Patricia & Dale - DFTW VR 9/9/08 TR starts pg 50 - Finally finished! :)

[dstevens]

Ok people, i know i said i had posted my last post. But, i just had to add one more. I am going through "Post Disney Depression" . I believe this to be a real illness and wish to start up a support group. It will be real simple. All you need to do is follow my advice and then send me some money for my advice. The advice is GO BACK! Again and again. Now send me some money so i can go back. Seriously folks, Patty and i could not afford this cruise but we really wanted it as a 25th anniversary / vow renewal trip. I knew as much as i was going to enjoy it Patty would enjoy it more. So i took on a part-time job and we scrapped and saved (credit cards) to pay for it. And you know what? It was worth it. The time we had together just reignited our love for each other. You can see the new spark in Pattys eyes. Her eyes and face in the pictures reflect a glow that was not quite there before. And she has kept that glow till this day. Meeting up with Dis-Board friends was an added bonus. Patty put in a million miles with her fingers and countless hours on the dis-boards to make everything as close to perfect as possible. It was successful. My real advice to anybody remotely thinking about a Disney cruise is to DO IT. Unless you absolutely can't afford it. I don't mean to go this year or next but with in a couple of years. If you can swing a part-time job to dedicate the money to a cruise, do it. You will not regret it. I think we have been re invigarated for another 25 years. I Love you Patty.

 

[pjstevens]

I Love you Patty.

You made me cry (tears of joy). You are so sweet! I love you so much! And, honey, you can post here anytime you wish!

 

[Donald'sGirl]

You made me cry too Dale!!! The two are of are such an inspiration for us couples getting ready to get married! I can only hope that I am as happy as you to are when I am in my 25th year of marriage! I wish you only continued happiness and love in your life!

 

[chepic]

Dale, you are starting to make our husbands look bad....although Dave makes me smile and someimes glow, he would not even know the first thing about getting on the Disboard and pledging his love for me here!!!

cheryl

 

[pjstevens]

You made me cry too Dale!!! The two are of are such an inspiration for us couples getting ready to get married! I can only hope that I am as happy as you to are when I am in my 25th year of marriage! I wish you only continued happiness and love in your life!

Thanks Laura. An old neighbor (who we haven't seen in probably 10+ years) said we look more in love than we did back then).

 

[pjstevens]

Dale, you are starting to make our husbands look bad....although Dave makes me smile and someimes glow, he would not even know the first thing about getting on the Disboard and pledging his love for me here!!!

cheryl

Ok Cheryl, pass along Dave's email or phone number, I'll tell him what to do, lol!!! I worked for 10+ years in a small christian school. I was very close with a lot of the families. One of the moms would help with a lot of things at the school, so she had her own 'mailbox' in the office. Occasionally her hubby would leave little 'love notes' in her box. When I left, he 'forgot' that he was supposed to do that, so I emailed him a couple months later and 'reminded' him that he needed to leave his wife some notes.

 

[KeenHo]

I heard that a husband here was making us other husbands look bad.... I take offense to that. I can do that on my own!

Dale and Patti are a great couple. Congratulations on your renewed energy for the expression of love that you've felt for each other for years.



Howard

 

[pjstevens]

I heard that a husband here was making us other husbands look bad.... I take offense to that. I can do that on my own!

Dale and Patti are a great couple. Congratulations on your renewed energy for the expression of love that you've felt for each other for years.



Howard

Howard, you and Cam are both so sweet! I can't wait to hear all the details and see the pics in January!

 

[pjstevens]

September 7th!!!! The day we board the Wonder!

We awoke early and went to McDonald’s for breakfast. We were now on the 10am shuttle, thanks to our being ‘dusted’ the night before. We got our suitcases and went to the lobby to check in with the shuttle.

Waiting for the shuttle (You'll notice the trend of 'self-portraits' here)

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We were told to be there at least 15 minutes early but of course we were earlier than that. Dale had checked us in and when the shuttle ‘guy’ started to call names to load the shuttle, we were the second family called!!! WOOOHOOO!!! As Dale would say ‘dusted’!!!!

Riding on the shuttle (that’s Graham, of Corinna and Graham, right behind us)



As we were arriving at the terminal we saw THIS!!!!! Our very first view of the Wonder (sorry taken through the shuttle window)

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When we got to the terminal, we quickly made our way though security and up the escalator. A nice gentleman who was working side by side with his wife of 50 some years greeted us! Wow, what pixie dust, to be able to spend your days greeting people to the most magical fleet. We were giving boarding group 2!!!! Yippee!

We then had to get in line to actually check in and get our KTTW cards. We were the first group in the ‘new people’ line. They had had some computer issues so they were not ready to check anyone in yet. They did a ‘test’ with one of the castaway club members (I think that’s what you are when you’ve sailed Disney before). It took a while and I heard the CM tell her that there had been a change to the itinerary. WHAT CHANGE??? I heard the woman ask about her excursions and she was told if she had booked them through Disney they would take care of everything, but if she made her own plans, she’d need to contact someone else. We waited a bit longer and it was finally time for us to actually get to check in.

The woman checking us in was pleasant (but not that Disney pleasant I LOVE). She didn’t even mention the change to the itinerary until Dale asked her about it, then she proceeded to give us a note from the Captain. HELLO???!!! You think we might want to know if there is a change, WE HAVE A WEDDING ON BOARD!!!! Don’t you all realize that! Ok, rant over, sorry. After we got our cards, it was time to check out the terminal, since it was WAY too early to board the ship.
Had to take the customary photo of the ship in the terminal! Really is amazing all the detail.

We then got to meet our favorite mouse!!!!


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Up next (we board the ship and go EAT!!!)

 

[WDBRDWLK]

Hi Patty- love your report so far...brings back memories for me! DCL is the Best and Only cruise line we will ever sail. The CM's are always so nice and go out of their way to make sure everything is perfect. BTW I love your grand-daughters name...Just wait until she is born, she will just melt your heart!

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

What fun - I am lovin' your trip report!

 

[pjstevens]

Dale has been saying for months that he’d do a ‘happy dance’ as we board the ship and sure enough he kept his word! As we were ready to board, they ask your name and ‘announce us’ to the Cast members who are awaiting our arrival and clap for us!!! Wow, makes you feel like celebrities!

We had decided we were going to Parrot Cay for lunch so we could enjoy a relaxing sit down meal (remember we had McD’s for breakfast, lol). We had boarded right on deck three, so we just had to walk down the hall to lunch. Most people were going up to deck nine for the Beach Blanket lunch and the Mickey pool. We had no little ones with us, so we took our time and enjoyed the meal. There was so much food. This is just part of the deserts available.

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After lunch we wondered the ship. As we exited Parrot Cay, there were quite a few people waiting for the elevators, so we took the stairs (if you’ve been following along, I’ve been working out since mid March and running since late April, I was definitely more fit to take the stairs LOTS of times). We peeked into the Animator’s Pallet (which was not open for lunch this day).

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We decided to ‘wonder’ the ship some more. We were on the fourth floor at this time and walked towards mid deck where you could look down and see families still boarding (being announced, just like we were)! This is the ‘chandelier?’ in the atrium.

We then went up to deck nine (and ten) to walk around. Here is Goofy’s pool.



And Mickey’s pool.

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It was then time to check out our room (the magical rope drop around 1:30!!!!). We have only ever been on one ship (and it was NOT pretty like this, we had a window, but that’s about it). Our cabin door (I never did get a photo of it all decorated!!! What’s wrong with me (guess we’ll have to go back so I can do it again).

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We walked into our room and saw envelopes about our on board credits, a letter from our Wedding Coordinator, our personalized itinerary, celebration buttons and a congratulations card (with a certificate for a free photo)

Then we looked up, towards the door to our verandah…

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coming up "What's a Rain Forest Room?"

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

You saved for a first class trip, Patty!!!

 

[XmasPixie]

Yay! You are back and so much Pixie Dust so far. I love it. Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

[Donald'sGirl]

Patty that room looks so nice! I am starting to think I am going to have to convince DF to do a cruise after our wedding for a family vacation. (The desserts did it for me! )It looks so awesome!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[pjstevens]

We only had our little bit of carry on stuff, so we couldn’t unpack or anything so it was time to see more of our new ‘home’ for the next four nights. We were told we needed to check out the Rain Forest room so we took a little time to see the spa and fitness area. Here are a couple of pictures from the Rain Forest Room.

When you enter the room


The heated loungers


We decided to get the pass to use the Rain Forest for the entire trip (it was $15 pp per day or $45 for the four days (one person) and $60 for a couple). Honestly we didn’t use it as much as we ‘should’ have but we really enjoyed it when we did. I would definitely do that again. We found out that our day at sea had changed and we had reserved an Exotic Rasul and wanted to have that on our sea day NOT on our Castaway Cay day (which it would have been with the change in itinerary).

We had a short meeting with our Wedding Planner to go over the details of our ceremony. She was able to change our Palo reservations to the night of our vow renewal. Our WP was Rufaro and I’ll tell you she was the sweetest person. She would do anything to accommodate us.

We stopped back in our room to prepare for the emergency drill (the customary photos in our BRIGHT orange life jackets, lol)



After wards, it was time for the Sail Away party!!!!



Then we started to pull away from the port



After returning to our rooms to drop off our life jackets, we had some of our luggage. I wanted to get our Fish Extender hung up. We sorted out some of our gifts and got ready for dinner. We headed up to meet our tablemates (which we had already met). We were linked with Monica and Warren and Dawn and her family. It was nice to get to know our new friends more.



After dinner we were treated to a cake for our anniversary.



We ended up meeting up with Monica and Warren later on that evening and chatting until midnight! It was a very long day and morning would be here before we knew it.

 

[mymainmouse]

Patty,

I am so glad you had such an amazing trip (at least it seems to be so far ). I am also glad that I haven't missed to much of it. I can't wait to read the next installment!

 

[figmentfan814]

All the shots brought back some great memories. I sailed on the Wonder 5 years ago; I guess that means I'm due for another Disney cruise. Kris has never done a cruise, so I think he deserves one too!

Anyway, it looks like you were having a great time so far. It's great to hear all the little extra perks you received in honor of your VR.

 

[pjstevens]

Patty,

I am so glad you had such an amazing trip (at least it seems to be so far ). I am also glad that I haven't missed to much of it. I can't wait to read the next installment!

Kelly, I hope you had an awesome trip! The weather was great while we were in Disney (only rained once and that was the evening). Are you going to do a TR this time? Keep me posted, I'd love to read it.

All the shots brought back some great memories. I sailed on the Wonder 5 years ago; I guess that means I'm due for another Disney cruise. Kris has never done a cruise, so I think he deserves one too!

Vanessa, I think you need to plan a cruise for you and Kris (how about that quickly approaching first anniversary, ) This was our first Disney cruise and I don't think we'll ever cruise somethign else

 

[tiggerrifficheidi]

Patricia-You looked so beautiful and I am so glad y'all had such a good time! You definitely look happy!!