Return of the DisAddict Shubman goes back to sea!

[ashman]

Well after much handwringing, date setting and resetting, our family is set to head out on another funfilled escapade on the sea. This time my family and I sail not as unintiated newbies but as full fledged bona fide card carrying Castaway Club members! (you can oooo and ahhhhh now) For those of you not familiar with my musings my I humbly direct you to my last trip report posted here. As some of you know I love writing not only trip reports but PRE-trip reports! So here I go again. So I introduce to you our cast of characters:

Me, Ashman, your humble author:

My Sweet Bride MommaNurse:

And the kids! Sweet Child now 9 and in the 3rd Grade and MiniMe 6 and in the 1st:

Coming soon to a pre-trip report near you! What's different for your family this time around!

 

[praisehisname]

I'm so glad you are going back! I loved your first report and am looking forward to reading this one!

Denise

 

[lovesDCL]

yay!

 

[amy2girls]

Can't wait to hear the details!

 

[Mozart]

Me, Ashman, your humble author:

Aquilae Regint? Google describes it as King of the Birds of Zeus.

 

[ashman]

Okay a little more background about our trip and how we got to this point in the story. Our family LOVED our first cruise and we really wanted to go on another one. We thought it would be great to go with a friend or maybe even our extended family and share the magic. We floated the idea out there but nobody really seemed interested. This was back in 2007. Being the savvy hip in the know Dis type veterans we were, we knew that if we were going we were going to need to book soon before the prices stared going up. So we decided to book a 7 night for October that would coincide with a break for our kids so they would only need to miss two days of school.
With this in mind we called up our faithful travel agent and booked the cruise. About a week after we booked the cruise a couple in our neighborhood said “Let’s go on a 4 day together in January!”. A few days after that my mother-in-law said, “Let’s go on three for Dad’s 60th birthday in November.” So what do you do? GO ON THREE CRUISES RIGHT? Sadly no, it wasn’t meant to be but believe me I thought about it! Well I got to thinking what’s the difference between a 7 night and a 3 night and a 4 night? You get to go on TWO cruises. So after a little arm twisting I convinced my wife that it would be the right thing to do. Go on a three night with her family to celebrate her dad’s 60th birthday and go on a 4 night in January. WHEW, glad that was done no more major changes right? WRONG, but that will need to wait for another day!

 

[ashman]

Aquilae Regint? Google describes it as King of the Birds of Zeus.

Can't get anything past you sharp Dis'ers can you? It means Eagles Rule! The explination will come in the next chapter!

 

[MaryAz]

SO excited to see another pre trippie/trippie from you!

 

[praisehisname]

Obviously, according to your ticker, you're going in November. But is it a 7 night or the 3 night with your in-laws? Hmmm, can't wait to hear!

Denise

 

[nenner1]

It's been a while, welcome back!!!!!

Can't wait for more!

 

[Mozart]

Obviously, according to your ticker, you're going in November. But is it a 7 night or the 3 night with your in-laws? Hmmm, can't wait to hear!

Denise

Sail date is November 23rd. Plus his sig says that it's with extended family. That's the 3 nighter.

You're making it easy, Ash.

 

[ashman]

So we cancelled the 7 night and went with the 3 night with the extended family in November and the 4 night with our friends in January. Smooth sailing and then I took a HUGE turn in life. For the last 8 years I have had my own law practice, working by myself, for myself. I worked exclusively in the area of estate planning. After a lot of introspection, I came to realize the aspect I loved best about my career was the education part. Breaking down complex issues into smaller bite size chunks.
From time to time I would hear this still small voice saying, you love teaching, you need to go after that and I would then come up with a 1000 reasons not to. My kids go to a Classical Christian k-12 school. Part of their curriculum introduces Latin as a subject in the 3rd grade. The students take it until the 8th. Last May they announced that they would need a new Latin teacher for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. I decided to look into it. It’s a long story filled with many great God moments that most wouldn’t want to hear about in a trip report but the short version is, I shut down my law practice and I now teach Latin full time to 170 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. I am loving it! I am doing what I feel I was created to do. The picture of my at the start of the trip was taken before one of our school’s “Blue and Gold” day (take a wild guess what our school colors are?) So my wife took an old suit jacket and we covered it with blue and gold duck tape. It was a blast the kids loved it!
To bring this back to the Trip report, we had to cancel the 4 day with friends because I wouldn’t be able to get the time off but the 3 Day with the family was on! Now another major hurdle to cross, do we try to top the scavenger hunt as a way to tell the kids about the cruise and if so how? That of course is a story for another day.

 

[ashman]

Okay so now we decided to go on just the one cruise, with my new job I wouldn’t have the time to go to both. Now to take a step back in time. If I learned one thing on my last cruise, it was the less time you have between when the kids find out about it, and when you actually go the better. On our last cruise we booked the cruise almost 1.5 years before and told the kids 45 days away. We told them at Christmas with a real fun scavenger hunt. The hunt was a blast and the kids loved it. That said, 45 days was almost too long.
We booked the cruise a little over a year before it was to start. We could have done another cruise scavenger hunt but this time the kids would have had to waited 11 months! That didn’t seem wise. I was reminded of a quote from Professor Digory from the Chronicles of Narnia, “You never go back the same way twice”.
And so it was not to be the same this time as well. This time we are going with my wife’s parents, my wife’s brother, his wife and my two nieces who are going to be 5 and 4 at the time of the cruise. We felt since this was the first cruise for our nieces we would share our earlier experience but take the lead from them as to when the best time to tell the kids would be. We talked about that during a family get together at Easter.
On the drive home last Easter, my wife and I talked about the timing and felt like it would be a while before the news would come out, giving us a chance to try and come out with a new, cool way to tell the kids. Shortly after we got home, we got a call from our nieces, “Guess what!? We are going on the Mickey boat and you get to come with us!”
So a change in how to tell the kids! Next chapter, change on how to get down there! Till then, TTFN, Ta Ta For now!

 

[Tink rules]

Ok...I'm in... again...

& Mozart... stop googling everything and start packing for your trip!!!

 

[ashman]

Got the Docs for the trip today, WOO HOOO doing the Doc Dance Yeah Yeah!

So last time we flew the kids down. They had never been on a plane before and I had enough frequent flyer miles that we were able to get two free tickets. We didn’t tell the kids until we dropped them off at curbside pickup with my wife! Big surprise, lots of fun.

This time I had enough frequent flyer miles for two free tickets again but I learned that things had changed GREATLY since our last trip. Now they ding you with all those “additional” fees even If you have a frequent flyer miles. You know the “you want to check a bag? Fee”, the “you want your bags back? Fee”, “you want to use the toilet? Fee”, “you want a pilot? Fee” and so on. With the crazy extra fees it was gonna cost us over $1,000 to fly EVEN WITH TWO “FREE” TICKETS! So we are driving. Actually we are riding my in laws are going to crash at our pad on Friday, we will hit the road on Saturday for about 8 hours, crash at a hotel just south of Jacksonville leaving us with a little under 2 hours to get to the ship on Sunday, day of the cruise. Long car rides can be a challenge but I will about to get some required reading in so I should be good. My wife and kids? That’s what the duct tape and catheters are for! Kidding just kidding, sorta.

 

[wilma-bride]

I am in - looking forward to this. By the way, is Ashman your Christian name?

 

[ashman]

Nope, my Christian name is Ashley, I have dealt with much gender confusion my entire life. For example, when I was in high school and I started getting brochures from all these different colleges, I recieved one from an all women's college. Just for giggles, I applied. (They didn't ask for my gender so I wasn't holding back anything). I WAS ACCEPTED! I wanted to go to preview weekend (you know where they put you up in a dorm room and let you play college student) but mom wouldn't let me go. For some reason, she wouldn't buy my "strike a blow for gender equality" argument. So long story short, on forums I go by Ashman to avoid the gender confusion issues as much as possible. Good to have you along for the ride!

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Subscribing...

 

[ashman]

There is a three letter word that can strike fear into the heart of the toughest most grizzled DCL vet whether you have been on one DCL cruise or 100 (There is someone who has you know?). The word?

Wait for it………..





It’s coming………..




This isn’t for the faint of heart……………





The word is FLU! (Dun dun duuuuuuuuhhhhhhh!)


My sweet precious child got hit with it Friday (yesterday) at school in car pool. She was so sad and pathetic, I felt so bad for her. At the risk of jumping into the TMI department (which shouldn’t surprise anyone who read my last trip report.), the poor child threw up for the first time since she was a baby.
We got her home and put up as best we could. She had a rough restless night, so did mom. So this morning I took my other daughter out to breakfast, get her out of the house. We had a great time. Got a little something for mom and m sick sweetie and came home. Then me, being the loving, compassionate, empathetic dad that I am, I went for a hike! Had a nice time, came back and lunch time.
My sweet wife makes some homemade chicken soup for lunch. We get some served up to the kids and I have a little. I sit down to enjoy when I feel a little rumbly in my tumbly. Some I am denying the inevitable like the Black Knight from Holy Grail, “It’s just a flesh wound”, I’m not sick, I’m not going down!
10 minutes later I’m like Bill Pullman in the best wuss out scene EVER in a movie in Aliens, “Did you see that? It ran right through us, its Game OVER man, GAME OVER!”
So we got two in the family down although my daughter is doing much better. I’m hoping to be real soon. Also hoping the rest of the family is spared. During one of my “why me?” moments I get hit with this realization, “Hey Let’s look on the bright side! I am 14 days away from our cruise (Freaked my wife a bit tonight with that teeny bit o trivia) so if we are going to get sick, let’s do it NOW! I am reminded and CLAIM the wisdom of King Solomon, “This too shall pass”
So not the happiest enter but hopefully it gives you a good chuckle. I know it has been therapeutic for me. So thanks!

 

[wilma-bride]

“Hey Let’s look on the bright side! I am 14 days away from our cruise (Freaked my wife a bit tonight with that teeny bit o trivia) so if we are going to get sick, let’s do it NOW!

Sorry you're sick - hope you recover soon and, like you say, best to get it out of the way now