Trip report from the SS Member Cruise that started February 2nd, 2003

[ohanafamily]

While the cast of this adventure was mostly DW (RRBB) and I, there were many extras. We are SINKS (single income no kids), but take our Dragons with us everywhere (their picture is on my signature). We usually lock them in the room, but we figured that if anybody would understand it would be a boatload of DVC’ers.

 

[ohanafamily]

Pre-trip Day 1
Worked all day, finally broke down at 3:00pm to go get DW. Changed, and waited for the ride. Got to airport... Ate cheesesteak sandwich at TGI Fridays…Got our First Class Upgrades... Tried to renew our admirals club membership… The minutes seemed to take years. OK, I’ll skip a bit. All we had was carry-on, so once we landed in Orlando we hot footed it to the Taxi stand…Onward to BCV!!!!! 10:30PM. The CM who checked us in (Jessika) was very sweet and a bit of a “Chatty Cathy” (so much so I left my credit card). She made sure we had all our member paraphernalia, and even ran to get us when she found my MasterCard. We talked for another half hour. We got her life story and sincerely wish her the best. Got to the room, it was heavily perfumed. I didn’t want to call the front desk at this hour, so we ignored it.

 

[ohanafamily]

Pre-trip Day 2
Met our cousin (she is a CM, so her name is withheld) for EE at AK. WOW! Kilimanjaro Safari is fantastic on EE! We saw so many of animals. It is much better before they all go and hide when the afternoon rolls on. Next was the Pangani Trail to see the naked molerats. Then we ran to the Dinosaur Ride. Breakfast reservations at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus were next. Just to make sure the food went down well we rode the Triceratops Spin then Mousetrap (AKA Primeval Whirl). We finished the park with ITTBAB.

Next it was off to MGM and Tower of Terror. Rode it once, then Aerosmith RnR, then 2 more ToT. Each profile was different. We always try to visit BB Good (at Radio Disney) when we're at MGM but she's still off Air. (The sign says family matters.) Headed over to Star Tours and then Muppet Vision. Finally we hit the GMR before moving on to another park.

We stopped back at BCV to pick up some paperwork and change camera battery then to EPCOT. Our 1st stop was TT for a FastPass.

Dinner at Garden Grill, which we ended up closing down. Pluto tried to tell us something and we just couldn’t get it. We finally asked him to tell our waiter who could inform us. Instead he showed up with Mickey, Chip and Dale to help (mind you we were the only people left in the restaurant). We ended up playing “Charades” with them for something like 20 minutes or so. We left just in time to ride JIYI and finally TT. We wanted to also ride SSE, since it was the last day of ATT sponsorship, but didn’t make it on time. We headed back to BCV as Illuminations was ending, DW heard our song (Promise) and wanted to dance. Some guests were a little offended that we were dancing and not moving. I hope that they find love and romance some day.

Went back to the BCV, said goodbye to our cousin, went to our room and passed out. 3 parks in one day!

 

[WDWLVR]

Come on David - don't leave us hanging. We want to see your report on the cruise!

Mary

 

[ohanafamily]

More to come soon, been sick in bed all day. I caught something on the airplane coming back from the trip........

Maybe I will feel good enough later tonight.......

 

[ohanafamily]

Pre-trip Day 3
Got up late. Went to Tokyo for Lunch…Hibachi Grill, I was hoping for a table for two and we wound up at a table for eight. The food was good, but I started hungry and didn’t get filled up. The next thing that happened was my biggest disappointment of the trip. I collect Steiff, and the store that sold it went dark on Jan 1st. I wanted to order my member pieces from them. They were not able to order them for me. We rode JIYI to visit Figment, then on to Space Ship Earth; we didn’t see any signs that AT&T had abandoned it. We also went by the Art store before leaving the park. DW wanted to go to the Scrap booking store, I was still a little grumpy from the ordeal in Germany. No Direct Bus Service from EPCOT to DD, so I made us take a taxi.

At Downtown Disney, first we hit the mega store. Then we went to the Kitchen Store. They didn’t have the coaster set I saw last trip, but told us to try back at the mega store.

I am not sure how long we spent in the scrap booking store (I sort of fell asleep). I do remember hearing something about some of the stickers did not say that they were acid free, but the CM told DW that the upper management told them to say that they were. I also remember hearing that there would be a scrap booking convention coming up and that there was not anything close to enough merchandise in the store to keep it from being mobbed.

We had a late snack at Wolfgang Puck Express. I'm allercic to cilantro and I think either my pizza or soup had some in it even though they told me it didn't. Big New Toy store (bought a Disney Desktop Theme). Then we went back to the Mega store, no luck again for the coasters.

Another Taxi to BCV, watched a little on the Shuttle Accident, then to MK for Dinner at Toni’s. We also caught Spectro Magic. COOOOL, we also had good info that the Fairies had a new type of light in their costume. The parade was beautiful as always, I was cold and my tummy was bothering me. We grabbed a bus back to BCV, went to our room.

DW packed, I passed out…..

 

[ohanafamily]

Trip Day 1
We woke up, I wasn’t feeling so hot, went to breakfast at the Yacht Club. Finished, went to EPCOT for Groundhog Day Pins. (limited series, they were only released to a few stores, and I felt I needed them for the cruise). Went back to our room, Grabbed our bags and went to wait for the bus.

We got to the boat, checked in, went to Beach Blanket for lunch (Andrea Mcartle sat behind us and I kept threatening DW to go and ask for an autograph). I didn’t. We went back to the room just in time for the lifeboat drill. I was a little concerned because they blew the all clear shortly after we arrived, and there were still people coming.

After the drill we had our Dis Meet. Met lots of people, including Mary, Mark and Shontell. She gave us her bubbles when she was leaving the sail-away party, because the bubbles DW made were lame (but don't tell her I said that.) It was a blast! We met lots of Dis’ers, a few moderators, and a couple of people who told us of the existence of other boards….

We saw Hercules the MUSEical, I love that show. I wish that they would sell a video. We had Dinner at Parrot Cay, I went back to the room and went to sleep.

 

[Hopkins]

So far, so good! I'm really enjoying your trip report and your sense of humor .

Thanks.
Tina

 

[ohanafamily]

Trip Day 2

We woke up early for our DVC Member update. It was all about the new Interval International Exchanges (160 pts!- if you were on the cruise you will understand). DW won the raffle to go to a party at the Walt Disney Suite. I got a photo album. After the update we joined (about 5 minutes late) Tom Acomb’s tour of the ship. WOW, there is so much hand workmanship on the ship – from the Mosaic Mural in Triton’s to the leather books to sign in at Palo’s to the doors to the doors of the Walt Disney Theater.

After the tour (which ran ran a half hour longer than scheduled – but who cares because it was so interesting), we donned our swim suits and headed for Castaway Cay. We went to the family beach because we heard that the bugs were biting on the adult beach. DW and I went for a swim in the cold water. After we got out we went to Cookies Bar-B-Q. Nico, our drink server, was there and he said “HI”. We ran into Mary and Mark there and had a great conversation of the evils of people who get pins just to sell them on E-Bay. We agreed that collecting them is much more civil.

We headed back to the ship after lunch to kick back and relax. It’s not often (even of vacation) that I get to take a nap in the middle of the day. After our little siesta we got ready for our evening activities. First stop, the special cocktail party in the Walt Disney Suite. …All I can say is Jacuzzi-bath-tub, walk-in-closets, Piano, and Kitchenette (drool, drool). DW took some pictures before we left. Oh, and they gave us a gift – two wine glasses.

We snuck out a few minutes early to go to the Castaway party. It was in 3 clubs. There were a whole bunch of return DVC Cruisers! (Jacqui - our Cruise Director - said there were 788 of us.) This party had the same food, but it was actually better at the Castaway party (higher rate of turn and they kept bringing more fresh from the kitchen.) We ran into Shontell again; she gave us a rate sheet for resale, and answered a few questions. If I buy resale, I will definitely call her (obvious plug).

Went to “Who Wants To Be A Mousketeere (DVC edition)”. DW went in first to find us some seats and ended up sitting next to Jim Korkis. He is one of the speakers I had wanted desperately to meet. I also wanted a Panel Pin, so I volunteered for the Panel. (Actually DW held up my hand so that they would see me and choose me.) It was very fun, the audience kept giving hints to the people in the hot seat. The first time the panel was called upon to help out we started to walk off of the stage. We really knew the answer, just wanted to be funny. I think Jacqui got a little annoyed with us when half the panel did a “C” (like in the song “YMCA”) trying to give an answer to one of the questions, but the slightly inebriated contestant blew his lifeline and called on us anyway. From what we heard, the second show was not as “Audience Participation to Jacqui’s Chagrin” as ours.

Dinner at Triton’s. I had to take a better look at the mural. Hand done by three Italian Ladies. I figured out that two of our tablemates were in the room next door. I think we freaked them out a little bit by our dragons that came with us.

Back to the room, and off to sleep. We had a busy day planned for day 3!