Disneyzell magical christmas cruise 2008-4/7/11:TR from my 8 year old pg 9 COMPLETED!

[OurOhana]

I think the idea of staying on the ship when you're in a port you've visited before is a great idea. I think we'd do that if we went back to St. Thomas (unless we had a great excursion planned. Sounds like a blast in the pool, and on your cruise in general. Can't wait to hear about Santa's visit.

 

[pogopossum]

i think that the only port that we've been to so far that i wouldn't go ashore again would be nassau. our morning at the beach and atlantis was underwhelming at best, and we weren't enamoured of the straw market either. one of the other guys on board called it the mexican bordertown of the caribbean, very apt.

 

[DisneyZell]

i've seen the new carnival commercial with an adult slide on it, so hopefully the new ships will be equipped for us big kids, as well.

david morgan had the yellow monkey puppet, from what i remenber from the show friday night. ds and i enjoyed what he did, but dw and dfil weren't amused.

yeah, I hope they do come equiped for the big kids. it's time to realize that not just the kids like being kids!

Ah yeah, the monkey puppet. I think I was more entertained by that than DW was, but we thorugh it was pretty funny. You definately have to let yourself go on that one...not high brow humor, that's for sure!

Hey there!
Sorry to hear about the ice dam. Hope things are better now. It was 60 here yesterday and we're supposed to get 2 inches of rain today, yippee! It's a sure sign that spring is coming soon when the yard floods!! We caught Dave Morgan's family show that night. It was our first time seeing him and we were really looking forward to seeing someone new but we didn't find him very funny at all. He may have been stellar in the adult show but we skipped that one. We couldn't imagine him doing a total change though. Anyway, we had to sneak around that night and stuff Fish Extenders with CDs. That was much more fun, helping Santa out!
Keep up the good work and Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Lisa Marie

Yup, the warm weather was actually what caused the issue. Had a roof guy out who cleared the snow off the roof and burned some paths in the ice for the water to flow while it melts. It has not repeated itself, so once the roof is clear we will have someone look at it and see if we need repair or if it took care of itself. That plus a little paint and we were really lucky!

Funny, maybe I was the only guy that thought the puppet was funny. But you can ask DW, I am VERY easily amused.

thanks for the note!

I can't wait to hear all abut your Christmas Day on the Magic!

and I can't wait to tell you about it.

I think the idea of staying on the ship when you're in a port you've visited before is a great idea. I think we'd do that if we went back to St. Thomas (unless we had a great excursion planned. Sounds like a blast in the pool, and on your cruise in general. Can't wait to hear about Santa's visit.

I highly recommend it obviously!

i think that the only port that we've been to so far that i wouldn't go ashore again would be nassau. our morning at the beach and atlantis was underwhelming at best, and we weren't enamoured of the straw market either. one of the other guys on board called it the mexican bordertown of the caribbean, very apt.

That sucks. nothing worse than getting off and not having a good time!

thanks everyone for your time and reading, I'll try to update another chapter in the next day or so!

Thanks!

 

[DisneyZell]

So at some point during the night Santa came calling on our little cabin. Now, I'm sure that Santa was actually quite pleased with the Magic, all those people very close together in one place (albeit travelling on the ocean). He managed to get in, leave a couple of presents, eat the cookies and drink the milk, all without knocking over our little tree (which had a tendency to fall over), or waking any of us up. If you were not a believer in the magic of Christmas before this, you surely were now!

We woke up around 8, and naturally the first and most important thing was to check out the presents. Both boys got a video MP3 player for Christmas. They were all pre-loaded with music, and even had the highlight video for each kid from football season. Santa is very good. Santa also left a picture of all the presents that were left at home...apparently he felt that there was no way all the loot could fit in our stateroom, and for that I am eternally grateful!

Nick and Connor by the tree

We all got dressed and decided to go take pictures with Santa who, apparently, had finished his rounds of the earth and still had the energy to take pictures with kids onboard. This man is amazing, and has now become my hero. I can't walk around the block and still have energy for my kids.

Nick and Connor with Santa on the Magic!

Disney had some neat stuff that morning. Each kid got a Pixar calendar as a present (I know, it's not huge, but they don't HAVE to give anything, so I thought that was pretty cool), and they had these nice cookies and various other things you could grab to eat. Actually the cookies were not very good. oh well, what can you do??? They also had face painting (or in our case arm painting and both kids got...what else? a santa Mickey.

Connor on Christmas Day

Nick on Christmas day

and in case you didn't get it...both of them!

After that we headed over to do sit-down breakfast in Parrot Cay. Well, actually it was sort of a hybrid sit down/buffet. It was ok.


When we finished breakfast we needed some pictures with holiday characters...

Pluto...although now looking at it, I don't see what is holiday about him.

Nick and Connor give Mickey a hug. I love this picture, it's a bit washed out because it was a white background, but it's pretty neat.

Nick and Connor with Mickey. Note that they are not wearing their Santa hats. Do you recall me mentioning that earlier? No? then go back and read from the beginning because it's there. go ahead. I'll wait. Why are you still here? Go read!

OK, when we walked up to take a picture the CM conferred with Mickey and determined that they could not wear the Santa hats because they had the Patriots logo on them. Conflict of interest or something. Pretty funny. We didn't care, of course...but I still thought it was funny. Especially if you go back to earlier in my trip report (you never went, did you??), and see that in the terminal all of the kids are with Mickey, and they all have their Patriots Santa hats on. oh well...Mickey apparently isn't as consistent and Santa is!

The kids and Goofy

 

[DisneyZell]

Next we headed to the next game-show..."So you think you know your family". With the luck we were having we figured we might get picked again. They gave everyone raffle tickets and drew for the 4 spots. We were picked 3rd...and it was my turn to participate with Nick. So we headed up there. Now, this was the type of show where they send off your child, ask you questions, and then bring them back and ask them the same questions. If you match you get points. I hate these types of things because I always feel like I'm put on the spot which makes me very uncomfortable. But what can you do? Naturally I want to win!

Nick and I waiting for our questions

The kids got sent away first and we got to get the questions. The first one was "Who is your child's favorite Disney Character". Well, come on now...that's easy if you are psychotic Disney fans like us. Especially when we have shirts with their characters. I boldly answer "Chip and Dale". the host does a little bit of a double take...asks if I want to pick one. I say nope...no way, it's chip and Dale.

Question #2: "What is your child's favorite desert". This one was tougher. So many things to choose from. I pick one..."Ice Cream!". oh no, that's not good enough, what KIND of ice cream? Crap. That's not going to end well and I knew it. I froze, I mumbled...I fretted (not sure what that means), and finally picked cookie dough. I knew I was doomed.

Question #3: "Who is your child's best friend?" ah ha! another easy one for me! We were on the cruise with our neighbors...and our neighbors happen to include...Nick's best friend Chris! Easy. I answer and move on. I'm feeling pretty good about this time.

They brought the kids back and asked them the same questions. Question #1: Nick's answer: Chip and Dale! Woohoo! we were one for one..but so were some others.

Question #2: Nick's answer: Ice Cream! yup, he answered EXACTLY how I did! Did the force him to be specific too? yes. Strawberry. *GROAN*. I KNEW that answer...what the heck was I thinking????

Question #3: Nick's answer: Chris! woohoo! back in the game! 2 for 3 and tied for first. I was really quite proud. One other others missed the best friend question because the kid had two..he picked one...and the wrong one. ouch!



Now it was my turn to leave. they made us go down the hall and up a level and wait. and wait. and wait. Now, the longer I wait the more nervous I become. Who knows what they are asking these kids? we have no idea what we are in store for. Scary stuff. Finally she comes back and gets us. I obviously cannot relay what Nick did when they asked.

Nick gets quizzed while I am gone

Question 1: How old is your dad? Now, everyone was stressing that it's what NICK would answer, not necessarily the right answer. Since they kept saying this over and over, I clued in to the fact that most likely he did not answer correctly. I am very quick that way. So I knew I had to guess and threw out 36. I'm a touch older than that. His guess? 36! woohoo! we were 1 out of 1. Impressive since it was wrong.

Question 2:What is your dad's middle name? No hints that this was a problem...and my middle name is after my maternal grandfather who didn't have any sons...and it is also Connor's middle name. I answered McNeill and we scored point #2 in that round! woohoo!

Question 3:Who is the boss in your family. Ok, come on. Here is the example of the question you don't want to be asked. Fortunately it was easy. DW is definitely the boss. She runs the house, I make the money. Sounds like a good deal to me...and score one more for the good guys!

Question 4: yes, they gave me one more to answer than Nick. That's just not fair! Who in your family annoys you the most. Naturally I don't like this question, but it was an easy answer. Connor. I love him to death, but his bursting into tears drives me insane! Score another one...and even Connor was all smiles. We had gotten all the point we could and they were now tabulating. By my calculation we had tied with another team...and I was shocked when they awarded us the winners! We got baseball hats (with "Winner" across the front and Disney Cruise lines along the edge of the brim. Seriously, who would ever wear a hat that says "winner" on it. Well ok, Nick would. ), and two insulated DCL mugs. Those were very cool, and the two things were pretty cool! I was just happy that I guessed right on the age thing.

Nick and I while we answer questions

We dashed upstairs and grabbed some food so that we could go to the premier of Bedtime Stories. It was cool that they had a movie onboard that was premiering in the theaters on that same day. So score one for the movies even though it annoys me that they don't offer more throughout the day.

We all thought the movie was hilarious...and if you haven't seen it, go rent it when it comes out. You will not be disappointed!

Now it was time to build gingerbread houses! we had gotten tickets and headed up. We were a bit late because of the movie...but what can you do? We wandered off to a table and dug in. we had missed most of the instructions so we were on our own. Luckily we are pretty darn smart and were able to figure it out. I thought the spice drops were delicious and could have just eaten those and forgotten about the house.

Nick Decorates...

Connor Decorates...

and we all pose around the finished house. It was a fine one. any self-respecting gingerbread man would be happy to live there.

 

[DisneyZell]

Back to the room to get ready for our holiday dinner with a special menu that we got to take with us. That was a nice touch. Don't know what I'm going to do with a big red menu, but I have it anyway. This was Semi-formal night so everyone looked good again. It was also lobster night which was just like the past two cruises lobster nights...yuck. I don't know why I bother. The lobster just isn't good in my opinion. Note, though, that I'm from New England...and we are used to that kind of lobster, not the Caribbean kind which just doesn't taste as good in my opinion. Sorry to be negative...but it is what it is. DW was smart and ordered something else. She was right to do that!

Nick wanted to pose in front of the store...

Nick and Connor all dressed up

Chris and Kathryn all dressed up...

DW and Connor looking good.

At some point DNW started not feeling good and she headed out for some air. She turned out to be just fine. But kids being kids...naturally the feeling passed to Nick and he decided he didn't feel good and wanted to go to the bathroom and go outside for a bit. we said fine. So we are sitting there waiting...waiting.

Normally this would not be an issue....but I had planned to surprise DW with a birthday cake on this night for her birthday (which is actually the 29th...shhh, don't tell Mickey). So I'm waiting for them to come back to give the high sign to the head waiter. Plus, we want to scoot so we can go to Who wants to be a Mousketeer...and DW of course doesn't know I'm waiting to do the cake. Our server had not come by with dessert menus....but that was just normal by this point!

finally I got up to go find them and they are out on the deck playing shuffleboard. OOoooooooh I was sooooo mad. His answer? I didn't know! I'm thinking...you should NEVER wander off where I don't know where you went...and add this....I was out of control. Good thing I don't beat my children cause I would have been tempted!

Crisis averted...we got the cake...they sang....DW was surprised (a big advantage that our wait staff was so slow she didn't know anything was out of the ordinary).

Everyone singing

The cake

but by now we were running late for Who wants to be a Mousketeer. We grab the cake and head that way. On the way in they obviously see it and I go back out to ask them to wish her a happy birthday. They didn't seem to want to do that (the host was the assistant cruise director). But said they would try. I was a little disappointed with that to be honest.

They brought us forks and we dug into the cake. It was very good...white cake with strawberry filling. Yum!

With Who Wants to be a Mousketeer they give you numbered slips when you walk in and then a computer randomly picks who gets to go up. We got 36, 37, 38, and 43. Someone else got picked first...and then we got picked! I told you, we were on a roll! Since Nick and I had just done something that morning it was Connor and DW's turn. They headed up and sat down. At that point they remembered it was DW's birthday, so they wished her one at that point. I guess I was satisfied.

In this game you had to answer 5 questions to with the grand prize. DW didn't write down all the questions...so I can't give them all to you...but some included: Where did Cinderella lose her slipper? Which actor played some character in "The Rock" (answer was Sean Connory). There was one more easy one...which DW didn't write down (see what I have to work with? I just can't work under these conditions! I'm the creative guy, not the details guy!). There was a question about a robot which DW and Connor had no idea about so they asked the audience. I had no idea so kept my mouth shut. In fact, I probably wouldn't have gotten that far. good thing she did it! The audience got it right...and they were still alive!

The final question for all the marbles was the name of the boss on the TV series Dinosaurs. Hmmm...well, let's just say that we have never even heard of that...let alone seen it. They had 50:50 left, so they used that and were left with answers B and D. They still had no idea (naturally) so DW told Connor to guess. He guessed B.

What do you think the answer was? If you've been following along and seen our luck (what? you haven't been following along? go back and read. I'll wait. Really, I will. Go ahead. Take your time. ), the answer was B! Woohoo! pure luck. gotta love it. I'd rather be lucky than good, isn't that one of those sayings?? So they both got a Who Wants to be a Mousketeer pin and a magnet desk toy with little Mickey ear clips. It was a very cool prize.

At that point we handed off our other numbers to another family in hopes that they would get called up. Soon after we left and headed out to take pictures.

The boys on a bench

In front of the ring...

Connor wanted this one. Don't know why.

Ah, the irony. All those adults that don't want kids around

And in front of our door...

The stash of stuff that we had gotten from our Fish Extender. Thanks everyone! That really made our week...it was a lot of fun to look for something new every day! Definitely do that if you are going on a trip!

We skipped (obviously) the show for that night, Disney Dreams. We had already done it...so decided we didn't need to see it again. As with the other nights, the kids got booted to the rooms, we grabbed some beer and headed to the show. John Charles was our entertainer that night...he does all sorts of things with different songs...it is very entertaining and the time with him flew by. We definitely wanted to go see his family show as well.

An hanging monkey for Christmas night

time for bed...holy cow what a day! We had a blast...a great way to spend Christmas. I don't think I'd want to do it every year, but this was a real special treat, made even more so by Disney who just does such a great job.

Thanks for putting up with me...hope you enjoyed this installment.

Next up: Chapter 11: Castaway Cay part Deux...the countdown to the end!

Now...go make someone's day!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

WOW that was amazing - great photos as always (doens't Mickey look really strange in "normal" clothing). Christmas day on board ship looks really magical - may have to pencil that in for the future.

 

[MicraPIP]

OMG... I have been reading every word and loving this

The Reason... I just booked our First Cruise... on the Wonder Dec 23-30 7 Day WC.

I've even been taking notes!!

Keep it up Looking forward to the second of the Double dip...

Love the pics as well!!!!

 

[fey_spirit]

I'm a little concerned - can we not use cash on board?
I only ever use cash when I go on vacations, it's how I keep track of how much I'm spending...

I
The rest of the time we just hung out...reading books, kids watched cartoons and wandered a bit. I did got get a Diet Coke (in the 3 cruises I had never gotten anything in the terminal). I tried to pay with cash. No go...they will only accept those evil cards....it starts already!

 

[smeecanada]

I'm a little concerned - can we not use cash on board?
I only ever use cash when I go on vacations, it's how I keep track of how much I'm spending...

The ship is cashless. Everything is charged on your KTTW card. You can go Guest Services and settle or prepay your account whenever you wish. We tried paying with cash in the gift shop and discover that we couldn't.

 

[fey_spirit]

Can you secure your card with cash instead of a credit card?
Can you use Disney dollars instead of cash?

I really need to find a way to maintain my spending habits so that I don't overdraw without realizing it...

The ship is cashless. Everything is charged on your KTTW card. You can go Guest Services and settle or prepay your account whenever you wish. We tried paying with cash in the gift shop and discover that we couldn't.

 

[smeecanada]

Can you secure your card with cash instead of a credit card?
Can you use Disney dollars instead of cash?

I really need to find a way to maintain my spending habits so that I don't overdraw without realizing it...

Sorry, don't know those answers - maybe someone else does. We've always used a credit card because we are from Canada.

 

[PurdyBertnie]

And yes, it was time for bacon. And syrup. A bowl of it actually. Yes, to some of you this might sound gross, but those of you who think that are clearly the folks who have never tried to dip your bacon in a bowl of goodness.

.

So I am totally loving this I just started reading but HAD to comment on this I LOVE that I am not the only person who thinks this is good, I just told my mom about this and she gives me this look like you are disgusting lol but it seriously is deeeeelicious lol ok I put in my 2 cents lol

 

[tgropp]

Hope to see the rest of the report. A Christmas cruise sounds like the ultimate vacation

 

[MomlvsGoofy]

Loving your TR! Can you tell me do you have to go to the formal dinner?

 

[pmama]

Just came across your TR and am LOVING it! I love all the details and pictures. I actually find myself laughing outloud a lot reading your TR. Great writing style. I'm only on the beginning of page 5 so I'm subbing to come back and read more. We are planning our first 4 night cruise on the Wonder in December so I am really enjoying your TR! Can't wait to come back and read more.

 

[smeecanada]

Loving your TR! Can you tell me do you have to go to the formal dinner?

The formal dinner hoopla gets blown out of proportion. It's really up to you how big a deal you want to make it. We are not formal dinner type people. We go dressed slightly more than a regular dinner but not overboard. As my DH says he's on vacation. That said, he and DS wear a nice dress shirt and tie with dress pants. DD and I wear a nice dress, but not overly fancy. The waiters will be dressed in a nice outfit, but aren't they always. The menu is a little fancier than normal, but there is still some regular options available.

Just go and enjoy the evening, don't stress out about it. I know it's hard - been there done that. Until you go - it's hard to figure out the expectation level. It's just an option for people to get dress up a little more fancy.

 

[MomlvsGoofy]

Thanks, I feel better about it. We are not really formal people either. A simple dress and dress shirt and pants are much better for us then a tux and evening dress.

 

[pogopossum]

as you can read in my (shameless plug) tr "a christmas cruise 08 story" we are not tux on a cruise people either. we wear nice dress slacks/shirts/dresses. i think it goes back to our first cruise in 99, itook coat and tie with me for dinner in lumiere's or palo (we didn't get res), and the people at our table told the waiter that they didn't have dress clothes and weren't coming to dinner the next night, so he said don't do that. so i decided to dress in order to not to show them up. and the ship didn't sink. and we all had a great time. so now i don't pack a jacket anymore, it takes up less of my suitcase room.

 

[DisneyZell]

Loving your TR! Can you tell me do you have to go to the formal dinner?

You already have your answer below, but I'll answer too. First, no you don't have to go. second, you don't have to dress up. completely up to you. Remember, this was our third cruise and we thought it would be fun to dress up...so we did. It's nice to dress up a little...but definately not mandatory by any stretch!

Just came across your TR and am LOVING it! I love all the details and pictures. I actually find myself laughing outloud a lot reading your TR. Great writing style. I'm only on the beginning of page 5 so I'm subbing to come back and read more. We are planning our first 4 night cruise on the Wonder in December so I am really enjoying your TR! Can't wait to come back and read more.

Definately go in December, the decorations, etc...really made it worth it! And thanks for the compliment...good to know you are laughing and not banging your head on the keyboard when you fall asleep!

as you can read in my (shameless plug) tr "a christmas cruise 08 story" we are not tux on a cruise people either. we wear nice dress slacks/shirts/dresses. i think it goes back to our first cruise in 99, itook coat and tie with me for dinner in lumiere's or palo (we didn't get res), and the people at our table told the waiter that they didn't have dress clothes and weren't coming to dinner the next night, so he said don't do that. so i decided to dress in order to not to show them up. and the ship didn't sink. and we all had a great time. so now i don't pack a jacket anymore, it takes up less of my suitcase room.

OK, OK, I'll go read your report! of course I should finish mine first. Hmmm, it's been a while. sorry folks..this whole work thing is getting in the way. I'll try my best to get a new chapter up next week!

Thanks for reading!