Grendel
Where ever you go, there you are.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2003
- Messages
- 680
Don't skip into the story!! you should have read Day 1....at
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=564899
Ok its taken me a few days to recover from writing my last trip report but I'm finally getting back to it. For those of you just joining us this is the fourth installment in a nine part report. If your following along you should have seen reprots Day 0, 0.5 & 1.
I promise there will be no more .5 increments
unless I need them
So without further adue( I dont have the slightest idea how to spell that 
but remember no making fun of my spelling 
)
Day 2 -
So we woke up to tempatures in the low 40's and a slight frost on our verandah....got your attention didnt I No...we had wonderful predictable weather...mid 80's and sunny...nice and boring..and i wouldnt have it any other way. So our dining rotation was APL...which means our character breakfast was scheduled for our first monring on the magic...oh well we can sleep in another day. Everyones up early and chipper. DW and I are very thankful for the split bathrooms...we dont know how we could ever cruise with DD13 with out this convience. I don't think we could ever get our of our stateroom before Noon without it. Not that I would ever insinuate that my DD13 is SLOW in the bathroom our that doing her hair is time consuming 
So after the ladies are through with there ummm prep time were ready to go( Dad's just needs clean under wear and hes ready...and even thats negotiable ) Down to Parrot Cay we go. I really like this resataraunt. Out of all of them its the most colorful and cheery...even more so in the morning..I think its the morning sunshine. We sit down to our quiet, intimate breakfast with all of our servers, fellow cruisers, what appears to be every Photo Sniper on board and I think many disney characters. I say I think they were characters because they were such a blur as they wizzed by the tables I wasn't sure who they were. If you were wondering...yes I did have a small pet peeve with this. Through out my reports I might point out some negatives....eventhough I have some complaints on some things that could be done better I still LOVED my cruise and LOVE disney and would do any disney trip again in a heart beat...but being a disney lover means expectations can be a bit high...case in point..the character breakfast. The parks do this so much better. Maybe I'm naive and maybe if I sat down and crunched numbers I would see that theres no better way to run a character breakfast on the ship. However if there is time for a character to stop by and take your picture...there SHOULD be time for a character to sign my DD's autograph book. If theres not time for both then I should be able to forgo the picture and just get the autograph. It was just poorly run..some people would be able to get Mickey's autograph but when he got to our table they would say no...there would be other times during the week.( this ended up being the biggest bunch of ...well it just wasnt true....it would take me the full week before I could get Mickey cornered and get his autograph...though the only picutre a Photo Sniper didnt take was with him in my stateroom bathroom ). OK deep breath...back to my happy place...breathe in..breathe out. It wasnt that bad just disapointing. Well breakfast being done we still have several hours before we dock in Key West. DD7 wants desperately to play in the Mickey Pool. Up to Deck 9 we go...and *sigh* its packed...or is it. Yep my second pet peeve of the day... i need a beer and its not even 10am! Many of the lounge chairs were reserved....I realize this is a debate thats on this board...and for my 2 cents I found it frustrating. I wanted to just pull the obviously unused towels off the chairs..but I didnt...I said something to a CM.( since ive read other people say they do this ) but what they did was to bring down extra lounge chairs...so not wanting to be a hog we had him bring down 2 for the 4 of us...problem solved we had our spot( and just in case your wondering..it took over 2 hours for people to appear in the charis they had reserved... ). Everyone was settled in but I got ansy and decided to head on down to the Rockin D Bar to try a little bingo. It was very educational...I learned the granddaddy of all bingo numbers is 75 and that i can get my kicks on route 66. And the most important of all...how to spread the "Bingo Love" which is supposed to mean im a good sport and support the person who won....but this quickly began to translate into "I'm a loser". After giving all the "Bingo Love" I could afford it was backup to fetch the family because we had docked in Key West!!! We didn't schedule any excursions and decided to just wing it( which is slang for "shop" ). Off the ship and into the square we go. We had only two items which we had to do 1) Goto the southern most point and get our obligatory photo and 2) find Kino's sandals. And of course Thimble, Spoon, Magnet..which goes without saying. I'm not sure what I expected of Key West...but it was alot busier and more congested than I assumed it would be. The shopping was good...I guess...youd have to ask DW and DD's. They bought stuff so I assumed everyone was happy. Thimble, Spoon, Magnet were found and then we found Kino's and everyone was happier...I sat on bench until I was told it was time to go
The other big hit as far as stores go was "Del Sol" when I was experiencing "Bingo Love" they were giving out items from this shop...I thought it would be cool for girls and I was right. The big hit was the nail polish that goes on clear..but turns a bright pink/red in sunlight. Every item they sell changes colors in sunlight. Well since we knew we would end up buying T-Shirts in all the ports..why not there..so we walked out with everything imaginable, all of it changing colors in the sun. Our shopping needs having been satasfied we just needed to get to the southern most point. But its a LOOOONNNGGGG walk. So we rented one of those electric cars. We had to rent for a 2 hour minimum which was kind of disapointing as I didn't want it that long..but hey..it beats walking. Off to the point. I didn't realize that it was just on the side walk of this dinky corner street. From all of the pictures I imagined a big peer or something. Oh well we had to stand in line to wait our turn...and got to absorb some of the local flavor( this being a very nice drunk man just standing in line for no reason ). Two Clicks of the camera and back into the electric car we go. We buzzed around for a bit trying to track down some of the sites ourselves, stopped at a local beach for a few minutes( not very impressive...though i had read that Key West was not known for its beaches ) and before you knew it we had killed the whole day. We needed to return the car and get back if we wanted to make our early dinner seating. I think it took me the full week to get used to the idea of going back to our room to get dressed for dinner. Dinner was great, again. Deepak and Cristi were there usual great selves. Deepak enjoyed stealing DD7's Pal Mickey and Cristi was busying himeself with his "spilt coffee" trick. Well belive it or not no one was interested in seeing Who Wants to be a Mousketter.( something I will remedy on my next cruise ). No one wanted to be picked...ok..but there was a show in Rockin Bar D with the Ventriliqust( i know spelling again ) for families. DW wanted to watch the sunset in peace, so I got the honor of escorting DD's to this show. Once again I was impressed at how well he was able to appeal to the entire age range of his audience. I think the younger kids really liked how he took his "dummy" apart and explained how he does what he does...( I did too ). After the show its back to find DW( she loved the sunset ). We see some picture opportunites so its off to wait in line, then through shutters to view previous pictures...and whew...back to the room.
DW and I decide to take our own private stroll along Deck 10 and enjoy the view of Key West at night. Back to the room shortly before we cast off...but if im going to watch us cast off i need food..so a quick call to room service. We had to try the cheese platter which everyone on these boards raves about and i needed some milk and cookies...well ok beer and cookies. I ordered ONE oatmeal raisin cookie...they gave me a whole platter of choclate chip and oatmeal cookies. I couldnt eat them...I felt so guilty...i tried though
. Another relaxing view from our verandah as we set sail again...and then its falling asleep to the gentle rocking of the ship....just cant be beat.
next up. Day 3 at Sea..hey that rhymes!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=567644
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=564899
Ok its taken me a few days to recover from writing my last trip report but I'm finally getting back to it. For those of you just joining us this is the fourth installment in a nine part report. If your following along you should have seen reprots Day 0, 0.5 & 1.
I promise there will be no more .5 increments
unless I need them So without further adue( I dont have the slightest idea how to spell that but remember no making fun of my spelling )Day 2 -
So we woke up to tempatures in the low 40's and a slight frost on our verandah....got your attention didnt I
No...we had wonderful predictable weather...mid 80's and sunny...nice and boring..and i wouldnt have it any other way. So our dining rotation was APL...which means our character breakfast was scheduled for our first monring on the magic...oh well we can sleep in another day. Everyones up early and chipper. DW and I are very thankful for the split bathrooms...we dont know how we could ever cruise with DD13 with out this convience. I don't think we could ever get our of our stateroom before Noon without it. Not that I would ever insinuate that my DD13 is SLOW in the bathroom our that doing her hair is time consuming So after the ladies are through with there ummm prep time were ready to go( Dad's just needs clean under wear and hes ready...and even thats negotiable ) Down to Parrot Cay we go. I really like this resataraunt. Out of all of them its the most colorful and cheery...even more so in the morning..I think its the morning sunshine. We sit down to our quiet, intimate breakfast with all of our servers, fellow cruisers, what appears to be every Photo Sniper on board and I think many disney characters. I say I think they were characters because they were such a blur as they wizzed by the tables I wasn't sure who they were. If you were wondering...yes I did have a small pet peeve with this. Through out my reports I might point out some negatives....eventhough I have some complaints on some things that could be done better I still LOVED my cruise and LOVE disney and would do any disney trip again in a heart beat...but being a disney lover means expectations can be a bit high...case in point..the character breakfast. The parks do this so much better. Maybe I'm naive and maybe if I sat down and crunched numbers I would see that theres no better way to run a character breakfast on the ship. However if there is time for a character to stop by and take your picture...there SHOULD be time for a character to sign my DD's autograph book. If theres not time for both then I should be able to forgo the picture and just get the autograph. It was just poorly run..some people would be able to get Mickey's autograph but when he got to our table they would say no...there would be other times during the week.( this ended up being the biggest bunch of ...well it just wasnt true....it would take me the full week before I could get Mickey cornered and get his autograph...though the only picutre a Photo Sniper didnt take was with him in my stateroom bathroom ). OK deep breath...back to my happy place...breathe in..breathe out. It wasnt that bad just disapointing. Well breakfast being done we still have several hours before we dock in Key West. DD7 wants desperately to play in the Mickey Pool. Up to Deck 9 we go...and *sigh* its packed...or is it. Yep my second pet peeve of the day... i need a beer and its not even 10am! Many of the lounge chairs were reserved....I realize this is a debate thats on this board...and for my 2 cents I found it frustrating. I wanted to just pull the obviously unused towels off the chairs..but I didnt...I said something to a CM.( since ive read other people say they do this ) but what they did was to bring down extra lounge chairs...so not wanting to be a hog we had him bring down 2 for the 4 of us...problem solved we had our spot( and just in case your wondering..it took over 2 hours for people to appear in the charis they had reserved... ). Everyone was settled in but I got ansy and decided to head on down to the Rockin D Bar to try a little bingo. It was very educational...I learned the granddaddy of all bingo numbers is 75 and that i can get my kicks on route 66. And the most important of all...how to spread the "Bingo Love" which is supposed to mean im a good sport and support the person who won....but this quickly began to translate into "I'm a loser". After giving all the "Bingo Love" I could afford it was backup to fetch the family because we had docked in Key West!!! We didn't schedule any excursions and decided to just wing it( which is slang for "shop" ). Off the ship and into the square we go. We had only two items which we had to do 1) Goto the southern most point and get our obligatory photo and 2) find Kino's sandals. And of course Thimble, Spoon, Magnet..which goes without saying. I'm not sure what I expected of Key West...but it was alot busier and more congested than I assumed it would be. The shopping was good...I guess...youd have to ask DW and DD's. They bought stuff so I assumed everyone was happy. Thimble, Spoon, Magnet were found and then we found Kino's and everyone was happier...I sat on bench until I was told it was time to go The other big hit as far as stores go was "Del Sol" when I was experiencing "Bingo Love" they were giving out items from this shop...I thought it would be cool for girls and I was right. The big hit was the nail polish that goes on clear..but turns a bright pink/red in sunlight. Every item they sell changes colors in sunlight. Well since we knew we would end up buying T-Shirts in all the ports..why not there..so we walked out with everything imaginable, all of it changing colors in the sun. Our shopping needs having been satasfied we just needed to get to the southern most point. But its a LOOOONNNGGGG walk. So we rented one of those electric cars. We had to rent for a 2 hour minimum which was kind of disapointing as I didn't want it that long..but hey..it beats walking. Off to the point. I didn't realize that it was just on the side walk of this dinky corner street. From all of the pictures I imagined a big peer or something. Oh well we had to stand in line to wait our turn...and got to absorb some of the local flavor( this being a very nice drunk man just standing in line for no reason ). Two Clicks of the camera and back into the electric car we go. We buzzed around for a bit trying to track down some of the sites ourselves, stopped at a local beach for a few minutes( not very impressive...though i had read that Key West was not known for its beaches ) and before you knew it we had killed the whole day. We needed to return the car and get back if we wanted to make our early dinner seating. I think it took me the full week to get used to the idea of going back to our room to get dressed for dinner. Dinner was great, again. Deepak and Cristi were there usual great selves. Deepak enjoyed stealing DD7's Pal Mickey and Cristi was busying himeself with his "spilt coffee" trick. Well belive it or not no one was interested in seeing Who Wants to be a Mousketter.( something I will remedy on my next cruise ). No one wanted to be picked...ok..but there was a show in Rockin Bar D with the Ventriliqust( i know spelling again ) for families. DW wanted to watch the sunset in peace, so I got the honor of escorting DD's to this show. Once again I was impressed at how well he was able to appeal to the entire age range of his audience. I think the younger kids really liked how he took his "dummy" apart and explained how he does what he does...( I did too ). After the show its back to find DW( she loved the sunset ). We see some picture opportunites so its off to wait in line, then through shutters to view previous pictures...and whew...back to the room.DW and I decide to take our own private stroll along Deck 10 and enjoy the view of Key West at night. Back to the room shortly before we cast off...but if im going to watch us cast off i need food..so a quick call to room service. We had to try the cheese platter which everyone on these boards raves about and i needed some milk and cookies...well ok beer and cookies. I ordered ONE oatmeal raisin cookie...they gave me a whole platter of choclate chip and oatmeal cookies. I couldnt eat them...I felt so guilty...i tried though
. Another relaxing view from our verandah as we set sail again...and then its falling asleep to the gentle rocking of the ship....just cant be beat.next up. Day 3 at Sea..hey that rhymes!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=567644
. Give me a PM and let me know where I should send them.
