The Un-Christmas! Dec 15-27 The Magic and Universal

[bunny]

You sound like an amazing and strong mom. I can't imagine your grief. But you are definitely doing the right thing by continueing on in your life not only for yourself but also for your younger son. He deserves a happy childhood. I am sending you and your family a cyperhug.

I love your writing style. I can't wait to read the rest of your report. I have a 9 year old also and am surprised by how unaware he can be at times too.

 

[dicar123]

December 14- Friday

I actually managed to sleep about 5 hours! Yay me! We had prepared absolutely everything the night before, so really we just had to get ourselves dressed, double check that doors and windows were locked, and get ourselves outside for our 6:00am pick-up. We were ready 15 minutes early!

So, there we are, milling around outside, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the car. What do we see, but a large car, creeping down the street, as slowly as is possible. Ok, really, it’s completely dark out and although we are at the end of a cul-de-sac, our house is the only one on the street with lights blazing and an open garage door. We thought we were being very obvious and helpful. Apparently not!

The very nice driver loaded all of the luggage while Ed double-checked the house and we were driving down the street by 5:51am! Now, we live pretty close to the airport and it is a small one as airports go, but a cousin had made me rather nervous by insisting that we were leaving much too late to comfortably make our flight, as it left at 7:45am.

I ran that info past Ed, but he was quite sure that we would be fine, and since he is the one most acquainted with airports, I kept my worries to myself. But really, I was not going to be happy if it looked like a close thing.

We ended up with absolutely no problem at all. We were at the airport, all checked in and through security by 6:45am. When we got to the escalator to take us upstairs, Dustin paused. He turned to me and said, with a little awe in his voice, “Wow. Derrick would have really hated this escalator.” Derrick hated all escalators (the height thing, you know), but this one was truly impressive! I resolved not to look back, as the height didn’t thrill me much either.

We grabbed breakfast at a McDonalds in Concourse B and got ready to be excited. (Hint to smokers coming through the Cincinnati airport-there are smoking rooms in Concourse B. Thank you Kentucky for so nicely supporting my filthy habit!) Dustin, by this time, was wildly excited! This would be his second airplane event, and he’d decided he really liked to fly. It was just daylight outside by the time we boarded, and a chilly 34 degrees.

The airplane ended up not being even close to full that early in the morning, so once we took off, Ed (the rat fink) found himself an empty row, leaving me with the chattering, excited Dustin. It was nice to see Dustin so excited, but it was a bit early for the endless questions directed my way.

I played along as nice mommies do, while plotting my revenge upon Ed. It would involve long periods of time at the spa being pampered while he was peppered with questions by our inquisitive child. Sadly, by the time we arrived on the boat, my plans for revenge were long forgotten and never to materialize.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Orlando to find bright, sunny skies, green trees, flowers and temps in the mid to upper 70’s. We grabbed our luggage and set off to find the Hertz counter. Now Hertz is not one of the many rental car facilities actually located inside the airport, but Ed had reward points from business trips, so we used them. We found the Hertz shuttle outside right near where Disney buses were picking people up. How fun! We boarded the shuttle which took us to the Hertz lot and picked up the rental car. Quickly, we were on our way to Port Canaveral!

I think I dozed in the car. I probably even snored. In any case, the trip seemed to be very quick. We arrived at the Country Inn and Suites, got out of the car and Dustin started complaining that Florida was much too hot!

We were just a little overdressed for the weather and I was afraid being hot would turn our slightly sleep deprived selves into major grumpy people, so I resolved to delve into the suitcases once we checked in.

Thus began my love/hate relationship with our clothes. I'd been so proud of myself, packing so lightly (1 large suitcase, 2 smallish suitcases, a duffle, a garment bag and Ed's laptop case. Half of this stuff wasn't even clothes but shoes and "stuff"), but by the time we came home, I was ready to burn all those clothes just so I wouldn't have to look at them again!

We walked into the hotel and it smelled of freshly baked cookies! And they let us check-in a bit early (it was noon). The staff was extremely pleasant, the hotel was quiet and clean. I was warned that Sundays in the lobby are absolute chaos with the number of people checking out in order to board one of the larger cruise ships.

When we drove in, we had caught sight of a ship in port, commenting upon its great size. When we asked the lady checking us in which boat it was, we were surprised to find it was our old friend, the Sovereign of the Seas. Having been on that boat and seeing it docked next to other cruise ships, we knew it was really rather small. Funny how large they all look when sitting by themselves.

We got to our room (310, with a nice view of the cruise ships out the window) and changed clothes and Dustin wanted to swim so we went down to the pool. The pool was a nice size and almost deserted. There is a separate pool for small children that had a fun water squirty thing, but that one appeared to be unheated and was quite cold.

Now I shall explain about Ed and his camera. Some years back, we bought a digital camera that really takes very good pictures, but only in the day time. As I don’t often wander around in the dark trying to take pictures, this didn’t bother me much.

Ed, however, was extremely vexed by his inability to get decent pictures of the Cincinnati skyline at night. After visiting Mount Rushmore, and taking many bad pictures of the monument lit up, Ed was determined to buy a new camera. He asked questions of every amateur photographer he knew and one professional. He scoured the internet, he read Consumer Reports.

He finally found The Camera. Olympus 790-SW It is digital, of smallish, easily portable size, and works underwater (up to 30 feet for up to an hour). Now, buying a water resistant camera, given the trip we were about to take, seemed reasonable. But the thought of actually using it under water made us both slightly nervous. Yes, they say you can do it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. (It also takes video, with some faint sound.)

The “face-plate” of the camera actually comes in a number of attractive colors. They have a nice silver, which matches well as the rest of the camera is silver. They have black, which is a more sophisticated look. They have a pretty metallic blue. Then they have a monstrous metallic orange.

As we wandered around our local Big Box Retailer two days after Thanksgiving, all Ed found, of course, was a horrid orange one. I made such a fuss over the color that we actually tracked down an employee (and waited a significant amount of time) to find out if there were any other colors available.

No, of course there aren’t, it is two days after Thanksgiving, you fools! We were stuck with the ugly orange, and to add insult to injury the darn thing cost nearly $300. With a decently working (and all silver, I might add) camera at home, I thought it all quite an outrage.

I happened to ask, a few days before we left, if Ed had taken night shots with the new camera. Yes, he had. They weren’t great. He thought, perhaps, he hadn’t found the correct setting. I rolled my eyes when he wasn’t looking.

So, back to the pool at Country Inn and Suites. Ed is ready to put the camera in the water. With a rapidly beating heart (I’m assuming here, Ed never described his trepidation) he took a few regular shots and then took the plunge. He took pictures of Dustin and of himself. Nothing exploded. The camera didn’t smoke or anything!

He came out of the water and was noticed by some random guy at the pool. “Hey, did you take pictures underwater??” Ed proudly says, “Yes, yes I did.” They immediately engaged in a long discussion of cameras and scuba diving. I sat and wondered just how many times Ed would have similar conversations throughout our vacation. Quite a few, as it turned out.

Dustin tired of swimming so we went upstairs and Ed eagerly dried off the camera and prepared to download the pics onto his laptop. The pictures were absolutely fantasic!

Dustin under the water

We’ve decided that $300 might have been some of the best money we’ve ever spent. We encountered several people with the same camera, and every single person had the silver one. I now look quite fondly on the ugly, theft-deterring, easily distinguishable from others, orange monstrosity.

We napped awhile, and then decided to look around town a bit. We drove down the main drag, seeing all the hotels I’ve seen mentioned a hundred times here, and even driving past The Perfect Gift! I waved. We made our way to Ron Jons, where Ed, many moons ago, along with his fellow sailors placed a USS Augusta sticker on the door. He was hoping it would still be there, but the place seems to have been completely changed as there was no longer a door there.

We wandered through the store, an utterly bored child in tow. Dustin isn’t much of a browser. He was positively itching to get himself to a beach! Dustin has never been to the beach and was very much looking forward to it. We left Ron Jons and promised to find him one.

Outside in the parking lot, we noticed a not very pleasant odor. It was a beachy smell, combined with what could possibly be rotting fish. I coughed a little and gagged, not particularly concerned as sometimes smells catch me a certain way.

We proceeded to find a parking lot with parking meters and a walkway which led to a public beach. We also found a sign which warned of Red Tide. I remembered Shirley posting about Red Tide, but it seemed that had been at least a month earlier, and I didn’t realize it could be that long-lasting, or perhaps come and go.

Ed was immediately uncomfortable. It was making me cough a bit but Dustin wasn’t bothered in the slightest. We decided to go ahead onto the beach as Dustin was so excited about being there. He and I went immediately to the water’s edge, but Ed hung back. I just assumed he was taking pictures or something. We quickly spied a jelly fish, which excited Dustin to no end, and he played chase with the waves, getting his feet wet. There was a dead fish up on the sand.

I turned to look for Ed and see if he was seeing Dustin’s excitement, but Ed was almost too miserable to notice. He could barely breathe, and his nose was running. He thought the effect of the Red Tide was much like tear gas.

He does have other allergies, and perhaps more allergic people have particular trouble. In any case, it was clear we would have to leave and fast. I explained the situation to Dustin and he was disappointed but he could see for himself that Ed was in a pretty bad state.

So, we left. There was a couple in the parking lot, heading to the walk-way and we told them about how bad it was. They ignored us. I promised Dustin that there would be plenty of ocean in his immediate future, and that once we got away from this particular area that dad would be fine. Within a couple of blocks the effect was minimal.

We took a practice drive to the port to scope out the situation for the next morning, and let Dustin get a closer look at a cruise ship. Then we drove around town looking for a place to eat. We wanted to eat somewhere we couldn’t find at home (quickly saying no to Dustin’s McDonald’s suggestion) and so got off the main street.

We soon noticed quite a few people milling around the outside of Florida Seafood. That was good enough recommendation for us. The menu is a little confusing. Along with various other entrée options, you can get shrimp or fish cooked in any huge number of ways. Ed chose the scampi (my favorite, but I was being adventurous) and I decided on the garlic lime shrimp, which turned out to be a lot like the scampi!

We enjoyed both, along with veggies and a salad. Dustin ate something off the kids menu and that came with an ice cream bar (or so my notes say, but I don’t remember Dustin eating one). As Dustin’s meal came with dessert, Ed and I decided to splurge and asked our waiter what else was available.

He recommended the ice cream place across the street! We appreciated his honesty, but in the end decided to just go back to the hotel instead. Dustin swam awhile longer, made a few friends in the pool and then we were off to bed.

 

[dicar123]

Dustin's first trip to the beach!

 

[dicar123]

Aww, thanks for all the hugs and for reading along everyone!

 

[dicar123]

December 15-Saturday

Today is the day!! We cleaned up, got dressed and went downstairs to find some food. Dustin normally wouldn’t have eaten much, none of us are huge fans of breakfast, but we explained that was the only food he’d see until lunch on the ship. We both had cereal and I tried to talk him into a banana to no avail. Then, we waited.

I don’t remember what time it was, but it seemed too early to go to the port, yet there didn’t seem to be enough time to do what Dustin wanted to do (go swimming, go to the beach, drive around). The stinker wasn’t content to just sit in the room and watch tv, or stare out the window at the ship in port hiding The Magic as I was, and he kept bugging to do something. So, we went to the port. It was barely 10:00.


Before we completely leave the Country Inn and Suites, I have to say that although a car is not strictly necessary, we were happy we had one. There are places to eat within walking distance, but after getting up early and traveling all morning, none of us were in the mood to walk much.

We lugged our stuff to the car, stalled for time outside taking pictures and looking around and finally headed off. We arrived at the port drop off area, quickly found a porter to take our luggage, Ed left to return the car and Dustin and I walked to the gate.

Problem number one... my name was not on the list. Ed was there. Dustin was there. I was not. Flustered, and grateful I had all the documents one could possibly need (except one, as it turns out) I pulled out the little document book to show the lady. She immediately noticed that my name was misspelled in the book (something I’d never noticed, as I’d filled out our documents online and thus, never paid much attention to the book). She found my misspelled name on her list, cautioned me to have it corrected inside and we were on our merry way.

Through security in half a minute, and up the escalator (boarding pass number 4), we encountered a very short check-in line.

Dustin and I got to the desk, showed our various papers, asked about the name problem (it was correct on all the other paperwork) and we were all set, except one slight glitch. Ed had the credit card we planned to use on the trip. Oooops (and problem number two)! “No problem,” she said, “I’ll hold your paperwork right here, just make sure your husband comes to see me when he gets here.” I took note of the line number, then Dustin and I headed over to check in for the kids club. This line seemed a bit long, but it got quite a bit longer as we stood in it.

Checking kids into the clubs can be done on board, and this might be an option to consider if the line seems long. It went a bit slowly IMO. When we got close to the front, we heard one (checking in type) CM talking to another (standing at the line CM), telling her she was supposed to be doing something that she obviously was not. Perhaps that held things up a bit?

Maybe 10 minutes after we’d finished checking Dustin in, I called Ed and found that he was downstairs in the security line. He came up, I directed him to line 18 to show his credit card (that was easy as pie), and we really were all set.

Ed and I figured out that from dropping us off at the curb to Dustin and I finishing with the kids club line was a total of half an hour. I decided that I was an impatient line wimp. We wandered a bit, took some pictures, Dustin complained about not being concierge level when he saw the seating and Ed joked that mom was much too cheap for that. I glared at them both.

Dustin, sitting as close as he can to concierge

Here comes problem number 3 (in the space of an hour). Although this borders on TMI, there might be a lesson here for someone else of the female persuasion. It was at this point that I noticed tell-tale cramps. Aw heck! I was well prepared for that event in general (my luggage was well stocked), but was not at all prepared at that particular moment. Off to the ladies room I trot, only to find no supplies available.

Not that machines were empty or out of order, but that they didn’t seem to exist. Oh now, this is fun. I threw myself on the mercy of two elderly escalator greeters, who were most sympathetic and offered to try to track down a CM who might have what I needed. I’d like to thank the well prepared CM who donated to my desperate cause, it was most appreciated.

I was told that I probably could track down my luggage in such a situation, but I was very glad that I didn’t need to. Can you imagine making the repeated explanations that would be necessary to get permission track down my bags? I shudder at the thought! So, thanks again, unknown female CM!

Thus ends the problem section of our cruise trip report, on with all the fun stuff! Well, I was fine, but Ed was in a bit of a snit. For some reason he was reminded of our previous cruise, and how I was similarly “indisposed” at that time too.

That one was not my fault, as sometimes life can be rather unpredictable. I surely was not in charge of the timing of this trip, so I don’t see how he’s blaming me. But Ed is insisting that he will not cruise with me again until I attain menopause. I think he’s overly picky about vacation timing and should be happy with what he gets.

We waited some more, and then the boarding began with the Family of the Day! Ed and Dustin wanted to know how they got to be so special. “It probably has something to do with that concierge thing,” I teased.

Very impatient were we as they called for boarding passes 1 and 2, and boarding passes 1, 2 and 3. At this time, Ed decided he ought to use the bathroom. Dustin about lost his mind! Are you kidding? You’re leaving now? They’re going to call our number and we won’t be able to go because you will be in the bathroom! Ed left anyway, and arrived back moments before they called our number. Excellent timing, dear!

They called for 4’s and we made our way into the line, inching ever closer to those magical ears. Then, we were in the tunnel preparing for our embarkation photo. Pity, I never seem to wear enough make-up to look nice in pictures unless I think about it in advance. I had not, and looked exhausted besides. We bought it anyway though.

And then it was time. We walked over the gangway and stood poised on the threshold of the ship, awaiting the announcing of our name. They announced our name and Dustin was quite impressed. A few CM’s clapped and I reveled in the moment for oh, half a second before I became a woman on a mission.

Rockin’ Bar D! There are Palo brunch reservations to be made! Go, go, go!! Dustin was thoroughly bewildered. I briefly considered sending the two of them upstairs to eat, but I needed Ed’s sense of direction else I was likely to wander about lost for the rest of the day. Ed got us to Rockin’ Bar D in no time and we joined one of two lines (the other line was to change dinner times), grateful to have lucked into the correct one. Dustin got impatient with the line and asked if he could wait outside.

Ed walked with him to designate the exact spot we expected him to be at when we came out, and Dustin found the most perfect place on the ship.

I’m not sure he ever made it to the deck chairs on level 4, but no matter, surely they couldn’t compare (in his mind anyway) to those nice, roomy port holes outside Rockin’ Bar D. He really, really enjoyed them and we were there several times during the week.

We obtained brunch reservations for Thursday (we had dinner scheduled for Tuesday, and knew we’d need time to become hungry again) and then walked up to Topsiders. We decided Topsiders looked far too busy, and happily settled ourselves next to the Mickey pool with hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and fries.

I let slip to Dustin that I had his swimsuit in my bag and that he could swim after lunch if he wanted. He liked that idea but was a little agitated that the slide was not open. I assured him that it would be, hoping that I wasn’t lying. About this time, Max came out and I got a picture of him standing behind Dustin. Dustin almost smiled.

That was the closest he got to a character all week, not including Thursday night in the Lab when he humored me by getting his picture taken with Donald Duck when I wasn’t even there!

Dustin changed clothes and swam, we wandered around a bit, and just after 1:00 we got into our stateroom. We met Sean, our stateroom host and checked out the verandah. We had most of our luggage, less our actual clothes, so we unpacked a bit.

And then it happened. Dustin turned on the tv. For the first several days, Dustin often wanted to watch tv in our stateroom. Why, I’ll never begin to guess. Sometimes he’s just contrary. And what was he watching on tv? Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, the very movie we had packed in our luggage for him to open as his token Christmas morning gift. That was going to go over like a lead balloon! He watched various bits and pieces of it all week, practically every moment we were in our stateroom. Kids!

At some point, we wandered over to the Oceaneer Lab. Dustin was immediately intrigued by the space suit looking thing in the front, but couldn’t make it work. We found the hugely oversized Connect 4 game.

Ed and Dustin played a few games. Erica is right, its size makes it strangely compelling. We found the computers and Ed and I played a couple of games of computer pinball. Dustin found something to play. We managed to drag Dustin out, quite thrilled that he seemed interested in the place.

Soon, it was time for the lifeboat drill. That all went fairly painlessly. Off we dashed for the Sailaway Party, looking back, we needn’t have hurried. We staked out spots on deck 10, looking to be out of the mob and grabbed some drinks.

We danced and we partied! The Activities Director or whomever was in charge called for all kids to come to the front. Dustin took off like a shot, as though it were an order from God himself!

We started to follow, but Ed decided we could probably follow his movements better if we stayed up on deck 10. Once we saw where Dustin was, Ed snuck down and got pictures of him dancing around and having quite a time. We danced and partied some more, the Wish Upon A Star horn blew, yet we did not move. We never figured out why, but we waited and waited. I was beginning to fear we’d be late for dinner. We finally sailed away and then ran downstairs to make it to dinner on time!

Dinner was first seating, 6:00, rotation LAPLAPL. This is not optimal as you all know, but we didn’t mind it much. We were table number 38, and in Lumiere’s that is located right next to the kitchen. Hmm, have we already made ourselves unpopular, we wondered?

Well, someone has to sit near the kitchen, and as long as this wasn’t the case at every restaurant, we decided to accept it with good humor. The only real difficulty was that one server in particular seemed to always trip as she walked from kitchen floor to restaurant carpet and nearly fell on Ed several times. That poor woman!

Our tablemates seemed pleasant enough. We were seated with a dad and son (10 years old), and a mom, dad and daughter (8 years old) trio. We will refer to them as J and C, and R, L, and G respectively. I’m not comfortable revealing too much information about them as I didn’t mention that I was taking notes on their remarks and food choices, so I’ll try to leave out any information which could be identifying.

The kids were all well-suited, being respectful and well behaved. They got along well and became buddies by the end of the week. We had hopes of Dustin becoming good friends with C, but C was a seasoned cruiser and had much more freedom to come and go than Dustin did. This made it hard for them to hang out much.

The adults were friendly, although a bit reserved on the first couple of nights (as Ed and I were too, I’m sure). Poor R was very affected by the least bit of ship movement, and his difficulties with that were a sure conversation starter.

I have a bit of a dilemma when it comes to talking about our servers. We liked our Assistant Server and our Head Server very much. We didn’t care much for our Main Server (unanimous opinion of the table). If I mention the ones we like by name, will anyone be able to guess the name of person we didn’t much like? Well, I just won’t mention names.

Our Assistant Server was very new, and working his behind off. But he was warm and friendly, grinned a lot and we felt like we could chat with him. Our Head Waiter had a quirky sense of humor, and was great fun when we saw him, which was several times during the week!

I know this is rather rare, and I was most shocked when he de-shelled shrimp for several of us one night at dinner. He was visible and we saw him pitch in to help! This guy is a star IMO.

For dinner, Ed started with the Leek and Goat Cheese quiche (that’s what my notes say, but I’m sure I had at least a bite of it and thought it was good), and I had a shrimp appetizer. I can’t remember it at all, so it must have been neither horrible nor great.

Ed and I both followed that with Coquilles St. Jacques.

I had been looking forward to trying this dish since I first saw it on the menu (months and months ago). I have had scallops a few times and liked them very much because they have a very mild flavor. These scallops tasted quite a lot like canned tuna. The effect was rather like an upscale version of tuna noodle casserole (with potatoes instead of noodles).

I confess to causing a bit of a fuss. It wasn’t a problem that I didn’t care for the taste, I really just wanted someone to assure me that the scallops weren’t spoiled and going to make me sick. I suspect I embarrassed my husband with my uneducated palate, and he waved our Main Server away, saying I was unaccustomed to scallops and that they were fine. Honestly, I’d have preferred something else, but there was plenty of other food to eat on the ship.

Dustin chose the salmon from the lighter side of the menu. Ed and I tried in vain to talk Dustin out of that choice. He likes salmon, but he isn’t used to it plain. He, too, was not very happy with his choice, but wasn’t much interested in getting something else. Sadly, that spoiled any other salmon meal for him, as he refused to try again, although he did really like a smoked salmon appetizer later in the week.

I was quite looking forward to dessert after all of this! Ed tried the Grand Marnier Souffle and loved it! I tried it, but didn’t care much for the orange flavor of the Grand Marnier. I asked for the apple tart, and it was good. The coffee, as I suspected it might be, was terrible. Dustin was positively thrilled with his Mickey Bar and the sprinkles that came with it!

All in all, not a great meal, but we tried new things, so that all worked out ok. It was nearly 8:00pm by the time we finished dinner. Dustin wanted to go to the Lab and Ed and I may have had intentions of seeing the show, but we didn’t. We went to Shutters and arranged our photo package, browsed the shops and found a football game on the tv in Diversions.

We ordered a couple of drinks. Soon, I was looking for a place to smoke, and unaware that I could smoke in Diversions, I headed over to Sessions. It is very, very quiet there. Very quiet. There were two people sitting at the bar, smoking, and the rest of the place was deserted. That works for me but I felt very bad for the server in there. He was quite nice but had to be bored absolutely stiff!

It had been about an hour since we left Dustin, and Ed poked his head into Sessions and called to me that Dustin had paged him and that he planned to take him up to Quarter Masters on deck 9. I waved to show that I heard him, and figured I might as well stay a little longer, an arcade not being my favorite place to be.

One of my smoking companions noted that Ed had apparently abandoned my drink. Bummer. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, I encountered a little of that famous Disney service. As I was walking out of Sessions, a CM was standing near the doorway. He was there often, and I don’t know if he was supposed to be working the bar in Sessions and was bored, or if his job was to hang out in the hallway, but as I walked past him, he reminded me that Ed would be up in Quarter Masters on deck 9. Wasn’t that nice?

Truly, it seemed he had little enough to do, that Ed’s shouting into Sessions was probably the most interesting thing he’d encountered thus far that night, but still I thought it very helpful of him. I grinned and said, “Thanks!”

I joined my family in the arcade and Dustin decided he was hungry so we got some pizza and thoroughly enjoyed it. We wandered around a bit, but it was very, very windy so they went back to the arcade, and I snuck out to the Cove Café.

After the arcade I was looking for a quiet place to sit and ponder the meaning of life. It was not to be. I was there but a few moments before I was approached by Sabina, a CM who was just as friendly as can be. I chatted with her awhile (mentally lecturing myself about my anti-social tendencies). While I had been looking for quiet, and was slightly miffed at not finding it, I knew she was just trying to be nice.

Later in the week, as I met Sabina over and over in the Cove, it was so nice to know I would find a friendly face and someone to chat with. I really regretted not being more outgoing that first night and very much looked forward to seeing her each evening. Before too long, I was pulled out of the Cove Café to wander around with my family.

Dustin seemed to find us an unexciting pair and decided to go back to the Lab. I was thrilled with this development, knowing that we would be joined at the hip during the Universal portion of our vacation. Ed and I went back to Sessions for awhile, then caught a little bit of the end of Quest.

Dustin paged us, it probably had only been about half an hour, and we went back to the room. Our towel animal that night was a cobra (well, a snake of some sort) and Dustin, not having been warned beforehand, was delighted with the surprise! He turned on Harry Potter (again!) and we all quickly fell asleep.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

wow. you are truly an inspiration. Many many hugs and prayers to you and your family.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us.

 

[outlander]

Okay....so, I came here to read about Universal because I have never been and someone who is on the DIS boards doing a cruise and Universal has to be cool, right? I had no idea that I would be entranced for ....oh I don't know how long I have been reading, I didn't check the time before I started. I thought it was going to be a quick read and move on, not a documentary on life and the amazing strength of a family struck by tragedy. I don't know what to say except, THANK YOU. Thank you for sharing your story and the ups and downs that you have experienced recently. You are a great writer and an admirable woman. I am looking forward to reading and learning more from your wisdom and strength. ....and from your experience at Universal

 

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Let me first say as many others have, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family for your loss.
I think I was ment to find this TR, you see a friend of mine just lost her husband December 14, after battling colon cancer for 4 years. He was only 36and leaves behind two DS 8 and 3. This Christmas was hard for anyone that was a part of my friend's life- (my DS and DS8 are close.) but I can't imagine what my friend will do next year as Christmas approaches- One thing for sure is I will show her this TR when I think she is ready to read it.
Thank you for sharing your story.

 

[wendym]

Dianna - I learnt after the death of my dad when I was 20 that the worst thing was to say nothing. You are doing so well - my very best wishes to you.
Wendy

 

[dicar123]

CRSNDSNY- thanks for reading! Hmmm, how to respond when someone calls you inspirational? Honestly, I'm just a regular mom type person, but thanks. If sharing my story can help to encourage other people, then good. I like the thought of adding good things to the universe.

Outlander- Oh poo, I guess I'd better start writing the Universal part! Thanks for coming along on our little journey here! When is your trip?

CRUIZEN MAMMA Please pass along my sympathy and prayers for your friend. It's really hard enough to suffer a loss, but at Christmas for goodness sake? I've sent a few, "Are ya kidding me??" thoughts to God on that subject! Part of me feels like I got of kind of lucky (compared to other losses, I mean). With Derrick gone, I have fewer responsibilities. Had I lost Ed, I'd have gained his jobs, plus trying to be there for the kids by myself, plus try to grieve...it sounds like an impossible task! She probably has so much to DO that being able to FEEL is low on the priority list. My heart really goes out to her.

wendym-Oh dear, I am so sorry about your Father. Thank you and I hope you and yours are doing well too.

 

[dicar123]

Here is a picture of my Derrick! This was taken early summer 2006, right after he'd gotten his braces off. I'd have never gotten that smile out of him had I not insisted that we must take a picture of his teeth for his grandparents.

 

[dicar123]

Holey moley, that picture is huge! Sorry!

 

[alwayslisad]

That is a BEAUTIFUL picture and it made me smile ear to ear!!! Handsome young man! The smile in his eyes shows the wonderful life he had. You are a remarkable Mom to a beautiful Angel in Heaven and a Very handsome pre-teen!!

 

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Thank you, trying to explain why this happens to kids is really hard. I told my son that God's gift this Christmas was his friend's Dad. I can't imagine how Christmas can go on for this family- at least this year they had gifts from dad -in fact his older son -8 said his best present was an autographed guitar - the autograph -his dad's and the son is excited to start taking lessons. The guitar beat out the mp3 palyer and a new bike!!!

 

[LovableGluttons]

Awww Derrick is a cutie!

His little brother is too!

You are doing a terrific job on this report! I want to be on a 7 night cruise on the Magic NOW.

 

[bunny]

I just clicked on this thread to check out today's updates and up popped Derrick's picture. Such a handsome young man!!! And such beautiful teeth. But I think what really gets me is his eyes. He looks so happy. You must miss him terribly. I have two sons and can't even imagine losing one. My sons are really close although they are also 5 years apart. I can't imagine how Dustin is feeling either.

 

[outlander]

Thank you for sharing Derrick's pic. I never had braces but I would imagine I would be smiling that big to have them off too!

And don't you hurry on the Universal part, this has become much more of a journey than just Universal. We're going in November (you've got a little time before I start getting restless )

 

[jblb1020]

You have two very handsome boys! I am so sorry for your loss and as a mother of two I admire your strength, you are a wonderful Mother. What a great idea it was to get away. I am looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!

 

[dicar123]

December 16- Key West

We woke to very overcast skies. I don’t know what time we were supposed to be at Key West, but our arrival had been or was being delayed by our late start the previous night and/or bad weather. Many excursions were cancelled because of the weather and this may have been the day that we experienced pounding rain for awhile. I don’t really remember.

We went to Topsiders for breakfast and it was ok, but we aren’t really breakfast people. Dustin said the salami was very good and I shivered at the thought of eating salami for breakfast. It was very, very crowded.

Let me give a small hint to people who travel together in large family groups: In crowded places, you may not be able to all sit together for a meal. Just accept this. Otherwise, you will add so many chairs to one already crowded table that you will make it impossible for other people and servers to walk around.

I ran into our beverage server, who said hello to me, but by the time I figured out who he was, it was too late to say hello back! He teased me about this at dinner that night, and I felt badly about it. I promised that I would never snub him like that again.

Ed and Dustin went to the arcade while I went to Guest Services to straighten out a problem with my shipboard credit, namely that I didn’t have any. Well, I did have the $25 credit for booking online, but I expected more than that from my TA. The man at Guest Services was very helpful and pleasant. While I was there, the Captain made an announcement that due to our delayed arrival in Key West, he was extending the shore hours until 10:00pm. The CM’s were thrilled!

Later on, I had a phone message from the Guest Services guy. He’d contacted my TA and the balance of my credit would be mailed to me. I was somewhat annoyed, it isn’t exactly a shipboard credit if it is mailed to you afterwards, is it? In the end it made little difference, and I put it out of my mind.

Upon coming home, I found out that this had been entirely my mistake. The small print in the offer stated that the amount would be mailed as a check after the cruise. They didn’t even call it a shipboard credit, so I don’t know what I was thinking!

After watching our approach into Key West for what seemed like hours, we finally arrived. It was still quite ugly out, and was misting a bit as we walked down the pier.

After seeing Dustin so excited at the beach in Port Canaveral, and not having any particular plan for Key West, we asked our tablemates if any of them were aware of a beach on Key West. We were told that there was a beach at Zachary Taylor State Park. We walked down Duval Street, Dustin working very hard to catch chickens and Ed looking for a pair of sandals (which he found), hoping we’d find signs for this beach.

We did find a sign and it directed us to turn right off of Duval Street. We wandered quite a ways it seemed, then through a small residential area, and still further until we happened upon a guard shack. We immediately spied a sign warning of Portguese Man O’ War in the area.

Was our luck with beaches lousy or what? At this point, I wholeheartedly expected that Castaway Cay would be overrun with marauding piranha! The guard guy explained that the Man O’War were bright blue and pretty easy to spot if you’re looking. I told him we were unlikely to do much real swimming, mostly just sticking our feet in and playing in the sand and he thought we would be just fine. We paid our dollar fifty each to get in and continued on what the guy said would be about a 10 minute walk.

After a few minutes, I started to feel like a great big idiot. We’re walking through what seems to be an abandoned military base, not entirely sure that we’re going to find a beach of any consequence, and it is beginning to rain. All because Dustin wants to go to the beach, when he will be in water 3 out of the next 5 days anyway.

It was about this time when one of the adults among us (who shall remain nameless) passed gas. Ed made a joke about Florida Barking Spiders, and Dustin took him very seriously. I was surprised that Dustin hadn’t heard the joke before, but we played along, Ed saying he didn’t know that much about Barking Spiders when Dustin continued to ask very serious questions. I really wouldn’t have mentioned this at all (I have some class, you know), but it came back to haunt us later.

We continued to trudge along and did finally find the beach. It was a perfectly nice little beach, although it didn’t look terribly inviting because of the weather. Dustin eyed the water with great suspicion, wary of Man O’Wars and regular jellyfish that he thought were much more common on beaches than they actually are due to seeing one in Cape Canaveral.

He warmed up a little, letting the waves wash over his feet. We asked if he wanted to change into his swim trunks, advising that if he were near the water at all, surely a small wave would catch him by surprise and soak the bottom of his shorts. He declined, and of course, the whole bottom of his shorts were soaked by the time we left.

We had been at the beach maybe 15 minutes when the sun came out, the clouds disappeared and it turned into a lovely afternoon.

Look at that pretty blue sky!

This was to happen to us nearly every time we left the ship! We’d set out in really ugly weather, but by the time we got to wherever we were going, the weather turned nice. It was such a regular occurrence, in fact, that it was easy to believe that it was our presence which made the sun shine (and we’d like to apologize to all the people in Orlando on December 26. We slept late and thus you all didn’t see the sun until nearly afternoon!).

Dustin got more comfortable with the water, but never actually going in to even his knees. We never saw any Portugese Man O’War and we had ourselves a peaceful little afternoon, wandering the practically deserted beach while Dustin played in the sand and tried to build something with rocks.

There was a snack shack a little ways up the beach, and we got a drink and the number to a local cab company. The pay phone didn’t work and the woman in the snack shack agreed to call a cab for us.

While we were hanging out there, we encountered a local. This lady was a hoot! She asked all kinds of questions about our trip, and told us a bunch about Key West.

It was at this time that Dustin inquired if she knew much about Florida Barking Spiders (being such an expert on the area, you know). Ed and I immediately turn almost purple trying to keep straight faces, while this poor woman just looked at Dustin with the most puzzled look I’ve ever seen! So, there we are with Dustin trying to explain this spider and imitate the sound it makes, Ed and I couldn’t contain our laughter a moment longer.

Had I at all needed a bathroom, I’m sure I would have wet my pants! Ed got the lady to one side and whispered a summary of the Barking Spider Incident, upon which she started laughing hysterically. Poor Dustin was just baffled.

As we walked to wait for the cab, he was asking why we were all laughing so hard so Ed finally explained the joke. Luckily, the whole joke at his expense didn’t seem to hurt his feelings and he laughed a bit too.

We went back to the boat. I'd forgotten, but apparently Dustin went swimming and we got some food from Plutos! I just found those pictures.

By way way, the pools were not crowded at all that week.

We were at Animator’s Palette for dinner and I was SO looking forward to this restaurant!! We didn’t tell Dustin what was going to happen, we were looking forward to seeing if he even noticed.

We saw salmon as an entrée and promised Dustin he would like that much better than the salmon the previous evening, but he refused and got chicken fingers instead. He did decide to try to smoked salmon appetizer and really liked that. I had the wild garlic mushrooms (good) and the filet and it was pretty good. I don’t remember what Ed ate. It may have been the veal chop.

I do remember that this was his favorite dinner (with the exception of Palo, of course). We very much enjoyed the show and I had to giggle when even Ed didn’t notice right away that the servers had changed their vests.

Dustin had heard that Mickey was coming at some point, and seemed to find this very suspicious. It almost seemed to make him a little nervous. Sadly, our table was once again toward the back and we couldn’t see very much of the whole Mickey thing.

We enjoyed it all anyway, and were most surprised when our server came out of ice maiden mode and played a game with the kids! It was something to do with laying crayons out in a particular pattern and moving 2 to make it read or show something. We were all determined to remember this after we got home, thinking it would be a fun challenge for our friends, but as you can see, we have not.

We enjoyed the server’s show of some kind of personality, we had hoped she had one lurking about somewhere. Dessert for me was Peanut Butter Pie which was very good! I was so interested in that, in fact, that I have no idea what anyone else ate.

After dinner, we went to the show. It was Michael Harrison, a comedy and ventriloquist act. Dustin and I laughed and laughed, Ed thought it was a little tame. Have you forgotten where you are my dear? This IS Disney.

We thought we might go to the adult show and see if Ed liked the guy more but we never made it. After the show, Dustin ran off to the lab and Ed and visited Sessions and Rockin’ Bar D. The bartender at Sessions was so thrilled to finally make me a drink. I don’t drink much, mostly because I don’t like the taste of alcohol, but I’m often looking for something that appeals to me.

Well, he made me some kind of chocolate something (although the drink was clear). I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a chocolate martini. It was very strong and I didn’t like it exactly, but I drank it anyway and was consequently in quite a good mood for Rockin’ Bar D.

It was One Hit Wonders night and they were doing some kind of trivia contest, boys against girls. Ed is really good at that sort of thing, we should have gotten there earlier. We sang our little hearts out, drank a little more and I ended up with at least one Long Island Iced Tea. I think I might have had two, but I don’t really remember.

In any event, we had a very good time. Eventually, we must have collected Dustin and returned to our stateroom. I took some preventative advil and drank a bottle of water.

Our towel animal was a dog, I think, and Dustin was still utterly enchanted by the whole towel animal thing. He also ate all our chocolate! We started hiding it after that and I have a bunch of it in my bag. One of these nights, I’ll put some on his bed and see if it makes him laugh.

(I have done this, by the way, and Dustin just looked confused. )

 

[dicar123]

Welcome Jblb!

Thanks everyone for your kind comments on Derrick's picture. We thought he was pretty cute too.

A comment on kids and death...this is just so tough! Dustin is very anti-God now. I'm sure he blames God for taking his brother. He mentions Derrick occasionally, like with the escalator thing, but mostly doesn't talk about it. I never know if he's really coping alright, or if he's just not saying anything. He attends a support group for siblings, and the counselors there tell me he's doing fine.

CRUIZEN MAMMA- I know how the kid feels! LOL! Everything in this house that has anything to do with Derrick has been secured in a box. Slip of paper Derrick scribbled numbers on? We've got it. But isn't it great that the boy was able to enjoy Christmas? It's the things that the wife did with her husband for the kids that are just going to be dreadful for her. Yet, they need Christmas, don't they? It's a terrible position to be in. We have no idea what we're doing next Christmas either.