Mama's Got Her Groove Back! Now Let's Go Crusin'!

[Had2disneycruz]

Oh, you dear, sweet DIS friends just warm my heart!

I'm sure we'll have a great time, and I'll tell you all about it when we get back.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

 

[Kelly Lou]

Hi, just read your pre trip report... Can't wait for the post report. I'm in Canfield Ohio (near Youngstown), and it's snowing here again today ! I so wish I was there now! We go on our first cruise, 4 nights on the Wonder, in May!!!!! Can't wait to hear all about yours!

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

I'm getting a little fearful about getting out of Ohio...we're supposed to get 3 - 5 inches of snow tomorrow morning and our flight leaves at 11:00 a.m.!

JUST GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

 

[iu97alum]

Happy Birthday to you!!! Hope you're celebrating it in STYLE!!!

 

[anewmac]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

enjoy the cruise cant wait to hear all about it.... and Ill be praying for NO snow tmrw for ya!

 

[laura001]

I look forward to reading your report when you get back, hope you are having a good time!!

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

Saturday, February 21st, my alarm woke me at 6:30 a.m. Normally I would mutter swear words under my breath and smack that annoying little machine silly, roll over and drift back to sleep, but this was VACATION DAY!

I bounced out of bed with a smile on my face and hopped in the shower. I was ready in a flash, and had to pull my hubby from his nice, warm slumber. Once we both were showered, dressed, and ready, we began packing up those all important last minute items that simply can’t be forgotten. We were ready earlier than we had planned, but it made for a less-stressful morning. Our son was still sleeping peacefully. What fun it was to gently wake him to the words “Get up honey…we’re heading to Florida today!”

My husband’s parents arrived around 7:45, and by 8:00 a.m. we were on the road to the airport. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds. My husband and son gobbled up their food, but I was too excited to eat, so I just picked at my meal – most of it went in the trash!

By 9:00 we had arrived at the airport. We had a brief wait to check in. After what felt like ages (but was really only 15 minutes), we checked our bags, grabbed our boarding passes, hugged the in-laws, and breezed through security.

Now came the “hurry up and wait” portion of our day. We sat in the Toledo Express airport for about an hour and a half. Not because our flight was delayed, but because I was so excited for this trip that we arrived at the airport way too early. Finally, our plane arrived from Orlando/Sanford airport and we boarded around 11:00. Once we were on the plane, we had to wait (yep, more waiting) for our plane to be de-iced. This process took about 20 minutes. Now that’s not a long time to you and me, but to a 4 year old, this feels like eternity. Before long we were given the go-ahead and our plane finally took flight. We’re off to Florida! Yea!

Once we arrived at the Orlando/Sandford airport, it was all smooth sailing from there – yes, pun intended! My husband grabbed our checked luggage while I signed all the paperwork for the rental car, and within 20 minutes we were on our way to Cape Canaveral. Let me just tell you how nice it was to get on an airplane in freezing cold Ohio and be driving down palm-tree lined roads with the windows down and the music cranked 3 hours later. A girl could get used to that kind of life…

After a short, happy drive down the Florida coast, we crossed those famous bridges and saw the happiest sight of the day:

Sadly, we kept on driving to our less-than-savory hotel room – but it would have to do, after all we would be on the grandest ship in the harbor the very next day!

Once we were settled we noticed the loud grumbles coming from our tummies, so we headed down to Jetty Park for dinner. We stopped at Rusty’s for the BEST EVER wings and beer. Luckily the Disney Magic hadn’t left yet! I got a few shots as she sailed out to sea:

After dinner we stopped at the liquor store and stocked up! Hint: if you eat at Rusty’s, save your receipt! The owner of Rusty’s also owns Cape Canaveral Liquors, so your receipt acts as a 15% off coupon. Your discount is printed on the bottom of your Rusty’s receipt; just take it in and save some money on drinks!

We then headed back to our hotel for a restless night of sleep. But not to worry – the best is yet to come!

Up next: Our own private Mickey pool

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

I can feel your excitement!!!

 

[Jennifer48]

Yay I can't wait to hear more!

 

[Kelly Lou]

I've been waiting for this report all week. And, Happy Delayed Bday! Keep it coming, I'll be checking in daily!

 

[anewmac]

yeah!!!!!! I love the horn sound!!!! Still bring tears and chills to me

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

I've been waiting for this report all week. And, Happy Delayed Bday! Keep it coming, I'll be checking in daily!

Well I'll try not to disappoint!

(I'm a little obsessed with researching Disney Vacation Club membership right now...I'm trying to convince my DH to do this so we can go back again soon!)

More to come - I promise!

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

Day One of Our Cruise...

It’s Finally Embarkation Day! The day we’d dreamed of for so long had finally arrived! I could not sleep the night before – I tossed and turned all night, and looked at the clock constantly wondering when it would be “appropriate” to get up! Finally, I figured 6:30 a.m. was good, I’d slept long enough!

We all headed to the Omelet Station for breakfast – yum! DS was thrilled with his Mickey shaped chocolate chip pancakes. How did they know we were going on a Disney cruise?! I was still too excited to eat, so for the second day I picked at my breakfast. (I think my DH was getting a little annoyed with buying me breakfast only to see it thrown in the trash!)

After breakfast we made a quick stop at Cocoa Beach.

Why thank you for such a heart-warming welcome!

Brrr! That water is cold!

After running in and out of the surf, we jumped into the rental car and headed back to the hotel-from-a-horror-movie to get cleaned up and ready to head to the cruise terminal. Boy was I glad to check out of that place! We then turned our rental car back in at Avis and were on the shuttle to the terminal just before 10:00 a.m.

We made it! We breezed through security, and before I knew it we were standing on that wonderful escalator, headed up! up! up! to check in for our cruise!

We were greeted by a friendly CM waving hello with her cute Mickey glove. She pointed us to an open clerk, and within 3 minutes we had our boarding pass. We were directed over to the security picture stop, smiled and said “cheese!”, grabbed our son’s kid’s Club pager, and had plenty of time to explore the terminal.

He's in AWE!

Before long, word got around that Captain Mickey was in the terminal. I was more excited than DS was! We quickly jumped in line, and within 10 minutes we got to meet Mickey in person – er, in mouse.

DS was getting a little antsy and a little moody, and a LOT tired of waiting, so DH grabbed a few snacks. While we were munching, a friendly voice came over the loudspeaker to announce the family of the “week.” A moment later that same happy voice began announcing boarding pass numbers. We had a 5, not great but not bad, and a short while later our group was announced.

We walked through the big Mickey Ears, posed for our first Shutters photo op, then strolled across the gangway. A cheerful CM asked our family name and then announced:

“Welcome to the Beck family!”​

I’ve just gotta say – being announced like that as we stepped into the atrium was fantastic! I actually got a little choked up!

We were directed to Parrot Cay, but being “in-the-know,” we headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet. By this time it was only 12:30. Once we got out onto deck 9 we noticed it was empty! Only a few CM’s were around, just finishing up a few last minute clean-ups.

It was then that my DS spied the Mickey Pool. It was EMPTY! He begged to swim right at that moment, but I turned him down – he had to have at least four bites of something before he could swim! All of our stomachs were growling, so we went directly to Beach Blanket Buffet to grab a bite. There was no one in line, so we breezed through quickly and headed out to the aft deck to scarf it all down.

After DS inhaled and counted all his bites (yes, I’m that kind of mom!) I took him to the Mickey pool. Poor DH had to carry his tray and lug a few carry-on bags over to a table by the pool by himself because DS was running straight for the water – he was on a mission!

Then, the funniest thing happened. I told DS “Let’s get you changed into your swimsuit” and he dropped his shorts right then and there out on deck! I shrieked “NO! I’ll take you to the bathroom to change!” DH and I haven’t laughed that hard in a LONG time! (Thankfully hardly anyone was around to see that!)

Once DS had his swim shorts on I let him run loose. He hopped in that pool as quickly as he could! I think there were maybe one or two other kids by now. No big deal – but this was the LAST time we’d see that pool so empty! DH and I sat back and relaxed… we had a little time to kill before our bags would be at our room.

Ahh... The high life!

Up Next: Our first DIS meet & the wonderful safety drill

 

[Kelly Lou]

Then, the funniest thing happened. I told DS “Let’s get you changed into your swimsuit” and he dropped his shorts right then and there out on deck! I shrieked “NO! I’ll take you to the bathroom to change!” DH and I haven’t laughed that hard in a LONG time! (Thankfully hardly anyone was around to see that!)

LOL! I love that my boys aren't the only kids who are willing to strip naked anywhere!

And let me know what you find out about DVC- I'm obsessed these days too! We're not even there yet and I can't wait to go back!

 

[anewmac]

HAHA you got a streaker in the making!

 

[CapnJackGroupie]

I appreciate your son's eagerness!! Who can blame him??

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

Day Two Continued…

When I last wrote, I left off while I was lounging by the Mickey pool…that was nice, but short lived. As time went on more and more families started showing up, and pretty soon it was super crowded, just as it would be the rest of the cruise. The water temperature in that pool was pretty chilly, and in no time DS’s lips started to turn blue. Even the Mickey-ear “hot tubs” weren’t very warm, so I bundled DS up in a towel and walked him down to the hot tubs by the Goofy pool. The water here was much warmer. This pool was MUCH less crowded and the atmosphere was much more enjoyable. For the rest of the cruise, I enjoyed this pool the best!

How do we keep getting these pools all to ourselves?

The time was nearing 1:30 and I was anxious to drop our carry-on bags off in our stateroom. Wheeling a suitcase full of booze around gets pretty tiresome! After we dropped our bags off we decided to do a little exploring around the ship. The beauty of that vessel just amazes me. I’ve cruised before (on the floating box with the whale tail), but I’ve never experienced such class and sophistication on a ship like this before. Disney does it right! The artwork is beautiful, and it’s everywhere! Having special touches like these at every turn really does make the feel of the ship seem so elegant.

Soon it was time for our first DIS meet! I had arranged our meets for our group, and I decided to make our first meet at the Mickey pool, since nearly all of us had young children, and I figured we’d all be up there anyway! After a few minutes, campinggal and her DD found us. We had met earlier in the terminal, thanks to those handy lime green Mickey heads. A few minutes later, Sue from our meet found us and pointed us toward the rest of the group that had already found each other. It was great to meet each other, but my DS was tired and grumpy at this point so I had to cater to his every whine and I didn’t get to talk with the other moms from our group as much as I would have like. But my DH sure had a good time! Within minutes he had a beer in his hand (given to him by “sharkbait,” other wise known as Ron in real life) and was laughing it up with all the other hubbies. Meanwhile, I’ve got a grumpy 4-year-old monster draining the life out of me…so I quickly grabbed that beer out of DH’s hand and took a few swigs myself!

Not long into our meet I decided that I needed to take DS down to our stateroom for a short rest before the security drill and the Sail Away party. So we politely said our goodbyes and all headed down to the room. One of our checked bags was waiting for us by the door. Luckily it was the one that had the magnets and the fish extender in it, so I hung those up while DS rested on the couch and watched a little t.v.

Not five minutes into our little respite, the voice of our cruise director Peter came over the ships p.a. system to explain that it was time to grab our life vests and head to our designated meeting station. So much for that much-needed rest for ALL of us!


Does this life vest make me look fat?

This drill wasn’t really all that bad, except that my feet were killing me, we were standing in the direct heat of the sun, it was really crowded, and a bratty little 2 year old boy stomped on my DS’s toes a few times, pinched him, and hit him, all while his parents pretty much did nothing about it. I tired my best to separate them, but the shortest ones have to be in the front, and this put those two right beside each other, and gave that other little boy ample opportunity to take his frustrations out on my kid. Finally, one of the CM’s told that little boy’s mom that she could take him back to their room. She apologized to me for his behavior and grabbed him up and whisked him away. (Thank you, Lord! My kid was bad enough on his own, he didn’t need a little instigator beside him to make his mood worse!)

Happy guy #1

Happy guy #2

I was so excited for the Sail Away party that I made my family sprint back to our room to drop off the life vests because I was on a mission to get a good spot on deck 10 to watch the whole experience. DH & DS didn’t share my enthusiasm. We got a good spot and I was able to get quite a bit of it on our camcorder, but DS hated it! DH asked DS what he wanted to do, and all our little guy wanted to do was be down on deck 9 to dance. I felt horrible! From what I had read on the DIS boards, the Sail Away party is a little too over-stimulating for the younger ones, and they would enjoy watching it from deck 10 so they could see everything. But not my kid! He wanted to be down there in all the action. It seems he had his own expectations for his vacation and I was ruining it for him!

So we ran down the stairs to deck 9, danced along with Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy, and heard the beautiful sound of the ship’s horn. Amazingly, I didn’t cry! I can’t believe this, because every time I listened to it at home before we left I bawled like a baby! I guess I was just so happy to be there that I cheered instead of falling into a blubbering mess and embarrassing my DH.

By this point, the Sail Away party was in full swing, so I decided to take my boys out to the “secret” deck 7 aft observation deck. There was one other family out there, and it was a much more peaceful for place for DS to watch the ship leave port. I think this was one of his favorite experiences.

He's explaining it all to his daddy

Up next: just the two of us

 

[anewmac]

I love the ships horn! Funny how they werent too happy about the sailaway mine werent either go figure LOL.

 

[campinggal]

Hi Harmony!!!

It is fun to be reading your report! I don't have time to do one myself but it will be nice to relive our cruise through your report.

Mother Nature is being cruel to us today- we had two days of mid 50s weather over the weekend and the snow rapidly melted but we woke up this morning to snow, 2 hr school delays and at least 3 to 6 inches. Yuck!

I would SO rather be standing on deck in the hot sun at a lifeboat drill! Sigh...

Happy Monday!!

Liz

 

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

Hey Liz!

It's so nice to "see" you again! Our weather has been crazy here too. We had 5 tornadoes within a 50 mile radius of our house last night, some only a few miles away. Then, a few minutes after the last one touched down, we had another beautiful rainbow just outside our living room window. Destruction and beauty all in one wild evening!

Actually, I shouldn't complain too much about that life boat drill - that was the worst part of our trip and even that wasn't that bad! We had such a great time. We can't wait to go back. We're in the process of planning our next trip! Can't wait.