Lost Luggage, Sick Kid, Let the Magic Begin - NYE Cruise on the Magic Trip Report

[suzynuprin]

It's time for me to pay my debts to all those before me that wrote such fabulous trip reports...so here is my humble attempt. Enjoy!

Cast of Characters: DH Dave (35), DD Delaney (7), DS Jack (3 ½), DS Max (2 ¾) and me Su (37), MIL Kathy (ageless), FIL Rick (a little older than ageless)

So this trip reports starts almost two years ago from the confines of my home computer in Chicago with a brilliant idea to rope in family and friends to join us for a seven-day Magical cruise NYE 2006. After doing our two “tester” (3-day) cruises, we were now officially ready to hit the high seas for a longer stay in the hopes that Dave can actually find the crew bar this trip.

We booked two adjoining rooms – 5024 and 5022, yep the not-so-secret-anymore porthole rooms, with a fabulous view of the back of a yellow lifeboat. Who knew that Costco would have the cheapest price for the cruise? “I’ll take two staterooms with that jumbo size of peanut butter and jelly.”

The preparations….

Well, it turns out when you book so far in advance, only the die-hards end up taking the trip. What started out as 30 of us getting prescriptions for the patch, ends up dwindling down to just seven – our family and my in-laws.

After hosting family at our home in Chicago for Christmas, I quickly kick them out on the 26th to start the daunting task of packing. I looked at the weather forecast and geez, Florida has a low of 46 degrees? A high of only 60 degrees? After four hours – yes, four hours – I have managed to pack enough clothes to outfit the entire cast and crew of the Disney Magic. If the sun comes out and scorches the earth – I’m fully prepared. If the air conditioning gets stuck on high in the boat during formal night, we have the Chicago-snow-suit-formal outfits. After looking at our ten suitcases (they were smallish…okay, maybe not), it appears that we will have to inform Disney that we are apparently moving on the ship. Too bad for the folks following our scheduled week – boy, won’t they be surprised when they find us still in our stateroom with the “Home Sweet Home” sign plastered to our front door. And after packing all the clothes, I also find room to squeeze in laundry detergent and some dryer sheets. As Dave says, “Why would you need to do laundry when you have emptied our entire closet into those suitcases?”

12/28:

We have a 7:30 a.m. flight to the Happiest Place on Earth…with the grumpiest kids (we apparently don’t have “morning kids” despite the pleas that yes, we are going on vacation, this will be so much fun!). In an attempt to make our morning easier, I chose the lazy-mom’s way out and dressed the kids in their flight clothes…the night before. Yep – just roll those kids out of bed and into the car and let the fun begin.

We had a relatively uneventful flight – which is amazing considering the long standing travel curse that has followed our family (more specifically me). Our last Disney cruise, we were denied boarding on our flight to Florida. Why? “Um…it appears that Delaney is on the FBI No-Fly List.” Excuse me? She’s 5! We’re going to see Mickey – I promise you we will not kidnap Mickey or terrorize Donald Duck! O.K., maybe I’m lying about the terrorizing part, but please…can we just get on the flight? And don't ask me how I managed to one time get on the wrong plane and fly to Madison, WI instead of Houston, TX....

After landing in Orlando, which was noticeably warmer than Chicago and not anywhere close to the temperatures I saw, we go down to baggage claim to get our bags and get on our way. After watching all the bags circle the belt endlessly, we are still waiting for the kids luggage. Darn it…this isn’t looking good. It’s that travel curse making one last pit stop before the end of the year, isn’t it? “Su, why don’t you wait in line at Customer Service while I get the rental car.” So – being the good traveler, with the black cloud clearly over my head, I hear the words no one ever wants to hear when they are in Florida. “I’m very sorry, but it appears your bags were tagged incorrectly. They were sent to Honolulu.” “Hono-who-who? Are you serious?” It appears the only way the kids luggage will arrive before we board the boat is if they make the red-eye to Los Angeles, hop a flight to Denver (where we know it doesn’t snow and is tropical year-round and flights never get cancelled in December) and then hop another flight to Orlando. This sounds like the Amazing Race of Luggage – good luck. Thankfully, I managed to pack one suitcase with two-days worth of clothes for the kids while we’re at Disney…looks like that laundry detergent is going to come in handy after all.

We hopped in the rental car, thankfully had enough room for the kids since we didn’t have all of our luggage and went on our merry way to (no flames please….), The Nick Hotel. Yes, I know, the travel curse was well deserved for not staying on Disney property – but we couldn’t escape the endless commercials for the Nick Hotel and thought that perhaps we should give it a try. My quick review of the hotel – probably not worth the price ($325/night for a Holiday Inn), but the kids really enjoyed the water park and had a blast.

Stay tuned...more to come...

 

[mrsnesbit]

great report! Bummer about the luggage how can they tag some of the luggage wrong! that is crazy. Did you ever get it?

 

[starrzone]

I'm really enjoying your TR! I'll stay tuned for the next installment! It sounds like you guys had a great time so far (all things considered...)...

As for the travel curse, I'm sure many of us here can sympathize. My friend and I went to China in May on standby, and our suitcases ended up getting sent to Beijing while we were still in Toronto. Another time, I had to walk around Paris for nearly 2 days in the exact same clothes after our luggage got left in Toronto (geez, maybe I'd better avoid the place!).

Starrzone

 

[discruiselovers97]

Looking great so far!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

more, more, please!!!! I'm hooked.

 

[amy2girls]

WOW can't wait to hear more

 

[curlybop]

Great report so far! See, overpacking comes in handy sometimes.

 

[suzynuprin]

I'll send installment two when I get home tonight from work...somehow I doubt my office would appreciate me writing a report as opposed to publishing our books (although we do publish all the Disney sound books, nothing like being on the boat and seeing products you worked on in the Treasure Ketch - it's like work never escapes you).

In regards to the infamous travel curse.... This extends far beyond lost luggage - if there's an emergancy landing, it's probably because I'm on the plane. If the flights delayed for any reason, most likely because I'm on the plane. I even managed to fly to Madison, WI once instead of Houston, TX. Boy, that was a surprise. The fact that Delaney is on the FBI no-fly list, means the curse is hereditary and has been passed down.

The luggage got tagged incorrectly because it literally had someone else's names on the tags. Probably what happened is that the baggage handler printed up our tags and another passengers tags and accidently swapped a portion of the tags. So some poor family by the name of Morrisey ended up in Hawaii with their bags sent to Florida. The curse apparently has extended its reach from one coast to another and beyond.

Stay tuned for more tonight....

 

[kevinsmom]

Good report so far!! Keep it comin'

 

[yargrnhoj]

Well, when flying out of Chicago, it's a miracle your bags make it anywhere close to your destination. When I went to Hong Kong on business in October, my bags got to have a nice layover in Los Angeles. Why, only God and American Airlines knows.

Enjoying your TR. Luckily, kids will wear the same clothes all week if you let them.

 

[mruhaak]

I'm subscribing. I need to know you had a good time.

But I am a little nervous now as I am flying to Vegas in a week.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

 

[suzynuprin]

12/29 – Our “Magical” Day at the park….

Somewhere, probably on the DIS Boards, I read that you should put your kids in matching shirts so they’re easier to spot. Being the over packer that I was, we had two sets of matching shirts – long sleeve versions for the cold morning and short sleeve versions for the hot afternoons. Years from now, when the kids are looking at the pictures of Disney World, we’ll tell them that they were actually there for two-days – an outfit change and it looks like it’s another day at the park!

On our way to the park, we opted for the ferry ride to the Magic Kingdom. Max exclaims, “Mommy, is this the Disney Boat?” “Son, if this is the Disney Boat, we are in big trouble.”

We raced into the park and headed past Cinderella’s Castle to go straight to “It’s a Small World.” Once again Max asks, “Mommy, is this the Disney Boat?” Being one of the first families in the park (which trust me, was a major feat in itself…two early mornings, where’s the vacation?), we ended up utilizing the Fast Passes and short lines to our advantage and didn’t wait longer than 10 minutes for a ride. Which is a good thing if you know our kids.

For lunch, we made reservations at Tony’s on Main Street. We thankfully got a seat by the window while the parade was marching by. Of course, since we were INSIDE and the parade was OUTSIDE, it was like watching the Macy’s Day Parade on T.V. without the volume.

Our last Fast Pass was to a train/roller coaster ride (I can’t remember the name of the ride). Max has a complete fascination with trains – in fact, he rides the “El” everyday to take a trip around the loop and catch the sights – pretty much just like the homeless on the train too. No destination…just around and around he goes. I digress. There is a minimum height rule to get on this ride – we knew Max was right around the minimum height and by fluffing up his crazy curly hair, we made it past the first hurdle. After our 5-minute wait in line to get on the train ride, we get busted. “Excuse me…he doesn’t look like he’s tall enough…” Dave, fluff the hair, fluff the hair…. Crap – no ride for Max, he gets kicked off with Dave while I make the loops with Delaney and Jack. After the fun and excitement – and the ever increasing growing crowds – we decide our day at the Magic Kingdom has come to an end. It’s time to go to the dark side and flip channels to Nick At Nite.

** The Nick Hotel has not only Nickelodeon on it’s channels, but also the Disney Channel. The channels on the boat has hmm…The Disney Channel, The Disney Channel 2, and The Disney Channel 3 with at least a couple of channels dedicated to the top of the bridge – you would think they could reciprocate the favor with Nickelodeon…. ** (my version of pop-up video)

When we returned to our hotel, we still had no bag. I flipped on the news and yes – Denver is snowed under. So much for overpacking, huh? So, I take the rental mini-van and load up the kids for a trek to the local Wal-Mart for nothing but the finest in cruise attire. By the way, about half the store is dedicated to Disney merchandise, at about half the price. And why doesn’t Walmart carry shorts in the winter? In Chicago, we wear shorts if it’s a balmy 50 degrees – Florida, it’s down coats and mittens if the temperature drops below 70.

After dinner at the hotel, Dave’s parents arrive. Since their stay was so short, we thought perhaps we could all bunk together at our hotel room. Hey – the pictures on the web made it look like the two-bedroom suite was at least as big as our house in Chicago. (that would be a city-size home, not a Chicago-suburb size home) O.K., let’s get one thing straight about kid suites – it’s about as spacious as having your kids sleep on the floor of your bedroom. There’s not even a door to the kid’s room – just a curtain. Kinda like a walk in closet with bunk-beds. So now, there are eight of us (our family, Dave’s Aunt who lives in Florida and joined us for the park, and Dave’s parents) crammed into the smallest “Two-bedroom Suite”. It was like trying to fit 20 oversized clowns into the VW Bug. I’m sure it was highly illegal, but really what could they do? Kick us out – fine by me, because tomorrow we’re on the Disney Boat (really Max, the REAL Disney Boat)!

Stay tuned, more tomorrow (I actually did write the entire report, so rest assured, there's a new installment each day)

 

[mruhaak]

I'm thinking you were lucky they lost the kids bags. Imagine going to Walmart to find cruise clothes for yourself!

 

[L.I. Engineer]

 

[tjeagle]

Great report!

 

[Caitsmama]

Great report!!

Uhhh.. 'bout that travel curse.............. you aren't by any chance going on this cruise this year too are you??? JK!!

Hope it gets better for ya!

 

[Floridagram]

I was cracking up after paragraphs 6 & 7!

You must have had an interesting last 2 3/4 years with Jack and Max. A friend of mine has 2 boys 5 and 6 and I know she has her hands full.

Are you a writer by trade or a comedian? Either way I have enjoyed your TR and hurry with the rest of it!

 

[Carol36]

 

[Dixielady908]

Great so far dont keep us hanging to long.....


Denise