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- Feb 17, 2000
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Day 3 - Nassau
This is a trip report for the special DVC SS Member Cruise held Feb. 2-6, 2003 on the Disney Wonder.
Cast: Me & DH (MarkRG). We are DINKS who love Disney. We've been DVC members since Jan. of 2000. This is our 4th DCL cruise (did 3-day Magic in Oct. '99, 7-day Eastern Magic in May '01, 4-day Wonder in May'02 and we have a 7-day Western Magic planned for 5/10/03).
We woke to another beautiful day. We were meeting for breakfast at 8 so Mark and I headed up to deck 10 about 7:15 to watch us come in to Nassau. We ran into Sue up on deck and had a nice chat with her about cruising, specifically the Alaskan cruise she did last summer. Mark and I hope to do one in 2005. Then it was off to breakfast. Mark and I were the first to arrive followed quickly by Shontell and her Mom and not long after Gail and John. We did breakfast at Beach Blanket and easily found a table for 6. Not long after we started we were joined by Mary (Iluvdisney) and her DH John who sat at the next table. Since we hadnt seen any of them since sailaway it was nice to catch up on what everyone had done the day before. We got clearance to go ashore while we were still eating so when we finished with breakfast we stocked up on water (which we all put in our cute blue bags) and headed down to Deck 1.
Using the MarkRG method for seeing Atlantis on your own (we actually did sheets on green paper we gave out to a few folks who asked for them) we walked off the ship and the short distance to where the taxis waited. It was $4 per person to Paradise Island that we rounded up for tips to $5 and since there were 6 of us go a taxi right away with 3 others from Carnival. The ride to Atlantis is only about 10-15 minutes and we were soon zooming past all the people who took the water taxi and were now walking in the sun. We pulled right up and out, Cool!
Once inside we did some posing for pictures and then made our way into the Casino. Since Shontell had done the Dig on a previous trip she and her mom opted out of this part and decided to enjoy the resort and the casino at their own pace. The rest of us went to the Temple of the Moon and got our wristbands for entrance into the Dig. I really like doing this without a tour group as you get to spend as much or as little time on each section as you want. It was wonderful sharing it with John and Gail as it was there first time seeing it.
While walking the resort we did see Robin and David who were with one of the tour groups. After doing the Dig we were walking on the far side of the resort and came to the rope bridge. We were all clowning around a little and then I heard look out and the whole bridge really started rocking. A school group had invaded the bridge. Too funny!
We ended up by the pyramid watching the people float through the shark tank. Then we ran into Mary and John again. Mary had lost her Key to the World card and was afraid she couldnt get back on the ship or into her safe. I know that feeling all too well from a previous cruise. We promised her we wouldnt let them sail without her on board! Everything turned out ok saw her later that day and they let her on with no problem and guest services made up a new card for her.
As we finished up we headed back to the lobby to get a taxi and who should be in line but Shontell and her mom! So we all rode back into town together. They had enjoyed a leisurely morning of shopping, sunning and spending some money in the casino. We were sure they had hit the jackpot and were hanging out in the bridge suite (at $25,000 per night).
My only goal in town was to go to Del Sol to get changing color nail polish for the girls on my team at work (Im a supervisor of 5 account service reps all women.) When we got out of the taxi we ran into Regina, Gary and Caitlin who were doing a good job of shopping and picking up the freebies the shops have for the cruise guests. We did a quick look in the Hard Rock and then found Del Sol. 5 bottles of nail polish and two t-shirts later we were done. Gail and John were going to do a little more shopping, but we were ready to head back to the ship so we said good-bye.
At the pier we ran into Cheryl and Todd also coming back from some shopping so we joined them and headed up to Beach Blanket for lunch. At lunch Todd mentioned that Matt from DVC was looking for Mark as we wanted to talk to the guy who made all the green buttons. Oh, oh. Were we in trouble?
It didnt take long to find out as we went to the 2pm Member Update. When I went to pick up the hats who was giving them out but Matt. I said I had heard he was looking for Mark and he asked if I was his wife. I said yes and pointed Mark out to him. He said he just wanted to compliment him on the web site he had done about the Member Cruise. I was a little perplexed as it is only one page and thought he meant the DIS so I made sure he knew we were only members not running the DIS. Matts comment was we know who runs the DIS and we read it a lot, we like to keep track of what people think. He said hed catch up with Mark after the update. The update was mostly about the Interval International and the new point levels (160 high for 1 bedroom, 270 high for 2 bedroom). This will make it much easier to book and someday we might, but right now were having too much fun at Disney. I won a DVC photo album for knowing there are 71,000 current members. We didnt win dinner at Palos or the cocktail party, but we were happy.
At 4pm I went to The Walt Disney Classics Collection Disney Magic Through Porcelain Artistry talk by David Pacheco (who autographed my Bambi book). I sat with Robin and David. It was a great talk on how they pick the characters and all the work that goes into developing a character both for the screen and for the collectibles. We got another pin at the end of this and I was able to talk to David for a few minutes and ask if they were going to do more pieces from the parks like they did with the Main Street Electrical Parade. He said it is definitely something they are talking about. I sure hope it happens. I love that collection.
When I got back to the room I found out that while Mark was walking around the ship he had run into Matt and they got to chat for a while. Since Matt was on his way to catch part of Andrea McArdles rehearsal he took Mark with him. Very cool!
We went to the 6:30 show and it was wonderful. They opened with Andrea and her daughter Alexis sining the same medley they did on the WDW Christmas show and even had the tape running on the big screen. Then a solo by Andrea, one by Alexis and then some work by her husband Edd Kalehoff who has done the music for World News Tonight, Monday Night Football, and the Superbowl. Very cool. Andrea ended with the T song Tomorrow from Annie and it was wonderful. A very special night of entertainment.
Mark headed off to the internet and I ran into Mary who said they got on board ok, and had won the cocktail party at the Walt Disney Suite Yeah! She also said Gail and Tom were getting things singed by the Captain in Treasure Ketch so I headed over there. I got a small print of the Wonder signed and gave the Captain greetings from Barb and Tony and said they would be joining him Thursday. Both he and his assistant for the evening Barry smiled at that. While waiting to take John and Gails picture with the Captain who should show up but Troy who asked if I got my passport case. I said no (since it wasnt the last ngiht I wasnt going to bring it up) and he got me one. Thanks Troy!
Well the evening was supposed to be followed by Dinner at Animators followed by the Deck Party. What really happened was by the time I sat down at dinner my head and stomach were both spinning so I excused myself and went out on deck 4 for some fresh air and then to the room where I fell asleep. Mark brought dinner back for me, but I couldnt eat. I honestly think something in the smoothie I had during the show didnt agree with me. So it was an early night.
Tonight on our bed was a bag with SS Member T-shirts to be worn the next day on the island for the photo shoot.
This is a trip report for the special DVC SS Member Cruise held Feb. 2-6, 2003 on the Disney Wonder.
Cast: Me & DH (MarkRG). We are DINKS who love Disney. We've been DVC members since Jan. of 2000. This is our 4th DCL cruise (did 3-day Magic in Oct. '99, 7-day Eastern Magic in May '01, 4-day Wonder in May'02 and we have a 7-day Western Magic planned for 5/10/03).
We woke to another beautiful day. We were meeting for breakfast at 8 so Mark and I headed up to deck 10 about 7:15 to watch us come in to Nassau. We ran into Sue up on deck and had a nice chat with her about cruising, specifically the Alaskan cruise she did last summer. Mark and I hope to do one in 2005. Then it was off to breakfast. Mark and I were the first to arrive followed quickly by Shontell and her Mom and not long after Gail and John. We did breakfast at Beach Blanket and easily found a table for 6. Not long after we started we were joined by Mary (Iluvdisney) and her DH John who sat at the next table. Since we hadnt seen any of them since sailaway it was nice to catch up on what everyone had done the day before. We got clearance to go ashore while we were still eating so when we finished with breakfast we stocked up on water (which we all put in our cute blue bags) and headed down to Deck 1.
Using the MarkRG method for seeing Atlantis on your own (we actually did sheets on green paper we gave out to a few folks who asked for them) we walked off the ship and the short distance to where the taxis waited. It was $4 per person to Paradise Island that we rounded up for tips to $5 and since there were 6 of us go a taxi right away with 3 others from Carnival. The ride to Atlantis is only about 10-15 minutes and we were soon zooming past all the people who took the water taxi and were now walking in the sun. We pulled right up and out, Cool!
Once inside we did some posing for pictures and then made our way into the Casino. Since Shontell had done the Dig on a previous trip she and her mom opted out of this part and decided to enjoy the resort and the casino at their own pace. The rest of us went to the Temple of the Moon and got our wristbands for entrance into the Dig. I really like doing this without a tour group as you get to spend as much or as little time on each section as you want. It was wonderful sharing it with John and Gail as it was there first time seeing it.
While walking the resort we did see Robin and David who were with one of the tour groups. After doing the Dig we were walking on the far side of the resort and came to the rope bridge. We were all clowning around a little and then I heard look out and the whole bridge really started rocking. A school group had invaded the bridge. Too funny!
We ended up by the pyramid watching the people float through the shark tank. Then we ran into Mary and John again. Mary had lost her Key to the World card and was afraid she couldnt get back on the ship or into her safe. I know that feeling all too well from a previous cruise. We promised her we wouldnt let them sail without her on board! Everything turned out ok saw her later that day and they let her on with no problem and guest services made up a new card for her.
As we finished up we headed back to the lobby to get a taxi and who should be in line but Shontell and her mom! So we all rode back into town together. They had enjoyed a leisurely morning of shopping, sunning and spending some money in the casino. We were sure they had hit the jackpot and were hanging out in the bridge suite (at $25,000 per night).
My only goal in town was to go to Del Sol to get changing color nail polish for the girls on my team at work (Im a supervisor of 5 account service reps all women.) When we got out of the taxi we ran into Regina, Gary and Caitlin who were doing a good job of shopping and picking up the freebies the shops have for the cruise guests. We did a quick look in the Hard Rock and then found Del Sol. 5 bottles of nail polish and two t-shirts later we were done. Gail and John were going to do a little more shopping, but we were ready to head back to the ship so we said good-bye.
At the pier we ran into Cheryl and Todd also coming back from some shopping so we joined them and headed up to Beach Blanket for lunch. At lunch Todd mentioned that Matt from DVC was looking for Mark as we wanted to talk to the guy who made all the green buttons. Oh, oh. Were we in trouble?
It didnt take long to find out as we went to the 2pm Member Update. When I went to pick up the hats who was giving them out but Matt. I said I had heard he was looking for Mark and he asked if I was his wife. I said yes and pointed Mark out to him. He said he just wanted to compliment him on the web site he had done about the Member Cruise. I was a little perplexed as it is only one page and thought he meant the DIS so I made sure he knew we were only members not running the DIS. Matts comment was we know who runs the DIS and we read it a lot, we like to keep track of what people think. He said hed catch up with Mark after the update. The update was mostly about the Interval International and the new point levels (160 high for 1 bedroom, 270 high for 2 bedroom). This will make it much easier to book and someday we might, but right now were having too much fun at Disney. I won a DVC photo album for knowing there are 71,000 current members. We didnt win dinner at Palos or the cocktail party, but we were happy.
At 4pm I went to The Walt Disney Classics Collection Disney Magic Through Porcelain Artistry talk by David Pacheco (who autographed my Bambi book). I sat with Robin and David. It was a great talk on how they pick the characters and all the work that goes into developing a character both for the screen and for the collectibles. We got another pin at the end of this and I was able to talk to David for a few minutes and ask if they were going to do more pieces from the parks like they did with the Main Street Electrical Parade. He said it is definitely something they are talking about. I sure hope it happens. I love that collection.
When I got back to the room I found out that while Mark was walking around the ship he had run into Matt and they got to chat for a while. Since Matt was on his way to catch part of Andrea McArdles rehearsal he took Mark with him. Very cool!
We went to the 6:30 show and it was wonderful. They opened with Andrea and her daughter Alexis sining the same medley they did on the WDW Christmas show and even had the tape running on the big screen. Then a solo by Andrea, one by Alexis and then some work by her husband Edd Kalehoff who has done the music for World News Tonight, Monday Night Football, and the Superbowl. Very cool. Andrea ended with the T song Tomorrow from Annie and it was wonderful. A very special night of entertainment.
Mark headed off to the internet and I ran into Mary who said they got on board ok, and had won the cocktail party at the Walt Disney Suite Yeah! She also said Gail and Tom were getting things singed by the Captain in Treasure Ketch so I headed over there. I got a small print of the Wonder signed and gave the Captain greetings from Barb and Tony and said they would be joining him Thursday. Both he and his assistant for the evening Barry smiled at that. While waiting to take John and Gails picture with the Captain who should show up but Troy who asked if I got my passport case. I said no (since it wasnt the last ngiht I wasnt going to bring it up) and he got me one. Thanks Troy!
Well the evening was supposed to be followed by Dinner at Animators followed by the Deck Party. What really happened was by the time I sat down at dinner my head and stomach were both spinning so I excused myself and went out on deck 4 for some fresh air and then to the room where I fell asleep. Mark brought dinner back for me, but I couldnt eat. I honestly think something in the smoothie I had during the show didnt agree with me. So it was an early night.
Tonight on our bed was a bag with SS Member T-shirts to be worn the next day on the island for the photo shoot.
