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

NewfieFan · Feb 2, 2013

Still reading and very much enjoying! Sorry you guys didn't like TT 2.0, we very much enjoy it. I think I went in with very low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the neon for what it was, the outside portion doesn't really work now but if you ride in the dark it's a little better. We also skip all the stuff at the end but I still like the design process at the begining (however we do take the time to scan our card to see how our car held up). We love Star Tours and ride it mulitiple times on every trip now. I like the pictures you took of Little Mermaind.
(Your day on Castaway Cay had me just about drooling)

Sans Souci · Feb 2, 2013

I am still reading, too! Your husband cracked me up with his "thoughts" about Next Gen. LOL

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

NewfieFan said:
Still reading and very much enjoying! Sorry you guys didn't like TT 2.0, we very much enjoy it. I think I went in with very low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the neon for what it was, the outside portion doesn't really work now but if you ride in the dark it's a little better. We also skip all the stuff at the end but I still like the design process at the begining (however we do take the time to scan our card to see how our car held up). We love Star Tours and ride it mulitiple times on every trip now. I like the pictures you took of Little Mermaind.
(Your day on Castaway Cay had me just about drooling)

We scanned the cards before getting in the car on Test Track. We just never saw our car on the monitors to see how they measured up. Chandler's car was definitely unique! I was surprised not to see it. Our luck, I suppose. Maybe we'd have felt more "connected" had we seen how the boys' cars were performing.

I usually can't do Star Tours more than once in a row. It does mess with my head a little. The sequence we had this time was my favorite ever. I thought especially the part about going underwater was..well..fitting! LOL!

Yeah, the queue of Little Mermaid really is impressive and well detailed. I very much enjoyed that part.

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

Sans Souci said:
I am still reading, too! Your husband cracked me up with his "thoughts" about Next Gen. LOL

He cracked me up, too!

Billy6 · Feb 2, 2013

Touchpad doors on Fantasy....good for those "over served" kinda nights in Europa...

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

Where'd I leave off? Oh yeah, we were entering the ride for Little Mermaid!

I won't put myself thru all the work of typing out our full impression of this attraction. We enjoyed the music. It was cute. We're glad we did it once. We would never wait more than 10 minutes for it again. We thought the queue was the highlight. There. Not too much of the doom-n-gloom and I didn't waste my time or yours detailing it all.

When we reentered the sea-of-bodies outside Brian asked if he could break off for a while to go catch up with his Vibe friends who were also in the park. No problem. We all have our cell phones. We set a meeting spot & time and he was gone. Chandler elected to stick with us. Color me pleasantly surprised.

We were a little hungry and definitely thirsty so I weaved our way thru the masses over to Gaston's Tavern. I wanted to see it and try some of the offerings.

We got lucky and walked straight up to a counter for service. WooHOO! Tracey gave me only a little flack about not spending the extra $5 on the souvenir cup. Um, not carrying a sticky mug the rest of the day. No thanks. So we got a Lefou's Brew in a regular cup, a Sprite, a Coke, and a pork shank. But where to sit? All the tables were occupied. More seating needed? We ended up outside jockeying for space on the side of the fountain. Not to worry. Our grub was still pretty dang good!

Tracey described LeFou's Brew the way he did that nasty pumpkin beer a few days ago. LOL! Chandler smelled it and wouldn't go any further. More for MEEEEE!!!! I liked it! A LOT! I rarely drink any frozen drinks so the texture was a treat in itself, really. The pork shank was goooooood. Very tasty. Yes, sir. We are carnivores! Mmmmmm! After we finished getting our mini-grub on I wanted to see the inside of the little shop right there next to Gaston's. Don't know what the name is. Anywhoo, went in, glanced about. I thought the framed enchanted rose made of pins was kinda neat:

Moving on, I was lining up a pic of the Gaston fountain with the tavern behind him when Tracey decided I should be in the pic. Okay.

We made our way through the crowds towards the Belle's story thing. I wish we could've seen the inside of Be Our Guest but I had no luck the gazillion times I checked for an ADR before our trip and timing just didn't work out for us to be nearby at lunch time. Oh well. Belle's story thing had a 50 minute wait posted. That would be a solid "no freakin' way". We decided Haunted Mansion would be up our alley so we went that way.

What is it with us?! The Magic Kingdom crane HATES us!

Hence the reason we have NO pics of us on Main Street with the castle during the day.

Got to Haunted Mansion and WOW! There was an actual line.

Not used to seeing it this way.

And again, wait in line here or wait in line somewhere else. We proceded. The actual wait was more like 15 minutes to the stretching room, 20-25 to the Doom Buggies. Love love love the mansion. It's always a favorite.

When we finished at the mansion we remembered the pit stop we needed to make for our favoritest souvenir for any trip: a personalized ornament!

Once we finished with our selections Tracey & Chandler ran off into Frontierland in search of pretzels. I hit up the little "surf" type shop right there by the walkway between Adventureland and Frontierland. When we reconveined we decided to hit Pirates, another family favorite. Gah! Waited in line for 20 minutes! That's definitely NOT the norm for us. When we got out of Pirates we still had like half an hour until we were due to meet Brian but we were kinda itching to have him back with us. Tracey called him and he was killin' time nearby anyway. Super. We caught up with him in front of Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Now that we were all back together we stepped out of the way and tried to figure out what to do next. It was 6:30 and Wishes! wasn't until 8 or 9 (?). We all just kinda stood there looking at each other. Nobody could come up with anything they really wanted to do. Tracey piped up first, "Well, I don't know about y'all but I'm pretty much ready to be back on the ship." I don't think he got his sentence finished before the rest of us blurted out, "Me, too!" That was all we needed to hear. We all had a good chuckle as we made our way back out towards the hub. We did stop for a single photopass shot on the way out knowing this would likely be the last time we'll be here together like this for years to come. And, hey, you can't see the stupid crane at night!

We worked our way thru the masses and stopped at the Confectionary for some snacks for the bus. More Mickey crispy treats on-a-stick for me! Yummy! We walked out the door headed towards the tunnels and the exit when Tracey said, "Wait a minute! I'll be right back!" He ran back into the Confectionary and emerged a few minutes later with a Daisy Pez dispenser for me. Daisy's my favorite. He handed it to me, said he'd never seen one before, and it made him think of me. Awwwwwww!!!

Walking out Tracey noticed I wasn't looking back like I used to and getting all teary-eyed. Nah. I'm too excited about where we're headed.

There were DCL cast standing out by the bus depots to direct the cruise folks towards their stop. It was a long walk all the way out to furthest bus depot but we had ice cold bottled water waiting for us when we got there. As we walked up, naturally, a bus was pulling off. Sad face. A rep was proceeding through the line-up of bodies checking room keys for each person and picture ID for adults. There were probably a dozen DCL cast and Mears reps around. I'm sure it wasn't more than 10 minutes before a bus pulled up. We were so stinkin' happy to see it I had to take a picture. Crappy picture. Happy bus.

I even asked could I get a picture from the front. LOL!

The bus monitors were playing classic Disney toons which kept everyone pretty entertained. We got halfway out to the port when I noticed it was taking us an awful long time. I paid attention and noticed we weren't moving very fast. Whenever the bus approached anything or into a dark area the driver would hit the brakes. Tracey heard the driver on a radio asking what exit to take. This was not a good sign. Tracey has an app on his phone for flying and noted our ground speed at 47 knots. Um, that's like less than 55 mph. Then another DCL bus passed us up and it seemed our driver was going to follow behind this bus. I guess the route to the terminal had recently changed because the guy we were following missed a turn and BOTH buses ended up turning around in the parking lot for Carnival's terminal at the port. I think the entire bus was near mutiny by now. LOL! We ended up back at the DCL terminal at about 8:30 or so.

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

Billy6 said:
Touchpad doors on Fantasy....good for those "over served" kinda nights in Europa...

Amen. I hear ya. Are you sure y'all don't want to go on the Fantasy on 5/25????

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

*************************************************
Just for my brother Jerry's benefit I must stop to mention that we definitely found the MAGIC today. Yes, it was right there waiting for us at the port! LOL! Love you, bubba! ((smooches))
*************************************************

We cleared security and bag check in no time. Into the terminal we went. It was so odd seeing the terminal this way. It's night time. Never been here at night. And the place was pretty much empty with the exception of the other guests walking straight thru. See?

With nobody around it was nothing to walk up to the big model of the ship and snap pictures. No waiting for a turn up close or anything. Just walk up and snap-snap-snap!

And who ever gets the chance to nonchalantly mosey thru the Mickey onto the glass gangway to heaven???

We did! Except my husband wasn't so amused. He couldn't get back on the ship fast enough. LOL!

We took our stuff up to the stateroom and found this guy waiting for us:

We pretty much dropped our stuff and made a bee-line straight back out the door to Parrot Cay. They had open seating buffet dinner tonight. Oh my! I had a totally fabulous salad, carved tenderloin, and pasta. The service, the atmosphere..it was such a stark contrast to our parks day. I swear to you, I wanted to embrace the wait staff! Over dinner we all agreed that we definitely remember why our vacation preference(s) have shifted from parks to cruising. Big time. But really, in all fairness, it's kinda a bad fit puting a day of the hectic parks smack dab in the middle of all those relaxing days on the cruise. The two types of adventures are really quite different. The parks are kind of an odd thing to throw in the mix.

If I had this day to do again I'd have not gone to WDW even though it was free. If the weather had been warmer the water parks would've been a better choice. But given the choice of the 4 parks or something else like Kennedy Space Center, wandering about the Cocoa Beach area, or just staying on the ship I'd have to say that something else would be better for us. That's just me, though.

Both boys left dinner early to head up to Vibe. That was a great thing.

Tracey and I decided that as quiet as the ship was it was probably a good time to go throw our laundry in. We started 4 loads of wash and I took a soak in my tub with bubbles. Oh it was so niiiiice!

We had the laundry all done and were crawling in bed at 11:20.

Chandler came in around 1:00 according to Tracey. The ship pulled out somewhere around 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. Brian? Um, he came in at 5:30 a.m.

Billy6 · Feb 2, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
Amen. I hear ya. Are you sure y'all don't want to go on the Fantasy on 5/25????

I wish! Our annual June trip down is only a few weeks before that... June 8th..

Which one are you doing? East or West?

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

Billy6 said:
I wish! Our annual June trip down is only a few weeks before that... June 8th..

Which one are you doing? East or West?

West. We're supposed to do East on Allure of the Seas for Thanksgiving.

Billy6 · Feb 2, 2013

sweetpee_1993 said:
West. We're supposed to do East on Allure of the Seas for Thanksgiving.

Sweet! I hope you get the awesome service we did! Our whole team was awesome...

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

Wednesday, January 23 - Kickin' it at-sea with pirates!

I slept like the dead. Man, was I beat from yesterday. I slept right up until our 8:30 coffee delivery. I sat out on my verandah in my jammies enjoying the views and sippin' my coffee. Bliss. We were never far from the coast and we watched the better part of the day as we made our way down south.

I couldn't linger outside too long. Eventually I had to get moving so we could make it to our 10:00 Palo brunch reservation. Brunch starts with helping yourself to an amazing spread of foods. I was adventurous today and tried some stuff I've never had before.

Like tuna. I don't usually like fish but everyone makes such a fuss over tuna so I tried it. It wasn't fishy in taste and didn't have that same texture but I think my brain still hadn't gotten over the fact that this was, in fact, a swimmy creature. I also tried salmon. That was salty and I didn't really care for it. I also tried the bloody mary cocktail thing with the baby shrimp in it. I liked the cocktail part. Not the biggest fan of the shrimp. Ultimately, these are things I'm glad I tried but given the choice between tuna, salmon, shrimp, or a steak I'm going for the MOO!

I totally drank my mimosa and Tracey's, too. Yum!

I really tried hard not to go nuts on the buffet spread because the plated stuff you ordered was the good stuff. I had eggs benedict (LOVE) and the gorgonzola and grapes flatbread with fresh parmesan. I had read about this flatbread. It was supposed to be really good and it was! Gorgonzola and grapes seems like an odd combo but it totally works. Made my toes curl it was so good!!!

For dessert I tried the almond croissant, a warm sticky bun with whipped topping, white chocolate dipped strawberries, and sachet torte. The croissant was okay, not great. Everything else I'd slap my momma twice for! Heck, I bet she'd let me if she could share!

Over our brunch Tracey and I reflected on our parks day yesterday. We discussed how we felt about the "new to us" stuff and identified things we thought were good and things we thought weren't. It was interesting conversation to say the least. Loved our brunch experience. It's so nice, relaxing, and feels so special sharing it with my sweetness.

After brunch we returned to the room to change into comfy clothes. We noted our location on the bridge report channel.

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

At some point during the day we were close enough to land that Tracey dared to turn his iPhone off airport mode to see if he picked up a signal. He DID! He didn't try to use it, though.

We mixed some drinky-drinks in our tumblers and headed out to the adults-only Disney Innovations - Animation presentation in Studio Sea (deck 4, midship). The presentation covered the top 10 innovations in animation made by the Walt Disney Company. Very, very interesting presentation. I even took notes on a few things I wanted to look up more info on when I got home. I'm such a nerd.

This was on the wall near us in Studio Sea. I had to take a picture because the signalman Goofy reminds me of my dad. He was a signalman in the Navy years ago.

After the presentation we stopped to see our pics at the Shutters kiosk. That's always fun. We walked thru the art gallery area and looked for pieces we hadn't seen yet that had been put out. We saw this piece and I thought it had great soul. Definitely would be a good one for a villians fan:

We returned to the stateroom and I caught up my notes. We took a nice nap from 2:00 - 3:00 or so. When we woke we hit up Goofy's Galley for light snacks (fruit & flatbread) and ice cream.

We walked past the Mickey pool and noticed it was closed for disinfecting. Yes, folks, this is what happens when little kiddos have...uh...accidents...**wink wink**...in the pool. It has to be closed, drained, and disinfected. Makes for not a lot of fun for everyone, I'm sure.

We walked the deck 4 loop then decided we wanted to head back to put on our pirate tees for tonight. No, we weren't puting forth a lot of pirate effort for Pirate Night. We were in the relaxation ZONE. We were doing good to even change into the tshirts! Pirate night is veeeeery laid back and festive like that anyway. On our way back I needed to get a shot of this sketch:

I told Tracey this year I'd let him teach me to bass fish with him so I thought it was pertinent stuff to make sure to have documented. LOL!

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 2, 2013

We put on our matching 'Goonies Never Say Die' shirts and headed down to the lobby/atrium to meet Pirate Mickey. We were pretty early and the character handler placed us first to see him. Score!

We hopped right in line for Chip & Dale and scored character gold again!

We dashed back to the stateroom for a moment then zipped back down to the Walt Disney Theater to get bar drinks from Preludes and find good seats for tonight's show, physical comedy and juggling with Mike Price. We were 3rd row, stage left of center. Not bad. I wasn't sure what to expect but found the show to be quite entertaining. The unicycle riding reminded me of my brother. Bet y'all didn't know Jerry (obrienIII) can ride a unicycle! He got it dirt cheap at a yard sale when we were kids. I'd guesstimate he was maybe 10 or 11 when he got it. He couldn't learn to ride the thing fast enough for all us younger sibs. "Come here!" He'd grab your shoulders for balance and you just KNEW he was going to take your shins out with those constantly moving pedals. He learned fast, tho. It was really cool! The show was quite funny and very low-key. I even did a really awful thing and snuck a pic with my iPhone when the house lights were up!

I really liked the end part when he was juggling the glowing balls in the pitch black. That was really NEAT!

After the show Tracey & I jumped in line for 40 minutes to get a picture with Hook & Smee. Tracey just LOVES this picture and insisted we buy it:

Dinner was at Animator's Palate. While we waited we chatted up a nice family from Utah. The little girl and I had a sweet little conversation. She was telling me all about her Minnie Mouse and I told her a secret about Brian's plush puppy, Chip, who still goes everywhere with him. Yep, he was even onboard the ship in our room right now! She had fun listening to me talk about a big boy like Brian who still had his Chip with him. Then she enjoyed looking thru the pics on my iPhone. Sweet little thing. They were a cool family! The boys met us outside just before seating began.

Malwyn brought us a basket of bread including cornbread and this as a dip or topping. "Oh NO!" We all giggled when he put it down. I hate black-eyed peas or any similar bean with a passion. How fitting to have evil beans/peas placed on our table on Pirate Night!

The boys were pirated-up in their own ways. Chandler with his skull and cross-crutches tee (we're all Jackass fans):

Brian sported his bandana:

I had the pineapple and coconut-flaked banana appetizer:

Followed by the beef tenderloin for my entree:

I think Brian had a spare rib dish (?):

And Chandler had a seafood and pasta dish:

The boys were gone again before dessert. We didn't mind. I had the chocolate rum cake for dessert but only ate a couple bites:

I took a pic of this from the dessert menu because I thought it'd make a great tattoo:

Oh! I forgot! There were photographers roaming the restaurants! Here we are at pirate night dinner:

After dinner Tracey and I stayed true to our old fuddy-duddy form and opted to skip the pirate party and fireworks. We stayed in, cuddle up in our jammies, and watch Cinderella on tv. After that ended we watched a bit of Bolt. Loooooove!

Let's see, tonight Chandler came in at midnight or so. It was an early night/morning for Brian at 2:00-ish. LOL!

obrienIII · Feb 3, 2013

I'm all caught up now, where is the next installment? Inquiring minds want to know! What's next? Trip reports come first! Great trip so far, but would have been way more fun if I had been there. LOL Looking forward to our trip on the Fantasy in May, many memories to be made. Tell Tracey when he is ready to teach you to fish, I will be available this spring to teach you both! I love you little Sis, and "Roll Tide"!!!!!!!

PolynesianPrincess · Feb 3, 2013

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Castaway Cay pics!!! Oh I so can't wait to be there in September!!! Ahhhhhh!! And I think we might lean towards gettinga cabana if the ladies on the cruise are down for sharing!!!

And I am totally bringing my Goonies Never Say Die tee for Pirate night. So if you bring yours, we will be twins

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 3, 2013

obrienIII said:
I'm all caught up now, where is the next installment? Inquiring minds want to know! What's next? Trip reports come first! Great trip so far, but would have been way more fun if I had been there. LOL Looking forward to our trip on the Fantasy in May, many memories to be made. Tell Tracey when he is ready to teach you to fish, I will be available this spring to teach you both! I love you little Sis, and "Roll Tide"!!!!!!!

Geez, I thought I'd take a day off. LOL! Can I have Sunday??? Does the hour I spent talking to you today buy me any leniency? Please? Tell ya what, I'll buy ya a beer.

Cannot wait for the Fantasy in May! The aft is where it's gonna be AT!

Yeah, I'll tell Tracey your schedule is open to teach BOTH of us how to bass fish this spring. He'll looooove that. LOL!

Love you, too.

RMFT. You didn't say it right.

derelicte19 said:
LOVE LOVE LOVE the Castaway Cay pics!!! Oh I so can't wait to be there in September!!! Ahhhhhh!! And I think we might lean towards gettinga cabana if the ladies on the cruise are down for sharing!!!

And I am totally bringing my Goonies Never Say Die tee for Pirate night. So if you bring yours, we will be twins

I think Tammy & I are definitely in for the cabana. The cost is $499 for the first 6 people and $50 for each additional up to 10. That makes the max cost per person about $85 as long as we can get a minimum of 6 ladies commited. I don't care how many or who jumps in. Even if I'm by my lonesome at $499, I'm doing it. LOL! Spoiled much? You dang skippy!

I'm definitely bringing my Goonies tee! Prob'ly gonna get some fun ribbons for my hair and will wear my pirate skirt that I made for last May. Oh yes! It's gonna be FUN!

joanna71985 · Feb 3, 2013

So just wondering...how come Brian came in around 5:30am that morning??

sweetpee_1993 · Feb 3, 2013

joanna71985 said:
So just wondering...how come Brian came in around 5:30am that morning??

LOL!

Because when Vibe closes (at 1:00 or 2:00) it's customary for the kids to move their "hanging out" to other public areas such as on deck by the pool or wherever. I'm guessing "hanging out" is akin to when I was 15 and we "hung out" late. That meant we sat outside at a friend's house or by a campfire in the woods near our house and talked/giggled/comisserated over the trials of being a teenager. Well, okay, we did other stuff in the woods by the campfire but we won't talk about all that right now.

We've talked about the "what are y'all doing?" bit. It's just socializing and talking. There's always CMs about. We've warned the kids that if things start getting rowdy or inappropriate they should steer clear and we've talked about the many things that could happen. Plus, I'm sure if the kids did cause a ruckus or do anything to stick out too sorely they'd be shoo'd on by the CMs. Honestly, I think they sit out there drinking sodas and/or coffee (Brian says coffee is a favorite) until 5 am simply because they can. In their minds they're pushing the envelope which makes it the cool thing to do. We're just happy they aren't sneaking out windows, racing cars, boozing it up, etc. If this is their little "rebel" thing, I'm soooooo down! Gawd, I think of the things I was doing at their ages and I freakin' cringe! When I say I was the Afterschool Special poster child, I'm not exagerating. LOL!

joanna71985 · Feb 3, 2013

Wow! I must be the exception to the teen rule, because I never stayed up that late. I was always the first one asleep at sleepovers

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

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member