DISBoarders in the House Raise it UP!! Whoop Whoop!!!

[lovmy2girls]

MORE MORE MORE Great trip report! Look foward to the rest.

 

[MagicMe]

Yes - MORE!!! I'm really enjoying your report and seeing the pictures. I love that bathroom in the club!

 

[JDBlair]

I woke up around 7:30 am and the family was sound asleep. I was a little surprised DD was still sleeping as she usually wakes with the sun. I didn’t want to go back to sleep because I wasn’t about to sleep away the Dream Vacation. Besides, the idea of walking about Deck 9 and 10 really appealed to me. So, I slipped on my Mickey Crocs and told DH I’d be back in a little while. He went back to sleep and I snuck out the door!

I’d read in other TR’s about how empty the decks are at this hour and the TR’s didn’t lie!! I grabbed some coffee on Deck 9 and was greeted “Good morning” by just a couple of people. Good morning, indeed!!! I think there were more CM’s bustling about than there were cruisers. I went up to Deck 10long enough for a picture or 2 but it was raining here and there and since I had my glasses on and my camera in my hand, well, water and these 2 things do not mix well!

So, back down to Deck 9 and back (or is that forward?) to Quiet Cove. I don’t recall anyone ever talking about how comfy those chairs are, the ones lined up to overlook the ocean, but they are very comfy!!! Yeah!!! I sat in those and sipped my coffee. Did a lot of deep breaths in and out to get that good, clean ocean air in my lungs. Hey, I’m from Arizona so I need to filter out some of the dust!! For most of my vacation, I developed a strong case of ADHD and just could not sit there for too long before I had to rush off and explore some other empty area! I did some walking outside – took pictures. On one side of the ship I saw land so I snapped a picture of that so I could show DH we passed land (never showed him the picture until we were home from the trip)! I went inside and took pictures of different areas like the lobby, Rockin’ Bar D, and a picture of my Mickey Crocs propped up in one of the large portholes.

I returned to the room and don’t remember if the family was awake or if I had to wake them. Either way, we dressed and went to Topsiders for breakfast. The night before, I had highlighted the Navigator with a different color for each person and the activity they wanted to attend that day (DIS tip). I let DH highlight his own, though, because he’s a big boy with a mind of his own!! The first thing I wanted to attend was the Art of Entertaining The Appetizer because Irene (Ibela) and I had discussed prior to the trip how much we wanted to do these. DD went to the club, DS was off to the stack and DH went along with me since nothing else that morning grabbed his attention.

It’s a good thing DH went with me because Irene stood me up. Her loss! Chef Brett Hill prepared Grilled Sea Scallops with Cous Cous Salad and Curry Sauce and while he slaved away over a hot stove, we dined on his delicious appetizer. We were also given a small bit of wine that was paired with the scallop. DH didn’t care for his scallop so I scored and got to eat 2!! I thought they were delicious!!! He did, however, like his wine so I didn’t get lucky there!

After scallops, we headed over to the Buena Vista Theatre for the “Disney’s Behind the Scenes: From Sketches to Reality.” It wasn’t what I thought it was going to be; I thought they were going to show us drawings of characters and then how they get those from paper to the movie. But instead, he talked about how the geniuses at Disney come up with ideas and how they magically make their way in to rides at the park. A lot of it was about stuff at Disney World and I’ve never been there so that was fun. He also talked a lot about the park in China? I think it was China?? So, that was fun, laid back but now we were hungry and fetched DD from the Club.

People on the DIS and in TR’s always seem to suggest you do a sit-down lunch at one of the restaurants instead of Topsiders every time. So, the three of us went to Parrot Cay. Except, this was buffet so I don’t quite know if this is what everyone meant when they said “sit-down” lunch? Either way, Parrot Cay had an Italian buffet but I didn’t think it was anything really special. The best part was the ice cream a CM was giving out scoops of, if you asked, of course. DD enjoyed a big bowl of this. I enjoyed some yummy desserts they had as opposed to the ice cream, but I did steal bites of the ice cream from DD’s bowl.

I didn’t take pictures of our lunch plates because we were sitting at a table with strangers!!! I’m sure they were already annoyed with DD’s inability to sit still, my constant attempts at raising DS on the walkie talkie (all of which failed. Bringing the walkie talkies proved to be absolutely pointless and I don’t recommend dragging them along with you!), and just the fact they had to sit across from us. We made polite conversation but it would have been a more comfortable lunch had we been seated alone. Lesson learned.

After lunch, we all dressed for the pool and made our way there. As expected, the Mickey pool was insane. The line for the slide was very long and the kids were ruthless, DD got pushed out of the way and started to cry. So, we went to the Goofy pool. This wasn’t any better as people were ignoring the “No Jumping” rules and the pool was full. The best you could do was stay in one position but nobody was doing that and we were being bumped in to, splashed, jumped on, and kicked. Ugh! Was not in the mood for this because I have a pool at home I can enjoy, we didn’t need to torture ourselves in this way. I bribed DD to return to the room by offering her a bubble bath. She agreed and we were off.

While DD splashed about in her bath, I began curling my hair for formal night. DD and I had tickets for Tea with Alice at 4 so DH left the room to explore the ship. DD and I just hung out in the room before our tea. She watched TV and I curled my hair. About 3:45, we were ready to head up to Studio Sea and to my horror, I was unable to open the safe where I had tucked the tickets. DH locked the safe with his KTTW!! Oh no!! Panic!!! Think-Think-Think. Surely, DCL wouldn’t deny me entrance? Would they? Think-Think-Think!! I phone Guest Services and they instruct me to stop at the desk and they will reprint tickets! Phew!!! We rush to Guest Services and get our tickets. We wait outside of Studio Sea for Christa because she was joining us. She arrived shortly after we did and we went inside to find a seat.

Tea with Alice was super cute!! DD was very engrossed the whole time and that is saying a lot!!! She doesn’t sit still for very much at all and she never once asked to go to the restroom!!! She was a little scared of the Mad Hatter but I was really impressed with him!!

He and Alice sounded just like they do in the movie!!! We dined on very yummy cookies and learned how to properly serve and drink tea! It was cute and I’m really glad we went and really glad Christa joined us!!!

 

[JDBlair]

We met DH back in the room and he was dressed for formal night!! Handsome man!!! DD and I quickly dressed since I had done my hair and make-up before Tea with Alice. I quickly curled DD’s hair and we were out the door in no time. Left a note for DS on the bed explaining where to meet us and included the comment that I was not happy!

On Deck 4, we stood in line to have our portrait taken. I had reservations about having our photo taken without DS but I couldn’t help but think we looked so nice, DD looked so pretty in her dress I’d been saving for her all year, and I wanted a memory of it. While waiting in line, a CM approached us with a tray full of drinks, compliments of the Captain. Hello!! We are not people to pass up free drinks so we both took a Mai Tai. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!! After we finished with our photo, we were on our way to Deck 3 when we were offered another drink. Don’t mind if we do!! Deck 3 was crazy busy. We posed for a portrait with the captain and then went back to Deck 4 for 2 reasons. Reason 1: It was less crazy there and Reason 2: we saw where the CM’s with the free drinks were coming from and they didn’t seem to care at all how many we had! Score!!! So, we watched all the frenzy on Deck 3 while sipping on our free drinks from Deck 4. (See how smart we are?!) DD felt all grown up sipping on her oj!

A very nice gentleman offered to take a picture of the 3 of us and we returned the favor for him and his lady!

I think DH and I had 4 Mai Tai’s before it was time to head to Animator’s Palate for dinner.

I was looking forward to dining in Animator’s Palate from the moment I heard about the restaurant. I know a lot of people report they don’t think it lives up to the hype, especially after you see the special on the Travel Channel, but I couldn’t disagree more. I really loved it. DS walked in to dinner around 6:15, dressed and looking scared. I’m sure the note left for him on the bed informing him that I “wasn’t happy” is what tipped him off! But that’s just a guess. Having had 4 Mai Tai’s before being confronted with a DS who had been MIA all day long; I just wasn’t in the mood to say too much about it. Imagine that! Besides, I was on vacation and it was partly my fault for not making it clear what time he should return to the stateroom. It’s not his fault the walkie talkies didn’t work and lesson learned.

Tonight, I sat across from Christa’s boys and I think they, DD and I had the best time!! (Christa's boys aren't on the DIS so you have to take my word for it that they had the best time, too!) DD was to my left and we were up against the wall. (I don't think I had to zoom for this picture!)

(This is also the night I informed DH that I think I need to have my hearing checked because if you weren’t sitting across from me or right next to me, I could never hear a word anyone was saying!! And no, it wasn’t the Mai Tai’s. The hearing issue happened every night!!!)

But Christa’s boys, DD and I really had a great time pointing out the color changes and the differences around the room!! We’d find sketches on the walls next to us to point out to each other. We just had a blast. Who’d have thunk it? Disney just turns me in to a big ol’ kid so it’s not too surprising to me that this night I had the most fun sitting with the kids. Christa’s boys are really great. I couldn’t have asked for better tablemates that evening!!

In all our excitement, I didn’t take a picture of my meal. I did, however, take a picture of our desserts and DD dining on her Mickey bar. DH ordered 2 desserts because I told him the DIS said he could!!

A quick change of DD’s clothes and we were off to The Golden Mickey’s!! But on the way, we scored another round of free Mai Tai's!!!

What a cute show!!!! I took pictures (without flash) and they’re blurry but you get the idea!!

(The women in the crowd went wild over that Tarzan.)

After The Golden Mickey’s, we had a schedule conflict. On the Navigator I highlighted for the family the “Golden Mickey’s After Party” but DH highlighted for adults the “Golden Mickey’s After Party with Live Music and the Comedy of Rich Purpura.” Wanting DH to enjoy his vacation and not give him any reason to regret agreeing to take us on the Disney Cruise, we took DD to the club and we were off to Rockin’ Bar D!

Rich Purpura had performed the night before at the All Aboard show and we thought he was funny so this should prove to be a good time. We weren’t wrong! We laughed our butts off. (That’s good for burning a few of those soufflé calories, right? Not to mention calories from the Mai Tai’s I’d had!!) While it was aimed at adults, they still kept it Disney clean and while I am not easily offended, I did appreciate this “cleanness” because the crowd was a mixture of all ages “adults” and sometimes comedians can take it a little too far-if you know what I mean. It was just good, clean, adult fun! I thought I was going to fall off my chair, pee my pants and die of laughter when he did his final set and had this buffalo animal cracker do a poopy!!! For anyone who saw it, they know what I am talking about and I really wish I could explain it but it was literally a “had to be there” kind of thing but trust me, the room was roaring with laughter and Rich busted out laughing a few times during this set! It was great!!! He was funny and I’m glad we attended!!!!

After Rockin’ Bar D, DH and I went outside on Deck 4 and sat in the comfy chairs!!!

It was so nice out there with the ocean and the ship and the joggers!! Had we sat there too long, we would have comfortably fallen asleep with our full bellies, exercise (laughing burns calories, remember?) and Mai Tai’s!!! We went back in and retrieved our DD from the club and it was off to bed for we 3.

I’m sorry if today seemed a little less exciting than the previous 2 days but it was a little less exciting. We chose this itinerary because the 2 days at sea to start off our vacation really appealed to us. With our hectic “normal” life and the year we’ve had, we needed some down time. Sunday afforded us that down time even though we still did a few things. I don’t look back on Sunday and regret anything. It was a great day at sea, except for DS being MIA and not in very many of my pictures, but at least we all had fun!

 

[JDBlair]

Still here and reading. You are a very enjoyable writer. Looking forward to the next installment. Btw, I spotted you in the crowd too.

Thank you for sticking around!!! And thank you for the compliment.
Great job on the Finding Waldo adventure!!!

MORE MORE MORE Great trip report! Look foward to the rest.

Thank you!!! This is a lot of fun!!!

Yes - MORE!!! I'm really enjoying your report and seeing the pictures. I love that bathroom in the club!

Thank you!! I especially love TR's with pictures so I knew I'd have to include pics with my TR!!! I'm glad people appreciate the bathroom picture. I posted it on the DCL Picture of the Day thread, as well!! It really is adorable and I'd never seen a pic of it before!

 

[MiaSRN62]

Enjoying your TR Jackie. The photo of your dd and you at Tea With Alice is so cute. Your hair looked so pretty !
BTW, we had formal night in AP too. I love the show as well (and this was our 3rd cruise). Your pics of the Golden Mickeys came out great. Mine were much darker.

 

[JDBlair]

Enjoying your TR Jackie. The photo of your dd and you at Tea With Alice is so cute. Your hair looked so pretty !
BTW, we had formal night in AP too. I love the show as well (and this was our 3rd cruise). Your pics of the Golden Mickeys came out great. Mine were much darker.

Maria - I'm glad you're enjoying it!!!! It really is a pleasure writing it! And thank you for the compliments on my hair.
I think you and I had the same servers just at different dining times - Alexander and Erwin? (I think Erwin was his name!) I was really disappointed we didn't get to eat in AP again but we ended up having Palo that night .

I tried really hard to get good shots of the shows and definitely followed the rules of no flash. I posted the best shots in the bunch but trust me, there are some dark - extremely blurry ones. I have a shot of Tarzan when he's spinning around that vine! (WOW!!!!! ) The shot is cool because it's blurry but you'd have to know what you had been watching in real life to appreciate the picture. I can post it tonight if you'd like to see it. Did your crowd scream out when Tarzan took the stage?

 

[MiaSRN62]

Yes....we did have the same servers. They were awesome. Erwin seemed a little shy inititally----but we brought him out of his shell.

Did your crowd scream out when Tarzan took the stage?

Yesindeedy ! I believe I did hear a few "hoots"

 

[JDBlair]

Word to the wise: It may be in your best interest to just quickly look at your Navigator or Passporter before you lay your head down at night. This way, you know if you need to request a cheerful wake-up call!

That said, I woke up Monday morning to the snoring sounds of my loved ones and thought it strange I could see light outside. I thought, surely, it was still the middle of the night. I stumble across the room to the propeller clock and see the time as 8:20, must be 8:20 AM since there is light outside. Then I start to think, “Isn’t there somewhere we’re supposed to be this AM? Isn’t today the character breakfast?” I pull out my Passporter (tucked nicely on the shelf in the nightstand next to my bed!) to confirm the information on my meal tickets. Oh no! First, I consider getting back in to bed because the breakfast began at 8:15 and it was 8:20. But then I started to feel guilty thinking about DD missing the character b-fast and how I would regret it, whether she knew about the b-fast or not. Well, DH is now awake, thanks to my paper shuffling, and asking about my obvious internal-struggle. I explain the situation to him and he says we should go. So, I wake DD and quickly dress her, leave DS (but tell him where we are going) to sleep because DH says he got in around 2 am , and we rush to Parrot Cay – with me still in my pj’s. Fortunately, for us, Parrot Cay is one floor above our stateroom! (The location of our room really worked to our advantage in more ways than one!!) We come rushing in and just as we do, our server, Alexander, almost runs right in to us. He jumps (I think with excitement or maybe it was fear because I was in my pj's?) when he sees us and escorts us to our table. I really was surprised to see that all of our tablemates were there! For the past two nights, I’ve had to share my Navigators with them so they know where to go from dinner but they all remember our character b-fast??

Mickey’s Island Jam breakfast was cute. DD was too scared to join in the dancing and such. She seems a little timid of the non-human looking characters. (Maybe it’s because they don’t talk? Maybe she’s star-struck?)

She was content to watch everything right from her chair or standing next to the table. I’m glad I didn’t crawl back in to bed and blow this off, though. She enjoyed it and that’s what matters. Besides, I can sleep when I get home – right??

(It's fitting DD's crown is tilted. While she is truly our princess, she's a bit unruly!)

After breakfast, we returned to the room so I could dress. Before DS ditched us again, we all reviewed the Navigator to determine a time we’d need to meet for pictures and dinner-having learned our lesson from the day before. This is when we realized a HUGE scheduling conflict. Tonight was Twice Charmed and we all loved the shows so that was a “do not miss”. At 11, I needed to meet with the DISBoarders to stuff the goody bags we arranged for the kiddies. At 12, I had the DISBoarders luncheon. Ratatouille was only showing during 2 time slots (both evening times – not sure why being that this is a cartoon and they ran a PG-13 movie at 12:30 in the afternoon!) in the Theatre and we all wanted to see that, even though we saw it in Arizona when it came out. The dilemma quickly became that the evening activities were being spoiled by dinner! We could do what we wanted to do if we skipped dinner in Parrot Cay and just did a drive-by at Topsiders or room service. So, that’s what we agreed to do. Skip dinner.

So, DS ditched us for the Stack and the 3 of us remaining toured the lobby for a little bit until DD announced she wanted to go to the club. I’m pretty sure this is the first time she suggested going there herself. So, we took her up on the offer and escorted her there. I was soon off to meet my DISBoarders at 11. DH highlighted the “Wild Hogs” movie on the Navigator for 12:30 to keep him busy while I was busy with my DISBoarders. We parted ways and I told him I’d find him in the theater when I was finished with lunch.

Our great group of DISBoarders rallied together and contributed items to make up goody bags for our precious children. Those of us able to stuff the bags, met at 11 in the Promenade lounge. Thinking we could stuff there, we were wrong. The idea was to “drink and stuff” but Bingo was taking place and then after Bingo, they started up another activity. So, we set up camp in front of Animators Palate, thinking we’d be out of the way and for the most part we were. We had an assembly “circle” and stuffed the bags. It was fun. Towards the end, we had to quickly finish because a CM came through and said the children’s club would be coming through on their way to lunch at AP! Hey!! I want to lunch at AP!! We finished up what we needed to do and returned to the Promenade for that much-talked-about-before-we-even-got-on-the-ship drink.

We had lunch together in Lumiere’s at 12. I think 40 of us showed up for lunch, altogether, and the restaurant seated us relatively close together. It was about this time that it was becoming obvious to me that I was not getting enough sleep. I just felt blah!! I was so happy to be there and meeting my friends and talking about our vacation but I also couldn’t help but want to take a nap!!! Maybe it’s because this is the first time I had sat still for so long! Service was a little slow so some of the other tables in our party finished up before those of us at my table finished (or in some cases, were even served). I was sitting next to Christa and her family and explained to her we’d miss dinner tonight. I didn’t want them to think we were ditching them when we didn’t show up. After lunch, one of our DISBoarders was having a little birthday party in her room for her DD and invited the children. I rushed up to the club to gather DD but they said she had checked out, almost ½ an hour after she checked in!! This alarmed me and I rushed back to the room thinking something was wrong!

On my way back to the room, I bumped in to Irene and she told me her Palo brunch was amazing! I told her we would miss dinner that night and why. She suggested we just attend the matinee show of Twice Charmed. DOH!! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Me, the one with the Navigator! I felt like the White Rabbit because I had to rush away from Irene and our chat to check on DD and DH-hopefully in the room! I get to the room - nothing was wrong. DD and DH were sitting on the couch, watching a movie, while she snacked on pizza. Poor DH-didn’t get to see his movie! I asked him why he didn’t just come find me with my group, they were certainly invited to join and he said he couldn’t remember where I was. Silly me. I made sure to know where everyone else was going to be but didn’t bother to let them know where I would be. DH was hungry so DD and I joined him up on Deck 9 while he ate lunch and DD and I had ice cream!

Since Irene was a genius and recommended we see the 2 pm showing of Twice Charmed, we did just that. We sat in the front on the left side of the stage. I chose this spot because I wanted to get good, clear photos of the show!! I took MANY photos, 50 to be exact! We liked the show, it was very cute. Cinderella is one of DD’s most favorite princess movies! It’s fun to sit that close and see the up-close real facial expressions on the cast and see if they ever break character. Can’t say I caught a single one of them breaking character. They are that good!!!

 

[JDBlair]

Yes....we did have the same servers. They were awesome. Erwin seemed a little shy inititally----but we brought him out of his shell.


Yesindeedy ! I believe I did hear a few "hoots"

This was one of the most impressive performances of the show and I don't say it because Tarzan was ripped! It was just IMPRESSIVE!

 

[Jennifer48]

Hi

I'm really enjoying your trippie. I can't wait to hear more!

Jennifer

 

[Brianne&Sami'smom]

I am loving your trip report! Can't wait to read more!

 

[ibouncetoo]

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more.

I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat.



.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more.

I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat.



.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

Amen to that neighbor! Afterall, this is why we live here right?

 

[JDBlair]

From the show, we wandered outside on Deck 4 but didn’t stay there long. I really don’t know what we did or where we went after Deck 4! I think this is the day we ordered a lot of food from room service (BLT, fruit bowl, Big Island Cookies, Mickey Bars , and milk) but I don’t have any pictures of it to prove my theory of what we may have done. Maybe it’s also the day my camera battery died and I had to charge it? So, now we’ll just skip to 5 pm and dinner time.

DS showed up on time to dress for pictures-glad he decided to not press his luck and show up late. Since we had seen Twice Charmed at 2, we could still go to our regular dining rotation and then see Ratatouille at 8:15. So, we went to the lobby and had our family portrait done with the lifestyles background.

DS was full of attitude (teen-agers ) and basically complained every step of the way. This seriously annoyed DH because we had hardly seen DS since we got on the ship and he felt DS should at least be pleasant when forced to be with us! There is no reasoning with a teen-ager but there is threatening and he lessened the attitude after I threatened if he didn’t straighten up, he’d stay with us the rest of that night! That was met with a, “NO!!” and a small attitude adjustment. After the lifestyle portraits, we got in line to have our photo taken with Cinderella. DD is a huge Cinderella fan and I will admit, she is probably my favorite princess. (She has a good work ethic, believes in her dreams and maintains a positive attitude – even at the worst of it all! Good role model! ) I tell DS he’s going to be in the picture but he strongly objects and then proceeds to ruin our picture because he stands about 2 feet away from Cinderella and smirks in the photo. (I told you the attitude adjustment was small! When I saw the professional portrait in Shutters the next day, I resigned to not ask him to pose with princesses any more (you have to pick your battles, right?) and I did not buy the picture! This was very disappointing because it was a very cute picture of DD, me and Cinderella!)

We make our way to Parrot Cay for dinner and our tablemates had already told our server we wouldn’t be there. Well, imagine their surprise when we sat down! And then, it happened. Alexander, our server, asks us why we were going to miss dinner, our tablemates had told him we would eat at Topsiders and he wanted to know if we had a problem with service or the food or anything? (I should have taken a picture of his face when he said Topsider. It looked like he had bitten in to a lemon or something!) As he asked, I am sure there were tears welling up in his eyes, I kid you not!!!! We emphatically deny it has anything to do with him or the food or anything like that but there were too many activities we wanted to do that evening! Trust me; we had to convince him we weren’t lying but even having too many activities to do did not seem like reasonable justification, to him, to skip our dining rotation. Even as he walked off, I’m not sure he believed us. We felt awful and guilty for even considering skipping our dining rotation!! He really looked crushed! I believe everyone at the table then vowed they would not skip a dining rotation as none of us wanted to crush Alexander’s heart!!! We truly felt the love with our server that night!!!

I know some people say they don’t care for Parrot Cay but we liked it. DS commented that he thinks it’s decorated to resemble the Tiki Room and we like the Tiki Room. (Too bad they didn’t have Dole Whips or Floats, though!!) We teased with our tablemates, “Weren’t we just here?” because, as you know, we all had our breakfast in this dining room for Mickey’s Island Jam! I remember liking some of my meal and disliking some of it. The salmon appetizer, half of it I didn’t like. The wings, they were good but Christa’s DH and I both agreed we could have used more sauce. And that’s all I remember about what I ate.

I also know during this meal, DD would not sit still and I finally took her to the club and returned to enjoy my meal in peace. Nothing on the dessert menu jumped out at me so this is the night I decided to try out another DIS tip. I asked Alexander if it would be possible to have the soufflé being served in Lumiere’s.

Voila! He magically made it appear and I magically made it disappear. I walked away from that meal so happy!!!! I truly love that soufflé!! I really felt like Alexander bringing me the souffle was his way of showing excellent customer service as well as showing me he had forgiven me!

(DH's desserts. He's taking full advantage of tips learned on the DIS!)

Since DD was at the club, I wanted to leave her there – she needed to burn off some energy! So, DS, DH and I went to see “Ratatouille”. Did I feel guilty about not having DD along? Nope!! With the way she was acting, she would not have sat through the movie and would have just made us, and the rest of the crowd, miserable. DS and DH brought along soda and snacks they had from their baskets and we all enjoyed the movie. That was until a group of teen-agers came in to the theater and decided to act like little children. I realize teen-agers are children but the 6 year olds in the theater were behaving better than these “teen-age children” were! Fortunately for all of us, they didn’t stay long but long enough! During their disruption, I felt DCL should maybe sit a CM in there to address such disturbances or put a system in where you can hit a button if some jerk-head is ruining your movie-watching! The movie was cute, even the 2nd time around!

DH and I parted ways with DS and made our way to Rockin’ Bar D for John Charles. He had performed in the All Aboard show on Saturday and we liked him. Yeap, we laughed our butts off, again. It was a good time. A nice way to help unwind an evening!

After John Charles, we stayed for the beginning of the Spring Break Bash. When I say “stayed”, I mean we were there long enough to grab a free Jello-O shot (and they were the biggest Jell-O shots I have ever had!) and I danced to 1 song with my fellow DISBoarder girl pals.

We collected DD from the club and returned to our room. Tomorrow morning would find us back on land at St. Maarten. While I hadn’t missed seeing land, at all, the other people in my party seemed pretty excited by this notion!

 

[JDBlair]

Hi

I'm really enjoying your trippie. I can't wait to hear more!

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer!!
Thank you for reading and saying Hello!! I'm really glad you're enjoying it!!!

I am loving your trip report! Can't wait to read more!

I see you're sailing in a week. I am wicked jealous. You're going to have an amazing time!!! Maybe I'll get my report finished before you leave for your vacation!!! Thank you for the kind words and thank you for reading!!

Hello fellow ZONIE! I'm really enjoying your report and can't wait to hear more.
I'm told the origin of the term 'Zonie' came from the Southern Californians, who shudder every summer at the "Invasion of the Zonies" as we swarm their costal shores to beat our summer heat.
.....and isn't it a GLORIOUS morning here today.....

.

Thank you!!! So glad you could stop by and say hello!!

Well, my answer to S. CA is that's what they get for invading our space when they can no longer afford theirs and then they drive here like they do there!

And yes, it's a beatiful day today!!! Just wish the pool water was warm enough to truly enjoy outside right now!

Amen to that neighbor! Afterall, this is why we live here right?

 

[ashman]

Good read keep it up!

 

[JDBlair]

We didn’t have any excursions for St. Maarten planned so we had nowhere to be this morning. We weren’t up until 8:30 am. When I woke up, the first thing I did was look out our window and thought, “I wouldn’t mind waking up to a new ocean view every morning!” The view from our room was beautiful!!!

We ate breakfast at Topsiders and it wasn’t busy so I figured the “rush” to get off the ship had happened prior to our arrival at Topsiders. Hallelujah!! We loaded our trays with yummy food and found a spot aft to take in a view of St. Maarten while dining.

The Liberty of the Seas (RC) was docked next to us and it was a huge ship but kind of ruined our view! Pretty little, white butterflies fluttered around us while we ate breakfast. How cool is that?

DS’s small attitude adjustment from the night before was quickly diminished with his lack of sleep. Asked what time he got in, he grunted. Asked what he did the night before, he answered, “Hung out.”

It was hot that morning and looking back, the vibe from the kids at breakfast should have been a warning sign. We embarked from the ship and made our way up the pier in to St. Maarten. We were greeted by a steel drum band that DD and I enjoyed and tried to dance a little to but DS kept yelling at us to stop it. Where is his sense of vacation??

The kids and I posed for the obligatory picture in front of the “Welcome to St. Maarten” sign. This was no easy task as we were sharing the pier with the “Liberty of the Seas” crowd and they didn’t seem to have very much patience for us, very happy, DCL cruisers! Party poopers. (Just because your ship is bigger does not make it better – and no, I’m not bitter – just don’t like Royal Caribbean!)

The water taxi sign was unavoidable and we made our way there. The woman that took our money to pay our fare never looked up at us or acknowledged our presence, I had to wonder who she was listening so intently to on her IPOD, but we still said “Thank you”. I also had to wonder if she hates vacationers and if she does, and she can’t be bothered to look at you or even grunt in your general, happy direction, why does she work there? Okay, maybe the kids negative attitudes are starting to rub off on me because I’ve felt frustration twice now since we’ve left the ship! Maybe I should have run back to the Magic because the Pixie/Happy Dust apparently quits working when they swipe your KTTW card to check you off the ship!! ***SWIPE*** ***Deactivate Pixie/Happy Dust*** See Ya Real Soon!

So, the short water taxi ride drops us off at a pier and you’re instantly surrounded by taxi car drivers and women with backpacks which turn in to beach towels (or it’s the other way around?) and women with necklaces and women with hats and women hair braiders. My first impression of this area is a negative one! It’s a little overwhelming and immediately sends the kids clinging as close to me as they can get. We round the corner from the pier and discover the beach and the kids and I kick our shoes off and rush to the water. I happen to notice the sand is buzzing with something flying directly above it and I quickly try to remember the “lice” warning posted outside the Magic. What did it say exactly? I wish I had stopped to read it but I hadn’t planned to touch a beach!!! The kids and I put our feet in the water and DH is approached by a woman to buy a towel. Don’t need one, thanks. She offers a purse. Don’t want one, thanks. Let’s move on. But moving on wasn’t any better because every 5 feet, you’re greeted with another woman offering you the same things the woman 5 feet ago offered you. I know this is their culture and their way of life but it’s not really how I like to spend my vacation. I don’t even like being followed in stores (here at home) by sales people and will shop places where I don’t have to deal with that. (That helps give you insight to the type of person I am so you don’t think I’m just a jerk! ) I have a hard time ignoring people, I have to say, “No, thank you!” (If you’ve ever been to Vegas and walk down the Strip, I’m the person they’re able to give all their pamphlets to because I can’t seem to just ignore that the people are there and keep moving!)

We didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing. DH and I weren’t there to shop; the objective was simply to get off the ship! We walk down the strip in front of the beach and wind up at the pier where the water taxi will pick you up. (It drops you in one location and picks you up in another location further down the beach. I think they do this to force you to walk the gauntlet!!) There’s a liquor store there on the corner of the pier and one thing DH and I had discussed purchasing was some rum . So, we go inside and instead of rum, or even looking at rum, DH stops at the cigar case. I love the smell of a cigar and he likes to, on special occasion, smoke cigars so I encourage him to buy one. He’s offered help by a sales lady but she is neither pushy nor rude so I leave him in her care (not like he needed my protecting!) and I mosey over, with children in tow, to look at the perfume they have. Liquor store/perfume shop – you can’t get that in the states! I check the prices and they are exactly the prices I’d pay back home – moving on and out! DH makes his purchase and finds us out on the pier. The kids are whining but mostly when DH is out of ear range. They’re hot, they’re tired, what are we doing here, where are we going, they’re hungry, they’re thirsty, they want to go back, how long are we going to be here? DH offers to return to the ship but I have a real dilemma here – do I make the kids happy or do I make DH happy? We’d spent $15 on the water taxi, we needed to spend more than an hour on the island and I don’t believe DH truly wants to return to the ship so I push forward and we walk further in to town. We visit a gift shop and I pick out some post cards and DH buys a lighter for his cigars. He then suggests we find a place, overlooking the ocean, to get a drink. We had passed a few places on our walk and we backtrack.

We stumble across a sign advertising a bar offering shots for $3 and you get to keep the glass. Yes, a shot! At this moment in time, I could use a shot!!! A very nice gentleman serves us our shot and tells us if we return, shots are a $1 refill. Good to know.

We walk a little further down to an outdoor bar with tables and we sit, order Coke for DS, Mai Tai’s for DH and me and water for DD!

While we’re enjoying our drinks, we’re approached by a woman who offers the bag/beach towel combo. No thanks. Then she dangles necklaces in front of DD who reaches out to grab one. DH agrees to purchase a necklace for DD and the woman leaves us alone. We finish our drinks pretty quickly because it really was hot out there. I poured some of DD’s water on the back of her neck to help cool her off and this also seemed to help her mood. We return to the other bar for our $1 shot refill and by this time, I am feeling the affects of Shot #1 and the Mai Tai. The kids are still whining a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be bothering me in the same way it was before!! In fact, it doesn’t seem to bother me at all. The bartender asks how we like the Royal Caribbean ship and I’m speechless. I’m wearing a Tinker Bell hat, carrying a Tinker Bell purse, wearing a Jack Sparrow shirt, and DH has a “Grumpy” hat on. The bartender immediately notices I have hesitated and he begins laughing and telling us and the patrons that he knows we’re on the Disney cruise and tells a story of how he asked another family earlier, who were clearly from the RC ship, how they liked the Disney cruise and how they got a little nasty with him when they told him they were sailing RC! (They had RC lanyards on, he said!) I start taking pictures of the little bar/shot area and the bartender offers to take our picture with the Magic in the background.

I’m actually disappointed we leave this area because the bartenders were very engaging and nice. The patrons were also very friendly and chatty. Had we left the kids on the ship, DH and I probably would have stayed in this little bar spot awhile. I’m thankful for the short experience we had at this little bar. It was about the highlight of my visit to St. Maarten!

(The bartender on the left is our storyteller and the bartender on the right was our photographer. I took a picture to remember them!)

(I'm feeling happy!!!)
We take the water taxi back to the pier where we can board our Magic and I see a sign that says “frozen drinks”! Well, I am feeling my 2 shots and Mai Tai so I scream out, “Frozen Drinks!! We totally have to get those” and rush over. So, DH orders us a round of frozen drinks – virgin ones for the children.

We find a table in the shade by the shops to sit and enjoy our frozen yummies! Unfortunately, DS was not feeling the affects of my drinks and he was growing grumpier and grumpier by the minute. I don’t know what they do in that Stack but it must be so good that he couldn’t stand being so close and not being able to get on! He encouraged me to drink, quickly!! When that didn’t work, he encouraged me to stop drinking by saying I was buzzed enough! (I wasn't that buzzed. I simply felt good enough that his attitude no longer bothered me!)

We make our way back to the ship, this time we’re in a hurry to let DS ditch us, but first I want to rush to the front of the ship to take a picture – why not prolong his agony?! Well, it begins to sprinkle and by the time I reach the front of the ship, it’s a full on downpour.
(I kept the original size of the picture so you can see the rain!)

We get to the canopy area to board the ship and I pull the KTTW cards for myself and DD out of my back pocket, just recently used them to pass through security at the pier, and I only have DD’s card. I must have dropped my card on my sprint back from the front of the ship. So, I walk back to the front looking on the ground for my card and DS walks back towards security to see if he can find it there. It’s pouring but I really enjoyed the rain because it had been so hot all day long! I’m not really panicked about losing my card because I am happy and there, in the rain, I’m alone and can’t hear DS complaining! I get back to DH and DD, DH said he allowed DS back on the ship and neither of us found my card. I take DD’s card back from him and tell him they should just go on in without me and I’d work it out with DCL. When I go to hand the card back to him, I realize DD’s card is stuck to mine!!! Phew. In we go! ***SWIPE*** ***Reactivate Pixie/Happy Dust*** We are home!!! And I am soaking wet!

 

[Verandah Man]

Really enjoying your TR, it is brining back many memories from our first Eastern Caribbean cruise. I think we lasted all about one hour on St. Maarten before we headed back to the ship. We really only needed to get our ST(stinky teen, 13 at the time) a dress for Tropical Night, which is now Pirate Night. Yes, reading your report brought back several ST moments as well for me, we also had many attitude adjustments during that first cruise........ Heck, our ST is now 17 and we just went through an attitude adjustment Friday evening, so be forwarned!!!

Can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

 

[JDBlair]

Good read keep it up!

That's a high compliment coming from you!!! Thank you!!!

Really enjoying your TR, it is brining back many memories from our first Eastern Caribbean cruise. I think we lasted all about one hour on St. Maarten before we headed back to the ship. We really only needed to get our ST(stinky teen, 13 at the time) a dress for Tropical Night, which is now Pirate Night. Yes, reading your report brought back several ST moments as well for me, we also had many attitude adjustments during that first cruise........ Heck, our ST is now 17 and we just went through an attitude adjustment Friday evening, so be forwarned!!!

Can't wait to read more about your adventures!!!

I was truly bewildered with DS's attitude on the ship. Usually, DD is our little pill and DS is pretty laid back. It's like they swapped roles when we got on the ship in Florida and DD (for the most part) became laid back and DS became a pill!!! (I can tell you they swapped roles again just as soon as we were back in Florida!) So, my mother calls last night (she's also reading my TR) and she asks if I ever find out what they did in the Stack. I can honestly tell you, without ruining a surprise, that the answer is NO! DH and I both feel DCL swears the ST's to Top Secret that they will never divulge what occurs in the Stack because it's so good that if we knew, we adults would be fighting to get in there, as well! What else explains it?? Quite honestly, I love that DS had a good time doing the things he wanted to do. I was very worried before the trip he'd be bored and hate sailing DCL. I just wish his attitude would have been more pleasant when he was around us.

Thank you for reading and the compliments!!