Our Magical Journey....to Brent-land and Back..

[dvc4life]

What a wonderful TR. I am loving reading it. Your girls are absolutely adorable. And the outfits, are just beautiful. You are so lucky to be able to do that.

Please keep up the great job. And soon.

 

[LivingtheWDWdream]

Your sewing skills are awesome your girls outfits are all amazing and LOVE the ones made from the jackets!

Sorry about the rain in GC.

can't wait for more!

 

[shasess]

Great TR!!! Your girls are so adorable. I love their outfits!!!
I have a Lexi too and everytime I see a picture of your Ireland she reminds me of my Lexi when she was younger.

 

[LindaBabe]

Wonderful photos - fabulous outfits! I hope you made some for yourself and that we get to see them!

 

[sweetstitches]

Your girls are adorable. I love the captain dresses and the red & white ones. I really like that photo of your DD in the window too.

 

[CastleCreations]

Hi My Disboard friends..
When I last left you, we had finished up a day in Grand Cayman...well now it's Wednesday and we are headed to Cozumel.
We got up early that day, and ate breakfast in the room. We didn't watch the docking because we got there early.
Once the girls were ready for the day, we went off the ship. There was another ship there that day.

and into the port area.

I have to say. The water in Cozumel is AMAZING!

It is so beautiful, that if I could have looked at it all day, I would be happy. If I had done nothing else the entire trip but see the water, my trip would have been worthwhile. It truly is something to see.
Okay, after I got done staring at the water, we ventured in the port area. The first store we came to was a pharmacy...I just had to check it out. I had heard stories about all of the medication you can buy with no prescription. It was something...a whole store filled with what usually requires the dreaded dr visit, paying out the nose, and going to the pharmacy, and waiting an hour and then paying some more...see where I'm going with this. I was amazed...it kind of felt wrong to me though..I was tempted to pick up a couple of things but what are the FDA regulations in Mexico...hmm...that antibiotic might just be sugar pills...LOL
The port area was very upscale and clean and pretty. Tons of shops and tons of people trying to get you into them. We just said, not thanks and they moved on to the next group of people. There are some interesting characters there...I'm not going to spoil it for anyone going, but it was really neat and scared Lexie to death..LOL
From the port area, we headed down the escalator to the taxis. For a 10 dollar cab ride, we arrived at Chankanaab.

It'a a beautiful park where you can swim with the dolphins, swim in the pools, and they have lots of sand to play in. It was a good choice for us for the day.
When we first got there, Ireland wanted to meet some locals...

Since the girls don't swim, I was nervous about doing the dolphin excursion, so we decided just to spend a lazy day on the beach.

It was really beautiful there. We swam in the pool and then headed to the little lagoon area. In the lagoon, it had a rocky bottom and we really needed those beach shoes,

but the girls loved looking for the little fish and building sandcastles with their new friends.
Then we headed over to the backside where you can snorkel if you wanted. I knew we would be doing that at Castaway Cay, so we opted not to do it. We did enjoy a lunch of grilled chicken and shrimp cocktail on the beach.

Then we decided to head back to the pool area to take a dip. We were just going to sit down and we informed that the pool area was just for the dolphin excursion people. I was like...ummm, okay. We paid to get in, we swam there all morning and NOW we have to leave....okay, whatever. Our day was over anyway, and since there showers didn't work, the girls washed the sand off of their feet in the bathroom and we got dressed and headed out to the taxi area to head back to the ship. Back near the port area we did a little shopping. The sales people inside the stores are very helpful and not pushy, but the people trying to get you in the store are slightly annoying. Even after you are headed into the store, they are still hounding you, I was like...um..okay already we are already going in...
Anyway, after we were done shopping we got back on the ship. We were still a little hungry, so we ordered room service and ate in the room. I had cut the girls off from any more soda. Lexie likes Sprite but the night before she had a cup of coke. Well she drank the whole thing and in the middle of the night, I heard her calling me....Mommmmmmyyyyyy...my tummmmmyyyyy hurts. Well you can guess what followed. Thankfully she made it to the bathroom...icky. So now the girls are only having milk, juice and water. Same as at home. Their soda vacation has come to an end. LOL. Mean mommy...LOL
After lunch we were tired, so we took a nap from 4pm to 6. It was heavenly!
Tonight was a very important night...

It's Pirate NIGHT!!!
I got the girls dressed in their pirate outfits and we went off to find Captain Jack for a photo.

Last cruise Captain Jack was great. He was such a good likeness that my mother got in line twice. LOL. This one wasn't the best and the kids were not thrilled. Who cares! We have more pirates to find...and we found the cutest pirate of all..up on deck 9.

Christiaan spent some time with the girls and Ireland danced with him. It was so cute.

Sorry that this one is blurry, I wish it would have come out okay. They had a great time together...LOL

Now where is Mommy's favorite pirate you might ask...Good question...Brent...WHERE WERE YOU?...LOL. I saw him for about a minute and then when I looked he was gone again. I was hoping for another picture of him in his pirate gear. Oh well. After the pirate party had ended, we sayed outside to watch the fireworks and the Pirates movie on the big screen. We got some pizza and ran to our room and put on our jeans and grabbed blankets. It was soooooo windy and cold on the deck, I'm glad we brought blankets from home.
After the movie was about half way through, I took the girls back to the room and got them washed up and dressed in their jammies. I was watching some tv, and the girls discovered the Patty Duke show...we stayed up watching that for a few minutes and we were in bed around 2am...eek.
Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I hear a little voice in the dark....Mommy? Mommmmyyyy....I was thinking, here we go again...she's gonna be sick...as I start to climb out of bed, I hear, Do ALL monkeys have gold teeth? I'm like, huh? Come again? and she repeats her question. Well...she's insisting that OUR monkey had a gold tooth....I have no idea what she's talking about. A monkey? Did one escape from the zoo and hide away in our stateroom? No clue...I had to get up and turn on the light because she wouldn't let it go...then I discovered we had a new friend hanging from our curtain and he did indeed have a "gold tooth". Our mousekeeper, had made us a little monkey and put the gold pirate coin in his mouth. I was so tired from the long day that we had that I hadn't even seen the monkey. I'm sorry that I don't have a photo of it....he was really cute though...
Up next...another day at sea....Friendship rocks...even though your child is the ONLY one that refused to wear the colorful tee shirt....and just how many appetizers can Ireland eat? You'll have to wait and see...

 

[disneymomof1]

Loving your trip report, I check everyday for a new update, can't wait to see what gorgeous outfits the girls will have on. Your report has seriously made me think a cruise would be pretty awesome. Can't wait to read more !!!

 

[CastleCreations]

Hi Everyone..Me again...
When I left off we were happily going to bed dreaming of fireworks and the fantastic (windy) pirate party. Since the next day would be a day at sea for us, we decided to have a lazy day. Since I was traveling alone with the girls I didn't get much chance to realx. It's a lot of washing, dressing, hair-dos, and running around. Today I wanted to relax!
We slept in until 8:30!! Wahoo!! We ate breakfast in the room, and a little while later headed off to watch the Tink movie. It was really cute. Ireland's Ma-Ga (Grandma) bought her the movie the day before we left, and we hadn't even watched it at home yet.
After the movie, we headed off to Topsiders for some lunch, I did a little shopping and dropped the girls off at the kids club. I then headed off to Bingo. This was the big game...Someone would win 7,000 dollars!!
I sat near some friends I made from Scotland! Very sweet girls. Well when the end of Bingo came, I was one number away from the 7,000. It was all very exciting. After Bingo I stayed in the big theater for the Friendship Rocks show. It was really cute. Then introduced the kids from the kids club, by age group. When I saw Lexie walk in, I noticed she was smiling, but she wasn't wearing the friendship rocks tee shirt like everyone else. She didn't want to wear it...go figure. Now she decides to become a Diva...we're setting a trend here...she was on stage with Snow white and wouldn't wear the beard and hat...and now she wouldn't wear the tee shirt...go figure..she spent all summer in a NEON orange shirt for summer camp and never complained. The show was really cute. I got teary eyed sitting there thinking that our wonderful vacation was coming to an end. I knew I'd be a wreck on the last night.
After the show was over I picked up the girls and we headed off to dinner at Topsiders. They had a sit down meal and it was really good!! This is our first sit down meal of the cruise and it's almost the last day..LOL
Alexis had a really yummy fruit cocktail with mango and papaya and pineapple. Ireland had the same, but wanted something else, so on to appetizer number 2...the mushrooom soup...this was to die for....well after the soup, you guessed it....she had a salad...then she moved on to the main course....chicken fingers and french fries... Alexis had some kind of pasta with grilled chicken and I had steak. It was all very good.
After dinner....it was a sad time for all....I began packing...I knew our Castaway Cay day would be very busy, so I actually got 3 of our 6 bags packed. It was sad but sort of a relief that it was done.
We went to bed early and couldn't wait for the next day!
Coming up.. Can you really scream while wearing a snorkel and Mommy loses it in paradise....LOL

 

[podsnel]

We were in Chaankanaab, too! It was beautiful there, I agree! None of us could get over that water!!! Yesterday I had a friend telling me she felt the same way about the water in Grand Cayman- she said you looked at it, and just couldn't believe that color existed on earth. I think having a rainy day made us think otherwise- we were out in the water on a private boat for the day, and when we were heading out to Stingray City, we were getting pelted with rain- the boys kept asking, "Is that HAIL?" Actually, the capt. (of our charter) said we got the nicest day they had had in 2 weeks. And you know it only got worse when we left! Poor Grand Cayman!!

And can I say again, your daughters in their dresses are adorable!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

I am thoroughly enjoying your trip report - yay for Florida resident discounts that let you go for the week for less than a 4-night. Love your pictures, your girls are adorable, their outfits are so sweet. Can't wait to read the rest. We're sailing in December on the Western and plan to go to Chanakaab in Cozumel so I was interested to see the pics from there.

 

[Melissa R]

I'm enjoying your report - we just got off our first 4 night, and we've got a 7 night booked but I'm trying to finalize our plans whether we're doing an Eastern or Western next time, so I like reading about your experiences.

The part that I'm most interested in is your choice to skip the dinners. As I said, the 4 night cruise we just finished was our first cruise ever, and I told my husband just before dinner on the last night that the one thing I'd learned that I didn't like about cruising was the dinners. Every day, we were stopping the fun to get cleaned up and dressed to get to dinner, and the meals went on for sooooo long. I was so surprised when his response was "so let's skip dinner!" It was our best night on the ship - the kids had the Goofy pool to themselves, and we ate really good cheeseburgers while watching movies on the Arielvision. But I did feel guilty about skipping the meal. I went to the dining room that night to tell our serving team that we'd be skipping dinner and to give them their tips, and I swear, they looked at me like I'd lost my mind because we weren't coming to dinner. They made me feel pretty guilty about our choice.

So my question to you is this - do you regret skipping those meals? Did you ever speak to your servers so they knew that you weren't planning to come to dinner? I'm asking because I'm thinking that if we do a 7 night, I'd like to skip some dinners and only go to a few, and I'm wondering the best way to handle it. (I guess we could go to the first dinner and then explain to the servers what our plans will be.)

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[CastleCreations]

I'm enjoying your report - we just got off our first 4 night, and we've got a 7 night booked but I'm trying to finalize our plans whether we're doing an Eastern or Western next time, so I like reading about your experiences.

The part that I'm most interested in is your choice to skip the dinners. As I said, the 4 night cruise we just finished was our first cruise ever, and I told my husband just before dinner on the last night that the one thing I'd learned that I didn't like about cruising was the dinners. Every day, we were stopping the fun to get cleaned up and dressed to get to dinner, and the meals went on for sooooo long. I was so surprised when his response was "so let's skip dinner!" It was our best night on the ship - the kids had the Goofy pool to themselves, and we ate really good cheeseburgers while watching movies on the Arielvision. But I did feel guilty about skipping the meal. I went to the dining room that night to tell our serving team that we'd be skipping dinner and to give them their tips, and I swear, they looked at me like I'd lost my mind because we weren't coming to dinner. They made me feel pretty guilty about our choice.

So my question to you is this - do you regret skipping those meals? Did you ever speak to your servers so they knew that you weren't planning to come to dinner? I'm asking because I'm thinking that if we do a 7 night, I'd like to skip some dinners and only go to a few, and I'm wondering the best way to handle it. (I guess we could go to the first dinner and then explain to the servers what our plans will be.)

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

HI..I don't regret skipping the dinners. I knew the girls wouldn't enjoy it and on our last cruise, I felt the same as you. I hated dressing up the girls and expecting them to be on their best behavior for so long during dinner. It's just not our style. I contacted our waitstaff through guest services and they were very understanding. I also spoke with guest services about tipping. Now I know this is a sore subject with some folks, but I just wanted another opinion. Should I tip someone who hasn't served me? I know they rely on their tips, so we came up with something we both could live with.
Whatever you decide...be sure to have fun!

 

[Melissa R]

HI..I don't regret skipping the dinners. I knew the girls wouldn't enjoy it and on our last cruise, I felt the same as you. I hated dressing up the girls and expecting them to be on their best behavior for so long during dinner. It's just not our style. I contacted our waitstaff through guest services and they were very understanding. I also spoke with guest services about tipping. Now I know this is a sore subject with some folks, but I just wanted another opinion. Should I tip someone who hasn't served me? I know they rely on their tips, so we came up with something we both could live with.
Whatever you decide...be sure to have fun!

Haha - you notice I didn't ask how you handled the tips?

But I never would have thought of speaking to guest services about it. It sounds like they were able to give you some input on how to handle it, and I'm glad to know that.

 

[dismom73]

I just found you TR and I am loving it! Your girls are adorable!

 

[CastleCreations]

Hi Everyone! I'm back. It's taken me longer than I thought to write this report. But sadly we are at our last day...Castaway Cay here we come!
This day we got up very early, I think before 7am and I got the girls dressed in their swimsuits with cover ups and packed our beach bag.

We hit topsiders for some breakfast and watched Castaway Cay come into view.

I took some photos around the ship and I suddenly began to get sad. In that stillness before everyone gets up in the morning, when the ship is very quiet, I felt my heart grow heavy. The vacation that I planned for, for so long, is suddenly coming to an end. I almost wanted to cry, but refused to let it ruin our last day.
We got off the ship around 9am,

and walked to the tram. Yes, I took the tram. Lexie isn't known for walking very far without complaining, so I try not to push the issue.
We enjoyed the tram ride and we all piled out.

I found a spot that was good for us and the girls got undressed. I took some photos and I really wanted to go snorkeling before it got crowded. I took Lexie to the kids club and Ireland and I walked up to the little shack to get our snorkel stuff.
I made a big mistake at this point. I didn't try the flippers on, while I was standing there, and decided they look like they should fit.
We walked back to our chairs, put on our gear and I found out the flippers were too small. Oh well, I will just go without them. BIG MISTAKE!!
We got into the water and I gave Ireland a quick snorkel lesson. She picked it up right away. Now I think I may have told you all in the past, she doesn't know how to swim, so under her yellow vest, she had on her swimmy bathingsuit with the foam inserts. With that on, she can swim for miles.
Of course, I brought my underwater camera so we can capture photos of all of those fish.
I guess something I never thought of, is that we would actually be swimming WITH the fish...hmmm...now why didn't this occur to me before. At first it was okay, we were kind of floating there...because MOM didn't wear her flippers...LOL, and we saw a little silver fish go by..I was like cool!! look at the little fishy...just then, a HUGE black fish went by that had TEETH!! I was like...okay...BIG MISTAKE...I'm getting out now!! Just then, someone saw a stingray, so I followed them, trying to get over my fear, and saw the little stingray...good thing he stayed on the bottom.
Well it wasn't too bad at this point so we continued to swim around. One thing I didn't think of, is with Ireland with her flippers on, she just took off! She can really move with those things on, so she swam and I hung on to her flipper and she towed me through the water. LOL.
We found some really cute things hidden under the water and saw lots of little fish. Then I decided to swim near the grasses, here is where things go very wrong. I thought it was Ireland's flipper hitting me in the leg over and over and when I turned to yell at her to move over, I saw the horror. There were thousands of little fish surrounding my legs and they were all swimming into me. I screamed and began kicking at the fish to get away, at this point we were near the lifeguard stand and he stood up to look at us. I got a little ways away and waved that we were okay. I decided that this was enough, Mommy's nerves were shot and when I looked up, I saw that we were VERY far from the shore. We swam and swam and swam and finally we got to the shore. My legs were tired and wrist had a red mark from the lanyard on the camera. I know Ireland was beat too.
I told Ireland to return the snorkel stuff for me, and after she returned we left to find Alexis. I walked down where the kids club is...now if your squeamish, don't read this part..TMI coming your way...I'm not a little girl by any means, and big legs combined with salt water and nylon swim shorts results in some chaffing...owie! so on the way to get Lex, I'm thinking, boy I should have dried off better..I went all the way to the kids area and guess what...she was on the other side...well I followed the directions that led us back the way we came and I couldn't find her. Well by this time my legs are screaming and Mommy is getting mad. I went back around to the original drop off and asked if they could just get her, because I can't find her!
NOPE! Walk back around and someone will help me. Okay..here's where MOMMY LOSES IT!!! My legs are on fire, my shorts are wet, I'm getting a chill and CAN'T FIND ALEXIS!!! I layed into the first employee that I saw and basically told them to find her in a not nice way. Now it isn't that she was lost, it's just that the signs showing you the back enterance of kids area are wrong, they point you in the wrong direction.
Well finally I got her and took the long, sore leg, walk back to the beach.
I swam with the girls for a while, and on thing I have to mention that kind of annoyed me, is that everyone takes the little beach chairs and puts them at the waters edge, so there is no shorline for the kids to play in, they are either in the water or on the sand. It's also hard to find an area to even get in the water. But we played for while and then it was time for lunch.
Mommy wasn't happy, because of her leg...but I made the treck up the sand for some grub. The girls were hungry again.
Lexie had tons of ribs, and Ireland and I had hot dogs. We all had an ice cream and decided to call it a day. We headed back to the beach and packed up. A quick stop at the gift shop and the bathrooms, and we were back on the tram at 1pm.

It was funny, on the way back to the ship, we saw Brent on the golf cart, and they stopped to say hello. Ireland had written Brent a letter and gave him a gift the day before and he wanted to thank her for it. All I'm thinking is, okay make it quick, I'm in my swimsuit and not looking too hot here! LOL
We headed back to the room and took showers.
Then while the girls were all fresh and clean we went outside to take some more photos around the ship and of the sunset.

We watched the show that night, and it was really great. We sat in the front and I have to say, the confetti cannons, scared us and later I found confetti in some places that it shouldn't have been.
On the way out of the show, we saw Brent again
and I thanked him for being so special and showing so much attention to the girls and I also thanked him for our special gifts he sent to the girls and the invitation to the special event.
I don't remember what day it was, but he sent them a letter and each a gift bag with cheerleading costumes, pompoms, hats, pins and all sorts of things, and an invitation to a special event the last night of the cruise...
He posed for another photo,

and we headed off to shutters to pick up our last photos. I have to say the shutters staff is great. They really put up with all of our special requests and did fantastic. They also treated the girls like princesses and let them go behind the counter to help them ring up people. It was fun for them.
After shutters we ate our famous chicken finger dinner again, and
I decided to let the kids go to the kids club while I packed some more, I still wasn't ready and our luggage had to be outside our door by 10 or 11 pm.
I picked up the girls and headed off to our special event.
Brent told us to be in Studio Sea at a certain time, but when we went in there no one was there. We waited for about 5 minutes and I'm sure glad we did. Just then, a performer from the show, the one from the golden mickey's that hosts in the blue jumpsuit came out and greeted us. We found out then, that we were going to meet ALL of the characters right now. Just then one by one all of the characters came out and the girls screamed with each one. I didn't know where to go first. The girls kept hugging them and laughing, and it was so much fun to see Mickey goofing around with Cinderella and Stitch with Belle. There must have been about 20 characters and performers.

and just when I though it couldn't get any better, I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I turned Brent had come too!!

I wanted to give him a big hug, but restrained myself. Throught my tears I told him thank you agin...words were not enough for all he and the staff did for the girls on the trip. He turned me around just in time to see Pluto do a backflip!

It was so much fun. I can't even explain.
Brent took each girl and walked them out, behind the performers.

They were going to the farewell party on the stairs in the atrium. I missed the whole show because I still couldn't get over it all. The girls found Brent again and told him goodbye and he said he'd see them in the morning. I knew we'd be off the ship early, and we wouldn't see him again this trip, but we had a friendly goodbye and I took the girls back to the kids club for the LAST time. Boo hoo. I hate Last things.
Well I ran off to meet up with a friend and we were headed to PUB NIGHT!!! This is my favorite event of the cruise. If you haven't seen it. You must. That's all I will say. I laughed so hard, I was crying and took someone's bar napkin to wipe my eyes.
After pub night, I headed to one of the clubs to have a drink with a friend and then it was time to return to the kids club and return my pager. It was after midnight at this point and what a LONG day we had.
We went right to bed....and sadly knew tomorrow we would be heading home.
Coming up...did we see Brent again?...and who ever heard of land sickness.....

 

[mytwotinks]

What an awesome last day! I am enjoying your report so much!!!

 

[mindelmouse]

Great post....you got your own private character show...how wonderful for you. don't worry about the "bad" behavior we all have our moments and you were in pain...I can understand that one. You are marvelous with your girls and they are wonderful because of it.

 

[CastleCreations]

What an awesome last day! I am enjoying your report so much!!!

Thanks! It's so hard to express what you feel in each moment, but I have to tell you how special each moment was. Writing this report is great because I get to relive each day. What special people work on those ships! I have never, ever walked by one without a friendly hello or a kind word. It's amazing. I can't ever imagine using another cruise line, even after the kids grow up!

 

[twob4him]

Wow I am absolutely amazed!!! I love all the things you managed to do on the trip. Glad you skipped the script-less meds at the pharmacy...as you said....who knows what was in them. Sorry you didn't have flippers...I can't believe you swam without them...weren't you so exhausted?? I remember my dad trying to take me snorkling when I was around 10 but I was afraid there would be sharks so I didn't go...he was furious with me...so I can completely relate. And the special meeting with the characters made me cry....look how much fun!!!!!! I am sure you all will never forget that!!! Wow! No wonder everyone loves Brent so much! I am sooo happy for you all! Great report Lisa!

 

[disneymomof1]

What a great last day, I also would have been screaming my head off with lots of fishies poking around. I have enjoyed reading your report and am glad you all had such a great trip. We leave in 9 days for a week at WDW and today my husband said, you know how sad it will be when the trip is over. A whole year of planning, scheduling ADR's, reading guide books, making calendars and then it will be over. It really is heartbreaking when the vacation is over, and the real world is calling. Now you will have to start planning the next one. !!