Those 2 gals from Ohio are traveling again – Magic 12/27/08 – Western Caribbean

[Marla Hellwig]

We are cruising this time!

I will be updating and adding pictures

Cast:

Marla – stay at home mom

Kara – now a senior in high school

Pre

We had always talked about cruising in the past, but didn’t go. Then DCL announced that they were going to the Mediterranean for the summer of 2007 and I booked us an 11 night cruise for June, 2007.

Booked a pre night before the cruise. Then booked some nights in London before, and then Euro Rail and Disneyland Paris and then Paris and then we would finally come home, also did the applying for passports etc.

Then the nightmare started, we got caught up in the now infamous passport application mess. We applied, and waited, waited and waited some more. Mine finally came, but Kara’s didn’t. I had been calling and checking the status. Finally we came to the painful conclusion that Kara’s passport would not come in time, and with a heavy heart, I started the process of canceling, moving, and unpacking of suitcases. It was hard to replan everything but our new cruise date was 12/27/08 – now the waiting to begin again.

Kara’s passport finally arrived early July of 2007, but she was legal now.

I kind of put off the cruise planning for awhile, was busy with Kara’s school schedule, marching band and swim teams and time very slowly marched by.

You are probably asking why we put the cruise off until 2008 when we could have sailed over the holidays in 2007, we took my mom and the 3 of us flew to California to spend the holidays with my uncle, and sneaked off for a couple of days of fun at Disneyland and California Adventures.

Finally got back into the cruise planning mode. First booked a pre night stay at the Hilton at the Orlando airport, figuring we could just veg for the day relaxing.

Then decided to go for it, and booked a night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge – Savannah View.

Time is still dragging on and on and on.

Finally it was time to make ADR’s for our pre night – decided on Jiko for dinner and Boma for breakfast. Then decided not to go into a park at all on 12/26 – just the MarketPlace for some shopping, . Then decided not to go into a park at all on 12/26 – just the MarketPlace for some shopping, but other wise we were just going to veg out on our balcony enjoying our view and the critters.

Booked airfare after watching and watching – not the best deal, but it was non stop both ways.

Kept our DCL transfers as I decided I was going to be in full vacation mode and not drive once we got to our airport and parked the car.

Time is still dragging on and on and on.

Finally it was time to book our excursions, and after lots of researching and such, decided on the GPS walking Tour in Key West, Grand Cayman Island Tour (Hell and Turtle Farm), Tulum Ruins in Cozumel, Parasailing on Castaway Cay, and I also booked a float rental.

Didn’t get to check in with our dis meet bunch very much but was looking forward to meeting our group. We originally had booked late dining for the aborted cruise, and by the time I thought about changing to main, main was sold out, but figured to go with the flow. Did link us with our group and we ended up with 29 of us at second seating and had 3 tables – and had a great time at dinner.

Time was still dragging on though.

Finally, our Magical Express documents arrived, yes that meant it time was getting close, and then our cruise documents arrived. Now it was time to get serious. Went through clothes etc and had everything we thought we were going to take and trying to figure out how to get into the suitcases.

Christmas Day we spent it with my mom and then home to finish up the last minute packing and such. We signed up for our group's FE exchange and I had the fabric but never got around to making it, finally we got out the fabric glue and whipped up something in a few minutes and it worked just fine.

12/26

Finally it is time to leave – our flight was at 8:00 a.m. The plan was to be out of the door by 5:00 a.m. in order to arrive at airport with plenty of time for checking in. We woke up earlier and decided since we were ready, left the house about 4:30 a.m. and with clear skies and no traffic were at the airport early. It was cold about 24 degrees but no snow or ice to contend with which was great for driving.

Checking in at the airport was crazy for 5:40 a.m. lines everywhere and people not happy about having to stand in lines, but we were ready for vacation mode and just stood and shuffled along. Finally checked in and got those darling boarding passes. Turned in our checked luggage and proceeded to the security check in point. I wanted to get in the frequent flyer line but we were shuffled into the family line – oh well.

For the first time flying since 09/11, I wasn’t waned, patted down etc. However, Kara was – she was wearing her knee brace and had to have the extra attention. I did mention to her to put it on after going through security but did she listen – of course not, she is a teenager who knows all.

Had a quick breakfast at the airport, at least it was hot and proceeded to our gate. Which, of course as usual, the last gate possible in the terminal, and waited some more. While waiting they asked if anyone would change seats and I jumped at it, we got moved to the emergency exit row and loved the extra leg room.

We were all ready to leave and a family of 7 boarded at the last minute, with about 4 children under the age of 2. They were flying standby and were not happy that they were not all sitting together. They were whining and wouldn’t sit down after being told numerous times to take the first available seat and go from there. Finally one of the ground crew came on board and said if you all don’t sit down, you will be removed from the flight, this flight is already 30 minutes late in taking off and we aren’t waiting anymore. After a couple more minutes of them grumbling and whining, they finally all sat down. Finally we were cleared to taxi and we were on our way – YIPEE SKIPPY!!

Kara worked on homework and I read and started to get into vacation mode.

Arrived about 35 minutes late in Orlando but was so glad to get there. The terminal was very busy and warm! After a quick stop at the first restroom we came to. we changed from our winter clothes into shorts; we proceeded to the Magical Express check in. The line was long – they were asking for only one member of your party to stand in line for the check in process and the rest of the party to wait across the aisle. Kara grabbed herself a corner with our carryon stuff and I did the one step forward shuffle for about 20 minutes (give or take). Finally got to the desk and we were stamped and ready to go in about 2 minutes. Grabbed Kara and off to wait in our bus line. About 10 – 15 minutes later we were boarding our bus. Our bus was a DCL bus and nice and clean and COOL! With it being cold when we left, the 85 degrees was a bit much to take right off.

Left the airport and after making a stop at Pop Century, we arrived at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Five minutes to get to the front of the line to check in and while I was checking us in, Kara was wandering around the lobby.

 

[Aisling]

Waiting for more. LOTS of details, please!

 

[artman]

Love it so far.

I can't wait to hear about that great family from Canada.

 

[nskjerven]

but wait until she writes about that crazy lady from California and her family on the DCL bus. You know the crazy one is my mom right????

 

[Aisling]

Get writing, woman!

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Our room was . The walk was a rather long one. Entered our room and very nice.

We had savannah view and could see giraffes,

We spent a little time just relaxing on our balcony and then headed out to the MarketPlace for some retail therapy

Kara found a couple things in the Christmas store – Nightmare from Xmas of course I found one ornament for my one niece and shipped home most everything – love this feature

Next stop was the Everything is 10 or less and spent a little bit of time here – you can’t ship anything home from this store – but Kara got a couple of gifts for friends

Next to the World of Disney – we got some goodies and even worked out our charging to get more than one of the special rolling duffle bags – worse case – we can give them as gifts – ha ha – not likely – did not have 1 shipped as our one carry one bag was falling apart and would need a new one for flight home.

After that we took a vote and going back to our resort and planting ourselves on our balcony won over shopping – gasp!

Got back to our resort – that long walk back to our room and our luggage had been delivered via Magical Express – gotta say that was pretty darn slick.

I had packed so we wouldn’t have to unpack everything for the one night, so quickly unpacked what we would need what we were going to need for dinner (Jiko) and jammies and what we were going to wear to port in the morning – then just relaxed and enjoyed the view while drinking our pop that we had bought at the airport earlier.

Soon, it was time to get ready for our 7:05 p.m. ADR at Jiko – this was a first for us and it was great

Had the Oak-grilled FiletMignon with Macaroni & Cheese and Red Wine Sauce – yum yum

After dinner explored the resort a bit and then back to room to crash for the night

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Dec 27

Port, meet and greet, sail away party and unpacking

Now here was our – well mine mess up for the day

The next morning we got up, showered, watched the critters and went to down for our 7:30 a.m. breakfast at Boma, it was good, but we decided we prefer dinner here

Got back to up room, finished packing and while I was on phone with Bell Services Kara took camera and said I will meet you at front by 11 a.m. for bus to port

Bell Services came, started with the luggage and when he noticed our transfer tags for the port, he said – your luggage should have been picked up last night – OOPS

Now what – I started panicking full time – He said breath – not a problem – just follow me – I made sure we had gotten everything and off to lobby to the Cruise Check In Desk.

It took a little bit but got everything sorted out and our luggage was off heading towards port – won’t do that again – hanging head in shame and yes CM did tisk tisk at me but with a smile.

Was given papers etc and told to meet back at cruise check in desk before 12 ready to go and the CM said make sure everyone in your party has eaten, gone potty before coming back and that our entire party had to be here at check in time.

I had Bell Services store our carryon bags and I took my book and went outside to sit in the sunshine and started to get into ‘full blown vacation mode’

Kara checked in a couple of times, I gave her the exact time to meet and where and I sat outside for quite awhile reading and people watching.

Finally went in and there was a huge line for Bell Services – decided to get carryon’s etc and find a place to park in lobby.

We spent the rest of the time sharing one of their comfy big chairs, watching our stuff, reading a paper someone had left behind, and exploring a little bit. Finally it was almost time for the “last potty call” as per instructed and we were ready to go

Soon it was time to line up and head out for the bus.

Got on the bus and heard “Hey Marla and Kara” It was Nan and her crew

Before we left the AKL we were welcomed aboard and told we had 1 more stop to make – had to pick up a family over at the Boardwalk resort.

Got to Boardwalk and the family was ready to go and we got another little speech and off we went

Nan was texting with some of our fellow cruise maties and most were already on board enjoying a drink or two or three etc,. etc., etc of course ‘rubbing it in’ that they were already at port and we were still on the bus.

The ride was nice and it was nice looking out at the landscape. Soon our movie started and that was cute – at least to us – since we hadn’t seen it before

I took the time to make sure papers and passports were right on top for when we got to port

Wait – what do we SEE – Yes it is the MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Anticipation is starting to peak, we are finally getting there – yippee skippie

We arrive at port and told if we had any carry on’s to get them before going into the building

Off the bus, grabbed our carryons and proceeded around the corner to the front door

Through security, which was pretty painless and quick, and Kara had left her knee brace off this time

Up the escalator and into the main lobby

The lobby was pretty empty by now and had a very short wait in the check in line

I didn’t even think to get camera back out for pictures in the lobby – another duh moment for us – and yes there will be some more along the way

Soon it was time to walk through the Mickey ears.

Stopped for our picture in front of the map – I was still a little stressed at this moment, knowing we were starting off later than I had anticipated then remembered I didn’t take any pictures in the lobby

Got our picture – don’t we look happy – rofl


and up the gang plank

Kara spotted our luggage sitting on the dock in one of those huge bins. At least it made it to port. She said what if we don’t get our luggage – I said well we will just buy what we need as we go along – the luggage will find us sooner or later.

As it has been reported the gang plank was fixed and we entered at level three. Got to the door, gave our names and we were ‘announced and welcomed on board’ pretty cool

While we were in line waiting, there was a crew member (in white uniform) and I noticed his name was Tom, I said quietly to Kara – wonder if that is our captain – he must have heard me and leaned over and said no I am not the captain – I am just Tom – very nice gentleman who’s wife was joining him for the cruise

As we were walking through the lobby, cool tree, we were told we could go straight to our stateroom – very cool – around the corner and to the elevator and we squeezed in with Nan and her group

Up to deck 7, told Nan and company we would see them at our meet at 3 and down the hall to 7624 our home away from home for the next 7 nights

Was pleasantly surprised in our stateroom, nicer than I was antipicating and roomer than I thought it would be. We checked everything out, including our Navigator’s Verandah. We were facing the port and we watching the hub bub of activity still going on – did noticed pretty much all of the huge luggage bins were gone – figured they were loaded – so we were good to go.

I dug out where we were supposed to meet with our group and decided even though it was a tad early (3 p.m.) we would head out. On the way out, decided to grab our life jackets for the drill in order not to have to go back to stateroom get them and then report to our lifeboat station – Animator’s Palate – I thought it was a good idea – besides I am lazy Also grabbed the nice map of the ship we were given in the terminal to take with us – just in case – once a Girl Scout – always a Girl Scout.

As we were leaving our stateroom host was there and we said hi and headed off to the elevators.

I am not a stair person – remember I am lazy – Kara wanted to take stairs but I said – well I have the map – so elevator it was

Down to for our meet’s group meet

I said “hey” to who was there but I was on a mission – head to the bar first – then talk – ha ha ha

Drink in hand I was ready to mix and mingle and meet everyone who had been chatting up a storm on our cruise thread

It was very nice to meet everyone and put faces with names etc

Kara and Molly hit it off right away

Everyone at first laughed with us walking in carrying our life jackets, but decided that I wasn’t being lazy, but time efficient. A couple of people were sent back to get theirs also while we were chatting

Soon the announcement that the life boat drill would be starting soon, for our drill, put on our lovely life jackets and headed off the Animator’s Palatee to check in. We were one of the first there and found our section right away and got our names check off

As we were sitting and waiting and hearing that bell going off, couple of CM’s noticed my huge bruise on my one leg – I had a hidden Mickey shaped bruise from my encounter with a wheel chair the day before – he was going regardless if I was standing there or not.

Finally – they turned off the clanging bell/horn – man that is loud – which is fine – since if a real emergency – you really need to be able to hear it everywhere

Soon we were released and we headed back to our stateroom, our luggage was there and we dug into our room. Kara grabbed camera/camcorder and we headed up for the deck party. I had heard for more room in closet to store our life jackets under the bed, so we put them there as we were heading out of the door.

Got a couple of sail away drinks – Kara’s virgin of course, and we wandered around deck 9 and 10 for a bit. Found a place up on deck 10 right by one of the stacks with view of the jumbo tom screen

Got our streamers to wave and soon it was time to leave – matter of fact I didn’t notice that we had started moving until I noticed the port terminal wasn’t where it was a few minutes ago – I am so observer – or maybe I just need another drink.

We were sailing away, drinks had been drank, streamers waved, and the camcorder battery had died. As we were leaving deck 9, picked up a couple of streamers that were lying on the deck, intending to throw away when we got back to stateroom.

Got to our stateroom and we had been visited by the magnet fairy – very cool magnet and we thank you!

Dug out our Fish Extender and zip tie that Kelly had given to us along with our list of staterooms and what date everyone was passing out on. Got our little bag hung and arranged the extra streamers after wiping them off for a more festive touch.

I had ordered us 2 of the excursions bags and baseball caps – and I had totally forgotten that I had done that – they are nice.

As we had late dining we decided to unpack, we lounged out on our verandah, showered and just relaxed a bit before heading out for dinner.

Ok – in fully unpacking, we couldn’t find the deodorant, had 3 tubes of toothpaste but no deodorant – another duh – oh well – sure we can find some somewhere

I like to unpack and have everything put away – Kara’s idea of unpacking is opening suitcase and just dumping everything in the corner – nope not happening this week – besides I wanted to be able to get out to our verandah

I kept hearing funny noise – finally figured out it was the hangers banging into each other – but once I got everything hung up – that stopped that

We never had a problem with the closet door banging or bathroom doors banging – except for one night – I just put a sock in door frame that night

Soon it was time to head down for dinner –

And dinner was at Luminairs

We had 29 linked for second seating and we had 3 tables for our group. We did who got there first got to pick where they were sitting and such – so we all moved around each night – that was nice as it gave us more of a change to talk to everyone

Our servers/assistant servers were Tril and Abaham and

Dinner was fun and hard to decide on what we wanted to eat. I did mention that we don’t do seafood due to allergies and had to ask about a few menu items over the course of the week, but we were fine at all meals

Think we just about closed down the dining room for the night and we walked around one of the decks for a bit. Kara then headed off to the stack for her meet the gang night – received invititation on our fishy earlier today and I headed back to our stateroom. Loved the navigator’s as our neighbor’s couldn’t peek at us, so I was in my jimmies just chilling

Figured out what time we had to have our wake up call and got our stuff out for tomorrow – Key West!

I gave up on waiting for Kara to come in – and crawled into my bed. Kara said she wanted to try out of the foldout for 1 night and if she didn’t like it – we would share the big bed for the rest of the week.

Our towel animal was along with turn down and chocolates

Also, we had received our excursion tickets and notices of what was on our shipboard account, as I had prepaid some for tips and expenses. Explored the gift shops and found our much needed deodorant. Should have waited and bought it in Key West – it would have been more selection and cheaper – oh well – we are on vacation – time to live it up a bit

Before I fell asleep Kara came in and said she had a good time in the stack and her counselors were cool and she was looking forward to spending more time with some new friends

We soon were fast asleep