New York City, Characters in the Wild, and Canadians - Eh!

It’s time for another cruise trip report! I just finished my Disneyland trip report, and finally had time to work on this report! It was a great trip where we met some new friends, saw characters galore and some beautiful sights! Here’s a sneak peak of our view on the last morning:

And here’s my plug of the trip report! I’m going to plug the Unofficial Wdwmagic Girls Cruise! If you haven’t heard, we are planning a 4 night Bahamian Disney cruise on September 8, 2013. There are already almost 30 us signed up! We are going to have so much fun! If you've wanted to try cruising, or wanted to meet some of your Wdwmagic friends - here's your chance! It's not too late!

What:

A five night Canadian cruise on the Disney Magic.

A military rate for the New York to Canada cruises came out, it was too good to pass up! Not to mention we didn’t have to fly anywhere!

We live in DC right now and New York is a quick bus/train ride/drive away.

Who:

Adults only this time!

We decided against taking the kids for this one since school just started and DS is a senior (sniff), so we asked several friends. It was pretty last minute, but one other couple from church could get away so there were four of us.

Here we are - Dh (Stephen), Myself, Steve “Buddha” and Misty –

We had a Steve and a Stephen. Luckily the other Steve has gone by his old call sign from his military days for years. Yes, we call him Buddha.

 

[angieandtrevor]

Oh and I love all the princess pics, what a good sport Stephen was.....Trevor wanted no part of that, haha !!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Trevor thought your pictures of Halifax were post cards that you had scanned

Awesome report Tammy, it is so great that you have all these reports as keepsakes, so nice to look back at later.

Would you believe that someone stole one of our ears off of our door.....tisk, tisk, that is very bad karma for them !!

Wow! I've always liked that Trevor.

You're so right about the reports. I have a document with links to all of them. I go back and read them from time to time. My first one was absolutely horrid, lol!! But since I never scrapbook anymore, they're a good alternative!

They stole your ears?!!!! That is so wrong!!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Oh and I love all the princess pics, what a good sport Stephen was.....Trevor wanted no part of that, haha !!

Stephen was a very good sport. I asked Sleeping Beauty what pose we were going to do and she showed me her hands. Then she looked at Stephen and said, "Oh! You're going to do it too!"

Haha! It was quite funny.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

great pictures in halifax! and i love all of stephen's pirate faces with the characters! and i totally get the eating beef every night thing. on our dec 2010 trip, wes ate steak every night of our trip. he plans to do the same this nov! he's already talked about it. hahaha and yes, whenever i see beef wellington, i think of hell's kitchen! i love that show.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Our last day! I always hate that.

Don't we all. Last days blow. That's the word. LOL!

We got up around 8 and then went to Parrot Cay for breakfast. Baked beans? For breakfast?

Eeewwwwww....beeeaaannnss... Beans are yucky. Doesn't matter if it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Blech!

Breakfast potatoes! Hallelujah! If Stephen wouldn’t have mocked me (lovingly of course), I may have had a whole plate of them. I decided to put some other stuff on my plate just for show.

Well, I'm sure Stephen was much happier with you eating an entire plate of potatoes vs. an entire plate of beans. Hahahahaaaa... I know. How old am I?!?! LOL! I noticed you put cantaulope on your "show" plate. Didn't you hear about that stuff??? It'll kill you! Literally! ((Cantaulope grosses me out. I tease Tracey relentlessly for eating it. LOL!))

My sweet hubby bought me the Dooney I’d been eyeing since we boarded! I LOVE this bag! Sadly, I’ll probably have to wait until summer to carry it, but good things are worth waiting for.

Love this Dooney! Yay for sweet husbands that spoil us, huh? I switched over to this one yesterday. Our temps are still pushing 90 so I think it's okay. I'm finding it a little on the smallish side for all the useless junk I carry but it's so cute I'll manage it. I wasn't sure about the shoulder strap so I took it off. Maybe I'll try it with it. I think because I have so much stuff in the bag it pushes the sides of the bag waaaaay far open when I have it on my shoulder with that strap. I'd have to zip the thing up which is another thing I'm not used to do doing. I love the bag, tho. Golly, is it sweet. My only wish is that they'd do coordinating wallets.

Here’s our view at lunch:

Holla for the secret deck! Woot!

At some point during the cruise I realized you could see our verandah from Topsiders. I made Stephen go hang out on it so I could take a picture from above.

Awesome pics! Great angle! Those are definitely frame-worthy, Tammy!

Look who we saw on the way! Statue of Liberty Minnie in the wild!!

Jealous! That's a great pic! I always say I want more of the good character pics but then when we get there I'm not about to stand in long lines. Gotta get lucky to catch 'em "in the wild". I'm just not this lucky. Or, when I am, ((like on the Dream we caught Belle in her blue day dress)) the pic of me ends up looking totally awful. Ugh!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Can anyone else not eat Beef Wellington without thinking of Hell’s Kitchen? Mercy those people need to figure out how to make it before the go on the show and get yelled at!

Yes!!! You're sooooo right!!!!

See?? I have got to remember this! It always gets to dessert. I get all dazzled by the dessert menu and order like 2 of everything totally forgetting entirely about the Mickey bars. Then, most of the time, I'm never quite as impressed with the desserts I ordered as I thought I would be because like the cake doesn't have frosting. That's so messed up! I've got to remember to stop reading the stinkin' dessert menu and just order a Mickey bar. Or two. LOL! Except at Remy. I'll have 2 of the chocolate desserts and 2 of the candy assortments there. LOL!



Not even going to try quoting all those character pics at the 'Til We Meet Again show. We've never gone to that and I think we need to move it up on the list of priorities. And your pics??? Character-palooza! You hit the jackpot! I'm impressed whenever I see the full costume characters walk down the stairs. Such an assortment of characters, too! Izma woulda been my must-do. Your Sassy Daisy pic totally rocks my socks off! Loved all of 'em, Tammy! You're sooooo talented!!!!!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

great pictures in halifax! and i love all of stephen's pirate faces with the characters! and i totally get the eating beef every night thing. on our dec 2010 trip, wes ate steak every night of our trip. he plans to do the same this nov! he's already talked about it. hahaha and yes, whenever i see beef wellington, i think of hell's kitchen! i love that show.

Thank you, Ashley! Stephen's a good pirate and I like Wes!

I think Hell's Kitchen is what made me want to try Beef Wellington the first time!

Eeewwwwww....beeeaaannnss... Beans are yucky. Doesn't matter if it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Blech!
Well, I'm sure Stephen was much happier with you eating an entire plate of potatoes vs. an entire plate of beans. Hahahahaaaa... I know. How old am I?!?! LOL! I noticed you put cantaulope on your "show" plate. Didn't you hear about that stuff??? It'll kill you! Literally! ((Cantaulope grosses me out. I tease Tracey relentlessly for eating it. LOL!))

I hate beans!! In all forms, hate them.

What? Cantaloupe will kill you? Who knew? I do like cantaloupe!

Love this Dooney! Yay for sweet husbands that spoil us, huh? I switched over to this one yesterday. Our temps are still pushing 90 so I think it's okay. I'm finding it a little on the smallish side for all the useless junk I carry but it's so cute I'll manage it. I wasn't sure about the shoulder strap so I took it off. Maybe I'll try it with it. I think because I have so much stuff in the bag it pushes the sides of the bag waaaaay far open when I have it on my shoulder with that strap. I'd have to zip the thing up which is another thing I'm not used to do doing. I love the bag, tho. Golly, is it sweet. My only wish is that they'd do coordinating wallets.

Yes they do! I wish I could switch! I think it will be a good size. I don't mind zipping it, I don't think. We'll see!

Ooh, I would love a coordinating wallet!

Holla for the secret deck! Woot!

Love the secret deck!

Awesome pics! Great angle! Those are definitely frame-worthy, Tammy!

Thank you, Kelly! I was excited when I realized I could get that angle. The railing was pretty high there though, so if I was taller I could have gotten an even better angle!

Jealous! That's a great pic! I always say I want more of the good character pics but then when we get there I'm not about to stand in long lines. Gotta get lucky to catch 'em "in the wild". I'm just not this lucky. Or, when I am, ((like on the Dream we caught Belle in her blue day dress)) the pic of me ends up looking totally awful. Ugh!

It's true, when we're with the kids we never stand in line for characters. But when they're in the wild, there's usually no line! I learned whenever we were wandering the ship to go through the lobby. It was amazing how many times we would see character roaming around there.

Yes!!! You're sooooo right!!!!

I'm so glad some of you watch Hell's Kitchen! I didn't know if anyone would get that.

See?? I have got to remember this! It always gets to dessert. I get all dazzled by the dessert menu and order like 2 of everything totally forgetting entirely about the Mickey bars. Then, most of the time, I'm never quite as impressed with the desserts I ordered as I thought I would be because like the cake doesn't have frosting. That's so messed up! I've got to remember to stop reading the stinkin' dessert menu and just order a Mickey bar. Or two. LOL! Except at Remy. I'll have 2 of the chocolate desserts and 2 of the candy assortments there. LOL!

Now even I wouldn't order one at Palo or Remy! But I do try to fit in as many as I can on the cruise!

Not even going to try quoting all those character pics at the 'Til We Meet Again show. We've never gone to that and I think we need to move it up on the list of priorities. And your pics??? Character-palooza! You hit the jackpot! I'm impressed whenever I see the full costume characters walk down the stairs. Such an assortment of characters, too! Izma woulda been my must-do. Your Sassy Daisy pic totally rocks my socks off! Loved all of 'em, Tammy! You're sooooo talented!!!!!

Ooh, you do need to do that! Especially for the characters on the second floor, there's really no lines. You can see so many in the 15-20 minutes they do it. I love it!

 

[S.I.R.]

Stephen and I went to see the cabaret show after lunch which was Jeff the Juggler.

Our Entertainment director for the cruise was awesome. I can’t remember her name but it was an unusual one. We saw her all over. She was funny and super friendly. Here she is warming up the crowd.

Her name is Tisa (rhymes with Pisa) She is phenomenal!!! I don't post much but I am a loooong time lurker. I always look forward to your reports. This one did not disappoint. Your photos are wonderful. I felt like I was on the cruise. This is inspiring me to stop being lazy and write a trip report

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I hate beans!! In all forms, hate them.

What? Cantaloupe will kill you? Who knew? I do like cantaloupe!

We're soul mates!!! Beans are the scurge of the earth! For me, it's not so much the taste as it is the texture. It's like eating dirt. Yuck! Green beans and sugar snaps, stuff like that I can do and enjoy. But beans like butter beans, lima beans, navy beans, etc. are disgusting!

Yeah! Didn't you know that?! I think it was earlier this year or maybe it was last year that there was a bunch of people who got super sick with some type of deadly food poisoning that was traced to cantaloupe. There were deaths involved. That's not a joke. That really happened. But then I told Tracey that I was right to not eat that nastiness. People died from that!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Her name is Tisa (rhymes with Pisa) She is phenomenal!!! I don't post much but I am a loooong time lurker. I always look forward to your reports. This one did not disappoint. Your photos are wonderful. I felt like I was on the cruise. This is inspiring me to stop being lazy and write a trip report

Tisa! That's what it is! Wasn't she great? We've had some other good ones before, but she stood out.

Thank you so much for reading, S.I.R.! You should definitely come out of lurkdom even more and write a trip report!

We're soul mates!!! Beans are the scurge of the earth! For me, it's not so much the taste as it is the texture. It's like eating dirt. Yuck! Green beans and sugar snaps, stuff like that I can do and enjoy. But beans like butter beans, lima beans, navy beans, etc. are disgusting!

Yeah! Didn't you know that?! I think it was earlier this year or maybe it was last year that there was a bunch of people who got super sick with some type of deadly food poisoning that was traced to cantaloupe. There were deaths involved. That's not a joke. That really happened. But then I told Tracey that I was right to not eat that nastiness. People died from that!

We are soul mates! It's absolutely the texure. I can't stand the slightly hard shell with the mushiness inside! Yuck!

I do remember that now. I can't help it though. I grew up eating cantaloupe and I can't give it up. It reminds me of my grandmothers.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I do remember that now. I can't help it though. I grew up eating cantaloupe and I can't give it up. It reminds me of my grandmothers.

I understand. I'm the same way about eating cucumbers. Love cucumbers. One of my favorite snacks and it starts with memories of Gramma's house. LOL! Tracey loves cantaloupe, too. Works out, I guess, because whenever we have a fruit salad with that in it guess who gets to eat it all up???

 

[Mkmommy]

It’s time for another cruise trip report! I just finished my Disneyland trip report, and finally had time to work on this report! It was a great trip where we met some new friends, saw characters galore and some beautiful sights! Here’s a sneak peak of our view on the last morning:

You have taken some amazing pictures that you have shared, but this one is my favorite.

We did this cruise in August and I must say that it was by far the best for "characters in the wild". We had a cabin aft on 5, and there was always princesses by the nursery. One night I watched Snow White talk to this boy about 3 for a good 10 minutes, it was priceless.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

You have taken some amazing pictures that you have shared, but this one is my favorite.

We did this cruise in August and I must say that it was by far the best for "characters in the wild". We had a cabin aft on 5, and there was always princesses by the nursery. One night I watched Snow White talk to this boy about 3 for a good 10 minutes, it was priceless.

Thank you, Lisa!

By the nursery! That's a great place to look for them! I never even thought about that one! They were everywhere!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Monday, September 17 – Home

I set my alarm for 5:30, but Stephen woke up at 5 and peeked outside. He came back to the room and woke me up to say we were already coming in to the harbor. I threw on some clothes, grabbed my camera and ran upstairs.

I was shocked by how many people were there! It was gorgeous though, and well worth the loss of sleep.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

 

[Disneyfalcon]

After a couple hundred pictures, I went back to the room and showered and got dressed.

I was almost afraid to turn on my phone and ipad. You just never know what you’re going to find when you’ve had them off for a few days! Plus, it’s a real jolt to be back in the real world.
One thing that was waiting for me was the nicest thread on the cruise forum about people missing me while I was gone. Ahhhhh!!! How nice is that?!

It’s light out!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We went to breakfast at Parrot Cay this morning. No breakfast potatoes, but that’s the norm on the last morning of a cruise.

After that we went to the lounge to wait for our luggage tags to be called. Well, I ran upstairs for one last "free" coke too.

We retrieved our bags and were through customs quickly. We had to catch two cabs back to Penn Station.

We were hoping to sneak on to an earlier bus, but no luck. The boarding process was a little confusing. There was one poor young girl who had a ticket, but didn’t realize that the line wasn’t moving because there were lots of people in line waiting for another bus. When she saw the door close, she ran up front , but they wouldn’t even open the door for her. The policy is that you must be there 15 minutes before the bus leaves. She was there, she just didn’t realize they had called all the boarding groups. She was crying when they left. We felt just horrible for her.

Since we had some time to kill, we went into Penn Station and relaxed. When we came out of the building later, the place was surrounded by cops. I mean everywhere! Police cars, swat teams, weapons, etc. Since we didn’t see any camera crews around indicating that this was a movie, we decided we needed to walk quickly away from the building, which we did.

We caught the noon bus home and, thankfully, we had seats without holes! Yay!

I think I forgot a story from our first bus ride. We were seated behind and to the left of a young couple on the way there. Buddha and Misty were right next to them. The woman was wearing sweat pants of some kind and sitting on the aisle. At one point we couldn’t help but notice a lot of wiggling and squirming coming from her direction.

She was changing her pants! And there was a bathroom right behind her!

Oooo – kay.

When we came out of the tunnel, I knew what we would see, so I was ready! There she is! One last glimpse through the bus window:

Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten off a Disney cruise and said otherwise, but it was a wonderful trip. It was the perfect getaway for the two of us, and even better to have such fun friends there too.

It was sad knowing that was probably my last cruise of 2012, but I’m going to make up for it in 2013!

 

[plaz10]

I hate beans!! In all forms, hate them.

I'm with you. I even hate jelly beans.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'm with you. I even hate jelly beans.

So true! Forgot about jelly beans! Don't like them either.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Ah, Tammy, your early pics coming into the harbor are stunning. Breathtaking. So good. Loved them all!

I feel for the gal crying in the airport, too. I missed a plane once because I never heard any of the boarding announcements. Not a single one. I was extremely sleep deprived and very engrossed in reading something, forget what. I was by myself and had never had that happen to me before. I bawled and bawled. I was genuinely scared which makes no sense because it's not like I was going to be stuck in that airport for the rest of eternity. LOL! I was put on the next flight out and I guess I must've looked totally pathetic because I was put in first class. Once I got in my plush seat I felt so bad I made up my mind I wasn't going to even ask for a soda. Nothing. The flight attendant was so sweet, tho. He insisted I was in that seat for a reason and wasn't taking no for an answer on the drink he thought I really needed. Sooooo, I flew home in first class drinking beer and eating a whole bag of chocolate I bought at a mom-n-pop sweet shop. It was the worst then the best all in the same day. LOL!

So you ate breakfast at Parrot Cay... Not your norm! How is MDR breakfast vs. buffet?

Ooooh, can't wait to see all the cruise adventures you have in '13! I'll get to see 1 of them up close and personal! Woot!!!