When You Wish Upon A Star...POOF your teens vanish!

CinderellyKelly · Jan 31, 2013

Love love loving this trip report!!!! My hubby and I NEED to book a cruise ASAP! I'm just nervous about cruising with our 9 month old. You have me seriously considering booking sooner than later!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

And I'm back from running errands!

Finding our cool Mickey parts magnets Fish Extender gift we were reminded we had gifts to deliver, too. Remember, this is the biggest gift exchange I've ever participated in with 39 staterooms and 143 people. Doesn't sound like a lot? Well, consider that I made/brought 2 gifts for each stateroom PLUS a gift for every person. That's like 220 gifts! Now you know why we brought 6 suitcases onboard. LOL!

Tracey & I decided the best way to do this was to go deck by deck. We loaded up our jumbo totes with all the gifts for one deck at a time and returned to reload for the next decks. We managed to get all of deck 2 done, reload, then hit decks 5 & 7. We stopped for the "steakhouse buffet" at Parrot Cay for lunch. Oddly, I never saw any steak but it was still good stuff. I had a salad and some carved lamb. We returned to the room and raced through gift distribution for decks 8 then 6. DONE baby! Why were we racing??? We wanted to catch the matinee show again.

We got to the theater at about 1:50, sat down, then decided we were totally worn out from all our running. We bowed out, returned to the room, and took a nap from 2:00 to 3:15 or so. I'm tellin' you, we were in the relaxation ZONE!

We woke up hungry again so we split some chicken fingers & fries from the Pluto's Doghouse walk-up on (deck 9, midship). We made it down to Animator's Palate with time to spare for our 4:00 Beer Tasting. Woot!

This is the one they had us pour. Tracey is super-good at pouring so I had him do mine, too.

And I snapped a quick shot of the back because Guiness is from Dublin! Someday I swear I'm going there!

So here's all our glasses that we sampled. Actually, these belonged to the chick across from me at the table. She was there as a good sport with her hubby trying to like beer but, sadly, beer isn't her thing the way wine isn't my thing. LOL!

We had: Stella Artois, a Sam Adams Lager (not sure which -?-, it had a silver label -?-), Newcastle Brown Ale, Blue Moon seasonal brew that was pumpkin flavor (nasty stuff! Tracey had me write down "A$$ BEER, DO NOT BUY!), and the Guinness. Tracey answered 1 of 2 beer trivia questions correctly so he "won" us a "bonus" beer of our choice. He, of course, deferred the choice to me so I went for something different. I chose the Strongbow Cider and had extra glasses brought out to share with our table-mates. The Strongbow wasn't very beer-ish at all! It was fruity and delicious! I'm not down with wines but I could drink this stuff!

Beer Trivia Question: What country consumes the most beer per capita in the world??? (I'll post the answer after I finish this post!)

We made our way back to the stateroom again. Look what we found outside!

Rain! And fog! I actually took like 3 panoramas of this but tipsy + panorama on the iPhone 5 doesn't mix well. I'm sorry. LOL!

Okay. One of the little things they do for the concierge guests is leave a little appetizer or finger food of some sort on your table in your room later every afternoon. We found our plate with cover and we were eager to see what we got to munch on today. We both stood over the table and Tracey whipped the top off the plate. And we both burst into rolls of giggles.

I get what they were trying for here: chips w/salsa, guac, and sour cream. But look at those chips! Are you kidding me?! I finally looked at Tracey who was still standing there holding the lid giggling and asked, "What the *eff* are we supposed to do with that?! It's salad toppings!" So my ever-obliging husband offered to demonstrate:

Still giggling over our plate of salad toppings...not that we didn't appreciate it...it was so cute...Tracey & I grabbed our Tervis tumblers, dumped in some liquor, and bounced off to the drink station to mix our drinky-drinks then head to the theater for the early show of "Villian's Tonight".

Oh wait! One more shot at the skyline pic!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Trivia Question Answer:

Czech Republic! Yep! Per capita! And Tracey knew that because last year he worked on a project with a project manager from the Czech Republic who told him that. Score for Tracey for remembering!!!!! Free beer for the old lady!!!!!! Woot!!!!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Okay! Now Villians! We decided on a different perspective and dashed for front row seats.

Before the show we chatted up a nice lady who was there with her son. She'd made the mistake of taking her daughter to medical yesterday afternoon after her daughter got sea sick to make sure there was nothing going around on the ship. Her daughter was then quarantined to her room for 24 hours. The ships don't play. If you have stomach issues you better not go to medical unless you're dying. Otherwise, you'll get quarantined. She said the staff was checking vigilantly, too, making sure she was in the room! Ouch!

Again, wish I could show you more of the show. The stage production shows onboard are really good. Just like last time when we saw this show, Yzma & Kronk made the show for me. Love them!

After the show we returned to the stateroom to get ready for dinner. More good stuff waiting for us!

Cabana time tomorrow! This is how the private cabana guests on Castaway Cay are presented with their writstbands and other pertinent info. I now have 2 of these origami cabanas! Woot!

As if I wasn't bouncing off the walls and distracted from dressing for dinner enough already, Tawanda showed up at our door with a special delivery for me. Another family (or 3) from the cruise group had gotten together and got me a special thank you gift for being the Fish Extender List Keeper.

How sweet is that?! I was shocked! Totally unexpected and very appreciated. I've never done the Rainforest Room at the spa onboard. I was almost moved to tears!

Tracey and I were ready to go in a flash so we ran down to hit up the Donald meet-n-greet. You'd think the character handlers who use dozens of cameras every day could manage pics sans blur. Oh well. LOL!

We also took a moment to go to Guest Services and sign releases so if for any reason our boys wanted to leave or return to the ship without one of us tomorrow at Castaway Cay (Disney's island) they could do that. Remember this people! If you want your kids to be able to come & go from the ship without you on Disney's island you MUST have the signed authorizations in place!

The boys found us in the lobby/atrium and we hit up one more picture spot before dinner:

Dinner tonight is at Animator's Palate:

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

Malwyn brought Tracey 2 bowls of French Onion soup from Lumiere's for his appetizer. Brian was about the bread:

Chandler & I had the wild mushroom risotto which is quite possibly one of the best dishes onboard the entire ship:

And then there's the BEST dinner entree onboard: the tenderloin cooked medium with wasabi potatoes and bok choy!

Next was dessert! This, of course, meant Brian was GONE!

Chandler had two helpings of the apple crumble. Tracey got wild with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. I ordered the chocolate cake and a Mickey's Premium bar:

The ship was rolling pretty good again. I love it! We made our way back to our room, showered, dressed in our pj's, and got all our (snorkel) gear ready for tomorrow. We made a quick trip back to the drink station for ice water. After all our beer and drinky-drinks we definitely needed to be rehydrating! We both brought back 3 cups full! When we stepped out of our room into the hall, though, we noticed the emergency lights in the floors were all glowing. The hall was dead silent. We saw NOBODY. We walked from our forward room location all the way to the aft stairs, up the stairs to deck 9, and out to the drink station and saw NOBODY. Tracey was concerned!!! He was like, "Um, should we be worried about this? Is this a ghost ship? Titanic???" LOL! Nope. Some kids happened along while we were getting our ice water so all was good. It's just late, I guess. Well, it was 11:00.

Oh! Another ship out there!

And we were off to bed. Chandler came in around 12:30 am. Brian? Who knows??? LOL!

sweetpee_1993 · Jan 31, 2013

CinderellyKelly said:
Love love loving this trip report!!!! My hubby and I NEED to book a cruise ASAP! I'm just nervous about cruising with our 9 month old. You have me seriously considering booking sooner than later!

Awwww..thank you! I think it's safe to say if you're going to cruise with a little squirt, Disney is the way to go! We absolutely adore it. Definitely give it some serious thought! I can't say enough good stuff about cruising with Mickey and the gang.

joanna71985 · Jan 31, 2013

Love the animation pictures! I don't know if there were any classes when I was on the Dream (if there were, I didn't go), but I ended up going to all of the classes on the Fantasy. It was fun, but my picture...very interesting

sweetpee_1993 said:
Hey, Joanna! I saw Merida at the MK the day we were there but her line was craaaaazy long. I tried to poke my head up so I could see if you were there. No such luck. There was just too many people. Definitely try the classic ships. Oh! Try the Magic next fall when she comes back to Florida from dry dock! There's even a 5 day double-dip at Castaway Cay! If we weren't going on the Allure of the Seas with Tracey's family for Thanksgiving I'd be all over that itinerary to hit the island twice AND see all the changes to the ship!

Sorry about that! Unfortunately her line usually is pretty crazy (which means for a hectic day).

I would love to do a double-dip on the Magic. That sounds like a lot of fun!

RobnRachal · Jan 31, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
...a $13k ring still comes out to be pretty pricey even by my standards! I mean, think about that! How many cruises can you do for $13k??? This is precisely why I'm still wearing my bargain-basement little diamond that I got after being married for 9 years. Every time I look at "upgrading" I see that glittery little rock in contrast to all the adventures I could take with my guys. I'll take the adventures, thank you.

AMEN!!!!!!

BTW.....I'm loving the fact that you love the muesli. It's our FAV...addictive additives...I think so

Uncle Lupe · Jan 31, 2013

Wow, what an update!
I would take the memories over a 13k ring. But either way you would still be hearing about both after 25 yrs. Your drawing of Goofy looked fine but better to me upside down. The shading in the mouth makes it look funny. So much better than I could accomplish.

The pics of the ship are awesome. Subtle hints of Disney, not smack you in the face cartoony stuff.

harveyt0206 · Jan 31, 2013

Loving the report Kelly. Following along. Loved your fancy pants attire. I'm so sorry your shoes gave you so much trouble. There is nothing worse than sore footsies while on vacation. You know, maybe those "high heels" from Crocs isn't such a bad idea. Lol..I took wedge heels on my cruise instead of traditional heels, so I kind of cheated.

I also love that you and Tracey are taking advantage of your at sea days and are napping. My Tracy and I did a ton of that on our cruise and we don't regret a single moment of it. The gentle rocking of the ship + being in a super clean and comfortable room = two happy campers taking some kick hiney naps.

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

joanna71985 said:
Sorry about that! Unfortunately her line usually is pretty crazy (which means for a hectic day).

I would love to do a double-dip on the Magic. That sounds like a lot of fun!

Oh it's alright. We walked past and I was like "Gah! No!" at that long of a line. And I'd so love to have met Merida, too. We'll have the girls cruise to catch up, right?

Oh man, that double dip calls to me. I would love to hit CC twice but it'd also be awesome to check out the Magic post-dry dock. I really love the more intimate, cozy feel of the small ship vs. the bustle and larger volume of things to do on the larger ships. There's been a few details leaked about design upgrades. I'm so itching to see the Magic after her overhaul!

RobnRachal said:
AMEN!!!!!!

BTW.....I'm loving the fact that you love the muesli. It's our FAV...addictive additives...I think so

OMG! I love the muesli onboard! At home I normally seek out a small-ish power breakfast that's not too heavy, not loaded in calories, and a solid power punch nutritionally. Normally that's oatmeal. I found a recipe last summer for cold oats w/milk & berries that's as close to the muesli as I've produced. One of the local stores has instant dehydrated muesli but its not very good. I'd do anything to know how DCL makes theirs!

Uncle Lupe said:
Wow, what an update!
I would take the memories over a 13k ring. But either way you would still be hearing about both after 25 yrs. Your drawing of Goofy looked fine but better to me upside down. The shading in the mouth makes it look funny. So much better than I could accomplish.

The pics of the ship are awesome. Subtle hints of Disney, not smack you in the face cartoony stuff.

Well then, I've got 5+ years to go! This fall will be our 20th. Wowzers!

I love the Disney ships! They're so subtle and classy. It's definitely Disney with character and story infusion but in such a classic, understated way. So many clever details to discover. I'm afraid that's what I'll miss on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas later this year. Don't get me wrong, that ship looks amazing. It's just in a very different way. I think all the glitz & glam may be lost on a girl who prefers story and understated elegance.

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

harveyt0206 said:
Loving the report Kelly. Following along. Loved your fancy pants attire. I'm so sorry your shoes gave you so much trouble. There is nothing worse than sore footsies while on vacation. You know, maybe those "high heels" from Crocs isn't such a bad idea. Lol..I took wedge heels on my cruise instead of traditional heels, so I kind of cheated.

I also love that you and Tracey are taking advantage of your at sea days and are napping. My Tracy and I did a ton of that on our cruise and we don't regret a single moment of it. The gentle rocking of the ship + being in a super clean and comfortable room = two happy campers taking some kick hiney naps.

I'm so glad you're following along, too! Thanks for the compliments on the fancy clothes. I felt so awkward! I sure wish those shoes would've loved me back, too. I have some other heels that I do fine with. Maybe it's just the shoe. Who knows!

Oh yes! My man & me loooove to cuddle up for our naps. It's total bliss especially on the ship. Like you said: comfy bed, amazing environment, gentle rocking. It's perfect!

Pooh'sBuddy · Feb 1, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
I'm hoping DCL will come back to Galveston again in a few years. It'd be nice. For now we're oober happy to have had the opportunity to cruise so close to home and definitely considering the other lines/ships that sail out of both Galveston and (later this year) the Houston ports. One of the families the boys met that had more than one teenager, too, is fairly closeby in Austin. We chatted their parents up on the last night of the cruise and definitely have plans to get the families together soon. They mentioned sailing the Carnival Magic out of Galveston in January 2014. I wouldn't be opposed to that ship. It's big, new, and has a full waterpark on top. Sounds like a winner to me!

Since we drive from Austin, I'm not sure if it matters whether we get a cruise out of Houston or Galveston, but I like the additional option (crossing fingers). Has Houston had its port open to liners lately? Glad you made some friends pretty close by. The spa gift card and the gift exchange were such great ideas! I can't wait to hear how you used it. Did y'all know about a gift exchange in advance or did you just decide to do that? Sorry if I missed your explaining it.

Oh, and the beer tasting would be great for the hubby. I'm not adventurous. Just give me a Shiner.

joanna71985 · Feb 1, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Oh it's alright. We walked past and I was like "Gah! No!" at that long of a line. And I'd so love to have met Merida, too. We'll have the girls cruise to catch up, right?

Oh man, that double dip calls to me. I would love to hit CC twice but it'd also be awesome to check out the Magic post-dry dock. I really love the more intimate, cozy feel of the small ship vs. the bustle and larger volume of things to do on the larger ships. There's been a few details leaked about design upgrades. I'm so itching to see the Magic after her overhaul!

Oh definitely!

One reason I want to go on the Magic is for the shows (I really, really want to see Twice Charmed). I'll have to look into that cruise

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

Monday, January 21 - Casting All Our Cares Away

Oh yeeeessss!!! Today was one of our mostest anticipated days of the trip! We're going to Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Abaco Islands chain in the northern Bahamas. I'm not a beachy girl but even I find this idealized paradise to be a place I long to be. But was it always the picture perfect island getaway??? Let us pause for a quick history lesson!

Of course there was a history long before Mickey & the gang arrived on Castaway Cay. In fact, before Mickey & Co. renamed the island it was known as Gorda Cay. You can see Gorda Cay on this map below the name "Great Abaco":

Gorda Cay has a wonderful rich history! In the 1700's it's said that real pirates were frequent visitors to the island. It wasn't until the 1950s that the world outside of locals even knew of the island's existance. In the 1960s a real estate investor, Alvin Tucker, purchased 150 acres of Gorda Cay's 1000 acres with grand plans. In fact, he's the fellow who built the runway on the island that is still there today. Oh but the criminals of the world discovered Gorda Cay and started using it for less than magical purposes. Mr. Tucker heard how the drug runners were using his air strip as a stopover to bring narcotics into Florida. He visited the island less and less then eventually sold his land to a private company. By the 1980s any owners of land on the island were being chased off by hostiles with guns and locals claimed to see up to 6 planes a day coming & going. It was discovered that Frank Barber, an American who lived in Florida, had been behind the private company that purchased the island. He was running his own little "empire" from there. In 1983 there was a bust on the island involving $100 million dollars worth of cocaine. Barber went to prison and died there.

On a positive note, before acquiring the island Disney filmed part of the Tom Hanks & Daryl Hannah film "Splash" on Gorda Cay. Cool stuff!

In the '90s Disney bought the island. They poured a reported $25 million dollars into developing 55 of the island's 1000 acres over an 18 month period of time. Just a few short years ago when construction of Disney Cruise Line's 2 new larger ships, the Dream & Fantasy, had begun the island's guest offerings were expanded to accomodate the larger number of guests who would be visiting soon. This is when the private cabanas, Pelican Plunge, Cookies II, and various other offerings were added.

Yes, there's a small group of employees who live permanently on Castaway Cay. There's even a black cat named Casey who lives there full time. Some workers come over via boat from other nearby islands. Like the parasailing and/or fishing vessels come over from other islands. For the most part, the castmembers you see working on the island when the ships dock and guests are visiting come from the ship. Bartenders on the ship will be working serving bar drinks on the island. Cooks will be in the kitchens cooking. Custodial folks will be all about keeping things neat and tidy. Retail cast will be working in the gift shops. And, of course, supplies to keep the island running like the well-oiled machine it is come from guess where??? The ships! It's really quite brilliant!

Before I return to the trip report I'll leave you with a link to a really great article written by a grandson of Alvin Tucker. If you have some time I highly recommend taking this one in. Oh so fascinating!

"Blackbeard Doesn't Come Here Anymore" by Robert Antoni, 1999

I woke at 7:00 with a raging headache. Not today! I quickly took 3 ibuprofen liqui-gels and drank a full cup of water. We dressed and hit Topsider's for breakfast around 7:30 or so. We had docked but it wasn't yet time to go ashore. We returned to our stateroom, to our lovely verandah, to anxiously await the call for all-ashore.

Who's ready?!

Ooooh...we'll be waaaay over there very soon!

Lifeboats are going for a visit, too! We watched some of these being lowered to the water:

Kelly's toes goes to Castaway Cay....AGAIN! WOOT!

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

Pooh'sBuddy said:
Since we drive from Austin, I'm not sure if it matters whether we get a cruise out of Houston or Galveston, but I like the additional option (crossing fingers). Has Houston had its port open to liners lately? Glad you made some friends pretty close by. The spa gift card and the gift exchange were such great ideas! I can't wait to hear how you used it. Did y'all know about a gift exchange in advance or did you just decide to do that? Sorry if I missed your explaining it.

Oh, and the beer tasting would be great for the hubby. I'm not adventurous. Just give me a Shiner.

As of right now the Houston port isn't being used by cruise ships. Really a shame! We live maybe 10 minutes from the terminal (we're in Kemah). We drive by all the time, tho. That's a gorgeous building. I'm dying to see inside! I believe Princess is going to be sailing out of the Houston terminal in the fall. I want to say in October??? Not 100% sure. I can understand why the Houston port isn't an obvious choice. I mean, that area is pretty industrial and all. But it's also fairly close to the space center and the Kemah Boardwalk. It could work! And with all the recent roadwork that's been finishing up on 146 over there, I think it'd be a great option.

I knew to find and make contact with others sailing on our same cruise on another fan forum ahead of time. ((It's kinda un-kosher to mention other fan forums by name since they're technically "the competition"

)) That's where Fish Extender Exchanges started. I've participated in them twice before. I started chatting with the other cruisers, many of which were first timers. It seemed like everyone wanted to do a Fish Extender Exchange but there was no list keeper heading it up. So, even being what I feel to be a novice, I offered to make & maintain the list. I just modeled what I did after what I'd experienced previously and it worked out okay.

joanna71985 said:
Oh definitely!

One reason I want to go on the Magic is for the shows (I really, really want to see Twice Charmed). I'll have to look into that cruise

"Twice Charmed" is good! Have you seen "Dreams" yet??? That one was a first for us on this cruise and it blew us away! But I'll get to that! LOL!

Disneyfalcon · Feb 1, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Um yeah! We've talked about the same thing with furniture before. ((Although I did finally crack and buy a new sofa & chair when we moved last summer.)) I'd rather stick with what I have for lots of things (car, furniture, bedding, clothes, jewelry, etc.) even if it's not the nicest, newest, or fanciest and use the money towards more memories. It's all in what you value, I suppose. To me nothing is worth more than adventures with my family. That's the stuff we'll be talking about 25 years from now...not how nice my car was or how awesome my jewelry was. Right?

We have talked about that before! You're so right! I totally agree with you.

Dublin? Maybe now that you have conquered the cruising world, you should try an ABD to Ireland! Although I've heard once you go an an ABD, you never want to go on any other kind of vacation again.

That Mushroom Risotto is one of my favorites too. I love it!! So much!!
Oh my word, when I saw you all on the balcony waiting to get off, I was dying to go with you. Dying!!!
Yay! CC toes!!

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

We're sooooo itchin' to go!

Around 8:30 the all-ashore announcement went out. Deck 1, forward & aft gangways were open!

Judging by this pic, we stepped off from the forward gangway:

We hopped the tram out to Pelican Point then checked-in at the cabana check-in booth. We were immediately loaded onto a golf cart to be taken to our own private hideaway for the day:

For those who don't know, there are 20 private cabanas that you can rent for the day on Castaway Cay. They are numbered 1 thru 21, there's no #13. Numbers 1 through 17 are on a roped-off, private section of the family beach. Numbers 18 through 21 are located out on Serenity Bay, the adult beach. During busier times of year the cabanas can be virtually impossible to book. They're highly sought-after but in very limited supply. They generally book up extremely fast, sometimes within minutes of opening to the earliest booking windows. In September Tracey & I had cabana #19 on Serenity Bay. Today we were going to be here:

Wondering what all the hullabaloo is about? Well, first there's the $499 view!

And the love affair with the view from Cabana #6 begins. Seriously, when we arrived we all darted straight thru the front door, out the back, out onto the deck, and gasped.

Basically, the cabanas are like your own little posh spot to have as your home base. There's cushy seating and loungers...

Uncle Lupe · Feb 1, 2013

It's edutainment!!

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 1, 2013

Not to mention it's a place for non-beachy-girls like me to escape the....gasp....sand! There's a fridge stocked with canned sodas, bottled water, and moist clothes to refresh you on a hot day. Run out of something? No problem, mon! Just ring the concierge call button and someone will be there to bring you what you need in a flash!

There's also snacks:

And, as you can see in the pics above, there's a safe and plenty of towels. Oh! There's also a curtain you can draw to make a little changing room for you. We used this quite a bit!

Not pictured are a basket full of magazines, sunblock, the sand pail & toys, floats, tubes, snorkel gear, and bike rental all included for you! Oh! And you also get your own private hammock! I was worried Chandler would stay in that thing all day!

Here's our little hideaway from the beach side. Note to the left side of the steps is a fresh water shower AND foot wash!

The water was so beautiful I couldn't stand it! I had to walk out there! And the view was still totally killin' me!

Lookin' back from the beach:

When You Wish Upon A Star...POOF your teens vanish!

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