The weather is here...I wish you were beautiful...or something like that!

Hello again, my WDWMagic peeps! Welcome back for another installment in the many adventures of SweetPee's family!

Not gonna get too organized or crazy piecing this one together. It's against the rules after such a kicked-back journey. If you don't know us yet, check out a few of the old reports in my signature. There's more than enough there for you to get to know us.

No big who, what, when, or where's for ya this time, either. Wanna know? Read more. Sometimes you just gotta go with what you get and enjoy the ride. Hope you'll come along. The more the merrier. Let's hit the highway yet again....:wave:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Hottie.. enough said The boarding photo looks great too.

Awwww...thanks, Flynn. Make a chick tryin' to reason with growin' old feel a little better...

The underated winners of WDW. The water parks are the only area that really feels like 'Disney is still near the top..' in WDW anymore. Feel worn down in the parks? A trip to TL will remind you of the Disney magic. Blizzard Beach is pretty cool for kids your age too.. It really is like vanilla and choclate with the two parks.. hard to judge anyone for liking one vs the other. Just gotta try 'em both The only part that is brutal is if you are there during a peak time when the parks are crowded.. that's tough. But late afternoons are always a lot less crowded.

I wish I'd known! I think Typhoon Lagoon is a well-kept secret although I realize we were there on a pretty slow day. I'm still amazed at how much we enjoyed our day there. It was such a contrast to what's in the 4 parks (that we're trying to avoid). LOL!

Two tips..
Did you try turning bluetooth back on explictly? Airplane mode basically just turns off all radios.. but you can go back and turn specific radios back on even while in airplane mode.
Also, you could have turned airplane mode off, just ensure data roaming is off. That's what will kill you. Airplane mode is the 'safest' but there is room to wiggle too

I'm so not adept at anything to do with the bluetooth or airplane mode. I only use airplane mode when on cruises because I need the alarm. When I got the bluetooth earbud set thing I pretty much handed it to my oldest and told him to make it work. LOL! I'll show him your post and see if he can decipher for me. It was embarrassing, really, to be in the stairwell and have the sound come blaring from the stinkin' phone.

Not only that.. see those things on deck? Those are for deploying special forces. Looks like an Ohio Class Nuclear Missle sub.. aka a Boomer

Oh yeah! We could make out the guys on the deck. We thought it was really neat to see. I can't wait to show my dad. The lady with the retired sub captain husband kept saying she thought it was a "Boomer" but then she was also eating off her hangover so I wasn't sure if I should quote her. Ha!

Loved the video of the pilot boat!

I know! Right??? One of those unexpected gifts you stumble upon when basking in the awesome-sauce of the cruise. We also watched the pilot transfer off when pulling off from Key West and Nassau. Didn't have as good a view and I didn't video.

You also hear them called 'Tiger Cruises'. I got to do one on an aircraft carrier once. Best time of my life. No noise is anything like a F-14 sitting on full afterburner on the catapult. Nothing. My parents were down on the catwalks along the flight deck so the jets took off right over their heads. I was up on the island at the time.

I've never heard them called Tiger Cruises. That's interesting. Wonder what the story is for that name. I wonder if they still do the Dependant's Cruises/Tiger Cruises or if that all stopped after 9/11. The one I really remember was when I was 14: USS Bainbridge CVN-25 out of Norfolk. Not much was off-limits. Me being a girl and ships still being all-male, obviously I wasn't allowed to go into the berth areas. I don't think I even tried to see the bridge. Or maybe I did. Seems like I've seen it but then I could've seen it when being aboard as a guest at other times. I did go into a room that had big, long doors open up from the floor. I walked up to the edge of the open door, looked down inside, and saw rack after rack of missiles. It was an oh-crap moment for me. And, hey, I've stood atop a working nuclear reactor! Pretty cool stuff! Being a Navy brat has had it's perks over the years.

Love the TR. You were pretty close to us.. we sailed on Dream in October, but I booked the Fantasy for a 7 day for Nov '13 as our next cruise. Gotta save up for that redonkulous cost

Ugh! They are redonkulous, aren't they?! But worth it. We actually just did the unthinkable and decided to put off Disneyland a little longer. So upcoming travel for us includes: December 2012: Mariner of the Seas 7-day out of Galveston (a few hours from here) sailing to Roatan, Belize City, & Cozumel....May 24 or 25, 2013: Disney Fantasy Western...September 2013: Disney Dream 4-day Bahamian with the WDWMagic girls cruise for just me...and November/Thanksgiving 2013 Allure of the Seas Eastern w/the hubby's family. I also have a dummy booking with DCL for October 2013 that I'll be moving to some sailing we settle on at some point. Gotta keep those trips lined out to save for! Sprinkling some RCI cruises in there keeps things affordable and adds variety, too.

 

[UberPlannerMom]

Did you know Disney made a movie about a Tiger Cruise? It came out around ten years ago I think. I made sure to watch it because I loved the Tiger Cruise I took on the Ike so much. It was a 3 day cruise and they really worked at making it special for everyone. We chased sunset, one nightwe did a complete lights out to watch the stars, etc. Go Ike!

 

[flynnibus]

I wish I'd known! I think Typhoon Lagoon is a well-kept secret although I realize we were there on a pretty slow day. I'm still amazed at how much we enjoyed our day there. It was such a contrast to what's in the 4 parks (that we're trying to avoid). LOL!

West Coasters turn up their noses at the water parks... I think they are too scared to be seen in their suits Since you've done schlitterbaun and still liked TL that says a lot for the parks. Try BB next time just for variety. Different feel and obviously very different look.. but its fun in its own ways. BB has some better play areas for 8-12 year old range I think.. but the wave pool often wins people to prefer TL. The theme integration in BB is pretty fun.

I'm so not adept at anything to do with the bluetooth or airplane mode. I only use airplane mode when on cruises because I need the alarm. When I got the bluetooth earbud set thing I pretty much handed it to my oldest and told him to make it work. LOL!

Just go settings -> general -> bluetooth and turn it on. 'That would have been helpful... YESTERDAY!'

The lady with the retired sub captain husband kept saying she thought it was a "Boomer" but then she was also eating off her hangover so I wasn't sure if I should quote her. Ha!

Hehe did you ask who drank more? her or the sailor?

I've never heard them called Tiger Cruises. That's interesting. Wonder what the story is for that name. I wonder if they still do the Dependant's Cruises/Tiger Cruises or if that all stopped after 9/11

Check out a recent story here - http://warbird-photos.com/report.php?ID=1

Looks like Tiger cruises differ in they are the longer duration.. where dependent cruises are the out and back type. I did a dependent day out of Norfolk. Yeah, we had free run of the ship.. I was about 12-13 or so at the time. We went as far down as we could go.. until going down we found a sailor sleeping on the gangway at the bottom of the ladder, and that's when we got scared and went back up

Ugh! They are redonkulous, aren't they?! But worth it. We actually just did the unthinkable and decided to put off Disneyland a little longer. So upcoming travel for us includes: December 2012: Mariner of the Seas 7-day out of Galveston (a few hours from here) sailing to Roatan, Belize City, & Cozumel....May 24 or 25, 2013: Disney Fantasy Western...September 2013: Disney Dream 4-day Bahamian with the WDWMagic girls cruise for just me...and November/Thanksgiving 2013 Allure of the Seas Eastern w/the hubby's family. I also have a dummy booking with DCL for October 2013 that I'll be moving to some sailing we settle on at some point. Gotta keep those trips lined out to save for! Sprinkling some RCI cruises in there keeps things affordable and adds variety, too.

Your vacation budget far exceeds mine We only do family vacays like this every few years. Now if the kids actually stopped doing such expensive sports like horseback riding, gymnastics, etc.. maybe that would change. But by then it will simply be college and weddings breaking me

 

[tiaragirl]

Kelly! Yes! I was periodically checking on here for you TR because I knew it would be coming up - I'm on the internet so much less now that I'm home for the summer, but there's always TR's you make an effort for

The boys are so big! I know, I know - I'm 22, if I think they're growing up then you must be beside yourself. But I remember the first TR I ever read of yours and they were just little babies!

Girl, do not stress about wearing a bathing suit. And that red dress? Owow. The pictures of you with your boys that night really are stunning. Print that one for the album.

So many adventures already! I'm loving the menus because they're the same as my Wonder cruise in February! I'm sad that not one had the Island Crusted Tuna appetizer at Parrot.. to. die. for.

And finally: You room? ? Holy crap? Shall I go on...

PS: you saw the Pixar painting on my TR

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Loving the pics of you and the boys at sunset! Absolutely gorgeous! And you looks fab in your dress as well! I do remember it from you TR last time!!

The water colors were so beautiful. I have been up in a small plane like that before up here in Maine. we flew over some mountains and countryside so it wasn't anything like flying over KW for you. But we did get to fly over my cousins house and see it which was pretty cool.

 

[Mrs.Skellington]

I'm on board. Loving all the beautiful pictures and just to reiterate, You look hot in the bikini. Don't worry about what other people think.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

loving the trip report kelly! your reports always have me cracking up. your room looks absolutely AMAZING! how awesome that your husband decided to upgrade. i love how he makes this spur of the moment decisions and you try to reel him back in. :lol: its so easy to get carried away with spending on vacation. he's very lucky to have you keeping an eye on things. can't wait to read more!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Did you know Disney made a movie about a Tiger Cruise? It came out around ten years ago I think. I made sure to watch it because I loved the Tiger Cruise I took on the Ike so much. It was a 3 day cruise and they really worked at making it special for everyone. We chased sunset, one nightwe did a complete lights out to watch the stars, etc. Go Ike!

I did not know Disney did a Tiger Cruise movie. Is that the name of it? I'm intrigued! I'd love to see it! Sounds fascinating!

West Coasters turn up their noses at the water parks... I think they are too scared to be seen in their suits Since you've done schlitterbaun and still liked TL that says a lot for the parks. Try BB next time just for variety. Different feel and obviously very different look.. but its fun in its own ways. BB has some better play areas for 8-12 year old range I think.. but the wave pool often wins people to prefer TL. The theme integration in BB is pretty fun.

Schlitterbahn is fun. Well, the Galveston Island park moreso to us than the New Braunfels park. We didn't like the separation of the park sections in NB. It's like they built a waterpark and wanted to expand but couldn't obtain more property that was up next to theirs....so they got close and decided to use the little buses in between. Sorry, when it's sizzling hot in Texas and you're soppin' wet from a water slide the laaaast thing you want to do is go sit on a musty open tram-bus-thing. And walking is a terrible idea because it's Texas and it's hot as Hades. Galveston is smaller, compact, and easy to work with. Looove that they encourage you to haul in your wagons and rolling coolers full of lunch, beverages, etc. Makes a day at the waterpark so much more doable. Schlitterbahn is fun but story & theme are not their foundation. You're not going to escape to another world there. You're going to get wet, laugh, play, but the fact that you are where you are and you'll be going back to where you came from never escapes you. If that makes any sense. :hammer: That's where Typhoon Lagoon stole our hearts. We didn't feel like we were in a random water park or even at WDW for that matter. We were in a lush world not even close to being Florida.

Just go settings -> general -> bluetooth and turn it on. 'That would have been helpful... YESTERDAY!'

True. That would've been useful about 10-12 days ago. LOL!

Hehe did you ask who drank more? her or the sailor?

Nah! They're prob'ly a great couple with longevity even thru a military career for a reason.

Check out a recent story here - http://warbird-photos.com/report.php?ID=1

Looks like Tiger cruises differ in they are the longer duration.. where dependent cruises are the out and back type. I did a dependent day out of Norfolk. Yeah, we had free run of the ship.. I was about 12-13 or so at the time. We went as far down as we could go.. until going down we found a sailor sleeping on the gangway at the bottom of the ladder, and that's when we got scared and went back up

Yeah, we did the 1 day thing. I definitely feel jipped! We could've done overnighters???? LOL! Confession: I was always totally irked Dad forbade me to go near the berthing areas. I thought I was so grown-up at the time...what could I possibly see???? I just hated being excluded from anything because I was a girl. In hind-sight, glad I didn't see too much too soon.......... :lookaroun

Your vacation budget far exceeds mine We only do family vacays like this every few years. Now if the kids actually stopped doing such expensive sports like horseback riding, gymnastics, etc.. maybe that would change. But by then it will simply be college and weddings breaking me

Ah, we all live & breathe for travel. The old man works a lot of crazy hours and I do my best to run a tight ship around here. Wasn't always like this either. Our first trip in 2004 never would've happened if I hadn't sold every doll in my then very small collection to get my kids to WDW. I believe Tracey sold all his fishing gear, too. Who knows where we'll be in another year? Life's always changing which makes it the ultimate thrill ride. Our thought has always been that 20+ years from now we won't look back counting the dollars. We'll be laughing and reliving some killer memories. I feel ya, tho. These kiddos sure don't get any cheaper as they grow older, do they????

Kelly! Yes! I was periodically checking on here for you TR because I knew it would be coming up - I'm on the internet so much less now that I'm home for the summer, but there's always TR's you make an effort for

The boys are so big! I know, I know - I'm 22, if I think they're growing up then you must be beside yourself. But I remember the first TR I ever read of yours and they were just little babies!

Girl, do not stress about wearing a bathing suit. And that red dress? Owow. The pictures of you with your boys that night really are stunning. Print that one for the album.

So many adventures already! I'm loving the menus because they're the same as my Wonder cruise in February! I'm sad that not one had the Island Crusted Tuna appetizer at Parrot.. to. die. for.

And finally: You room? ? Holy crap? Shall I go on...

PS: you saw the Pixar painting on my TR

I knew I saw that painting in a pic recently!!! My brain is so unpredictable when it comes to what details it'll hold onto.

I know! Chandler is taller than ME! Had him to the doc again today and he's almost up to the same weight as his dad! I know it's a trip to watch friends' kids grow up in pictures. Just imagine, I can close my eyes and it's like yesterday I cradled those big ol' boys in my arms...nuzzled their little noses with mine...lived for their drooly open-mouth kisses they planted on my cheeks...danced happy dances when they used the big boy potty...listened to their delightful little giggles when I did the funny voices during bedtime stories...the list goes on. All the little moments, the insignificant things, I'd do anything to have them back. It rips your heart out but then you know it's the way it's supposed to be. The fact that they still randomly will come seek me out to plant a kiss on my cheek & tell me they love me just like when they were little guys...yeah...I think they'll be my babies forever. Brian still loves his Kissing Hand and tells me I'm his mommy. Chandler still whispers 'I Love You Forever'. I think it'll be okay. Well, until they read this and conspire to kill me! :lol:

Awww..thanks for the sweet words about my suit & dress pics. I truly don't think I see me the way I look to the rest of the world. LOL! Tracey wants the pic of me w/the boys on our Key West night for his desk. Awwwww.....

I wouldn't have eaten tuna anyway so don't be too sad for me. I'm so not a fishy-eater...

I know! That room was a total WOW for us, too! That's so not likely to happen again so I'm glad we could do it once.

Loving the pics of you and the boys at sunset! Absolutely gorgeous! And you looks fab in your dress as well! I do remember it from you TR last time!!

The water colors were so beautiful. I have been up in a small plane like that before up here in Maine. we flew over some mountains and countryside so it wasn't anything like flying over KW for you. But we did get to fly over my cousins house and see it which was pretty cool.

Thanks for complimenting my fab dress. I love that, baby! I need to name it the way Holly named her wedding gown. What could be the right name for that dress???? Hhhmmm.....Guess I'll mend it until it literally falls off me.... LOL!

The colors of the water were unbelievable. So incredible. Little planes are so fun to me. I don't fear them at all. Put me on a big passenger plane and I'm pretty nervous, tho. I dunno why. Prob'ly a control thing. Whenever we're in small planes Tracey's sitting in the front and I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that if the pilot fell over dead he'd be able to fly and land the plane with no problem. I'm not kidding. He knows airplanes like he knows the pattern of freckles on the back of his hand. All that stuff is pretty deep-seated in my psyche. Many interesting dreams over the years that involved a lot of this subject matter.....

I'm on board. Loving all the beautiful pictures and just to reiterate, You look hot in the bikini. Don't worry about what other people think.

WooHOOO! I'm hot again! LOL! J/K! I think I had good luck. Or the new point-n-shoot likes me....

loving the trip report kelly! your reports always have me cracking up. your room looks absolutely AMAZING! how awesome that your husband decided to upgrade. i love how he makes this spur of the moment decisions and you try to reel him back in. :lol: its so easy to get carried away with spending on vacation. he's very lucky to have you keeping an eye on things. can't wait to read more!

Oh man! He's very impulsive when it comes to spoiling me, not as much with the kids. He gets mad at me for not spending on myself more. I try to use logic and be smart. Doesn't always work out the best. I'm the opposite of him to a fault sometimes. I'll be so fixated on being practical that I'll pass up something then regret it. Like the stinkin' Animator's plates on the Dream! And the awesome DCL Citizen watch on our recent cruise. I should've said YES! LOL! Seriously tho, if I'd held firm on the upgrade to the suite I would've beat myself up for the rest of my life. You only get one 40th birthday and I would've felt like the biggest piece of crap if I'd let my quirks prevent Tracey's from being anything he wished. Ya know? We balance each other pretty well..... it's worked for almost 19 years..... nearly half of my LIFE!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Friday, May 11th is an important day in the old family history! May 11, 1993 is the day Tracey & I met! Our first conversation was us telling each other off.... :lookaroun I guess that should've been a sign.... :lol:

I slept until 8:30 today! Solid! Good, restful sleep, too. I sooooo love to sleep! Today was our at-sea day so there was no reason to get up too early. It was 9:30 before I was ready to walk out of the room which was too late for Lumiere's breakfast. Parrot Cay was still serving, tho! They had a buffet going on so we partook. Forget what I ate, didn't write it down, and didn't take any pics. Strange. Don't remember anything bad, tho, so that's a good sign. Right?

After breakfast I wanted to try an animation class. I've always loved to draw, sketch, paint, create, etc. so I haaaad to do one of these! We were a little late to catch the first adult-only class so we waited patiently outside Diversions a little while until it was closer to the time for the 2nd class. (There were 2 in a row: first Mickey then Goofy.) About 10 minutes before the 1st class was supposed to end Tracey peeked inside. There was only 1 other couple in there w/the instructor! They waved him in and got excited for new blood to join. LOL! They had already gotten halfway thru Goofy since nobody else was there. They were patient and let me catch up. Then we finished Goofy. After the instruction was over (took all of about 5 minutes) the instructor said we'd play some trivia for dibs on some of the instructional sketches on the instruction tablet. Okaaaayyyy.... The first question I was distracted because I was still drawing. The other couple didn't have a clue. The second question was a no-brainer: What's the names of each of Disney's 4 cruise ships? I didn't even look up, just rattled 'em off like I would my social security number. I "won" first pic but I made my choice for the other couple who'd been there the whole time to get their first choice. Seemed right. Not everyone obsesses like me. I think they chose Eve (which now I was kicking myself over). We ended up walking away with Mickey, Goofy, and my Goofy pic. After we finished Tracey & I lingered. We struck up an interesting conversation with our instructor. Brad from Texas (small world, big state) was quite interesting. He worked in entertainment. We asked how he came to work with DCL...his story started with "Well, I'd been under contract touring with John Mayer (<--I think he said) for 2 years...." Cool. Interesting guy. I think if I was a CM and had people acting all interested I might come up with lots of fun stories like being a Princess of some obscure country but I was trying to escape being betrothed....or something equally interesting.... Ha! We really liked Brad. Whenever we bumped into him for the rest of the cruise he was very nice to us, too!

So here's some pics I took of Diversions which normally functions within the nightclub district as a neighborhood pub type space...or that's the feel I got there....

I'm guessing there's some sort of snack buffet served?

Here's a cheap way to add color, interest, and fun to a room:

 

[UberPlannerMom]

Tiger Cruise actually is the name of the movie. IMDB has a little write up about it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397113/ I have no idea where you could see it nowadays though. Odd to think I was off by 2 years on how old it is though...

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Here's the door to Sessions again since we were walking past:

Went ahead and knocked our future booking out of the way next. Originally we were going to try to get my brother (obrienIII) a stateroom with his girls on our next DCL cruise (5/2013 Fantasy Western) but then learned about the new limits on onboard bookings. If we were booking that cruise for ourselves for the first time we could've booked another room for my brother. But we already had it booked. We ended up going with a "dummy" or "placeholder" booking. Basically the agent places your booking on some random, distant sailing that generates an inexpensive deposit then you can switch it to a cruise you want to take in the future and still get the onboard booking perks.

Next Tracey & I met Donald outside Preludes near the Walt Disney Theater:

It was fun watching the little kids interacting with the Don...but then look who peeked around the corner!!!! I tried to get better pics but my camera was totally confused as to what the heck I was trying to get a picture of:

I was kinda sad. Do you know what I'd do to get a pic with these 2? Together????

Then it was time for the Captain's Signing at the Treasure Ketch. We hadn't intended to get anything signed but in the moment it seemed like the thing to do. So we went into Mickey's Mates to buy a photo album to get the big autograph on the inside cover. Mickey's Mates coolness:

Then we lined up at Treasure Ketch.

The CM who took this needs to practice taking point-n-shoot pics. How do you take this pic and think "Good one"??? Oh well. We got the moment!

We took our album up to our stateroom then headed down to Lumiere's for lunch. I had mixed myself a niiiiice drinky-drink in my new plastic Margaritaville cup. I tried something new! While at the liquor store I bought a little bitty single-drink bottle of Jeremiah Weed's sweet tea vodka. I don't usually care for vodka but I heard this mixes extremely well with iced tea and a little sweetener. Boy, does it ever! Soooo yuuuum! So here I am with my oober-classiness giggling with my plastic Margaritaville cup that I can't stop swirling and marveling at now only half-full of loaded iced tea as we proceed into a nice restaurant like Lumiere's with me wearing cutoff shorts, a t-shirt, and flip flops. Hey! I was wearing a little makeup, tho. That could've been the last straw! Tracey had linguine with meat balls?

I had the reuben which was veeeery tasty!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Tracey had tiramisu and I had rum cake for dessert. I forgot to take a pic, tho. Dangit! I know I finished my drink. I felt sooooo goooooood....

I adore these light fixtures in Lumiere's! It's the lame rose!!!! ((long story from past history...))

Next we atta-boy'd and you-can-do-it'd each other as we waddled up to deck 10 to see what we could see. I stopped to take a pic of this cool picture as my excuse to rest...

This one, too:

We went all the way forward on 10 to look off the bow. We saw some neat rain showers headed towards us...or we were headed towards them:

I like the Mickey out there. And this pool is the crew's pool. No guests:

It occurred to me that when the rain arrives or we arrive at it there's going to be a lot of people running for the doors back inside. The sports deck behind us was hoppin' pretty good:

Getting closer...

And thankfully I talked Tracey into going inside before the herd was stampeding towards the doors! We went to our stateroom to take a nap. The rain came and it was an awesome sleep. Heavenly! After we woke up we decided to roll the dice and wake Brian. He had been crashed on the couch for over 3 hours. We woke him up hoping he'd sleep tonight (unlike last night). He was like misery incarnate. I believe steam came out of his ears. He was NOT happy. He takes after me. His body wants to be awake at night and hates to be woke up from a blissful sleep. Chandler came in at just the right moment which further assisted Brian in his gloom.

We needed to deliver our Fish Extender gifts. We made an executive decision and made the boys go with us to help. Trying to make Brian feel better, I handed him the list of stateroom numbers and nominated him for the most important job of navigator. Off we went! I forget the room number but we did get busted. Scared.me.to.death! Christina totally whipped her door open with us standing there, hands in her Fish Extender depositing our treasures into the pockets. She jumped and screamed which made me jump and scream. Then I shrieked, "Busted!", as she closed her door laughing like mad. It was so funny! I'm glad we got busted, tho. It really turned Brian's gloom around.

After the Fish Extender deliveries were complete we started showering and dressing for dinner. We wanted to be sure to make time to see the show and take pics in the atrium tonight (since we've been failing miserably with the Shutters pics) before our 8:15 dinner.

Tracey & I dressed then headed to the Walt Disney Theater to see Twice Charmed. We hadn't seen this show before so we enjoyed it a lot. Half way into the show, mid-scene, all the actors/actresses suddenly fell silent literally midway thru a line. Seriously. They all looked like someone had shocked 'em. They froze, looked at each other, then scattered off the stage in all directions. I was confused. Not sure if that was part of the story....or maybe I should take their cue and head for the hills???? :lol: The theater went dark and an announcement came saying they had technical difficulties. Okay. So we sat there for about 5 minutes before the cruise director came out to say the "computer" froze up and had to be reset but the show was about to resume. Okaaaaayyy...kinda hindered the show...it was kinda a cliffhanger part when the prince had run off in search of Cinderella and nobody could find him....so when the show resumed it was like magic! Poof! They found him! Still a great show!

After the show Tracey called the boys on their Wave phones to tell them to get to the stateroom, shower, & dress. We met them there. They were sweet and humored us with some pics before dinner. First up was with the cruise director (on the left) and the captain again (between Chandler & Tracey):

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Wow! That dress looked a lot better thru the middle before we left home. Even my Spanx was laughing at me:

I should've adjusted Brian's cuffs to the innermost buttons:

I notice the dumbest stuff, don't I????

We had our dinner in Lumiere's tonight. Tracey took these for me before it got too busy:

The menu. Good luck reading this blurry mess:

I have a love affair with these dang light fixtures!

Som was so fun tonight...he sang to me some. I had a salad and the tenderloin with mashed potatoes (hidden under the meat).

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Not sure what the heck this is that Brian had. Was chicken on the menu??? Oh wait! I think it was a short rib! Or maybe it was just lamb. Nevermind. I don't know.

Chandler had 2 entrees. This one was a seafood pasta maybe?

No clue. Looks good, tho.

Dessert menu! More lame rose! I love it!

I'm like Dug but instead of "Squirrel!!!" it's "Lame Rose!!!!!"

I had 2 desserts. Yeah, that helped the dress, huh? I liked the first one better. I don't know what this stuff was. It was yummy.

I wish I'd had a third dessert. This chocolate beauty Brian had looked yummy!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

During dinner we finally saw photographers making their rounds in the restaurant. We had photographers at every meal on the Dream which we liked. It's not often we're all together on the cruise and all fixed up. So here's the dinner shots:

The individual ones felt like mugshots when they took 'em (no, I'm not telling you how I know how THAT feels :lookaroun) except, of course, the ones of the boys. Of course a mother is going to think those are like prize-winners! :lol:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

At some point in the evening Tracey & I took some pics without the boys. I think these were while they were getting dressed. Or maybe they took a few pics and begged to go hang out a little while. Or maybe we did these before the show. Geez, I'm kinda bad at this! :lol:

I took this:

....while waiting in line for us to take this:

I don't think I like that last one, tho. Oh well!

My notes say next we changed & mixed a couple drinks to go to the adult cabaret in Rockin Bar D. When we got there they had someone at the door saying it was full but we could go watch the show via simulcast in Diversions. We went to Diversions, sat down for about 30 seconds, then decided watching via simulcast was gonna be lame so we took off. My thing is if a show is that popular, why not perform it more than once???

We wandered over to Shutters to see the few pics they had out of us. We gazed at the artwork that was out in the gallery area some more. We went to the shops to pick up the pirate tshirt Brian had wanted prior to the cruise for Pirate Night (tomorrow night). And, in true fuddy-duddy form, we turned in for tomorrow's early morning. Tracey ordered room service. I think it was a Mickey's Premium bar. I finished my notes. We watched Princess & the Frog and went to sleep sometime after 11.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Tiger Cruise actually is the name of the movie. IMDB has a little write up about it here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397113/ I have no idea where you could see it nowadays though. Odd to think I was off by 2 years on how old it is though...

I'll definitely look it up! Was it a made-for-tv thing? A bazillion years ago there was a made-for-tv movie starring Valerie Bertinelli called 'Pancho Barnes' (about the incredible lady of that name) that I would pay anything to get a DVD copy of. Seriously. We have it on VHS somewhere around here but it was in rough shape 15 years ago. I loved that movie, loved the history, the heritage. Awesome to cross-reference that movie to the bits of the infamous Happy Bottom Riding Club you see in 'The Right Stuff' (another of hubby's all-time favorites). I wish we could get the great obscure made-for-tv films on DVD! Really!

 

[Kristia]

Love your pics of Lumieres! I wish I had gotten some inside the restaurant. I'm not sure why I didn't. D'oh!! You guys all look awesome in your fancy duds lol! I was kind of disappointed in the roaming photographers on our cruise. For our dress-up night, they came kind of close to our table but never to ours. I would have liked to have some pics from that night but I wasn't going to chase them down in the restaurant. Same thing happened at our Palo dinner. Did we look that unapproachable? :shrug: I thought we looked pretty good those nights? We probably should have gotten some pics done in the lobby, but I had figured they would come around at dinner. Next time I guess.

I definitely want to hear your opinion of the non-Disney cruises that you take. I might consider one of the other lines in the future, but I am afraid that I have been spoiled by Disney! A friend of mine has sailed a few times on Norwegian and has always had a good time.

 

[plaz10]

KELLY. I'm absolutely loving this TR. It makes me sad that our cruise isn't for over a year away. I want to go on it nooooow. WAAAH.

You have got yourself some handsome boys! You're gonna have to keep a close eye on them and the ladies that are gonna be swimming around 'em.

The picture of the 4 of you in front of the cruise ship background? Gorgeous. Frame it please.

And the food? Oh it's going to be so hard to keep myself at my wedding weight on our girls cruise. I'm going to have to work out in some form every day - the cruise will be one month before the wedding. Eeek. Maybe I'll lose extra weight before the cruise so that I can really live it up on the Dream.

 

[iloverags2]

Your portraits came out so nice!!! Ours, sadly, did not.

We had planned on going to the animation drawing thing, but never made it. Heavy sigh. (I admit, I completely forgot about it.)

Your dessert is the Grand Marnier Souffle, which is to.die.for! They serve it on the Dream as well, I believe in Royal Palace.