Cruises past.....cruises future...

[Maza]

Right...here goes!
Now, I dont know if this will work!
You see I am one of those ppl, cursed by good intentions, but who frequently gives up...or doesn't start projects I am REALLY enthusiastic about in theory ( for example I have a stack of scrapbooking stuff as yet, un-scrapbooked. I have a work audit I was supposed to complete a few months ago...as yet un-audited,(sorry Jules!)...I have half decorated rooms...half read books...You see a theme here??!!

So...when I joined DIS last year.and read some really fantastic TR's, I thought , 'I can do that! looks like fun...'. And whilst I make no illusion to matching the greats (Fatherforce, zweihund..etc..etc..) I thought I would exercise my shining wit (not a Spoonerism) and wow you all with a TR of our holiday in Florida....paying particular reference to the Cruise section. We were all so excited to be going on the DCL...and DIS only added to our enthusiasm...so...'payback'
DIS wouldn't be half a much fun if ppl ,such as the aforementioned greats, didnt take the time to post, so heres my humble contribution!


I had originally (half) planned to Report on this years cruise ( 4 day Wonder)..but having almost literally wet myself ( no more about my pelvic floor I promise) reading ' Geeks on a budget' and other pre-trip reports, I thought I would take the opportunity to get myself all excited about the Cruise to come. I booked it yesterday....just how sad am I ?

So, in an-tis-i-pation of August 22nd 2009 (yes 9...what can i say...airfares from the UK are expensive!!)...here goes...

Cast of Characters.
Me...obviously...Maria...or Maza..a ridiculous nom de guerre given to me by a work mate. She is the only person on the planet that actually calls me this, but, when put on the spot for a username (any idea how many Maria's there are...eh??? eh???) I just panicked! Anyway...does the job!

DH...David...aka Fluffy Bunny. And for those few...those precious few...who have actually SEEN my DH...he is not fluffy nor a bunny. I think he may also have paniced when asked for a user name. I won't tell you the story of Fluffy Bunny...but lets face it..its not a name you can forget easily, and that, dear reader, is probably the point! It also provided us with a 'theme' that we exploited on our last cruise...and no doubt will again in the ( not too distant- 20 months 2 weeks and counting) future

DD 13-Julianna-a teenager. I have nothing else to say about her at this time. She is a teenager. Is that explaination enough? She had the best holiday of her life this summer-because she was allowed freedoms on the cruise that were (ARE) denied her on dry land. Did I mention she is a teenager. She will still be a teenager on our next cruise *shudders*

DD 11- Lucy. Not a teenager-yet. But will be by the time we board the Magic in 2009. *crosses finger*. Currently a pleasant, friendly little soul, who generally does as she is told without too much back chat. Like I think I have said, not yet a teenager.

Ancillary Characters

DM (best not...but I am nearly 40...so shes older than me ) -Jane.
Came with us last time and will come with us again. Couldn't have been too bad then.
DB (27)-Robert. Has holidayed with us several times...mostly when he was a kid and we didnt have any. My little brother by several years.

It might also be worth pointing out that we don't live anywhere near our families ( either of us Me or DH that is!). How likely it would be that we went on holiday with my family if we saw them more than a handful of times a year I do not know.

We live in England...a small island off the coast of Europe. Its wet,expensive, and I dont think I could really live anywhere else...(although I did fall in love with Vancouver on a previous holiday)
My family live in Scotland...an adjecent country to England...etc etc. Maybe a bit wetter ..but otherwise pretty similar in most respects ( dont get me started on prescription charges, free tertiary education, social welfare...grrr)

FYI DH's family live 'down South'...the West Country to be exact.Near Stonehenge...if that means anything to you?
And...finally...at this point...incase it isnt obvious ..i feel i must point out that I am not a professional writer. so ...apologies to those 'purests' out there for poor grammer,spelling or anyother assaults on the English language that I may inflict before I embark (2 please !) on my next Cruise .

Time for a cup of tea. ..well i have to play to the stereotype dont I ?

 

[lillygator]

I am the same way...I have several unfinished trip reports....BUT my one and only New Year's Resolution will be to finish my trip report on my upcoming Panama Sailing....which I already started!! So much planning!

 

[Maza]

so...approximatly 12 months ago, having already decided we would go to Florida for our Summer holiday, we decided, on impulse, to try a DCL cruise.I remember, with great envy, seeing all the lucky, lucky tourists who piled out of a funky coach at Virgin check in Downtown Disney in 2001.
Q: Where have they been? A: The Disney Cruise!
Q: They do a cruise? No way!Q: Where do they cruise? A: dunno...
..anyway, from that moment I was enthralled!
Now, dear reader, we all know the cost of a Disney Cruise. We all know it varies depending on time, catagory of stateroom etc etc.
Well,beleive this or not, but I actually used Travel Agents in those days! I niavely wandered into a high street TA and coughed up whatever they told me a holiday would cost!I flew with Virgin, because I like Richard Branston, confused3 )and liked the 'experience'. So when the nice lady in Thomas Cook (a well known UK Travel company) gave me a quote for a 2 week Florida holiday, including a 3 day cruise, i gasped, fell to the floor...and oh how we laughed! It just wasnt going to happen. It might be worth pointing out here that my DH and I are both professionals, both gainfully employed and not adverse to saving for things we want to do. And still we thought DCL was out of our reach. But guess what...its wasn't!

In the interveining years (2001 was our first trip to Florida), we have been to the US a few times...each time gaining more knowledge and cunning...and finally having the confidence to be our own TAs.
We research,study, compare,and then book. We have been amazed at the amount of cash we have saved. Enough to say 'hey, this cruise thing...maybe we should look at it again...'.And we did. About this time last year infact.

The decision was made .we decided on a 4 day Wonder, at the end of our 3 week holiday.We booked the date for the cruise, then back tracked the rest to fit in with it. August 19th 2007. DCL here we come!

My DH had been reading this site (and others) for a while...picking up tips...ideas....fish extenders(lol) ...and once we had booked our own cruise, I gave the place a look see.

so, the trip. me, DH. DDx2, DM,DB. All heading for Florida. multi-centre, stay at a few of our favourite places, visit a few of our favourite parks,go on a cruise. Job done!

 

[Maza]

I.I have several unfinished trip reports......
QUOTE]


em...yeah...i have read your 1st cruise report...lol. It was fab...when are you gonna finish it??

 

[Maza]

where was I?

Firstly...is there anyone out there?

ok...i will go on anyway.

We are lucky...we have friends who have a home in Florida. Not as lucky as them ofcourse...we just get to borrow it now and again, they get to go whenever they can find cheap enough flights. But I digress.

We where holed up at Andrea and Simon's. (Lovely villa...great location..would definatly recommend for the 7 Florida days of our trip.

Actually, have a complete trip breakdown.
Day 1-4 Biltmore resort Clearwater.
Day 5-6 Hard Rock Hotel-a favourite of ours...we have weathersd out hurricains in that hotel.
Day 7-14 Talbot Villa ( as above!)
Day 15 (or rather night) La Quinta Cocoa Beach...I WILL GET A NO> ">>>I WILL I SAY)
Day 16-20 DCL Wonder.

anyway...back to the villa....we had decided to get into the pirate mood by going to P and P before the cruise. we had had a hectic few days...well....lots of days actually....done the parks (wet and dry)...shopped...and shopped...had pedicures and manicures....shopped some more. Packed, unpacked, re-packed ...shopped.. etc etc. We were bushed!

My DM , God love her, had never been to Florida before, infact she had never been abroad before ( a day trip to France, when she never got off the boat at the 'foreign' end doesn't really count as abroad...does it? ) I had warned her about the heat but she is an old lady (without internet access thank the maker -and will never read this ...else i might not make 2009 cruise after all!!) and was struggling in the parks in the heat.

So we had done nothing...except shop for piraty things to wear . We had arranged to meet Disney4dana...for a pre-cruise DISmeet. My mum thinks it is odd to actually have 'friends ' you have never met...but in the weeks ...ney..months leading up to our holiday we had both been DISing pretty regularly...and i really felt like i knew these guys. so we met. it was lovely, although i think my rather strong scottish accent ...not to mention my DM and DB, may have freaked them out a little. We also speak rather quickly too...we do try..but we just think so damned quickly...

It was great to put a face to all the emails we had exchanged! We had spent quite a while in the shops...and had arranged to meet with Dana and her family at 6pm...so we hadnt had any dinner. Not the end of the world...especially for me, as missing a meal or two wouldn't result in starvation, but by the time we had met...done a few rides...we was famished. Now...we have been to Disney every year since 2001. And we disboard...and buy passporters..even read 'em...but ADRs had passed me by! We live in the UK...and phoning Florida isnt really high on my to do list before I go on holiday. Booking online is more my thing....so i hadnt made any reservations. No probs...the place is full of restaurants..could we get in anywhere? Could we bugger!.Nothing...nada...zip...zilch. .counters only. Except we had all had our fill of counter meals. Fries and Burgers and weird chilli things...and caeser salads ( normally a particular favourite of mine) were all we could find in the whole park. honestly. we looked. everywhere.it was awful. why do disney not have table service available on special party nights...and , more to the point...how had i missed it? me..planner extrordinare. i was gutted. in fact, in the whole week we didnt eat in disney other than counter service, which, lets face it , is same old same old . I had been raving to my DM and DB about Crystal Palace ( we all love Pooh etc)and the red onion potatoey thing is to die for..
(so ADRs it is next year!..bit of a downer really...is it true you can only make one a day?Will I have to phone over and over to get a couple? What was wrong with priority seating?....must do more research...!!!)

Anyway...P and P was grand.. .stocked up on pirate goodies to add to our haul for the cruise DIS goody bags. My DM took to DIS gifting like a duck to water...she stuffed several skulls at the gift shop at POTC...lol...my God that woman can stuff skulls!

more later...

 

[Maza]

We packed our stuff...boy did we have stuff! I love to shop...i opted out of MGM in order to wander round Lowes ( i had never been it there before...wow!) Generally I just wander round...i dont buy much when at home...well not that much anyway ...but in Florida. Stuff is so cheap. honestly ,you Americans have no idea just how much we have to pay for even simple things in the UK! $3 for Petrol...try £1.10...a litre! Anyway...for me a major draw of going to the US is to shop. I love it! I buy allsorts of crap.....stuff i can get at home...and stuff I can't. I always have a Michaels day...and I always meet other Brits in there who are flabbergasted at the low prices.
Anyway, I have gone off at a tangent! of sorts. We packed, I didnt want to take anything on ths Cruise I didnt need...so i made lists of what we would need for the 4 days and packed accordingly. the rest of our luggage was staying in the car whilst we were cruising round the caribbean. we had considered various options on that score,
1. DCL bus, -take all our luggage on board.
2.Take back hire car-take all our luggage on board.
3. Keep the car-leave luggage in it.

we went for the third option. much easier allround, and in the great scheme of things,much easier and convenient. we do not travel light at the best of times, and after 2 weeks plus of shopping, well...between the 6 of us we had 6 large suitcases, 3 slightly smaller ones, 2 handluggage size cases, and 4 holdalls! wow! So, apart from stuff needed for the cruise, and all the essential ( fish extender, magnets, DIS gifts etc etc) the rest stayed in the people carrier we had hired.

We had to be out of the villa by 2pm...another of our aquantancies was coming in for a 2 week holiday...so we sorted ourselves out, and headed of...to the shops if memory serves. Then to Cocoa Beach. To be ready for ....the highlight of our trip.....the Cruise. tbc

 

[Micday]

Great start !!! I was born and raised in Florida, we went to Disney every year. We are going on our first Disney cruise this March 2008.

My dream vacation ??? To go to England !! Go figure.

Keep it up, your doing a great job.

Michelle

 

[Tink rules]

Great start!!! I'm along for the ride!!!

& don't worry... just put the Teens in the teens club and you won't have to see them for the whole cruise!!!

 

[Maza]

we left orlando, or atleast , we left the place we where staying. We had packed all our wares before we left Orlando...but we stopped off in a few shops en route to Cocoa. So once we had pulled into the La Quinta...(cheap and worth the money... ) we had to unpack the car ..and re-pack. It was late, it was dark..it was raining. Now, we had been to Cocoa Beach before, on day trips from Orlando in previous holidays. We were just there so we could be closer to the boat So we didnt do any sights or anything, we had eaten on the way, so we just re-packed even more shopping, made sure we had everything we needed for the Cruise, we had to stop for Seasickness pills and bottled water on the way to Port Canaveral in the morning. So far , so boring!

We got up early, (No.2, No.2)..and like all good DISers, we were raring to go. A quick breakfast at the motel,and off we go

Firstly, stop for essential provisions as above.
Then staight on till...well...not morning...just Port side!

Now ,brace yourself peeps, for i have mastered photo uploading

The mouse who set the people trap!

Our first photos...we where inside ...obviously!

We had been pretty early, just around 10. And we had filled in all our paperwork online (dead easy!). We, DH and I, hadnt received our Cruise documents before we left, so we had no luggage lables or Bahamian Immigration forms, so we did all that pretty quickly, and into line we went.

We had been almost the first ppl there...and get this...the CM who checked my mum in was from Glasgow, or atleast he had been born there although he had spent most of his life in the US. He was even from the same part of the city, so he and my DM spent a good 15 minutes reminising about stuff he remembered from his childhood in Scotland. Small world...he didnt throw in any freebies though! And we got our No. 2 boarding pass

DM and DB

DB in the now classic pre-boarding pose!

We wandered about, looked at the modle boat, booked DD(11) into her club,and just wandered about some more (looking out for likely DISers... Lots of DIS green T-shirts, families all dressed in funky Disney/Cruisy clothes (wonder If I could tempt my lot???)

And finally, it was time to board!

Coming up....Corralled into Parrot Cay...not us!

 

[Maza]

Despite the best efforts of the CM.s at the entrance, we headed up to Topsiders for our lunch.
Once we had got by the Handwash Nazi (I am a head nurse in NICU...I get how important hand hygeine is...but God! all those alcohol wipes...and Purell...it was worse than being at work!)..it was Buffet all the way. A very nice CM, whose name escapes me, showed us to our table. My DB had done a runner, keen to explore the ship rather than eat, but the rest of us chowed down.

Yummy!
can't remember what I had, but I dont do sea food, so no prawns for me DM had crabclaws though....and was not too happy with the impliment she was given to de-crab her claws. It was more nut cracker than crabby cutlery (shes going to bring her own next year.. .who knew she had some...I have NEVER, in all my tender years, known her to have crab at home, but apparantly she has the very thing to crack claws without risking the eyesight of those in the general vacinity! )

 

[Maza]

so we ate....and ordered a wine package for dinner. We chose the Premium pack, but on the nights we invariably wanted a wine from the other list

We wandered around the beautiful ship...taking in the sites...and the Bahama Mamas! I really wanted to get a picture of my DM...the Bahama Grandma...but DH had cleared off with the camera

It seemed like no time until our room was ready. Our dining plan was PTTA.
Then we had our DISmeet
Following a few more cocktaily type drinks..we met up with fellow DISers in the lounge.Disney4dana had arranged for DIS coloured wristbands for us (ty ) She had also got me some magnetic sticky stuff for my door decorations-we were not able to find any in the 3 horse town in which we live, or a couple of neighbouring cities! So she had kindly offered to get me some
After the DISmeet, when our kids had found their ways to the relevant clubs, we went back to our room. Our luggage had already arrived...brilliant, so i killed the 30 mins or so before the safety drill unpacking and decorating.
We decorated our door

Dh had spent ages making the Mickey Heads...-bless!

The kids returned, for as short as time as possible! And we put our attractive life vests on and waited for the announcement.

Coming soon...'I am sure I had 2 kids when i boarded...????'

 

[Maza]

I like holidays withmy family, by that i generally mean my DH and DDs, for it usually just the 4 of us. This year , a few more joined us...family that is not DDs! Which, once we boarded the Wonder, was probably a good thing.

My girls disappeared. Or atleast my eldest did. Every now and then my youngest would appear, hang around with us for a bit...then clear off again when a better offer came up. She went to The Lab, but didnt really spend much time there.She made a friend. And if anything can keep Lu amused it is a friend. The friend in question was a DISchild. They met at the meet....and that was that!

One of our best buys from Shutter was a picture of the two of them ,with Chip and Dale, after 'graduation' from DSeaU !

The eldest DD...well...she went off to Aloft with some appropriatly aged DISkids...then made a whole new bunch of friends...of which she was the youngest! Apart from meals...which where ordeals (because she really didnt want to be there!) we didnt see her! Occasionally DH would cross her path, and once he went out to find her (at 3am!!-NB Afloft closes at 2 !)oh...she also wanted stuff from the shop ( we had declined charging priviledges....we are mean parents who didnt want any suprises at the end of the cruise! )...so DH was dragged to Treasure Ketch to buy a Mickey top hat.

Occasionally we would go back to the Cabin to discover disguarded clothes..bikinis...trails of towels leading from the shower...but no DD!

She lasted 20 mins in Nassau...before begging to go back to the ship...not that I really blame her...lol
At CC ,we had booked her into Wild Side..and ,apart from the photo above, we never saw her all day. We figured she was back on the ship when we sailed...not that we actually saw her until 5 mins before our dinner sitting ! Fly in, chuck on a pirate t-shirt and hat, fly out again! Atleast she took the top hat off for a couple of hours!

 

[4 mickey]

Hi
Wow !
I loved reading your TP at times funny ( about DD ) what a nice cruise you seemed to have had

 

[Maza]

Hi
Wow !
I loved reading your TP at times funny ( about DD ) what a nice cruise you seemed to have had

ty 4mickey- we did, hence the rebook...but for 7 days this time. we figured if we are going to cross the Atlantic we might as well make the most of it

 

[Maza]

so...to recap.
we boarded-check
ate-check
had bahama mama-check
found cabin-check
unpacked-check
had another bahama mama-check
DISmeet-check
had another bahama mama-check
Abandoned our children-check
recovered our children-check
Emergency Drill-check
Sail away....ah...thats where I got to...

The kids had cleared off again, one DD was avec friend, on the dance floor previously known as goofy pool. We where on Deck ten, avec another rather scrummy cocktail. 'Would you like it with or without Vodka madam....what to do, what to do...oh go on then!'
Are there any finer moments than standing on the deck of a very fine cruise ship, with a very fine icy cocktail in hand, watching DD dance along with a load of Disney characters? And a new friend..lol

We watched the party, and waved at the nice CMs waving from the portside as we sailed away. I really felt sorry for them, left behind like that!

DH and I then wandered about a bit more...shops-still closed, but the bars where open..

 

[disney4dana]

Maria, Loved reading your TR so far! you may have to give us Americans definitions like you did on our meet thread.

You didn't freak us out. We had been up since 3a.m.~ It was a blast meeting you. Your poor Mum did look a little wore out from the heat. Personally-love the accent.

Hopefully we can go with you in 2009.

We are dreaming of a England & Scotland trip 2010 or 2011 Maybe we'll come see you~ what would mum say then?!

Dana

 

[Maza]

We are dreaming of a England & Scotland trip 2010 or 2011 Maybe we'll come see you~ what would mum say then?!

Dana

Dana-She'd say 'have the spare room!!'

 

[Maza]

... you may have to give us Americans definitions like you did on our meet thread.


Dana

actually...never gave it a thought! if anyone reading out there...anyone???....is having problems with my version of English (I never sais a word...lol) then please let me know! I am practically bi-lingual
but do tend to think (and write) in my 'native' tongue... What is it they say...'two countries separated by a common language...'

 

[Donald & Daisy Duck]

I am loving your trip report. We were on the same cruise with you and loved all the Dis people we spoke with on this board and at the meet. The fish extenders were a hoot! Lots of gifts. I wonder if your DD spent time with my DD at aloft. We didn't see much of her either during the cruise. My DD was 14 at the time of the cruise. Keep on telling your story. I've been on four cruises and haven't been able to write one TR yet.