Meri's Dream Come True - A Birthday Celebration! - A Somewhat Live TR! complete 02/20/2014 About This Page:

[lfredsbo]

Looks like you all had a great night at dinner and MK!!!! Excited for you to have breakfast with Laurie today - have fun!

[KMB733]

Sounds like you had a great night at MK. Today is the big day for the surprise. Can't wait to see how Meri reacted!! Great pictures!!

[chezp]

Sorry you couldn't sleep, but what a great bonus for us with all those wonderful photos. It was a real treat to log on and see all of those.

[pamcarey]

Wow, that deluge looked scary to be driving in! Especially surrounded by trucks, who always seem to go too fast, IMHO. Great pictures... Meri has grown since the last time we "saw" her!

[ctsmom116]

I just started reading this today... Cant wait to hear all about your trip.

[lauriep]

I had a great breakfast with Melanie, Meri and Nadine. You can read about it and see photos in my WDW TR titled "Solo-on-a-Scooter". I almost blew the surprise during breakfast, but fortunately, Meri didn't notice. An hour or so after we parted I got a text from Melanie saying that Meri's reaction to the reveal was great and she got it on video. I won't give any more details-- will leave it to Melanie to relive the moment when she can get back on the internet. I will say that Meri was one excited little girl this morning!

[Coop]

I'm already 3 pages behind?! That's what I get for working! Gonna get caught up now!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Greetings from the Disney Dream! Unfortunately the internet is REALLY poor on the ship - it hasn't worked for me until about ten minutes ago!!! I'm likely going to insist upon a refund of my internet package, because I just don't see how I'll use all of the minutes, but we'll see. Anyhow, there unfortunately won't be any photos until Monday night, because I don't think the internet connection can handle it, but perhaps tomorrow night if it's cooperating and I have to kill time, I'll go ahead and try! Otherwise, expect hundreds of photos on Monday night!

Thursday, February 6 – Embarkation Day

What a wonderful day today! I don’t know how it would be possible to ever top this day… maybe if Tom Hiddleston showed up with airplane tickets and took me to dinner at Ohana, with a fireworks view table, that might possibly top today. But… I don’t know.

It was a rough night… I didn’t sleep well, probably because I was so terrifically excited about today! I was up from 3am to 5am, then snoozed until 630am. Finally I gave up and got up and took a hot shower. I felt bad, because I worried I’d wake mom up, but when I got out, she was still out cold. Phew. I got dressed and played online until 7am, and then I woke mom up. She was shocked that the shower didn’t wake her up – I guess she was really tired.

We got up and out by 745am, and headed over to the Beach Club. On the way, I got a text from Laurie that she was in the lobby, and I let her know we were on our way! It didn’t take long to get there and park, and head in! Laurie was waving at us before we even got through the doors! I was so excited, I ran and gave her a hug! It was so great to get to see her in person after so many years of chatting via PP and email! Meri immediately handed Laurie the Disney tea that we had picked out for her. We wanted to get her a little something, but we wanted it to be small and not take up much room either in luggage or at home – and we wanted it to be useful. When Jeannie suggested that Laurie enjoys tea, well, that was perfect!

We went and checked in at Cape May Café, and then sat nearby on a bench to wait, while Meri went and sat by the kids tv. About a minute later, we were buzzed! YAY! We were led to a table by the buffet, and Goofy came by immediately after we sat down! After that, we had some time, so we went through the buffet. Yummy!
I forget our servers name, but there was a young girl from the college program that was earning her ears. She went to Virginia Tech and was just a lovely young lady. She had just turned 21 not long before, I guess.

While we ate, we adults chatted, and Meri colored and ate and looked for characters. Occasionally, Meri and Laurie would have a chat, which was charming. After a while, Laurie brought out some gifts! Meri received a gift card (which she spent some of on board this evening, btw, Laurie), and a book about a dog in Boston, and a lobster lollipop! Then she surprised me and mom with a couple of little things, too! It was so sweet of her to think of us, and I was so touched!

At one point, I let Meri play Minecraft on my phone, and Minnie came by for round 2, and looked over Meri’s shoulder at Minecraft. Meri showed her a few things, then looked back down at the phone. Mom had to quickly take the phone away from her, the little rat! Then she paid Minnie some attention, lol!

Finally we decided that we should relocate, and so the bill was dropped off and quickly settled by Laurie (thank you very much – you were too kind) and then we headed out. We weren’t finished talking yet, and we still had some time, so we headed over to the shop, where Meri and I browsed while mom and Laurie chatted. Then we relocated to the lobby, where we three adults chatted and Meri played Minecraft. After a while she returned the phone to me, and went wandering the lobby. She befriended an adorable guy named Shane from PA. He was working at the DVC desk, and she traded a pin with him and then chatted his ear off with such animated gestures! I wish I knew what they were talking about. I know that she did tell him she was switching resorts but didn’t know where because it was a secret. Funny kid.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Laurie, as we had to leave to head out to Port Canaveral. Hugs all around and then Laurie scooted off to EPCOT while mom and Meri ran off to the shop for just ONE quick thing. Ha. They came back with new Mickey Crocs for Meri (mom’s a sucker, lol) and some sunscreen. Then we headed to the car, with Meri thinking she was going to the beach for a while.

It was a quick drive, and when we pulled over the bridge at about 11:25am, we could see the Dream on our left. I started recording a conversation with Meri, and got her reaction to seeing the Dream. We pretended to be surprised, too, and said, “Let’s go look!” It all went perfectly as planned, suggesting getting close and taking a look, etc… Then we got in the car line to drive up to the port, and Meri got concerned, telling us we should turn around because we weren’t supposed to be there – that we needed a ticket or something. I said, “Well, let’s see if we have anything that will work to get us in the gate!” And I started digging around. I came up with our reservation booklet, and handed it to her and said, “Will this work?” She flipped through it and said, “Nah” and set it to the side. Uh… ooookay, not exactly as planned. But I can improvise. So I said, “How about these?” and handed her the luggage tags that had our name, cabin number and the sail date on it. She read it and said, “Hey, these are for today!” And I prepared for the reaction. And got nothing, as she tried to hand them to mom because they had mom's name on them.

Clearly she was going to make me work for this one. Finally we pulled up and the guy asked if we were parking or dropping off luggage and then parking. I said, “Dropping off luggage and then parking.” And so we went on. And then Meri clued in and said, “Wait. What? Are you tricking him?” And then she got so excited, and she laughed and cried and gasped and screamed and giggled, and it was just the sweetest reaction! It made every minute of secret keeping worthwhile! She was beyond flabbergasted!

After we dropped the luggage, we parked in the parking garage, and then headed into the cruise terminal. It was chilly (around 63, which is chilly to me for cruise boarding, lol) and overcast and misting, and generally unimpressive weather. We were through security quickly and then through the check-in line quickly. We spoke to a lovely young lady who zipped us right through, gave us our key cards, and told us we were Boarding Group 7, and they were already on 30, so we were welcome to board at any time!

We had about a 7 minute wait before we were getting our photos taken (with a lovely purplish-blue background, just as I’d hoped), and then we were walking on to the Disney Dream! Meri sprinted off almost immediately, having seen Pluto on the upper floor (fourth?), so I chased her up the stairs and took a quick photo as she met him.
After that, we headed down to 2, to Enchanted Garden for lunch. It was lovely! We sat at table 47 with a fabulous server named Surya, from Indonesia. We liked him a great deal, and I wish he was our server. He was so friendly and talkative and informative!! Just an all-around neat guy. We found out that they’d just replaced the carpet in Enchanted Garden two weeks ago. He was very proud of that, let me tell you, lol.

We ordered a bottle of Allegra Moscato (California) and mom and I each had a glass, then sent the rest of the bottle back to be saved for dinner. The buffet line was short and we went through quickly and piled up our plates. Surya looked at our cards and saw our table and dining rotation and told us the location for each restaurant. Our rotation, by the way, is Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace, Animators Palate.

After we filled up, we headed up to the club / lab to see what was there! Wow! What neat places! At 1:20 we headed towards our hallway, knowing that the cabins would be opened soon, and we ran into Chip and Dale who were trying to book an excursion, lol. Meri had a quick hug and chat, and then we were off!
At 1:35pm, they opened the doors to the cabins, and we headed down to 5511. Talk about a random, twisty route! What a pain in the tail! But really, whatever. We were absolutely charmed by the virtual porthole, and had a blast just watching it! Mom laid down immediately, and Meri and I decorated the door, hung our FE and unpacked our day bags, and then our suitcases, which arrived shortly thereafter.

We watched Robin Hood and relaxed, and it was very pleasant! At 3:00pm, Meri and I headed up to the top decks to explore, and ended up at the Mickey pool. After much cajoling, I gave up and let Meri go into the pool in her skirt and shirt. What the heck. Why not. She thought that was the awesomest, lol.

Finally they closed the pools at 3:30pm because of the impending lifeboat drill, and we headed downstairs to change and prepare for the drill and sailaway party. The drill went pretty quickly. They’re mostly useless, but it’s good to know where to meet in case the worst happens.

The sailaway party was so much more crowded than the Magic’s. I couldn’t believe the crush of people! This time, however, we actually did sail away during the party – ha! Meri, of course, was right up front! After the characters left, Meri, mom and I headed up to deck 12 to watch the water go by, and then to deck 13 to see the sports deck. Finally it was back down to the cabin to get sorted out for our dinner. I was REALLY dragging at this point, and really hungry, too.

Meri chose her Ariel dress for dinner, and we got suited up and headed out. Of course, I didn’t get a picture of any of us - I swear I will do better on that!
We arrived at Enchanted Garden and were seated right away. Our tablemates were already there. We are seated with a couple and their three children – but all three kids were in the club tonight! What cracked me up was that it turns out that I know this woman! She’s on the Facebook page for our cruise, and I remembered her exactly when she told me her name! She remembered me, too, and we both had a laugh about how out of 4000 people on board, we end up at the same table! They’re really cool people! We all had a great chat, and Meri talked their ears off! This is their first cruise so they had some questions, and I tried not to sound like a know-it-all as I answered them, lol.

For an appetizer, I got lobster ravioli and mom got asparagus soup. Then I got asparagus soup and mom got a salad. Then mom got a chicken dish and I got prime rib with a twice baked potato and some veggies. Everything was out of this world good. Partway through the meal, they were buzzed to go pick up their daughter, and then right as my entrée arrived, Meri begged to go to the club. On the Magic, we graduated to the point where I let her go up to the club by herself to check in, but with this being the first day on a new ship, that wasn’t happening, so I walked her up and she checked herself in.

We adults enjoyed the rest of the meal together. Mom got mousse for dessert, and I got the strawberry shortcake from the kids menu! Then the pastry chef sent out these little desserts called “A kiss goodnight” which were apricot and chocolate cubes. Very tasty! I also got coffee.

Finally we rolled ourselves out of there. Mom and I headed down to the cabin where we sat and relaxed for a few. We had every intention of seeing the Golden Mickeys, but finally I said, “Heck with that, we’ll see them on the next cruise. I just can’t do it.” So, forgive me. We skipped them. Don’t worry, we’re not going to skip Believe, I swear. But I just couldn’t do it tonight. Of course, too late I remembered we could have watched the show on the stateroom tv. Sigh.

The beds had been turned down, and they had both the bunk bed AND the lower bed set up.

I went and picked up Meri, and she wasn’t ready to go yet – she was finishing up Toy Story Boot Camp. It was hilarious to watch a bit of it. I ended up sitting in a porthole outside of the club for about 20 minutes until 8:30pm, and then I went back in. I found Meri sitting with a little boy that we met in the check-in line – Aiden (age 4). Apparently Meri had taken him under her wing from the get-go, and was very mothering, they said. He was crying, and she didn’t want to leave him, but I talked her out, and Aiden had calmed down by the time we left. We told him we would see him tomorrow in the club and he agreed happily.

We ran two decks down to the shops on 3, and Meri used her gift card to select a Minnie diary, and then I bought a photo album and a Dream ornament to go with my Magic one!

Finally we headed back up to the cabin, winding our way around until we got to 5511… and saw a HUGE gift bag hanging from our FE! Whoa!! There were two more small bags in the FE, as well. Meri made out like a BANDIT, let me tell you!!! Amazingly, someone got her a Mickey pen that we had looked at in the gift shop but had decided to wait to purchase (it was $10!!!!) – whoa , right?

After we looked through everything, Meri got into her PJ’s and then we negotiated the sleeping arrangements. It was agreed immediately that mom got the big bed. I tried telling her she should pay more of the cruise fare because she got a bigger bed but that didn’t work – shocker, right?! Ha! Finally I agreed to allow Meri to sleep on the top bunk. So she’s out cold above me while I type this out. I’m quite wary but I’m sure she’ll be fine. I hope. She’s never slept on a top bunk before… we did bring a projector nightlight (it plugs in and projects a small image on a wall or ceiling), so that’s on and projecting above her, so she will be able to easily see if she wakes up and has to go to the bathroom…

Also, I took the Disney Cruise Book (the hard cover guide they have in your stateroom) and I wedged it in the two-foot gap in between the railing and the wall. Meri often ends up at the very top of her bed, draped over a pillow. At home it’s no big deal, but here, I could sort of see her possibly doing that but somehow scootching over enough to go headfirst off of the bed. I know, a mother worries. So with the book there I felt better, because if she moved that way, she’d bonk her head into it and it would redirect her. Likewise, I took her glow-wand and stood it up on end at the top of the ladder (wedged between the mattress and the frame). That would be a reminder to her if she awoke in the middle of the night, that she had to pay attention.

All in all it was an amazing day. I still can’t believe I’m on the Disney Dream right now! How crazy is that?!

[pamcarey]

Sounds like an amazing day!! Meri's reaction was precious! I was in 5546 on the Fantasy, so probably pretty close to 5511 (even though you're on the Dream).


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[lfredsbo]

So happy your reveal went well! I was tearing up reading it! Can't wait to see photos and video!!!!
Sounds like so fantastic breakfast with Laurie!

[shazza]

Great reaction from Meri! Sounds like a wonderful day all around.

(And, the internet was not fast enough for me to load any photos last month either).

[lauriep]

It all sounds so fantastic! I love Meri's hard-to-get reaction to the surprise. It's just like a kid to jump to the conclusion that Mom is doing something that will be embarrassing, like breaking the rules to get to see the ship! I had a feeling you wouldn't be able to give us any photos while on the ship, but that's ok. What a fun photo-tour we'll get next week!

I loved meeting you all at breakfast and am SO glad Meri wasn't paying attention when I slipped and mentioned the "ship". Still can't believe I did that!

I hope you get a good, long sleep tonight and are not kept up by fears about Meri in the top bunk.

[chezp]

What a great day! I already knew from your comments on Facebook that you'd got an amazing reaction from Meri, but as you say, my goodness she made hard work of it to begin with. Reading it, and knowing what I knew, I was wondering at what point she'd get clued in.

Sorry the Internet's been so lousy - definitely take that up with Disney. There's no point paying for something you haven't been able to use.

[KMB733]

What a great reaction from Meri!! Sorry the internet hasn't been the greatest! Hope you're enjoying your cruise!

[MayraLR]

What a great first day onboard! Glad Meri was excited!