March 21, 2009 Western Magic

[BobandLee]

Just popping in to wish our friends Bob and Lee a MAGICal cruise....hope you have a great time and can't wait to hear how the grandkids liked the MAGIC!!!!!

Thanks Kid!
Just had a nice visit with Mr & Mrs Webray.
They brought goodie bags by on their way to the Dolphin.

We are heading down to the pool as soon as the bags arrive.

Eating at BOMA tonight. Yummm.

 

[DisneyMom92]

Wow! A whirlwind trip that passed all too quickly. A special thank you to whoever did the lanyard tags for my entire family. It was a really nice surprise that even impressed my jaded teens. They were thrilled with them and even stated it would have been cool to have had a t-shirt from the design.

The questions of the day...who rebooked onboard and who took advantage of the wonderful offer from DVC?

 

[MelissaE1]

You are welcome for the tags. Glad your kids liked them. BobandLee actually provided the original idea, I just reworked that design, printed them back to back and laminated them so the kids could keep them as keepsakes.

We don't have DVC, but I'm glad those of you who do got a great offer! I managed to convince my husband (around my "crying the blues cause I have to get off and leave the crew and my new friends" DD10) this morning that we should put down another deposit, we will probably use it for the new ship, though.

Hope everyone had a great time, I know we did. After all that work to surprise my DD I think it was actually overwhelming for her. Next time we'll let her know a little in advance. She usually makes a friend on the DIS beforehand, but she's so social that didn't matter. Coincidentally she met and hung around with BobandLee's granddaughter quite a bit, and one other little girl. They were quite a trio!

Anyone using the $99 pp bounceback offer? Awesome deal!

 

[cindy18]

Hi All! Hope everyone had a safe trip home. We are all pretty miserable to be back and off the ship, I have to admit, and I am suffering from that feeling that everything is still moving, which is really disorienting, let me tell you! We had such a terrific time, and the DDs made terrific friends in Ocean's Quest, including Bob and Lee's grandson! They were in tears over saying goodbye. We went back and forth about rebooking and then made the big decision to book the Baltic next June. The ports are just too cool, and although we know it will be a very different kind of trip from cruising the Caribbean, we couldn't resist. And yes, the bounceback offer is amazing. We're looking at the calendar and trying to find a long weekend in the fall where we can steal away!!

Anyone do an excursion or experience something particularly amazing on the ship to share?

 

[magicron]

We got off the ship around 8:00 yesterday, got our rental car at Budget, and on the road by 8:30. Made it back to my mom's place in Sarasota around 11:00. Back to Ohio tomorrow afternoon (need to ease back into it all).

Great week. Sorry we missed the 2nd DIS meet. My kids enjoyed OQ and OL. They tend to enjoy the structured activities more so than hanging out socializing; they were always eager to go to the clubs after the shows, and a few times during sea days, and on CC.

The wind seemed to be our weather enemy. I suppose we can't complain as the sun was always out other than a brief shower on Monday. The canceled excursions didn't affect our plans, though. It was still a nice day on CC; it was warm enough to sit on the beach. The water was not too cold.

Thanks Melissa for making the tags; they were great! Also saw the post from Mitsy regarding the talent show - her kids were great dancers. I was impressed that other kids from the club were there to chear them on. That was me doing the rope trick - I didn't know about the talent show ahead of time, so had to go shopping in Cozumel for rope that would make due. I would have liked to see more adults participate. Got a chuckle seeing the "Von Trapp Family" violinists.

Well, we bit and joined DVC. With my mom in Florida much of the year, we go to WDW 1-2 times per year a couple days at a time, so it's something that has been on our minds, anyway. A couple friends back home are members, and swear by it. Hope my DD13 keeps her grades up, as maybe we just spent some of her college money The DVC 'free cruise' offer had limited days - nothing when school is out, so we took the extra development points.

I'll post a trip report later.

 

[BobandLee]

Good Afternoon everyone.
After the "adventure" that USAir provided for us yesterday and then taking the kids home, we finally got to bed at 2:30.
Of course our dog Belle was glad to see us and just kept letting us know how happy she was. Whew!

Just last week we were enjoying temps in the 80's. A big slap of reality this morning as I was taking the suitcases out of the car in a brief SNOW shower. Sigh.

It was a great week for us. It was so great meeting all of you, even if I forgot a few names. It is always good to make new DisFriends.

Paige, the granddaughter, was looking forward to the Oceaneer Lab, as she had heard about "the club" from her brother. She probably spent too much time there, but she really enjoyed it.
She really treasures her "friendship book". But she has a couple of phone numbers without area codes, so I am not sure how that will work for her.

The grandson, Payton, at first thought he did not want to be in the Ocean Quest. He wanted to go to the Stack. But as it turned out, he spent a lot of time there also. He was texting his new friends all last evening while we were being "held hostage" in Philly.

Us? We always have a great time on cruises. Usually we cruise with a bunch of other Disers and there are lots of pre-planned activities and such that keep us busy. This time, things were a bit more laid back. Lee got relaxation time in and I got to take a lot of pictures of the kids and the ship.

Key West was a lot of fun. Did our own thing. Mainly shopping.
We did stop by Captain Tony's to re-hydrate.

The two excursion that we did were wonderful.
The pirate encounter at Grand Cayman was a lot of fun, but maybe a bit crowded. Paige got a chance to show off her toughness by walking the plank and jumping off the ship during the swim time.

Then the Dolphin Encounter was a lot of fun.

Of course we had to buy the DVD.
Kept waiting for someone to stop by and "buy the first round".

Today will be spent unpacking and relaxing for work tomorrow.
I also have to work on the DVD of pics and vids for the kids.
They have seen DVDs of other cruises and are waitng for theirs this time.

Also, we took pictures at the second meet on monday. Just wondering if it is cool to those in that pic for me to post it on the board? I always try to ask before I do.

Everyone have a great day.

 

[cindy18]

Bob, it's ok with me if you had the pic from the 2nd meet. Matt spent much of yesterday working on a DVD slideshow of our pics (about 1000 of them to start), and I saw our version of that pic when we watched the slideshow last night. It was great! Also lots of pictures of your grandson in the slideshow, along with the rest of the group from OQ that we have dubbed "the Posse".

Terrific shot of you and the dolphin!

 

[iloveokw]

Melissa, thanks for the name tags. Nice to meet everyone. We enjoyed the cruise, of course, I forgot the get together on Monday cuz I didn't write it down. We were so lucky to get into Castaway Cay - we've had three cruises that we weren't able to go there. Had a nightmare of a flight getting home, two hours late flight, had to divert to Columbus, OH, for time on the ground. Finally landed at Indy about 1 a.m. The most turbulance I ever remember - did alot of praying! Got home after 2 a.m. (We are CST) Dusting of snow this a.m., but I WON'T give up wearing my sandals.

We are doing the bounceback 3 night on August 13 - 10th anniversary of the Wonder maiden voyage.

 

[BobandLee]

Bob, it's ok with me if you had the pic from the 2nd meet. Matt spent much of yesterday working on a DVD slideshow of our pics (about 1000 of them to start), and I saw our version of that pic when we watched the slideshow last night. It was great! Also lots of pictures of your grandson in the slideshow, along with the rest of the group from OQ that we have dubbed "the Posse".

Terrific shot of you and the dolphin!

How did you do that?
I could hardly get any pictures of him.
I guess it is o.k. if he is with his friends to take his picture.
Payton took the picture of me and the Dolphin. I took pictures of the rest of the family. We bought the Dolphin DVD there also. Nice keepsake.

I don't have quite 500 pictures, so sifting thru will be a bit easier.
I have a handful of clips to add to our DVD also. So I think I can come up with something acceptable.

 

[BobandLee]

Melissa, thanks for the name tags. Nice to meet everyone. We enjoyed the cruise, of course, I forgot the get together on Monday cuz I didn't write it down. We were so lucky to get into Castaway Cay - we've had three cruises that we weren't able to go there. Had a nightmare of a flight getting home, two hours late flight, had to divert to Columbus, OH, for time on the ground. Finally landed at Indy about 1 a.m. The most turbulance I ever remember - did alot of praying! Got home after 2 a.m. (We are CST) Dusting of snow this a.m., but I WON'T give up wearing my sandals.

We are doing the bounceback 3 night on August 13 - 10th anniversary of the Wonder maiden voyage.

We landed in Indy at about 11:30. We had the turbulence also.
Not the worse we've ever been in, but it was not good.
Lee said she saw some folks at the luggage carousel that had DCL tags on their bags that must have been on our flight, but I missed seeing who they were.

We gave that one a lot of thought, but we really want to do the wine and cheese festival also. Don't want to make 2 separate trips.
We know a few folks doing that August 13 cruise. kpros & spros, Scott H & Lynn G, seaulater and Bonzie1. All great folks.

 

[huntbrown]

Hi everyone!

Bob, pictures are fine with me!

Lost a piece of luggage in the port terminal - ended up in Massachusettes. Thank goodness we were able to get an earlier flight or we would have landed in a snow storm. Northern Illinois got hit pretty good. Still some out there. Apparently we were premature on putting the snow blower away and pullling out the lawn mower.

We booked a 2010 Christmas cruise. We will see if we keep it for that date.

Thanks again Melissa for the name tags.

Nicole

 

[BobandLee]

Bob, pictures are fine with me!

 

[BobandLee]

Good Morning Everyone
I waited too long to get up. It is now stormy out.

Gosh, it has taken a whole week for me to get back to normal.confused3)
Anyway, the suitcases are cleared out and put up and the souvenirs are thrown in the Mickey Room.
It is not final yet (because I have to change my vacation schedule) but we should be cruising again in October.
Will do a $99 3 day in conjunction with a WDW stay and the wine and cheese thingie.

All in all it was a great trip up until the last day. I am finishing up sorting pictures and stuff. If anyone is interested, I can send a link to them when I am done.
I love the kissing pic with Shadia, but I like this one too.

Not a good pic, but it is a light up Tink for my waterglass.

I also got one of these babies for my scrapbook...

and my favorite shirt

Have a great day.

 

[cindy18]

Great to see a post on our thread, and thanks for those pictures Bob. They are a great way to start a Sunday and a wonderful reminder of where we were 2 weeks ago. Would love to see more pictures! We are booked on the first 3-night in December with the $99 offer. Mailed in the voucher on Friday. Now just crossing our fingers on the blackout dates. Still lots of texting between our DDs and their buddies from Ocean's Quest, including Bob's grandson. I find myself on the DIS more than usual, just because it makes me feel closer to the ship! Hope everyone is well.

 

[Tinkbellfan]

Hi all - sorry it took me so long to get back to the boards. It was a rough week getting back to reality after being gone for two weeks. I also had to do damage control at school due to a rogue parent who got their panties in a twist and decided to launch an ambush on the headmast and board (I'm on the board and Pres of the parents assoc.) while we all were on vacation.

To top that off the boatyard was working on the boat and found that the "head" holding tanks were starting to leak! So, now the boat is completed torn apart so they can replace them.

We all had such a great time and it was fun to meet all of you. If you are ever in Connecticut, please come for a visit and a sail if the timing is right. At least you'll know that the head will work! I was alittle disappointed that my daughter didn't want to go the club as much this year. We had an older teen with us and she did meet up a few times with one of the other disser's daughter, but our three kids just liked to hang out together and go to the arcade (that bill is a whole other story!).

We just hung out in Key West and purchased alot of Kino sandals. I think I must have 25 pair now. In Grand Cayman we went to the Marriott (I'm also a Marriott vacation club owner) and for $10 each did the day pass. Great snorkeling there! Did a quick trip to the butterfly farm too.

We did the dolphin push/pull in Cozumel (Bob - we saw you across the enclosure area) and then just hung out on a few lounge chairs. It was a nice day. At CC, we went really far down the beach past the playscape and pretty much took turns sleeping on the beach. It was really a nice day although too windy for the kids to snorkel.

Melissa - thanks for all the work you did on the name tags. They were great! We didn't rebook or add on to DVC (I did when BLT first opened up), but our friends did. They added 100 points at BLT. I don't think we will do the 3 day offer as we have a trip planned in the beginning of Dec. for Megan's 10th birthday.

Cindy - I swayed for a few days too!

 

[BobandLee]

Still lots of texting between our DDs and their buddies from Ocean's Quest, including Bob's grandson.

Yes, I met him and his dad for dinner last night and I think he was texting then.
He was quite surprised when I told him I had pictures of him and is Quest friends.
Oh yeah, the reason he doesn't smile much....braces. I remembered last night.

We did the dolphin push/pull in Cozumel (Bob - we saw you across the enclosure area) and then just hung out on a few lounge chairs.

I sure was thirsty.

Melissa, thanks from us for the lanyard badges.
I put the one I made away and used yours. The lamination makes them more durable for sure.

 

[Tinkbellfan]

Bob - we tried to look for you after the video presentation, but couldn't find you. The kids where hungry and I was thirsty too, sorry.

 

[BobandLee]

That's o.k. Just kidding.
I had a couple Dos Equis to tide me over until we got to Senior Frogs.
Skipped Margaritaville in Cozumel because of the time.

We may just take you up on that offer if we ever head out that way.
We love the Mohegan Sun and we still need to make a trip to see other Disers out that way.
(YES, Peter, that means you. )

If any of you are on SKYPE, I am easy to find.

 

[cindy18]

Bob, tell your grandson that Samantha has braces too and she just smiles through them. I saw him smiling with the rest of the gang a lot, so I know he can do it, and it looks much better that way!

Melissa, I keep forgetting to write that we all love our lanyards and will keep them as a reminder of a wonderful week. Thanks again!

Debbie, we may well take you up on that offer. It's been awhile since we've been up to Mystic, and as you probably figured out, Matt loves to sail. Maybe when the weather is a bit warmer...

 

[BobandLee]

KEWL.
That is the week we are planning. Cruising on the 29th.

Just need to get my employer to co-operate. (beg, beg, beg)

Just got off the phone with DCL and they noted that I had the certificate and said to mail it in.
Since we already had a reservation, they will send a letter stating the adjustment and any balance due.
Woo
Hoo