Aloha Hawaii! Our 10 Day Cruise to Hawaii on the Disney Wonder, September 7, 2015 Trip Report completed 07/31/2016 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hi everyone!
"Ho'oponopono" (forgive me) for taking so long to get started...
We got back in town last week on Wednesday 9/23 and it's taken this long to feel sort of normal again. We jumped right into school and work the next day and of course, I had to work Friday and Saturday nights. I'm still formulating my thoughts on the whole trip - I'm actually still dreaming about it! We're finding ourselves sighing or lamenting when thinking about it all, but it helps that together we took thousands (not exaggerating) of pictures.
During the trip, I had to do a daily upload onto Dh's Macbook because my iPhone only has 12Gs of memory I think. This means right now I have to work from his laptop because this is where all the photos are and he uses it for work. Also, I've decided to try Flickr for this TR's pic uploads because I'm running out of space on Photobucket and it's been getting on my nerves with my last TRs anyway. I've just opened an account and uploaded a few pics to get a feel for it. It's going to take a while to upload all the pics and edit them for size, crop, etc. I've decided not to do too much quality editing because I want to see how they turned out on my phone. As I said before, I didn't bring my big ol' Nikon. I regretted not bringing it about 50% of the time, but I was grateful not to have to carry it around. I really missed it when I needed a long zoom lens, but I made the sacrifice so I just dealt with the digital zoom on my phone. I think they came out ok, but I find that when I blow some of them up, they tend to be a little grainy.
It's hard to sum up our trip in words, but I'll try:
Awesome, magical, fun, hot and humid, cold and rainy, windy, amazing, tasty, exhausting, frustrating, delicious, adventurous, super cool, educational, dark, wet, disappointing, exhilarating, warm, relaxing, stressful, funny, cramped, luxurious, somber, awe-inspiring, long and short...
It was such a long trip (18 days!) that I'm thankful that I took so many pictures to help remember. I really tried to use my PassPorter pockets, but I stopped about 1/3 of the way into the trip . I'm going to get started writing and editing pictures. My oldest son Max likes to go back and read my TRs on here, so I want to take my time, but not leave you hanging for long periods of time. He's also a great editor. "Mom, what about when we did this?", etc
I'm leaving you with a teaser shot to whet your whistle. I call it my "rainbow bridge" shot. Maybe it'll take me back there someday... Mahalo for hanging out with me!
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Just found this report. I would love to go to Hawaii some day. Maybe a cruise would get me there...
Sounds like you had a fun time. 18 days is a long time, but then I'm always leaving WDW after 8 days thinking "if only I could have added more time"...
Sigh... another trip starts with only 2 hours of sleep due to packing late . I hadn't finished packing my fish extender gifts and I couldn't find my charger for my Nikon . I always keep it in my camera bag, but it was still lost at 2am. Dh later told me that he might have taken it to the basement, but I was wrecked and didn't have the energy to go down there and check for it. I made an executive decision to just use my iPhone. It ended up being okay.
The ladies were to meet us at 4:30am and we'd drive in separate cars to the airport. Anne's sister would drop them off and pick them up when we came home. We had too many people and bags to fit into our car. (7 check in bags and like 10 or 12 carry on bags! ) We did a final check around the house and left at 5:50 for our 8:35am flight. It's now a tradition for one of us to leave something at home. This time it was Dh who left his pullover sweater - he would miss it soon enough...
We got to the airport in about 35 minutes and we checked in while Dh parked the car in long term parking. We had a week's worth of free points at Fast Park and they sure would come in handy! After the circus that is 2 seniors, 2 kids and one sleep deprived adult getting through airport security, we were finally able to take the long walk to our gate . We were pretty hungry by then and while everyone else settled for the golden arches, I tried a place we passed by on our way to the gate called BGR ("The Burger Joint"). They had freshly made breakfast sandwiches and tater tots - it was surprisingly yummy! The kids had caught up with Dad at McD's and eventually, we all got together at the gate.
Some of our junk. I love my new Betsey Johnson bag! (It has red roses on the other side.)
We had pre-purchased Early Bird check in to save the headache of remembering to check in 24 hours prior and to try to keep us all relatively together. Soon our A numbers were called and we lined up, excited for the journey ahead. Personally, I was looking forward to a nap! I knew that Dh's mom, Martha, was looking forward to one too - she's not an air travel fan . Our total time to Seattle would be 5 hours and 40 minutes (!) We took off without a problem and everyone settled in for the flight. I regretted not bringing anything for the flight crew but I completely forgot about it.
The book that I had planned on reading during the trip. I'll just tell you now, at the end of the trip, I was still in the teens as far as pages in
Sounds like you managed pretty well, considering the lack of sleep and the larger group you were traveling with. It ends up being a lot of STUFF even when you try to keep the carry-ons to a minimum!
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. I'm going to get started writing and editing pictures. My oldest son Max likes to go back and read my TRs on here, so I want to take my time, but not leave you hanging for long periods of time. He's also a great editor. "Mom, what about when we did this?", etc 
your teaser picture!!
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. I hadn't finished packing my fish extender gifts and I couldn't find my charger for my Nikon 
. I always keep it in my camera bag, but it was still lost at 2am. Dh later told me that he might have taken it to the basement, but I was wrecked and didn't have the energy to go down there and check for it. I made an executive decision to just use my iPhone. It ended up being okay.
) We did a final check around the house and left at 5:50 for our 8:35am flight. It's now a tradition for one of us to leave something at home. This time it was Dh who left his pullover sweater - he would miss it soon enough...
. We were pretty hungry by then and while everyone else settled for the golden arches, I tried a place we passed by on our way to the gate called BGR ("The Burger Joint"). They had freshly made breakfast sandwiches and tater tots - it was surprisingly yummy! The kids had caught up with Dad at McD's and eventually, we all got together at the gate.
. Our total time to Seattle would be 5 hours and 40 minutes (!) We took off without a problem and everyone settled in for the flight. I regretted not bringing anything for the flight crew but I completely forgot about it. 
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