jenseib

I know, it's very strange looking

Pool Time!!!!! Claire really like the zero entry. I was then given instructions. I am sure if you are a Mom, or even a Dad, you know about these “rules” you have to follow. I was to walk to the other side of the pool and then “wait” and watch her come in from the zero entry side. Of course she made it much more complicated and there was a reason for this, though I am not sure what it was. I did as I was told and then watched (and took pictures) of her coming in. I settled on a chair and pulled out my kindle, took my shoes off and relaxed a few minutes and shot a few pictures as well. I then kind of looked out and around for the slide and spotted it. I found it and pointed it out to Claire. I now had new rules. I had to move close to the slide so she could swim over there and go on it. I told her I could see her just fine from where I was, but that was not the correct answer. I NEEDED to be over near the slide. I am sure this had to do with a bit of the jitters about going on the slide for the 1st time by herself. So I gathered my stuff and moved over a little ways closer to the slide. I settled in once again. Claire slowly swam over. Like I said, I think she was nervous and excited about going on the slide. I took some pictures while I waited for the “moment”. That is the pool bar over on the other side. And now the moment we all have been waiting for. She is going to go on the slide!!! I was supposed to take a picture of her coming down, but it was hard to see and then time it right. I think this is her head just going under. That was not good enough for her and I had to keep trying off and on all day long. I liked this sign, too bad it’s kind of hidden. So Claire’s goal was to go down the slide as many times as she could, and I was supposed to take a picture of her each and every time. Ok, after about 50 times down, I told her that I think I could sit down now as I am sure I got at least a couple of pictures with her in it. I loved that the resort had free wifi, and though it’s not the best and I would lose it every so often, it was great to take my kindle out and try to catch up on facebook. Sadly facebook doesn’t always like me and at times I try to post and it tells me it can’t be done. I had this issue at home and thought maybe it was my connection there, but it did it to me at Disney as well, so it’s just me in general that isn’t liked. LOL Claire had spent about a half hour of going down the slide and then she wanted to go check out the hot tub. And we saw a little creepy crawler friend. We decided it was time to explore a bit. And we found some Flamingos. Off in the distance, these guys were resting. More Flamingos. A view of the lodge from here.

How exciting. Remember top take is slow. Get fast passes when you can, and don't try to over do it. Especially if you have kids with you. Things are notgoingto go in perfect flowing order, especially with kids, so if you know that going in, it's less stressful.

Thanks for reading along. That thing is the hairdryer if you can believe it. I never used it, so I can't really say how well it works. But I have heard complaints over the years, so I just brought my own to be on the safe side. The 2 new ships do not have that kind of dryer. Theirs are more normal, like a travel sized hair dryer.

After my drawing class I went in search of Lisa and found her sun bathing. I showed her my picture and told her I was going to head back to the room and put it away. I think I barely walked about 15 steps away and it started raining. There was a mad rush of people jumping out of the pools to a dry spot, which I found kind of funny. They were wet and now they are avoiding getting wet. You can kind of see the rain in this picture. I headed back to the room and found these cups. I guess someone from the fish extender group left them and Lisa had brought them in. We were not part of the official exchange, but signed up to get any extras since many people said they had made too many items. I was shocked at how much stuff we actually received and I am thankful to all those kind hearted people. While in the room I decided to get a few more pictures of different things in there. And I went out to the veranda to admire how beautiful and peaceful the ocean was. While hanging in the room, Lisa arrived. She said it rained pretty hard for a few minutes and she just decided to get out of there. We flipped on the TV. I think I decided I needed a short nap and told Lisa to wake me in ½ hour if I fell asleep. Before I knew it I heard my name and was told to get up. I had totally conked out. Lisa said I had even started to snore. I could see why too. I had my head on high pillows and the position I was in made me bend at the neck putting my chin almost on my chest….so basically I was cutting off my air supply. We decided it was time to get some lunch. These aren’t the best pictures because I took them with my point and shoot. They had a lot to choose from today too. After lunch we had planned to see Brave in the Buena Vista Theatre. Brook had told us to save her a spot as she wanted to see it too. We headed off for a potty break first. We were lucky and had grabbed sweatshirts before going. That theatre is VERY cold. It also got packed very fast. We watched for Brook and never saw her. It got to be standing room only and we gave up looking. I was shocked at how cold it was in there, but others must’ve been there before because many people brought in blankets and curled up together under them. The movie was good. This was Lisa’s first time seeing it and she enjoyed it. We used to go to Disney movies a lot together as I would take my other 2 kids and she would come along to see them. I used to make fun of her because she would cry in almost every movie. I seemed to have softened a bit because I now tear up as well. When the lights came up we quickly dried our eyes and headed out. We stopped off in the room to drop off our sweatshirts and I took a picture of some of the treats we had received so far. We went up on deck and sat for a few minutes and saw a plane. My guess is that we were near Cuba. We ran into Brook and she wanted to go to the Quiet Cove to get a coffee drink and so did Lisa. We ran into this guy on our way. Brook had said that they had tried to come to the movie but it was so packed that they just walked by and gave up. Inside the Quiet Cove Café I took pictures while the girls made their orders. (I don’t drink coffee). They had one named for Toledo, which I thought was odd. Toledo isn’t really known for its coffee that I know of.

And then Pluto arrived! I believe this was a big highlight for Susan because I think she has a dog at home named Pluto. We started to eat and I noticed Mickey walk by on his way out. He had already made it through the whole room, probably because he was skipping half the tables. LOL. I quick told a CM walking by that Mickey had skipped half our table and they grabbed him and brought him back to get a picture with Lisa and Carolyn. And not long after that, Minnie arrived. We then worked on our meals while Luis did his best to make us all look like fools with our napkin hats. He asked me if I had a preference and I told him “I want to be rich, do you got a hat for that?” And he gave me Minnie ears/bow because he said she was the richest lady he knew of. We talked about plans for the day and I had decided I wanted to hit the 2nd animators drawing class. Lisa was going to go and get our laundry and I would meet up with her later. I made a bathroom stop in Beat Street and I guess I really was admiring the floor. I went into Diversions and looked for a seat. There were actually quite a few people in there. I wanted to be able to see well and the only table that was in a good spot had someone’s drawing from the class right before. I asked some others if that person was coming back and no one knew, but said she had been gone for quite a while now. They told me to just sit there and I could share the table if she came back. She did come back eventually and seemed surprised to find me there. Then a little bit later more family members came in and she waved at them. We were at a VERY small table, so they really couldn’t join us and went to a table in the back. I kind of felt bad, but there was no way they all would’ve fit at this table even if I did move. Our instructor was so nice. She was one of the dancers from the sail away party and she chatted a lot with us and told us how hot this weather was compared to being in NY just a week prior. She also told us that she was NOT an artist at all. She said another girl usually does the classes and a few weeks back had gotten sick, so Disney asked her if she could draw and she promptly told them no, and they said “Great, here are some books to look at and you can teach the class will be tomorrow.” LOL! She said she really does enjoy this now and her and the other girl take turns teaching now. If you haven’t guessed yet, we drew Pluto. And here is my version of Pluto. I was actually pretty proud of it, as I have no artist skills at all. My table partner offered to take a picture of me and my masterpiece. And Sheree’s Pluto, which is MUCH better.

Sept. 24, 2012, Day 4 Navigators of the day. Today we woke up and decided we would do a load of laundry. Between the 2 of us we had a few items we wanted to wash and as sweaty as we had been over the past few days, it might be nice to have some extra back up clothing. While we gathered our things I took a few pictures around the room again. We liked to track where we were at each day. We got our load started and headed up for a quick something to eat. We had a character breakfast today, but our rumbling stomachs were not going to make it till then. We chatted and enjoyed the view once again. We then went back down to put the laundry in the dryer. It was soon time to head to our character breakfast, something I did NOT want to miss. I thought the menus were cute. Brook, Carolyn and gang were there, but Mary and her gang did not show up. I don’t think we ever asked them why. We weren’t seated too long and the characters had already arrived. And Chip made a mad dash right for our table. He was a fast devil, but we all managed to get pictures with him. While we waited for our next character we looked over our menus and got ourselves ordered. Goofy was next and Carolyn had a Goofy tee on, so he stopped to read it. And then the Big Cheese himself arrived. And evidently he was in a big hurry because he totally skipped Lisa and Carolyn. While we waited …I looked up. And then Dale come over. He was having a hard time looking in the right direction. Hey Dale, look over here! Hunh? Over here! No! This way! Much better! And then it was time to look extremely goofy! Lisa looks so thrilled. Probably because the food came and she is waiting to eat. LOL Speaking of food, here is what I got. I also got a hash brown, but must’ve not taken a picture of it.

I guess I was more worried about being wasteful. Somethings I knew I would only take 1or 2 bites of and I knew they would bring me a whole plate of it. I had even asked for half portions and they never did, it was always the full meal. I did get a few extra things here and there though. It's amazing how fast you get full. Some nights the servers would bring us a few extra plates of some things and we would all try it.

Pop is still my favorite resort. It's so much fun there.

We got back to the room to find a new friend waiting for us! And a nice little gift for being on the Galveston Maiden Voyage. We then decided we needed some pictures of us dressed up. I took Lisa first. We kept laughing because she had some strange facial expressions. And she wasn’t sure what to do with her arms. Then it was my turn. Yuck, I look too fat, make me look skinnier! Let’s have a fun expression! And now for sexy! Then we laughed at that one because my hand on the bed looks totally contorted. We then turned on the TV till it was time to go. They did have some awesome movies playing every day and we got to see bits and pieces of some of them. We started talking about the movies playing at the Buena Vista and which we would like to try and see. Lisa has always been famous for crying at Disney movies and I told her as I have gotten older, I now start to get teary eyed at them too. So I told her about Brave a bit, and I got slightly teary. Then we started talking about Toy Story 3 and I tried to tell her about the movie and the emotional part where they are all about to get burned up and I just start crying telling her it and she is getting tears in her eyes too. Then we start laughing that we can’t even talk about the movies without crying. So we blot our eyes and get ready for dinner. We start the walk to Animators Palate and we see Aurora walk by all by herself. I took a quick shot, but it’s blurry. Then we see Belle all by herself making her way towards us. I was amazed that they didn’t have any type of escorts. I must say though, on the ship, people don’t tend to chase the characters down like they would at the parks if they were alone. Belle went down the stairs and we kind of hung back a few minutes so she didn’t think we were stalking her. We made our way to Animators Palate and were directed to our seats. Mary, Julie, Erin, and Chris were already there. Brook, Carolyn, Susan, and Shelly had decided they did not feel like dressing up this night and were just going to get some fast service food and hang out. When we told Raphael and Luis this, they told us they would be sure to make those girls regret not coming. We made our orders. It was really hard to decide. There was a fish on the menu, but no one had ever heard of it and no one ended up ordering it because we just weren’t too sure how it would be. Again, I got some terrible shots of the menu. Bread was served. Fig and Date Ciabatta Roll with minted yogurt dip The show was not going to happen tonight since it was the Prince and Princess menu. I still took a few pictures of the room. For an appetizer I got Roasted Roma Tomatoes and Herb Flavored Goat Cheese on mixed greens with aged balsamic vinegar dressing. This was VERY good. I could’ve had a 2nd plate. I also got The Beast's Potato and Sausage Casserole Soup, a hearty recipe with a touch of paprika. Lisa got this too. From the description, we were expecting a potato soup. This was much more like a bean soup in taste and you had to really hunt to find anything that resembled a potato. Lisa is very picky and she was really surprised how much she liked it. I on the other hand didn’t care for it much, nor did many at our table. It was Ok, but not what we expected and I would not order it again. Then our entrées started coming out. Lisa got the oven baked fillet of salmon and potato. I think this one of those things on the basic every day menu. I got the Peppercorn Crusted New York Strip. But Raphael also brought out a few other main course dishes to try as well. This is the fish. Baked Fillet of Turbot, Garlic smashed potatoes, sauteed fennel, and a light dill foam. This was soooooo good. Many of us wished we had ordered it. We also sampled a few other items and they were all really good. But I was kicking myself for not getting that fish. Soon it was time to order dessert. Or so we thought. Raphael refused to let us order and said he was just going to bring us out something ….OK, I was worried, as I am picky with my dessert, and there was only one thing I really was eyeing on the menu. He ended up bringing everyone out a Sweet Temptations trio. Miniature tasting of Cinderella's Lemon Cheesecake, Chilled Chocolate Souffle and Tiramisu. Of those 3 items, I only liked the Chilled Chocolate Souffle. I really loved that, and could’ve asked for another one, but honestly, I didn’t have much room left anyways. Chris has allergies, so she was limited to what she could eat. He brought her out a full sized one and she swore she wouldn’t like it. Well she did and not only licked the plate clean but had a second one as well. LOL. He also brought out many other items to sample. Princess Jasmine Banana Bread Pudding. Brioche bread pudding, caramel sauce and toasted macadamia nuts. I have never had bread pudding before, so this was new to me. I actually liked it. Not my favorite thing, but it was still pretty darn good. He also brought out Princess Aurora Sundae. Rocky Road ice cream, topped with cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. I didn’t even try this. I don’t like chocolate ice cream nor do I like rocky road. I don’t even know if anyone had a bite. I think we just had too many other options and we were getting pretty full. We had a fabulous time this evening. We really got to know Mary’s friends well this night. It was again like we had been old friends for a long time. We sat and talked and I think it was actually close to 10 when we left the dining room. I was pretty tired today. I think we just pretty much chilled out in the room and went to bed. I guess I needed another picture of the lamp. I think we both went out pretty fast this night.

So I am now not so weighted down and feel so much better. Well sort of. Remember that muffin I had a butt crack thirty this morning? Well it’s long gone now. And the few snacks we had on the plane are not doing it for either of us either. Claire thought she could suffer and swim for a bit first, but I told her no, eating was first on the list. Of course as we walked away from Bell services I had to take a few pictures first. In case you do not know where Mara is …the fast food place in AKL, it’s down stairs from the lobby and outside past the pool. We have arrived. My biggest complaint about deluxes at Disney …the food courts pretty much suck. They have such a small selection. And it seems most carry the same few items. Claire and I decided to share a flatbread pizza. I knew it would be big enough for the 2 of us. Claire also LOVES pineapple, so we picked up a container of that for her. And now was the time to make that decision. What decision is that you ask? Well should I try the Zebra Domes. I have heard off and on for years just how fabulous they are. Then others will chime in and say they are just awful. It seems you love them or hate them. I had asked for descriptions, and people gave me some, but I never quite understood what they were. My fear was that they would taste like coffee, which I hate, or coconut, which I hate. LOL Well we took the plunge and decided to give them a try. We paid for our food and were handed a buzzer for the pizza. Another note, it was really weird how you ordered here. They had someone standing there with a pad of paper, printed with the selections and they checked off what you wanted from the grill area. I guess they then took it back there then to be filled. We sat and started on the pineapple and waited for the pizza. And we opened up the zebra domes and gave them a try. Verdict is that we like them. I think they are good, but not fabulous. Claire really enjoyed them though. My description of them is that they are like a chocolaty shell with chocolate mousse type stuff inside. Our outside shell was kind of melty though and we got a little messy eating them. I also would not be able to eat many in a row. One or 2 was fine, but more than that might be a bit too much. We did finish off the box, but I think Claire ate more than I did. Soon our pizza was ready and we dove into that too. Now I complained about the selection, but the taste was still very good. I just wouldn’t want to eat this every day as it would become tiresome and boring. While we ate we called Skip and checked in with him. We told him we were having lunch and he seemed disgusted because the last time he had talked to us we were eating at the Cheesecake Factory. He made some kind of sarcastic comment about that. Well I informed him that we pretty much hadn’t had anything to eat in between time, so we were now hungry. Claire talked to him a bit and we hung up. We headed out after that and our mission was now swimming. Well not mine, but Claire was all for it. I even walked around a bit looking at things, but with all the griping next to me it was just not meant to be and we headed to the bathroom to change. These bathrooms near the pool are VERY nice. They had showers in the back and were very clean. We chose the handicapped shower stall as it had a stool to place our bag on and got Claire changed. And out we went, passing the VERY tiny kiddie pool.

We made our way towards Sessions. They handed us glasses of champagne as we walked in. I do like champagne! I am not big on wine, but champagne always tastes so good. Carolyn and girls hadn’t arrived yet, but Brook and Mary were there. Mary’s friends didn’t come to this event. You could bring a pink feather boa, but I didn’t, mostly because I was lacking space and the one I could’ve brought that was Claire’s just sheds something awful. We sat and chatted a bit. We really didn’t move around the room much at all. I ordered an amaretto sour and Lisa got a bloody Mary. I didn’t get a picture of my drink though. Mine was darn good! I had thought Brook took my camera and took some random pictures, but I don’t have many, so maybe she didn’t. I went up to the bar and ordered a strawberry daiquiri and while I waited for that, I grabbed another glass of champagne …..yeah I was going to get my money’s worth in that hour. LOL Here is my daiquiri. And Lisa’s drink. They had some sort of Beauties contest. And some trivia and you would win prizes, which were magnets. I think Lisa got 1, and she gave it to me, but I think I left it there on accident. After 4 drinks I was a bit happy. They also had a beer drinking contest. Susan went up with a couple of guys. We were laughing so hard. She didn’t even come close to winning, but it was fun and we all had fun cheering her on. We then went for a group picture. I have no clue how I took this picture of Lisa, because I thought she had my camera, but maybe she has Brooks and then I handed her off mine after I took this. There is just no way to get a good group shot like this. We all kept talking and moving and being goofy. I am in the back row towards the left side. After our hour was up, people started clearing out and many went down to the atrium to get a group shot, but we didn’t feel like going there. I took one last shot before we left. One of the gals had a banner made for the event. It was really a fun time, but I drank too much. I was actually surprised how well I was doing. I rarely drink anymore and I had had 4 drinks in an hours’ time. I should’ve been falling over, and at most I was just giggly. We headed out and I made a stop in the bathroom there in Beat Street. This is a BEAUTIFUL bathroom. After that drinking, we had to get a snack. I think I got a Panini at Goofys. I did not take a picture of it, and it really wasn’t that great. It did fill the void, but it wasn’t tasty to me. I think it was the kind I got rather than just a really bad sandwich. Lisa got some fruit. While eating, I looked over the back of the ship and took some pictures of the “secret” aft decks. After our little snack we headed back to the room to get ready for the show. We also wanted to take our dose of bonine for the day. After we were showered and dressed we headed off to the theatre. Guess who was out to greet guests? Sadly, I took about 8 pictures and all of them are pretty blurry. We found some seats and I took a look back to see if we saw the other girls, which we did not, but I did take a picture. The show tonight was Twiced Charm. I was excited to see it. I had heard about it for many years and never thought I would get the opportunity to see it myself. I really enjoyed it. The costumes were AMAZING! The only downfall for me was there is that they never had a real catchy tune that you wanted to sing for the rest of the night. Other than that flaw, I loved the show. Lisa loved it too. She wished we could take pictures just because she loved the costumes so much. After we left the show, we did some roaming. I wanted to find the door to the deck 7 secret deck. I think this is actually the deck 8 door here. Lisa was worried we would get in trouble for being back there, but I assured her we would be fine. We headed down to deck 7 then. And I opened the door and got 2 quick shots. It was a major wind tunnel when I opened that door. WOW!! And then we headed back to our room again.

We decided to get lunch and I think we ran into Brook right as we were about to walk inside to go to Topsiders. If I remember right, we had to wait a few minutes for the restaurant to officially open. Luis, our assistant server was working the door area and we chatted with him a few minutes and then I decided to take a potty break before we ate. When I came out, Topsiders was now open. I looked up and didn’t see Brook and Lisa, so I went directly towards the buffet. Luis asked me if I was just going to leave my friends. LOL! I said no, they must’ve went in, and he points to them standing right where I left them. I guess hunger had made me blind. Luis is hilarious. He has a very serious, dry humor, and you have to watch his eyes, because he can make a lot of expressions with them. We just loved him so much. We got in line, and I am not sure why, but I recorded video of part of the buffet, and not very good video at that. I think today was a pasta or Italian type buffet. We found plenty to keep us happy. Our view while eating. Such a nice, relaxing lunch. We found we really loved sitting out on the back deck while eating, even if it was really hot. I had to get some dessert. VERY good. You can never go wrong with the chocolate chip cookie. I think Carolyn might’ve eventually joined us too. Brook and Carolyn both had gone to a DVC member meet earlier that day and were planning on attending the one open to the public after lunch. Lisa and I both thought we would like to go to. After all, there is a chance you could win some onboard credit! I think we headed that way right after lunch. It was in Studio Sea. We had a good time, but I really didn’t learn anything I hadn’t known already. This was all new to Lisa though. Susan was really good with the questions and won some prizes. Finally the moment we had all been waiting for. The drawing for the $300 onboard credit. And guess who won? Not me! But shelly did. I was so happy for her. After the DVC meet, we were going to head back to our room. We wanted to change and get ready for a meet and greet we had scheduled with facebook friends at 3 PM. It was called the Beauty and Beast champagne party. We had an open bar scheduled for an hour. The cost was really great too. I think it was only $13.25 per person. Brook had an informal meet and greet planned as well that some of us could drop by at in the Promenade Lounge from 1-3, I believe. We walked through there and only saw 2 others there, 1 being Mary. I took a few pictures before we headed back to the room. We said goodbyes and headed back to change and freshen up a bit. We made our way back to the room to get changed. We debated on ordering a snack from room service. I wanted to get the cheese plate and a Mickey bar. Lisa said she wanted one too. And then she asked, what’s a Mickey Bar?” LOL! She is not a huge ice cream fan, but she said she would probably enjoy it. We called and asked how long it would take to get delivered and they must’ve been busy, because it was going to be at least 45 minutes to an hour. That would cut it too close to our meet, so we just decided not to get anything for now. We still had some time to kill though, so we headed out once again. This bathroom was right down the hall from us. We stopped and took a look at where were we. And took a quick walk through the shops to see if there was something we couldn’t live without. We made our way up then and peeked in the arcade. And all the way up top then. I thought it would be fun to go to the front of the ship. This was actually kind of scary. The wind at the front is VERY strong and Lisa was worried we would blow off, so she quickly went behind the glass. I braved a few seconds and took a couple of pictures. We walked down to deck 9 and stood near the front but to the side. This was in the window to the gym. I just found it kind of funny being there. They had this set up near the adult pool, I assume to advertise their services, along with a few Cast Members. We still have 15 minutes before the meet. These were just outside the spa if I remember right. And we started making our way toward the meet and greet.

You are so right there. I swear Ohio is just such a boring state. Where I live we are completely flat lands too, so not much in the way of scenery. I love getting away.

OK, I am clueless. I don't know much about nickelback at all...is this a song of theirs?

Thanks. I have a lot written up, I just need to time to post it.

Seabass ala mode? LOL

This is what it was.

Oh shoot. let me fix that. LOL

Now one thing I forgot to mention. I had not told Claire where we were staying our first night. I am terrible at keeping surprises, plus I wanted her to be in on the planning, so a complete surprise trip was out of the question. Also the whole family knew and she was in on the very first planning meeting with family, so she knew about the trip before my sister even did. So my one try at a “surprise” was to not tell her our first night’s stay. Well that didn’t go real well because I told my Mom one day and Claire was standing right there. Luckily she wasn’t paying much attention, but I was pretty sure she had a good idea. She asked for months, trying to trip me up, but I held on. But I knew she heard me say Animal Kingdom. She still wasn’t sure and even the name didn’t mean a lot to her without a book with pictures. Once we got off the plane and headed to the bathroom I did tell her then and she was excited. But I could tell she still wasn’t “sure” where this exactly was or what it meant. The one thing she did know was that it was the last stop and it was taking forever to get there. Finally we were en route to our destination. And here we are!!!! It was now around 11:30. We got off the bus and waited for our carry on. And then we made our way to the lobby. We were both wide eyed and excited. Neither of us have ever been here at all, not even for dinner or to tour, so it was so exciting to see a new resort for the first time. We went inside and got in the online check in line, which consisted of just us. And checked in. Our guy was nice, but very slow. He left for a few minutes and came back with a package. Good thing he was on the ball because I wasn’t. I had forgotten about getting this box. Earlier in the week, one of the gals from our cruise group had to cancel suddenly. She said she was sorry and if anyone wanted their Fish Extender gift from her, she would gladly send it. I told her if she wanted to, she could send them all to me at AKL and I would be happy to pass them out for her. I knew she had worked hard on her gifts and I would hate to see them go to waste. The package was waiting for us. We grabbed that and our packet and were told the room would be ready by 3. They would text me when it was ready. Now I know how many people have been told this only to never get a text, so I knew I would have to check back later. Let’s just throw this out now. I stayed in 3 Disney resorts and all said they would text …I did not receive ONE single text from any of them. Claire received a princess crown too since I listed we were celebrating her birthday. I have never seen this before, and she seemed a bit unsure about it. LOL I was disappointed that our room wasn’t ready. I was hoping to have a nap before the party this evening, but we still had time. So with this box (which was not huge, but awkward to carry), and a carry on, plus we each had a back pack on and Claire had another bag she was carrying, we just kind of set out to rearrange our bags and then send some off to luggage services for a while. We decided to find a bench outside to do our business. Passing the pool made Claire very excited and she couldn’t wait to get in it. We found a secluded area and opened up the bags and got what we needed for the day packed into one bag and put the rest in the others and headed back to luggage services. I must say in the short time I was carrying that box, I was becoming annoyed with it. It was just hard to carry with all our other stuff, so I was glad to be rid of it for a while. As we walked back inside I took a couple of quick shots. And on to the elevator to go up to the lobby again. I think I heard a choir of angels sing when I dropped off our bags. I felt a little less like a pack mule now.

We headed out for our walk around Deck 4. On the way we stopped and took a peek inside the Buena Vista Theatre. We had a goal of seeing at least 1 movie at some point in time. And a look out the porthole. And then we started our walk to burn off a few calories. The crew was constantly stripping things and varnishing them. I think we walked at least 3 times around; we might’ve done 4 for good measure. It was already quite hot too that day. I showed Lisa the awesome anchor room we had found the night before. These cracked me up. Guys were working and at one point we had to turn around and come back after about 5 minutes. We headed back in then, passing the future cruise booking desk. And got a drink too cool off with. Lisa wanted to lay out by the pool, so I came along and brought my notebook. This was the only time I really worked on my notes very long. I most wrote about our traveling day and after that I have hardly any other notes from the whole trip. It was hot, but sitting there wasn’t too bad. Lisa read, I wrote, and at one point in time I decided to get a drink when the server told me there was a special. I said Ok, and Lisa asked me what I got. I had no clue. LOL. I couldn’t understand the server, but I heard mimosa and bloody Mary, so I knew it was probably one of those 2 options. I ended up with a bloody Mary. It was good, but VERY spicy. I like them a little mellower. Once the ice melted, it was better tasting for me. I think we stayed out there for 1 1/2 to 2 hours before lunch started calling our names.

Sept, 23, 2012, Sunday, Day 3 The navigators for the day. I didn’t keep very good notes, but I think I most likely woke around 6:30. I think Lisa was still sleeping so I got dressed and went out to get a drink. I finally remembered to get a picture of our door as I headed out. I got a hot chocolate and a banana and sat down and to write a few notes in my notebook and talked to a few other early risers. The crew was busy at work. After a good chat with some fellow passengers I headed back to the room. Lisa was up and we headed to fill our bellies at Topsiders. We sat next to the window and this was our beautiful view this morning. And my plate. While we sat and ate and chatted, we saw Brook and Carolyn come in. We didn’t holler to them, so I don’t think they ever saw us. I think they are in this picture. After we ate, we headed back to our room. Our plan was to go for a walk around deck 4. I took a couple more quick pictures while we were there. As I had said, I was warned that the Magic had some wear and tear. The balcony was where it shown most to me. It has rust spots and paint splatters. I am not sure if I took any other pictures of it later in the cruise. In this one you can see the paint splatters on the deck chair. This is our cooling box in the room. It does NOT get very cold at all. And the TV.

LOL . I do include lots of weird stuff.

???? Is this putting you to sleep? Or are you just sleeping with me LOL?

I made my way towards the Atrium. Taking pictures along the way. I really thought this was neat …in a strange way. This is the Port Adventures Desk. I made a potty stop and since I was alone in there, I took a few shots. Most of the public bathrooms looked like this on the Magic. On the Dream I think every bathroom was different. I thought these were nice, but I liked having different ones on the Dream.. I headed towards the shops. I ran into Brook and Carolyn in there. They were going to head to deck 4 to take a walk so I joined them. We went out to deck 4 and began our walking. I couldn’t really go too fast because I had on girly sandals. If you know me, you know I have awful feet and they hurt with just about any shoe, but a few tennis shoes. Deck 4 is just beautiful and peaceful. The Titanic deck as I refer to it. This is also the running track deck. We went with the flow, and yes, there were some joggers out this night, and soon we came upon this at the front of the ship. We were so excited. We never knew this area existed. It was like a jackpot for a Disney Geek. Who knew this room existed? I swear I have never seen pictures of it before anywhere either. So I took a couple of shots of what I call the anchor room. The jogging path goes right through it. After our geeky excitement of finding this hidden anchor room, that really isn’t so hidden, we kept walking. We found some portholes and took a look in. It was Animators Palates kitchen. We walked and talked and it was just so nice. If you have cruised before you know the wonderful sound of the hum of the ship and the water sloshing around. I need a sound machine with that sound. I mentioned that I wasn’t sure how Lisa was enjoying the cruise. She isn’t one to show lots of emotion and though I thought she was having a good time, I wasn’t positive. There was an incident many years ago with Lisa when she traveled with someone else and she said it was awful. She would lock herself in the hotel bathroom and call her husband, trying to figure out a way to get home, or spend time without this other person. I was hoping she wasn’t having these same sorts of feelings. A blurry shot of the Titanic Deck. In case you are interested, here is the info on the distance for walking/jogging this deck. It was time for me to head back in. I think Carolyn and Brook did too. I think it was just a little after 11 now. I guess somewhere along the line I walked past the laundry room because those are my last pictures of the night. I do believe Lisa was sleeping when I got back. I think she did wake up and tell me there was an irritating noise so she had turned the TV on to block it. And there was. We never figured out what it was, but it came from the ceiling right by the sliding door to the balcony. It kind of sounded like a bit of static or popping of some sort between the floors in the vents. It wasn’t bad, but when sleeping it could be annoying at times. I got ready for bed and worried I wouldn’t sleep. I have such anxiety on vacation that sleeping is very hard for me. But I did drift off and was woke up by Lisa making her way to the bathroom and she had ran into my bed. LOL The rest of the night was good until I rolled over against the wall my bed was against and hit the light switch on accident and we got a bright awakening then too. But I quickly turned them off and back to dream land we went.