No Longer the SHORTEST Trip Report Ever....5/27..Pictures too!

[justmestace]

I have typed out a long trip report three times, only to have it disappear into Neverland....so I give up.

Here are the highlights, and if anyone has any questions or wants more detail, please ask.

What we did:

Castaway Cay.....Seahorse Snorkel, Banana Boats, Parasail, snorkel at Serenity Bay & lunch out there

Palo Dinner

Palo Brunch

Costa Maya....private party for 24 with dive & snorkel boats, and a catered lunch that was surprisingly good. Left plenty of time to shop and swim at the port, too.

Cozumel.....private snorkel boat, 3 reefs. Shopping and lunch at Pancho's Backyard...again a really good meal.

Spa.....Free foot and ankle massage as a gift for the "first-ever three-way tie" as contestants on Match Your Mate.
Manicure, that I really enjoyed even though I get my nails done at home every two weeks
Rasul.....sauna awfully darn hot, but loved the salt scrub and all the nice goodies like the oils, lotions, etc.

Galley Tour

Lots and lots of chatting with our DIS friends.

 

[yazee1]

That's definitely the shortest report I've read on line. Sorry about Neverneverland swallowing up the longer reports. I've learned the hard way to save what I'm posting in Wordpad (etc) just in case. It's happened way too many times that I've done just what you've done.

I'm glad you had a great time. I would love it if you would take one more crack at the detailed version. (please, please).

 

[WDWLVR]

Stacey - you are too funny! Come on we want the full version! Please!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Awww, I'm with Mary! I bet it was a good report too. Darn Dis board for eating it up 3 times! *pout*

I wish I'd seen that Match your Mate contest.

 

[justmestace]

Awww, I'm with Mary! I bet it was a good report too. Darn Dis board for eating it up 3 times! *pout*

I wish I'd seen that Match your Mate contest.

I'm told there is a video of it out there somewhere......not sure I want to see it.

Quite frankly, I only remember three of the questions that were asked. Well, maybe FOUR...I do remember Hollywood asking me "Do you need another Margarita? You really LOOK like you need another margarita!"

 

[justmestace]

Okay...fine...since I am awake and can't sleep (where's Maria?) here goes, but fair warning..it's boring:

Traveling along with approx 100 of my best DIS friends are myself (Stacey), my DH Jay, our DD Jordan (16), our DS Jared (almost 13) and DD's 15 yr old friend, Amber.

Friday, May 26th....finally the day we have been waiting over 18 months for! We fly to Orlando for an overnight stay at the Hyatt.

We met up with another family there for dinner (the Ohiomouse family), and joining us was our friend Garry, who was supposed to cruise with us, but had to cancel for health reasons. Great meal, great conversation. I don't know who lost the bet, but it was way less than an hour before CAT LITTER was mentioned!
There was a nasty storm while we were eating, and I was very grateful that we were on the ground and safe. I made the mistake of opening our balcony door, forgetting that we were on the top floor, and had no cover overhead....and got soaked. Garry and I headed to the Radisson for another DIS meet with me looking like a drowned rat.

I was really surprised at the number of our group who were staying at the Radisson...and Mark & Mary had stopped there too, to drop off everyone's name badges and personal DIS navigators. Putting faces to names for the first time, after having shared more than a year of our lives together was indescribable. I wanted so badly to actually talk to everyone....but it was hard to get a chance to do more than say hello, with all of us "Blabbermouths" talking all at once.
It was getting late, and we knew we'd have an early morning and long day on Saturday, but a few of us lingered......

The hardest part of Friday was getting out of the car back at the Hyatt, and walking away from Garry. If I'd had a suitcase large enough, I would have smuggled him onboard.

 

[justmestace]

Saturday morning arrives, and we have no trouble (for once) getting the teens up and moving. The "boys" went to get breakfast, while us girls took more time getting ready.

Met the Ohiomouse family downstairs where our limos arrived, and we were on our way!
Of course, I had to check the Boards from the limo....had to have something to keep me from bouncing off the walls!
There is nothing better than that first glimpse of the Magic in port.

Now that there is online check-in, our check-in at the port was swift and easy. We were given boarding card #1, since we have room 8534, a mid-ship Cat 3.
I had been told that they made a different waiting area for concierge, away from the windows that look at the ship...but it wasn't too bad. At least they have now added a sofa and some tables and chairs, with coloring books and crayons for the little ones.
I left Jay to stand guard over the carry-ons (only because the CM there told me that they couldn't allow any unattended bags) and went to the huge sea of Blabbermouth t-shirts to visit and take pictures. Holy cow! We took up an entire section of the waiting area in the terminal.

Finally, time to board. We stopped for the obligatory photo, and I was glad we did. I'm really pleased with the new background and frame.

The Disney Magic welcomes ......I DO remember hearing this. The girls took off for Parrot Cay, while Jay and Jared and I went to the concierge meet and greet. I'd already taken care of everything we needed online, but wanted to double check things and say hello.
We wandered up to Deck 9 to wait for the rooms to be ready for us, and shared a table with Laura and Dwight. Already, my head was spinning like in the movie The Excorcist.....constantly recognizing DISers. Amanda came through on her promise, and dropped off a bag full of the nectar of the gods....PEPSI! No way could I last a week without it!
I wandered up to Deck 10 to check out the new Dumbotron, and just enjoy the breeze and lack of people. Needed a few minutes for it to sink in that we were finally here.
At about 1:00, the "ropes" were taken down and we were allowed into our rooms. It seems that this is the latest that we've gotten to our rooms....
Of course, I had to "document" the room with pictures from every angle, to be posted on the "Virtual Stateroom Tour" thread later. It seemed as though the living room was much warmer than the bedroom, but I thought it was simply taking time to cool off.

Before I knew it, it was time to head up to Deck 10 for our 3:00 DIS meet. MORE faces that I hadn't seen before!! And, we had the honor of having Mr. Don "Ducky" Williams join us at our DIS meet!

Back down for the lifeboat drill. Gotta love those new life jackets! I still can't see my feet with one on, but it's an improvement over the old ones.
I'm always amazed at the people who can't seem to follow the rules at the drill. I watched as CM's took away several bottles of beer....and then there are the people who talk through the whole thing. Oh, wait.....the chatters might have been us and the family in 8532....good friends who cruised with us on the 10 night Christmas cruise. Oops.

We had decided to enjoy sailaway from Deck 4, where there is shade, and not as crowded. We'd made a banner as a surprise for Garry, who was at Jetty Park, taking pictures and waving as we sailed past with a blazing red and blue banner hanging from the railing that said "WE LOVE YOU GARRY"
Seeing him stand there by himself, getting smaller and smaller, I have to admit that this is the first time that I have ever cried at sailaway.

 

[justmestace]

By the time we got back to our room, the bags had started to arrive. They all came in one group...except one....MINE. Not panicking. Much. The kids started their unpacking, and I started on Jay's. Tick tock tick tock. The girls change clothes so that they can go to the show, and be ready for dinner. I MIGHT have done this, if I'd had any clothes! Still not panicking. Much. How do you lose a large PURPLE bag?? One that just happens to match all the other large PURPLE bags...with my name on them! With about an hour to go til dinner time, the last large PURPLE bag shows up. Whew. I wasn't panicking. Much.

We had the APL rotation....I love the "show" in Animator's on the first night. I was waiting for the rocking that usually accompanies "late" dinner, as the ship crosses through the Gulf Stream....but the seas were as calm as could be.

A bunch of us had decided to head to Rockin' Bar D after dinner to watch Match Your Mate. This is always one of my favorites. Nothing more fun than seeing other people make fools of themselves.
The first fool out there was ME. Trying for a spot as a contestant. I think it was when Jay offered DJ Hollywood money that cinched it for us, though.
We were Couple Number Two.

I have to preface by saying that I'd already had my limit of alcohol at dinner, by enjoying some of our beloved Banfi. But, I caved to peer pressure and ordered a margarita when we got to the bar. When they led us wives "backstage", we were given another drink while we waited. Needless to say, the old saying is definitely true for me....Loose Lips Sink Ships. I'm told there will be a video available. Not one of my more stellar moments.....but those darn questions were JUST TOO HARD!

 

[justmestace]

To be continued............

 

[musicgirl]

Thanks for the report. I know you haven't gotten to the port days, but if you could I have 2 quick questions.

CM-Was it buggy???

Coz.-What snorkel company did you use? We're using Eagle Ray and was just wondering if it was them.

ok, I had 3. How was the snorkeling in Coz?

 

[kikipug]

We're waiting... (where's the foot tapping smiley...)

Not that we weren't THERE to witness the whole thing... just need to hear YOUR take on the whole week- as I'm sure it will be a lot more interesting than mine!!!!!
Every time I look at that darn bicycle picture, I think of Kermit the Frog in the Muppet Movie... thanks a lot (not.)

 

[justmestace]

Thanks for the report. I know you haven't gotten to the port days, but if you could I have 2 quick questions.

CM-Was it buggy???

Coz.-What snorkel company did you use? We're using Eagle Ray and was just wondering if it was them.

ok, I had 3. How was the snorkeling in Coz?

Some people on our excursion in CM did get bug bites. None of us did. I don't know if it's because we use the sunscreen that protects against jellyfish sting (which maybe protects against bugs, too) or if the bugs just don't like us. We use SafeSea, and you can get it online. You can also use Avon's Skin So Soft sunscreen with bug repellant...it works great, and we've "jungle-tested" it.
In Coz, we did use Eagle Ray. Chellie met us at the marina, and she is super! The boat wasn't all freshly painted like it looks on their website, in fact, it was kind of old and scary looking...but it ran great. We were never so far out that we couldn't have swam to shore if need be. Our guide was super at pointing out all kinds of cool things. He even spotted a flying fish down on the bottom of the ocean...something he said was possibly a "once in a lifetime" thing to see. I absolutely would go with them again! We'd used a different company (booked through Shore Trips) in Coz in December, and though it was okay, I'd still book with Eagle Ray next time.
The snorkeling itself was great. The reef is coming back well. Too bad it's taking the beaches so much longer to recover. The only thing we didn't see this time, that we did see in December, were turtles.

The best snorkeling that we had on this trip though, was surprisingly, on the Seahorse Catamaran Snorkel at Castaway Cay. I'd said for years that I thought I'd seen the most colorful fish always in the Bahamas, and this reef confirmed that thought again. I'm definitely doing that when I go in September.

 

[musicgirl]

Thanks so much for the info!! I'm very excited since we are ready to go in a few days here.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I'm loving your trip report so far! Thanks for retyping it for us.

I still can't believe how much we missed- on the same ship at the same time... so close yet so far away. Next time I'm just going to tie a lifeline on you and follow you around everywhere, mkay? LOL

By the time we got back to our room, the bags had started to arrive. They all came in one group...except one....MINE. Not panicking. Much. The kids started their unpacking, and I started on Jay's. Tick tock tick tock. The girls change clothes so that they can go to the show, and be ready for dinner. I MIGHT have done this, if I'd had any clothes! Still not panicking. Much. How do you lose a large PURPLE bag?? One that just happens to match all the other large PURPLE bags...with my name on them! With about an hour to go til dinner time, the last large PURPLE bag shows up. Whew. I wasn't panicking. Much.

That is too funny. The EXACT same thing happened to us! All our luggage showed up -except one- which had all MY clothes in it. Do you think they like to play a joke on the mom of the family or something? LOL
(kidding ofcourse)

 

[Ker-Bear]

I booked this and was wondering what kind of "goodies" were in the room.

I will definitely do my report in Word and cut and paste it to the board. I hate losing my posts!

 

[justmestace]

I booked this and was wondering what kind of "goodies" were in the room.

I will definitely do my report in Word and cut and paste it to the board. I hate losing my posts!

They had the bowl with the sea salt (which I'd love to have at home) and the "mud". There was a basket sitting on a table that had a bottle of body oil, shower gel, shampoo, and quite a few different types of facial "masks" and scrubs. It was all high quality stuff. I was really hoping that they'd say we got to keep what was in the basket ....because, frankly, it seemed kind of creepy to handle the stuff, and then put it back in the basket.....but we didn't get to.

I know that I had read somewhere to bring extra towels from your stateroom (which I didn't do) but there wasn't a need to...there was a stack of 6 towels on the bench in the room.

 

[justmestace]

Sooo...where did I leave off, before WORK rudely interrupted??

Gosh, I'm still on the first night! So much for a SHORT report!!

Anyway, Match Your Mate was just about the most embarrassing thing I've ever set myself up for. Yes, you read that correctly, I seem to have a habit of setting myself up for embarrassment.
I really thought that Jay & I would get all the answers right....but obviously we didn't. In my defense, I kept trying to think of the way HE would answer. I should have just flat-out answered.
So it was a 3-way tie...in that, I think we each only got one answer correct.

By the time we got to Cozumel, and I took advantage of the free foot & ankle massage, I was thinking that it may just have all been worth it. Maybe.

What WAS pretty fun about it, was that from that first night on, DJ Hollywood remembered Jay's name. Every time we saw him, he'd holler out to Jay.
He even called Jay to come do the cha-cha on Castaway Cay. At least I think it was a cha-cha....can't tell for sure when it's Jay doing the dancing.

What I was actually really happy about was that it seemed that Hollywood didn't remember MY name. And for once in my life, I mean it....I'm glad it wasn't ME getting asked to cha-cha!!

 

[justmestace]

So as we're leaving (or was it WEAVING) Rockin' Bar D, I'm thinking that I was really glad that I didn't book the 9:00 am Seahorse Snorkel for Castaway Cay the next day, because I KNEW I'd have a hard time getting up in the morning.

We got to the room and found a note that said that our 1:15 snorkel had been cancelled, and that we had been moved to the 9:00 am. Lovely.

I always spend some time on the verandah at night before bed. It's quiet, and I love the sound of the ocean.
I didn't stay out there very long this night. After Banfi, margaritas and champagne, I found out just exactly how easy it would be for someone to drink too much and fall overboard. I will never again read a story like that and say "Geeze, how stupid can some people BE?".

I ARE one of those stupid people.

 

[justmestace]

Surprisingly, I was awake (although I remember asking someone if they had any Hair of the Dog) and watching as we backed into CC. Just as gorgeous as I'd remembered.

We wandered down to meet for the snorkel, only to find that the boat had engine trouble, and it had been cancelled altogether. I was sooo glad that I'd booked it for our second stop at CC, just in case something like this happened on the first day.

The kids took off for the beach, while Jay and I headed to Serenity Bay. I was still not feeling 100%, and when we got there, there were two chairs and an umbrella, right at the entrance to the beach. I thought for sure they had our names on them....but Jay wanted to go further down the beach. So we walked. And we walked.
By this time, I was beginning to see myself in the cartoons.....crawling through the sandy desert, hoping for an oasis......
The water was RIGHT THERE...so close.....but I trudged along behind my non-drinking husband.......
We came to a spot that I didn't know existed. Just beyond the regular beach area, was a fence....and a little break in the fence had some wooden steps leading into a nice, quiet "private" area with only four lounge chairs and a couple of umbrellas. Perfect!

We got our snorkel gear and made a beeline for the water.

Not a lot of fish, but we saw a ton of sand dollars and conch shells.

We had lunch there, and then headed back to the family beach to find the kids. The kids and I had a reservation for the Banana Boats. We had told them to meet us by the banana boats, but I honestly didn't think they'd be there. They surprised me...they were all there.
Unfortunately, the sea was so calm that day, that the ride was actually a tad boring. We kept bouncing up and down, just to get a little action!

Headed back onto the ship after that. Dinner this night was in Parrot Cay, and was casual. We've always treated the first night in Parrot Cay as "tropical" as the 2nd night is Pirate night. The kids were complaining about wearing the leis that I had brought, telling me that "no one else is going to be wearing them"....
SURPRISE! Half the people in the dining room must have had the same thoughts as I did....lots of people were wearing leis. And it turned out that some of the best pictures that we had taken were from this night, since it's such a relaxed night.
I love the new "frames" that Shutters is putting around the pictures from each of the restaurants.

After dinner, we went into Rockin' Bar D again....can't remember if it was 60's or 70's....60's, I think...seem to remember the Beatles.....
But when we got there, they were still doing some sort of game. I know that we walked in about the time that some men were on the dance floor, wearing women's shoes and bras. Ummm.....is this still the DISNEY Magic????

Didn't stay too long....couldn't bring myself to have another drink......
And decided to actually enjoy some evening time on the verandah, without the fear of falling over!

 

[justmestace]

Monday....Day at Sea....

Only had two things on the agenda for today.

We had brunch at Palo...which I enjoy as much, if not more than, dinner there.
We had a marvelous server, Anne Marie. We were in the private room, and I know that someone at one time had asked if it's true that it gets warm in there because of the windows. Hard for me to say for sure, because I'm hot all the time...but it did seem warm. Luckily, there was an oscillating fan in the corner, that I turned on and set to point right at me! Another one of the gals who's my age, traded places with her husband so that she could sit next to me and the fan, too.
So if you are up there and get warm, just ask your server. There is a fan there somewhere!
The gang at Palo, minus my husband...

Absolutely everything was wonderful. I don't think I could come close to naming a favorite. It was all just too good.
I'd run into Mark and Mary in Shutters that morning, and luckily they thought to ask if we'd thought about getting one of the photographers to come up and take a picture. We asked at Shutters, and they said they were pretty busy, but to have the manager at Palo (PJ) to call them once we were seated, and check for us. They did send up a photographer, and we got a great picture of our group...again, one of the better ones taken of me, at least, because it was much more relaxed than the "formal" posed pictures. That's another reason I really like the new Lifestyles portraits. So much more relaxed.
Anne Marie had a little fun with me after we were done eating. Jay had left when we decided we should take individual pictures (ourselves, not the ship's photographer) of each couple. So I was looking a little sad and lonely......so she brought me a surrogate husband.....Marco! Sigh....if only I were 20 years younger.......

But she wasn't done yet. Next she brought in Tony. And then she brought in one of the chefs...Aldo. What a bunch of good sports those guys are! I can only imagine what she must have told them, to get them to come in there.

I had pre-booked a nail appointment for that afternoon. It always seems that when I'm unpacking, I break a nail, and then I have to beg to be squeezed in for a repair...so I made one ahead of time. And of course, for once I didn't break a nail.
Still...it was nice to just sit there, get my polish changed, have someone massage my hands.....and after such a great brunch, I actually feel asleep sitting there.

Spent some time walking around the ship after that, just kind of soaking it all in....and then I went back to the room and did something that I have never, ever done on a cruise before.....

I took a nap! Normally, I'd be heading to Bingo, or seeing a show, or doing one thing or another...but nope, I took a nap. And it was heavenly. If only we'd had some rougher seas, and the ship had been rocking....that would have made it perfect!

Formal night in Lumiere's. The three teens all managed to get all clean and pretty and still leave time left over for me to get dressed. We didn't have as much time before dinner as I'd wanted. I had wanted to get a formal portrait done with maybe on of the ship backgrounds...but the line was way too long. Instead, we went to the background that they have set up just outside the back door of Lumiere's. Not as many people, and we managed to get a pretty decent picture.
The kids on formal night. Amber (in pink), Jordan and Jared:

Went up to change clothes after dinner, with the intention of heading to the clubs.....but again, that verandah was calling my name........