We got home around midnight last night. What a trip! Both good and bad. My van's brakes had a computer error that prevented us from driving down in it! At the last minute we were able to borrow a friend's SUV and drive two cars down. I was not in the mood to have both of us drive the 10 hour drive, pay for gas twice, etc., but we made it (the drive home was surprisingly easy). The Residence inn had a $6/person round trip shuttle so we kept both cars there and it worked like a charm.
I met frye7127 and KT27 at the terminal (I convinced my family-3 parties) that we all MUST arrive at 10 am so we could get #2 boarding cards and get our boarding photo together--mission accomplished), but while talking to frye7127 I became speechless and had to run away. . .to see Captain Mickey walking through the Mickey ears!! We got lots of great pictures with him and Goofy too in the terminal. We got on early, ate at Parrot Cay (had the PLAPLAP rotation, so ate there again that night). The sail away party was GREAT!! Yes, very strange to not sail away, but I loved hearing the horn this time (I was at the Oceaneer club last time signing kids up and missed the whole thing). I made up for missing last time by dragging the whole family up there and dancing our hearts out. Did a repeat at Pirate night, but we stayed up on Deck 10 starboard side.
Our state room attendant was probably very new at his job. Granted, we made things a bit difficult because we had two quarantined children for two days, but he wouldn't put our bunk beds up during breakfast, only if we asked him to, and then seemed surprised we wanted them up. I told him every day we wanted them up during breakfast time and down during dinner time, gave him times, but he still didn't get it. He would put up the bunks at noon and then down again three hours later. We got three towel animals all week, and the kids were disappointed. I was going to ask him to do one for each child the last night but I forgot (since we had two cabins and none for 4 days in a row, I didn't think that was too much to ask.
However, as I said, we had quarantined children. Our 6 yo son threw up right outside Lumiere's during our second night's dinner. I was rushing him to the bathroom near the aft elevators, but we didn't make it in time. Good thing for the passengers that we decided to exit the front door and not walk through the restaurant to the side door! OK, enough of that. You get the picture. I really didn't want to go to the clinic, but by the next morning, he was still sick and so was the 3 yo. So off to the clinic they went, at 7 am, 48 hours quarantine. But it wasn't too bad. We got a letter from the guest services and we were treated like Concierge royalty! Each boy got a letter from their concierge team, we got books, games, crayons, coloring books, any crafts the boys missed at the kids' clubs, room service from any restaurant at any time. I finally figured out how the head server earns his tips. Stephane arranged for the dinner menu to be sent to our room during the morning, someone called us during the day for lunch and dinner requests, and we received whatever we wanted. Once Tom called room service and they said "sorry, you can't order cream of wheat in your category", but when we said the boys were quarantined and we had a letter from guest services, they brought it up right away. The concierge team made quarantine much more bearable for both the kids and grown ups.
Out of 8 kids in our party, only my 10 yo did not throw up the entire week. The ship was pretty rocky and I felt sick many nights ( still swaying now). But other things made up for it. I actually got to the fitness center, Tom and I used the elliptical machines while docked at Key West. Have any of you seen that place? IT's huge and has great equipment, great place to get away from the kiddie stuff and escape for awhile. . .NOT!! Here we were working out, watching whatever was on the TV, and Tom taps me. Captain Hook was checking out the equipment and Mr. Smee was pumping iron!! They just decided to check out the fitness room, but it was so funny seeing characters in there!!
Palo was great! Dad gave up his brunch seat so Tom came with me, my sister and mom. We had a great time! While eating we made a sharp right into the Key West port, and the ship's railing tilted at an awful angle against the horizon! But just as we leveled out, the water turned a beautiful turquoise and we were pulling into the port. It was beautiful! High tea was nice with my sisters and mother. The scones were amazing! I didn't get off in Grand Cayman. The doctor said the boys could get off the ship and infect, uh I mean inspect the island while on quarantine, so Tom took them for a walk. I had fun in the empty pools instead. Palo that night was nice, but I couldn't finish anything! I'm not used to drinking wine with dinner, and I almost cried when I couldn't finish my souffle! I was too stuffed.
Marvin and Tory were your interpreters??? They were so awesome!! I watched Dreams and watched them more than the actors!! I thought they were part of the Disney cast, they knew the script so well! I LOVED the part of the story during "I just can't wait to be King", where Zazu sang "I've never seen a king of Beasts with quite so little hair" and rubbed Marvin's bald head! SOOOO FUNNY! They were so animated and did a great job. And you got to be with them during the whole trip! How nice!
Best part of the trip? We got to stand on the deck 7 for a "cast off" party for the 15 members of my family. It was fun watching the scenery and the island was beautiful. The CM who planned the party had cocoa and cookies for us, but just as we were about to leave, Captain Mickey and Minnie came out to join us!!! I swear, I almost fainted!! So guess who's in my Christmas picture this year?? What a way to end the vacation!
Kids collected lots of pins (we told them they were not allowed to buy any non-
DCL pins while on the ship), but my sister gave me the best present. Everyone teased me about my star struck reaction to Mickey Mouse everytime I saw him, and my sister gave me this photo today. All I can say is, it's completely accurate! I look a bit crazed, but the effect is perfect!
We too made it back home. Always good to go, but good to be home. Albeit sad, but good. We had a tremendous time...rebooked again 
! The whole experience totally exceeded our expectations. 
Anyway we had a fabulous time and No one got Sick 
Not even on the last night, I however didn't get much sleep with the closet doors rolling back and forth!
so i simply told him to fix it buy tommrow and he is going to stand there and argue with a drunk girl i startred to yell at him and at some point i called him luigi 
