KC's Western POST trip report 4/19-4/26

[hayanyujah847]

I'm loving it~! Your pictures & descriptions of everything are really getting me psyched for my trip~!

 

[King Charming]

After all the prep work, spending, and counting down the days, I'm here, really truely here, what a rush! A crew member walks up and asks our name. Oh super cool, just like I read about, they announce us! As I'm basking in an all over glow a different CM walks up and matches my pace while explaining stuff we should know. I have no earthly idea what she said as I was living the moment, waiting for the adrenalin to subside. We took the "Getting on the ship" photo, but I barely remember it. They could have served me castor oil and I'd have happily drank it all during those first few minutes.

I guess we got on sometime around noon. I was patting myself on the back for how well the timing of the entire morning had gone. The only time I waited more than 10 minutes was loading the van back at the hotel, and even then it probably only seemed like a long time since I badly wanted to be on the ship. Now that we were on board I had only 3 more deadlines to concern myself with; a 2pm DIS meeting, the 4pm safety drill, and an 8pm dinner seating. Life is REAL good.

 

[littleaussie]

Oh, please! I've got some serious CRS going on at my age. KC had his little black book in his back pocket and I had my Tink mini-notebook. Of course, I didn't start writing in it until Saturday, so right now we're just going on what I can remember.

I had to do the pictures first or my sister would have killed me. Nah... not fighting over computer time. I've actually been writing my installments at work so far. Squeezing in a few minute here and there, don'tcha know. Can you believe they actually expect me to work around this place? Don't they know how important trip reports are?

You'll get there... I remember the days of having to be in the pool with mine. Now that they're old enough to stand up if they get in trouble, well, it's just a darwinian thing. Anyone that can't figure out to stand up if he gets in trouble in a pool needs to be out of the gene pool right away. Or as I'm always telling my kids... I had an heir and a spare for a reason and one of them can die. Oh, now I know you think I'm a horrible mom. I'm not. I'm just not a nice person

That is so funny! I say the same things about my daughters! Except I leave out the die part. Love the report so far

 

[King Charming]

Upon getting on the ship, my job was to sit with the bags while the kids took off & DW loaded us up a plate of grub. Not wanting to disappoint my PRE trippie fans, drinks were also ordered. I had made a big deal about drinking & alcohol in the PTR and since I no longer needed my metal keys.... I started the week ordering tequila w/ a lemonade chaser. Since I had sporadically been attempting to get used to Jose for the past few months (just for this cruise mine you ), I found this to be the best tasting option. Unfortunately, my drinks were coming one ONE glass . After the second time in a row (w/ a dif server), I explained exactly what I wanted and it was brought for free. I felt guilty about drinking the combo drink, but managed to choke it down just fine. After that I only ordered plain shots, using my ever present big blue cup to wash it down. Only one time did I make the mistake of saying "Any brand" when asked what kind of tequila I wanted. I watched the bartender grab a short square-ish bottle and pour. I sipped it and it WAS much better/smoother than (cheap) old Jose. However, the 12+ dollar tab, which included the gratuity (15%?) shocked me and taught me another lesson. Even though the stateroom was free, I had still paid thousands to be here, and I simply couldn't afford to pay that much for one drink. (For those interested in how we won a "free" 7 night cruise, please read post #5 of my PreTR)

We paid about $150 for drinks during the week, ranging from (w/tax) $4.89 for a beer to $12.65 for a shot of good Tequila. Drink of the Day was $5.18, with other drinks from $6.33 (Jose) to $7.00. 2-4-1 pricing in the am for certain drinks, right DW? My drinking slowed way down on Wed & Thur 'cause I wasn't felling well. And the 2 drinks we had at Castaway Cay never showed up on the bill (don't tell Mickey). It bothers me to get gigged on the price of drinks, but at least I had options; yes, not drink (tried that, no fun), or bring your own (did that too, more about that latter). Given the per drink cost, I was surprised at how little we spent that way. Don't underestimated them though. I got hit with a corkage fee on a bottle they never even SAW!!. I called room service on a sea day for a corkscrew and glasses for some afternoon wine in the room. Best I can tell, it got billed to that night's restaurant and I never realized they charged me until I got home and examined the bill.

 

[Hypermommy]

Wow!!! I never realized that. Guess a corkscrew goes on the list of essential things to pack, eh? The funny thing was, that's about the only alcohol we got from the room. It was just too convenient to order the yummy drinks of the day. I'll bet the corkage fee was at least twice what the bottle of wine costed?

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Wow!!! I never realized that. Guess a corkscrew goes on the list of essential things to pack, eh? The funny thing was, that's about the only alcohol we got from the room. It was just too convenient to order the yummy drinks of the day. I'll bet the corkage fee was at least twice what the bottle of wine costed?

Yeah, the only thing is. I believe, corkscrews are on the "no-no, can't bring on board list." Does anybody know for sure?

 

[King Charming]

You may not have drank much of what we brought aboard, so I made up for it And yes, we did pay 15 smackaroos to open a 6 dollar bottle of wine (that wasn't finished and we ended up pouring out the last third )

 

[King Charming]

Dang, I should have said a 30 dollars bottle of wine. Then I could of fooled these nice readers into thinking I had some class. Oh yeah, some of them met me....er....maybe fool some of the people some of the time...maybe?

 

[Hypermommy]

Dang, I should have said a 30 dollars bottle of wine. Then I could of fooled these nice readers into thinking I had some class. Oh yeah, some of them met me....er....maybe fool some of the people some of the time...maybe?

Now baby, we know you have some class. It may be a remedial class, but... (/me ducking and running).

 

[King Charming]

Nice to know you can still handle all the "straight" lines I can feed you dear.

 

[King Charming]

Oh dang it, would you look at the time! How'd it get to be past 1:30 ALREADY? 2 words (recurring) Late Kids! OK, we are all together, let's get down to the room and drop off the carry-on bags, then run up to the DIS meet, fast! There are three bags waiting for us by the door when we get there, key works, and.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!! DW posted the pictures of the decorations and cake they put in the room. Smartly they also put a knife, forks, and plates in the room too. So naturally we "let them eat cake" before dashing off to the meeting. It was a good thing too because with all the food and sweets to be had, this was the only time ANYBODY was up for cake.

Off we go to the lounge to attach faces to the board names we were so familar with. When we got there I thought we were in the wrong place as only a couple other families were sitting around. Introductions commenced and we started arranging the chairs in a large circle. But during those next few minutes the number of people kept doubling. They were at the bar, other tables, just inside the doorway, everywhere! It was about to evolve into mass confussion when my own DW stepped forward to MC the gathering. She takes charge of a situation quickly, faster than even me. After complete intros by scores of people, I was outta there. I left everybody in Hypermommy's good hands, as I had places to go and decks to see.

I was determined to find the most secluded public spot on the ship. I had heard about the deck 7 aft area, but I was also sure that so had everybody else. Besides, I really didn't want to hear from the non-smokers while I was out doing my thing. It didn't take long either. Keep reading and I'll clue you in on the spot and the advantages it offers.

 

[King Charming]

The safety drill is what it is. The hardest part is going up the stairs. I'm sure that when the temp is high, with no breeze (still in port), it can be tough. Thankfully there is a deck over you so you are not standing in the sun. A word to the wise, attend this drill! Attendance IS taken and I would think that angering the Capt and crew is not a good start to a cruise. Just think of it as the only 20 minutes out of the next 10K minutes during the week when you will be exhibiting good judgement.

 

[Hypermommy]

So we ate some cake quickly and then it was time to head off for the Dismeet. I was very excited about this becuase it meant I'd be meeting some of the folks I'd been hanging out online with for weeks and weeks.

The Promenade Lounge was a wonderful suggestion for where to have the meet but like most places on the ship it wasn't set up for a large group of people. The chairs were set around small tables in a four top fashion (4 chairs to a table). The first thing I suggested was that we pull the chairs out into a large circle so everyone would feel included. I guess from there I just kind of took over. Call it my Type A personality. Call it a function of my oversized mouth. Call it an occupational hazard of being a Scout leader. Call it what you want but I just kind of do that sometimes. No one seemed to mind and if they did they were very kind about it and encouraged me (dangerous thing to do sometimes ).

The first part of our meet was spent with everyone introducing themselves. The turnout we had was amazing! I'd never done any Dismeets before but even I was impressed at how many people were able to make it down to the meet. I later heard that it was phenomenally successful as a Dismeet as usually only a couple of families will show up. I think that was a function of all the fun we had on the boards leading up to the cruise. In fact, our cruise thread is still going because folks are still sharing and some real friendships have been made.

After the introductions we went into the Yankee Trade. I've heard this called by other names but basically it's everyone that wants to participate brings a gift. Then you draw numbers. Number 1 gets to go pick a gift and opens it. Number 2 can decide to "steal" the gift from number 1 or go get one off the table. Number 3 can "steal" from 1 or 2 or go get one off the table. And so it goes. We had decided to divvy our gifts into "child", "teen" and "adult" categories. So we got all the gifts put out on the table in their separate categories and then Karen made up numbers becuase she had the foresight to bring a pad of sticky notes. We were going to use King Charming's hat from which to draw numbers but by that time he'd disappeared to parts unknown. First we did the kids. I don't think any of them "stole" gifts and everyone seemed happy with what they got.

Note: I don't have any pictures that just contain my guys but I think it'll be safe enough since none of the other kids are identified. If you see a picture of your kid here and would rather it not be shown, just PM me and I'll delete it.

Here's DS12 opening his gift. He loved the rubber duckies! Despite the fact that he tries to act all cool around his friends, he's still my baby.

Here's DS14 participating in the Yankee Trade. Only 2 teens participated and because of a "steal" they each ended up going home with what they brought. DS14, you can blame this on your mom. I tried to get something specific to Tallahassee and all I could come up with for this age level is a crossword puzzle book and a keychain. Very "interesting" town we live in, huh?

Then it was time for the adults to have a go at it. Let's just say there was more "stealing" going on with this group. Of course, it was all in fun and I believe everyone had a great time.

Loved his tote!

God, I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this picture, but can't you just feel the excitement? We all wanted that picture.

At the end of the meet we took a picture of all of us. I didn't have one taken with my camera becuase I figured I'd get one from someone else. There's been one posted on our thread that I'm going to use in my scrapbook but quite frankly, I'm too lazy to go find it right now. But we did have probably about 100 people there total. It was a fantastic start to the trip and it was so much fun having so many people that knew each other. It made our week like living in the small town in which I grew up becuase every time you turned a corner you ran into someone you knew.

Then it was time for the lifeboat drill. I understand why they had us go up the stairs becuase in a real emergency that's what we'd be doing. But in a real emergency I'd have adreneline (sp?) to help me get up those stairs. All I can say is what I was thinking as I was nearing the top of the steps to deck 4 (remember, we're living on deck 2 for the week) -- they shouldn't make a fat woman go up all those stairs. We don't need the lifeboat drill as much becuase we float.

But we made it up there and they had us line up by family with the tallest in the back. That put DS12 in the front. Now this is the same way we line up (by troop or by patrol) for Scouts so both kids were quite conversant in how this works. It's just a logical way of doing things, I guess. But when they got to us, DS12 got to tell them which family we were or which stateroom we were in (I can't remember what he was to tell them). That made him like the Senior Patrol Leader of our little troop. He loved that.

And, of course, I got some of the obligatory lifeboat drill pictures.

DS14 takes it quite seriously. Good for him. Guess he was listening when I told him not to fool around during the drill.

DS12 also was very well behaved. Our little Senior Patrol Leader for the day.

King Charming... you know, I think that hat would stay on his head even if we were in the ocean.

Next up from me .... Sailaway Party and Pulling Out of Port

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Are there no pictures of hypermommy?

I am really enjoying your reports - really bumping my excitement up a notch for our cruise - and still over 5 months to go!

 

[rantnnravin]

Thanks Denise.
Not sure if that was a result of excitement or DH's "home"made Bahama Mama's.
It's all good.
I think I was actually in the process of answering whether I wanted to trade that beautiful litho that goes perfectly with the other lithos we have of our DVC homes. But in any case, I think I feel my 15 minutes of Letterman fame coming on.
"DH" really did like his bag and looks forward to using it on the boat and at the beach this year.
DD really loved the Tallahassee Manatee and slept with him every night.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Once again, I love having a new TR installment to read first thing in the morning.
You guys are great storytellers!!! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Hypermommy]

Are there no pictures of hypermommy?

Not many. I love being the photographer because 1) I'm getting rather good at it if I do say so myself and 2) it keeps me out from in front of the camera. Just take a look at my avatar with Mickey...see... ya need a wide angle lens

Not sure if that was a result of excitement or DH's "home"made Bahama Mama's.
It's all good.
I think I was actually in the process of answering whether I wanted to trade that beautiful litho that goes perfectly with the other lithos we have of our DVC homes. But in any case, I think I feel my 15 minutes of Letterman fame coming on.
DD really loved the Tallahassee Manatee and slept with him every night.

I know nobody was getting that picture. I've got to figure out where to get a copy of it becuase I want one so badly. Hey... do you have a scanner? Maybe you could scan me a copy of it and then I could print it out and frame it. I'm not sure of the legality of that but I know Disney gets enough of my money... just ask King Charming.

I had a hard time convincing DS12 to give up the manatee. I'm gonna have to go get him one. But that's our state mammal, I belive, so it's a good souvie from a trip to Florida. I'm glad to hear she loved it so.

 

[King Charming]

I was properly fortified, so it was time for the first of the (organized) deck activities, the much anticipated, high energy, leave the world and your worries behind Sail Away Party. There are some videos on the net taken of the stage show that I have seen, but they simply can not convey the enthusiasm of the crowd around you. It is alot like being at a sporting event when the home team has locked up a victory, only times 10. At the sporting event you share the joy with a large crowd, but it is tempered with other thoughts such as getting home, or the meeting on Monday. At Sail Away, you are part of a high excitment, up beat music, dancing everywhere experience kicked up many notches with the appearance of Mic & friends, streamers and confetti, and of course that famous ship's horn. There are no bad seats as everything (and everyone) are shown on the mega screen above the stage. This will also be the most crowded (in terms of personal space) you will attend. Next would be pirate night party, third most crowded would be the kiddie pool in the am. Other places and events pack you in, but at least there are aisles and seats for everyone. Remember to walk over to the side of the ship as you are pulling out of port. You may permit yourself to at least have boastful thoughts as you wave at the people on shore. They have to get back to their life on Monday morning whereas you are going on an adventure! If you walk away from this party feeling anything less than extremely optimistic, you must be dead and have severely wasted your time and money. Seriously, look around. I have never seen such a diverse group with at least one tear of happiness welling up due to a shared event. This is why you choose Disney for your cruise. Don't miss it! (How was that, Walt?)

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I was properly fortified, so it was time for the first of the (organized) deck activities, the much anticipated, high energy, leave the world and your worries behind Sail Away Party. There are some videos on the net taken of the stage show that I have seen, but they simply can not convey the enthusiasm of the crowd around you. It is alot like being at a sporting event when the home team has locked up a victory, only times 10. At the sporting event you share the joy with a large crowd, but it is tempered with other thoughts such as getting home, or the meeting on Monday. At Sail Away, you are part of a high excitment, up beat music, dancing everywhere experience kicked up many notches with the appearance of Mic & friends, streamers and confetti, and of course that famous ship's horn. There are no bad seats as everything (and everyone) are shown on the mega screen above the stage. This will also be the most crowded (in terms of personal space) you will attend. Next would be pirate night party, third most crowded would be the kiddie pool in the am. Other places and events pack you in, but at least there are aisles and seats for everyone. Remember to walk over to the side of the ship as you are pulling out of port. You may permit yourself to at least have boastful thoughts as you wave at the people on shore. They have to get back to their life on Monday morning whereas you are going on an adventure! If you walk away from this party feeling anything less than extremely optimistic, you must be dead and have severely wasted your time and money. Seriously, look around. I have never seen such a diverse group with at least one tear of happiness welling up due to a shared event. This is why you choose Disney for your cruise. Don't miss it! (How was that, Walt?)

OMG - I so can't wait, I so can't wait ! I almost have a tear in my eye reading that - you have done Mr Disney very proud!

 

[MassDisLovers]

I know nobody was getting that picture. I've got to figure out where to get a copy of it becuase I want one so badly. Hey... do you have a scanner? Maybe you could scan me a copy of it and then I could print it out and frame it. I'm not sure of the legality of that but I know Disney gets enough of my money... just ask King Charming.

My darling Denise - I am the one who brought that print to the swap, and it was done by a dear friend of mine. PM me your real world address and I'll send you one!
Karen