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

[ilovethesun]

Our little family (myself (28), DH (29), DD (3.5) and DD (2)) just returned from a one day trip to Disneyland. I am officially hooked and since I'm already a cruise junkie, the obvious next step is a Disney cruise right?

I'm thoroughly enjoying your review. Everythign just looks magical. Thanks so much for sharing. I love living vicariously through other people's vacations!

angie

 

[goofygal1975]

I'm enjoying your trip report so far!!! Can't wait for the rest and to see the pictures that Disney took!!

 

[CSwan1]

Tuesday morning came with another great wake up call from my favorite mouse! I got up and showered and got the rest of my gang going. I have to say- I loved having the connecting room with my mom, sister and niece. We were constantly in and out of each other’s room. I ran up to Goofy’s Gallery to grab some breakfast. Back in the room, we had cereal, fruit and pastries. This was the first time we ate anything from Goofy’s and I was pretty impressed. Kailee and I love fresh fruit and the fruit there was fantastic.

Once everyone was ready, we headed to deck 1 to get off the ship. It was about 10 minutes to 8 and there were about 10 other people in front of us. We had a 9 AM stingray excursion so we wanted to be off the ship ASAP, grab our place in paradise and get the Stingray Ray’s. At 8:30, they started letting us off the ship. We grabbed some towels and made our way to the tram. When the tram stopped, we made our way to the beach and found a great spot right on the snorkeling lagoon/ family beach line. We got 6 lounge chairs and a hammock,

left the rest of the family with our stuff and headed for the other end of the family beach to Stingray Ray’s.

We were the first ones there so I took the opportunity to get some photos of the stingray info in the hut. Rise, JJ and Larry joined us soon after and we also hade some fellow DISers, Kcatplay and family, from our cruise meet there. After a short briefing from the stingray expert, the participants donned their snorkeling gear and headed for the water. Larry and I were not participating so we stood on the shore and snapped photos. There were 7 people in our families group. The CM explained the feeding process, showed them how to hold the food and explained the Mickey plate. Now in all fairness, I must say that Kailee was a little nervous about this experience. She had absolutely no reservations when it came to the dolphin encounter but was always a little apprehensive of the stingrays. When it came time for her to feed them, she put the food between her fingers as shown, put her had on the Mickey plate and put it in the water. Enter: stingray. Well, when the stingray sucked the food from her fingers, he started to suck up her finger a little and she had enough. She wasn’t getting back in that water for anything. The others snorkeled a bit after the feeding. The participants received a Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund pin for taking part in this excursion.

We headed back to our spot on the beach to soak up some sun. I had mailed a box of beach toys to the ship ahead of time so we had plenty to play with.

Haley buried Kailee in the sand

and they attempted many sand castles. Haley and Sharelle went out to do some snorkeling

and Corey and Kailee went into the water. Kailee found Cloe, her friend from the Mickey pool the first day and they swan together for quite some time.

Around 12, we went over to Cookies BBQ for lunch. Everything was great. The cold ziti salad was amazing as was the ribs and the chicken. Kailee enjoyed the banana bread again and the strawberry frozen yogurt.

She started to get sleepy eating her yogurt,

then put her head on the table

and soon was fast asleep. We took her back and laid her in the hammock where she slept for over an hour.

Mom, Corey and Sharelle got the drink of the day

and then the three of them and Haley headed over to rent Fun Cats for ½ an hour. Kailee and I rested (yeah, I fell asleep too). The 4 of them had a good time on the Fun Cats besides the battery running out on Mom and Corey’s and they had to be towed back in to shore. Kailee (and I) woke up just as they were coming back. We played for a little bit more and then headed back to the ship around 3. We all showered the sand off and got ready for dinner.

Tonight was Pirate Night and Kailee was prepared. I found a cute pirate costume for her after Halloween. I really wanted a picture of Kailee with Captain Jack Sparrow but she was terrified! She hasn’t seen any of the movies and just assumes he is a bad guy. It took some persuading, but we were able to convince her to go for it.

On our last cruise, we didn’t have the Pirate Night dinner so this was new to us. Corey and I had the Pirate Golden Pasta Envelopes for an appetizer (very yummy),

Black Pearls Oven Roasted Beef Tenderloin (amazing) for the main course

and the Walk the Triple Layer Plank Chocolate Cake (out of this world).

Kailee had chicken fingers and a Mickey bar for dessert.

The kids with Pascal, our waiter

After dinner, Kailee went to the club for a bit. When I picked her up, she was up at the sports deck doing ‘Dancing Under The Stars’. All the kids were given glow necklaces and they were dancing away.


We went to the Pirates in the Caribbean Deck Party next and had a great time.

Sharelle and Haley decided to rest for the evening but Larry, Rise, Corey and Mom met us up there. Kailee and I danced away and watched Pirate Mickey come and save the day.

Mom, Larry and Rise told us they were going to go to the buffet. Kailee and I danced a bit longer, and then went to see the buffet. We didn’t do the buffet on our last cruise. We were married on Pirate night last time and we had eaten so much that day we didn’t even want to look.

Kailee and I got a piece of cake to share and we headed back to our room. Kailee crawled into bed and was out in minutes. I wrote in my journal for a bit and had just shut out the lights when I got ‘the knock’ at my door. I got up, opened the door and there was Larry and Rise with Mom in a wheelchair!!! They told me Mom fell of the stage on the Goofy pool and fell right on her knee, the one that had been bothering her all week!! I went in thru our connecting door, woke up Sharelle, and we helped Mom into bed. Guest services sent up some ice and bags but Mom decided to wait until morning to see the doctor. What a night!!

Up next, our day at sea and Palo brunch!!

 

[DMMarla07860]

hope your mom was alright, great report by the way

 

[CSwan1]

hope your mom was alright, great report by the way

Mom was actually better in the morning than she had been all week! She thinks the fall knocked it back into place. When she was up on the stage for the party, she turned to leave and just 'stepped off'. She didn't realize how close she was to the edge. I do have to give props to our head server, Ali. He was near by helping out at the buffet and he saw her fall. He helped her out and made sure to get us the ice. The next night at dinner, he came right over to see how she was. She is doing much better, though. Thanks for asking!!

 

[DLW8]

Great Trip Report - can't wait to hear the rest! Thanks for the info on the dolphin encounter (and photos!). My DS will be 7 when we go next year (like you, I am already counting down at 548 days til the trip), and I think the encounter with DCL will be a good first dolphin meeting for him.

When he's older I may splurge on the one where you swim with them, but I think this will be perfect for now.

Thanks again!

 

[CSwan1]

Great Trip Report - can't wait to hear the rest! Thanks for the info on the dolphin encounter (and photos!). My DS will be 7 when we go next year (like you, I am already counting down at 548 days til the trip), and I think the encounter with DCL will be a good first dolphin meeting for him.

When he's older I may splurge on the one where you swim with them, but I think this will be perfect for now.

Thanks again!

You're welcome! I'm glad you are enjoying it! I am going to try to get some more up later this weekend. Kailee and I are off to do an 18 hor walk-a-thon for Relay For Life. After some sleep tomarroe, I will try to do more.
BTW, my scanner is acting up and my professional pictures wont scan. I downloaded the copyright from Shutters website and I am hoping to get them on CD this week. Then I can post those as well. Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Loving your TR!!!

 

[MouseGrandma]

Just love your trip report - - - - -and the pictures! Looking forward to reading more!!

 

[CSwan1]

Sorry it has been so long since a post. After Relay For Life this weekend, Kailee got on me hard about quitting smoking (she learned in school how bad it is). So, I have now been 2 days smoke free and dealing with migranes. This will pass soon I hope. So, here is the next installment:

Update!!! Mom woke up and her knee felt better than it had the entire trip!! Disney Magic, I guess.

Wednesday! Our day at sea!

I slept in until 8 AM, showered and went to do laundry. We let Kailee sleep until 10 and had breakfast waiting for her when she woke.

I ran back to the laundry and boy was I happy I started it when I did. The line was down the hallway!! Corey and I dropped Kailee off at the club to make Flubber and we headed up to Palo for our brunch reservation at 11. Brunch was great! I tried caviar (not my thing). We had a sampling of stuff from the buffet and I ordered eggs benedict from the menu. YUMO!!

I had no idea that brunch would take as long as it did. It was good but I don’t think I would take the time out of the only see day we had to do it again. I was hoping to make the DVC talk at 12 but didn’t make it. We went back to our room for a bit to start packing. What a chore!! This was short lived because it was time to go to the Castaway Club Reception. This was nice. I got to see Rodrigo, our wedding coordinator and Captain Henry.

Corey didn’t make it to this party. He got a pretty bad sunburn on Castaway Cay and just wanted to relax.

After the reception, I picked Kailee up from the club and her and I hung out together for a bit. Then we dropped her back at the club for graduation prep.

***Side note- We decided to give the councelors in the club some goodies on the last night. After returning later in the evening from the Final Farewell, the goodies were hanging on our door handle. Maybe DCL changed the policy about them getting goodies We left them for Ron our steward along with his other goodies.***

We caught a glimpse of Kailee and Cecily, Mindy327’s daughter, thru the widow to the secret passage was as we were leaving.

 

[CSwan1]

Corey and I headed to the Walt Disney Theater to get seats for the graduation and the rest of our clan was there playing bingo. Haley won almost $350!!! Graduation was cute. It was slightly different from our last cruise. You can’t help but get emotional seeing your baby up there on stage in her cap.

After the graduation, we went to the club to pick up Kailee and head for dinner. Kailee and Cecily wanted to spend the last night together so I made arrangements to pick her up at 7:45 for a play date.

The Girls after Graduation

We arrived at Animator’s Palette close to on time for our last dinner. This was the first time Corey and I ate in AP. On our last cruise, we were married the night of AP so we ate in Palo. I was very excited to see the entire show!

Kailee had chicken fingers and fries again and I had the seafood and avocado wrapper,

the steak and scallops

and no dessert. I really wanted the strawberry shortcake but we had to leave before dessert to meet up with Cecily. Oh well, I did come home 1 pound less than I was when I left!! We gave our wonderful serving team gifts we had brought from home and their tips and headed back to our room to meet Cecily.

Ali, our head server

We arrived back at our room jut in time to meet Cecily and the girls were off to go swimming. They were the only 2 in the Mickey pool. You would have thought the ship was empty. I guess dinnertime is a good time to go swimming.

This is one of my favorite pics of the girls!!

After swimming, they had ice cream

and then back to our room to pack and say goodbye to Cecily and her family. We weren’t back in our room long when Brandon, Cecily’s dad, came to get her. The girls hugged and said their goodbyes. Kailee said this was one of her favorite times of the whole trip.

We did some frantic packing (shoving) and we had our bags in the hall just in time to finish up the last few things of the night.

Our Fish Extender Loot

Kailee and I were on a mad dash to the gift shop to finish shopping, then to Shutters for our last photo purchase. We went to the Final Farewell and got Mickey’s autograph.

We loved the addition of the ‘pixie dust’ at the end of the party. Mom, Sharelle, Kailee, Haley and I decided to enjoy our last night on the ship so we went up to deck 9, got some pizza

and Bahama Mamas

and watched the NBA playoffs on the big screen. We headed back to our rooms around midnight. Our final towel animal, a super cool dog!

Up next: disembarkation , Richard Petty driving experience and Magic Kingdom !!

 

[CSwan1]

Thursday morning came and the mouse called EARLY! We missed our last breakfast with our servers so our last breakfast was at BBB. Kailee was no thrilled with the idea of getting up so early but when we reminded her we were headed back to Disney for 2 days, she started to move a little faster.

We got a few last pictures and then headed off the ship.

Notice Kailee still in bed

There was some sort of hold up in customs so we were a little late meeting Darren from FL Tours. He was good about it, though. No worries at all. We made it back to Orlando in just under an hour and Darren dropped us off at the All Star Music Resort. I have nothing but good to say about Darren and Fl Tours. We will definitely recommend them and use them again in the future.

We stayed in one of the new family suits at the ASM and we were pretty impressed with it. Having just stayed at the AKL, it was definitely a different experience but it got “thumbs up” from all of us!

A quick wrap up of our last few days: Corey did the Richard Petty driving experience and said it was amazing. We went swimming at the resort, to Magic Kingdom 3 times (and rode It’d a Small World 3 times) and shopping in DTD. Our flight left Orlando at 1 PM on the 10th. When we landed back in Burlington, it was 40 out. I miss Disney already.

A few pics from the last days

With all things said, we have a fantastic time! I have come to realize that I most definitely have a ‘mild’ obsession with Mickey Mouse. I have found a great vehicle for my obsession: After returning from our trip and having a great conversation with our travel agent, I have taken a part time position with the agency specializing in Disney Destination vacations! Now I can feed my obsession by living vicariously thru others vacations! We are hoping to go back to Disney for 3 days during their free dining in August for a ‘research’ trip! Our hopes and dreams for future trips include a 7 night Eastern cruise in 2009, a 10-day WDW trip in 2010 and like so many others, we have our fingers crossed for an inaugural cruise in 2011. I hope everyone has enjoyed my trip report. I’m open to questions if anyone has any. Have a magical day everyone!

 

[libpetersen]

Great report! Thanks for all the great details and pictures. Good luck with your new career, I bet you will love it!

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

Hi Crystal! I just read your entire TR, great job! I am also a NH native and a newbie when it comes to cruising. We booked a 4 day trip for April of 2009. We plan to surprise the kids which leads me to my question. You mentioned that you shipped yourself a package. I saw a couple places that will put together a gift basket for the kids, but as I thought about it, I could do that easily. I would like to put togther a couple gift baskets for the kids (sand pails, snorkel equipment, etc), ship it down. Can you help me with info on shipping a package?

How many people were signed up for the DIS meet? So far, we will be solo, but things could change.

 

[CSwan1]

Hi Crystal! I just read your entire TR, great job! I am also a NH native and a newbie when it comes to cruising. We booked a 4 day trip for April of 2009. We plan to surprise the kids which leads me to my question. You mentioned that you shipped yourself a package. I saw a couple places that will put together a gift basket for the kids, but as I thought about it, I could do that easily. I would like to put togther a couple gift baskets for the kids (sand pails, snorkel equipment, etc), ship it down. Can you help me with info on shipping a package?

SURE! Here is the info:

Mail it FedEx ground.
The warehouse address is:
IDS
9001 Marlin Street
Cape Canaveral, FL 32920

address the package to them and, in the bottom left corner of the package put the following information:
ATTN: HOUSEKEEPING
STATEROOM # XXXX (GTY, if you don't know what it is when you send the package)
PASSENGER NAME: (name of passenger on reservation)
VESSEL: WONDER or MAGIC
DATE of SAIL:
NUMBER of BOXES: 1 of 1, 3 of 4 or whatever.

You must also write up a packing slip, label it and tape it to the outside of the box. You can not ship food but Mark, the owner of IDS, told me candy was okay. The box size that is allowed is 12X12 (we used a photocopy paper box) and it can not weigh more than 20 pounds. You can send 1 box per stateroom. We had 2 staterooms so we were able to send 2 boxes. We mailed all the FE goodies, beach toys, door decorations and DD's pirate costume. We bought beach toys at the end of the season last year really inexpensive (10 cents for buckets ) and instead of having to worry about bringing them home, we donated them to the kids club on CC when we were done.

How many people were signed up for the DIS meet? So far, we will be solo, but things could change.

We had 12 state rooms in our FE swap but nearly 60 cruisers in the DIS meet. I started to feel the same way you are feeling for a bit. I thought my family was going to be the only ones on the entire ship!! But after a while, a few more joined then a couple more and quite a few in the very end. If you have a cruise meet, I would just keep bumping it up. That is what I did and eventually others found us. Have a great trip! If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!

 

[Goldeelox9]

What a great Trip Report! It made me really excited!

What goodies did you give out for the Fish Extender Exchange. I am stumped.

 

[CSwan1]

What a great Trip Report! It made me really excited!

What goodies did you give out for the Fish Extender Exchange. I am stumped.

We gave maple syrup and maple candy, magnets, little nips of liquor, candy, mini puzzles and games for the boys, tiaras and princess sashes for the girls, pens and pencils. THe FE swap was awesome. Kailee loved coming ''home" at night to see what goodies she had waiting for her.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

We gave little nips of liquor.

Ahh, not just for the kids, I see. I am new to FE and I certainly hope people sign up for my meet, so I have to ask, do you bring treats for every day?

 

[CSwan1]

Each cabin in our FE swap was assigned 1 night to deliver. We had 12 cabins participating, 4 nights to deliver so each night 3 cabins delivered to everyone else. It was alot of fun. I started our cruise meet so I kinda took charge of the meet times and the FE info. My only regret is that out of the 60+ people on our cruise meet, we only met a few of them. I really wanted to put faces to all the ones I had been chatting with. Oh well, maybe we will all have to cruise together again in the future!! I was looking at your trip ticker and it seems like we may have been in Disney at the same time! We met 7 families from NH on the WDW buses. I guess it is a small world after all!!

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

Yes, we were in WDW at the same time. There might have been lots of NH people on the cruise because my kids were on spring break that week. We flew out on 4/26 and returned home on 5/4. I think each town has a different school week, but they are around the same time period. Maybe you can join us in 2009, we set sail on 4/26?