Mike & Missy's Grand Adventure! 9/5/09 DCL Western & WDW TR w/ pics! COMPLETE!

[CastleCreations]

yea! a Brent report. I'm all in. Keep it coming....

 

[Jennifer48]

Hi, Jennifer! Thanks for joining me over here!

So, how's married life? I was thinking about you the other day and wondered how everything went!!!

As far as the over the door shoe holder, it worked out fab-u-lous! Even Mike made a comment on how it really helped keep things organized...so a big to you for recommending it!

Are you going to write a TR? I sure hope so! Make sure and let me know if you do!!

Married life is different! At least for me it is. We didn't live together before we were married so its a change. Wedding went off without a hitch. Fun times!

Soooooooo glad you liked the hangar. I was worried! Its such a simple thing yet it makes a world of a difference.

I hope to write a honeymoon TR. Not sure when I'll start it though because we bought a house and I'm still unpacking from that. But I'll be sure to let you know when I do!

HOORAY for upgrades!!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

yea! a Brent report. I'm all in. Keep it coming....

The first time I saw Brent, I thought about the person who had his picture as their avatar here on the DIS...and turns out it was you...too funny!! I see why he's so well liked now! I sure hope we're lucky enough to have him again the next time we sail. Thanks for joining in!!

Married life is different! At least for me it is. We didn't live together before we were married so its a change. Wedding went off without a hitch. Fun times!

Soooooooo glad you liked the hangar. I was worried! Its such a simple thing yet it makes a world of a difference.

I hope to write a honeymoon TR. Not sure when I'll start it though because we bought a house and I'm still unpacking from that. But I'll be sure to let you know when I do!

HOORAY for upgrades!!!

I know what you mean about married life. Mike and I didn't live together before either, so I understand what you mean.

The shoe holder did make a huge difference, and I will definitely be using it when/if we cruise again.

Congrats on buying a house! That's awesome. Just make sure to let me know when you start the report!

 

[DMMarla07860]

great report so far

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I love this picture!

What a nice treat getting your hair done.

 

[mousetravel]

Making my way over to your new TR! Can't wait to hear more about the trip and see more pics!

 

[UGAFan0829]

great report so far

Glad to have you here...Thanks for joining in!!

I love this picture!

What a nice treat getting your hair done.

I was totally excited that I was able to get an appointment for my hair. I have a hard enough time fixing it from day to day, so I knew there was no way that I could make it look nice for formal night!!

Making my way over to your new TR! Can't wait to hear more about the trip and see more pics!

Yeaaaa, you're here! Thanks for joining me!!

 

[Cheryl726]

Enjoying your TR so far, the pics are great!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Enjoying your TR so far, the pics are great!

Thank you and welcome!!!

 

[babycakes01]

What a great trip report! You tell the story and it feels like we are all right there with you! We have sailed the Wonder 3x and our 1st Magic trip is coming up March 6th; so I'm reading all I can~ Great job so far!

 

[mommyarewegoingback]

Great report so far! Love the pics! We're going on our 1st DCL Western in November. Can't wait for more!
-Virginia

 

[missusem]

Do keep it coming.. we're cruising the Western too in a few weeks and it will be so good to hear about what's on board

GREAT photos so far!

 

[OurOhana]

I'm enjoying your report too. Really nice pics.

 

[UGAFan0829]

What a great trip report! You tell the story and it feels like we are all right there with you! We have sailed the Wonder 3x and our 1st Magic trip is coming up March 6th; so I'm reading all I can~ Great job so far!

Thanks so much! That means a lot to me. I'm glad to know that you're enjoying it!!
You're going to love the Magic as much as the Wonder! This was our 1st time on the Magic as well, and it definitely did not disappoint!

Great report so far! Love the pics! We're going on our 1st DCL Western in November. Can't wait for more!
-Virginia

How exciting! November isn't very far away!!

Do keep it coming.. we're cruising the Western too in a few weeks and it will be so good to hear about what's on board

GREAT photos so far!

Thank you! I love taking pictures, so that was the easy part for me!!

I'm enjoying your report too. Really nice pics.

Thanks for joining in!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Sorry for the delay in getting an update added. I had planned to do one over the weekend, but we had our niece and nephew, so I didn't have time! But, as Mickey would say...On with the show!!!


After Adventures Away was over, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. On our past cruises we always had late dinner, so I was anxious to see how the early seating would work out for us this time. It seems as though DCL has changed their dining times since the last time we cruised. From what I remember, there were 3 different times for each seating, but this time there was only one for each-ours was at 5:45. Our rotation was PLAAPLP, which meant we were at Parrot Cay tonight.

We arrived right on time and had to wait to be escorted to our tables. Soon after, we met our serving team. Dennis from the Philippines was our Server and Abrahim from South Africa was our Assistant Server. It didn't take long until we had all placed our orders and the food started coming.
For appetizers, I had the Baked Crab Martinique:

Mike had the Island Spice Seared Ahi Tuna:

He LOVED this. I know it doesn't look like a whole lot, but he savored every bite! Mine was pretty good as well.
Next was the soup/salad selection. I chose not to have anything as there really wasn't anything on the menu that appealed to me. Mike decided to go with the Cream of Asparagus soup.

I like asparagus as long as it's cooked right, but a soup version of it didn't sound to tasty to me. I tried a bite anyway, and it was actually pretty good!
For our main course, I decided to go with the Island Spice Grilled Rib Eye of Beef:

And Mike had the Mixed Grill:

The best part was next!! For dessert I had the Creme Brulee Cheesecake:

While Mike had the Lemon Meringue Pie:

I didn't care for the Cheesecake at all. Mike tried it and liked it, so we switched! The Lemon Meringue was very good (without the meringue, of course!)
I apologize for the quality of the pics...I got a new camera not long before the trip, and I still haven't figured out how to use it. Most of the time, I had to use it without the flash which sometimes made it a little dark. Hopefully they'll still give you an idea of what we had!

Stuffed, and with our first dinner behind us, we decided that we definitely wanted to catch the show that night-All Aboard. Because our previous cruises were so short, we didn't do so well in seeing the shows on those trips, but we planned to change that on this voyage. We still had a little time to kill before the show started, so we decided to check out some of the shops just to see what we might want to come back and get later in the week. Before we made it to the shops, we made a quick stop in Shutters to see what our Embarkation photos looked like. On our other cruises, I ended up buying waaay more pictures than I needed, and most of them are still sitting in a box in the closet, so I decided that we weren't going to do that this time. Our Embarkation photo was one that I for sure wanted, especially since it lists the dates of the cruise along with our ports, so we went ahead and got it. I hadn't planned on buying anything in the shops tonight, but there was a nice 5x7 picture frame in Mickey's Mates that I wanted for my desk at work. There were only 2 left on the shelf, so I decided to go ahead and get it just in case there weren't any left later in the week. We also scoped out the pins so that I could think about which ones I wanted.

With our shopping for the night being done, we headed on into the Walt Disney Theater for the show. From the description on the Navigator, this was to be a "variety" show of the entertainment that was to be offered for the week. Instead of giving more details about the show and ruining the surprise for anyone else who may see it, I'll just add some pictures instead:

It had been a pretty long day by this point, but we weren't done yet. There was still another show that we wanted to catch, but again, we had some time to kill before then. So, we headed back to the room and decided to unpack a few things. Here's what we found awaiting us when we returned:

After unpacking and getting things settled a little more, we thought it would be nice to check out the upper decks and maybe get some ice cream. Gayle and Brandi were pretty tired, so they decided to call it a night.
While walking about the upper decks, I took a couple shots along the way:
I think this may have been the Carnival ship that left Port Canaveral right before us:

A couple no-so hidden Mickeys...

The ship is SO beautiful at night. Everything's so calm and quiet...walking around up there is quite peaceful.

We only had a few minutes left before Match Your Mate started, so we headed on down to get a good seat before the show. Since we were a little early, we ended up catching the end of Magic Quest. I had seen this listed on the Navigator, but didn't pay it much attention, and really had no idea what it was. I sure wish we would have been there for the whole thing. It was absolutely HILARIOUS! It was definitely for the adults, but man was it funny. Turns out, it was actually somewhat of a "scavenger hunt". There were several teams that had been formed, and the host would issue all kinds of challenges. I'm telling you, this was beyond funny...there were several times that Mike and I both were in tears. One example of a challenge that the teams were issued was for a MALE member of the team to come to the front holding their team number wearing women's shoes, a bra and lipstick. You just had to see it for yourself. I HIGHLY recommend this show for some good laughs!!
After Magic Quest was over, and the winning teams were awarded their prizes (which DIS'er Stacy and her hubby happened to be part of), Match Your Mate got underway. This was another great show. There were definitely more laugh-so-hard-you-cry moments in this one as well!! As tired as we were, I was glad that we decided to tough it out and see these shows.

With the shows over, we were finally starting to feel the effects of the long and exciting day we'd had, so we decided to head back to the room for some much needed sleep.

Next up-Our day in Key West!

 

[Mickey's Goofy Gal]

Sounds like ya'll were having a WONDERFUL time. I am enjoying your TR!!!!! Can't wait for the next post!

 

[JFHeeren]

Loving your trip report so far.

Noticed your servers:

Dennis from the Philippines was our Server and Abrahim from South Africa was our Assistant Server.

These were our servers on the trip we took on the Magic 8/15-8/22. Small world.

 

[UGAFan0829]

Sounds like ya'll were having a WONDERFUL time. I am enjoying your TR!!!!! Can't wait for the next post!

Thanks, Kim. I'm glad you're enjoying it! I hope that one day you will get to experience it for yourself!!

Loving your trip report so far.

Noticed your servers:

These were our servers on the trip we took on the Magic 8/15-8/22. Small world.

How cool is that. We LOVED them...but more about that later in the trip. Actually, we were the last cruise before Dennis went home. He was really excited. And I believe Abrahim had only 4 weeks to go before he went home!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You got some great show pics!

I found the food in the dining rooms to be hard to photograph. Sometimes if you used the flash it would wash everything out and if you didn't use the flash the picture would turn out dark. I think the lighting on the ship is just funky.

 

[MMitchell29]

OMG I am addicted to your TR. can you please give me more.