The "There's Too Many Titles for This TR" Trip Report - COMPLETE!! 6/29/10 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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That's exactly what I was about to post! Gosh, can you imagine if DH only packed one formal shoe or something? Now, I can't wait to see if we're correct...
Just got caught back up! Looks like a good day at MK despite the soggy weather. I can't wait to hear about the cruise (and what there is only one of!).
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Day 4 – Saturday August 22, 2009 - You only brought one? And Welcome Aboard!!
Sorry for the delay………DH was home sick the past two days, and since he thinks all I do when he is at work is play on the computer, I had to do other things (which meant I couldn’t write the trip report)! At least I got some other things done around the house, and now that he is back to work today……..here we go!
I think we were up pretty early this morning (6:30 ish). The plan was to pack up the car, and get some breakfast along the way to the Port, and then of course, board the ship! It didn’t go that smoothly. As we were packing up the last of the bits and pieces, Matt tells me that he only has ONE pair of pants (for the entire cruise)!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? How many FOR SALE signs have we racked up now?? Now we had this discussion before we left…..about how I could have rented him a tux (but I didn’t think he’d go for that), how he should try on his suit pants (which he probably doesn’t fit in anymore), how I was running around trying to find a dress for Alexa (who no longer wears dresses but would conform for one nice family shot on the cruise)! SERIOUSLY! So needless to say, a trip to Super Target was now in order. If I wasn’t stressed enough about getting on the ship already, this just about put me over the edge!
One last shot from our room, and we took the luggage down and loaded up the car.
I’d highly recommend the Dolphin for anyone who wants to stay there. We had a great room, and other than Picabu being expensive (in our eyes anyway), plus the parking fee if you have a car, it really is a great place to stay. Ok, back to the report…….. We headed down 192, as that’s the only Target that I knew of. Of course, it’s only just past 8, and we are one of the only few in the store. In addition, we had to get Matt a toothbrush, and some toothpaste that had gotten thrown away (there are only so many days that I can brush my teeth with fruit flavored toothpaste)! BLECH!! And we needed a duffle bag for our souvenirs/dirty laundry since we figured out right before we left that we loaned it to my DSiL when she flew up here in February. Poor planning. Anyway, he finally found 2 pairs of pants that would work (after about 45 minutes)! We stopped at the Starbucks to get some breakfast, although they don’t really do a good breakfast. Finally, we were on our way to the Port, a little later than I hoped. Colin started complaining in the car that he wasn’t feeling well. I think it was nerves again, just like myself, but told him NOT to tell anyone he wasn’t feeling well, as they wouldn’t let us on the boat. And I wasn’t joking!
We arrived at Budget (after stopping for gas) around 10:25, I think. A shuttle had just left, so we hopped on the next one, and we were at the Port by 10:45. Along with everyone else! My goodness….the last time we cruise, we got there about 10:30 and were one of the first ones in the building. Not today! We needed to have our IDs checked before even going into the building, and then managed thru the security check point. Once upstairs, I had done all our paperwork online, so we headed over to the Castaway Member check in area, and were waited on right away. We also got boarding group 8. Oh well. All checked in (we ended up with PLAAPLA and we each got a Castaway Club lanyard for our KTTW card), we went to have our pictures taken (new from the last time). Then we got in line for the wristbands for the kids clubs. Again, I had done this online, so no paperwork to fill out, just the line to wait in. Of course, I forgot the password I had used online (I had done it so long ago) but we were all set! The kids found a seat in front of one of the TVs, and we found some chairs to sit in near the windows. I was still not feeling well (because I hadn’t eaten much of anything plus the nerves of finally getting on the ship) so no pictures of the boat, the model, or anything in the terminal! I had spotted someone who I thought might be Michelle (Marv from the boards) as we had been talking back and forth for a couple months. I finally went over and asked if she was Michelle, which she was, and we had a nice talk before it was their turn to board (group 7). This meant we were next! We had quite a few comments about our shirts. The family behind us in line loved them and asked if I made them myself. I said yes, because the last time we cruise, we looked like mismatched hodgepodge for the Welcome Aboard picture and I wasn’t going to let that happen this year! Here’s some pictures of the shirt, and our Welcome Aboard picture (which you can’t see the shirts anyway since we have all the other stuff on our backs)! I got a couple of “are you on DIS?” to which I replied….”no, PassPorter”. Apparently lime green is the DIS color, but it’s my favorite color so that’s why I chose it!
Finally, they announce us, and we are boarding the Disney Magic!! We made our way to Parrot Cay, where we were told that it was full and we’d have to go up to Topsiders (which I was afraid of). We were able to find a table inside, and then we went to get our food. Honestly, I was not impressed with the spread (but I think we might have missed the one in the center). There wasn’t much to choose from, and little for the kids to eat other than bread and shrimp. We got some desserts, and after being pestered about 5 times being asked to buy the water package (I don’t remember that from the last time either), we made our way outside and to the pool area. The kids didn’t want to go to the Mickey Pool (I guess they are too old for that now) so we went to the Goofy Pool and watched some Pixar shorts while we swam. There was hardly anyone in the pool at that point! Matt didn’t swim….he was itching to get into the room and have his nap!
1:30 arrived, and we headed off to the room not soon after that! My goodness…I was nervous about upgrading from category 6 (6562) to category 4 (8066) but the room was spectacular, and the location proved to be even better than what we had before! Upon entering the room, we had some gifts from Marisa, our TA!
The extra room that we gained with the upgrade was just fantastic! Matt took his nap, while I tried to put things away out of our carry on bag. The luggage arrived a short time later, and I was able to get that all put away as well. Then I sat out on the verandah and sipped my wine (thanks again Marisa)!! So peaceful. And since we were now on the port side, it was the shaded side of the boat so it was nice to sit out there and relax out of the hot sun! I think at some point, I took the kids up to get food (either ice cream or fruit, and I got a wrap at Goofy’s) that we brought back to the room to eat. They had already dug into their LEGOs and were putting them together!
It was soon time for the lifejacket drill, which went much better this time than last when Colin ended up in tears. I think we had Station P, so we headed off to Deck 4 on the same side of the ship (thank goodness for shade)!
Here are some pictures of the door magnets that I had made a few days before our trip! I got the graphics off of the DISboards. Colin wanted to put them all out at once, so that’s what we did. I had also put our names and dates of the cruise on each magnet, hoping that would prevent anyone from stealing them (we never had any stolen and actually gained one thru the week). Our next door neighbors also had magnets, but better yet, had a huge bright yellow fish extender hanging (a DIS thing) so it made it very easy to find our room down the hallway!
No one seemed interested in going to the sail away party, so we just watched from our verandah as we headed out of the channel.
We dressed and headed down to dinner at Parrot Cay. On the way down, (or it was coming back from the lifeboat drill) I ran into Gina (D&G Miller) who I had also been talking to (her family is doing the same Fury excursion with us in Cozumel)! We made it down to Parrot Cay, and were led to our table….DA DA DA…….it was a table for 8! L Last time, we had a table for 4. Oh well, this should be interesting! Our tablemates showed up a few minutes later. They were from outside NYC, had twins that were 9 (boy and girl) and on their second cruise as well. It was fine, but sometimes you just want to relax at dinner and I just found that hard to do sitting with strangers! But we made the best of it!
Our server was Ali (Turkey) and Gedi (Indonesia) took our drink orders. They also had a big party of 12 that they were taking care of as well, so the first night didn’t go very smoothly (but was fine after that)! As for dinner, Colin has pizza (which would become the theme for the trip for him) and I think Alexa had the chicken strips. I had a salad and the rib-eye steak. I think Matt had grouper. For dessert, it was the chocolate s’more cake and crème brulee for Matt. I don’t think the kids had dessert here. I forgot to mention that once we got into the open water, it got a bit rough. Hurricane Bill was in the Atlantic, but north of us (near Bermuda) but you could definitely feel the ship rocking a bit. No one got sick though, that I could see, and amazingly, we didn’t suffer any ill effects of it!
Dinner over, Colin decided he didn’t want to go to the show, so Matt and Alexa went. It was a variety show, with Carl Andrews, Ron Pearson, and Disney Magic Performers. Colin put together his LEGOs, while I sipped some wine on the verandah! (thanks Marisa!! ) We were parallel to the Carnival ship that had left PC before us, and there was thunder and lightning off in the distance. Matt and Alexa returned, and that was about it for our night! We were all exhausted from the early start, so I think we were all asleep by 10, or not soon after, which would become the theme of this trip (relaxation)!
The weather today was…….HOT, cloudy in the afternoon with storms in the distance.
The best thing today was……Getting onboard the Disney Magic!!
The worst thing today was…….me not feeling good at the start of the trip.
The funniest thing today was…….lifeboat drill (I must have missed some details that I can’t remember a month now writing this thing)!
Today we tried…Topsiders for the embarkation lunch.
And the result was………..BLECH!!
The most magical moment today was ….sitting on the verandah sipping a glass of chardonnay!
Coming up next……..Finally we make it to brunch, it’s hotter than Hades, and some fishing to boot!
Wow. Those are quite the storm clouds! Great picture of the rainbow, too!
Isn't packing a funny thing with husbands??? My husband ALWAYS underpacks and I'm always on him to pack something more dressy - and more than one "outfit."!!! Hope his pants stay clean through the trip!
Yay - you're on board and off! I love the rainbow shot - so neat. Too funny about Matt and the pants... yep, I can see those for sale notices starting to add up!
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We needed to have our IDs checked before even going into the building, and then managed thru the security check point. Once upstairs, I had done all our paperwork online, so we headed over to the Castaway Member check in area, and were waited on right away. We also got boarding group 8. Oh well. All checked in (we ended up with PLAAPLA and we each got a Castaway Club lanyard for our KTTW card), we went to have our pictures taken (new from the last time). Then we got in line for the wristbands for the kids clubs. Again, I had done this online, so no paperwork to fill out, just the line to wait in. Of course, I forgot the password I had used online (I had done it so long ago) but we were all set! The kids found a seat in front of one of the TVs, and we found some chairs to sit in near the windows. I was still not feeling well (because I hadn’t eaten much of anything plus the nerves of finally getting on the ship) so no pictures of the boat, the model, or anything in the terminal! 
I had spotted someone who I thought might be Michelle (Marv from the boards) as we had been talking back and forth for a couple months. I finally went over and asked if she was Michelle, which she was, and we had a nice talk before it was their turn to board (group 7). This meant we were next! We had quite a few comments about our shirts. The family behind us in line loved them and asked if I made them myself. I said yes, because the last time we cruise, we looked like mismatched hodgepodge for the Welcome Aboard picture and I wasn’t going to let that happen this year! 
My husband ALWAYS underpacks and I'm always on him to pack something more dressy - and more than one "outfit."!!! Hope his pants stay clean through the trip! 
Deb
PassPorter Guide Author
I love the rainbow shot - so neat. 
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