Mike & Missy's Grand Adventure! 9/5/09 DCL Western & WDW TR w/ pics! Updated 04/19

[UGAFan0829]

The time has finally arrived! Time for what, you might ask! Time for my trip report!!I'm very excited to finally be starting this! Though our marvelous, magical, stupendous trip is done and over with, I think this will help me to re-live all the magical memories that we made. While I can't promise that this report will be as detailed or even as humorous as many here on the DIS, I will give it my best shot, and hopefully that will count for somethin'!

For those of you who haven't read my Pre-TR and would like to see the cast of the trip, you can find that info here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2058198

So here goes nothin'...

 

[UGAFan0829]

Arriving in Port Canaveral, Checking Out the Beach, and Luggage Chaos!​

Since Brandi and Gayle wouldn't be joining us for the WDW half of the trip, we decided to drive seperate cars. (It was probably best since all 4 of us could never have fit into one car along with all our luggage!) So, the plan was for them to meet us at our house at 4:30 a.m. that morning. (We live only a few miles from the interstate, so it only made sense that way.) After finally finishing up our packing at midnight the night before, we finally made it to bed only to be up at 3. By the time Gayle and Brandi made it there, we had all our luggage by the door, ready to go...

After Mike finally got everything loaded in the car and we double-checked the house one last time, we were on the road!

I was pretty happy that we were on the road so close to our planned time!

Since I was driving and it was still dark out, that kinda hampered my plan to try and get some pics of landmarks throughout our drive. Once we got into Atlanta, Mike tried to take a couple, but they didn't turn out so well. It's a good thing there weren't that many cars on the road--as I was trying to tell Mike what I wanted pictures of and then him trying to show me the picture after he took it. Needless to say, my attention wasn't as focused on the road as it should have been. Though I've been to and through Atlanta a zillion times, I still love seeing the skyline, especially at night. So, even though they're terrible quality, I'll still share what pics we did get:

We'd been on the road for a couple of hours when we all started to get a little rumbly in our tumblies! We'd made it to Warner Robins and was looking for a Chick-fil-A. Well we found one, but then realized that it was in a mall. Of course with it being so early in the morning, the mall wasn't open yet. So, instead, we ended up at McD's. It wasn't bad, but it sure wasn't the good ol' chicken biscuit that I was craving! After our short detour, we were back on the road!

We made it to the Flordia Welcome Center and decided that we needed to stretch our legs. It was a good feeling to finally be in Florida! We took our time and has some fresh orange juice while we browsed around all the guide and brochures that they have available there. We picked up a couple of guides for Key West and checked those out before we left. We finally made it back to the car about 30 min. later, and Mike took the wheel this time.

It was about 1:00 when we finally arrived in Port Canaveral to the Country Inn & Suites.

Check-in time wasn't until 4, so we had a few hours to kill.

We were all starving, so we decided to park one car and all ride together to find some lunch. We decided on Chili's, but didn't see one in the area, so we pulled it up on the GPS. Turns out there is one just a few minutes away in Merritt Island, so we made the short trek over there. Sorry, I don't have any pictures from lunch, but it was really good and we were way stuffed!

After lunch, we decided to kill a little time by sightseeing a little. Brandi wanted to go to Ron Jon's later that night, so we found it so that we'd know where to come back to later. By that time, it was pretty close to 4, so we decided to head on back to the hotel to try and check-in.

Continued in next post...

 

[UGAFan0829]

We made our way into the hotel and checked-in. I was pretty impressed with the lobby of the hotel and was excited to see our room.

I don't know why, but this was the only picture that I took inside the hotel, which is very unusual for me. Anyway, the room was nice and clean, and there was room enough for all 4 of us.

After resting in the room for a little while, we decided to head back out. Gayle had some things that she needed from Wal-Mart, so once again we all rode together to make it easier. After Wal-Mart we headed to Steak N' Shake for a shake. We were still so full from lunch that we decided we would skip dinner. After Steak N' Shake we made our way to one of the public beach acccess areas just to check out the beach. Again, for some reason, I didn't even think to take pictures! It was starting to rain while we were there, so we didn't stay very long. Next we decided to check out Ron Jon's. Brandi had been wanting to go there for a while, and I kinda wanted to see what they had too. I have to admit that I was a little disapppointed. The store was huge, but everything was really expensive. I don't think any of us bought anything. Sopping trip over, we decided to finally head back to the hotel. One of the nice things about this hotel is that not only is it so close to the port, but it's close to everything else as well.

Since we didn't take the time to unload our luggage when we first arrived, we had to do it now. Thankfully the hotel had plenty of luggage carts! As we were unloading our luggage at the front of the hotel, Stacy, NYCDVClover2000! She and I had been texting before we arrived back at the hotel and had planned to meet up. She was giving me a hard time because I thought we had a lot of luggage, which turned out to be nothing compared to what she had!! After we took all our bags back up to the room, Mike and I went back down to the lobby to chat with Stacy and her family for a little while. I LOVED talking to her and hearing her New York accent! After we finished our chat, we decided it was time to head up to the room and get ready for the morning.

Since we still hadn't tagged all our luggage with our DCL tags, we figured we should do it now. And this is where the luggage chaos began! For some reason, when our luggage tags arrived in the mail, I took them out and looked at them thinking that we had 4 luggage tags each, which would = 8 pieces of luggage total...WRONG!!! I don't know what I was thinking, but there were only 2 luggage tags each! As you can probably tell from my previous picture, we had a little more than 4 pieces of luggage. So I immediately get on the phone with DCL. I thought surely there would be more luggage tags available if we needed them...WRONG AGAIN! Turns out, they only send you 2 luggage tags a piece because that's all you're allowed! This never even crossed my mind until now, so I panicked a little. We had done well to fit everything in the suitcases that we already had. How in the world did they expect us to only have 2 pieces of luggage each??? Not only that, but they also told us that the carry-ons have to be a certain size, which I totally did not realize either!! A couple weeks prior to our trip, I had bought myself a new Large Duffel bag from Vera Bradley. Now I was afraid to take it in case it was too big!! Yes, I am a worrier, and it probably would have been fine, but I was afraid they wouldn't let me carry it on! So we throw all our suitcases on the bed and totally re-group. Thankfully, Mike worked his magic and we were able to get it down to 4 suitcases and a carry on!

After the fiasco, we finally got everything tagged and ready to go. It was about 11 when we finally hit the hay. I just hoped that the next day wasn't going to start as badly as this one had ended!!! When we checked in, they put us on the list for the first shuttle over to the port, which didn't leave 'til 10:30. I was very nervous that we wouldn't make it onboard in time for me to get a hair appt. for formal night. As tired as I was once we finally got to bed, it took forever to finally go to sleep. There were a million things going through my head! Will I get that appointment? Will everything go smoothly with boarding? There's only one way to find out...

 

[UGAFan0829]

Today was the day that we had waited for, for a very long time!!

We were all up and ready by 8. Gayle and Brandi got ready 1st so that they could head on down to breakfast and give us time and privacy to get ready. We met them downstairs in the breakfast room at about 9:00. Our shuttle didn't leave until 10:30, but the front desk staff asked that we be in the lobby with our luggage by 10:15. We had plenty of time to eat breakfast and enjoy ourselves. As we sat there, I watched everyone and wondered just how many of them would be joining us on the Magic. At about 9:45 or so, we headed back to the room to make sure we had everything packed back up and were ready to go.

We made it down to lobby at about 10, and were the 1st ones there. It didn't take long for lots of others to join us. We eventually moved outside to the front of the hotel to wait for our instructions. There were already shuttles bringing people back to the hotel. As everyone gathered around, our shuttle driver, Duane explained how the process would work. When we checked-in, we were given a pink slip of paper that had our last name and the number of people in our party. We were told to hold onto the paper until all our luggage was loaded and we were seated on the shuttle. Duane asked that we bring our luggage to him, so that he could stack it inside the trailer. (They had a small enclosed trailer that they were pulling behind the shuttle that stored everyone's luggage.) He asked that we take all of our carry-on items with us onto the shuttle. It was only a matter of minutes before we were all loaded and ready to go! He then collected our slips and told us our instructions for the return from port. (They had given us another piece of paper at check-in as well...This one was orange, but had the same info as the first piece of paper. The only difference is that the shuttle driver's cell phone numbers were listed at the bottom, and we were instructed to call them as soon as we were off the ship and ready to be picked up. Worked for me!)
This was the first sign that we saw just before we crossed the bridge:

And it was just a few minutes before we had our first glimpse of the Magic...

Seeing the ship for the first time is soooo exciting!

And I was even more excited that Brandi and Gayle were experiencing DCL for the first time! I had to get a quick shot of them seeing it for the first time...

Just beautiful!!

We arrived at the port around 10:45 or so...To be honest, I was so excited that I really wasn't even paying attention! We all got off the shuttle and waited for our luggage to be unloaded. Between Duane and the porter that was there, they had everything off in just a minute. We tipped both Duane and the porter for all their help and were on our way into the terminal!!

There was a huge line to go through the security screening, but thankfully it didn't take too long. Once we finally made it up the escalators, we found a CM to make sure we had all our paper work together. We also had to sign a health questionnaire bascially asking if we had any flu-like symptoms. After that, Mike and I jumped into the Castaway Club line and Brandi and Gayle went to the regular line. As we got in line, we were handed boarding pass #5! I was a little disappointed, but was surprised that it wasn't a higher number considering the amount of people who were already there. Even though the terminal was already crowded, the check-in process was pretty fast. Once finished with check-in, we headed over and had our picture made which was another quick and painless process. Just as we were leaving the photo area, Gayle and Brandi had just finished with their check-in. I noticed that Captain Mickey was out for photos, and since we'd never seen him in the terminal before, Mike and I headed over to get in line while Gayle and Brandi had their photos done. They were done pretty quickly and then came over to join us in line.

I snapped this shot while waiting...

The details of the terminal are really cool!
I was surprised at how short the line for Mickey was, and it moved pretty quickly.

In just a matter of minutes we had our first official vacation photo!!

After meeting Captain Mickey, we decided to head outside so that we could check out the ship a little closer.

I noticed that Crush had swam up to welcome everyone...

It was a little warm outside, so we decided to head back in and wait until time to board the ship. There was no where to sit, so we found a corner over by the kids-club area to stand. I was standing there with my back turned when I heard someone call my name. I turned around, and it was Mel, also known as aussieinvasion here on the boards!! I was SO excited to finally meet her in person. She was the one who started our cruise chat way back in December of '07. At that time we thought we were going to be the only ones on the ship-boy were we wrong!Between talking here on the boards and chatting through e-mail, we had gotten to know each other, so I was SOOOO excited to finally meet her in person! We chatted with Mel and her family for a few minutes and before long, it was time to board the ship!!!

I couldn't believe that we were finally on the Magic!!!
Continued in next post...

 

[UGAFan0829]

As we were walking into the Atrium to be announced, Mike and I were behind Brandi and Gayle. After they called their names and welcomed them aboard, I just kept walking right behind them. I was so excited to see what they thought of the ship that I just walked off and left Mike standing there. He called out to me, and I turned around to see him laughing. I got so caught up in the moment that I didn't even care that they didn't annonce us. So, I turned around so that we could be "properly" introduced!

Once we were finally onboard, we headed for Parrot Cay for lunch, but then we all decided that we'd rather go up to Topsider's instead. Just before we got on the elevators to go up, it suddenly hit me that I needed to go to the Spa to try and get a hair appointment. I told everyone to go ahead and I would catch up with them later, but they told me they would wait. I took off by myself in hopes that I could find my way to the Spa without getting lost. (I have a TERRIBLE sense of direction and can get lost in a mall!) Mike caught up with me a minute or so later and said he'd go with me in case I got lost...He knows me pretty well!! There was a Spa employee already in the elevator when we got on. She asked if we were headed to the Spa, and we told her yes. She asked what I wanted to make an appointment for, and I told her that I wanted an updo for formal night. She said that she wanted me to have Alex because he was the best, so she led us into the Spa and told the lady at the counter what I wanted. In a matter of seconds she told me that I could come at 3:30 on Monday afternoon, which was formal night! YES! I was SOOO excited and relieved that I was able to get something!

After leaving the Spa, we headed back to where we left Brandi and Gayle and headed up to Topsider's. It was really crowded in there, but we were finally able to find a seat inside. I was stil so excited about everything, so of course I didn't think to take pictures. We finished up at about 1:20 and decided to walk around a few minutes since the rooms weren't ready yet. So we took Gayle and Brandi down to the secret space on deck 7. I snapped a couple pics while we were taking in the view...

At 1:30 on the dot, our rooms were ready! I couldn't wait for Gayle and Brandi to make it to their room to see their surprises. Brandi had ordered the Birthday Stateroom Celebration for Gayle, and Mike and I had ordered the Bon Voyage for the both of them.

Their room was the first that we came to, so we waited at the door while they found their surprises. Both of them were totally excited. We were happy to be able to do something special for them. Here's what the Bon Voyage looked like...

It's kind of hard to see exactly what was in the tray, but it was a selection of Petite Fours and Chocolate Covered Strawberries. It also came with Champagne, but since they don't drink it I chose the Sparkling Cider for them.

Next, we headed over to our room to check out where we'd be spending the week.

Our Castaway Club gift was waiting for us on the bed...

We had verandahs on both our other cruises, but this time we finally had a plexiglass one which wa really nice!

After taking a couple more photos, it was time to head up to the Promenade Lounge for our much awaited DIS meet! I was so excited to finally be meeting everyone. aussieinvasion and her family were already there, and shortly after ibela (Irene) found us as well. The three of us had been chatting for so long, so I was reallty glad to have finally met them both. Mike got a pic of the three of us...

Then it was time for our big group photo...

I was really overwhelmed at the number of DIS'ers on this cruise. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. It was so great meeting all these people face to face!! Everyone was sweet and friendly!

The meet started to dwindle down and I knew we had to go get ready for our Lifeboat drill, so we headed back to the room. We assumed that since we were right next door to Gayle and Brandi that we would be at the same muster station, but we weren't. So we met out in the hall for a quick pic or two before we headed off to our stations.

The drill seemed like it took forever! I think it was mostly because we were outside this time but had been inside on our other cruises. Thankfully it was over fast enough and we headed back to the room.

When we got back, most of our luggage had arrived, so I was able to decorate our doors.

I had planned on making more signs, but I just never got around to it, so those were all that we had--but I thought they were cute enough!

Not long after we'd made it back to the stateroom, it was time to head up for Adventures Away! On our way outside we grabbed a Bon Voyage, my absolute favorite drink ever!!! I think I sucked mine down and everyone else was still sipping on theirs. Those things are SOOO good! Both decks 9 and 10 were really crowded, but we managed to find a spot against the railing facing the stage. First out was our Cruise Director, Brent.

I've seen lots of good things about Brent here on the DIS, so I was really excited that we were cruising with him. Not to mention, he has the coolest accent ever!!
It wasn't long before the characters made their appearances...

The countdown had begun and we were about to sailaway!!! I couldn't believe that this trip that we had planned so long and worked so hard for was finally a reality! I think I teared up a little!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

In the excitement of getting started on my report, I think I left out one small, yet exciting detail...

A few days before the cruise, a couple of people on our meet thread had mentioned that they's logged in to the DCL site and noticed that they'd been upgraded. I never really thought much about it, but after I noticed a few more people mentioning the same thing, I decided that I'd take a peek just to see if we'd been upgraded by some small chance. Honestly, I was happy with what we had booked-A Cat. 6, so an upgrade really didn't matter much to me. So I logged in, and guess what I found...We HAD been upgraded...to a Cat. 4! It was really cool, because Gayle and Brandi were upgraded also. It turns out that before the upgrade we were a few rooms down the hall from one another, but after the upgrade we were right next door! Pretty cool!! We definitely received our fair share of Pixie Dust!!

(By the way, have you noticed a pattern with me just totally forgetting things when I get excited about something!?)

Sorry that I forgot to include this in my report!!

 

[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!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Exploring Key West-Walking, Shopping and More!​

We started off the day with a wake-up call from Mickey at 8:30 sharp. Even though we were still a little tired from the late night before, we were excited about seeing Key West for the first time. Since we didn't have anything booked for the day, we were able to take our time and do things at our leisure, which was really nice. Before we headed to breakfast, we stopped by Guest Services to take care of a couple of things. I had a couple gift cards plus some Disney rewards that I wanted to apply to our account, as well as drop-off my pillow cases that I wanted to have signed. The CM that I spoke to was very sweet. I had 2 pillow cases that I had folded and put into a Ziploc bag along with several different colors of permanent markers. She asked me a few questions about which characters I wanted and if I wanted them to use my markers or theirs. I told her that I would like to have as many characters as I could get, and for them to please use my markers. She wrote my instructions down on a slip of paper and then placed the slip inside the bag. She told me that everything would be left in our room on the last evening.

With everything taken care of at Guest Services, we headed up to Topsider's for breakfast. I apologize for not having any pics of the buffet, but I left my camera in the room!

Full of Mickey waffles and bacon, we headed back to our rooms to get ready to head off the ship. I snapped a couple pics from the verandah before we headed out:

We were off the ship by 12:15 and ready for some exploring by foot. When we first started planning the cruise, we'd thought about renting an electric car, but after reading that parking was scarce, we decided against it. The water near the dock was really pretty and clear.

I snapped a couple shots of the Magic as we walked away:

We really didn't have much of a plan for the day, other than to follow the maps to a couple places that we wanted to go. As we got closer to the shops, we decided to make a stop at the Coach Factory. We had a coupon for 20% off, but none of us were able to find anything that we HAD to have. As we were walking, we spotted this guy standing on the corner.

We noticed a couple people who went up and let him put the snake around them. Ummm...No thanks!!!! As you can tell, we kept our distance!

Gayle and Brandi had picked up some coupons that morning at a shopping excursion that were good for a free pair of pearl earrings. I don't remember the name of the store, but we decided to check it out just for the heck of it. It was a small store, but we walked right in, handed over our coupon and were given our earrings. Here's a picture in case anyone's interested:

I've never owned any pearls, so I have no idea what kind of quality these are, or if they're even real. After the pearl store, we made our way into Diamonds International to pick up another freebie. For $5 you could get a charm bracelet, a charm, and a little card that would allow you to get a free charm from any Diamonds International store in any of the other ports. I have no idea why I spent $5 on this as I know I won't ever wear it again...But again, here's a picture in case anyone else wants to see...
This is the bracelet with the charm for Key West:

And this is the card that would get you the free charms in all the other ports:

It was SO stinkin' hot that day, and I think after just a couple hours of walking, we all regretted not getting that electric car!!
Pretty soon, all the water that we'd been drinking was finding us in need of a restroom. Now, the only reason I'm bothering to tell y'all this is so that anyone who goes to Key West will be more informed than we were. There are no public restrooms in Key West-at least none that we found. We'd noticed that in most of the shops that we'd been in that there were signs reading "Restrooms are for customers only", but never thought anything of it. So we stopped and asked a gentleman at one of the information kiosks, and he told us in a very unfriendly manner that we would need to buy something from a store or restaurant to be able to use their facilities. Okey dokey...guess we had to find something to buy. So we headed into a little store and Gayle bought a bottle of water. Gayle told the lady that she just needed to use the restroom, so the lady handed her a key and told us to walk across the parking lot. Thank goodness we finally found a place!!!

After our restroom adventure, we decided that we'd like to have some of that famous Key Lime Pie that was advertised everywhere. So, we made a stop at one of the Blond Giraffe stores.

Mike and I had just a plain piece of pie, while Gayle and Brandi had the frozen version on a stick.

And in case you're wondering--it really was as good as everyone says!

Our next quest was to see the one place that I wanted to see the most...The Southernmost Point. After leaving the Blond Giraffe, we checked our maps and found that we were still a few blocks away, so we continued south on our journey. Once we finally made it there, we were greeted by a pretty long line. I don't think any of us really wanted to stand out in the sun at this point, but we'd come all that way, so we stuck it out. Of course the family of 14 in front of us had to do every pose imaginable! After about 15 minutes or so, we finally made it!!!

By this time, we were so stinkin' hot and sweaty, so we decided to take a break on the sidewalk for a few minutes. I don't think we really knew what we were getting into by walking! After our break we decided that it was time to head back towards the direction of the ship. On the way, we found the lighthouse that I'd been wanting to see.

I've never been inside a lighthouse before, so we decided to check it out.

We made our way out of the heat an inside the office/gift shop. I really wanted to climb to the top, so Mike and I bought a ticket to go in, while Gayle and Brandi decided to hang out there. We made our way back outside and to the bottom of the lighthouse. It never crossed my mind that I would actually be too scared to climb to the top...but once we got inside and tried climbing those narrow little stairs I chickened out. I'm really afraid of heights anyway, so being able to see down the whole way up was not appealing to me. Not to mention that the stairs were so narrow that it was almost impossible to let anyone pass who was going in the opposite direction. I really wanted to do this, so after letting some people make it all the way to the bottom, I tried going up just a little. Not only were the stairs really narrow, but they were also very shaky and unsteady. I made it up about 25 feet and realized that I didn't want to go any farther!

You can somewhat see the stairs in this picture. I told Mike that I was too afraid and he was fine with it. He knows how freaked out I can get. So he made me climb back up so that he could take a pic and told me that we would fib and tell everyone that we did it anyway!!

I was really disappointed, and looking back now, I wish I would have made myself do it. It wouldn't have been as bad if there had been room to let others pass, but that made me a little uncomfortable--almost afraid that I'd get "stuck"! Mike even told me after the fact that he wasn't too crazy about climbing all those stairs either after he's seen how shaky they looked!

Done with the lightouse, we continued back on our path towards the ship. We spotted this sign along the way:

We stopped in a few more shops, and then finally made our way back to the ships...but not before we got just a couple more photos to help remember our day in Key West...

 

[UGAFan0829]

We finally made it back onboard right around 4. Since we didn't have too long until dinner, we headed straight to our rooms to get ready.
Tonight, dinner was in Lumiere's. I was looking forward to eating here since Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies.
We arrived at our table right on time, and Dennis and Abrahim were ready for us. I loved this light fixture, and thought it was a really neat touch:

To start off our meal, I had the Applewood Smoke Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart-

I love mushrooms and bacon, so this was an easy choice for me. It was really good, too!
Mike had the Duck Confit-

Next, we both chose the same thing for our soup, which was the Tomato and Basil Soup-

It was pretty good, but had a bit of a different taste to it. I couldn't put my finger on what made it different though.
For our main course, I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin-

While Mike had the Lumiere's Seared Sea Bass-

Lastly, for dessert, I decided to go with the Chocolate Mousse:

And Mike had the Lumiere's Sweet Temptations-

I really enjoyed my Mousse-it was quite yummy, and Mike liked his as well.
Dinner seemed to move fairly fast, which made us happy as I was hoping to make it out in time to see the famous Key West sunset.
After Leaving Lumiere's we took a quick stroll up to deck 9 just in time to see the officers steering us away:

I also managed to get a somewhat-sideways shot of one of the Spa Villa rooms:

I would so love to take advantage of these one day when I win the lottery!
We strolled around for a few minutes, and it wasn't long until the sun was setting.

We tried to take a couple of pics with the sunset behind us, but it didn't work out so well. I'll post them anyway--

I have to say-this was one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd ever seen. The pictures really don't do it any justice.

After watching the sun melt away, we decided that we wanted to catch Ricky Kalmon in the Walt Disney Theater. He was part of the "All Aboard" show the night before, and it looked like it would be pretty good. He's actually a hypnotist, and the show was quite funny. I didn't take any pics mainly because we were too enthralled with the show. It was definitely different than anything we'd ever seen before, but it was great by all means. It was pretty hilarious!

Once the show was over, we decided to try and catch a few of the characters in the lobby.

Chip and Dale were really cute! We had a lot of fun with them!

Done with the characters, we decided to head up to Goofy's Galley for more of that yummy ice cream. Once we finished our ice cream, Gayle was itching to try out those comfy chairs on deck 4, so we headed down there for a few minutes. It was so peaceful just sitting there watching the ocean go by. We lounged around there for a little while, but the day had been long and tiring, so we decided to retreat back to our rooms for the evening. Here's what we found waiting on us:

Along with our Navigator was a little reminder to set our clocks back 1 hour...Yeaaaa, and extra hour of sleep!!
We watched TV for a little bit, then hit the hay with the excitement of tomorrow being our first day at sea!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Our 1st Day at Sea and Gettin' Gussied Up!​

Today was one of the days that I was most excited about! It was nice to not have anything planned for the day except relaxing and doing whatever we wanted!!!

We slept in until around 9:30, which was nice!! Normally we don't sleep late on vacation as we don't want to waste any time, but today was a different story!

After taking our time with getting ready, we finally headed up to Topsider's for some breakfast. And this time I actually remembered to take my camera and get some pics!!

I was so excited to finally have a Mickey waffle. Either they only offer them on certain days, or I just somehow missed them on all the other mornings.

Gayle and Brandi had already had breakfast and were at the pool by the time we even made it to breakfast, so we decided to stroll around a bit before meeting them at the Quiet Cove pool.
I love this shot of the back of the ship that I grabbed as we were leaving Topsiders:

As we mosied around, I took a couple pics of the DCL logo in different places...

This one was another one of my favorites from the day:

After our walk around the ship, we headed back to the room and suited up for the pool. Gayle and Brandi were relaxing up on deck 10, so we joined them for a little while. I love being in the sun, but I've never been one to just lay out in it...especially when there's a pool around. So Mike and I went down and enjoyed the nice cool water. Both aussieinvasion and ibela's mom were there, so we had a nice chat with them for a while.

After soaking in the pool for a bit, we went back up to sit with Gayle and Brandi for a while. Between the swimming and sun, we'd gotten a little hungry. Since we were right there, we figured we'd just run down and grab a cheeseburger. It was so nice to be able to walk right up, tell them what you want, and then them hand it to you. After we'd finished our yummy cheeseburgers, we lounged around and chatted with Brandi and Gayle a little more before we packed up and headed back to the room. I had a hair appointment, and I wanted to get back to the room and shower before I went.

Originally, my appointment had been scheduled for 3:15, but I'd gotten a call a couple days before asking if I could come in at 2:45, which was no problem with me. So, I showered and headed up the the salon at 2:30. I checked in right away, but had to wait a few minutes, which I expected since I was a little early. As I was sitting there, a gentleman sat down next to me, and I noticed that he was wearing one of the lime green bracelets that had been given out at our DIS meet. I asked him if he was part of our DIS group, and he said that his wife was. Turns out, he was dibond's hubby! Too neat!! I'm normally a very shy person around people I don't know, but it's so cool how DIS'ers are just so friendly! We chatted for a few more minutes, and before long Alex had called me back. I was a little nervous about having my hair done, yet excited at the same time. I had no idea what I wanted, so Alex asked me to describe my dress to him. I trusted him to do his thing, which is another unusual thing for me. As he was doing my hair and was almost finished, he brought over these chopstick looking things that were black with rhinestones on the end. He asked if I wanted him to use them in my hair, and of course I said yes. Small mistake!!! Once he was finished, I was very impressed. He really did a good job with my hair, and I liked the fact that he left it curly. Then the bill came...As I was signing it, he told me that he forgot to add in the "chopsticks" so he had to go back and add that on as well. Turns out, those chopsticks were almost $30!! Guess I should have asked before I just told him yes! Oh well, I was still happy with my hair regardless, and this was something that I had planned on splurging on from day one, so it really wasn't a big deal. I don't remeber the exact total now, but between the actual upstyle, the chopsticks and the tip, I think my total ended up being $85 or so!

With my hair done, I headed back to the room to start getting ready for dinner. I couldn't wait to show everyone my hair!! Mike really liked it, so that made me feel good. I got Mike to snap a couple shots for me before I got dressed. The back...

And the side:

And the front:

I'm really not trying to be vein by posting all these pics of myself. I just want to pass along as much info as I can. I remember when I was planning for this trip, I had a hard time finding any info or pictures of upstyles. Hopefully this will help someone out!!

Finally dressed and ready to go, we headed out a little early so that we could get some pics of us all gussied up. We came across Minnie first, and even though I was sad that Mickey wasn't with her, I think this one turned out to be the best pic of the night:

We took a few of the professional shots with the ship in the background, but none of those turned out really well, so we didn't buy them. We then headed downstairs to get one in front of Helsman Mickey, which we liked well enough to buy:

With all the photos done with, we made our way to Animator's Palate for our Golden Mickeys dinner. I was really excited to see what was on the menu for the evening.
For our appetizer, I chose the Double Baked Aged Reggiano Parmesan Cheese Souffle:

This was REALLY good. I LOVE cheese, so this was right up my alley!
Mike went with the Carmelized Bay Scallops:

He really enjoyed those as well.
Next up was the Broccoli & Maytag Blue Cheese Soup for both of us:

Now, I like broccoli and I like blue cheese, but I wasn't really sure how they would taste together. I'm happy to say that it was delicious!!
For the main course, I chose the Jumbo Shrimp and Porcini Mushroom Tagliatelle:

While Mike had the Roasted Filet Beef of Wellington:

We both really enjoyed what we picked...Yummy!!
Lastly, for dessert I decided on the Chocolate Cake:

And Mike had the Trio:

My cake was really good, but REALLY sweet!
As we were eating, a photog came by and got this shot of us:

Dinner was so good, that suddenly my dress just didn't fit the same as it did before dinner! If anyone figures it out let me know!!

With us being more done than our dinner, we were ready for the Golden Mickey's, but not before we waddled back to our rooms for a few minutes. We had a sweet little puppy (I think) waiting for us when we returned.

The shoes that I had on were killing my feet, so I decided to change into a pair of dressy flip-flops that I'd brought for semi-formal night....Much better!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Figuring that it was going to be a crowded show, we headed to the theater a little early to try and get a good seat, but it was already filling up!! That's okay because we still managed to get a decent seat. Honestly, though...I don't think there's a bad seat anywhere in the Walt Disney Theater...It's just part of the Disney Magic! I was anxious to see this show since it had been on both the other cruises that we'd taken, but never got to see! Shortly after, the show began!

This turned out to be a fabulous show! I loved how it was themed! Disney really outdid themselves with this one!!

The show was over, and we were pretty tried. There wasn't anything on the Navigator that we were interested in for the rest of the evening, so we decided to head back to the room. The idea of getting to bed early seemed like a good one since we had to be up early for our shore excursion in Grand Cayman tomorrow.

 

[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.

 

[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!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Bargain Shopping and Lost Jeep Parts!​

Today was yet another day that we were all looking forward to. The Magic would be docking in Cozumel, and we’d booked the Jeep Exploration for the day. The morning began around 7. Like most other mornings, the first thing we did was head out to the verandah. Today was also Gayle’s birthday, so as she and Mike were talking on the verandahs, I snuck a birthday card under her door. We took our time getting ready, and like most all other mornings, we made our way to Topsiders for our normal breakfast routine. Since our excursion meet time wasn’t until 10:45, we were able to enjoy the morning.
After breakfast, we headed back to our rooms to check out the view of Cozumel from the verandah. These Carnival ships were already there when we arrived.

All the humidity made it hard to keep my camera lens from fogging, so it was a little bit of a challenge to try and take pictures!

I thought the water in Grand Cayman was pretty, but the water here was gorgeous!!

As we took in the sights, we noticed that they were doing something with one of the lifeboats that was below us.

I imagine that it was just some kind of test that they do on a regular basis.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the verandahs and made sure that we had everything we’d need for our day in Mexico before heading down to Rockin’ Bar D for our meet. After everyone had turned in their signed waivers, we were ready to disembark. We made our way off the boat and on to the pier where we met Memo, who was our tour guide for the day.

Memo then lead us across the street and into the shopping area close to the pier. He introduced himself, and then told us what we would be doing for the day as well as went over some guidelines and rules for the tour.

We then turned the corner and found ourselves in the parking lot where we’d board our Jeep.

Since we were a party of all adults, Memo asked that we be at the tail end of the group. We then found our Jeep and packed ourselves in.

Thankfully, since it was just the 4 of us, Mike was able to do all the driving which was good for us since we were in a stick shift. Finally, everyone was in their Jeeps and ready to go.

Memo lead us out of the lot, and we headed out of town. The first store that we passed was the Cha Cha Cha Market, but I didn’t see anyone dancing! LOL

As we edged closer to the end of town, there was a gentleman who took each Jeep’s picture as we passed him. Once we were finally through all the stores and such, there was nothing but beautiful shoreline and tropical landscaping on each side of the road. I really couldn’t get over just how beautiful the water was. I snapped a ton of pictures along the way!!

It wasn’t long until we were nearing our first stop, El Cedral.

I remember that this is the oldest Mayan settlement, but I don’t remember if it’s the oldest in Mexico, or just in Cozumel. We turned off the main road, and then onto a dirt road that lead to our destination. There were a couple different buildings on the property, and the tour began with Memo giving us a pretty detailed history of everything.

I do remember that one of the buildings was a church, and you could walk inside of it.

The other building was closed off.

Directly across from these buildings were a shop and some restrooms. One thing that I didn’t realize about Mexico is that tips are a big part of their income there. In each restroom that we went in, there was someone there with a tip jar/box. So, if any of you are going to Mexico and plan to use the restroom, make sure to take some tip money.

 

[UGAFan0829]

After leaving El Cedral, we headed back out to the main road, and continued down the coast line. Our next stop, was pretty much just a place on the side of the road. There was a little hut that was a store on the beach side, and restrooms on the other.

The beach here was beautiful, so everyone took the opportunity to take some pics.

After taking some pics, we mosied around in the shop. Brandi really wanted one of the Mexican blankets, so she inquired about the price of theirs. The price started out at $40, which was way more than Brandi wanted to pay. The guy kept trying to make a deal with Brandi, but it still was more than she wanted to pay. So we nicely told them goodbye and walked back to the Jeep to wait for the rest of the group. As I was getting in the car, the guy from the shop came up with the blanket, and told Brandi that he would sell it to her for $10, no less. I guess he really wanted to make that sale. We were all a little surprised that he came after them, and his attitude about it was kinda funny. He had already put it in a bag for her and everything. He told her, “Here, I take $10, no less. You want it, but you are killing me here. I have to make money to live.” Ooooookay. I think Brandi felt like she had to take it at that point, so she handed him the money and took the bag. It was a little strange to say the least. I had heard that they would try and bargain with you, but we didn’t think someone would actually follow us to our vehicle!! We all got a good laugh out of it afterwards!

Back on the road, we continued on in the same direction. The further out we got, the bumpier the roads became. There were parts that were actually a little scary. At one point, we came to a place in the road where it looked as though the road had washed out on the side leaving a really big hole. The Jeep in front of us had met an oncoming car, so all they could do was hit the bump. Right as they did, the back fender flare came flying off. It took us a minute to realize what it was, and by that time it was too late to stop. Not to mention that at times, it was all we could do to keep up with the rest of the group. We wanted to stop and pick it up, but we were too afraid that as soon as we did we’d get lost from the group. Since we had no idea where we were, we figured it was a smart idea to just stick with the group and let someone know once we got to our next stop. It wasn’t long until we came to where we’d be eating lunch. And as soon as we all got out of the Jeeps, Memo came back and was asking everyone how the ride was. The lady from the fenderless Jeep got out, looked at Memo and said, “Oh, that thing fell off”, and pointed to where the fender flare should have been! Memo kinda freaked out at that point and wanted to know where they lost it. They told them about where it was, so as we were heading to get our food he took off to go find the lost fender flare. Seeing how the lady just casually mention the lost part, and then Memo somewhat freaking out was a little funny!

With the excitement of that over, we made our way to lunch. The place where we’d stopped looked to be a small open air restaurant/bar that didn’t seem to do very much business.

They had a buffet all set out for us under a covered patio area that was quite nice. There were several tables and chairs, so there was plenty of room for everyone.

Of course we were right on the beach, so the view was the best part.

We found a table and then made our way over to the line. Some of the offerings that they had were beef, chicken, steak, nacho chips with cheese sauce and salsa. Again, since I’m a pretty picky eater all I had was chips with beef. I normally like cheese sauce, but this stuff looked a little funny, so I declined. It was a decent meal, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. For our drinks, we could chose from Pepsi, 7-Up, and something else that I’d never heard of. As we were eating, there were 2 ladies who were going around offering massages. There were 2 massage tables down on the beach, but we told them no thank you. After everyone was finished with lunch, we also had the opportunity to swim or snorkel if we wanted. They didn’t have any snorkel gear or equipment to rent, so we found some chairs on the beach and enjoyed the views. As we sat there, then guy who had taken our picture at the start of the tour came by with our pictures. It turned out pretty good, and since it was of all 4 of us, we decided to get it.

Not much longer after that, Memo signaled for everyone to make their way back to the Jeeps.

We were back on the road, and headed on around the island. We drove for a quite a while before we made what would be our final stop of the tour-The Pee Pee Station.

This was a neat little station on the side of the road that sells all kinds of knick knacks. We spent a few minutes there before Memo gathered us all around. He then told us that due to timing issues that this would be the last stop of the day. We were supposed to make our way through the town of San Miguel, but we wouldn’t be able to because of time limits. I was a little disappointed, but we’d already seen a lot, and we were all pretty tired by this point, so it was okay.

After leaving the Pee Pee Station, we made our way into town and back to the Jeep lot. We parked and made sure that we had all our belongings before saying goodbye to our Jeep. From the parking lot, we headed back towards the mall that we’d come through that morning. Gayle and Brandi wanted to do some shopping, and we wanted to look around ourselves. We visited several stores, but time was running out on us. Gayle and Brandi still had some things that they were looking for, but we really wanted to get back to the ship so that we’d have plenty of time for dinner. Tonight was Pirate Night, and we didn’t want to be late for dinner. So we headed back to the ship and left them to do their shopping. Getting back to the pier was a little confusing, with the way the mall is configured. I’m glad that Mike had remembered which way we came, because I was definitely turned around! We frantically made our way back to the ship and managed to be onboard by 4:30.

Look at that water...

I had planned to be back way before now, but it didn’t work out that way, so I was definitely stressing about being ready on time. Not to mention we were worried about leaving Gayle and Brandi behind and hoped they made it back in time for dinner as well…especially since it was Gayle’s birthday!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

As we were getting ready for dinner, we heard a knock on our door...Gayle and Brandi had finally made it back to the ship. Boy, were we relieved!

Tonight's dinner was back in Parrot Cay, and of course we'd have the special Pirate themed menu. We mananged to make it to dinner right on time, though we didn't have time for any pictures beforehand, but that was okay. Mike and I felt a little silly after we were seated at our table and realized just how few people that had actually went all out with the costumes like we did. That was okay though, because we did get several compliments!!

Shortly after being seated, Dennis completed our outfits by giving us our pirate hats...

After being "capped", it was time to order our "Pirate fare" for the evening. To start off, I had the Pirates Golden Pot Stickers:

These were pretty darn good, but you'll have to stay tuned for the land portion of the trip to see how they compare to the Pot Stickers at 'Ohana!
Mike chose the Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake:

Next came my Jerk Chicken Salad:

While Mike had the Caribbean Style Conch Chowder:

And for the main course, I decided to go with the Dutchmen's Roasted Dijon-Crusted Sirloin of Beef:

This was quite yummy...the gravy was even better!!
Mike had the Captain Swann's Red Snapper:

He really enjoyed this as well.
Lastly was dessert...Since there was nothing on the menu that looked good to me, I went with the Brownie from the kids menu...

Mike ended up having 2 desserts...as he was ordering, he accidentally told Dennis the wrong thing. But as soon as Dennis heard us talking about it, he brought the one that Mike had really meant to order.
First was the Shiver Me Timbers White Chocolate Cheesecake:

Then came the Walk the Plank Triple Layered Chocolate Gangplank Cake:

As we were being served our dessert, Dennis brough out Gayle's birthday cake. Our Head Server, Zan, came over as well and had a lot of fun with her as you can tell...

He was actually trying to put it on her nose instead of feed it to her like it looks! He decided to be nice about it though...

After dinner, we still had plenty of time before the Pirate Party, so we headed back to the room for a few minutes. Of course, we had more wildlife hanging around when we arrived:

 

[UGAFan0829]

Next up was the Pirate Party, which we'd been looking forward to ever since our first cruise. We missed the party on both our other cruises, so we were anxious to see it for the first time! By the time we made it up to deck 9, there weren't any seats left, but there were lots of places to stand near the stage. We staked out a spot and got ready to paaarrtttaay!!

It was really hard to get decent pics of the characters. I don't know if it was because of where were standing, or because we were moving, but a lot what I took didn't turn out very well. Here's what I did manage to get...

Then came my favorite part...

And before we knew it, the party was over! It was really a lot of fun, and I'm glad we were finally able to take part in the festivities!!

It was around 11:30 as we headed back to our rooms, but we managed to get a couple pics of us all dressed up before the night was over...
Normal pose:

Pirate pose:

I was pretty happy with the way our costumes turned out. For those of you who followed my pre-trippie, you may remember how hard of a time I had actually finding a costume for myself. I found Mike's waaay before the cruise, but didn't find mine until a couple weeks before we left. I thought my honey was way cute in his!!

After we returned to the room, we deadfully set our clocks up one hour. Since we were missing the dessert buffet, we decided to have our own treats and ordered a couple of Mickey bars from room service...

We savored every bite of our bars, and then tucked it for the night. It was hard to believe that we only had 2 nights left on our magical voyage!

 

[UGAFan0829]

Silly Hats and an Anniversary Celebration!​

Today was our 2nd and final day sea. We awoke early enough to get some shots of the sunrise over the ocean.

After enjoying the beautiful deep blue sea from the verandah for a while, we had to get ready for Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast at 8:15. We showered and got ready for the day, then headed up to Parrot Cay. I wasn’t real familiar with this breakfast, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect, or even why they called it an “Island Jam” breakfast.

We took our seats, and the food started coming right away. Abrahim gave us our pick from a basket full of breads and pastries.

Soon after, the characters started making their rounds. First was Dale…

Next was Minnie…

Then came Pluto…

After the first round of character appearances, our food was delivered. Mike and I chose pretty much the same thing…Eggs, Mickey waffles, bacon and hash browns! Yummy! I was so excited to see the Mickey waffles!

As we were eating, Chip decided to have some fun at the table next to us…

Poor thing was trying to place his order, but no one would pay him any attention!!

He then decided to pay us a quick visit where he had fun playing with Brandi’s ponytail…

Next, came our silly hats...at least that’s what I called them.

I had no idea Abrahim was behind me in this one…I felt SO silly…

We couldn’t stop laughing at how silly we all looked, but it was fun!!
Goofy finally decided to pay us a visit…

Then came the Big Cheese himself…

Dennis and Abrahim were a lot of fun, and they really got into the whole liveliness of the morning…

Breakfast turned out to be a lot of fun. As I said, I didn’t know a whole lot about it, or what to expect, so we were pleasantly surprised…especially when all the characters made their appearance. Not to mention, it was nice to have a sit-down breakfast for once!!

 

[UGAFan0829]

After breakfast, we decided to split up for most of the day. Gayle and Brandi were heading to the pool for more sun, while Mike and I decided to explore the ship while we did some much needed laundry. We headed back to the room and gathered what we needed to wash then headed down to the laundry room on deck 7. There were several people waiting for a dryer when we arrived, but we managed to find an open washer. I’d always heard that sea days were the busiest times for doing laundry, and I believe that to be true. Before we left to go back exploring, I took a couple pics of the laundry facilities, just for informational purposes.

I believe that DCL had just recently changed the machines from being coin operated, to being operated by your KTTW card. I have to admit that using the KTTW was a lot easier and more convenient…no more hauling quarters around! As you can see, the vending machine is also KTTW operated as well…so no need for change at all!! We’d picked up a few individual packs of liquid Tide, but totally forgot about getting any fabric softener, so we ended up getting a couple packs from the machine, and it worked fine for us.

While our laundry was running, we mosied around the ship a little more. Since Ariel is my favorite princess, I really wanted to get a pic of the Sebastian light fixture in Parrot Cay. Even though no one was in the restaurant, I was too scared to go in, so Mike ran in and took a quick pic for me…

I took a shot from the door way as well…It was kind of neat seeing the restaurant all empty…

It was then time for our clothes to be finished washing, so we headed back down to the laundry to try and find a dryer. Thankfully there wasn’t a wait this time, so we tossed them in and left.


At 1:00 “Disney Innovations: Animation” was showing in the Buena Vista Theater, so we decided to check it out. It was a 30 minute show that featured clips from the different stages of innovation in Disney’s animated films. Now, I love Disney and it’s history, but I have to admit that this was a pretty boring show. There weren’t many people who showed up for it in the first place, and several ended up leaving before the end. We stayed for the whole thing, but were really glad that it was only 30 minutes!! It did offer a lot of good Disney tidbits and such though!

After the show, we decided that we were a little hungry, so we headed up to Topsider’s for lunch. After lunch, we decided that some of that yummy ice cream from Goofy’s Galley would be the perfect ending to our meal! After our ice cream, we found Gayle and Brandi up on deck 10, and chatted with them for a while before we headed back to the room around 4. I started to get ready for dinner, and Mike headed back down to the laundry to gather our stuff from the dryer.

Tonight was semi-formal night, and we were going back to Lumiere’s. The whole atmosphere and ambiance make this my favorite restaurant out of the 3, so I was happy to be going back again! We skipped any pictures that were going on in the lobby and headed straight to the dining room. To start our meal off, I had the Grilled Vegetables and Beef Prosciutto:

Mike had the Oysters Rockefeller on the Half Shell…

I am in no way a fan of oysters, but he LOVES them, and he said these were very good.
Next, we both had the Wild Forest Mushroom Soup:

My main course was the Fettuccine w/ Parmesan Crusted Chicken:

This was actually pretty good, even with the bone!
Mike decided to have the Sesame Seared Tuna Loin:

It looks totally gross to me, but once again he LOVED it!
Right after we ordered dessert, we were presented with our anniversary cake. We were actually a little puzzled about the timing since our anniversary wasn’t until the next day. But that was okay, we were still happy that they recognized our 10 years of love and happiness!!!

We decided to save our cake for later, so we went ahead and ordered some dessert as well. Again, there was nothing on the menu that I cared for, so I decided to go with a Mickey bar…can’t go wrong there!

Mike had the Amaretto Cheesecake:

Dinner turned out to be really good. We even managed a few bites of our cake, and it was very yummy!!!

As we headed back to the room, we stopped for a couple pics of us in our semi-formal wear.

Before we’d left dinner, we decided that we wanted to finish off the night with a nice soak in the hot tubs at the Quiet Cove Pool. We knew that with tomorrow being our last night, it was probably going to be busy, so we wanted to take the take advantage of some relaxation while we could.

We returned to our room, and once again found a sweet little creature awaiting us.

Before we changed for the hot tub, I took a quick peek over the Navigator for the next day and found that the spa was offering some pretty good deals on treatments for tomorrow morning. I told Mike about them, then we headed off to the Quiet Cove for some relaxing time. It was so nice to just sit there and soak, but the water got hot pretty quickly. As we sat there, we talked about the spa specials that I’d seen listed. I’d never been to the spa before, but really wanted to go. I’ve always been too intimidated and scared. For one, I’ve always thought massages and things like that were for people with lots of money, and Lord knows that doesn’t include me. Secondly, I’m a very modest person, so the though of exposing skin was a little scary to me as well. We soaked for about an hour before we decided that we were ready to head back to the room. Once we got back, Mike told me that he really wanted me to try the spa out, but I was still too scared. Before, I was always able to use the price as an excuse, but these really were good deals that they were offering. I don’t have my Navigator in front of me, but you could choose 3 different treatments for $55 or $60…I can’t remember the exact price. Either way, it wasn’t bad for getting 3 different treatments. So, he finally talked me into it, and he called and made me the appointment for 8:00 the next morning. As soon as he hung up, I regretted letting him talk me into it. I didn’t want to make everyone late getting off the ship, so he worked it out so that he would go with Brandi and Gayle to get breakfast, and then they would go ahead and get off the ship and head over to Serenity Bay and get a spot for all of us. I really hated to ask them to do this, but I didn’t have any excuses left…he’d covered everything. So all that was left was to go to bed and get up and go to my appointment…