Fantasy Eastern March 22 - 29 2014: Where's Waldo? (Well...Nick...) updated 4/18/14

[DisneyZell]

Hi everyone! Your wait is finally over. Yes...I am once again embarking on a journey. No...not a journey that is a vacation on a cruise ship...but a journey to actually try to write a Trip Report (that's TR for you experts out there) in less than a year. While I do not promise to actually make that happen, I do promise to try.

The really nice thing for all of you (consider yourselves lucky) is that if you have never read one of my TR's before there are several in my signature. When you get bored waiting for me to add another episode feel free to go check those out. In fact...why don't you go do that now? That will give you a good amount of background on how I write. It will also prepare you...for instance you need to get a plastic padded coating for your keyboard. Why? So that when I bore you to death..and you hit your head on your keyboard (either in frustration or just falling asleep), it won't hurt as much. Much to the chagrin of many past readers, I WILL NOT be held responsible for keyboard marks on your forehead. I'm sorry, the Disboards refuses to sell me that insurance anymore after that...incident...well...uh...never mind.

Moving on....

Now, I recommend you grab your coffee...

or whatever beverage you may choose...

'cause here we...wait a second. Although some of you followed my instructions and went and read my past TR's for background...at least ONE of you did not follow my instructions. This is not a good start for the TR. Not a good start at all. I'm watching you!

Ahem...anyway...away we go. Pay no mind to the troublemakers. There will be many on this journey.

See...now you have forced me to re-introduce the players of this little adventure. I'm sorry for wasting everyone else's time...but we must play to the lowest common denominator! ha!

DW - Deanna, my lovely bride who is much too good for me. And who somewhere along the line agreed to marry me...much to her chagrin at times as she has to now deal with three boys all the time. More on that later. She is the planner for all things cruise related...well and vacation related. She keeps a journal of what we do every day...which is why I can do this TR. For everything that is correct I credit her. For everything that is inaccurate or just a flat out lie...that is on me.

Disneyzell - That's me. a little chubby (working on that), a little neurotic...well ok sometimes a lot neurotic. But I will try to keep my craziness to a minimum.

DS15 - our teenager. and yes. he is DEFINITELY a teenager. He is the one referenced in the title of the whole story. Let's just say we are glad he showed up to get off the ship today.

DS11 - Our youngest. Great kid...loves independence....sort of.

Oh yeah...I'm writing this from the airport in Miami. Yup...Miami. We got off the ship almost 12 hours ago. Not on an airplane. Why you ask? ha! like I'm going to give that away at this stage of the story. By this time next year hopefully you will know the answer to that question. If I forget you might need to remind me.

Anyhoooooo...this story started long ago as we booked a trip onboard to get the 10% off and the $200 onboard credit (OBC....learn to love it baby!). We moved the date multiple times...which you can no longer do...that's a rant for another day though, until we finally settled on this week. We booked an ocean view cabin. Did we end up there? ha! again nice try. I'm much to quick at this stage of the TR to fall for your questions!

To add to our trip we decided it would be nice to go to Universal Islands of Adventure so that we could go to the Harry Potter land. DW is a travel agent, so she gets one free ticket a year...so that would be a little cheaper. Plus we decided to stay on-property at Universal so we would get front of the line passes. This all seemed like a really, really, really great idea.

Our family is frugal. We love going on vacations so we do whatever we can to keep the cost down on the things we can control...so we can do things like stay on-property for a couple of days....and more importantly take more cruises!

DW found a good price for flights flying into and out of Miami. 3.5 hour drive..not bad we figured so we booked it. Now we were all set.

For Christmas we told the boys about the cruise...in a fun way. DW ordered a puzzle with the ship on it. She then took a few pieces at a time and put them into little bags and we made a scavenger hunt. They got the outside pieces first and then the inside but they both figured it out pretty quickly. But it was a fun thing to do and we were all very excited to get going.

Well...now I'm starting to feel like Tokyodisneydad...I have to leave you mid-thought because we need to go get some food before boarding our flight...I'll post more soon...and I have around 500 pictures and video to post. Sorry about that!

Until next time...feel free to ask any questions...anything I can answer now I will...but of course I won't give anything away.

Welcome aboard!

DZ

 

[lizzyb]

Great start! Can't wait for the rest!

 

[sweetpeakaris]

C'mon lets get this started already Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

 

[Linda67]

Count me in

 

[tokyodisneydad]

There is nothing wrong with feeling like TokyoDisneydad... Especially since he discovered cranberry vodka and ginger ale ...there are times he is feeling Pretty good. Lol

 

[QuiltTeddy]

Thankfully you are here, Tokyodisneydad, as we both know how quickly these installments are posted by DZ. At least you and I will be able to entertain the few followers there might be.

For any of the new followers, you should probably be made aware that DZ is more than likely off eating pizza or bacon at this time and that's why the TR hasn't really commenced. It should also be pointed out that at times, due mainly to the harassment by Tokyodisneydad and I, installments eventually are posted. So I would strongly suggest finding a really nice, comfortable, padded chair, perhaps even a Laz-e-boy recliner with a built in pillow.

 

[dededisney]

Thankfully you are here, Tokyodisneydad, as we both know how quickly these installments are posted by DZ. At least you and I will be able to entertain the few followers there might be.

For any of the new followers, you should probably be made aware that DZ is more than likely off eating pizza or bacon at this time and that's why the TR hasn't really commenced. It should also be pointed out that at times, due mainly to the harassment by Tokyodisneydad and I, installments eventually are posted. So I would strongly suggest finding a really nice, comfortable, padded chair, perhaps even a Laz-e-boy recliner with a built in pillow.

While normally I would agree with you about the pizza or bacon, I can't this time. Drew has been sick (which has been going through our house and is not pretty), so he has not even touched his computer. But, he is feeling better, so hopefully he'll get an installment up quickly. Your suggestions for finding a comfortable chair are spot on though.

 

[DisneyZell]

Great start! Can't wait for the rest!

Welcome aboard!

C'mon lets get this started already Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

I know...I know...slow getting started..

Count me in

Welcome!

There is nothing wrong with feeling like TokyoDisneydad... Especially since he discovered cranberry vodka and ginger ale ...there are times he is feeling Pretty good. Lol

hahaha!

Thankfully you are here, Tokyodisneydad, as we both know how quickly these installments are posted by DZ. At least you and I will be able to entertain the few followers there might be.

For any of the new followers, you should probably be made aware that DZ is more than likely off eating pizza or bacon at this time and that's why the TR hasn't really commenced. It should also be pointed out that at times, due mainly to the harassment by Tokyodisneydad and I, installments eventually are posted. So I would strongly suggest finding a really nice, comfortable, padded chair, perhaps even a Laz-e-boy recliner with a built in pillow.

You would think that I take over a year to write my TR's. Oh yeah. I do. But they are just THAT good! or something!

While normally I would agree with you about the pizza or bacon, I can't this time. Drew has been sick (which has been going through our house and is not pretty), so he has not even touched his computer. But, he is feeling better, so hopefully he'll get an installment up quickly. Your suggestions for finding a comfortable chair are spot on though.

Thanks for the backup DW!!!

 

[DisneyZell]

As I'm sick of people complaining that I don't finish my TR's...I'm going to finish it before we begin. Mainly because I'm looking for some sympathy...for me...and especially for DS15!!!

We got off the ship around 8am (or so). Nick was exhausted from being out....but more on that later. Ha! Nothing from the ship yet!!

Our porter brought us over to where Budget rental-car would pick up (and by the way...I've said it in past TR's...which I know none of you have read even though I have told you to do so...DEFINATELY hire a porter. They will make your life easier and is the best $15-$20 you can spend at the end of the trip. They will help move you through customs and get you to where you need to go. Unfortunately it is not like the good old days when they would be able to basically bypass customs...but it is still good, and they work very hard for their money. But I digress.

We didn't have to wait long and were taken quickly to the Budget building and got our car which was a small SUV. Not sure what kind because DW didn't bother writing it down. Ha! She wrote pretty much everything else though!

DS11 and DS15 looking very excited after the trip. Note the football. Nick is a quarterback and had big plans to throw the football on the trip. We both told him not to bring it. Needless to say it was touched more in this picture than the entire cruise!

We got our car and it was back to Miami. We discussed that it would be good to get on an earlier flight...ours was scheduled for 8:45pm..and I have some status on American Airlines. So While DW drove I called American and talked to a nice gentleman who assured me there was lots of room on the flight at 4:30pm. We had thought about going to see a movie (Divergent) to pass the time...but since we had a chance to get on an earlier flight we figured we would hit the airport and give it a shot.

We tried to figure out where to stop for lunch and finally ended up at one of our favorite restaurants that we no longer have because they closed them all...Chevy's. So we had some chips, nachos and a few other things...not a bad meal. Then it was off to the airport.

I dropped DW and the kids off so they didn't have to deal with the 6 hour trek from the rental car place (I'll get to that in chapter 1 ), and returned the car. That turned out to be really easy and shortly I was back with them in the airport. So we meandered to check in...walked up asking about standby...oh no...all the flights are overbooked. Yikes! That sucks! But we asked! Sorry, sir, nothing we can do.

Oh well..it is what it is except that we would have probably gone to a movie instead of sitting in the airport for 6 hours! Luckily my company pays for a membership to the AA Admirals club...so at least we were able to go there. We went and I went to the desk to ask why we had been mislead...and found out why. There were some crazy storms coming through (Tornado warnings in Orlando...yikes!), and a ton of flights got cancelled. So that's why. Well...can't do anything about that.

The bonus out of that, though, was that the guy at the desk says "well...you can at least have a glass of champagne while you are waiting" and hands me a drink coupon. Then says "and the second one is even better". I said that DW would be happy as she can have one...and he handed me two more! Nice!

So we went and found a corner to hide in...which became even better once a guy left...so we had this little back area all to ourselves. Nick promptly fell asleep.

Nick sleeping while Connor watched a video. Note that even while starting to feel bad and sleeping he still managed to keep in touch on his phone.

and we took selfies...

Yup...that's what we look like at the End of the vacation.

and we waited. And waited. And I got several beers which were good. I got DW the most expensive glass of wine they had...which she didn't like. HA! oh well. They had good snacks so we were all snacking along...except Nick. He was sleeping.

Finally time was approaching for us to head to our gate. Several people around us had brought in food to eat (which, by the way I was surprised by...most clubs won't allow that because they make money on food...but there was a ton of it..and it was obvious!). A person behind us had gotten Pizza. Seems fairly normal...but once Nick woke up he got a whiff of it...said his stomach hurt and that if he didn't get away from that smell he was going to throw up. So we left. We did want to get some food so we went looking. DW and Nick ended up just going to the gate because Nick was not feeling good. We picked up pizza for Connor and a cuban sandwich for me (which I planned to eat on the plane).

Nick was still feeling nauseous...so we made Connor sit away from Nick while he ate. Finally we got to board the plane. Nick made his way to the back bathroom and promptly threw up. I followed him back and threw away my sandwich. It was stupid of me to get that...it smelled (very good to me...but I knew it would smell bad to him). So now we are in a tough spot. Do we get off the plane? just get home? We opted for getting home. Nick felt better after throwing up...so we sat down and got ready to go, and got some air sick bags ready just in case.

We finally took off 20 minutes or so late. Taxied out...and took off. Finally on our way. Poor Nick was just not doing well. 30 minutes into the flight the captain comes on and tells us we are going to turn the plane around and go back to Miami because of an engine light that came on. *sigh*. Around we go.

The Captain told us there was no emergency or anything...but when we landed there were firetrucks everywhere...so they were obviously concerned. Luckily no issues...we landed safely and made it to the gate. when Nick threw up again. By this time I'm a stress ball because there isn't much we can do...and we still aren't on our way home.

So they tell us we have another plane..and tell us our gate. Which is a good 10 minute walk and 5 minute train ride away. Seriously? just what we needed at this stage of the game. We got down to our gate and Nick wanted water. So Connor and I hiked out to find water (everything down by the gates was closed), and brought it back. Finally about 3 hours from when we were originally supposed to take off we were back on the plane. Nick...having just drank a bunch of water...threw it all up into an air sick bag. Yuck. Got rid of that, and luckily that was the end of that.

However he spent the entire flight tossing and turning and obviously felt uncomfortable. Not much we could do for 6 hours. And I didn't understand how uncomfortable he really was. Until later.

I know...I know...if I was reading this I might be mad that we still got on that plane...as we may have given whatever it was to other people. but remember at this point we had all been together on the ship and the rest of us were fine...and he didn't have a fever of any kind...so we assumed it was something he ate. So again...kind of a judgement call. Not sure what we would have done...and he was actually miserable the next day too...and did have a fever..so who knows?

Judge if you must but there it is.

Oh, so we finally got home around 5am. We were originally supposed to land just after midnight...which would have had us home around 1:30 or 2:00am. That isn't a TON better than 5am...but it *is* better. So that was kind of brutal. We all collapsed, DW got up at 9am...I made it until Noon.

Nick was down for the count all day Sunday...and stayed home from school Monday, though he was on the mend at that point.

I was all good Monday night...and Tuesday morning I got up to do an early conference call...when it hit me. I felt like I had a giant hot rock in my stomach. This lasted for basically 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday). I didn't eat at all on Tuesday, and Wednesday I had 2 pieces of toast. Today is Thursday and I finally feel like I'm on the mend...though I have a lingering headache. I'm pretty sure I had a fever too...Tuesday was just a blur of Friday Night Tykes on Esquire network Now I totally understood why Nick could not get comfortable. Because I couldn't...and I was in a bed!

Now...one last item on my whinny rant here...there is one definite solution to gaining weight on a cruise...be sick when you get home. I think I'm actually down a pound from where I started before we left. so there is that.

But...without any further ado (and it was a lot of ado), on with our regularly scheduled program...

DZ

 

[DisneyZell]

OK, now that I have the ending done I can relax and take as long as necessary to craft this TR in the manner befitting you, the nice reader of my report (not talking to you Quiltteddy or you TokyodisneyDad). And now we have to start at the beginning.

As I mentioned in the very first post we got a good deal to fly to Miami vs. Orlando. We were going to rent a car anyway, and 3.5 hours isn't that bad. Is it? Well...ok...no it isn't. but I am a whiner. I am big on saving money..as it allows us to go on more vacations...so that is key.

We got to the airport no problem...and didn't have a long time to wait...so We did not visit the airline club in San Francisco (much to DS11's chagrin)...but we did hit a burger place inside the airport which was fabulous. Yes I said fabulous about airport food. Who knew? Even the fries which were not much to look at were good. Gotta love it.

Finally it was time to board...and onto the plane we went...settled in for the 6 hour flight to Miami. We were in a 767 I think....we had two seats by the window and two of the three in the middle. All in the same row. Except the row the kids sat in was one row back. very strange.

DS11 and DS15...looking awake and ready for an adventure!

Dw got stuck in the middle.

We were all set with our various tablets and reading devices of all kinds. I had my TV shows all loaded up (currently watching House of Cards...what a great show!). I had borrowed an iPad from my company for DW to watch movies on the trip...but she read her book the whole time.

What was she reading? the Harry Potter series. I had been trying to get her and DS11 to read that series for years. Now that we were finally headed that way they dug in and started reading it before we left....and couldn't put it down. Shocker...it is a good series! Maybe they will listen next time. Nah...that won't happen.

The flight was uneventful...we landed at 8:40pm and headed to get our luggage from baggage claim. The nice thing about having status on American Airlines is that we could check our bags. And as we needed a whole bag for FE gifts this was good. So we had 5 check backs...4 wheeling bags and one suit bag which weighted 5 tons. Just barely. So we got all of this...and went to go get the car. No big deal right? They have this thing called the MIA mover which takes you right to the rental car place. Fabulous.

Seriously...we must have walked 15 miles in the airport. about 25 people mover things..and just miles and miles of walkways. What the...one of the worst designed airports I have ever been in...and I have been in a lot. Add to that the fact that the stupid suit bag was 5 tons...with no wheels and no strap (well...ok there was a strap which I didn't realize until much later. Shhhh don't tell DS15 as he carried it about 1/2 the time). Finally! The train! We made it to the train! Er...the MIA Mover! I realize what MIA stands for in this case...But I was thinking the stupid train was MIA if you get what I mean. but I digress.

Hopped on the train and headed to National so we got to pick out our own car in the Emerald Aisle. We got a HUGE one.

Riding in style like the Secret Service.

We did have to discuss which one to take...and I had to go with the one with lower mileage. Hey...why not?

DW went and inquired about the tolls and how that works. If you are not familiar there are all kinds of tolls in Florida that are not manned. Say, what? Your kidding, right? Nope. There are tolls that have no ability to put in coins..and no one there to take your money. Nice. The rental car companies have this covered...the state takes a picture of your license plate and then charge them for the toll. Which they pass along...along with a $2.95/day charge. Nice. Ok...so that really isn't that bad. The only issue we had...was we were starting off around 10pm...and there was 100% chance we would be driving still past 12:00am...so if we hit an unmanned toll after 12:00am...yup, another $2.95...and we weren't driving again until Saturday. So we hoped to avoid that. Which, we think, we did. We won't know for sure until they hit us with the fees!

So we were all starting to get kind of hungry. As we were on a toll road they are nice enough to have these areas within the freeway with food, etc. So the next one we hit had a Wendy's. Note here that we are all pretty tired...and want to get on with our trip. Just keep that in mind, ok?

So we head off...park the car and bounce in. it is 10:30pm. We walk up to Wendy's. There are a bunch of people behind the counter...oh, sorry...we are closed. Seriously. No where on the signs that tell you about the restaurants does it mention closing. Just wrong!! there was a Dunkin Donuts open but 3 of the 4 of us didn't feel like it. So I whipped out the phone and found a McDonalds off the tollway. Yes..had to pay another toll...but oh well. So we made stop #2, I got my McDonalds cheeseburger fix (I was craving them for some reason) a big Diet coke and we were good to go.

We finally made it to the hotel at 1:15am. We were going to Universal and staying on-property at the Loews Pacific Royal Hotel. This place was beautifully done...and truly looked like a hawaiian hotel. Very cool! The guy that checked us in was very nice and told us all about what we wanted to do. The big advantage of staying on-site was that you got front of the line passes (like fast passes at WDW)...which were terrific. In face we went right over the the machines that give you those passes...and had our picture taken. So we were good to go. Headed to our room...in bed by 2am...alarm set for 6:30am. Yeah...not a lot of sleep in either side of our trip. But we wanted to be one of the first ones in the park so we could ride the Harry Potter ride before it got too crowded. It was worth it. But more on that later!

That's it for now...hopefully these two chapterish type things will keep you entertained for a little while. Let me know if you have any questions!

Next up: Chapter 2:who you calling a muggle?

Thanks!

DZ

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Nice update.....sorry to hear that the family is feeling sick. Now I know who to blame when the Zombie Apocolypse starts. However zombies knocking at your door will not be accepted as an excuse for TR delays.

Now I'm off to update my TR. I figure I will finish first as long as I update when you do. I can taste that Drink of the Day now, but thewife says she wants a beer instead. I was really excited that your wife likes wine....now I have someone to go to the wine tasting with. Don't worry I'll trade you my wife to take to the beer tasting, but be careful she can probably drink you under the table....beer wise anyway.

 

[plannermom]

Thank you for the trip report!

Sorry to hear about the sickness, my youngest threw up as we were waiting to board a plane to Edmonton once, so I know the helpless feeling!

I can't wait to read about your Universal experience as we have tagged on two days pre-cruise to see the new Diagon Alley (and everything else). We are also staying at RPH for all the park benefits and I am trying to justify the expense to myself (another penny pincher here.)

Now get back to typing!

 

[MrsJames]

OMG... you are so entertaining!! My family and I are cruising in January...ya a little ways off but so excited! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[dededisney]

OMG... you are so entertaining!! My family and I are cruising in January...ya a little ways off but so excited! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

You might be in luck...Drew could possibly have this trip report done by January (that is if all the stars align)

 

[tokyodisneydad]

You might be in luck...Drew could possibly have this trip report done by January (that is if all the stars align)

And here I thought you were the supportive type.

 

[lizzyb]

Sorry you guys got sick, thankfully it was after your vacation.

 

[DisneyZell]

Nice update.....sorry to hear that the family is feeling sick. Now I know who to blame when the Zombie Apocolypse starts. However zombies knocking at your door will not be accepted as an excuse for TR delays.

Now I'm off to update my TR. I figure I will finish first as long as I update when you do. I can taste that Drink of the Day now, but thewife says she wants a beer instead. I was really excited that your wife likes wine....now I have someone to go to the wine tasting with. Don't worry I'll trade you my wife to take to the beer tasting, but be careful she can probably drink you under the table....beer wise anyway.

See...that is a point where you and I disagree. I believe a Zombie eating my brain *would* be an acceptable excuse for a delay in posting a TR. I'm just sayin'. I'm headed over to harass you on your TR right now.

Thank you for the trip report!

Sorry to hear about the sickness, my youngest threw up as we were waiting to board a plane to Edmonton once, so I know the helpless feeling!

I can't wait to read about your Universal experience as we have tagged on two days pre-cruise to see the new Diagon Alley (and everything else). We are also staying at RPH for all the park benefits and I am trying to justify the expense to myself (another penny pincher here.)

Now get back to typing!

You aren't far away. Unfortunately Diagon Alley was not yet open...nor was the stuff in Universal (Hogwarts express). But if it's anything like the rest of the Harry Potter stuff...yeah. it's worth it!

OMG... you are so entertaining!! My family and I are cruising in January...ya a little ways off but so excited! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

ha ha! you are entertained now...wait until you have keyboard marks on your forehead from falling asleep. Just keep this feeling in your mind for when that happens...as I have already stated...I cannot be held responsible for keyboard marks! Thanks for coming along!

You might be in luck...Drew could possibly have this trip report done by January (that is if all the stars align)

Hey now...HEY NOW. That's just wrong. I need to insert a poll here...shouldn't DW be supporting DH while he is writing his TR???

And here I thought you were the supportive type.

Exactly!!!

Sorry you guys got sick, thankfully it was after your vacation.

Yes...that is a good thing. But of course is the ultimate "need a vacation from a vacation" time, you know? I could sleep for a week. Luckily the high school has a Football event Saturday morning so I get to get up at 5am. Good times. Good times.

Keep the questions coming. When you hit the right number of questions I *might* post again. *might*!!!

DZ

 

[dededisney]

If I wasn't supporting you, I would have said they would be lucky if your TR would be done by next March. I said you might have it done by January, so I think that is very supportive...at least it is pretty optimistic!

 

[tokyodisneydad]

If I wasn't supporting you, I would have said they would be lucky if your TR would be done by next March. I said you might have it done by January, so I think that is very supportive...at least it is pretty optimistic!

Atleast ur better half took notes and actually reads ur report so I guess I have to say she is supportive.



As for zombies.... Ok if the zombie is eating the brain I will let u use that as an excuse.... But if it is just chewing on a leg or something U better be typing.

 

[DisneyZell]

If I wasn't supporting you, I would have said they would be lucky if your TR would be done by next March. I said you might have it done by January, so I think that is very supportive...at least it is pretty optimistic!

I'm thinking that, and this is just a thought, maybe you need to review the definition of support. Just Sayin'.

Atleast ur better half took notes and actually reads ur report so I guess I have to say she is supportive.

As for zombies.... Ok if the zombie is eating the brain I will let u use that as an excuse.... But if it is just chewing on a leg or something U better be typing.

Then again, if what I have seen on Walking Dead...once they chew on you...you are one of them. So good point...I'd need to hurry up and finish if that is the case.

You know...if you and I just bounce back and forth between our TR's we can have the highest views on the Disboards. ha!

DZ