wont ride any roller coasters or anything where I can bang my feet. Not so bad since I really dont like riding roller coasters.
Sunday August 19, 2007
Our flight to Orlando was at noon. The 10:30am flight was full. Yes, that means we miss half our first day at WDW. But that was fine with us. You see, on our August 2006 Magic cruise, we were foolish enough to fly in on the day of the cruise and our flight left at 6:50am which meant we had to leave the house at 4:00am to get to the airport extra early because this was right after the no-liquids rule went into effect and now it was taking longer to check in at the airports. It was a nightmare trying to check in at 5:00am at Newark that day.
This time it was completely different. And it started off right. Around 9:30am, a limo pulls into our driveway.
Weve been using the same car service for years and weve never taken a stretch limo. Usually its been a beaten up van big enough to hold all our luggage but usually missing things like the seat belts.
There was plenty of room for all our luggage in a stretch limo.
Too bad we encountered absolutely no traffic on the way to the airport. It was a Sunday morning after all.
So the driver pulls in front of the Continental check in area and drops us off in front of one of the curb-side check in booths. Theres a bit of a line but nothing like we encountered last year.
Were there barely five minutes when a Continental employee comes up to us and asks if weve checked in. Whoa. He grabs our boarding pass and asks us how many bags were checking in and disappears. He reappears after a few minutes, tags our luggage, puts it on a cart and wishes us a great trip.
Wow.
He got a huge tip for that.
Our flying time to Florida was two hours. Though it felt longer to me when one of the flight attendants dropped my drink on my lap. Thank goodness I dont drink tomato juice.
Heres what happened. I was sitting in the aisle seat with DS and DD on my left. DH was across the aisle on the aisle seat. Continental served a small lunch consisting of a turkey sandwich, bag of ruffles and a twix bar. Then a drink.
Now, why is it that us moms find our tray tables become a garbage can for the rest of the familys trash? On my tray table was my own empty lunch tray plus DS and DDs garbage as well as their empty cups. I wasnt finished with my drink but had nowhere on my tray table to put my half full cup of soda.
So I took the empty soda cups and stack them then put my half full soda cup on top of that.
The flight attendant then comes around with the garbage bag. I give him all the trash. He then grabs the stack of soda cups and asks if Im finished. I say no, Im still drinking which at that point the soda cups slip out of his hand right onto my lap.
Now ordinarily, if a cup of liquid and ice falls on your lap you are immediately going to stand up so that the ice falls off your lap and onto the floor. But remember, Im seated with the tray table directly above my knees. I physically cannot stand up.
Instead, I can do absolutely nothing but sit still while multiple cubes of ice race down between my legs to my backside where upon they instantly melted.
Nice. The flight attendant is beside himself with apologies. He goes to the first class section and gives me a cloth napkin and a can of seltzer.
To be honest, the cloth napkin had zero absorbency and the seltzer just made my pants even wetter.
When we landed my shorts were almost dry. Cant say the same for my underwear but at least no one notices that.
One side night
.on takeoff during our ascent, I could tell the pilot flew the plane is a perfectly straight line. How? Because someone at the front of the plane dropped their paperback book with a smooth cover onto the floor and book slid down the center aisle in a straight line all the way to the back of the plane.
We had a terrific time at WDW but the weather was scorching hot. Four days of brilliant blue skies. Its like the clouds took a holiday. It wasnt that it was unusually humid, just day after day of being out in the hot sun. Im surprised I didnt see people pass out from the heat.
We took the bus from the airport to our resort and when the bus stopped at one hotel to let people off I saw a family unloading their luggage and on top of everything was a HUGE case of bottled water. DH laughed at that.
Well, that family had the last laugh after the large amount of bottled water we bought over our four days.
So how did my foot do? The answer is not good. But thats because we way overdid it. Each day we went to the park that had the late night extra hours and took advantage of it. So I was on my feet a loooooong time. I did sit on park benches while DH and the kids rode the rides. But the heat and having my foot in a sock in a sneaker made my feet swell which pinched all my toes.
Each subsequent day my foot started to hurt earlier and earlier in the day so that by day four I was in a lot of pain. I sat on benches with my sneaker off and read the Passporter Guide to WDW. On most occasions I had to walk a far distance to find a bench in the shade.
One memorable experience at WDW was riding the bus from Animal Kingdom to the Magic Kingdom. The bus was packed and DD & DS sat in the front row and DH & I sat several rows behind them. Standing in the aisle next to the kids were several college-age girls and two CMs.
Well, this was day four and the heat was starting to get to DS & DD and they started arguing and bickering with each other. The college girls and the CMs start laughing. You would think a dose of public humiliation would get DD & DS to stop fighting but that just seemed to egg them on.
I stayed out of it completely and just enjoyed the show.
Next up
time to cruise
.
We have to leave for the airport by noon, and I have a 9:20 appointment to see if I can get the shoe boot off. I've had this injury for well over six weeks, and it just doesn't seem to be healing very quickly! It's a cracked fibula bone in my ankle. I knew there was a reason I didn't like to exercise! This is what it got me!
