memories of oct 22 hurricane wilma cruise (finale)

[Dyerneeds]

always enjoy reading other cruise reports so we thought we would include ours.

i made this reservation the previous dec for dw and myself to celebrate our 30th wedding annin. i kept it a secret from her for 7 months then decided id better tell her so she could free up her work schedule as shes a realtor.

oct 20th 3 AM.
i work midnite shift and i got off 4 hrs. early so we could get an early jump as we were driving. we had been watching the weather channel and talking on dis boards all week and knew hurricane wilma was out there but we figured what are the odds? wasnt on the road 15 minutes and 2 deer jumped out in front of us and swerved and barely missed them. was this an omen? we had decided to leave a day early and go the magic kingdom and mickeys halloween party.

drove straight through from ohio 16.5 hours and checked into pop century. went straight to epcot to see illuminations. i told dw we are way to old to be running around like this with no sleep. got back to the room at 11 for wilma watch.

OCT 21.
up at 7. on to mk. early word from DCL was our cruise was being changed from western to eastern because of wilma. at that point we didnt really care. we just wanted to get on that ship!! had a great day at mk and really enjoyed the halloween party as we had never been here in oct before. we went trick or treating and ate the candy all during the cruise. early on while trick or treating i felt like charlie brown as dw kept getting good candy and i was getting stuff i didnt like. i told her. you have all the good candy and im getting a bag of rocks!! back to room at 12:30!!

OCT 22
sat...stitch called and woke us up at 7. "NO MORE SLEEPING". pop century food court for breakfast. picked up the disney 50th anniv cd at gift shop to play in car on the way over to port. went to pull out of hotel and fuel light came on car WE NEEDED GAS. in our excitment to get to the park we neglected to check our gas gauge. filled up at disney station and were on our way!! song from disney cd lee ann rimes "remember when" playing in the car when we came over the bridge and saw the ship! what a rush!!

this is our 3rd cruise (all disney) but first 7 night. got to the terminal and checked in. tried for an upgrade but we just missed out. i think timon from the dis boards got the last one, but we didnt really care. thats more money to spend on stuff!! we had seen pictures of fellow cruisers on who's going site and recognized timon, pdarrah, and scrapper jill in line.

boarding was smooth. we went right to parrot cay for lunch. huge lines at reservations as everyone needed to change because we were now heading east instead of west. the only excursion we had was parasailing at castaway cay so we were ok. had the DIS meet at 3:00. scrapper jill had made everyone buttons which were great. we especially enjoyed them as we have collected over 1200 diff disney buttons over the years. (not pins, buttons).

the sendoff was very crowded but great. found our room 2147. i told dw if i wasnt so cheap i would have booked us a better room but we never seem to spent much time in the cabin anyway. don't want to miss anything.

we had prearranged our seating to be with pdarrah and her family and walt and di from dis boards. this worked out great as we had a lot of fun. our servers were Subhash and Everlee. more on them later. after dinner walked on deck and you could see great lightning show in the distance. get us the heck away from the storms captain. dw says "take her out to sea mr. murdoch". (from titanic)

 

[Timon]

Guily as charged, we did get the last balcony cabin

Great start to your report, keep them coming!

Glad we had the pleasure of meeting you both. It was fun spending some time with fun loving Disney nuts like ourselves Would have been nice to dine together, maybe another cruise one day

 

[Timon]

LOL I just read the date of your next cruise....20007!! Holy smokes, how will you ever pass the time??

 

[Dyerneeds]

hi timon. we were able to go to wdw xmas after the cruise. we are hoping to go back in oct. so that will have to hold us off till next april. when we need a cruise fix we always go to your website.

SUN OCT 23
up at 8 for topsiders. we love the buffet. they have all of our favs. of course robin always has oatmeal and toast. (maybe thats why she loses weight on our cruises) meanwhile i have my eggs, bacon, pineapple and krispy creams.
maybe thats why i gain weight.

Day at sea. relaxed by the pool. got our daily strawberry smoothie fix. football games were on at the lounge so went to check on my beloved clev. Browns. they lost again. what else is new. its tough being a clev fan.
since we had late seating we went to early golden mickeys show. it was great. we both thought overall the entertainment was fantastic!
This was the night we celebrated our 30th anniv so we got our cake tonight and had pdarrahs dad videotape everyone singing with our camera. pdarrahs parents were traveling with her and her dh and ds. they are from chicago and were very nice and we had a good time.
we also sat with walt and di. a couple our age from texas that we really hit it off with.
I had explained to Subhash our server early on that im a very picky eater. Im a meat and potatoes kind of guy and much like a little kid i dont like my food touching. He humored me the entire cruise and always brought out separate plates so my food wouldnt TOUCH. I ate steak and french fries almost every night (and loved it). One night as a joke subhash said to the entire table "our specialty of the night is steak and french fries". we all laughed

Went to the comedy show after dinner and got to bed at 1 am. Thank you for 30 great years robin. I married way out of my league.

MON OCT 24
up at 8. watching the news on hurricane wilma and hoping our car is still sitting at the port. i had visions our our saturn vue floating away to sea and seeing it from the deck of the ship.
topsiders again. since we were diverted east we really didnt know what to expect so we figured we would just relax.
We fried by the pool. (strawberry smoothies again) burgers for lunch. i must say as a hamburger expert the burgers at plutos are some of the best ive ever had. My mom told my wife before we got marrried " you are lucky, hes easy to cook for. he will eat hamburgers every day for dinner"

went to see twice charmed. to be honest it was ok, but not our fav.
castaway club members had a reception today and robin was talking to one of the officers and i teased her "you flirt. you love a man in uniform"
Animators palate for dinner. we usually dont eat this late at home and would much rather have early seating but pdarrah had invited us to sit with them so we switched are were glad we did.
we went to club with walt and di after dinner. walt and i just loved the girls from the group junction 21 so we caught there shows a few times.
back to cabin late. watched the news and saw that tropical storm alpha was 250 miles away. whats going on?

 

[Dyerneeds]

TUES OCT 25
Wife up at 5 am because she wanted to see ship dock and sunrise. I told her wake me when you get back. I told her she probably was going to meet up with her officer friend.
Walt and di had mentioned they were going on catamaran ride and snorkling at St. Martin so we thought we would try it. what a great time! we had never done anything like that before a took a lot of great pictures. rode on the front deck of the catamaran on the way back thinking "wow, this is the life"
Got back to the ship for a quick shower then shopping in St. Martin. The city was great but at times it seemed like an episode of the amazing race. Not what we are used to.

Back to the ship for pirate night. Somehow i let robin talk me into buying a costume before we left and we dressed the part despite my plea "but i dont want to be a pirate". at least i didnt have to wear a puffy shirt.
After dinner during the pirate show we ran into timon from dis boards (rob and cass). we really enjoyed talking with them. they really know how to have a good time. enjoyed swapping disney stories.( recently found out they are expecting a child and wish them all the luck in the world)

WED OCT 26
Love that topsiders buffet!! tried but failed to get reservation for st. thomas snorkeling. all booked up. We took a taxi to the incline at mntn. and got some great pictures, but it wasnt really worth the $16 each we paid to get up there. finished up early so we decided to walk back to the ship instead of taking a taxi. BIG MISTAKE. since our ship wasnt scheduled to be in st. thomas they had to dock clear on the other side of the island. Funny how when you see the ship from the top of the mntn it didnt look that far away,but when you walk it in 90 degree heat its a long way!!

But we made it back alive (maybe lost a pound or two), and relaxed by the pool with our strawb smoothies. I went over and shot a few hoops.
Evening show was Taylor Mason the ventriloquist. we never laughed so hard. that puppet romeo was too funny as was paco the pig.

Dinner was lumieres. pdarrah and family and walt and di all had reservations at palos tonight and while we missed them it was nice having our own romantic dinner. we tried palos on our first cruise in 2001 and while it was nice it just isnt our thing. remember im a plain meat and potatoes guy.
this gave us a chance to really get to know our servers Subash and Ever-lee. Subash had done all his schooling and is hoping to be a head server soon. Ever-lee showed us a picture of his daughter and we said it must be hard being away from her. he replied " daddy has to work hard for his little girl".
Got back to the cabin at 11 to see news. tropical storm beta is out there somewhere. its like a different storm every day.

 

[Dyerneeds]

THURS OCT 27
Day at sea so we slept in till 8. Character breakfast at 9:45. thats a little late for me but it was a lot of fun.

Did some shopping on ship. Spent all that money we saved by not getting that upgrade on cabin. We fried by the pool then went back to organize the clothes to prepare for packing later. I went all out and had the turkey dinner tonite. First time all cruise i didnt have steak. After dinner went to rockn bar d to see junction 21 with walt and di. the dessert buffet was out but when you have late dinner seating you are really too full to eat again.
We were really anxious for castaway cay as on our previous 2 cruises that day was a disaster. In 2001 it was too windy and they couldnt dock the ship. In 2002 we were on the island for only a few hours when a huge storm rolled in and they made everyone head back to the ship. We were beginning to think we were cursed when it came to castaway cay.
Then we heard that the hurricane had done some damage but they were working hard to get things ready. We couldnt wait to finally parasail for the first time.

FRI OCT 28
Just a near perfect day. you could tell there was damage from hurricane(mostly adult beach) but they did a great job of cleaning things up and we greatly appreciated it. We had heard that the previous cruise (Wonder) didnt get to dock here the day or so before.
Lunch was fantastic. on our 2002 cruise i never got to get a piece of pinapple upside down cake (because the rains came) and i whined out about it ever since. So this time i took no chances. i got 2 pieces and made myself a doubledecker pineapple cake. AND IT WAS GOOD!!
Id like to think im a pretty good freethrow shooter so i decided to enter the contest in the afternoon. i was warming up and not doing too bad, but when the pressure of the clock was on i choked big time. i think some young kid ended up winning. maybe they should have 50 and over contest and by next cruise ill be old enough to enter that. oh well time to parasail
We went to check in at parasail but were told they had to cancel because it was getting too windy. i guess we went ever meant to do it. it was disappointing because we thought rob and cass (timon) were going to parasail at the same time and were anxious to see them again.

Boarded the ship and look out. robin is on a packing mission now. 30 years has taught me when shes packing, just get out of the way. she has a system and im not part of it (and i like it that way)
Headed out to our last great show. I told her the whole trip "im taking you out to a show and a nice dinner". Who says we never go out.
Our last dinner with Subhash and Everlee. I decided since i love steak i would order 2 filet entres. and much to my surprise i ate them both. With fries of course and on separate plates. Subash never forgot. I told pdarrahs family and walt and di "you will be talking about my weird eating habits for years".
we knew we were doing buffet next day for breakfast so we said all our goodbyes. We really had a great time with our tablemates and serversw.
We walked around the ship one last time. almost fell asleep while walking.
You plan and plan and wait and wait and its over so fast. just like kids at christmas.
We talked about how we hated to get off the ship and drive 17 hours home and since i didnt have to be at work till 10:30 sun nite why didnt we just go over to the magic kingdom for one last day of magic before heading home.
Stay tuned for the wrap up soon.

 

[Babs417]

thank you enjoying your post

 

[Dyerneeds]

SAT OCT 29

Up at 5:00 am!! topsiders one last time. Then we sat on the floor and waited to be released. Not that we wanted to get off the ship but we wanted to get over to wdw as early as possible.
We sat there waiting and reflecting on how much fun we had. While sitting we learned that the couple with the quints we had seen the whole cruise were the Melvin Mora family. He plays for the Baltimore Orioles. We wondered how someone so young could afford to dress all those kids so well and take them on a cruise. The kids were very cute and well behaved. They were on the cover of a sunday fathers day issue of usa section in the newspaper.

Were very happy to see our car hadnt floated away in the hurricane. They told us they only got tropical winds in port. Hated to leave but heading over to wdw for a day took some of the sting out of it.
Got to all star music and headed over to park at 10:00. We were hoping for a quiet day at the park with short lines ,however as we soon found out many people in miami were still without power from wilma and had headed north to disney. So it was very crowded but as always we had fun. We went to sit down for spectromagic and who did we run into but walt and di our tablemates from the cruise. So we watched the parade and wishes together and said our goodbyes again. We have been in contact with them and hope to cruise again with them someday.
Walked out of the park with Mickey waving goodbye from the train station. Got to bed at 11:00 because we were leaving at 4:00 am.
SUN OCT 30
On the road at 4. Talk about pressure. Luckily it was time to set the clocks back 1 hour so we did that and gained an hour. Made it home in 17 hours and left for work that night at 10 for the midnight shift. I was still swaying from the ship but i made it through the night. WE kept saying we are way too old to be running around like this ,but i guess you are only as old as you feel and Disney sure makes you feel young.
We were able do go back to wdw at xmas time and we do have our next disney cruise april 21, 2007. Wow that seems like a long way off. We are planning on a trip in oct to wdw to fill in the void.
I keep telling robin i have my 30 years in at work so i can retire. Lets move to fla and work part time for Disney. Anybody out there make that move and if so any regrets?
Thanks for reading. Mike and Robin

 

[Karen Mouse]

Thanks for sharing your holiday Mike and Robin - it was great reading

Looking forward to meeting up in October

Mike you did make me laugh with the "food not touching" thing. I'm a bit like that - if you're gonna tip a sauce over my steak then dont let my chips sit in it aswell!

Geez - I hadnt even thought they could change from Western to Eastern - I have done loads of western planning. Maybe I should plan for an eastern too just incase

See you in October cruise buddies

 

[Keggy]

Thank you for 30 great years robin. I married way out of my league.

AHHH - that is so sweet!

 

[Dyerneeds]

added pictures

 

[WDBRDWLK]

Great reading Mike..you and Robin sound just like us..empty nesters...and Disney fanatics. We are only 9.5 hrs from Disney and it seems we are there every other month..Our daughter worked at EPCOT as part of the college program when they had so many hurricanes. We were actually there the same time as you! And as for you not liking your food touching, that sounds just like our 21 yr old daughter!

As for planning and packing my husband does all that...he has a packing list like no other..he's a little obsessed or should I rephrase it to, in his terms, thorough! And a week before the trips he has his clothes sorted by day and ready to be packed...

We are counting down til our Sept 20th cruise...hopefully TD#8 stays away from the Bahamas and Castaway Cay.

 

[disneydance]

great job ur tr was very enjoyable

 

[disgrits]

Just found your TR, cinnamike! Fun reading and pics. We're looking forward to meeting you and Robin in October!

 

[Dyerneeds]

Just found your TR, cinnamike! Fun reading and pics. We're looking forward to meeting you and Robin in October!

we will see you guys at the raddison the nite before the cruise.

 

[goofyfreak]

Just read your report. It was great!!!! I can't wait to live it with you guys this time!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking forward to meeting you both and sharing lots of laughs.

 

[goofyfreak]

I'm gonna claim your trip report F.O.!!

 

[cntkg1]

I'm gonna claim your trip report F.O.!!

Lori, you're too, too funny. Stealing a FO on a FOless thread??

Great trippie Cinnamike & Sweet Tart!! So glad we'll be part of the next one with you both.

See you in 32 days!!

Mother Goose