Meri's Dream Come True - A Birthday Celebration! - PTR updated 02/04/2014 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Meri's Dream Come True - A Birthday Celebration! - PTR updated 02/04/2014
Hi all! Welcome aboard! As usual, this trip evolved from an entirely different trip!
Last fall I decided that it was time to go to WDW again. I knew we would be on a VERY tight budget, so after much tweaking (which I'm famous for), I came up with four nights at WDW over her birthday weekend!
I spoke to my CM friend, who gave me the news that they wouldn't be able to let us into the parks this visit. They said that with CM passes, Disney now prefers that the CM accompany the friend / family members for the entire park day, and that would make it impossible with a new baby. Ack! That significantly changed the budget, and made it out of my range. Ok, no problem, I said. We re-tweaked, and decided to just do one park day, out of pocket, on Meri's birthday. I coordinated with Laurie to meet up at least once, if not twice, and made all of my ADR's, planning to spend Friday and Sunday doing character meals and enjoying the resorts.
We hadn't booked a resort yet, because my friend was having her baby, and life got in the way, and honestly I was just a slacker. Finally it came time to really get down to brass tacks with 5 1/2 weeks to go... and I'll be dipped - ALL of the values and ALL of the mods were sold out for the CM discount! That's never happened before (and trust me, I've switched resort reservations up to the week prior to a visit before with no availability issues)! Ok, ok, no big deal, I said, we'll just take the cheapest value at rack rate and call it a day! Except fate had other plans for us! All values and mods were unavailable for my dates! At Kelly's suggestion, I contacted Meg and asked her if she had any magic to work... and she was able to find us a preferred room at POR! She put it on hold for me while mom and I discussed options and finances.
Finally, mom said, "Are there any cruises that weekend?" I laughed in her face and told her that Disney cruises are out of our budget range, since we're trying to keep this trip to a certain level.
But, because I'm a curious person by nature, I had to look and see. I pulled up mom's Interline discount travel site (for airline employees / retirees) and I'll be dog-gone! There were not one but TWO three-night cruises over Meri's birthday weekend! Both for the same price! One was on the Dream and one was on the Magic! And believe it or not, the cost for all three of us would be only $200 more than what we would be paying for the hotel ALONE at WDW!
Mom and I immediately crunched a few more numbers and did some quick figuring, and after about 5 minutes, we both said, HECK YEAH! Now we had to decide... the Dream or the Magic? We'd already done the Magic, but we really wanted to see the new changes... so there was more conversation! Finally we decided on the Dream. We were going to do an outside cabin, but the one we could afford was a "guarantee" cabin, meaning we could get stuck with those two teeny tiny portholes. I pulled up some video of the virtual porthole on Youtube and mom was sold. For three nights, we could deal with an inside cabin, and Meri would LOVE the virtual porthole!
With that decided, mom called her agent at Perx, whipped out her credit card, and booked us on the Disney Dream for a 3 night cruise from Feb 6-9! We will spend Meri's 8th birthday on board! We've decided not to tell her, and let her think we're just hanging out in Orlando instead! Then on the day of the cruise, we'll drive to the port (saying we're going to look at the beach) and bam, there it will be! And then SURPRISE!!!!! LOL! Oh, I can't wait!
You suck!!! No - just kidding.................she will be THRILLED!!!!! I am just so jealous that you are doing a cruise!!! I want to do one soooooooooooo bad!!! But I guess I will settle for my time in the bubble! Can your mom adopt me to get those fantastic deals?
Can't wait to hear all about your plans!!! Which islands are you doing?
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SO exciting! I had no idea when you contacted me this was for you! And now you've switched to a cruise! This is going to be an unforgettable birthday for Meri!
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I love it, I love it! If I'd known about these airline employee/ retiree discounts I'd have looked into that as a career for sure! Meri is going to be SO happy!
Hooray! A PTR! I'm so excited for you guys, especially Meri! You had BETTER have your camera ready when Meri finds out she's going to spend her birthday on a Disney cruise!!!
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You suck!!! No - just kidding.................she will be THRILLED!!!!! I am just so jealous that you are doing a cruise!!! I want to do one soooooooooooo bad!!! But I guess I will settle for my time in the bubble! Can your mom adopt me to get those fantastic deals?
Can't wait to hear all about your plans!!! Which islands are you doing?
We'll definitely adopt you! Come on!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
SO exciting! I had no idea when you contacted me this was for you! And now you've switched to a cruise! This is going to be an unforgettable birthday for Meri!
Meg was wonderful - and on such short notice! If we hadn't found this, we'd have definitely gone with what she found! We're so excited!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
You lucky girl! Can't wait to hear all the details.
I'm so excited! LOL!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I love it, I love it! If I'd known about these airline employee/ retiree discounts I'd have looked into that as a career for sure! Meri is going to be SO happy!
There are definitely days I wish I'd gone into the airline business! But then I see the downsizing and frustrations that current employees are dealing with, and I am just grateful mom was in the business long before all of that nonsense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dlandmom2
Hooray! A PTR! I'm so excited for you guys, especially Meri! You had BETTER have your camera ready when Meri finds out she's going to spend her birthday on a Disney cruise!!!
I do plan on having mom do the driving to the port, so I can video Meri's reaction! It will be a riot, I'm sure!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
How awesome! What a lucky girl Meri is to spend her birthday on a Disney cruise!
She really is a lucky kid. When she looks back from adulthood, she's going to really appreciate it. Now she just goes along with whatever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
How cool - and I love how this trip developed out of something completely different!
I know! I laughed with mom because last year at this time was when we found the TransAtlantic cruise and booked it immediately. I told mom that we have GOT to STOP looking at the Perx website in January, lol!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
SO exciting!! Meri is going to have the best birthday ever!
Seriously! I want to celebrate MY birthday on a Disney cruise!
Here's a rough outline of how we kind of "plan" for the trip to go. It will likely be tweaked some, but honestly it can't be TOO tweaked, lol, because the cruise is PIF!
Wednesday 2/5:
4:00am - Depart from home
5:30pm - Arrive at WDW (hopefully Art of Animation is where we will spend our one WDW night, since it appears there's one night of availability there... but I'll let you know when I actually book it!!!)
7:00pm - Spend time with Matt and Jess and their new baby
9:00pm - Back to resort. If it happens to somehow be amazing weather, Meri and I might sneak a really fast swim in there before bed. We'll see.
Thursday 2/6:
8:10am - Breakfast with Laurie at Cape May Cafe
10:00am - I plan to leave Beach Club by this time
I plan on telling Meri, "Hey, let's go see the beach!", which will explain why we're heading east for a while...
11:15am - Arrive at Port Canaveral
As we get close, I'll say, "Hey! We're right near the port - let's go see if any Disney ships are there!" Then when we get to the port I'll gasp and say, "LOOK! It's the DREAM! Let's go take a closer look!" So we'll park in the parking garage. Then after we park, I am going to say something like, "Let's see if they'll let us on!" And I'll get our suitcases out of the trunk. By then I figure she'll completely figure it out! LOL!
I'm hoping to get on board around noon'ish, and then we'll go straight to the Enchanted Garden to eat lunch. After lunch, we will hopefully be ready to go to the cabin (they're ready at 1:30pm). If not, then we'll find a place to park mom and any bags, and Meri and I will go exploring for a few.
The lifeboat drill is at 4, and the sailaway party is from 415-5. We'll be at both, of course! Then it's back to the cabin to get ready for dinner which is at 5:45pm. We really liked having the early seating on the last cruise, and so I decided to stick with what works for this one!
Friday 2/7:
This is our day in Nassau. We have no plans to get off of the ship here. I was just there a month ago, and frankly I was unimpressed. I don't think it's worth the cost to pay to go to Atlantis, and I have no interest in an island tour or anything else. I'd rather use the time to enjoy the amenities on board with smaller crowds. I know we want to do the Aqua Duck today, and I definitely want to get a day pass to the Rainforest Room for myself and mom, while Meri goes to amuse herself in the club. We will eat lunch in Cabanas, so that we can experience it... so much to do, so little time!
Tonight is Pirate night, so we'll go to the party and watch the fireworks, of course. Then after Meri falls asleep (which frankly should be instantaneous), I'll decorate the room with birthday decorations before going to sleep myself!
Saturday 2/8:
Happy 8th Birthday, Meri! She'll wake up, and the room will be decorated and there will be a couple of gifts. I plan on giving her something from the gift shop from Mickey. Then probably one small thing from me and one from mom, and that'll do it (because seriously, she's getting a cruise for her birthday - she doesn't need anything else).
This is our day at Castaway. I don't seriously expect to have any desire to get in the water, but we'll definitely get some good sunning time in. As last time, I plan on parking Meri in the kids area for at least an hour so I can snooze in a hammock. Otherwise, I think we'll wander around and enjoy the island. We barely saw any of it last year. I definitely want to find the observation tower, and I'd like to browse some of the other gift shops (ha!). If the water is even passably warm enough, I know Meri will want to go on that huge playground in the middle of the water.
Tonight, we'll have a birthday cake at dinner (I need to order that soon), and then after the show, we'll do the final goodbye thing (I forget already what it's called), where she'll likely cry, and so will I... and then it's off to bed with us!
Sunday 2/9:
This morning we'll get up around 7am, heavy-hearted, and have breakfast wherever we're told. Then we'll heave a big sigh as we say goodbye to the Dream. I'm quite sure there will be more tears, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum. I really need us to be off the ship by 8:30am'ish (8:45am is ok). Then we'll drive to WDW, where we've got a 10:30am breakfast ADR at Ohana (it's tradition - I can't break it) with my friend Bev. After breakfast, we'll begin the long trip home... marked by about 5 bathroom breaks before we get out of Florida if the past is any indication, because I LOVE the coffee and juice at Ohana and I always over-indulge on both!
Wow, right? I'm so excited as I type all that out!
Now I need to knock it off and get to sleep, because tomorrow is my first day at my new job, and I need to be rested and fresh!! Or at least look both.
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Can your mom adopt me to get those fantastic deals? 
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