Get Off The Ship - we are running out of towel animals! Update 10/25 Day 31

[mickeystoontown]

Have a safe and fun trip!

 

[englishrose47]

Have a Great Trip!!!!

 

[HowieHowie]

Have a fantastic trip!!

 

[dnbent]

You know what is the worst thing about the next week or so?

Knowing there will be no update to this trip report!

So.........

Don't worry about us waiting anxiously for the next update....

You two have a great time!!

 

[jenseib]

Have fun on your current adventure!!!

I just love seeing your CC days. I want a Cabana so badly, but I cannot justify the cost of it for us. But some day I am going to be rich and will get one.

It is so cold here and more snow on the way (It's Sat and they already canceled school for Monday), so a nice beach day would really make me happy right now.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Happy New Year Karin and Tom! I thought I had posted a Merry Christmas greeting here, but I don't see it. Anyway, hope you are having a fabulous time at DLRP and I also hope it is warm there for you!

 

[annmarieda]

have a great trip!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Happy New Year Karin & Tom!!! Hope it's a magical one for both of you!!

Thank you, Elaine!
Happy New Year to all of you too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too!

Happy New Year, Karin!! Have a wonderful trip!!!!!

Happy New Year to you and Willow too!
As you know we had a fun trip! Thank you.

I'm all caught up again!

Ick, sorry you didn't feel so safe in those trucks. Could you imagine if you had gotten into an accident in one of those?!

An accident was what I was afraid of. These things didn't look like they would pass a test here and they filled them up with SO many people.

Glad those strong drinks made the ride more bearable!

Much more bearable. Suddenly I wasn't worried any more.

I LOVE the Christmas calendars you made!

I am glad you liked them. We already took some more pics for this year's!

Palo brunch...get hungry everytime I see their offerings. Totally unfair!

Me too. Looking forward to another helping in 5 weeks.

Haha i'm that girl too about the expensive, good stuff

Yeah! I guess your DH really likes that fact.

I love that animators palate does the animated drawings! Must be even more fun for kids.

It was really good fun - more fun than the Crush thing they do. I find the Crush show very loud.
Oh, and the best thing. They put a seal (sticker) on your drawing and you get to keep it.

The cabanas looks so nice and relaxing.

They ARE! They come with a price tag, but it is so worth it. I have issues with my eyes and having some "real" shade to retreat to makes a lot of difference for us.

I never even thought about taking shells on board with me, surprising that others have thought of that...

There are some HUGE conch shells to be found at Serenity Bay. We usually pick them up, take a pic (with our hands in the picture for sure) and put the shells back in the water for other people to enjoy.

So for a back to back cruise, you don't have to get your suitcases off the ship? You're allowed to leave all your items in the stateroom?

We love cruising back to back.
And if you stay in the same stateroom you get to leave everything in your stateroom. Our stateroom host made sure that our room was ready when we first got back onto the ship. He told us to "duck" under the ropes and put all our things right back into the room before heading out and exploring the ship.
Back to back cruisers are let onto the ship much earlier than the rest of the cruisers, so for about an hour you have the whole ship practically to yourself. AWESOME!!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Have a fantastic trip!

Jill in CO

Thank you! We did have a really nice trip to DLRP!

Have a safe and fun trip!

Thank you!

Have a Great Trip!!!!

Thank you!

Have a fantastic trip!!

Thank you!

 

[dizneeat]

You know what is the worst thing about the next week or so?

Knowing there will be no update to this trip report!

So.........

Don't worry about us waiting anxiously for the next update....

You two have a great time!!

So sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I promise to get some more updates in. And you can follow our current DLRP adventures over on my PTR - something to get you distracted while waiting for an update.

Have fun on your current adventure!!!

I just love seeing your CC days. I want a Cabana so badly, but I cannot justify the cost of it for us. But some day I am going to be rich and will get one.

It is so cold here and more snow on the way (It's Sat and they already canceled school for Monday), so a nice beach day would really make me happy right now.

We did have a lot of fun. They still had their Christmas decorations up and it was really cool to be immersed in the Disney Christmas spirit.

I completely understand what you mean about the price of the Cabana, Jen. Thankfully the ones on Serenity Bay are a bit cheaper and for us they are so worth it, as my eyes do not like the bright sunlight and having somewhere to get out of sun makes all the difference.

Is it still so cold, Jen? When we returned it was pretty nice here, some fog in the mornings, but otherwise pretty nice. They predicted some snow for the next few days and I am NOT happy about it.

Happy New Year Karin and Tom! I thought I had posted a Merry Christmas greeting here, but I don't see it. Anyway, hope you are having a fabulous time at DLRP and I also hope it is warm there for you!

Thank you, Tammie! Happy New Year to you and your family too!

We did have a great time in DLRP, it was just FAR too short. 4 days is not enough!

have a great trip!!!

Thank you, Ann! I hope you enjoy your trip to WDW in the meantime.

 

[dizneeat]

Real life update!

We are back from our Disneyland Paris trip. It was short, but sweet and we enjoyed it a lot.

Here's another little fun story.
I got Tom a "one share" of Disney stock for Christmas before they stopped issueing the current "certificates". I did that about 9 weeks before Christmas, hoping it would arrive in time for Christmas.
Well, as I had feared it did not arrive in time and I had to give him the little starter package they send out instead.
Last week I got a notification that the framed share had been mailed out. I followed its way to Europe online and it should have been delivered yesterday.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I called Tom after work to let him know that I was on my way home and he told me that he had missed the FedEx delivery but they had left him a note that they would come back the next day AND they wanted 1707€!!!!
I had paid around 140€ for the whole package and could not make sense of it. Once I got home Tom showed me the slip of paper FedEx had left and low and behold it said 1707€ THREE times on it.
So I called them to ask what that was for and to our HUGE relief the person delivering was just not able to divide into Euros and Cents!
I can live with paying 17 Euros and 7 cents in taxes, 1707 Euros NOT SO MUCH!!!

Now I am waiting for the FedEx guy to deliver it to me as I am home this morning. I will need to leave shortly before noon and they deliver until 12.30 - so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I'll let you know how things unfold.


On another note ......
even though Tom doesn't have clearance for our Italy trip yet, I went ahead and booked us into our favourite place right inside the pedestrian area where we always stay.




I got a really cheap offer through a booking website, and I could not resist. We can cancel up to one day before the trip, but I would really LOVE to go.

​

 

[dizneeat]

Day 11, August 17

Let’s try this again – A Fantasy cruise take 2 - Part 1

When we woke up at around 6am we were already docked back at Port Canaveral. We had to be down for breakfast at 8am so we went back to bed for some time, then, around 7am we got up and took a shower. Since we had time to spare we were out on the veranda for a while and saw the “new” load of cast members.









They were all getting in a line, then went through the terminal with their luggage and out again one by one. There were A LOT of new cast members.
Soon it was time to head to the Enchanted Garden for breakfast. In the hallway we met Raj, who assured us that it would be perfectly okay to come back for our paperwork after breakfast, so we just took our Key to the world cards down for breakfast. The dining room had just been opened up for late breakfast and there were a lot of people trying to get in. How sad was it to see that they all had their carry-ons with them.
We found our table, Tom ordered some coffee and I got some water and orange juice and we both ordered our breakfasts. Tom got the



Omelette Map, a Ham and Cheese omelette served with hash browns while I ordered the



Eggs for the Road, scrambled eggs, served with hash browns and bacon. Everyone who has ever sailed with DCL knows that this breakfast is not the very best and the servers are pretty hectic, as they have to get ready for the next guests.
So we did not linger, we quickly headed back to our stateroom, grabbed the bag that held our paperwork, passports and netbook and then headed downstairs. There was quite a line to get off the ship and we sat down and waited and were with the last people to get off the ship.







Since we had no luggage we got right in line an going through customs was a breeze. Once we were through we walked outside, made a sharp right and up the elevator again, back to the terminal.





We made ourselves comfortable at one of the small tables and checked our email. Once we were done with it, we walked outside to have a look at the ship and noticed that they were having an evacuation drill.



We watched for a while, then walked back inside and were happy to see that there were now cast members checking us in again. It didn’t take long and we had a new set of lanyards in our hands, new Key To The World cards and were told to take a seat in the Concierge area,



as we were the first to board. And then we waited and waited and waited and the Concierge area got fuller and fuller and we waited some more. Finally shortly before 10.30am a lady came, checked our boarding tickets and we were free to head on board.
Our first stop was guest services to book more tastings, but they were only able to sign us up for another galley tour and one tasting. The rest of the tastings we wanted to do we would have to do at La Piazza in the early afternoon, so we were told. The ship was still empty and we walked around a bit, enjoying a completely empty ship.

















We even walked out onto deck 4 and waved at the people who were standing outside on the balcony of the terminal.



When we got back inside the crew was getting ready to greet the new guests



and Lloyd, the officer,



waved at us and we watched Benoit wait for some friends. Soon the first guests entered the ship and we watched and listened for some familiar names, as this time we were looking forward to meet some new DISboards friends.

To be continued ............ ​

 

[MEK]

I can't imagine what its like to get off a cruise and turn around and get right back on!

How lovely to be greeted with a completely empty trip.

Pretty cool to see the CM's line up in their street clothes and then all be on board in their Disney attire. How long do the CM's typically stay on the ship before they have time off?

I wonder what the CM's quarters are like. So many questions.

 

[jedijill]

I want to do a B2B someday just for the sheer pleasure of getting right back on!

Jill in CO

 

[eandesmom]

The whole reboarding process is wild. Too bad you couldn't get off and have a decent breakfast elsewhere, ugh the last morning breakfast really is not good at all.

Fascinating that there were so many "new" cast members, I would not have expected that at all!

 

[Leshaface]

You have to pay Fedex if they have to come back the next day?! I've never heard of that before.

Good gravy. The last picture in your life update, is that a pizza?!

That is ridiculously cool that you had the ship all to yourself for a bit. And got some great shots without any guests in them

Yay for Dismeets! Those are always fun

 

[dizneeat]

I can't imagine what its like to get off a cruise and turn around and get right back on!

How lovely to be greeted with a completely empty trip.

Pretty cool to see the CM's line up in their street clothes and then all be on board in their Disney attire. How long do the CM's typically stay on the ship before they have time off?

I wonder what the CM's quarters are like. So many questions.

Mary Ellen, you would definitely LOVE cruising back to back. Best feeling ever.
This past summer was especially special since we were able to do two different itineraries.

And the empty ship is an added bonus PLUS, staying on board for so long you really connect to the CMs on board and can have so much fun.

We have never seen so many new CMs getting on board. Their contract vary - I think 10 weeks is the shortest and they can go up to 6 months. At least that is what Ana told us.
The CMs quarters are TINY. Usually a bunk and a small table. There is a bathroom with a very small shower as well. They also have a cooler - but are not allowed dairy - hence the NO Nutella rule.

I want to do a B2B someday just for the sheer pleasure of getting right back on!

Jill in CO

Jill, it is the best feeling ever! Everyone heads right out to transportation while you make a sharp right, are greeted by smiling security people and head right up to the terminal again.
And having the ship all to yourself (more or less) is awesome. We peeked into the Walt Disney Theatre on one of our back to backs and were told to just "head in and have a look around".

I am a bad person as I like to go out onto deck 4 and look over at the people who are eagerly waiting to be let onto the ship.

The whole reboarding process is wild. Too bad you couldn't get off and have a decent breakfast elsewhere, ugh the last morning breakfast really is not good at all.

Fascinating that there were so many "new" cast members, I would not have expected that at all!

It's not bad, Cynthia. They need to clear the ship, and everyone needs to go through immigration.
As for a breakfast somewhere else - you are free to go to Cocoa or whereever you want to after you disembark. It is our choice to head right back onto the ship. To us having the ship all to ourselves means more than heading somewhere close to the port.

We had never seen so many "new" CMs. We always have a starboard side stateroom and love to be out on the veranda and have NEVER seen anything like it. It was interesting to watch them having to go through the security and boarding process.

You have to pay Fedex if they have to come back the next day?! I've never heard of that before.

Good gravy. The last picture in your life update, is that a pizza?!

That is ridiculously cool that you had the ship all to yourself for a bit. And got some great shots without any guests in them

Yay for Dismeets! Those are always fun

Sorry, I might have made something not quite clear (see - it has it's disadvantages that English is not my first language ). Fedex did not charge us for coming back but rather they were collecting some taxes. By buying the share of Disney stock I went over the allowed amount of money to import something tax free. So this is what the money was for. I kind of expected that in the first place - it was just that the Fedex driver did not divide into Euros and cents and made it look like the tax was 1707 Euros (about 2350 $)

Yes, the last picture in that real life update is pizza! Italy is just a 5 hour drive away, so real pizza and a short break in Italy are easy for us to do!

Having the ship all to yourself is one of the bonuses of going back to back. When we return to the Dream in February we will only be able to do one cruise as it is my half term and I only have one week. Worst thing about this vacation is - having to get off with everyone else after the first cruise.

 

[Linda67]

Oh Karin, it must be a great feeling to get off the ship and get right back on board !
I ordered one of the Disney share certificates just before they stopped doing them as well. It arrived on Christmas Eve

 

[KatMark]

How fun was that for you to do a back-to-back cruise. And then to have the ship almost to yourself for awhile.

Loved the pictures.

 

[dizneeat]

Oh Karin, it must be a great feeling to get off the ship and get right back on board !
I ordered one of the Disney share certificates just before they stopped doing them as well. It arrived on Christmas Eve

Linda, you really have to try cruising back to back for yourself. Such fun!

Lucky you getting your Disney share before Christmas. I was able to catch Mr. Fedex today on my way to work. The certificate looks really nice and we are now looking for the right place to put it.