Boo to you, and Yo Ho Ho!! An Oct 2012 PTR. Updated 10/22!! Finally!!!!!

[ash-n-brensmom]

URGH!!! Just when you think life is going to cooperate and be simple and boring....
We had planned to take the girls to the movies to see the Pirates Band of Misfits this afternoon after Ferb got home from work. Well, Ferb called and said his back brakes failed on the way home! Thankfully he is safe and the tow truck just delivered him and his car home. Now we need to figure out what is wrong and more importantly, how much is this gonna cost us?!

I had an appt to meet with a new company to sign up for their Independent Travel Consultant job tomorrow afternoon, and then we are supposed to drive over to my DBro and DSil tomorrow for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. Well, I think we can make it to dinner, but not sure about my meeting. I hate it when we only have one car, so hard to fit everything in. I may drive Ferb to work though. We are waiting to talk to the mechanic we use to see when he can get to Ferb's car. Hopefully tomorrow!

Oh well, life isn't meant to be dull is it?

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

I love reading other's DCL cruise reports. With 6 of us, we'll never be able to justify the cost of DCL so we cruise RCL with the kids. I'd love to convince DH we should take a kids free DCL but they'd hate us for it

I am tempted to try another cruise line now that we have done this one by ourselves. The girls still have no idea that we did this without them. As far as they know, we went to the Bahamas only. Partial truth at least!

 

[Chelley00]

We did Princess as our couples only cruise and it was perfect for us. It was so very quiet with a somewhat older crowd and it just seemed "higher class"??? There were only 300 kids on the entire cruise in JUNE! We loved RCL, but we loved it for the family trip and talked about if we ever got another kid free cruise, we'd go with Princess again in a heartbeat.

 

[blessedby3]

Sorry to hear about the car issues! At least Ferb was okay Hoping that the damage to the pocketbook wont be too bad!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

We did Princess as our couples only cruise and it was perfect for us. It was so very quiet with a somewhat older crowd and it just seemed "higher class"??? There were only 300 kids on the entire cruise in JUNE! We loved RCL, but we loved it for the family trip and talked about if we ever got another kid free cruise, we'd go with Princess again in a heartbeat.

Well we are going to do another DCL in Oct 2013 with the girls, it's a surprise. But I am going to be working with Expedia Cruise Ship Centres starting tomorrow, so I have a funny feeling we may end up on another cruise with a different company! Maybe even before then, all depends on the kind of deals I can get my hands on. I don't see anymore adult only trips in the near future. The only one we had took so much coordination with extended family that it was a headache!

Sorry to hear about the car issues! At least Ferb was okay Hoping that the damage to the pocketbook wont be too bad!

Actually, we talked to our mechanic and it's getting dropped off tomorrow, hopefully it will be a quick job. So, the really scary part of all this and what I didn't think about at the time was that we park in a parking ramp at work. The brake went just AFTER he exited the ramp. As employees we have to park on level 9 or 10...can you imagine if the brakes went while he was on an incline? OMG!!!! Thankfully he is home safe.

 

[jenny105]

Ugh. Car problems creep up on you at the worst time. Glad to hear Ferb is ok!

 

[NOLAdisneymom]

Finally subscribed!! Excellent report so far!

 

[khertz]

Enjoying the mini-TR! I look forward to your cruise reviews since I am dreaming of a Disney Cruise one day if I can get DH to agree.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Ugh. Car problems creep up on you at the worst time. Glad to hear Ferb is ok!

Good news, the car is fixed and it only cost $200. We pick it up tonight!

Finally subscribed!! Excellent report so far!

Thanks for subbing!

Enjoying the mini-TR! I look forward to your cruise reviews since I am dreaming of a Disney Cruise one day if I can get DH to agree.

It's funny when I look back at the cruise..it's almost as if it happened to someone else it was soooo amazing!! We can't wait to do it again next year!!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Up until now these updates for the Oct 2011 trip have been cut and pasted from my Jan PTR. This is going to be the first fresh update and I apologize right now if the facts are a bit fuzzy. It may be from the lapse in time, and it may just be from the amt of alcohol consumed on board the ship!
I crack myself up!

Right! On with the TR!!

We last left off sitting in the hot tub drinking our lovely adult cocktails and just trying to absorb the fact that we were actually on the ship and doing this whole adult only vacation thing.
It was already day two of the mini adult only extravaganza and we still couldn't believe we were actually doing this!

We spent a couple of hours just swimming and drinking and relaxing in the sun and waiting for our cabin to be ready. When we found the time was right we got covered up and went searching for our cabin. We were on deck 2 just over the gangway they used for loading and unloading passengers when we were in port...not Port Canaveral but like Nassau and Castaway Cay. We had an oceanview so we had one porthole...it wasn't the kind with a seat in it, but that didn't stop me!!

Or Ferb!!

We didn't take any pics of our cabin sorry, I know, we suck! But we were so happy with the cabin, I was afraid of how small it would be. Even though it was only the two of us I knew that hopefully we would bring the girls back with us and I was afraid that the size of the cabin would really bother us. But it was great! We had the split bathroom which was awesome, on a side note our cabin on our upcoming 2013 cruise doesn't have this split bathroom, but I think I can sacrifice!! The bed was WONDERFUL!! It was a queen and sooooo comfortable!!
We got dressed and decided to go exploring since we were scheduled for late dining and had lots of time!
This was taken across from the guest services desk:

Note the alcoholic drink...we used our refillable DCL cups and filled them with our own wine coolers. Great way to save some money.

Awesome pic of the chandelier..this was taken a few decks up obviously..it was beautiful!!

Ferb had to get some ice cream and insisted I take his pic with this sign!

He's such a kid sometimes!!

Dinner today was at Animators Palate! Such a cool restaurant!! Our servers were okay...not the best, but they switch out a bit the next night and get much better. Our head server was sick for the rest of the cruise.

Here are some pics of the restaurant walls that are screens that show the Nemo characters...Crush comes along and talks to some people..he talked to us, which I was surprised about since we didn't have any kids....we LOVED it!

The food was great all three nights. The shows were AMAZING and we can't wait to take the girls and have them experience everything!!

The only thing that stands out from that night was how much I could feel the ship moving and what that felt like. During the show we could really feel it starting to rock, and then during dinner I found myself just leaning over a bit and it was weird! But I am so glad that it didn't bother me really. That would have sucked!

After dinner and the show we headed back to our room and found this little guy.

The cabin attendants were fabulous! The cabins are cleaned twice a day, and that's a good thing with all the sun, swimming, and sand. We slept well on the ship even with the one night of slightly rougher water and the rocking of the ship it was great!

Tomorrow we are headed to Nassau! What will we do? You'll see....

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Day two on the ship! We slept really well because of that wonderful bed and got up bright and early to the sound of banging and clanging under us. We don't know if it was them moving stuff around the cargo hold or what...but it was LOUD!!!

Ferb never wants to stay on deck 2 again. I loved it, very convenient for getting on and off the ship, but the noises really bothered him. We are going to be on deck 5 I think in 2013? I'll have to check that.

Anyways we got up and got dressed and headed up to Cabanas for breakfast. The buffet was wonderful!! Everything you can imagine for breakfast. But really the view was spectacular as we got to our table just as we were heading into port! What a great view we had!!

Atlantis

Loved this little lighthouse!

Cute little boat

Different view of Atlantis

This is where we will be docking....somehow they are miracle workers with those ships, I can't even parallel park my Honda Civic and these guys can park a huge ship in these tight spots!!

Someone beat us there...but look you can almost see the jealous passengers looking at us wishing they were on our BEAUTIFUL ship!!

I left you hanging as to what our plans for the day were...well...here is where we will be spending the day.
The Colonial Hilton

We paid for day passes to use their facilities which included the pool, beach and also gave us a credit to use at their beach front restaurant/bar. We found out we could use the credit for alcohol and we were sold!

So we filled up on breakfast and headed back to our cabin to get ready for the day. We walked to the hotel because it was only a few blocks so they said. It turned out to be more than that, but definitely within walking distance. Along the way we stopped in the straw market to get a couple of souvies for the girls. Remember they thought we were only going to the Bahamas, so we had to get them something from the Bahamas!

The beach was nice at the hotel. Small but perfect for what we wanted. The water was calm since it was protected by the port, and the pool was clean and quiet. We had our drinks, got our fill of sun and sand, watched the ships come into port and had a wonderful relaxing day at the beach...here are some pics!

The hotel from our "spot" on the beach

Looking back towards the port...there's "Our ship"

Our oasis on the beach..

Awww....how romantic are we?

Here comes another ship...this one was in Port Canaveral with us and left way before us...na na na na...we beat you!! LOL!

A closer shot of our ship..

And really, what was this guy thinking when he bought that speedo?

We headed back to the ship because I was feeling the effect of the drinks a little too much so we went back and had lunch at Cabanas. Yummy!! Then it was time for Pirate night!! So much fun!!
Check us out in our matchy matchy outfits....the shirts say "It be Arrrrr Anniversary"
Too cute right?

The night was broken up in such a way that we could attend the party, then our show, then dinner and then the fireworks...or something like that....anyways, we got to do it all and I am so glad we did all the running around that we had to.

Dinner was in the Enchanted Garden this night....so pretty!

And here is our little friend tonight!

We had an AWESOME day today!!!

 

[jenny105]

Good news about the car!

Oh great, I'm on deck 2 for the 2 nighter LOL.

When I went to Nassau with DCL, I kept staring at the other ships because they looked so....old and rusted. Especially the Carnival ships! I couldn't believe how pristine the Wonder was in comparison.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Good news about the car!

Oh great, I'm on deck 2 for the 2 nighter LOL.

When I went to Nassau with DCL, I kept staring at the other ships because they looked so....old and rusted. Especially the Carnival ships! I couldn't believe how pristine the Wonder was in comparison.

Don't worry about it, like I said , I liked it and wanted to book a cabin there again! And the noise was only in the morning that I remember, you'll be fine!

DH and I can remember when we were in Nassau in 1998 we saw a Disney ship for the first time and we were thinking that they all must be sooo rich to be able to go on a Disney Cruise. Fast forward to 2011 and here we were on one and criticizing all the other ships...well except for the Royal Caribbean monster that was docked by us. It was pretty AWESOME!!! But still not as pretty as our ship.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey]

I so want to be on that cruise, sans Mr. Speedon't of course!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

I so want to be on that cruise, sans Mr. Speedon't of course!

Speedon't! That's HILARIOUS!!!

 

[jenseib]

Why anyone would wear a speedo is beyond me. But if you do.....look in a mirror before going in public

 

[PixieMama]

These updates have been great! We've never been on a cruise, and have been thinking of trying one. Of course, if we decide to go on one it has to be a Disney Criuse!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Why anyone would wear a speedo is beyond me. But if you do.....look in a mirror before going in public

Ugh!! I know, it's just not right!

These updates have been great! We've never been on a cruise, and have been thinking of trying one. Of course, if we decide to go on one it has to be a Disney Criuse!

I'm glad that you are enjoying them, it's fun to relive the memories too! This was our first cruise as well and we can't wait to take the girls with us next time.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Happy Mother's Day!!​

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Week 5:
E​

Eeyore

Ferb wanted me to use this one instead of Eeyore, so in deference to him here you go:

Week 5:
E​

Eugene Fitzherbert