Meryll83's SBP/Citrico's/Morocco TR - And they lived happily ever after...

[meryll83]

I want to stay at the Boardwalk on a future trip.

I got all excited when I saw you post this morning, thought you were posting another update - I need more!

Sorry to disappoint Claire, it may be a couple more weekends at least before I get to do another update, weddings and football dos and moving house are being pesky and getting in the way! I'll try and squeeze one in sooner though!

I was working like crazy through May and June (teaching extra classes) and life is finally slowing down now that the spring semester is over at the college where I teach, so just started getting caught up on the Dis. It really is too bad that Disney doesn't do the honeymoon shoot anymore for escape brides. Despite your concerns, I think you got some cute shots at the Poly, I love the one with the rings and on the hammock. I have only stayed at the Poly once we my friend's family and loved it! Looking forward to reading more and getting completely caught up too.

Thanks for continuing to read along Vanessa! I know what you mean about work being really busy lately, bet you're glad of the pace slowing down!
I'll try and update more soon, still have the whole cruise experience to get to yet!!

 

[Chilly]

Sorry to disappoint Claire, it may be a couple more weekends at least before I get to do another update, weddings and football dos and moving house are being pesky and getting in the way! I'll try and squeeze one in sooner though!

Ok I forgive you.

 

[Lorelei528]

I want to stay at the Boardwalk on a future trip.

First of all....

Meryll- I really like your Honeymoon pics! I have realized that I haven't posted mine because I haven't gotten to that day of my TR yet!
I LOVE the one of you guys in the hammock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sooooo romantic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Claire-I loved the BoardWalk Inn too! We didn't think we would, but now it's like our second favorite Deluxe Resort...

 

[Chilly]

Claire-I loved the BoardWalk Inn too! We didn't think we would, but now it's like our second favorite Deluxe Resort...

Which is your first fav?

 

[Lorelei528]

Animal Kingdom Lodge....

 

[tashybea]

I've just discovered your TR.
Your wedding photos are amazing. U guys are such a cute couple. Looked like you had a wonderful day.
Looking forward to the rest.

 

[vlkleinh]

Great pics! Love the red! The honeymoon pics are all right, the lighting seems a bit off...I don't think it's you guys! Looks like an awesome time!

 

[meryll83]

Ok I forgive you.

First of all....

Meryll- I really like your Honeymoon pics! I have realized that I haven't posted mine because I haven't gotten to that day of my TR yet!
I LOVE the one of you guys in the hammock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sooooo romantic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Claire-I loved the BoardWalk Inn too! We didn't think we would, but now it's like our second favorite Deluxe Resort...

You need to add more to your trippie too then! I'm glad I'm not the only one falling behind!

Which is your first fav?

Animal Kingdom Lodge....

Jealous! No Deluxe or even Mod resorts for us this next time - we're slumming it!

I've just discovered your TR.
Your wedding photos are amazing. U guys are such a cute couple. Looked like you had a wonderful day.
Looking forward to the rest.

Thank you, we had an amazing day, wish we could do it all over again!

Great pics! Love the red! The honeymoon pics are all right, the lighting seems a bit off...I don't think it's you guys! Looks like an awesome time!

The lighting might have been to do with the weather, it was pretty overcast, almost foggy!


Right, now we've got settled into our new home, and I have a morning awaiting furniture delivery, I'm going to try and get some more of my TR report done. The delivery peeps could arrive anytime within the next 3 and a half hours, so how much i get done depends on what time they show up!

Here goes...

 

[meryll83]

Ok, so because I've let this drag on sooooooooo long, my memory is now getting somewhat hazy, but I think once we got back to Pop, today was the day we went to the Florida Mall with Julie and Steve now that the car was a-working again!

Once at the mall, the couples went their separate ways, and we had to rearrange our meeting time at least once, as we just weren't done looking round all the shops yet!
Simon and I shared this little delight:

...But would you believe it, we did not buy one single thing more!!!
Neither of us are especially big shoppers, but this time I intend to set that at least slightly in the right direction, as I have a small shopping list already planned!

After the shopping frenzy was over, we decided to check out the Pirates mini-golf course.
Unfortunately most of my balls ended up in here:

Here we are displaying our sporting talent:

Oops, sorry, this is more like it!:

Don't ask me who won this game, as I have no idea, it was possibly Simon, but most definitely not me!!
As we were returning our clubs and balls, the lady behind the counter asked us if we'd managed a hole-in-one on the lucky hole number, but surprisingly no, we hadn't. However, upon spying my Just Married pin, she very kindly presented me with a piece of pirate gold - a token for a free game! Yay, more non-Disney pixie dust!!

It was so scorching hot that day that we decided we couldn't cope with the strenuosity of another game, so Julie and Steve took us for a couple of bevvies somewhere else we'd never been before....

...and we sampled some cold frosty drinks:

Julie and I each bought a top before we left (well come on, we had to!! ) and after such inappropriateness it was time to return to that wholesome place...

Unfortunately I have no pictoral evidence, but that evening we went to the evening EMH's at the Magic Kingdom, it was open until midnight.
As I recall, my parents and Julie and Steve also had the same plans, so we met up at the Partners statue just before Wishes, and after watching the show we headed off to hit some rides!

Tonight was the first night we had some proper rain - it started just as we were coming off Splash Mountain. I convinced my Dad to go on Big Thunder Mountain with the others whilst I stayed with my Mum and we stayed sheltered(ish) near Splash. The Splash shop was closed, although they seemed to be happy enough to let people in if they wanted to buy Ponchos!

I can't remember what other rides we managed to do between us, but I think we all lasted until around 11.30pm before we headed back to Pop, slightly soggier than we were used to - but thankfully even the Florida nights were warm enough to dry us out.

 

[meryll83]

My memory of this morning is again somewhat hazy, but I know we had a long afternoon at Epcot sampling the joys of the Food & Wine festival.

It was treat-time for our parents as we'd got them tickets to La Nouba that night as a wedding thank you gift. They were all going to Raglan Road beforehand for a meal, the review of which I will have to hunt down from Dad!

If Simon and I were at Epcot for most of the day, then I'm sure this involved the likes of Soarin' and Mission Space. I'm bad at remembering what rides and attractions we visited, I make it sound like we hardly did anything in the parks, but we're completely the opposite, we'll make sure we go on everything at least once, unless we're really not bothered about it.
My Dad was distraught to learn that, for the first time ever, we didn't go on It's A Small World this trip! We don't even have chance to redeem ourselves as it's under refurbishment when we're next there!

We managed to track down the elusive Groom ears, which we were unable to find in stock anywhere prior to the wedding. We decided we didn't really need them now, but took a picture for proof we'd finally found them!

We had a go at the Kim Possible interactive game, which was quite good fun. Our mission took us to Germany and Mexico, and I can't remember if we went to any other countries with this. People around you become very curious when they see you huddled over a mobile phone and scouring the countries for clues!

Foodwise we sampled the bratwurst hotdogs and spaetzle gratin at Germany, I had a curry flavoured soup which might of been from the Thailand stall, we had chocolate lava pudding with Bailey's ganache from Ireland, and praline bread pudding with a bourbon caramel sauce from the US of A. I also had pollo al something, a spicy chicken and rice concoction, possibly Spanish or Mexican, but I don't have my menu to hand, so I'm going from (my bad) memory.
All of the food samples were really good! I'd expected to come across something I wasn't especially fond of, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it was all rather yummy! Again, I'm sorry there are no pictures, will try harder next time

After stuffing ourselves on snacks (it's surprising how filling the portions are!) we took our places for the Eat to the Beat concert, which was Boyz II Men that night.

The rain started to spit again, but it didn't dampen my spirits, as imagine my joy when this little guy formed out of the rain drops on my top!:

We both knew a few of the songs and enjoyed the short concert:

I don't think we stayed for Illumi:Nations that night, as tomorrow would be our last full day at WDW so we wanted a good nights sleep for the day ahead...

 

[Chilly]

Yeah you are carrying on!

 

[meryll83]

Today was our last full day in WDW before setting of for our 3 nights on the Disney Wonder, so we'd arranged for a meal with everyone at the Big River Grille that afternoon, followed by some more Jellyrolls action!

Simon and I wanted a last go on some of our favourite rides that morning, so we went to MGM (not that DHS nonsense!) to go on Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and others...

As I knew my Dad wouldn't go on Tower of Terror if there was just him and my Mum in the park, we dragged him along to experience the 5th dimension whilst Mum stayed in the safety of Pop and sunbathed.

I think we got some Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania before going on the Tower of Terror, as I remember my Dad going on both with us before he left.
Having never been on ToT before, my Dad wasn't completely sure what to expect, and whilst I think he really enjoyed it, it was extreme enough for him that he didn't want to re-ride again straight away! His excuse was that the element of anticipation and surprise would be gone now he'd been on it once! He was smiling on the ride photo at least, so I know we didn't completely traumatise him!!
We trained him up on Toy Story Mania, and after taking Mum back another day this became one of her favourite rides.

We weren't meeting at the Big River Grille until 3pm, so we took all the parents for a game of mini-golf beforehand, this time at the Fantasia Gardens course.
I tried to get arty on the boat trip from MGM:

The guy at the counter must have gotten a sense of our competetive spirit when we said we'd play in couples, and drew up 2 what are you celebrating pins with "Winning!" for those that were triumphant - the game was on!

Now, I don't know if it was because we'd had the warm up game at Pirates, but I was a lot better this time round!

Guess who won? Oh yes! Simon and I were the champions! My mum has a good photo somewhere of us standing under a gold club archway created by the losing teams!

It was yet another scorcher of a day (this got to be a theme where mini-golf was involved) and we were glad to head over to the Boardwalk for a respite from the heat.
We passed our wedding venue en route:

And stopped for a photo opp when we met up with Julie and Steve outside the Big River Grille...

Once inside, the beer samplers went down well!

No foodie pictures again, and not completely sure what I ate either - must also take notes next time as well as pictures! I'm not sure I'll do another TR again though to be honest, I'm obviously not very good at it!

Anyway, on to the 'Rolls!
Once again, I'll let the pictures do the talking here and just confirm that a good time was had by all!

Julie, Steve, Simon and my Dad decided to stay out a while at ESPN to watch the end of some baseball game (I assume it was an important one, but I have no idea!), but as the rest of us were pretty tired we headed back to Pop. The ESPN gang said they'd get a taxi back later.
As it was evening EMHs at Epcot we decided to walk through and get a bus back from there rather than pay for a taxi. Turns out we should have just gone for the taxi, as by the time we got back to Pop, 7 minutes later Simon arrived at the room!

Never mind, it was cruising time tomorrow, and that was all that mattered!!

 

[Chilly]

Looking forward to hear about your cruise.

 

[meryll83]

I'm pretty sure I've lost all but the odd reader now, but I need closure for myself on this Trip Report because....

today we're single digit dancing!!

If I don't finish this TR before we go to WDW again, I don't think I ever will - so I'm committed to completing it - TONIGHT! (I hope)

Stay tuned for all those Wonder-ful final days with the Disney Cruise Line....

 

[meryll83]

You'll be pleased to know we took LOTS of pictures of our cruise experience, because it was new to us, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of memory I'm likely to have when it comes to the detail!

We dropped off our large suitcases at my mum and dad's room after our last night at Pop, as they would still be there the next 3 nights whilst we were testing out our sea legs. We had packed a large holdall each with our gear for the ship, so we could leave the bigger items of luggage behind.

The route we took I'm not sure, but using some method of transportation of other, we arrived at the Swan resort, which is where the DCL transfer bus would be collecting us from. I found it odd that whilst the buses will drop you back off at any resort after your cruise, they only pick up at a limited number, and this was our nearest.

There was a luggage trolley where all cruise bags could be left, and as we had plenty of time we decided to nip over to Fantasia Gardens for a game of golf on the Fairways course. Although I don't remember, I do know that Simon will have won! Once again, the weather seemed to be at it's hottest especially for the golfing, we were sweltering!

When we returned to the Swan many people had begun to gather in the lobby area, also waiting for the cruise.
There was a small model of one of the ships in the waiting area...

... and I vaguely recall there being some free juice dispensers as well, which was a nice touch.

Soon a DCL rep came to collect us all, and guide us to the transfer bus waiting outside:

The windows have stickers over them to make them look like little portholes:

And there were TV monitors throughout the bus which played a welcome video, as the journey I think was around an hour, so this was a good way to keep everyone occupied:

Soon we were on our way!

Before we knew it our driver pointed out that you could see our ship on the horizon as we crossed over a bridge, and told us DCL have the most beautiful ships on the ocean!

When we reached the port...

... there was a bit of a queue to get through security, but nothing to complain about. I think this is the disadvantage of arriving on DCL transport, I know a lot of people like to get to the port early to avoid this, and take advantage of extra time on the ship.

There was a much larger, more detailed model of one of the ships at the port:

I remember going through a section of boarding where you had to have a security photo taken as well, I think there were some Mickey-shaped footprints you had to stand on while they did this.

We were also given some pins, I can't remember if they say Just Married or Happy Honeymoon now, with Donald and Daisy on - I actually preferred the design of these pins to the WDW ones. I don't have a specific photo, but perhaps you'll see us wearing them in later photos...

Soon enough, it was time to board!
On the way through the terminal, just before boarding, a Disney photographer took a photo of each family - we didn't buy ours, but I did manage to sneak a picture of it when we went to visit Shutters later on:

We were grandly announced on to the ship, as is each family, a cast member with a microphone proclaims to the whole atrium who is boarding, where they are from, and anything they may be celebrating. I thought this would be quite embarasssing, but as it's done for everyone it's just the norm, but a unique touch!
I only seem to have one photo of the huge chandelier type construction in the atrium, and unfortunately it's not a great one:

We navigated our way through the ship's corridors...

And took the elevator...

To find our stateroom - 5520...

 

[meryll83]

When we arrived at our stateroom, our bags hadn't yet made it there, so we didn't stay long, just enough to check out our secret porthole!!

For those not in the know, a secret porthole room is one which is charged as an inside cabin, because the porthole has an obstructed view, but makes for a good bargain!!

We had a quick look through our Navigator, to see what our plans might be for the rest of the day:

We decided to have a little wander around the ship, to get our bearings, before we would have to prepare for the mandatory lifejacket/boat drill type thing.
First thing was first, we'd pre-booked Palo for our last night, and we'd now discovered our dining rotation fell that Animator's Palate would be the same night, and we didn't want that now did we?! We decided Triton's was the restaurant we'd most prefer to miss for dinner, so headed off to Wavebands to see if we could swap our dining rotation:

We were able to change our rotation without fuss, tonight would now be our night at AP!

We then headed up to the Wide World of Sports deck, so Simon could try his hand at beating some small children at basketball!

Meanwhile I admired the view:

Simon also picked up a table tennis paddle to have a little go, and befriended another small boy who was determined to beat him!

We took advantage of the consistent flow of food available and got ourselves some pepperoni and chicken strips on deck.

We also went to investigate the Spa area of the ship, as the Navigator had informed us this was the time to take a tour of the facilities.
We were shown the gym, which I was never to return to, but Simon went back on one occassion. The running machines looked right out over the back of the ship (or might have been the front) which looked lovely, but Simon told me the ceiling was too low for him, so he kept banging his head when trying to run!
The pampering facilities did look lovely, especially the private hot tub and massage area for couples, but we knew we didn't really have the budget to stretch to any of these treatments, so we politely told the staff we'd have a think about what we might like to book and then ran away!

After all that hard work we decided to check out the adults pool area:

Simon bought himself a DCL beer glass, which made refills cheaper throughout the cruise:

Deciding we'd quite like a swim, we made our way back to our stateroom, and sure enough, by this time, our bags had made it!
Time was getting on, so before we had time to go back to the pool, the lifeboat drill took place. Here we are modelling the latest autumn range:

Job done, and back to the pool, where it was my turn to get stuck in at the bar!

I think my cocktail of choice was called a Sunken Treasure, but I had to ask for it without pineapple juice (not a big lover of pineapple, and yes that does mean I've never had a dole whip! )

After a bit of lounging at the pool, and staring up at the sky...

... it was time to get ready for dinner.

I have no pictures which is rubbish of me, but we did take part in a Fish Extender exchange - I had someone make us an externder using some of our wedding colours, and with our names and wedding date on. Each night before dinner we went round delivering our gifts, and had great fun receiving all kinds of treats from the others in our group!
We had planned on meeting up with the FE gang earlier in the day, but hey we had been with others all through the rest of our holiday, this was our honeymoon and chance to have a part of the holiday just for us, so we decided to give it a miss. Sorry guys!

 

[meryll83]

We'd chosen the early seating, and were first to arrive at our table at Animator's Palate:

I'm terrible and can't remember the names of our dining buddies!
I think we had Alex and his mum, Dakota and her mum, and then there was another girl and her mum who didn't make an appearance tonight - we met them the following night at Parrot Cay.

We enjoyed watching the restaurant change colour as the meal went on:

Including the waiters:

And the menus!:

I only have a picture of our desserts for some reason.
If I'm being honest, I was slightly disappointed in the DCL food. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it at all, but I didn't feel it compared to the quality of food we'd experienced in the restaurants of WDW. I think more than anything, it just didn't have that much flavour, a lot of it seemed very bland. I did still really enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting it to be something more special, as I know a lot of people say how good cruise food is.
But still, perhaps we'd just been spoilt by the likes of Le Cellier and Citricos!

And at the end of our meal, we were presented with this!:

Well we just had no room in us after the 3 course meal, so we tried to get our dining buddies to take some, but they too were just too full! Our waiter kindly got us a cover for the plate, and we were able to take the cake back to our room.

Every night we made sure to go the shows at the Walt Disney Theatre, and tonight was The Golden Mickeys:

Got a couple of sneaky pictures of the pre-show for you!

Guests onboard the ship were able to get involved in the pre-show for this, being filmed and interviewed as though arriving for an awards ceremony.
As I recall, the show itself was quite princess orientated in it's content, although there some clips from Roy Disney telling us about the history of Mr Mouse.
I think the shows got better each night, more on that later...

We went to one of the lounges after the show, and took part in a Disney quiz. Well, I was in my element here! People had to ask me if I worked for Disney as I think we got every single answer correct. Simon and I won a pin each as a prize, both the same - so as another family had come a really close second, I went and gave one of the pins to the son of the family.
The cast member who had run the quiz came over and had a chat with us after the quiz was over, she was also from England. She noticed I collected pins as she spotted mine on the strap of my bag, and told me that I could have traded the pin I had given away, so she gave me another one to replace it! I was able to trade this for a Tinkerbell pin on our last night, as I'd spotted a trading session was taking place in our Navigator - result!

We went for a nosey in Wavebands for a little while, there was some sort of competition going on that involved three guys and three gals strutting their stuff for the crowd's pleasure!

By this time we were ready to call it a night, so we headed back to our stateroom to get some sleep before our day of adventures in Nassau.
We'd been left a little gift to wish us goodnight...

 

[disneybarbie]

love the updates about DCL! I'm so excited about going on the Disney Dream next year.. it's great to see all your photos

Have you started packing for the next holiday yet?!


Emma x

 

[meryll83]

Waking up to another glorious day, I think we went to Triton's for breakfast today, seeing as we'd be missing it for dinner altogether.

I loved the colours on the ceiling here and the big Little Mermaid mural:

I had something decidely unbreakfastlike in traditional English terms, waffles with a caramel flavoured sauce - now that's what I call breakfast!

We went out on deck to watch as we pulled in to Nassau, and saw the iconic Atlantis resort:

The pool areas were deserted whislt we were pulling into the port, and poor old Pooh Bear was going unwatched...

It was then time to head downstairs to the lounge to make our appearance for our first excursion - the sea lion encounter!

 

[meryll83]

love the updates about DCL! I'm so excited about going on the Disney Dream next year.. it's great to see all your photos

Have you started packing for the next holiday yet?!

Oooh the new ship, how exciting!

Not yet Emma, proper packing commences at the weekend, although I've started to gather a few bits on the spare bed - adaptors, ponchos etc!