Celebrating our 2nd Anniversary- 7 Night Land and Sea May 1st-8th 2008

[CSwan1]

Welcome Everyone! I am very excited about writing this trip report for all of you. I have read some great some great trip reports on the DIS and hope mine lives up to the standards set before me. I must forewarn you that this is my first attempt at this; I hope everyone is entertained.

We did a 3-day land, 4-day sea trip with 2 extra nights at Disney after the cruise. The cast of characters for the trip is:
Crystal (me!) 28- Way over obsessive planner- Absolutely in love with Mickey Mouse
Corey (DH) 31- So good about putting up with my Mickey obsession- He loves me
Kailee (DD) 6- Our Princess
Jo Ann (DMom) 64- My best friend
Sharelle (DSis) 45- My other best friend
Haley (DNiece) 12- Like my second daughter
Larry (DBro) 46- ‘My much younger looking brother’
Rise (DSIL) 45- My favorite Disney loving SIL
JJ (DNephew)- My Goofy Nephew

Now for the history:
We have been planning this vacation for nearly 2 years. In May of 2006, DH, DD, DMOM and myself went to Disney World for the first time and on our first Disney cruise. Actually, DH and I were married onboard the Disney Wonder on May 19th, 2006. So this trip is an anniversary trip! So, one might be think- why get married on a Disney cruise. Well, here is the story…
Corey and I had been planning our wedding for April 15th, 2006 (my parents 45th wedding anniversary). It was going to be a large wedding as we both have large families. For our honeymoon, we were gong to take our daughter to Disney World. In October 2005, some things came up and we had to spend a good portion of our wedding budget. We decided to take what was left and take our daughter and my mom to Disney.

Just before Christmas, one of my students (I work in post secondary education at a cosmetology school) told me that her family was going on a Disney cruise for Christmas. When she came back, she went on and on about how fabulous the cruise was and how I HAD to do it.
I went home that night and talked to my future husband about the cruise. I told him that my mom had always wanted to go on a cruise and I would love to be able to take her. We priced it out compared to just Disney and it was decided. We were going on a land and sea vacation May 14th- 21st!! The next day at work, I stepped out at lunchtime to run an errand. Corey called me when I was out to ask me a question. Are you ready for this? I was never expecting this… not in a million years… he said, “We are definitely going on this cruise right?” I said yes. He said, “Why don’t you call the cruise line to see if we can get married while on board.” I said, “Are you serious???” He said, “Yeah. All we need is your mom and our daughter there and they are going with us so why not?” I had to pull off the side of the road because I couldn’t believe it. When I got back to work, I went right to disneyfairytaleweddings.com, spoke with a wedding coordinator and we were booked. I couldn’t believe it. We were going to be married onboard the cruise!! Now, we only had 5 months to prepare for the trip, the wedding and the reception when we got back.

The next few months were a whirlwind of activity. I had to find a wedding dress, find a flower girl dress for our daughter, get a tux for Corey, book airline tickets, finalize wedding plans with Kathy from Fairytale weddings, work, plan, pack… so much to do. And the time flew by. One of my students was selling her wedding dress from her wedding in September so she brought it in for me to try. It was a perfect fit and I absolutely loved it! She paid $1500 for this dress and I had it delivered to me for the bargain price of $150! I was ecstatic!! I bought the Birnbaum books for Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line to do as much research as I possibly could in 5 months. Unfortunately, I didn’t discover the DIS boards while planning for this trip (I wish I had.)

May 14, 2006 (mother’s day) finally came and we were on our way to Disney. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for 4 nights and we fell in love with this resort. We went to MGM the first night, Magic Kingdom the second day, back to MGM Studios the next day and Epcot that night and Animal Kingdom the last day. We loved all the parks but couldn’t wait to get on the cruise.

The first day of our cruise is a complete blur. We used DCL transportation so we didn’t get to the port until after 1:30. I registered Kailee for the Oceanear’s club, got her pager and boarded the ship. We went to find our room and found a message from Rodrigo, our onboard wedding coordinator. We had to meet him in the atrium for the civil ceremony. So we disembarked the ship back to the terminal for the civil ceremony. This was quick and painless and we were back onboard in 20 minutes finalizing the wedding plans.


The Happy Couple with Rodrige, the wedding coordinator

By the Mickey Pool

With Captain Henry

Then dinner at Palo just the 2 of us and we shared our wedding night with the Pirates in the Caribbean party.

To wrap up the rest of the trip, we loved our day on Castaway Cay. After returning to Florida, we spent our last day back at magic Kingdom and at Downtown Disney. We knew from the minute we returned home, we would be doing Walt Disney World and the cruise again soon.

 

[Zoiebear]

That seems like a real fairytale

 

[CSwan1]

Around Christmas time 2006, we started pricing out another land and sea vacation for May 2008. This time there was going to be 9 of us going. We thought about booking the 2 parts of the vacation separately but only WDW hadn’t released their prices yet. My brother decided to take his family on a four day Disney cruise in February 2007. He was going to rebook for all of us while onboard so we could get the 10% discount and the $200 onboard credit. **Side note: for us it was a better deal to book the land and sea together because by the time WDW released their prices for 2008, the cruise price had risen quite a bit. ** We picked our dates and we were booked! 3 night land/ 4 day sea + 2 extra days at WDW after the cruise beginning May 1st, 2008. Now we have 460+ days to wait.


I discovered the DIS forum in July 2007 and was immediately hooked. I read trip report after trip report, asked questions, read answers and finally started a cruise meet. I was so excited when other cruisers started joining our cruise meet. The DIS has been amazing; I don’t know how anyone could plan a Disney vacation without it. The next 14 months was filled with shopping, DIS-ing, making fish extenders,
My Attempt at a Fish Extender

DIS-ing, making door decorations, DIS-ing, counting down the days
Our Mickey Countdown

and packing. Kailee was packed in November (yes, she was excited). Oh, and I got a Mickey tattoo.

I know, sounds crazy but I love that mouse!!


Wednesday April 30th came and I was so prepared I felt unprepared. I had a seminar the weekend prior to leaving; I felt like I was never going to get all the last minute stuff done. I said goodbye to work at 2PM, stopped by Wal-Greens to get the last of the necessities then home to pack the car and drive 1 ½ hours to Burlington VT to stay overnight. It was early to bed for the 6 of us flying out the next morning (my brother and his family drove down). Small math equation for you: six of us to get ready in the morning / 1 shower + 5:55 AM flight – arriving at the airport 1 hour prior to arrival = 2:45 AM wake up call!!! It was a very short night. And we were just like the commercial- Are you sleeping? No I am too excited to sleep!!!

So, we were up early Thursday morning, dressed and in the lobby for the shuttle to pick us up at 4:45 AM. I think we should have forewarned them that 6 of us meant 12 suitcases, 6 carry-ons and 4 purses (bags). It was a very cramped ride but we didn’t care; we were on our way to DISNEY! We arrived at the airport, went thru security and got to our gate with plenty of time to spare. Once everyone was boarded, the pilot announced that they had to de-ice the plane so it was going to be 20-minute wait. For those of you keeping track, yes it is May 1st and it was 29* outside! Did I mention how excited we were to get in the Florida sunshine!! We had a record 104 inches of snow this winter!

After the de-icing, the pilot then announced that they needed to wait another 20 minutes to relieve some air traffic in Cincinnati. Okay, 2 for 2 now; 3rd times a charm and we were finally off. Once in Cincinnati, we had a 2-hour layover but by the time we took the shuttle to our terminal, found our gate and got some breakfast, it was time to board again around 11.
The flight went surprisingly quick and we were landing in Orlando around 1.

 

[Cobbo]

Okay, you're off to a good start & it's sounding like fun, so I'm along for the ride...

 

[CSwan1]

Once off the plane, we made our way to the Magical Express desk to take the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was so nice to not have to go to baggage claim for our luggage. Disney really does think of everything. We waited less than 10 minutes and our bus was off to Disney World. After dropping off a few guests at the Caribbean Beach Resort, we arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 1:45. All I have to say about this place is… WOW!!! It is amazing!
Inside the Lobby

The Back Entrance to the Lobby

The check in was quick and I loved how they greeted you by saying, “Welcome home.” It’s the little thinks in life, right. I also used a great tip I picked up from the DIS boards at check in. We booked the 3-night land/ 4-night sea vacation, but added 2 additional nights at Disney on to the end of the cruise. Our package came with 4-day park hopper passes but we needed 5-day passes. We were able to upgrade our passes for the grand total of $7.16 for 2 adults and 1 child. What a deal!!
Kailee watching Disney Cartoons while we checked in

After the hotel check in, we went over to the cruise desk to check in there as well. We had all done the online forms so all we had to do was give them our signed contracts, show our passports and get our Castaway Club lanyards. My sister and niece were not Castaway Club members, but the 2 nice ladies at the cruise desk didn’t want them to feel left out so they gave them lanyards, too. DISNEY MAGIC!!
The next thing to happen was truly amazing. I was speechless (and this doesn’t happen often). While standing at the cruise desk, this small group of young women came walking toward us. I was thinking to myself, ‘Boy, they look familiar.’ As they got just to the other side of me I realized why they looked familiar… IT WAS THE CHEETAH GIRLS!!! I couldn’t speak and by the time I finally got out, ‘Kailee! That was the Cheetah Girls!’ they were gone. The women at the cruise desk said all the stars participating in the Disney Channel Games were staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. (More details about the Disney Channel Games to come.) I could not believe I was star struck over the Cheetah Girls! See what having a daughter who is 6 going on 16 does to you.

We made it down the hallway to our rooms and the first thing we did was go out onto the balcony to see the animals. Kailee had been saying from the beginning stages of planning that she wanted to be able to see giraffes from our room. Guess what the first thing was we saw… you guessed it… giraffes!
The Baby

Mama and Baby

Precious

We took a few pictures, got ourselves acquainted with our room
Our First Piece of Towel Art

and then it was off to Epcot to meet up with my brother Larry, sister in law Rise and nephew JJ.

Now I know this is a cruise trip report forum so I wont linger too long on the parks but I do have a few things I would like to share. I hope no one minds too much.

Epcot was great! On our first trip we didn’t see much so it was nice to have more time to explore. We did the Finding Nemo ride
Kailee and Haley infront of the Nemo ride

and Turtle Talk with Crush (both awesome) and the new went to see Honey I shrunk the audience. Kailee freaked out in the first 3 minutes of the show and even with the glasses off, she wanted no part of it so she and I left. We headed over to the Coral Reef for our 6 PM dinner reservation. The others came along soon after. Coral Reef was neat and the food was fabulous!

After dinner, we toured the world showcase and found a great spot in Mexico to watch Illuminations.

After the show, we headed back to AKL and Kailee started her tradition of falling asleep on the bus back to the resort. When we got back to the rooms, I put Kailee in bed in my mom’s room for a bit while Corey and I went for a drink. We went outside to enjoy the warm night, sipped our beverage and talked about the plans for the next day. When we were heading back inside, Corey said to me, ‘Hey, isn’t that the guy from Cory in the House?’ I looked over and sure enough, Kyle Massey was in the front entrance posing for pictures and signing autographs. We collected Kailee from my mom’s bed, called Mickey for a wakeup call and was off to never-land. What a busy first day!!

 

[CSwan1]

Friday was Hollywood studios. We ate breakfast at Mara at AKL and headed off to DHS. Corey, Sharelle and Haley headed to the Tower if Terror 2 times and Aerosmith roller coaster 2 times while Kailee, mom and I went to Beauty and the Beast live on stage.

Then we saw the High School Musical party and wandered a bit.

We decided to go back to AKL for lunch and a swim. After swimming, Kailee and I were in the lobby waiting for the others and I met a really nice mom who was there with her kids for the Disney Channel games. While we were talking, Chris Massey (Kyle Massey’s brother) came thru the lobby and Kailee was able to get her picture with him. He was super nice. Great Guy!!
Kailee With Chris Massey

A few minutes later Kiely Williams (Aqua from the Cheetah Girls) came thru. I was a little disappointed with her. Now don’t get me wrong, I know famous people have fans calling after them all the time and they must get sick of it but Kailee was calling to her as she walked by and Kiely never even looked back. Even a quick wave and smile would have made my daughter’s day. Early evening came and we went back to DHS for dinner at ABC Commissary and Fantasmic. Fantasmic is by far my favorite show at Disney; a not-to-be-missed attraction in my opinion.

Saturday was Animal Kingdom Day and one of the happiest days of my life. Well that may be a little overboard but I was very happy. See, Eeyore has always been my favorite Disney character and on our last trip to Disney, we never saw him. Well, I finally got my picture with him at Animal Kingdom!

Made my day!! We all did the Kilimanjaro Safari with Fast Pass (what a great idea this is!).

Corey, Sharelle, and Haley rode Mt. Everest and mom joined them to see It’s Tough to be A Bug while Kailee and I went to Camp Minnie Mickey.

Kailee doesn’t do too well with 3D. She saw It’s Tough to be A Bug last visit and has vowed to never go again. Around 3 or so we headed back to AKL for a quick swim and the Big Surprise!!

I found out from the DIS boards that the Disney Channel Games Concert was going to be taking place while we were in WDW. I requested tickets and yes, we were one of the lucky ones that got them. I was able to keep this secret from Kailee and even though she knew the stars were at our hotel for the games, she had no idea about the concert. She was very excited about going. We got dress and headed out for what we soon discovered would be our second safari for the day. Going to the concert was myself, Kailee, Sharelle, Haley, Rise and JJ. Corey, Mom and Larry were going to DTD for dinner and shopping. So, me, Kailee, Corey, Sharelle, Mom and Haley took a bus from AKL to Animal Kingdom. From there we caught a bus to Port Orleans Riverside to meet up with the others. Mom and Corey got on the boat to go to DTD and the rest of us boarded the bus to DHS (this is the only park to get a bus to the Wide World of Sports Complex. Oh yeah it started raining, the Florida down pours I’ve only heard about, sheets of rain. Our bus driver told us to go to bus stop 13 for the WWoS. We ran in the rain to bus stop 13. Got there and guess what… this is the bus stop for the All Star SPORTS Resort not the WWoS complex. We asked the next bus driver that came and he pointed to a buss stop on the far side of the car parking lot about 3 football fields away. AND IT WAS STILL POURING RAIN!! So here we stand in the rain with 3 crying/ grumpy children contemplating what to do when JJ noticed a bus just on the other side of the fence that said WWoS. We all ran as fast as we could, boarded the bus and off we went. The concert was pretty good. First they filmed the closing ceremonies for the games then the singers performed. Miley Cyrus performed 3 songs, The Cheetah Girls 3 songs, Jordan Pruitt 3, Demi Lovato 3 and the Jonas Brothers 4. After all the struggle getting there, it was worth it when I say the excitement on Kailee’s face.
Here are some photos from the concert. I didn't take them; I found them on the Disney Channel Games Thread

We didn’t get back to AKL until nearly 1 AM. I called Mickey for that famous wake up call; tomorrow FL Tours was picking us up at 8 AM to head to the port and I still hadn’t done any shopping in the gift shop.


Up Next, Cruisin' Time (Finally, I Know)

 

[dismom73]

I am loving your trip report, I can't wait to hear about the cruise!

 

[CSwan1]

Thank you everyone for the support! I will try to get the first part of the cruise done this weekend!!

 

[CSwan1]

Sunday morning came and we were up at 5 AM. I hadn’t even packed yet. I basically threw our stuff in our suitcases and we were ready to leave the room at 7 AM. We went shopping in the gift shop and Kailee was asked to go on a ‘safari’ with one of the workers to find African Mickey. We were shown a picture of Mickey dressed in a blue African inspired outfit and we were on the hunt. We finally spotted him way up high on a shelf.

Kailee was given a ‘Magical Moment Certificate’ for helping in the search. Darrin from FL Tours was there before our pickup time of 8 AM, we loaded in all of our luggage and we were on the road by 9 AM. We made a quick grocery stop some where close to the port to pick up beer and water then went the final few miles to Port Canaveral. When we came up over the bridge and I saw the Wonder in the distance, I got teary eyed.

All the planning and waiting and counting down was finally over. Now you are probably saying to yourself, ‘But she’s been in Disney for 3 days and she is just now getting teary eyed?!?!?!’ Maybe it’s the luxury of the ship, maybe it’s the sentimental value from being married onboard, and maybe it’s my love of the mouse, maybe all of these things. I just really love this ship.

Darrin dropped us off at 9:30 and we were the first ones there. We packed the beer and water in an extra suitcase I brought with us and were waiting by the gate for the porters to get our luggage at 9:40.

Waiting for the Gates to Open

Promptly at 10, they open the gate took our luggage and were headed for the terminal. We cleared security, headed up the escalator, got boarding pass #2 and took in the beauty of the lobby. We didn’t need to check in because we had already done this at the resort. Just one of the Disney perks, right. We didn’t have time to do any of this extra stuff on our last cruise so it was nice to have the time to look around and take it all in. The registration desks for the kids club wasn’t open yet so we took pictures,

went outside to watch the luggage going on (yeah we saw our bags being loaded in)

and took pictures with Minnie.

Then we did the registration for the clubs and just before 12, they announced the special family and then boarded pass 1 and within minutes pass 2. By this time Larry and his family had joined us (they drove themselves) and we were all able to board together. Thru the Mickey ears we went.

I had purchased all of us matching t-shirts so we had to pose for the embarkation photos. Then we were announced, “The Disney Wonder is proud to welcome the Swan, Tremblay and Dixon Family!” Cheers!! Joy!! Excitement!! Tears of Happiness!! For Sharelle and Haley, this was their first time on the cruise and they were so giddy it was absolutely cute.

Up next, eating swimming and our verandah!!

 

[CSwan1]

To all those befor me that have written amazing trip reports, I bow down to you. This is hard work! Sorting the photos, editing the photos, resizing the photos, writing, spell checking, ... it's alot!!! Thanks for sticking with me! I hope everyone is entertained so far!! More to come... soon I hope

 

[dismom73]

Great so far! Keep it coming.

 

[frdeb1999]

Wonderful so far.....can't wait to hear the rest!!!

 

[CSwan1]

We were pointed in the direction of Parrot Cay for lunch but we went to Beach Blanket Buffet instead. We found a great table outside and we all enjoyed our first delicious meal of many.

View of the deck where we were married from Beach Blanket

After eating, we were off to the Mickey pool and the Goofy pool to let the kids do some swimming. Kailee loves being around other kids and she immediately made a friend.

At 1:30, we headed to deck 6 to find our home away from home for the next 4 days. Corey, Kailee and I were in 6074, Mom, Sharelle, and Haley were in 6072 and Larry, Rise and JJ were in 2568. The first thing we did was go out onto our verandah. WOW! This was amazing!

My Chair for the next 4 days

Then we check out our Castaway Club gifts; tote bag, mesh bag, 2 water bottles, notebook and pen. I had mailed to boxes to the ship ahead of time and they were there so I unpacked them. One was beach toys for Castaway Cay, Kailee’s pirate costume and her life jacket. The other box was our fish extender, fish extender gifts and door decorations. Kailee and I hung up our door decorations and fish extender.

Our Door

Mom and sisters door

While we were decorating our door, we met our room attendant Ron. He offered us zip ties to secure our fish extender (he said he had heard about problems people had with them coming up missing). I thanked him but thanks to the DIS, I brought some with me. Around 2:45, our luggage came. We unpacked quickly,

Over-the-door-shoe-organizer (the BEST DIS tip)

changed into our dinner attire and headed to the promenade Lounge for the 3:30 DIS Meet. I guess everyone had a busy first day because we were the only ones there. So, we headed back to our stateroom, donned our life jackets and headed to muster station K.

The safety drill went quickly. We quickly made our way back to our room, dropped off our life jackets and headed to the Goofy Pool for Adventures Away Party. The party was a blast and when that ships horn chimed in with ‘When you wish upon a star’ tears again. We’re up to what 3 times now???

After Adventures away, we went back to our room for a few minutes before dinner. On our way to dinner that night, we stopped down the hall at Mindy327’s room to say hi. She has a six-year-old daughter, Cecily, which Kailee was very excited to meet. After a quick hello, we made our way to Parrot Cay. The 9 of us were all at table 26. We met our serving team- Pascal (server) Mariela (assistant server) and Ali (head server). They were all very nice and we grew very fond of all of them. Kailee discovered that she liked banana bread and ate 4 pieces. Kailee had a fruit cup for her appetizer

and spaghetti and meatballs for her meal.

She didn’t want dessert. I had Baked Crab Martinique (very good) for my appetizer

and Corey and I both had the Island Roasted Rib Eye of Beef with twice-baked potato (melt in your mouth amazing!!).

We didn’t have dessert either. We were just too full. Pascal gave the kids a math problem to figure out.

With the crayons, he did 1+1=2. You could only move 1 crayon and make it equal 139. It stumped all of us and we finally had to ask him for the answer.

After dinner, Kailee went to the Oceenear’s Club for a bit while Mom, Sharelle, Haley, Rise and I went off to deliver to the fish extenders. I nominated myself to organize the fish extender exchange and assigned rooms 1 night to deliver. Our night was the first night. We started on deck 6. 8 of the 12 rooms participating in the fish extenders were on deck 6 and 7 of us were all in the same area. Then we delivered to 1 room on 8, 1 room on 7 and 2 rooms on deck 2. Delivering was so much fun; I felt like Santa. We were down the hall when Mindy327’s kids came out and saw their goodies in their pockets. They were so excited; you couldn’t help but smile.

After delivering, I picked Kailee up from the club to go back to the room and order milk and cookies. I have to tell you what happened when I went to pick her up. I couldn’t find her at first. Now, I am slightly overprotective. It took a lot for me to allow Kailee into the clubs. My niece and I went in to get her and we looked all over with no luck. Finally, a counselor who must have seen the worry on my face approached me to see if I needed any help. She asked how old she was and pointed to the 2 places she should be- either doing the luau with Lilo and Stitch or in the computer room. We looked all around the luau circle with no luck. Then into the computer we went and guess what… there she was. They had been playing dress up so I didn’t even recognize her in the Belle dress. Relieved and slightly embarrassed, we headed back for milk and cookies on our verandah and much needed rest. I had a new princess doll for Kailee in the closet and asked Ron to put it on Kailee’s bed that night. Sure enough, there it was.

And our first towel animal: a swan!

Kailee was so excited! Tomorrow was to be a long but exciting day so we called Mickey for a 5:30 AM wake up call. Who sleeps in on vacation right????

 

[ktjl92]

Great so far - really enjoying your TR.. more please!

 

[mindy327]

What are you talking about girl!!!!???? This is great! Cec misses Kailee. I agree the pics thing is hard but worth "showing" everyone your trip! Min.

 

[MagicMe]

I was so into reading this, I didn't realize I was already at the end!!

Now I'm waiting for the BEST part!! You posted a picture taken from BBB of the deck where you were married - is that the "secret" verandah deck on 7?

 

[CSwan1]

What are you talking about girl!!!!???? This is great! Cec misses Kailee. I agree the pics thing is hard but worth "showing" everyone your trip! Min.

Thanks for the encouragement Mindy! I really enjoyed reading your report, too! Kailee talks about Cecily all the time. She keep asking when we are going on the cruise with her again!!

I was so into reading this, I didn't realize I was already at the end!!

Now I'm waiting for the BEST part!! You posted a picture taken from BBB of the deck where you were married - is that the "secret" verandah deck on 7?

Yes, this is the "secret deck". At the end of our ceremony when the captain said 'You may now kiss your bride' we had peolple clapping and cheering for us from Beach Blanket. It was very nice.


I will try to post more tomarrow. After I got back from this trip, I was is such a Mickey slump that I actually took a part time job as a Disney travel agent at a local agency. I have been doing the online training thru the 'College of Disney Knowledge' and I hope to have it finished this weekend. Thanks for coming along for the ride

 

[dismom73]

Now that sounds interesting, a part time job as a Disney travel agent. How did you score that one? I didn't realize that travel agencies had "disney" travel agents. I just "retired" from 13 years as a flight attendant, and all my friends are convinced I need to work for disney. If I could get a commission for everyone that I have convinced to do a disney vacation I would be set for life.

 

[CSwan1]

Monday we woke up very excited! Today was one of the days I had been looking forward to the most. We were doing the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter. Kailee and I woke up early, showered, got dressed and headed up to BBB for breakfast. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of this. The others got up a little bit later and went to BBB for breakfast but Kailee and I had a date with 4 famous princesses so we had to get going. We ate pretty quickly. I was hoping that if we got to the princess gathering early, we wouldn’t have any worries when it came to our excursion meet at 9:30. Well, we to off the elevators on deck 3 at 8:25 to find the line for the princesses going down the hall toward Animator’s Palette. At exactly 9 AM the princesses came out and we patiently waited our turn. We made it thru all 4 princesses and made our way to Studio Sea arriving at 9:20. WHEWWWWW!!

The rest of my group was there but just a few others. The room quickly filled up around 9:30. We all got sticker-ed and wristband-ed and we were on our way. We had a short walk, maybe 10 minutes, to get the ferry and a short 5-minute wait for the ferry. Once onboard, we stopped at one other pickup spot and then we were on our way. The entire ferry ride was about 40 minutes. Kailee fell asleep on the ride over.

We arrived at Blue Lagoon around 11 AM. First we had a brief 15-minute or so presentation on dolphins then the 120 of us was split up into 4 groups. While the presentation was taking place, I noticed the little girl sitting behind us and thought he looked like a girl I had seen a picture of in our meet thread. After the presentation, I asked the girl’s father if his wife’s name was Heather. He said yes and I introduced my self as Crystal form the DIS boards. This was Frequent Flyer and her family. Our group of 30 or so was sent to the far right area where they had lockers and benches for you to ready yourselves. Our trainer, Chris, came over and introduces himself and led us down to the platform. He told us our Dolphin, Goombay, was a young 2-year-old dolphin and just like little kids, sometimes he misbehaves and he was spending a few minutes in time out. Once Goombay was ready to participate, each family went into the water 1 at a time for a picture with the dolphin giving you a kiss on the cheek.

Now, one would probably expect the water to be warm. I mean we a re in the Bahamas in May, right? WRONG!! The areas were under shade and the water was down right chilly. Oh well, I GOT TO KISS A DOLPHIN!

Chris was a great trainer.

You could tell he really enjoyed entertaining the crowd. The first large group of 10 went into the water and everyone got a dance,

kiss and hug from the dolphin

then a chance to rub his belly,

feel his teeth

and feed him a fish. Our group went in next. Kailee and I were the last ones in our group and when it came to Kailee’s kiss on the lips, Goombay kissed her and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her again. **SIDE NOTE** Now we do the Goombay kiss at home and give lots of kisses!! Yup, you guessed it, lots of tears. This experience was amazing! I would do it again in a heartbeat!

After our turn, we went to change and look around the gift shop and get our pictures. Be prepared to spend money on pictures. They came out amazing!! The only regret I had was not having enough time at the lagoon. We wanted to go over and see the sea lions and the sea turtles but the ferry was leaving and we had to board. The bus ride back seemed to go much faster and we were back at the ferry stop by 1:45.

Mom, Sharelle and Haley wanted to do some shopping so they headed into Nassau while Corey, Kailee and I headed back to the ship. Kailee and I headed to deck 9 for some lunch and swimming while Corey relaxed in the room. Lunch was a hot dog and fries for Kailee and chicken strips and fries for me. We headed to the Mickey pool and found it closed. We couldn’t go in the Goofy pool; I didn’t have my suit on. So Kailee went to the splash are and she had a blast. There must have been 40 kids in that little area and they were all being so polite to each other it was heartwarming. Tears, again.

Around 3:00, we went back to the room to shower and get ready for semi formal night. This was something else I was very much looking forward to. We hadn’t had a nice family portrait taken in a long time and this was the perfect opportunity. I spent quite some time planning our outfits and couldn’t wait for the Lifestyles pictures on the white background. Corey and I were in black with light blue accents to match Kailee’s dress. I found this dress on Ebay for $35! I was thrilled! I did Kailee’s hair (for a child who’s mom is a hairdresser, she really hates having her hair done) got everyone dressed and headed down for our pictures. There was no wait for the Lifestyles pictures so we were done right away. Then we went to the ship background. I really wanted to get one with formal Mickey but the line was really long and I didn’t want to be late to dinner again.


Semi-Formal Night

I have our pictures we purchased from the ship. I will try to scan them in later. I love the way they came out!!

I forgot to mention my MIA mom this afternoon. When Kailee and I were heading back to the room from swimming, we ran into Sharelle and Haley. They were grabbing some lunch and meeting mom back in the room to eat. Well, Mom didn’t come back and after a bit Sharelle and I got worried. First Sharelle went out and looked for her, and then I did. I looked all over that ship (well obviously not ALL the ship). I went back to the room to finish getting ready and not long after, in walked Mom. She had found those comfy lounge chairs on deck 4 and fallen asleep. Well, at least SHE was relaxed.

Tonight was Triton’s.

Inside Tritons

It was also the night we were officially celebrating our anniversary. My niece and I had made a pact to try escargot together on the ship. I was kind of hoping she wouldn’t see it on the menu but she did. So we each tried one and Larry finished them. I couldn’t get past the texture of them. I’m the kind of person who sometimes has a problem eating bananas because of the texture but, hey, I tried it!!

I got shrimp cocktail for a second appetizer to wash down the escargot.

For the main course I had Coquilles St. Jacques. It is a scallop dish with mashed potatoes. Very good- super rich. Sorry no photo. For dessert, I had the crepes; also very good.

We were also presented with a cake for our anniversary.

They sang to us but very quietly- this is how Kailee looked ½ way thru dinner.

Here is tonights problem from Pascal to figure out. You had to gey the butter out of the scoop with out moving the butter and it had to be the same exact shape when you were done. You can move 2 crayons.

We went back to the room for a little bit then went to Toy Story the Musical. This is actually the first stage show I saw in 2 cruises and it was AWESOME! Sid was my favorite. That ‘guy’ made the show. After the show it was back to our room for milk and cookies on the verandah again and another wake up call from the mouse for early morning- it was Castaway Cay day!! Our towel animal tonight- my personal favorite- a monkey!!

And we had goodies in our fish extender. How exciting!!!

 

[CSwan1]

Now that sounds interesting, a part time job as a Disney travel agent. How did you score that one? I didn't realize that travel agencies had "disney" travel agents. I just "retired" from 13 years as a flight attendant, and all my friends are convinced I need to work for disney. If I could get a commission for everyone that I have convinced to do a disney vacation I would be set for life.

After the cruise, we stayed 2 more days at the All Star Music Resort. We booked this seperatly thru our travel agent. She had never stayed here before or had clients stay in their new Family suites and wanted to know how they were. I called her when we got back and we were talking about how much I absolutly love everything Disney! She asked me if I would be interested in working for her just doing Disney travel. I was ecstatic! Now I get to live thru everyone's vacations!!