Oh the Places We Go, The People We See Updated 11/03/2013 About This Page:

[lauriep]

You've got me exhausted and stressed reading about the chaos of this day! Those of you who deal with big families all the time must just get used to the whirlwind, but for someone who leads a very quiet, solo life, this is way out of my comfort zone! You did an amazing job coordinating such a big group, but the scenes at the car rental and at burger king and the mess with the shuttles would have done me in! In the end, everyone got fed and everyone got a bed and the kids even got a swim. And you're headed to DCL in the morning, so all is well!

[pamcarey]

Wow, that was a lot of chaos with all of those people! Your dum dum dum's definitely have me worried that someone is missing something!

[rhinohunter]

Wow what a day. I hope that you finally got some sleep. I love my family but I am not sure that I would want to tackle such an undertaking. We have vacationed with 4 adults and 6 kids one time to a mountain resort. We have not done it again.

[shazza]

Whew - glad you survived "Family Arrival Day."

[chezp]

Wow, that was some day! What a nightmare with Dollar. We didn't have such a bad time with them, but we weren't impressed with the cars on offer at all and we've decided we won't go with them again, even though they are cheaper. I'd rather pay more for better cars.

[rlb38]

Sounds like you kept it together quite well despite the chaos. But I'm cringing just thinking about the luggage problems.

[jenseib]

Originally Posted by lauriep

You've got me exhausted and stressed reading about the chaos of this day! Those of you who deal with big families all the time must just get used to the whirlwind, but for someone who leads a very quiet, solo life, this is way out of my comfort zone! You did an amazing job coordinating such a big group, but the scenes at the car rental and at burger king and the mess with the shuttles would have done me in! In the end, everyone got fed and everyone got a bed and the kids even got a swim. And you're headed to DCL in the morning, so all is well!

It was a bit exhausting, but we managed. It was VERY differnt traveling with so many people and we had some very stressful time, BUT I would do it again in a minute. Claire had the BEST time with her cousins and that made it so worth it. And I learned early on that I just needed to go with the flow a bit more and we had a wonderful trip.

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Wow, that was a lot of chaos with all of those people! Your dum dum dum's definitely have me worried that someone is missing something!

It was quite a night, but I wouldn't expect anything less.
Traveling with a big group can be a bit hard. We idd have a great time though. There is talks of doing it again in a couple of years. We'll see if it works out or not.

Originally Posted by rhinohunter

Wow what a day. I hope that you finally got some sleep. I love my family but I am not sure that I would want to tackle such an undertaking. We have vacationed with 4 adults and 6 kids one time to a mountain resort. We have not done it again.

I would do it again, but not every trip. It was stressful at times, but we have some very magical memories too. I think if I was with friends and their kids though, I wouldn't be as patient. I could deal with family as I knew many of the quirks going in, with friends you sometimes are in for a surprise, especially with their kids.

Originally Posted by shazza

Whew - glad you survived "Family Arrival Day."

I survived. I should have a shirt printed up. LOL

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow, that was some day! What a nightmare with Dollar. We didn't have such a bad time with them, but we weren't impressed with the cars on offer at all and we've decided we won't go with them again, even though they are cheaper. I'd rather pay more for better cars.

Our vans were fine, but the whole thing really made me think it over on whether I would rent again. The deal would have to be really good. Which it was this time around. I just wish I had known about the extra insurance thing and warned everyone. I really felt bad that I had picked this complany and some were over charged.

Originally Posted by rlb38

Sounds like you kept it together quite well despite the chaos. But I'm cringing just thinking about the luggage problems.

We managed. We hadn't tried to kill each other ....yet! .....dum dum dum!

[jenseib]

Before I go on I want to add something that I forgot from the previous day.
While Claire was swimming I pulled out the new journal that was from Carey and Janet. I opened it to start writing and taped inside was a $25 gift card to Disney. They said thanks for all the help, but honestly there was NO need to give me such a wonderful thing. I texted them both and thanked them. I used it towards a new watch purchase later in the trip!

On to…….

Nov.4, 2013, Sunday ~ Day 4

I had really hoped for a good night’s sleep, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. The time also changed during this night, so we were falling back and getting an extra hour.
I think I slept about 3-4 solid hours and then I woke up and tossed and turned for a bit. I finally just gave up and got up and dressed and went for a walk. I knew laying there with my head full of activity would do me no good, so maybe if I moved around, I would tire myself out.

I believe it was now 4:30 AM in the new time. (5:30 old time)





As I was walking around, I did see an older guy walking as well. I really tried to stay towards the front and on the sidewalk. I surely didn’t want any freaks attacking me.
After a bit, he was walking towards his car and he said hello and I said hi back. He then said he would like to point out some stuff in the sky to me if I didn’t mind. He was from Montreal and he love astronomy. I didn’t get any closer to him, just to be safe. I am sure he was perfectly nice, but crazy maniacs appear nice too. So he pointed out Jupiter and Mars if I remember right and actually told me some interesting info. We talked a few minutes and then he had to be on his way for a convention or something. I walked around the front some more and over near the Burger King parking lot I saw something fairly big move. It was either a HUGE rat, which wouldn’t surprise me one bit, or an armadillo. I am guessing armadillo since we are in FL. But it had that rat like tail. CREEPY. I quickly moved towards the hotel entrance then.




I was thinking about heading in, when I had an afterthought, maybe I should stay out here and see if I can see the Dream pull in, if it hadn’t yet already.
So I looked that way and guess what! She was pulling in, but I only saw the tail end of her before she went out of sight. That of course made my excitement level higher!

I decided to head back in and take some pictures inside. Last year I didn’t get a lot and this was the perfect time to get the lobby area fairly empty.



This is some of the tables to eat breakfast at.



A few things for sale.



Computer station. I actually ended up using this later that morning. I had 2 folders full of paperwork and plans, etc. And I for the life of me could not find my inline check in form. I was getting annoyed, so I just went to this station and reprinted it.



I don’t think we ever even looked much at this area last year. It was a nice seating area and over flow from breakfast would sit in here as well.







I took a seat for a while then and played a bit with my phone. I think I even went back to the room, which was right around the corner from the front desk, and got my kindle and I read up on a few emails and I think I even caught up reading on a Trip Report or 2.

While sitting there a lady came in. She was the lady who put out the breakfast, so she must arrive early to set up and cook. She was kind of funny talking to a few guys and complaining about the time change and it messing her up.

I then took off towards the bathroom.





There was a door outside right by the bathrooms, so I went out through that and it led near the pool and pool bar, which is on the left in the picture, but all shut down.



The front desk



I headed back to the room for a bit and charged my kindle while I read some more. I just sat in the living room area. I think around 6:15 or so I went and took a shower and got that out of the way. After I did that my Mom and Dad also got up and took their showers. Claire slept through it all pretty much.

I think she woke up around 7:30ish and we got her dressed.



Dad started looking for his new tennis shoes and of course Mom yelled at him for asking over and over and she told them they were in HER suitcase and she would get them for him. So she pulled her suitcase out and went to a side pocket and it had a lock on it. My Mom was TICKED off. Why would security at the airport lock these after checking it? She doesn’t have a key. I suggested that if we needed to get in the pocket we may have to see if someone else had a key to fit or cut it open. She then went to open the main suitcase to see if the keys were inside and it was LOCKED! My mom doesn’t cuss much EVER, but a few words slipped out at that point in time. We then looked the bag over and that when I asked if it was her bag. It’s orange and honestly I have never seen another like it, but you never know. We looked at the bag tag and compared it to her retrieval tags and it was NOT a match! We searched and found a tag and it had someone else’s name on it and they were from Montreal. OH NO!!!!!

Talk about panic! This suitcase had all my mom’s clothes in it and it was GONE! She was in a tizzy and I don’t blame her. I just kept saying be calm and we’ll work something out, even if she had to go shopping for new clothing.
I frantically searched on my kindle for Deltas lost bag phone number. It kept glitching and taking me to another page, but finally it came up and I called. Guess what, they are closed on Sundays. Seriously? You would think this would be open 24 hours a day, EVERY day.
In the meantime, Mom is trying the number for the Montreal people and it just talks in French and from what she could gather, they were out of area to get the call.
As I am looking on the kindle for other options, my Moms cell phone rings. She answers it annoyed, but soon perks up. It’s Delta. They have her bag! Mom lets them know that she has someone elses as well. Mom handed the phone to me because she was in such a panic and took down the directions on how to retrieve it. The guy was great and said not to worry as the ship didn’t leave till later in the afternoon and we also had an extra hour to play with today.

I told Mom I would run down to Gail and Rob’s room and ask if Rob would drive Dad to airport to make the switch. No one was going to trust Dad to do this on his own and he drives like a snail. If I went, I probably would’ve killed him somewhere along the roadside.

Side note ….my suggestion to you when packing. Pack by day and not by person. Which is something I have started doing the last few years. Just in case a suitcase does get lost, at least you have a couple of days’ worth of clothes in one bag for everyone!

Claire and I ran down the hall to Gail’s room. We knocked and heard Alexis ask who it was. She opened the door and we asked if her Dad was up. Abby piped up, “I go get him”. So she went into the bedroom and jumped on Rob to wake him up. Gail and Rob had a 2 bedroom suite, not sure how they lucked out on that ….. and Gail came out of the other bedroom and asked what was up and I told her and she knew the horror of what must be going on in our room.
Rob got right up and dressed and I headed off back to our room to let Dad know to be ready when he got there.
Dad turned on his cell phone then (this is a sore subject with Mom as he keeps it off all the time and thinks he only needs to turn it on every so often to check messages and save his battery. He wasn’t even going to bring his charger along for the whole trip and Mom insisted he did) and low and behold there was a message from Delta the night before letting us know they had our bags. Yeah, it was a tense moment in the room then. I thought I might witness my Mother killing my Father and I would have to defend her. After all he was the one who pulled the wrong bag off the carrousel and didn’t turn his phone on. The thing I wondered though was how did they get his number? We put everything under my Moms number. My only guess is she had both numbers on her luggage tag.

Dad was ready and I walked him down to Rob’s room. They took off and we let them know if they were late for the shuttle to just drive over to the port and park the van. Rob wanted to get back for a shower too before they went to the port and though we had plenty of time till we needed to head over (thank God for the time change), it did take an hour each way to get to and from the airport.

They were off and Gail made the comment that Rob had said “I am sure glad I am not in ‘that’ room this morning. I can only imagine what is going on.” LOL!

Yeah, I didn’t want to be there either.

We met back up with mom and headed to get a bite to eat to calm our nerves.





We headed back to Gail’s room then and the girls were dressed. Alexis answered the door showing off her lanyard. She asked if Claire had one and Claire panicked a minute. I let her know that we would be getting ones when we checked in for the ship, so we would have them later that day. Collecting pins became a very fun hobby for the 2 girls.





Abby was NOT happy about the headband and was trying to take it off.





We decided to head off for a walk. I think we left Gail in the room to finish getting ready.

[jenseib]

After a bit of walking around and fooling around we headed back inside. The girls loved this water feature.



We then headed off to our room for a bit.





I believe Gail met us here and we fooled around a bit more. Gail was worried as Abby was pulling at her ear. This is a telltale sign that she has an ear infection. Abby gets them ALL the time. Gail was worried. We would be heading out to sea for 4 days, it could get ugly. She asked about Dr.’s on the boat and I told her yes, but they are very pricey. Then it dawned on me. Katie is a pediatrician! Gail said Katie and Geoff had made a run to a nearby store, so she quickly called Geoff and let him know the situation. Katie said she would write a script and pick it up. Wonderful!

We kind of just chilled a bit and went in and out of the room for a while. I ran back to the room at one point to use the bathroom and realized I had left my phone on the counter. I picked it up and had 2 missed calls and a couple of texts. With all the excitement happening this morning I had forgotten about a Dis meet. Rinky Tinky Tink (she has asked me not to use their names) was getting off the Dream this morning and she said they would stop off at the hotel to meet up. I quickly called her (Or maybe I texted) and she was on her way. I ran back to the lobby and soon they arrived.
She probably thought I was a complete nutcase. With all the stuff going on, I was an utter scatter brain.

We talked a bit and they had a gift for Claire. UGH! I had a gift for Rinky Jr (her daughter who is Claire’s age), but it was left in my room. Luckily our room was the first one around the corner, so I quickly ran back and got it. We talked about their cruise. They were so much fun. Mr. Rinky was so funny. Claire and Rinky Jr. pretty much just eyed each other up and down though. They were NOT about to get friendly in the short time we had.
They told me about the damage from Sandy at Castaway Cay, which wasn’t too bad at all in their opinion. They said a few excursions had been canceled, one being the stingray one. We had that booked and it was all Claire wanted to do and she totally shut down after that. She was fighting tears. I let her know we would check once we got on, as I had called prior to going and it was still scheduled, but she wouldn’t listen to me.
Mr. Rinky also told us they did the jet ski excursion and how awesome it was. They all seemed to love it though Rinky Tinky said it was a bit too fast, Mr. Rinky said it wasn’t fast enough. They suggested us looking into it, and it did sound like a lot of fun.
Some family members had walked by and I introduced everyone. Rinky got a whole family meet with me! LOL
It came time where they had to leave as they were driving home and I wanted to get a picture. Shoot! My camera was in the room. So once again I ran back and got that. I think Claire took our picture. She REFUSED to be in it and so did Rinky Jr.





We talked a bit more and guess who walked in! Dad and Rob!
Holy Cow that was fast! It was only an hour and a half since they left!!!!!
I introduced them to Rinky’s family and they walked on. I think Rob and Dad went off for a bite to eat.

We said our good byes and they left for home after having a wonderful vacation at Disney World and ending it with the Dream and we were just starting ours.

We joined the family who was eating outside and we got a bit to snack on as well.






We sat there for a while and chatted. Rob told us how he made the 2 hour plus drive in 1 ½ hours. He said NO ONE EVER passed him on the road. LOL! He said he pulled up and told Dad to stay in the van and watch it while he ran in to make the switch. He said it was waiting right where it was supposed to be and YES, the bags were almost identical. He said the only difference was that the one had a silver zipper and the other had a gold one. I sure hope those poor people got their bag back too.

Some of us girls headed off for another walk. Katie joined us this time as well as Gail, if I remember right. Mom stayed back to chat with everyone else.

We spotted a turtle in a little pond nearby.



We watched him a bit and headed off again.





Jude was a wild thing! Katie said that when he is lacking in sleep, he gets pretty jumpy and wild. He was like a crazed little man running all over, but having a great time!



We tried to get the kids together for a group picture. That wasn’t so easy.

I guess Jude is feeling the music….though there wasn’t any playing!



Another attempt! Abby does not want a boy in the picture.



Ok, this one isn’t so bad!



We all chatted some more and then headed back to our rooms to be sure everything was packed. Rob talked to the bus driver and found out that she could take us over then as there weren’t many Carnival passengers riding. Sadly we couldn’t all get out there before it was time for her to leave, but she would be back shortly for us.


We all just hung out and waited.





After a bit we moved our stuff outside as a few more guests had gathered in the lobby as well.





Abby and Jude sat down on a suitcase together and it was the cutest thing. I was behind a bunch of suitcases and couldn’t get out to get a good shot.



I decided to climb out and get them.









Finally the bus arrived. This was a BIG bus, just like the Disney buses. We left our luggage for the girl to load. All the guys insisted on helping her, but she said she had a system and wanted to do it herself.

Claire and I once again got the front seats! Everyone else piled in behind us.





And soon we were on our way to the port.

[patclairesmom]

I'm glad you got the luggage issue all sorted. I can imagine what was going through your mom's mind. I love how the girls are dressed in the same outfits, too cute!

[Cinderbrella]

Oh my!! Your poor Mother!! I'm so glad that they were able to get her suitcase so easily. ResidenceInn looks very nice!! The girls look adorable in their matching outfits! Your group shirt looks really cool, too. Looking forward to your first day aboard!!

[chezp]

Oh wow, thank goodness you were able to get the luggage sorted out! We've always packed that way, with each case having some of each of our stuff, just in case we lose one...

[JKnott17]

I'm glad the luggage situation got sorted out!! What a nightmare.

[lauriep]

What a mess with your mom's bag. They're not kidding when they tell you to check your bag carefully at baggage claim. Glad the problem was solved. The girls look so great in their outfits and all the kids look like they're having a great time together. I love the photo of Jude dancing to his own music! Very handy to have a pediatrician in your group.

[pamcarey]

Oh my goodness, what a scare that must have been with the luggage mix-up! Thank goodness it was straightened out relatively easily.