Cooper's 1st Cruise...pre-trippie...(from the girl who "doesn't really do disney")

[ilovecraigandcooper]

Is 18 weeks too far out to start a trip report? Is it crazy to go on a disney cruise if you're not really into disney? Probably, but I tend to do bizarre things anyway, so here goes...

TRAVELERS:

-shannon (me), 27, wife, mom, loves cruising, oddly enough not really into disney, OBSESSIVE VACATION PLANNER!

-craig (my adorable hubby), almost 37, loves fishing & woodworking, goes with the flow, NOT into planning vacays-had to call me to find out when he was supposed to take his vacation days because he couldn't even remember WHEN the cruise was...

-cooper (God's wonderful gift to us), 14 months, absolute best baby in the world, sooooo easy going, always happy, loves gogurt...

-lorri (aka: my mom), takes everything in stride, slow to anger, elementary school teacher, totally enthralled with her 1st grandchild.

-thorney (aka: my dad), quiet, loves everything old cars and car shows, swore he would never cruise again (this was pre-cooper, now all rules have changed and all bets are off).

-becca (my sister), 17, typical teenager, quiet at first, embarrasses easily (this plays in my favor quite frequently).

-joann (my mother in law), widowed, loves a good laugh, awesome as far as mother-in-laws go!


THE PLAN:

We live in georgia so we are planning to leave saturday nov. 21, (aka per becca: the day after NEW MOON premieres), spend one night in fl and then board The Wonder for our pre Thanksgiving 3 night cruise!


OUR CRUISING BACKGROUND:

Craig and I got married in September 2002. At around the end of July 2002 (when we had still not decided where to take a honeymoon), I told Craig to just pick someplace, any place and we would make it happen! Off the top of his head he said "how about a cruise?" Neither of us had ever cruised or known anyone who had ever cruised so we were batting in the dark. (Oh how times have changed)! I visited the travel agent in town and told her we wanted to cruise and the date. She hooked us up on Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas, 4 night. It was absolutely wonderful! We were in awe at how big the ship was (it's actually one of the smallest in the fleet) but we had nothing to compare it to. We reveled at the towel animals, we gorged ourselves at the dinners and WE WERE EFFECTIVELY HOOKED, NEVER TO BE THE SAME AGAIN, LIFE TIME CRUISERS. No matter where else we may go in our life time, no matter how elaborate the accomodations or exotic the place nothing will ever compare to that very first honeymoon cruise.

We booked our 2nd cruise as part of a group (parents, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, grandma, friends), 16 of us in all! The only other people who had cruised were my aunt, uncle and cousin. The rest were newbies. It was Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas, 3 night. The ship was the same class as the Majesty but it didn't hold the same magic for us. It seemed almost run down. Believe me we (me and craig) still had a fantastic time because "even your worst day on a cruise is still pretty much better than any other day" but the rest of group grumbled. The other previous cruisers said the ship sucked, some of the first timers hated the food, others drove themselves mad trying to keep up with who was doing what/where everyone was/etc., effectively cancelling out any fun they might have had themselves. Conclusion: if ever on another group cruise just plan to do your own thing, ignore what you want to ignore, keep up with only those who you WANT to keep up with and relax and have fun!

Third cruise we booked as an anniversary present to ourselves and also invited one of my BFF (best friends) and my mother in law along. My bff had been part of the 2nd crusie fiasco but my mother in law was a newbie. This was Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas, 7 night. The cruise itself was awesome. There was some tension as I'm convinced there always is if you're with anyone other than just your immediate cozy family...but all in all a great trip!

UP NEXT: WHY DISNEY?!

 

[ilovecraigandcooper]

WHY DISNEY?!

I was completely satisfied with Royal Caribbean as a cruise provider but at the same time wanted to try other lines to see what they had to offer. I had heard good things about Disney, (especially that the entertainment couldn't be matched). I started looking around, throwing around tentative dates, conjuring up possible scenarios in my mind.

One thing that I knew I wanted if possible was for Cooper's grandparents and my sister to get to get to experience his first cruise with him. This presented a problem because my dad hated the last cruise. Swore he would never cruise again. When I first brought up the idea of a family cruise he was all "no, absolutely not, yall go right ahead, I'd rather sit home". So I waited a little bit and brought it up again. He was like "ummm hello I HATE CRUISING!" Finally I got smart and stopped bringing up the cruise. Instead I had "Cooper make" his grandpa a cruise book. It was complete with things about disney cruising, fun places like ROUTE 66, details on the pirate party and lots of pictures. It started out with a letter from Cooper saying "guess what, mommy and daddy are taking me on my very first cruise and i really want you to come too!" This got him hooked. We signed up the next day. I would really like to test this and see just what all my Coop can get my dad to do... Maybe perhaps in a few years when Coop knows more words other than "mama", "dada" and "NO" we could have my dad parasailing, bungee jumping, karaoke-ing, disco-ing, the list could go on and on...

So then I found the disboards and I was like "wow these people are die hard Disney"...which made me a little nervous because I'm just...Not. I don't have anything against Disney I'm just not wild about it. I never had a fascination with princesses, I've been to Disney World a couple of times but I would just as soon go to 6-flags (I know, right?), I don't collect Disney pins, I have never been inclined to wear "mouse ears" and I had never heard of Castaway Cay. So for a few days I was thinking I had really messed up booking this cruise. And then...

I caught it. Disney fever...and it's bad. (I'm reminded of the SNL skit of blue oyster cult "I GOTTA FEVA....AND THE ONLY PRESCRIPTION IS MORE COW BELL!") Anyway so the more I read the more I was like "why would anyone cruise without the pirate party, how did I ever make it on 3 cruises where our name WASN'T announced as entering and YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES I WANT TO WAIT IN LINE TO SEE A MOUSE WEARING A TUXEDO!"

So that's how we (the same family who had never even heard of a fish extender) ended up booked on Disney...and counting down the days...

 

[mickeysmyhero]

Its contagious!! I hope you all have a great time! Can't wait to read more!

 

[beansf]

Great start!

I just had to stop in and mention that your baby and my baby have the same name. You can see a photo of mine to the left.

 

[MagicMe]

Great start!!! What you'll love is that the Disney influence is very subtle. I love the Disney cruise 'cause it reminds me the most of what I envisioned an old world class ship to be - but without the class distinction thing.

 

[ilovecraigandcooper]

THANKS GUYS FOR THE KIND WORDS! (you all are right, it IS contagious)!

THE INSTALLMENT ABOUT THE MONEY:
So I had a plan to pay off the remainder of our balance in weekly payments because I do payments best. I'm no good at lump sums at a certain time (even if the time is far away), I need to take the money out right when I get it so I don't spend it. So I have a calender on my desk and each pay period along with our other bills I wrote "cruise" and I'm supposed to make an online payment and then put a check mark...pretty simple right? It worked wonders the first week, after that I feel off the bandwagon and pretty much frittered my "cruise money" away on various crap and now I'm three weeks behind ugh! So each time I've missed a payment I redo the calculations to see how much I need to pay NOW each week to make the due date...I need a financial planner...for real!