August 6, 2005 Mexican Riviera..Who's In?

[Catnip0113]

The first group photo looks the same on my camera Vickie. I have to learn how to post photos, I didn't get that last one, I looked in Shutters the last morning but didn't see it. I was able to print and save it from your post. Thank you for having that taken for us.

It was so hard to go back to work today, it was good to see people though. I really miss being waited on and having someone cook and clean

Cathy

 

[SchultzFamily]

The first group photo looks the same on my camera Vickie. I have to learn how to post photos, I didn't get that last one, I looked in Shutters the last morning but didn't see it. I was able to print and save it from your post. Thank you for having that taken for us.

It was so hard to go back to work today, it was good to see people though. I really miss being waited on and having someone cook and clean

Cathy

Yes Cathy, I got so used to being waited on that I've been scanning pictures, posting pictures and printing pictures most of the day while Wick has been doing the laundry all day!!!! Do I feel guilty, no!! I did cook dinner though and it was nice to have a home cooked meal!
I don't have to go back to work until Thursday and I'm not looking foreward to it.
Vickie

 

[Kidoctr]

OK - hang on to your hats....here's the trip journal that I kept while we were in CA and on the cruise. It's very very long and I wrote it mostly to keep and help me reminisce someday about our fabulous trip. I kept a journal like this when I went to Europe with some friends after college and still sit down and read it every once in a while. Here goes:

3 August 2005, Wednesday - OKC to LAX, Disneyland

We had abandoned our original plans for an overnight stay in Oklahoma City to catch our 6:50 am flight on American Airlines. There was just too much packing left to do even after the marathon packing (or more like gathering) session early yesterday morning when I was up until 1 am packing Rhys' clothes, then Amina's, then mine. Oh boy, I can't wait for the day when the kids can pack their own clothes and stuff. I was patting myself on the shoulder for cleverly packing our stuff - the kids clothes were planned and put in ziplock bags for easy (no thinking) prep in the mornings. All of our stuff that would be used on the cruise only went in to the garment bag and the huge suitcase - not to be opened until we physically get on the ship. A smaller suitcase to put all of my "cruise stuff" in like the over-the-door organizer, nightlight, extension cord, door decorations, pillow cases to be signed, extra batteries, laundry bag, suction cup hooks, etc, etc. Everything that I had read on the DIS boards and had carefully taken note of. The ONLY thing I seemed to have forgotten was the mailing tube to bring home undamaged copies of the navigators, etc. No time - ah well, I'll have to remember the next time. We left early for the airport - about 4 am. Actually more like 4:10 am since we couldn't find Linus the 24-toed cat and wanted to make sure he wouldn't be trapped in the house or the garage for a week. The kids rode in the van to the city (1.5 hours away) in their pj's. As we approached the airport, we changed them into their outfits. After checking-in on the computer at the airport, it turns out that the kids were assigned to seats in different rows - not with us. We had this fixed at the gate.

The flight to Dallas was very short - about 1/2 an hour. Both kids complained about their ears on the flight. Seth grabbed some breakfast and coffee for us as I stopped by the gift shop in Dallas to get some chewing gum. We dined on a cheese danish, large muffin, and so-so coffee (imo - Seattle's Best) waiting for our connecting flight. The story at this gate was the same - the kids were assigned to different rows from us. Unfortunately, our seat reassignments landed us in the LAST row of the airplane (DD, DS, and I with DH sitting in front of me) which means no reclining seats, people loitering around during the whole flight waiting for the bathroom to open up (not to mention the occasional smells), and the total lack of service from the flight attendants (we were lucky to get some juice). Ugh, not a good start to our trip. At least Amina napped on the plane - Rhys squirmed around in his seat for quite awhile until Amina woke up and then they watched Shrek 2 on my laptop. Thankfully, my battery held out until just as we were getting ready to land. I had even managed to finish reading two full issues of "Parents" magazine. The chewing gum helped as did the small activity books I had picked up at the UNM bookstore when we were in Albuquerque last weekend. Each kid had their own backpacks and I had filled them with activity books, coloring books, crayons, pens, pencils, their small battery operated personal fans (that light up - highly recommended), autograph books, a bottle of flavored water, small snack bag full of gorp, and decorated with a Captain Mickey keychain, Disneyland 50th anniversary luggage tag, and a DCL pin. They were styling.

We arrived at LAX a teensy bit early (about 9:40 am instead of 10 am) and retrieved our luggage after paying $3 for a baggage cart. The nice thing was that you could just swipe your credit card in the machine instead of fumbling around for change or cash. Our luggage arrived unharmed - though the big test will be to see if they arrive in our cabins on the ship after our last experience with lost luggage on a cruise (non-Disney). We located the Super Shuttle area outside on the other side of the street and checked in with a short plump woman who obviously hated her job. How sad. We watched a TON of blue Super Shuttle vans go by headed for different destinations. There are simply too many places to go in LA! LOL! It took almost 45 minutes for the "right" van to show up. The kids were getting waaaay ansy but were temporarily distracted with the gorp snacks in their backpacks. The van trip to the Grand Californian was longer than I thought it would be but not due to heavy traffic. I guess it was further from the airport than I thought. We had a nice conversation with the family in the van with us. They were from the New England area and staying for a few days before heading to Denver - 3 kids, all 6 and up.

We arrived at the GC at about 11:45 am after stopping at the gate and being given a green piece of paper with our name on it - we were a little disappointed. The hotel is gorgeous but we were expecting the same treatment we had received at the Grand Floridian last year. Surprisingly, there was NO porter to be found when our luggage was unloaded from the van. The kids had to carry their backpacks and each dragged a piece of luggage behind them (the smaller, lighter pieces), and I had my 2 carry on bags and the rolling garment bag, Seth juggled his backpack and 2 very large rolling suitcases. We stepped into the hotel lobby and made a bee line for the first open couch/arm chairs we could find - there was plenty of seating. While they waited with all the luggage, I got in line to check-in. The hotel was exactly as described - that wonderful Craftsman style that DH and I really love. A gigantic fire place with HUGE stones/boulders on either side. The lighting fixtures were wonderful. The CM at the reception area was very friendly and gave me some tips on how to get to the parks and where to grab a quick lunch as I waited in line. Check-in was unremarkable except that our room wasn't ready and there was a SEPARATE check-in area for the cruise portion of our vacation - so much for being checked into "everything" at the same time as I thought we would be. We got room keys - no Key to the World cards. We pawned our luggage off to the porters at the bell desk who did apologize for not getting our luggage upon our arrival to the hotel. 10 bags total went into a mysterious storage area. This happened so quickly that I didn't have time to really plan out what I needed to take out of my carry-on bags. I ended leaving my camera and grabbing some unnecessary (and heavy!) things that did not fit well into my small shoulder pack.

We headed to the White Water Snacks area for lunch. It was a little confusing because as you walk in, there are packaged items, fountain drinks, a fridge with other assorted items and drinks, etc and the menu for grill items is on the far wall near the cash registers. You can get some drinks etc but then walk across the room to decide what you want and order it first at the cash register. I had started to fill a cup with ice for one of the kids when we realized that we had to order the grill items. The kids' meals already had drinks included. You pay and take a number with you and sit as you wait for the food to be brought out. The food was ok - Seth and I shared a grilled chicken sandwich that had a poblano pepper and guacamole on it. It was little plain tasting but definitely big enough for the both of us to share. DD and DS had the kids' meals (chicken strips/fries and cheeseburger/fries) that came in take-home "lunchboxes". They could have easily shared just one lunch - the portions were very large and we wasted a lot of food. When we got everyone cleaned up, we headed out to the park. It was about 1 pm.

The exit to Downtown Disney was nearby. I guess I didn't realize that the hotel was smack dab in the middle of both DCA AND DD. Fortunately, the nice lady at the reception area had already told me to turn right to get to DL. We walked to the main gate and entered easily with no wait. We headed to Jungle Cruise first. I have to stop here and say that I had invested in Ridemax a couple months ago and played around with this computer program and had pre-printed some itineraries for each of the 3 days that we are here. I had at least 2 options for each day taking into consideration the rides that were similar to the ones at WDW we did last year (and that we probably wouldn't take the time to ride again) as well as the height restrictions (DS is 46"), and DD/DS' willingness to give the rides a "try". Both of my kids are pretty chicken-hearted when it comes to anything that might move fast or be scary. So, according to "option 3" on my grand plan that estimated our arrival at DL to be about 1:30 pm, we go to the Jungle Cruise first and just stick with rides in Frontierland, Adventureland, and Critter Country. We skipped the Tiki Room. The Jungle Cruise looked so UNcrowded and I commented to DH that there was "nobody" waiting. LOL - I had forgotten what the Imagineers at Disney can do to disguise a long line. The line wasn't too bad and the kids enjoyed the cruise which, to my recollection, was VERY close to WDW's version. The jumping pirahnas were funny. I had to chuckle that even though it's been a year and Rhys is now 6, he still grabbed my arm when something started to get a little too "scary".

We exited and went up and around Tarzan's Treehouse since we were ahead of my printed schedule. We picked up a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fastpass and walked over to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The kids loved that one and wanted to go on it again which becomes a recurring theme in the next couple of days even though we told them over and over that there are SO many rides to go on that we probably won't have time to wait a second time. We were still ahead of schedule so we decided to go on the Davy Crockett canoes. Rhys didn't meet the age requirement to go without a life jacket so he unhappily put one on. That was a wet experience for me as I sat behind Rhys who was not exactly skilled with a canoe paddle. He flung that green murky water at me often. I finally gave up paddling because I was trying to coordinate my paddling with his and kept smacking the paddle of the person behind me. LOL. Neither DH nor I have ever done the canoes before and it's probably safe to say that we won't again. After canoeing - it was very obvious how tired Rhys was - everything was a trigger to start yelling or threaten a meltdown so we headed back to the hotel with either me or DH carrying him a good part of the way. We had called from the park on my cell phone to the number the reception CM had given to me to check on our room availability. Even though we had been issued room keys, we did not have a room number. After providing the "PIN" number ( the last 4 digits of the phone number you provide during check-in), we got our room number. It was about 2:30 pm.

We were in room 3156 which is to the right off the elevator on the 3rd floor. You take another right and walk down a LONG hall of rooms, and then ANOTHER right to about 3/4 of the way down the hall to get to the room. DH and I had just joked last weekend that the hotel we were staying at in Albuquerque actually gave us a room that was one of the first rooms near the entrance - we didn't even have to take an elevator. Now we were back to schlepping (sp?) down TWO hallways to get to our room which was reminiscent of our hotel stays in Las Vegas. The kids were out like a light (DH too) when we got to the room. The porter brought our luggage up to the room and I basically unpacked everyone quietly while they slept. I snuck out when I realized that we had not received any of our "freebies" for being Disney Visa Card holders. I went to guest services downstairs with the insert from one of my Visa card statements listing the "freebies" - a 50th anniversary tote bag, preferred viewing of the Snow White show and preferred viewing of one parade. The CMs checked for me and it turns out that my TA never added this on. Fortunately, they sent me to the Disney Travel Center in DD (not too far away), where I got there just before they closed (right before 5 pm) and they said "No Problem!" and gave me my freebies! Yay! The tote bag is really nice - dark blue with the 50th anniversary emblem on it. Lots of pockets - a much nicer bag than the plain carry-on I have. I will definitely be using it instead of my other square (standard) carry-on.

When I got back to the room, Amina was up and DH then woke up. Rhys was still out. Amina and I did a little shopping in DD while we waited for Rhys to get up. We checked out Libby Lu's first thinking it was like a "Claire's". Holy cow! We were wrong. What a dream store for DD - everything she touched she "wanted". LOL. The deal with the kids: they had each earned $50 Disney dollars and could spend that on anything they want. I had already explained to DD that they may only use $5 each of the 10 days that we are on vacation. She could buy something for $5 or less or, save it up and use $10 tomorrow, or $15 on Friday, etc. She "checked out" what she wanted and decided to come back later to make her "potions" - stuff like perfume, bath gel, nail polish, body glitter, etc. The store has "stations" set up and empty plastic containers for the girls to layer the various potion ingredients. It's kinda neat and there was even a little girl there having a birthday party for a few of her friends - maybe 5 or 6 years old. It was cute. We then walked down a little further and looked at the stuff on the outdoor carts. There was a cart with crystal/hand-blown glass stuff. More things for Amina to "want". A cart where you could get an airbrushed tattoo - definitely something Rhys wanted to do - heck, I'd even do something for the cruise. Another cart where you could get your hair wrapped. Too bad it wasn't for hair braiding. We then turned around and headed to the World of Disney store where we could pick up our free lanyards and pins stopping at Jamba Juice along the way (that was surprisingly good - I had never had one). The lanyards are dark blue and say Disney Travel and Happiest Celebration on Earth. The pin is a 50th anniversary pin. Got a call from DH that Rhys was starting to stir so we went back to the room.

Rhys was still sleeping when we got back - it was already after 6 pm. We tried waking him but he is soooo hard to wake up. His nap was going on 3 hours! He's done that occasionally at home but hunger usually drives him out of bed. It was basically 8 pm for him (home time) and DH was afraid he was "out" for the night. We got his shoes on and decided to carry him to DL for dinner. The line to get into DL was really long - it was almost 6:45 pm and I guess everyone was going back for the parade or because it had cooled off. It had probably been high 80's when we had left the park earlier. Rhys was finally up. We decided to see if any tables were available at the Carnation Cafe. I thought it was a long shot with priority res but there was only 2 families ahead of us in line. We actually got a table right before the parade started and were able to watch the parade from our table. That was pretty cool. Rhys had to stand on his seat to see, though. The food was pretty good - the kids ordered off the kids' menus (mac and cheese for DD and hot dog for DS) while I had the baked potato soup and 1/2 veggie sandwich and DH had some sort of steak sandwich. The kids ended up eating off our plates too - they especially like the baked potato soup and it was right then and there that we decided Amina didn't need to order off the kids' menu anymore. Our kids eat a variety of things and being limited to pizza, chicken strips, hamburgers, etc just seems like such a waste and shame. For dessert we had the anniversary cake which was a small round (like 1/2 a scoop of ice cream) cake with Mickey "ears" sitting on some sort of thin cookie bottom. It was good. I reminded the waitress after getting our bill that Disney Visa card members receive 10% off when using their Visa or Rewards card. There was confusion at first but we got our discount.

We headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to use our fastpass but the ride was being repaired so we headed back to the hotel instead and called it a day. Mousekeeping had left a few chocolate coins for the kids after turning down the beds. It wasn't even 10 pm when I was fast asleep.

4 August 2005, Thursday - Disneyland/California Adventure

I was up first at 5:30 am - just couldn't fall back asleep again for some reason. Maybe it was the time change and I woke up thinking it was actually 7:30 am. I took a shower as quietly as I could and when I was done, Amina was up. Then the rest of the crew got up at 6:30 am when my phone rang - an FP colleague who didn't realize we were on vacation and was calling for pediatric advice about his own 2 month old DD. LOL.

We decided on breakfast at the Storyteller's Cafe right in the Grand Californian and got right in without PS which I thought was interesting. It was actually Chip and Dale's character breakfast which was a nice unexpected bonus. The kids got Chip to sign his and Dale's name in their autograph books for which I was totally unprepared and took a minute to pull out the autograph books and the Sharpies - good thing we had grabbed them before we left the hotel room. Dale was handing out big buttons that said "Chip and Dale's Character Breakfast....Storyteller's Cafe". Rhys stopped to get Dale's autograph without realizing that Chip had already done that. It was so funny because then Chip came up to us and pulled us along as our seating hostess was trying to lead us to our table. We thanked Chip for taking us to our table. Breakfast was a choice between the buffet or ordering a la carte. We chose the latter. The kids shared a Kids' Cheese Omelette, I had the fresh fruit with cottage cheese and carrot bread, and DH had a large bowl or oatmeal with a side of bacon. The fruit was delicious and hit the spot. The kids split up most of my carrot bread - it was quite good, very moist. The food was plenty for the 4 of us.

After breakfast, we took the monorail to Tomorrowland because it was early entry day into Fantasyland and we had special passes to attend the "Toon Town Morning Madness". We had seen the monorail pass by our hotel room window 3 times so we figured it was running. While waiting for the monorail, we asked to sit up front and were directed to the far end of the line. A teenage couple elbowed their way past us and when the monorail arrived, they moved up to the front of the monorail and asked to be seated there. They were the only really rude people we had encountered so far on this trip. We were quite late - it was almost 8:30 am when we arrived, the Morning Madness feature had started at 8 am. Just as we walked up, the whole "town" was taking the oath to become citizens. We chimed in. Afterwards, they were giving out "Toon Town Citizen" stickers but we didn't stick around to get one. The kids played a little in Toon Town and we snapped some pictures. We walked right onto Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin which the kids thought was very fun. Donald's boat, the Miss Daisy, was right next door and we played a bit on it. Amina was looking down at the winding staircase (that's blocked off) and one of her pins fell off her lanyard. We hurried downstairs to get it but it landed in a room behind a large net with no way to get to it. We asked a CM at Gadget's Go-Coaster for help but decided to just forget it - the pin was one of the ones that I had gotten in the Energizer battery packs when they were on super sale so it was no huge loss. We rode Gadget's Go-Coaster, explored Chip and Dale's Treehouse, and then Mickey's house. We ended up in some line for what I thought was a movie or show of some sort but it was actually the line to meet the Mouse himself and we decided to get out of line (it was very very long and very slow moving) so we could head to California Adventure which was opening soon. We had a schedule to keep, after all.

We got right into CA and headed towards Bug's Land. We waited for about 10 minutes until the CM brought the ropes down, an announcement was made, and then the CM advised everyone to walk, not run, and that California Screamin' was still out of service. I had heard they were still having technical issues after the crash a few days ago. We were the first ones on Heimleich's Chew Chew Train and it was until we had ridden this ride that I understood how the pudgy caterpillar got his name. LOL! Next we rode Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies which was basically incredibly slow moving bumper cars. Amina was tall enough to drive but Rhys had to sit with me. Then we picked up Soarin' Over California Fastpasses and Grizzly River Run Fastpasses. DH asked me how we could get fastpasses back-to-back like this. It's a glitch in the CA system that RideMax.com discovered - I can't remember if it's SOC or GRR that is "disconnected" from the Fastpass system but one is and that allows for more than one fastpass at a time. We then went to the Redwood Challenge Trail which was nice for the kids to get some of their energy out. We climbed the "jungle gym" and I had to laugh at how Rhys was clinging to the sides along the cargo rope courses getting mad at me if I made the ropes wiggle too much. It was fun but in the end, it was murder on my ankle that I had broken about 2 months earlier. It was pretty sore the rest of the day.

The kids enjoyed the climbing logs and the spirit cave where you could put your hand on the wall imprint and it looks like lightening bolts coming out of your hand and then you the hear the sound of what your "spirit guide" is. Amina's spirit guide was a wolf, mine sounded like a fish (just running water and splashing). Rhys refused to do it - it was too "scary" for him standing in a cave and having lightening bolts come out of his hand. Imagine that. We then went part way back up the rope course towards the entrance of the magic show - it was Koda and Kenai's Magic Show and had the apprentice of something-or-other trying to call up the spirit in the log with the help of Koda and Kenai, a couple other spirits (elephant, eagle) and the 2 moose from Brother Bear - can't remember their names but we think they are hysterical tacking on "eh" to the end of everything they say....eh. LOL. It was a cute show and the kids got to sit in the front row on a tree stump. I won't give away what the spirit in the log is though it's not tough to figure out. The "magic" was how they got the fire started, I guess. The apprentice enlisted the help of a little girl from the audience to blow on the campfire to light it and it started to smoke and light up. DS is still trying to figure out that one. We climbed through an old fallen tree trunk and stopped for a photo op then headed out of the Redwood Trail. We went on Grizzly River Run next using our Fastpasses and there was hardly any waiting at all. We got right on a raft with a few other people and after being asked to take a picture of 2 guys that sounded German, we were off. I had assured the kids earlier that there were no drop-offs on this ride but was mistaken. Rhys and I got very wet - DH had the best seat in the house and came off nearly dry. The kids thought the ride was pretty awesome and wanted to ride it again but, alas, no time and we had a schedule to keep to. We were running ahead of our schedule so far. We then went to see Whoopi Goldberg and the California Dream film which was very good. It was cool in the theater and Whoopi's face shows up on the huge statues on either side of the screen. The show was shorter than what my Ridemax schedule said. We rode Soarin' Over California next which was really really neat. Rhys looked a little pale and was very worried through the whole thing but in the end, thought it was awesome and wanted to ride it again. We were lucky and were seated in the very front row although I think everyone probably had great, unobstructed views.

We picked up Fastpasses for Mulholland's Madness and then looked for someplace to eat. For lunch, we tried the Wine Country Trattoria restaurant and again, without PS, we waited briefly and were seated outside as we had asked for "first available". It was mostly shady - my seat was the only one in the sun which was a little bit warm. DD and DH shared a chicken panini sandwich and the special corn bisque with croutons, I had the veggie lasagna, and DS had the pizza dog. It was hysterical when DS bit into his pizza dog - he got a mouthful of pizza sauce, mozarella cheese, and pepperoni. On the next bite, he got some of the hot dog and exclaimed excitedly that his pizza dog actually had a HOT DOG in it!! ROTFLOL ~ we asked him what he thought the pizza dog was and he said that he thought it was a pizza in the shape of a dog. Too funny. My lasagna was really good though the kids didn't like it - peppers, eggplant, etc. DD really liked her panini sandwich and DS ended up eating most of the corn bisque. It was a touch spicy. This was another restaurant where we were supposed to get a 10% discount with my Disney Visa Rewards card but the waiter said it only applied to the Disney Visa card. I didn't argue with him although I was almost 99% sure that he was wrong. After lunch we went back to the hotel for rest time around 2 pm. The kids were out like a light again (and DH too) - it was then that I started writing this trip report on my laptop.

Amina woke up first and got ready to go to the pool. We woke Rhys up enticing him with the word POOL and he sat up quickly and drowsily got his swim shorts on. It was already almost 4:30 pm. The pool was crowded - they only had the slide pool and the whirlpools open. The kids played briefly in the pool then got out to go up the slide. I went with Rhys first and nearly lost my sunglasses as I unintentionally went under water when I hit the pool. It was only 4 feet deep but the current is pretty strong and pulled me down before I could get my feet on the ground. Fortunately, one of the next few riders down the slide found my sunglasses for me. Amina joined us on the slides and I just waited at the bottom for the kids to come down. The are both experienced swimmers but I still worry a little about Rhys. After DD came down for the second time (and mentioned something about the life guard at the top of the slide saying that I needed to go back up and ride the slide with them the next time - ???), they blew the whistle and made everyone get out of the pool. We moved our stuff over to a couple of vacant loungers and they opened up the other pool (3, 4, and 5 feet deep - no slide). The kids played for another 45 minutes and then we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. DH was still asleep when we got back to the room!

We rinsed off quickly and then went for dinner. We had decided earlier to try the Napa Rose right at the Grand Californian. We went into the lobby of the restaurant and I asked sheepishly if shorts were ok. They said that "resort casual" was fine. I was hoping it wasn't quite as snooty as Victoria and Albert's at the Grand Floridian although I think it was the Grand Californian's equivalent to V&A's. The restaurant is beautiful and we were definitely feeling a bit under dressed. Most of the tables had no kids. I was pleasantly surprised that they did have a kids' menu which included things like beef tenderloin. The kids wanted to share the chicken quesadillas. They each also ordered the "apple cider" which came in a real champagne glass. They both proceeded to hold the champange glasses like brandy glasses with DS claiming he had seen other people do that on tv. LOL! DH and I decided to try the Prix Fixe menu and he opted for the 4 glass wine pairing after agreeing to let me mooch some wine off of him. LOL. There was no way I could get the wine pairing by myself and still walk in any normal fashion to the parade later that night. We had the chef's special olive platter which was yummy and were given a taste of the chef's special tomato "soup" (I can't think of the name for this special cold soup) which had cilantro in it that I didn't care for. The first course was the white fish which was delicious with a bit of caviar on top and some type of diced crunchy pickled vegetable underneath. It was YUMMY and DD loved it too. DH doesn't like fish much but he ate half and gave some to DD and gave me the rest. The wine was a Chardonnay which was quite good considering we don't like Chardonnays. The second course was a duck schnitzel on home made noodles with a cherry reduction sauce. That was even better and the kids really liked the home made noodles. DS liked the duck too. The wine was a pinot and delicious with the duck. At this point, DD declared she was already getting full and had not even gotten her order yet. The 3rd course was the main entree (or "entry" as Rhys put it) - beef tenderloin medium rare with green beans and pearl onions. DH said it was probably the most tender and juicy beef tenderloin he had ever had. It was very good and was paired with a merlot. Even the kids, who are not "steak" fans thought it was quite good. They had gotten their quesadillas along with our entrees and didn't eat much of them after trying all of our dishes so far. The dessert was a pound cake (home made - the edges were crunchy - just sinful) with a small scoop of almond ice cream and diced peaches. We all loved the dessert. After we recovered from the sticker shock of the dinner tab (knew it would be expensive) - DD declared that it was the best restaurant she has ever been in (it was). We couldn't use our Disney Rewards card - not enough on it but were able to use the 10% off coupon out of the California Funbook our TA had given us. That knocked over $20 off the total so you can guess how much the entire bill was.

After dinner, we headed back to California Adventure to ride the Mulholland Madness which the kids thought was really fun - especially the part that looks like the car is going to go right off the edge of the rooftop. After that, we got on the Golden Zephyr and DS was, for some reason, very scared the whole time we were on it. He had his face buried in my arm the whole time. It is a little scary as the rocket ship lifts up like a centrifuge. There are no doors on the entrance side - DS had to get in first and sit on the right side. The ride hangs out over the water as you loop around. It was about as exciting as the Dumbo ride but interesting that objects (and kids!) could just slip right out from between my legs and go overboard into the water. We walked quickly to the Preferred Seating area of the electrical parade with the special passes I had gotten the day before - it was located right next to Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage building. We handed our passes over and were let in behind a chain link rope where we sat along the wall with a great, unobstructed view of the parade as it passed in front of us and turned the corner which was the end of the route. Before the parade, the "Wave Riders" were playing old tunes from the back of a float including some Beach Boys hits, etc. Lots of kids were out in the street dancing. It was great entertainment until the parade started. The parade actually started from Paradise Pier so it took a little while for it to actually get to us. It was supposed to start at 8:45 pm but we didn't get to see it until almost 9 pm. The park lights were dimmed and the Sunshine Plaza waterfall was turned off during the parade. The electrical parade is one of my personal favorites and it just brought tears to my eyes to be able to share it with the kids. We had a great time and walked back to the hotel. We could hear the loud BOOMS of the DL fireworks as we turned in for the night.

5 August 2005, Friday - Disneyland

The night had been interesting. I awoke at about 3 am to hear DS asking DD to help him to the bathroom. I got up and helped him and we went back to bed. The next thing I know, a voice is standing next to me saying "My clothes are wet". At first I thought it was DD and remembered wondering what in the world it could be - it's been FOREVER since DD's had an "accident" at night. I reached up and felt the pj's and they were soaked. I got up and took what turned out to be DS to the bathroom for a change. The extra pj's were tucked away somewhere in the HUGE suitcase so I didn't even bother with that. I pulled open the small suitcase with my Cruise Stuff and got out the t-shirt that I was going to have autographed on the ship. I slipped it onto DS and didn't bother with more underwear, and sent him back to bed. I woke up again at 5:30 or so to see DD pulling the shades open. I hissed at her to close the shades again and go back to bed. We finally all got up around 7 this morning.

This was our last day at Disneyland and we had a full Ridemax schedule starting at when the park opened. We walked through DT Disney hoping the La Brea Bakery was open but it was just too early. We got in line at the gate at about 7:40 am waiting for the 8 am opening. DH ran back to the hotel to get us some coffee. I gave the kids some gorp for breakfast. Bad mommy, lol. We chatted with the family behind us and I gave them our passes for preferred seating at Snow White's Enchanting Musical since I knew we didn't have time for it. DH got back with the coffee (and even put the right amount of Splenda and hazelnut creamer in it) and I snuck a picture of the 50th anniversary logo in the grass just after the marching band arrived and the park guests were counting down...."THREE, TWO, ONE.....". I slipped back in line and we passed through the gates and headed for Fantasyland. We walked through the castle after a photo op and went on Peter Pan first with no waiting. We were a few minutes late already according to our schedule. The Matterhorn Bobsleds were next and the line was extremely short. We picked the right sided line which is the bobsled that goes through the water. DS was nervous about the Abominable (sp?) Snowman but I think he otherwise enjoyed the ride. We did Alice in Wonderland, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, and the Storybook Land Canal Boats with almost no waiting. It was only about 8:45 am when we got done. We headed to the Astro Orbiter next about 5 minutes ahead of schedule but the wait was longer than what Ridemax predicted - more like 20 minutes instead of 8. I took a pic of DH and DS in their rocketship and a CM offered to take one of DD and I in ours. That was really sweet. I had agreed to ride with Amina about 2 rockets in front of DH and DS so I could take a picture of them. What a mistake. I had not been on Astro Orbiter in ages (didn't go last year when we were in WDW because DD didn't want to and wanted to stay on the People Mover about 5 times) and had forgotten that it moves at a pretty good clip. I got my camera out while we were up in the air and was afraid to lose it. I turned around to take a picture of DH and DS and was holding my camera so tightly that I acidentally turned it off. I turned back around, turned it back on, and turned back to take a pic. I snapped one quickly and when I was forward facing again, my head was spinning. Thankfully, DD hadn't touched the controls so were weren't going up and down and up and down while I was snapping the picture.

We headed for Space Mountain to pick up a Fastpass but the set up was very confusing. The entrance for stand by, fastpass, and the fastpass distribution were all mixed together. We walked past the long line thinking it was the stand by line and got to the top only to find out that the line WAS the fastpass distribution line! Unfortunately, Ridemax had no way of predicting this and we waited for a bit in line just to get a fastpass. The return time window was also later than what Ridemax had predicted and we couldn't pick up another fastpass for a while. At this point, we decided to split up as DH was wanting to check out the hotel's fitness center. I took the kids to It's a Small World where there was NO waiting and we got on a boat all by ourselves. We then caught the monorail (and got to sit up front this time) back to Downtown Disney. We stopped by our hotel room to grab the kids' money and to get our cruise docs. We hadn't checked in for our cruise yet because the times are a bit wacky. Mon -Thurs it's only 8 am to noon and I had called this morning to find out that check in was only from 8 am to 2 pm on Fridays.


Our first shopping stop was the tattoo cart where DD got a rose tattoo on her right ankle for $8. DS chose a dragon to go on his forearm. I had the same tattoo as DD's put on my right ankle as well. The kids paid for their tattoos with the Disney Dollars they had earned. We looked briefly in the Lego store next and took some cute photos of the kids sitting next to the Lego sleeping man (who was snoring), by the gigantic Lego giraffe, the Lego Darth Vader/R2D2 (who beeped and blipped), and the Lego DL sign. DS insisted on buying a Lego car kit which irks me knowing that we could have gotten one at home and probably cheaper. Ah well. Our last quick stop was at Libby Lu's where DD wanted to get the 3 bottle set in a cute little purse. For her first bottle, she made "perfume" which was kind of neat - she filled the bottle with "color" (blue), added sparkling "stuff" (don't know what it was called), and finally used a dropper to put the "princess" scent in. When she shook the bottle, it all combined together and looked pretty cool. Then the other 2 bottles she layered different colors of bath/body potions and body shimmer. DH then called to say that he was done working out and came over to meet us at Libby Lu. We almost went back to the park but remembered to go by the cruise desk in the lobby of the hotel to check in.

We gave our docs to the lady at the desk but had left our passports in the room safe. She said that was ok - just to let them check tomorrow before we board the bus. She tore out the docs that we needed to check in with and put them in an envelope and gave us the envelope with a letter that explained the procedure. The bus doesn't leave until about noon and we don't have to check out until 11 tomorrow morning. Apparently, there's a special line at the port for hotel guests to check in through. We still have not received our Key to the World cards. We are supposed to have our bags waiting by the door at 8 am for pick up. We are to meet at the conference center in the hotel tomorrow. I didn't realize we would have so much time on Saturday morning - now we can do some extra shopping. DH mentioned that he wanted to get a tattoo as well and that we could get matching ones. (Awwwww.......). I snapped a few pictures of the miniature Magic replica next to the check-in desk.

We went back to the park to make our 11:30 am PS res at the Blue Bayou. We got there a teensy bit late - about 11:34 am. We waited for a short while but had just missed the seating along the water front and would have had to wait an additional 30 minutes for those seats. We didn't want to do the waiting so we were seated in the row of tables just behind the water front seats. We could still see the boats pass by from where we were sitting. The kids' menus are pirate hats that can be worn - we got some cute pics of the kids wearing their pirate hats/menus. DH had the Monte Cristo sandwich, the kids shared the corn dogs with mashed potato, corn, and applesauce, and I ordered the jambalaya. After ordering, I scooted over to Buzz Lightyear to pick up fastpasses. I half walked/jogged and got out there and back in about 10 minutes. The food was already there and the kids/DH had already eaten some of my jambalaya. Now that was fast service. Amina also tried a mint julep which was pretty good. The Monte Cristo sandwich lived up to its reputation - it was delicious and the kids didn't leave DH with much to eat. He did eat half of my jambalaya since I had originally intended on ordering the portobello mushroom but compromised with him so he would order the Monte Cristo. We skipped dessert but the kids got a Mickey shaped jello dessert with whipped cream on top.

Our next stop was Space Mountain. DS complained all the way there and when we reached the place where we turn in our fastpasses, he started all out crying refusing to get on. I left with him and DH took DD to ride it. We waited at the exit for them get off and I intended on going with DD using our other fastpasses. DD didn't want to ride again. DH said that the ride was faster now that they changed it. Since our Buzz Lightyear fastpasses weren't usable for another 1/2 hour, I opted to ride Space Mountain alone. I got on to the ride with no incident, we got to the "top" and the countdown commenced, we then took off and rounded a few bends when the ride came to a complete stop and the lights turned on. They made an announcement that the ride would be delayed for a short period of time. It was very interesting sitting near the top of Space Mountain with the lights on. I kicked myself for giving my camera to DH. There were 4 other cars below us all pretty remarkably evenly spaced out. The CMs were climbing up and manually giving the cars a push when they were "cleared". Gravity just took the cars down. I was joking with the man sitting in front of me (I was in the last seat on the car) that this shoud be where they offer each of us a free season pass to the park. LOL. The CMs finally reached us and gave us a push after we were "cleared" and we coasted down the ride with the lights on. It was very unremarkable - at least the music came back on as we coasted back to the station. When we reached the station, people were asking us what happened. We had no idea except that we got to see Space Mountain with the lights on. The CMs asked if we wanted to ride again, with the lights off this time. Of course, we all said yes. The 2nd time around the ride was just awesome - much faster. There was a noticeable improvement in the cars from the last time we were in DL (about 15 years ago) with speakers right by the back of your head playing "fly-through-space music". There were parts where my bottom left the seat. That was an experience to remember though I'm not sure I would call it a magical moment.

We rode Buzz Lightyear next and noted the vast improvement in the laser pistols which you can lift out of the console and actually aim/shoot at the targets easily. DH scored over 100,000 points whereas my final score was about 21,000. DH was gloating. We took the monorail back to the hotel for rest time again at about 2 pm opting not to run over and pick up Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fastpasses. We did stop by and get Autopia fastpasses, though. While I'm thinking about it - almost all of our fastpasses were used outside of the time window for which they were issued. Universally, the CMs were fine with that and one of them said that fastpasses never really expire anyways.

I worked some more on my trip report as the kids and DH napped. Amina was up first then eventually Rhys woke up and the kids watched cartoons on tv until DH woke up. We had walked by the Uva Bar Restaurant in Downtown Disney earlier and looked at the menu - it was Spanish/Mediterranean food and had decided to try it for dinner. The kids ordered the smoothies - pineapple for DD and strawberry for DS. They were pretty good and were HUGE. We ordered the garlic fries with chili and cheese for an appetizer which was very good. You could definitely taste the garlic in the fries - tasted like more than just a little garlic powder. DS and I shared the cheeseburger which was ok. DH and DD shared the chicken quesadillas which DD didn't like. DH said they were ok. I think this restaurant was our least favorite in all of the parks.

After dinner, we went back to DL via the monorail. DH, DD, and DS sat up front with the driver and I sat in the first car to let a mom and her DD ride in the front since it only seats 5 and I had already ridden it once with the kids earlier. We rode Autopia which was hilarious as DS really has no idea how to drive a car and his reflexes are a little slow - turning left after we had already gone left and right after we had already gone right. Needless to say, it was quite bumpy. DH and DD were right behind us with DD at the wheel. We then went on Casey's Circus Train and the kids wanted to ride in the car behind the engine which only fits 3 people. DH rode in the cage car labelled "Wild Animals". LOL. Afterwards, we had wanted to stop by the Mad Hatter but it was almost 8:30 and we had reservations for the dessert buffet for Fantasmic so we headed towards Frontierland to find the area we were supposed to be at. After wading through the huge crowd and asking at least 3 CMs, we finally found the line we were supposed to be in. We waited until almost 8:45 before finally getting to the front of the line only to find out that we were supposed to have picked up our Fantasmic dessert buffet tickets at the front entrance! OMG! They didn't have a list of all of the people who paid for tickets. She offered to seat us for the 10:30 pm show but that would have been waaaay too late for the kids. DH was ready to just give up and ask for our money back (we paid $240 for it!) but I had him and the kids wait at the French Market while I literally RAN through the crowd to get to Guest Services. I got there out of breath and spoke with a CM named Ryan who called the front gate and found out that we did, indeed, have tickets there waiting for us. He realized that I wouldn't have time to go out, pick up the tickets, and come back into the park in time so he made me promise that I would stop by ticket booth 5 after the show/fireworks to sign for the tickets and instructed me to let the CM at the show know that I had spoken with him. I RAN back to the French Market through the crowds and grabbed DH and the kids and went back to talk to the CM at the viewing area. They quickly set up 4 seats near the buffet table and literally just as we sat down, the show started. Our seats weren't that great in retrospect - the kids and I had to stand up to be able to see over the first 2 rows of people in this viewing area. If we had had our tickets, our seats would have been better. We each ordered a Sprite which I was grateful for after running through the park.

The show was wonderful. Mickey kicked things off and there was movie animation projected on huge walls of water spray flanking the stage on either side. The princesses came by with their beaus on lit floats. Both the Columbia and Mark Twain boats were carrying characters and were lit up beautifully. DS found the part with Mickey "slaying" the evil witch as the dragon kind of scary. We could feel the heat from the fire on the water. It was thoroughly enjoyable and afterwards, DH commented on what a good idea it was to stay and watch the show. We helped ourselves to the buffet - there were huge chocolate covered strawberries, rice crispy treats in the shape of a Mickey head with chocolate and Mickey's face on top, frosted cookies (I think they were), macaroons, brownies, and a few other dessert bars of some sort. They passed out bottles of water and hot chocolate after Fantasmic was over. The fireworks then followed and we watched them for our seats. Disney really does have fireworks shows down to an art coordinating every light and sound to music. This firewords show included voices from the different rides in the park - thunder mountain railroad, haunted mansion, splash mountain, etc. While that creepy voice from the haunted mansion spoke ("Move to the DEAD center of the room......there's always MY way out.....bwah hah hah hah....."), DS got so scared he crawled into my lap and watched the rest of the fireworks from there. It's a good thing we didn't try to ride the actual ride with him. DS was pretty tired after the shows and we carried him most of the way back to the hotel. DH took them back while I sorted out the ticket issue. After I got back to the hotel room, we had to pack up all of our stuff as our luggage would be picked up for the cruise at 8 am. I finally got to bed around 11:30 after making sure all of our Disney Magic tags were on every piece of luggage that would be checked in (5 total).

6 August 2005, Saturday - Downtown Disney, Disney Cruise Line Embarkation Day

This morning was much more relaxed since we didn't have to check out until 11 am and would not be picked up for the cruise until after noon. We were up around 7:30 am and packed up the rest of our stuff to be checked in leaving the suitcases by the door (inside the room). Breakfast was at Storyteller's cafe which we had enjoyed that first morning. Many of the same characters were there with a couple of new ones - Koda instead of Kenai, and Meeko for instance. The funniest moment on the trip so far was when Rhys was examining the menu trying to decide what he wanted to eat and sat back stating "I want Beaver Eggs". (Keep in mind that he's just turned 6.) DH and I both looked at each other and couldn't remember seeing them on the menu last time but thinking that this was a frontier themed restaurant, Beaver Eggs seemed to fit right in. I asked Rhys to show me where the description was for Beaver Eggs and Rhys pointed them out to me...."See, right here......'Beverages'....it says Beaver Eggs!". ROTFLOL! Well, instead of Beaver Eggs, Rhys had the Toad in the Hole (hey, doesn't any more weird than Beaver Eggs) which is a fried egg cooked in the middle of a piece of toast on top of a piece of ham. Amina had the Mickey waffles which was 3 or 4 small Mickey head shaped waffles. DH had the bran something-or-other with a side of bacon and I had the fruit with cottage cheese and carrot bread again - that was just perfect for me last time.

After we finished breakfast and met with some of the characters, we headed out to Downtown Disney right before 10 am. Amina and I went into Club Libby Lu while DH and DS walked over to check out the Lego store and the "Star Wars" store (as DS called it) which was actually the store that sells old memorabilia and just happens to sell some Star Wars memorabilia too. Amina walked around in a daze picking up every other thing in the store trying to decide what she wanted and admiring the girls having their hair done. She had seen the little girls walking around the parks earlier sporting jewel stars on their faces, sparkling lip gloss, and wild hair do's and was in total envy. We asked the girls working at the store how much it was to be transormed into a rock diva and found out it was just $20. Amina rips her purse open and fumbles through it counting her Disney dollars to see if she has enough money to do it. LOL. I tell her that I will treat her to the up-do and we make our way over to the cash register to make an "appointment" after DD gives me a great big hug. The wait was only about 15 minutes and DD was given a large pink back sack and instructed to pick out 5 items from the Mix and Match section. She selected a small purse shaped make up case with a mirror, shimmer lip gloss, and a few fancy feather pens. Soon, it was her turn to be worked on and she sat down on the seat in front of the giant heart shaped mirror like the princess that she is and the Libby Lu gal applied eye shadow and shimmer lip gloss. DD had already had her nails done before we left for the trip so she turned down having her nails done again with glitter polish. Her hair was parted in rows and then twisted with the bottom ends flipped up like a fan along the back of her head. Glitter hair spray went flying everywhere, a black and silver earphone/microphone set was applied, and her transformation was complete. While I was waiting for DD to get done, I started chatting with an oriental woman next to me who commented on how cute the girls look. We were admiring a little oriental girl - probably about 2 years old - being done up and sitting so perfectly still for the Libby Lu gal. Each of us was thinking that little girl was the other's. Turns out her name was Linda and that she had 2 older boys, Kai and Lee, but no girls. She was commenting on how she would love to have a girl. We joked a bit about having more kids - neither of us were the least bit interested. I took a few pictures of Amina after her transformation and met rest of Linda's family including her DH, Doug.

DH and DS returned from the World of Disney with a pirate sword and cool Buzz Lightyear sunglasses. More pictures of the kids in their respective outfits. We walked over to the tattoo cart where the guy touched up both DD and my rose ankle tattoos at no charge. DH gets a multicolored dragon applied to his forearm. We stop by the jewelry cart and DH surprises me by purchasing a brown and tan tropical looking necklace. In over 10 years of marriage, I have NEVER seen DH wear a necklace. He's really gotten into this vacation now it seems. We have enough time to run back over to World of Disney and look around. I find a really cute golden sandal with crystal Mickey heads necklace, and a black Mickey head crystal toe ring while DH finds a Disneyland magnet (we always buy one when we travel for our fridge), DD gets a pair of sunglasses and a Sleeping Beauty locket necklace. It's getting close to check out time so DH and the kids head back to the room to get the remainder of our stuff while I make our purchases. I stop by the front desk to check out (which really wasn't necessary but I was just checking to make sure everything was in order since we had time) while DH and the kids wait in the same lobby seats that they waited in while I had checked in, stopped by the stamp machine for a stamp to put on the Cast Member appreciation card that I had made and addressed to Ryan at Town Hall Guest Services to thank him after the Fantasmic fiasco last night. I dropped the envelope off at Guest Services where they said it would be delivered as is (had to have a stamp on it though) with no other address other than "Town Hall Guest Services". Very cool.

We head over to the hotel's conference center front desk which is where we are supposed to meet for the bus to the port. We check in with the cruise CMs. It's strange and not very Disney but there were quite a few people waiting around this area and there were NO seats. Everyone was sitting on the floors around the front desk. We have about a 1/2 hour wait when they announce that we are ready to board the bus. Our luggage had already been picked up from our room and was on its way to the port ahead of us. The bus was very large - a luxury touring bus painted with Disney characters and "50th anniversary" all over it. We selected a few comfy seats and met our bus driver then we were finally off. I just can't describe how nice a feeling it was that even though the land portion of our vacation was over, we were not disappointed because we still had a week on the cruise to go so it wasn't sad to leave the Disneyland Resort. We watched a cruise promo video during the 40 minute bus ride to the port. As we cross over the bridge to the port we can just make out the smoke stacks of the Magic. I snapped a few pics of the the kids looking out the window of the bus and the Magic's red smoke stacks in the background.

We arrive at the port and are tortured with a small delay as we wait for the bus in front of us to pull out. The kids are off the bus lickety split and we wait very briefly in line as we head into the building. We make our way up the escalator and I pull out my camera but am reminded by a CM that photos in the terminal are not allowed. Oops, I forgot. We are directed to bypass the regular check-in line and get in the shorter Concierge/Resort Guests line. Nice. We turn over our documents and receive our Key to the World cards and head for the dock stopping by once in the terminal and once on the gangway to have pictures done. As we enter, our names are announced by the CM and all the other CMs lined up along the hall start clapping. That's such a nice Disney touch. We locate Parrot Cay for lunch and sit down to the buffet which was pretty good. I had the chicken, some fruit, and, of course, the peel-and-eat shrimp which was awesome - very big shrimp. Yummy and it really hit the spot because it's almost 2 o'clock now. We find our stateroom - no luggage yet, and drop off our stuff. We stop by guest services to drop off my pillow cases and t-shirt for autographs, pick up Tea with Wendy tickets, check out the Oceaneer Lab and Club (had a hard time getting the kids to leave there already), order the wine package for dinner, and make it back to our cabin to find 2 of our pieces of luggage waiting for us. We start some unpacking and then grab our life jackets for the drill. We make our way up the stairs to the Walt Disney Theater and have a seat (nicer than other cruise lines where we stood out on deck waiting for the drill to be over). They counted and notated cabin numbers and gave a brief speech then off we went to put our stuff away and head for the sailing away party.

One more bag has shown up near our door. Later, as we returned from the sailing away party, we found one of our bags near a cabin DOWN THE HALL. Yikes. I'm glad we were walking over from foreward rather than aft and saw it. After stowing our stuff in the cabin (there are plenty of hangers in the closet), we head up to deck 10 for the sailing away party and to meet some DISers. We bumped into Linda and her family and finally started putting some names to faces. We met Vickie, Wick, Kenney, and Sara first and then Jenny with Brynee. DD was really itching to go downstairs to the pool deck to dance so we head down the stairs after DH gets us some strawberry/pina colada/rum type drinks in DCL glasses. The sailing away party was a blast and Amina was having so much fun dancing (heck so was I) - even DH and DS were getting into it. They had bubble blowing machines and a band followed by the Fab 5 doing a quick dance routine and then the cruise director started the countdown to launch and we were off as the ship's whistle blew that wonderful tune. We stayed until the party was over dancing, chasing bubbles, and having a great time.

Back in the cabin, the kids are watching tv while we try to get some more unpacking done. Our last piece of luggage has arrived - whew! Our stateroom attendant had turned down the beds and brought out the pull down bunk. There was a towel shaped like a swan sitting on our bed with a few pieces of chocolate. We caught the Welcome Aboard show which included some singing/dancing, an award winning juggler, and a guy who did some comedy/magic/ventriloquism. Dinner this night is at Animator's Palate. We didn't get the dining rotation that we had requested, bummer. There's a long line to get in to the restaurant and we finally get to our table - #18. Vickie and her family are already seated - we're just a little late. We meet Noel our server and Karim, the asst server/beverage server. The kids order off the childrens' menu which has a set menu including cheese pizza, chicken fingers, Minnie's mini burger, etc along with a changing menu each night. It was almost 9 pm by the time we started eating dinner and I can't even remember at this point what I had for dinner. Rhys fell asleep after eating 3/4 of a slice of pizza. The restaurant's "show" was ok - I guess I was anticipating more. We sat by a picture of Ariel which lit up then became black/white again a couple of times. The dinner was enjoyable but we were all pooped out. Seth carried Rhys back to the room half-asleep and we were all asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

7 August 2005, Sunday - Day at Sea

Our clocks had moved forward an hour so it seems like we slept in this morning. We had our character breakfast scheduled at 9:45 am which, at first, seemed really late for breakfast but it worked out great for us as we got to sleep in. The kids went straight to bed the night before so they really needed a shower this morning. Amina didn't want to "mess up" her hairdo so she just "rinsed", lol. We took our time getting ready and headed for our character breakfast at Parrot Cay. I even toted laundry and threw them into the washers on deck 2 - just 2 loads. Most of the washers were free. A few people came in and out to iron their clothes.

We were seated at our usual table with our usual servers - Vickie and her family were there minus Kenney who sounded like he had a great time until very late and was sleeping in a bit. Vickie and Wick were just having coffee - they had reservations for brunch at Palo this morning. I ordered the fruit cup and lox/bagel which was fine - just the right amount of food. DD had the chocolate pancake and Mickey waffle. Rhys ordered a "regular" breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausage, etc. Each Disney character came around to the table dressed in tropical wear - the kids got a few more autographs after I ran back to the cabin to get their books. I did stop and snap a picture of the cute vacuum cleaner in the hallway with the smiley face on it. We got some great pictures of us with Goofy and Chip that the CM took for us. Chip and Dale led the room in a couple of dances which included some napkin waving. DH and I thought that their laughs (giggles, really) sounded almost a little naughty as though they were up to no good. After breakfast, we dropped the kids off at the Oceaneer Lab and Club which they were REALLY looking forward to. DH and I then found the Cove Cafe to have a cup of coffee. The DCL travel coffee mugs were really nice - pricey ($22 filled with coffee), but nice so we bought a couple. I had the frozen mochaccino which was delicious and they did put it in the coffee mug for me. We sat for a little while and then wanted to get some good seats at the Michael Harrison magic/comedy/ventriloquist show at noon so we headed over there.

The show was really funny - geared more towards families and Seth enjoyed it a lot. I thought he was pretty funny and entertaining too. We had seen him the night before at the Welcome Aboard show. After the show, we attended the art auction which was being hosted by the Auction at Sea folks that I had seen on another cruise. As we were headed over there, though, I noticed that my beeper had gone off stating that Amina wanted to be picked up. I found them at a lounge and asked Amina what happened - she said she was "bored" and didn't want to stay. Later, we found out that she had had a disagreement with another little girl and her play microphone (part of her rock diva outfit from Libby Lu) had gotten broken. We previewed some pieces - nothing really stood out at me but DH was curious to see what the Muhammed Ali/Beatles picture would go for so he marked it with his small stickey tag. In the meantime, Amina decided that she would try the Lab again as the next activity sounded more interesting so I checked her in again. We had fun at the auction - bidding on some of the "mystery" pieces. When the Ali/Beatles picture came up, DH bid on it - the first and opening bid (for $2600!) and won. Yowza!! He was so proud of himself for finding such a "treasure" and commented on what a great investment it would be as Ali is having more and more trouble signing autographs. We left the auction right after winning that piece to go over to the Stem to Stern wine tasting. There are 4 sommeliers on the ship and they each "coached" us on a glass of wine. There were 5 wine glasses - 3 white, 2 red set out and a champagne glass. We did the "S" approach: see, swirl, sniff, savor, and swallow with each wine. They were quite good.

We didn't stay for the sparkling wine as we had 3 pm reservations for Palo's High Tea so we headed up to that and arrived slightly late. We were immediately seated and given a plate of finger sandwiches: salmon, a mild curry chicken, cucumber, and prawns. There was a tiered dish with raspberry macaroons (my favorite), eclairs, and fruit cake. I ordered the chamomile tea and Seth had the blackberry tea. They brought the most delicious scones I have ever had with clotted cream, strawberry jam, as well as apricot jam. Everything was delicious. They also brought us a trifle dessert which neither of us tried - we were too full!

Seth went to the fitness center next while I picked up the kids and ordered them room service - the All Hands on Deck plate (cheese, crackers, fruit) and the fruit plate which only took 15 minutes. I got ready for the formal evening while the kids ate then I got them dressed as well. We wanted to get to the Walt Disney theater to get good seats for the Golden Mickeys show. We watched on screens as they held live "interviews" from the red carpet (which was just outside of the theater) - they interviewed kids as they were coming into the theater for the show. I wish my kids were braver and willing to do something like that but I knew better than to try and get them interviewed on camera. The Golden Mickeys show was

 

[Kidoctr]

Thanks for posting the pics Vickie - I've saved them and added them to my pics. The picture from my camera didn't turn out. I have tons of pictures to share but I'm going to upload them sometime to Shutterfly just to make them easier to see.... Here's a preview:

 

[Kidoctr]

Whoops - looks like there's a limit to the number of words you can post....here's my journal/trip report continued:

The Golden Mickeys show was absolutely wonderful. Although DH had been commenting on how some parts of the ship smelled funny (sometimes like dirty sea water, other times like a dirty diaper), you really can't beat Disney entertainment - they really have it down. They gave Golden Mickeys to the best friends, the best couple, the best villains, etc. The music was wonderful, the actors/dancers/singers were very very good. The whole show concept was awesome. It's close to one of the best shows I have ever seen. When Amina squealed at the sight of her favorite princess, Aurora, tears came to my eyes at her pure joy. Rhys got scared during the villain part (especially when the villain of The Little Mermaid dangled her huge glowing tentacles over the sides of the stage) and held his hands up to his ears. After the show, we stopped by the shops to pick up some toiletries that we needed then got in line in the lobby for pictures. We had dinner in Parrot Cay where I had the BBQ pork that was different, but good. For some reason, I'm having a lot of trouble remembering exactly what we ate each night. I think overall we've been more impresed with the food on other cruise lines.

Rhys did stay awake through dinner this time. We dropped the kids off at the Oceaneer club/lab and went to another Michael Harrison show which was for adults only. He was very funny and his routine was quite different (obvious why it was adults only though there was no profanity or anything). Afterwards, we picked the kids up and returned to the cabin where there was a turtle waiting for us on our bed made out of towels. We were in bed around midnight. What a long day!

8 August 2005, Monday - Day at Sea

Our clocks went forward an hour again. This was probably just one of 4 reasons why we all slept in so late this morning.....staying up late, no nap, and a very very DARK cabin probably also contributed to why we didn't roll out of bed until after 10 am. We finally got Amina to take her hair down and wash the curls and glitter out and that was only after swearing to her that she did have an appointment for hair braiding on Wednesday. Another tip: many many people just assumed that you could "stop by" for hair braiding but you must have a reservation. We made them on the first sea day and by the next day, the appointments were booked up for most of the early part of the week already. I can't remember the kids EVER sleeping in so late - I woke up before they did and worked on my trip report for about an hour before they even woke up. By the time we finally got going and out of the cabin, they were serving lunch! LOL! We caught Daisy at the character signing in the lobby and got her autograph. The buffet at Topsiders was Asian which was ok. We took our food out on to the deck and watched the wake of the ship. I did have a really good dessert, though, a pear and almond tart as well as a slice of a hazelnut tart. Those were REALLY good.

DH took DS to the Oceaneer Club while Amina and went to the shops to do a little shopping before checking her in to the Lab. Amina bought Minnie bride ears with a veil. One thing I found a little irritating with the Oceaneer programming for the kids was that check-in/check-out followed the schedule and if the kids were up on deck 10, you had to go up there to "check-in". If they were eating dinner, you had to wait until the next scheduled activity before you could check them in. I guess I was expecting to be able to just drop them in at any time at the Lab/Club. A few times, we were ready to drop them off but had to delay for 30-45 minutes until the "right" time.

I met DH at the 2nd wine tasting event at Sessions after dropping DD off at the Lab. On my way, I bumped into Jenny, Brynee, Cathy, and her DD who had gotten her hair braided. I didn't know that they did just regular braiding as well and found out that some girls don't tolerate having corn rows put in their hair because of the pullling and pain. I took a picture of her braids to show Amina and make sure that she knew about the corn rows and that they involved hair pulling.

DH had gotten coffee at Cove Cafe and they had filled his coffee mug again. The wine tasting was slightly different than the first one with the same 4 sommeliers. This time, we stayed through to the end and got to watch one of the sommeliers open a bottle of sparkling wine by using the base of wine glass and running it up the seam of the bottle and popping the top off - glass and cork together. It was really interesting. After the wine tasting, Seth went to the cabin for a nap and I tried my hand at Bingo. I'm not very lucky at Bingo but you never know and I figured it would be fun. For $25 I got to play 3 cards during each of the 4 games. I came very close to bingo with the first game but the rest weren't even close. The lady sitting next to me won $400. Afterwards, I stopped by the cabin to pick up my laptop and worked some more on my trip report. DH was asleep in the cabin. I sat out on deck which was only a little bit windy and typed for about an hour and then went to pick the kids up before they went for dinner. We stopped by Scoops for ice cream (which was actually low fat frozen yogurt) and had vanilla/chocolate swirled in a cone with sprinkles on top. We returned to the cabin where I ordered room service - 2 fruit plates and another All Hands on Deck plate. We wanted to take the kids to the 6 pm showing of The Pacifier in the Buena Vista theater. The food had not arrived yet to our cabin - this time it took about 30 minutes - so I waited while DH took the kids to the theater. I took the food with me and we watched the movie which I thought was so-so. Seth thought it was cute.

After the movie, we dropped the kids off at the Lab/Club again so that we could enjoy dinner without them at Lumiere's tonight. I stopped by the shops to do a little pin trading and found some nice pins for the kids. I also went back to Sessions to see if DH's coffee mug was there - he had left it after the wine tasting demonstration. Unfortunately, his mug was nowhere to be found and the bartenders even called guest services to see if one was turned in. No luck. The bartenders were so sweet - they said that if we came back later that night, they would get us a new one. I was surprised that they did this - it was so nice of them.

It was also nice to be able to have a conversation with our table mates during dinner without being interrupted and, besides, Amina wanted to go to the girls' pajama party tonight. The decor of Lumiere's was very nice with the roses in the glass cases hanging from the ceiling and the mural with Belle and Beast. I had the cauliflower soup which was very good and the duck that was also very good. For dessert, I had the apple tart with vanilla ice cream and Seth and I shared a Creme Brulee. Dinner was quite good this night. After dinner which was nice and unrushed, we picked up Rhys and went back to the cabin where a crab was waiting on our bed. Amina's pj party didn't end until 11 pm so I went and got her a little later after picking up a new DCL/Cove Cafe coffee mug for DH at Sessions. We ordered room service again - cheese pizza - because the kids were hungry. They were eating pizza, drinking soda, and watching cartoons at 11:30 pm! Don't know when we'll ever do that again! Another long but enjoyable day.

9 August 2005, Tuesday - Puerto Vallarta

No time change this time but we still got up quite late - about 9:30 am. Thankfully, our shore excursion didn't leave until 12:40 pm. We got our bathing suits on and went up to Parrot Cay for the breakfast buffet at about 10:30 am. It was kinda cool to walk out and see the port through the windows. Suddenly there were buildings and trees instead of just water. After breakfast, we went up to deck 10 to snap some pics and the kids bugged us to death about swimming in the Mickey pool so we went down there and they played in the pool and went down the slide a gazillion times We had a quick bite to eat from Pluto's Dog House - hot dogs, of course, and some fries. We then headed down to Rockin' Bar D where we were to meet the group for our shore excursion to Paradise Village and the beach.

We picked up a few towels and signed our waivers. We got Timon stickers to wear when we turned in our signed waivers and were reminded to have Key to the World cards as well as picture IDs before leaving for our excursion. We headed down the stairs to the gangway located on Deck 1 forward. We each had our card swiped as we exited. The ship was docked right at the pier and we just walked down a little way and were divided into busloads. We were the first to board our bus and took the front row. I snapped a few pictures of the ship as we drove past it on our way to Nuevo Vallarta where the beach resort was. There must have been at least 3 busloads of people going on this excursion. The resort was ok - the layout was kind of quirky. After we were oriented by the activity staff, filled out info for a drawing (free week's stay at the resort), and had our free beverage (there was a choice of alcoholic drink vs non-alcoholic - we chose the former), we found a shady spot with a few loungers and I walked back through the lobby, out past the "zoo" (couple of tigers, mountain lions, black panthers, and some spider monkeys), and around the corner to the activity center to rent a couple of pails, shovels, and other beach toys for the kids. The guy at the activity center kept my Key to the World card, otherwise there was no charge. I walked back and was sweating quite profusely - it was really hot since we docked at this port. Getting near the water felt much better and the kids had an absolute blast playing in the sand, playing with a couple of boogie boards we also "rented" with a Key to the World card, and finding sand dollars. The sand was blackish with lots of gold specks - beautiful. The water was very very dark, though. We spent 3 hours just playing in the water and sun - didn't take the time to explore the rest of the resort. At about 3:40 pm, we gathered our stuff, rinsed the sand off as best as we could at the outdoor showers, and stopped for gelato. We got back on the bus (after I had run the boogie boards and then the beach toys back and retrieved our Key to the World cards). The ride back to the ship was pretty quiet - everyone took a brief nap on the bus. I even felt drowsy after being out in the sun and water all afternoon.

Our bags were searched prior to getting on the gangway and our cards were swiped. We headed straight for our cabin and took showers - I wondered if the kids had left any sand at the beach there was so much in the tub. After we showered and were feeling much more refreshed, we got the kids dressed in their pirate t-shirts and black pants. I had bought gray t-shirts from Hobby Lobby and inkjet printable iron-on transfers. The fronts of our t-shirts said: "Yo ho! Yo ho! A Pirate's Life For Me!......Pirate Night, Disney Magic Mexican Riviera Cruise, August 9th, 2005" with the picture of a skull/crossbones on a black flag. On the back: "Arrrrgh...." and our names along with our pirate names that I had gotten from a website that generated pirate names when you put in your real name. I had a lot of fun making those. We went upstairs to the beverage center and got something to drink then played ping pong for a little while. We took the kids, who reluctantly went, to the Lab/Club and grabbed our coffee cups to get something to drink at the Cove Cafe. I had another Mochaccino which was yummy and caught up on my trip report some more.

We returned to our cabin to find a snake on our bed wearing Amina's red sunglasses and a note reminding us to turn our clocks back an hour. We changed into our pirate t-shirts and grabbed our pirate party stuff and went to pick up the kids. We stopped by the lobby and had our pictures done then headed to Animator's Palate for dinner. The waiters looked so cute in their pirate outfits. I passed out the flashing pirate skull pins that I had gotten from Oriental Trading company - and gave one to our server, asst server, and head server as well. There were so many items on the menu that it was so hard to choose. The menu was printed like an old treasure map and were ours to keep. We put on our red bandanas that were sitting on the table and wore our flashing skull pins. I had the chicken wings for an appetizer and they were very good - Rhys ate more of my appetizer than he did his (the pineapple with coconut covered banana which I thought was also delicious). I had the cold honeydew/mango soup which was very good and the pasta with scallops and shrimp although I thought the scallops and shrimp were way over cooked. For dessert, it was basically bananas foster called something else. During dessert they did a dance in the dining room which included a limbo and the kids got up and danced when Noel, our server, grabbed them.

After dinner, I passed out the glow necklaces and bracelets to all the DISers and we all headed towards the deck party. I also finally met Renegade (Joanna) and her dad. We had a blast dancing and watching the fireworks on deck 9. Captain Hook, Mr Smee, Minnie and Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale, and Stitch were all dressed as pirates. It was really hot on the deck and we were sweating like crazy. When the ship really got going, a breeze cooled things off slightly. We stopped for some drinks at the beverage station and headed back to our cabin to get some sleep. Mazatlan was on the schedule for tomorrow and we have a 9:15 am excursion to catch.

10 August 2005, Wednesday - Mazatlan

We had to set the alarm this morning as our excursion - the Mexican Family Ranch Party - was at 9:15 am. We woke the kids up and after a very slow start, headed up to Topsiders for breakfast. We were already docked at the Mazatlan pier - it was going to be a HOT day again. I had a bagel with lox and salmon cream cheese, some fruit, and sausage. It was typical breakfast fare. While we were eating, the Carnival Pride pulled up alongside us and we watched it, literally, parallel park in front of us. It was really interesting to watch. Why can't we have lateral thrusters like that in our cars? LOL. We then headed down to Diversions to check in for our excursion. There weren't as many people waiting for this excursion as the Paradise Village beach excursion yesterday. We turned in our signed waivers and got Donald stickers, grabbed a few towels and waited. Soon, we headed down to deck 1 and boarded buses for the 45 minute drive to the ranch. Along the way, Josephine, our tour guide, explained about the history of Mazatlan and about the ranch. The bus stopped at the nearby chapel first for pictures. Amina fell asleep on the bus. Rhys and I got off and looked around, took a few pictures, and visited the chapel. I caught sight of a very long iguana rounding the corner of the chapel before it ducked into a hole. We re-boarded the bus and were taken down to the ranch which looked beautiful and quite large from the chapel. Josephine handed out drink tickets as we got off the bus - we each got 2 complimentary drinks which included beer, lemonade, bottled water, and soft drinks.

The first thing we saw upon arriving at the ranch was a goat and her baby in the front yard. The kids called it the "burping" goat as every time she opened her mouth to say something, it sounded just like a burp. There were baby bunnies in a small pen too. We headed straight for the pool along with everyone else. There was also a bus from the Carnival there and an earlier excursion from the Magic which was the horseback riding excursion. The kids jumped into the pool and before I even had a chance to settle down on a lounger and order some drinks, Rhys was sitting along the side of the pool examining his foot. Of course, when he realized that his foot was bleeding from a shallow laceration, he started crying. DH picked him up and handed him to me and I parked him on a lounger and went off to look for something to clean up his foot. Apparently, he had sliced the bottom of his foot on a piece of tile while in the pool - the gash was not too deep but pretty long and bleeding briskly. I asked the bartender for some first aid supplies and mopped up the blood with some napkins. One of the tour guides came up to us with a bandaid and neosporin. We had lots of people check on him to make sure things were ok and one of the tour guides had me fill out an incident report. Rhys wouldn't get back in the water again so we went back to look at the bunnies and goat until lunch was ready.

At about 11:30, they seated us for lunch in the dining area right near the pool. We were seated with another family from California. We ordered more drinks from the nearby bar and each got a bowl of tortilla soup which was a bit plain. We then waited, and waited, and waited....and finally when we realized that the other tables were getting their dessert we flagged down a waiter who finally took our order. We could either order beef or chicken so I opted for the beef while DH got the chicken. The waiters were terribly disorganized and brought us soup, again. We declined the soup and waited for our lunch which, when it finally arrived, was pretty awful. The beef was like leather. I did eat the 1/2 chile relleno although they were stuffed with more onions than cheese and ate Amina's chile relleno too as she had filled up on tortilla chips and soup and wasn't interested in eating her lunch. She had gone off to go swimming in the pool again. For dessert we had flan which was pretty good. When we finally got done with lunch it was almost 1 pm. DH did let one of the tour guides know that we were unhappy with how long it took for us to get our lunch.

The kids played in the pool for a little while longer then got out to get ready for the pinata. Amina also had a shallow paper-cut like laceration on one of her toes that we had to put a bandaid on. We walked over and looked at the horses and goats and then went to the pinata breaking. They lined the kids up - boys on one side and girls on the other. The pinata was huge in the shape of a flower basket. The kids broke 2 pinatas open and scrambled for candy which was mostly gum. Afterwards, we boarded the bus for the ride back to Mazatlan.

This time the bus stopped in the shopping district before dropping us off at the pier terminal. I even fell asleep and took a nap on the bus along with Rhys. At the terminal, we had to walk through a bunch of shops to get to the trolley that took us to the ship. We did stop by a shopping stall and bought 3 bottles of vanilla for $20 US. We got back to our cabin and DD took a shower and washed her hair really well to get ready for her hair braiding appointment. We dropped off laundry at the launderette but all of the washers were full so we headed up to deck 9 and stopped by the arcade to pick up another arcade card. I had been stopping by each day to pick up spent arcade cards to keep as a souvenir - each day's arcade card had a different design on it and I thought it was the least expensive (free!) and one of the coolest souvenirs on the ship. We ran into Dolores and her DD, Rebeca, outside the arcade and formally introduced ourselves and chatted for a little bit. Our DD's had already met in the lab. We then had DD's hair braided - she chose straight braids instead of corn rows and picked out blue/pink/white beads. This took less than 15 minutes as another little girl was getting her corn rows with tears streaming down her face and sobbing cries as the CM braided her hair. I guess I never realized how much it hurt to pull on those hairs.

When we got back to the cabin, DH went upstairs to take care of the item we had won at the art auction. I ordered room service for the kids (fruit bowl, chicken noodle soup which DS loved, cheeseburger and the mexican fiesta pizza) and then threw some clothes in the laundry which was still pretty busy. I left my detergent in the launderette for others to use and it was all used up by the time I returned to put my clothes in the dryer. One woman told a horror story where her clothes (and apparently others' clothes as well) this morning were removed from a dryer and left on the floor by someone else. I returned later to pick up our clothes and we quickly folded them and headed out to see Twice Charmed.

The show was very cute and innovative with a combination of live acting/singing, movie magic, and pyrotechnics. The story was very good and the cast is quite talented. I did like the Golden Mickeys better, though. After the show, we dropped the kids of at the lab/club and headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner at Palo's at 8:30 pm. We arrived about 5 minutes early and were seated. Our server's name was Florencia and she was excellent - so attentive and friendly. She worked so hard to make everything just perfect for us. The menu selection was incredible - it was so hard to decide on what to have. Florencia made some excellent suggestions and even told us that we could order 1/2 sizes if we wanted to try more than one thing.

I had a sparkling wine/white peach bellini as a cocktail. There were a selection of breads and bread sticks that came with dipping sauces (garlic, roasted pepper, and olives), and antipasta: prosciutto ham, fresh parmesan cheese, olives, roasted garlic, and sundried tomatoes. For an appetizer, we ordered the pizza with prosciutto ham and pesto to share and I had the portobello mushroom which was excellent. My main course was just so-so, salmon which was overcooked for my tastes. I dug around the middle of the huge piece of salmon to get the part which was less cooked and more to my liking. Florencia asked me what happened to my dinner and I shared with her that I thought the salmon was overcooked. She took the salmon right away to the chef and gave him my comment and offered to bring me some of the tuna. I was stuffed but curious and willing to sample it. It wasn't what I expected and although cooked well (ie basically raw) it wasn't like the sashimi grade tuna that I was used to. I passed on it after a few bites. For dessert, I ordered the tiramisu and DH had the souffle. We also ordered a souffle for the kids to go. They brought both of us a souffle just so I could try it. Chocolate souffle is not my favorite but DH said it was quite good and ate mine too. The tiramisu was excellent but I was just to full to finish it. Florencia then brought us palate cleansers - lemon sorbet mixed with vodka and champagne. It was really good.

We finally left Palo after about 2.5 hours. We didn't make the 10:15 pm magician/illusionist show that we wanted to opting instead to pick up the kids and heading back to the cabin. DH picked up Rhys and headed back to the cabin to have some souffle and I had to wait around for Amina to get done as they were filming a commerical and she wanted to stay and watch it. We finally got back to the cabin at almost 11:30 where DD finished the rest of the souffle and we all got to bed.

11 August 2005, Thursday - Cabo San Lucas

The phone rang at about 7:45 am to let us know that our breakfast that we had ordered the night before was on its way. We had ordered it for between 8 and 8:30 but they were a litte early. We had cereal, milk, coffee, doughnuts, and oj. We got ready for the day and headed for the Buena Vista theater to get our tender tickets and to wait for the next tender. We didn't wait long at all and boarded the tender for Cabo San Lucas - it was just about 9:15 am. It was already warm out and we took the short tender ride to the pier and then started walking. We went on the first glass-bottom boat/land's end tour we ran into and negotiated a 45 minute tour for the 4 of us for $36. There was one other family on the boat. As we were making our way to where the Dos Mares boat was, Rhys had dropped his sunglasses off the pier into the rocks. Fortunately, the natives were very nice and hopped down onto the rocks and fished his sunglasses out of the water. We boarded the Dos Mares and were taken out to see the fish, Lover's beach (which is between the 2 oceans - the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez), a colony of seals laying on the rocks, and around the Los Arcos rock formations. The captain of the boat was nice, informative, and let the kids each take a turn at "driving" the boat while we took pictures. We were dropped off at the pier again and by now, it's REALLY hot. We walk along the pier and stop at the first bar we see to get some water and drinks. I picked out 2 bottles of water and 2 cans of 7-up. I gave the guy 50 pesos (worth about $5) and he asked for $8 US more! I was floored and left him standing there with the water and drinks - it was ridiculous. We made our way into a shopping strip and stopped at another place to get a couple of bottes of Fanta and a large bottle of water. This time, it only cost 35 pesos. We then walked into a souvenir shop and picked out some t-shirts and a tank/shorts set for Amina. The total was $53 according to the guy helping us for only 2 t-shirts (one child sized) and the outfit for DD. I talked him down to $45 but still felt like I didn't get my money's worth. In retrospect, we paid WAY too much for those shirts. Ah well, live and learn.

We went outside and walked to the Plaza Paradaiso shopping mall which was indoors and air conditioned. It was a nice place to shop and had a nice bathroom. We walked around for quite a while and finally found a souvenir store where most everything was $5 or less. I had to borrow cash from Rhys since I had used everything I had for the boat ride and t-shirts. We picked up a magnet, few packages of khalua and tequila chocolates, a necklace for me, and candle/shot glass for our Au Pair. We were given the Disney Magic discount too and paid only $15 for everything. Amina got a sandalwood fan and a morroco. Rhys got a set of pan flutes for $3.50. We were getting hungry so we headed back to the ship listening to the kids complaining the whole way. It was really really hot at this point and we were all sweating profusely when we finally got back on the ship. The kids were really dragging...

We went to Lumiere's for lunch and had the 2 most attentive waiters so far outside of Palo's. I had the potato skins for an appetizer and the chicken casserole followed by the fruit compote/white cake for dessert. At this point, the kids were SO tired, DH took them back to the cabin for a nap which I'm sure he was really looking forward to as well. I took the opportunity to catch up on my trip report at this point and then joined another family that I had met in the launderette in a game of Cruisin' for Trivia at the Promenade Lounge. We were close - had scored 21 out of 25 but the winner correctly guessed 22 out of 25. He won a DCL bag. Who would've known that the most common name for a street in the US was "second" (not Main) and that the most recorded Beatles song was "Yesterday". LOL. I picked up another arcade card - this one actually said "Castaway Cay" on it and then went to the Cove Cafe to watch some tv (using wireless headphones) and relax while waiting for DH and the kids to wake up. It's hard to believe that our cruise is almost over. We have our last day at sea tomorrow and return to LA in 2 days. At least we gain an hour tonight. DD really really wants to watch Sky High which shows tomorrow in the Buena Vista theater at 3 pm.

When I get back to the cabin, the kids are up. I ask them if they each would like a chocolate chip cookie that we had gotten earlier from room service. It should have been my first clue, in retrospect, that something was up with Rhys as he actually declined the cookie. He lay on the sofa and complained of a stomach ache for a little while. He felt very warm and was complaining of being "seasick". DH had gotten up and gone to the fitness center so I took the kids up to deck 10 to get DS some fresh air and to get his bearings figuring maybe it was a combo of being overheated, tired, dehydrated and a little motion sick. Our morning water taxi ride did take us over to the Pacific side which was pretty rough water and the kids got very hot walking back to the pier from the shopping mall. Sitting up on deck 10 and sipping some water didn't help so I took DS back down to the cabin and put him in the bath tub to sponge him down. He drank a cup of ice water and after sitting in the tub shivering, said that he felt a bit better. He felt cooler and we got ready to go to the 6:30 pm show - Twice Charmed. He also drank a glass of orange juice.

Well, it was mostly downhill from here and probably (unfortunately, lol) one of the most memorable nights we have on the entire cruise. Still figuring that DS had a bit of heat exhaustion, we picked up some Chip and Dale crackers that resembled goldfish crackers and found some seats closer to the front of the theater. As the show started, DS looked like he was falling asleep so I picked him up and put him in my lap. The show had barely started when DS threw up all over me. I hissed at DH to take him and the 3 of us snuck out - DH holding DS and me cradling my tank top and skirt to keep the vomit from hitting the floor. I tried to rinse myself off as best I could clogging up the sink - thank goodness there was a bathroom just outside of the theater. DH was in the other bathroom rinsing DS off who was crying now and apologizing. I led him back to our cabin still holding my top and skirt up without being too revealing and put him in the bath tub. I won't go into the other gory details here but suffice it to say that I rinsed off DS and put him to bed. DH had gone back to DD and watched the rest of the show. A cast member was sent immediately to our seat with a bucket to clean up but DH said that there really wasn't anything to wipe up. I had pretty much caught it all on my top and skirt. As DS slept, I watched the Twice Charmed show on the cabin's tv. DH and DD returned to the cabin after the show was over and we decided that DH would stay with DS and I would take DD up to dinner at Lumiere's and bring back something for DH.

We enjoyed dinner at Lumiere's - it was semi-formal night so I put on the outfit that I had worn to Palo's as my semi-formal outfit was drip drying in the bathroom. I had the grilled shrimp appetizer and the lobster tail which was quite good. Dessert was a mango ice cream sundae with a coconut macaroon (which was more like a piece of meringue cookie) and Noel, our server from India, had already sent over the shrimp/lobster tail/ and chocolate dessert to DH in the cabin which was very sweet of him. After dinner, DD and I headed back to the cabin and called it a night - a very eventful night.

12 August 2005, Friday - Our Last Day at Sea

Fortunately, DS slept all night and when he woke up in the morning - he was feeling a lot better. DH and I were looking at each other when DS got up, got himself dressed, brushed his teeth, and put his shoes on all without being told to. He was waiting by the door ready for breakfast, lol. It was about 8:30 and we headed to Lumiere's for breakfast. DH and I had reservations for Palo's brunch at 10:30 so we just sipped on some coffee while the kids ate breakfast. We then dropped the kids off at the club and lab after agreeing to meet at Diversions for the DVC presentation at 9:30. DH stopped off at the gift shop to get DS a sweatshirt and dropped by the cabin to give him an ibuprofen just in case. We watched the DVC presentation and were quite impressed with the on-board incentives to join. I had a colleague and friend of mine already contact DVC last year and they sent us a large brochure and DVD but we just never got around to joining. I really wanted to meet with someone face to face and to get a tour of the facility before committing but we just never had the time. After 3 major trips to WDW, a few small trips to WDW, this trip to DL and on DCL, we should have joined DVC a LONG time ago! We left a bit early to make our 10:30 reservations at Palo's but did sign up for a private consultation at 1:30 with Amil. People were booking these consultations quickly after we got up and booked ours.

We headed to Palo's and were seated in Florencia's section again. She gave us the "tour" of the buffet which was wonderful. A seafood area with huge crab claws, crab legs, large shrimp, sevruga caviar, cold smoked salmon, sun dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, etc. A cheese area, a bread area with fresh whipped cream and fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries). The pizza chef was cooking up pepperoni, mushroom, cheese, and sweet pizzas (raspberry sauce, mango slices, fresh blueberries, and mascarpone cheese). The dessert area had huge chocolate dipped strawberries, slices of tiramisu, cheesecake, key lime pie, etc. There were also made to order eggs (benedict, florentine, etc) and some pasta dishes - we didn't have time nor room to try these. I think I liked the brunch even better than the dinner. Regular and honeydew champagne was also incuded. I also had a glass of Martinelli's sparkling cider which did cost extra. Jenny was seated at the table next to us with someone she had met (I think it was Susanna) and I got to try a piece of the mushroom pizza when they ordered one.

We thoroughly enjoyed our brunch and found out from Florencia (originally from Argentina) that she has been on the Magic for a very long time - the other staff call her "Mama". Apparently, Florencia had been on the Magic when it left Italy after being constructed. She then served on the Magic for 2 contracts and then went to the Wonder when it left Italy for another contract. At the end of that term, she returned to the Magic and has been on it ever since. Her husband is the head chef at Lumiere's. What a totally awesome arrangement. We didn't ask about kids. I highly recommend asking for Florencia if anyone is planning on Palo's - she is very knowledgeable, sweet, and has a wonderful personality (and I got such a kick out of all of the crew members' different accents).

After brunch, I went to check on DS who was just finishing lunch at Animator's Palate. He looked a little worn out but was no longer warm and wanted to stay with the group to watch Finding Nemo at the Buena Vista theater. DH had gone up to Wide World of Sports to check on DD who we had given signing out privileges today so that she could go and meet her favorite princess, Aurora, who was in the atrium at 11 am. DD was thrilled to be able to sign herself out and holding her own room key but I made her swear that she would see Aurora and then go right back to the sports deck and rejoin the kids from the Oceaneer Lab.

We then met at the DVC desk and waited briefly for Amil Arroyo who took us down to deck 2 into a converted inside state room designated as a "conference room". We had looked over the available DVC destinations during brunch and had formulated a few questions but Amil really anticipated all of our questions. We had decided beforehand that DVC was really something that we wanted to invest in. The onboard incentives were an $8 per point credit to be applied towards the downpayment (saved us about $2400) which, effectively, brought the price per point down from $98 to $90; a March Use Year which means that the points we would have received on Mar 1 of THIS year we would get to use or bank for next year even though it was the middle of August; pro-rated dues; and no closing costs. We were already sold after the initial presentation, lol. Amil welcomed us as new DVC "family" and we were to return later that night to sign the contracts as Amil was running way behind.

DH headed off to the fitness center/nap that he usually does in the afternoon while I went to the spa for my 3 pm appointment for a foot ritual and pedicure. Joanna from England did my pedicure and there was no sales pressure whatsoever as I had indicated on my check-in form: "No Sales Please. Thanks!". It was relaxing and Joanna did a great job. We didn't take the kids to see Sky High after all since their Disney Sea University graduation rehearsal was at 4 pm where they would receive their DSU t-shirts and caps and the graduation was at 5 pm in the Walt Disney theater. DH and I headed to the theater early to get good seats but the last jackpot bingo game was still in session and the theater was PACKED. I did find 2 seats near the middle in the 4th row. I'm so glad that I didn't try to get closer as those who were playing bingo or had come into the theater and sat in the first 2 rows had to move after the game was over - the first two rows were "reserved". The graduation was so cute! We were absolutely amazed at how the counsellors handled SO MANY kids. The older kids (including DD) came down the stairs through the theater and the younger kids came in from the side doors. They just kept coming and coming and coming all wearing their DSU t-shirts and graduation caps which were really NICE with the DSU patch on it and, of course, mouse ears. It was a photo-taking mad house - especially when Mickey Mouse himself came into the theater wearing a graduation outfit. Mickey and Minnie recited the DSU alma mater and they showed a video with picture slide show of lots of kids at various activities. It was close to being a tear-jerker. The kids were then herded off the stage and we went up to the Lab and Club to pick them up. The line into the Club was out the door and around the corner so it took us quite a while to get DS. We then went down to the atrium to meet the other DIS folks as we had decided the night before to meet for a group picture at around 6-6:15 pm. Let's see if I can remember everybody's nick: Me (kidoctr), Vickie (Schultzfamily), Cathy (Catnip0113), Barb (Jilljill), Jenny (Itinkso), Kazu (hzj77hv), Jinny (Jasak), and Wongmao (Lisa).....and all of our families. We got situated around the statue of Mickey Mouse at the wheel of the ship and I just grabbed the first CM that came by who was very very gracious to agree to take our picture. It was hilarious since soon he was inundated with about 8 cameras and another CM came by to help him take some pictures. Afterwards, he pretended to walk off with all of our cameras. We wished we had a picture of the CMs taking our picture! Unfortunately, my group picture came out too dark so, hopefully, one of the other DISers will email me a copy of the group pic.

We finished up and rushed to the theater for tonight's performance - 'Til We Meet Again which was some singing, dancing, conclusions of the skits from the first show, a magician who was very good, and a rock-n-roll comic who was so-so. DS seemed to be feeling a lot better during the show and did not throw up again though I was watching him like a hawk and we sat waaaay in the back this time, lol. Since it was the last night, we let the kids buy some candy for the show - sour cherry balls for DD and sour gummy worms for DS from the little snack shop right by the theater. After the show, we went back to our cabin to finish packing as we had to have our bags out before 10 pm which meant that we wouldn't be returning from dinner in time to finish packing. While we were packing, DS fell asleep on the bed. DH scooped him up and we went to meet with Amil after getting a call that he was available. We went over the final details of our DVC membership, signed a couple of contracts (we bought 350 points and split them up into 2 contracts with the intention of giving them to our kids someday). We got a huge bag full of gifts - a scrapbook, DVC member caps, member lanyards, a travel portfolio, etc. and snapped a photo with Amil who would be our new personal DVC consultant in case we had questions in the future. He gave us each his card with all of his phone numbers including his cell phone number. The kids got some exclusive DCL pins. He's been with DVC for quite some time and he, along with his partner Mike, were brought aboard the Magic to be available to meet with the Disney CEO who was supposed to be on the next cruise. He made us promise to stop by and visit him the next time we were at WDW.

During our meeting, DS woke up but sat quietly and looked very bleary-eyed. He was warm again and DH had given him some ibuprofen before we left the cabin. Poor little guy. We went to our final dinner at Animator's Palate and he had a few bites of pineapple before falling asleep on DH's lap. I had the garlic/artichoke dip, mushroom soup, and seafood pasta (angel hair with scallops, shrimp, and clams) - delicious. The waiters did the baked Alaska thing and we handed out our pre-printed, pre-stuffed thank you envelopes that I had put a personalized thank you card and their gratuities in. I'm so so glad I did that before leaving having gone to the bank to get exact change and putting cash into each envelope so that all I had to do was put their names on the envelopes. I added some extra money for Noel, our server, who did a fantastic job and was so friendly and accomodating. Nazim, the asst server, seemed to warm up as the cruise got going but he doesn't really strike me as terribly comfortable with kids. For dessert, I had the creme brulee with sauteed bananas and, just because I hadn't had a chance to get one yet, a Mickey ice cream bar. DH had already taken DS back to the cabin before dessert was served so I ordered the chocolate cake for him to take to the cabin. It was almost 10:30 when we got back to the cabin and our bags were already gone. I dropped off dessert and then took DD to the gift shops to spend her last Disney dollars. She selected an Aurora play set and we picked out one of those light up, twirling wands for DS. Earlier, DH and I had shopped a little and I got a Wishes CD, a pair of black Mickey slippers, and a keychain with the Mexican Riviera cruise logo on it that we thought would convert easily to a fridge magnet to add to our collection. We had also ordered some Christmas cards from Shutters and purchased a few prints that came out nicely earlier during the day. We finally headed back to the cabin and got to bed.

13 August 2005, Saturday - Disembarkation

We had breakfast scheduled for 8 am at Animator's Palate. It was nice to get together with everyone again before leaving although Cathy (Catnip0113) and her family had already disembarked to catch an early flight. One of the benefits of 2nd dinner seating - we had breakfast on the late side - breakfast for the first group of early dinner seating was at 6:15 am! We ate a leisurely breakfast, were given Donald stickers to wear, and snapped a few pictures before getting off the ship. That was my 2nd and last lox and bagel breakfast. As we got off the ship, CMs were waving with Mickey gloves on. At first, we were surprised to see that the passport line was much longer than the passport/birth certificate line. I had read the opposite on DIS but it turns out that most of the people in the passport line also had birth certificates for their kids and had to move to the other line. The passport line really did move a LOT faster than the BC line.

We went down the escalators and were directed to where our bags were - we had Pluto tags on our bags and there were rooms clearly marked by character so finding our bags was easy. There were plenty of porters around to help. We then went outside to the buses which were all lined up and marked with destinations. Our bus was pretty full and we waited for a little while before we left - at around 9:40 am. I had read about pre-checking our bags at the pier but there was no such service available - I had even asked a CM and was told that there was no pre-check. It would have been nice because by the time we got to LAX, it was incredibly crowded and busy.

We arrived at LAX about 10 and there was mass confusion. DH and I are completely disenchanted with American Airlines right now - it was completely disorganized with a bunch of airport people standing around doing who knows what when they should have been at the doors directing people where to go. Many many people were tired and irate. The line to use the self check-in kiosks was like getting in line to get on Peter Pan at about 1 pm. We thought we were in the wrong line since I had tried to check-in online yesterday while still on the Magic and it wouldn't let me so we moved over to the regular AA line which wound back and forth a few times in the terminal, then went OUT the doors, down the sidewalk, and wound back UP the sidewalk. People were in line for hours and some even missed their flights. We had heard that there was a bomb scare earlier and the terminal was shut down for about 45 minutes. I went BACK to the self check-in line and waited there, which moved much faster than the line DH was in and asked the American Airlines agent who was checking itineraries of everyone in line if I was in the right line. She said yes so I called DH to come over with the kids and our bags. When we reached the kiosk, it would NOT let us check in. We waited and waited for an agent to help us and she ended up being the rudest person we had seen for the last 10 days. One of our bags exceeded the weight limit by 6 pounds so we shuffled our stuff around. Thank goodness our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 2:45 pm. Once we got our boarding passes, this nasty woman wouldn't take our bags! We were directed to take our bags to the opposite end of the terminal to be x-rayed so we haul our stuff across the room and get in another line just to drop off our bags in a holding area. We tried to take the first escalators we saw but, nope, it was for first class passengers only. Where were the escalators? At the other end of the terminal, of course. We found the right escalators and went up to get in yet another line to pass through security. At the top of the escalators were 2 airport workers gossiping when there was mass pandamonioum going on downstairs. I commented to DH that if the airport was handed over to Disney, we'd all be a lot happier and the lines would have been waaaay more efficient. We stop for lunch at Chili's which, thankfully, was only a short wait for a table. After lunch, we find our gate and find out that the flight is delayed. After a gate switch, we finally get off the ground almost an hour late amidst feelings of doom and gloom as our connecting flight window of time was about 45 minutes. Sure enough, we arrive in Dallas and the agent at the gate calls our gate to find out that they had just shut the door of our connecting flight. We are directed to another gate to wait as stand by passengers on a later flight. We basically wait for another hour only to be told that there was no more room on the flight and that we would have to spend the night in Dallas. What a nightmare. We get to the hotel at around 10:30 pm with dinner vouchers from American Airlines only to find out the hotel has NO dining facilities. We're so fed up when we get to bed only to be up at 5 am to make a 7:44 am flight to OK city. What a terrible ending to an otherwise wonderful trip. We did make it home this morning at about 10:30. DS has been asleep since we got home, lol.

 

[SchultzFamily]

WOW Eve, I am so impressed!!! Last year I came home and posted trip reports, day by day on the trip report thread but it is so much better to do it as you go when everything is fresh in your mind.

My little photo printer was busy printing out pictures much of the day yesterday. With a couple of stops to run and get more photo paper and a couple of times I think it just overheated! I had to turn it off and let it rest for a couple of minutes. I didn't realize how many pictures I had taken until I started seeing this stack from my little printer! And its going again now! Its not the fastest printer but I'm really happy with the pictures!

Today I really need to do some chores, its back to work tomorrow!
Vickie

 

[SchultzFamily]

I also wanted to share the Christmas cards we had made. Some of you know how hard it was to get Kenney to sit for a picture, then the first one didn't come out so it was a major accomplishment to get these cards!
Vickie

[/IMG]

 

[Catnip0113]

Eve and Vickie, Wonderful photos you posted! I should do a Christmas card from one of my digital photos, I'll have to look at them.

Eve - I copy/pasted your trip journal to a Word document to read later and it was 29 pages! Did you do it as you went on a laptop?

Cathy

 

[Catnip0113]

This is Jess teaching me how to do a photo post. I didn't have all my photos on Snapfish yet but here is a good one of Jess, Minnie and Alexa.

 

[Catnip0113]

Here is our verandah in 7112, we never did our cabin tour but the kids did and Jess described Brynee and Alexa's rooms to me (basically the same for the most part).

 

[justmestace]

Great report Eve!! I haven't gotten to finish the whole thing....I had to turn it off this morning and go to work. Stupid work. It interferes with my fun!
I know every nook and cranny you've talked about at DL and CA. My stompin' grounds!!

And I am LOVING all the pictures. Makes me sad, but I love them all anyway.........

KEEP POSTING PICTURES AND TID-BITS!!!!!

 

[SchultzFamily]

This is Jess teaching me how to do a photo post. I didn't have all my photos on Snapfish yet but here is a good one of Jess, Minnie and Alexa.

Cathy, Did you post this picture from Snapfish? I've never been able to get a picture to post from Snapfish, I always download them to Photobucket to post.
Vickie

 

[Catnip0113]

Yes, from Snapfish with Jessica's help. I would have have no clue. I have a cheat sheet now. You right click the photo in snapfish (I selected it and enlarged it first). Properties, you highlight the http URL completely (doesn't all show in window). Then right click in the hightlighted part and select Copy. Go to our forum post and hit that button with the mountain and little square (says insert image if you roll cursor over it). It brings up a box Explorer User Prompt (maybe depends on your browser?) and I right click and paste the URL there and hit OK. I think it might be easier from other websites though but I use snapfish...

Cathy

 

[Catnip0113]

Eve, I started at the end to see what Disembarkation was like for you. Wow, how horrible! We flew Delta which was pretty smooth, but we did pass another airline terminal (may have been American) which looked awful.
I can't believe the rude staff and missing your connecting flight and all especially with kids. Did you get any dinner?

In Florida they do have the bag check-in at the port and it is all smoother I feel. We kept comparing California to Florida as far as cleanliness on the highways and all. I understand the cruise stuff not being the same because it was temporary and if they move to cruise out there they will make it better I would think.

Cathy

 

[SchultzFamily]

Yes, from Snapfish with Jessica's help. I would have have no clue. I have a cheat sheet now. You right click the photo in snapfish (I selected it and enlarged it first). Properties, you highlight the http URL completely (doesn't all show in window). Then right click in the hightlighted part and select Copy. Go to our forum post and hit that button with the mountain and little square (says insert image if you roll cursor over it). It brings up a box Explorer User Prompt (maybe depends on your browser?) and I right click and paste the URL there and hit OK. I think it might be easier from other websites though but I use snapfish...

Cathy

Cathy, thats pretty much what I was doing but all I get is a little x in a box but no picture. I'll just continue to use Photobucket, it works well for me.

It was back to work today, I enjoyed sharing my pictures but I'd rather be back on vacation!
Vickie

 

[Kidoctr]

I'm still organizing our pics on Shutterfly to share. I uploaded 300+ pictures. Took a little while, lol.

Vickie - your Christmas card is wonderful! I scanned our Christmas card too:

I was wondering if anyone would actually read my trip report, lol, on my 'puter it's 15 pages long but that's with no margins on the page. I worked on it while the kids and DH took naps so I had 2-3 hour chunks of time to just write during the trip. I really wanted to put my thoughts down on paper (so to speak) while it was still fresh.

Cathy -yes, we did get something to eat at the airport while we were waiting for the flight as stand-by passengers. The airport in Dallas virtually shuts down at 9 and I had a really really hard time finding someplace to get something more than just trail mix and candy. It was infuriating given that American gave us NO choice - we were prisoners in the airport until the last flight left. I asked if we could just forego the standby flight and head straight to the hotel and was told we could not. The TGI Fridays was closed but one of the waiters hadn't logged out on the computer yet so he took pity on me and let me buy some sandwiches and a really stale salad. We were so tired by the time we got to the hotel that I heard no complaints about going to bed without having anything else to eat.

Once I finish with arranging the pics at Shutterfly, I'll post the links...

 

[Itinkso]

Vickie and Eve - The Christmas cards are wonderful! I'm envious but cards with just Brynee and me wouldn't have gone over well!

I printed out some pics last night to put in my album to show a gym employee, co-workers and friends. Everyone who has seen the group pic is just in awe that people can correspond for a year, "meet up" on a cruise, and have a fantastic time!--All thanks to Stacey for starting the thread!

Eve - Your trip report was wonderful and so very detailed - Great Job! I'm sorry your trip home was so eventful; I can't imagine such a long trip delay with such young kids even though Rhys and Amina are precious and such well-behaved kids !

Today was the first day of school for Brynee. She has a great schedule and has tennis practice after school - but the very best part is that she can drive herself to wherever she needs to be! No more chauffeuring for me after 20 looooong years! This is a milestone event for me - though I do miss catching up with the news of her day while in the car but we have plenty of time in the evenings. Now it's off to bed for all of us; Jack and I are working out at 5:30

 

[SchultzFamily]

Vickie and Eve - The Christmas cards are wonderful! I'm envious but cards with just Brynee and me wouldn't have gone over well!

I printed out some pics last night to put in my album to show a gym employee, co-workers and friends. Everyone who has seen the group pic is just in awe that people can correspond for a year, "meet up" on a cruise, and have a fantastic time!--All thanks to Stacey for starting the thread!

Eve - Your trip report was wonderful and so very detailed - Great Job! I'm sorry your trip home was so eventful; I can't imagine such a long trip delay with such young kids even though Rhys and Amina are precious and such well-behaved kids !

Today was the first day of school for Brynee. She has a great schedule and has tennis practice after school - but the very best part is that she can drive herself to wherever she needs to be! No more chauffeuring for me after 20 looooong years! This is a milestone event for me - though I do miss catching up with the news of her day while in the car but we have plenty of time in the evenings. Now it's off to bed for all of us; Jack and I are working out at 5:30

Jenny, I agree about the Christmas cards with only part of the family, thats why I was so determined to get a nice family picture. I always do cards with a picture and have an album with every years cards so its a great memory for me to have it include our family vacation!
Next month we will be down in your area (I think). My neice is getting married on Sept 24th at the White Horse Inn in Three Rivers. Are you familiar with the area? We're staying at the Sequoia Motel the night of the wedding.
Gotta go to work
Vickie

 

[Itinkso]

Next month we will be down in your area (I think). My neice is getting married on Sept 24th at the White Horse Inn in Three Rivers. Are you familiar with the area? We're staying at the Sequoia Motel the night of the wedding.
Gotta go to work Vickie

Vickie - You can only get to Three Rivers by driving right through Visalia! We've been to the White Horse Inn many times for receptions including one where Brynee was the flower girl in the wedding party! Maybe on your way back down from Three Rivers we can meet for coffee, dessert, or lunch. Let me know what your schedule is! We should be in town; Traci leaves for UCSD the first week of September and we probably won't plan on going to San Diego until the end of September or early October.

Have a great weekend! Were you able to meet up with Barb, Jay and Alexa?

 

[Catnip0113]

No more chauffeuring for me after 20 looooong years! This is a milestone event for me - though I do miss catching up with the news of her day while in the car but we have plenty of time in the evenings. Now it's off to bed for all of us; Jack and I are working out at 5:30

Jenny, Right now I am so nervous about Jessica driving, the other drivers seem so scary. It must get easier when they are older and you see them practicing and all. I'd rather have them drive than go in someone else's car. Does CA have laws about passengers when they are new drivers?

Cathy