Oct 19, 2002 UNSTOPPABLE...

[Denine]

Julie: That is one of the problems with WDW these days then food and service are inconsistant. That sucks. Let us k now what happens.

Sandy: That is amazing that Tyler can be so affected by products. Glad you figured it out.

Jazzy is still peeing in his box in the bathroom. He doesn't have basement priveleges yet. He needs to go in his box more and then he can go in the basement for a trial.

Well, so much for no excitement! Jerry came home from work yesterday and the brake line blew. So we are taking it up later to be fixed. In the mean time he wanted to change the brakes because that would put more pressure on the lines and he would find out if the other line also needed to be replaced. Well, he was partway into the job and it happened. He was working on breaking a nut loose and it broke loose all right. He slammed his thumb into a rusty sharp lip under the fender and cut himself pretty badly. So instead of the brakes getting changed, we went to the ER for stitches and a tetanus shot. He got 3 stitches.
This morning Kaleigh wakes up with a headache and a stuffy nose.

I am going out to cut grass when I am done on the co m puter.

Today is our last nice day. It is only supposed to be 72 with over and inch of rain tomorrow and a 60% chance of rain on Thursday and of course Kaleigh has a game Thursday.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Denine - Poor Jerry, ouch. Glad he is okay and managed to come out with some stitches. How is he feeling today? Has Kaleigh been able to play in a game yet?

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I forgot to post my first day of the trip report last night, so here it is:

Day 1 – May 29th

Normally I try and get the earliest flight for Florida since we lose 2 hours but this time we were staying at the Hyatt inside the Orlando Airport so I didn’t feel the need to rush and get on the earliest flight. It was nice to get up at 6:00am and not the usual 4:00am. Our flight was suppose to leave at 10:00am, but it was delayed 45 minutes. Chris was antsy to get to the airport so we ended up leaving early anyway to beat rush hour traffic. We ate breakfast at the airport, 3 of us had Einstein Bagel’s and Amanda had McDonalds.

Here is the spot we hung out at since we were there so early and had a few hours to wait. It was nice as we were able to plug in the DVD players and laptop to entertain the girls.

We arrived at the Orlando airport around 3:30 and was surprised to find a friend of ours waiting for us outside our gate. He works full-time for TSA at the Orlando airport and then part-time for Disney as a boat captain that takes you from MK to Wilderness Lodge. We talked with him through his lunch break and it was nice catching up with him as we haven’t seen him for about 2 years. Said our goodbyes and went to baggage claim to pick up our luggage. Since we had spent a few minutes talking with Eugene, our luggage had already been taken off the carousel and placed in front of the Southwest office. 1,2,3,4 suitcases …… ugh oh, what happened to the 5th one (yes, we TRIED to pack light, it just never happens)? We looked to see which one was missing and it was Chris’s. While he went to put in a claim for the missing suitcase, I started to worry that someone might have picked up the wrong bag since we were late to baggage claim. We then checked in to the Hyatt and they reassured us the bag would be found and they would bring it up to us.

Our room was on the 7th floor and was close to the pool and had a view of the parking garage and a few runways.

We got up to the room and Amanda instantly turned on the TV. We gave her the lecture of DO NOT buy any movies or order anything from the TV. As soon as we were done, she played with the remote and accidentally ordered a $4 30 minute Disney Channel show. So we got to enjoy a nice $4 TV show! 15 minutes later we received a call and the suitcase had been found. Phew, now we can officially start our vacation and start to relax, we were FINALLY here! After the show we went to shop around the airport, take pictures and eat at Chili’s.

Elevators on our floor:

View from the elevators:

Outside our room:

Balcony:

Room:

All of our luggage:

Airport pictures:

After we were done playing around the airport and eating dinner we went back to the room and changed to go swimming. OMG, that pool was freezing. There was no way I was going in. The girls hesitated for a bit and then jumped in.

(Can you tell it is cold!!!!)

Some pictures of the girls playing with my new waterproof camera:

Amanda:

Emily:

After swimming, we took our showers and headed for bed. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day boarding the ship!

 

[Denine]

Heidi: I'll say the water looks cold!

Jerry is feeling fine today. I wouldn't let him go to work though because he wasn't allowed to get the cut wet for 24 hours and there was no way he was going to work without a shower! So, he worked from home. He says the injection area from the tetanus shot hurts more than the thumb.

Kaleigh has played 1 out of 4 games. Soon it will be 1 out of 5.

Sandy: You need to go play on your farm!

Gotta go take Jerry's car up to have the brake line repaired.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Denine, poor Jerry. OUCH!! Ya, I will get on that farm, maybe tomorrow.

Heidi, loving the trip report and pictures. That is not the pool I am remembering. If it is that cold, not sure we will use it for our day room. Sorry but our view was better. I was thinking it was about the same. Don did stay at home as he is going over seas for work soon. Julie was right about who is there with her with one exception. Melinda's mom is there as well.

Julie, let us know what happens with your complaint.

Lots of errands today. I am looking for a lanyard of sorts for Tyler that he can attach to his camera that we bought him for his birthday. His came with a wrist strap and Joey's came with a terrific neck strap that can open at the neck. Any ideas? I even thought about making one but can't find a "clasp". Been to all hobby stores and Mardel's.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Barb, I was thinking about you. I bet you are overwhelmed with phone calls with all the hail we have been having.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Mom - I have a ton of lanyards we got from the Fish Extender presents from this cruise. I will bring them this weekend, it doesn't have a clasp though..he would have to put it around his neck.

Denine - glad Jerry's wound is okay. I refuse to get a tetanus shot, those hurt!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Mom - The castaway club lanyards are velcro at the bottom, would that work?

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I bought a lanyard today just to play around with. I gave him the one off the water camera and it was MUCH too long. Plus his camera is HEAVY, much more than Joey's. BTW, we will have the kids from 3pm on this Friday. Stacey is filling in for Fawn. With Fathers Day meal on Saturday, I bet we have them the majority of Saturday as well.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Heidi, I got out all those lanyards and dad looked at them. Must not be doable??

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I read last night in the Tico Times from Costa Rica that they raised the alert level to the volcano we went to. Out of 4 they raised it to level 3. Today between 4:30 PM and 5PM...two huge PIROPLASTIC eruptions happened at the volcano...this kind of eruption is not that common but happens at least once a year...by the time of the eruption there were about 45 people at Arenal National park...they were removed...and the Park will be close until they find how serious the two eruptions were! I am so thankful that we got to see the volcano. I am not sure if I would have the nerve to go now!!

 

[Denine]

Sandy: Those pesky volcanoes! At least you got to see it when you were there.

I am so bummed today. Jerry got a phone call from the car place. It is going to cost 1,000 to fix the brake lines and fuel lines. Everything is rusted, which Jerry knew. Now we have to dip into the emergency fund that we have been trying so hard to rebuild. My car also needs work, but that will have to wait. We can't afford the monthly payments of a new car, so we have to make due with what we have. UGHHH!!!!!!!!

Raining today, but the chance of rain for tomorrow has decreased.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Denine, welcome to our world when we had little kids. Every repair was a major expense. We couldn't afford a pot to pee in. Excuse my language but it is true. Just want you to know that we have been there, done that, and it is hard and we know that. Sorry for what you are going through.

Tyler has had two bad nights so Stacey called the dietician today. She took him off all starches for now and the Walmart sugar free flavored water. He was doing perfectly until they came him a potato one day and refried beans the next day. Another waiting game......

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Denine - I am sorry you have to pay that much for a repair, yikes. I would cry. Hang in there.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Day 2 – May 30th Embarkation

I didn’t sleep very well during the night because I was use to sharing a king bed with Chris and here we had to share a double. I went to bed laying next to him and woke up with someone else:

Somehow, sometime Amanda ended up crawling into bed with me. lol

We woke up at 7:00 and picked everything up and packed all the suitcases again, and headed for breakfast. The girls and Chris headed for Crispy Creme and I headed for a chicken biscuit at Chick-fil-a. Ya, should have stuck with the family. The Chick-fil-a at the airport is nasty, and for the rest of the trip I referred to it as the fake chick-fil-a. The biscuit was horrible and the chicken was definitely not the chicken I was use to.

We were surprising the girls with a limo ride to the port and they were suppose to pick us up at 8:30. I booked with Tiffany Towncar and their email to me said to meet them at the baggage claim so that is where we headed. I noted on the reservation that we were flying in the night before and were staying at the Hyatt but I didn’t receive further instructions on where to meet them from there so I assumed it was the same. WRONG! We get down to the baggage claim and no one was there. I run to the other baggage claim, still nothing. Get back to Chris and the girls and Chris had called them. Apparently the driver was waiting for us at some secret place below the Hyatt in a “tunnel”. The driver came and found us and we got to walk through this secret tunnel. Now we had the girls believing we were taking a taxi and there were 2 cars parked in the tunnel, one was the limo and the other was a towncar. One of the girls basically had her hand on the towncar door and was proceeding to open the door when the driver opened the trunk to the limo. The girls jaws dropped and were so excited we were taking a limo. We jumped inside the limo and were on our way. The inside of the limo was nice as it had several TV screens that was playing Happy Feet and had a lot of mood lighting and colorful lights on the ceiling.

The ride went by much quicker than I remember! Soon we were pulling over the bridge and I could see the Magic. I pointed it out to the girls and they were in disbelief we were going on that ship. As we got closer they were commenting on how BIG the boat was, I really want to know what they thought we were taking them on! It was too cute. I glanced at my watch and noticed it was only 9:30, the port doesn’t open until 10:00. I was nervous they wouldn’t let us in, but they did and people were still getting off the ship and there was one family a head of us (a disboard family). The ship was cleared and they let us go through security at 9:45, I walked in line and was the second person, yay! There was a sign that said “Check-in begins at 11:00” so I sent Chris and the girls off to explore the terminal.

10:15 comes around and the staff starts checking us in early, yay!!!! I was over-prepared and had everything ready and was the first family officially checked in. I ran over to the supervisor’s desk because I wanted to see how much it was to upgrade. We had originally booked a Cat 12, but with 4 people you are automatically bumped to at least a Cat 11 which is what we were assigned to. I wasn’t sure how we were going to work out the bathroom situation because in cat 11, there isn’t the split bathroom and with 3 girls I was thinking there may be a problem. Talked with a Supervisor and there was a verandah available (Cat 6) for $800. I jumped at it because what other time are we going to be able to do this. For a 7 day cruise, 4 people, and a verandah we had paid a total of $3200. Excellent price I think! I surprised Chris with the news and we were really excited. Our room was 6114, near the AFT elevators which was so convenient.

We met several DISers in the terminal and one was picked to be the Family of the day and got to go on the ship first. Since we were there so early, we got boarding #2 and was on quickly. We skipped the pictures because we never by them anyway and we were announced. One of the great things is being announced I think, but it embarrassed the girl, oh well they will get over it! We headed to Topsiders for lunch. Chris held a table for us while the girls and I went and got food, when we got outside (our tradition is to always eat outside at Topsiders on the first day) there was nasty love bugs all over the place in swarms. Yuck! So we ate inside instead….nasty nasty things! After lunch we walked around the ship, bad Heidi thought she packed the girls swimsuits but somehow didn’t, so we headed towards deck 6 to wait for our room to be ready.

Finally our rooms were ready.

This picture was taken to show how you can move around the TV:

We had gift baskets waiting for the girls from the Perfect Gift, but they ripped into them too fast before I could get any pictures! We met more DISers at the Promenade Lounge and then headed for the wonderful drill.

As we were unpacking, the girls had made plans with some of the other DISers kids to meet at the sailaway party so they went to take off to meet them. Chris and I stopped by the Goofy pool bar to pick up a sailaway drink when the bartender says to Chris, “Where do I know you from?” Chris answered back, “Panama Canal.” Turns out “our bartender” from the Panama Canal was there. His name is Arul, and he said to Chris, “I was making your wife those fancy drinks with Malibu, pineapple and cranberry.” He remembered Chris’s name and my drink, wow, we need to stop! lol He definitely made this cruise very enjoyable for us.

Here is Arul:

Turns out the girls never met up with the other kids, so we all enjoyed the sail-away party together. After the party time for dinner. We had early seating and would be eating at 5:45 and starting at Animators Palate.

We were seated with another family, I was disappointed we weren’t alone but was going to make the best out of it. I tried to talk with the family, but they weren’t very social, so they basically ignored us through the dinners. I had requested our servers be Raphael and Miki but was disappointed to find they were not our wait staff but saw that they were serving tables across the room. Our server was Angelina and assistant server was Jana, and let me say right now they did not disappoint us one bit, they were awesome and I am so thankful we were able to meet them. Shortly after we introduced ourselves to our tablemates and serving team, Emily started to act funny. Emily is our “worrier”, she gets very nervous meeting new people and I think she made herself sick to her stomach by worrying. Chris ended up taking her up to the room and ordering room service for her and then coming back to dinner. I was sad because this was the day they would be doing their “show” in Animators and Emily missed it. Amanda on the other hand LOVED it! Amanda is usually our more adventurous, go with the flow type of person. In hindsight, I think Emily probably should have sat by me and this would have never happened as she is very attached to me when she is uncomfortable. After dinner, we went to the show and Emily was feeling better so she joined us. The girls met up with their friends and adventured off to go swimming, literally 5 minutes later both of them were back at our sides. Turns out they got lost going to our room to put on their swimsuit and it scared them. They went to the mid-elevators instead of Aft so they couldn’t find our room and headed for us since they knew where we were. This episode led to them never leaving our sides! We all headed for bed.

Pictures of our decorated door:

I was hoping this would make it easier for the girls to find our room. lol Thank you again Barb for the decoration you made for our door. The girls loved them and loved decorating our door. (I had to try extremely hard to leave the magnets alone and not rearrange the magnets the way I wanted them, haha!)

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Oh wow, enjoying your report even more. I didn't realize the girls got lost. LOL It is easy to do even with this Grandma!! I didn't know that Emily left the table the first night. That is so sad to miss Animators Palate!

Here is the official article about the volcano. I think it was worse than I thought it was.
The Arenal volcano put on a great show for tourists and locals alike yesterday, with three major eruptions. The eruptions were said to be of "great intensity", as gas, rocks and ashes spewed out of the great colossus.

The eruption was so intense that a group of 50 tourists in the national park has to be evacuated as a preventive measure.

The Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) explained that they have been keeping a close eye on the volcano since 7am when activity increased considerably, including sending off tremors.

"During the last few days there has been some movement, but short ones. Yesterday the volcano spewed out of the side of the national part", said Javier Pacheco of the Ovsicori.

Mario Quirós, head of the park rangers at the Arenal, said that the first eruptions were intense and the following where much calmer.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Day 3 – May 31st Key West

I think I was mostly excited for this port because Chris’s sister, his nieces, and his mom were meeting us down there and the girls didn’t even have a clue they were about to see their cousins who they haven’t seen in a year. Chris was born in Key West and lived there for a few years growing up. I know his mom would love showing all of her grandkids the history of Key West, her home, so I was so thankful they were able to meet us. We started pulling up to Key West around 11:30am and I wanted to get the girls up to Deck 10 to try and spot the family (of course the minute I got cell reception back, I called my mom and sister!). OMG, was it ever hot. The girls were whining that they wanted to go inside and cool down, but I refused (I am such an evil step mom) because I was bound and determined and hopeful they would spot everyone and I wanted to see their reactions.

Pulling into Key West:

Chris zooming in on our camera trying to find them (as the girls had no clue what we were looking for!)

We had pulled up to the dock and we still could not find them. Finally I sent a text message and asked them where they were, and told them were we were standing. Oh wait, there they are…..we spotted them. Yay!

Emily and Amanda saw them too and said, “Oh my gosh is that our cousins, is that Aunt Karen, is that Yaya (Chris’s mom)” “Did you know they were here” and we smile and said “Surprise” and they said, “you said there were no more surprises” and then turned around and started yelling from the ship to their cousins. At that time, they no longer cared about the heat and was ready to get off the ship!

Picture with the old fisherman:

Chris’s sister has a mini van so she took us all over the island. Here was Chris’s seat:

First stop – 5 Brothers for some Cuban food (bojitos):

What do you mean their closed on Sundays? Karen had even called them in advance to make sure they were open and they said Yes, then we drive up to find they were closed. Poor Chris was so disappointed. Boo, so we jumped back in the van and went to the next Cuban restaurant, El Siboney.

El Siboney was a good Cuban restaurant and held many memories for the Murphy family. It was fun to hear all their stories. Too bad I was too busy stuffing my face and didn’t take any pictures. We had a variety of food from Cuban bread, Ropa Vieja, breaded Palomia, black beans and yellow rice, fried plantains. This place was delicious but still not as good as my MIL Cuban cooking! Back when they use to go eat there, the bathrooms were located outside of the restaurant so that is where they told the kids to go to find the bathroom. Morgan (Chris’s niece) came back mortified that she had almost walked into some ladies house to use the restroom. She said a lady walked down and Morgan asked her if anyone is in there, and the lady replied that it was her house. I think we laughed about that for days after!

After lunch, we stopped by the cemetery and saw where the family is buried at. The cemetery is nothing like I have ever soon before. I was fascinated by it.

Supposedly this statue comes to life at night and my MIL has witnessed the angel moving her head.

Family plot where my MIL families were buried:

After the cemetery, we headed towards the Family house were Chris was born and where Fran grew up at. This is her grandparents house.

Fran and her grandkids sitting on the front porch, just like an old picture they took when Chris was an infant:

Then we went on to do the tourist things like Hemmingway’s House, Key Lime Pie, Duvall Street, Mallory square, and Southern most point.
This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. We were trying to get that “perfect family picture” and Karen and I were screaming at everyone, “smile, look forward, say cheese.” Then we saw it. Who knows what camera Brittany and I were smiling at, we are completely turned away and posing for a different camera off in the distance I guess. Then there is Emily reading what it says so she is completely turned around, and Fran looks hot and grumpy.

After all that, it was time for us to say our goodbyes, but not for long as we were spending a few days with them after the cruise, which the girls found out during our Key West visit. Since we had a huge lunch, no one was hungry so we decided to go to the pool and eat upstairs at Plutos and Pinochios. This is when the girls discovered their favorite meal, French fries and ice cream.

We of course went to the show and met up with a DISer family and sat next to them. Emily and Amanda got along great with their DD’s and sat by each other talking and laughing the entire time. The show ended up being the hypnotist’s show which was a blast. The hypnotist had asked for 6 ladies and 6 men and to my surprise, Bruce (the dad we were sitting next to), ran up and sat in one of the chairs. Carolyn (the mom) and I had a great laugh at that and so did the 4 girls. The hypnotist was allowing the audience to participate and as soon as I looked next to me at Chris, I saw he had his eyes closed and the hypnotist asked the people participating in the audience to stand up. Amazingly Chris stood up. The hypnotist said to the people standing that if their feet feel warm to come up and shake his hand, and OMG my husband went up there. The hypnotist shook Chris’s hand and said out loud, “Whoa you are so gone, have a seat” and he sat right next to Bruce. I wish I had my camera but I didn’t want to miss anything and go up to the room and grab it. So there are no pictures. Carolyn did record some parts and she is going to send them to me and I will post when I get it. Carolyn and I were laughing so hard that most of the time she forgot to even record it. It was great. Chris was speaking in different languages, thinking napkins were $100 bills, and the best yet he was Hannah Montana. He was up dancing on stage and knew all the words, it was hilarious. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I kept saying, “this isn’t my husband”. In my opinion, the best show ever! The girls really got a kick out of it too. After all that, he was exhausted and so were we so we headed to bed.

The next day was a day at sea and all we did was play around in the pool so not much to report on and no pictures!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Oh my gosh Heidi. That brought tears to my eyes. I mean seriously I have tears over the Key West day! I wish, oh how I wish, I could have been there for the show that Chris was in! I know me and you know me so have a guess what I would have done?? LOL

 

[wildernessgirl]

Great report so far Heidi!

Today we spent the day at the Pool. We were allowed to go to Storm Along Bay at the Yacht and Beach Club since they were working on our slide. We had a blast! We won a family contest that was name that tune and movie from where it was from. We got 22 out of 23 right!!! We got a Pretty pretty Princess game! LOL!! They girls loved it! We are on our way to Germany to eat dinner and then off to the studios for extra magic hours.

We got to see Bonnie yesterday for a little bit. We got to meet Ryan and Melinda, Olivia and Christian and Melinda's mom. Ryan and Garry looked like they could have pasted for brothers. Melinda and her mom were just how Bonnie has described, not very warm and friendly. Bonnie looked great! AND Very Happy! But of course did anyone think of taking any pictures.... NO! We didn't stay long at the Studios since it was very VERY HOT and crowded and we had dinner planned for Raglan Road at DTD at 4pm so we went over to EPCOT and had a drink at England. then we went over to DTD and ate WAY WAY WAY TOO MUCH but it was so good.

We were planning on going over to EPCOT for the Owner's lockers meet and greet, but the sky started looking VERY VERY Dark so we went back to the room and lucky we did because it POURED!!!! It was the first rain we have seen since we got there. As a matter of fact, the fire trucks were called to Boardwalk because they thought that the front of the Boardwalk entrance got hit by lightening. It was fun to watch from the balcony. The kids had gone down to community hall before the rain started so they spent about an hour in there while it rained cats and dogs playing all sorts of things from the xbox, air hockey, ping pong and colored all sorts of pictures that they hung up in the hall for everyone to see!

Well, gonna go! Have a great evening! Be back later!
TTFN

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Julie, congrats on winning. Great job! Ya, I heard you only had a short time with Bonnie. She was excited that you did meet up. Sorry it was so short! I was talking to her on skype last night and heard about the storm. Good thing all of you were back safely in your rooms! She really looked tired to me. Good thing she is going home tomorrow. Have fun tonight. Extra hours at the Studios....cool You are making me wish we could have more days this Sept to go to WDW. Oh well, our fault. Too many vacations this year. I bet staying on property one night will KILL me!