TR:A Wonderful Disney "DREAM"!DH has been converted!

[Toria]

Well the only thing i left to do on my list isisney Quest tickets, stop mail, call credit card companies, buy more candy for CM'S, and pick up 6 gifts for boys age 11-17. I am really struggling with gift ideas for them. Can someone please give me suggestions? Also the last time I posted, I said that I hoped no other storm would follow Katia well now Maria wants to join the party. I am trying not to worry about it. I say as long as I can still cruise on that beautiful boat, nothing else would matter. Next post will be next week. Let's see if I can keep to the schedule that I posted awhile back.

 

[KS929]

OMG!… I just remembered! You guys have one week left till your cruise!! *sigh* I wish I do too … I miss the Dream! Have fun!

 

[Pinkocto]

I'm so excited for you guys!!! Hopefully Maria stays far away, but if not you have more time to explore inside! Whatever happens you're going to have a marvelous time! For boys 11-17, all I can think is candy, or a deck of cards. You could probably get a deck of cards for $1 each. UNO cards can be fun too.

 

[Toria]

Thanks! We will definitely enjoy ourselves. Thanks for the tip about the teens. The kids are marking down the countdown clock like lil crazy people. My son marked out four blocks at once. I guess he was trying to rush leaving.

 

[Pinkocto]

That is so cute that's he's excited!

 

[Pinkocto]

4 days left!!!! Can't imagine how excited you guys are!!!

I know you're probably super busy packing and everything, so no biggy if you don't get this til you get back, but how have you felt about the FE? is it too much work? I think it would be super fun but don't want to be stressed with it. I'm trying to decide whether to get involved with ours or not.

Have a super fabulous marvelous cruise!!!

 

[Toria]

On I-10 headed for I-75. We left home a lil late, but not by much. Made it to Tallahassee by my scheduled time to be there. 70 miles from I-75. Well I must say that I have lied, according to my schedule we are behind I also did not take into account the time change. Oh, well we will hopefully make up for it on I-75.

 

[iloverags2]

Awesome you are on the road! Safe travels and have a wonderful vacation!

 

[Toria]

Just got off the Dream 2 hours ago. We are on I75 headed home. I will start the TR tonight. We had a great time on that beautiful ship.

 

[Pinkocto]

Can't wait to hear all about it! Can't believe it's over

 

[nvsnot]

I'm glad you guys had a good time . I can't wait to hear all about it .

 

[pjstevens]

Cannot wait to hear about your trip! We loved the Dream!

 

[Toria]

The night before I made it my mission to get off of work early if possible. Well no trauma patients came in so I left the hospital at 1030 that night. My wonderful husband had been off of work most of the day. When I got home at 1130, he was just sitting on the couch watching TV. I asked him if he had packed anything else in his suitcase that I had halfway packed, "No he says", so I give him the evil eye and he slowly dashes to the walkin closet to pull out a few things(I mean maybe two items). I told him to check and see what items I had left out for him(this will become an argument later in the cruise). Of course it would all be my fault since I did most of the packing. Well midnight thirty rolls around and guess who has the job of loading the car(take one wifey guess). I took it upon myself since since the TV was clearly more important than packing for a vacation. After all is said and done, showered and in the bed around 1am.

I didn't have any trouble falling asleep and 4:30am came before we knew it. The alarm went off and I promptly jumped out of bed like my PJ'S were on fire. IT WAS TIME TO START OUR VACATION! I tried to get the hubby up, but that was like pulling teeth. I had the kids up at 5:00am dressed and fed by 5:15am.

Meanwhile Jerome is still in the bed rolling around fighting the inevitable (and if he flips in that bed one more time I am going to blow my top). He finally drags himself out of bed at 5:30. I wanted to be out of the house by 5:30, so the start of my timeline was falling behind. We left our driveway at 5:51,then Jerome decided he needed to stop by Walmart and pick up some undershirts (I wanted to ask him why didn't he do it the day before since he was off of work early). I didn't want to argue so I left that one alone. While he was in Walmart I went to McDonalds to get breakfast for us. Which went like this 1 sausage biscuit for myself(this part has a point I promise) 1 egg mcmuffin for Jerome, 2 egg mcmuffins for Jayden and 2 hashbrowns for Nakyla. I get the order then head back to Walmart to get Jerome. I park and start to hand out the food to the kids. Low and behold they left out Nakyla's 2 hashbrowns(partial meltdown #1). So Jerome comes out and we head back to McD's to get her hashbrowns. We ended up getting on 1-10 at 6:11(41 minutes late may I say). 10 minutes into the ride, Nakyla eats half of her hashbrown, then declares that she don't want the rest and Jayden also declares that he can't eat his other Mcmuffin
What is my response to those two lil people that just wasted my money.........

 

[queenreen]

We were on the same cruise and had the most amazing time. I am so glad I didn't listen to the negative comments on the board. Thanks for the FE gifts, they were great. Hope you all had as magical a time as we did.

Thank goodness the storm on CC day stayed out over the water, I got a little worried listening to the thunder.

 

[pjstevens]

Off to a great start! Can't wait to hear what happens to your breakfast! You are a good wifey, i'd have blown my top at Jerome

 

[Pinkocto]

I'm so sorry you had to do all the packing It doesn't sound like the happiest start, did the kids at least eat the rest later? Can't wait to hear more

 

[Toria]

4 days left!!!! Can't imagine how excited you guys are!!!

I know you're probably super busy packing and everything, so no biggy if you don't get this til you get back, but how have you felt about the FE? is it too much work? I think it would be super fun but don't want to be stressed with it. I'm trying to decide whether to get involved with ours or not.

Have a super fabulous marvelous cruise!!!

I must say that the FE was alot of work, but it was so worth it in the end. The kids were super excited to check the pockets each time we returned to the room. I am also glad that we had an empty suitcase, because we received so many great things. I would definitely do it again, being that I know what to expect now.

 

[Toria]

I last left off where my two lil people didn't want to eat the food that I brought them. I thought about and they had just had a bowl of cereal not to long ago. However they are forever hungry, so I brought the food not thinking. The hubby and I chalked it up to excitement, so we didn't press the issue. Upwards and onwards to Disney for happy times. As soon as it became daylight I had the kids work on school work that I picked up from their teachers. They didn't complain one bit, I guess the excitement of going to Disney will make you do just about anything with happiness. After an hour our of school work, they started to watch movies which kept them quiet.
We continued on I-10 until we reached a Circle K for a restroom break at
9am. It was our first scheduled stop of the trip. The stop only lasted about 5 miuntes and we were back onto I-10 headed for I-75. Our next stop was in Gainesville for gas only, we made it there around 1107. That was a quick stop as well and we were back onto I-75. Jerome was starting to get hungry, so we made an unscheduled stop at a Zaxby's. We have never eaten there before and I must say that the food was good. Jerome asked the kids what they wanted to eat(here we go again) Nakyla got a grilled cheese and Jayden didn't want anything to eat. Jerome didn't listen to that part, he brought him something to eat anyway. Well let's just say that he didn't eat his chicken fingers and Nakyla eat half of her fries and none of the grilled cheese. (Just breath Toria, you are on vacation!) While that mess was going on with Jerome and the kids, I sat quietly and eat my food. I kind of zoned out and found my happy place. Back onto I-75(can we get to Disney already), we arrived at Downtown Disney at 12:05. We were so excited to see this sign

I myself could not stop smiling and Nakyla just started to squeal about finally making it to Disney. Our next stop would be Disney Quest. I made plans to go here, because I knew that Jerome would get a kick out of all the old games.

I must say that I was correct on that assumption. He was like a kid in a candy store
Nakyla on the other hand was being a stick in the mud. Saying"I don't want to play this, I don't want to play that". Oh well she was not going to ruin our fun. Jayden and Jerome loved the racing games, so they played a ton of those. Nakyla and I walked around and we finally found a game that she liked. Come to find out all she wanted to do was shop(that's my girl). I got them both Disney gift cards and hers was about to explode in her pouch if she didn't spend it at the exact moment(her words not mine). It was now 3:30 and I wanted to get checked into the hotel, so I told her that her explosion would have to wait. So we headed off to get into The Shades of Green.....

 

[Toria]

Around 3:30 we left Disney Quest to check into our hotel for the night which was Shades Of Green. It is located across the street from the polynesian. There was no wait for check-in, about 5 minutes was all it took. We parked in the parking garage, which seemed like a mile from our room. I was totally disappointed with location of our room. When we arrived at the room I noticed that we were upgraded to a larger room that slept 6 people. I unpacked the carryon that we had specifically for our one night stay there. I ironed our clothes for dinner at Texas De Brazil. While I was ironing the kids were checking out the room and sitting on the balcony(view was crappy). After about 10 minutes of ironing I noticed that Jerome had fell asleep. I knew that this would happen(he drove the entire way to Orlando). Well once I finished ironing the kids and I went back to Downtown Disney. I purchased each one of them a Disney gift card;they were extremely ready to spend their money. It was burning a hole in their pockets. Our first stop was the lego store. Jayden was so overwhelmed by all the choices of legos to choose from. I helped him to narrow it down by the amount of money that he had available. He ended up purchasing 2 different lego sets. Then it was on to The World of Disney. This was my first time in this store, I could have done some damage. Due to time constraints and shopping with Nakyla I didn't even entertain the thought. After about 10 minutes in that store all she decided to get was a Stitch stuffed animal. She wanted to save the rest of her money for the cruise. We left there and headed back to SOG to get dressed for dinner. At the point we were running late, so I had to rush everyone to get dressed. Luckily Jerome was dressed before I got back. We left the hotel around 6:45p and arrived at 7:15 for our 7:30 reservation. The restaurant was extremely busy I am glad that I made reservations months in advance. The food was good and we were starting the eating portion of our vacation off on the right foot. After we got the bill that about sent us into cardiac arrest $160.00 we went back to the hotel to enjoy the pool. While Jerome was in the pool with the kids, I relaxed in the hot tub and met a nice mother and daughter from Ohio. After about an hour between the pool and the hot tub we hoofed it back upstairs to shower. All showered we hit the sack and no one had trouble falling to sleep. Around 5:00a I woke up and decided that I would go to Wal-Mart and gas up the car for the ride to the port. I put on the clothes that I would where on the ship and headed out. The walk from the hotel room to the parking garage was scary. Not scary in the sense of people, but rather animals. Last visit that we were there, there was an alligator that resided at the resort in one of the ponds. I didn't not want to run across him or any snakes. I am scared to death of snakes. So I did the fastest power walk ever, by the time I made it to the car I was out of breath. I made it in one piece After leaving the garage I made my way to the Hess station that is located outside of MK. I can only put premium gas in my car, so I relieved to see that it was $3.50 Along I-75 on the drive down the cheapest we found was $3.78. While I was filling up I cleaned all the death off of my windshield(love bugs). Disney buses use this station to fill up in the mornings, so they were everywhere.Sidenote(while I am sitting here writing this, my darling Nakyla has tied a helium ballon around her ankle and is running around the house with. Meanwhile our Yorkie is going crazy by the noise she is making, so he barking his lil head off. I am tuning them out in 5,4,3,2,1 ...that is better! Anywho... I put the address into the navigation system and I was off. I arrived at Wal-mart about 15 minutes later and it was virtually deserted. I was happy for that, because the last time we went to that place it was a mad house. There were numerous Tour buses there and people as well. I was able to quickly grab a belt, sunglasses, 2 cases of water, candy and oreos for the CM'S at the kids clubs. With my goodies in hand I checked out and headed back to the hotel. Luckily it had gotten a little light out, so I didn't have to walk at break neck speed or a slow trot. It was around 6:30 we I got back, so I politely put my PJ"s back on and went right back to sleep. I automatically woke up at 8:15a and wondered what happen to the wake up call that was suppose to come at 8:00. No need to dwell on it, I woke everyone up and they were happy to get up. We all got dressed and packed everything up, then headed back down to the lobby. The kids aslo had cash so they wanted to stop by the store in the resort to get themselves something to drink. We headed to the elevators and Jerome bout came unglued on some lady. I had clearly pressed the button and was starting to get on the elevator with the kids when she came flying out of nowhere and tried to cut Jerome off. He stopped short of running into her, then she had the nerve to sigh heavy and annouce in a rude voice," I guess that I will just take the next one". I guess you will was what he said. Meanwhile I am telling myself," Go to your happy place...Go to your happy place". Well that has passed, we make it to the car and we had to rearrange some things in the trunk. We had to move the luggage that was not making it on the ship to the very back of the trunk. I also had to load up the water in one of the small suitcases. Even though we were in the parking garage it was humid and hot, with me those two things don't mix well. After about 10 minutes of rearranging and sweating it was 9:45. We had to get on the road, because we needed to stop by a Bank of America to get some ones. The closest one was in Celebration, which was a 15 drive from hotel. We made it to the bank and I got the amount of ones that I needed and we were on our way to the port. Celebration is a really nice and pretty town. Now we were headed to Toll road 417. To get onto 417 we had to pay a toll then guess how many tolls I counted that we paid until we made it to the port,Good GRIEFFFFFFFFFFF................................

 

[LuvEeyore]

Toria, you make people glow and I help catch those little ones that dont like their 40 weeks housing arrangements and try to hang themselves on the way out. Just about 13 hours north of you.

Loving your trip report. Cant wait for more.