Geeks on a budget - 12/22, complete! Read reflections within....

I dont know whats better.. Erica's Trippie... Sarah's tidbits, or the pic of both of you TRYING to look sober LOL

I LOVE IT :)

Funnier still....i was sober for most of the cruise *gasp* ya ya i know...sacrilige. Whatever :P The reason i look so goofy...is that there were these two people *cough* who kept commenting that in EVERY picture i have my eyes mostly closed. You have ANY idea how hard it is to let someone take your picture after that when it's what you're thinking of every time after that? :laughing:

BTW erica...was reading Father Force's trip report and he made the comment about the never ending song? I've discovered that APPARENTLY disney cruises make me think of that beauty and the beast song. 'Cause i was humming it in the elevator yesterday too. :rolleyes1
 
Ok... I go away for 3 days and STILL no bra picture????? :confused3
 
Sorry Erica....

I lost my patience yesterday while waiting for the ferry off of Martha's Vineyard...

Still can't find the darn thing...

I think I left it behind with the artery clogging breakfast I had...
 

Where was I? Oh yeah. Drunk and sleeping.

As I woke from my 30 minute alcohol-induced coma, my companions informed me that not only were there MORE H20 products in the bathroom (the first batch of which was neatly tucked away in one of my drawers shortly after we first entered the room, no reason *whistling*), but that they had gone window shopping, and had found me the perfect hoodie.

Last year, I neglected to bring a sweater. Yes, it’s true: the master planner forgot a tiny detail. A detail that would cost her approximately 50 bucks to remedy. Either that, or she would freeze to death in the movie theatre. Why do they keep it at artic levels in there, anyhow? I digress. My $50 hoodie was very cute, but had one slight problem which would not rear its ugly head until a few months had passed – like a fabric miracle gone bad, it gradually shrank in length and expanded in width with every wash. Which might not have been an issue if I were a hobbit with a glandular problem.

Anyhow, THIS hoodie beat my other one hands-down. Cute, stretchy, and long enough to reach my waist. Plus? It was on clearance! For $24! I know I said I would not set foot in the gift shops this time, but, SOLD!

We also browsed around at the things we could not buy, like jewelry and watches and logo shirts and, and, and…..aw, it’s ok. We still haven’t used those frames we got last year. I didn’t even buy a PIN! Can you believe that? Exclamation point!

Lionel: you don’t want a shirt or something?
Me: well, I do……but I want Konk Koolers more.
Lionel: point taken.

Gratuitous foot photo

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After depositing the booty back in the room, and taking another gratuitous foot pic on deck four, we headed out for our night of entertainment on Route 66. Initially, we had planned to go to the scavenger hunt at Wavebands, and then possibly pop into diversions or Cove Café for some games. It seemed like good, cheap fun, and, it was! Where else would grown men put on bras and stand in front of a stage, just for a shot at winning a measly drink?

Men in bras, as promised!

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That guy on the left? More about him later. Note that Lionel is heading back and looking frantic. That is because the MC, who was AWESOME, by the way, insisted that he would not get a point unless he put the bra ON. He’s far better at doing the opposite, not that we would ever do such things on a Disney cruise, mind you. What?

If you are ever planning to attend the Wavebands scavenger hunt, you need to come a little more prepared than we did. For instance? Ladies? Wear heels and a bra, and bring your purse. With makeup inside. And some cash. Men? Don’t wear sandals or slip-on shoes, or pants that don’t require a belt. And you might want to order a coke. With a straw. And ice.

Several things were shouted at me, the chosen runner, during the course of the night, most of which started with “Quick! Grab that person’s __________!” Because we had NOTHING! Sarah and I decided we were too low-maintenance to win the hunt. Who takes lipstick to Wavebands? Apparently, everyone but us.
If you have not been to the adult version of the scavenger hunt, I highly recommend it. Lots and lots of fun. So fun, in fact, that we stayed for the next two events: Match Your Mate, and Disco Night!

Before the game show started, I looked over at Lionel.

Me: “would you like to -”
Him: “ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

Boy, am I glad he’s stubborn. Because, while it was fun, it is certainly a show designed to embarrass the living crap out of you and your mate who obviously never even talk about life. I’m sure Lionel and I would have gotten most of the answers right, but the first couple? The ones who got chosen because the girl climbed up onto her boyfriend’s back and started screaming? They were full of sayings like “don’t tell them THAT!” and “no, that time didn’t count!”

We now knew everything about their relationship. And it really wasn’t pretty.

Actually, let me take that back. I’m going to get serious for a moment here, because I am no longer drunk and taking pictures of my feet. Lionel and I take our commitment of marriage very seriously, and started doing so LONG before he even proposed. We promised to always respect one another and to communicate. If one of us is being cranky? The other one doesn’t push buttons. If one of us feels upset or irritated, even over something seemingly trivial? The other one does not make fun or imply stupidity. We have been together for seven years (married for three), which seems like a drop in the bucket compared to some. And sadly, we are spoiled by one another. Because so many other couples out there don’t even see eye to eye when they TRY. Granted, we don’t know what goes on in other households, and what actually works for them. There may be couples out there for whom communication is a bad thing. We just can’t understand why, is all. Try as we do not to pass judgement, sometimes a little slips out.

It’s kind of like when you see parents tell a child no, they can’t have another stuffed toy because they have not been nice, and then buy it for them anyway because they start to cry. Not a good parenting choice, right? Well, announcing to the entire crowd at Wavebands that your first date was a $200 trip to Emeril’s when in fact it was a $10 trip the movies a week earlier? And chiding your man for admitting that fact? Well, let’s just say that things like that are only the beginning of what eventually causes huffy, arms-crossed fights on the shores of Serenity Bay.

And this little rant is by no means a statement that a few silly answers on the panel of a game show determines the duration of your relationship; what determines that is how you interact. Smacking your boyfriend when he doesn’t read your mind is not the start of a healthy relationship, IMHO. This couple? I give them another few months.

The next two couples? THEY were fun to watch, even when they got the answers wrong. They just laughed and shrugged knowingly at one another. And guess who won? The couple who had been together for 25 years. They were cruising with their grown children, who were in the crowd cheering and whistling in support.
I hope that will be us some day.

Dude, after that serious paragraph? You need afros!

As the bowm-chicka guitar sounds played, we were invaded by the Disco kings...

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Sarah stole my eyes!!!!!

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It was disco time, baby! There were afros and sparkles everywhere, and I’m pretty sure we did the Hustle at least once. I am always amazed by the caliber of performers on this ship, and the seemingly endless amount of energy that they all have. Heck, even The Village People even made an appearance:

YMCA!

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That cowboy on the left looks familiar…..where did Lionel go, anyhow?

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Sarah and I nearly killed ourselves laughing out loud during this performance. Actually, he was pretty good! I ran up on stage to kiss my cowboy, and we stayed and danced for a few more songs before we decided we had had enough excitement for one day. Lionel placed his cowboy hat back on the table, gave his fellow “Village People” high fives and handshakes, and we headed back to the room for some shut-eye while the party raged on.
Yep: our vacation was off to a rockin’ start.

Oh, and the towel animal of the day? A MONKEY!!!!! My favorite!

There are not many things in this world that are cooler than a towel monkey

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Tomorrow: The softer side of Nassau!
 
HI Erica! Cute feet! Your TR is lots of fun, as usual. Congrats on knowing the secret to a long and happy marriage. Thanks for your comments - next year on our cruise, we will be married for 28 years, and will have our grown son there - maybe we could win the game! Funny thing is, we don't remember anything the same way, but we don't argue about it! :rotfl: Do you mean to tell me that Lionel didn't get a free drink after donning the bra and everything?
 
lol love the pic of the feet is that going to be the carry on theme through out the TR ! LOL

love the disco party pics. And finding a hoodie for $24 is a steal!!!!
 
Erica, have you released some deep, dark secret? :scared1: No one here talks about the scavenger hunt. On the RCI boards the subject is alluded to but never fully discussed. I was under the impression that Disney did no such thing.

So, do the rest of y'all avoid it?

Dh and I and went to the one on RCI, fully intending to only watch! Then, the MC put everyone into teams. Once we're on a team, dh and I HAVE to try to win! LOL! Both of us did things we never thought we'd do in full view of the public. We had so much fun with it!

Btw, my husband can make the towel monkey, and has impressed any number of land-lubbers by doing so. :rolleyes1
 
Erica, it is a bold and potentially creepy move to post so many pictures of your feet on this here Internets.

So I hear, anyway.

I've only seen Disney-related sites....
 
HI Erica! Cute feet! Your TR is lots of fun, as usual. Congrats on knowing the secret to a long and happy marriage. Thanks for your comments - next year on our cruise, we will be married for 28 years, and will have our grown son there - maybe we could win the game! Funny thing is, we don't remember anything the same way, but we don't argue about it! :rotfl: Do you mean to tell me that Lionel didn't get a free drink after donning the bra and everything?

He did not! Can you believe it? Neither did any of the men in heels!

lol love the pic of the feet is that going to be the carry on theme through out the TR ! LOL

love the disco party pics. And finding a hoodie for $24 is a steal!!!!

I wore my hoodie just today. :goodvibes

Erica, have you released some deep, dark secret? :scared1: No one here talks about the scavenger hunt. On the RCI boards the subject is alluded to but never fully discussed. I was under the impression that Disney did no such thing.

So, do the rest of y'all avoid it?

Dh and I and went to the one on RCI, fully intending to only watch! Then, the MC put everyone into teams. Once we're on a team, dh and I HAVE to try to win! LOL! Both of us did things we never thought we'd do in full view of the public. We had so much fun with it!

Btw, my husband can make the towel monkey, and has impressed any number of land-lubbers by doing so. :rolleyes1

I don't know if it is new, or if it's just overlooked, but it is FUN. :thumbsup2

Erica, it is a bold and potentially creepy move to post so many pictures of your feet on this here Internets.

So I hear, anyway.

I've only seen Disney-related sites....

:rolleyes1 :laughing:
 
Who sleeps on a cruise?

Rather than setting the alarm, like I am prone to do on vacation, I opted to “sleep in” on Nassau day. By “sleep in,” I mean get up at 8:30. And by “get up” I mean wake up with a startled jolt to a pitch-black room, and notice that the clock reads “Mickey waffles have been available for two hours already, girl! Whatcha waitin’ for?”

Lionel, like me, is cursed with the early gene, and I noticed his eyes were also open. Sarah can sleep through anything, though she insists this in only when she is on vacation, so we let her get her rest and vowed to bring her back a plate of the passion which is second only to ice cream: fresh fruit.

After, of course, we made our first stop at the Cove Café for Mochaccinos.

We met Colin, who was a sleepy bloke from South Africa. He told us all about having to get up early for this shift, and how he wished they were allowed to play something other than Kenny G at that ungodly hour. We sympathized. Really, we did. I honestly believe that nobody should have to be subjected to Kenny G regardless of time of day. And before you’ve had your coffee? Well, that’s just obscene.

I noticed something – Colin poured some strange milky fluid into our beverage. Last year, I am fairly certain that we had real ice cream in our favorite coffee beverage, of which one of the key ingredients is – can you guess? ICE CREAM. This year? Cream, and ice. Seems trivial, but it wasn’t quite as good as I remembered. Or maybe I’m just too used to the sickly sweet mocha frappaccinos at Starbucks that we started ordering at home whenever we wanted to pretend we were at the Cove Café.
Mind you, the different taste did not stop us from ordering one every morning of the cruise (including debarkation day). I mean, a girl’s gotta have her frou-frou coffee drink, or things might get ugly.

With icy coffee in hand, off to the buffet line we went! Come to think of it, this is the first cruise in which we have had all of our breakfasts at the Beach Blanket Buffet. We usually throw in a Parrot Cay, or a sit-down somewhere. We didn’t even go on our last day. What can I say, we were loving the buffets.

Up at the line, I grabbed an assortment of goodies: fruit, waffles, another waffle or two, and maybe a chocolate waffle for good measure, plus a few snacks for the rest of the day, which may or may not have included a banana and one more waffle. Hey - I only get these little guys once a year, so I have to make it count. Not that I can’t have waffles at home…..it’s just that one in the shape of a Mickey head is far more exciting that the square ones that my iron turns out.
That’s ok – Lionel filled approximately half of his plate with bacon, so he can’t say A WORD.

We discovered two more things during the course of our “early” meal:

1 – the apple juice was superb. Lionel is not generally a fan of anything other than Martinelli’s, which costs more than fine wine so we never buy it anywhere other than Einstein bagels (where it comes in the convenient hand-grenade form, lovingly referred to as an apple juice bomb). But this stuff? It was great! I went back for more!

2 – the eggs were HORRIBLE. The tasted powdery and runny all at once. Disney usually has fantastic eggs, so I was very surprised. Sadly, it wasn’t only this morning; they were terrible for the duration of the cruise. So Disney? If you are listening? Your new mix is gross!

After a lovely breakfast and an even lovelier caffeine buzz, we headed back to the room to take Sarah her spoils. She surprised us by being awake! And mobile! She informed us that she had been watching the pre-docking action from the porthole in the room. I took a peek, and realized that I had forgotten again how close we were to the water. The dock was RIGHT THERE. Cool!
30 seconds later, I turned back to notice the plate was empty, save for one lone Mickey waffle and a seed from an unfortunate cantaloupe slice. Sarah was licking her fingers.

“What?”

The fruit ninja had made her first appearance.

Back up on the deck, we watched some of the Captain’s mad ship-parking skills while Sarah got ready. It never ceases to amaze me how easy he can make turning a vessel of that size a full 180 degrees look. Piece of cake, right? I can barely even parallel park. I wonder how early he wakes up. Does he even sleep?

Up on the deck, we took a self-portrait. Of all of the self-portraits Lionel and I have taken, maybe about 10% have included our entire faces. Usually, we get part of a chin or some of my hair, or a single gigantic eyeball. But this one came out pretty good:

We feel the wind in our hair, and the mild remnants of a hangover....

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I took a few of the skyline and scenery on both sides of the boat. Try as I do, I just don’t really like Nassau. Maybe it’s the screaming hair braiders, or the pushy taxi drivers, or the cramped straw market, but I always overlook the beauty of the island in retrospect, focusing instead on its negative qualities. Nassau is usually our pretend at-sea day, when we make our spa appointments or just enjoy some quiet time in the adult areas.
I thought that by taking pictures, I might remember how lovely the water looked that morning:

It can be pretty when it wants to be.

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I also thought I might remember that the boats on either side of us looked boring, boring, BORING! There was little to no action going on in the Carnival boat.

zzzzzzzzzzzz..........

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And the other weird little boat? A guy actually yelled to us from its deck.

“Hey! Trade places?”

Not on your life, mister.

I am sure the road to this boat was paved with good intentions.

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What the heck kind of boat is this anyhow? We saw it a few years ago on our first sailing, and could not decide if it was a pleasure boat or not. It looked so scary, and yet? It had a pool with a bar. If these folks paid any more than $100 for their rooms, I hope they asked for their money back. Because…..wow.

Figuring the shower ninja had long since shaken dry, Lionel and I headed back to the room to ask Miss Sarah what she would like to do. She opted to get off the boat, since she had never been to Nassau. And me? Well, I had taken the liberty to bring our Navigator, because it detailed a walking tour of the city with all of the landmarks!

Next up: the most serious photo of me, ever.
 
Hate those powdered eggs! :sick: Not much appetite at breakfast anyway, without those.

That boring Carnival ship was parked out there for 48 full hours when I was there - what were they doing? :confused3

Cute self portrait!
 
And the other weird little boat? A guy actually yelled to us from its deck.

“Hey! Trade places?”

Not on your life, mister.

I am sure the road to this boat was paved with good intentions.

0008bwrs


What the heck kind of boat is this anyhow? We saw it a few years ago on our first sailing, and could not decide if it was a pleasure boat or not. It looked so scary, and yet? It had a pool with a bar. If these folks paid any more than $100 for their rooms, I hope they asked for their money back. Because…..wow.

That ship does 2 night cruises out of Miami to Nassau. I read an article one time about them and the fact that the ship is, basically, falling apart. In case you're interested for the future:

http://www.imperialmajesty.com/
 
That ship does 2 night cruises out of Miami to Nassau. I read an article one time about them and the fact that the ship is, basically, falling apart. In case you're interested for the future:

http://www.imperialmajesty.com/

Ok... 2 days out of Miami....Why?????? :confused3

Especially when you can do 3 days out of Port Canaveral????
 
Great updates Erica........

We got back Saturday night from our 7 night & it was great except we thought we might be going to die the last night the ship was rocking so hard....but we had been having such a good time we were ok with that. :lmao:

Love the feet pictures.

I feel the same way about Nassau.....bleck. We missed Castaway Cay :sad2: because of darn Hurrican Noel.........so guess where we got to go instead? Nassau.............we stayed on the ship.
 
Hate those powdered eggs! :sick: Not much appetite at breakfast anyway, without those.

That boring Carnival ship was parked out there for 48 full hours when I was there - what were they doing? :confused3

Cute self portrait!

Thanks! Yeah, Carnival never looks like a Carnival to me, with the exception of all of the lights draped over the whole boat. Every time I see one at night, I'm like "yep - Carnival" :sad2:

That ship does 2 night cruises out of Miami to Nassau. I read an article one time about them and the fact that the ship is, basically, falling apart. In case you're interested for the future:

http://www.imperialmajesty.com/

:scared1:
The rooms start at $149 per night. I was so close. WHY?????


np. :thumbsup2

we saw that ship on our cruise in mid july. it kinda scared me.

I would sooner sail on the Carnival Sensation than get on that rust heap. :rolleyes:

Ok... 2 days out of Miami....Why?????? :confused3

Especially when you can do 3 days out of Port Canaveral????

See above.

& Erica... how could I go through the ENTIRE thread and not see you post over here on this one??????? http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1183926

Or maybe you did and I just didn't notice????

Wow. Now THERE is a thread for me! I'll have to have a gander.....

Great updates Erica........

We got back Saturday night from our 7 night & it was great except we thought we might be going to die the last night the ship was rocking so hard....but we had been having such a good time we were ok with that. :lmao:

Love the feet pictures.

I feel the same way about Nassau.....bleck. We missed Castaway Cay :sad2: because of darn Hurrican Noel.........so guess where we got to go instead? Nassau.............we stayed on the ship.

Oh no! :eek:
At least the rest of the time was fun. A bad day on the Magic is better than a good day at home. Or in Nassau. :rolleyes1
 
I also thought I might remember that the boats on either side of us looked boring, boring, BORING! There was little to no action going on in the Carnival boat.


Last time we were in port at Nassau, we saw plenty of action on the neighboring Carnival boat. On the balcony. In port. Of the XXX kind. My eyes are still burning!:scared1:

Loving your reports!!!!!
 


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