Day at Sea, Wednesday
The first event of the day was a live podcast taping in the Buena Vista theater. How exciting to know you are actually going to see the crew in action. I must admit the crew did an exceptional job going through the show with no stops. The conversation among the crew flowed so well I had to check to see if I was really watching them live or just listening to an already edited show.
What was even more surprising our family got a couple of shot outs during the show. One of the things we love about the Podcast Crew is how personable they all are. They take it upon themsevles to reach out to all of us and get to know us. I have pictures of the crew in action, but I don't dare.
You'll see it soon enough. One of the highlights of the show was an interview with Lee Cockrell. It was great to hear his side of the Disney story. Lee answered a series of tough questions very well. I enjoyed hearing his perspective on Disney's theme parks and operations.
After the live podcast taping we got to hear a more in depth speech from Lee concerning Disney managment and leadership sponsored by Dream Unlimited and the Disney Institute. Again, it was very enjoyable. Lee discussed how leadership translates to real life situations. I chose not to take photos.
At 1:00 it was time to take our group photo in the deck 3 lobby. If you haven't seen the photo here is the link to it.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/photo.php?pid=1875245&id=757398364&ref=mf
After the group photo I realized I didn't have a chance to eat so we walked up to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. We dined with Chris (Crazydisneyman) and his family along with Shelly (Shellyminnie).
Now that lunch is over and I've "pigged out" once again we headed over to the adult pool where we found DPuck and Tamra. After we sat down many others stopped by to join us.
Before we knew it we had a quite a crew
After our group party I went to pick up Anna at the Oceaneer's lab. Anna really loved the lab. You have heard it mentioned before, but kds love the lab so much it's tough to get them out. That was the case with Anna. We had to entice her to leave. Typically, we told her dinner was coming up and we needed to get dressed. That usually worked because Anna loved
our servers. They bonded.
In one of my previous posts I mentioned about our head server and his magic tricks. Well, this trick takes the cake. Our head server takes an empty wine bottle with the cork in it. Sticks a tooth pick straight up and down in the cork and balances two other tooth picks diagonally on the straight up and down tooth pick with two forks on each side. This was absolutely amazing. It was so amazing it got the attention of the tables around us and eventually many of the people in the whole dining room. Here are a couple photos of the final result. Seeing is believing I guess, but I still don't believe it myself.
One half of the equation
And the 2nd half. Amazing!
So dinner at Triton's was over. We had a great french menu to choose from, but now it was time for our farewell party at the Goofy pool on deck 9. Most everyone was there and the crew was handing out free drink tickets. Have we said how generous the crew is? There the best! We all said our farewells and made sure our bags were outside of our rooms before 11:00AM so they would be picked up. We reflected on many things that happened throughout the cruise and even before the cruise. Before the evening ended we got one last shot of a few of the Muddy Buddies. (Team Beast rules)!
The next morning we packed up a few last minute things and headed to Triton's for our farewell breakfast. Again we received the same great service from our servers as usual. After breakfast we walked off the ship, picked up luggage, went through customs and boarded our bus. Sadly, the cruise was over, but memories live on.
The Podcast Cruise was an excellent idea. Having people on board who you know through the boards, or even more than that is a great experience. Bumping into them during our journey was priceless. For us, it was the best part of the cruise along with a couple other moments. The Dreams events really enhanced our trip. They were so well done and all the little surprises along the way really put this cruise over the top for us.
There were so many things I didn't discuss, but I'd probably be writing forever if I had to discuss them. Between the Muddy Buddy for GKTW, the podcast cruise, and friendships we made along the way I'm not sure anything will top this trip. A big thanks to Dreams, the podcast crew, Tracy, and everyone else who worked so hard to make it so enjoyable for us. We appreciate it!
Tomorrow we have a character breakfast planned at Tusker House and then Drink Around the World at EPCOT tomorrow evening. I'll post photos and comments of those events later.
Anxiously awaiting the rest ......
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