October 19th Cruisers again and again...

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How come they call it traveling? Does it move around?
 
No, I call it traveling. It's because that is exactly what they do. Buy out the stuff and go around selling it. It is here until Nov.
 
That sounds like fun! I have never heard of it before.

I SOOO wish they would get another Disney store down here!
Now that Park Meadows is closed too I am having serious withdraws!
 

We still have one at our mall. I wonder when it will close. I can't see it staying open too much longer with all the others closing!
 
I made it to work this morning. I am feeling better but still have the darn cough. I may take off at noon today just so I don't push myself too much and let my body heal.
 
Glad you made it to work today but sorry you aren't feeling well. I am sure your coworkers would prefer you going home as well!! Dad HAD to take a class about colds. How fast the germs go after you sneeze, keep 5ft between you and a sickie and other things. CRAZY! Make sure you call the INS CO to get a new card!!!!
 
I ended up finding my insurance card so I can't use that excuse anymore!!!!
 
Saturday, September 15th:
Today is the day we get to go to the port and board the ship. Our driver picked us up at 9:30 so that we could get to the port early. My sister’s family came later decided to come later so they played around the All-Stars Resort because they didn’t want the twins to get bored inside the terminal. We get to the port early (the normal time we usually get there) to be shocked that half the passengers were already waiting to get through security. Who knew they were letting people in so early these days? After a little argument with an old lady, my parents and I (Chris was trying to pull me away because he said my mom was egging me on) we were on our way to get checked in and get our boarding number…….7, what the heck, we never had higher than a 3 before. We met up with some friends we met at the pool last year and all boarded together on 7 which really wasn’t all that bad. We by passed the line for the pictures and we were on our way on to the ship.

The small argument between the old lady was that she cut in line with 6 of her other friends. She got in line with an incomplete party and when she got up to the front of the line she waited to the side until her friends arrived. As soon as her friends arrived they walked up to her, past this huge line of people waiting and then she jumped in front of my dad saying she was in line waiting and her friends just showed up so they all climbed back in line. Karma happened when they were standing in the wrong line to check-in and had to get in another line because they were not US citizens.

Anyway, I changed my Palo reservations got the Rhino Rider excursion for St. Maartin, and headed to Topsiders to eat. We had the earliest dining rotation which wasn’t the greatest. 5:30 was a little too early, but probably perfect for Joey and Tyler. Our Server, Theresa, and Assistant Server, Denis, were great. They did great with Joey and Tyler and all of us. I do think that Denis thinks I have a chocolate milk obsession but that is okay!!! They were a great team. Theresa got off the ship the same time as us, she was pregnant and due in March, her husband was a Head Server on the Magic. We were in Animators Palate for the first night and the show kind of scared Tyler, he was ready to get out of there but when sorcerer Mickey came out, it was a little better for him. We walked around the ship and headed for bed, I think almost every night but once we were all in bed by 10:00!!!

Sunday, September 16th:
Sea Day. Spent most of it at the pool with our pool buddy from last year. I put on sun block but Chris didn’t want to because he wanted to be tan. Guess who ended up getting burn’t and stayed out of the sun for the rest of the trip?....Maybe he will listen to me someday!! Tonight was Formal night and I was afraid my dress and Chris’s suit would not be back in time, but they made it!!! It was fun to see the twins all dressed up. We took pictures and had a nice dinner, then went to bed. Shopping wasn’t all that great on the ship because most of what they had was transatlantic stuff since they just got back from the Med.

Monday, September 17th:
Another Sea Day….again spent most of the time at the pool. Went to the Mickey pool to play with Joey and Tyler and then back to the adult pool when the kids were done. Chris stayed mostly in the shade and read his book by Cove Café in the comfy chairs. My sister and Rich went to Palo this night so we had the kids to ourselves at dinner.

Tuesday, September 18th
St. Maartin day. Our excursion for today was the Rhino Rider, wasn’t too sure what we would be in for. We took a bus ride to a harbor on the Dutch side where they consider it to be “safe” from hurricanes. The bus driver said that most people will bring there boat over there when threats of hurricanes come through. We see the Rhino Rider, it basically looks like a 2 person boat/jet ski. You straddle it like a jet ski but the outside is an inflatable boat that goes really really fast. When we get out of the bay in to the ocean they let us go wherever we wanted and as fast as we wanted. Chris kept up with the tour guide leader and we actually got some major air as the engine of the boat completely lifted out of the water. They took us through the Dutch side up to the French side to show us some naked people on the beach!!! This was the beach that we could hang out at or go snorkeling. Not much snorkeling, but we did see a few fish. Chris carved, “I love Heidi” on a rock in the algae. It was time to swim back to the Rhino rider, now when I get back I am treading water in the ocean looking up at the Rhino Rider and thinking there is no possible way I can get back into that thing. The guide comes over, tells me to put my arms down at my side and completely lifts me out of the water and into the boat. It was so easy and he seemed to do it effortless. When we get back on to the Rhino Rider we realize we are on the wrong boat (I am never listening to Chris again!!!) so we hopped over to the next boat which was ours and they provided some waters and cokes to us. We zip back to the place, having a blast.

After our excursion, we went back to the ship, got cleaned up and went back out to do some shopping for some souvenirs. Chris found a T-shirt at the Rhino Rider place so it was shopping for me. They had a great prices on Malibu rum so I bought a bottle. It started to rain so we took cover in a shop that was a liquor/jewellery shop. I bought my Malibu and then waiting for the rain to pass started looking at rings. I wanted to get a small ring for the girls so that I can give that to them when we get married. It is absolutely impossible to find two of the same rings in St. Maarten. They brought out a pair of earings and said they could make them into two rings for us, but unfortunately it was going to take them too long and the ship was going to leave before they could get this done. While shopping for the girls I found a beautiful ring that I wanted. I had never purchased something more than a T-Shirt or a shot glass, but somehow Chris convinced us into buying it for me!! It is a blue diamond, I love it!!! I think we did a good job of getting the price down, but we want to get it appraised to see how well we did.
Dinner theme was Pirate Night so we all dressed up in our Pirate Gear and celebrated in style.
 
Tyler not so sure about Animators Palate:
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Mom and Dad on Rhino Rider:
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Chris snorkeling:
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Mom and Dad swimming:
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Grandma and the kids:
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Grandma teaching Tyler good table manners:
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Tyler loved the shows:
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Our dining team on Semi-Formal night:
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Tyler on Semi Formal night:
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Deck 4: (Tyler pretending to sleep on the bench)
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Wednesday, September 19th:
St. Thomas day. We booked another excursion for this port, this time we booked a catamaran/snorkel trip at Buck Island. Of course we had the dreaded early wake up call early in the morning so that we could meet at the Walt Disney theatre and clear customs. It was early but not too bad and went extremely fast. We ate breakfast then headed to meet for our excursion. We boarded the 65 ft catamaran and headed towards the net. Last year Chris and I had so much fun sitting on the net so I knew this was the place to head for. Unfortunately on this one we were not able to sit on the net, but it was still fun as we had a clear view as we sailed off to Buck Island. They passed out water, snorkel gear, and life jackets and taught everyone hoe to snorkel. An hour later we made it to Buck Island which is where we would be snorkeling through shipwrecks. This place is in a National Park so they were very careful about what you could and couldn’t do. We saw a lot of fish and the shipwrecks were so cool to look at. Thankfully no jelly fish like last year so I could relax!! They explained a lot of things and my dad held a baby sea urchin, I wasn’t that brave…I know what those things look like grown!!! I could have snorkeled there longer, it was so beautiful. Back on the ship and heading back they handed out Rum punch. My mom swore there wasn’t any rum in the punch so we kept letting them refill our glass. Stupid us, drinking rum punch in the sun for an hour means getting up will be a lot of fun. As soon as we got up to get off the boat, the rum punch hit us. My mom and I were giggling like little kids. I couldn’t stop laughing at my mom and she couldn’t stop laughing at me. Many many memories later (like me not able to get out of the bathroom) we decided to go shopping. I had to buy my mom a shirt just so every time she wears it we remember that time. We picked up a tank top for me, t-shirt for Chris, souvenirs for the girls and more sunblock as I had underestimated how much we needed. I am sure the store owners were glad when we left. Somehow we made it back to the ship in time.

This is the night that Chris and I went to Palo. I LOVE Palo and will never pass up there calamari. I had the best pasta dinner ever and I think Chris wished he ordered the same. They also now offer pizza’s which I took advantage of and had the Margarita pizza which was so good. Next time I am going to get about 5 serving of calamari for myself!!! Our waiter was Sasha and he was excellent.

Thursday, September 20th:
Day at sea. See above….spent time at pool, playing with babies at the pool, etc. Today was Semi-Formal night. Tyler fell asleep at the table, the poor guy was exhausted. I think this was the day that Joey started to get sick.

Friday, September 21st:
Yay, we made it to Castaway Cay. Chris and I were eating breakfast outside at Topsiders when we got a warning that rain was coming in 3-5 minutes. We thought, ugh-oh as we were fast approaching CC. It just sprinkled, not really rained. When we got to the adult beach, we walked in the ocean and it was up to our knees so we decided to catch the tram back and check out the new Bahamian Merchandise stores (new to us, not sure if this has always been there) and find my sister’s family to see if they made it to the beach. We found them near the edge playing in the water and joined them. We had fun playing in the deeper water. We ate lunch at cookies which was nasty and I am still not impressed and then my sister and her family went back to the ship while we went to play in the ocean. We swam for awhile and then my dad and Chris went snorkeling while my mom and I got floats. I love CC, it is usually the best time of the entire cruise. My mom and I lounged on the floats, floating all around and having a good time. Once the guys got back from snorkeling we decided to pack up, go shopping and head for the boat. We had already packed the night before so we didn’t have to rush back to the ship or rush back from dinner. Had dinner and said goodbye to our dining team. Lots of hugs, exchanging emails, they were wonderful.

Saturday, September 22nd:
Had to get up and realize we were back at the Port (blah). Went to Topsiders for breakfast, met up with Stacey and the family which we were trying to avoid (didn’t want to say goodbye, too many tears) but we ate together. Joey made it a little harder when we left because she was with grandma and didn’t want to go to Stacey so she was crying which in turn made my mom tear up and then me, my sister left stating she wasn’t going to look at us (because she didn’t want to cry!!)….our poor guys putting up with these emotional girls!!! Amazingly enough they opened up the ship early and we got off at like 7:15…no waiting in the lobby which was nice.

Picked up a rental car and Avis and headed to Downtown Disney. I was so excited to see they had popcorn so my mom and dad treated us!!! We did our shopping there, had the traditional lunch at McDonalds and then headed off to the Premier Outlet store to go the Character Premiere (WDW outlet store). Found a few things and then headed to the airport.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I so enjoyed traveling with all of my family and being able to experience the stuff with Joey and Tyler. The weather was great. Our room was terrific and of course I have the Eastern Panama Canal cruise booked for next year and I have a dummy date to be moved to 2009 to go on a 4 day with the girls and Chris’s family. I am glad Chris got bit by the cruising bug so I can continue with my addiction!!!
 
I think I have FINALLY figured out how to post pictures. I will probably forget tomorrow though.

I made this "Count Down to Disney" board for Ethan.

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By the way Heidi. That one picture of me holding Joey looks like I was going to punch her. How funny!
 
I forgot to add that it looks like we won't be going to the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana is booked for when we want to go. The airfare there is 700.00 per person.....not bad. They have another resort at Puerto Plata and the airfare there is 1300.00 per person and that is the cheapest. Just not going to happen. I think we will book the free trip to Playa Del Carmen again and stay in a different resort. I am really, really excited about the change. One would think that I would be disappointed but I am not. One of the guys we made friends with down there was promoted and works at the resort and will be our concierge. He is from Greeley. I can't wait to get back there.
 
Heidi-Great pictures! Sorry I didn't say something before but I spent a lot of time this morning trying to figure out how to post pictures for another board and was SOOOO excited to finally figure it out. Had to try again on this board not that any of you care about my count down to Disney board.
 
Heidi: Great trip report. Palo has always had the pizzas though. We get one every time. You are all party poopers! In bed my 10 PM! We don't get to bed until after midnight when we pick Kaleigh up from the clubs. Loved the pictures.

Barb: Great poster! You are now 1 up on me as I still don't know how to post pictures.

Doctors appointments went fine. Poor Kaleigh got 3 shots; polio, MMR, DTP. The party that evening was fun. The products sounded nice, but I love my Steiner products. They have done wonders for my face. The consultant did give me samples to try. I will use them for a week then she will call me.

Yesterday we went down to Amish with Jerry's mom. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and mid-seventies.

This morning was church and Kaleigh's first day of Sunday school. Luckily she loved it.

Jerry is out cutting grass and Kaleigh is playing.

My toe still hurts, but it is getting better.

We will be on the Magic in 2 weeks.

Julie, I need you alcohol list!
 
Barb - I can't see the picture...I really want to see the countdown board. It must be my computer and some program. What place did you use to upload your photos too?
 
Denine - yep we were party poopers and it felt so nice!!!! All the other cruises I have been on I was in bed by 1:00am, but it was so nice to eat dinner and not rush to any of the shows and walk around and head to bed!!! This was the most relaxed cruise I have ever taken. Can't wait till the Panama Canal cruise to do the same!!!

I am still fighting this darn cold and to top it off I have a migraine this morning that has me sick to my stomach. I don't want to take any more sick days so I am just dealing with it.

This weekend was fun. Saturday we took the girls miniature golfing and Sunday we took my mom and dad out for Brunch for their birthdays. My mom's birthday was yesterday and my dad's birthday is tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!
 
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