Sleep? Who needs sleep? We're on VACATION!!!!

[Luckymomoftwo]

I originally named this "The Good The Bad and the Wonderful friends on the DVC Member Cruise", but I came up with what I thought was a better title to my trip report since we averaged about 5 hours of sleep a night!

I'm also adding a day by day report with pictures. I'll work on day one tonight once I get all of my pictures uploaded to photobucket.


Ok, I've never really done a trip report before. However, I felt this vacation was worth doing a trip report because it was one of our best vacations ever! There are some good points and some bad points.

My name is Debbie and my husband, Junior, and I decided to do the DVC Member Cruise to celebrate my 40th b-day and our 15 year wedding anniversary. We joined our cruise meet thread and got to know everyone on there beforehand. I think we made some new life-long friends...we had some really great times on that ship AND at WDW after the cruise was over. I think that's what made this vacation extra special.

So, the good: The water was the calmest it has ever been when I've been on a cruise (this was cruise #7). I didn't even have to take any sea sickness meds. It also helped that the ship was only sailing at 6 knots! LOL!!!! The weather was PERFECT the entire time. The water at CC was warm the first day but a bit colder the second day. I had steak every night for dinner! YUM! Every stateroom on the ship was occupied but not to the fullest capacity, so the ship was not crowded at all! In fact, the adult pool was often more noisy than the Goofy pool was, so we spent more time in the goofy pool than the quiet cove pool!

Now for the bad: Our tips were included in our cost of the cruise, so it seemed as if our stateroom host wasn't working quite as hard for his tips. He never came and formally introduced himself the first day (which has ALWAYS happened in past cruises). So we really weren't sure WHO our stateroom host was. In the middle of the third day on the cruise, he took our shampoo/conditioner out of the bathroom (it was almost empty) and he didn't give us new ones. So we had to track down one of the stateroom hosts in the hallway and BEG for more shampoo/conditioner! That is NOT the type of service I would expect on a DCL cruise! Also, on every other cruise, if we left a shirt or something out on the bed or the couch, our stateroom host/hostess would fold it up for us and place it on the couch. This time there was none of that happening. So, it just seemed that our stateroom host wasn't making an extra effort to make our cruise "Wonder"ful.

At dinner, it seemed as if we were always the last table to get finished. We had a large table (8), but we were always at dinner on time, so we weren't sure why we were always so late to get out after dinner. Our assistant server seemed to be confused most of the time and kept bringing drinks to us that we didn't order. Our server was ok. Not the greatest we've ever had, but not horrible.

Last, but not least. When we booked the cruise, we told them it was my b-day and our anniversary. DCL did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help us celebrate. We had to ask for the happy b-day button and we never got a happy anniversary button. One of our friends we met on the DISboards requested that they send a cake to our table. Otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a b-day cake. I have to admit, this didn't bother me TOO much until we arrived at WDW after the cruise and when we checked in to BLT, they automatically handed us the b-day and anniversary buttons. When we went to dinner at Le Cellier the brought us our dessert plates all decorated for my b-day and our anniversary. We got better celebration treatment at WDW than we did on the cruise.

Now for the WONDERful Dis friends we met. That made our vacation so great! We met some great people on the ship and then saw them while we were at WDW. It was so neat to mingle with people who share our passion for Disney.

So, even though we had some not so great experiences, it was still one of our BEST vacations ever, if not THE BEST vacation ever. Oh yeah, I don't think I mentioned that since we were celebrating b-day and anniversary, we left the kids at home. So that helped make it a great vacation because we didn't have to play mom and dad...it was just US!

I've started posting a more detailed TR....I'll post one day at a time along with some pictures.

 

[mca]

Sad to hear about the service you received.

Can you expand on the special guests, events and gifts you received.

 

[pyrxtc]

yes, and would love to see any and all pictures.

 

[BigDogHU75]

Hi Debbie! It was great meeting you & your DH. You are so good. I have not started my trip report yet. I think I might start it today once I upload pictures.

 

[dvc4life]

Hey Debbie - So glad you are doing a TR so we can relive vacation all over again. It was a great time!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

HI Chris & Marsha! I'll get more on here tonight or tomorrow. I've been feeling a little under the weather and I've been coming home from work and just hitting the sack because I'm so tired and am trying to fight off a cold and sore throat. SO GLAD I'm sick AFTER the cruise and not DURING the cruise!

 

[dvc deernut]

WOW I FOUND U OVER HERE. GREAT TO READ YOUR TRIP REPORT. DO I WRITE MINE IN HERE ALSO. FUNNY WE WERE ALWAYS LAST OUT OF DINNING TOO, MUST HAVE BEEN BECAUSE OF THE ROWDY TABLE BESIDE US YOUR RIGHT ABOUT THE CRUISE. ITS THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT MORE FUN. BUT WE FOUND THE ADULT POOL EMPTY WHEN WE WENT. WE WOULD GO AROUND 5pm AND WHEN 6 PM CAME EVERYONE WAS AT DINNER OR THE SHOW. IT WAS JUST US OUR TABLEMATES AND DUCKY AND HIS FAMILY.

IM NOT IN THIS SHOT IM HOLDING MY DRINK AND CAMERA

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

The cast: Me, Debbie – turned 40 on vacation and Junior (DH) This was a KID – FREE trip! After all, we were celebrating my 40th b-day and our 15 yr wedding anniversary.

DH and I really need to learn how to plan better. It's been a week since we disembarked the ship and I'm STILL trying to get caught up on my sleep!

My vacation started on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 5:30 when I got off work. My b-day is Sept. 12th, so since we were going to be gone on vacation, we had my b-day party on the 10th. We had company over until after midnight, and we had to leave for the airport at 6:30 Saturday morning. This was the beginning of eight nights of minimal sleep!

DAY 1:

6:00 am comes way too fast when you went to bed at 2:00!!!!
Ok, it’s 6:30, where is Sara?! (Dsil who is taking us to the airport so we don’t have to pay a small fortune to park the car there) 6:35, she’s a few minutes late, but that’s ok it’s EARLY!

I have to admit here, I was extremely to fly on 9/11. We arrived at the airport after dealing with very minimal . We checked our bags with curbside check in. We had three bags to check in, then we had about four or five things to carry on! We had the computer bag, the camera bag, my purse and two carry on suitcases full of our FE gifts. I put A LOT of work into those and there was no way I was taking a chance at the airline losing those bags!!

It was extremely eerie sitting in the airport watching the news because the news was all discussing 9/11/01. I tried hard not to think about the date as we boarded the plane. Once on board, the flight crew made it a very relaxed atmosphere. They told so many jokes and had such pleasant attitudes. One that sticks out was “Give your seat belt a tug, your loved one a hug, this boeing is going” There were several other jokes and rhymes from the crew but that’s the only one I remember. Also when we were descending one of the flight attendant’s sang a song. Then when we landed and were driving to our gate he sang another song. Like I said, GREAT CREW on Southwest! (I wrote a letter to Southwest complimenting that crew!)

We landed in Orlando on time, got our luggage and headed to the car rental counter. After a short wait in the line to get out of the airport we were headed to Disney World! First stop? Chic Fil A, of course!!!!!! We don’t have one at home. Then we went to Character Warehouse to try to stock up on t-shirts. No such luck. That store is a hit or miss. I found a couple of shirts but DH was the one that really wanted to get some t-shirts and he just didn’t find anything he liked. One of the shirts I found was for night on the ship!

Then we headed to the Reebok store to see if I could find some new gym shoes. I’ve had a hard time finding comfy gym shoes lately. Sure enough, they had some I liked but I needed half a size larger. They didn’t have any in stock, but another store did so we went over to the other store, got my shoes and then headed to Port Canaveral. We had planned to go over to Downtown Disney first, but with having to go to the other Reebok store, we didn’t want to waste anymore time shopping. We wanted to get over to the Port and get checked in to the Radisson.

We had both been on a no carb diet prior to vacation so we wanted to treat ourselves to our favorite restaurant….Olive Garden. So, once we checked in to the Radisson we headed over to OG. When we got back, we hung out by the pool and had a couple of . Sorry, but OG makes MUCH better drinks than the Radisson. It was starting to get late (time on the clock? Only around 11 PM), so we headed back to the room to hit the sack…we had an exciting day coming the next day! BUT…once we were in the room, we decided we were too excited to sleep, so we watched TV. We didn’t get to bed until around 1:00 am.

Coming soon: Day 2 of vacation…time to board the ship!!!!!!

Here's a picture of us on the ship:

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

WOW I FOUND U OVER HERE. GREAT TO READ YOUR TRIP REPORT. DO I WRITE MINE IN HERE ALSO. FUNNY WE WERE ALWAYS LAST OUT OF DINNING TOO, MUST HAVE BEEN BECAUSE OF THE ROWDY TABLE BESIDE US YOUR RIGHT ABOUT THE CRUISE. ITS THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT MORE FUN. BUT WE FOUND THE ADULT POOL EMPTY WHEN WE WENT. WE WOULD GO AROUND 5pm AND WHEN 6 PM CAME EVERYONE WAS AT DINNER OR THE SHOW. IT WAS JUST US OUR TABLEMATES AND DUCKY AND HIS FAMILY.

IM NOT IN THIS SHOT IM HOLDING MY DRINK AND CAMERA

HI Ian! You can write your TR in here, too. I don't mind! Or you can start your own thread. I guess we were going to the Quiet Cove pool too early! LOL!!! Your picture makes me want to be back on that ship and in that pool SOOOOO bad!!!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

DAY 2:

It’s 7:30, RISE AND SHINE!!!! It’s time to get ready to head over to the DCL Terminal so we can board the Wonder for the 2010 DVC SS Member Cruise!!!!! There were a couple items we realized we needed before we got on the ship, so we had to hop in the rental and a couple miles to Walgreens. We had a reservation for the shuttle bus at 10:00 but they had two different wedding parties that took priority. So we had to wait until the next shuttle bus. As we got on the road headed to the terminal the driver asked “How many of you are going on the Disney Cruise?” I think everyone from the third row back started to . We were in the third row and let me tell you the people in the first couple of rows got REALLY They thought they were on the “wrong” shuttle. (Far be it for me to tell them WE are going to have a better time because while they’re on the right shuttle they’re getting on the wrong ship!)

When we arrived at the terminal we were greeted with a LONG line! I’ve NEVER had to wait in line to go through security at the terminal. It’s fine though, we’re there…it’s only a matter of hours before we’re on that beautiful ship and making new friends!! We got a boarding pass “6”. SIX?!!!!!! What do you mean SIX?! We were here at 10:30!!! This was another first….I’ve had boarding pass “2” and I’ve had boarding pass “3” but never anything higher than “3”. I was so bummed! But we’re on vacation, so I’m just gonna go with the flow. After all, it’s still a boarding pass to the best ship on the water! So, we were wandering around the terminal taking pictures and then I saw Marsha, Corey and Anthony (BigDogHU75). Marsha started our thread on the cruise meet forum. She kept the thread going with weekly countdowns and helpful tips that she obtained from reading the DISboards. Then I met Angie, a Facebook friend from the DVC SSMember Cruise 2010 Facebook page. Then I met Chris (DVC4Life). I could already tell it was going to be the most wonderful cruise for us. It seemed as if we already knew all of these people because we had with them online for the last 10 months.

All of a sudden, we heard those magical words: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls”. IT WAS EMBARKATION TIME!!!!!!!!!!

Last time we cruised (Dec. 4-7, 2008) there was no gangway...it got knocked into the water the cruise just before us. They've re-built a very nice enclosed gangway since then!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

DAY 3 (CONTINUED)
This was right by the guest services desk when we boarded the ship:

We decided to go to Parrot Cay for lunch since we’ve never done that. Well, as luck would have it, we weren’t going to do that today either. They were fully booked and directed us to Beach Blanket Buffet. After we ate, we headed over to Wave Bands to try to change our Palo Brunch reservations. We were a little bit early so we went back to see if we could get into the room yet. It wasn’t quite 1:30 so we weren’t able to get to our rooms. So, we just had a seat on the stairs and waited. When they allowed us in at 1:30, we found our room and this was waiting for us:

The mini suitcase was filled with a really nice beverage cup with a handle on it, a DVC duffle bag, a member cruise hat, a nice clock in a leather case, a 2011 calendar, and a luggage tag. We admired all of our new goodies and then headed back to Wave Bands. We were in luck, we got our brunch changed to 10:30 so that we could have brunch at the same time as our other DIS friends, Ian (DVCDeernut) & Laura and Christine & Eric.

We headed back to the room to see if our luggage was there yet. It wasn’t, so we just hung out in the room for a few minutes and then I heard some commotion outside the door. When I opened the door, there was all of our luggage! So, of course I started to unpack. We had a DISmeet arranged at Promenade Lounge at 3:00, so I didn’t get all of my unpacking done because we had to head to the DISmeet. Marsha was so kind by putting together a pamphlet with all of our names, stateroom #’s, FE info, DISmeet info, pirate night info. Do ya get the drift? She had a lot of info on there for all of us! We gathered for a nice picture and Marsha’s mom and DH were soooo very kind to take all of our cameras and snap a few shots from each camera.

So that concluded our DISmeet and I headed back to the room to finish unpacking. Before I knew it, it was time for the mandatory muster drill. That’s sooooo much fun! NOT! But it seemed to go a little quicker this time than on previous cruises. Again, I went back to the room and finished unpacking. We had time to spare so we decided to go swimming in the Quiet Cove Pool. Met a nice couple in the pool (unfortunately didn’t get their names, but had great conversation with them!). DH had brought his i-phone to the pool. He meant to leave it on the chair but he had it in his pocket when he got in the pool. Needless to say the phone was fried! (I’ll tell you the rest of that story later)

We stayed in the pool until it was time to get ready for dinner. We had late dining and our rotation was APPT. Our table was all the way in the back of Animators Palate. We had dinner with Shawn & Milford (Disrailfan), Christine (CPPrincess) & Eric, and Terrie (Calypso726) & Wally, These were DISfriends that we “met” on our cruise meet thread. I could tell right then and there at our first night at dinner that we were all going to get along GREAT! After dinner, we went to “Match Your Mate” in Wave Bands. THAT WAS HILLARIOUS! We were so glad we weren’t picked to go up!! Part of my FE gift was post cards, so I wanted to get them delivered before our first day at CC. So, we went up and down the hallways at 1:00 am delivering FE gifts. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with this idea. Some of the FE’s were so full we had to leave ours on the floor outside their stateroom doors! When we were finished with that, it was time to hit the sack! (Another 2 am bedtime!)

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

That's all I have for that day's post. I'll post the next day (CASTAWAY CAY DAY) tomorrow or Sunday. Have a great night everyone!!

 

[dvc deernut]

IM ENJOYING YOUR REPORT, AND I AM DOWNLOADING SOME OF YOUR PHOTOS YOU FAILED TO MENTION THAT YOUR DINNER TABLE WAS VERY ROWDY, WE WERE HAVE TROUBLE HEARING OURSELVES LAFFING

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

IM ENJOYING YOUR REPORT, AND I AM DOWNLOADING SOME OF YOUR PHOTOS YOU FAILED TO MENTION THAT YOUR DINNER TABLE WAS VERY ROWDY, WE WERE HAVE TROUBLE HEARING OURSELVES LAFFING

You're right....I DID forget to mention that our dinner table was very rowdy! We should be ashamed of ourselves!

 

[BigDogHU75]

Great updates!

 

[dvc4life]

Great report so far Debbie!!!!!

Loved the picture of you and Junior in your stateroom. It is very good of you both. Also, the one at the terminal where you are looking through the windows up at the ship. That is really cool.

Can't wait to read about CC!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

Great updates!

Thanks Marsha!

Great report so far Debbie!!!!!

Loved the picture of you and Junior in your stateroom. It is very good of you both. Also, the one at the terminal where you are looking through the windows up at the ship. That is really cool.

Can't wait to read about CC!

Thanks Chris!

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

Great TR, subbing in and anxiously awaiting more!!!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

Sorry! I didn't get time to post more of my TR today or yesterday. Yesterday we spent the day with my sister and then came home and tried to put away the rest of the souvenirs from our trip. Today we decided to go up to Chicago to a DVC special event. We thought it was just an all day thing at the "Doorway to Dreams" location they have at the Woodfield Mall but it was actually certain show times at the Arie Crown Theater. And we missed the early show so we had to go to the 7:00 pm show. They had a dance party after the presentation and Mickey, Minnie, Pluto & Goofy joined in on the fun! It was really a fun time! But took up more time out of my day that I was planning! So, hopefully tomorrow I can get another day posted with some more pictures!!

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

DAY 3:

Castaway Cay day #1

We got up about 8:00 am. Got ready and headed up to BBB for breakfast before we headed to the DVC presentation. The presentation started at 9:00 am and we didn’t get out of there until after 10:30!!!! We were getting concerned because we had a jet ski excursion at 11:00. We were glad we went to the presentation, though. We learned some interesting facts about Alauni. The architect that designed the whole resort grew up in Hawaii. He wanted the resort to teach guests about the true cultures and beliefs and even legends of Hawaii. That made me even more excited about the resort. I really hope we’ll be able to go there for vacation in the next few years.

Today we had three excursions scheduled. Even though the DVC presentation went later than we expected, we still decided to walk rather than taking the tram to our first excursion. On the way we met Captain Jack Sparrow and had our picture taken with him. However, we didn't have them take a picture with our camera and we never found that picture in Shutters so I have no proof! (Honestly, Shutters NEEDS to find a better way to distribute those pictures!!!)

We continued our journey over to the jet ski’s. I’ve never been on a jet ski before, so DH drove and I was the unsuspecting passenger. We rode the jet ski around to the other side of Serenity Bay. The tour guide showed us his home island and then found a conch shell and a starfish and let us take turns holding them. I did not participate in this part, I am a little freaked out by critters that live in the water! Lol

Then when our jet ski adventure was done, we hopped on a couple of bikes and toured the island. Met some really nice folks while we were at the look out tower. Patricia and Darrell. They are not on the DISboards, but I told them about the DISboards so hopefully they’ll join all of us addicts on here. HAHA!!! (Come on, admit it, you’re addicted to the DISboards as much as I am!)

We decided to turn the bikes in at Serenity Bay and eat over there and then ride the tram back to the family beach. Once back to the family beach we decided we wanted to try Pelican’s Plunge. Let me just say it is very appropriately named! You PLUNGE into the water coming off the slides!!! It’s so nice that they have that there, now we (adults) have something fun to do in the water other than snorkeling. After we did the plunge a couple times we headed to Heads Up Bar to get a Konch Cooler. YUM!!!! Then it was time for the next excursion for the day at CC: PARASAILING!!!!!! This is what I was looking most forward to at CC. I took my camera up there and got some AWESOME pictures!!

When we were done with that we headed back to the ship. It was kind of early to get ready for dinner, so we walked around the ship. We checked out the “secret deck” on deck 7 AFT. I couldn’t believe we were the only ones there! So we snapped some pictures and then headed back to the room and got ready for dinner.

This was night. Boy do our new friends know how to dress up for pirate night!!! Our DIS group had arranged for a picture outside of Tritons with Pirate Mickey. (Thank you Michael!!) So, we all gathered there at 7:30 and Captain Hook wasn’t behaving himself…he kept making some of us move while we were waiting for Mickey. But the good guys won and we were all in place when Mickey stopped by to get in our picture.

Ian:

Terrie & Wally:

Shawn & Milford:

(Eric & Christine and me and Junior didn't really dress up for pirate night)


Once we finished dinner, we of course headed to deck 9 for the party. The fireworks were amazing. I love watching Mickey zip line across the deck but for some reason I am always standing on the wrong side because I always end up watching his back side fly across! I stayed for the dessert buffet and was incredibly disappointed that I waited in that looong line…the desserts weren’t all that great. Then we started to watch POTC on the big screen under the stars but I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open so we headed to bed. (around 1:30 am – do you sea a pattern here?) Tomorrow is a sea day and we have Palo Brunch at 10:30.

Ok, that's all I've got for today. I'll post more in the next two to three days. Hope you're enjoying the TR!!!