Celebrating 75 in the Caribbean! PTR and TR! - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hey all! Thanks for all the "welcome home" messages! It's nice (I guess) to be back.
Ok so let's get this show on the road!
Wednesday, November 5
I left work at 2pm on the nose (not like I was excited or anything, ha!) and was walking in the door at 2:25pm (I may or may not have broken a few traffic laws, but I plead the fifth on that)! I spent half hour packing the car and doing last minute straightening up. We agreed that mom would drive first, and I'd drive second, because I wasn't feeling 100% and I wanted to snooze first.
Meri walked in the door at 3:05pm, and by 3:15 we were in the car. We had to stop by our church to drop off a crock-pot of chili (the church hosts dinner every Wednesday night and this week was a chili-cook-off, so I contributed some). Once at the church, mom realized she forgot something (I forget what it was, now) and so we ran back to the house, which is only 5 minutes away. Then we stopped at Chick Fil A to grab something to eat for the road.
We finally "officially" got on the road at 3:55pm, and drove in the rain for probably the first two hours of the trip. I don't have much to report about this, because I slept for most of it while Meri watched a movie.
I did manage to take one picture, though... of Meri doing her math homework that her teacher gave her.
Just south of Jackson, mom and I switched, and I drove the rest of the way to the hotel in Covington, Louisiana, arriving at 9:30pm, so the entire drive, with stops, took a bit over 5.5 hours, which was more or less what we expected. We stayed at the Best Western Northpark Inn, and had a nice rate of $75 (including taxes). It was a first floor room, and it was very nice, and very clean, with comfy beds. Check in took all of a minute, and we were curled up in bed and out cold before we knew it!
Thursday, November 6
We told Meri we wanted to sleep in. Her idea of sleeping in and our idea of sleeping in are vastly different, let me tell you. She was up at 6:30am, and I promptly handed her my phone and told her to entertain herself quietly. I think that lasted all of half hour or 45 minutes. Finally I gave up and dragged myself to the lobby for breakfast. I probably scared the people there (seriously, I was in my pj's, and my hair was everywhere) but whatever. We got breakfast (coffee for me, biscuits for Meri) and sat and watched some sports show or another, where I got aggravated that the Grizzlies were the ONLY team not given accolades for our amazing season-start (5-0 at the time). That woke me up just a bit more, and by the time we got back to the room, I was more or less functional.
I got myself and Meri showered while mom went to breakfast, and then we sort of puttered for a while, relaxing and killing time. We finally left around 9:30am, and made our way across Lake Pontchartrain on the causeway. Mom drove, and I navigated, and looked up information about the lake. We found out that it's the longest bridge in the world at 23.6 miles, and it's a mix of fresh and salt water... there are sharks in there, and it's $3 to go southbound.
Meri was really excited to cross the bridge, and she was so interested in everything about it. It was cute!
We FINALLY got into New Orleans...
And after sitting in port traffic for what felt like AGES... we FINALLY got to the port parking lot, prepaid ($64), dropped our bags with the porters on level 2, and then headed up to level 5 to park. We parked right at the front of the ship, and noted where we were, and then headed down the elevator and into the building.
Once inside, it was quite easy. We went through security, then straight to the check-in line. They had us fill out a brief health form where we stated that we hadn't interacted with anyone that had Ebola, we hadn't been to Africa, and we hadn't run a fever within 24 hours. We stood in line for all of 2 minutes before we were called to a check-in desk. Five minutes later we were photographed for our boarding cards, handed the cards and were directed to board the ship! Easy peasy!
Of course Emmy was with us!
Hi mom!
I believe we stepped on board at around 11:30am, and went straight to deck 10 (the Lido deck) to get a table and get some food.
The atrium elevator
The pool on the Lido deck
We found a table on deck, and then I sent mom and Meri off to peruse the food while Emmy and I sat and held the table and kept an eye on our stuff.
They didn't get all the way inside the buffet, because the way it is set up, there's three food places outside of the buffet restaurant, on the deck, and then you go inside and down a long hallway to get to the buffet / deli / pizza / dessert area. Meri got chicken fingers and mom got a burger from the grill area. There was also a wok place (which had make-your-own omelettes in the mornings).
The hallway / seating area on the way to the buffet (called Tiffany's)
The dessert bar inside
Once mom and Meri returned, it was my turn to grab a bite to eat.
I was in a pasta mood.
Meri got dessert and thought the jello was hilarious for some reason. Weird kid.
Great start! Did Meri get her hair cut or was it just pulled back? Looks adorable! Juliana has that same cat shirt and loves it. Sounds like it was a fairly painless road trip. Was your migraine gone by the next morning? (I hope, I hope)
We sat out on deck for a while, just enjoying ourselves and people-watching. Mom and Meri were feeling a little silly, it appears...
I have no idea what set them off but I laughed and laughed at their antics.
At 12:30pm our cabin was ready, so we headed on down to get settled in. Our luggage was already there, waiting for us! Very nice! The cabin was definitely arranged a little differently than I expected, but it wasn't bad at all. I just would have done it differently.
I gave mom the bed by the window, so this was my bed.
The closet was on the left, the bathroom on the right (if you face the door).
Not enough hangers, but there were plenty of shelves / drawers. One stupid thing - the safe... you had to swipe a credit card in order to close it. Pretty stupid because the whole point (for us anyway) was that we weren't USING any cards aboard, so we wanted to lock up our wallets. It should have been able to lock from your room key, but of course that would make too much sense, right?
The bathroom had plenty of storage space for us in a medicine chest (though I do wish the darn thing was lower down for us short people!!) and it was plenty large enough. Larger than most bathrooms I've seen on cruise ships, really.
After I unpacked, I left mom to nap / read, while Meri and I went to explore and hit the pool (well, SHE went in the pool, I hit a deck chair with a book). I'd say we left the cabin around 1:10pm.
There was a little cafe area for specialty coffees and pastries (at a fee, of course).
Some cute bars / sitting areas
The atrium
And the top of the atrium
We checked out the kids club on deck 12. The right side was for ages 2-5 and the left was ages 6-12.
You can see the folding accordion doors that close off between the younger aged section (the far side) and the older kids side (closer).
The older kids side...
Finally, with Meri's curiosity sated, we headed back down to the Lido deck, to the pool. And the slide. Meri immediately made a friend named Layla. Go figure!
She went down head first, which cracked me up...
The kids all sat in the hot tub (which frankly, wasn't hot at ALL)
Meanwhile... I got a drink, called a Miami Vice (pina colada / daiquiri mix)
Let me tell you, it didn't last long...
Finally at around 2:45pm, we decided to head back to the cabin, since we knew the lifeboat drill would happen at 3:30pm. Mom was dozing on and off, so Meri and I decided to stealthily (ha) decorate the cabin for mom's bday. Of course mom knew what we were up to, but she stayed put and kept her eyes closed and pretended to snooze. Ha!
Apparently those are all the photos I took. Oops!
Will continue the rest of the afternoon / evening later! But this is a start at least!
Great start! Did Meri get her hair cut or was it just pulled back? Looks adorable! Juliana has that same cat shirt and loves it. Sounds like it was a fairly painless road trip. Was your migraine gone by the next morning? (I hope, I hope)
It was cut. She wanted it really really short, so, that's what she got! If she's happy, I'm happy.
Yes, thankfully my migraine was gone, for this day at least!
Sounds like a great start to the trip. Since we are sailing from NO in Jan., I have a couple of questions. How long, time wise, was it from Covington to the port? We are staying in downtown NO near the port, so I'm trying to estimate our total drive time. Also, you said your port parking was prepaid. Did you do that online?
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I love the photos of Meri and Nadine, and also the one of you and Meri. Her sparkle just leaps off the page! I agree that room is awkward. Not easy to look out that window! The ship looks pretty nice, and I'm sure Meri gave that pool slide a work-out, but the kids' club is pretty sparse!
Sounds like a great start to the trip. Since we are sailing from NO in Jan., I have a couple of questions. How long, time wise, was it from Covington to the port? We are staying in downtown NO near the port, so I'm trying to estimate our total drive time. Also, you said your port parking was prepaid. Did you do that online?
If you're going straight to downtown I'd estimate 6 hours from Memphis if you don't do a sit-down meal stop. Covington is 5.5 hours, but it's kind of out of the way a little. We just chose it because we wanted to cross the lake via the Causeway.
From Covington to the port I'd say it took us about 40 minutes.
You prepay for parking when you enter the garage at the port. There are other lots a little further away, across from the port, and a few garages you'll pass that are a little cheaper, with a shuttle, but I liked being right there to unload bags straight from the car, and park right in front of the ship.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Great start! The drive sounded easy - easier than to Pt. Canaveral.
Love that your mom stayed 'sleeping' while you decorated!
A much easier drive (though I'd gladly tack 6 hours onto the drive in order to board a Disney ship, to be honest). And yeah it was funny that she "slept" a little longer so we could decorate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great start to your trip!! Nice pictures of the ship!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Oh wow, it looks like you're all having a blast on board already!
We really did - especially Meri. She loved that slide!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
The ship looks very nice, though I agree that your stateroom could have been better arranged. I'm amazed at how much you have done on board already.
We were one of the first 300 on board, and so we really had the ability to get a lot of things done very quickly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I love the photos of Meri and Nadine, and also the one of you and Meri. Her sparkle just leaps off the page! I agree that room is awkward. Not easy to look out that window! The ship looks pretty nice, and I'm sure Meri gave that pool slide a work-out, but the kids' club is pretty sparse!
I really wanted to start moving furniture around in the cabin, but I managed to hold myself back.
Yes, the kids club was incredibly sparse! Thankfully Meri wasn't picky and she enjoyed some of the activities there. I guess coming from a Disney cruise to that was admittedly a bit jarring...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What a great start to your trip! Your cabin looks pretty roomy! Great pics from the ship!
We did have a good amount of space there, which was nice. We weren't bumping into each other, at least!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsteiny23
Well, I missed all the tweaking and the planning being away myself, but I do love that you brought an Outlander book with you
Great first day start. Love that you all headed right for the food, that's what I would have done.
I'm finally done with the series! Is there another book coming out? Please tell me yes!
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