erincon23
<font color=blue>Everyone must have gotten a life
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2008
- Messages
- 2,788
Hi all! We got back last night after 9 days of a multi-part trip. We started out a week ago Friday with DS 16 (Greg) going down for his school band and choir's trip (he's in band, jazz band and choir, so he would be with all three performing groups). He had to be dropped off at school at 3:30 a.m. -- ick! So we were all up at that time. DH and DS 13 (Andy) had a flight scheduled at 2:50 p.m., and mine was at 8 a.m. (we had frequent flyer tickets on two airlines, and American screwed up DH's, so they were flying later). We found out, through MANY phone calls, that there were actually seats available on the 7 a.m. flight that they could try going standby on, so I dropped them off at the airport at 5 a.m., drove to hubby's company offices -- 10 minutes away -- met his dad there, left my car, and FIL drove me to the airport. I was (by coincidence) flying on the same flight as half the high school kids, and DH got the standby at 7 a.m. -- with the other half of the high school kids, including our son. We were all in, checked into our timeshare condo, finished with grocery shopping, and at MK by 3 pm. Yay! 
We did a couple of must-sees -- Monsters, Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates. We ate at Columbia Harbor House -- had never eaten there before, but it was really good! We were all really beat, having been up since 3 a.m., so before the fireworks, we headed home and crawled into bed.
Saturday -- Universal! I had a 1 day 1 park from Coke Rewards, and had won one of the SuperBowl tickets. Then I purchased a 1 day 2 park. Since DH and Andy wanted to do IOA, and I wasn't interested, we wanted to give the SuperBowl ticket to DH, but weren't sure that was possible -- note to all of you who have these tickets -- as long as the actual winner shows their ID to pick up the ticket, they don't really care who puts it through the turnstile. So DH was able to use this ticket.
We went on the new Simpsons ride -- Andy and DH loved it, but it made me nauseous. Did Men in Black -- one of our favorites. They headed off to IOA, where the high school group was touring also. They never saw Greg, but talked to him several times by phone when he went on the Jurassic ride -- I think that was the one -- and he didn't realize it hasd a huge drop on it. I did MIB again, and toured the shops. I bought one of the large Mardi Gras bead necklaces for Greg -- it had potatoes on it! For St. Pat's Day, he had cooked a bag of small potatoes and handed them out to friends,
so I couldn't resist getting this for him. I watched the Blues Brothers perform 
twice -- love the Blues Brothers, and Greg plays in a classic rock and blues band, so I videod the performance for him.
DH and Andy returned. We ate from the food tents set up for Mardi Gras. I staked out a place to sit -- turned out to be an excellent spot, kitty corner from Mel's Diner with our backs to the lagoon. Got lots of beads (and got hit in the cheek more than once, had a small bruise for a while). Not so many grabby people this year! Stayed for a little while more, ran over to where the high school group was getting their awards from their competition that morning and gave Greg the potato beads. His friends thought it was hysterical, and he said it made him grin every time he saw it during the week.
Sunday -- Epcot! DH ran and got FPs for Soarin and then we went over to Test Track, decided to do the single rider line. Ran into some of the high school kids, who shouted for us across the lines. They're such good kids! TT stopped for a while, we stood right at the front for nearly 20 minutes. Finally got through. Ellen's Energy Adventure had been scheduled to reopen that day, but wasn't open all the rest of the week we were there. Went on Finding Nemo, saw Turtle Talk. Andy sat up with the little kids -- he realized he was twice their size, but there was plenty of room. We had lunch in the CS at Mexico -- I enjoyed mine but Andy's was cold and not very good. Got a FP for Kim Possible but when we went to pick up our Kimmunicator in Norway, the satellites had been hijacked by the villains (the CMs who do this are terrific about staying in character -- the system wasn't just down, it had been hijacked) and we weren't able to do it that day.
Went back to Soarin' for our FPs. When I went to WDW in October with a friend, we did Soarin' in the standby line and had seen some wonderful pictures of a fantasy forest -- you can't see these from the FP line, and I had really wanted to take photos of them. The standby line was always too long for me to try it again, so I never got my photos. If anyone's going in the near future and you go through the standby line and can take pix of these for me, I would really appreciate it! Andy was getting grumpy -- he's not a good traveler -- so we left about 3 planning to come back at about 6 -- we never made it back (I've been having major foot problems and was not sure I could walk around any longer anyway). Had dinner at Fuddrucker's, off to bed.
Meanwhile, the school had clinics with the Disney musical staff. The concert band clinic ran 2 hours, and the jazz band ran more than 3. The jazz band clinician was very impressed with our band and gave them extra stuff to do. They had a blast! That was one of Greg's two highlights.
Monday -- breakfast at Chef Mickey's! :mickeymo: This was fun. Mickey kept kissing me when he came by. Hubby needs photography lessons -- we're at the bottom of the frame with the top half of the picture as dead space. This was my only photo with Mickey -- my fave
-- all week, so I'm a little disappointed. The food was good. The weather was not -- DH and Andy were planning to go to Blizzard Beach right after breakfast, but it was cold and rainy, so we went up to the monorail and asked if we could ride in the front. The CM said it could be up to an hour, but we got on the very next train! Since they couldn't go to BB, I lost my day to myself and we went back to MK. Did Laugh Floor and Buzz again. They actually got me to go on Big Thunder Mountain -- I hate roller coasters but this wasn't so bad.
We had to leave MK early -- the high school was having their big performances at DTD and my parents, the snowbirds, were coming up from Clearwater to visit us and see the concerts. DH adn Andy went on Splash Mountain while I did the shops, and then headed out. Andy was grumpy again and didn't want to hear the concerts, so Kevin took him back to the condo, I took a bus to DTD (well, actually to POFQ and transfer to DTD) and met him and my folks there. The concerts were great! The jazz band was especially terrific. Had dinner with the folks at Earl of Sandwich, which was very good. Wandered DTD, went back to check on Andy and out for the night.
Tuesday -- DH went golfing after dropping Andy and I off at AK. We had been looking forward to going on Dinosaur -- there was no wait when we got there, but Andy decided it looked too scary. I went anyway, and it wasn't too bad, so I talked him into it -- big mistake! He covered his eyes the whole time and it had day-ruining potential. But I got him back in a good mood. The safari line was nearly 90 minutes, he decided not to go on Expedition Everest, and nothing else appealed, so Dinosaur was the only ride we actually went on! Lunch at Flametree. The pork sandwich was excellent.
Took the bus over to Epcot. Wait for Soarin' was nearly two hours. We did Spaceship Earth again, movie in France, had a pastry. DH came to meet us. We got an FP for Kim Possible and picked up our Kimmunicator. This was really fun! We had a mission in China that kept us all amused. We ended up doing another a little later in France. I heartily recommend these to all ages, even adults. We got into San Angel in Mexico in 5 minutes without ADRs. Wouldn't go back. Was VERY expensive, not very good. Andy ordered chicken with mole sauce, he hated it. Mine was very average, DH's was ok he said, but not great. Staked out a great spot for Illuminations, standing between two of the little canvas F&G stores. Flower beds were gorgeous, topiaries were spectactular. I had been here two years ago all by myself for F&G -- I saw a lot more of it then than I did this trip, since the two men weren't at all interested. Saw Illuminations, chatted with some retirees who were here for the day, spent tons of time in Mouse Gear waiting for the crowds to die down a little before we headed out. Got a great shirt!
Wednesday -- picked Greg up from his high school group. They were all flying back that afternoon, but a couple of families were staying down after the group went home. We had made a reservation online for him to audition for American Idol -- he was very excited about this, even planned what he would bring to wear. First, though, he had to wear the family shirt I had made for all of us (thanks Natalie for the great DISign), but he could change for his audition. We got over to HS, DH ran for a Toy Story fastpass, it was nearly time for his audition. DH and Andy went to Muppets, a family favorite, and I stayed with Greg since he's a minor. He sang "It's a Wonderful World" for the casting director, who really liked him and sent him on to the producers. He had already looked at the list of available songs -- you can find this list online and I really advise it if you think you want to try out -- and had selected Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll and Stevie Wonder's Superstition as his top two songs. Fortunately, they have some of the songs available in a different key than the original, and he was able to do Rock and Roll in a lower key. The producers really liked him, and slated him for the 1 pm show!
We called Dad, they came and met us for quick lunch at the Commissary (except for Andy, who wanted to eat at Pizza Planet), then ran back for his hair/makeup, vocal coach, and rehearsal. Dad and Andy came back at 12:30 for VIP seating and I stayed with Greg (I didn't get to see the performance live, since I had to sit backstage, but we got to see it on a monitor). The other contestants were a 16 year old girl, cute, pretty voice, singing "Our Song", and a grandma with a nice voice singing "Colors of the Wind." Here's where practicing your song ahead comes in handy -- the girl obviously knew her song well, adn the grandma had never sung hers before. IMO, Greg had the best performance (the female judge asked him if he was single and needed a prom date, "Simon" predicted throat surgery, and the other judge thought he did a good job). Unfortunately, he didn't win -- the 16 year old girl did, but we were so proud of him! This was, without a doubt, one of his top two highlights for the trip.
We finally got to do Toy Story Mania -- what a rush! I could have done that several times in a row. We weren't able to do it a second time, though, too bad!!!!!!! We thought about staying for Fantasmic -- it was running twice that night -- but we decided to go back to MK. Did Laugh Floor and Buzz, HM, Pirates, Jungle Cruise. Boys went on Splash. Somewhere in there, we ate at Cosmic Ray's. We got a place to watch Wishes, and then it took us FOREVER to get out of the park and to our car. We were exhausted but happy -- it had been a great day.
Thursday -- finish the laundry
, pack up, check out! The drive to Port Canaveral was very quick. I made the family wear the shirts I had made (thanks Kellybell!), and we got quite a few comments from CMs. Mickey himself was greeting cruisers. We were on the ship 45 minutes after we arrived, including potty breaks. We hadn't been on a Disney cruise before, and it was fun to have our names announced as we boarded! We headed up for lunch, then went to our room, where our luggage was all waiting for us. Boys went to check into the teen center, and Kevin and I went to meet our new DIS friends -- hi, Dana, Lydia and Jen! We had arranged to do a little Fish Extender exchange, and this was quite fun.
Had dinner the first night in Parrot Cay. Food was excellent, our servers were nice, we were seated with a family that had a boy a year older than Greg and a girl the same age as Andy. That was nice! Checked out the shops and headed to the Golden Mickey's. The ship was really moving -- we had heavy winds our entire trip and the stabilizers couldn't keep the ship steady, so we rocked the whole time. A girl threw up right in front of us during the show -- poor girl! Not fun. The show was very good, though, and we really enjoyed it. Went to "Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer," didn't get into the hot seat.
WE had an upgraded room assignment -- we had booked Cat 12, but got upgraded to a cat 9 -- with a porthole! This was the farthest aft outside cabin on deck 2 -- very nice for an upgrade, but if I were paying for a Cat 9, I wouldn't pick this one (right over the engine room, EXTREMELY noisy as the ship pulls into ports).
Friday -- pulled into Nassau. We were up and at breakfast as the ship pulled in, so this was fun to see. Because of the high winds, any boating excursions were cancelled. We had booked a glass-bottom boat tour, which now was gone, but decided to take an island tour with one of the tour guides that "accost" you as you leave the ship. We were with two elderly woman and another group of two younger women. Talk about a small world -- one of the younger women teaches in the school district my kids go to! The tour was very good, learned a lot about Nassau, saw Atlantis, the slave-built fort, the poorer sections, and the wealthy areas. Went back to the ship. I went to Bingo -- quick loss of $30. We had dinner in Triton's -- sooooo gooood! Greg ordered two entrees every night -- I decided to follow his example that night and had tenderloin and the lobster with pasta. Andy went to the teen center instead of joining us -- he missed the best food of the trip!
Saw Toy Story the Musical that night -- I've seen the reports saying that people don't care for this, but we all really enjoyed it. I would have liked to have seen it again (Greg found it on YouTube, so I just might). Then we went to the Pirates in the Caribbean party -- this was fun! The fireworks were excellent -- I love fireworks! Greg joined us -- he couldn't find anyone in the teen center -- so while my husband tried to sleep standing up, Greg and I sang to all the songs and danced. Had a little bit from the buffet and sat and talked with Dana from our FE group.
Saturday -- Castaway Cay! High winds continued, so again, boating excursions were cancelled, but we didn't have reservations for those. DH and Greg rented bikes and snorkel gear. Andy tried to find teens -- they were all off doing something else, so he and I watched the crab races. Our favorite was a crab named AAAAARRRR! Poor Greg, he went snorkeling with his phone and camera in his swimsuit pocket -- both are ruined. Fortunately, the SD card from his camera is intact (although I need to download the photos soon), and the SIM card from his phone could be copied onto another before it fails entirely. We returned to the ship about 2 p.m., showered, I went back to Bingo to lose another chunk of change (pin traders bingo -- I won a pin at least), and then gathered to go to dinner. We went to Animator's Palette -- the restaurant was nice, but there was nothing on the menu -- entrees, apps, salads -- that interested most of the 8 of us at the table. We were very disappointed. I told my waiter that I couldn't find anything I was interested in, and he just kind of shrugged it off. I finally ordered chicken -- the mashed potatoes were good, but the chicken was dry. Our head waiter came over when I was almost finished; I told him that I hadn't been able to find anything exciting, and at that point, which was much too late, he asked if I would prefer to get something from another restaurant's menu! Had our waiter offered that, I would have been very happy to do so, but at this point, it wasn't worth it. Oh well. 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
DH and I shopped a little, he bought me a nice shirt, I bought him a nice shirt (hah, it all comes out of the same account), and then we went to Disney Dreams with Greg. The show was very good, nobody threw up. After the show, Greg went over and chatted with the sound tech for about 15 minutes. He had tried going to Guest Services to ask if it would be possible to meet some of the performers or the technicians, but they said that would probably not happen, so he was very happy to have a little bit of time to talk to them. They were very nice, showed him the tech area (he's involved in both backstage and performance areas at his high school),
and the cruise director encouraged him to do the Disney Internship in Entertainment and then look for a job with DCL after college (he would like to work on cruise ships as a performer for a while once he graduates). Greg headed to the teen center for karoake, we went back and packed. End of the last day!
Sunday -- finished packing, had breakfast, left the ship (WAAAH
). DH drove Greg and I to the airport. He and Andy went back to Downtown Disney, walked through the Lego store and went to see Race to Witch Mountain (I know, it was playing for free on the ship, but who has time for a movie on a 3-day cruise), and got back to the airport for their flight. We all got in, got home, resumed our lives, we'd prefer to be back in Florida!
We did a couple of must-sees -- Monsters, Buzz, Haunted Mansion, Pirates. We ate at Columbia Harbor House -- had never eaten there before, but it was really good! We were all really beat, having been up since 3 a.m., so before the fireworks, we headed home and crawled into bed.
Saturday -- Universal! I had a 1 day 1 park from Coke Rewards, and had won one of the SuperBowl tickets. Then I purchased a 1 day 2 park. Since DH and Andy wanted to do IOA, and I wasn't interested, we wanted to give the SuperBowl ticket to DH, but weren't sure that was possible -- note to all of you who have these tickets -- as long as the actual winner shows their ID to pick up the ticket, they don't really care who puts it through the turnstile. So DH was able to use this ticket.
We went on the new Simpsons ride -- Andy and DH loved it, but it made me nauseous. Did Men in Black -- one of our favorites. They headed off to IOA, where the high school group was touring also. They never saw Greg, but talked to him several times by phone when he went on the Jurassic ride -- I think that was the one -- and he didn't realize it hasd a huge drop on it. I did MIB again, and toured the shops. I bought one of the large Mardi Gras bead necklaces for Greg -- it had potatoes on it! For St. Pat's Day, he had cooked a bag of small potatoes and handed them out to friends,
so I couldn't resist getting this for him. I watched the Blues Brothers perform twice -- love the Blues Brothers, and Greg plays in a classic rock and blues band, so I videod the performance for him.DH and Andy returned. We ate from the food tents set up for Mardi Gras. I staked out a place to sit -- turned out to be an excellent spot, kitty corner from Mel's Diner with our backs to the lagoon. Got lots of beads (and got hit in the cheek more than once, had a small bruise for a while). Not so many grabby people this year! Stayed for a little while more, ran over to where the high school group was getting their awards from their competition that morning and gave Greg the potato beads. His friends thought it was hysterical, and he said it made him grin every time he saw it during the week.
Sunday -- Epcot! DH ran and got FPs for Soarin and then we went over to Test Track, decided to do the single rider line. Ran into some of the high school kids, who shouted for us across the lines. They're such good kids! TT stopped for a while, we stood right at the front for nearly 20 minutes. Finally got through. Ellen's Energy Adventure had been scheduled to reopen that day, but wasn't open all the rest of the week we were there. Went on Finding Nemo, saw Turtle Talk. Andy sat up with the little kids -- he realized he was twice their size, but there was plenty of room. We had lunch in the CS at Mexico -- I enjoyed mine but Andy's was cold and not very good. Got a FP for Kim Possible but when we went to pick up our Kimmunicator in Norway, the satellites had been hijacked by the villains (the CMs who do this are terrific about staying in character -- the system wasn't just down, it had been hijacked) and we weren't able to do it that day.
Went back to Soarin' for our FPs. When I went to WDW in October with a friend, we did Soarin' in the standby line and had seen some wonderful pictures of a fantasy forest -- you can't see these from the FP line, and I had really wanted to take photos of them. The standby line was always too long for me to try it again, so I never got my photos. If anyone's going in the near future and you go through the standby line and can take pix of these for me, I would really appreciate it! Andy was getting grumpy -- he's not a good traveler -- so we left about 3 planning to come back at about 6 -- we never made it back (I've been having major foot problems and was not sure I could walk around any longer anyway). Had dinner at Fuddrucker's, off to bed.
Meanwhile, the school had clinics with the Disney musical staff. The concert band clinic ran 2 hours, and the jazz band ran more than 3. The jazz band clinician was very impressed with our band and gave them extra stuff to do. They had a blast! That was one of Greg's two highlights.
Monday -- breakfast at Chef Mickey's! :mickeymo: This was fun. Mickey kept kissing me when he came by. Hubby needs photography lessons -- we're at the bottom of the frame with the top half of the picture as dead space. This was my only photo with Mickey -- my fave
-- all week, so I'm a little disappointed. The food was good. The weather was not -- DH and Andy were planning to go to Blizzard Beach right after breakfast, but it was cold and rainy, so we went up to the monorail and asked if we could ride in the front. The CM said it could be up to an hour, but we got on the very next train! Since they couldn't go to BB, I lost my day to myself and we went back to MK. Did Laugh Floor and Buzz again. They actually got me to go on Big Thunder Mountain -- I hate roller coasters but this wasn't so bad. We had to leave MK early -- the high school was having their big performances at DTD and my parents, the snowbirds, were coming up from Clearwater to visit us and see the concerts. DH adn Andy went on Splash Mountain while I did the shops, and then headed out. Andy was grumpy again and didn't want to hear the concerts, so Kevin took him back to the condo, I took a bus to DTD (well, actually to POFQ and transfer to DTD) and met him and my folks there. The concerts were great! The jazz band was especially terrific. Had dinner with the folks at Earl of Sandwich, which was very good. Wandered DTD, went back to check on Andy and out for the night.
Tuesday -- DH went golfing after dropping Andy and I off at AK. We had been looking forward to going on Dinosaur -- there was no wait when we got there, but Andy decided it looked too scary. I went anyway, and it wasn't too bad, so I talked him into it -- big mistake! He covered his eyes the whole time and it had day-ruining potential. But I got him back in a good mood. The safari line was nearly 90 minutes, he decided not to go on Expedition Everest, and nothing else appealed, so Dinosaur was the only ride we actually went on! Lunch at Flametree. The pork sandwich was excellent.
Took the bus over to Epcot. Wait for Soarin' was nearly two hours. We did Spaceship Earth again, movie in France, had a pastry. DH came to meet us. We got an FP for Kim Possible and picked up our Kimmunicator. This was really fun! We had a mission in China that kept us all amused. We ended up doing another a little later in France. I heartily recommend these to all ages, even adults. We got into San Angel in Mexico in 5 minutes without ADRs. Wouldn't go back. Was VERY expensive, not very good. Andy ordered chicken with mole sauce, he hated it. Mine was very average, DH's was ok he said, but not great. Staked out a great spot for Illuminations, standing between two of the little canvas F&G stores. Flower beds were gorgeous, topiaries were spectactular. I had been here two years ago all by myself for F&G -- I saw a lot more of it then than I did this trip, since the two men weren't at all interested. Saw Illuminations, chatted with some retirees who were here for the day, spent tons of time in Mouse Gear waiting for the crowds to die down a little before we headed out. Got a great shirt!
Wednesday -- picked Greg up from his high school group. They were all flying back that afternoon, but a couple of families were staying down after the group went home. We had made a reservation online for him to audition for American Idol -- he was very excited about this, even planned what he would bring to wear. First, though, he had to wear the family shirt I had made for all of us (thanks Natalie for the great DISign), but he could change for his audition. We got over to HS, DH ran for a Toy Story fastpass, it was nearly time for his audition. DH and Andy went to Muppets, a family favorite, and I stayed with Greg since he's a minor. He sang "It's a Wonderful World" for the casting director, who really liked him and sent him on to the producers. He had already looked at the list of available songs -- you can find this list online and I really advise it if you think you want to try out -- and had selected Bob Seger's Old Time Rock and Roll and Stevie Wonder's Superstition as his top two songs. Fortunately, they have some of the songs available in a different key than the original, and he was able to do Rock and Roll in a lower key. The producers really liked him, and slated him for the 1 pm show!
We called Dad, they came and met us for quick lunch at the Commissary (except for Andy, who wanted to eat at Pizza Planet), then ran back for his hair/makeup, vocal coach, and rehearsal. Dad and Andy came back at 12:30 for VIP seating and I stayed with Greg (I didn't get to see the performance live, since I had to sit backstage, but we got to see it on a monitor). The other contestants were a 16 year old girl, cute, pretty voice, singing "Our Song", and a grandma with a nice voice singing "Colors of the Wind." Here's where practicing your song ahead comes in handy -- the girl obviously knew her song well, adn the grandma had never sung hers before. IMO, Greg had the best performance (the female judge asked him if he was single and needed a prom date, "Simon" predicted throat surgery, and the other judge thought he did a good job). Unfortunately, he didn't win -- the 16 year old girl did, but we were so proud of him! This was, without a doubt, one of his top two highlights for the trip.
We finally got to do Toy Story Mania -- what a rush! I could have done that several times in a row. We weren't able to do it a second time, though, too bad!!!!!!! We thought about staying for Fantasmic -- it was running twice that night -- but we decided to go back to MK. Did Laugh Floor and Buzz, HM, Pirates, Jungle Cruise. Boys went on Splash. Somewhere in there, we ate at Cosmic Ray's. We got a place to watch Wishes, and then it took us FOREVER to get out of the park and to our car. We were exhausted but happy -- it had been a great day.
Thursday -- finish the laundry
, pack up, check out! The drive to Port Canaveral was very quick. I made the family wear the shirts I had made (thanks Kellybell!), and we got quite a few comments from CMs. Mickey himself was greeting cruisers. We were on the ship 45 minutes after we arrived, including potty breaks. We hadn't been on a Disney cruise before, and it was fun to have our names announced as we boarded! We headed up for lunch, then went to our room, where our luggage was all waiting for us. Boys went to check into the teen center, and Kevin and I went to meet our new DIS friends -- hi, Dana, Lydia and Jen! We had arranged to do a little Fish Extender exchange, and this was quite fun.Had dinner the first night in Parrot Cay. Food was excellent, our servers were nice, we were seated with a family that had a boy a year older than Greg and a girl the same age as Andy. That was nice! Checked out the shops and headed to the Golden Mickey's. The ship was really moving -- we had heavy winds our entire trip and the stabilizers couldn't keep the ship steady, so we rocked the whole time. A girl threw up right in front of us during the show -- poor girl! Not fun. The show was very good, though, and we really enjoyed it. Went to "Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer," didn't get into the hot seat.
WE had an upgraded room assignment -- we had booked Cat 12, but got upgraded to a cat 9 -- with a porthole! This was the farthest aft outside cabin on deck 2 -- very nice for an upgrade, but if I were paying for a Cat 9, I wouldn't pick this one (right over the engine room, EXTREMELY noisy as the ship pulls into ports).
Friday -- pulled into Nassau. We were up and at breakfast as the ship pulled in, so this was fun to see. Because of the high winds, any boating excursions were cancelled. We had booked a glass-bottom boat tour, which now was gone, but decided to take an island tour with one of the tour guides that "accost" you as you leave the ship. We were with two elderly woman and another group of two younger women. Talk about a small world -- one of the younger women teaches in the school district my kids go to! The tour was very good, learned a lot about Nassau, saw Atlantis, the slave-built fort, the poorer sections, and the wealthy areas. Went back to the ship. I went to Bingo -- quick loss of $30. We had dinner in Triton's -- sooooo gooood! Greg ordered two entrees every night -- I decided to follow his example that night and had tenderloin and the lobster with pasta. Andy went to the teen center instead of joining us -- he missed the best food of the trip!
Saw Toy Story the Musical that night -- I've seen the reports saying that people don't care for this, but we all really enjoyed it. I would have liked to have seen it again (Greg found it on YouTube, so I just might). Then we went to the Pirates in the Caribbean party -- this was fun! The fireworks were excellent -- I love fireworks! Greg joined us -- he couldn't find anyone in the teen center -- so while my husband tried to sleep standing up, Greg and I sang to all the songs and danced. Had a little bit from the buffet and sat and talked with Dana from our FE group.
Saturday -- Castaway Cay! High winds continued, so again, boating excursions were cancelled, but we didn't have reservations for those. DH and Greg rented bikes and snorkel gear. Andy tried to find teens -- they were all off doing something else, so he and I watched the crab races. Our favorite was a crab named AAAAARRRR! Poor Greg, he went snorkeling with his phone and camera in his swimsuit pocket -- both are ruined. Fortunately, the SD card from his camera is intact (although I need to download the photos soon), and the SIM card from his phone could be copied onto another before it fails entirely. We returned to the ship about 2 p.m., showered, I went back to Bingo to lose another chunk of change (pin traders bingo -- I won a pin at least), and then gathered to go to dinner. We went to Animator's Palette -- the restaurant was nice, but there was nothing on the menu -- entrees, apps, salads -- that interested most of the 8 of us at the table. We were very disappointed. I told my waiter that I couldn't find anything I was interested in, and he just kind of shrugged it off. I finally ordered chicken -- the mashed potatoes were good, but the chicken was dry. Our head waiter came over when I was almost finished; I told him that I hadn't been able to find anything exciting, and at that point, which was much too late, he asked if I would prefer to get something from another restaurant's menu! Had our waiter offered that, I would have been very happy to do so, but at this point, it wasn't worth it. Oh well. 2 out of 3 isn't bad!
DH and I shopped a little, he bought me a nice shirt, I bought him a nice shirt (hah, it all comes out of the same account), and then we went to Disney Dreams with Greg. The show was very good, nobody threw up. After the show, Greg went over and chatted with the sound tech for about 15 minutes. He had tried going to Guest Services to ask if it would be possible to meet some of the performers or the technicians, but they said that would probably not happen, so he was very happy to have a little bit of time to talk to them. They were very nice, showed him the tech area (he's involved in both backstage and performance areas at his high school),
and the cruise director encouraged him to do the Disney Internship in Entertainment and then look for a job with DCL after college (he would like to work on cruise ships as a performer for a while once he graduates). Greg headed to the teen center for karoake, we went back and packed. End of the last day!Sunday -- finished packing, had breakfast, left the ship (WAAAH
). DH drove Greg and I to the airport. He and Andy went back to Downtown Disney, walked through the Lego store and went to see Race to Witch Mountain (I know, it was playing for free on the ship, but who has time for a movie on a 3-day cruise), and got back to the airport for their flight. We all got in, got home, resumed our lives, we'd prefer to be back in Florida!
It looks like you had the same dining rotation we had. Were you at the 5:45pm seating? DS said he met Greg and Andy in the Aloft a couple of times. We also stopped by your cabin, but missed you both times. 
