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

[Mickey's Goofy Gal]

I am still loving your trip report!!!! Hey we can go eat at Inoko's and you can take your chop sticks and be the star of the table!!!!! They are something you can always keep to remember the magic!!!!

 

[Timon]

Wow, nice dress!!! Vavavavooom!!!

Loved the hair too! The retardedly expensive chopsticks really added something extra

And about Key West, the only reason I want to go back is because Kino's was closed when we went and I've always wanted a pair of their sandals. Other than that, I don't think I would want to go back, that heat was overwhelming!!

 

[praisehisname]

Of all the shows, Golden Mickeys is my favorite!

You both looked really good for formal night!

Denise

 

[Grumpyismyfavorite]

You are a great trip report writer! I am getting to relive every moment of our own cruise. Two weeks ago today we were in Cozumel (probably still laughing about the RIcky Kalmon show from the night before). Can't wait to read more.

 

[Jennifer48]

I missed so much!

How did you enjoy the first dining? Were there too many kids around? Thats always my biggest fear. Late dining we seem to miss things like shows and such.

Your hair looked great! and the dress, loved it!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

I love your hair! I would have been a bit annoyed with the chopstick price but would have just gone along with it as well.

You got some great pictures, especially your formal night ones.

I guess it is just me who thought the cheese souffle was nasty.

Thank you, Lessa! It was kinda my fault for not asking before I agreed to the chopsticks, I guess.

I remember reading that you didn't like the souffle in your TR. I guess we must have different tastes, cause I don't think you liked the Churros in WDW that I LOVE! Too funny!!

I am still loving your trip report!!!! Hey we can go eat at Inoko's and you can take your chop sticks and be the star of the table!!!!! They are something you can always keep to remember the magic!!!!

Oh, I'm sure I would be the star of the table. I can only imagine what your Mama would say about something like that! We do need to get together soon!

Wow, nice dress!!! Vavavavooom!!!

Loved the hair too! The retardedly expensive chopsticks really added something extra

And about Key West, the only reason I want to go back is because Kino's was closed when we went and I've always wanted a pair of their sandals. Other than that, I don't think I would want to go back, that heat was overwhelming!!

Thank you, Cass! You always make me laugh with your comments! You're right though, the chopsticks were "retardedly" expensive! You are so right about the heat in KW!

Of all the shows, Golden Mickeys is my favorite!

You both looked really good for formal night!

Denise

Thank you, Denise! I'm glad that we were finally able to see the Golden Mickeys. I think it was a well thought out show!

You are a great trip report writer! I am getting to relive every moment of our own cruise. Two weeks ago today we were in Cozumel (probably still laughing about the RIcky Kalmon show from the night before). Can't wait to read more.

Wow, thanks! That's so sweet of you to say! Ricky Kalmon was pretty darn funny!!

I missed so much!

How did you enjoy the first dining? Were there too many kids around? Thats always my biggest fear. Late dining we seem to miss things like shows and such.

Your hair looked great! and the dress, loved it!!

You didn't miss to much, Jennifer! I've been slack about getting updated posted, so I'll try to do better with that.

As for 1st seating--I have to say that we really liked it. It worked out well for us. There were a lot of kids around, but I didn't notice them very much. It was just the 4 of us at our table, and the tables on each side of us didn't have any kids either. We really liked having dinner and then seeing the shows. If/when we ever cruise again, we'll definitely do early seating again!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Goin' to Hell and back!​

This was another day that we had been looking forward to. I couldn't wait to get off the boat and see what Grand Cayman was all about! We got ready pretty quickly, and then, like every other morning, we headed up to Topsider's for a quick breakfast. Again, no pictures, but it was the normal fare-eggs, bacon, toast, etc.

After breakfast we headed back to the room and got everything that we'd need for our day on the island. We'd decided on the Island Tour and Butterfly Farm in hopes that this would be the best way to see everything that we wanted to.

The meeting time was at 8 in Diversions, but we ended up arriving a few minutes early. The excursion staff really made the wait a lot of fun as they kept us entertained the entire time. One interesting part of the wait was when they opened it for questions and allowed everyone a chance to ask questions about what life was like working on a cruise ship. We couldn't think of anything to else, so we just listened to everyone else. Someone asked why there were so few staff members from the US compared to all the other countries, and they reply was that the employees from the US have to pay taxes on their pay, while employees from other countries do not. With all the interesting questions, the time passed really quickly, and it wasn't long until we were tendering from the ship!

The tender ride over was very short, and we followed our guide over to a parking lot and boarded our tour bus. After our day in Key West, we were very happy to have an air-conditioned ride this time!!

To start the tour off, we passed by the Governor's House.

Our guide told us the story of how Grand Cayman selects their governor, which was very neat. I don't remember the whole and exact story, but I do remember that they only allow people from outside of the island to serve in office. Very different from what we're used to.

The next point of interest was the oldest house in Grand Cayman.

I don't remember the details of exactly how old it is, but it still looks to be in decent shape to me!

Shortly after the oldest house, we made a brief stop at a little place on the side of the road. There was a small pier that went out into the water. It was really pretty here, and we could still see the ships docked off in the distance.

After our brief stop, we re-boarded the bus and made our way on around the island. As we drove, out guide pointed out lots of places along the way and gave us a lot of history on the island. I wish I could remember what he told us! We drove a little further before we made our 2nd stop of the day-The Grand Cayman Turtle Farm!! I was excited about getting to see all Crush's kinfolk!! As we got off the bus we were all given wristbands, then made our way inside to meet our guide. Sorry, but I don't remember her name either. She then took us outside where we got to meet all the turtles. There were a jillion of them!!

There were several, several different groups of tanks, and each group held the turtles at different ages. At one point, we were able to pick them up and hold them, which was really cool!

As we were having fun with the turtles, they had a photographer who came around and took pics as well. As we were walking along the path between all the tanks, we saw these iguanas out and about.

After our fun with the turtles, we had a little time left so we mosied into the gift shop. We found our group pic and decided to get it.

We ended up getting 2 copies-one for us, and one from Gayle and Brandi. I think it was $20 for both. They only printed one, but we asked, and they were happy to print another for us, and it was ready in just a matter of minutes. We browsed around the gift shop, then headed back across the street to the bus as our time at the Turtle Farm was coming to an end.

 

[UGAFan0829]

We were on our way to Hell, but not until we stopped off at the Tortuga Rum Cake store. Good grief was this place crowded. It's not very big to begin with, but people were swarming all over the place, and you could hardly move. They had lots of different flavors of rum cake available to sample, but it was so crowded that it was almost impossible to get to any of it. We managed to snag a bite of the original and the chocolate. We ended up buying a 4-pack of the smaller cakes with 2 chocolate and 2 original, and then got the heck out of that place. As crazy as it was in the place, it would be easy to mistake this place for Hell!! The bad part is that in order to keep the tour moving along at an acceptable pace, our driver would give us a time limit for each place we stopped. So unless we wanted to be left stranded in Grand Cayman, we had to make sure to be back at the bus by a certain time. Of course all the crowds here didn't allow us to have very much time to spare!

With the madness of the rum cakes behind us, we were finally on our way to Hell!! It was a very short drive from the cake store, so we were there in no time.

And finally, here is what Hell looks like...

The rock formations, were just like I'd expected and seen in pictures, but the area was quite smaller than I'd imagined. I was thinking that it was something that we'd be able to actually walk on, but then our guide explained how shart they were and I realized why we couldn't! Next, we headed into the gift shop where they have all kinds of things for sale that advertise Hell. We decided to send a couple postcards back home so everyone would know where we'd been! Once again, our time limit was up, so we headed back to the bus since we certainly didn't want to be stranded in Hell!!

Our last stop of the day was at the Grand Cayman Butterfly Farm.

I'm not really sure what I expected here, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed. We met up with our tour guide who gave us a very long and detailed history on the lives of butterflies. It was pretty inside, with all of them flying around, but it was also very hot in there as well. We wandered around for a bit, and I was able to get a couple shots.

I know it's not a butterfly, but I thought this flower was really pretty...

I think the day was starting to get to us, so we headed inside to the gift shop to cool off and wait for our time to be over. If we'd had it to do over, we would have done the island tour, but without the Butterfly Farm. It just wasn't what we expected, and was kind of boring. The butterflies were pretty, but there just wasn't that much to it. I think a lot of it probably had to do with the fact that this was the last stop of the day, and we were pretty tired and hot by this point. Not to mention, we'd gotten up pretty early that morning, which made for a long day.

After saying goodbye to the butterflies, we were on our way back to town. After disembarking from the bus and tipping our driver, we decided to do a little bit of shopping before we headed back to the ship. I managed to get a couple shots of the Magic as we headed towards the shops:

First we headed into the Diamonds International store and picked up our free charm for the bracelets that we'd gotten in Key West. The charm was a cute little stingray. Next, we headed into the Harley-Davidson store for Gayle, the over to Margaritaville. With all our shopping done, we were ready to make our way back home. I saw this really neat fountain of stingrays, so I had to get a pic..

As we continued on our way, we had to stop and get a pic with the Grand Cayman sign:

Thankfully there was a tender boat waiting at the dock once we got there. It was really neat seeing the Magic from this perspective, so I took several shots as we got closer to her:

Seeing the ship from this angle, really puts it's size into perspective. At least it did for me...

We were back on the ship by 1, and headed straight back to our rooms to get some rest before dinner.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

More wonderful pictures!

I just love those turtles, they were so cute!

Hell makes me laugh every time.

Looks like you were enjoying some really lovely weather on your trip, I am jealous!

 

[praisehisname]

Great pics! We had high winds and had to skip GC, so I enjoyed seeing it from your perspective! The turtle farms looks fun!

Denise

 

[Tinkerkell123]

Oh, no!! The end of the posts! Well, until the next installment... I am having SO much fun reading your trip report! We are going on our first cruise on Jan 23rd and reading this is making the wait more bearable. Of course, it also makes me even more excited to go!!!

Thanks so much for your hard work posting all this! Oh, and 1 question: you mentioned on day 1 onboard going to the secret spot on deck 7. Where on deck 7 and why secret?

Kelli

 

[aussieinvasion]

Hey Missy,

I finally made it on here Loving your report and wishing we could turn back the clock and still be there. What did you think of Margaritaville? The slide was a hit with Travis

 

[Cliffside]

What a great trip report!

We are leaving on the Magic on the 10/31 Western and reading your posts has been great.

You had Brent as your CD, did he mention what his schedule was for the coming months? I am curious if he will be on board in two weeks.

Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

 

[UGAFan0829]

More wonderful pictures!

I just love those turtles, they were so cute!

Hell makes me laugh every time.

Looks like you were enjoying some really lovely weather on your trip, I am jealous!

I thought the turtles were really cute, too!! It was fun to get to pick them up and hold them. The turtle farm was definitely the best part of the tour!!

We were very fortunate to have had such great weather, especially since we were right in the middle of hurricane season!

Great pics! We had high winds and had to skip GC, so I enjoyed seeing it from your perspective! The turtle farms looks fun!

Denise

Oh no...that stinks that you had to miss GC. It was neat to see the island. I'm glad that my pics helped you to see some of what you may have missed.

Oh, no!! The end of the posts! Well, until the next installment... I am having SO much fun reading your trip report! We are going on our first cruise on Jan 23rd and reading this is making the wait more bearable. Of course, it also makes me even more excited to go!!!

Thanks so much for your hard work posting all this! Oh, and 1 question: you mentioned on day 1 onboard going to the secret spot on deck 7. Where on deck 7 and why secret?

Kelli

Thank you, Kelli! Sorry I haven't posted an update later. Getting these things done are time consuming, but I'll try and do better!!!

How exciting to be going on your 1st cruise very soon! I know you will love it!!

The "secret" deck 7 is called a secret because not many people know about it, or realize that it's there. Basically, it's just a small deck on the back of the ship that's somewhat private. There are lounge chairs back there. The way to find it is to go to deck 7 and walk all the way aft...there will be a door that goes outside, which I don't think is marked. Right outside that door is the "secret" deck.

Hey Missy,

I finally made it on here Loving your report and wishing we could turn back the clock and still be there. What did you think of Margaritaville? The slide was a hit with Travis

Hey, Mel! I'm so glad you made it here...especially since you made an appearance in my report!!!

Margaritaville was cool, but very loud and wild. The water slide was pretty cool, but I couldn't figure out why no one was on it. Did Travis go down it??

What a great trip report!

We are leaving on the Magic on the 10/31 Western and reading your posts has been great.

You had Brent as your CD, did he mention what his schedule was for the coming months? I am curious if he will be on board in two weeks.

Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

Thanks, Cliffside!! Not much longer until your cruise! How exciting!!

I don't remember Brent mentioning his upcoming schedule, but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that he'll still be onboard when you get there!! Now I understand why he's so well liked here on the DIS!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Once back onboard, it wasn't long 'til we started feeling a little rumbly in our tummies. It had been quite a while since breakfast, so we decided to head up to Topsider's for some lunch. The buffet selections today were of the Asian variety. This made me a little apprehensive, but we decided to try it anyway. If you can't already tell by now, I'm a pretty picky eater, while Mike likes just about anything. I'm not what you would call a "food connoisseur"...just give me some mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets and I'm happy. There were a variety of things offered on the buffet, so I "sampled" quite a few to see if there was anything worth going back for. While everyone else was able to find something that they liked, I was just the opposite. Not one single thing on my plate was the least bit appetizing to me. That was okay though, cause that just meant more room for dessert! Thankfully the dessert bar still offered the normal stuff--chocolate chip cookies, cakes, pies, etc.

After a pretty blah lunch we headed back to our rooms for a little more R&R before dinner.

We were all ready to go by 5:15. Sorcerer Mickey was out for photos tonight, so I wanted to make sure and have enough time for that before heading back to Animator's Palate.

Now, you may notice something that's different about Mike in this picture--He has on shorts. Now, I may get flamed for this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I know that Disney requests that shorts not be worn at dinner. And while we try to respect the atmosphere of dinner as well as our fellow cruise mates, I personally think that this is kind of silly. When we had planned our outfits for dinner, the only thing Mike could wear were dress pants, which is what he wore the first couple of nights. However, we noticed that SO many people were wearing shorts to dinner--both men and women. There were guys with muscle shirts and gym shorts and girls with cheerleading shorts on. So, if they were being allowed into the dining rooms then why does DCL even bother making a dress code. After seeing what everyone else was wearing, Mike decided that he was going to wear shorts tonight. Again, I may get flamed for this, but oh well. Now, I can see where shorts can be an issue, especially if they are too short, but the same could go for dresses or anything else. Either way, I think Mike looked very nice, and he definitely wasn't out of place with his choice.

The reason I'm even bothering to write about this is because before we had even left for the cruise, and were packing our clothes, Mike asked me if he could wear shorts to dinner. I told him NO-absolutely not since it was requested by Disney that they not be worn. However, once we were onboard and saw what everyone else was wearing, I changed my view. Not to mention that it really wasn't fair for him to not be comfortable. While ladies can get away with lots of other options besides shorts-capris, dresses, skirts, etc...the choices for men are a little more limited in my opinion. So yes, we broke the rules, and Mike wore shorts to dinner. I still think that he looked very nice, regardless. End of topic.

After meeting Sorcerer Mickey, we made our way to the dining room. Even though we'd been there last night, tonight was going to be fun since they were doing the show! I was excited to see this again, and I couldn't wait for Gayle and Brandi to see it as well!!

For my appetizer, tonight I chose the Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist-While it may not look very good, it definitely was!

Mike went with the Ahi Tuna Tartare, and he loved it.

For our soups, we both decided on the Creamy Butternut Squash Soup, which was just so-so.

As we were waiting for dinner, I grabbed a couple "before" shots...

Next came our main course. I had the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast, which was really good except for the bone being in there--I warned you that I'm picky...

While the chicken was pretty good, the vegetables tasted like dirt...seriously! They were pretty gross!
Mike had the Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin...

He let me try a bite, and it was really yummy! My stomach's growling now just from looking at it!!! Mmmmmm!
And lastly, for dessert, I tried the Buckled Warm Apple Crumble-which was good, but could have used a tad bit more sugar and cinnamon.

Mike had the Double Fudge Chocolate Cake, which he really liked.

By then, the change had started to happen, and everything was in color!

And that included Dennis and Abrahim...

Before we were finished with dessert, Sorcerer Mickey made an appearance!!

He was so quick that it was really hard to get a good shot of him!!

Now, before this, we hadn't cruised since 2006, and I don't remember Mickey making an appearance in AP the last night, so I'm wondering this this is something new since then.

Dinner over, we decided to check out Shutters and the shops again. I really wanted to see our pic with Sorcerer Mickey. And even though it turned out pretty good, I still didn't want to spend that money when I had almost the same shot on my camera. After browsing around the shops a little more and realizing that we could have gotten the same rum cakes that were in Grand Cayman for a few cents cheaper in Treasure Ketch, we decided to call it a night. It had been a long day, and we were all pretty pooped.

We got back to the room around 8:30, and just like every other night, found a cute little creature waiting for us.

It wasn't long before we were tucked in an dreaming of our next day in Cozumel!!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I had the same opinion about the Butternut Squash soup, only okay. I sympathize with you, I too am a super picky eater, we would get along well if we ever had to chose a restaurant to eat at together!

 

[bobbidiboo]

Oh Wow, I just came across your TR and have read it from beginning to present and am sooooo.... happy you have given such great details and the pictures are awesome love them all. A question about them, I had thought you couldn't take them of the shows or is it just with out a flash? Did you purchase any of the ones they took, how are the prices if you did? Awesome camera, they all came out great Love the sunset one. Oh so many questions, it sure does sound and look like you had a blast and we can't wait to do the same.

DH and I will be cruising on the Oct. 31st one, and give you a BIG thank you for letting us know how the Western is.

Can't wait to hear more

 

[Jennifer48]

As much as I am a stickler for rules, I have to agree with you on the dress code. It upset me so much on the cruise that people were wearing clothes that you'd wear to the pool/beach and not even try to dress up. At least Mike was dressed decent, no tank tops like I saw.

We actually brought this up to our server and she said they were more like guidelines. I just wish either Disney changed their "rules" or enforced them. Its not fair for those that pack all those dress clothes (like we did) and have people show up to dinner looking like slobs. Sorry, rant over.

Your pic with Sorcerer Mickey came out fine! No need to buy the expensive Disney one.

 

[UGAFan0829]

I had the same opinion about the Butternut Squash soup, only okay. I sympathize with you, I too am a super picky eater, we would get along well if we ever had to chose a restaurant to eat at together!

I'm glad I'm not the only picky one!

Oh Wow, I just came across your TR and have read it from beginning to present and am sooooo.... happy you have given such great details and the pictures are awesome love them all. A question about them, I had thought you couldn't take them of the shows or is it just with out a flash? Did you purchase any of the ones they took, how are the prices if you did? Awesome camera, they all came out great Love the sunset one. Oh so many questions, it sure does sound and look like you had a blast and we can't wait to do the same.

DH and I will be cruising on the Oct. 31st one, and give you a BIG thank you for letting us know how the Western is.

Can't wait to hear more

Hi, bobbidiboo, and thanks for joining my report!! Yes, you are allowed to take pictures during the shows, they just request no flashes. As far as the photos that Shutters took, we only ended up buying a few. The prices are just really expensive in my opinion. We got our embarkation photo and a couple from formal night and that was it. IF I remember correctly, the 6x8's were either $10 or $15, and the 8x10's were $20, which can really add up fast!!

As much as I am a stickler for rules, I have to agree with you on the dress code. It upset me so much on the cruise that people were wearing clothes that you'd wear to the pool/beach and not even try to dress up. At least Mike was dressed decent, no tank tops like I saw.

We actually brought this up to our server and she said they were more like guidelines. I just wish either Disney changed their "rules" or enforced them. Its not fair for those that pack all those dress clothes (like we did) and have people show up to dinner looking like slobs. Sorry, rant over.

Your pic with Sorcerer Mickey came out fine! No need to buy the expensive Disney one.

Hey, Jennifer. I'm glad that someone else feels the same way that I do about the dress codes. Like you, I'm pretty much a stickler for rules, which is why I didn't want Mike to wear shorts to begin with. But, in the end it all worked out. I thought the Sorcerer Mickey pic turned out pretty decent too. You are right about their pics being expensive!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Uuuugh. Sorry y'all...I'd started on another update, and then my computer decided to do something funky. I don't feel to swell this evening, so I'll try and get it re-posted tomorrow. I apologize for not getting updates posted as quickly as I'd like, but things have been pretty busy-especially with trying to keep at my training for the Princess 1/2 in March! Thanks for hanging in there with me!