May 15-19 A DREAM is a Wish Your Heart Makes....But Who Has Time to Sleep?

[Scrappy_Tink]

Hi all!! Please be kind, this is my first TR, and hope not to be a total Snooze Fest! This trip is to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary, and I’m so excited I’m about to burst. The Cast Members for this trip is only me and my DH, Gregg….who is a long time lurker, though he hasn’t come out of the closet yet!! He likes to read over my shoulder and tell me what comments to make. Also, temp Cast Members will be my DIL’s (Dear In-Laws), who were gracious enough to pick us up at the airport and welcome us into their lovely home for a few days before our Cruise.

DAY ONE…

Don’t want to bore you’all with all the details of our trip to FL. One interesting tidbit though, is we had a choice to make when planning this trip. Fly from the local airport (Colorado Springs) and make one stop in Houston, or drive to Denver and make a non-stop trip. My biggest fear was, believe it or not, SNOW. One of my teenaged memories of living in The Springs, is the year we got TWO FEET of snow on May 7th. So, I decided that we’d fly locally and do a layover in Houston. The morning we got up (our flight was at 8:30 am), it was freezing outside….and sure enough, we heard it was snowing on Monument Pass (the infamous Pass between The Springs and Denver. Whew, glad we dodged that bullet!

Now, Gregg and I are of two minds when preparing to fly….mine is dress as to our destination. Gregg’s is dress as to where you are at the time. So we are totally mis-matched to start our journey….he has on a heavy shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, and I’m wearing a pair of shorts, tanks (with light jacket), and sandals. I’m sure when we stopped at the local 7-11 for drinks on the way to the airport that the clerk thought I was out of my mind, by the way I was dressed with snow coming our way!

All our flights were on time, and all went smoothly. We did our normal flight routine….I popped my Xanax to save my DH’s arms from deathgrip bruising, and watched No Strings Attached (cute new movie with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman), one of the many movies I rented on my Ipad (aka, “Kelly’s Boyfriend, as my DH calls my Ipad) for the trip, and Gregg looked through our new Food Network magazine and listened to his IPod. After a short stop in Houston, we were landing in FL!! YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!

After all the planning and stressing we're finely there!! My DH’s Dad and Step Mom were going to meet us at luggage, but evidently they couldn’t wait either, because they were waiting for us in the terminal portion right before they stop you by security. They are such awesome, thoughtful people!!

That’s it for now…..I’ll continue maybe later tonight. I need to start some photo-editing for some pics to post. One regret, we didn’t take near enough photos, and we didn’t have near enough time!! Ta!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Great start! I'm along for the ride and can't wait to hear more! We don't go until next June so I'm absorbing all I can

Heather

 

[mousetravel]

Can't wait to hear more!! We're leaving in 3 weeks so I can't wait to hear more info AND pics!!! Please post some pics!!

 

[mashelle]

looking for any information about the Disney Dream. I have never been on it and I would like to know what the serivce is like and what others think about the inside stateroom thanks

 

[mashelle]

I'm so hoping that I will be on the dream come next August. after having a bad 2010. I lost my sister and my mom with in six months of each other alost lost my other sister and brother in law due to undisney like behavior. however looking foward to the cruise. wondering what the room service is like. also wondering what the private island is like since the update

 

[mashelle]

sound like you had a lot of fun and i know about crazy weather here in washington state. did you only take your passort because i really don't want to bring my state ID if I don't have to Mashele

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

Yay, thank you all for coming "On Board"!! I'll get to the Dream part soon, I promise!

Just as a "teaser", I want you'all to know that our only other cruise experience we had was on the RCL....IMO, DCL BLEW THEM OUT OF THE WATER!!!!! Especially food-wise, service-wise, and atmosphere-wise. It may not be fair compairing a new ship vs an older one, but it is what it is!! Oh, and also their "Island" was so much nicer too....cleaner, great little shops, and nice beaches. One of my "favorites" was that we didn't have to tender out to the island. I hated that about RCL!

DAY ONE…Continued

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention when we were checking our luggage into the airport….we were going to only check one piece of luggage on our trip TO FL, and then buy another piece of luggage in FL for the extra weight we knew we’d have flying home. Anyway, our one piece of luggage checked in at 52 pounds. TWO pounds overweight!!! United Airlines was going to charge us $100 dollars for being TWO STINKING POUNDS overweight !! How ridiculous is that?! I can see them charging so much, like $5 a pound, for each pound over the minimum weight….but a hundred dollar flat rate??!!!! That’s just crazy. My DH took out a pair of shoes and put them into his carry-on, and the weight went down to 50 pounds exactly. Saved $100 by a pair of shoes!

Anyway, day two-three, we had an uneventful visit with the In-law’s at their home in Sebastian, FL…just a few short miles to Vero Beach! We had been wanting to check out the Vero Beach DVC resort, so they were kind enough to take us there one day. It’s a beautiful, smaller, resort on the beach, with all the usual Disney amenities. We are considering buying about 80 points there, so we have other alternatives when visiting the in-laws. They were very gracious hosts, however, they live in a small retirement community and don’t have much room for visitors….the only place they had for us to sleep was on their “Florida Room” couch/bed off their kitchen. They are early risers, and the bed is right by the kitchen entrance, which left no privacy. I don’t want to sound too Princess and the Pea-ish, but I just can’t sleep on sleeper sofas. I swear I feel every spring and bar in them. I hate to sound ungrateful after their generosity. My Mother-in-Law is such a wonderful person, this is the first time we’ve met, and we clicked really well. I feel like I made a really good friend. Here are our in-laws at Vero Beach

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

OKAY, Finally, DAY ONE OF THE CRUISE!!!!

As with every trip to Disney, I was just too excited to sleep!! After tossing and turning on yet another couch (the pull out bed killed me by the 3rd night, so I opted for the screened-porch couch…..okay, maybe I AM part Princess! ) it was finally time to leave for the cruise!! We got up at around 7:00, wanting to leave around 8:30. I was determined to get a low boarding number so we could have a chance booking a Palo Brunch, and bumping up our Palo reservation some, so we could be able to see the show Believe before dinner ….even if it meant waiting for a few hours at the port to board.

My father-in-law had made a comment about it being an especially bad year for Love Bugs, which I pretty much shrugged off, thinking, it really wouldn't effect us much….little did I know, we’d be auditioning for our own parts of a Horror Movie “ Love Bugs Gone Wild”. We made it to the port around 9:30.….just as planned. It was soooo freaking exciting. They were able to drive us directly up to the port and unload the bags and get right in line at the gate. I’d say we were probably about 50 in line. (approximately). We waited about 30 minutes outside before they “opened” to let us in….and that was the worse part of the whole cruise experience. Those 30 minutes with Love Bugs gone Wild. Oh. My. God. There were times, honestly, where I would look at my bare legs and there were more bugs than skin showing. Thankfully, I’m not too freaked over bugs (vs. spiders!) as long as I know they don’t bite….but it was so unsettling to see your limbs covered with insects, it reminded me of a horror movie. It was so pitiful seeing the little kids that were scared of bugs being covered and freaking out. Here’s a pic of them on our balcony (It was 10 times worse than this looks!)

….I wish I’d thought to take a pic of my legs, but who thinks of that, when all you want to do is brush the buggers off!! My DH was killing them on himself, and swatted my leg hard. ICK. I knew he was being heroic, but I’d rather have a live Love Bug land again, than have a dead one stuck on me!

Here’s a pic of me waiting in line at the Port gate….

don’t know how Gregg managed to get a picture without a bug on me! For some reason, they were more attracted to the legs.

Once inside the Port, it was all a blur….I remember we got to check-in really fast and quick. I’m doing this, my DH is doing that, and I’m going “When do we get our boarding pass?”, when Gregg hands me something saying, “Is this what your looking for?”.

THREE!!!! I can’t believe we got a boarding pass three!!!! I don’t even know when he got it! I was prepared to do all I could to get a low boarding number, I have to admit, I was still slightly intimidated about our 11:30 “assigned” check in time, even though it’s been discussed ad nauseam on the DISboards that the port wasn’t going by the time given when we did advance check-in online. I can’t believe that we got an even lower number than the people checking in earlier at the Airport (the lowest I’ve heard of so far is 6).

It honestly seems like we sat for a short time before our number was called. Here we are…let the fun begin!!

 

[PirateMom]

Loving your TR so far! Can't wait to read more.
We'll be "Dreaming" in three weeks!

 

[Toria]

Enjoying the Tr! I probably would have started itching from head to toe with those bugs

 

[okwminnie]

Enjoying your report! looking forward to the next installment. Looks like beautiful weather, too, but those Love-Bugs would have freaked me out as well!

 

[ChocolateTrish]

Loving your TR and looking forward to the rest ... keep them coming!!!

Trish x