The Incredibles' Disney Magic Cruise 11/4/06 [THE END, FINALLY!! posted 7/2]

[lindaso]

Cast:
Mrs. Incredible (Linda 38) – Obsessive vacation planner
Mr. Incredible (Chuck 38) – WDW lover, motion sickness sufferer
Violet (Stephanie 9) – 9 going on 16
Dash (Tommy 6 ½) – Mr. go-with-the-flow
Jack Jack (Kevin 4) – our “spirited” child

Our traveling buddies:Christine, Keith, Alyssa (9) & Kyle (7)

Booking

Our story starts back in 2003 when Stephanie was in 1st grade. She met a girl named Alyssa and they became best friends. I met Alyssa’s mom Christine at a birthday party. She had just come back from WDW and we were going the week after. We spent the whole party talking Disney. The girls stayed friends and Christine and I became friends.

The next year they went back to WDW and added a 4 night Disney cruise to the end of their vacation. I had heard about DCL but didn’t know any details. Christine mentioned the great discounts when booking on board and that they were planning to book a 7 night cruise for November of 2005.

Hmmm…I’m intrigued by the idea. I’ve never cruised, I’ve always wanted to cruise and what better way to cruise than with Disney? I check out the cruise boards on the DIS and it seems like a wonderful vacation. I tell Christine to find out if she can book another family and get the onboard discounts. I’m picturing a blissful vacation with my kids having friends to play with while Chuck and I bask in our aloneness on a sun soaked chaise lounge .

While they’re away, I research my eyes out trying to learn everything I can about booking a Disney cruise. I receive an email from Christine saying she can book for us and do we want to do it? I gleefully tell Chuck that they can book for us. He is not as excited as I; in fact he wants no part of this. But he agrees for the time being after I inform him that it’s fully refundable but we need to act now (I sounded like a really bad late-night infommercial ).

Christine goes back to the rebooking desk only to find out that the 2nd week of November 2005 is almost completely sold out and there are no early seating spots left. She had just spent the last 4 nights having late dinner with Kyle sleeping through every meal. Late seating was a deal breaker for her. She gets cell coverage and calls to ask if I want to do November of 2006 instead. She has me double check the school calendar. While not as good as New Jersey, our school district historically gets 2 days off for Veterans Day and Superintendent conference day that week. I quickly do some calculations…Kevin will be 4, not 3, so now I don’t have to worry about whether he’ll be potty trained. Tommy will be in 1st grade so I’m not pulling him out his first year of school. Steph will be in 4th grade instead of 3rd so no biggie there. Plus now I have 2 full years to convince Chuck that this vacation will be amazing. I tell her to go ahead and book it! She puts all $1250 on her credit card for us and we were officially booked for our very first Disney Cruise!!

I’m happy I’m finally going on a cruise. The kids are happy they’re going on vacation with their friends. Chuck? He’s not happy. He’s not happy thinking he’ll be puking for 7 straight days. He’s not happy he had to shell out $1250 for something that’s 2 years away. He’s not happy that I jumped into our first cruise for a week instead of something shorter. Nope, he’s not happy about any of it. But hey…I have 2 years to convince him!!

 

[love2travel]

Good start Linda, keep it coming! I haven't even started mine. Teresa

 

[lindaso]

Pre-trip

Shortly after Christine and family got home from their cruise, she transferred our ressies to AAA. We now had a whopping $700 on board credit for our 2 rooms. This fact made Mr. Grumpy-pants a little happier. Our family had 2 connecting rooms and they had a room next to us. My search fingers went walking through the DIS archives and discovered that the rooms we reserved on Deck 2 were considered “noisy”. Uh-oh. I found us 3 acceptable rooms (by DIS standards) and AAA got us those.

I promptly forgot all about our cruise while I involved myself with our next trip to the World. I found TourGuideMike and spent hours over there. (My last 2 trip reports are there if anyone recognizes us).

Fast forward to 2006. Disney World trips are done, time to concentrate on this cruise!

Everything Christine and I thought or did, we had the cruise in the back of our minds:

The kids want to have a sleepover? You’ll be spending 7 nights sleeping over on the cruise.
Shopping at Target? Hey, look at these cool Pirate t-shirts for the cruise.
Arguing with Keith at Little League? I’m spending 7 days with him on the cruise.
We have a chance to get a puppy over the summer? She’ll be 5 months when we cruise.
The boys have the same 1st grade teacher? Now we have to tell her they’re both missing school for the cruise.

It was like being pregnant and considering life with the new baby. The guys definitely didn’t get it.

It’s the week before we leave and I’m having a typical week in this house. Monday Karate, Tuesday Halloween, Wednesday Volleyball. When exactly am I supposed to get ready for this cruise I’ve had 2 years to get ready for? It didn’t help reading the posts on our cruise meet thread about all the families that have been packed for weeks. I kept getting that sinking feeling like back in High School when all your friends had studied and you didn’t. Maybe the teacher will be absent.

I spent the week doing every last bit of laundry so I would have the entire wardrobe of 5 people to choose from. Thursday I dedicated to packing. It was the first time ever I didn’t pack the night before into the wee hours before the flight. I was proud of myself. So maybe the DIS board peer pressure had a good effect on me after all.

Chuck had spent the months resigned to the fact that he was going on a cruise. Everyone assured him you don’t feel the movement, he’ll have the time of his life, blah blah blah. He must have believed them for it wasn’t until the day before we were leaving that he decided he wanted one of those ear patches. I had already collected Bonine, Dramamine and Ginger tablets but the panic was setting in and he wanted the patch (I think his mother was making him nervous!).

His doctor called it in to the pharmacy next to karate. (Yup, karate on Thursday before pee wee football practice). The pharmacist informs me they don’t have any, that they’re in short supply and that I should call around to other pharmacies to see who has some. Uh, OK…like I have time to do that! I call Chuck and give him this assignment, which he completes by picking up his patch at 8:30 pm the night before we leave.

This was before he had to drive to his mother’s house to pick up more suitcases b/c I had packed my and the kids’ stuff into every bag we owned. Nope, no packing light for us, nosiree!! For those scoring at home we have three 49 lb. Suitcases, a 47 lb. Rolling duffle, a 42 lb. garment bag, the kids rolling suitcase filled with homework, gameboys, DS’s, crayons and puzzle books, and my LL Bean backpack filled with our port documents, my DCL Passporter and some Halloween candy.

Off to bed with visions of fun fun fun in our heads (or waves in Chuck’s case). Tomorrow is finally the day we’re leaving!!

Next up: The flight, I have whose garment bag?, and the fight.

 

[mruhaak]

Can't wait to hear about the "spirited child" as I have one of my own about that age!

 

[tyedye]

Can't wait to read more.

The kids want to have a sleepover? You’ll be spending 7 nights sleeping over on the cruise.
Shopping at Target? Hey, look at these cool Pirate t-shirts for the cruise.
Arguing with Keith at Little League? I’m spending 7 days with him on the cruise.
We have a chance to get a puppy over the summer? She’ll be 5 months when we cruise.
The boys have the same 1st grade teacher? Now we have to tell her they’re both missing school for the cruise.

I love the way you think...especially the SHOPPING at TARGET!!

We have our next cruise booked next year, and I like you always pack the last day well into the wee hours of the night. Do you think I should start now? Nah, I can't possibly start now, we'll have outgrown all our clothes by this time next year! Oh I mean the kids' will have done that, me? Hopefully I will have some extra room in my clothes by this time next year.

Looking forward to the next installment...

 

[lindaso]

Fri 11/3…our travel day, Part 1

I wake up bright and early. There’s so much to be done. First is get the kids ready for school. Yes, they’re going to school for an hour and a half. We are doing our part in the name of state funding. Actually, Christine has gotten a district letter warning of excessive absences in the past and she’s determined not to get another one (SAHM’s are funny that way).

It’s nice to only pack the lunchboxes with a morning snack and not have to worry about lunch. Get them to the bus stop, all the while Steph is singing “I’m going on vacation, I rock, oh yeah, I rock”. The other kids were not amused.

As soon as the bus pulls out, we load up the dog’s crate in the minivan and we’re off to the doggy sitter. Shenzi (named for the Whoopi Goldberg hyena in the Lion King – big mistake picking that name!!) is a 5 ½ month old Rhodesian Ridgeback. This is the first dog I’ve had since I was 9. I don’t know too much about dogs. Like when you’re going away for 9 days and your family can’t dogsit your dog, you need to make arrangements. Such arrangements include finding out that regular kennels won’t take a 5 month old puppy. They need all kinds of kennel shots…who ever heard of bordatella? Certainly not me. Anyway, my MIL’s co-worker’s daughter runs a doggy day care. Yes, people actually hire her to care for their dogs while they’re at work. MIL pulls in a favor and the daughter agrees to watch Shenzi at her house for the week. SCORE!!

We watch Shenzi play with dog sitter’s dogs. She seems very happy. We walk out and Shenzi gives a little cry. Dog sitter assures me she’ll be fine. I reply that I’ve dropped 3 kids at preschool for the first time, I’ve heard that cry before. I seem tough as nails but I get in the car and break down. Yup, just like the 1st day of preschool.

We get back home and quickly load our 7 bags into the car. It’s already time to pick up the kids. I get to the attendance office and there’s Christine with Kyle and Alyssa. She tried to get Tommy but Fort Knox Elementary school would not release him from his classroom until I got there. We round up the kids and we’re ready. As we’re pulling out of FKE, Keith asks if we have directions to Avistar? Of course I do, Keith, you are vacationing with obsessive-vacation planner, didn’t you know?

We arrive at Avistar and wait a short while for a shuttle. We now have 9 people, 6 suitcases, 2 rolling duffles, 2 garment bags, 3 backpacks and a princess suitcase. We get to JetBlue where the curbside check-in guys are falling over each other trying to get to us first. They tag our luggage with an MCO tag and we say a little prayer to the airline gods that they actually arrive there.

We go up to security where I’m told the 2 unopened water bottles in my backpack cannot come through the security line. However, I can purchase those same 2 unopened water bottles for $3 each as soon as I walk another 30 feet through the metal detectors. I chug as much water as possible and throw the rest away.

We wait on the security line behind a mom and toddler in a stroller. That’s when it hits me. This is our very first family vacation with no stroller!! How could I have missed the opportunity to celebrate such an occasion? So, I chose to celebrate it right there in line behind the lady with the toddler in the stroller. She was as amused as the kids at the bus stop.

We get through the line with no one beeping, get 18 shoes back on and proceed to our gate. We girls go in search of lunch. For $43, a family of 5 is fed at the airport. I do not purchase a water for myself out of principle. JetBlue allows us to preboard and we arrive at our seats. We reserved a whole row with 3 seats behind. Chuck had asked me how we’re sitting and I told him we’d figure it out on the plane. Kyle jumps in the window seat of the row behind with Tommy sitting next to him. Keith goes to sit next to the boys when Kevin lets out a howl “IWANNASITNEXTTOTOMMYAHHHHHIWANNASITNEXTTOTOMMY”. Keith jumps up like a tack’s in his butt and he lets Kevin sitnexttoTommy. I give Chuck the look that says, “see? Told you we’d figure it out.”

While waiting for boarding to end, the plane’s electricity kicks off…twice. We are now delayed b/c they want to look into why the electricity keeps going out. OK, yeah, could you check on that for us? About 20 minutes pass and we get the green light for takeoff. We level off in the air and a loud buzzing noise starts coming from the outside of the plane. Christine and I look at each other in complete panic. I utter a few “ohmygods” and she comments about how at least the whole family is together. I really don’t get that. I don’t think the rest of our family will be comforted by the fact we were all wiped out at the same time. Chuck gives me a patronizing pat on my arm and eventually the noise stops.

The girls busy themselves with homework while the boys alternate between playing their DS’s and watching Nickelodeon. I read a scrapbooking magazine and wait for Dr. Phil to come on at 3:00. It’s the one they’ve been advertising where the little girls says “they touched my pee pee”. Chuck, Christine and I all watch it and we’re all convinced the scumbag father is lying. After Dr. Phil I flip through the channels and find Little House on the Prairie on Hallmark channel. It’s the one where Nellie fakes paralysis after falling off the horse named Bunny. Gotta love JetBlue…when else do you get to watch old reruns of Little House?

We arrive into a cold, rainy, dreary Orlando. Hey, who ordered this weather? We make the obligatory bathroom stop, ride the monorail (which amuses the kids to no end) and run right into the Disney Store to buy Stephanie a new lanyard. [Trip report explanation: For those not part of the 11/4 cruise meet thread, we lost Stephanie’s lanyard a few months ago. I didn’t make a big deal over it. I wasn’t even planning to pin trade b/c of this fact. Well, Steph had other ideas just days before the cruise. Those other ideas included a completely inconsolable 9 year old hysterically sobbing over the loss of her pins (even though they had been lost for months, go figure). More to come on this topic in future installments. Back to our regularly scheduled trip report].

By the time we get down to the luggage carousel, our flight’s luggage is already making its way around the belt. This sends Chuck into panic mode. You can’t tell this mode just by looking at him. I know this mode because I’ve been married to him for 11 years. The New Yorker in him trusts no one. Surely someone out there will steal our suitcase full of underwear b/c we’re not at the carousel the second the buzzer rings. He fights through the crowd and positions himself just in time to start rescuing our bags from the circle of crime. He shoots me a look and I smile pleasantly.

The two guys gather our bags. Chuck grabs a porter but Keith just hooks his suitcases together and throws the garment bag over his shoulder…showoff!! We head off to Budget to get the cars. Yes, that would be the FULL-SIZE car I reserved. Now, let’s review…2 adults, 3 children, 3 49 lb. Suitcases, a 47 lb. Rolling duffle, a 42 lb. garment bag, the kids rolling suitcase and my LL Bean backpack. Yeah, OK.

Next up: Fri. 11/3 Part 2 – you said a full-size car? Whose garment bag is this? And the fight, every family vacation needs a good fight.

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent ~ Looking forward to reading more

 

[jsfein]

Great entry ... let's hear about the fight.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Great report so far, keep it coming.

mom x4,grandma x4

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Cannot wait for the rest.....

 

[pklein09]

We managed to avoid any fights, but the kids really tested me......

--Michelle

 

[princessdaisy]

Great report can't wait to hear more!!

 

[lindaso]

Fri 11/3…our travel day, Part 2

We follow the porter over to Budget. He is walking extremely fast. We get to the little kiosk for the special people who filled out the special form for the special club. I have my card in the passporter and ask Christine if she has her fastbreak card. She says “what fastbreak card?” “Didn’t you sign up for the fastbreak card?” She says yes but it’s not called that and she doesn’t have a card. “Fastbreak, fastpass, fastclub, whatever it’s called…you told me you signed up for it” as I’m thinking of the long line of weary travelers we just left in the dust back at the terminal.

She gets out her passporter and pulls out numerous pieces of paper. Peeking over her head we both see the number right where it says “fastbreak.” Aha…I had the right name all along and she is officially a member of the special club which means no line for us. Well, except for the 4 people ahead of us at the special kiosk (making Mr. Porterman very edgy). The guys do the paperwork for the cars as we both made the reservations in their names. I don’t drive in Florida if I can avoid it. I’m a speeding ticket magnet in the sunshine state.

Both families head toward our cars which are parked a few rows from each other. The kids pile in (with Tommy in the middle so we don’t have to hear Kevin’s screech again). Chuck and I work on getting the luggage in the trunk. We manage to fit 2 suitcases, the rolling duffle, the garment bag and the princess suitcase in the trunk of the Ford Taurus…not bad. I wedge the backpack on the floor in front of Kevin. So we’re left standing and staring at a rather large 49 lb. suitcase. There’s only one thing left to do. I give my husband a determined look to assure him that I can do it.

I set the seat all the way back and Chuck lifts the 49 lb. suitcase on top of me in the front seat. I manage to wedge a corner of it in between my legs so the weight is not resting on my lap. I hold the top of it away from my face and settle in for the 45 minute ride. I can see nothing but suitcase unless I look out the side window. Then the giggles start. I couldn’t stop them. This had to be the most ridiculous sight and I could not stop laughing. Then the kids ask from the back seat “what’s so funny?” That set me off even more.

We set out of our parking spot and Chuck drives over to the row he thinks the “Boots” are. [Trip report explanation: Our traveling buddies will now be referred to as the Boots family. It’s not their real name…it is the mispronounced name they became upon embarkation.] Their car is not there. They must have left to come drive to us. We drive around the corner looking for a moving Ford Taurus that could be them. Picture ring-around-the-rosie with cars. Chuck tires of this pretty quickly and parks at the end of the row to wait. I look out the back and see them turning out of another row but going the opposite way. I yell for him to honk but they don’t hear us.

Chuck drives over to the exit so we can see if they drive out of the parking lot. I’m pretty sure they won’t leave considering I had the mapquest directions to the hotel. While we’re sitting there we notice a Taurus pulling over 2 rows away. It’s Keith! He’s talking on his cell phone and getting out to look in the trunk. Chuck runs over to see what’s going on (I would have done it but I was stuck under something heavy). Turns out Keith took someone else’s garment bag off the carousel and that someone else has their bag. Same exact bag, same exact lime green luggage tag attached to the same exact spot on the bag. Keith runs back to the terminal for the exchange and we wait in the garage. We get the story when he returns close to 30 minutes later: The lady noticed that it wasn’t her bag. JetBlue tells her to fill out a claim form. As a self-proclaimed pushy New Yorker, she tells them to call the number on the bag. They get Christine’s brother on the phone who just got to their house to feed the dogs. He gives them Keith’s cell phone # and they track him down while we’re playing ring-around-the-rosie in the garage. You just can’t make this stuff up.

We all load back into our full-size cars, re-situate the 49 lb. suitcase on my lap and we’re finally off to the Residence Inn. The drive is uneventful, the kids don’t fight in the car (miracles can happen) but they do complain that they’re hungry. We arrive out front of the Residence and Keith starts unloading his luggage. Chuck and I have one of those silent conversations b/c we usually leave everyone and everything in the car when checking in to a hotel. We don’t usually move anything until we get our room #. It’s a good system but now we’re traveling with another family so…I suggest he unload the bags. Problem #1.

Stephanie and I walk in to the Residence and we’re not 2 feet into the hotel when I see a familiar face I know from an emailed picture. I smile at this young girl and say, “I know you”. She looks at me with that leery stranger face and I say “you’re Cheyenne, right? This is Stephanie.” The leery stranger face relaxes into a big smile. Another girl runs up and it’s Rebecca. I take 2 more steps and meet Teresa, Ken, Cathe and Michael who look all nice and comfy in the lobby chairs. Well, they certainly were easy to find!! We start talking but then I remember I’m here to check in to a hotel. I turn to do that and the rest of my crew walk in.

We get all checked in and the guys ask the front desk lady where’s a good place to eat. She whips out a map and recommends a restaurant. I’m thinking no way but I don’t say anything at that moment. Problem #2.

We tear the girls away from their impromptu meeting to go see the rooms. We have rooms 208 and 209 but unfortunately they’re not really next to each other. This means that 5 kids are running down the hall to each other’s rooms, pounding on the doors and slamming them over and over again. They were literally bouncing off the walls. Problem #3.

We need to get them food, calm them down and get them to bed all within the next hour. Chuck is off to move the car into a parking spot so I call Christine to see what she wants to do for food. We both agree that there’s no way these kids can sit in a restaurant after sitting the entire day. It will have to be fast food. Problem #4.

Chuck comes back and heads straight to the bathroom. The kids are still wild and it needs to stop. I tell him through the bathroom door that I’m going to get food. He can’t hear me with the fan on. I open the door a bit to speak to him and he slams it shut. [He will deny this small detail but hey, it’s my trip report]. Problem #5.

I look in the little folder and only see one room card. I need to go get another one at the front desk. I grab Christine and the girls follow us cause they want to see Chey and Rebecca in the lobby. We get extra cards made up, chat a bit more with the nice DIS folks but I have to cut it short again b/c I need to get the car keys and some food. Stephanie begs to stay in the lobby while I run back to the room and I have one of those indecisive mommy moments. Would I normally let my 9 year old stay in a hotel lobby without me? No. Is she with people I know? Well...sort of, kind of, not really since I really only know these people on the internet. The DIS moms clearly see my indecision and assure me she’ll be OK. It’s a further stretch for Christine…she doesn’t even have an internet relationship but she lets Alyssa stay too.

I get back to the room and Chuck wants to know what’s going on. I’m still miffed over the door slamming thing which did or did not happen so I tell him I’m going to Wendy’s to get food. He wants to know when we decided that and I tell him I decided that. The kids are bouncing off the walls and he’s crazy if he thinks they can sit in a restaurant. He says something like how do I even know where to go to get food. Problem # last straw.

Christine and I go back down to the lobby, now I’m pissed off something fierce. Again we see the nice DIS folks and I try to hide my pissed offedness. The girls still want to stay but there’s no way we’re letting them stay in the lobby while we leave the premises so we force them to come with us, under extreme protests. We drive through Wendy’s and we all know what always happens at the drive thru. You always get f@*#*ed at the drive thru.

We get back to the Residence for our delicious fast food meal at 8:45 at night. We unload the food and of course they forgot fries. Whose fries? Chuck’s fries. Figures. I quickly rearrange kids meals and divvy out fries to everyone. The boys finish and start throwing the kids meal Snoopys up against the ceiling. The girls join in and it’s absolute bedlam in the room with Snoopy flying every which way. I haven’t even looked at Chuck since I came back and you can cut the tension with a knife.

The meal is over, the Boots go back to their room and we’re left alone. We “discuss” the night’s events and get our points across. We work it out but I’m still a tiny bit pissed off. We get the kids in PJ’s and ready for bed. We need to take the motion sickness medication before bed...he the patch and me the Bonine. He looks at me with puppy dog eyes and holds out the prescription bottle. It makes me laugh enough to agree to figure out how to get this thing behind his ear!

We have to turn the lights out so the kids will calm down and go to sleep. Chuck falls asleep first and I’m left sitting in the dark. I can’t fall asleep, the Wendy’s is sitting in my stomach and I’m thinking about what needs to happen tomorrow to get ready for the port. Kevin starts coughing at 2:30 am. He has asthma that sometimes flares up at night when he’s laying down. We were so anxious to get the kids to bed that we skipped his nebulizer treatment. The coughing wakes Chuck up and we listen to the kid cough off and on for 20 minutes when I make the call to nebulize him. This never goes well in the middle of the night as he spends the first 10 minutes crying b/c he has to sit up. We get him calmed down and into a normal breathing pattern to go back to sleep.

Chuck and I lay there in the dark and start to talk again. The mood between us lightens and he tells me how much he’s looking forward to the cruise. Yeah, right!! But it was an attempt and I see the humor in it all. I finally fall asleep somewhere around 3:45. I jump out of bed 2 ½ hours later to get ready for the Disney Magic! The day is finally here!

 

[Babs417]

Oh my this is way to good I just love reading your report. Can we all relate to this.

 

[love2travel]

All this and you looked relatively calm when we saw you in the lobby!!! I'm enjoying this so much!

Teresa

 

[martinacris]

Linda....I just want to tell you that your story is being read here in ITALY. I used to work on board cruise ships before getting married and moving to Italy...I'm planning a Disneyland Paris trip this Dec. but since ship life is in my bblood...I'm always reading the Disney Cruise board. Maybe someday I'll be able to take my DDs.... Congratulations for such a wonderful reposrt...I can't wait to keep reading !!

Ciao from ITALIA !!

 

[LITTLEKID58]

OH my... what a great report.

 

[lindaso]

Thanks everyone for hanging with me so far. I love writing trip reports (can you tell?), almost as much as the vacation itself. I'm hoping to get us on the ship by the end of the weekend . I should be done by Christmas!

 

[Stinasmom]

I am enjoying your frank, honest report. All us DIS families can relate to every trial you've endured so far, and are looking forward to your report on the rewards (the cruise!).
Traveling is stressful even when you are on your way to the Happiest Ship On Earth!

 

[Holly&Joesmommy]

great report!
I too have had the bathroom door slammed/or not slammed on me....
I can soooooooo relate, thanks for sharing, can't wait to read more.