How do I know that he loves me? He takes me on a Disney Cruise! Pre-Trip

[aristocats_lover]

As I sit in my guestroom surrounded by various clothes, suitcases, travel toiletries, fish extender gifts, and pirate accessories it occurs to me: now would be a great time to start a pre-trip report! The countdown is on (only 27 days left) until we set sail on the September 26th Eastern Caribbean cruise with St Maarten. We booked this trip on April 18th 2008 and it’s amazing that now it’s less than one month away! Who’s going on this much anticipated first cruise you ask? Let me tell you.

First there’s me, Amanda, a 22 year old Disney FANATIC. I love Disney in ways that I’m pretty sure are unhealthy . Fortunately, we live right here in the Sunshine State and get to visit the Mouse often throughout the year with our beloved annual pass. On the ship I am most looking forward to the characters, the shows, and Pirate Night!

Second is my husband Dave, 24, who likes Disney, just not nearly as much as I do. That's what the little Enchanted reference in my title is all about. He has however been on a cruise (Non-Disney) before and loved it and is very excited to be cruising again. Dave is most looking forward to the FOOD! A true Italian, he loves to eat.

Here we are at our rehearsal dinner back in '06. Note the Mickey obcession was already going strong!

And that’s it! We've been married just over three years and no kids yet so we are enjoying an adults only Disney cruise. Although we are the proud parents of three adorable fur babies who we will be missing dearly when we sail.

Chortles

Twink

Cupcake

Let me tell you, most “regular” people (ya know, the ones not on the DIS?) think we’re pretty much insane when we tell them what cruise line we’re sailing. However, since neither of us drink, and have no interest in gambling, many other cruise lines just do not fit the bill for our type of vacation. Plus, Disney has amazing service and attention to detail that you just don’t get elsewhere.

So far our plans include heading over to Port Canaveral a day early and staying at the Radisson Resort at the Port. The pool looks great! Have heard some less than favorable things about the Sleep Number beds but I am not too concerned about that. On the 26th we have reservations for the 10 am shuttle to take us to Port. Dave wants to be there early so we can check everything out and hopefully obtain the elusive Palo Brunch reservation we were unable to secure online after boarding. Speaking of online booking, this is what we have planned so far and the schedule for our cruise. We have 1st seating for dinner, and I’m hoping my request for PLAPLAP goes thru!

Sept 26 Saturday – Embarkation Day
Sept 27 Sunday – Day at Sea, Formal Night, Golden Mickey’s
Sept 28 Monday – Day at Sea, Twice Charmed
Sept 29 Tuesday – St Maarteen (staying on the ship), Pirate Night
Sept 30 Wednesday – St Thomas (Doobloon Sail and Snorkle 8:45 am), Palo Dinner 6:30 pm
Oct 1 Thursday – Day at Sea, Semi Formal Night, Disney Dreams
Oct 2 Friday – Castaway Cay (Extreme Getaway Package), ‘Til We Meet Again
Oct 3 Saturday – Leave

Next Up: Costume and Dress Pictures!

 

[Momtotwogirls]

Yay, Amanda! We are excited about the 9/26 cruise as well. I will be following you along on this fun journey! I just finished up our FE gifts and you are smart to keep it in your guest room. I have most of it in my closet and it is starting to take up too much space. LOL!

 

[aristocats_lover]

I CAN OFFICIALLY SAY OUR CRUISE IS THIS MONTH! Woo hoo!

So dresses and pirate costumes! And some other goodies. Well, being someone who loves to get all dressed up, this whole Formal/Semi Formal night thing is totally for me. I have all my dresses picked out for Palo, Semi Formal Night, and Formal Night.

Here's the dress for Palo.

Here's the dress for semi-formal night.

And here's the dress for formal night. It was a present from my mother and I just love it!

A close up of the bodice.

So, I am also a HUGE fan of dressing up in costume. If there's a reason for a costume, I will wear one. Heck, even if there isn't a reason I'm still game. So anyways, I love MNSSHP and the P&PP, and always dress up (as a pirate, of course). Now Dave has always REFUSED to wear any type of costume. He hates to draw attention to himself (opposites attract right?) and it has gotten to the point where mom and I do mother daughter trips at party times because Dave and my dad are such party poopers. Well, imagine my surprise when Dave said he wanted a COSTUME for Pirate Night! I just about fell off the couch. So I bought him one before he could change his mind!

Here it is, on some surly model guy:

And this is mine, on me!

In other news, I finally finished Fish Extended gifts today! YAY! But I am not posting any pics yet in case my fellow cruisers are checking out this pre-trip. However I can show you our beautiful Fish Extender that we purchased from gradysmommy on ebay.

And I just have to show you our super cute passport covers which I just could not resist.

Alright so that's it for tonight!

 

[seashell724]

I love this and all your pictures. Keep it coming!

 

[cakesnjammom]

we are on the boat the week before you! enjoying your TR...LOVE your dresses...oh to young and thin again! And your costume id great. WTG for getting your dh a costume while he was a GO!

more

 

[Sccrmnky2005]

I CAN OFFICIALLY SAY OUR CRUISE IS THIS MONTH! Woo hoo!

So dresses and pirate costumes! And some other goodies. Well, being someone who loves to get all dressed up, this whole Formal/Semi Formal night thing is totally for me. I have all my dresses picked out for Palo, Semi Formal Night, and Formal Night.

Here's the dress for Palo.

Here's the dress for semi-formal night.

And here's the dress for formal night. It was a present from my mother and I just love it!

A close up of the bodice.

So, I am also a HUGE fan of dressing up in costume. If there's a reason for a costume, I will wear one. Heck, even if there isn't a reason I'm still game. So anyways, I love MNSSHP and the P&PP, and always dress up (as a pirate, of course). Now Dave has always REFUSED to wear any type of costume. He hates to draw attention to himself (opposites attract right?) and it has gotten to the point where mom and I do mother daughter trips at party times because Dave and my dad are such party poopers. Well, imagine my surprise when Dave said he wanted a COSTUME for Pirate Night! I just about fell off the couch. So I bought him one before he could change his mind!

Here it is, on some surly model guy:

And this is mine, on me!

In other news, I finally finished Fish Extended gifts today! YAY! But I am not posting any pics yet in case my fellow cruisers are checking out this pre-trip. However I can show you our beautiful Fish Extender that we purchased from gradysmommy on ebay.

And I just have to show you our super cute passport covers which I just could not resist.

Alright so that's it for tonight!

Where did you get those wonderful passport covers? LOVE THEM!!

 

[missusem]

Such a cute Pre Trip Report!!

 

[seashell724]

more more! I've subscribed and would enjoy more!

 

[aristocats_lover]

Hey guys! Just a short update for now with more to come this weekend (plan on making quite a dent in cruise related stuff). But...

We have decided to add a night at WDW post cruise! I am so excited. Despite the fact that we live only two hours away, going to WDW is a huge deal for me. I just booked our night at Caribbean Beach Resort. Looking forward to seeing the new pool! CB has special meaning to us as it was 1) the first resort we stayed at when I was only 7 and 2) it was the first resort we stayed at as a couple.

Also our cruise docs arrived! Very exciting stuff. Now the cruise seems so real! We booked this trip so long ago it's still hard to believe that it is so close!

So I just wanted to share these real quick. They are thank you notes that I've made for CMs on the cruise (servers, steward, etc). I made them with the help of my handy dandy Cricut and it's Disney cartridges!

Fronts

Inside

Alright lots more coming this weekend so check back soon!

 

[anewmac]

Cant wait to hear about your cruise. We were originally booked for this once but had to back out cuz we didnt want to take our boys out of school again.

 

[aristocats_lover]

Alright everyone, sorry I haven't posted but everything I've done lately for the cruise is pretty mundane. I have narrowed down all the clothing to be packed and am starting laundry (yuck) so that packing can continue. Also, have gone thru and selected all the jewelry that will be joining us on our trip. And if anyone has Disney Movie Rewards points burning a hole in their pocket I highly recommend the Mickey Silhouette necklace and earrings set. Mine just arrived yesterday and it is adorable!

Did some shopping over the weekend and got a bunch of new flip flops (yay!) for the trip. I am super picky about flip flops so buying 6 pairs in one day is pretty much unheard of for me. Also picked up some candy for movies and a few other little things.

My biggest accomplishment would be sorting out the 120+ FE gifts by deck today. They are all bagged up by deck in grocery bags so that they can be nice an compact in the suitcase.

I will have some fun stuff to take pictures of very soon. Thanks for following along!

Sccrmnky2005 ~ Passport covers were found on ebay. Just type in Disney passport cover and you get tons of hits. They have really cute Cars, Toy Story, and Princess ones as well as Chip and Dale, Mickey etc.

 

[aristocats_lover]

Well folks it's time for an update. This weekend was spent scrubbing the house top to bottom, getting the dog groomed, and do other prepatory things before leaving THIS FRIDAY! Nuts to even think about. Anyways, this evening I have been catching up on the little things that need to be done (photocopies of important papers, etc) and also began to pack.

Now, I have been piling things up in the guest room for some time. However, it's sort of just a mound of stuff, not to different from the first day I started this report. A small victory was getting all the FE gifts in one suitcase destined for checked luggage (added two bright orange bows with ribbon left over from my Build A Bear Workshop days) and getting it zipped! Also shoved the water shoes in the front...I figure if someone is going to steal our used water shoes they need them more than we do!

I also accomplised the fun task of putting all my jewelry in those little itty bitty ziploc bags so they don't get all tangled up or scratch each other. But, um, that's really not fun to do. Went thru the packing list and gathered up all the things that I'd been waiting to gather.

Also, I put together the bags for the photo mats and pillowcases we will be having signed. Photo mats, one black with silver Sharpie, one white with 11 rainbow colors to choose from, and two white pillowcases with 12 colored fabric markers. Put them in two ziplocs along with an index card in each with our stateroom number, contents, a request for any and all signatures, and two candy bars (Reese's and Hershey's).

I now have to make the final cut for clothes. I am the kind of person who does not like to be locked into an outfit. I need variety, choice, and an insurance policy in case I ate to much cake the night before! So I have an outfit picked out for each day. But then I throw in an extra shirt. And an extra dress. Oh, I might want to wear that tank top. What if we do X? I should have Y and Z to wear...and so on. Also, I need the right balance for hubby. He really enjoys food. So do his shirts and sometimes his pants.

So this is where I leave off. Going back to continue sorting and gathering.

See ya real soon!

 

[siestakey]

So, how was it?

 

[natale1980]