December 12 - 19, 2009 Western Magic

[MemoryMakers2669]

something scary looking Bev! Where was that taken?

 

[msladyg32]

Dh and DD both have it pretty bad. the rest of us, more mild. DH started to feel bad on Thursday of the cruise. DD after debarking Saturday. DH went to the dr -- sinus infection which he is prone to. If DD doesn't feel better by Saturday after Christmas, we'll take her to the dr. as well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

Looks like everyone is sick...I am sick as we speak. As soon as I got off the ship, I started to feel a scratchy throat. But I shrugged it off until it really bothered me. The cold finally came full fledged on Wednesday. Just got a job. So resting to go to work on my first day on Monday...lol

 

[pxlbarrel]

Looks like everyone is sick...I am sick as we speak. As soon as I got off the ship, I started to feel a scratchy throat. But I shrugged it off until it really bothered me. The cold finally came full fledged on Wednesday. Just got a job. So resting to go to work on my first day on Monday...lol

I was just getting over something when I got on the ship... lingering cough and all... but as soon as we left Orlando, my cough disappeared. As soon as I got back home to the cold and dry air, my cough reappeared. I think my body is telling me that I need to move to a warm climate where the ocean breeze is as fresh as the first day of this earth. <sigh> If only ...

 

[pxlbarrel]

Who is doing the facebook invites? Thanks.. I have a few photos to share...

Jim and I have colds as well this week.. Although I did have a very sore throat during the cruise, was not well for Grand Cayman, Cozumel and the second sea day...

Merry Christmas all!

I'm doing the invites. PM your email to me and I'll invite you.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Did anyone here get pictures of Jim Furyk in the Farewell show??? The one night I didn't take my camera to the show!!! DH is a HUGE fan of his and we knew he was on the ship, but didn't run into him until Castaway Cay and we would love to have some pictures of him in the show. If you aren't on the Facebook site to post them there, can you send them to me somehow? Thanks!

Which one is he? I took photos of the Farewell show. Was he the hilarious ventriloquist or the petrified juggler?

 

[pxlbarrel]

Which one is he? I took photos of the Farewell show. Was he the hilarious ventriloquist or the petrified juggler?

Hmmm...ok, I just googled him...he's a golfer? Hahaha

Where in the farewell show did he show up?? I'll go throuh my photos to see.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Hmmm...ok, I just googled him...he's a golfer? Hahaha

Where in the farewell show did he show up?? I'll go throuh my photos to see.

Yeah, he is a pro-golfer, just on the ship vacationing with his family. He was selected for the farewell show (the early one), to do the uni-cycle with that juggler guy! He was the tall bald guy!

 

[pxlbarrel]

Yeah, he is a pro-golfer, just on the ship vacationing with his family. He was selected for the farewell show (the early one), to do the uni-cycle with that juggler guy! He was the tall bald guy!

Ah, that explains it. We were at the later show.

 

[bevtoy]

something scary looking Bev! Where was that taken?

I took it snorkeling at Stingray Island Grand Cayman I think its a barracuda

 

[badell]

Had a blast meeting everyone. BevToy and Anna came to dance the celebration dance with April and me and we had a terrific time. Thanks! We've been at Disney World this whole week and head home tomorrow. I took ill the night before CC and felt pretty wonky for about 4 days. By Tuesday, I had a full fledged cold and am still battling a sore throat.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Thanks for all the great FE gifts!

 

[Orlando36]

I took it snorkeling at Stingray Island Grand Cayman I think its a barracuda

I think you're right, it is a barracuda. We saw one at Stingray Island as well. They've never approached me, but between warnings and Finding Nemo, they give me the shivers!

 

[bevtoy]

Had a blast meeting everyone. BevToy and Anna came to dance the celebration dance with April and me and we had a terrific time. Thanks! We've been at Disney World this whole week and head home tomorrow. I took ill the night before CC and felt pretty wonky for about 4 days. By Tuesday, I had a full fledged cold and am still battling a sore throat.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Thanks for all the great FE gifts!

My only regret is that we couldn't do the Hokey Pokey!

 

[poohfriend]

i did want to post some of our pictures...but my DH fell with his laptop and it's not working. Hopefully this week or next we can get it to a techie that can help us get the data off of it.

(Why oh why did he ERASE the camera's memory card?)

sorry.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Best Buy only charges $99 to get all your files off a hard drive! Well worth it.

 

[Shoog]

I took it snorkeling at Stingray Island Grand Cayman I think its a barracuda

It is a barracuda - we saw a lot in Cozumel.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Hi everyone! I have to catch up on everyone's posts since the cruise but just wanted to pipe in and say we had a great cruise! I was able to meet SueEllen and her adorable son but nobody else, although, I think I "saw" some of you throughout the cruise. I have a picture of a family wearing green dancing next to the rope at the Sail Away party. I'll post that as I think it might have been a family here.

Had a fantastic cruise. Upgraded from the 10 (12) at port to a 5 for $900 for all of us. It was well worth it and we made great use of our verandah throughout the cruise.

Ernie loved Flounders and Amelia loved The Club. We also took Ernie to the Oceaneer's Club many times to play there throughout the cruise. We were able to add on to our max hours of Flounders once onboard so that was helpful - it was hard to explain to Ernie why he couldn't go to Flounders outside his scheduled time.

Only got to see Golden Mickeys live as a family - we all loved it. Watched Disney Dreams on stateroom TV. Took Amelia to see Twice Charmed but she fell asleep before the show started. I tried to wake her up but she wouldn't so I took her back and put her to bed. Maybe next time. We did see the matinee of The Princess and the Frog and LOVED IT!!!!

Our servers were outstanding and incredibly accomodating. We typically wanted to get the kids fed once we got to our dinner and then get Ernie off to Flounders by 6:30 and they were very helpful in moving things along for them. Amelia either stayed with us throughout the dinner or was checked into the Lab before hand.

OUr stateroom was in tip top shape aside from a loud shower which was fixed after two calls to maintenance. OUr stateroom host was the best we've ever had.

This was my first time to Key West and I was totally unimpressed. NO offense to anyone who loves Key West as I'm sure it's a lovely port if you actually do more than walk around, but to me it looked like a cross between the Jersey Shore and Nassau. I'm just not into the commercialism and junk shops. We walked Duval, got the kids ice cream and then headed back due to the pleading of our kids. Next time we'll check them into the clubs and then head to one of my DH's fave restaurants, Red Fish Blue Fish.

Grand Cayman was gorgeous....did Seven Mile Beach and enjoyed it very much. Well worth the $$$ in my opinion as you didn't have to pay extra for beach amenities like chairs and umbrellas.

Didn't get off for Cozumel but it looked beautiful. This ended up being a huge sleeping day for my family as we were all wiped out by this point. Next time we really want to see this island. It looked gorgeous from our verandah.

By the time Castaway Cay day arrived we had all developed some sort of intestinal issue which we all attribute to swimming in the Mickey Pool the day before. I was just not feeling well at all and seemed to have been the worst of everyone in our family. No vomiting but some other issues. I think mine was compacted by my overdosing of sugar on the cruise. My body does not react well to sugar and I just had eaten too much by that point. My body was totally rebelling. This ended up ruining my enjoyment of Palo dinner the night prior, too.

Ernie and I left teh island after eating an early lunch (I didn't even eat at Cookies!) and DH and Amelia met us back at the stateroom not even an hour later. OF course as you know it stormed the rest of the day. That was the rainiest CC day we've ever had. Oh well.

We are going to do this cruise again next year as we really enjoyed ourselves. I've booked a CAT 8 so I'll continue to monitor the prices as they seem higher than this last cruise's prices.

I hope you all enjoyed your cruise as well. I have three albums from our trip at my webshots site. You are all welcome to view them: http://community.webshots.com/user/mfpriebe

 

[pxlbarrel]

Ooooh, I love it when people take photos of their food. I have a huge Disney Food collection of photos myself. LOL

We weren't too impressed with Key West either. We took the little train tour and it was ok... but it didn't wow us. I suppose if we did more than wander around Duval Street and gone into some of the "attractions" we might have gotten more out of it.

Cozumel... well, my brother and I went to the Tulum Ruins so that took all day. That was a great excursion and one that was EXTREMELY hot. We only had little time in the port area but I was still able to find a Starbucks Cozumel mug for a friend of mine. I'd like to go back to Cozumel just to look around the island.

Grand Cayman ... we took the ridiculous island tour. The only good thing about it was the turtle farm. It's a beautiful island but if we go there again, we'll find something else to do.

My mom loved Castaway Cay the best. That surprised me. But I think because it's so beautiful and only had 2 shops! We rented bikes and rode around. It's funny, the last time we rented bikes for anywhere was in 1975 in Fort Wilderness... and my mom and her friend crashed their bikes into each other. Disney first aid had to be called to patch them up. I kept reminding her not to crash on this trip. We ate the bbq and it was delicious. We watched the crab races and then walked back to the ship since the sky seemed to be getting darker.

Walking back to the ship was when we noticed that the DCL flags were all at half staff or half mast. We figured it was because Roy Disney had died 2 days ago while we were all in Cozumel. I wonder if they've changed the Golden Mickeys yet...

 

[pxlbarrel]

i did want to post some of our pictures...but my DH fell with his laptop and it's not working. Hopefully this week or next we can get it to a techie that can help us get the data off of it.

(Why oh why did he ERASE the camera's memory card?)

sorry.

Ugh....I hope he gets it working. I have a rule... photos have to be in two places all the time. So when I get home, if it's only on the memory card, it has to go on the hard drive but I won't erase the memory card until it's backed up on ANOTHER hard drive. I'm paranoid but that's the only way to make sure we don't lose these digital memories. I love digital but there's something to be said about film negatives.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Walking back to the ship was when we noticed that the DCL flags were all at half staff or half mast. We figured it was because Roy Disney had died 2 days ago while we were all in Cozumel. I wonder if they've changed the Golden Mickeys yet...

I doubt they'll change the Golden Mickeys...it's a good memory of him. But who knows.

We noticed a couple days after the cruise that the Mickey flag at the entrance to the MK was half mast, too. Very sad. I took a picture of that.

 

[MRAven]

Hello everyone, just making it back home and wanted to Wish you a Very Happy New Year, many future Disney Cruising, and lots of pixie dust to spread all over.

We had a really GREAT time and got to meet really great persons. Bevtoy say hello to you DH, we met on deck 4 had a great talk, then we found out we were in the DisBoard.

Overview of our Magical Vacation:

Key West: tour around the city and then I found a great bar with a real pirate and live music. Excelent.

Grand Cayman: Dolphin Encounter. Great

Cozumel: Cenote (underwater caves) excursion. Excellent.

Castaway Key: due to wether we just had a really really big lunch then went back to the ship just before the rain. Started packing.

After the cruise, we stayed for 4 days at the Lowes Portofino Bay Hotel in Universal (highly recomended) and went to Sea World, an both of Universal Parks.

We then moved on to Buena Vista Village and Spa Resort and went to all 4 of Disney Parks; leaving for last the Magic Kingdom on Dec 27th which was my birthday.

Came back two days ago.


Once again Wish you a Very Happy New Year, many future Disney Cruising, and lots of pixie dust to spread all over.


Oh yes, we booked another cruise: 7 nights European Mediterranean Cruise sailing from Barcelona, Spain for Aug 2011. This one opened up while we were in the cruise. Any one else booked it ?