Pre/During/POST-trip Report: Podcast Cruise 2.0 December 12-16 UPDATED 1/7

[the_princess]

Great updates

 

[kimberleeJohnston]

Great report, can't wait to hear more.

 

[threewilmingtonwalls]

Awesome trip report! I thought I'd put a lot of effort into planning our upcoming cruise, but you are my new idol. You have inspired me to: 1. make a binder (which I secretly wanted to do all along, but DH teases me mercilessly about my over-planning as it is), and 2. buy a pair of Vibrams for the trip.

I am wondering - aside from your job at a print shop, which may allow for discounts, did you find cardstock/laminating your door magnets to be more cost effective than printing on magnetic paper? I don't have a laminating machine and printing in color costs me the same whether I do it on card stock or magnetic paper, right? I'm on the fence.

Also - the "You are Here" magnet is HILARIOUS. Would you be willing to tell me how you made that?

Thanks for the updates. I've subscribed and am looking forward to reading more about you and your DW's adventure! (Oh, and her sorcerer Mickey Ears are too cute!)

 

[sk8jdgca]

loving your report-wow you are one organized guy!!!

 

[akluss]

I am really enjoying your detailed trip report! Your binder is awesome and I love your trip journal. Did having the pages pre-made help you to keep up on journaling every day? You are also a great photographer. Looking forward to more, Karyn

 

[jediobiwan]

Last time, we covered the Podcast speakers and Nassau. We didn't make it back in time for the Jodi Benson concert, but instead we hung out around the ship. While in dock at Nassau, we tried a few panorama shots. Here are the results:

We also took a few on the ship:

The panorama shots are stitched together using my iPhone with an app called Autostitch Panorama. I tried the utility that comes with Canon cameras and it did a horrible job. The one downside is having to add the pictures to the iPhone and then syncing them back to my computer. I am really happy with Autostitch, especially on the high quality settings.

We also took a few more pictures of the ship:

That afternoon, we had a Wine Tasting private to those who had signed up though the Podcast Cruise fellow cruiser who organized the tasting. While I didn't like most of the wines, the whole point of my wife and I going was to try and find a wine or two that we liked. The first wine we tasted was Moscato Allegro and we both loved it. It is very light but has a great flavor, as we will rediscover the next night at Palo. (On a side note, the plain Moscato we bought at Walmart does not compare in the least. Save your money.)

After dinner that night (which again we did not take pictures of) we returned to this in our stateroom:

During the day, the Captain decided to rearrange our itinerary to have us go to Castaway Cay the last day and have the Sea Day next due to more favorable conditions, which ended up working well. Also, he decided to stay alongside for the night at Nassau rather than deal with the waves that night which was very nice. I was impressed with the crews flexibility in changing around the itinerary.

That's all for Nassau Day, come back later for Sea Day!

 

[jediobiwan]

Thanks to everyone for reading and the encouragement. Makes it a lot easier to keep posting!

Awesome trip report! I thought I'd put a lot of effort into planning our upcoming cruise, but you are my new idol. You have inspired me to: 1. make a binder (which I secretly wanted to do all along, but DH teases me mercilessly about my over-planning as it is), and 2. buy a pair of Vibrams for the trip.

I am wondering - aside from your job at a print shop, which may allow for discounts, did you find cardstock/laminating your door magnets to be more cost effective than printing on magnetic paper? I don't have a laminating machine and printing in color costs me the same whether I do it on card stock or magnetic paper, right? I'm on the fence.

Also - the "You are Here" magnet is HILARIOUS. Would you be willing to tell me how you made that?

Thanks for the updates. I've subscribed and am looking forward to reading more about you and your DW's adventure! (Oh, and her sorcerer Mickey Ears are too cute!)

The binder was a great idea I think because I had everything laid out and easy to find. All I had to do was open to the right page and pull out whatever I needed, whether it was online Check-in documents or Ice tickets. The page protectors were nice for that reason so I didn't even have to open the rings. Just remind him that it is nice when you can find things rather than looking through all your bags. Over planning and making things like the journal are what kept me sane while counting down to the trip.

Have fun with your FiveFingers!

As far as costs for door magnets, I went that way because I really do think it would have been cheaper, but your mileage may vary according to prices in your area. The prices at our shop would be $.29 per color page and $1.00 for the laminating, and then the magnet packs I picked up from Walmart were $.97 each and had enough for 6 full size pages. Most magnet paper I have seen seemed more expensive plus I pretty much print stuff for free. Also, a professionally made magnet with the Podcast Cruise logo was given to us in our stateroom gifts and that was the only magnet I had any problems with falling off. I imagine it was something much more like magnetic paper is and it wasn't nearly so strong as the magnetic strips. (Oh yeah, printing at home costs the same no matter what paper you use, but do remember that you have to buy the paper first. Magnetic paper seemed expensive to me).

As for the You Are Here Magnet, I copied the deck plans one by one from the WDWinfo deck plans pages into Photoshop, rotated and sized them onto a 8.5x11" canvas, and added in the text. If you want me to do the same PM me with your stateroom number, it won't take me long to make it

 

[dream2011]

thanks for all your time posting... this report helps pass the tim till my dream cruise May 1st.

 

[jessrose18]

I am glad you decided to write a tr of the cruise! I haven't been that organized yet. Great so far...I also didnt take any food pics even though I intended to. I didn't get to meet you, but passed you guys a few times, and I loved your door. Hope you guys had a great "honeymoon"!

 

[jediobiwan]

Last, we went back to the ship.

Sea Day was the morning I managed to wake up to take pictures of the sunrise and the ship. It was a lot of fun but it was not so much fun waking up so early.

The sunrise was nice as well:

After the sunrise, it was time for the DIS Unplugged Podcast taping. The first thing Pete came out with was the Power of Ten fundraising campaign. The goal is to raise $1M for Give Kids the World, a Kissimmee nonprofit that gives Make A Wish Children their dream of coming to Orlando and going to Disney World or Universal. Please go check out the website for how you can donate and about why the charity is so important! Also, this video recorded with GKTW President Pamela Landwirth gives a good idea of why GKTW is so important.

A few pictures of the Podcast crew:

After the podcast taping, which was a lot of fun, we mostly hung out in the room and around the ship for the rest of the afternoon. As bad as it is, one of the things we had the most fun with was just staying in the room sometimes and watching things on the TV like the old cartoons and such.

That evening was Palo, and boy was it good. I have heard one naysayer on the DIS claim that Palo is "just Italian food" and that it compared to live Garden, but I think the rest of you and now I know better than that. Unfortunately we didn't take too much in the way of pictures, like at all other dinners. but here is what we have:

We were started with the antipasto and the bread, and I was impressed. The cured meat was really good. Tabatha had the eggplant appetizer, and although all I wanted was a pizza for my appetizer, our wonderful waiter insisted on bringing an appetizer for me as well. I informed him that I didn't do sea food, but unfortunately didn't mention my distaste for mushrooms, so the portobello appetizer was lost on me. The pizza was wonderful though!

With dinner, we ordered a bottle of Moscato Allegro, the wine we liked from the wine tasting. We had been planning on the bottle following us to the next restaurant as they will on DCL but unfortunately it is such a light wine and we liked it so much that we finished it all at Palo! And I don't think anyone told on us to the chefs, as they probably would have had a fit at our pairing, but hey, we liked it

For our entrees, I had the beef tenderloin and Tabatha had the Fresh Arugula Salad, both of which got high marks. For dinner, we both shared the panna cotta and the chocolate souffle. Despite the high marks given by most for the souffle, we actually much preferred the panna cotta. Maybe ours was substandard but it just wasn't that great.

Also with dessert came a lovely plate commemorating our anniversary in chocolate:

Overall, dinner at Palo is something not to be missed. Unfortunately, Palo meant we missed Animator's Palette even though we had our reservation for 6:30 and late dinner seating. Gotta save something for next time though, right?

After dinner, we meant to stay up later, but eating such a large dinner sent us straight to bed as usual by this point.

Up next, part one of Castaway Cay day!

 

[jediobiwan]

I am glad you decided to write a tr of the cruise! I haven't been that organized yet. Great so far...I also didnt take any food pics even though I intended to. I didn't get to meet you, but passed you guys a few times, and I loved your door. Hope you guys had a great "honeymoon"!

Thanks! Sorry we didn't get to meet you but we had a really fun time!

 

[talie]

I'm loving your TR. I had to laugh at the picture of the manhole cover. My dh is a civil and we always come home with pictures of dams, drainage ditches, manhole covers, ADA ramps, etc. And I stand in awe of your organizational skills and wonderful photographs. .

 

[jediobiwan]

I'm loving your TR. I had to laugh at the picture of the manhole cover. My dh is a civil and we always come home with pictures of dams, drainage ditches, manhole covers, ADA ramps, etc. And I stand in awe of your organizational skills and wonderful photographs. .

You think you have it bad, my wife and I are both becoming Civils! Don't get me started on roads and sidewalks

 

[jediobiwan]

We covered Sea Day in the previous post. Sorry for the delay for a few days in updates, but real life and playing around with Aperture 3 and other photo editing fun got in the way!

But moving right along, it is now time for Castaway Cay day. We are really glad that Captain Gus had moved the itinerary around as it was an absolutely beautiful, if cool day on the island. We headed up to Parrot Cay for breakfast, and right down for the gangway, which was late opening, but only one or two people was down there.

No one ever said I look good at 8:30 in the morning

Consequently, I was the first person to be swiped off the ship for Castaway Cay!

We had been hoping the post office was open, but because of the waves, almost everything on Castaway excursion or outside worker wise was canceled (we took our postcard to guest services, but have yet to receive it. Not sure if almost a month is typical for how long it takes to get a postcard from Castaway, but we will see if it ever shows up.

Before I post any more pictures, I need to give credit to Evad from over on the DCL Picture of the Day thread. He not only gave me inspiration through his pictures but he also introduced me to Topaz Adjust, the plug-in I used on every picture that looks slightly more dreamy than real life. With that said, on with the pictures!

First view of the island after rounding the ship:

The fish is smart

Obligatory shot:

Cat that was really friendly just past the first shop (must be kept for pest control we guessed):

We headed out to the beach first and just kind of killed time before the Podcast Cruise group photo at 9:30:

Five Finger Prints:

(Also, I found someone else in the PCC group wearing Five Fingers and we talked for a bit before the photo. He had realized someone around was wearing them from the prints in the sand!

After the group photo, we were feeling hopeful about the warmth of the day/ water, so we went back to the ship to change into swimsuits. We never took advantage of the water alas as it was far too cold, but some did. We explored more and took more pictures.

We headed out onto the pier by the Head's Up Bar:

We also headed out to the adult beach.

Unfortunately the beach itself was in serious need of seaweed removal so we didn't stay out there. I wonder why if DCL can clean up the sand on the family beach, why they don't do the same for Serenity Bay. Over a foot of seaweed seems a but much.

Eventually we ended up going back towards the family beach to escape the smell and read for a bit. Next cruise will have to be a better time for the water temperature!

On the way back to the boat:

That's it for Castaway Cay. Next post will cover the last night, debarkation, and some of our first day back in Orlando.

 

[threewilmingtonwalls]

Just got back from our cruise and wanted to say THANKS for the awesome door magnet! We got lots of comments on it, and no one else had one like it. We are re-booked for next year and managed to get the same room, so we'll get to use it again. We really appreciate your addition to our door decor!