Disturbing Disney Dreams...Jan 13, 7 night Western

[ldeninge]

Although we hoped the kids might sleep in one of the mornings on the cruise – it wasn’t meant to be. Everyone was up at 7am again.

Oma took the kids up to breakfast at Topsiders for us. The only sit-down breakfasts we did all week were our character breakfast and debarkation morning. The buffet was just so wonderful for us. Katherine ate so much bacon every morning, I was afraid the salt overload would put her in kidney failure by the end of the week, but she seemed to do ok! Jacob couldn't believe his good fortune to have waffles and syrup every morning.

Paul and I had an appointment at the spa for 8am – we had booked the Exotic Rasul’s. If you aren't famililar with DCL, Rasul’s is a chance to go as a couple and use a private spa room – a hot sauna/steam room and cool shower area. They have an assortment of body and facial scrubs for your use. I had hoped there would be a hot tub to sit in, but it was very relaxing anyway. No kids allowed!

Upon entering the spa, they give you a key to your lockers – so Paul and I went to our separate locker rooms and the attendants were to come get us to take us to the Rasul’s room. I barely had time to change into my spa robe and slippers and an attendant came to get me. She had a different name than the one I’d been told to expect, but called me by name, so I didn’t think anything about it.

I followed her down to a massage treatment room (not a sauna/shower type room) so I was a bit puzzled. She asked me ‘did you fill out the blue form already?’ uh – blue form? I don’t think so… Her response was ‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you didn’t fill out the blue form yet!’ Now I felt really confused. What blue form?

She left to get the mysterious blue form, and while she was gone, another woman came in. ‘OH THERE YOU ARE!’ she announced to me. Upon the first attendant’s return, she was told ‘you got the wrong guest’, and turning to me, said ‘she was going to give you a shock treatment!’ Now I don’t know what kind of ‘shock treatments’ they give out on a Disney cruise, but I’m sure I don’t want one. Just give me massages, pedicures or facials, and I’ll be fine, thanks!

After the near miss, I was a bit glad to escape the spa and we went up to find Oma and the kids. They were already done eating and we found them hanging out, watching (what else!) Disney Channel on the jumbotron over the Goofy pool.

When we got back to the room, Sopandbass’s dau called and asked if Katherine wanted to come play with her. So I took her down there and enjoyed a nice chat with her dad, Steve. Another friend from the OC joined them, and the 3 girls, Steve and I went up to the ‘Princess Gathering’ that was scheduled for the atrium.
(That phrase sounded a little odd to me – like some sort of wicca coven meeting, but I digress.)

We had a bit of a scare because as soon as we went up the stairs from 2nd floor to 4th floor, the girls dashed off and we immediately lost track of them in the crowd. Yikes! I stayed by the stairs in case they returned back, and Steve went around the loop on 4th floor looking for them. Of course, like any good Disney guests would, they had seen the line of people waiting for pictures and had gotten into it!

Anyway, Katherine got pictures and autographs of Aurora and Belle (blue dress). At first I was confused about Belle - I greeted her as Alice. Oops, major faux pas from the look I got! If a Disney princess could give a look that kills, I would have been finished off right there! Personally, I think she was just testy because she was flanked by Aurora on her left and Cinderella on her right, so she was getting ‘passed over’ for pictures.

But honestly, the other two were wearing ball gowns and she had on her village girl dress…she was underdressed!

Of course it occurred to me later that Alice has BLONDE hair and Belle has BRUNETTE hair. DUH!

We also saw Aladdin and Peter Pan. Paul and Jacob met us then in the stroller. Paul was hoping to take him to the Mickey pool, but it was closed (for cleaning, I suppose). Katherine decided to go check in for ‘free time’ in the club.

We fed Jake lunch, and then started in our daily stroller walk around the promenade deck. He fell asleep, so Paul sat with him on the 7th aft deck. I went to Parrot Cay to get some lunch and brought the tray back to enjoy. Jake was still asleep in his stroller, so we all enjoyed a nap outside on the loungers on the deck.

 

[ldeninge]

About 2pm Katherine paged us – I went up and played with her in the club for awhile, and then she was ready for lunch. So she and I went to Topsiders. It was then I discovered the lunch buffet was the same menu in both Topsiders and Parrot Cay. I suppose that was the case all week, but I’d never gone to two restaurants for one meal before!

Jake was awake by then and the Mickey Pool was back open. We saw Oma, so she went with Jacob and Paul to the Mickey ear to have fun splashing. Katherine asked to go to the Goofy Pool, so she and I went over there, swam and watched ‘Finding Nemo’ on the big screen.

We ran into BIL#2 and Ne11 and had a snack with them on deck by the pool, sat in the sun and just enjoyed the warm weather. Boy, it felt good to be truly WARM in January. It seems like usually I go 6 months of feeling constantly chilled during winter at home.

Since it was semi-formal night, SIL asked if we could meet up for a dressy family picture before dinner, so we all went down a bit early and got a nice photo. The photographer there was the best one we had the whole trip. I wished I’d gotten her name. She took the time to position everyone carefully, and took several shots, so it looks very nice, IMHO.

Standing – Opa, Oma, BIL#2
Kneeling – Paul with Jacob, me, Ne11, SIL, BIL#1
Sitting in front – Katherine, Ne4, Ni8

and I finally got the Mickey Wheel picture done!

So it was off to our dinner in Parrot Cay. For dessert, I thought the kids might like to try Mickey Bars. Katherine had been trying the regular adult desserts (just like us, she loves anything with chocolate!) but Jacob hadn’t wanted too much. Well, once he had a Mickey ice cream bar, he was beside himself with joy! I think he couldn’t believe I’d been holding out on him that such delicious things existed!

He just kept saying under his breath, “Mee-kee baaaah, Mee-kee baaah” as if to cement the phrase in his mind, so he could be sure to ask for one again the next night.

After dinner, he was really wired (do you think his blood sugar was a bit high? so we let him go to the show (Disney Dreams). Although he did enjoy it very much, he was VERY tired at the end (didn’t cry, but kept trying to lie down in my lap), so we were glad we didn’t do that every night.

We went right back to the room after the show and both kids fell asleep instantly.

Up next – Castaway Cay and stingrays!

 

[pdarrah]

Nice report! And, we're in one of your photos! Its in post #14 at the Mickey 200 race. DS is standing near the back - orange shirt and lime green crocs (can you tell he picked his own clothes?) DH is behind him with their car in a green shirt - I'm mostly behind DH in a lime green shirt.

I don't think we met at all on board - but I'm glad we all had fun...

pdarrah

 

[ldeninge]

Nice report! And, we're in one of your photos! Its in post #14 at the Mickey 200 race. pdarrah

AWESOME! thanks for pointing that out!

 

[ldeninge]

Friday morning at 8am, the first words I heard from the curtain on the other side of our stateroom was a quiet mumbling coming from Jacob upon awakening. “Meekee Baaaah…Meekee Baaaah…” Apparently he was recovering from some sort of Mickey Bar hangover.

We got up to breakfast at Topsiders at 9am. After that, Katherine challenged each of us to games of Foosball. Paul stopped by guest services and took care of putting the tips for our servers/host on our account.

By 11am, we were walking off the boat onto Castaway Cay.

I was struck by the beauty of the island, and even more by Disney’s ability to make something ‘better’ than reality. I guess that’s the Disney Magic. For example, at the World Showcase at Epcot: you can ‘visit’ other countries, without having to deal with the messy aspects of reality – language barriers, politics, war, violence, etc. For what it’s worth, CC is the epitome of what we’d all like a tropical island to be like – clean, safe, manicured, bathrooms every 20 feet and soft-serve ice cream to boot. Sort of sterilized beauty, but nice nevertheless!

Ok, enough philosophizing… back to the trip report.

We rode the tram, which after getting off we realized had dropped us off about 100 yards from where we started. (Of course, Jacob loved riding the ‘choo-choo’, so it was fine.)

We walked on up to the bike rental. I had been concerned that we should have reserved ahead but I figured if they were out, we’d just come back later. However, there were plenty of different sized bikes. Katherine found one just her size, and without training wheels, so she was thrilled. We got one for Paul with a baby seat on the back for Jacob, and we were all off and going!

(no comments please – I know his helmet’s not on straight and the shoulder straps are loose…)

We love to bike at home as a family, so this was something I’d looked forward to doing all week. The weather was perfect, and the trails were nicely maintained. The extra treat was the water jugs at the end of the trail! Of course, we ended up having a water fight!
For about an hour we rode around on all the different trails we could find. We went up to the lookout tower, saw the adult beach, and saw the old landing strip and planes.

On the way back to eat lunch, I stopped at the Stingray place and was pleased they weren’t booked up. I reserved spots for Katherine and me to feed the rays at 3pm. This was something I’d also been looking forward to doing. I wasn’t sure if Katherine would go for actually being in the water with the rays, but this sounded much less intimidating than the Stingray City on Grand Cayman. The kind CM at the desk told me that if she backed out and refused to do it, he’d take her back off the list.

Lunch was at the BBQ – Jake had seen the corn-on-the-cob on some people’s plates, so he was thrilled to have that. They were out of milk but otherwise everything was great. At lunch, we saw BIL#1 and family eating, but we needed a table in the shade, so we sat in the shelter. They were having lots of fun doing the beach and my SIL had received a cabana massage. She said it was wonderful! After lunch, we saw BIL#2 on the walkway – he had just gotten off the boat after a relaxing morning onboard the abandoned ship. (smart guy!)

Katherine had arranged to meet SopandBass’ dau at Scuttle’s Cove (the CC kids club) at 1:30 to play the water games, while Paul and BIL#2 were going to snorkle, and Jacob and I would play on the beach.

However, there was a small snag with that plan.
After waiting in the ever-present line to check Katherine in at the club, we discovered several problems:
1. We all needed to use the bathroom. Scuttle’s Cove doesn’t have a restroom inside the barbed-wire compound. (Who could have guessed? The bathrooms are every 20 feet the rest of the walkway.)
2. Katherine didn’t want to change into her swimsuit (even though they were playing water games)
3. She didn’t want to play in the dry area of SC
4. She didn’t want to come with us
5. We didn’t see Sharon & Steve’s dau (and the counselor didn’t see her name on the list when we asked him to check) so she didn't really want to stay
6. Paul wanted to go snorkeling with BIL#2 and time was ticking by since we’d all have to be done by 2:50 to see the stingrays.

Finally, in exasperation, we stomped out of Scuttle’s Cove with her. AARGH!
As we’re in line to check out, we see Steve going back in. Yes, his dau is in there, he says! So now, Katherine wants to go back in!

Up to the bathroom we go, Paul helps Katherine change into her suit and he takes her back down and checks her back in to SC to play water games and bubbles.

So apparently, after 30 minutes wasted, we’re all set. The time wasn’t totally wasted – I checked out the gift shop and bought a little sand pail and shovel for Jake to play with (for $8!) I had been under the misunderstanding that they had sand toys to BORROW on CC. Not the case, I guess.

We split up – Paul and BIL#2 to find snorkel rental and see the fish, and Jake and I to the abandoned corner of the family beach (by the stingrays). This was the BEST possible beach for little kids.


All the families and big kids were playing on the other side of the family beach – the area by the play structure/bridge. NO ONE was around us, except for one other nice family with a 2 yo. So, I pulled my chair right up into the water and enjoyed the sunshine. Jake had a field day attempting to empty all the water of the Caribbean into a small hole he had scooped out on the beach. He never made much progress, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Now just for the record: for 3000 miles, by van, plane, bus, ship and taxi, I had lugged around not just one, but two pairs of swimshoes for each of my darling children. In case one pair tore, or their feet suddenly grew a size bigger, I was prepared. I didn’t want them to stub their sweet little toes on a piece of coral, to cut their heel on a sharp rock, or to accidentally encounter an angry crab. I toted them to Cozumel where the sand was smooth and warm. I faithfully put them on each time my children swam in the pools on the ship. However, when I put Jacob’s swim diaper on at the family beach at Castaway Cay, where the sand is covered with jagged rocks and nasty pieces of coral, what did I discover? You guessed it, I had forgotten to pack the swimshoes into the bag to take off the ship that day.

Of course, he couldn’t wear his $30 brand new leather sandals into the ocean. Paul, Katherine and I had worn our Tevas/sport sandals, so we were fine in the water. Just my beloved prince had unprotected little dogs. So - he and I both went barefoot on the family beach. I figured at least I should suffer as much as him. (He didn’t seem to mind nearly as much as I did, by the way).

At 2pm, Katherine, Paul and BIL#2 came strolling down to the beach. Paul and BIL# had gotten some snorkelling in. We walked up to the Stingray area. The ‘excursion’ began with an informative talk about stingrays. I learned quite a few things I didn’t know, and Katherine was RAPT.

She is quite the little naturalist, so was nervous but excited to do this. After watching the other kids in our group feed the rays, she bravely put her hand down with a piece of shrimp tucked in her fingers and enjoyed the soft sweep of the ray go over her hand. She squealed ‘it sucked it up!’

I don’t have the pictures developed yet from the underwater disposable camera. When I get them, I’ll post a picture of her feeding and petting the rays.

Although we had the equipment as part of the excursion fee, we didn’t snorkel. We spent another 15 min or so walking around in the little cove and seeing the rays swish around us in the water. It was so amazing! The water is very shallow, so there was no concern with her just walking around.

SIDE NOTE: Ever since getting home, she has played in the bathtub that her little sponge scrubby is a ‘southern stingray’ and she wants us to pet and put our hand down to feed it. So apparently this was a highlight for her, too.

After helping the BBQ restaurant finish off the last of the ice cream (literally!), we headed back to the ship at 4:30. Here’s Katherine enjoying a favorite activity - a ride on her uncle’s shoulders.

 

[ldeninge]

Back on board, we packed one bag (good progress – just 8 to go!) and the ship sailed at 5pm. Dinner for our last night was in Lumiere’s. It was the ‘Til We Meet Again’ theme. After dinner it was awesome to see all the servers come out carrying the flags of all the different countries represented on board (over 60!) and get to cheer for Mo and Claudio.

Since we’d finished off the wine package on Wednesday night, we ordered two more bottles of champagne to toast and celebrate Oma and Opa’s anniversary – the reason we were all here. A cake was brought out (a few nights prior, we had requested this to be done on the final evening) and the servers sang ‘Happy Anniversary’ to them.
It was very sweet.

After dinner, Paul took Katherine to the last show. I put Jacob in his pjs and while he rode hypnotized in the stroller, my SIL and I dashed off on our last-night-of-the-cruise missions:

1. Shutters – make our final picture selections and tearfully bid farewell to the photos we didn’t want
   
2. Return the kids’ club pagers
   
3. Find a computer: do online check-in for our flights home and print our boarding passes. Of course, in the middle of doing that, the printer ran out of paper! OH NO! This is costing me 75c. a min and I have to wait for someone to come from guest services and refill the paper tray! PLEASE HURRY! (They hurried – guess they could hear the panic in my voice…)
4. Return the stroller
5. GO PACK like a madwoman

SIDE NOTE: I only used the computers twice on the ship (and had to scramble to find the time to do that.) Just to quickly check my email, and do our flight stuff for the trip home, I racked up $25.

Upon getting back to the room, Jacob fell asleep. I started packing, since our bags had to be tagged and set outside our room by 11pm. I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the project. My biggest fear was that I would put things we needed for the trip home in the checked luggage. I didn’t want to be rummaging through giant bags at the terminal trying to find some lost item. It was quite a project, since I couldn’t figure how on earth I’d gotten all this stuff into the suitcases the first time. After Paul and Katherine got back, and she was in bed, he helped me finish up. We put our tags on and bags out at 10:30pm and Craig whisked them off to be run through security, so we could gather them up Saturday morning and check them at the terminal.

Exhausted, we collapsed into bed, and set our alarms for 6:15am.

Up next…sometimes Paul has to be the ‘mean parent’ and our porter is worth her weight in gold.

 

[kevinsmom]

love the detailed report!! can you tell me where are the computers??... i def. want to print out our boarding passes for our flight coming home.... do you need to be signed up to do this or how does it work? thanks!!

 

[ldeninge]

can you tell me where are the computers??... i def. want to print out our boarding passes for our flight coming home.... do you need to be signed up to do this or how does it work? thanks!!

I used the desktop computers in 2 locations: the Cove Cafe (the adults only coffee shop on Deck 9) and the Promenade Lounge (3rd floor). There might be other locations, guest services could tell you. Also, if you bring a laptop, you can do wireless in some areas on the ship (just can't print, then).

There are directions right by the computers when you sit down. It walks you right through how to do it. It isn't anything you sign up for ahead of time. You just select at that time whether you want to purchase a package of minutes, or pay by the minute. Both are very expensive. The 'unlimited' package they used to have is no longer available. There was a thread about that on the boards recently:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1337483

By the way, I printed out my boarding passes, but didn't need to. I'll talk about this in my next installment - we had the package deal where they transport from terminal to airport. We flew home American and so we checked in/checked our bags right at the American desk at the ship terminal. It was great! They took our bags as we got off the ship and we didn't see them again until we were home. Anyway, the woman at the American desk just handed us boarding passes there. Maybe other airlines aren't the same - and if you don't have the package deal, you wouldn't want to deal with standing in the ticket line at the airport, I'm sure.

Have a great time on your cruise!
Lauri

 

[plutospup]

You're trip report is wonderful! It sounds like you had a very busy day at Castaway Cay. The bikes sound like a lot of fun. Are the pathways paved, and where do they go? Do they go to the other side of the island? Feeding the stingrays sounds like fun, too. That's new since our last visit in '04. Where does that take place? I know, lots of questions! I just want to be ready for our next cruise! Thanks.

 

[Bytor01]

We did the stingray excursion too. Very fun. Great report unfortunately I know you dont want to write that last page of it because then it would be over.

Tim

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1342280

 

[cindygirl16]

Referring to your Character Breakfast....those "handlers" as you called them are NOT people that clean the toilets. They are actually the performers you see in the shows in the Walt Disney Theatre. So yes they actually do have importance on the ship (as do the stateroom hosts who DO clean the toilet). If you would have paid close attention to your pic...you might see that Plutos GREETER was the man who played Shang in the Golden Mickeys.

 

[ldeninge]

Referring to your Character Breakfast....those "handlers" as you called them are NOT people that clean the toilets. They are actually the performers you see in the shows in the Walt Disney Theatre. So yes they actually do have importance on the ship (as do the stateroom hosts who DO clean the toilet). If you would have paid close attention to your pic...you might see that Plutos GREETER was the man who played Shang in the Golden Mickeys.

Cindygirl,
thanks for IDing Pluto's greeter for me. I thought he looked familiar, but we were not close enough to the stage to recognize which role he played.

Everyone on the ship is critical to a great experience, and I didn't mean to imply these people weren't (or that folks who clean aren't). The ship was spotless and I appreciated everything that was done for us that I normally do for myself at home (and I said thank you a million times to every CM I encountered, and tipped generously). My comment in my OP was that I was amused by the idea of someone in a big fuzzy costume requiring help IN the bathroom (you know, like brides do with their big dresses/trains).

thanks for reading my report, and welcome to the Disboards.
Lauri

 

[ldeninge]

We did the stingray excursion too. Very fun.

Tim,
What time did you do the stingray excursion? Were they hungry? Ours were a little full by 3pm, but they were still very curious. I am so glad we had the opportunity to do it.
Lauri

 

[Bytor01]

Apparently we were supposed to go at 11 but I thought 1. So they squeezed us in then. They were probably full because my little boy kept feeding them until there was no more food. Everyone took great pleasure at how he responded each and everytime they came by and sucked the food out of his hand.

Tim

 

[ldeninge]

Hi,
I just got pictures from my BIL#2 - so I added in 2 pictures of Paul's scuba trip with him. (post #25)
Lauri

 

[ldeninge]

Of course, 6:15am came WAY too early. It was still dark, but of course we could see all the lights of the terminal out our window. I had heard the weather in Iowa was cold and that we’d gotten ice and snow while we were gone. Still, it sounded like the weather forecast for flying that day would be fine. Cross fingers!

I haven’t mentioned this but I was nervous – our return flight was at 11:30 (Orlando – MCO). It would be nice, because it would get us into home at 4:30. However, it was earlier than the recommended 12 or 12:30 flight. I asked the TA to verify it with Disney (we had the package transportation deal from Disney). She said “Disney says, ‘it’ll be fine.’ ” OK, then. If we miss our flight, do we get to get back on the boat and cruise the Eastern? That would be fine…

From what I’d researched on the boards, I knew we’d probably have no problem getting to the flight on time, but was nervous that any delay would be catastrophic. I’d heard of people not finding bags and having to wait to claim lost bags, of having security or medical emergencies causing delays in disembarkation, of flat tires on the Disney bus to the airport, etc. etc. You name it, I’d worried about it.

Anyway, this is why we were up before dawn. Since we were early seating, our breakfast was scheduled for 7:00 at Lumiere’s. I asked Mo on Friday night if it would be quicker for us to go up to Topsider’s instead of the restaurant. He noted that it might be a little quicker, but not much. He assured me he’d get us 'in and out of there’ so we’d get off the boat right away. Also, I felt guilty to not have one last breakfast with our family – it felt like we were sprinting to get away from them to eat on deck. Plus, Lumiere’s is on Deck 3 midship, so we could easily walk right over to get in line to get off the boat.

So, at 6:15 Paul and I heard our cell phone alarm go off, and then the wake-up call rang simultaneously from the other side of the bed.
OK, OK! WE’RE UP! WE’RE UP!! We groggily showered and dressed in our layers (trying to get psyched up for the cold Iowa weather we knew awaited us), and packed the last of the bags (except for the kids’ clothes and toothbrushes). We put our coats in our carryons. Now that is a sad moment. Packing the carryons on the way down, they were full of shorts and swimsuits. On the way back, sweatshirts and gloves.

Now, our Mission Impossible was to get both children out the door. I dressed Jake and we tried to convince Katherine she needed to get up to get breakfast. No deal. We reminded her of the fun airplane ride today. No deal. We threatened, we cajoled, we promised Mo would have her favorite – extra bacon. No deal. Finally, Paul just gave up and man-handled Katherine into her clothes, while she scrambled across the bed to escape into the bedcovers for another 5 min.
I couldn’t blame her, really.
I discovered it is possible to put a child’s hair into a ponytail while she is lying on her side. We brushed her teeth while she was lying down (and she rinsed and spit into a cup). By this point, we were starting to giggle about it a little, so that was good.

So off to breakfast we go. Extra bacon all around, as promised. Jake is thrilled that he gets another meal of pancakes. I was so glad we ate one more meal with the family. We had said our goodbyes to BIL#1’s family Friday night, because they were not going to the airport – they were heading to the parks for a couple days. So they were planning to sleep in and stay on the boat until they were shoe-horned out the door. BIL#1 did come down to say goodbye, and brought copies of our formal group picture they had bought for everyone, and a lovely copy of a picture of Oma and Opa that had been taken by the ship photographers at dinner one night.

Mo was true to his word, he got our food efficiently – we were done with breakfast by 7:45. We hit the restrooms and got in line to get through customs and off the boat. We were off the boat by 8:15.

 

[ldeninge]

We were whisked down through the port to the lower level – the gigantic piles of luggage awaited our attention. We had Red Mickey tags, so that narrowed our search to a slightly less gigantic corner of the terminal. I wish I’d taken a picture of that. What a forlorn sight – all those piles of bags upon bags. Anyway, we start hunting. Oma kindly kept the kids with her, so Paul and I, Opa and BIL#2 could all hunt for all our bags. Pretty soon we found all the pieces (thank goodness for our red, grey and brown luggage – ANYTHING but black!)

A porter was quickly at our side piling all our bags upon a gigantic trolley. This woman was amazing! I felt so wimpy – she was all of 5’2” and 110# and she slung those suitcases around like no big deal. I commented that she must be so tired at the end of the day, and she just laughed and said this was her ‘gym membership’. After we had all our bags, she asked to borrow one KTTW card so she could show it to the security officers (it had APA on it – airport port airport – our transport pass). She asked what airline we were flying. Ours was American, Oma & Opa and BIL#2 were Delta. Then she said ‘OK, now STAY with me!’ and off we went at warp speed! She zipped us right through and up to the proper desk. What a relief to not have to stand around trying to figure out where to go. For each of our porters, we tipped $20 (for 9 bags). They were worth their weight in gold.

At the American desk, there was no line at all. We checked our bags and received boarding passes. I had printed them off the night before, but the clerk handed them right to us anyway. I was glad we had done the on-line check-in, I think that made it quicker, too. After last sets of hugs and kisses to Oma & Opa and BIL#2, we boarded a Disney bus for the ride to the airport. They were still in a long line for Delta when we pulled away. I was so grateful ours was so quick. They had plenty of time – Oma & Opa’s flight was at 1:30 and BIL#2's was at 3:30.

The ride to the airport was uneventful (thankfully). We pulled right up and went directly to the tram to take us over to the American terminal. We were at our gate by 10:15 (exactly 75 minutes early). Whew! Perfect! At that moment (but not a second before) I was SO HAPPY we had agreed to the early flight. We ate a few snacks and walked around to get the kids ready to sit on the plane. After our 2 short flights and a smooth connection in O’Hare (now THAT’S Disney magic for you!! ixiedust: I’ve NEVER had a smooth connection in O’Hare!), we were home on time. My folks surprised us by meeting us at the airport, so it was fun to see friendly faces and get big hugs upon returning home. Our trusty airport shuttle was ready to go – we loaded bags and it was wonderful to pull in our driveway.

Paul and I felt there was no way we’d be able to eat anything (not like there was any food in the house anyway!) so we had cereal for supper. The kids had chicken soup, took long hot baths and were sound asleep by 6:45!

They were off to some peaceful Disney Dreams…

Here are some parting pictures:

…of course the obligatory sunset shot

and the port-hole picture…

Thanks for reading my report - I have really enjoyed ‘reliving’ the wonderful memories!

Now that I'm finished, Paul says he’s going to write the ‘real version’. Look out! About 10% of what he says is true, but it’ll be entertaining, I’m sure!

 

[ldeninge]

You're trip report is wonderful! It sounds like you had a very busy day at Castaway Cay. The bikes sound like a lot of fun. Are the pathways paved, and where do they go? Do they go to the other side of the island? Feeding the stingrays sounds like fun, too. That's new since our last visit in '04. Where does that take place? I know, lots of questions! I just want to be ready for our next cruise! Thanks.

The bikes were great. The paths are paved blacktop, 'country style' lanes - a few potholes, etc. Easy riding. I don't know exactly where the paths went! They were marked - some were a one-way loop around part of the island. Another went out to a lookout tower where you could see the ship. I'm sure there would be 'maps' at guest services, or maybe on the CC at the info desk, or at the bike rental place? We didn't ask - just rode around and figured it wasn't big enough to get lost.

The stingray registration and lagoon was just on past the family beach on the left hand (water) side. It was also just past the bike rental. As you go along on the big path, you can't miss it.


You'll have a blast!

 

[plutospup]

Thanks for the bike & stingray info!

I really enjoyed your TR! Thanks for sharing your journey.

 

[ldeninge]

I see I'm no longer 'earning my ears' in my profile - I'm a MOUSEKETEER! Who would have thought that would be so exciting!