Parker Brothers on the High Seas - 3 Day Wonder 11/5/09 (LOTS of pics!) UPDATED 12/6

[HiddenMickeys]

LOVING your report! I'm reading it out loud to DH and he is nodding his head in agreement about all your observations! Can't wait to read more.

PS - Ummm, hate to be the one to break it to you but you are now CC members - "We've met the enemy and they are us."

I know, now if I wear my lanyard next cruise nobody on the dis will give me a minute's peace. lol

*note to self, no lanyard, at least for next trip lol*

 

[HiddenMickeys]

So after lunch, we all waddled down the hallway towards the lobby. March of the penguins again?

And we snapped a few lobby pics. By now it was prob 1:15 or so, people still coming in as you can see.

A little tip from my mamacita, stop at guest services before heading to your room and grab a few extra navigators. It helps avoid the "I wanna see it" arguments with the kids, and everyone can highlight what they want to do that day on their own navigator.

Ok, since I brought it up, i have to share this story with you all.

I have called my wife mamacita for a while now. Well a few years ago we (our 4 and Tom's family of 4) all went to WDW and I thought it would be funny to get her ears with that on it. It was during the year of a million dreams, so I got her light up twinkly ears. Now Tom is in line right behind me, and the wives are outside with all the kids (so we thought). So, I know that disney only wants to put real names on ears. So I walk up, the woman asks what name, and I start laying it on "Well maam, my wife is from mexico (she;s not, her family is Irish lol) and it's hard to pronounce, it's pronounced mah-MAH-sit-a (i mispronounced it on purpose). I thought Tom was going to wet himself, but he kept cool. So, She says to me "well how is that spelled?" and I say "m-a-m-a-c-i-t-a" and she says "Oh, I should have known that, I was the spelling bee champ at my high school". I look at Tom and he has tears in his eyes but he's holding it together. So she does the ears and I have my holy grail, so to speak. We get outside and tom is choking he is laughing so hard. The girls ask what we are laughing at but before we can tell them my wife proceeds to tell me she couldnt get my son ears with his nickname. Since he was little we have called him "Bubba". So my wife asked, the woman said "Is that his given name" and my wife apparently said no. So he got Mike instead. Tom hears this and is practically rolling on the ground crying. So the girls say "What the heck is so funny?" And Tom says "Wait, Wait Wait, You got turned down for bubba? Look what Mike Got!" and I pull out the ears. And the legend of the mah-MAH-sit-a ears was born. See?

I tell you all of that in case I throw out a mamacita or bubba here or there, at least you'll know who the heck I am talking about.

Ok, so, we grabbed some extra navigators and now it was 1:30 and we headed for our rooms.

Along the way, we notice and like the little details like the elevator hand:

and the mickey ears in the metalwork of the elevator:

Finally we make it to deck 6...

 

[HiddenMickeys]

...And we make it to our home away from home, a cozy category 11, midship:

The "throne of death" Man, those toilets will suck the dimples out of a golf ball. BE CAREFUL!

and the ever spacious shower:

We looked things over a bit, and then decorated our door:

and hung out the F.E.

And about 2:30 we headed for deck 10, as we had scheduled a little meet with our Dis friends for 3.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

ok gang, I really wanted to finish departure day but the flu meds are kicking in and I don't want to hit my head on the laptop when I nod off. lol Hope this ties you over until tomorrow, and I'll write/post more. Hope you all are enjoying so far.

 

[lmhall2000]

Thanks so much for taking the time to put all the pics in, having never been on a cruise, it's great being able to take that walk with you through the portals!! Sorry about the lady who jumped on your 'shuttle'....hope it was the only shenanigans you had to deal with!

Keep it coming!!
Tara

 

[jns]

really enjoying your report , Great photos
hope u feel better soon

 

[HiddenMickeys]

really enjoying your report , Great photos
hope u feel better soon

Glad you all are enjoying, and thanks. It's getting a little better, but to be honest I am surprised. The sickest I have ever been has been the flu for 3-4 days one time. Normally I get sick for a day, maybe 2. Going on 2 weeks tomorrow and still coughing as bad as day 1. This thing is kickin my patootie lol.

I'll be posting more in a lil bit, and thanks for reading everyone.

 

[Kay1]

Goodness! I hope you feel much better very soon. I must say, I've read some of the Radisson shuttle horror stories, but I think you've got everybody else beat. Also, I started my own thread last week about all the people who crowd around the "ears" when there's no need at all. I don't get it.

Well, take care and get lots of rest.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Goodness! I hope you feel much better very soon. I must say, I've read some of the Radisson shuttle horror stories, but I think you've got everybody else beat. Also, I started my own thread last week about all the people who crowd around the "ears" when there's no need at all. I don't get it.

Well, take care and get lots of rest.

lol, thanks. Yes, who would have thought we'd have a WORSE horror story by NOT taking their shuttle. Go figure.

Have to say, this h1n1 bugger is quite strange. The fever is gone, dizziness I had is gone, no more stuffy nose and excessive phlem (theres no good word for that substance in the English language is there? lol). It's all gone, but the coughing remains. And coughing fits at that. Weird.

As for the people standing around, they don;t just want to be a number 2, or 3, or 4, etc......But they want to be the FIRST #2,3,4 on board. I know I don;t make a lot of friends here on the board because of my feelings on these types of people, but give it a rest already. They are not leaving without you. What's with the whole me first, me first, me first, mentality? Now, if they made an announcement that they were only placing one box of mickey bars on this ship for this sailing, then yes, I may increase my stride a little. Otherwise, what's the rush?

Same thing happens in the parks. The people send a kid barreling over the ropes to jump in front of those of us who actually use the ropes, and then the parents meander up behind us, and join their kids. If being in front of me for this ride was that important to you, go right ahead buttercup, be my guest. lol Just make sure you're also in front of me leaving the parking lot at the end of the day because I surely don't want your impatient butt behind me then either.

Now, someone may read this report and say "Well wait, YOU wanted to be at the terminal at 10 too didn't you?" Yep, I did. and I was also quick to point out that once I was there my first thought was how SILLY that was. NO REASON for us to be there that early, and thats a mistake we won't make again. But see, I also wanted to be there at 10 to be able to take our time, not to rush. I wanted to look around, take pictures, and I had NO IDEA how long any of that and check in would take, since I had not been before. Now I know. Was it nice that we got a #2, sure it was. Was that the goal when deciding to be there at 10? Believe what you will, but no it wasn't.

Actually, we had fun with it. My brother got in line when we walked in and a security guard said "Sir, you realize check in does not start for 45 minutes."

My brother points at me (taking pics of the ship model I posted above) and says "See that guy over there? He's my brother, and I am in line just so I can be first and he won't be, just to piss him off."

I thought the security guard was gonna die laughing. But a couple minutes after that he (my brother) did leave the line and walk around and all. Although, he also ended up first in line when it was time to check in. Hmmm, the plot thickens.

 

[Mickey4me!]

As for the people standing around, they don;t just want to be a number 2, or 3, or 4, etc......But they want to be the FIRST #2,3,4 on board. I know I don;t make a lot of friends here on the board because of my feelings on these types of people, but give it a rest already. They are not leaving without you. What's with the whole me first, me first, me first, mentality? Now, if they made an announcement that they were only placing one box of mickey bars on this ship for this sailing, then yes, I may increase my stride a little. Otherwise, what's the rush?

I agree with all your observations. Sorta like my feeling about people who don't know how to practice good airplane etiquette....http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Airplane-Etiquette (But if there was only 1 box of Mickey bars, I step on everyone in my way to be the first one on.)

Hope you're feeling better soon!

 

[natale1980]

I would just like to thank you for writing a TR! Your hilarious! I have to pass this on to my dad, he's coming with us in January. It will be his first cruise, I think he'll enjoy reading your report!

Get Better Soon!
-nat

 

[tefrench]

Thanks for all the good info! We are going on our first cruise in February and I am getting so excited!

 

[PizzieDuster]

LOVE your trip report. I totally get your humor .... best trip report ever!

Love the shuttle I MEAN TAXI story!!!!!!

Please make your report LONG and with lots of pictures!

 

[Olga]

Feel better soon, come back when you can..it's worth the wait.
This has really been a fun read.
Love your style, humour and stories and your pics are wonderful!
Move your butt!

 

[Gillhoolie]

Hi everybody,

I'm hiddenmickey (Mike's) brother Tom (the blondish fat guy in the photos) . Mikey's been pretty sick since we got back, but has done a pretty good job describing the trip so far. We had a great time, and of course wish it was a 3 month cruise instead of a 3 day.

I can tell the story ahead a little, but not too far so Mikey can post some pictures (he told me how, but being the compudoofus i am can't get it to work)

 

[Gillhoolie]

My family was in room 6071, right next to Mikey's family. We both decorated our doors with magnets and hung our fish extenders after we were finished with Parrot Cay and lunch. I must say it was my favorite restaurant, even over Animator's Palate and Triton's; not for the food but for the atmosphere and ambiance. It was like eating in a giant Enchanted Tiki Room, which I thought was pretty cool.

After decorating our room, we headed up to deck 10 starboard above the Mickey Pool as this was our agreed upon meeting time/place with our friends from the Disboards and fellow fish extender participants. It was really cool to meet people you've been talking to online forever about the cruise but have never met; to finally put a name and face along with the Dis-ID. There was music playing from a DJ down on deck 9 as people were dancing and kids were splashing away in the Goofy pool. Alot of us were enjoying our first tropical drink; the "Bahama Mamma" was the drink of the day in a cool, collectible souvenir glass.
The awesome thing about deck 10 was the view we had. We could see our hotel (The Radisson) as well as most all of the Cape and Cocoa Beach. We even had a great view of the Vehicle Assembly Building up at Kennedy Space Center.
Around 3:30 we said our goodbyes (for now) and headed back to our staterooms to get ready for the safety drill......here's where I'll stop so Mikey can add some pictures in!!

On a side note, Mikey didn't quite set the scene when we were in the terminal getting ready for check in....We both, for some reason, thought we HAD to be at the terminal before everyone else (first timers) so we could get on the boat first and have the most time to check everything out...Mikey wanted desperately to be THE FIRST person in line for check in. We were in the terminal at around 10am, and the signage said the lines open at 10:30. So Mikey runs around with the camera and takes pictures of everything, thinking he still had time to get in line....Meanwhile, I hand my camera to my son and walk all through the ropes to the "newbie" check in line. A CM who was at the top of the escalator says to me"Sir, you realize the check in doesn't start for another 30 minutes?"...and since there were only 10-15 people in the terminal, Mikey could hear our conversation...."Oh yes, I said, but see that fluffy guy over there in the crazy yellow shirt? He's my brother, and watch his head explode when he sees that not only will he not be first in line, but that I am the one in front of him." ...At that point, Mikey turns around with his mouth open to see me in line, and I point to myself and proclaim #1. He won't admit it, but he was surprised; the CM laughed hysterically and we both saw the steam rising off Mikey's head! (what are brothers for?) In his panic he came over to the line, but what we didn't foresee was that everyone who was coming up the escalator immediately got in line behind me (see what crap you started?...I was later told). So not only was Mikey not first, but he wasn't second, third, or forth either......probably about 10th. It wasn't a big deal, and as he said he even got through the check in deal before i did because of a broken security camera, but it sure was cool to see his head explode!!!!

 

[HiddenMickeys]

ok, thats enough out of you lol. No I didn't care less about being number 1 in line, or I would have been (since I was first up the escalator for all of us lol). and there were only 2 groups between us once we did get in line , those 4 adults were all together, so it just seemed like 5-6 families. lol

And as for getting done the whole process before you due to your camera issues? Karma, dear brother. Remember, the Karma gods were with us that day, but nooooooooooooooooo, you had to go and anger them with the whole "first in line" thing. So, they shined all their attention on me instead. So there!

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Ok, went back to the doc's tonight, got some serious drugs, so hopefully i'll be feeling better real soon.

I do need to insert a bit here that got left out. Can't believe my dear brother didn't remember to say anything either.

You know you're getting senile when you forget to talk about something that you forgot. (jeez, that kind of sounds like yogi berra there doesn't it?)

Bear with me.


Hop aboard my magical taxi/shuttle bus friends and lets return to the land of the Radisson for a moment.

The night before the cruise. DW and I get out all of our clothes for us and the kiddies for the next morning and make sure absolutely everything else is packed and ready to go. I gather the suitcases, take off the airline luggage tags (don't get ahead of me here people, WAIT FOR IT! ) and say to my wife (and I am quoting myself here). Hey hon, remind me in the morning before we leave that I have to get the suitcases and put on the HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (only it wasn't crap, it was the mother load, the big magilla, Mr. Hankey, the grand dame of all words for bodily functions, the dreaded S dash-dash-dash)

Yes, dear friends, the wonderful DCL luggage tags. It was at that precise moment that I realized my tags were nice and safe, tucked ever so neatly and carefully in a folder, marked "Disney" and were safely sitting on my dresser. My dresser back in New Jersey.

Now, this would have been all well and good if this were my one and only faux pas. But no, dear friends, at this moment thoughts of a previous Disney world trip were running through my head. Thoughts of when we drove from the pop century to epcot, parked, rode the tram, got off the tram, walked up to the gates, and as my brother and his family walked through said gates, I reached into my wallet for one of the classic mother hubbard moments of all time. Yes, I left our park tickets in the room safe. But since sooo many other fine folks wanted to go to epcot that day and were still parking in our row, our car was buried by a sea of people. So there we sat, on a bus back to the pop to get our tix, while my brother and his family enjoyed all the wonderful epcot-iness in our absence.

Now, one would THINK after missing out on said wonderful Epcotiness in years gone by, that it would INCONCEIVABLE that the same moron would EVER forget something trip related again. But nooooooooooooo. It seems the memory gods must have been hanging out at a kegger with the drama gods and decided to throw Mikey a curve ball.

So, now friends, hop back aboard said magical taxi/shuttle bus and realize this all happened the night before our incident with our new friends on the bus. So, I may have been just a tad, a smidge, an itsy bitsy bit testy to begin with that day. Now that may shed some more light on what unfolded.

In any event, if you ever find yourself to be an incompetent, forgetful, moron then I highly recommend traveling with a friend or relative.

The fine folks at DCL are kind enough to send out 8 luggage tags. And since my brother must have taken his ginko that week and actually remembered his tags, we just used 3 of his that he didn't need. Since our rooms were side by side, they left them between our 2 rooms anyway, so it worked out fine. Luckily, that was ALL that we forgot.

By the way, if you do find yourself in the same situation and without any backup, I believe during my frantic call to DCL and amidst my jibberish and crying, the CM said we could have them reprinted at the terminal.

Ok, so moving onward now with the second half of Port Canaveral day...

 

[HiddenMickeys]

ummm..................

Decorated doors, got it.

About 2:30ish, we left our stateroom and our wonderfully decorated door lol, and made our way up to deck 10.

Woohoo! We're on the boat!

*singing(again* "...I got my swim trunks, and my flippie floppies...."
oops, sorry.

So yes, we finally made it up to the top of the ship and took a good look around:

 

[HiddenMickeys]

At 3:00 it was time to finally meet some of the gang from the dis and our cruise meet thread on deck 10, midship:

Ok, so here's the gang that was able to make it to the meet. Now, I am doing this from memory (remember forgotten tix a few years ago, luggage tags this year) so forgive me If i get someone mixed up here, and gang correct me if I do.

The gang:

Ok, starting on the left we have (I believe lol) Meredisney, the next two would be MaxRocco, followed by Disneyelf10 & Hubby, and then NMMickeymom, the woman in red is just some chickie I just met on the plane to Orlando (DW HiddenMinnies), Some fat guy in a bright yellow shirt, My sister-in-law Debbie (Tom's wife) and finally the guy that looks like Don Johnson and Chris Farley had a love child would be my brother Tom (Gilhoolie)

If I misnamed anyone, just correct me....Unless it was my wife, in which case give me a 10 minute running head start.

It was VERY cool to meet some of our dis buddies and put faces with names. Everyone was very nice, and believe it or not...of course reading this you won;t believe it....Tom and I are actually a little shy around people. So once we got past the initial awkwardness of hi,hi,hi.....long semi-awkward pause ...it was fine.

We did manage to see a few of the dis peeps who were unable to make the meet, later on around the ship.

Well after our dis meet and greet, as you can tell from the giant warning behind the kiddies, we needed to get back to the room.

We donned the ever sporty and stylish life jackets, and made our way out. Ok, everyone, palms facing forward like a mime in a glass box, and now rock side to side and lets all do the oompa-loompa dance.
(hey we did it on the ship, but we surely couldn't be the first to think of it with these orange monstrosities on.

Hey, I was having a fun day. For a split second there I was feeling really good about myself. Man, I haven't worn something with just an L on it in YEARS....... Until I realized that it wasn't a size, but our lifeboat station.

We learned all the ins and outs of how to act in an emergency, like "everyone slide to your left", Riveting. or "fill in all available space"...groundbreaking. Well after we got done the lifeboat limbo, the mickey macarena, and the safety slide, it was time to go put the life jackets (or are they vests? you know, it's so hard to tell sometimes when it comes to safety wear). Anyway, it was time to put the life jackets/vests/thingies away.

Tom and I already had a plan just to scout the ship for women with implants should an emergency arise ( no need to run back to the cabin for life vests) but that plan was quickly nixed by the wives. So we put the lifejackets where we could actually find them if need be.

So after we put away the vests it was time to head back to deck 10 for the sailaway party...