The “What Exit Are You From?” Trip Report – Magic 11/4/06 (NEW POST 12/10)

[disneyfanatic3166]

LOL

 

[DisneyZell]

Your trip to the ER had me laughing so hard! I could see us having to answer the 20 questions game from my parents as well and I am not very good at coming up with fake answers on the fly. Great job

 

[mruhaak]

Did we sacrifice a little by having 3 grandparents in tow? Of course. Would we have had a different cruise experience if the grandparents had not been along? Probably a little different. Would I have done it differently? No, probably not. Perhaps my circumstances are unique, but Spanky's disability makes it extremely difficult for my mother, especially going on vacation. They simply could not have done this trip without our help. The kids loved having their grandparents around for a week and the grandparents, especially Spanky, cherished every moment with the kids. I wouldn't have changed a thing. Indeed, we rebooked to do it all again with the grandparents. Call me a glutton for family punishment.

And more power to you! Glad it worked out!

That's the tough part for me as my Mom doesn't get to travel much with my Dad and I like to give her opportunities. But she's SO difficult to travel with.
Has a little comment for everything and reads into everything that is said (and usually not what was meant.)

But... anywhoooo.... continue on! I'm enjoying the report...

 

[jsfein]

Why didn't Spanky like the cruise director? And I think someone posted she's not on the Magic this week.

I'm not sure whether this is the right expression, but he found her too saccharine. Too much enthusiasm, too much energy, just "too much" everything. She was pretty darn peppy.

Your trip to the ER had me laughing so hard! I could see us having to answer the 20 questions game from my parents as well and I am not very good at coming up with fake answers on the fly. Great job

In this instance, a wall of lies seemed like the better option than spilling the ER details.

 

[lindaso]

BWAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAA!!! Thank you Jason. I needed a laugh like that today. Classic installment.

 

[DisneyZell]

WOW JFStein....DW already commented above...but I was crying there for a bit I was laughing so hard. Good thing you diverted...never know what type of prying eyes are looking. Hope that Mom doesn't figure it out...

 

[mruhaak]

I'm not sure whether this is the right expression, but he found her too saccharine. Too much enthusiasm, too much energy, just "too much" everything. She was pretty darn peppy.

I can relate to that. Sometimes that can be kinda irritating...

 

[metinfla]

Don't you think jsfein should respect his wife's privacy? REALLY.

 

[tjeagle]

LOVE your report!!

Oh yeah, transplant here....exit 69 (I think....##changed since I lived there) off the GSP!!

 

[JerseyBelle]

Great report. We are exit 5 (turnpike) but we were on a different Jersey Sailing (11/9/06 - 11/12/06 Wonder). When I worked near exit 11 and lived where I currently live, people at work always asked me on Monday how it was at the shore last weekend. If you live in South Jersey and meet someone from North Jersey, they think you live at the shore. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

 

[jsfein]

Great report. We are exit 5 (turnpike) but we were on a different Jersey Sailing (11/9/06 - 11/12/06 Wonder). When I worked near exit 11 and lived where I currently live, people at work always asked me on Monday how it was at the shore last weekend. If you live in South Jersey and meet someone from North Jersey, they think you live at the shore. NOT EVEN CLOSE.

I didn't even think about the Wonder. You must have also had a crazy number of Jersey passengers. Did you watch the Rutgers game? Go RU!!

LOVE your report!!

Oh yeah, transplant here....exit 69 (I think....##changed since I lived there) off the GSP!!

Thanks. I think Exit 69 is still there ... Ocean (in Ocean Cty).

Don't you think jsfein should respect his wife's privacy? REALLY.

Hi Dear. Am I out of timeout yet so that I can finish this report?

 

[disnygirl55]

Oh my.... I was laughing so hard reading this. My DS4 kept asking me what I was giggling at and when I told him about the funny guy talking about what he did on the cruise, he asked if he would get to see you when we go in April. LOL! He must think you're the on-board entertainment.

I'm really enjoying this - appreciate the tip about being able to change dining rotations. Funny they don't mention that in the Passporter. I've been stewing about when to fit Palo into the schedule. Hopefully I can get APPT on our 4-night Wonder and get both Palo and Pirate Night in. Thanks!

Disnygirl55

First Ever Cruise - 4-Night Wonder April 29, 2007 (Land & Sea)

 

[Suzy Mouse]

I thought I knew everything about the Magic! Now I have to do some research on this "ER"....sounds like it would have been a good addition to dh 40th birthday celebration!!!

My daughter was reading the post over my shoulder. When I saw ER I thought it was the emergency room! SHe didn't understand why I shoved her away!!! Good thing I read faster than her!

 

[JDBlair]

I'm loving your TR! Your ER story is hilarious! But don't you think the Mom and MIL already know you two are up to something, you have 3 children together!!

I love it when the guy writes the TR. It gives me hope that DH will actually love our cruise next year!!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

JSFein, love your trip report. When I have more time I will do more than skim it. Loved your review of the ER. This may be a stupid question, but was the cruise really almost entirely Jersey people? How? I'm really a Jersey girl. Born and raised at Exit 63 (Manahawkin/Long Beach Island). Still adapting to my new home in central PA...people say New Jersey and its residents are strange...you should see the natives here. Anyway, keep the reports coming, I'm enjoying the antics.

Christine

 

[jsfein]

Oh my.... I was laughing so hard reading this. My DS4 kept asking me what I was giggling at and when I told him about the funny guy talking about what he did on the cruise, he asked if he would get to see you when we go in April. LOL! He must think you're the on-board entertainment.

I'd be more than happy to tag along and entertain your DS4. However, I suspect you and your family will have a great cruise without me.

I thought I knew everything about the Magic! Now I have to do some research on this "ER"....sounds like it would have been a good addition to dh 40th birthday celebration!!!

My daughter was reading the post over my shoulder. When I saw ER I thought it was the emergency room! SHe didn't understand why I shoved her away!!! Good thing I read faster than her!

The ER is a fun, economical way to experience the spa. By the way, without giving away too much of the rest of this report, there will be an ER story that is more akin to the emergency room than the rasul. Stay tuned.

JSFein, love your trip report. When I have more time I will do more than skim it. Loved your review of the ER. This may be a stupid question, but was the cruise really almost entirely Jersey people? How? I'm really a Jersey girl. Born and raised at Exit 63 (Manahawkin/Long Beach Island). Still adapting to my new home in central PA...people say New Jersey and its residents are strange...you should see the natives here. Anyway, keep the reports coming, I'm enjoying the antics.

Christine

Thanks!! Yes, there was a huge number of Jersey people on board. I don't know what percentage of the cruisers were actually from NJ, but our meet thread for our sailing was probably about 50% from NJ if that was any indication.

 

[DisVillainFan]

My only question would be, how long did it take you to get the oatmeal and green slime out of all the nooks and crannys??

 

[jsfein]

My only question would be, how long did it take you to get the oatmeal and green slime out of all the nooks and crannys??

I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet while on board. It sounds like your family had a great cruise. I blame Michael for not introducing us.

As for your question, that is a rather personal inquiry. Speaking of which, I didn't get to see you and your wife in Match Your Mate. I hope the two of you correctly answsered the "where is the strangest place you've ever discovered the magic?" question.

 

[jsfein]

Now that I’ve played my “ace” a/k/a my best story of our cruise, the rest of this trip report will probably crash and burn. You may want to bail out now while you still can.

We followed our visit to the spa with brunch at Palo … a pretty indulgent morning. Spanky took a pass for brunch not wanting to “dress up.” His loss. This was our first visit to Palo and we were dutifully impressed. Our server was Noeme from Hungary and she couldn’t have been nicer. The food at Palo has been written about by others more eloquently than I can do so, so I won’t try to repeat what others have already said. Everything we sampled (and boy did we sample a lot) was clearly made from high quality ingredients and well prepared. There was not, however, any item at brunch that had me still salivating days later. There were, however, a couple of such dishes at dinner but you’ll just have to wait until I get there.

Of course, we all remarked that we didn’t want to return to the regular dining rotation after having experienced Palo, but we’d miss our servers, Stipe and Putu, too much. Noeme also shared some good stories about celebrities that have dined at Palo. I highly recommend that you ask your Palo server about their celebrity experiences.

We checked on the kids after brunch and they all didn’t want to leave the clubs. Woohoo!! The adults separated, and Karen and I “slowed down” for the first time since boarding the ship. We started off on lounge chairs on Deck 4 and then proceeded to the secret deck on Deck 7 Aft. I realized that this must be what its like to cruise without kids and I liked it … a lot.

Rejuvenated and our brunch now digested we took the two younger kids out of the club (Alex still didn’t want to leave). We intended to hang out at the Family Dance Party in the Lobby Atrium, but Noah wasn’t too interested so he and I left, leaving Karen and Eva at the party.

Noah & I enjoyed some one on one time. We visited the arcade … his all-time favorite activity on land and sea, and he was overjoyed. Followed up the arcade with ice cream and caught some of High School Musical on the jumbotron up on Deck 9.

At 4 pm the girls went to Tea With Wendy. Tea With Wendy received failing marks. We now know for next time around to skip both the character breakfast and Tea With Wendy (the galley tour too, but I haven’t gotten that far yet).

While the girls were doing tea, I had the grueling task of dressing myself and the boys for formal night. Our formal night clothing had been the subject of much discussion prior to the cruise. Some of the moms on the DIS meets thread for our sailing were finding great deals on tuxedos for their husbands and sons. I thought it would be pretty cool if the boys and I were in tuxedos and mentioned the idea to Karen. Her response was THE LOOK followed by some remark about how I should take a break from DIS.

I’m not too proud to say that Karen was right. The boys were dressed in long sleeve button down shirts with ties and slacks. I was dressed the same, but with a sports jacket. We were dressed just fine. Sure there were some families more dressy than us, and other families more dressed down. The boys and I would have been miserable in tuxedos. Even without tuxedos, the complaints of itchy shirts and tight collars were constant. The boys’ ties stayed on just long enough to get our family formal photo taken.

We hadn’t seen Spanky since early in the morning. We didn’t expect him to join us for formal photos as it would have been difficult for him with the scooter and the lines. I also didn’t expect him to dress too formal and he didn’t, but he did have on a button down shirt and slacks … a pretty dressed up look for him and we appreciated the effort he made.

This was our first and only dinner at Lumiere’s. For the first time, Spanky and I doubled up on our entrées and had the lamb shank and something else that I can’t recall. The lamb shank was probably the best entrée I had at all of the rotation restaurants. By doubling up our entrees at this dinner, our server thereafter doubled up our entrees on each subsequent night whether we asked for it or not. Cruising definitely has its perks.

Karen uncovered a formal night photo opportunity completely by accident. During dinner, Karen took Eva to use the bathroom. While they were gone, both boys decided they had to go too. As I was walking them down the hall towards the Promenade Lounge who do I see but Karen and Eva having their photos taken by a photographer who had no other customers. Following our bathroom visit, the boys and I stopped for a few shots ourselves. These impromptu Girls and Guys photos came out pretty nice.

I forgot to mention that at our previous dinner Noah didn’t want dessert so he got a plate of “Nothing.”

He and the other kids were so ecstatic about the plate of “Nothing” that Noah ordered it every night for dessert. Alex sacrificed dessert one night to get his own plate of “Nothing.” Eva, the youngest and shrewdest of the bunch, started ordering the dessert of her choice plus “Nothing” every night. No one will ever accuse my daughter of lacking ingenuity. I’ve tried to recreate “Nothing” with Hershey’s chocolate syrup since we’ve returned home but its novelty value seems to have waned.

Following dinner we ran (literally) to our cabins to change out of our formal wear. The evening’s production was The Golden Mickey’s which we all agreed was our favorite production of the cruise. A girl who was featured during the preshow with Rona Rivers (? – not sure of her name) stole the show during her red carpet interview. I think the girl was part of a large church group which included DIS-er disneylover5 from Centerville, VA. Thanks to Shirley at The Perfect Gift, my kids were all well behaved during all of the evening shows as they had plenty of candy to occupy them in their gift baskets.

For the second night in a row, we said goodnight to the grandparents and partied with the kids at the Family Golden Mickey’s After Party. The kids danced up a storm. In addition to some High School Musical songs, they played some music from Grease for us old-timers and I was handed the microphone (along with some other dads) to do our Danny imitation during Summer Nights. The kids later confirmed that I sounded terrible. I’ve still got it.

This was our third day on the ship and at least our fourth or more dance party. I no longer had the tolerance for another playing of the Cha Cha slide. One more Cha Cha slide and I wasn’t sure what I would do. I was certain that whatever my actions, including throwing a member of the cruise staff overboard, I would be found innocent by reason of being rendered insane by “turn to the left, turn to the right, everybody clap your hands.”

Once again, I returned to the cabin with Eva and Noah before the party ended. Alex didn’t want to leave until the last song was played. He made it very clear that he planned to attend every remaining dance party. Whose kid was this and where did he come from? He was like Tony Manero reincarnated.

Up next, swimming with the stingrays or, as we say in Jersey, swimming with the fishes.

 

[mmouse37]

Yes, we were one of the other teams during Mickey Mania (the red minnies)....we were in the lead until those darn out of focus character pics that you had to name.

And, that couple with the red phillies caps were all over....very interesting couple.....