January Thaw cruise/Eastern January 19th/vow renewal

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I must start this with a little hats off to all those who have inspired me to write this report. I found disboards the day after I booked our cruise, and have read all reports to gleen any and all info prior to our sailing. I have been entertained by many....oceanlvr, loveablegluttons, zweihund, mozart, royalvizier, and others, please forgive me if I have left you out.....for the life of me I can't remember "Mr. Shub's" name.


With that said, let me start.

My love of Disney started when I was 10. My grammy went to Disneyworld and sent a Tinkerbell postcard that said that all children need to come to this magical place. Of course, I would have to wait 11 more years and go on my honeymoon....but the seed had been planted.

Our honeymoon was not as it would be today, in 1988 there was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The hotel situation was well out of our budget, however, the Magic worked it's way into my husband's heart and the next thing you know, we were going just about every year and in 1997, I "forced" him to tour the vacation club. Upon gazing at the 3 bedroom villa, the deal was sealed and we signed on the dotted line. Since then we have enjoyed many wonderful moments there with friends and family.

As our 20th anniversary approached, I knew that there was only 1 way to celebrate.....Cruise with Mickey. So, I logged on in Nov of 2006 and booked the January thaw cruise. I knew upon reading all the TR and info that I had found my information highway to all things Disney.

Day one to come.

Cheryl

 

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Day one:

There was a crew of 24 people total coming on this trip to help us celebrate our 20th anniversary; 15 of us left on the Friday. We woke up bright and early to get on the plane:

(there should be a picture here, but I can't figure it out....so bear with me.)

We all were groggy but got on the plane, landed in Orlando, and took the Magical Express to Old Key West. We were at the resort at 10:00 am to an overcast sky, but the kids didn't care, they ran to the bathroom and changed to go in the pool. We hung out at the gurgling suitcase and waited for the room to be ready. Now, I know that you are to check in after 4:00, but we have never had to wait that long.....with that said, 6 hours later of drinking at the bar, buying the kids stuff, eating lots of fried foods.....they let us in the villa.

Of course, none of our party had ever seen the 3 bedroom before so they were amazed at the size and beauty. We ordered pizza, and thought we would head off to downtown Disney....yeah, that wouldn't happen. We stayed on the porched and let the kids run around as the adults drank to our upcoming vacation......if you will notice, this drinking thing will become quite the theme of this vacation!!

Saturday morning arrived and we dutifully put all our luggage tags on the bags and sent for the bell boy. He was a little overwhelmed when he saw the 20+ bags that awaited him.

We tipped him well and our bags left before we did. To keep the kids under some type of mild control Mark (husband of my good friend Sue) took his 4 kids, and the other 3 kids in our group down to the pool. Sue stayed back to enjoy the utter silence of the villa and drink her coffee. I felt guilty so I took off to the pool to help. I have just come into the new century and bought a digital camera and I still have not mastered the art of the delay in capturing the moment. Mark and I were deligently trying to take the kids picture as they all cannon-balled into the pool. After the 4th take, it was accomplished. Meanwhile, there was this nice couple with 2 children floating around the pool, and she came up and asked...how do you do it? I thought she meant taking the picture, so I said, I can't. She then said....we could never be able to take 7 children to Disney....OOOOOOOO Noooo, we aren't married, and these aren't all our children..... I felt like Jon and Kate + 8 for a minute!!!!!!!!!!

Abby was then crowned pool slide princess and was given the honor of opening the slide as everyone around had to bow to her.

At 12:00 we went to the lobby to get on the bus.

 

[Bethipooh4]

Hi Cheryl,

Great start to the TR!!!

I am still doing laundry and trying to find places for everything!!

I may do a TR, right now I am having more fun reading everyone else's.

Of course I will be happy when the house stops rocking.

We stayed in the 3 bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs, aren't they awesome?? Of course the 10 of us had way to much fun upstairs bombing the ones below us with pillows, towels and anything else we could find. Who says kids have more fun?

 

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If I did this right, this is of Max right after we woke up.

 

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Hey Beth...it was great to meet you guys!!!! The kids were sooooo loud as they were running up and down the stairs!!!!!!!! The OKW villa is so open that sounds just echo!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't figure out this picture thing....but I am going to keep trying.

Che

 

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Kids jumping in

 

[Bethipooh4]

I'm no help with the pictures, but I use photobucket though. Cute pics so far!!

 

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We were as excited as everyone says you will be as the bus goes up and over the hill and you see the ship. We were all itching to get on. We arrived at 1:00, so the lobby wasn't too full. With papers in hand we get into the long line....then I see it....the sign for people in Consierge....so I calmly walk over to the person....with no one in line and ask her if we qualified since we had consierge service due to paying for the vow renewal. Technically we did not, but with a smile she said that she would be happy to check us in!!! I know what I am doing!!!!!!!

Up through the Mickey ears we go, hear our name be called, and then to our room to find that it is covered in wet paint !! The door, all the door jams, so putting up our door magnets that I labored over for weeks would have to wait!!!!

We went to Topsiders and got some food, Max jumped in the pool with everyone else, and the relaxing began. After muster I ran to deck 9 to meet up with everyone....yeah that might happen in the sea of children yelling their little heads off.....and got there in time for a drink and the horn. With tears in my eyes we were off.

Dinner would follow, we had PLA 5:45 pm seating. We get to our table.....we had table 1 which wasn't all that great as far as being in the center of it all, but we had a total of 5 tables, and our servers Gede and Andrea were very accomodating over the fact that we kept switching around each night.
Then we looked out the window!!!! Five of us had to leave the room, the motion was just too great!!!! Dave was the bomb and brought me my dinner to the cabin, and day one was coming to a close.

Day 2: sunrise, dismeet, patriots win, and we miss formal night.

 

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I woke up early every morning to try and see the sunrise. I could never see the sunset because we were always at dinner.

I was walking the deck and grabbed some fruit and yogurt at Goofey's Galley and tried to avoid all the avid walkers.

We had a very busy day ahead: 9:00 dis Meet....great to meet everyone and we took the Purdue bag....yummy candy!!!!!!

10:00 am DVC meeting....goodie bags including the red ball cap that if you wore it throughout the cruise, someone would come up to you and give you a pin.

10:30am.....Palo!!!!! Yummy

What a wonderful way to begin the day.....

 

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After Palo, we went back to the room to change into our Patriot's gear, found our posse on the chairs by the pool, and started one of our many tabs with brothers Ryan and John....they started following us around, even on Cast-a-way Cay. Anyway, we cheered the Patriot's on to victory while enjoying the afternoon sun and listening to a small group of Charger fans behind us cheer every once in a while....

Of course, that game lead into another, and we ate pizza on formal night Max and I ended up going to the cabin to change and went to see the show, Golden Mickey's. It was great!!! I couldn't believe how sharp everyone was, even with a slightly rocking ship. Definitely not too be missed.

I met with Florenca for the vow renewal and I ended up caving in and buying the picture package. I would be very happy, because the pictures were fantastic.

We went back to the cabin, and fell asleep waiting for Dave to return. The final bar bill that night was split between 3 families and I will not disclose our amount....but lets just say it was not a great way to begin.

The next morning I ran up to the deck, and ran into Tim (one of the gang).....come to find out, Tim couldn't remember where he slept that night. He would later recall the port hole when we were all in Sessions during my vow renewal.

Max in Said Porthole

needless to say, Monday started off with a laugh!!!

Monday: More swimming, exotic Rasul, and more bar bills

 

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Yeah for me, I figured out the picture thing....from now on they will pop up.

che

 

[Bethipooh4]

Che,
YEAH on the picture thing!!!(go eagles..lol)

You have to post the DIS pic on our cruise meet thread! Ours turned out really dark. We need a new camera, and DH refused to buy one on the trip. oh well..men....

 

[DCL Repeaters]

My family and I are in the background of your Palo dessert picture!! We enjoyed the cruise and hope you did too!!

 

[gossipgirl]

Were you on the disney magic. Do you have any pics of twice charmed.

 

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Beth, I will post it on there, I actually got it in my email from someone....I can't remember who at the moment.

DCL repeaters.....wasn't that dessert raspberry pizza the best. I would say in was heaven on a plate, but we had dinner there on Thurs. and that chocolate souffle was the bomb. More to come on that later!!!!!

Gossip girl, we did see Twice Charmed and I have 2 pictures that I shouldn't have taken and my husband yelled at me for taking that I will post later. I just got caught up in the entire production that without thinking I lifted up my camera and snapped 2 shots. OOPS.

cheryl

 

[gossipgirl]

Beth, I will post it on there, I actually got it in my email from someone....I can't remember who at the moment.

DCL repeaters.....wasn't that dessert raspberry pizza the best. I would say in was heaven on a plate, but we had dinner there on Thurs. and that chocolate souffle was the bomb. More to come on that later!!!!!

Gossip girl, we did see Twice Charmed and I have 2 pictures that I shouldn't have taken and my husband yelled at me for taking that I will post later. I just got caught up in the entire production that without thinking I lifted up my camera and snapped 2 shots. OOPS.

cheryl

that would be great.

 

[gossipgirl]

Hope you will post them soon. I just got back from seeing the movie juno.

 

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Monday:

Once again I got up early to see the sun, walk the deck, and ran into Tim. We discussed the game and the overall plan.....fun in the sun again!!!

Dave, Max and I ate at Lumiere's since we had missed formal night. The breakfast was quite tasty, and Max loved the basket of rolls, sticky buns, and other baked goods that they presented for his testing. I think that I enjoyed eating at the restaurants for breakfast better than at Topsiders, it had a better relaxed beginning to the day, and there really was quite the variety of things to eat. Topsiders' omlet station was a big plus though, and overall I must say I would give the food a 3 out of 5 star rating overall, with Palo being the 5 star. Compared to RCL we had taken 2 years ago, the food was much better on this cruise than theirs. We love to eat, and we are not picky eaters, so we do like to try things. I even got up the nerve to try the caviar in Palo during the brunch...... not my cup of tea!!!!

Any way, the day was spent splashing around the 2 different pools, meeting all the characters at the Gazebo, and just relaxing until our 3:00 spa appointment.

After lunch, we leave Max with the girls in our group, and head up to the adult deck to have a drink, go to the tropical rainforest room, and then the rasul. Boy, I must say, it got windy somewhere along the way, because up on deck 10, we were blowing around.

I now must compare the Royal Carib. spa with Disney. I feel that in the past 20 years, I have become quite the spa expert. I try to find one where ever we go, and see what delites await me. The rasul on the Explorer was much better....the room on the magic was long with little cubbies to sit in, and no long bench type seating, with all the scrubs and what-not in the middle room. The Explorer's was one large room with a 3 way bench type seating with all the tools in the middle of the room. In the Magic, we had to get very creative, and I can see how a not so flexible person would find the lay-out not that wonderful. Also, I did not like that you exited the changing room into a hall that was connected to the work out area. Here I am, in nothing but a robe scampering to the rainforest room. Now, that was a great room....warm tiled seats, relaxing music. I liked that. Later, Dave and I enjoyed a couples spa villa, which was wonderful....(I will review that on Thurs.)

Tonight we dined in Animator's Palatte. We enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, and most of all the changing of the colors. It really was a neat way to dine. At this point, Maxim decided he would only eat plain macaroni with butter, a sald, and then the Mickey Icecream. Gede was great and was able to do it each night. Poor Andrea still could not quite figure out a Stoli-cape codder...but she was getting better.

A picture of the sun starting to set.

Also, that day, although, I can't quite place my hands on the navigator to remember, the boys went into the kids club to make cookies. Max loved it.

 

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Monday, after we finished our wonderful dinner, I talked my husband into going to see Twice Charmed. We went to the 8:00 show and grabbed a middle of the row seat!!! As I said earlier, the boat was headed into some pretty strong wind, and apparently we hit 8-13 foot swells; and trust me, you could feel them. While we were waiting, one of the waiters lost his footing coming up the aisle....and you know it's bad when they can't walk!!! Anyway, the CD (Ray) came up on stage and gave the usual info, especially about flash photography. The night before during the Golden Mickey's I tried to take some without the flash, but they really didn't work out that well, so I figured we would not have any pictures of any of the shows. Anyway, we loved the show, even with the rocking!!! At the end, I was sooooo enthused, I just lifted my camera and took 2 shots, and then with a stern look from Dave, I realized my faux pas. But, on the bright side, I did get a decent photo.

We caught the rabbit outside of the theater on the way out, and then upon the return to our room, another nice surprise....

Another wonderful day in paradise.

Tuesday; St. Martin, beautiful beach, and fun pirate night.

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

Enjoying your TR and pictures!