Mom's First Taste of Cruising with the Mouse! Completed 11/20
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iloverags2 · 10-28-2009, 08:49 PM

Cast of Characters: Mom (1st Disney cruise) and Me!
When: October 22 – 25, 2009
Ship: Disney Wonder

This trip was seven months in the planning after a morning conversation between Russ and me. One morning he woke up and asked, “What are your goals in life?” If you know Russ, you will realize this is not an unusual question coming from him. Of course, the first thing I blurted out was, “Spending more time with Mom!” I guess the past several years with her cancer and then near-fatal car crash have me realizing my time with her is precious. Not to mention, I’m insanely jealous every time I call and either she is at my sister’s or vice versa! When she moved closer to both of the sisters I knew they would have so many opportunities to spend time together – I guess I just didn’t realize how I would long to have the same opportunities.

But, I digress.

Anyway, Russ asked the question, I gave him my answer, and five hours later Russ had Mom and me booked on a Disney cruise and Mom’s flights in and out of Jacksonville were all set! I love my hubby!!!

The cruise was paid off immediately so there was no question at the 90-day mark I could make our Palo reservation. In addition I booked a Castaway Ray Stingray Adventure, which we eventually bagged. Mom had a hard enough time just tapping the very top of our cats’ heads! Poor thing is just not comfortable around animals.

I should mention here our original booking was for a category 12 inside stateroom. The intention was to upgrade us to an oceanview stateroom, which as the cruise drew closer I wasn’t absolutely certain was going to happen. It seems our cruise had been long sold out (with the occasional availability scattered in here and there); a large FSU alumni group was also booked for our sailing. Ack! (Time to get the Miami backpack out!) Around the third week in August we received a call from DCL asking if we would like to upgrade our stateroom to an oceanview for $99 total. You bet we do! I jumped on the offer and started plotting the next upgrade – to a verandah! Our current stateroom assignment though – 2100.

So, October finally rolls around and we picked Mom up from the Jax airport Wednesday evening. Her flight was completely full, and her window seat on the return flight didn’t seem so appealing anymore. Thankfully the woman at the United counter was more than willing to see what she could do, and on the return leg home she found Mom an aisle seat on another nearly full flight. With that taken care of, we were on our way to the house for the night.

Since Mom wasn’t getting much time to spend with Russ, whom she treasures dearly, I gave her a choice for the morning. Breakfast with Russ and leave around 9:00 a.m. (getting us to the port around noon), or leave first thing around 7:00 a.m. allowing us enough time to arrive at 10:00ish giving us a better chance of purchasing another upgrade. Mom was just happy having an oceanview and opted for time with her “son.” With those plans all set, I frantically began my packing (I’m notorious for last minute packing) and we finally settled in for the night around 1 a.m.!

As promised, we were out the door just a few minutes after 9:00, waving to my sad hubby. Don’t get me wrong – he was more than thrilled Mom and I were spending time together. He and I just hate being away from each other. The drive to the port was rather uneventful, with only one pit stop along the way. At this point I was in no rush to get there knowing if we arrived at noon, those who had already checked-in would be just boarding leaving us to just walk on the ship as soon as we had our paperwork taken care of.

I dropped Mom and the bags off at the drop-off area located by the DCL buses, (the construction at the terminal is in full force!) and then went to park the car while Mom waited inside. Although the new garage construction is directly across from the terminal entrance, having to park a bit further down was no big deal. It’s still a quick walk over, and hey – we’re going on a Disney cruise! Up the escalator I went and Mom was sitting on a bench right at the top.

We quickly entered the Castaway Club member check-in line (which Mom was allowed to do so since she was with me), and waited no more than 2 or 3 minutes before we were being assisted by a friendly CM! She informed us our stateroom had been changed – ooooooh, could it be – to 2570. *Sigh* Not an upgrade, but! I was happy – we are going on a Disney cruise! By this time it was now around 12:30 p.m., and we are standing right next to the Supervisor’s desk. I see no “Sold Out” sign and make a beeline for the counter (poor Mom was left behind in my dust!). I’m not sure if I said anything other than, “Do you have any verandahs available?” When the CM responded, “I only have a category 4 available,” I was all over it! At this point I wasn’t sure if we were still considered a category 12 or now a category 9. Even after I did the $99 upgrade to 9, our reservations still showed 12, so I am thinking that is what they still considered us. Either way, I thought the $570 to go to a category 4 was more than worth it and snatched it right up! Good thing I did too – a family walked up just as we were getting yet another room assignment, and asked if any upgrades were available. They were told only oceanviews remained. Mom and I scored the last verandah! Whew!

With our third stateroom number in less than 30 minutes, we headed towards the entry way to the ship and were finally on our way to Cruising with the Mouse!

Up Next: Checking out the ship!

iamgrumpy · 10-28-2009, 09:07 PM

What a great start! I'm glad you get to spend time with your mom and Score on the upgrades!!!

**chezp** · 10-29-2009, 02:38 AM

Great start!

How wonderful to be spending time with your mom.

lauriep · 10-29-2009, 05:23 AM

Great start! How exciting to go from a cat 12 to a cat 4!

**Colexis Mom** · 10-29-2009, 08:59 AM

Great start! We were just in a category 4. Loved every minute of it!

rlb38 · 10-29-2009, 06:09 PM

Sounds good. I was bumped up to cat 4 and loved it.

**Kenny** · 10-30-2009, 11:20 AM

Spending more time with Mom is something I should do... and we live just down the3 road!! It's great that you could do it on a Disney cruise!
What's better than an Oceanview?... A VERANDAH!!

iloverags2 · 10-31-2009, 08:12 PM

Checking out the ship and our first night onboard!

After walking through the giant Mickey ears we were asked our family name, and had already decided to use Edwards since both Mom and I had been Edwards at one time in our lives (and quite honestly refer to ourselves as the Edwards girls still). Mom seemed quite giddy as we boarded the ship to the announcement of our arrival and the applause of many CMs. We were immediately directed to head up to Beach Blanket Buffet, but I was prepared to come back with a polite, “We would like to eat at Parrot Cay.” Our plans for the second night were dinner at Palo, and I had requested the APT rotation. This might be the only chance we would have to eat at Parrot Cay. The CM mentioned there was a wait, but we were more than welcome to head that way. Again, the CM at Parrot Cay mentioned the wait but did ask if we minded being seated with another party or parties. Being the easy-going gals we are, we let him know we were happy with however they wanted to seat us, which I think made him happy too. He directed us to have a seat in the Promenade Lounge, and that he would get us when the table was ready. Poor Mom was like, “He didn’t ask our name! How will we know when our table is ready?” Ah…the life of cruising! These people remember things like this. Sure enough, 5 minutes later (yes, 5 minutes if even that!) and the CM host came to the lounge to let us know we could be seated. And guess what? A table to ourselves! The place was not filled at all, but I think the main reason they like to keep it somewhat empty is due to turnaround time for dinner. (That’s just a hunch…don’t take my word for it!) We nibbled off the buffet, and I must say the carved beef was quite tasty!

Entrance to Parrot Cay

Mom really liked these painting at the entrance

Parrot Cay Dining Area

Chandeliers in Parrot Cay

By the time we were through with lunch, it was closing in on 2:00 p.m. (I believe it was closer to 2 than 1:30, but I could be wrong about that), and the staterooms were ready and waiting for cruisers. Mom took the elevator while I headed up the aft stairway, where we met up at the top of the stairs. Not sure how far we would need to walk to our room, we turned the corner and there it was – our doorway, literally steps from the lifts and stairs. Awesome! We threw open the door, and there was my Castaway Club gift waiting inside. I wasn’t sure if it would be there since we were on room number 3 since check-in just over an hour before, but somehow Disney, as usual, worked like magic! Of course, Mom was more interested in making a beeline to the verandah!

Castaway Club Member gift – inside the tote bag were two white water bottles and two Rice Krispie Treats in the shape of flip flops!

We noted the bed had not yet been separated into two twins, which we decided was fine with us anyway. The queen bed is just so much more comfy, and heck! We’ve spent enough time with each other throughout our lives. Sharing a bed was no big deal, and actually the thought of late night slumber parties was quite fun! Mom was quick to look around the stateroom – checking out the sitting area, the bathrooms, the closet, but most importantly the verandah! (Yes, it was made good use of throughout our cruise.) I honestly could not have asked for a better stateroom. The location was great, the room was in excellent shape, and the dry dock gave us a new flat panel TV. Love it!

I decorated our door, but we really didn’t need to since the room was so easy to find off the aft lifts/stairs

Fish Extender

Bed and sitting area

From the other side of the room

Mom, happy to be on the verandah!

After a few minutes of checking out the stateroom, we headed off to check out the ship in general. Mom was amazed I knew my way around so well. (Hey, even thought I don’t get on Disney cruises often, I read about them enough to have good orientation on the ships! Plus, once I go somewhere once, it’s all relatively easy for me to navigate in the future.)

Checking out the new Outlook Bar exterior

Another view of the Outlook Bar

Mickey’s Pool Slide

Walking along Route 66 (special meaning to us since we frequented this route in the Chicago area)

And still one of my favorite signs – 46 feet to the Lobby!

Mom in the porthole along Route 66 (I forgot to use force flash! Ugh!)

By this time, though, it was closing in on the mandatory life drill time and we decided to head back to the room, see if our luggage arrived (it had not!), and just wait out the announcement for the drill. Our muster station ended up being down on Deck 4 and another couple was also heading down early. We decided to beat the crowds. Not a bad choice; our team leader was already in place at the station, and he was a hoot! (We bumped into him several more times during the cruise, and he always managed to remember us – nice guy!) Uneventful the muster drill was, and we made our way back to the stateroom to drop off our life vests before heading up to Deck 10 for the Sail Away Party!

Bagging Deck 9 was probably a good idea, and we found a quiet place to sit on Deck 10 prior to the festivities beginning. It turned out to be a good place to be – a group of CMs waited in this area also before heading down the stairs to the Deck 9 stage. They made for good entertainment! It was so funny to see them just having a ball themselves; several of them had their own cameras, and were taking shots of themselves with the others in their group.

Mom ready for the Sail Away Party!

Cast Members waiting for their part in the Party

Mom enjoying her Sail Away Party drink (I asked the CM who was serving these what they were, and of course my hearing just didn’t pick up what she said, other than Pina Colada and Strawberry Daquiri – so I believe they were a mix of that. You could definitely taste the coconut from the Pina Colada, and the strawberry from the Daquiri.)

Cindy and her drink (the same as Mom’s)

iloverags2 · 10-31-2009, 08:13 PM

After the infamous “When You Wish Upon A Star” horn blasted, we decided to return to our stateroom and watch us sail off from our verandah (seriously, we made good use of this!) Since we had late dining, we would be watching the shows early in the evening. Thankfully, our luggage had finally arrived and we were able to get ready in no time. The first evening’s show was “The Golden Mickey’s” (which ranks a close second to Disney Dreams for me!). Mom was really looking forward to this, as she had only sailed on Royal Caribbean before and was looking forward to the Broadway style shows Disney puts on (versus the Vegas style revues found on other lines). As promised, the show was wonderful!

Red Carpet leading to The Golden Mickey’s

Outside the theatre

Opening Number of The Golden Mickey’s

Snow White portion of The Golden Mickey’s

Love how they use children on the cruise for this segment

My favorite segment!

The Big Cheese himself closing the show!

We had a few minutes to kill between the show and dinner, and decided to check out Mickey’s Mates and Treasure Ketch. There was really only one purchase I wanted to make early in the cruise – the scrapbook for Mom. (I’m putting together my first ever scrapbook, and had already made several of the page layouts before we even left!) They had three books to choose from, so I let Mom decide which one she wanted. She chose the classic book, which apparently does sell out rather quickly so I’m glad we made the stop now instead of later in the trip. We did take the bag back to the stateroom before heading off to dinner at Animator’s Palate.

We arrived just a few minutes after our seating time, which was perfect. The line was manageable again (no long waits for us!), and we were seated immediately with two of the three other couples at our 8-top table. (It turns out the other couple was at Palo this night.) Now, I’m usually pretty good with names, but to be honest here I don’t remember anyone’s names from our table. Actually, I don’t think I ever heard their names in the first place! One couple was from California, and were on their 6th – 10th cruise (I know this only because the husband wore his Gold Castaway Club lanyard the entire cruise!), and the other couple were from Mississippi and were on their first cruise ever! Turns out they had been married just 7 months, both having been widowed for a few years prior. They were just such a sweet couple, who we clicked with right off the bat!

Our dining servers were Kabelo (from South Africa) and Pablo (from Argentina), both just wonderful guys who we were fortunate to meet on this cruise. Kabelo was so full of energy and joy, and Pablo was an absolute sweetheart. Ok, back to food. If you can believe it, neither Mom nor I can remember what we had for dinner here! Crazy, eh? We figured it must have been just an ok meal if we can’t remember it! (Although I’m pretty sure we both had the Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast, we just don’t remember it!) Mom did love the animation in the dining room though, and thought the experience itself was just so cute. What we do remember is dessert! Again, we both ordered the same thing, Double Fudge Chocolate Cake with Caramel-Orange Chocolate Sauce, which was heavenly! To top dessert off, Kabelo and Pablo brought out a cake for Mom. See, when Russ initially made the cruise reservation, we were asked if there was a special celebration. I just responded, “No, just time with Mom. October will be her 5-year anniversary as a breast cancer survivor.” Nothing was said about it again, and I didn’t think about it after that even. But as Disney always does, a note was made and her anniversary was celebrated (turns out our first night on board was the exact 5-year mark even!). The cake was just so nice, and had a pink filling to boot (which was an awesome strawberry mousse). Everyone at the table by this time was stuffed to the gills, so only Mom and I had a small bit of cake before Pablo brought out a plate cover so we could take it back to the room and enjoy throughout the rest of the cruise.

Entrance to Animator’s Palate

Walkway into Animator’s Palate

Mom’s Celebration Cake

We purchased from Shutters the picture of us taken at Animator’s Palate. As soon as I get those scanned, I will post it.

Again we stopped in the shops to have another look around, this time a bit easier as the show crowds were nowhere in sight, before heading up to our room to watch the night pass by from where else? The verandah! (I’m not kidding when I say we used this often during our cruise!) It was probably around 1:30 a.m. when we finally declared lights out!

Next up: Mickey’s sunrise and Nassau

**Kenny** · 11-01-2009, 12:55 AM

I love it! I am loving this! Great updates! I love that you spent a "little" time on the best place on the ship... your veranda! And I do love their little celebration cakes!