Stealing the Magic for 2 - WB Panama Canal - Updated 7/5

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

It’s Packing Time in Tennessee!

So we’ve got everything booked and arranged, and it seems like we’ve planned for every possible thing that could go wrong. Wait – where’s my passport?!

Me? No, I haven't bitten anything that looks like a passport lately.​

Yep it’s true, my passport was missing and hadn’t been seen since the move. I had ripped the house apart looking for it, but no luck. Although we could have used my birth certificate to get on the plane, it’s better in the long run to go ahead and get a new passport. The only problem was that it was the first week in April, and I would have to send off my birth certificate to get a new passport. If it didn’t get back in time, I wouldn’t have a method to get on the boat!

X-Ray eye cat determines there is no passport inside pumpkin.​

Luckily the fine people of the Disboards had been reporting that they were receiving their passports in record time, so I felt confident that I would be able to send it off and get it back before the end of April. Off went the application (and $100 out the door) and in about 10 business days back it came! I was now able to get on the ship, and Jill got her named changed for hers, so we were all set.

Jill graduated with her two year degree on May 2nd, and I am very proud of her. She’s on to UT at Knoxville next fall to finish up her 4 year degree and then maybe on to a move to work for Disney.

Jill waves to us at her graduation!​

Of course all the projects that I had been working on at work have encountered delays which caused them all to become due the week that we leave (funny how that works).

Jill has spent all this time planning, getting this ready in small stages, and letting me know all the things I am not doing to help her along. I figure all we needed were a couple of shirts, some shorts and maybe a toothbrush. But no. This is the site I see on Tuesday night:

When will we ever us all of this stuff!?​

Holy freaking cow! How will all that fit into our suitcases and not cost me a fortune in over the weight limit fees? Jill managed to pack it in 4 suitcases, 2 carryons, and a purse and camera bag. She could not see the scale while holding them to check their weight, so we had to perform a dance around the scale while she was holding these bags to get the weight.

Next… we actually leave on the trip after 400 days of waiting for the day to come!

 

[jns]

Have a great hoilday
looking forward to hearing all about it

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

..hooray! let the ..begins..you lucky guys!



..ps, are you getting ..us anything?... , [ can you tell

..we have kids?],

 

[Stepht5]

Yep, darn Jill's school being in session for the EB or we would probably be on that one.

We, dh & I,really enjoyed talking to you and Jill on the 10nt and it would have been so much fun getting to know y'all better on this one!

Don't you have to have, like, kids for that Supernanny show

He looked sooo much like you!!! LOL! They had 4 kids...... I wish I could find a picture.... It was Episode 11 of this year! LOL!

 

[Stepht5]

Jill graduated with her two year degree on May 2nd, and I am very proud of her. She’s on to UT at Knoxville next fall to finish up her 4 year degree and then maybe on to a move to work for Disney.

Jill waves to us at her graduation!​

Great picture!! Congratulations, JILL!!!

 

[tksbaskets]

Living vicariously through your trip report.

My DH is a teacher so we can't join you on a non-school-break trip. Three years and we'll be on a longer cruise. I hope you are able to share with us along the way. You will have a fabulous time! We went on a 10-day trip over Christmas in 2004. Loved the extra days at sea.

Congrats to your DW on her graduation. What an accomplishment! I also got my associates degree first and then worked my way up to my masters.

Happy travels!

TK

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Here's a sneak peek of what's happening at this moment in the Disney Cruise terminal! Excitement is in the air!

This will be my last post on the free internet, so the rest of my posts will be trip updates until we get back. Please hold all questions until then

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Here's a sneak peek of what's happening at this moment in the Disney Cruise terminal! Excitement is in the air!

This will be my last post on the free internet, so the rest of my posts will be trip updates until we get back. Please hold all questions until then

Have a great cruise

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

..dwats..& here..i was hoping..." room for one more?"


..smooth ...& of course, !


ps. be careful..of bringing back...lil'sourvineer/s. [ happened to us,

oh, thanks..for sharing~

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

ps, eat..a jumbo shrimp..for the rest of us!

oh..& don't forget...., , & more....



just thinking about....how magical~

 

[TiaMaria]

Looks like a beautiful day to sail!

 

[MagicMe]

Happy sailing!!!

 

[dzneprincess]

Have fun and I love love love the poster on your wall of the DCL logo, when you got back please let me know where I can get one!

 

[Verandah Man]

Some pics of the Magic today from Port Canaveral to sailing past the Two Palms cam............Bon Voyage have a MAGICal time.......

 

[Lil' Grumpy]

plain & simple..you're just a nice guy..mr.v, ,

ps, iam still " "..you wasn't able..to work out your busy
schedules..to still be on the east~bounder.

[ you think..they made a "sand~man " @ cc today? ]

 

[TiggersPal]

Please let me know how the DIS meet went !!! DId you go? I'm sorry I am missing this cruise - you might not know, but I am IBOUNCETOO's sister and I am stuck here in Arizona - wondering how everyone is doing on the cruise I had to cancel!!! sniff sniff - I pray this trip is everything you ever wanted and MORE!!!!

PLease extend a huge hug to my NOTSO LITTLEMERMAID PAL and my sis Jackie (ibouncetoo)!!!! Have a great time.

 

[Verandah Man]

plain & simple..you're just a nice guy..mr.v, ,

ps, iam still " "..you wasn't able..to work out your busy
schedules..to still be on the east~bounder.

[ you think..they made a "sand~man " @ cc today? ]

Me too LG, me too........

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Pre-day 1: The Adventure Begins!

It’s hard to believe that today our vacation is beginning! With no time to spare, the night before Jill and I were rushing around, trying to get the house clean for our house sitter, and packing the last minute items we needed. I tried to print off all of our cruise documents, but of course I couldn’t login to the Disney website. I figured that I could just print it at the Dolphin once we got to Orlando.

5:00 AM arrived all too soon, especially since I had gone to bed around 2:30 AM. Jill’s Mom showed up to take us to the airport. We ran around getting everything in the car and I think regretting we were not nudists. 4 suitcases plus 2 carry ons. It would cost an extra $50 for the two extra bags that we had on Delta (grrr). We made it to the airport, and all the flights went fine and dandy. Of course we were concerned that our bags wouldn’t make it during our plane change in Atlanta, but surprise surprise they did.

We arranged our transportation through FL Tours, and they were awesome! The driver was waiting for us at the airport, helped us with our luggage, and got us to the Dolphin quickly. They were well worth the money. Here I am at the airport with all our luggage.

Tons o' luggage.​

We arrived at the Dolphin and were upgraded from a double bed to a king bed which was great. We also had a balcony where we would see both EPCOT and Disney Hollywood Studios.

I'm already comfortable on the bed

Hope our elevators aren't like these!

What a nice ball!​

We headed over to Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club hotel. This is one of our favorite restaurants on property, and we try to eat there each time we go. We split a burger and onion rings, and of course had a mint chocolate chip shake. We ate there about 12:30, and had reservations at O’Hana at 6:30.

Yummy!​

We tromped around Downtown Disney for quite a while, Jill looking at all the tempting merchandise to buy, and me looking at all the price tags that scared me. We caught a bus over to the Contemporary and then the Monorail over to the Polynesian.

Even more yummy!​

Jill’s favorite dessert is there, the ice cream with Banana’s Foster sauce. We finished eating and were waiting for dessert. We kept waiting, and waiting. Here’s Jill unhappy waiting face:

Not so happy face...​

Once it arrived, Jill perked up and looked like this with fork clenched, ready to eat:

VERY happy face!​

Also, in the many looks of Jill, here’s waiting for your ADR when you booked it six months ago:

Any resemblance?​

And here’s what she looks like after eating al the desert and sticking my hand with a fork when I requested a smidgeon. Notice the evil grin? EVIL I tell you!

All full!​

After dinner, we went out to the beach and walked around. Here is a pic of the castle that I took with our new camera from the beach:

Wow that's a long ways away. Hope the Year of a Million Dreams winner isn't changing clothes at the moment! ​

AWESOME! The zoom on this thing is great. As daylight faded, we sat in a hammock and watched the sunset over the Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavilion. Maybe it was the beauty of the moment, or maybe it was the 60 pounds of food we both consumed, but neither of us wanted to get up. It was the end of a great day.

Nothing finer than to lay around in a hammock.​

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Can't wait to read more

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Pre-Day 2: The Adventure Continues!

Our last day before we board the cruise! Today was supposed to be a relaxing day before the cruise started, the only thing we had planned was lunch at the Trail’s End Buffet, and then the Pirate and Princess Party at the Magic Kingdom. But this is an adventure trip so of course we had an adventure!

We took the bus to Downtown Disney so that we could go to the bank and get ones for the cruise. Not only did we walk out to the wrong traffic light, but we then had to walk through the grass on the side of the busy street to get to the next light where there was a signal. You will never appreciate just how large bus side view mirrors are until they are flying by your head at 40 miles an hour.

After the bank, we got back on a bus and rode to the Fort Wilderness campground. We got off the bus and took a look at the map. We were at one end; our destination was at the other end. It didn’t look too far on the map (red flag #1), and we had only been there by boat from the Magic Kingdom (red flag #2). We started out walking, and after about 15 minutes of not even passing a road or campground, I started to tell Jill that it seems like it was further than she thought. The sun managed to spot us and apply extra hot rays right at us. The further we went the hotter it got. We saw a bus go by, and I wondered aloud why that bus was back there. Jill looked at me and said “Oh, I guess I forgot there was an internal bus system”. Flames shot from my eyes (which luckily were stopped by the sunglasses I was wearing).

This is a picture of what our adventure looked like. The red circle at the bottom is the bus stop, the top circle is the Trail’s End, and the middle part is what we ended up walking. The best part of the story is that the bus stopped just past were we were, and we were able to jump on and ride the rest of the way. We were even a little early for the ADR.

What a walk!

Never a more welcome site!​

The food was great, and they even had sweet tea! It’s only served there and at Liberty Tree Tavern on property. From there we hopped the boat to the Magic Kingdom, and road the bus back to the Dolphin. Jill grabbed her costume and I changed into my pirate shirt and we got on the bus back to the Magic Kingdom.

Before

After​

Kids and adults alike were staring at Jill, and if she talked to the kids most of them were very shy and would run behind their parents. I guess she is a scarier pirate than she thought! She even got a picture with Jack Sparrow.

I am strangly attracted to one of these pirates, you'll have to guess which one ​

We watched the fireworks, and they were awesome! Captain Hook fired his cannons on the castle and there were so many fireworks going off it certainly felt as if you were in the middle of a battle.

Boom!​

But the day was over, so off we went to grab a bus back to the Dolphin. It had been a great two days, but there was hardly a thought that didn’t think about what was coming tomorrow – Embarkation day!