V's Bad Girl Guide to 15 Nights of Partying through Panama! Updated ~ 6/14!

Now we are in CA......having a blast - the cruise was GREAT! Such a fabulous time!
 
Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ EMBARKATION DAY! ~ how many days have we been waiting for this? Too many…..but now the time had finally come for us to depart on our journey! I am so excited that I have almost exhausted myself out. Really. This cruise has been a long time coming.

YES!

Everyone seemed to straggle down to the kitchen at some point to get breakfast. We had picked up a variety of things, juice, cereal, croissants, etc. I think we ended up leaving quite a bit of it there. I went out on the verandah and had a bowl of Special K. The view was great.

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We even made new friends….
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The car was scheduled for after 9 am I believe and I sat with the girls outside while the strapping men lugged down the baggage, poor Charming, I made a mental note to pack less in the future ~ for his sake.

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The girls (my two) were more than ancy….they were HYPER!

The Hummer arrived as well as the “baggage car” ---- and boy did we need that! Who knew we all traveled so heavy? At least we were traveling like Rock Stars!


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Then, there she WAS!

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The girls were more than thrilled…..!

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What a beautiful sight, our home for the next – well, lifetime! I can dream big!

The Hummer ride was very cool – we had 13 in ours and I thought was a perfect fit for us. It was SHORT though (top to bottom), I have never been in a Hummer limo and it’s been a while for a regular limo, so this was pretty interesting. Thanks so much to Kim and Steve for all the transportation.
 
V...glad to hear you are having a great time in Cali....can't wait to read more of your report! Quick question.....what did you say to Taylor?! :goodvibes She was crying last night telling me we had to go visit Haley and Samantha really soon!!!!!!:lmao: :lmao: I think you were scheming with her:thumbsup2
 

Wednesday May 7, 2008 ~ Pirate Law #69 ~ Dental hygiene for Pirates is not a priority. Should there be occasion, however, strong rum or salt water can be used as mouthwash. Anything "mint-y fresh" is strictly forbidden.

OMG, omg, that is about all I can type right now….me, the planner, the packer, the ~ everything (except bringing all the cash in)…is FREAKING out….I have way too may bags, all well overweight and ugh, just in general flippin’ out!!

My pirate costume finally came in yesterday, I prepaid my tips at 8:55 PM tonight with a deadline of 9 PM…..talk about coming in under the gun!!

Can I give a shout out to Dreams Unlimited??

I emailed AFTER 8pm tonight…and before 9pm, all was taken care of.

Everything.

That is some service.

And boy, DCL couldn’t get the money out of my bank account fast enough!

The HIDDEN COSTS of cruising keep going up. Tonight I bought a new 2GB card for the camera, a 6 pack of Mini DVD’s for the camcorder, a bag for my laptop, cases of water, liquor……hmmmm, what else.

No one really tells you about these costs...you think you are getting a great deal on a cruise and then, not so much by the time you add up everything you need to purchase.

So, candy for the CM’s in the clubs, prepaying tips, trying to work out a hotel in CA. I so would love to stay at the Grand Californian like we planned, but I cannot stomach the price, I could rebook onboard for that…..pay 2 months light bill, buy one and one half Coach’s purse, and yes, it is 10:57pm tonight and Charming and I are STILL discussing.

STILL.

DISCUSSING.

THE GC.

UPDATE, cancelled HoJo’s (which I had made over a year ago), booked the Candy Cane Inn……they do have their own shuttle to the parks………

A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. Right? It just means that on our next trip to Disneyland, we’ll have to try out one of the DL resorts. I’ll start saving for it now.

And so the countdown continues….

We love the Candy Cane Inn - you will too:)
 
Hi V,
I'm enjoying reading your report. I wish there had been more time to visit and get to know you and your family but like you said, there was so much going on!
 
Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ continued ~ Pirate Law #65 ~ No pirate may do the arm movements for "YMCA", or engage in country-western line-dancing. (even on the Disney boat?)

So there she awaits. Our floating hotel for the next fifteen – 15 – nights! The whole arrival process was new to me as Charming usually drops me off and then parks the car. The Hummer pulled up and we all tumbled out and they proceeded to unload our bags. We had 8 plus like 4 carry on’s and that was just for four of the thirteen of us! We had a boatload of luggage, literally!

We also had cases of water which the porters tagged and threw in the bin. We weren’t the only ones, I peeked in the bin and there were quite a few in there! As I was peeking, Mr. Holder of Dog Sniffer Extraordinare was checking our bags….one of my garment bags Tebow had lounged on and I am sure that was the cause for the wet nose going up and down it. Yeah, that’s it. Nothing to see here folks.

We stopped for a picture in front of the Hummer….
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(there is a group one, but someone needs to email it to me)

After our rock star shot we all gathered our carry on’s and headed towards the terminal. I carried on – ok Charming carried on – my laptop, camera, camcorder, case of wine, rolling cooler with rum and vodka and I had my purse/day bag thingie with a folder that contained all our passports, cruise docs, etc.

As we gathered these carry on’s we were shuffled through the passport (or id) checkpoint and then played follow the leader to the terminal. I lost Samantha for a second but she was up front of our group with her old pal, John1. All our stuff cleared the x-ray machines (thankfully) and up the escalator we trooped.

I had all my forms done online but we still had to fill out a form that said what type of transport and where we were headed after the cruise. I was given boarding number 11 – WHAT? Did they not know who I was?

Oh well, the terminal was already pretty packed. People and stuff strewn everywhere.

I mean, everywhere!

Jumped in the Castaway Club line and waited – it was quite long but moved rather quickly. In the meantime, the men of our group took the kids over and got them registered at the clubs. Of course, when it was my turn, I got a CM Earning Her Ears. While she was checking me in Kaylee and Lisa ran up to say Hi. (kaylee and Liserann) It was great to finally meet Lisa!

I finished up checking in, got all my papers, my CC lanyards and quietly asked if they had any other boarding numbers. Miss Earning her Ears earned some points with me as she dug up a #8!

I know, still pretty low on the pole but better than 11. So now the Geeks could all board at 8!

After checking in, we did what most everyone else was doing, sitting and checking everyone else out. Charming came over to me and said, “V, all these people keep talking to me and I have no clue who they are, what have you done?”
The magic of the DIS dear.

Auntie PJ and Haley.
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The madness.
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So we sat, we waited, I went over to the only drink stand and got some Sprites for the girls. I had cash as I would have bet my life that in 2004 they took cash only, but they were adamant they only have ever taken the ships card….oh well. There was the first $12!

So a few bathroom breaks, DCL s-l-o-w-l-y calling groups 1-7, we finally hear the magic 8!

Bad Girl tip ~ An enlightened Bad Girl always makes time for a daily practice of self-worship!
 
V, just wanted to wave hello and let you know I'm enjoying your trip report so far! :wave2: Keep up the good work, I can't wait to read about the rest of the trip!:goodvibes
 
Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ continued ~

Our number is called and we can proceed through the Ears to begin the trip of a lifetime.

~ note ~ trying to hear what number they were announcing in the terminal was pretty difficult. The announcements ren’t terribly loud to begin with but then to try and hear over top of a zillion excited vacationers about to embark made it much worse ~

The Key to the World cards swiped, hands wiped and CHEESE! Smile for the embarkation photo. As we walk over the gangplank to the ship I am thinking of what I want to have them announce.

“Her Royal Highness, Queen V”

“Queen of all the Land, V” (I used to make my sister call me queen of all the land when we were kids)

Eh, I just stuck with the Family Name to be fair to everyone.

As they announced us, that is when I truly felt the vacation had arrived. All the months of planning and waiting were finally happening and I was overjoyed. We were greeted with a lovely ice sculpture of the Magic.
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Our group headed to Parrot Cay for the lunch buffet.
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see – contrary to what you may have heard, we were not running to the buffet!

I am a bit spoiled, I like that they bring your drinks to you, if I could only get them to run to the buffet, it would be perfect. We lined up at the door and there was some mumblings that they were full but our group of 13 got in fine and we actually sat at our table which would be our dinner table as well. This was of course after going through a complete sanitation procedure. Thus beginning my baby’s love of the “rob your hands of any moisture” hand wipes.

Without thinking, I grabbed the girls and took them to the buffet to get them some food. I got back to the table and everyone was placing drink orders – Bad Manners on the first day V?

What can I say?

The kids buffet had corn dogs, mac and cheese and spaghetti –what are they thinking with SPAGHETTI? Hello DCL are you trying to drum up laundry business? I got the girls settled with shrimp and bread and butter for Haley and a corn dog for Samantha….now launches Haley’s obsession with butter packets.

When it was my turn to hit the buffet I whipped through and had quite a smorgasbord on my plate. They had various salads, antipasto, fruit, pita sandwiches with cucumber salad, sliced flank steak, peel and eat shrimp, various rolls and bread as well as a CM mixing fresh Caesar salad with your choice of parmesan, croutons and bacon bits. I got the works and it was delish! Sorry – I think this was the only time I didn’t take pictures of the food. Desserts were – well DCL desserts. I am not really a sweets gal, give me a glass of wine and a slice of cheesecake and I am in Chippendale heaven.

This would not happen often on our journey.

I was like a bee in the bonnet waiting to get to the room, so we finished up – well for my family – the girls finished up and we left Charming to munch his way around the buffet yet again. He had his card and he could meet us in the cabin. This was right around 1:30 pm.

The girls and I quickly headed down a deck to deck 2 to see our new home.
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Yes, the cards worked and wow….I was pleasantly surprised at the room – this being our first time in an inside cabin. There were Castaway Club gifts, gift baskets from Shirley, gifts from friends (THANK YOU) and also the Panama Map and pin order form. I did not see any notes/cards re the OBC, which kind of worried me for a spell.

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The girls wanted to tear into all the gifts, but I wanted Charming there to see them open the sand pails so we waited and waited and waited – surely the buffet must be closed by now.

I am having Palo flashbacks…..what is he doing?

Finally I hear the door click and poor Charming – he didn’t know our room number and it isn’t on the cards – he had been up and down the wrong side and luckily I had the magnets on the door already or he would have had no clue what cabin!
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CLUNK!

BAM!

Luggage started arriving so we stayed in the cabin until the safety drill. Charming snoozed a bit and the girls watched TV while I got down to business. In between unpacking I finally had a chance to scour the papers the CM had given me in the terminal. I was too busy people watching before.




The movies for week one were:
Enchanted
Dan in Real Life
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Ratatouille
Toy Story 2
The Incredibles
The Heartbreak Kid
The Mexican
College Road Trip
Step Up 2
Finding Nemo
Mask of Zorro

The welcome aboard paper was quite informative:
Staterooms ready at 1:30 pm
Luggage delivered until 6:30 pm
Flounder’s open house 12:30-3:15 pm
Club and Lab open for Registration 12:30-3:15 pm and yes, they were open to drop off children the first night
Ocean Quest open house 12:30-3:15 pm
The Stack open house 12:30-3:15 pm


Soon it was time for the drill and out come the life vests. What a fiasco! We had three adult and one child vest so Haley was the lucky one with no vest on. Of course the elevators are out of commission during the drill so this was workout number one!

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Up to station K we trouped and here’s where the problems start. I am a bad mother; both the girls have seen Titanic. In Haley’s mind, we were actually getting into the boats, and all she kept saying was no, I don’t want to do this; I don’t want to get into a boat. She cried the entire time. And we had NO BINKY – must have lost it at Saratoga Springs.

I now have no clue what to do in case the ship goes down. Hopefully Charming could hear over the cries. My apologies out to everyone including the dogs of Port Canaveral – I am sure they could hear the shrieks too! It was terrible and there was nothing I could do, it wasn’t like we could leave or anything. I guess I could have tossed her overboard, but aside from the screams…she is too cute and loveable for that.

Now back down to the cabin to toss the life vests back into their hiding spots. We decided to go on up, grab a drink and boogie down at the sail away, excuse me – Adventures Away at the Goofy Pool.


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Starting off right!
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Red shimmering streamers were given out as we walked through the doors to the Goofy Pool. We couldn’t find our group so we went up to deck 11 – right where the characters come out!

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Hung out for a bit and then ran back to the cabin to get ready for dinner!
 
Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ continued ~

So I lied, we hung out more than a bit…
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We had the APL 6 pm rotation which was great – I would, however love a V rotation at 7:30…that is prime dinner time!
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There was no “show” this night!!

So night one was Let The Magic Begin - menu I did not steal…but I had tuna and tuna. Plain vanilla for dessert.

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I do have the dessert menu which consisted of:

Kahlua Chocolate Crème Brulee
Kona Coffee & Pistachio Pyramid on a Toffee Crunch
Florentine Baskets with Maraschino Bavarois
Apple Tart-Tatin
Banana Caramel Bliss


We decided – no show for us – took the princesses to the club and headed to Diversions. We began enjoying our moment and sipping our big girl and boy drinks and


WOW



The pager goes off.

Good thing Charming had it – I would have thrown it over overboard. “What? We never got a page!”

Off we toddled to get the gals and headed back to the room.

We were greeted with:

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Night night!!




Thoughts on Day 1: really overwhelming, so many people, so much going on. I think the anticipation helped build in to that as well. Had I known there were upgrades available I would have camped out over night at PC. I bet Kim would have stayed with me as well.

I am a closet claustrophobic (maybe not – I can be ALONE in a small space but when lots of people invade my space I freak). I hide my fears well but being in the port so close to everyone was getting to me. Really. I was ancy. Charming didn’t want me going anywhere but I was needing air.

Breathe, breathe, breathe….I made it through.
 
Great report V. I'm looking forward to each update. I'm glad I got the chance to meet the “Queen of all the Land, V” at DL.

Ken
 
I'm loving reading your report, V--especially since I didn't get to see you or your family much on the ship. Thanks!:goodvibes
 
Great report V. I'm looking forward to each update. I'm glad I got the chance to meet the “Queen of all the Land, V” at DL.

Ken

KEN!

I just want to thank you so much again. as does my husband John --- and both of us fell in love with DL compared to MK. I didn't recall all the detail or intimacy before, and people have posted about it but we both really love Disneyland.
 
I'm loving reading your report, V--especially since I didn't get to see you or your family much on the ship. Thanks!:goodvibes

you know....that was the worst thing for me. I "met" all these people online - spoke with them for over a year and them BAM....there is so much going on and I rarely saw the late diners....

Next cruise DCL needs to consult me prior to printing the Nav's!
 
you know....that was the worst thing for me. I "met" all these people online - spoke with them for over a year and them BAM....there is so much going on and I rarely saw the late diners....

Next cruise DCL needs to consult me prior to printing the Nav's!

Yes, we needed some kind of rotational dining within our own group so we could get a chance to eat and chat with lots of other people!:rotfl:
 
Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ continued ~
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!

Great report so far V, I am going to snag all those little details for my scrapbook since I totally forgot to journal the whole time!!!!

Look....you got us smack in the middle of this pic! :goodvibes

By the way, I had to laugh when I read the part about Charming having all these people say hi to him.....Scott thought the same thing!
 


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