Trip Report Surviving the Fantasy - Making the most of moments before they're gone...

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

We were onboard at 11:30. WooHOO! We went straight to Guest Services to take care of our bits of business. We needed to get Brian & Sarah's room keys switched out to the right staterooms. We booked a Mixology class for the 3 adults on our first at-sea day (tomorrow!) at 4:00. We got an extra Wave phone for each stateroom. ((These are kinda a cross between a cordless phone you'd have at home & a cell phone. Each stateroom has 2. We needed a 3rd for each room so each of our kids would have a phone and each stateroom had one left for it's corresponding adult to carry. You can text or call each other onboard the ship AND on Castaway Cay with them. VERY convenient with teens!)) We also asked to be put on the waitlist for a cabana on Castaway Cay day. If any cancellations come up they do keep a list to refer to. Well, we were first on the list. Yay! I liked the display behind Guest Services.

Next up we hit Cabanas (buffet) for a lighter lunch.

After lunch we took the kiddos on down to Vibe to get them signed-in for that. Going in there's this cool neon tunnel that reminds me a LOT of the old rainbow tunnel in JII at WDW when the Imageworks was upstairs. And it was a real Imageworks.

Vibe is a really neat spot. It's very sleek and techie.

These are the pods you can sit in. You put your iPod or iPhone in the little dock then you can plug in or do stuff on the screen in front of you. You can also play video games in the pods, too.

In the back there's this small theater room they can watch movies and hang out in. Jerry advised the girls they were not to go in here alone with boys. I told Brian he was not to go in here alone with any girls. I knew I had nothing to worry with with Chandler. LOL!

Between the big room and the little theater room is this area that has these little computer stations set up. If the kids have prepaid data/internet packages they can sign-on and use these computers to access the internet.

More space for stuff at Vibe.

Then there's the Vibe-only sundeck. This is actually on the bow of the ship.

Hot tubs and cooling pool for the teens. The 2 hot tubs are the heated ones and the middle pool cool.

Looking up at the bridge from the Vibe sundeck.

That water is a lot more appealing than the family pools!

During the cruise the teens make a mini-movie shooting all over the ship. At the end of the cruise they have a "screening" for the kids and for the families. Of course it's totally on-trend with the ever-popular zombie stuff. We got the invite for screening at the end of the cruise but our kids all said they weren't in it so we didn't go.

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

The restrooms all over the ship are really cool. Yeah, themed restrooms! LOL! We had to go look at the Vibe restrooms! The girls one is like pink fantastic!

I started to video thinking nobody was in there but there was! Oops! Thank goodness she was cool about it! I could sooooo pee here!

We got all 4 kids issued their cool Vibe room keys. Yeah, they reissue the room keys to ones that have the Vibe artwork on them. Access to the club during regular hours is restricted. Special room key access only! Whatevah!

Next we walked down to Royal Court on deck 3, midship to see about changing to a different dining rotation. We wanted to keep second seating but change the order of our restaurants. Ivo, I believe a head server or higher, said our chances were somewhere between slim and none. We were a sold out cruise with over 3900 passengers onboard. He was going to check into it but didn't want us to get our hopes up. No problem. This dining room is gorgeous! Just one of the tile murals:

I guess we made a pitstop on the way up to check out Open House at the other Kids Clubs. These are the restrooms outside the Walt Disney Theater where the big stage shows go down every night.

Artwork.

The atrium's art deco chandelier is a magnificent piece of art to behold. Truly.

The atrium carpet is a gorgeous spray of peacock awesomeness.

I'm not entirely sure which is which but we went to the Oceaneers Club & Lab. These are the kids clubs for the younger children. During Open House anyone can go in. All of us being the big kids that we are, we're all down with playing! Such cool places. The theming is incredible. Even if you have no kids at all, these are great spaces to explore on embarkation day.

These were cool! The little circles say "Laugh Here". Any sound you make fills the canisters.

The bedroom doors!

Then I found Pixie Hollow:

Tink's house?

There's another pixie house up in the branches, too.

During programming they have a little area where they keep costumes for the girls to play dress-up, too. I want to come PLAY!!!

Oooooh...that's not far to Castaway Cay, is it?

Inside Nemo's sub there's a working periscope.

See?

fractal · Jun 18, 2013

Kelly,

Sooner or later your trip reports are going to make me book a Disney cruise!

I love the pictures - they may not be "professional grade" but they capture the moment and atmosphere extremely well.

Typhoon lagoon is awesome. The "censored star" is cracking me up. With the way my kids love taking pictures of their parents in awkward and
unflattering moments, I may have to borrow some of those stars. Teenagers ( you know ).

Can't wait to see how the cruise goes with the whole gang!

Kerby626 · Jun 18, 2013

Love your report. I miss vacationing with you guys. It is always a blast. We def need a visit soon

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

It's getting close to time for the staterooms to be ready. That typically happens at about 1:30. On our way up to deck 9, aft I snapped this shot of a painting in the stairwell.

Before the staterooms are "open" they have little ropes across the doorways that lead from the elevator/stairway banks into the stateroom corridors. Here we are waiting for rope drop. Obviously Tracey forgot his belt today. Nice booty shot, babe!

Had to censor this one! Hey! If he's gonna moon the camera then I'm gonna take the picture! And he says I'm the FREAK! Ha!

We didn't wait too terribly long and it was 1:30. We went to our staterooms but our stateroom host, Carlos, was still working on them. We asked if it was okay to drop our carryons which he said it was. Good. That stuff gets HEAVY! Well, when you carry 2 liter bottles of liquor PLUS bottled water it gets heavy. Jerry had 24 bottles of Landshark beer and a liter of Grey Goose in his rolling carryon. Oh yeah. We came prepared! I'm totally dropping the ball on the stateroom pics like I normally do. The staterooms were not ready, tho, and I wasn't feelin' it. I did snap a pic of my belated Mother's Day flowers that the boys had sent to me. They're the sweetest!

We also took this opportunity to send out our dinner clothes for tonight for express pressing service. We were SMART and put our dinner clothes for tonight into a carryon so we could send them out ASAP even if the luggage hadn't yet arrived!

We left the staterooms for Carlos to finish them up. He said they were delayed because his area had a medical evac that morning and he got a late start. It's all good.

To kill time we went to show the kiddos the adult nightclub area called Europa. During the day the spaces aren't used too much so the kids can actually see the cool themed spaces. After 9:00 pm (?) I think is when it's all 18+. Gosh. In less than a year Chandler can come here at night. Gah!

The Europa restrooms are really unusual. They're situated in this narrow hallway that winds around almost like a maze. There's numerous restrooms for each gender. Some are just a single potty room while others are bigger and have multiple "stall" rooms.

The ladies rooms all have these incredible mosiacs of a Flamenco dancer.

Yes, like the restrooms in this area on the Dream, the ceilings are mirrored with backlighting which I find so odd. I mean, why?

This is the entrance to The Tube which is the biggest of the nightclubs where the adult shows are held. Remember, Europa theme!

The hallway going in:

Theming is amazing!

So cool! And, hey! There's our muster station sign!

I recently saw a pic someone had taken of one of the red telephone booths over in Europe, I think maybe it was on Instagram, and someone obviously from over there commented to the effect it being stupid that Americans are so fascinated by them. We don't have phone booths that look like that here! Duh! So the "booth" to the right is a faux booth. The booth on the left is a stage entrance.

Oh this looks like a place I belong:

So right about now Sarah wasn't feeling so hot. Originally she didn't want me to utter a word about this part but I think I'd be remiss in my reporting if I left it out. I think we all have a little something to reep from this. She's going to read this report and I hope she won't be mad at her Aunt Kelly. Looking back now I feel bad about the whole thing.

Sarah kinda felt the ship move while we were wandering this area. When they're loading heavy stuff into the ship it does somewhat move even when tied-up in a perfectly calm port. She felt it and mentioned it. Jerry & Tracey, being more experienced fishermen, swear you can't feel any boat movement in port but I'm with Sarah. Every now and then I can feel it, too. Feeling the ship movement even when out at sea is something I enjoy so I never really give anything I feel any thought. But, you know, Sarah has never been on a cruise. She's heard plenty of stories of people being sea-sick, tho. Tell me the last time you heard a story about someone being sea-sick and it NOT being akin to like...death?! It's always made out to be awful beyond comprehension. Sarah felt the ship move slightly and asked did I feel it. Yes. Then she asked if it's worse when you sail out. Well, not wanting to lie I told her yes because you do. She asked do you feel it a lot. Yes. You feel it a lot more because the ship is moving and you aren't in a protected port. Yes, you feel it and it's definitely more than the ever-so slight little movements you feel while tied up. That's what it's like for me but it's never in a bad way.

I've been sea sick when I was a kid but I was on a 55' sailboat on 5'+ seas. The boat was under sail and pitched then bobbing violently over the waves. Of course I got sick. Not many people wouldn't.

So Sarah can feel these slight movements that her daddy can't. I've just told her it's going to get much worse. She's heard horror stories about sea sickness. Pair that with this gigantic overwhelming ship that we're running all over like crazy people and hello! A kid is going to get overwhelmed! I think back to my first cruise on the Dream and how overwhelmed I was. Ugh! Sarah was sure she was going to be sick and suddenly wasn't feeling like this whole cruise deal was all it's cracked-up to be. It's totally tooooootally understandable. To try to help ease her anxiety we walked down to medical to get some motion sickness meds. I had (stupidly!) packed my medicine kit in the luggage which hadn't been delivered yet. On the way I frantically got in touch with Tammy just to double-check what I thought I understood about the sea sickness meds at medical. They're outside the door for guests to help themselves. No risk of being quarantined just for picking up a packet of sea sickness pills. They were out of the children's tablets but they had plenty of the adult ones. We split one of the adult tablets in half and let her have that. We knew once we set sail she'd be okay. Lesson to the grown-ups taking kids. Definitely a good idea to prep the first-timers a bit with tons of info. If the kids are even the smallest bit nervous about sea sickness maybe give them a small dose of something before you board just to reassure them.

We walked up to deck 12 to get some fresh air. Sydney and I stuck our toes into the little family pool that's on deck above the adults pool. It's really a nice little space. Never seemed to get too busy the whole cruise.

As we continued to do some walking I took a funnel pic. Never too many funnel pics!

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

We returned to the staterooms hoping they'd be good to go now. They were. But, I had been doing a lot of walking and was pretty beat so I didn't do any pics. Still. Sorry! I know, I'm so failing!!!! We relaxed and unpacked what we had with us. Then it was time for the muster drill. We "mustered" on down to The Tube and sat in our area. We watched the crew do the demonstrating. Sarah looked totally zoned-out. Those meds were doing a job on her! Poor thing! After the drill we returned to the staterooms. I did more frantic unpacking while I could. We grabbed our tumblers and fixed a drinky-drink. Then it was up on-deck for sailaway. We stood near the first funnel at the rail. It was soooo hot right there with no air movement at all. We were all sweating like crazy. But, we had called loved ones to tell them where we'd be and I had posted on WDWMagic where to look to see us sail away on the live webcam.

On our way to our waiting spot, this is the Aqua Lab splash play area:

Me & Brian killin' time:

The sail away show came and went. We still hadn't cast off. Then they started up the Cupid Shuffle which Brian, Syd, Sarah, and I danced right there where we were on-deck. That was fun! Now I just need to learn to Wobble! LOL! After the dancing in the brutal sun I was sweating soooooo freakin' bad. It was awful. Thaaaaat's about when I started to feel achy like I was getting a fever. Oh nooooooo...

Finally, we saw a family run onto the ship and we sailed away. It was a little late but at least we were finally going. Here's the thread. See???

Look at this thread.

Here's the pics. I labeled the first one:

This one I circled us. It's the same order of people. From left to right is: Tracey, Jerry, Sarah, Brian, Sydney, and me.

HUGE shout-out & thanks to @Disneyfalcon for grabbing the screenshots for me! I love that we can see ourselves sailing out! Thank you a million times over!!!!

After sailaway I was not about to linger on deck. Good Lord I was so sweaty and feeling like I was descending into a cootie-filled abyss. We got back down to our staterooms and this was waiting for us. Tracey had ordered a special welcome aboard fruit, cheese, and crackers tray for everyone to share.

Awwww... so sweet! Unfortunately, I was feeling rough so I didn't eat too much. I knew I was feeling bad because all our luggage had arrived and I wasn't even interested in unpacking. I laid down. Ugh. I laid there thinking about all the stuff I needed to be doing. All that settling-in wasn't going to take care of itself. The longer I laid there thinking about how crappy I felt the more panic was welling up in side me. Being sick on a cruise ship is NOT something you eeeeever want to do. Seriously. It's a whole different ballgame from being sick at WDW. So I pulled myself up off the bed to try to escape my panic. I took some Tylenol Sinus then busied myself unpacking.

It was no time and we were rushing out the door to go catch the 6:15 show of "A Fantasy Come True". Here's our stateroom door:

So we went to the show. The dad character had some cute little moments but I wouldn't make this one a priority again. They had a little preview of the magic act that was going to come in a few days. Tracey & I thought it was pretty obvious how they did it. I won't go into details, though.

After the show I finished unpacking us. The Tylenol in the meds I took earlier helped ease the body aches. In the meantime, I guess Jerry & the girls had fun with pictures on their verandah. Um, I dunno. The Matrix???

Sarah catchin' a rest and some fresh air.

Here's the Carnival Dream that left port ahead of us.

Definitely think Sarah got over the hump. Such a great picture of the girls!

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention! We had the really huge aft-facing verandahs. Our rooms were the smaller verandah configuration at just 246 sq. ft. but the verandah was huuuuuge!

Sarah's such a creative old soul. She comes up with some good ideas.

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

We had the divider between the two stateroom verandah's opened by Carlos earlier so we could walk back & forth between the rooms both inside and outside. Jerry came over to our verandah and said, "Hey! Y'all have the dead center of the ship for your verandah! Kept that for yourself, huh?"

Without missing a beat I came right back, "Well DUH! You didn't really think I'd give you a better stateroom than me, did you?!"

Everyone died laughing. I'm soooo bad. I know!

It was time to head down to deck 3 for our 8:15 dinner seating at Animator's Palate. We walked in and right away spotted a familiar face. Crazy! It was Malwyn from India, the same main dining room server we had on our last cruise this past January on the Magic! He remembered us, too! Made a big fuss greeting us like old friends, hugs and all. It was another of those awkward moments when other passengers around us just sorta looked at us like "Wow!" It was weird. To top that off, Malwyn was our server AGAIN this cruise! Awesome!!! I can't help but wonder if the assigners knew we'd had him before. Just too much of a coincidence!

Dinner pics!

We really need to work on Jerry on how to not make faces at the camera.

Attractiiiiiiiive.

I loooove all the cool eye-candy in Animator's Palate. I could wander around this dining room for hours trying not to miss anything.

Sarah don't need no animation class! She's got this! Very artistic girl!

Malwyn remember how much the guys love the French onion soup from Royal Court. They didn't even need to ask. It's not on the Animator's menu but Malwyn got it for us anyway.

I had this truffle something appetizer. Sorry. I was totally questioning even taking food pics.

Then my favorite Animator's dish: the tenderloin with wasabi potatos and bok choy.

This must've been Jerry's plate. No clue what it was. Maybe he'll chime in and tell you.

We ordered an array of desserts but Jerry & I agree this is the one we both liked best.

The other desserts:

I'd love to tell you how crazy good everything at dinner was but, honestly, I didn't enjoy it all that much. My favorite thing I had was the coffee with dessert. I was feeling really bad.

The kids all left dinner a few minutes early so they could change for Icebreakers at Vibe.

Tracey & I returned to the stateroom, I put on my jammies, packed up the rest of our regular service pressing, called for housekeeping to pick it up, and crawled in bed. No fun adult shows tonight. Totally crapped-out on Match Your Mate and everything. I felt so bad for letting Tracey down. I wasn't up to being out and about at all. I propped up in bed, caught up my notes, took more meds, and read tomorrow's Navigator.

Sickie me.

I started to fall off to sleep around 10:30. Tracey said I felt feverish. This is not good.

Chandler came in around 11:30, Sydney at 12:30 (?), then Brian at 3:30. I haven't the foggiest idea what time Sarah got in.

During the night was really rough for me. I woke up a LOT. I would feel like I was going to freeze to death sleeping fully clothed with socks on all the way under the covers with the throw blanket from the end of the bed over me, too. Then I'd wake up sweating and kick out. During the night I noticed how much vibration this aft location gets and found it quite annoying. I could've sworn I was hearing Jerry's beer bottles clanking together next door in his fridge. I think it might've been the empty hangers in our closet. I laid there so stressed over him killing me the next morning for parking us in these crazy vibrating rooms. I found the vibrating SO irritating.

In the wee hours I started to sweat really bad. Reverting back to some old-school thinking I pulled the covers up tight over me and decided I was going to get tough and sweat this thing out. Oh God. I was soaked. By morning you coulda wrung my jammies and the sheets out. As I laid there dripping of sweat my brain was frantically calculating the days in our voyage. I knew when we'd be getting off the ship for port excursions. I knew the ones I wanted to do most. I knew the cancellation policies for everything. I knew how to go about handling all the arrangements if we needed to cancel (none of our activities were booked thru the cruise line). I calculated all these days that were to come and all the what-ifs of going down to medical. I thought carefully about what medical would do. I thought about our travel insurance and how the coverage would play out. I wondered what kind of things medical on the ship could even do. Did they do strep or flu tests onboard? So what if I went down to medical, they had no way of testing me, and because my symptoms could be these really bad things I ended up quarantined until we reached our next port (in 2 days) AND for an additional 24 hours after I had labs done onshore? I laid there in my sopping wet side of the bed running thru all these things over and over and over. See? It's not like a WDW trip. If the wrong people catch wind that you might be sick with something contagious they can and WILL quarantine you to your stateroom. They will send CMs to check and confirm that you ARE in your stateroom during that time. You cannot leave. They bring you food and other little things to entertain you which is nice, really, but you won't be going anywhere. The thing I'm most terrified of is being quarantined. I never want to do that. So I stayed there in my bed determined to suffer this out no matter what it took. If I was going to medical it would be when I was physically unable to get out of this bed. They'd have to carry me down. I was NOT going to give up. In my mind, I'd have to die first. Which, yeah, I wondered about....

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

fractal said:
Kelly,

Sooner or later your trip reports are going to make me book a Disney cruise!

I love the pictures - they may not be "professional grade" but they capture the moment and atmosphere extremely well.

Typhoon lagoon is awesome. The "censored star" is cracking me up. With the way my kids love taking pictures of their parents in awkward and
unflattering moments, I may have to borrow some of those stars. Teenagers ( you know ).

Can't wait to see how the cruise goes with the whole gang!

I hope you do, Chris! I'm telling you, I would bet on it being a fantastic fit for your family!

Oh no, no professional grade pics out of me. Just capturing the moments. They aren't ever perfect but they're wonderful to me.

Yeah, I figured if I wasn't going to do unflattering pics might as well be honest with it. I didn't want to omit those shots altogether. Even the star tells part of the story. Right? I feel ya on the teens and the photographic timing. The video Brian got of me at the cruise parking place is the perfect example of when NOT to poke a camera in Mom's face. LOL!

Well, the cruise is gonna get rougher before it gets smoother but it'll be a helluva adventure before it's all done. Stinger-ful rays, drugs in Mexico, drinkin' it up WITH kids on the beach, bat caves, mud in places I never thought possible....oh yeah. It's all comin' up!

Kerby626 said:
Love your report. I miss vacationing with you guys. It is always a blast. We def need a visit soon

Definitely need to get caught up soon! If we don't see you before September, we'll see y'all there!

Billy6 · Jun 18, 2013

Oh yeah! On board for this TR! I got goose bumps seeing the Fantasy pics..."ooo, I was there", "I saw that"....
My condolences on the "sick" portion of the trip. I saw your post when you came back and I let out a huge "oh no" for ya....

On the edge of my seat for more, Kelly!

DisneyDebNJ · Jun 18, 2013

Kelly those videos are a hoot!!! WORSE question a child can ask an already upset Mom is "Where we going???!" LOL BTDT and your response was alot more classier than mine would have been!! LOL I have already started to stock pile sea sickness meds, and you made me glad I did!!! (already got three sets of seabands!!) Sick at sea.. you poor thing!!! Terrific pics girl!! Your TRs make me so excited for September!!! Can't wait to read updates... (and seeing how you got to feel better!!!!)

disneyfan1995 · Jun 18, 2013

Awesome report so far! Love seeing all of the pics of the Fantasy! Sorry to hear that you were not feeling well, hope it got better as the cruise went on.

Tiggerish · Jun 18, 2013

My goodness, you got so much posted so quickly, I feel like I'm really late to the party, although it only started yesterday! Despite the travel dilemmas, I'll use this to get pumped for our girl's cruise!! The Fantasy looks great, can't wait to experience the food on our Dream cruise.

Even though that's less than 90 days away, I have another trip to make it through before I get there--next month, I'll travel across the Atlantic to spend my upcoming round-numbered birthday with as many of my 37 first cousins as I can manage, so I'm with you all on the cousin-appreciation!

BTW, the phone in the upper right hand corner of this shot from POP--mine is still in use as the laundry room phone.

It was one of the first speakerphones!!

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

Billy6 said:
Oh yeah! On board for this TR! I got goose bumps seeing the Fantasy pics..."ooo, I was there", "I saw that"....
My condolences on the "sick" portion of the trip. I saw your post when you came back and I let out a huge "oh no" for ya....

On the edge of my seat for more, Kelly!

I know the feeling, Billy! I see pics from the same ships & ports I've been to and it totally takes me back. I love that!

Eh, the sick portion is what it is. Everyone has choices ever day. I decided I wasn't going to let whatever I had trap me in bed for the entire cruise. I didn't do nearly what I normally would or a fraction of what I hoped to but I can honestly say I didn't stay in bed, give up, and do nothing.

I wish I could just bust right in with our next day but I've got to go dive into the bank books or I could be in serious trouble. I'm tellin' ya, these TRs take over once I start writing and it's hard to force myself to stop for anything!

DisneyDebNJ said:
Kelly those videos are a hoot!!! WORSE question a child can ask an already upset Mom is "Where we going???!" LOL BTDT and your response was alot more classier than mine would have been!! LOL I have already started to stock pile sea sickness meds, and you made me glad I did!!! (already got three sets of seabands!!) Sick at sea.. you poor thing!!! Terrific pics girl!! Your TRs make me so excited for September!!! Can't wait to read updates... (and seeing how you got to feel better!!!!)

Okay. So, yes, sea sickness is real. I've been sea sick before. I don't, however, think you can really get sick sitting at the pier. I've heard people say in the past that sea sickness is 90% in your head. I didn't automatically subscribe to that mode of thinking. I made that mistake prior to being pregnant the first time, thinking morning sickness is 90% in your head. God sure did teach me a hard damned lesson with that. Gah! However, I dooooo think it's possible to convince yourself you'll be sick and then you can be. Maybe just more susceptible to being sick. That said, none of us have had problems with sea sickness to date ((knocking on wood)) but I still carry a whole array of sea sickness meds on every cruise. I bring Bonine which is similar to Dramamine but has a slightly different active ingredient, the prescription patches, and ginger supplements. Ginger keeps your stomach settled and doesn't hurt to take while cruising even if you aren't feeling queazy at all. Any oral meds you might have try taking before your cruise while you're still at home to ensure that they aren't going to zonk you out. Even non-drowsy Dramamine makes me into a zombie but I know Tammy takes it with no problems. Everyone is different!

How I got to feeling better. Ha! Would you believe I still have a bit of a cough 3 weeks later? I'm still taking cough meds and stuff before bed so I can get thru the night without coughing myself awake. Every day I get a little better but both Jerry & I are still waking every morning needing to clear all the gook that settles in our heads overnight. We were both really, really sick. He's a little tougher than I am, though. I can admit that.

Tiggerish said:
My goodness, you got so much posted so quickly, I feel like I'm really late to the party, although it only started yesterday! Despite the travel dilemmas, I'll use this to get pumped for our girl's cruise!! The Fantasy looks great, can't wait to experience the food on our Dream cruise.

Even though that's less than 90 days away, I have another trip to make it through before I get there--next month, I'll travel across the Atlantic to spend my upcoming round-numbered birthday with as many of my 37 first cousins as I can manage, so I'm with you all on the cousin-appreciation!

BTW, the phone in the upper right hand corner of this shot from POP--mine is still in use as the laundry room phone. It was one of the first speakerphones!!

View attachment 28993

Hi, Siobhan! So glad you're here! I hope I don't scare everyone off from cruising with my crazy crud tales. This was cruise #5 so I imagine we needed to have one of "those" cruises at some point. I've done it. Now my next voyages can go back to picture perfect! LOL!

That's so funny about that phone! First speakerphone! That's crazy! Well, not really. I remember rotatary dialing. And sitting next to the base unit because you were tethered with a cord. And, hey! You can't whack someone with a handset the way you used to could because the flimsy little cordless jobs will not inflict any sort of pain and they'll break into millions of indiscernible pieces. Not good. But an old handset was great for smacking a step-brother with...

Disney_Belle · Jun 18, 2013

Kelly Report! Yay!

I'm sorry you were a sickie on your cruise

I hope the rest of the report brings better news!

That video at the shuttle lot make me laugh hysterically.

Loving the pictures! Glad Sarah started feeling better, too! Can't wait to read the rest!

LoveDisneyGirl · Jun 18, 2013

Yay! Another Kelly trip report! Love these!
Your family, as always, is awesome!
Totally with you on the love of cousins. My sis and I were lucky to grow up with two of our girl cousins and basically spent every summer with them. Nothing beats cousin time!

Such a bummer about being sick. You're late night, sweating it out while worrying about the logistics of everything else is totally what I would be doing. I would have been one big stress ball if I had been in that situation. No fun.

Looking forward to reading the rest and hoping that (in your report) you get better soon! Even though you were under the weather, I'm still jealous of your fabulous vacation!

sweetpee_1993 · Jun 18, 2013

Disney_Belle said:
Kelly Report! Yay!

I'm sorry you were a sickie on your cruise I hope the rest of the report brings better news!

That video at the shuttle lot make me laugh hysterically.

Loving the pictures! Glad Sarah started feeling better, too! Can't wait to read the rest!

Well, the fever part is about over. This was the worst of the fever. Unfortunately, there's no getting well anytime soon. It hangs around for the duration. The good thing is that I survived with flair! Still managed to have a great time! It's like my brother @obrienIII has said a bunch of times, I'd do it all again tomorrow sick and all.

That shuttle lot video makes ME laugh every. single. time. I watch it! After I snap you hear the other kids laughing. Yeah, that's when I realized he wasn't taking a picture, it was video. LOL!

Oh yes, Sarah took to cruising like a duck to water. I knew she would. I was so much like her when I was a kid. I got so nervous about things and I could literally make myself sick over it. Sarah will show us all some crazy bravery here in a few days. Just you wait!

LoveDisneyGirl said:
Yay! Another Kelly trip report! Love these!
Your family, as always, is awesome!
Totally with you on the love of cousins. My sis and I were lucky to grow up with two of our girl cousins and basically spent every summer with them. Nothing beats cousin time!

Such a bummer about being sick. You're late night, sweating it out while worrying about the logistics of everything else is totally what I would be doing. I would have been one big stress ball if I had been in that situation. No fun.

Looking forward to reading the rest and hoping that (in your report) you get better soon! Even though you were under the weather, I'm still jealous of your fabulous vacation!

Oh thank you. Awesome=Not a total loss for hope, right? LOL!

Eh, I guess we all have to have less than stellar trips at some point. Even being sick, it was amazing. If it was just my family on the cruise I might not have worried so much but I was so broken-hearted for Jerry and the girls. This was their first cruise! I wanted it to be perfect!

Towards the end Tracey & I had our moments when we were alone where we whispered to each other that we'd had enough of everything and ready to get home. I guess it did wear on us especially towards the end but looking back that's not what you remember most. That's the stuff that fades away, thankfully.

PolynesianPrincess · Jun 18, 2013

Ohhh, Kelly

I'm so sorry that you were sick!! If it's any consolation, I was sick the first few days of our WDW trip. Not flu like sick but I had a sore throat and congestion and lost my voice! It was definitely not fun and I am afraid like you of being quarantined. It sounds just terrible!!

On a happier note, Animators Palate looks amazing and I am so in for those Wasabi mashed potatoes. YUMM-O!!!! Love me some wasabi! I actually was just eating wasabi hummus and crackers earlier today scanning over your TR.

WishIWasAtWDW · Jun 18, 2013

Yay!

I'm so excited you started your trip report, Kelly!

That's great that your kids are so close to their cousins. My Mom's side of the family has always been really close so the cousins all have a great time together. I am trying to get some of them to go to WDW with us. Can you believe that they have never been?!

My Mom and I want to plan a girls trip for next year with my Aunt and cousins. I'm hoping we can make it happen.

I LOVE your censored pictures. That is too funny! Hahaha

That parking lot sounds terrible! I would have lost it. Why do people have to be so rude?! Ugh. I love the video you posted though! Hahaha That is some very candid footage and I love it. I would have said the same thing if someone asked me where we were going. Hahaha

I was so sad to hear that you got sick on your cruise. I hope that it didn't ruin the whole cruise. When we sailed on the Dream, we were almost as Aft as you could get and the vibrations were pretty bad each morning that we docked. I can't even imagine what that must feel like if you aren't feeling well.

I can't wait to read more and I hope you start feeling better soon! Maybe some more drinky drinks will help.

iloverags2 · Jun 18, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
You are so right! Typhoon Lagoon is incredible. Without even doing much of anything it's crazy awesome. Think about it. Tracey & I rode Crush n Gusher ONCE then we did Castaway Creek. That was IT! Still had a wonderful time. That park is so gorgeous. The theming is beyond words. I'd put it just below being on Castaway Cay for the details. Seriously. It's THAT good to me!

Yeah, I'm kinda glad I had to wait a little to start the TR. Gathering, editing, and organizing photos and videos from 3 or 4 sources was no small feat. The time has given me a chance to let go of the poopy stuff a bit. I love that you said that, a poopy trip. My mom cracks all the kids up because she uses that word as an expletive. Like she'll stub her toe and yell, "Awww POOPY!" The kids are like, "Nana! You can't say poopy!" LOL!

Yep, that's how we feel about TL too! You cannot beat the theming...incredible! Oh, how I love the story about your mom and poopy! LOL!

I'm so sorry your first day even was just lousy, but I hear ya on not wanting to visit medical. That's a death sentence right there. "I banish thee to your stateroom!" I dread hearing those words. In the midst of all of that, you are a super aunt taking care of Sarah with her worries. You ROCK!

GenerationX · Jun 18, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Oh no, no professional grade pics out of me. Just capturing the moments. They aren't ever perfect but they're wonderful to me.

Yeah, I figured if I wasn't going to do unflattering pics might as well be honest with it. I didn't want to omit those shots altogether. Even the star tells part of the story. Right? I feel ya on the teens and the photographic timing. The video Brian got of me at the cruise parking place is the perfect example of when NOT to poke a camera in Mom's face. LOL!

Well, the cruise is gonna get rougher before it gets smoother but it'll be a helluva adventure before it's all done. Stinger-ful rays, drugs in Mexico, drinkin' it up WITH kids on the beach, bat caves, mud in places I never thought possible....oh yeah. It's all comin' up!

Your report is, as always, very entertaining! It seems to lessen the blow of something crappy happening when you know you're going to end up telling the story ... and it's going to make an awesome story! Bad pictures? Same thing! The more unique the picture (in whatever way), the better. You, though, have taken this concept one step further to include actual embarrassing videos of yourself. I commend you! It makes the report so much more colorful and real worldy.

I can't wait to read the rest, as your upcoming adventures sound like they're going to be highly entertaining!

Trip Report Surviving the Fantasy - Making the most of moments before they're gone...

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