My kidless Hawaii trip report!!

[aan1701]

You are so lucky you got to do this. I was going to but the DCL site recommended bug repellent. I am allergic to all of it. It makes me break out. Oh I wish I could have done the Tubing the Ditch. Thanks for the great discription. I was able to at least experance it in my head.

 

[Shell54]

Your latest installment is great. Tubing the Ditch sounds cool. My DH would be all over that and I would probably try it too. What was your favorite excursion of all 4 islands?

 

[socababy]

You are so lucky you got to do this. I was going to but the DCL site recommended bug repellent. I am allergic to all of it. It makes me break out. Oh I wish I could have done the Tubing the Ditch. Thanks for the great discription. I was able to at least experance it in my head.

Do you normally get bit by mosquitos? If not, then I think you'd be okay going without any bug spray. The mosquitos love Sarah. During our hike in Maui, we both put bug spray on and even reapplied it a couple times and she still got a few bites. Then when we walked that night to the shopping district, she got a few more. I don't think she got any additional while tubing.

My plan was to head back to Kauai for spring break next year but it doesn't look like the lace I want to stay is available through my timeshare. So we'll probably be heading back to Maui instead. I know there could be worse problems but I really wanted to take my boys tubing!

 

[socababy]

Your latest installment is great. Tubing the Ditch sounds cool. My DH would be all over that and I would probably try it too. What was your favorite excursion of all 4 islands?

Wow, tough question!! I really appreciated the fact that I was able to do some adventurous excursions. All my other vacations include small kids who can't do those types of things yet. I'd say zip lining and tubing the ditch are my top 2 favs mainly because I had never done something like those before. I think I will even try to zip line on every vacation I take if it is available. I think it is a great way to feel like a kid again. I would, however, recommend all of the excursions we did!

 

[socababy]

Really enjoy the trip report so far. You had mentioned the dining room at dinner was not crowded. How was it overall on the cruise? I know it was not full something I am not use to sailing on DCL. If you were able to find a chair at the quiet cove pool without waiting that probably would be a good sign.

With the exception of the morning in Kauai, the Cove pool loungers were always occupied. Every time I had a spay appt or we would go to the gym, we'd pass by the Cove pool and they were always taken. Some people were in full on winter coats, wrapped in blankets, just lounging away! We really did like the loungers there but we also liked being up on deck 10 Aft. That way it was easy to go down and get something to drink or grab some fruit. There were always loungers and tables available there.

I did not feel the cruise was crowded at all. You definitely could see that there were very few kids on the cruise. My previous cruises were on a Kids Sail Free, Thanksgiving week and then again during spring break where there were easily over 1000 kids. This cruise had around 300 kids and it was noticeable. I can't wait for my kids to experience this low kid number on the Panama Canal cruise in Dec!

 

[socababy]

We had thought about going to the beach that was walking distance from the port but we decided to go shopping instead. Just as we were dropped off at the port, a trolley was heading out. He stopped for us to hop on and he took us the short ride to the shopping area. He told us about some things we might want to purchase and where to find them. One was a wasabi passion fruit mustard. My FIL loves wasabi and puts it on a lot of things so I thought this would be a great thing to bring back for him. Turns out I was right and he has been enjoying it. I can’t remember the name of the store but it is among the stores where the trolley drops you off. We continue walking around and discover they have a Del Sol store here! Del Sol is a store that has items that change color when in the sunlight. I had wanted to get dd some nail polish from here. They had some at the Dole Plantation but not in a color I wanted. So I was happy to find one of their stores. I got dd some nail polish and the boys some key chains. We continue on and come across an ABC store. This store has a ton of souvenir type things. I ended up getting some coconut pancake mix that turned out nt be all that great. The coconut syrup on the other hand, FANTASTIC! They did have the syrup here at ABC as well.

We start walking back to the ship when we see something that we have been looking for our whole time while in Hawaii…fresh coconut juice/water straight from the coconut!! We were beyond giddy!! A lady was selling it out of a food truck and as luck would have it, she only had 2 left (1 normal size and one small one.) They were so nice and refreshing! What a perfect end to our final day in Hawaii!

We walk back to the ship around 4:30 and there is quite a line to go through security to get back on the ship since all aboard was 5:30 today. We decide to sit down on a bench in the terminal to let the line thin out, enjoy our coconut water and make our last phone calls home. I get reassurance that the kids are doing well and I let them know that I won’t be able to call again until Sunday, Mother’s Day. The line does thin out and sadly, we force ourselves to get back onboard. We head back to our room, drop off all of our purchases and go out on the balcony to hopefully watch us set sail before dinner. At just a few minutes before 5:30, 2 large buses pull up to drop off guests. From the sign in the windows, they were on a DCL excursion so I’m sure their arrival was expected. We watch as they start to take apart the ramp where you get on and off the ship. They bring in the hand sanitizer station and the railings are taken off the ramp. It is now 5:50 and all of a sudden a Hertz van pulls up and drops off a couple!! They must have rented a car for the day and were just now getting back. The odd thing is that while the DCL crew seemed rushed to get them onboard, the couple seemed to just casually walk as if they had all the time in the world! I think a few minutes later and they would have been SOL!

We wanted to see us set sail but we are late to dinner so we head to Tritons. Luckily our table was near the side entrance to the restaurant and right outside this entrance is a huge porthole. So we were able to watch us set sail from our table. Beautiful end to a FABULOUS 4 days in Hawaii! Dinner was great once again and we enjoyed talking with the servers and surrounding guests about all the fun things we all did that day. I don’t remember what we had for dinner that night but I do know we had a rocky road sundae for dessert. This is important to note because it was the catalyst of a riot that would begin tomorrow night at dinner, all because of rocky road ice cream. Stay tuned for that!

The show tonight was the comedy and ventriloquism of Ronn Lucas. I can’t remember why we did not go see him. It’s possible we got caught up talking to some people and lost track of time. Easy thing to do on a cruise ship! I do know we made our way to Wavebands after 9:45 to see SpeakerBox. We had been having withdrawals since we hadn’t gone to listen to them in a few days. We had a lot of fun hanging out in Wavebands until after 3am! It was the same group of people hanging out at Wavebands which became a lot of fun. I finally had to call it a night as I had an 8am spa appt in the morning. This was just the start of Sarah and I becoming nocturnal for the last leg of the cruise!

 

[socababy]

Day 10 - At Sea

For the first time this whole trip, I did not wake up early! In fact, I could hardly believe it was 7am when our courtesy wake up call from Mickey rang! I was tired but I was going to get up and get going. We both hopped in the shower (for those thinking together at the same timeà ) and we were dressed and ready to go by the time coffee arrived at 7:30. Boy did we need the coffee! Had a quick cup and I headed to the spa for my 8am Swedish Massage and Sarah went to the gym before her 9:30 hot stones massage. My massage was good but I think I made a mistake telling the therapist that I had hurt my knee days before and to just be careful around that area. I think she was too careful all over. I have had this therapist before and she is really good so I think she was just being cautious. I just like my massages to hurt so good!

My massage is over so I head back to the room and get there just as Sarah is leaving for her appt. I immediately climb into bed to take a short nap. However, I am awakened just 15 minutes later by Sarah returning to the room. Somehow the spa has messed up her appt time and they told her it was tomorrow (Wed) at 9:30 and not today. We have the card that states otherwise and we had a group brunch scheduled for Wed so we know she had the right time. Sarah said the main girl at the counter in the spa was not very nice. They ended up giving her an 8am appt for the next morning. So Sarah follows my lead and climbs in to bed to nap as well.

About an hour later, we hear the blood curling screams of a young girl next door and hear a lot of yelling (he is yelling in some Asian language??) from her father and then we hear a loud smack! We had heard this before on the 1st or 2nd day onboard but just let is slide. Now we are hearing it again and we both agreed that he had slapped her really hard. We debated whether or not we should call Guest Services and then decided if we heard it again, we would call. Such a tough place to be in because how one parents is such a personnel thing. I’m sure not everyone would agree with how I parent. Then we hear her scream again and then another loud smack! At that point I make a decision to call GS and see what they could do. They end up having the head of security go check things out. I think he saw the man and girl head up to BBB for some food. I think this might have been when security talked to the man. We just heard security outside our door at one point and I went to look through the peep hole to see what was going on. I hear security tell the mom that the little girl needed help getting back in the room and then the mom said thank you. Security stands outside my door for a little bit and then knocks. I answer and ask if he talked to them next door and he said yes that he had checked on the girl and that she seemed to be okay. He told me that he told the father that when guests hear loud screams coming from their room that they get concerned and call GS. Security said he hoped that he put some fear into the father and that he wouldn’t do it again (at least not on the cruise!) He said if we heard anything else to please call him. We did not end up hearing anything again but we were just left wondering how many times that had happened when we were not in the room.

At this point we are up so we decide to go get some lunch at PC. I want to say this is the day at PC when they had some fantastic crepes and some really good baklava! We finish just after 1:30. We check our navigator and see that there is a Food and Beverage Q & A in Studio Sea at 2. Since Pierre had become someone we enjoyed talking with on this cruise, we decided to go give him a hard time at the Q & A and maybe kearn a few things too. The place is pretty packed and we take a seat way in the back. While some people had some interesting questions to ask, the rest of the Q & A came off as a ***** fest. I have only completed 4 DCL cruises thus far (small number compared to many on this cruise) with 3 more planned and have dropped a lot of money for these cruises. That being said I would never have complained about what some were complaining about. I won’t say what was said just in case they were DISers but life is too short to complain about such trivial things. After all, we were on a 15 night cruise to Hawaii…no complaints from Sarah or I. Pierre and the other service manager handled themselves well though.

After the ***** fest, we head back to the room to shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight is in AP. We have been having spicy shrimp served to us every night and tonight was no exception. As we are getting our shrimp, we happen to see that Bonieface’s table is getting these massive plates of calamari so we decide to switch or nightly shrimp to calamari for tomorrow night’s dinner. Pierre came by our table and we started asking him the same questions that were asked at the Q & A, not letting him know we were there. (He never saw us there since we sat way in the back.) He caught on pretty quickly even though we kept denying we were there. LOL The whole exchange was hilarious. We then asked him if he could do something about the lack of sun we had had on these sea days because that lack of sun was a huge inconvenience for the guests. He said he would do his sun dance that night in hope of having sun the next day.

Then it comes time for dessert. I have a huge sweet tooth but desserts were not overall appealing most nights. So Sarah and I ask to have rocky road ice cream again. Jorge tells us, straight faced and all, that we can’t have rocky road ice cream because it is “kept in the freezer!” Sarah and I look at each other and just start laughing. So we start to joke with Jorge and say “No way! You keep rocky road ice cream in the freezer??” We continued to give him a hard time and finally I just order a mickey bar. He brings me the mickey bar and I ask him where they keep the mickey bars and his response..”in the freezer.” I can’t help but say “Right next to my rocky road ice cream!!!” By this time we have all the surrounding tables asking for rocky road ice cream for dessert. It was too funny!! Jorge has tried to explain that the rocky road ice cream was in the freezer down a floor and that we could request some for tomorrow. We joke with them and tell them we will be back for dessert at the late seating and that they can go get our rocky road in between early and late dining.

We leave dinner with our sides hurting because we have laughed so much. We decided to go visit our friends at the DVC desk and people watch for a little bit. The show tonight was the music and comedy of John Charles. I had not heard of him before and since we just wanted to sit and relax, we didn’t think about going to the show. We did end up seeing him a couple nights later and now I wish we would have gone and seen him tonight. A very talented and funny guy! Around 9:30 we decide to go back to AP to continue to joke with (harass??) Jorge and Salomie. Our servers had empty tables at the later seating so we just sat down in one of them. Jorge was shocked to see us and Salomie couldn’t quite get through taking her large table’s dessert order without laughing. We learn that they still don’t have rocky road so we leave. We walk through Shutters and run into a couple that sits at a table near us and told them that we went back in looking for the ice cream. Now they want to go back in too. So all 4 of us quietly sneak back to the empty table and when our servers see us, they can hardly continue serving their tables because they are laughing so much. The people at their two tables don’t quite know what to think of us, especially since we are there wanting rocky road ice cream of all things!! We finally leave Salomie and Jorge and we tell them we’ll see them tomorrow with their hands filled with rocky road ice cream.

At this point, Sarah and I head to our usual hangout in Wavebands to listen to Speakerbox. While in Wavebands, Arthur the cocktail server comes up to us at our table and tells us that Pierre would like to buy us a drink due to all the grievances and inconveniences we have suffered thus far during the cruise and that he was appreciative of the fact that we came forth with our grievances. It was so funny and it turns out that Pierre had to tell Arthur the message 4 different times before he understood what to tell us. Pierre has quite a sense of humor! We were up late once again. I think we made it to bed around 3 again. This time though I didn’t have to wake early, only Sarah did!!

 

[ImprovGal]

We finish just after 1:30. We check our navigator and see that there is a Food and Beverage Q & A in Studio Sea at 2. Since Pierre had become someone we enjoyed talking with on this cruise, we decided to go give him a hard time at the Q & A and maybe kearn a few things too. The place is pretty packed and we take a seat way in the back. While some people had some interesting questions to ask, the rest of the Q & A came off as a ***** fest. I have only completed 4 DCL cruises thus far (small number compared to many on this cruise) with 3 more planned and have dropped a lot of money for these cruises. That being said I would never have complained about what some were complaining about. I won’t say what was said just in case they were DISers but life is too short to complain about such trivial things. After all, we were on a 15 night cruise to Hawaii…no complaints from Sarah or I. Pierre and the other service manager handled themselves well though.

I, too, attended the F&B Q&A and I agree with you that it did turn into an airing of the grievances usually reserved for Festivus. However, I'll also take ownership of my own personal kvetching -- that I have to pack my own sambal when I cruise because they've determined that it's a condiment too spicy to serve to guests on request? Sigh.

 

[Shell54]

Loved all of your Hawaii adventures. That was awful though about the guy in the next cabin slapping his daughter around. I would have reported that too. Now I'm interested to hear how the sea days went..that's the part that seems a bit daunting to someone like me that's only been on shorter cruises.I've read in other people's posts/reports that the seas were rough.

 

[Thomaski]

On all the ports the cruise ship landed on in Hawaii, did any have a beach you could simply walk to from the port without an excursion or shuttle?

 

[socababy]

On all the ports the cruise ship landed on in Hawaii, did any have a beach you could simply walk to from the port without an excursion or shuttle?

I am fairly certain that Kauai had a beach within walking distance. I believe the others required a shuttle or taxi.

 

[Sereina]

Enjoying your TR! A two week cruise sounds wonderful. And Hawaii looks beautiful!

I love hearing about all the fun you had with your servers. We had Geffrey on our MR cruise several months ago as well.

 

[socababy]

Day 11 - At Sea

Surprisingly I did not wake up until Mickey called to wake us up at 7:!5. Sarah dragged herself out of bed, showered and got ready to go have her hot stone massage at 8. As much as I would have liked to stay in bed, once I am awake it is really hard for me to fall back asleep. So I lay in bed reading for a little bit and then decide to hop in the shower. When you are so tired, a nice hot shower feels great! The only thing I would change about the shower itself is that I wish it would have more pressure. It was especially difficult for Sarah and all her curly hair. Speaking of hair, the hair dryer in the bathroom sucks! I knew Sarah was bringing her own so I just used hers. As I’m getting ready, Sarah comes back after her massage looking a little green. She says she felt fine when she got up but as soon as her massage began, she started to feel nauseous. I think it was a combination of too much to drink the night before, little sleep and the fact that ship was rocking pretty good that caused her to not feel well. She climbed right back into bed. It was a bummer that she didn’t feel well because she was going to miss our DIS group brunch at Palo!!

Brunch was at 10:30 and was as fantastic as always! We had the private dining room and it was great placing faces with DIS names. I enjoyed talking with everyone about DVC since so many were already members. Like I mentioned earlier, it really is a lot of fun meeting people from all over. After brunch, I head back to the room and discover Sarah still in bed. She wakes up when I come in and she says she is feeling a little better. I suggest she go up to BBB and get something light to eat so that she isn’t sitting with an empty tummy. After she eats, we head to the DVC desk to see if Nick (my guide) had any free time because he said he was going to help me make and print signs for our dinner table. We were going to have Rocky Road or bust! We hang out there for awhile but he is very busy with appointments. So we decide to go to GS to get some blank paper to make our own signs. We head back to the room and just hang out watching tv and reading until it was time for dinner.

Dinner tonight was in PC and it is formal night. It really feels good to dress up when you don’t have the kids with you! I had made 3 different signs (for our servers 3 tables) that all said “Rocky Road! Rocky Road! Rocky Road!” A nice little chant adopted by all 3 tables the night before. I had used double sided tape to tape two papers together and slid them over the table number. Salomie and Jorge thought it was pretty funny. Geffry kept trying to steal ours off our table and then when Pierre came by, he just thought we were crazy!! LOL Half way through dinner, Nick shows up at our table with signs that he had made!! So we add those to out tables and then send him to Table 1 where some other DISers we sitting. They were at the group brunch and I had told them about our desire for rocky road ice cream and they said they wanted to join in too! LOL So Nick adds a sign to their table as well. Dinner was good but the only thing I remember from that night is, of course, dessert!! After our dinner plates are cleared, we see Salomie and another server bring out 2 trays that are filled with ice cream bowls!! Everyone starts to chant “Rocky Road” and start to cheer as they get passed out! Sarah then stands and starts pointing to everyone at the 3 tables and says in her best Oprah voice “You get Rocky Road, and you get Rocky Road, and you get Rocky Road. It was so funny! Maybe it is a “you had to be there” funny, but funny nonetheless! For some reason, we have extra bowls of rocky road so we tell Geffry to bring them to Table 1. They enjoyed their Rocky Road as well!

I think we are one of the last to leave the restaurant again. We head back to the room because Sarah wants to change clothes because the rocky road ice cream has left her cold. Tonight’s show is the Golden Mickeys. It is a good show but we just didn’t feel like seeing it tonight. We went and looked around the shops and let the papparazi take pics of us on the red carpet. I opted to not stand in line earlier in the cruise to get wrist bands for the special Hawaii merchandise they were going to have for sale. I was able to go in tonight and purchase 3 Hawaii pins (2 mickey, 1 Minnie) for my kids with no wait at all. I’m glad I didn’t waste time earlier in the trip. I looked at all the port pins as well but didn’t end up getting any. The price of those suckers add up! We go back up to the room to drop off the pins and then we head to our nightly hangout in Wavebands to watch Speakerbox perform. They had adult Karaoke at 11:15 which is almost always fun to watch. The worst is when someone chooses a song that is not upbeat, has a slow melody and is 10 minutes long. LOL I like listening to someone perform an upbeat song (regardless of how good or bad they sing) than to listen to someone sing a ballad. Sarah and I did not torture anyone in Wavebands with our singing! I think we both would have needed more liquid courage in us to do that! I believe this is the night that we went over to Diversions after Wavebands closed to listen to a friend play the piano. It was another late night and I don’t think we made it back to the room until 3am. We get back to the room and decide to quickly check our email. Sarah made the observation that as we are just getting to bed, her Dh was just getting up to go to work! Yes vacation is a good thing! It’s late and we are tired but the good news is we don’t have to be up early!!

 

[luv2sleep]

Loving this trip report. It seems like such a relaxing vacation.

 

[cquick]

We've never stayed at Animal Kingdom, but we had some DVC points that HAD to be used by Aug. 1, 2012, so we booked 3 nights. One night is concierge at Jambo House and the other 2 nights are at Kidani Village, standard view.

I am excited to try it.

 

[socababy]

Day 12 - At Sea

So I think my lack of sleep is finally starting to catch up to me because I finally sleep in!! I did not get up until after 10 and Sarah didn’t get up until 11. I was slightly bummed that I didn’t wake earlier because they were having a Cheese Seminar at 11 in Studio Sea that I wanted to go to. Even though I was up early enough, I just couldn’t drag my body out of bed to get ready in time. We get up and get ready and head down to BBB for breakfast…well I guess technically it was lunch but since we had just woken up, it seemed like breakfast! I’m glad we got there when we did because it is hard to find a table if you get there 20 - 30 minutes after opening. Each time we were done eating at BBB, we would look for an older man or older woman looking for a table and then wave them over to come sit at ours before someone else grabbed it. We felt so bad seeing them wander around with heavy trays in hand.

After lunch, we headed to the shops to look around once more. I really wanted this nice beach bag that had Hawaii on it but the $40 price tag stopped me. Instead, I got a Hawaii beach towel. We then head back to the room to finally sit down and watch a movie. With 3 small kids, I don’t watch a lot of movies so when we first boarded, I made note of what movies would be playing during our cruise. At the top of my list was The Vow. I believe it started at 3 so I decide to shower before the movie started. I then threw on some sweats and climbed into bed, ready to watch the movie. Movie starts and then next thing I know I am WAKING UP!!! I look at the tv and it is definitely not at the beginning anymore. I look over at Sarah and she is asleep too. I look at the wave phone near the bed and it says 5:32. WHAT!!?? I then get up and check the other wave phone on the desk just to make sure the first one was correct and of course it was. I shout Sarah’s name and tell her we fell asleep and that we are due at dinner in 10 minutes. My hair is still wet so I have to blow dry it and get my make up on and get dressed. We both get dressed and we are out the door at 6:05. Not too bad!!

We practically run into Tritons from the side door and Salomie just laughs at us. I know deep down it wasn’t that late but for anyone who knows me, I HATE to be late to anything. I am always the one at least 10 minutes early to everything. I had to apologize anyway and just tell Salomie and Jorge that us moms are just not use to staying out all night! Salomie tells us that from now on if we are late she will call our room to see if we are awake.

I don’t believe this was the night I am thinking of, but one night while in Triton’s they handed out gold streamers to everyone to wave during the parade. Then Ariel entered and went around to all the tables for photo ops. After she made her way to all the tables, she gathered all the kids (there weren’t many!) and they did a little parade around the restaurant while everyone waved their streamers. It was very cute and I had not seen this done on my 7 night cruises.

After dinner, we head over to Wavebands for the 90’s music Name That Tune. Yes we sucked at the 70’s and 80’s, but we grew up in the 90’s so surely we should do better. Not so much. Some people just know their music with just 1 second of the song being played. We are not that good. I think we had more fun when the song was actually played during answer time since we could sing along! After the answers were revealed, we held our heads up high and walked out. We then walked around for a bit and then sat on deck 4 near the DVC desk and people watched for awhile. At 9:45, we head to Wavebands to listen to SpeakerBox once again. Their set was done at 10:30 so we set off to go to the Walt Disney Theatre to watch the adult variety show of John Charles. At this point in the cruise, we had heard from others about how funny this guy is. We get there just after he started and it was standing room only!! We stand all the way at the back to the left, literally leaning up against the wall because it was hard to stand up straight because the ship was moving pretty good. He was indeed really funny and I know if I am on a cruise with him again, I will get there early to get a seat. At about 11:20, we decide to leave even though John Charles was still performing because my arm was really starting to hurt from leaning up against the wall. We would find out the next day that John Charles performed the longest length of time of any adult variety show in DCL’s history. So if he is on one of your cruises, go see him!!

After we leave, we head back into Wavebands and SpeakerBox is already underway again. We end up hanging out in Wavebands until the wee hours of the morning. After all, we had a good nap!! Before we know it, we are getting back to our room at 4am!! To make matters worse, we are moving the clocks ahead tonight so it is actually 5am!! Yikes!! Sarah and I decided they must pump oxygen into Wavebands to keep you going. Kind of like when you are in Vegas and you have no sense of time!

 

[socababy]

Day 13 - At Sea

With such a late night out last night, we didn’t crawl out of our beds until 11. We wanted to make it to brunch in Tritons so we got up and got ourselves ready quickly and then headed to Tritons. I really wanted to eat breakfast in Tritons because I had been wanting some crispy bacon all cruise long. Unfortunately, the bacon at the buffet is too soft and limp for my liking. So I like to request crispy bacon while it Tritons and I was no disappointed! I believe Sarah and I both had egg white omelets with veggies which were very good!

After brunch, we made our way over to Wavebands to try our luck with TV Tune Trivia. What we learned was that we don’t watch enough tv and that others watch too much. LOL We had fun anyway! We then made our way towards the atrium to watch all the kids participating in the Character Dance party. It’s so great to see the character interaction with the kids, especially given that there were so few kids. It just made me even more excited for my kids to experience this on the PC cruise in December which will probably also have a relatively small amount of kids. After the dance party is over, we just sit and people watch on deck 4 for a short time until it is time to go to the DVC member Celebration taking place in BBB. BBB is packed with DVC members. I think it was mentioned that over half of the cabins on this cruise had DVC members in them. We enjoyed our free cocktail and walked around talking to some people. We just happened to be talking to Pierre when I looked down at my watch and realized it was 4:15! We needed to be in the Cadillac Lounge, which is on the complete opposite side of the ship, at 4:15 for our Mixology Class. So we start running across deck 9 and down to the Cadillac Lounge only to be told that it was moved to Diversions! So we then run to Diversions and hop onto the barstools a bit winded. They hadn’t started yet but remember, I hate to be late to anything!!

I had been wanting to take the Mixology class before but they never offered it on the 7 night MR cruises. So I was excited when I saw that this was offered on this cruise. There ended up just be 6 of us participating. Jesus was running the class and he said that we were going to be the bartenders and one at a time, we would come back behind the counter and 2 different drinks of our choosing. Sarah volunteered to go first. Her first choice was for all of us to do a shot of tequila! I do believe this is where my night started to take a downward turn! More on that later….Her second drink was a margarita. I can’t remember the order of people after Sarah but I do know I made a BBC (bananas, baileys and colada mix) that I ended up spilling all over the place as I was trying to pour it into the glasses! I guess I did not pass the bartender test! When all is said and done, we ended up with drinks made with tequila, rum, bourbon, different liquers, and vodka. I think I drank about 5 drinks (plus the DVC cocktail) and I was starting to not feel all that great. I’m just not use to mixing all those different alcohols, especially in a short hour time span! We just stayed and chatted with those in our group until dinner at 5:45.

Dinner tonight is in AP. We get to our table and the room is spinning. To make matters worse, the restaurant is in black and white with slanted beams and railings at the server stations. I begged Jorge to bring me some bread ASAP since we hadn’t eaten since 12 and that was all we ate today. I did manage to get some bread in me but I really didn’t have any appetite. Salomie told me that I wasn’t allowed to have anymore alcohol today which was totally fine by me. Tonight was also pirate night. We had packed so much already that we decided to not dress up for pirate night. I managed to get some dinner down me and thankfully the room was no longer spinning but my tummy still felt off.

After dinner, we went back to our room to lay down and rest for a few minutes and to check our email. Just before 8 we head down to the Walt Disney Theatre to watch The Disney Wonder Crew Talent Show. There are some very talented crew members! One of the highlights was to see Pierre do the waltz with a cruise guest. Pierre later told us that he walked into Tritons the next night and everyone stood up and gave him a round of applause. He said he was so touched and I think he loved every minute of it!! After the show, most people made their way to deck 9 or 10 for the pirate party. It was too cold for us to go outside and frankly, having seen the pirate party 3 ties before, I had seen it enough. LOL So we just walked around, looked in the shops again, walked around looking at the art work around the ship and sat and people watched for awhile. Before we knew it, it was about 10:45 so we made our way to Wavebands to get ready to watch Krazy Karaoke. After Karaoke, we hung out in Wavebands to just about 1am when we decided to call it a night. Of course it was really like 2am since we were losing yet another hour tonight. Thankfully I ended up holding in all the alcohol I drank but I went to bed still not feeling 100%. So for all you light weight drinkers like myself, be careful if you take the mixology class since it can really knock you on your butt!

 

[luv2sleep]

Mixology class.....check!

 

[CarolAnnC]

Day 13 - At Sea

We just happened to be talking to Pierre when I looked down at my watch and realized it was 4:15! We needed to be in the Cadillac Lounge, which is on the complete opposite side of the ship, at 4:15 for our Mixology Class. So we start running across deck 9 and down to the Cadillac Lounge only to be told that it was moved to Diversions! So we then run to Diversions and hop onto the barstools a bit winded. They hadn’t started yet but remember, I hate to be late to anything!!

I had been wanting to take the Mixology class before but they never offered it on the 7 night MR cruises. So I was excited when I saw that this was offered on this cruise. There ended up just be 6 of us participating. Jesus was running the class and he said that we were going to be the bartenders and one at a time, we would come back behind the counter and 2 different drinks of our choosing. Sarah volunteered to go first. Her first choice was for all of us to do a shot of tequila! I do believe this is where my night started to take a downward turn! More on that later….Her second drink was a margarita. I can’t remember the order of people after Sarah but I do know I made a BBC (bananas, baileys and colada mix) that I ended up spilling all over the place as I was trying to pour it into the glasses! I guess I did not pass the bartender test! When all is said and done, we ended up with drinks made with tequila, rum, bourbon, different liquers, and vodka. I think I drank about 5 drinks (plus the DVC cocktail) and I was starting to not feel all that great. I’m just not use to mixing all those different alcohols, especially in a short hour time span! We just stay and chat with those in our group until dinner at 5:45.

Dinner tonight is in AP. We get to our table and the room is spinning. To make matters worse, the restaurant is in black and white with slanted beams and railings at the server stations. I begged Jorge to bring me some bread ASAP since we hadn’t eaten since 12 and that was all we ate today. I did manage to get some bread in me but I really didn’t have any appetite. Salomie told me that I wasn’t allowed to have anymore alcohol today which was totally fine by me. Tonight was also pirate night. We had packed so much already that we decided to not dress up for pirate night. I managed to get some dinner down me and thankfully the room was no longer spinning but my tummy still felt off.

After dinner, we went back to our room to lay down and rest for a few minutes and to check our email. Just before 8 we head down to the Walt Disney Theatre to watch The Disney Wonder Crew Talent Show. There are some very talented crew members! One of the highlights was to see Pierre do the waltz with a cruise guest. Pierre later told us that he walked into Tritons the next night and everyone stood up and gave him a round of applause. He said he was so touched and I think he loved every minute of it!! After the show, most people made their way to deck 9 or 10 for the pirate party. It was too cold for us to go outside and frankly, having seen the pirate party 3 ties before, I had seen it enough. LOL So we just walked around, looked in the shops again, walked around looking at the art work around the ship and sat and people watched for awhile. Before we knew it, it was about 10:45 so we made our way to Wavebands to get ready to watch Krazy Karaoke. After Karaoke, we hung out in Wavebands to just about 1am when we decided to call it a night. Of course it was really like 2am since we were losing yet another hour tonight. Thankfully I ended up holding in all the alcohol I drank but I went to bed still not feeling 100%. So for all you light weight drinkers like myself, be careful if you take the mixology class since it can really knock you on your butt!

John and I were the two who left the Martini Tasting in the Cadillac Lounge and ended up in the Diversions tasting by default, lol. There were two people who had abandoned their spots and we happened to wander in at the right time and replaced them. Jesus and Russ were so much fun! By the time the evening ended, I contemplated seeking out the Friends of Bill W the next morning...

It was nice to meet you and Sarah though I did not realize you were from the DIS! I am enjoying your trip report..keep them coming!

 

[socababy]

John and I were the two who left the Martini Tasting in the Cadillac Lounge and ended up in the Diversions tasting by default, lol. There were two people who had abandoned their spots and we happened to wander in at the right time and replaced them. Jesus and Russ were so much fun! By the time the evening ended, I contemplated seeking out the Friends of Bill W the next morning...

It was nice to meet you and Sarah though I did not realize you were from the DIS! I am enjoying your trip report..keep them coming!

Hi Carol! Yes you and John took the two ladies' spots. I had at first typed out that story but didn't know if they were on the DIS or not and didn't want to upset anyone. I just didn't get them! You and John were much more fun!

Friends of Bill W....that's funny because that is a running joke with Sarah and I. We drank so much on this cruise considering we hardly ever drink at home since we have kids to watch! Mixology really messed me up and continued to as the days went on.