Mike & Missy Plus Six! A 9/11/11 Dream Pre-TR! Update 09/19-TR now started!!

[UGAFan0829]

Hello, and thanks for joining me here!! Today marks exactly 59 days until we set sail on the Disney Dream, so I figured it was time to start my official Pre-TR!

Some of you may have read my other reports here on the DIS (the links are in my siggie), but for those of you who haven’t, I’m Missy! My DH, Mike, and I are big Disney fans, as are probably all of you who are reading this!! Disney is our very favorite vacation spot ever! And, we also love sailing aboard Disney Cruise Line, so we try to throw a cruise in the mix every now and then! This will be our 5th Disney Cruise, and our first time on the Dream!! And boy are we excited about finally seeing the ship in person…but the best part is, we’re bringing some family along with us!!

Soooo, I suppose I’ll start this off as many others start their reports here on the DIS—with the formal introductions…

As I mentioned, there’s the DH and I:

Mike is 34, and I’ll be 32 by the time we cruise. If we can’t vacation in Disney, then our other picks would be PC Beach or the Great Smoky Mountains. We don’t have kids of our own, but we do have nieces and nephews that we love dearly (some of which will be joining us on this cruise)! We actually have a surprise trip to WDW planned for my youngest niece and nephew (who aren’t cruising with us) for next year, and I am absolutely thrilled about it, as it will be their very first trip! As you can tell, we love spoiling them as much as we can, and of course teaching them as much about Disney as we can!! As far as favorite characters, mine is hands down Pooh, followed by Ariel, Tiana, and Stitch!! Mike’s are Donald and Pumbaa!!

The next person in our cast of characters is our nephew, Dustin #1:

He is my sister’s son, and this will be his first Disney experience of any kind! We had actually planned to take him to WDW last September, but unfortunately, he made some bad choices for himself and got into a little bit of trouble--so we decided that it wasn’t good to reward him for his not so great behavior. Thankfully though, he’s gotten things back on track and is doing much better. It actually took me a little while to talk him into coming on this trip with us, as he wasn’t too sure about the idea of being on a cruise ship. I hope for his sake and the other first timers that will be with us, that everything will be “smooth sailing” (pun intended)!! Since this is his first Disney trip, he doesn’t have a favorite character yet, though I’m excited to find out who he likes!

Next, there’s Mike’s sister, Gayle, and her husband, Allen:

Gayle will turn 50 just 3 days before the cruise and Allen turned 50 last year. Gayle actually cruised with us back in 2009 on the Magic. However, though Allen has cruised on other lines before, this will be his first time on Disney. Neither of them have ever been to WDW. I’m not quite sure how Allen’s going to like all the characters and such, but hopefully it will turn out okay. He and Gayle aren’t really Disney fans…it’s not that they don’t like it…it’s just that Gayle liked the service so much on the last cruise that she really wanted to try it again with all her family. So, we’ll see how it all turns out!

Then come Brandi and Brandon:

Brandi is Gayle and Allen’s daughter, and Brandon is her boyfriend of nearly two years. We’ve all decided that they are darn near perfect for one another and are hoping that she gets a ring sometime soon! Brandi also joined her Mom with us on the 2009 cruise, but this will be Brandon’s first cruise of any kind!

And last, but definitely not least is our other nephew, Dustin #2:

Dustin is also Gayle and Allen’s son. And this will be his first cruise of any kind as well!! I think the fact that he was coming along is what helped Dustin #1 decide to join us as well! I’m not sure that Dustin really knows what to expect from the trip, so basically he’s just along for the ride, though I think he is a little excited, but he won’t really admit it!!



Whew, that was a lot of introductions! Much more than I’m use to since it’s usually just the two of us! But, I am really excited that everyone is coming along!! Family is very important to Mike and I, so having them with us will make the trip even better!!



Next, I’ll give an overview of our cruise plans, as well as where we’ll be spending the night pre-cruise!!

 

[mousetravel]

We’ve all decided that they are darn near perfect for one another and are hoping that she gets a ring sometime soon!

Next, I’ll give an overview of our cruise plans, as well as where we’ll be spending the night pre-cruise!!

Hey, neighbor, I'm here!!!


Wouldn't it be nice if he proposed while on the cruise!!!???

Are ya'll going to WDW before the cruise??

 

[UGAFan0829]

Hey, neighbor, I'm here!!!


Wouldn't it be nice if he proposed while on the cruise!!!???

Are ya'll going to WDW before the cruise??

Yeaaa! Thanks for being here my friend!!

Haha!! Gayle and I have been wondering the same thing! It would be very neat if he does, but who knows. He told her that he had his own idea of how he wanted to do it, so at least we know that he is thinking about it!!

The answer to that will be in my next update!!

 

[CSwan1]

Joining in for the fun! I have read all you trip reports and LOVED THEM! We just returned July first from our Dream Cruise and it was FABULOUS! You are going to have a great time!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Joining in for the fun! I have read all you trip reports and LOVED THEM! We just returned July first from our Dream Cruise and it was FABULOUS! You are going to have a great time!

Awww, thanks, Crystal! I really appreciate that, and I'm so glad you're here!! You know exactly what we're in for then, huh?! I'm so excited!!

 

[iloverags2]

Woo Hoo! Another Missy report! Looking forward to reading all about your plans for the Dream!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Woo Hoo! Another Missy report! Looking forward to reading all about your plans for the Dream!

Thanks, Cindy! I'm glad to have you here, and I'm really looking forward to sharing everything with all of you!

 

[UGAFan0829]

When I last left off, I promised an overview of our cruise plans as well as where we’ll spend the night pre-cruise. So, here it is (I apologize in advance for not having any pictures included in this update):


Because this is Dustin #1’s first cruise, and more than likely, the trip of a lifetime, we really wanted to make this about him and what he wants to do. So, a couple months ago, he and I sat down and went through the list of shore excursions for Nassau and CC. The first and only thing he spotted for Nassau was the Atlantis Aquaventure. I certainly didn’t have any objections to spending the day at Atlantis on their water slides, and neither did Mike! But, the price did make me a little nervous…$500+ just for the three of us! I told him that we’d do it anyway…because like I said, I really wanted this trip to be about him. And if for some reason, he never gets the chance to travel there again, I want him to be able to say that he did just what he wanted to do while he was there! At that point, we still had a while before the booking window opened up for our cruise, so I decided to do a little research on booking a room at the Comfort Suites. I know that a lot of people here on the DIS have done it, but I was a little nervous about doing it on our own as we’ve always taken the Disney sponsored excursions. Once I figured out that booking on our own would cost half of what the Disney version did, I decided to be brave and go for it! I just hope everything goes smoothly! As for Gayle, Allen and the rest of their gang, they’ve decided to do the Discover Atlantis tour through Disney. They’re going to tour the aquarium, then check out the casino afterwards. I’m really excited about what we have planned, but also a little nervous as well, especially since we have to find a taxi to take us there and back!

As for CC, we weren’t really planning on doing much except a little snorkeling and relaxing on the beach, but Dustin had different plans. He’s always wanted to go deep sea fishing, so when he saw the Castaway Bottom fishing, he asked if we could do it! Mike loves to fish, and I love to go as long as the fish are biting, so I thought this would be a neat experience, especially to catch things we can’t catch here at home!! There were two times available for this excursion—one for the morning and one in the afternoon. I decided to go with the afternoon time so that we could spend the morning snorkeling and relaxing before heading out on the boat. I’m pretty excited about this day as well!

And for our pre-cruise night…
After much discussion and going back and forth, we finally decided to spend the night in WDW! Mike and I used our DVC points to book a 2-bedroom villa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge/Villas! I’m excited because it will be our first stay at AKL, but it will also be everyone else’s first time ever setting foot on Disney property! Using our points worked out great since no one will have to come out of pocket for the room!

We also decided that since we’ll be in Disney, we may as well take advantage of all the great restaurants while we’re there! It was hard narrowing down the list of some of our favorites, and in the end it was between ‘Ohana, Whispering Canyon, and Trail’s End. We let everyone else decide, and they all picked ‘Ohana for dinner, which made both Mike and I very happy! I'm hoping that we arrive in Disney early enough to do a little shopping and grab some lunch in Downtown Disney, and maybe even manage to have some pool time!

 

[iloverags2]

Excellent plans! No need to worry about finding a taxi to Paradise Island...there will be plenty of them lined up just outside the pierside building in Nassau. If you end up with a van, they will wait for other passengers to fill it (sometimes, although not always). Just a heads-up. It's a quick ride over, so no worries! We have taxied over there several times with no problems (except for the one time we water taxied over...yikes! is all I will say about that!).

 

[UGAFan0829]

Excellent plans! No need to worry about finding a taxi to Paradise Island...there will be plenty of them lined up just outside the pierside building in Nassau. If you end up with a van, they will wait for other passengers to fill it (sometimes, although not always). Just a heads-up. It's a quick ride over, so no worries! We have taxied over there several times with no problems (except for the one time we water taxied over...yikes! is all I will say about that!).

Thanks so much for the info and reassurance!! Hearing that makes me feel better. Do you have any idea about how much I should budget for the ride there and back?

 

[iloverags2]

Thanks so much for the info and reassurance!! Hearing that makes me feel better. Do you have any idea about how much I should budget for the ride there and back?

I want to say we paid $20 roundtrip for four of us the last time we took the taxi route, which was in 2007. Let me see if I can find my notes tonight when I get home from work.

 

[DWGal210]

Great start! We went on the Dream in February - you'll LOVE it!!!! It's amazing!!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Great start! We went on the Dream in February - you'll LOVE it!!!! It's amazing!!!

Thank you!!! I have a feeling that it's going to be a very magical trip!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Good morning, fellow DIS'ers!!
I want to start by saying that I'm sorry that I haven't gotten another update up. It's been somewhat of a tough weekend for us...
My Dad works for a very small company (only about 6 employees total), and has been there for 30+ years now, so everyone there is like family to us. My Dad's boss has 3 grown daugthers, and back on 7/8, one of them went missing. She had a fight with her husband, and he told police that she "left" sometime in the early morning hours between 2 and 4. The police were investigating, but had never done an actual search for her. So, on Saturday morning, friends and family got together and organized a search in the neighborhood in which she lived. We had only been in the woods searching for about an hour when received a call that a body had been found. She was covered in leaves and tree limbs, so it was obvious that someone had left her there. While having found her offers a little closure, it's also the beginning of a nightmare.
It turns out that we not only knew Nique through my Dad working for her Mom, but she was also one of my teachers in high school, so I knew her on a couple different levels. I've never known or been involved in anything like this, so it's been very, very hard. Please keep all of Nique's family and friends in your thoughts and prayers--especially her 3 children.

 

[UGAFan0829]

I wanted to tell y'all that I probably won't be adding any updates over the next week and a half, or so. Mike and I are leaving for the beach on Saturday, and I still have a ton of things to do before then--including packing!! This was somewhat of a last minute trip as we hadn't planned on any vacations this year, other than the cruise, of course. But, my nephew, Cody, and his wife Ashley were planning on going, so they asked us if we wanted to go with them, and even offered to split the condo with us. We haven't been since 2008, and had really been wanting to go back, but just didn't think we could afford it. So, when they asked, we thought "why not" and decided to tag along! Here's a recent picture of the two of them:

Cody is my sister's oldest son and the brother of Dustin #1. I'm glad that we're able to take a vacation with them as well!

I thought the beach trip would be a perfect time to try out my new waterproof camera that I just ordered for the cruise! I've been wanting one for a while now, and especially wished we had one last year when we found a huge starfish out in Serenity Bay! So I started shopping around a few months ago, but had a hard time finding a good camera at a decent price. Then, Target put the FujiFilm XP20 on sale, so I decided to go for it!

They come in black, orange, green and blue, so I decided to go with the blue one pictured above! I can't wait to try it out. I've played around with it at home a little, but haven't put it to use in the water yet! I think the one feature I'm most excited about is the ability to take Panoramic shots! I think that will come in really handy to get some cool shots of CC on the cruise!! I'll definitelty make sure to post some of our pics once we get back! I'll try my best to update at least once more before we head out, but I can't make any promises!!

 

[mousetravel]

Hope you'll give us a Mini-TR of your beach trip when you get back!!!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

I'm baaaaacckk!
I anticipated having another update by now, but once we made it home from the beach on Wednesday, the rest of the week consisted of unpacking, washing clothes, errands, paying bills, a birthday dinner, etc! But, I'm finally here, and I wanted to start by giving you a little overview of our trip. We had a fabulous time, and the only negative was that our time there seem to have flown by! So here we go...

We'd planned to leave the house around 7. Cody and Ashley live about an hour away, and since we're so close to the interstate, the plan was for them to meet us at our house. They ended up running late, and didn't make it until after 7, which was totally fine with me since I had hit the snooze button a few times myself!

We finally made it out of the driveway at about 20 til 9. No biggie since our room wouldn't be ready until after 4 anyway, plus we'd gain an hour when we crossed over into Alabama. We did make a quick stop for breakfast at Hardee's and a fill-up before we actually hit the interstate though.

Thankfully, the ride through Atlanta was smooth. It was a clear day, and you could see Stone Mountain from 85:

Along the way, I snapped a few pictures of the Chick-fil-A billboards and signs. I love the cows, and I know that Mouse Travel is a big fan as well, so these are for you and Marisa, Kristi:

We made it to PC by 3:30, and since it was so close to time, we called the resort to see if our room was ready! It was, so we decided to go ahead and stop there first before getting some lunch.

This was our 5th time staying at the Long Beach, and the only place we've ever stayed in PC. I have to say that I wasn't nearly as impressed this time, as the resort was really starting to show it's age...especially compared to all the newer resorts all around.

And since I always take lots of room photos, I thought I'd share those as well, just in case anyone's intersted:

The view from our 4th floor balcony:

Well, Mike and I are headed back to work tomorrow after having the week off, so I better run and get things ready for the week. I still have to make a trip to the grocery store, too!

Next up, our first dinner of the trip at one of my favorite PC Beach restaurants!

 

[UGAFan0829]

My goodness...where did everyone go? Was it something I said?

 

[iloverags2]

Love the pics of the cows! Those are always too funny.

The view from your room is gorgeous! Looking forward to hearing about your beach stay.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Love the pics of the cows! Those are always too funny.

The view from your room is gorgeous! Looking forward to hearing about your beach stay.

I always love seeing how the cows spell things...that always gives me a chuckle. I'm glad you enjoyed the pics of them!

Yes, we did have a beautiful view! I'm so glad we were able to go this year!