EDC Western Cruise, 11/01/08: PostTrip Depression, Pics added 11/29

Jen,

You know we didn't get to meet on the ship, but we were on the same dining rotation and didn't really know it. We were at table 12. When we were at Lumiere's it was the table closest to the back door or where they were making the cherries jubilee....I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you guys...since you, after all, were the one who introduced me to the Disboards....I was going to do a trip report, but didn't take as many pictures to show. We were down the hall from you on the boat too....we were aft and we moved from our original room to a suite by the aft staircase. I passed your room on my way to a bridge tour...I remember seeing it from your photos....
 
Mindy:
There were many DISers around the ship I saw by the bracelets, but since i didn't go to the DIS Meet on Saturday, I had no idea who was who, and didn't want to just approach people. I am actually more shy in person than Online! ;)

Glad you had a great time, and were able to join us over here. I felt bad I hadn't gotten back to you on the other boards, I just take too darn much time on these boards, then my laptop battery dies, and well, there it is! Hopefully you can post some of your pictures. I'd love to see you guys!

MaryAz: I know, you just can't beat the horn. I think that's the reason I made my way up to the party even though I wasn't feeling well. You can't start the cruise without hearing those magical tones! :cloud9:

I wore my DCL shirt today. Pink, with a heart in the center, with the ship and Minnie and Mickey , then Alice, Tink, Mermaid and Flounder. It was 70 degrees here in Maryland for some reason today, then a front came through and the temperature dropped by 15 degrees almost instantly! :sad2:

Syd is currently doing her "Cinderella Dancerella" tape right now. She laid out her dance mat, and is doing all the moves while twirling in her little skirt. Its cute. Of course, she takes a break now and then to suck her thumb, but its still adorable! :love:

Finally finished 5 loads of laundry today. I can't figure out the math... I did 3 loads of laundry (white, light and dark) on Cozumel day. SHHHHHHH that is my secret. If you don't go ashore, you have the laundry room on 7 COMPLETELY TO YOURSELF! I have to say, the new washer and dryers were great! I only had to wash each load once, then put each one in the dryer for 45 minutes (1 cycle, $1) and everything was clean and dry! Only thing I didn't get out was a ketchup stain (imagine that!) :sad2: from DD's white shirt. I think the new machines are great!

Anyway, 3 loads on Wednesday. :laundy: Then 2 loads on Friday, then packed up the bags except for a few items DH had stored somewhere and not put in the laundry "bag". :sad2: I had finished all the laundry before we left too, so I didn't have any clothes lagging from before we left, so.....

to continue the math problem....:teacher: (God, I love these smilies!)

How is it I managed to accumulate 5 loads of laundry this week? I didn't do laundry last weekend, but shouldn't have really had much from the trip since I had done 5 loads during the trip. Oh, wait, add the other 2 I had done while we were at Old Key West. So, 7 loads during the 10 days we were on vacation...

And, in the 7 days we have been home, my children have managed to destroy the house. No easy feat when we were rarely home this week, due to dance lessons, late nights at work and other such activities...

I need a magic :laundy: fairy, and a cook fairy, and a housekeeping fairy. Where are Tink and her fairy friends when a girl needs them! :rotfl:

Gotta catch up on some DCL forum reading. Then I hope to be back to continue with the journey. Onto Day 2, Key West!!
 
Hey Jen-

When you're done with those fairies, send them up here puh-leeeez!!! I can't seem to get rid of the ever present laundry, either.:confused: But I am down to just the hanging-bag-of-post-cruise-dispair to get rid of now....

By the way, I didn't think you were shy at all! You're a sweetie, inside and out, calm and cool and just lovely:cutie: ....wish I could have seen more of you!!!

E
 

Before I go onto the Sunday Highlights, I thought I'd put in some details from the Navigator for Saturday. That one is chock (is that really a word?) full of info, not only for that day, but for the whole week. I haven't had a chance to scan the Navigator's yet, so hopefully this can answer some questions people may (or may not!) have!

Highlights of the Day (from the front page):

Adventures Away: Earn your status as VIP sailors at this high-energy celebration. Join your cruise director, BRENT, the Cruise Staff and the Disney Characters as we kick off the official start to your Adventures Away! (Walt Disney Theatre)

Mickey Mania Game Show: Put your family's Disney knowledge to the ultimate test, or play along from our live stuido audience (Studio Sea)

Family Dance Party with Soul Drive: Live music fills Rockin' Bar D as Soul Drive play popular dancing music for our family dance party (Sessions...just kidding, wanted to see who was paying attention!)

Magic Quest: (for guests 18 and older) Enjoy the wildest and wackiest scavenger team event (Rockin' Bar D)

Match Your Mate: Discover just how well you know, or don't know, your mate! This fun adult game show is always full of surprises! (Rockin'Bar D)

OK, is it just me, or do you see ALOT of activity in Rockin' Bar D?? Maybe they should rename it "the place where all things happen??" ;)

Other notes:
ALL ABOARD: 3:45pm
PORT DEPARTURE: 5:00pm
Evening Attire: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu:
Animator's Palate: Show Dinner
Parrot Cay: Island Dinner
Lumiere's: French Dinner
Drink of the Day:
Bay Breeze (alcoholic)
Mango Crush (non-alcoholic)
END OF DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME! Turn your clocks back 1 hour!!


Just for the Kids:
Floudner's Reef Nursery: infants and toddlers, by reservation only
Oceaneer Club: 3-7 year olds, potty trained
Oceaneer Lab: 8-10 year olds
Ocean Quest: 11-13 year olds
The Stack Teen Club: 14-17 year olds

SPECIALS:
Spa: book and receive today, $30 off any spa services worth over $100
Wine:classic wine package is only $189, and the premium package is just $292
(don't ask me what is which and which is what. I don't drink nearly enough to justify the wine packages! I will, however, be glad to post the specifics should I find them in a Navigator somewhere!)
Internet: $.75 a minute, pay as you go
100 minutes for $55, 250 minutes for $100, or 500 minutes for $150
Parkwest: OK, there is just too much drama and controversy on this one to give any details. Basically, bunch of art stacked and hung in the hall adding to the narrow-ness of the 4th deck hall from the Atrium back toward the Aft. Seemingly daily art auctions, one of which sold a Donald Duck painting for a bargain price of $9900! :scared1: Sorry, that is as much as my Baltic Cruise, and I don't like Donald nearly that much! :rotfl:

And the all important information on the bottom of the back page:
No Reserved Seats Policy As a courtesy to all Guests we kindly advise that the saving of seats is not permitted in the Walt Disney Theatre, and the saving of the sun-loungers is not permitted on Deck 9 and 10
There, as it is stated, written in the gold box on the forsaken Navigators for all to ignore! :rotfl:
Walt Disney Theatre Theatrical performances may use artificial fog, strobe lights, pyrotechnics and other special effects. For the safety of our performers and the comfort of those around you, the use of flash photography and video recording is PROHIBITED

Thank you Brent and Christain for reminding all the knuckleheads who usually take pictures throughout the show that it is impolite and a really PITA for the performers. As a former stage person myself, I can attest to the fact that it is quite distracting if not completely blinding to have flashbulbs go off while you are on stage. Can you imagine someone sitting in a Broadway theatre taking pictures through the show? All the New Yorkers would hog-tie the person and drag them out in the alley! And I say that as a former Long Islander! :rotfl2:

Well, enough of THAT. Anyone want to know the movies too?
 
Thanks Ellen. I too was hoping to see more of you! I searched and searched each day, and really only saw you and DH when I found pictures! LOL I was so happy to see you at least briefly when you sat with me at the Friendship rocks show (that wasn't!)

Oh, Here is a list of the movies that were playing in the Buena Vista Theatre during our week on board the Magic:
WALL-E (G)
College Road Trip (G)
Miracle at St Anna (R)
Beverly Hills Chihuahua (PG)
High School Musical 3(G)
Swing Vote (PG-13)
Tinker Bell (G)
Morning Light (PG-13)
THe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (PG-13)

There are now 27 channels on your stateroom TV. Some of the shows in your room are (OK, besides the ones YOU may create, but we won't mention those!) :banana:
DISNEY CLASSICS: Aladdin, The Black Cauldron,The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, The Sword in the Stone
DISNEY FEATURES: Dinosaur, Fantasia 2000, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, Mulan, Toy Story 2, The Tigger Movie
FEATURED FILMS: Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Corpse Bride, Get Smart, Ghostbusters, Speed Racer, Iron Man, Leatherheads, Indiana Jones Crystal Skull, The Haunted Mansion, Kit Kittredge, Hocus Pocus

I'm going out on a limb here, and thinking that many of the movies on our cruise were due to the close proximity of Halloween for our Cruise Week. Not sure how often Corpse Bride, Ghostbusters, and the Haunted Mansion are really played on the TV. :confused3

There is an extensive list of Duty Free Liquor available on board, as well as Cigars. Cigarettes are listed as "US Brand Cigarettes 21.95 per carton" I can also scan this list if anyone is dying to know. I don't visit the Duty Free shop, so I can't comment on anything other than what is listed on the sheet provided in the Navigator!
 
Thanks for all the wonderful info from the navigator will help me plan our western cruise in 2010 :)

Good luck with the laundry though I don't envy you there!

More please :)
 
Jen
Thanks for all the info. Cinderella Dancerella Hmmm, I am still Christmas shopping. Good luck on the landury!
 
Mindy:
There were many DISers around the ship I saw by the bracelets, but since i didn't go to the DIS Meet on Saturday, I had no idea who was who, and didn't want to just approach people. I am actually more shy in person than Online! ;)

Glad you had a great time, and were able to join us over here. I felt bad I hadn't gotten back to you on the other boards, I just take too darn much time on these boards, then my laptop battery dies, and well, there it is! Hopefully you can post some of your pictures. I'd love to see you guys!


I've never posted pictures before and I've started writing my own trip report for us to keep with our pictures....it took me 4 pages to describe our first day at the MNSSHP. My husband wants to post it, but it's just too long...I'll see if I can upload some pictures of my kids and perhaps you'll recognize them from the dining room. I'll have to do it in another post because the pictures are on my husband's computer and i can't get them from here.
 
You need to upload them to somewhere online like Photobucket. We can't (and you don't want us to) access the drive on your home computer. :)

HTH

Jill in CO
 
Sorry, back to last night really quick! I think I forgot a very special Magical Moment for us. DD was bound and determined at the show the first night to get her tooth out. I could have something to do with the fact that I *may* have told her that Tinkerbell *may* also make a visit along with the Tooth Fairy when you lose a tooth on board the ship. :confused3 I'll never tell! :goodvibes So she was at it the whole first 15 mintues of the show, and finally her persistance paid off, and there was a tooth! This kid is going to make me broke, I swear! She always seems to lose a tooth when we travel, which you know costs WAY more than if you just lose a tooth at home. She's making a killing!!
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So, when we got back to our room, we found a small Ziploc (thanks WuvTigger) and put her tooth in it. Then the tooth fairy could find it much easier! ;) The tooth fairy left her a note about how excited she was to be able to come out off the "Mainland" to get Lin's tooth, and left her 5 Disney Dollars and 2 regular dollars. Good thing I hadn't spent all their Disney dollars in WDW!! :rotfl:

We "slept in" a bit on Sunday morning. As I said the Tooth Fairy made an appearance, and Lin was really excited. Even moreso because the Tooth Fairy's note also left a hint of a possible Tink visit. What the heck did I do to myself? Hopefully I could pull that one off sometime today!

We went to breakfast up at Topsiders, where Syd got her first taste of the Disney drug called "Mickey Waffles" :rolleyes: From then on, breakfast, lunch and dinner she asked for "Mickey Waffles". Unless, of course, she asked for 2 hotdogs at dinner WITH KETCHUP, but first she always asked for Mickey Waffles. I need a Mickey Waffle Iron for Christmas! :sad2:

We knew we weren't getting into port until about 12 noon, and really the only thing we felt we *had to do* was go to the DVC Member event. Well, actually I felt that it was something I had to do. DH said he "wasn't interested". He went anyway, since when we returned to our stateroom after breakfast, Renee was cleaning our room.
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This was how she had arranged Ariel, and all HER fairy friends in our room!

DH didn't have anywhere else in particular he wanted to hang out while waiting for the room, so he decided to join me and DD...:rotfl: ahhh persuasion! We first dropped Sydney off at her Kids Club to Do-Si-Do with Snow White. She had no problem going, put her hands right out for the soap, and headed off to the bathroom to wash her hands. Makes a Momma pround and sad at the same time! :cloud9: Lindsey, not so easy.
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She didn't want to stay in the Lab to make Flubber. No way.
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Crying, clinging to me. Seriously. She may be smiling in that picture, but if you look closely, there is tear in her eye! And she's the older one! She ended up coming with us to the Club event!

We got there right at 10am, since my eldest chose to be difficult and not stay at the Oceaneer Lab, WHERE CHILDREN WERE HAVING FUN. So, there was nary a seat, and we sat on the edge of the room, where we could see a Plasma screen, but not much else. Met a couple from......????? any guesses???? yeah.... BINGO..... New Joisy (and I say that as a Jersey girl!) Didn't win any prizes, but did get our DVC hats, which enabled us to get our DVC Pins which enabled us to trade for other pins we really wanted. :cutie: Its a calculated system!

After Snow White had ended, we ate a quick lunch and then headed off to Key West. We were greeted by this as we came into port:
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Um, excuse me, is that a machine gun you're holding or are you just happy to see us? :lmao:

We got in a smidgeon early and were cleared to go ashore by 11:45am. We chose not to do any tours, since we had done the Key West Tour/Shipwreck Historeum/Aquarium last time. Instead, I wanted to see the Hemmingway house, and DH wanted to find a Key West Sweatshirt. He got his sweatshirt, all I got was this:

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Yeah, a waiting line for the house. And its 6 toed cats. Wasn't worth waiting for with 2 hot and cranky kids, and timed entrances, so we headed back towards the boat by way of Duvall Street. Always a sight or 12 to see!

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Yes, friends, that ever so beautifully painted RED building with the "stained glass look" and RED paint was a lovely little eatery called "Better Than Sex" :sad2: I should have known!!

On our way Lindsey found (to quote the late great Crocodile Hunter) "this little beauty. Isn't she GORGEOUS???" Well, maybe not so little, but very cool!!
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And there is nothing better than coming by the one, the only (OK, we found another in Cayman) but Margaritaville. Where not only the music is entertaining, but also watching the people who had only been off their ships for a mere hour or 2 but were already three sheets to the wind? Who says you have to wait til its 5 o'clock somewhere? :lmao:
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I did not get my camera out fast enough, but on our stroll down Duvall, a large group of Phillie Fanatics paraded down the street, apparantly still celebrating their glorious World Series win days before. Looking much like a bunch of people in a Mardi Gras parade, complete with beads, face painting, the works. Not sure if any came off our ship. Might not want to know!
 
We passed the large pitchfork people on our way back to the Magic, and got a few pictures. Thanks so much to whoever's DH ever so graciously offered to take the family pic for us. Of course, I mentioned we too were an EDC, and he said "oh Yeah, from those DIS boards. I am the DH" LOL I somehow think that he, much like my own DH, just doesn't get it...

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And some pictures of the girls and the Magic on our way back:

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Isn't that water just gorgeous? At what point in the US Eastern Seaboard does the water turn from the murky brown we have in Maryland/NJ/NY to this beautiful clear blue? I need to know!

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Yes, Welcome Home friends. I think that sign will be even more welcoming when we are in foreign ports in Europe!

Once back on the ship, we took advantage of the more empty (and less windy) Mickey Pool and did a bit of swimming!
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And sliding:
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Swimming in the Mickey Ear:
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Sunset in Key West:
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We had reservations for Palo that night at 6pm, so the kids had no choice but to go to their clubs tonight. Dropped them off before "Transition" to dinner, and let them eat with their friends at Topsiders. Then they each had a PJ party, one with Simba and one with Goofy, where they got to make their own pillowcase.
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We had a GREAT window seat at Palo, where we got to watch the "other ship" sail off, and see the remaining sunset. It was awesome! :lovestruc Some pics of Palo:
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We went back to get the kids before the show, "The Comedy and Juggling of Ron Pearson", and Lin eagerly came with us, but Syd, NO WAY! She wanted to stay in her Princess dress and color her Simba pillowcase. No amount of coaxing worked!
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The show was great, Ron Pearson was even funnier the second night with more time to enjoy! DD loved him so much, she wanted to go see him in the theatre the next night too. I think the balancing the ladder on his face seemed to really get her attention!!:rotfl2:

After the show, we did get Sydney to come out of the club with us, and headed up to our stateroom. On our bed, we found:
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Amazing the things they can do with a couple of towels and a pair of sunglasses!;)

And, of course, we especially found (on Lindsey's bed)
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Gotta admit, those stars are a PITA to pick up, since the points stab you in the fingers as you scoop them up. But we managed to salvage almost all, put them into a baggie and bring some real "Pixie Dust" home to Maryland!

Night all. Tomorrow, a relaxing (???) day at sea.
 
Great pics! It's nice to go back and relive our cruise.
Had to laugh at the comment about the confetti/stars/pixie dust. We still have an envelope full from our 2004 cruise, and we managed to fill another one from this cruise.
 
Oh, I LOVE the pixie dust!!!!:love: :love: :love: That is sooooo cool!! :love: We were at brunch in Palo when we docked, so I missed the guns and ammo show- also, brunch was at 10 am, so we missed the DVC presentation (although I did get our hats later from them), and I never saw any pins!:confused: Anyway- glad to read about our trip!:thumbsup2

E
 
And, of course, we especially found (on Lindsey's bed)
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Hello Mom2PrincessesLinSy,

Wow, how did you get the certificate for Lindsey? In other words, how did Disney know? Did you inform the stateroom host, or at Oceanneer Club? What a magical tooth fairy memory :thumbsup2
 
When we were on our cruise in March we sat with a family from Toronto. She wasn't a DISer. When her son lost his first tooth on board, I told her to go to Guest Services and tell them. She was thrilled when the "tooth" fairy left something special for him.
 
Yep, DisneyFanInAz is right. I went to guest services and asked what I could do to get something done for Lin since she lost her tooth. They took down the room number, child's name and said they would take care of it.

I also let them know she was sleeping on the top bunk so they knew which bed to put the "stuff" on.

I honestly wouldn't have known to go to guest services if it wasn't for this board! I went to guest services under the guise that I was giving the desk our pillowcases to be signed. I did do that, but also asked about the Magical Moment then too.

I put the pillowcases in a plastic ziploc with a black fabric marker for them to sign. They said they would be returned by Friday, I got them back by Wednesday!
 

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