Mexican Riviera 2/27 - 3/6 - DisneyZell TR new 3/31: FINISHED!!!

[CrystalS]

Great trip report so far!
I love the sarcasm too, spices things up a bit, lol.

Great job on the scavenger hunt

Can't wait for your next installments

 

[DisneyZell]

Great trip report so far!
I love the sarcasm too, spices things up a bit, lol.

Great job on the scavenger hunt

Can't wait for your next installments

Sarcasm....Sarcasm? I...uh...don't....uh...know what your talking about.

ah well...

DW is making me clean..so don't know if I'll get a chapter up today. But hopefully over the weekend. And I'm not travelling so next week I should pound out quite a few!

 

[QuiltTeddy]

STALKER

.DW will post about it, I'm sure...so look for that soon. Maybe. Normally she is on and posting answers to questions before I can...but right now she is standing over my shoulder and we are going downstairs to watch Survivor!

I like Survivor, can you tell?

Were you hootin' and hollerin' when Russell lost out in the challenge at Redemption island, like we were? Tears? Come on, tears?!?!? Russell??? PALEEZE!!!!

Sarcasm....Sarcasm? .DW is making me clean..so don't know if I'll get a chapter up today. But hopefully over the weekend. And I'm not travelling so next week I should pound out quite a few!

Well I certainly hope so, you've been slacking big time lately!! For pete's sake, I leave in less than two weeks!!!

 

[DisneyZell]

Were you hootin' and hollerin' when Russell lost out in the challenge at Redemption island, like we were? Tears? Come on, tears?!?!? Russell??? PALEEZE!!!!


DH & I were so happy to see Russell go!!! We have become big Rob fans. Our boys, however, were very sad to see him go They always seem to pick the opposite of what/who we pick!

I will work on DH to get going on some more reporting...although I have to give him credit...I have a long list of "To Do's" around the house and he has been checking quite a few off Now that we can actually see some of our grass underneath all the snow, it just seems appropriate to get some things done around here!

 

[cmwade77]

Well I certainly hope so, you've been slacking big time lately!! For pete's sake, I leave in less than two weeks!!!

I know he has. We leave one week from today, so he needs to hurry up.

 

[QuiltTeddy]

DH & I were so happy to see Russell go!!! We have become big Rob fans. Our boys, however, were very sad to see him go They always seem to pick the opposite of what/who we pick!

But.......how out of character was it for the TEARS....Mr. I'm Meaner, Tougher and Better Than Anyone EVER on Survivor with TEARS!!!!!

 

[DisneyZell]

But.......how out of character was it for the TEARS....Mr. I'm Meaner, Tougher and Better Than Anyone EVER on Survivor with TEARS!!!!!

I think it was complete and utter shock to be honest. Remember the first time he lost how he all but grovled to be given the title of sole survivor...it's all he cares about..and for whatever reason it became his reason to live...which frankly is a little bit sad....*sniff* *sniff* I think I feel tears coming on!

 

[DisneyZell]

I know he has. We leave one week from today, so he needs to hurry up.

Um, well...uh...yeah..probably not going to happen. what do you want to know...'cause if your waiting for something specific I'll try to give it to you this week. I'm a positive thinker and all...but as DW has pointed out...I had lots of honey-do's this weekend!

On another note, though, she worked her tail off too, so no complainin' from me

 

[LuvEeyore]

To DZhubbie and DZwife,you guys arecracking me upWaiting for more

 

[DisneyZell]

To DZhubbie and DZwife,you guys arecracking me upWaiting for more

Thank you, thank you. we will be here all week.

 

[DisneyZell]

Loving your trip report

I highly recommend reading this book:Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterline: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties. One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships (Travelers' Tales) [Paperback]

This was 5 stars book all about an american who worked on a cruise ship not holding back on anything.

I just received my copy of this book and really look forward to diving into it. Thanks for the tip!

 

[DisneyZell]

So I will apologize now...as I don't have nearly as many pictures as normal. Mainly because sea days all sort of blend together...so there isn't as much to take pictures OF. Anyhoooo I need to do a general rant before I get going today. Not a negative rant...just general random thoughts that have no bearing on life or how we live it...but what the heck, I'll throw it out there anyway.

We are timeshare people...not DVC (Which is Disney Vacation Club ), but Marriott. We love our timeshares...we own an every other year at one and every year at another. The check-in for those are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

why am I telling you this? Cause I want to sell my timeshares to you guys. Just kidding.

One thing that has always struck me is that no matter what day I check in, it always seems like the vacation is basically over after the weekend. If I check in on Saturday, on Monday I feel like I'm on the downhill slide. If I check in on Sunday, same thing...even though I actually get more on the other side.

I very much felt that way on this cruise. I think it's the first time we have departed on Sunday (DW will, of course, correct me if I'm wrong ), so on Monday I had a general feeling like the vacation was coming to an end. How silly is that? Very silly, I know. But it's one of those weird quirks...that somehow you ended up having to hear about. I have a similar one when we come to Friday night/Saturday morning

Anyhoooooooo

Tuesday...time for day at sea #2. We had to jump our clocks forward an hour....but somehow we all seemed to get more sleep. Not sure if we were, perhaps, moving slower so the boat wasn't rocking and thus our room not making as much noise...or we were exhausted from the lack of sleep...or perhaps in a food coma! Any of that is possible. Yes, after Palo for brunch the later is the most likely...although I don't think so. There was only one night I truly felt sick because I ate too much...and Monday night was not the night.

Seriously, don't eat too much in the afternoon when you are going to eat dinner about 6. Just a little tip. Not a broad based exciting tip...as you would think this was common sense. Nope. not to me.

First thing's first...the navigator for the day:

Hopefully that makes up for my lack of pictures in this episode.

We did our normal daily routine of grabbing our neighbors kids (our neighbors from home...not just some random Disney Cruise neighbors...though that would be pretty funny. "hey, I'd like to borrow your kids for breakfast, ok?") and headed to the Beach Blanket Bingo Buffett for breakfast. My breakfast looks like a bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers...some bacon and a bowl of syrup to dip the bacon in. Yup...that's what I said. Go ahead and read it again. I discovered this trick a couple of cruises ago...in my opinion for breakfast there is nothing better than dipping bacon in syrup. Why not take a ultra-fatty food item and dip it in pure sugar (and pure sugar with all kinds of chemicals 'cause you KNOW that ain't real maple syrup in there!). Yum! (well except the chemicals part. Now I've grossed myself out!). I don't do this at home...well, ok I would if I we ever had bacon...but that is a rare occurrence in our house

After perusing the Navigator the night before DS12 decided it would be a fantastic idea for us (us being DS12, DNS13 and me) to sign up for the 3 vs. 3 basketball tournament. Now, in my youth I was an ok athlete. But as I never exercise the thought of running around on a basketball court was, for me, not that appetizing. The thought of others having to *watch* me run around on a basketball court was downright depressing. However....being the dad that I am I sucked it up and said ok.

So to prepare for us to dominate our competition we needed to head up to the front of the ship to practice. We decided we would create some plays (well, ok that was my idea. You know, older, wiser and all that). so we practiced plays around the 6 other kids that were up there shooting around and, I though, were in good shape to play. We had 3 or so plays that we felt like we could do...and we felt ok with it.

DW took DS8 and DND10 (by the way, if it seems as if I give a different age for our neighbors daughter it's because I'm really bad with ages...and can never remember. Consider it my little guessing gift for you every time I write!). They went to the shops...DS8 purchased a Stitch Pin (Stitch is his favorite character...fittingly so. The pin was very complex with wheels on the bottom among other things...those wheels broke off after one day so we ended up trading it back in.

****************TIP*****************

Speaking of which....and I don't think I have...don't forget to have your kids bring their trading pins. This was kinda hard for us this time because, again, the kids didn't know about the trip. So we told them that we *may* go to Disneyland...so they brought their pins. Pin trading is fun on the ship...all of the CM (Cast Members ) in the stores have them, and others around the ship are hit or miss. usually guest services will have them, and there will be pin trading nights where the officers will have them on. Pretty fun for the kids and usually there are Disney Cruise Line specific pins..that you can only get on the ship. So that is pretty cool.

A couple of pics of the younger set around the ship:

Up on Deck 10

not sure where this is

Apparently they tried to find us but couldn't (I know this because DW wrote it in her beloved Journal...now it's starting to get far enough away that my short term memory needs to be jogged!), so they played some foosball...and naturally we showed up there not long after. Have I mentioned I am a foosball genius???

The younger kids playing some foosball again

Drew at work

at some point "Party in the USA" came on...and that became my theme song...and during that game we owned yes I'm bragging. it still frustrates DS12.

Time for a bit of shuffleboard (to bring me back down to reality and the fact that the world does *not* revolve around foosball). I got humiliated by the younger kids...and I believe this was the day that I threw three -10's in a row. Yup, I'm that good.

Another event was up...Cruisin' for Trivia. We expected this to be Disney Trivia...as did the host. But as it turned out there were only a few Disney questions.

Our team for Cruisin' for Trivia

It consisted of 25 general knowledge questions...only a couple of which were Disney related...as I already said. Clearly I'm starting to repeat myself!

We didn't think we did that well, but somehow ended up with 20 correct. This caused another exciting moment...as we found out we tied another team! (yeah, I like that emoticon too). This is weird because I feel like this is deja-vu again. Did I already talk about this? DW says no. Anyhoooo....I think the team we tied was a Dis board member...maybe IndianaPrincess?? DW had to go up and compete head to head with someone from their team. Question #1 was who was hosting the game (both got that one, it was Cat). Question #2 was who is the Cruise Director of the Wonder. Remember this was only day 3...and DW got it right as Clayton. We won 3 Disney key chains which, as I mentioned before, are pretty cool as far as free stuff goes. At some point through the cruise we ended up with key chains for everyone so that was nice.

We were on a roll at this point...having won pretty much everything we had played....would that continue? Uh, no...duh-duh-duh....foreshadowing. oooohhh.

We hit the Bingo Buffett for lunch...nothing to write home about...but decent food. Maybe I'm not picky enough for being on a cruise. But they had stuff I liked...that's all I can ask for. I don't expect gourmet all the time as sea. Maybe I should?

That afternoon they had a behind the scenes offering for the adults only. It was an Imagineer (Bob Zalk) who talked about how things are done in the parks and Imagineering in general. It was very well done and very interesting with slides, etc. We all had a good time and if he, or someone similar ends up on your cruise you should do it. He was going to do another talk on Saturday about the...wait for it...DREAM and his 2 months of living on it and doing the design. Definitely wanted to check that out.

 

[DisneyZell]

Now it was time to split up. DNW wanted to check out the Gemstone seminar because you could win something (hmmmm). DW decided to keep her company. Needless to say it was not good at all...extremely boring. But more importantly they didn't win. The streak was over...and the curse of the Gemstone Seminar would live on the rest of the cruise. Really. How much does that suck

DS12, DNS13 and I headed up to 9 to play in our big basketball tourney. We were warming up and sizing up the competition. There was one team with two kids, one about DS12's size, one smaller than him (and DS12 is smaller than DNS13) and a guy that looked much older than me. Now, given my lack of athletic ability...or rather lack of any motion of any kind that could turn out to not be true. There was one team that looked pretty good, but we thought we could hold our own.

Then about 2 minutes before we were ready to start in walked the ringers. Two teams...all with huge guys on them. One of them the guys all had to be late 20's or early 30's...all as tall or taller than I was. And off I go on a rant...this was listed as a "family" activity. Clearly this was not a "family" playing. OK, OK, so I had a neighbor kid...what the...hey, this is my rant so back off. It would have been nice to have a "family" tournament and a "insanely tall, big and good at basketball" tournament. I'm just sayin'.

So that made me a tad nervous. Fortunately we showed up early and got matched up with the two kids and the older gentleman in the first round. We played them well and beat them pretty easily. Then we sat down and watched the other huge teams kill their opponents and knew that we would soon be done. Finally it was our turn again against the insanely tall, big and good at basketball team. I think we "accidentally" scored one basket...but that was about it. Well...I guess Wilt Chamberlain I will never be. Round 1 of the Gemstone Seminar Curse. Yeah...it was DNW's fault...clearly not mine!

At this point we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. This was the night that we ordered the ill-fated "all-hands-on-deck" cheese platter from the Concierge. For those of you who didn't read all the installments you must now go back and read them so you can be caught up and understand what happened. Go ahead. I'll wait. We don't have anything better to do. Yes, we know your time is more valuable than ours...and you didn't have time to read earlier installments. We know you are the type that reads the last chapter of a book first. Go. OK, fine, I'll describe it again.

Remember how we could call the Concierge for anything? Well this was really the first time. He said they were busy but that we would go to the top of the pile. Needless to say 45 minutes later still no cheese platter. (huh...guess I could have just typed those three sentences rather than berating my audience about not reading earlier episodes . Oops.

DW finally called the Concierge and cancelled the order since it was time to go. I think I put this earlier...but definitely order the all hands on deck cheese platter..it's some good stuff. But if you have a normal size family (or a slightly super-sized family), get 2. One is enough for perhaps a small child or two. Well...ok, it's not that bad but you get my drift.

We were at Tritons for dinner tonight (again, though not formal night that time). For some reason I have a picture of DNS13 with a blindfold on. Why? I have no idea. Maybe DW can enlighten us.

You can also see Maggie (Blonde woman ) and Terry in the background

Now, a normal story teller wouldn't include a picture he can't explain. But not me. I put it in there and hope some sense will be made of it later. You can't get better than that. No way Jose (see, using Spanish already...and we are only *barely* in Mexican waters!)

We tried to go to how well do you know your family (if you read our Christmas Cruise Trip Report (or TR if you will), you will see that we won when we did it the last time. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait. Just kidding, I won't put you through that rambling again. And I won't wait. You are on your own if you leave the thread now.

But alas we were too late...the curse of the Gemstone Seminar continues!

The show for that night was Hypnotist Ricky Kalmon. if you have not had a chance to see his show I highly recommend it as it is entertaining. He picks members of the audience up on stage and hypnotizes them and makes them do different things. Honestly I wish I was outgoing enough to try it. I have no doubt in my mind that I could be hypnotized, which makes me a good candidate (unlike people that don't think it can happen to them), but I have this strange aversion to doing things that will embarrass me later, so I don't do it. Not that anything they do on stage is that bad...and supposedly they feel great after. So I do recommend going up on stage if you are open to that...as I think it would be fun...and go watch the show regardless.

Unfortunately we had seen him before and the show was exactly the same (well, not exactly...as far as I know it was different people on the stage from my last cruise ). So it wasn't quite as entertaining the second time around. He also does an adults only show to a smaller audience...so maybe you can try to be hypnotized there. Maybe not.

After the show we headed to who wants to be a mousketeer. again I'm having a deja-vu moment where I feel like I covered this. don't know for sure. Who Wants to be a Mousketeer when we first went out was done in the Walt Disney theater. They would call your seat number if you got to go to the hot seat...and you could win a cruise if you went all the way up. Shortly thereafter they moved it to Studio Sea...and it was still challenging...and not everyone won. This last time...they have disneyfied it...and now...well, let's just say if you get picked you will win. This was actually kind of sad for me...as they didn't even really pretend...it was quite obvious what they were doing...they may as well have just called your number and given you a prize. needless to say...we didn't get picked. No shocker...as we continued to languish under the Gemstone Seminar Curse!

So after an afternoon of not being winners, it was up to the room...and it was time for the nightly ritual to the pool to start. What started an innocent foray up to the pool at night because a nightly boys heading to the pool so they could hang out with the girls. Not that I have an issue with that...and there were adults there every night. And DS12 and DS13 *are* approaching that age. But it's still pretty funny.

Each night they would put a film up on the big screen...this night it was Mulan. My intention was to go and sit in the hot tub and kick back for an hour or so and then grab the kids and go back to the room. I also figured the pool would be warm..so I'd go in there first. We get there and one of the two hot tubs is closed. Not a good sign. So I figure I might have to hang out in the pool. No biggie...I've been known to do that before. the other hot tub is overflowing with...not kids...but with adults (and you could tell later when the movie was over they didn't even have kids in the pool). I shrugged, hopped into the pool and promptly froze my rear end off. The pool was not warm at all...which annoyed me...I'm now wet but can't get into the hot tub because it's overflowing with adults.

So my rant here is that you do read about the adults complaining about kids being in their section...etc...so why are they over in the kids section. I get it...watching a movie...but as I expect things to always go my way...I'm annoyed.

fortunately after about an hour the movie was over and all the adults ran away...so I had the hot tub all to myself to warm my body temperature up above 70 degrees. I was ready to go back...but the boys had hooked up with the gaggle of girls that they would then meet up with the rest of the week...so eventually I got out of the pool, dried myself off...asked for a couple slices of pizza to be thrown back in the oven while I go get a drink....ah the life. I tell you...where else can you order pizza at 11pm and not have to pay for it...except for overnight when you can't sleep. Well...that didn't happen that night...but you get the picture!

Finally around 11:30 I gave in and grabbed them to head to the room. Time for bed. DW was sound asleep and snoring like a freight train.

Just kidding. She doesn't snore.

Our towel animal:

An elephant!

Whew. That's it for today folks.

Next up: Chapter 7: Puerto Vallarta and our exciting trip to....wait for it...Walmart!

Thanks all!

DZ

 

[smb6]

Sounds like a great day at sea!!
Looking forward to more....

 

[smilingmouse]

I love your TR. I was on that cruise too, so it brings back many wonderful memories

 

[LovingRN]

It's been awhile since I asked something, so I thought I would throw another question out there to let you know that I am still hanging on to every single word you write.....

We are newbies to DCL and I am planning on decorating our door, did you remove your magnets each night? Was there a problem with magnets disappearing? I just see all the work that goes into making the door decorations, and I am sure you know where I am going... bet you could start a rant on this one...

 

[DisneyZell]

Sounds like a great day at sea!!
Looking forward to more....

It was...and thanks very much for tuning in. Hopefully your head hasn't been hurt too bad when you fell asleep reading

I love your TR. I was on that cruise too, so it brings back many wonderful memories

Glad to bring you back...my 8 year old would like to live on the ship if he could. Preferably with no one but his family and friends. LOL

It's been awhile since I asked something, so I thought I would throw another question out there to let you know that I am still hanging on to every single word you write.....

We are newbies to DCL and I am planning on decorating our door, did you remove your magnets each night? Was there a problem with magnets disappearing? I just see all the work that goes into making the door decorations, and I am sure you know where I am going... bet you could start a rant on this one...

LOL...I thought I made it clear that you had surpassed the one-question-per-family limit on my TR (Trip Report ).

But alas you have already asked and as I'm nothing without my audience I shall answer.

I think this is best summed up if you understand exactly how lazy I am. I'm very lazy. So frankly if I had to take my door magnets off every night I probably wouldn't do the door magnets.

Also, to be honest, this year I did so many that you couldn't see the door. Had someone taken a magnet or two I probably would not have noticed. That's just sad. Just kidding...actually I would have and I'd be hopping mad, fortunately no one did on this cruise.

I *have* heard rumors of people taking magnets from doors...what I do (as much as possible) is personalize them so that by taking them I'd recognize them right away on another door...and people wouldn't really need a "Zell Family" magnet (unless I have long lost relatives on the ship!). There were definately some that could have been stolen...but maybe our location stopped it? So go crazy...have fun with it.

I assume you know to buy the magnet paper, right? It's pretty expensive...but pretty easy to use. And don't forget ears for your door number! I love door decorations and highly recommend doing it.

Thanks for your questions...keep 'em coming (yes, this is the other half of my personality)

on another note I just learned something tonight. I always knew you could click the "quote" button so that it would indent and quote the person you want to answer...but there is a cool button next to it with a + on it...that let's you do many answers. I had been cutting, pasting and changing the name over and over...pain in the rear. Holy crapola was I an idiot. this way is much easier! *doink*...lesson learned for me.

More tomorrow!

DZ

 

[smb6]

It was...and thanks very much for tuning in. Hopefully your head hasn't been hurt too bad when you fell asleep reading


DZ

LOL. Definately not sleeping, but rather hanging on to every word as I look forward to my first cruise on the Wonder in a few months.... I can't get enough information and I'm loving your TR

 

[QuiltTeddy]

..I love door decorations and highly recommend doing it.


DZ

Room 7578 - Departure Date 04/03/11 -- Can't wait to see how you are going to decorate our door!!!

I just received my copy of this book and really look forward to diving into it.

Is this a book better saved until AFTER the cruise? Looks like it will be a good read and it's available on Kindle....but wondering if there are things I might not want to know before the cruise. LOL

 

[DisneyZell]

LOL. Definately not sleeping, but rather hanging on to every word as I look forward to my first cruise on the Wonder in a few months.... I can't get enough information and I'm loving your TR

SUCKER...er...I mean...great! Keep reading!

Room 7578 - Departure Date 04/03/11 -- Can't wait to see how you are going to decorate our door!!!

LOL...you are a funny one...I'll give you that. I am more than happy to give tips. and not the monetary kind.

Is this a book better saved until AFTER the cruise? Looks like it will be a good read and it's available on Kindle....but wondering if there are things I might not want to know before the cruise. LOL

Well, I might be able to answer that...but DW, lovely woman that she is...has stolen the book to read. so it might be months before I actually get to read it. Actually...and SHHHHH, don't tell her....I stole it back and read it at lunch. Maybe she won't notice?

In my opinion I don't think it will or should affect your cruise. Ultimately the way I look at it these folks choose to live this life...good, bad, or indifferent. As I can't affect how others treat them...I just try to be nice to all of them...a little bit of love from me. Can't beat that!

Thanks for the comments...keep 'em coming.

DZ