
Hi all! Glad my thread has sparked lots of conversation. While I make fun if DW (don't tell her

) for all the time she spends on the boards...it is amazing the amount of information that is out there. I actually laugh at people that don't get onto the boards and read about their trips before they take them. How much better is it if you can plan and know what's going to happen? If I hadn't read the boards when we went on a cruise I would have had to put up with a stinky bathroom (yes you guessed, it, smelly thingys), and when we didn't have the suite I wouldn't have had clothespins to close the curtain to keep the kids out of view. Yes...that's another good tip. Bring clothespins. I'm not sure why they can't make curtains that are big enough to fit together. perhaps Mickey ran out of fabric??? I Wonder if this is fixed on the new ship...or if that is just a Dream. Ha! get it? *sigh*. Sorry, just came off a trip and I'm a little punchy even though DW let me sleep in this morning. We take turns getting up with our oldest. he is only 12 but has to get up a 6:30am for school. Insane. I think school should start around 9, that way I can sleep in.
Anyhoooo....sorry for the delay in getting my next installment up. But alas work does have to come first. Believe it or not I do NOT get paid to do this. Really, I don't.
So as you can gather from my note above I enjoy sleep. In fact, I enjoy sleep almost as much as I enjoy food. It's a close race, one of those photo finish type of things. But as I mentioned earlier the entire room creaked with every movement of the ship. Picture having small explosions going off every few minutes. So needless to say my sleep on that night (and the sleep of DW and DS12 was not good.
I think we mentioned also (see this is why it stinks when I can't consistently post. My memory only lasts about 24 hours and then I forget what the heck I wrote...and sometimes when I re-read it I scare myself

) that DS12 slept on the Murphy bed. Well, the Murphy bed turned out to be too small for DS12's long legs...so that was the only night that bed was pulled down and used. Also unfortunately if you look at the pictures, that bed was right up against the teak wood shelves which were responsible for all the squeaking and noise. So needless to say he didn't sleep well either.
DS8? yeah, he slept like a rock. That kid can sleep anywhere. It's rather annoying and I'm not sure where he got it from. Can you say...Mailman?

Anyway, nothing bothered him. I sure hope that through the years he continues to be that way. While I can fall *back* asleep easily, I can't crash like he does..and falling asleep is not something I do well. Just like staying on topic..I don't do that well either. ahem.
So luckily for me...because I was up and not sleeping...I got to see this:
The sunrise over Mexico. At least I'm assuming it was Mexico. Baja California-ish.
DS12 joined me out on the balcony after a while
and who's that good-lookin' guy out there on my balcony at the crack of dawn?? Oh, that's me.
Once DS8 (who's name is Connor by the way. I read someone else's trip report who actually gave names. I thought that was kind of cool. So DS8 is Connor (yup, I repeat myself too!), DS12 is Nick, DW is Deanna and I'm Drew.) awoke we began our morning ritual...which included getting our neighbors kids and going to breakfast. Our neighbors didn't feel the need to spend the morning with their kids...so they were usually off running or exercising (something I *refuse* to do on vacation. I mean, I'm on vacation, right? Isn't that the point? being lazy, eating too much food???)
Well...ok...so the one rule we do have which helps a little bit with the trough (not sure about the spelling on that...you know, the place where they throw the slop for the pigs or the horses or whatever) eating frenzy...no elevators. The kids were also banned from the elevators and had to pay us $1 for each elevator button they pushed. This did a couple of things. first it forced us to walk the stairs which, I'm told, is good for you

, and second it kept the kids off of the elevators so they weren't a pain in the rear. I didn't experience any kids with those issues on this cruise, but I know in the past that has been something people have complained about...and I did not want my kids to be "those" kids, know what I mean??
Anyhooo....we grabbed their kids and headed to the Beach Blanket Bingo Buffett. Now...today was the first dilemma day in my career as a Wonder Cruiser. We had Palo reservies...for Brunch....and if you have not been on a cruise and do not do Palo for Dinner *and* Brunch, you are missing out. don't worry, I'll explain about Brunch here in a minute. but don't count on pictures of food. Other than one. We don't do that. I don't know why...we always have our camera. But by the time we realize it...we have already eaten everything!
So I took control of Connor's tray and helped him get food. Remarkably I did manage to avoid the food..which is pretty good. I think the last time we cruised I ate breakfast and then Brunch. and then lunch. Ok, OK, I know that I had two lunches on Saturday before we got on the ship...but that was in-n-out so give me a break.
All the kidgits at breakfast
DS8 and DND11
DS12 and DNS13
The lovely DW sitting in her favorite place...the sun.
After breakfast we still had some time to kill so we decided to take some pictures. I think we actually were planning on hitting the stores but they were not yet open...so we got to take a classic picture. the first time we ever cruised we snapped a shot of DS8 laying down by the
DCL logo between the stores...and have done so ever since. Naturally you all have to be abused and deal with the fact that I'm now going to post them all for you...
DS8 in 2004, our very first
Disney Cruise. You guys have no idea that when I first started typing this report I got made fun of by DW. I put that our first cruise was 1996. I don't know why. Two issues with that date...one is that the Disney ships didn't yet exist. The second and probably more important issue was that in 1996 neither of my kids existed. So there you have it.
DW8 in 2006
DS8 in 2008...ACK, I put him on the wrong side. Darnit!
And last but certainly not least...
DS8 in 2011
HUH...that's pretty cool to look at. At least for me. Again, hope your head doesn't hurt from hitting the keyboard when you fell asleep. Go get some coffee. I'll wait. dum...de...dum....hmmmmmmm lalalalalalalalalalalal
oh, your back? good. OK, carrying on.
Since we were there, might as well take a shot of all the kids:
All the kids around Mickey's head
and of course you *have* to have this shot:
Interesting tidbit. DW later that day went on the Art of the theme ship tour. This included details about the carpet, design, art...etc. around the ship. I'm sure she can chime in on exactly what went on during this tour as I wasn't there. However, she did share with me that one thing is missing in that big picture of Walt in front of the Walt Disney Theater...a cigarette. In his hand he was holding a cigarette. That was taken out using the magic of Disney and so it no longer exists. I find that kind of funny. Why funny? Well, Disney always portrays this pure image...no alcohol in the parks (except Epcot (and I heard a rumor that this was going to change by the way...can't remember where I heard that, but I'm a full believer in spreading unfounded rumors

)), etc. But yet one of the most famous pictures of Walt had him smoking. OK, maybe it's not funny...not ha-ha funny...but ironic...well forget it.
Anyway, I thought that was interesting
Shortly thereafter we gave the kids their marching orders...stay together...little kids stay together, older kids stay together...whatever, but they were to be in groups of 2...and the little kids couldn't go swimming unless the older kids were there too. We told them we would have our wave phone...but not to bother us...we would be eating!
It was off to get dressed and go to Palo. We didn't take a picture in front of Palo...I'm not sure why. Maybe we did for the dinner? See, I told you I can't remember more than 24 hours earlier. But we got there...and were seated. Our server was Vladimir (who we then also had for dinner). He was just ok (DW can weigh in here if she disagrees). It took him a while to come over to us to begin with...but at least we were entertained by another server. She came over and gave us water and took our orders for drink (you get a free mimosa or champagne with Brunch), and they then claimed that they were married. A claim that we found out the next night was not true...but more on that later. They did interact like a married couple, actually and it was pretty funny. He did finally come and get us to take us around the Brunch. Now, Brunch is not like dinner because it's a combination of a buffet and table service. The server takes you through the buffet and explains everything. They have lots and lots of very cool stuff. Some of my favorites were the salmon mouse (yummy), and the selection of cheese. They had this cheese that looked like blue cheese but they called it something else. It spread wonderfully on this crusty bread...that made my breakfast. Yum! Then on one side they have sticky buns (yummy), and some Stollen bread. I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong...do NOT miss this. To be honest I think it is better than the sticky buns. You take some of this bread, smear it with whipped cream...and oh my gosh....it's awesome. They have lots of other stuff too, like cold crab and shrimp (very large shrimp...I love shrimp. have I mentioned this???), and lots of different kinds of bread. On the other side they have the dessert table with lots of small versions of the desserts so you can try most everything. Finally they take you over to the cooked food...they have 3-4 different kinds of pizzas. The one we like best is a pizza with cheese and grapes. yes grapes. It sounds quite weird...but this is the second time we had tried it...and it was wonderful both times. I think they had a 4 cheese pizza with some unique cheeses on it that was also good. You could also order eggs Benedict, Florentine...and another kind that replaced the Canadian bacon with smoked salmon (yup I had this one). Those you ordered from your server and they were cooked on demand.
Finally they had pancakes. Big huge fluffy pancakes. OK, now I'm hungry.
Vladimir prepared them in his own special way, by layering berries and whipped cream between them...which made it really, really yummy.
Part 2 coming right up!