As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Our first magcial cruise...sept 7th - 11th updated with pictures
I'm fresh off our first cruise ever and still dreaming of the manicured hallways, brass railings, smiling people, and wonderful warm breezes off our verandah. This cruise was a surprise birthday present for my eldest son's 10th birthday. One day when he was four I walked into our family room to see him watching the DCL promo video with tears rolling down his face. He looked up at me and said "it is just so beautiful". I decided right there and then we would need to go on a DCL cruise. Since I had just given birth to my youngest boy I decided to wait until both were older so they could enjoy the whole experience. Not a day went by that I didn't hear about how my eldest son, CJ's, greatest wish was to be on a Disney Cruise. Five and half years in the making and here we were.
Day 1 9-7-08
I had the good fortune of discovering the boards and got started in January with a cruise meet. It was so great to meet people and feel like we had a group of close friends sailing with us. They had shared in the secret I had worked to keep so well from my son. We had stayed at the Radisson the night before we set sail and many of these friends were there. They knew I planned to give up the secret at breakfest this morning and they were there with the same anticpation as myself. I had bought CJ a watch that I personalized with pirates of the carribean and his initials. CJ knew that I had a huge birthday gift to give to him and he was anticpating about finding out what all the hype was about. I gave him the watch and although he clearly liked it, it was also very clear it wasn't what he expected as the huge birthday present mom kept talking about. After the gift of the watch I gave him the card that I had made for him:
I really had expected wild screaming and jumping up and down but no.....he sat stoned faced stareing at the card. I spoke up....um....we are going on a Disney cruise. He said yeah, I know. I said....um...we are leaving on a Disney cruise today.....he looks wide eyed...TODAY?!?!...he announces flabergasted....yes TODAY I say. He looks at me and says...you better move a chair over because I think I'm going to faint! After breakfest we went up to our room, collected our luggage and proceded to the lobby to wait for our bus.
Our obscenely big bath tub in our room
All of our board friends were scheduled for the same 10am bus so we were in good company! Little did we know that there is more than one bus at that time so we didn't make the first bus but rather the second. We climed excitedly on board and our friendly driver started telling us all about the other cruise ships in the harbor. There was only ONE cruise ship that mattered...silly driver.....didn't he know this? hehe. All of a sudden there she was! In all her glory! I had goose bumps and chills appear and the sappy one I am got a little misty eyed. I ran off the bus and wanted to sprint to the terminal but mister security man said we needed to stay with our luggage until it was all unloaded off the van to make sure we had it all. I didn't want to stay with the luggage! I wanted over there......the beautiful terminal....the one I had only seen pictures of and had heard of other people racing through the doors and up the escolator.....Ugh! Your empeding my progress mister security man! We made sure all of our luggage was there...yes mister security man we have all our tags attached.....YEA!...he said we could go now. We showed our passports to the gate personal, proceded through the doors, through security, and up the escolators to the beautiful terminal. It was just like the pictures only more emense and much more brighter then I had imagined. We had printed out our cruise documents before we left so we were free to get right in line. One thing I didn't realize is that they didn't start check in until 11am which meant we had to stand in line for about fifteen minutes until the line started moving. Finally it was our turn to talk to the nice check in lady. Of course I couldn't hold in my story that this was my sons birthday surprise and until just about an hour ago he had NO idea this is where he was headed today. She smiled and chided my son about it. Do you know your stateroom number she asked? Heck ya! I said. I have had 9 months to memorize it! I proudly told her our stateroom number and she finished up checking us in (Us being myself, my two sons, and my mom and her boyfriend). Now just before our check in process was done, my 4 year old (who has the attention span of a knat), decided he could not handle this standing around process anymore. He had a TV to watch and it was way over there! I was kneeling down talking to him to tell him we would be done in a minute and would be glad to head over there but he was going to need to stop shrieking or he could sit in the corner until we boarded. Just about this time, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a cast member approaching us. She got closer and closer until finally I could feel her standing over me. Oh crap, I thought. She is going to yell at me for my 4 year olds behavior. I stood up, took a deep breath, turned around, smiled, and sheepishly said hi. She asked if we were all done checking in. Yes, I said...waiting to flee to the other side of the terminal. She said, well you have been randomly picked as our magical family of the day. Magical family of the day?!?!?!?! Her words still ringing in my hears I tried to not start shrieking and jumping up and down like I just found a bug in my pants. I asked her if I could hug her! She took us over and brought us to the front of the line to get the kids checked into the kids club, took our key to the world cards to get them scanned, and brought us to the reserved section and let the kids color. A few minutes later they brought us over to have a special picture taken with Mickey and Goofy.
After that we went back to our reserved section and waited to board. My eldest son was still stone faced through this entire process. I said to him....really...feel free to jump up and down at any time. I think he was trying to let this all sink in still. It seemed like just a few seconds before they brought us forward, announced us as the magical family, and away we went through the Mickey ears. We had our picture taken again and away we went over the gang plank....of course CJ made sure he was in front of all us in order to be the first to set foot on the ship. I was struck about how emense the lobby was. The CM took us over to the elevator so we could go up to deck nine. We thanked her again and gave her another hug. Now, I had been studying pictures and deck plans for months and when it came right down to it....I still couldn't figure out if I was forward or aft. We made it out of the doors alright and figured out what direction to head for the Mickey pool. The kids happily jumped right in the empty Mickey pool and we adults sat around and enjoyed our surroundings.
CJ alone in the mickey pool
Chase with some friends at the mickey pool
When BB opened, my mom and her boyfriend went and got lunch. I noticed that goofy's galley was open and went and got myself a cheeseburger and my boys some chicken fingers. After awhile I finally convinced my sons to come out of the pool and eat. At 130pm we went down to our stateroom. I had purchased the birthday stateroom celebration package and the birthday extravaganza package so our room was very festive looking.
I took out all the magnets I had made and decorated our door and put out our FE.
My mom and her boyfriend decided to stay in the room and try to get the four year old to go to sleep. CJ and I went to roam around deck 10. It was VERY windy but very nice.
Chris at the front of the ship
We went back down around 330ish to our room. Chase, my four year old, had been sleeping for about an hour. Not nearly enough time but it would have to do. It was time to get ready for the saftey drill. I slowly woke up the grouchy monster and after showing him the fun life vest he got to put on....work with me people....you have to convince the little ones that being strapped in a life vest that makes you feel like your wearing a second person is really fun (hehe)...he decided that getting up wasn't so bad. By the time all of us got on our life vests it was time to head to deck 4 for the security drill. We did a lot of shuffling to the side and I did the mommy thing and instructed the boys not to blow their whistles. After a few minutes we were released back to our cabins. Now it was time to run up to the sail away party! We were lucky enough to get right up front! My mother and I danced in our small confined area and the kids had a great time. A nice mother offered my children bubbles to play with. Chase didn't waste a second running up on stage when invited to come up and dance with the CM's. The horn sounded and I got goose bumps and teary eyed again. I wasn't the only one I noticed! After the sail away party it was time to run down, shower, and get ready for dinner. It is summer in FL and I was sweating like a pig in the Saraha desert! The shower felt SOOO good and I loved the H2O products. Dinner tonight was Tritons. We were seated with our board pals! Party at table 41! We had a great meal and our servers were awesome. Our main server gave my son a puzzle.....he put out crayons in the shape of a horse and challenged CJ to move one crayon to make the horse change direction. None of the adults could figure this out much less my son and when we were shown the trick by our server we all had a "duh" moment and a good laugh. Towards the end of the meal my 4 year olds lack of sleep caught up to him and he had a melt down. I promptly took him out of the dining room and up to the kids club. They gave him soap to wash his hands and I didn't even see him look back to see where I was. He was in kiddie heaven! I ran back down to Tritons and apologized to my friends. We left and went up to our room. We took the little time we had before the show to start unpacking some. Before we knew it it was time to see the Golden Mickeys. It was a great show! I enjoyed it emensely! We were told by the cruise director that it was recommended the ship stay 150 miles away from IKE but that we were going stay 300 miles away. Our itenrary was changed and the next day would be a leisurely day at sea. After the show, I collected Chase....who would of been content to stay at the kids club....and we went back to our room. We enjoyed a little bit of our verandah and them promptly fell asleep. Our first day was filled with a lot of awe and excitment and after going from one scheduled event to another we were dooley exhausted! My lasts thoughts were.....I could get use to falling asleep with a ship rocking.....yawn.
Next up....day two...our day at sea.:boat:
You are an awesome mom for planning a surprise cruise for your son. I was thrilled to read that you were chosen as Family of the Day. Did you like the birthday stateroom celebration package? We cruise in December on my DH's birthday. I cannot decide whether to order the package or bring along my own supplies to decorate the stateroom.
I am looking forward to reading about the rest of the cruise.
You are an awesome mom for planning a surprise cruise for your son. I was thrilled to read that you were chosen as Family of the Day. Did you like the birthday stateroom celebration package? We cruise in December on my DH's birthday. I cannot decide whether to order the package or bring along my own supplies to decorate the stateroom.
I am looking forward to reading about the rest of the cruise.
Thank you very much for saying so! Yes, I really did like the stateroom celebration package. It was nice to walk in and have it already all decorated. There was a magnet on the door, a "happy birthday banner", another festive "chandiler" type happy birthday thing hanging from the ceiling and another festive "fountain" type happy birthday stand in the corner on the dresser (these all had the characters on them). There was a cake with plates and silverwear on the coffee table waiting for us. I think it is just a matter of preference. I would not have had enough space in my carry on to decorate it myself nor the real time to do it.
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Day 2 our day at sea 9-8-08
Day at sea....this means I can sleep in, right? Wrong! Why wrong? Because this was my very first cruise ever on the open Atlantic and I wanted to see the sun rise. As soon as the first signs of daylight came through our curtain I had climbed over my baby asleep in the murphy bed and out to the verandah to see the beauty God created for us. It wasn't long before I was joined by the rest of the family. It was amazing that just a few hundred miles away Ike was turning away but our seas were not rough and we had a beautiful sky full of yellows pinks and blues.
The water is SO blue!
We ordered some chocolate donuts and coffee from room service. After enjoying a leisurely breakfest I got the kids ready and took Chase to the kids club. Again, he didn't look back and marched in like he owned the place. CJ is a very shy child and decided that he did not want to go to the lab. I gave him one of the two way radios and let him be free to roam the ship. My mother, her boyfriend, and I had Palo brunch reservations. We had a few other happy passengers to mingle with until Palo opened the doors for our brunch. Palo was beautiful and elegant and the food looked to pretty to eat. It was like looking at pictures in a fancy cookbook. Our server was very attentive and full of information. We found out through him that even though the Magic was in dry dock, that the crew was working on the Wonder (in fact one of my DIS friends said she saw her servers from her previous Magic cruise painting on the Wonder). From the pictures I had seen of Palo I thought it had no railing around it but it does. The view was still very pretty. I could of stared at the rolling waves for hours as some crested and others reflected the sunshine. The brunch had every possible thing you could think of to eat. I really enjoyed the succulant crab legs and the delicate yet delicious pizza the most! By the time I was done eating you could of rolled me out of there like the blueberry umpa loompa girl on "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". I contacted CJ on the walkie talkie and he told me he had been wondering about on deck 10. We met up and went over to get Chase out of the kids club. My mom and her boyfriend went to the galley tour. Chase, CJ, and I headed to the matinee of "Toy Story the Musical". For some reason I didn't think the theatre would be that full but it was pretty packed. I was happy to see a lot of people there because I think that creates a much more festive atmosphere!:banana: It was another good show and my children really enjoyed it. I still have one of the songs stuck in my head...and you thought "It's a small world" was bad. After the show the kids and I got our swim suits on and went to the Mickey pool. I had read about the pools being crowded on sea days and they were not overstating! It didn't matter to my children, however, they were in the Mickey pool! A meteor could of fallen from the sky and as long as it didn't hit the Mickey pool I doubt they would of noticed. hehe We were there for a couple of hours before it was time to get back to the room and get ready for dinner. My mom and her boyfriend thought the galley tour was fun and informative. We had a nice plate full of cookies waiting for us in our room. I found out later this was another "magical family" perk. My mom and her boyfriend had Palo reservations for that evening and hung out on the verandah until time for their romantic dinner for two. I got the Chaser racer ready and over to the kids club....mom?...what mom? and CJ and I headed to Animators Palate. I was excited to get to Animators Palate and see the show everyone had talked about. It wasn't what I had built up in my mind (thinking of our servers singing and dancing and having a small broadway style performance in the middle of the resturant with lots of sparkling colors) but the show was still wonderful non the less. I really enjoyed the whole experience! Tonights puzzle was two triangles and CJ was told to move one crayon to make four triangle. Again, we were clueless and when the trick (there WAS a trick!) was revealed to us we had a good laugh.
a picture of one of my favorite villians transforming into color
The chef at animators palate
Now in the nagviator I had noticed that in the kids lab they were having a "lava flow" activity. This is where the kids get to build a volacano and learn how it works. CJ had discovered this activity on a list several months ago and had non stop talked about doing this. When the time came he clamed up and didn't want to go. I told him I had listened to him for months say he wanted to do this and there was no way I was letting him miss this! I drug him down to the lab and made him check in with the explicid instructions not to even think about paging me until the activity was over. As he walked away to wash his hands I leaned into the CM and told her that he was VERY shy and was extremely nervous about being there. She smiled and nodded to me. My mother and I had wanted to stay up and catch the late adult show by the comedian Michael Harrison that started at 1030pm. At 10pm I was paged to come get Chase. Oh well, I told my mother, I was exhausted anyway. I went down to pick up Chase and he was busy with about 12 other children chasing two CM's around trying to get large pillow size dice away from them. Watching my son have all this fun I wondered why I was there. After I finally caught up to him I asked him if he wanted to stay or go. He wanted to go he assured me so off we went to check out. Oh wait......the kids are dancing to the beach boys.....Chase trys to take off to join the action again. Didn't you want to leave? I grab his hand and out we go. I decide to go over to the lab to check CJ out. They let me in to go look for him and after a few minutes I discover he is playing a game surounded by about seven other children. I lean over the game console and tell CJ he can check out now. He briefly looks up and says "I'm driving the Disney Cruise ship mom"....in same tone as "duh". Wasn't this the boy who just an hour ago I drug kicking and screaming down to the lab??? Why yes it was! Maybe they should start a show "mother knows best". I told him he had privledges to check himself out and to come back to the room when he was ready. I took Chase back to our room and we got ready for bed. After a few minutes out on the verandah looking at the beautiful moonlight reflecting off the ocean waves and feeling the cool ocean breeze carass our skin we decided to turn in for the night.
Chase enjoying the moonlight and breezed out on the verandah
The lab paged me just before midnight to say CJ was on his way back to the room. The last thing I remember was the door opening as he came in the room. My mother said she woke up at 2am and the boat was really rocking and the closet door was slaming open and shut. She then felt the ship "shake and shutter" and then the rocking stopped. I assume what she felt was the captian putting out the stabilizers. I didn't feel any of it! It was a perfect night of sleep for me! I spoke to one of our friends the next evening and she said that at about 10pm we had 20ft seas. The boat was barely moving at that point. She also felt the boat really rocking about the same time as my mom and she turned on the TV to see we were only in 13ft seas at that point. Obviously that stablizer is a REAL asset! My mom who always gets sea sick, along with her boyfriend that gets deathly sea sick had no problems this trip. I think the ship probably could of done a full rotation and I wouldn't have woken up.
Next up.....Day 3....Nassau!
I'm glad that both of your boys had such a fun time in the
kid centers. We really want Eli (who is also 4) to go for a few hours a day. He is an only child, and gets bored easily, and craves kid interaction! A month ago I would have said there was no way he'd go, but now that he has started pre school, I hope he will go and have some fun. Do they take photos of your kids when they are in there? I always prefer to take my own photos to save some $, but I am a photo loon! I was telling my hubby that I bet they take adorable photos of the kids meeting hook, etc. so that you have to buy em! How were the people that they sat at your table? Just curious! Your sons are really lucky kids, to have a mom like you!
kid centers. We really want Eli (who is also 4) to go for a few hours a day. He is an only child, and gets bored easily, and craves kid interaction! A month ago I would have said there was no way he'd go, but now that he has started pre school, I hope he will go and have some fun. Do they take photos of your kids when they are in there? I always prefer to take my own photos to save some $, but I am a photo loon! I was telling my hubby that I bet they take adorable photos of the kids meeting hook, etc. so that you have to buy em! How were the people that they sat at your table? Just curious! Your sons are really lucky kids, to have a mom like you!
They did take pictures of the kids to be used at the graduation ceremony but I did not see them at shutters. Albeit, I wasn't in shutters but twice. I am sure you could take as many pictures as you wanted to at the club. Chase said he got to hang out with Goofy and was very excited about that. Chase is a social butterfly and talks to anyone and everyone so he had no problems at the kids club. He LOVED the counselors and the other children and everytime I had to track him down he was having fun. Chase would actually stay up to four hours at any one time and still didn't want to come back with me.
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Day 4 Castaway Cay 9-10-08
It was very daylight when we woke up but when I climbed over the little guy (noticing a pattern here?hehe) and out onto the veranadah we were just starting to slowly back into port. It wasn't long before I was joined by both my sons and my mother (where is her boyfriend???? why in bed of course!) out on the veranadah watching the captain dock the boat. We waved to the people down below on the dock and they waved back (just an aside when we left Nassau there was a tug boat that escorted us out and there was a crew member out on deck waving to us as we waved back. That was just a lot of fun!). I was anxious to get down to CC and was like a child with my mother....are you done getting ready yet? How about now? Now? I decided to take the boys up the the Beach Blanket buffet for breakfest while we waited for everyone else (cough..my mom) to get ready. We again were mesmerized by the turqouise waters and THERE she was.....THE flying dutchman!
Our family is a HUGE fan of the "Pirates of the Carribean" movies and seeing the flying dutchman there was WAY cool! We had breakfest out on deck and watched other passengers disembark and felt the cool breezes of tropical paradise blow against our skin.
Chase eating breakfest
Chris eating breakfest
Finally my mother and her boyfriend joined us.
We finished up breakfest and then headed down to disembark to the fabled and often glorified Castaway Cay. It was hot and humid on shore but the breeze made it liveable. We stopped and had the boys pictures taken with Pluto.
We love Pluto
I knew by reading other's TR's to skip the tram and walk down the path so we could get our picture taken with Captian Jack Sparrow. That was my one goal to have the boys pictures taken with Captian Jack. Unfortunately, we stopped to take to many pictures because we saw Captian Jack take his last photo and walk out with his handlers. We made the best of it and took pictures of the boys where Captian Jack had been and then continued down the path.
We glanced at the shops as we went by and then wandered on down until we found a good spot to put down all of our things. We found some great chairs with umbrellas in front of the kids play area at the family beach. My mom's bf stayed there and the rest of us continued down to the bike rental area. We were standing at the bike stand, getting briefed on the on bike paths and helmet rules when another family walked up to the adjoining side of the booth. Aparently they were going on the bike/kayak excursion and were very kindly told they would need to walk back to the previous building they just passed to meet their excursion party and get set up for the tour. The woman became VERY irate at that point and started screaming at the poor CM that she was NOT walking back there that either the CM would call someone to pick her up RIGHT NOW and take her where she was to go or she was to get ALL of her money back NOW because she was NOT walking another step! You know I was hot and tired of walking by that point too but c'omon. There was no reason for such horrible behavior! I have a bad habit of speaking up for people in the customer service field and pointing out someone's bad behavior to them. However, I stopped myself this time because we were at Disney, our dream, and it was clear that anything I could have said would of just made the situation worse and who wants a brawl and CC, right? We went over and selected our bikes, figured out how to adjust the seats, and we were off and riding. Riding around the island and seeing more of it's beauty was really nice. It WAS hot! I'm sure you could have proven you could fry an egg on the sidewalk that day! Non the less we were caught up in the beauty of the island and were having a great time. We stopped and went up to the observation tower. The views up there are incrediable and you can get a real good sense of the size and beauty of the island from up there! My mother and I got some real good pictures of the ship from up there also.
Chase at the observation tower with the Wonder behind him
When we were done we continued on our biking journey and back to the bike stand to drop off our bikes. Next on the agenda was snorkeling. I went and dropped Chase off at Scuttles Cove. He was not pleased to be staying here today but I promised him if he would stay and have fun for a little while I would come and get him so we could play in the ocean. Yea! the talk worked! Off CJ and I went to find Gils and Fins. I walked back and forth looking at the signs for a few minutes until I realized Gils and Fins was way down THERE...BEHIND the other buildings....at the edge of the jety. We tramped down there and got our life vests and snorkeling equipment then headed over to the snorkeling area. Did I mention I'm from the GULF side of FL? The water on the gulf is like bathtub water....very warm. I stepped into the water and it was CHILL-Y! Compared to the heat of the day it ended up feeling very good once I got over the inital shock. I had read about the water getting stired up later in the day and they were not over stating! Visibility was horrible....UNTIL....we swam a ways out and then things cleared up considerably. There were many neat things to see that were sunk in the water below. We found Minnie and I did a happy dance in the water. We also saw many colorful fish who came so close to us that I thought we could reach out and touch us. Just a note....fish don't like to be touched. I did feel like we had fishy escorts wherever we swam. It was really nice and CJ and I snorkeled for about 3 hours. I don't have to tell you that we were EXHAUSTED with a capital E after we were done. I don't know what it is about water and sun but it sucks all the energy right out of you! When we were done I made good on my promise and went and sprung Chase from Scuttles Cove, and after a quick pit stop at cookies for lunch, we went swimming in the ocean. We had a tube that the boys played in and they and I had a great time in the water for about another hour. We were spent after that and stumbled out of the water, gathered our stuff, and took the tram back to the boat. No time for a nap though......just enough time to get the kids ready for graduation at the kids clubs. I was really glad I did not miss this. It was SO cute. The kids marched down the stairs of the Walt Disney Theatre and up onto stage. Images were shown of the kids in the clubs as they waved, clapped, and sang. Afterwards Mickey and Minnie joined them on stage and had them move their tassles on their Mickey graduation caps from one side to the other. The kids were grinning from ear to ear.
master of ceremonies mickey and minnie
CJ exiting the stage
Chase exiting the stage
After that ended, it gave me just enough time to grab CJ from the lab and make it to dinner at Parrots Cay.
our freinds and seat mates patty, dale. monica and warren
CJ sat very solomon in his seat and several comments were made at how tired he looked. He wasn't tired, he told me, he was sad. It was our very last night on the Wonder. No time to let the sadness set in, we had to get to the show! My mother said...how on earth are we going to have time for the show when we have to pack?! I said we will make it work....I was told you can NOT miss Disney Dreams! I was right, my mother said after the show. The show was incrediable and I couldn't help but get chills and tears when Tinkerbell sprinkled the ship in pixie dust! After the show we hit the gift shop real quick and then we sprinted back to the room to pack. I think if there was a speed relay for packing we probably could of taken home the gold that night. :laughing: Unfortunately, someone stole our fish extender. I don't understand what someone would want with it since it was personalized with all our names on it but it was gone. We got packed and our luggage outside. I ran down and returned the pager, ran up to deck 9 and got Chase some pizza and a drink, then ran back to the room. I enjoyed the verandah one last evening while Chase finished eating and we fell into bed. Out cold for what seemed like mere mintues before.......ring.......wake up call!
Day 5 dembarkation 9-11-08
The down part to early dinner seating is having to be in the dining room for breakfest at 645am. It was a very non festive time as we were all bummed to be leaving and we are all so tired I think we could have fallen head first into our oatmeal. We took lots of pictures with our DIS friends and our servers and said our final goodbyes.
our dream team
Then, in all to short of a time, we were heading down the gangplank to go home. It took us a while to get through customs. Not because the actual process took long....it was very simple....but the line of people was HUGH! It snaked all through the terminal. We were finally through customs and headed down to meet the Radisson van to take us back to our car. It was about a 15 minute wait and then we saw our ride. After getting our luggage on the trailer and hoping aboard the van we were on our way to get the car. I had parked the car on the opposite side of the lot from where we were dropped off so my mom suggested that I drive the car over to where they would be waiting with the luggage. Chase and I walked over to get the car....I pressed the keyfob to open the door....nothing...pressed it again....nothing.....my worse suspicions where confirmed....a dead battery. Let us all look at the four year old now....and WHY exactly were you playing with the dome light? Make a note that if this happens to you the Raddisson can not help you other then to offer you a phone in which you can call someone. We waited for about 30min for AAA and then we were finally on our way. I have to tell you I was SO tired I could not wait to get to my moms and crawl into bed. 3 hours later and I was at my mothers, all curled up in bed, and I did not move for about 5 hours. We had an amazingly wonderful time and we are permantely hooked! My mother said every vacation now on will be a Disney cruise w/ a verandah! We are looking forward to our next voyage, when ever that may be, and we are still high on our experience from this cruise! Thank you for letting me share this with you and to all of you getting ready to cruise....smooth sailing and have a magical voyage....for all those that have just departed a cruise I share with you the longing for another trip aboard. As one of my friends said....they should have a half way house for those getting off a Disney Cruise.
thanks again for giving us a glimpse into your cruise, and your family! What a wonderful report. Hope that you will get to do another cruise really soon!
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After breakfest we went up to our room, collected our luggage and proceded to the lobby to wait for our bus. 
She took us over and brought us to the front of the line to get the kids checked into the kids club, took our key to the world cards to get them scanned, and brought us to the reserved section and let the kids color. A few minutes later they brought us over to have a special picture taken with Mickey and Goofy. 
We were lucky enough to get right up front! My mother and I danced in our small confined area and the kids had a great time. A nice mother offered my children bubbles to play with. Chase didn't waste a second running up on stage when invited to come up and dance with the CM's. The horn sounded and I got goose bumps and teary eyed again. I wasn't the only one I noticed! After the sail away party it was time to run down, shower, and get ready for dinner. It is summer in FL and I was sweating like a pig in the Saraha desert! The shower felt SOOO good and I loved the H2O products. Dinner tonight was Tritons. We were seated with our board pals! 
Party at table 41! 
We had a great meal and our servers were awesome. Our main server gave my son a puzzle.....he put out crayons in the shape of a horse and challenged CJ to move one crayon to make the horse change direction. 
None of the adults could figure this out much less my son and when we were shown the trick by our server we all had a "duh" moment and a good laugh. Towards the end of the meal my 4 year olds lack of sleep caught up to him and he had a melt down. I promptly took him out of the dining room and up to the kids club. They gave him soap to wash his hands and I didn't even see him look back to see where I was. He was in kiddie heaven! I ran back down to Tritons and apologized to my friends. We left and went up to our room. We took the little time we had before the show to start unpacking some. Before we knew it it was time to see the Golden Mickeys. It was a great show! I enjoyed it emensely! We were told by the cruise director that it was recommended the ship stay 150 miles away from IKE but that we were going stay 300 miles away. Our itenrary was changed and the next day would be a leisurely day at sea. After the show, I collected Chase....who would of been content to stay at the kids club....and we went back to our room. We enjoyed a little bit of our verandah and them promptly fell asleep. Our first day was filled with a lot of awe and excitment and after going from one scheduled event to another we were dooley exhausted! My lasts thoughts were.....I could get use to falling asleep with a ship rocking.....yawn.
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Pixie Dust
CJ is a very shy child and decided that he did not want to go to the lab. I gave him one of the two way radios and let him be free to roam the ship. My mother, her boyfriend, and I had Palo brunch reservations. We had a few other happy passengers to mingle with until Palo opened the doors for our brunch. Palo was beautiful and elegant and the food looked to pretty to eat. It was like looking at pictures in a fancy cookbook. Our server was very attentive and full of information. We found out through him that even though the Magic was in dry dock, that the crew was working on the Wonder (in fact one of my DIS friends said she saw her servers from her previous Magic cruise painting on the Wonder). From the pictures I had seen of Palo I thought it had no railing around it but it does. The view was still very pretty. I could of stared at the rolling waves for hours as some crested and others reflected the sunshine. The brunch had every possible thing you could think of to eat. I really enjoyed the succulant crab legs and the delicate yet delicious pizza the most! By the time I was done eating you could of rolled me out of there like the blueberry umpa loompa girl on "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".
After the show the kids and I got our swim suits on and went to the Mickey pool. I had read about the pools being crowded on sea days and they were not overstating! It didn't matter to my children, however, they were in the Mickey pool! A meteor could of fallen from the sky and as long as it didn't hit the Mickey pool I doubt they would of noticed. hehe We were there for a couple of hours before it was time to get back to the room and get ready for dinner. My mom and her boyfriend thought the galley tour was fun and informative. We had a nice plate full of cookies waiting for us in our room. I found out later this was another "magical family" perk. My mom and her boyfriend had Palo reservations for that evening and hung out on the verandah until time for their romantic dinner for two. I got the Chaser racer ready and over to the kids club....mom?...what mom? and CJ and I headed to Animators Palate. I was excited to get to Animators Palate and see the show everyone had talked about. It wasn't what I had built up in my mind (thinking of our servers singing and dancing and having a small broadway style performance in the middle of the resturant with lots of sparkling colors) but the show was still wonderful non the less. I really enjoyed the whole experience! Tonights puzzle was two triangles and CJ was told to move one crayon to make four triangle. 
Kelly
How were the people that they sat at your table? Just curious! Your sons are really lucky kids, to have a mom like you!
I decided to take the boys up the the Beach Blanket buffet for breakfest while we waited for everyone else (cough..my mom) to get ready. We again were mesmerized by the turqouise waters and THERE she was.....THE flying dutchman! 
We made the best of it and took pictures of the boys where Captian Jack had been and then continued down the path. 
You know I was hot and tired of walking by that point too but c'omon. There was no reason for such horrible behavior! I have a bad habit of speaking up for people in the customer service field and pointing out someone's bad behavior to them. However, I stopped myself this time because we were at Disney, our dream, and it was clear that anything I could have said would of just made the situation worse and who wants a brawl and CC, right? 
I don't understand what someone would want with it since it was personalized with all our names on it but it was gone. We got packed and our luggage outside. I ran down and returned the pager, ran up to deck 9 and got Chase some pizza and a drink, then ran back to the room. I enjoyed the verandah one last evening while Chase finished eating and we fell into bed. Out cold for what seemed like mere mintues before.......ring.......wake up call!
It was a very non festive time as we were all bummed to be leaving and we are all so tired I think we could have fallen head first into our oatmeal. 
Make a note that if this happens to you the Raddisson can not help you other then to offer you a phone in which you can call someone. We waited for about 30min for AAA and then we were finally on our way. I have to tell you I was SO tired I could not wait to get to my moms and crawl into bed. 
3 hours later and I was at my mothers, all curled up in bed, and I did not move for about 5 hours. 
We had an amazingly wonderful time and we are permantely hooked! My mother said every vacation now on will be a Disney cruise w/ a verandah! 
Hybrid Mode
