Coffee on the Verandah -The Last Slide, Recap & Souvies 5/29 - Link to Aulani TR 5/31

[eandesmom]

Good morning! a quick bat signal to say the joint TR is started for our F&W trip. MEK will be hosting the effort and I'll be chiming in! We'd love to have you stop by!

Sorry Gaston, They are MUCH More Interesting Than You!

 

[MEK]

Wow - the whole car thing sounds complicated, but definitely worth it in terms of saving some $. I have only ever rented from the airport, so I'll have to fool around with the sites for the alternate pick up/drop off locations.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Woop! I've already gone and checked out the new link!

 

[eandesmom]

Wow - the whole car thing sounds complicated, but definitely worth it in terms of saving some $. I have only ever rented from the airport, so I'll have to fool around with the sites for the alternate pick up/drop off locations.

Well the return and then pick up at Canaveral is what made it complicated. If you are going to hang onto it, it won't be, but I'd really price out all the options. Good news is you are NOT going in peak summer car rental rate times so you might be able to score a deal that just makes it easy to keep the car the whole time and pay for parking. I forget how much parking is, it isn't cheap but might be worth it for you guys. If you can get Alamo for a Disney on site pick up, that will be by far the easiest if you opt to do something other than the airport. I actually wonder though if they do one way rentals to Canaveral because seriously, there was never a car available for that option, either drop off or pick up and I tried multiple combos

Woop! I've already gone and checked out the new link!

Yay!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Good morning! a quick bat signal to say the joint TR is started for our F&W trip. MEK will be hosting the effort and I'll be chiming in! We'd love to have you stop by!

Sorry Gaston, They are MUCH More Interesting Than You!

Thanks for the link. I'm excited to hear about F&W - it's on my list for an adult only trip some time.

 

[eandesmom]

Thanks for the link. I'm excited to hear about F&W - it's on my list for an adult only trip some time.

Such a great adult only trip! Although honestly, we had a blast at it when the boys were little too. They would enjoy it, it just doesn't work with the school calendar at all. So I guess it's adult only for a while for me! Darn.

 

[eandesmom]

"I left my retainer in the napkin"

That is a sentence no parent ever wants to hear! Our hearts sunk, as the retainer was wrapped inside a napkin to be hidden from view and on the tray, and given how lightening fast they were clearing up Cabanas to ready it for dinner, I fully expected that the retainer was in the garbage by now. Gone. Or at least not easily found without some rather nasty digging around by someone.

We raced back up.

It is Disney.

Lots of kids wear retainers

Hiding them in napkins must be a recurring theme.

They had opened the napkin and had the retainer!

I was SO sure it was gone.

Happy Birthday Kendall! You don't have to tell your mom you lost your retainer! LOL.

We swung by the room for something, what I have no idea, and met our stateroom host. His name was something we didn't quite catch but he simply said to call him J. Or Jay. Not really sure as I don't think we actually saw him again the entire cruise! Which was a little odd but I’ll touch on that later.

Muster was in the theater. It was HUGE but I have to admit, comfortable and painless.

Greatly relieved about the retainer and official duties complete we headed back to the stateroom on our way up to hit the sail away party. We had ordered a birthday gift to the room. I hadn't had time to take a picture of it when we arrived but it was a magnet, a banner, a cake and some other decorations so attempted now. As you can see, I had a hard time with the lighting!

The birthday girl posed with them

Where is she?

There she is!

We decided to check out our view from the verandah

Looking out

And down

To the side

And with that, it was time to sail away! We headed up top. And, I'll admit, didn't really get in with the crowd watching the actual party. The boys had seen it before and while Eric enjoyed it, the others are a little "old" for those kinds of parties and were far more interested in checking other things out.

We did make them watch us pull out at least.

I bought Jeff and I a drink of the day. It was 2 for 1. Which was still a bit of a waste, hard to believe there was anything even in them but I'd wanted the glasses. Plus, my white wine wasn't yet cold (it had escaped the ice other than that 10 minutes while I walked over, in and then had to dump it out) and with not being able to drink soda, it worked for me. If memory serves, Jeff than ran them to our room and "doctored" them and they were much better!

Still overcast and cloudy but, not raining!

We must have also hit the soda station based on what’s in the picture

The line for the Aquaduck was going strong.

Now things got pretty funny, or dorky, depending on your point of view. We were sailing out of Cape Canaveral…and by things that VERY much interested Jeff. Who took a bazillion pictures (many of which didn't turn out well) complete with narrative (which the kids tuned out).

Probably not the sail away pictures you were expecting!

Continued in next post

 

[eandesmom]

Continued from previous post

Kendall was texting away while she still had a signal, I think we all updated our FB status at that point.

Officially out to sea we split up. The boys wanted to golf. Yes, there is a mini golf course on the ship! They were barely holding it together while Jeff obsessed over KSC and once past it, we cut them loose with instructions to meet back at the room at a set time for the show which wed all attend together and then go to dinner. I had a feeling it would kill their chances for meeting other kids at Edge but they were obsessed and I pick my battles. This wasnt one worth fighting. Jeff, Kendall and I headed to check out Vibe. It was a little funky and difficult to find. Once there we sent K in to check it out. It was weird, she disappeared into what felt like a tunnel and we had no idea how long she'd be! Jeff decided to wait outside for her while I swung by the DVC desk and wed meet in the room.

While strolling I took a few pictures of the atrium and enjoyed the live music. One thing I really noticed on the Dream was it seemed to have more live music playing in open areas than the Wonder had. Jeff says I just missed it on the Wonder and it was there but I honestly don't recall it.

I had wanted to stop by the DVC desk as there had been a card in our room, inviting us to to so, to pick up a pin. It came in this cute box with DVC lanyards. I had been happy to see we did have a "Members" magnet on our door.

Not only did I get a pin but they gave me hats for everyone and a really nice reusable tote bag to put them in.

Score! Jeff and I got back to the stateroom about the same time. He was missing a child. Apparently another teen and Kendall had connected and taken off. She'd be skipping the show and meeting us back at the room for dinner. So much for worrying about her meeting kids! It gave me just enough time to shower, I felt pretty grimy after the ice/rain fiasco and get changed for dinner. I figured that would work out well as then others might be changing after the show before dinner. Jeff enjoyed a beer and myself a glass of white wine (the reason Id wanted the DOTD glasses...so I had something until we could procure wine glasses from dinner) and we had a few moments of quiet time, I put out our FE and decorated the door a little more, including our whiteboard before the boys would arrive and we would head to the show.

I thought she was with you???

 

[Mickcruiser]

Muster drill is one of the three parts of cruising I could do without, waiting to board, muster drill, and getting off

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Yay - the retainer isn't lost!! So glad it didn't rain out your sail away.

Score on the DVC swag! We have the "old" logo hats. I used the tote bag to haul a lot of "extra" FE stuff off the ship with us! I think they need to pass out real luggage now.

Glad you had a few moments alone to enjoy a glass of wine etc. It seemed on those short cruises, we never had a minute to relax. I'm looking forward to a longer one with more time!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

You must have been so relieved about the retainer! As someone who once wore them, I can say that I understand I love all of your sailing away photos too!

 

[glennbo123]

Whew, thank goodness you were able to get the retainer back!

Sounds like a fun start to the cruise.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Muster drill is one of the three parts of cruising I could do without, waiting to board, muster drill, and getting off

Unfortuitly it's important for the safety of you and everyone else on the boat.

 

[MEK]

So, so glad the retainer was easily retrievable. Yeah!

Kendall looks so cute with he B-day decoration as a Hat. Too cute!

I love the pictures from the verandah. I hope I am on the right side of the ship for that. Pretty sure I am.

Doctored drinks - something I would do for sure.

So - how does the cruise line know you are DVC members? I booked through AAA. Does she add that to my reservation as a reminder?

Looking forward to more.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Okay, I can sleep now - Kendall has her retaiiner. The sail away is not really my thing as far as the mosh pit, but I enjoy the event from up above anyway. Nice start, now that you've dumped your offensive ice out.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

They had opened the napkin and had the retainer!

Thank goodness for attentive CM's.

We decided to check out our view from the verandah

Without coffee?

Looking out

And with that, it was time to sail away! We headed up top. And, I'll admit, didn't really get in with the crowd watching the actual party. The boys had seen it before and while Eric enjoyed it, the others are a little "old" for those kinds of parties and were far more interested in checking other things out.

We did make them watch us pull out at least.

Don't tell anybody, but I think watching the ship in action and the scenery rolling by is more interesting than the party.

Now things got pretty funny, or dorky, depending on your point of view. We were sailing out of Cape Canaveral…and by things that VERY much interested Jeff. Who took a bazillion pictures (many of which didn't turn out well) complete with narrative (which the kids tuned out).

Must be a guy thing.

Kendall was texting away while she still had a signal, I think we all updated our FB status at that point.

I totally would do the same thing.

Not only did I get a pin but they gave me hats for everyone and a really nice reusable tote bag to put them in.

Score!

 

[Angies1274]

Whew! So glad the retainer was found!!

Kendall's birthday gift was so cute!!

Great start to the cruise so far! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[rentayenta]

Yay on the swag.

 

[Moira222]

it has taken me three days to finish catching up with all these interruptions.

Sorry for to myself about the whole beer/wine/ice fiasco. Very good of you to not lay on the "told you so's" right after. aaaaaggghhhh


I am SO GLAD that the retainer was not lost. The ending of that post had me dreading the next bit. YAY for Disney knowing that kids will be kids!

Muster sounds like something I could do without but at least its over and done.

I still think its great that you can comfortably part ways for a few hours and then meet back up again with everyone. and SCORE on the cute hats at the DVC desk. Bet those come in handy!

The ship looks so pretty inside. I would love all the live entertainment.

Thanks for the heads up on the new TR. I am so anxious to see these Halloween costumes....

 

[2xcited2sleep]

OMG what luck on the retainer front. Thank goodness!!

Love that you doctored the DOTD. I would have purchased just for the glass too!!

So far I'm sold on the cruise experience? Looking forward to learning more.