Our first DVC Cruise: SSMC09

[Donald is #1]

Background:
I have been a DVC member since May '07 and have loved every minute of my membership. Well about last September, I found a thread or 2 of people discussing whether they were going to go on the 2009 DVC Member cruise. Well after reading about it and I decided that I wanted to go on the 2009 version. I spoke with both of my sisters and one of them decided that they would like to come also.

Booking the cruise:
For people not familar with the DVC member cruise, once a year, DVC charters one of the DCL ships for a 4 night cruise that is only available to DVC members and their guests. During this cruise, DVC brings on special guests and these guests provide special activities for the cruise. Unlike other DCL cruises, this cruise traditionally sells out in 1 day and must be booked through DVC Member Services. So on the opening day of reservations, everyone waits until 9 AM and then starts trying to call. It ended up taking me about 3 hours of trying to get through on the phone and then over an hour on hold before I was able to get through. Finally I was booked on the cruise! I was able to book a room with a balconny on the 7th deck. Yay!

About us: Well I suppose that I should introduce us.

In the above picture, I am in the middle and DSis#1 is on the right.
Me: Donald is #1 -> DVC Member, loves WDW, has been on 1 previous DCL cruise
DSis#1 -> Has been to WDW twice and has been on 1 previous DCL cruise. She is not as big of a Disney fan as myself or DSis#2, but decided to join me on this trip.


Previous Cruise Experience:
Both DSis#1 and I went on a 7 day Western Carribean DCL cruise back in 2004 with her son. We had a great time, but have not been on a cruise since.

Cruise Itinerary:
The DVC cruise has a special itinerary. It spends 2 days at Castaway Cay plus 1 day at sea.


The Planning:
Since we have been on the cruise previously, we are Castaway Club members and we were able to book Palos at 90 days. So as soon as the 90 day window opened, I was able to book at dinner at Palos for us:

Originally we had planned to fly down, but I have always wanted to try driving down. So we decided to drive for this trip. I cancelled our airfare and it was time to get started planning. Since we were driving, we decided to stop in St Augustine on the way down and spend a day there and in Savannah on the way back. Neither of us had been to St. Augustine before and I had been to Savannah once for a workshop but didn't get to see much.

The entire year leading up to the cruise was a lot of fun for me because I spent the entire time on the SSMC09 thread & through Facebook getting to know many of my fellow cruisers. This was an awesome way to get ready for the cruise!

From the thread, I signed us up for linked dining and also to be part of the Fish Extender group.

Our plan:
Day 1: Leave NH & CT, drive down to South Carolina
Day 2: Drive from South Carolina to St Augustine
Day 3: Spend the day in St Augustine
Day 4: Drive down to Port Canaveral and get on the ship!
Day 5: Castaway Cay
Day 6: At sea
Day 7: Castaway Cay
Day 8: Leave ship and drive to Savannah
Day 9: Spend the day in Savannah
Day 10: Drive 1/2 way home
Day 11: Finish driving home



Index:
Day 1 & Part of 2
Day 2 cont.
Day 3
Day 3 (cont.)
Day 4 - Time for the cruise
Sunday's Navigator
Day 4 cont.
Day 5 - Castaway Cay take 1
Day 5 - Cont
Monday's Navigator
Day 6 - Day at Sea
Tuesday's Navaigtor

 

[Otimon]

Looking forward to reading more.

Wondering where in NH and Ct. you folks are from. I grew up in Hamden, Ct. and lived for many years in Hooksett, NH.

Best wishes.

 

[Donald is #1]

Looking forward to reading more.

Wondering where in NH and Ct. you folks are from. I grew up in Hamden, Ct. and lived for many years in Hooksett, NH.

Best wishes.

Hi! Welcome!

I'm in Merrimack NH and my sister is in Woodstock, CT.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I just started uploading pictures for Day 2. So, this update may just go until our arrival in St Augustine. But I promise, I have lots of pictures to come!

So, let's start with the night before. I was all packed, so when I got home from work, I ended up loading up my SUV with all of my stuff so that in the morning, all I would need to do was to get ready and feed the kitty. Don't worry about the kitty, I have a pet sitter that comes in while I am away and feeds her and plays with her.

Anyways, our plan was to get on the road early and I live about 1.5 hours from DSis (but luckily in the correct direction). So, I set my alarm for 4 AM and off to bed it was a little earlier than normal for me.

Day 1:

Things went real well the next morning. I was up, ready and with the cat feed by 4:30. So I hit the road at 4:30 AM just like I wanted. The drive down to DSis's house was very easy at that time and I got to her house a little after 6 including a stop to top off the gas tank.

Well, we quickly had the car loaded and good byes were said. Both DSis & I took advantage of the fact that we were driving. Let's just say that the car was pretty full.

Well, DSis lives in the north eastern section of CT near where MA, RI & CT all meet. So we had the full length of CT to drive. Well, despite the Garmin's recommendation, I didn't want to drive through NYC, so I modified the route to use the Tappan Zee Bridge. That added probably 30-45 minutes to the trip, but to me it was worth it. We made very good time and by noon we had reached Maryland. We stopped for lunch at a Bob Evans which was good but nothing special. OK, to be honest, my lunch was good (salad) and DSis's lunch was just ok (BLT). We were back on the road and still making very good time. We alternated drivers on each stop which was ob average every 3 hours but there were some longer legs.

By 5 PM, we entered in North Carolina and if you remember from my first post, we were planning on stopping in Florence SC for the night. Well looking at the map, it looked like Savannah was only 2.5 hours past Florence. So since we were feeling good, we decided to go all the way to Savannah, GA.

We ended up getting to a hotel at about 11:15 and we were both tired. DSis was able to sleep in the car for a couple of hours, but I wasn't. However, overall it was a great day. I was amazed at how far we had made it on the first day.

We ended up selecting a Best Western near I-95 in Savannah that night it all we can say is that it was cheap. (Less than $60) Otherwise, our room was on the first floor and it was a little musty smelling. It also seemed like the carpet had been flooded at least once.


Day 2:
We were up and ready before 7. Yes, we were definitely excited to be on the road. So we decided to skip the breakfast at the hotel and instead we loaded up the car, checked out and got breakfast at McD's. We were on the road at about 7.

Our driving luck continued today! We stopped at the FL Welcome Center for our free OJ and pulled into St. Augustine at about 10 AM! DSis and I were very happy with our drive down.

Well, my 20+ pictures for Day 2 are still up-loading. So I will end this update here and pick it up tomorrow when the pictures have up-loaded.

 

[BigDogHU75]

Hi Robbie! I am on board. I will be starting my TR soon. Can't wait to continue reading your TR.

 

[wltdsnyfan]

Robbie,

Great Start.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi Robbie! I am on board. I will be starting my TR soon. Can't wait to continue reading your TR.

Welcome! Please let me know when you start your trip report.

Robbie,

Great Start.

Welcome!

 

[Donald is #1]

OK, I promised pictures so here they come!

As I mentioned, we got to St Augustine about 10 AM. So we decided to head to the Fountain of Youth first. We enjoyed our stop here. But neither one of us liked the water from the Fountain Of Youth that they gave us to drink. You know that it will taste funny, when they tell you "This is perfectly safe to drink." When you visit here, they show you the fountain and give you a small glass of the water. Then they have periodic tours of 3 of the buildings. We didn't do the tour. Instead we just wandered over the grounds and took in the scenery.

DSis at the Fountain of Youth

Grounds at the Fountain of Youth

Me at the Fountain of Youth

There were lots of peacocks and peahens on the grounds also:

After spending about an hour here, we headed towards the center of town. I wanted to go to the Castillo De San Marco. Because we were off season, the parking lot next to it was 1/2 empty. So instead of doing a trolley tour, we were able to park here and later, we were able to walk from our B&B. Well the Castillo is right in the historic district, so DSis decided that she was going to wander around town while I was at the Castillo. The Castillo was pretty neat (though it looks much like any other historic fort). My first stop of course was to get the stamp for my National Park Passport.

Here are some pictures of the Castillo:

While I was there, there was a firing of the cannon which was neat to watch. Plus the guy narrating it was pretty funny.

After spending some time at the Castillo, I decided to head out and look around the town.

I should probably mention that it was pretty hot & muggy this day. (This will be a trend)

The town itself is very neat. Most of the historic district is a mixture of shops, restaurant, and museum/historic sites.

I was posting our status on Facebook through our drive and it ends up that one of my friends from DVCNews, jiggerj, just moved to St. Augustine. We did try to meet up over the next day, but between her moving related activities and our sightseeing, we just never connected. However, it was great talking to her and she suggested a great place to eat. So DSis and I decided to go there for lunch. We meet up about 12:30 and we were both hungry. Originally, we planned on moving the car over near the restuarant, but as we were walking around, we realized that the restaurant was actually close to our car. So off we walked to Scarlett O'Haras for lunch:

This was a great lunch! I ended up having fried chicken and DSis got a BLT. Well the fried chicken ended up being 1/2 a chicken for I think less than $10! DSis actually helped me eat it because the lunch was just too big for me to finish.

Now that we were replenished, we walked around a bit more and then headed back towards the car.

BY this time, we were getting pretty hot. It was still too early to check into our B&B. So we decided to head back to the car and drive around a bit. We decided to head north on A1A for a little while. The AAA showed the road as scenic. However, the dunes & brush along the sides of the road were too high for us to see anything. There were some parking areas, but to be honest, it was too hot for us to park our car and walk over the dunes.

Soon, however, it was time for us to check into our B&B. DSis did a lot fo research and found/booked our B&B's in St. Augustine and Savannah (for later in the trip). Well, in St. Augustine, we stayed in Casa De Solana. This was our first time staying in a B&B and we loved it!

The street that our B&B was on:

This B&B had 3 parking spots in a lot about 3 blocks away and we were lucky enough to get one of those spots.

Our room was very cool. I think that I have a few pictures for my next post. We had a 2 room suite with a living room with fireplace and sofa bed and a bedroom. It was really adorable.

After relaxing for a little while, we decided to go back out and walk around the town for a bit. We then went to a Mexican Restaurant that over looked the castillo for dinner. We were seated on a second floor balcony so that we could people watch. The food here was good and after dinner we slowly made our way back to our B&B for the night.


Unfortunately, the drama of our trip started this night. At about 10:30 in the evening, DSis' phone rings. It is the assisted living facility telling her that our mother was being sent back to the hospital!

Now what do we do? We are 1400 miles away! Luckily, our youngest sister (she is actually in the picture in my first post) is home and lives near where the hospital is. But, we are about to go on a 4 night cruise.... Decisions, decisions!

 

[dvc4life]

Robbie - Great report so far. It looks like your vacation started off great! I love all of the historical stuff like the forts you are showing in your photos. Keep them coming!

I'm glad we were able to visit for a few minutes before the CC party on the ship.

I am so looking forward to the rest of your report. Hope your mom was OK after your last post.

 

[wltdsnyfan]

Robbie,

The pics are great. That town looked cool.

How is your mom doing?

take care
flo

 

[epfootballcutie04]

Hi there! Just subscribing since i was on the members cruise too!!! Your TR is off to a great start I can't wait to see more of those pictures!!

 

[Donald is #1]

Robbie - Great report so far. It looks like your vacation started off great! I love all of the historical stuff like the forts you are showing in your photos. Keep them coming!

I'm glad we were able to visit for a few minutes before the CC party on the ship.

I am so looking forward to the rest of your report. Hope your mom was OK after your last post.

Thanks! I was so ahppy to meet you in person. I think that one of my favorite parts of the cruise was meeting up with everyone that I have been interacting with on FB and the cruise thread.

Robbie,

The pics are great. That town looked cool.

How is your mom doing?

take care
flo

Thanks! My Mom is doing better. I should be heading down sometime this weekend to visit her.

Hi there! Just subscribing since i was on the members cruise too!!! Your TR is off to a great start I can't wait to see more of those pictures!!

Welcome aboard!

 

[dvc4life]

More, please......

 

[Donald is #1]

The first thing that we did when we got up was that DSis called the hospital to get an update on our Mother. She was still at the ER and it took a couple of times, for DSis to get through. She also talked to DSis#2. DSis#2 as I mentioned earlier didn't come with us. So that means that she was stuck dealing with the latest medical crisis. Well, at this point, they really didn't know too much. They were still checking our Mother out. So we went off to breakfast and my what a great breakfast it was. I believe that this morning was French Toast and it was awesome! While we were at breakfast, we talked to some of the other guests. One of the guests was a serviceman who was temporarily stationed in St. Augustine. So he was staying in St. Augustine for a few months. He gave us some excellent meal suggestions that we would use today!

The weather today wasn't that great. There was a 300 mile front coming through and when you see my pictures, you will see lots of clouds.

I wanted to go check out another fort and the lighthouse while DSis wanted to go looking through more of the shops. Since our B&B was right in the middle of everything, it was easy for us to split up for the morning. I took the car to head towards the fort while DSis planned to walk around town.

My first stop for the day was Fort Matanzas. This fort is another National Park site and I was able to get there just as it opened. It actually took me longer than I thought that it would because, the fort is over on an island and the way that the park is set up, the visitor center and the parking lot are right off route A1A. About every hour, a boat runs between the visitor center and the fort. So you are at the fort for about 45 minutes. I was lucky to get there about 10 minutes before the first boat left, so I didn't have long to wait. The fort itself is very small and was an output for the Castillo. The sky looked very ominous, but luckily for me, there wasn't any rain yet. The fort itself was nice but the winner here was the scenery!


Fort Matanzas

Area surrounding Fort Matanzas

After leaving the fort, I headed over to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. The Lighthouse includes a musuem. Since it was too hot & muggy for me to climb the stairs up to the top of the lighthouse, I decided to not go inside the grounds and I just took some pictures of it from basically the parking lot.

As I was heading back to town, I called DSis to see where she was. Apparently, it rained in St Augustine while I was gone so she had just started out. I believe that she also worked on our Fish Extender gifts for the cruise also that morning. I parked the car and met up with her over on St George St. We wandered around looking at the shops for a while and then decided that to get some lunch. We decided to head to lunch at Harry's based upon the recommendation that we got a breakfast.

Harry's was a great place for lunch. We decided to try a crab fondue that the Serviceman had suggested. Plus I believe that we ordered another appetizer though I can't remember what it was (maybe the Voo Doo shrimp?). We also split a Shrimp Po Boy. The crab fondue was a bit salty for us, otherwise we absolutely loved our meal!

 

[Donald is #1]

After lunch, it was still very hot & steamy. We walked around for a little while and decided to head over to Lightner Museum. This museum has a very eccletic collection and is in the same complex as the city hall.

Lightner Musuem

The museum was very nice. After this musuem, we headed over to the Villa Zorayda Museum. It is hard to descibe this museum. I guess that best way to say it is that it is very "different." This museum is in a building that was built in 1883 as a 1/10th scale replica of part of Spain’s Alhambra Palace. It has supposed the oldest rug "the sacred cat rug" in the world inside of it.

By this point, we were hot & tired. Plus I believe that it was raining lightly. So we decided to head back to our B&B for a bit. While we were back at the room, I read for a little while (or was it play on the computer?) and DSis finished off our gifts for the cruise. It was raining pretty good for at least an hour or so. About 4:30 or so, we decided to brave the rain and went back out to wander around and finish going through the shops. We wandered around with a stop for some excellent gelato and ended up at a nice wine shop where we both did the wine tasting. The wine tasting here was $5 for 4 wine samples plus they gave you the glass. The wine was very good. However, we didn't think that it would like sitting in a hot car while we were on the cruise so we didn't buy any bottles.

For dinner, we went over to A1A brew pub. I wasn't feeling that great at first (maybe it was gelato + wine ?) so just DSis ordered dinner. She ended up getting soup (beer & cheese soup) and a salad. She ate the soup while I ate the salad. She said that the soup was excellent!
Well, the salad helped me feel better, so we both ordered dessert.


After dinner, we decided to call it a night and headed back to B&B for the night.

I should also update here, that during the day, the hospital discovered that our mother needed a stent. So they installed it and after that our mother started improving. Of course, I think that poor DSis#2 spent a good portion of the day at the hospital.

 

[OurOhana]

Loving the pictures of St. Augustine. I went to Flagler College there back when I was in my first year of college. I remember your first lunch spot very well. Great desserts too! I'll be looking forward to learning about a DVC cruise.

 

[dnv211]

This was our 1st also we had a great time too....

Does anyone know if you dont have any points left can you pay cash to go on the member cruise for 2010...

Also is they a limited on the amount of family members or friends you can bring with you???

Thanks for all the great infomation.. Love all the pictures...

dnv211

 

[dejnosluvmickey]

dnv211- yes you can pay cash(its just a little more than the reg 4 night because your tips are included)

I have not seen them do any limits but i could be wrong.

 

[Eeyores#1Fan]

dnv211-Few years back when we went you could only book a max of 3 cabins. Not sure if this is still the rule or not. ;o)

Nice pics and report Donald is #1. Can wait to read more.

 

[tksbaskets]

What a fun report. Looking forward to more