Our WDW adventures & Magical Happy Halloween Cruise: Day 14 completed - 01/2010 pg 19

[deebs]

looking forward to sailing with you!

 

[Disneygrl36]

Hope your puter gets fixed soon.
Ready for more updates.

 

[praisehisname]

Hi Sarah! I just subbed to your trippie. We're sailing with you!! I joined the meet thread back when it first began, but haven't been able to keep up with it. This will be our 3rd Disney cruise and we can't wait!!!

Denise

 

[taraandmike]

subscribing!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Hi Sarah! I just subbed to your trippie. We're sailing with you!! I joined the meet thread back when it first began, but haven't been able to keep up with it. This will be our 3rd Disney cruise and we can't wait!!!

Denise

Hi Denise

Thanks for subscribing! It would be great if you could come along to the meet thread if you get the time - we have lots of things planned! If anything try and read POST 1 (link in my signature) and if you would like to join in with anything come on by and let us know!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

subscribing!

Hi Tara - Thanks for subscribing!

I hope to sort the virus problem out when I return home from my Mum's house tomorrow and if I can't do it the computer will be heading to the computer hospital, as I don't think I could cope without the DIS during this very crucial cruise excitement build up !

 

[anewmac]

I will keep you pc in my thoughts LOL I know how it is to have a computer down when you "NEED" IT! LOL Cant wait to hear more also!

 

[Disneygrl36]

for your PC.
Hoping for a new post soon.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

At long last I am back in internet world! The poor old computer had to take a trip to the computer hospital and unfortunately the virus was uncurable - so the only option has been to completely wipe everything from the computer, and then reload windows! So now I have a computer with just windows and aol and nothing else until I find the time to reload things. Fortunately I managed to save my millions of photos on to a pen drive before the computer was wiped!


So at least I can now continue with the story so far, and I think when I left off before the computer disaster we were in February 2008 and I was very smug and self satisfied after having just booked my Orlando hotel at what I considered to be the bargain price of the century.

Fasten your seatbelts - it is now time to fast forward to April 2008 – In April we passed a very significant date, the 18th April - and we could finally shout from the rooftops - "yee ha! we now have less than 6 months to go" But along with the euphoria came trepidation - with the realisation of just how much I still had to do in preparation for this trip. It also dawned on me exactly how quickly the last 6 months had passed - it didn't seem 5 minutes since we were up there on those same rooftops shouting that we now had less than a year to go!

So back in April I was faced with the following incredibly daunting “to do” list :

So still to do:

1. the car hire, this definitely seems to be the cheapest way to get to and from the airport and the port as required, plus chances are we may get tempted by some of the shopping opportunities when in Orlando, so a rental car was the way to go. We planned to book car hire to pick up at the airport and drop off at Port Canaveral and do the same thing in reverse for the 3 days following the cruise.

2. Disney Theme Park tickets - probably looking at a 5 / 6 day pass for the week before the cruise.

3. MNSSHP tickets - for the Friday night before we cruise - this was an absolute must-do and something I had been desperate to do for simply ages.

4. Other boring stuff such as trip insurance, car-parking at airport etc etc

5. Oh, and the small matter of having to actually pay the balance of the cruise in August, otherwise they might just not let us on board! I don't know what the Disney policy is on stowaways, but possibly keel-hauling and walking the plank may well be the outcome of any attempted embarkation of the ship without having paid the balance, and I am probably not up for the public humiliation.

Not too extensive a list then really - what on earth is the girl stressing about, but just you wait until I start listing the additional "must-do" items associated with being on a Disney Cruise and more importantly being a DIS cruiser on a Disney Cruise!

1. Pirate costumes - fortunately we have some items which can be used for this, from dressing as pirates for the Disneyland Paris Halloween party in 2005, but basically I have to make costumes for Dan and Stephen, and amendments / updates to our existing costumes for Taryn, Louise and myself. Tony is sorted on this front, having acquired a new pirate costume for a friends Disney birthday party in 2007, when he went as Captain Jack Sparrow!

2. The small matter of Halloween costumes - not much to be said on this front as our costume ideas are still under wraps! What we take as Halloween costumes is also baggage dependent!

3. Fish Extenders! Those of you unfamiliar with the DIS Cruise Board may well be asking at this point "What on earth are fish extenders?" or has the girl gone completely stark raving bonkers?" (of course the second question may well be a legitimate and justifiable one!)
…. Well, let me explain ....basically, the Fish Extender is a hanging fabric thing with pockets which DIS members hang outside their cabin door on the fish shaped mailbox which is outside each cabin (hence fish extender - extender to the fish - get it?). These pockets are then filled with various gifts and goodies by other DIS members during the cruise. As the designated Keeper of the Code, sorry - make that the Keeper of the Fish Extender list - for our cruise, it is my responsibility to collect the names of all participating DIS cruisers and their cabin numbers, and then give all participants the list before we sail. So preparations for this include making 2 fish extenders and purchasing lots of little gifts to distribute round the other participants fish extenders while we are on the ship.

4. Door Magnets: the other DIS tradition is creating magnetic pictures for your doors - so I will be expected to tap into my creative ability and produce some earth-shattering awesome and original magnetic door signs - thank goodness for photoshop and a pair of creative offspring!

5. Purchasing an extensive cruise wardrobe - including tuxedos for the chaps, formal gowns for us ladies and numerous other outfits appropriate for promenading on the decks, dancing under the stars, relaxing on the tropical beaches etc etc! I can just feel those excess baggage fees jumping up and biting me on the bum!

6. Speaking of excess baggage, at this point on my pre-cruise timeline I had the personal objective of losing a stone of personal excess baggage, and unfortunately at the present point in time readers, I have only managed to lose half a stone of it - the difficult bit now is not finding it again, and then continuing on my quest, with 2 months to go. The best news is I have actually lost 7 inches from my waist since commencing this objective, and I am really chuffed, although it seems to be a lot less keen to shift from my rear, with only a 2 inch loss in that area - probably a good idea to keep the excess padding in that area to lessen the impact from the bum-biting excess baggage fees.

Next installment - how I began to tackle the "to do" list ..........

 

[anewmac]

oh man you to do sounds like mine LOL

BTW I think I found your 7inches you lost around your waist LOL

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Tackling the "to-do list"

Towards the end of April 2008, my excitement level began to creep up, and I began the mission to search out fabric with which to make my Fish Extenders. Our local fabric warehouse had nothing at all which was either cruise or Disney related, so my next port of call was Ebay. I was really pleased to find some fantastic pirate related fabric and the deed was done. The fabric arrived a few days later and I couldn’t wait to get started following the instructions I had found on the DIS – unfortunately I couldn’t wait long enough to actually read the instructions properly, and ended up cutting out the pockets too small. Nothing that can’t be remedied I’m sure, but with pockets of diminished dimensions I am hoping that most of the fish extender gifts will be able to fit!

My Ebay mission also found me two fantastic patterns for making pirate costumes, and I bought these on impulse. Having never followed a pattern before, it should be an interesting endeavour, and hopefully one which won’t result in the sewing machine being thrown out of the window!

I also picked up some iron-on transfer paper from Ebay, for printing our T-Shirt designs, at a fraction of the retail piece, so all in all it was a very successful mission.

May 2008 arrived with very little having being achieved on the cruise preparation front apart from proceeding to make a complete mess of making the fish extenders, despite following the instructions (I guess this sort of sums up my sewing ability in general, which is why I am particularly anxious about the whole pirate costume making pattern following scenario). Watch this space for the Fish Extender Saga Part 2.

My first objective for May was to re-commence my healthy eating and exercise programme, although admittedly the exercise hadn’t really commenced in the first place. But suddenly, the weather was getting warmer and hopefully this would inspire me. I started May 1st with great intentions, and this continued until we went to see Taryn in her AS level drama exam. She was so amazing in the play that we had no option but to go to Pizza Hut to celebrate afterwards, and unfortunately my downfall came shortly afterwards, in the shape of an Italian base Hawaiian pizza. So I started May 2nd in the same way as I had started May 1st, with the objective of re-commencing my healthy eating programme – all I can say is watch this space. I will be weighing in at the end of May!

Also on May 2nd when I was in my happy place ie. the DIS cruise forum, I noticed a post from Helen informing me that the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party tickets were on sale. Imagine my excitement when I phoned WDW to purchase our tickets and the cast member said he needed to put my address into none other than Mickey’s address book! I was happy dancing all around the hall! It is amazing how just communicating with a Disney CM over the phone can fill you with such excitement – it’s almost as though they send pixie dust down the phone line! I purchased 6 tickets for MNSSHP the 24th October and spent the rest of the evening with a very big happy smile on my face.

About a week later I received an email to say that my MNSSHP tickets had somehow not made it across the Atlantic, and could I please email them to sort it out. Several emails later I had heard nothing, but I suspect that Mickey is very busy, as I am sure he does have a lot of people in his address book. This gives me another excuse to phone Mickey and see what has happened with my AWOL tickets!

I also began to research the Disney Park tickets, and after a bit of a dilemma about which ones to get, to hop or not to hop etc I went ahead and booked Disney WDW base tickets through Undercover Tourist at the bargain price of $220.95 per person for a 5 day pass with an extra day for free! (and free postage!). I decided not to go with hopper passes as although we have always had hoppers in the past, I can actually only remember us hopping on one occasion. I did not see that purchasing hoppers would be a justifiable expense on the off chance that we might hop, when we more than likely wouldn’t hop at all ( I don’t think that makes the slightest bit of sense!)

May 16th was very exciting as the Disney Magic went through the Panama Canal on her way to the West Coast for the summer. I watched some of the transit on the webcam, and managed to save these shots......

and when she does the return Panama transit in August we will only be 2 months away from our cruise and I will be doubly excited!

I finally booked the car hire through US Rentacar, at a very reasonable price (£210 in total for a 7 seater for the week before the cruise and the 3 days after the cruise).

Our MNSSHP tickets had still not arrived so it was time to phone Mickey and see what had happened. Another lovely cast member explained that Mickey had unfortunately misspelled my address when putting it in his address book and so the delivery had not been authorised. A few minutes later the details were amended and the lovely cast member assured me that they would find their way across the Atlantic this time. In the meantime I had everything well and truly crossed!

On May 25th we had a lovely surprise via the postman: our WDW tickets arrived, and because I am the sort of sad Disney obsessed individual who takes photos of her Disney tickets (a character trait I am sure many of you will relate to), here they are:

This is my favourite one:

On May 30th we had another lovely surprise as our MNSSHP tickets arrived, which necessitated a lot of happy dancing and another set of photographs:

This is my favourite one out of these:

By the end of May I had also done quite a bit of cruise clothing shopping at our local outlet mall, but unfortunately no work on our pirate costumes or Halloween costumes and sadly had failed miserably to lose any more weight: overall total weight loss: 6lbs.

 

[diberry]

So glad you're back and keeping us amused with your pre=trippie!! Can't believe it's less than 8 weeks to go now!!! Having seen the absolutely fantastic costumes you made for the party last year I can say without a shadow of a doubt that you're a brilliant seamstress and I know for sure that all the costumes will win prizes if they have competitions for such things!

That certainly is one enormous boat (or ship!) Wow - it's HUGE!!! Thanks for so much detail and for your great sense of humour! Keep it coming!!

 

[Disneygrl36]

Yeah you are back!!!!!!!!
So glad you finally got your ticket mess sorted out & they are so cute too!!!!
Good luck on your costume ideas. I will send some your way.
I am still sulking that I won't be cruising with you & getting to dress up on Halloween again, but our December trip will be awesome too!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

June 2008:

In June we began to think about excursions, and discussion on our cruise meet thread introduced us to a very interesting trip in Costa Maya, where you visited the Mayan ruins in a small group, but then visited a local school and were able to donate school materials to the children there. I really liked this idea and we started to organise a group on our meet thread, when lo and behold, on June 14th Disney in their wisdom decided to change our itinerary and Costa Maya was replaced by Grand Cayman.

I was very disappointed to lose Costa Maya from the itinerary as being able to visit the ruins and the school would have created a nice balance in our plans, as a change from all the watersports we planned to do elsewhere, and I wanted to introduce some culture and historical interest in the plans somewhere. However, I was also happy in a way to be able to visit Grand Cayman, as it certainly sounds very idyllic, but more than likely we will be looking at more watersports as an excursion option.

During the past 6 months or so we had developed a friendship with another UK family from the DIS through our cruise meet thread. We met initially as our daughters Taryn, Louise and Rachel are the same age and Taryn and Rachel started chatting on MSN etc. So I will now introduce you to our supporting cast in this trippie: The Balster Family: Helen, Andy, Rachel and Bethany from Somerset in England.

We had talked about linking our dining for some time so on 16th June I contacted Dreams Unlimited and arranged that our dining be linked ( Guys - there is no escape now !!). Helen had also found a really great trip in Grand Cayman which involved chartering a boat and going on our own tour of the island. The big selling point for me was that the boat we were going to charter was actually used to move some of the cast during the filming of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the company website maintains that Johnny Depp himself had actually placed his perfect derriere upon this vessel – I just hope that there is a “X” marking the actual spot on the boat, as it will the closest I ever get to having my backside on the same seat as Johnny’s. We decided to go ahead and book this trip, and hope to visit Stingray City and Rum Point Beach

Towards the middle of June my thoughts turned to airport parking – and the usual dilemma arose concerning whether to leave home early on the morning of the flight and book off-site parking, or whether to travel down the evening before and stay overnight at a nearby hotel and take advantage of a stay and park package! Not really much of a dilemma, as the attraction of starting our holiday a night early was difficult to resist. On our last holiday to Florida way back in 2005, we had stayed overnight at a hotel called the Manchester Moat House, and had a lovely pre-flight evening chilling in the hotel pool and spa, and enjoying a meal in a local pub. But for some reason I was unable to find the Manchester Moat House anywhere on line, and it seemed to have completely disappeared from the face of the internet! But after searching for what seemed like days, I eventually made the discovery that the hotel had been taken over by Holiday Inn, obviously in a deliberate attempt to confuse me when I came to book my next trip. The good news however arising from this discovery, was that by staying at the Holiday Inn, I would be able to get some Priority Points - which is always a bonus!

So after considerable deliberation and even more procrastination, I eventually booked 2 rooms for one night and car parking at the Holiday Inn – and we would now be starting our holiday on Friday 17th October! Yee ha!

On 23rd June, imagine my excitement when the postman delivered a very exciting package in the mail, which turned out to be a very well presented information package from DCL! Cue another bunch of “sad” photographs:

We also began to be faced with DCL changing port dates and times, and we were now faced with the prospect of a very short time in Grand Cayman, which threw into doubt our chartered boat trip. However we have decided to sit and wait on this one in the hope that the times will change again and we will get longer in port. If all else fails we will just have to make do with a shorter boat trip - it is a shame but what can you do - I am sure DCL have our best interests at heart.

So June ended with really very little impact made on the “to do” list, other than booking the airport hotel and car parking. I had made very little effort with the pirate and halloween costumes and the weight loss was still sticking at 6lbs, despite all best intentions! However, saving up for our spending money was going well, and I was managing to put £100 a week away into the cruise fund!

We were now about 3 weeks away from the school summer holidays and I was slowly hatching a plan which had the potential to strike fear and panic into the hearts of our supporting cast - our fellow cruisers from Somerset – watch this space to find out if the plan became reality and what happened next......

 

[crmscotland]

Sarah, l've really enjoyed catching up with your pre-trippie.
Great pictures of the Disney cruise ship going through the Panama Canal. Love your Disney passes

Good luck with your sewing - l'm sure everything will turnout fab.

 

[jns]

just popping in to say Hello

great pre trip report

looking forward to meeting you in less then months

 

[TotallyAngelic]

just popping in to say Hello

great pre trip report

looking forward to meeting you in less then months

 

[anewmac]

Cant wait to hear whats next!

 

[HelenSB]

Eeek ...I fear that this may mean including some photo's of our little pre-cruse meet on this thread Be afraid.....be VERY afraid!!!!!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

July2008

On July 1st I decided to pay the balance of our cruise – it had been sitting there in the back account waiting for the deadline date, but I decided to pay it a bit earlier, just so I could have the warm fuzzy feeling that everything was paid in full! It was indeed a wonderful, warm and fuzzy feeling!

July the 11th was a very important day – we broke through the 100 days to go milestone and hit the double digits. To celebrate this we had a double digit party! The girls made a Mickey cake,

and we had lots of American themed food and spent the evening listening to Disney music!

Now what of those plans to strike fear and panic into the hearts of our fellow cruisers that I had hinted upon in the last installment of this epic - Avast me hearties - we be planning a raid on Somerset! Now whether this raid was to be a compete surprise attack, or whether we were to give our supporting cast some sort of warning was a matter still being debated. Any warning given to our unsuspecting victims was likely to trigger some urgent need for them to run for the hills as quickly as possible. However, I got to thinking that arriving unannounced on their doorstep may not be the way to go – so I began to drop hints during our conversations and before long they realised exactly what we were planning, and I was pleasantly surprised and even more relieved that they seemed to think it was a good idea.

We planned to leave home early on the Sunday and arrive in Yeovil as soon as possible after lunch, anticipating a 4-5 hour car journey. We pre-booked a campsite for 2 nights which was about 5 minutes drive away from Andy and Helen's house. On the Sunday we loaded up all of our camping gear into the car and set off early, stopping on the way for a breakfast of danish, muffins and coffee. The journey was uneventful and straightforward and we arrived not long after 2pm, checked in the campsite, which was very nice, and began to put up our tent, accompanied by the usual stress, trauma, and threats of violence and divorce which tend to be associated with DH and I putting up the tent.

Just as we were finishing the task, we noticed a couple approaching across the field (fortunately this was after the tent was erected, otherwise they may well have taken the running for the hills option!) and it was Helen and Andy! Introductions were made all round and we arranged to see them again a bit later as they had kindly arranged a party for us at their home.

We had a wonderful time at the party. We were introduced to Rachel and Bethany, Helen's brother and his wife and newborn baby, and the dog Amber. We were made to feel so welcome and it was as though we were all lifelong friends rather than internet friends meeting for the first time. It's amazing how the Disney obsession is such a bond between people, you have so much in common and so much to talk about! The kids all got on amazingly well and we had a wonderful evening. They had decorated the garden with a pirate theme and Helen had made a delicious Mickey chocolate cake.

We had some lovely food and a few drinks ( although I suspect DH had more than a few, judging by his inability to get in the tent without falling over later that evening!). We chatted away for hours, the kids played giant Jenga and seemed to be having a great time, and I even popped on our cruise thread and posted a message! It was a fantastic evening and we had a great time – thanks again everyone !!!

Sarah and Helen:

Rachel, Taryn and Bethany:

The following day we decided to visit Glastonbury, which is a mythical town in Somerset associated with the legend of King Arthur and Avalon. We wandered around the town, which was very scenic,

with lots of bizarre characters wandering round, and we had a mooch around some of the unusual shops which we found there – a lot of the shops were very mythical and witchy, and it was an experience in itself. We managed to buy two gorgeous corsets for Taryn and Louise, which they will be able to wear on Pirate night! We then had a picnic lunch at the base of Glastonbury Tor,

Glastonbury Tor

after which Tony and I decided to try and climb to the top of the tor, but typically the lazy kids could not be persuaded to join us. It was very tiring on the old legs, but we made it to the top and took some photographs of the wonderful views!

We then returned to the town and had another aimless wander just enjoying the unique atmosphere, we ate some delicious locally made ice cream, and then we returned to the campsite to get ready for our evening with Helen, Andy, Rachel and Bethany at the Italian restaurant.

We had another excellent evening with more delicious food and wine and fantastic company . We then went back to Andy and Helen's house for coffee and desserts and more cruise conversations! Unfortunately it was all over too soon and we had to head back to the tent, ready to return home the following day.

The following day we packed up all the equipment and loaded up the car. We planned to drive home via Cheddar Gorge as this was something I had always wanted to see, so we headed up that way. We stopped in the Gorge for lunch, and the scenery was really spectacular.

We then wandered around the touristy shops which were located in the gorge, watched a local sweetmaker in action,

and ate some more delicious locally made ice-cream,

before jumping in the car to start the long journey home.

All in all we had a fantastic weekend – it was wonderful meeting Andy, Helen, Rachel and Bethany, and we all got on so well that I am now even more looking forward to our cruise knowing that we have such fantastic dining companions! (although I did check if were still linked when I returned home – I had imagined Andy and Helen sending an email to unlink us after meeting us in person!)

So that was our lovely weekend in Somerset!

I am afraid to say that because the weekend away involved lots of eating I declined to weigh myself at the end of this month – as I knew that I would have gained a few pounds – but my intentions were strong for August, and I planned to weigh in after about 2 weeks. Unfortunately I can report no further progress on the costume front other than the purchase of the 2 corsets for the girls' pirate costumes. I really will have to get my finger out in August and September, as I already feel that dreaded “last minute panic” feeling creeping up on me and I so wanted to avoid any last minute panic – with over a year in the planning you would think a last minute panic could easily be avoided – but prepare yourselves for the worst........I can “last minute panic” for Britain and despite all good intentions I don't think this trip is going to be any different!