Cranberry & Pineapple Continued.....Again.

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Did you guys all throw away your Zicam?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/16/zicam.fda.warning/index.html?iref=newssearch

Haven't heard of this till now, thanks for the heads up. I had no idea.

 

[Jsme]

Did you guys all throw away your Zicam?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/16/zicam.fda.warning/index.html?iref=newssearch

I have read an article about Zicam and I am not sure if I am going to throw mine out. I am going to look into other options but had already planned on taking some major stuff starting in August and ending in December. I stay so sick during that time that I need the zinc to help shorten the length of my colds. Zicam works amazingly well for me. The last cold I had with using Zicam lasted the normal 5 days while the colds I had before without using the Zicam lasted upwards of 14 days. But that does not mean I have to use Zicam to get the zinc. My doctor told me it works because it is in the nose and it helps to keep out the germs by acting as a blocking agent. My doctor also told me that any medication we use has an average of "bad" occurances and this is a typical number. Honestly though I have no idea what to do. I am weighing the options.

 

[Jsme]

Today is my last day at work. I have 52 more minutes to work. I only have to work until 12:07.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I was thinking of you Selena yesterday when I heard the news about Zicam.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Today is my last day at work. I have 52 more minutes to work. I only have to work until 12:07.

Yay!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Day 2 – May 30th Embarkation

I didn’t sleep very well during the night because I was use to sharing a king bed with Chris and here we had to share a double. I went to bed laying next to him and woke up with someone else:

Somehow, sometime Amanda ended up crawling into bed with me. lol

We woke up at 7:00 and picked everything up and packed all the suitcases again, and headed for breakfast. The girls and Chris headed for Crispy Creme and I headed for a chicken biscuit at Chick-fil-a. Ya, should have stuck with the family. The Chick-fil-a at the airport is nasty, and for the rest of the trip I referred to it as the fake chick-fil-a. The biscuit was horrible and the chicken was definitely not the chicken I was use to.

We were surprising the girls with a limo ride to the port and they were suppose to pick us up at 8:30. I booked with Tiffany Towncar and their email to me said to meet them at the baggage claim so that is where we headed. I noted on the reservation that we were flying in the night before and were staying at the Hyatt but I didn’t receive further instructions on where to meet them from there so I assumed it was the same. WRONG! We get down to the baggage claim and no one was there. I run to the other baggage claim, still nothing. Get back to Chris and the girls and Chris had called them. Apparently the driver was waiting for us at some secret place below the Hyatt in a “tunnel”. The driver came and found us and we got to walk through this secret tunnel. Now we had the girls believing we were taking a taxi and there were 2 cars parked in the tunnel, one was the limo and the other was a towncar. One of the girls basically had her hand on the towncar door and was proceeding to open the door when the driver opened the trunk to the limo. The girls jaws dropped and were so excited we were taking a limo. We jumped inside the limo and were on our way. The inside of the limo was nice as it had several TV screens that was playing Happy Feet and had a lot of mood lighting and colorful lights on the ceiling.

The ride went by much quicker than I remember! Soon we were pulling over the bridge and I could see the Magic. I pointed it out to the girls and they were in disbelief we were going on that ship. As we got closer they were commenting on how BIG the boat was, I really want to know what they thought we were taking them on! It was too cute. I glanced at my watch and noticed it was only 9:30, the port doesn’t open until 10:00. I was nervous they wouldn’t let us in, but they did and people were still getting off the ship and there was one family a head of us (a disboard family). The ship was cleared and they let us go through security at 9:45, I walked in line and was the second person, yay! There was a sign that said “Check-in begins at 11:00” so I sent Chris and the girls off to explore the terminal.

10:15 comes around and the staff starts checking us in early, yay!!!! I was over-prepared and had everything ready and was the first family officially checked in. I ran over to the supervisor’s desk because I wanted to see how much it was to upgrade. We had originally booked a Cat 12, but with 4 people you are automatically bumped to at least a Cat 11 which is what we were assigned to. I wasn’t sure how we were going to work out the bathroom situation because in cat 11, there isn’t the split bathroom and with 3 girls I was thinking there may be a problem. Talked with a Supervisor and there was a verandah available (Cat 6) for $800. I jumped at it because what other time are we going to be able to do this. For a 7 day cruise, 4 people, and a verandah we had paid a total of $3200. Excellent price I think! I surprised Chris with the news and we were really excited. Our room was 6114, near the AFT elevators which was so convenient.

We met several DISers in the terminal and one was picked to be the Family of the day and got to go on the ship first. Since we were there so early, we got boarding #2 and was on quickly. We skipped the pictures because we never by them anyway and we were announced. One of the great things is being announced I think, but it embarrassed the girl, oh well they will get over it! We headed to Topsiders for lunch. Chris held a table for us while the girls and I went and got food, when we got outside (our tradition is to always eat outside at Topsiders on the first day) there was nasty love bugs all over the place in swarms. Yuck! So we ate inside instead….nasty nasty things! After lunch we walked around the ship, bad Heidi thought she packed the girls swimsuits but somehow didn’t, so we headed towards deck 6 to wait for our room to be ready.

Finally our rooms were ready.

This picture was taken to show how you can move around the TV:

We had gift baskets waiting for the girls from the Perfect Gift, but they ripped into them too fast before I could get any pictures! We met more DISers at the Promenade Lounge and then headed for the wonderful drill.

As we were unpacking, the girls had made plans with some of the other DISers kids to meet at the sailaway party so they went to take off to meet them. Chris and I stopped by the Goofy pool bar to pick up a sailaway drink when the bartender says to Chris, “Where do I know you from?” Chris answered back, “Panama Canal.” Turns out “our bartender” from the Panama Canal was there. His name is Arul, and he said to Chris, “I was making your wife those fancy drinks with Malibu, pineapple and cranberry.” He remembered Chris’s name and my drink, wow, we need to stop! lol He definitely made this cruise very enjoyable for us.

Here is Arul:

Turns out the girls never met up with the other kids, so we all enjoyed the sail-away party together. After the party time for dinner. We had early seating and would be eating at 5:45 and starting at Animators Palate.

We were seated with another family, I was disappointed we weren’t alone but was going to make the best out of it. I tried to talk with the family, but they weren’t very social, so they basically ignored us through the dinners. I had requested our servers be Raphael and Miki but was disappointed to find they were not our wait staff but saw that they were serving tables across the room. Our server was Angelina and assistant server was Jana, and let me say right now they did not disappoint us one bit, they were awesome and I am so thankful we were able to meet them. Shortly after we introduced ourselves to our tablemates and serving team, Emily started to act funny. Emily is our “worrier”, she gets very nervous meeting new people and I think she made herself sick to her stomach by worrying. Chris ended up taking her up to the room and ordering room service for her and then coming back to dinner. I was sad because this was the day they would be doing their “show” in Animators and Emily missed it. Amanda on the other hand LOVED it! Amanda is usually our more adventurous, go with the flow type of person. In hindsight, I think Emily probably should have sat by me and this would have never happened as she is very attached to me when she is uncomfortable. After dinner, we went to the show and Emily was feeling better so she joined us. The girls met up with their friends and adventured off to go swimming, literally 5 minutes later both of them were back at our sides. Turns out they got lost going to our room to put on their swimsuit and it scared them. They went to the mid-elevators instead of Aft so they couldn’t find our room and headed for us since they knew where we were. This episode led to them never leaving our sides! We all headed for bed.

Pictures of our decorated door:

I was hoping this would make it easier for the girls to find our room. lol

 

[Jsme]

Heidi, I am enjoying your trip reports so much. Jeff said the other day we needed to go on another Dinsey cruise but I am unsure if we can afford one anymore. Plus I can not take off much during the school year so it is almost impossible for us to go.

$3200 for 7 days for 4 people is an awesome price!!! Were the kids considered adults or children?

 

[jiminyC_fan]

3200 with verandah was an awesome price.

 

[Jsme]

3200 with verandah was an awesome price.

Our last Disney cruise was an October cruise in 2004 on the Magic. We had a deck 6 verandah mid ship and the price was $4200 for 2 adults and 2 children.

 

[Jsme]

That last post is confusing because that was our last family cruise on Disney. Jeff and I have gone on the Wonder since without the kids.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Wow, that was 5 years ago and more expensive.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Selena - I am not really sure how they were charged.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Day 3 – May 31st Key West

I think I was mostly excited for this port because Chris’s sister, his nieces, and his mom were meeting us down there and the girls didn’t even have a clue they were about to see their cousins who they haven’t seen in a year. Chris was born in Key West and lived there for a few years growing up. I know his mom would love showing all of her grandkids the history of Key West, her home, so I was so thankful they were able to meet us. We started pulling up to Key West around 11:30am and I wanted to get the girls up to Deck 10 to try and spot the family (of course the minute I got cell reception back, I called my mom and sister!). OMG, was it ever hot. The girls were whining that they wanted to go inside and cool down, but I refused (I am such an evil step mom) because I was bound and determined and hopeful they would spot everyone and I wanted to see their reactions.

Pulling into Key West:

Chris zooming in on our camera trying to find them (as the girls had no clue what we were looking for!)

We had pulled up to the dock and we still could not find them. Finally I sent a text message and asked them where they were, and told them were we were standing. Oh wait, there they are…..we spotted them. Yay!

Emily and Amanda saw them too and said, “Oh my gosh is that our cousins, is that Aunt Karen, is that Yaya (Chris’s mom)” “Did you know they were here” and we smile and said “Surprise” and they said, “you said there were no more surprises” and then turned around and started yelling from the ship to their cousins. At that time, they no longer cared about the heat and was ready to get off the ship!

Picture with the old fisherman:

Chris’s sister has a mini van so she took us all over the island. Here was Chris’s seat:

First stop – 5 Brothers for some Cuban food (bojitos):

What do you mean their closed on Sundays? Karen had even called them in advance to make sure they were open and they said Yes, then we drive up to find they were closed. Poor Chris was so disappointed. Boo, so we jumped back in the van and went to the next Cuban restaurant, El Siboney.

El Siboney was a good Cuban restaurant and held many memories for the Murphy family. It was fun to hear all their stories. Too bad I was too busy stuffing my face and didn’t take any pictures. We had a variety of food from Cuban bread, Ropa Vieja, breaded Palomia, black beans and yellow rice, fried plantains. This place was delicious but still not as good as my MIL Cuban cooking! Back when they use to go eat there, the bathrooms were located outside of the restaurant so that is where they told the kids to go to find the bathroom. Morgan (Chris’s niece) came back mortified that she had almost walked into some ladies house to use the restroom. She said a lady walked down and Morgan asked her if anyone is in there, and the lady replied that it was her house. I think we laughed about that for days after!

After lunch, we stopped by the cemetery and saw where the family is buried at. The cemetery is nothing like I have ever soon before. I was fascinated by it.

Supposedly this statue comes to life at night and my MIL has witnessed the angel moving her head.

Family plot where my MIL families were buried:

After the cemetery, we headed towards the Family house were Chris was born and where Fran grew up at. This is her grandparents house.

Fran and her grandkids sitting on the front porch, just like an old picture they took when Chris was an infant:

Then we went on to do the tourist things like Hemmingway’s House, Key Lime Pie, Duvall Street, Mallory square, and Southern most point.
This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. We were trying to get that “perfect family picture” and Karen and I were screaming at everyone, “smile, look forward, say cheese.” Then we saw it. Who knows what camera Brittany and I were smiling at, we are completely turned away and posing for a different camera off in the distance I guess. Then there is Emily reading what it says so she is completely turned around, and Fran looks hot and grumpy.

After all that, it was time for us to say our goodbyes, but not for long as we were spending a few days with them after the cruise, which the girls found out during our Key West visit. Since we had a huge lunch, no one was hungry so we decided to go to the pool and eat upstairs at Plutos and Pinochios. This is when the girls discovered their favorite meal, French fries and ice cream.

We of course went to the show and met up with a DISer family and sat next to them. Emily and Amanda got along great with their DD’s and sat by each other talking and laughing the entire time. The show ended up being the hypnotist’s show which was a blast. The hypnotist had asked for 6 ladies and 6 men and to my surprise, Bruce (the dad we were sitting next to), ran up and sat in one of the chairs. Carolyn (the mom) and I had a great laugh at that and so did the 4 girls. The hypnotist was allowing the audience to participate and as soon as I looked next to me at Chris, I saw he had his eyes closed and the hypnotist asked the people participating in the audience to stand up. Amazingly Chris stood up. The hypnotist said to the people standing that if their feet feel warm to come up and shake his hand, and OMG my husband went up there. The hypnotist shook Chris’s hand and said out loud, “Whoa you are so gone, have a seat” and he sat right next to Bruce. I wish I had my camera but I didn’t want to miss anything and go up to the room and grab it. So there are no pictures. Carolyn did record some parts and she is going to send them to me and I will post when I get it. Carolyn and I were laughing so hard that most of the time she forgot to even record it. It was great. Chris was speaking in different languages, thinking napkins were $100 bills, and the best yet he was Hannah Montana. He was up dancing on stage and knew all the words, it was hilarious. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I kept saying, “this isn’t my husband”. In my opinion, the best show ever! The girls really got a kick out of it too. After all that, he was exhausted and so were we so we headed to bed.

The next day was a day at sea and all we did was play around in the pool so not much to report on and no pictures!

 

[ImMarcik]

I am loving the trip report, Heidi. I am ready for another water vacation, maybe i'll do that next year.

I am so excited about Vegas, but I have to rest so I can't let myself get too worked up. 2 more work days!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Oh my Marcie, only two more days. NICE!!!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Marcie - I love Vegas! What we usually do in Vegas is hang out at the pool the entire day, sleep for a while back in the room, then go out at night!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Chris’s sister has a mini van so she took us all over the island. Here was Chris’s seat:

That is the best photo ever! Was it because Chris is so generous that he was willing to sacrifice for his girls or because he was the only guy and was banished to the back of the van? Were you tempted to have the hypnotist implant a suggestion so that he would always remember to put the seat down in the bathroom or something?

Looks like it might hit 90 on Sunday, so I don't know if there will be any hiking.

 

[cristit14]

Heidi, love the trip report so far. Chris's seat is great. Love the hypnotist story.

We are leaving tomorrow morning for DC. Flight leaves at 740 am, yuck. We have a layover in Houston(I'll wave to you Marci). I have laundry going now and will start packing after lunch. I have to take Rachel to the bank to cash her first big paycheck and then stop by Target to pick up a couple of last minute things. I also want to clean up the house (at least the downstairs) before we go so the kid watching Max doesn't trip on anything.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Jrsy - Chris was being the gentleman and offered so that the rest of us could have seats and seatbelts! I think he just wanted to be closer to the cooler! The hypnotised was being rather difficult and would not listen to my plea of what he should be hypnotized to do!

Cristi - How does Rachel like her job? What kinds of things is she doing for the pool? Have fun on your trip to DC.

 

[cristit14]

Heidi, I think she likes it pretty well. She works for about 2 1/2 hours M-Th and sometimes on Friday. They do things like clean the bathrooms, weed, clean the kiddie pool and help with the lesson. She of course likes helping with the lessons the best. I think it is a great experience for her.

Okay, off to shower and start getting things together for the trip.