Best Friends and New Friends - a MAGICal Tale

[Jennifer48]

423 days seem like an eternity away. That is how long I waited to take my 2nd Disney Cruise.

Some informal introductions of yours truly, author of this trippie, and my traveling companion, before we begin this journey.

Me: Jennifer48; Jennifer; Jen; lover of all things Disney. I made my first trip to WDW when I was 20 yrs old and have been obsessed ever since.
DBF: squall55; Daniel; Dan; we have been dating for 2.5 yrs. He’s my best friend and perfect traveling buddy which means he doesn’t complain about anything I want to do!

This cruise was originally booked back in June 2006. Dan and I were just jonesin’ to go on another DCL cruise and this one seemed too cheap to pass up.

We were booked on the September 1st Eastern sailing. It was such a good deal that I decided to invite our friends Kim (Kimberly815) and Joe (The Grim) along. We knew that even though they were almost broke from planning their upcoming wedding in January 2007 in Florida, that even they could afford this cruise. No convincing here and before you knew it; they were in contact with my TA Joy and had reserved a room next to us with linked dining. How great this cruise would be!

Unfortunately, life has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you. A good friend of Joe’s was engaged and getting ready to start planning his wedding. Wouldn’t you know it, they decided on a date, September 1, 2007 and Joe was to be a groomsman. Darn it!

So we decided to push back the cruise to the next eastern sailing on September 15th. Reservations were again linked and all was ok in the world again…..until another curveball came directly at us; Joe wouldn’t be able to go. He recently got a new job after the wedding and hadn’t yet accrued enough vacation time in order to take the week off and once he did, there was no guarantee that he would be able to take the time off as he was the low man on the totem pole and others with seniority would get their requests first. It was a tough decision to make but they decided to straight up cancel and Dan and I were going to press on.

Up Next: Will there be any good news??

 

[squall55]

I can't wait to re-live our cruise!

 

[Kimberly815]

Great start!

Unfortunately, life has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you.

Life does have a funny way of throwing curveballs at you. And you really just have to take it in stride. Although, I wasn't a big fan of these particular curveballs. . .since they were mainly aimed at me and Joe.

Up Next: Will there be any good news??

I sure hope so! (and I would bet that there is!)

 

[Jennifer48]

It’s now the 90 day mark for us to make our Palo reservations and shore excursions since we are Castaway Club members. Our first CC cruise to be exact. I didn’t book any on our first cruise so I was excited about doing so on this one. It was 11:00pm the evening before and I tried to see if maybe there was a chance we could book early. Nope. 12 midnight. Nope. 1am. Nope. So I decided to set my alarm for 3am and book. As my alarm sounds, PassPorter in hand with all my dates, reservation number, back up dates, I log onto DCL’s webpage. I am still unable to log in. What?! I head over to our DISmeet thread and there are people on the east coast that have already made theirs. Can this be? I start to panic and wake Dan up.

“It says we can’t book yet online.”
“I’ll try.”
~~silence~~

“Nope I can’t get in either. I think it thinks we aren’t part of the Castaway Club and we are supposed to wait until the 75 day mark.”
This can’t be. So I give up and try again in the morning.

9:00am rolls around and I attempt again. Still a no go. I find a phone number on my Castaway Club card and call them. They aren’t open on the weekends. Oh the humanity! Did my TA really mess up and not book us as a CC member? I call Dan.

“I still can’t get in.”
“Me neither. I found a number, let me call.”
10 minutes go by and he hasn’t called me back. This is a good sign, I think to myself.
~~phone rings~~
“They show that we are a repeat cruiser but for some reason in the system it showed that we weren’t to make reservations until 75 days out. They fixed that and we are to try again in a bit.”
Ok so I keep trying and trying. 30 minutes later, nothing. Dan calls DCL back.
“They say the servers are overloaded on the weekends and it will be a bit.”
Fine, I go shower and try again later. You can see where this is going though.

Finally at 11:00am, we are able to get in. All Palo brunch and High Tea reservations were gone. GONE! Sheesh. I hope for the best for dinner and our top 2 evenings that we planned on were gone as well. We decide on formal night and hope that when we get onboard the Magic, they will have more brunch ressies open up. Some good news to this sad tale, we were able to book both of the excursions we wanted, St. John Island tour and the Under 2 Flags tour.

Up Next: What’s this envelope?

 

[scottishwee35]

hello

Jennifer and Dan

Oh no about Palo and hope you had got it when you were on the Cruise??

Oh love your story

Looking forward to more one

Scottishwee35

 

[oybolshoi]

I made it! I'm reading! I'm asking nicely for more.

 

[Hixski]

Your trip report is good so far......keep it coming.

 

[Jennifer48]

Your trip report is good so far......keep it coming.

Thanks for reading Donna! You'll be seeing your name in lights soon!

I made it! I'm reading! I'm asking nicely for more.

No pressure from my all time favorite trippie author!

hello

Jennifer and Dan

Oh no about Palo and hope you had got it when you were on the Cruise??

Oh love your story

Looking forward to more one

Scottishwee35

Thanks for reading Deborah! More to come!

I can't wait to re-live our cruise!

Me neither! Can we go again soon?!

 

[Jennifer48]

Friday September 14th:

You can barely get me out of bed at 6:45am when I have to be at work for 8am. Setting my alarm for 4:30am is death by numbers to me but, it has to be done in order to get to the airport. Dan and I planned on calling each other at certain times just in case we slept through our alarms. Neither of us are morning people. So I make sure Dan is up at 4:35, which he was but we ended up talking for 10 minutes because, neither one of us wanted to get out of our warm beds. Our transportation plan involved us driving to one of the Logan Express stops and taking the bus to Logan International Airport to catch our 8:45am flight. We made it there successfully and were at the gate by 6:45am.
We flew JetBlue because we wanted to watch the TVs. I hate flying so anything to keep my attention will help. Sure it costs a little more than the cheap Southwest flights that I’m used to paying for but for me, it’s worth it. ESPN to occupy my time and no running to the gate to jump in line for an exit row seat.

Waiting at the gate for our flight

Anywho the flight was uneventful and we even landed early at MCO. We had Magical Express booked to spend one night at the Caribbean Beach Resort before heading over to Port Canaveral on Saturday. Off to Gate A we went in search of the ME desk. At the bottom of the escalator there is the friendly face of the Cast Member with the white Mickey glove.
“Hi there! Where do we catch the Magical Express bus?”
“You have to go to gate B and the Magical Express desk will be there on your right.”
WHAT?! We just came from gate B. I look at Dan and then the ME booklet, sure enough, we should have gone downstairs at gate B and not to gate A. So up the escalator, across the lobby, down the escalator and finally, the ME desk. At this point, I was hoping that it wasn’t a bad sign of things to come.

We are huge Red Sox fans. This weekend the Yankees were in town so we had to represent our team. As we are in line for the ME bus, one of the Cast Members says to us, “are you guys Patriots fans too?”
“Yes”
“Sorry, no pictures.” And so it begins. For those of you that don’t understand that, the New England Patriots got caught videotaping another team from the sidelines. It’s against the rules. But, let me just say that the Patriots have gone 9-0 since then. Booya!
Sorry, I got carried away. We walk outside to the steam bath and there are the nice new Disney Cruise Line buses.

New DCL and old DCL bus

Guess what we took? That’s right. The only ugly, yellow Mears bus. BLAH!

Our "Magical Express" transportation

We checked into the CBR around 1pm and our room was ready. Martinique Building 25.

Signage

We’ve never stayed here before so we planned on roaming the grounds. Plus, I purchased the PassPorter Treasure Hunts book before we left which had a hunt for CBR.

Right outside our building

I was starving at this point so we brought all the bags to our room and headed over to Old Port Royal to get some lunch.

Our room. Thats my reflection in the background

Old Port Royale

Dan suddenly didn’t feel well so I got a Greek salad and some water and we found a table. Dan was getting worse sitting there so we decided to take the food back to the room. We had to stop outside for Dan to sit because he thought he was going to be sick. I was getting very worried due to how quickly he was dropping off. I put the cold water on the back of his neck with hopes that it would do something. We were only there about 5 minutes or so when he decided he was ok enough to walk back. Once in our room, we just chilled out and cranked up the A/C.

After I finished my lunch, I unpacked/repacked a bit and I found an envelope sticking out from inside one of the suitcases. It had my name addressed on it and it was in Dan’s handwriting. Now I don’t know how Dan did it but he found the perfect card thanking me for this trip. I paid for the majority of it as a combined New Years/Valentines/birthday/anniversary/Thanksgiving/Christmas gift. It was so cute and so thoughtful that I cried a bit. The best part, at the end of the card and of his kind words he wrote “ok enough of this sappy stuff, let the fun begin!” It was so awesome and he’s the bestest boyfriend ever!

Up next: Will Dan be well enough to head to the Boardwalk for the night?

 

[BlueBayou]

Great trip report so far. I hope he gets to feeling better. I can't wait to hear more.

 

[oybolshoi]

I do hope Dan feels better as your trip unfolds - having just made it back from a trip where the man doesn't feel well I can tell you it stinks when it happens.

I love the card - such a thoughtful gesture.

 

[Jennifer48]

Great trip report so far. I hope he gets to feeling better. I can't wait to hear more.

Thanks for reading BlueBayou; more to come!

 

[Jennifer48]

After the nice down time we had in the room, Dan was feeling much better so we decided to go walk back over to Old Port Royale to see if we could find a little gift for tinkerbelle77 (Tina) and Bareacuda (Ann). Tina volunteered to pick us up a case of water on the way to the port so I didn’t have to ship my own. THANK YOU AGAIN TINA! Ann ordered everyone in our cruise meet thread lime green bracelets so we were recognizable to all the DISers onboard. THANK YOU ANN!

Chillin' on a hammock at CBR

Back at the room I noticed that there was a DCL leaflet on the table in the room. Neither of us knew where it came from. It congratulated us on going on the cruise and said that we were to have our luggage tagged and sitting inside our room by 8am for a porter to pick them up. Since we didn’t want to take any luggage on the ship ourselves, we planned on getting up early and packing everything we didn’t need.
We planned on heading to the Boardwalk to watch the Red Sox / Yankees game at the ESPN Club. Now this might make some DISers upset but we got lost taking the Disney transportation from CBR to the Boardwalk. I am ashamed to admit this to the professionals so please don’t shun me out!
Since we were staying in an EPCOT resort, we thought we could get to the Boardwalk from there. So we end up at EPCOT and asked a cast member working in the bus transportation booth how we can get to the Boardwalk. He said we can walk through the International Gateway inside the park. This I knew but we didn’t purchase any park tickets. He said the only other way via Disney transportation was to take one of the Friendship boats from outside of MGM, excuse me, Disney Studios. So back on the bus we went to MGM/Disney Studios. Mind you, this is already 6:30 and we left our room at CBR at 5:15! There was already a boat at the dock so we ran to catch it. Since we weren’t sure where exactly this boat stopped, we ended up getting off at the Swolphin and walking down the Boardwalk. We made it before the game started which we were happy about in a few ways. One, we were hungry and Dan was starving since he hadn’t eaten lunch earlier in the day. Two, we figured it would be packed and it was already. We found the last table in the bar area in the back of the room. We ordered the ESPN Dingers as an appetizer and a pitcher of beer. They were yuuuuuuuuuumy! Such a great app with beer. Mmmm I’m getting hungry just thinking about them. Take a look!

ESPN Dingers

I was actually full from these so I didn’t order an entrée but Dan did. Take a look at this Home Run Hot Dog!

Yes he actually ate that whole thing!

In the 2nd inning, these men in business suits decided to conduct a meeting in front of our table. More importantly, in front of our view of the game. The couple next to us kept yelling “down in front!” but they didn’t pay attention. Queue me. I start to say excuse me very loudly. One man turned back and gave me a dirty look. “Excuse me I’m talking to you.” He turned back again and continued his conversation. “Yes I’m talking to you, can you please move?!” That’s when he finally got the point and told his buddies that some crazy woman wants them to move. Yup, that’s me. Crazy for her Sox!

Dan and I were talking about something when it dawned on him that he didn’t pack his Pirates of the Caribbean shirt that I bought him to wear on Pirate Night on the cruise. It was the 4th inning and the Sox were winning 4-1 so we decided to leave and see if we could hit the shops outside and the CBR Straw Market. People started walking into ESPN soaking wet. We could hear the thunder outside. Dan checked the radar on his phone and there was a nice t-storm sitting over us and it wasn’t really moving. We decided to leave anyways since we had to make the stops and we weren’t sure how long it was going to take us to get back. Dan and I love the heat so when we walked outside it was still nice and warm so we didn’t really care if we got wet. The only problem was walking into those shops with the air blasting. Holy monkey was that frigid! We walked through the Screen Door General Store and Disney’s Character Carnival and all they had were children’s PoTC t-shirts. So we stand outside and we see a Friendship boat on its way to the dock. We run over to make the boat and the storm is now sitting right over us. Major thunder and lightning. It was awesome! We get on the boat and start to leave the dock. We are only ~200 yds from the dock when the boat stops. They make an announcement that they have stopped all boats until the storm moves. Mind you, we are sitting in the middle of Crescent Lake in the middle of the lightning storm. They actually did still run Illuminations so we got to see the fireworks from the boat. For 25 minutes we were in the boat before it started moving again. It was kind of fun. No kids yelling on the boat, thunder and lightning overhead, fireworks from Illuminations, rain beating down on the top of the boat. If you like that kind of stuff .
Of course, now is when the beer started to hit me so we got off at MGM/Disney Studios and headed for the bus stop. Yet another wait ahead of us. This time it was 30 minutes for the CBR bus. Buses for the value resorts kept coming and going but none for us. One guy at the front of the line decided he’d had enough and went and walked over to another stop to track someone down to see if we could get a bus. Shortly thereafter, a bus showed and we all piled on. Even though Disney transportation is free, the next time I am down there and stay on site, I will most likely get a rental. It’s just so much more convenient to have your own car to come and go as you please and not listen to crying children who are overtired from many hours in the parks.
We finally arrived back at CBR, 2 hrs + after we left ESPN. We were tired, wet and cold so we showered, packed and watched the end of the Sox game. They blew it in the top of the 8th and ended up losing 8-7. But we weren’t too disappointed; we were heading on our 2nd Disney Cruise in the morning!!

Up next: Hurry uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!

 

[oybolshoi]

Glad to hear that Dan ended up feeling better.

I think your impromptu Illuminations cruise sounds awesome, but I know I would have been worried about the lightning... it's what I do - I worry.

ESPN dingers are now hot wings? Didn't they used to be mini-hamburgers?

 

[Jennifer48]

Glad to hear that Dan ended up feeling better.

I think your impromptu Illuminations cruise sounds awesome, but I know I would have been worried about the lightning... it's what I do - I worry.

ESPN dingers are now hot wings? Didn't they used to be mini-hamburgers?

I'm glad he ended up feeling better also or else I would have had to watch the Red Sox game from our room, gasp!

We are meteorologists. Weather = FUN!

I don't know if the dingers used to be mini-hamburgers. This was the first time we had been. They are breaded chicken strips tossed in mild, hot, flame or barbecue sauce, served with celery and blue cheese dressing. We chose the barbecue sauce and they were yummy!

 

[squall55]

Thankfully I did feel better. That was not the way I wanted that trip to start..but after a bit of being in the AC and resting everything was fine.


That picture of the hot dog does not do justice...that thing was enormous. If you ever are there and a fan of hot dogs make sure you try it, but make sure you bring your appetite because theres alot there to eat.

 

[Hixski]

Your trip report looks good........and we still haven't got to the ship yet!!!

I know about not feeling well too!!! My throat fell like I was swallowing glass for the first couple of days on the cruise. Thank goodness for alcohol!!!

 

[Jennifer48]

Thankfully I did feel better. That was not the way I wanted that trip to start..but after a bit of being in the AC and resting everything was fine.

I'm glad too. It would have been a long week if you were sick and I had to take care of you!

Your trip report looks good........and we still haven't got to the ship yet!!!

I know about not feeling well too!!! My throat fell like I was swallowing glass for the first couple of days on the cruise. Thank goodness for alcohol!!!

I know I know. So much to write about! Doesn't look like anyones reading it anyways

Alcohol?! You and Glenn are about 3 steps away from a 6 step program

 

[Jennifer48]

Saturday, September 15th:

All the times I have stayed at a Disney resort, which actually isn’t that much, I’ve never set a wake up call. I guess I just never think of it and end up setting the alarm clock or a cell phone alarm. Anywho, we got up at 7am so we could pack all of our bags and have them ready for the porter by 8:15am. So we waited, and waited and waited and finally the knock on the door came at 9am! We could have slept another 45 minutes had we known they would be that late!

After our luggage was on its way to the bus, we decided to eat breakfast. We headed over to Old Port Royale to check out the spread. We were quite surprised with the amount of food on option. Everything from pancakes to omelets. Here’s what we ate:

Nice amount of grease to start the day!

Seating area outside Old Port Royale

Purdy pineapple fountain

We weren’t to meet for the bus until 12:15 and check-out wasn’t until 11am so we decided just to hang in the room until then. We were watching cartoons when IT came on. The Donald Duck Bee Cartoon. If you didn’t read my other trip report, let me fill you in. The first DCL cruise Dan and I went on, we saw this cartoon about 52 times. On the bus, in the resort, on the ship, everywhere. To see it now on this trip, just made it that much better and we haven’t even gotten on the ship yet! Unfortunately, it was the only time we saw it on this trip but we saw it nonetheless.

I got a picture of the Bee cartoon right at the very end!

We bid adieu to our room and head out to do the rest of the CBR PassPorter Treasure Hunt. For those of you that don’t have that book, it’s a fun hunt. Some of the questions are actually kinda difficult but it makes you look around and notice things that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Our meeting place was Shutters Restaurant inside Old Port Royale at 12:15. We headed over and sat in the lobby where others were waiting also. CM Vera came over, checked us in and gave us a boarding card for the bus. Once everyone was checked in, Vera took her Mickey glove and lead us out to the bus through the food court waving to everyone as we passed. The CMs were doing the limbo with the children so we all marched under the limbo bar as we proceeded out. It was so fun!

As we walked out, there it was! One of the new DCL buses! We were so excited that we were taking the “real” bus and not another Mears bus that we got stuck taking yesterday. WOOHOO!!

REAL DCL bus! And a new one too!

Dan and I were able to sit together which was great because the last cruise we were not able to and it sucked.

View from inside the new porthole windows on the DCL bus

We waved good-bye to CBR reminding ourselves that we’d be back after the cruise. The bus headed over to Saratoga Springs Resort to pick up others. The bus filled up pretty quickly. These two women sat in the seats in front of us and one of them had really bad body odor. It had to be the longest trip ever. You’d think she just ran a marathon without any deodorant before boarding. Nasty.

About halfway there, the video came on to psych us up even more for the cruise. It’s a cute video to watch and I had to take a picture as we were heading in.

DCL movie

Up over the hill is the view we had been waiting 400 days to see. The Magic!!!


Up next: Come oooooooooon!

 

[Kimberly815]

I know I know. So much to write about! Doesn't look like anyones reading it anyways

I'm reading! I want to hear all about it! I am just running a little late with these updates.

Now I don’t know how Dan did it but he found the perfect card thanking me for this trip. I paid for the majority of it as a combined New Years/Valentines/birthday/anniversary/Thanksgiving/Christmas gift. It was so cute and so thoughtful that I cried a bit. The best part, at the end of the card and of his kind words he wrote “ok enough of this sappy stuff, let the fun begin!” It was so awesome and he’s the bestest boyfriend ever!

Awww. How sweet!

That’s when he finally got the point and told his buddies that some crazy woman wants them to move. Yup, that’s me. Crazy for her Sox!

I would expect nothing less! I would probably ask you if you were feeling okay if you didn't ask them to move! I can't believe they were just standing there oblivious to the people behind them!

All the times I have stayed at a Disney resort, which actually isn’t that much, I’ve never set a wake up call.

Ya know, I never have either. I just don't think of it. I always just set the alarm myself. Then I come home and read the DIS and realize I missed out on Mickey waking me up.

We were so excited that we were taking the “real” bus and not another Mears bus that we got stuck taking yesterday. WOOHOO!!

I am glad you did get to ride the "real" bus! You and Dan talked about great it is to ride that bus to the cruise before you left!