September 2, 2006 - Eastern Trip Report

[gdulaney]

First, let me warn you...I'm chatty and type the way I talk.

It's just hubby (Andy) and myself (Ginny)...we have a cute little ferret, but unfortunately the cruise line doesn't allow pets. I think we could get her on the ship, but getting her off the ship (and past those nosy dogs) would be really hard! I'm putting a vote in for an official DCL Pet Boarding Center...however, Andy has already assured me that we could never fit all of our stuff, Mimi (our ferret) and her stuff (litter, food, toys, mini condo) plus us in the Escape.

It's been a long, long 12 months since our last vacation. We've worked hard, planned for months, read countless posts, and replied to countless more. Finally, our vacation has arrived...and we're conflicted. On one hand, we're excited, thrilled and full of anticipation. We can't wait to meet up with our dining companions and to attend the onboard DISmeet. But we've been stressed over so many things. We lost a very special friend (Grammie -- who is our good friend Susan's mom) and recently our other sweet ferret (Daisy).

That said, in the words of my mom -- "you deserve to have a good time, go and don't worry, we'll watch our grandferret"... seriously, grandferret...how cute is that?

I hope everybody enjoys our trip report. I'll try to post it on a day-by-day basis ---

Monday, August 28
We're not at work today, so I'm counting today as vacation (the boss sure does ). We are on vacation for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!! Our list of things to do today is rapidly approaching the size of the menu at Palo (Palo=Yum!). We both have doctor's appts, we have to drop off Mimi, and pack (I have to pack, somebody is already totally packed and absolutely ready...so he says).

Ginny

 

[gdulaney]

Tuesday, August 29
We leave at the crack of dawn (okay 8'ish) and get about 15 minutes away when I ask if he (of the totally packed and absolutely ready) brought the change for the ten zillion toll roads. Whoa are we turning around? Yep...somebody forgot the change. tee hee!!

We drive a while and stop for a healthy breakfast at Waffle House and then we're off again. We stop for gas and use one of our Shell gift cards for $25 to fill up the tank. We got the gift card for doing a test drive offer. Free gas...can't beat it!

We have a great drive down until we meet a super-duper friendly toll-boy named Mohammed who claimed that we shorted him $ .10. Now, my years of working as a teller, cashier, etc have given me pretty good counting skills....and I counted the change 3 times...and Mohammed (at the FL Turnpike toll station) dumped part of our change in his drawer before announcing that we still owe him $ .10....which, as any cashier/teller/money handler knows, is totally wrong.....you always count the money completely before mixing with other funds. It's $ .10 and my doctor has said that I need to keep my blood pressure down and my stress to a minimum... SO, fine toll-boy, here's an extra dime... have a great day 'cause we're on vacation and you're still working (you really have to do the sing-song voice for that last line ).

We get to Saratoga Springs about 4:15pm and checked in with absolutely no wait! Our room is near the water and within an easy walk to Downtown Disney. We drive over to the Orlando Premium Outlet to check out our favorite Character Premier Store and then it's off to an early dinner at Bahama Breeze (totally FREE due to our stack of Darden gift cards -- I do surveys and tons of the "freebie" sites all year and save the points for Darden cards... free dinner totally rocks!!!). I've got to give a huge shout out to all of the wonderful folks on the DIS Budget board and the Rewards board. Without all of their tips and daily posts, we'd never have done so well in the gift card department.

We walk over to Downtown Disney, do a little window shopping and try to walk off some of that yummy dinner. Then it's time for some sleep!!

Ginny

 

[HollyTyler]

Hey Ginny! That's just a teaser! That's all we get today?

 

[gdulaney]

Wednesday, August 30
It's the middle of the week, so we hit Wal-Mart for beer, wine coolers, and some socks for Andy (no, he didn't forget them... he just decided he needed new socks). Using a lovely Wal-Mart gift card leaves us with a tiny bill to pay... then we head over to Target for the other items that we needed. Andy won a couple of Target gift cards at his work, so we used those and then he decided to get a really cool FL Gators rolling cooler, so we had to add a little to the bill. He's so excited about his new cooler!!

We decided to drive over to the Wilderness Lodge and I was able to get a picture taken with Stan (he's the guy who can walk you around and give you a tour). We took a lot of pictures and then headed over to the Boardwalk for the DVC meet. It was so much fun to watch the folks playing the games and then as we were leaving, the skies opened up. Eeek. We headed down the boardwalk to the Rock Bottom Brewery for an early dinner, which was delicious...and by the time we finished, the rain had stopped! After dinner, we drove back over to Saratoga Springs and then walked off some calories at Downtown Disney.

More to come... including not one, but TWO timeshare presentations and the BEST ribs in the world!

 

[gdulaney]

The Bahama Breeze in Atlanta is not anywhere close to our house, so we really only eat there when we're on vacation. It's kinda pricey, but we love the food and try to eat there at least one night while we're on vacation. You do get alot of food, so go hungry!! We always eat at the restaurant on Vineland (it's at 8735 Vineland Ave) and the folks there are wonderful!!! They have call ahead seating (if they have a wait) and if you'd like to give it a try, their phone number is 407-938-9010. I even have their number programmed in my cell phone...how sad is that?

They are super friendly and we've always gotten top-notch service and food. I usually have the Beef Kabobs and Andy always has the Ahi Tuna. Bahamaritas are a must!

 

[gdulaney]

Hey Ginny! That's just a teaser! That's all we get today?

I added a little more -- plus my shameless plug for Bahama Breeze.

Love your pirate Tyler pictures!!! He's such a cutie! Please tell Jan "hello" for me!

Ginny

 

[Babs417]

More More I have so long to wait for my cruise

 

[lillygator]

You better take great care of that Gator cooler in GA!!

 

[gdulaney]

You better take great care of that Gator cooler in GA!!

that's the truth!

More More I have so long to wait for my cruise

I'll work on getting more done today!!

 

[kb1esx]

I'll work on getting more done today!!

Great Start!

I leave in 14 days for the 9/30 Eastern. Can't wait!!!

Type fast PLEASE!!!

David

 

[disneypoor]

Can you tell me more about the rewards cards you are getting? How are you earning those?

 

[gdulaney]

Great Start!

I leave in 14 days for the 9/30 Eastern. Can't wait!!!

Type fast PLEASE!!!

David

The boss is making me work! How unfair!!!!

 

[gdulaney]

Thursday, August 31st

We start the day with an 8am timeshare presentation at Westgate. For a mere 2 hours of our life, they will give us $100 CASH to listen to their presentation. For much less than $100 CASH you could have seen me.... well, that happened in St. Thomas, so you'll have to keep reading! The breakfast was your basic buffet...scrambled eggs, meat, fruit and cereal. Here's a timeshare tip -- your time starts after you eat breakfast. We each ate a little and were ready to get started. There were alot of folks who were eating and talking, but that isn't usually counted as part of your "90 minute" presentation. We were up and on our tour before alot of the other groups.

After leaving the timeshare presentation, we then head over to the Orlando Premium Outlets and are immediately solicited for a timeshare presentation at the Hilton...they will feed us lunch and give us $90 in Darden giftcards (can we say dinner at Bahama Breeze again this trip?!?) for listening to their presentation and touring their lovely property, but we have to go right this minute. After touring and listening to their presentation, I'd say that if we didn't have the DVC membership, we would have considered the Hilton timeshare. Good presentation and they also do points. The property was nice and you can get reduced rates on the various hotels in the Hilton group.

We leave the Hilton property and realize that we need to head over to Downtown Disney for the DVC Block Party. We park our car back at Saratoga Springs and walk over to Pleasure Island. We're pretty early, so we kill some time windowshopping.

Finally it's time for the DVC Block Party. As we entered, they checked to ensure that we had a membership card and then handed us a couple of light up pins and a coupon book. The coupon book included coupons for sweets (such as cotton candy, rice krispy treats, and ice cream) and popcorn...and some other stuff. You could sign up for a 5-minute massage, face painting, and they even had some great door prizes. We didn't win a door prize, but we did run into friends from home --- who are our first DVC referrals!! And I had my very first mickey bar!

After the Block Party, we walk back to Saratoga Springs and decide to take a nap before heading out to dinner.

For dinner we head over to the NASCAR Cafe. According to my husband, they have the best ribs in the world! Now that's a pretty big boast, but they really do have some tasty ribs (maybe not the BEST in the whole entire world)!! The food is a bit pricey, but you get a lot for your money. Andy orders the ribs and I ask the server about the chicken and ribs plate and mention that I wish they did a pulled pork and ribs plate. She says that we can do a chicken/ribs and sub the pulled pork for the chicken, no problem! She brings me 1/2 rack of ribs and a mound of pulled pork. Any guesses who ate 1/2 of my ribs?

After walking around CityWalk for a little bit, we head back to Saratoga Springs and call it a night.

 

[gdulaney]

Friday, September 1

Today was spent just hanging out and making sure that our suitcases were ready. We decided to go over to Bahama Breeze for dinner (thank you Hilton timeshare dude!) and after two extra strong Bahamaritas, I decide that I should get my ears pierced with a second hole (I'd done this yrs ago and the holes are closed -- so long ago that Andy didn't even know about it). So off we go to the Claire's at the Orlando Premium Outlet. They fixed me up in no time and it didn't even hurt! We then hung out with our friends (the new DVC members!!) on their patio. After chips, salsa and tons of laughter, we headed back to our room. Tommorrow is a BIG day, we're boarding the Magic!!!!

 

[DISNEYMOMTO1]

This was definitely a TEASER! I leave in 14 days, I want more!!!!

 

[gdulaney]

Saturday, September 2

We get up at the crack of dawn and head to the Port. We've never been first in line, but maybe this year.... On the way over, I fall asleep. There is absolutely nothing abnormal about this. If I'm in a car and I'm not driving, I will fall asleep. But today I wake up as we top the first bridge and you can see the sun starting to rise above all the water, it's sparkly and if I squint really hard, I can see the Magic!

We pull into the Day parking lot and we really are the first car there! About 15 minutes later a SUV pulls in and we later find out that it's Tom and Tiffany (tomspixie)!!!

Soon after 10, we are allowed to enter and drop off our luggage... I make a mad dash for the door and the first people I see are our friends from New Jersey!!!! I'm so excited to see them and we immediately start catching up.

We're lucky and draw "2" as our boarding number and Andy arrives from parking the car. More hugs and talking. We finally realize that the terminal is rapidly filling up and that the time is getting close!

Just want to mention how much I really don't like the new navigators. It's just so compressed and for visually challenged folks (and those of us who might partake in a drink or two), it's confusing. Okay, that said, no more complaining about the icky navigators.

As we look around, we see characters walking around and lots of smiling happy faces.... including Andy's old boss, who is taking his family on their very first Disney cruise.

They call our number and we're off.... we've already decided that Sue (and her daughter) will head to Rockin' Bar D to make sure our dining reservations are in order .... and her husband, Andy and me will make a brief stop and then head to Parrot Cay. That so doesn't happen. We all end up in Rockin' Bar D --- then it's off to Parrot Cay. After a delicious buffet, we drop off our bags and then head to Guest Services to deposit a few Disney Dollars on our shipboard account. We've both tried to put aside $20/pay period and convert it to Disney Dollars (so we can't spend it!). We're hoping to have our entire shipboard account paid this way.

We stop at the DIS meet and meet a bunch of folks. It was so fun to put names/faces with folks that we've been chatting with. Holly works with Jan (who we met last year) and Jan asked her to give us something... it was a picture that they took of us last year on Pirate Night. What an unexpected and wonderful surprise!! A huge thank you to Jan & Dave for thinking about us and to Holly for carrying it down!!!

After the sailaway, we head to our cabin....and check out our veranda. It's the first time we've splurged for a veranda and thanks to the DIS board, we can even open the door!! Amazingly, we already have our first bag delivered.

Soon it's time for dinner and we're in Parrot Cay, which works out great, because we'll be in there for Pirate night. We have chicken wings, baked crab and salmon for appetizers, salads and then I choose beef and Andy chooses Pan-Seared Grouper for entrees. Dessert included Lemon Meringue Pie (for me) and Chocolate Expresso Walnut Cake (for Andy).

We'd skipped the show, but did hit the shops and stopped by to say hello to Kristen and Leo at the DVC desk.

Tomorrow we're at sea and we have dinner in Palo, I can't wait!!!!

 

[mrssully]

More, more, more, please

 

[CourtneyMc]

Hi Ginny,
I'm sorry we never met you on the trip! Now get moving with your report

So are you one of those people who just hops from timeshare presentation to timeshare presentation to get hte free stuff? I tried dragging DH to one once and it was awful so I don't know that we'd ever do it again...but i wonder sometimes when i get the offres in the mail for a weekend in the mts. for $100 or whatever! How do you say no? that was the one thing we really hated, i know it's their job to sell, but we couldn't get them to take a no answer!

Also, I have to say, I like the new navigators a lot I was able to hightlight in dif. colors and immediately see who needed to be where at what time- and the overlaps where i had 3 dif things picked out for the same timeslot! ugh.

Looking forward to more of you report!

-Courtney

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

I couldn't agree more about the navigators...its not the format that bothers me but the ittty-bitty font size.

I don't need to be reminded I need reading glasses.

 

[JanDave]

Hi Ginny!

Enjoying your 9/06 trip report. Wish we could have joined you and Andy this year. We're definitely hoping to cruise again with you.

Glad you liked the pic.

Tell Andy that I'll give him more Italian lessons!!!

Jan