TR: When You Wish Upon A (Death) Star-updated 3/24/2016 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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TR: When You Wish Upon A (Death) Star-updated 3/24/2016
So I’m late at starting this. We’ve been back for over a month. Life got super busy, but we had an amazing time despite some weather issues.
I’ll kick this thing off with a brief overview of the trip and who was along for the ride.
Ship: Disney Fantasy
Sail Date: January 9th-16th, 2016 - Very FIRST Star Wars Day at Sea sailing
Stateroom: 7630
Reason for trip: I’ve always wanted to cruise. After taking trips to WDW every other year for a while now I wanted to change things up so what better way to do so.
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DS - Cameron. He’s our 5 year old adventure man. ALWAYS moving. Loves vehicles of all kinds, but has a special place in his heart for construction trucks. His favorite character is always changing as he likes a little variety in his life, but at the moment he’s been into STAR WARS. He’s got a great sense of humor and a kind heart. If only he would stop ripping holes in his pants…
DD - Mallory. She’s 3 and has the attitude that goes along with that age. There are glimpses of sweetness about her so we’re hoping that this attitude is just a phase. Like her brother the humor is strong with this one. She loves to sing and dance and all things GIRLY. Her favorite princess is Rapunzel - who (spoiler alert) is NOT on the ship.
DH - Nate. Disney is growing on him. So much so that I think he’s starting to look forward to our trips as much as me. His favorite movie is Aladdin and I think the Genie is the reason why. We have a deal at the moment where we can take a Disney trip every other year. And then he kind of gets to pick the trips for the other years. Last trip was camping. In. A. Tent. Not sure if he gets to pick anymore…
Me - Missy. Like everyone on these boards I’m the planner. The obsessive planner. The one who reads way more than needed and follows up on most every detail. Planning a cruise drove me crazy because there just isn’t that much to it. I love all kinds of things Disney. Much like my son I have a variety of favorites. My favorite princess is Belle. I love Mickey and the gang. I love Tinkerbells attitude (which is good because my daughter seems to have it!).
My Mom - Lisa. Our stowaway for this cruise. She watches my kids while I work so we took her on this cruise as a thank you/birthday present. Her actual birthday was on Star Wars Day at Sea. She’s a kid at heart and loves her some Chip and Dale and the Haunted Mansion. She is extremely crafty and made my kids a bunch of stuff for the trip. She had never been on a cruise, but grew up in Duluth, MN and spent a lot of time on Lake Superior so she was used to large bodies of water.
None of us knew what to expect from a cruise, but there is a first time for everything!
I’ll end this update with our travel day so that my next update we will be getting on the ship. We left Minnesota the day before we were to set sail. I had finished our packing the weekend before as I had to work Monday-Thursday and our flight was set to take off at 8:55 AM on Friday morning. The kids were bouncing off the walls excited, but actually went to sleep at a reasonable time on Thursday night. Which was a good thing as we needed to be out the door by about 6:15 AM as we wanted to make it to MSP by 7 AM so DH would have time to park the car.
The alarm went off at 4:30 AM and DH and I got ourselves ready and then did all the last minute packing and loading up of the car. My mother had stayed night with us so that we could all ride to the airport together. We were packed and ready by 5:45 AM which should have given us more than enough time to get the kids up and ready to be out the door by 6:15 AM. However, our anti-morning girlie wasn’t having it. Even with a fun trip on the horizon. She was in a foul mood and wasn’t agreeable to ANYTHING. She screamed and refused to get dress. Which stressed me out beyond belief as it had snowed and I had no idea how long it would take to get to the airport with traffic.
While I fought with DD to get ready DH shoveled the driveway. After lots of tears from DD and some frustration from me we were finally dressed and ready to go. DD’s hair wasn’t brushed, but pants were on and she was agreeing to get into the car. So I took it as a win.
We have a Subaru Forester and although it seats 5 with car seats in the back it was a tight fit and I was the winner of the middle back seat in the car. After the fight to get my daughter ready I was not in the mood for another delay, but my seat belt was not working. I kind of lost it. It was after 6:15 AM and I was stressed about missing the flight. I had been up since 4:30 AM after not getting much sleep (too excited). I might have had a meltdown in the car and yelled at my mother when she told me to “just chill out”. It was not a proud moment for me or a good way to start a trip, but it’s what happened.
We were finally underway and the traffic wasn’t bad. We made it to the airport a mere 15 minutes later than I had wanted so it wasn’t bad. The grumpies of the family had been replaced by excitement and the day was looking up. DH dropped me, my mom and the kids off with the luggage and then went to park the car. I had the checked luggage paid for so DD and I went to drop that off while my mom and DS sat with the carry-ons. Once we dropped that off I got a text from DH that he was on the shuttle heading back to the airport. We got in line for security, which looked CRAZY as the line was really long. By the time DH reached us they re-routed the line and turns out it was just not being routed efficiently so early in the morning. It took maybe 15 minutes to get through security and they didn’t make any of us take off our shoes or remove electronics or liquids from our bags.
We took the kids to our gate and then Nate and I went off in search of breakfast. We got Caribou Coffee (anti-Starbucks in our house!) and muffins/pastries and ate at the gate.
By the time we finished our breakfast they were boarding the flight. The flight was largely uneventful, however, we did end up sitting on the plane for over a half an hour while the wings were de-iced. The kids were excited to be on the plane.
Despite the delay in taking off while the plane was de-iced we landed only a few minutes late. We had reservations to stay at the MCO Hyatt so after getting our bags we checked in and headed to the room, which I have no pictures of. It was a bit chilly outside but it was only around 2:30 PM so we took the kids swimming anyways. The Minnesotan in them didn’t seem to mind that it wasn’t really warm enough to swim. They had fun for about an hour or two. We picked up dinner at McDonalds and watched a movie in the room before getting some sleep. The MCO Hyatt was VERY convenient for a pre-cruise stay. I’m glad we chose to stay there!
I think the worst is when you realize mid-meltdown how ridiculous you're being... but you're sort of committed to it at that point... so you keep melting down until it's out of your system.
At least that's what happens to me during my meltdowns with my husband on the reg... And it's worse now that I'm pregnant.
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I think the worst is when you realize mid-meltdown how ridiculous you're being... but you're sort of committed to it at that point... so you keep melting down until it's out of your system.
SO true!
I was also on this cruise, so I can't wait to read your TR.
Great start! Don't worry about the pre-trip meltdown - trust me, we've all had them!
Looking forward to more!
Yeah meltdowns happen. I think I just really needed a vacation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soarin829
Yay! Glad it's started.
I think the worst is when you realize mid-meltdown how ridiculous you're being... but you're sort of committed to it at that point... so you keep melting down until it's out of your system.
At least that's what happens to me during my meltdowns with my husband on the reg... And it's worse now that I'm pregnant.
Don't even get me started on my pregnancy meltdowns - they were bad. But now that I have a 5 year old and a 3 year old I feel like my meltdowns are quite minor. They take the trophy on meltdowns. Especially at age 2 and 3 (age 3 is the WORST)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Sorry for the rough morning! Meltdowns... we've all been there. Glad things started getting better!
I tried to remain meltdown free the rest of the week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mamajab
SO true!
I was also on this cruise, so I can't wait to read your TR.
The plan was to be on one of the first buses out of MCO to head to the terminal. I woke up SUPER early as I was so excited. I got up to get ready and ended up stepping on my daughter. I failed to mention in the last update that we had a room with double beds that we booked before we knew my mother was joining us. Once my mother was along for the ride we looked into getting a second room at the Hyatt, but they were already booked. So we decided to “cheat” and sleep 5 in this room. DD is 3 and needed bed rails that they didn’t have anyways so we figured she would sleep in a pack and play which would leave the two beds for the 4 of us. Well they didn’t have a pack and play either just a crib so we got that. Only DD refused to sleep in it. So we ended up taking out the mattress and she slept on the floor. And then got stepped on. Which woke her up too. And since her mouth never seems to shut when she’s awake it wasn’t long before the whole gang was up. Not everyone was happy about it, but everyone’s eyes were open.
We took turns showering and we had some ironing to do so it was a bit of a slow morning getting ready. We looked out the windows to see this:
Crummy view and foggy weather. The night before you could actually see the planes out of that window which was kind of neat, but not exactly a stellar view. The kids were saying they were not hungry, but we knew they needed something before we got on the bus. We ended up grabbing something at the airport (I have no idea what, but coffee was part of it) and bringing it back to our room. Eventually we were all fed and ready to head out. This was about 30 minutes after the buses started running to the terminal.
We headed down to the magical express area and handed off our luggage for it to be sent to the terminal. Then we got in the line to check in for the bus. We waited about 5 minutes and then the line started to move. They had two buses and they were splitting everyone up onto the two buses. No idea why they didn’t just fill one and then fill the other. There were enough people. We got on the bus and had about a 15 minute wait before it actually took off. Everyone was excited!
The bus ride was fine. They played a video about the cruise. The kids were excited, but not bouncing off the walls. It was a little under an hour and then we were on our way through the security check. Everything was pretty quick and painless except DD wanted to be carried EVERYWHERE. By me and no one else. I was checking us in and had to hold her at the same time. It was quite difficult. And for some reason she did NOT want them taking her picture at check in. It was fun times.
We ended up getting boarding group #7 and not long after we checked in they started boarding. DD was being a crabby pants:
She was agreeable to NOTHING. So we didn’t meet any characters or do much other than sit and wait. DH and DS looked for a while at the model ship and I did take DD over to see the boat and around the terminal trying to cheer her up. Her foul mood continued though.
I tried to get a picture of everyone happily waiting to board, but DD wouldn’t let me put her down and she also didn’t want her picture taken. And DH apparently wasn’t paying attention…
DS was, however, doing happy dances:
It wasn’t long before our number was called and we were heading onto the ship. Unfortunately, Miss CrankyPants Mal was whining and wanting to be carried so I have no pictures of us actually getting on the ship. My husband snapped these:
That’s all we got. I had to carry Mallory or she would drop to the floor and pout. I suppose I should be grateful that she wasn’t screaming.
It was still a little early for lunch and we wanted to get tickets for the Disney Jr breakfast and the princess meets so we headed up to do that. While in line we just people watched and stood in awe of how beautiful and massive the ship was! I loved the chandelier.
This is DH and I pretending the kids are happy and not bored with waiting in the 5 minute line. Or maybe we were pretending that the kids were not with us.
They were distributing the tickets at Port Adventures so we were in line in one of the halls on that deck. I remember thinking that the halls were super narrow. The kids kept wiggling while in line and I had to keep pulling them closer to me so that people could get by. Eventually we had the tickets for Anna and Elsa and the Princesses for the next morning. We could have also done the Disney Jr breakfast the next morning, but I opted for the one later in the week as the next morning my son and I were doing a 5K on deck 4.
Our rooms were still not ready at this point so we headed to Cabana’s to grab lunch. DD got macaroni and cheese and her mood improved. We called some family to say goodbye for the week and then the kids were itching to go swimming. We spent about an hour or so in the Mickey Pool and Nemo’s Reef before our room was ready.
The kids must have been excited to check out the room as they didn’t put up too much of a fight when we said that they had to get out of the water. So we left the pool deck and headed to deck 7 to find our home for the week.
Sorry Miss Mallory was being cranky! My middle son was just like her. I have pictures of one of our trips to Disney where he's pouting and angry. In fact, on our 2012 trip, we made guesses on how many times he'd get mad throughout the trip. The winner would get a prize. My youngest won. Thankfully he outgrew that phase (I think).
Great pictures of the ship! I'd love to cruise some day but it's so darn expensive. Besides, my oldest is a stinker and refuses to cruise. Something about the Titanic...
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Sorry Mallory wasn't in the greatest mood for boarding, but yay, you're now on board and everyone seems a lot happier.
We were thankful that we were done waiting. It was so exciting to be on the ship!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Sorry Miss Mallory was being cranky! My middle son was just like her. I have pictures of one of our trips to Disney where he's pouting and angry. In fact, on our 2012 trip, we made guesses on how many times he'd get mad throughout the trip. The winner would get a prize. My youngest won. Thankfully he outgrew that phase (I think).
Great pictures of the ship! I'd love to cruise some day but it's so darn expensive. Besides, my oldest is a stinker and refuses to cruise. Something about the Titanic...
This trip made DH and I think we need to take a trip without the kids. It's fun to have them with, but it's also stressful and their moods can affect so much. We'll see if we ever do that.
The cruise was expensive, but worth it in my opinion. I don't know that it's a trip we'll take often, but I'm glad we went.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soarin829
Your dress is so cute with the little minnie heads on it! Is that something your crafty mom made? Or did you buy it somewhere?
My mom got the dress for me at Kohls. It was part of the Lauren Conrad Disney collection. I don't think I've seen it since last summer though. A lot of people stopped to ask me where I got it and I it.
Our room was 7630 sort of between the aft and midship elevators. Since we had been at Nemo’s Reef we ended up taking the aft elevators. I can’t remember if we had to or if we were just directionally challenged on our first day (it happened to me a lot, but in general I can’t handle directions), but we walked through Cabanas to get to the elevators. The kids FROZE as they were still wet from swimming. I do not recommend going into Cabana’s in wet swimwear. They keep it quite chilly in there.
The kids of course fought over who could press the button in the elevator and learned that they needed to hit number 7 to get to our room. Of course once we got off the elevators I was turned around and had no idea which way to go. I think my son had it figured out faster than I did. Eventually we found the room and I put up our magnets so the room would be easier to find later.
The kids got a kick out of that. We took a little time exploring the room. It was small. Small enough that I wondered if we shouldn’t have gotten two with my mother along with us. As the week went on, however, it wasn’t an issue at all. We were barely ever in the room. Plus it saved us $1900 so it was all good. Yes it was tight in the room especially when the beds were set up for the night, but it was a non-issue.
Mallory liked that she could reach the sink in the bathroom.
And “her” chair:
Cameron liked that he could see other ships and the workers bringing all kinds of stuff to the ships on trucks and forklifts and who know’s what else.
Being on the first SWDAS cruise we weren’t sure what to expect, but we had a meet and greet preference form in the room that we were to fill out and bring to guest services by the next day. We decided to deal with it later. Our luggage had not yet arrived and there wasn’t much to explore in the room we quickly changed and headed to the kids club open house. On the way there Mallory bumped her head on the railings in the hallways. This was an ongoing issue the entire trip. The handrails are at the perfect height for her to hit her head. I know that they are needed especially when the ship is swaying a lot, but it was a big problem for little miss all week.
We finally made it to the kids club and it was really cute. My kids liked the idea of the computer games, however, the ones that I saw all required the kids to know how to read - at least to get the game started anyways. My kids cannot read. So I don’t think they really got much use out of any of them.
Mallory loved Tink’s area:
Still a lot of computers that she cannot operate on her own. They also enjoyed the idea of the magic play floor, but the games seemed to be geared towards an older age group and my kids really couldn’t follow what was going on.
After about a half an hour it was time to go and get ready for the sail away party. We armed ourselves with beverages, which Cameron thought was the coolest thing: “We can just get whatever we want to eat and drink whenever we want it?” Mind blown.
We danced until Cameron decided it was getting too crowded and noisy for him. So we walked over to the windows and watched as we sailed away. Then we headed back to the room to sit out on the verandah and watch the ocean go by while we all got ready for dinner in AP. The kids thought AP was neat. The food was tasty and our servers were very nice. We were all feeling a little off with the movement of the ship. Not really sick, but not 100% either. Our tablemates only stayed at dinner for about 10 minutes before they had to bail because of sea sickness. It was interesting feeling the ships movement while you were doing things like trying to eat a meal. I don’t really think the kids knew what was going on, but they were a little bit cranky and I think that was why.
After dinner we headed back to the room and found this guy waiting for us:
Mallory was THRILLED with the Sleepy Chocolate. Anytime anyone asked her how she liked the cruise she said “And they leave me Sleepy Chocolate when we go to dinner.” She STILL talks about it. Before long it was time for the nightly show so we headed down to the theater and found this guy:
Mallory had been talking about meeting him for a long time. She met him in WDW when she was 16 months old. She had seen the pictures, but she didn’t remember it. She was a happy little girl. We made it into the theater and found some decent seats for “A Fantasy Come True”. The show itself was cute, but really it was just a commercial for the cruise ship and cruise line. I was a little disappointed. At the end of the show and the cruise directors little spiel they had Magic Dave the magician come out. When I had looked at personal navigators before our cruise I really had no interest in going to a magic show. It just isn’t my thing so I kind of went into the cruise figuring we would skip the magician when that show came up and we would do something different. Well Cameron thought this guy was the funniest person he had ever seen. And I’ll admit I was entertained, but magic shows still aren’t my thing. When we left the theater and Cam declared “Mom that guy was so funny I laughed so hard I almost peed.” I knew we would be attending the Magic Dave show later in the week.
Once the show was over it was back to the room for bedtime. Cameron and I had a 5K bright and early the next morning.
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And it's worse now that I'm pregnant.
SO true!
it.
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