BFF Escape - Western w/ photos - Day 6 posted

[GuardMusic]

Jan. 26 - Feb. 2, 2008

Cast of Characters:
Me (Dr. Gayle) – mid30s (yikes!) – 3rd DCL, but first on Magic
BFF (Dr. Kara) - early30s – 2nd DCL, but first on Magic

Background:
My first trip was to WDW in 1977 at age 4. We took a few family trips while growing up – nothing major. In 1998, 6 months after the sudden death of my father, I decided my mom needed an escape. I took her on a surprise trip to WDW; I didn’t tell her until we were at baggage claim at MCO. It was the trip that brought back my carefree childhood & my mom felt the same. Since then we’re returned about once a year every year. Thus, a Disney addict was born.

The Birth of the Trip:
That’s easy – we booked it on our 2005 Land/Sea! It was originally planned for Jan. 2006, but we decided to use frequent flyers to go to Maui, Hawaii instead. Great, right? It was one of the worst trips ever – high winds ended up cancelling snorkeling, ATV, etc. (We will probably NEVER return to Maui; our fave is Kauai.)

As two college professionals, we really look forward to getting away from the office stress and “unplug” (at least one of us).

The Plan:
We booked the 7 night Western (Jan. 26 – Feb. 2). To avert any weather issues out of Indy, we would fly down the day before (Fri.). We were going to stay that night at CBR, but as a Christmas surprise I booked us at WL. We had never stayed here, but based on the theming, I knew it was Kara’s favorite. I spent hours & hours developing a PowerPoint (w/ sound) to unveil the surprise, but apparently I wasn’t obvious enough & she didn’t get it.

OK – enough of this. On with the trip!
Next up: Take us to WL!

 

[GuardMusic]

Day 0 – Friday, Jan. 25, 2008

As usual, we had an EARLY (8:15am) flight out of IND on NWA direct to MCO. Trying not to fall on the ice (BRRR), we happily turned over our bags & scrambled on the shuttle bus. Check-in was seamless and a quick breakfast was grabbed at the airport. Soon after the food was consumed, boarding began.

We used to kid about the “Kara Kurse”, as something would always mess up her flights, but this one was flawless.

Soon we were hurriedly headed for the Magical Express check-in (Level 1, Side B!), but I came to a sudden halt in shock. It was Friday morning in JANUARY and the line for Magical Express filled all of the switchbacks! Ugh. Ok – deep breath. Let’s get in line and get our documents in order to streamline our experience. (Why doesn’t everyone do this?!) Not too much later we were at the front of the line and the questioning began: Your bags were tagged? Yes. You’re going to WL? Yes – and we’re going to the cruise tomorrow. (More checking – yes.) So, you’ve done this before? YES! You may now proceed to the red carpet to wait for your bus. YES!

We were directed to a happy sign:

We were soon let to our bus

but did have a wait until we departed. (We were SO glad to not be on the neighboring Pop/AS bus parked next to us with all those kids! (P.S. Can you believe some people still come straight out to the bus without checking in at the ME desk?! )

Our bus was going to WL & Contemp. I expected we would stop at Contemp. First, just because that’s my luck. But no! We were on a non-stop trip to WL. Enjoying the video and warmer skies of Orlando was pure bliss.

We departed the bus and heard those perfect words, “Welcome Home!” We asked about the cruise check-in desk & told there wasn’t one (like we had at POR). After some questions we learned WL is not a land/sea hotel, so there is not a desk. We would simply meet a cruise rep the next morning. While checking in they opened the 4th floor rooms and we were told our room was ready (#4099)! It overlooked the lobby right on the corner near the elevator!

Initially we thought this was great - & it was for closeness to food, desk, etc. However, that evening we learned if we were there again, we’d NEVER stay in a room overlooking the lobby again. We could hear the ruckus all day & night from WCC.

So we dropped our bags, called home, and didn’t care that our view was of the roof & a couple of distant trees. We were meeting Kara’s aunt & uncle, as they were wintering in FL.

Almost immediately they arrived and we headed for our ADR at WCC; I was starved! (I really wanted to eat somewhere quieter, but this was the most convenient.) With the huge lazy susan in the middle of the table, the table was simply too small for four meals.

Our conversation was incredibly tough with the “ketchup” and horse races. After a yummy burger we set out to explore WL since everyone else in my party had never visited WL.

We checked out the water flow, pool, beach, & Villas.

Sadly, Kara’s family decided to take off since her uncle wasn’t feeling well. Now I swore I would not waste time going over to the Beach Club. See, I’m fanatical about the BC and since 2003 have rarely stayed anywhere else. Kara could see my excitement and we didn’t have anything else to do, so we set off for the scenic trip.

Kara took in the woods path down to the dock, where magically, our boat was waiting for us! Again, Kara had never taken a boat from WL to MK, and as usual, was snapping away on her new Nikon D80. Great shots of the Comtemp., while I checked out progress on Kingdom Towers.

What a great shot of the MK Train Station with a happy Monorail.

Happily avoiding the crowd headed for a Pirate & Princess Party, we headed for the bus stop where yet again, our bus was waiting for us. We hopped on and off we went. The bus #, as marked on the inside of the bus was 4703, remarkably, that is my house number! We pulled up to the BC and I was beaming! I was a little anxious because I once spent $300 in the BC merchandise shop and didn’t have that in my budget this time. Luckily, I only got a couple of shirts and we were back out to the bus stop. Back to the MK we hopped the Monorail and toured those resorts. (I really don’t like the new shop in the middle of the Contemp. Concourse.)

Now growing tired we boated back to WL. Grabbed some sandwiches & showered. Since it was our first stay at a MK resort, Kara decided we would stay up, go to the dock and see the Electric Water Pageant.

It definitely wasn’t worth it with cold-to-us temps and a fairly moderate wind. Exhausted we retired.

Next up: Busdriver, Move that bus!

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Great start to your TR - very detailed, love the pics!!! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[GuardMusic]

Day 1 – Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008 – DCL Departure
We headed downstairs around 8:30am and saw no one to help us with where our luggage would go. (We were only one floor up, so bell service wasn’t worth the wait.) We were told to take our bags outside to get stored. We walked out and the line must have had 30-40 people in it. I started to freak! There was no way we would get our bags taken in time! Quickly I noticed a sign that showed “Airline bag check-in”. Ok – that’s not what we needed. We then went to the main outside bell desk and they said “oh”. Uh oh. A supervisor then said yes we had the rights tags, they would take the bags, & no problem. Breath. Ok.

DIGRESSION: Each trip we create our own luggage tags & door signs with a theme for the trip. We came up with this one.

Inside we met our guide Stan for the Tour of WL.

Stan was great & very well informed. The tour was running long & we hadn’t even left the lobby. We had to leave the tour early to get to ADR breakfast at WCC. We checked-in, but still had quite a wait. Again, it was the end of Jan. and they were taking NO walk-ups at WCC.

Breakfast food was very good, service was slow and inconsistent, and as usual LOUD. After that, I have no desire to eat there again. We excitedly met our cruise rep along with another family or two, and waited in the lobby as close to the doors as possible. The bus was announced and we literally ran outside!

We whisked by a line of about 20-30 people who kept asking “Is this the bus to the airport?” NO! We sat right behind the driver with the other couple of families and departed to pick up more at POR.

We pulled up to POR and HOLY COW, there must have been 40-50 people in line for our bus. Boy were we glad we’d stayed at WL. Under our breath whispered “Busdriver, move that bus!” and off we went. This may be the first time I haven’t fallen asleep on the bus (I spent about 12 years on busses for marching band.)

I swear in the bright, shining sun the Magic was bigger & more beautiful than the Wonder. (A two year absence does make the heart grow fonder!) We were released from the bus and I nearly ran to security and up the escalator. I expertly led us to the Castaway Club line

– and waited. Because boarding had already began, we were pulled over to a Concierge check-in. The woman was very distracted and on the phone. Ignoring us, she just took our computer printouts, not our DCL books, which if you make it to the end of this thread, you will see this has a huge impact on our trip.

Given our KTTW cards and lanyards, we pulled our stuff over to the side to re-store. As expected we’d been assigned the exact dining rotation we didn’t want. Sigh. We boarded and I nearly squealed seeing that the announcer was Pikey! (Regretfully, he was working the kids’ clubs all week. Hmmm. Is this a move to help him move up the DCL ladder?)

We headed straight to Route 66 to try to make changes. The 1pm line was completely gone, so we didn’t have much hope. I scheduled the scalp & neck message, while Kara dealt with dining. Got the time I wanted for the spa, and Kara says “We’re supposed to show up at Animator’s Palate (AP) at 8:15 tonight.” Ok – where are our new dining tickets? He didn’t give me any; he said just to show up. What?! I shrugged & we headed to lunch at Parrot Cay (PC).

During lunch I started to physically power down and felt the stress and weight lift off my shoulders. Ahhh. We then headed to our stateroom #6078, Deck 6, midship, port side.

Since I had just taken a quick 4 night DCL with my mom in Sept., I’d already decided Kara could have the CC gift. The bag was so cool, I’m still jealous I don’t have it! We checked out our verandah (smaller than last time, but with a clear instead of solid wall).

Quickly we headed up for the Adventures Away party

and got individual streamers. We were early and get our favorite spot in the middle of Deck 10. Great party & I was looking forward to the HSM & HSM2 songs. (Don’t ask. There are just some things a grown woman can’t even admit on the DisBoards!)

We headed back to our room and once the bags arrived, I quickly unpacked; Kara was a slower story. Soon we headed to the opening of the shops, but didn’t really find anything we HAD to have. (The credit cards took a sigh of relief.) Then to the opening show that we skipped last time. What a great way to enhance our excitement!

Between the show and dinner, we investigated the adult clubs that we didn’t have time for the last cruise, and although we hadn’t done make-up, we had some photos taken to blow some time.

Off to AP, where surprisingly (why do I second-guess Disney?) we were immediately taken to a 6-seat round table in the middle of the restaurant. I middle-age couple from Colorado arrived and we soon learned he worked in engineering and she was an ER doc. Finally, a retired couple from FL arrived and we learned she works at EPCOT. Two thoughts immediately hit me: 1) No kids at the table! And 2) I’m really looking forward to our conversations this week. That’s big for me, as I am very introverted.

With that, we returned to our room after a long day.

Next up: 1st ever visit to Key West!

 

[VacationKicks]

Great start! Love all the photos!

 

[goofygal1975]

SO far so good!! I hope you enjoyed your stateroom!! I'd love to see pictures of it since we are also staying in that room on the Magic 5/09!!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[PizzieDuster]

Love your report! Especially the pictures! Can't wait to read more!

 

[miztigg]

great job

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start to your reports. I am so excited to read about your trip. Can't believe Pikey is now on the Magic.

 

[lillylynnb]

cant wait to read more and see pics.

 

[CruisinEars]

Great Start! look forward to reading more.

 

[RLccweems]

I sure am enjoying your TR and all the pics!

 

[GuardMusic]

Sorry for the delay in the continuation of this TR!

I've been out of town, but I PROMISE more to come in the next two weeks. I really appreciate your patience & I also promise it will be worth the wait!!!

Gayle

 

[GuardMusic]

SO far so good!! I hope you enjoyed your stateroom!! I'd love to see pictures of it since we are also staying in that room on the Magic 5/09!!! Can't wait to read more!!

Goofygal1975:
Below are some photos of our stateroom. We didn't take too many because we took so many on the Wonder last time. It's a regular stateroom with the closet on right and bed/bath on left. It does have one of the "steamer" trunks for extra storage.

We could actually see one of the stabilizers when we were in clear water directly under us. We didn't feel any waves, but we were on Bonine the whole time.

I have great directionality, but being midship completely threw me off. I kept turning the wrong way for 4-5 days. We were concerned about noise, but it was a non-issue. Of course we didn't see many kids near our stateroom either.

It was a little warm, but just call & have an engineer come adjust it.

 

[GuardMusic]

Day 2 – Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008 – Key West
Welcome to Key West! This was both of our first trips here. Kara was very excited , but I didn’t really care. I’m one of those people that don’t care where DCL goes, as long as I’m on the ship! Anywhooo – Kara had booked two excursions, both through Expedia, not Disney. Stay tuned for the details.

We lazily awoke at 8:40am; I guess that’s lazy for DCL, because my weekend preference is about 10am! While everyone awaited the lunch time arrival into port, we strolled to Brunch at Lumiere’s about 9:30am, where I had eggs, bacon, hash browns, & Mickey waffles. (B-fast is my favorite meal of the day - that I rarely get to enjoy at work.)

We then did was any regular DCLer will do – we rebooked our next cruise. For when? Oct. 2009. Keeping in mind we will not go in 2009 because we are doing our first Adventures by Disney in Sept. 2009!!! So happily $250 lighter, we relaxed on the verandah as we approached Key West.

Making use of our “free” food on the ship, we headed to lunch at Pluto’s where I got what would be expected – a hot dog.

At 1pm we headed for the gangway. Upon stepping foot on Key West we were nearly overtaken by WIND (& a bit of a chill)! Seriously I had to hold my lanyard for few it would blow off my neck and head out to sea!
View from the Key West dock:

First stop was the Aquarium. I won’t even post photos of this because it’s not like the aquariums (aquaria?) that I’m used to, such as that in Cincinnati. Small building, two outdoor areas, and a personable guide. Not even a gift shop! (Be careful to keep the kids away from the open tanks!)

Next we perused through the Blue Cat, a store dedicated to felines. Cute, but overpriced – didn’t buy anything.

Next on to the Conch Train Tour. It was just about a block or two away and we waited only about 5 minutes for the next train to arrive. We hopped into the very front seat right behind the engine and thoroughly enjoyed the guide, Bruce, originally from MA.

The tour lasted about… 90 minutes? There was a short stop to use the facilities about 2/3 the way through. It was a thorough tour - definitely something we’d never be able to do on our own or on foot. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND this tour! We got to see the town, naval station, Hemingway house, and heard more about Key West than I could have ever imagined! And yes, we did get to zip by the Southernmost Point:

By the time we had our brief stop, a migraine was coming on me. Even with sunglasses, extended periods of time in the sun will do this to me. Luckily, our next planned stop by to CVS for me to purchase my needed week’s worth of Mt. Dew! THREE Excedrin Migraine pills and a few gulps of Dew and I was back on my way to vacation mode! Fighting the wind, we re-boarded the ship and headed to the stateroom to change for the evening.

I think the comic was the “show” for the night, so we decided to skip it. Tonight was also to be dinner at Parrot Cay, which neither of us is really fond of, so we headed to Topsiders (another first) at 6:30pm. We really grew to like Topsiders. Even though it has a limited menu (but similar to the regular dining rooms) and it’s obvious this is where they train new servers, we liked the smaller environment.

I ordered a Caesar salad (another first – must be a Midwest thing), herb-crusted halibut (bit underdone), and red potatoes. For some reason we thought we didn’t get dessert here (what were we thinking?) and nearly left. However, the dessert tray demanded me to sit my fanny back down, because I would never bypass crème brulee!

We meandered to Diversions for 80’s trivia (& we thought we knew about this topic, apparently we were quite old enough!), Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer (still didn’t get picked), strolled through the shop (bought one postcard for $0.75), and called it a night.

Overall, we definitely enjoyed Key West, but this day was probably enough for us. We don’t feel the need to investigate or visit it on a deeper level.

Next up: My favorite schedule – Day at Sea and “We’re considering WHAT?”

 

[Disney Debbie]

Enjoying it!

 

[GuardMusic]

Day 3 – Day at Sea – Monday, Jan. 28

Day at Sea are my favorite itinerary days (well those and the port days that I decided to simply remain in the ship). I’m one of those people that wouldn’t be too upset if the ship simply sailed for 7 days!

Well last night we crossed the Gulf Stream and I didn’t sleep very well. It wasn’t the motion of the ship, but rather the creaking sounds of the ship! Luckily, I had earplug from the last trip with my mom, so I was set!

So I awoke about 8:15am; we leisurely got ready and headed to Topsiders buffet at 9:15am. What a zoo! ::cop: It was packed! But I was still able to get my typical breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, French toast, and waffles.

At 10:15 we went to the Art of Entertaining – Desserts. I wanted to do this because the focus was dessert! Kara is the cook between the two of us, so she was excited about all of it. (We do wish it was interactive – in having us create the food, but alas….) The selection was White Chocolate Domes. The chef went WAY too fast for me to follow, but that isn’t saying much. They also brought out a dessert wine and the sommelier gave a short seminar in wines. He was HISTERICAL and was a self-profess alcoholic! We then stopped by to actually pay the deposit for the next cruise.

At 11am we went to the Castaway Club reception. Still didn’t win one of the prizes. There were so many of us they had to use Diversions as an overflow. It was stated about 50% of the guests were past cruisers! Sorry to some of you, but I’m more than happy with the rice krispy treats!

Then it happened. We took a huge leap and with nothing else to do… we went to the DVC presentation. Now we knew this probably wouldn’t happen for us, but we are continuous learners and felt we needed more info on the topic. We considered DVC because:
1. Kara’s aunt & sister have other timeshare, which we enjoy taking advantage of!
2. We are now doing most of the Disney trips (WDW, DCL, Adventures by Disney, etc.).
3. When I go to WDW, 80% of the time I stay at the Beach Club Villas.

Another realism is I could never afford it by myself. Since neither Kara nor I are married or have kids, we’ve decided to enjoy our time and professional lifestyle and not wait for life to come to us. So we went into this thinking we’d go in for it together. We got the book, watched the video, heard the testimonials, but most of all started running the numbers! I really don’t have family to share a DVC with, but Kara does, so that would have been slanted. A typical year includes one visit Disney a year, although some years have had 2. I typically rent points which saves $ and rarely stay at a DVC/Deluxe during the higher-rate weekends. Then we ran the numbers for the cruise & ABD – no savings there. So after all of that and reviewing the “Is DVC for you” breakdown on MouseSavers, we definitively decided this was not financially smart for us.

By then it was nearing 2pm (UGH) and we were headed back to Art of Entertaining – Cake Decorating (another dessert!). Again, it went really fast. Some people go to decorate small portions of the cake, but I was a bit chicken to participate. By now we were starved and headed to Goofy’s for a Turkey Bacon Panini and from room service, a pepperoni pizza and cookies.

At this point we really took some time to enjoy our (expensive) verandah! It was still very windy and actually too windy to go to the pool. The verandah was nice, but if you stuck your head out, you felt like you would loose it!

Too soon we changed to head down to the Golden Mickey’s.

After the show we took in a short magic show by Freddie Fusion that took place in the dance club. But there were too many people & KIDS shoved in there!

Then we were off to Lumiere’s for Formal Night dinner! Tonight I had halibut (again) and mashed potato. I was looking forward to Lumiere's because of the formalness. However, I have to say I love Triton's on the Wonder more - simply because of the hand-laid mosaic tiles.

Tonight was great because we had all warmed up to our servers and each other. It became a regular occurrence that we were the last table out of the dining room, so it was a good thing we were at 2nd seating! Because there were 3 “doctors” at the table, our server kept giving us brain teaser games/riddles, often using the kids crayons as props. It was so funny to keep his frustration when we’d solve them all in less than a minute! But the best of tonight was having two of my favorite desserts: crème brulee and Grand Marnier Soufflé!

Stuffed – I rolled back to the stateroom!

Next up: Grand Cayman – I’m going to die!

 

[GuardMusic]

Day 4 – Grand Cayman – Tues., Jan. 29, 2008
Today the awake time was 9am. We booked a later excursion, so… well, we’ll get to that. While everyone else was running off the ship, we headed to Topsiders for the usual. It was at that point my fears were kicking in.

See, I have a huge fear of drowning. (I know. I know. I’m on a cruise!) Why? I can swim. Well, actually I do a good doggy paddle. (Technically backstroke is my best, but I don’t think I’ll remember that if I’m drowning.) So anyway, I realize we are still hundreds of yards from land and just sitting in the middle of a whacky cruise ship parking lot.

We are now heading for the gangway where we are to CAREFULLY board a relatively small tender. Basically one Cast Member was trying to hold the tender near enough so we could “hop” aboard. A woman behind us bonked her head and her Chanel sunglasses made the fatal splash into the big blue. (That could be me!)

So we tender to shore and walk up our small dock. (BTW, I’m highly competitive, so I was constantly comparing our ship, dock, Cast Members, etc. to all the others.) It was already apparent how curious others are about DCL, constantly staring at us, which I enjoy! It’s shocking how a small shading tent-top or bottles of water can draw attention. But anyway – I was now back on dry land, only to be guided a few yards to re-board another boat.

Kara booked the Shipwreck and Reef Snorkeling Tour. I had never been snorkeling and as you will soon read, I have never been snorkeling.

We headed out and were given instruction, including what to do with the goggles & fins. I sat there motionless hugging my beach bag that contained both towels and a magazine. At the first stop I waited while everyone, including Kara donned their gear and hopped off the back of the boat. After enjoying herself for a bit, she came aboard and helped & encouraged me to experience the “fun”.

I put on the vest & goggles & snorkel. I ignored the fins, because that just felt restraining. Kara jumped back in. I tentatively traversed the stairs into the water. Luckily, Kara kept tight hold of my arm, because I also don’t like not being able to see my feet or the ground under me. Seemingly seconds later the ocean kicked up and a wave was overtaking me. Panicked, I grabbed the ladder and like a cat up a tree, I was back on board in one swift instant! That was it, I was done! The goggles & snorkel went flying and I claimed my seat in the sun to enjoy the rest of the time reading, while the other enjoyed our second stop.

Not soon enough we were back on land. We cautiously went through some of the duty-free shops, but didn’t see anything that needed to come home with us. We happily headed back to the ship.

By 2pm we were cleaned off, and with smiles, taking advantage of cheeseburgers & fries at Pluto’s. Without much else planned, we went to the matinee of Twice Charmed. I actually did not like the show, but Kara liked the music enough to buy the CD. I’m a traditionalist; don’t mess with my Disney stories!

Afterward, we checked out the Master Chef menu for the evening meal and watched us depart Grand Cayman from the verandah. (BTW – It’s my believe all the other cruise ships leave before DCL so their guests will stop staring at our ship and not hear our happy horn!)

I’ll have to converse with Kara as to what we did that night because my notes are empty! I know we skipped Master Chef and went to Topsiders instead. I think this was the night we checked out some of the clubs. Maybe. SORRY!

Next up: Cozumel and my ultimate cruise day

 

[GGBacha]

Day 3 – Day at Sea – Monday, Jan. 28

But the best of tonight was having two of my favorite desserts: crème brulee and Grand Marnier Soufflé!

Stuffed – I rolled back to the stateroom!

These are my two favorite desserts too! I'll take them over the infamous chocolate souflee!

I love your report and pics! I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Ginger

 

[disneyfav4ever]

If I ever get around to being able to take a Western cruise, I could see myself not going into Grand Cayman just to avoid jumping into that tender boat. Plus it would be a less crowded ship that I would love to take advantadge of.