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

[stitchlovestink]

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 was 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...

Sooooo...... THAT'S WHY I COULDN'T FIND YOU GUYS for the Dismeet. I was looking on deck 9. I did manage to meet up w/ Goldeelox as we had cruised together before. I was kinda bummed that I didn't get to me anyone this time other than pjpoohbear but that was as we were getting off of the ship. Kinda a last minute thing, ya know...
I did see Hiddenminnies on the ship but did not know that was her at the time.
Great TR so far HiddenMickeys!

 

[HiddenMickeys]

So, we got to deck 10 for the sailaway Party. Deck 10 was just a tad crowded, and deck 9 looked to be 10x worse. But, really the only 2 times everyone on the ship is in this area all at the same time are the sail away and the pirate party.

So, the sailaway party was rockin.... Every time I look at this pic, I start singing again "Hey, hey baby! (ooh, ahh) I wanna knooooooooooow......."

After a bit, the head cheese and his main squeeze made an appearance:

And as the party ended, they drew back the gangways:

Hit the horn (even though I heard recordings before, still AWESOME the first time you hear it live)

And finally Captain Henry put the pedal to the metal, or joystick to the giddyup position, or whatever the heck he does, and we were moovin' and groovin'

ok, so now all the dreams were a reality. We're on the ship, we're on our way....wait, where's our fruity little drinks?

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Sooooo...... THAT'S WHY I COULDN'T FIND YOU GUYS for the Dismeet. I was looking on deck 9. I did manage to meet up w/ Goldeelox as we had cruised together before. I was kinda bummed that I didn't get to me anyone this time other than pjpoohbear but that was as we were getting off of the ship. Kinda a last minute thing, ya know...
I did see Hiddenminnies on the ship but did not know that was her at the time.
Great TR so far HiddenMickeys!

Sorry about that, yeah nobody was making a decision and people were starting to leave for their trips so we took a quick vote and 3 on deck 10 won. Sorry we didnt get to see ya. We also ran into goldee and hubby in triton;s during breakfast and had a chance to say hi. I think they were a few people over from us on cataway day as well, but we (and they) were too busy relaxing to chat again lol.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

fruity little drinks? Well we didn't care for the drinks of the day, and we saw a few other people order and were waiting, so we made a quick slip into the new outlook cafe:

And there was a very nice and friendly female bartender in there. DW didnt know what she wanted so the bartender asked what types of things she liked and made her up a drink that was Peach schnapps, OJ, Passion fruit juice, cranberry juice and then blended it like a smoothie with ice. DW said it was to die for. I just grabbed a blue hawaiian and I have to say, it blew away the ones I had when I was IN HAWAII. We both got the souvenir glasses as DW wanted 2. I think the drinks were 8.50 each with the glasses. Just have to add, some people say disney may charge a bit high for their drinks. I don't think so, and I'll add they definitely do NOT skimp on the alcohol. Those drinks were hummin' lol, So up above is a shot of the bar area inside the cove cafe and our nice bartender by the windows.


And here's a shot of the adult pool from inside the cafe:

So we had our fruity little drinks, and now we headed back out to the deck and all found a spot along the rail to watch us pull out of port:

We waved bye to the cm's on the terminal balcony and just took in the sights:

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Sunset, over port canaveral:

 

[HiddenMickeys]

After spending a bit of time on deck, it was time to head back to the room and get dressed for the show and dinner, which for me consisted of putting on pants and nicer shoes lol.

We had late dinner. We loved it. My brother and I just both posted in another thread why we loved the late seating, so I am just going to cut and paste that into here for those who may have missed it:

My response:
We had late, and found it did give you more time during the day to eat poolside or room service without spoiling your dinner too much. We also liked not having to sit and watch the shows being "stuffed like a thanksgiving meal" lol. granted our two are older (14,17) but my brothers youngest (9) was fine with the late seating and seemed to prefer it as well. The other thing we enjoyed was that we were never rushed at dinner (since no one else was coming), and had some GREAT conversations with our servers and really enjoyed that. It was the end of their day too, and they really seemed to kick back and chat with us over dessert, which was a nice treat each night.

and Tom's response:
Hi, I'm the one with the 9 yr old, and believe me I'm glad we had the late seating.....not only for the reasons my brother just said, but I just don't like running to dinner. After a day of runing around Nassau, and especially after running around Castaway Cay, I just wanted to come back to the boat and wind down some, spool down a little before I sat down to eat; watching the shows was perfect for this!

My advice....stay on the late dinner, and when you get back from whatever you're doing to dress for dinner and the show, call room service and get a few mickey bars or even a sandwich/burger if you want to hold the kids (and you!) over until dinner. Dinner itself will be more relaxed too, as you won't be herded out! After a great meal, you may find your little ones are ready for some shut eye, which could add some free time for you and the DH, so it could be a bonus for you......good luck!

So there you have it. Yes, we'll never do early, as late worked just great for us. But dont let the secret out too much, dont want to have to book early to get LATE dinner in the future.

So it was off to the show. Night one was the golden Mickey's. It was our least favorite of the three shows on the trip, but that being said it was still a very good show and well worth seeing. The pics didnt turn out well in the theatre as they asked for no flash (and on later nights said to not take pics at all and to shut your cams off so the light up srceens didnt interfere) So, the first night I didnt know, and took a few without a flash, they were all bad, but this one wasnt too bad, so here ya go. lol

After the show, DW DD and I went to studio sea for Mickey Mania and DS went with Tom and family to pin trade in the atrium. I have no idea why I didnt take any pics in studio sea, gues it was because dd really wanted to get picked and I was focusing on being her teammate if we did.

Well we didn't get picked, but still had a lot of fun. Some people actually got up and left when they didnt get picked. There were 3 teams from NJ (woohoo!) and 1 from NH. Guess who won? NH . It was a really neat little thing to do and if you've never gone, we highly recommend it. Really gets you in the whole Disney mood.

After the game, we met back up with Tom and the gang in the lobby and made our way to Animator's Palate (stop one on the fat boys dinner tour)

We were shown to our table:

And it was there that we met our FANTASTIC servers Brenton (from St. Vincent) and Andrew (from Liverpool, UK):

Ok, we can't say enough about these guys. Not only great service, but great PEOPLE. Real friendly, down to earth guys, and as we said earlier we thoroughly enjoyed talking to them about their homes, and their future plans with the new ships coming. Brenton, it turns out, is a senior staff and has been offered and accepted a spot on the new Dream when it sets sail along with about 60 other senior staff so far, he told us. Andrew has a bid in to transfer to the Magic, once the Wonder heads west as his desire is to stay in the Caribbean. I believe he commented "Well Alaska is beautiful don't ya know, but being from the UK I'll still take some sand and a palm tree any day mate."

The other interesting tidbit was that I asked about the crew cabins and where they were located. They told us theres a deck a and a deck b BELOW deck 1. And Brenton, in his cool island accent said "So yeah, when we go ta sleep we're literally under da sea man." Sounded just like sebastian when he said that.

So yes, the guys are awesome. We wish them well in the future but it will be a shame to see them apart, they work so great together. If you're going on the wonder in the next little while, ASK for them. You won't be disappointed.

Brenton asked if we had any Palo plans and I told him "this is our first time, so we don;t want to miss any of the regular restaurants, but that chocolate souffle sure looked great in pics we saw of it (which are here on the dis in the now infamous "food-porn" thread lol).

So he says "well I can't do anything tonight but let me work on that for ya" Well, you can all see where this is going, but you have to wait until night 3 anyway.

So we ordered and took a few pics...

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Becca and I:

A few pis of the show, when the color came up:

Ok, overall review of AP? Good. Everyone has their faves and for us we'd rank AP as #2 of the 3 restaurants. The food was really good, but also not our favorite night. For some reason we didnt take pics of the food until dessert time, but I will tell you I had:
appetizer - Taleggio cheese flatbread (which was really good)
Soups and salads - I passed (I don't care for nuttin'...sorry abbot & costello reference lol)
entree-I got the penne pasta dish, and it flat out rocked. VERY good (but still another entree later on beats it lol). In any event, the pasta was very good, absolutely loved it.

Dessert- ok here we go

I got what was (including surprises to come later from Brenton) THE BEST thing I put in my mouth the ENTIRE trip...
( I know I will incur the wrath of the great Mickey-Bar gods for saying it, but I have to)

The buckled warm apple crumble:

not only was it the best apple crumble I ever had, it was nice and hot with nice cold (and very GOOD) vanilla ice cream. Man oh man I was happier than George W. Bush when he passed his public speaking class in high school. (nucular still cracks me up). and NO that isnt a political statement, the man just has some speech issues.

On the apple crumble, to quote cousin' eddie from national lampoon's Christmas Vacation "I don't know what you put in it, but it's gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooooooooooooood!"

If you are a fan of apples, crumbles, ice cream, plates, spoons, tables, or food, I recommend you try it.

Then when you get back, I can ask you all "How'd you like THEM apples?" Sorry, couldnt resist.

Oh by the way, being the stunning physical creature that I am I got a second dessert. (OH my GOD somebody call Ripley's)

Anyway, it was very good as well, dare I say great? I think I will!
Double fudge chocolate cake with caramel-orange chocolate sauce:

The apple crumble still blew it away though, so I guess the cake would be rated great-minus whereas the crumble would be a great-plus.

DW got the sweet temptations trio:
( i was expecting three guys in suits to come sing to her, but alas it was just food)

She said all 3 were fantastic.

Thats all the dessert pics I took because I was too busy wiping apple crumble off of my face to take any more.

All in all, it was a great dinner, but it was to be topped another night.

After dinner it was time for a little after dinner waddle.....

 

[HiddenMickeys]

After dinner we went for a waddle around the ship and did some shopping:

After a long hard day of relaxing, eating, and shopping, ds Mikey has hit the proverbial wall. (yes thats him at the end of the hall, waiting for the rest of us to finish shopping)

Hey look, Floor!

We got back to the room and our stateroom host Walter (also fantastic) had turned down the beds and left us with the subject of a great debate. Our mutant sea creature lol. We had varying opinions. Is it a sting ray? A lobster? A jellyfish, an anchor, or none of the above? lol I still say it's a sting ray but my family disagrees.

The kids' beds were also set up for them:

Now, looking at these pics it may look like my two teens may not have enough room, but TRUST ME when I say that if they DIDN'T, mamacita and I would have definitely heard about it. During, and now after the trip we all said we had plenty (well enough) room to maneuver in the room and as far as sleeping no one had any complaints.

Well we have finally reached the end of a long day.

Let me ask you, did it seem like a long day going through it with us? If so, Good!

Now gather 'round all my fellow newbies. Take this day, and now add to it the stress, hassle, and time of going to the airport, and a flight, getting luggage, and getting to the port. Well, scratch the last one as everyone has to do that the day of anyway.

My point? Everyone on the dis always says fly in the day or night before and they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO right! We would not have lasted or enjoyed the day as much as we did if we had to add a trip to orlando the to morning activities. So heres one more person saying it. FLY IN THE DAY OR NIGHT BEFORE!

It's definitely not the parks where you can fly in and be on space mountain by noon without skipping a beat.

So, as far as this report goes, and also literally here in NJ at 1:44am, it has come to the end of a long day.

Next up, Nassau - Caribbean Trash Can? Or Island with a bad rap?
Tune in next time!

Will post more soon, hope you're enjoying!

 

[MaggieAtSea]

Glad you are feeling better... you write VERY well and with great spirit and humor and you are giving me and fellow readers an excellent taste of what our upcoming trip on the Wonder will be like. Well done!

 

[KsSteve]

DW and I were on the same cruise on 11/5! Did you find the ship a bit rocky the first and last nights? Didn't bother us, but we thought it was rockin a bit.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

DW and I were on the same cruise on 11/5! Did you find the ship a bit rocky the first and last nights? Didn't bother us, but we thought it was rockin a bit.

Yep, she was a rockin. I do a lot of deep sea fishing here in NJ so I wasnt too worried about myself, but yes even I felt it rockin and rolling. That first night at animators DD was a little green around the gills, but she took her bonine and perked right back up and ate well. DW and DS also took the bonine each day and were fine. I didn't realize I didnt take any until after the cruise, so I guess I didn't need it.

Brenton was telling us that the first and last nights are rougher because we have to cross (I think he called it) the straits of Florida? In any event, whatever they were called, he said it's part of the gulf stream and we had to cut across it he was saying, and again coming from cc. So he said those 2 nights are typically worse.

We had the added bonus of the tropical storm out there, which just made everything that much more magnified, according to him.

But yes, the first night we actually heard unused hangars in the closet banging together lol.

We also overheard on deck that one of the shows (the later shows, while we would have been eating) was stopped mid way due to the rocking and the performers safety. I "thought" they said it was the first night but not sure. Maybe someone who was on with us and had early dinner can shed more light on that.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Glad you are feeling better... you write VERY well and with great spirit and humor and you are giving me and fellow readers an excellent taste of what our upcoming trip on the Wonder will be like. Well done!

Thanks for the kind words, glad you are enjoying it so far.

 

[schimj]

Really enjoying the trip report so far. DW & I regret not being able to make it to the meet on the first day, but we managed to find some others from our FE group just around the ship. We saw Meredisney & hubby @ the martini tasting, saw maxroco in the elevator while delivering the FE gifts, goldeelox & hubby at the art auction, and we couldn't toss a Mickey bar without finding Alaska CatDog & DogCat. We also saw you and your family quite a few times, but we were always on our way to do something.

Glad to hear you're feeling better. DW & I caught something as well...DW ended up with a sinus infection by the end of the cruise (she's doing much better now), and I managed to stay healthy on the cruise, but my first week back at work I managed to catch some sort of nasty head cold/cough that I'm finally getting rid of.

Hope you get your next cruise booked soon. Our next DCL trip will be about a year from now...the 10/30/10 7-Night Western...we're already starting to look forward to that

I look forward to reading the rest of the report! It's like going on vacation all over again

 

[TifffanyD]

DH already said most of it - but I am enjoying reading your TR! Oh and we chatted up the bartender in the Outlook Cafe too. Her name was Stani and she mixed us up some martinis while we talked about the new ship and all. Looking forward to reading the rest! I feel like we were so lazy when I read all that you guys did - we skipped all the shows and stayed on board at Nassau. Not sure where the time went!! I didn't notice the ship's motion as much this cruise as I did on our last one.

 

[stitchlovestink]

After dinner we went for a waddle around the ship and did some shopping:

After a long hard day of relaxing, eating, and shopping, ds Mikey has hit the proverbial wall. (yes thats him at the end of the hall, waiting for the rest of us to finish shopping)

Hey look, Floor!

We got back to the room and our stateroom host Walter (also fantastic) had turned down the beds and left us with the subject of a great debate. Our mutant sea creature lol. We had varying opinions. Is it a sting ray? A lobster? A jellyfish, an anchor, or none of the above? lol I still say it's a sting ray but my family disagrees.

The kids' beds were also set up for them:

Now, looking at these pics it may look like my two teens may not have enough room, but TRUST ME when I say that if they DIDN'T, mamacita and I would have definitely heard about it. During, and now after the trip we all said we had plenty (well enough) room to maneuver in the room and as far as sleeping no one had any complaints.

Well we have finally reached the end of a long day.

Let me ask you, did it seem like a long day going through it with us? If so, Good!

Now gather 'round all my fellow newbies. Take this day, and now add to it the stress, hassle, and time of going to the airport, and a flight, getting luggage, and getting to the port. Well, scratch the last one as everyone has to do that the day of anyway.

My point? Everyone on the dis always says fly in the day or night before and they were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO right! We would not have lasted or enjoyed the day as much as we did if we had to add a trip to orlando the to morning activities. So heres one more person saying it. FLY IN THE DAY OR NIGHT BEFORE!

It's definitely not the parks where you can fly in and be on space mountain by noon without skipping a beat.

So, as far as this report goes, and also literally here in NJ at 1:44am, it has come to the end of a long day.

Next up, Nassau - Caribbean Trash Can? Or Island with a bad rap?
Tune in next time!

Will post more soon, hope you're enjoying!

THAT'S IT!!!!!
THAT IS WHERE I SAW HIDDENMINNIES. I was talking to her in Mickey's Mates. I know it was her. We were talking about pins or ornaments or something like that. I knew I had seen her. I even spoke to a fellow Dis'er and didn't even know it at the time. Oh how frustrating to not have known at the time who she was. Tell HiddenMinnies I said hello.

 

[HiddenMickeys]

THAT'S IT!!!!!
THAT IS WHERE I SAW HIDDENMINNIES. I was talking to her in Mickey's Mates. I know it was her. We were talking about pins or ornaments or something like that. I knew I had seen her. I even spoke to a fellow Dis'er and didn't even know it at the time. Oh how frustrating to not have known at the time who she was. Tell HiddenMinnies I said hello.

I told her last night. And now she's asking "do they have a pic posted of themselves on the board somewhere" because now she's going just as crazy trying to figure out when you two talked lol.

 

[KsSteve]

Yep, she was a rockin. I do a lot of deep sea fishing here in NJ so I wasnt too worried about myself, but yes even I felt it rockin and rolling. That first night at animators DD was a little green around the gills, but she took her bonine and perked right back up and ate well. DW and DS also took the bonine each day and were fine. I didn't realize I didnt take any until after the cruise, so I guess I didn't need it.

Brenton was telling us that the first and last nights are rougher because we have to cross (I think he called it) the straits of Florida? In any event, whatever they were called, he said it's part of the gulf stream and we had to cut across it he was saying, and again coming from cc. So he said those 2 nights are typically worse.

Yeah, Oliver, our waiter in Palo on Saturday told us that also. He also said they considered not porting into Castaway Cay because of the winds. That would have been a real bummer.

 

[lmhall2000]

Stop with the food pics! I'm salivating on my laptop!!

My guess with the towel surprise is ARIEL!! It's her flowing hair and fish fin!

Tara

 

[stitchlovestink]

I told her last night. And now she's asking "do they have a pic posted of themselves on the board somewhere" because now she's going just as crazy trying to figure out when you two talked lol.

No, I didn't manage to get one up on the meet thread before we left. and we left early, we were gone by 10/30 to WDW

 

[HiddenMickeys]

Day 3 - (cruise day #2) Nassau


I'm an early riser normally and I woke up about 5am and decided to grab a quick shave and shower and then head out for a little walk and let DW and the kiddies sleep in a little bit. I thought about calling Tom, but I VALUE my life, and images of my sister-in-law chasing me around the ship quickly stopped that thought. So, I got dressed and headed out of the door. As soon as I got into the hallway there was a piece of folded up paper in our fish. I opened it up and started laughing. It said "Mike, up at 5, couldn't sleep, I'm on deck 10. Tom". Great minds think alike eh?

So I wandered my way up there but took some pics along the way.

The mural behind the midship elevator bank on deck 6 (actually i think it goes up more than 1 deck, but it started on deck 6):

The front side of the elevators, deck 6 midship elevator lobby:

The midship elevator lets you off on deck 10 right at the new outlook cafe:

I know some people had wondered how much of the deck 10 space the "wings" of the new cafe took up. Well heres a pic, and it shows there's still plenty of room to get around it on deck:

Ominous skies at 6am did not give us much hope:

Looking out at all the whitecaps, we realized why we felt the boat moving so much the night before:

Plus, with hurricane ida blowin around in the Caribbean, BOY was it WINDY! we saw on the tv that morning that the winds were 35mph sustained with gusts up to 55!

I met Tom up on deck 10, and one side of the ship wasn't all that windy, whereas the other side (where no one was sitting lol) you couldnt even stand still. I have to say I LOVE this time of day. Always did at wdw as well, but it's just so peaceful on the ship with not many people around. There were maybe 4-5 people up on deck 10 sitting.

I wanted to grab a drink, and we decided to head down to deck 9 and grab one and get out of the wind for a bit. So we went down the steps to deck 9:

And took a few pics along the way:

Tom stopped at goofy's galley and they had some little things to grab (fruit, a few pastries, what looked like a bacon egg & cheese hot pocket, and some other things). He grabbed a couple bananas for us and we headed over to the drink station and grabbed a couple sodas.

Since we were sans kids, we decided to head up towards the cove cafe and the nice comfy seats lol.

We found them, and yes, they are worth heading up there for. Here's tom trying to look studious and intellectual as he ponders the navigator for the day:

And here I am attempting to do the same (until I realized I was holding the navigator upside down)

I have to say, the area was nice and quiet (hence the name of the whole "quiet cove" area)

But seriously, at this time of morning it was great. We were totally out of the wind, and could just sit and chat. Not getting sappy here, but it was nice to sit and have a 1 on one with my bro, which we dont get to do that much. And also to just have a nice little snack (even if it was just a banana and a sprite lol) and watch the waves for a bit.

Sunrise in the caribbean:

After our chat and snack, we decided to go exploring a bit...