jenseib

Lumiere’s was our restaurant for tonight. I will forewarn you now the lighting is bad and my pictures are not that good. I believe our table number was 41 and we checked in and were led to it. Mary’s gang was there and I think Brook, Carolyn and gang followed us in. We all introduced ourselves to Mary’s friends, Chris, Erin, and Julie, and then set to the task of figuring out what to eat. I took pictures of the menus…they are horrid, but here they are. We started out with some bread that was very good. I think this was an olive spread. It was good, but not great, but I am not a fan of olives. I can eat some olive spreads, and like I said, this was good, but if I liked olives it probably would’ve been better to me. I tried to get a few shots around the restaurant, but I failed miserably and that is one regret I have. For appetizers I ordered the Chilled Jumbo Shrimp White and Green Asparagus, Micro Greens and Lemon-Dill Dressing with Horseradish Cream I think Lisa ordered this too. It was very good. I also got "Gaston's" Escargots Gratinés Herb-marinated Snails with Finely Chopped Mushrooms, topped with Garlic Butter. I am not sure if Lisa ordered a 2nd appetizer or not. If so, I did not get a picture. For entree’s, we really had a hard time deciding. There were a couple of things I wanted to try, and same with Lisa. We decided we would order 3 between us and share all 3. I ordered the Lumiere's Seared Sea Bass With a Mushroom Herb Risotto, Sweet Onion Marmalade, and garnished with a Potato Crisp. This was very good. I thought the fish might be a little too fishy though. Not bad, but it wasn’t perfect to me. We both ate it though and enjoyed it. Lisa ordered the Three-Cheese Lobster Macaroni Lobster Meat, Gruyère, and Cheddar Cheese Sauce tossed with Tubular Pasta and topped with a Parmesan Wafer. This was excellent. I actually liked it better than the fish. We also ordered the Crispy Roasted Duck Breast With Braised Napa Cabbage and Potato Cake, with Pomegranate Jus. Well there was nothing crispy about this duck. It was very fatty and not good at all. Lisa took one bite and spit it back in her napkin. That should tell you something, because her husband is a duck hunter. I think they eat duck here and there if I remember right. She was not impressed at all. I took a bite and it was fatty, but I got it down. I tried another bite, digging into it to find the meat. It was just OK. So I tried a third and it was yuck. That plate got pushed to the side. We found out that we do not like duck, or at least duck this way. During dinner we all talked. We really didn’t talk as much to Mary and her group. Not that we were being rude, it was just that with 10 people at a table it’s hard to talk to everyone, and they all seemed to be in conversation about something. Chris kept making comments about the ship movement. Up till that point I had felt basically nothing. Now I felt it slightly, but not bad at all. Most of us agreed that we couldn’t feel much. I am not sure if it was the bonine Lisa and I took, or if it really was just that great. I will say we really had very calm seas most of the trip. While eating and chatting we looked out the window we were sitting by. Our window looked out to the Atrium and guess who we saw? Cowboy Goofy. I loved his costume! For the most part, I did not do any official character meets this cruise, though looking back I kind of wish I did do some. I just wasn’t in the mood to wait in line for any on this trip. I do have a few character pictures, but more on that later …… Time for dessert now. Here are the menus. Again, really horribly shots. Lisa ordered the Lumiere's Sweet Temptations A Trio of Crème Brûlée, Chocolate Mousse and Praline Petite Choux. She liked it. She never had Cream Brulee before if I remember right. She loved the chocolate Mousse, but said she could’ve done without the sauce on top. I had the Grand Marnier Soufflé With Vanilla Sauce. YUM! I LOVE this stuff. I am going to let you in on something …we went to Palo later in the week and I got the chocolate soufflé there. This was just as good. I did not think Palo’s soufflé was any better than this little bugger. I also got the Chocolate Mousse With Brandy-marinated Cherries. Again, this was really good, but I agreed with Lisa, I would rather have it without the cherry sauce. Before we left dinner I did go and take one more picture before I left. We then headed out. I think Lisa was feeling tired, and bloated and just very full and decided to go to bed. I told her I wanted to explore just a bit more. At some point I went and put gift cards on my account, this might’ve been when I did it. I wanted to go up top and look at the ship lit up. Warning, moving ship at night ….very windy. If you are wearing a dress or skirt …wear shorts under them. Luckily I was, or several people would have gotten a very unpleasant view. I loved the adult area on the Magic better than the Dream. I got a shot of the ping pong table and paddles. I really enjoyed the lit up ship. Just beautiful ….BUT I think the Dream is prettier. If I remember right, it had more stuff lit up and it stayed lit for a longer time. I think all night long, while I noticed on early mornings that the Magic normally wasn’t lit up still. They did a lot of painting and repairs daily and you would see signs like this around after they were done, or the area roped off. And some shots of the drink station. It was just too windy up there, so I headed inside. This is outside the theatre and list show times for the day.

Nov. 2, 2012 Friday 4:50 AM the alarm went off, but I think I was pretty much up at that point anyways. I got up and dressed and fixed myself up real pretty. LOL I let Claire sleep as long as possible. Amanda was up in her room and getting herself ready as well. She was going to go to work early after dropping us off and then she could leave early to drive up to Toledo. Our plan was to be on the road by 5:30. I finally woke Claire and she was so sleepy. She swore she would sleep the whole way down on the plane …news flash …she didn’t sleep a wink … and we packed up the remaining things. I left my overnight bag right at Amanda’s house. I had packed it so that there was nothing in there that we needed to take with us, there for not upsetting the balance of my big suitcases. Amanda put 2 chocolate muffins in a baggy for us to take to the airport for breakfast. I also grabbed a banana before we left as well. I am one who needs to eat pretty much right away or I get a headache. Claire, on the other hand doesn’t need to eat for hours. Soon it was time to leave and we made fabulous time. Amanda was worried about traffic, but I guess when you leave at Butt crack thirty, no one else is on the road. Amanda even made a wrong turn, going naturally towards her work and then made it a little longer route to the airport, and still we made great time. She dropped us off at the Southwest curbside check in and we said our good byes and Claire and I dragged 3 big suitcases, one carryon, 2 back backs and another little bag she had over to the check in. It probably looked comical. We checked in the 3 big suitcases (and one of those had a rolling duffle for extra purchases for the way home) and went on in to go through security. Now when I had been here just 6 weeks prior, going through security was like a ghost town. Not a person in sight for the most part. So I knew we didn’t have to get here “too” early to make it through just to sit and wait. This time it was much busier. Not bad, but still a lot busier and they had 2 or 3 lines going this time. Since we were decked out in tie dye Mickey tees and Disney cruise sweatshirts, and our bags all had some sort of Disney thing on them, we were asked several times where we were going. The one security guard made friends with Claire and told her how lucky she was to miss school for Disney. Claire has such a cool Mom …don’t I know it. We found our gate and picked some seats and I pulled out one of the muffins. Claire didn’t want anything yet, so I ate the whole thing myself. We played on our gadgets until it was boarding time. We made one last potty break and bought a drink to take with us on the plane and soon it was time to go. The boarding was much more orderly this time. People did seem to look at the boarding numbers a little more carefully on this flight. On the 4 flights to and from Galveston, no one seemed to care at all. We also had a better boarding number; I think something like 20 and 21. WE got on the plane fast and found a row not too far back at all. Claire jumped in her window seat, something she was worried about the whole time, and we settled in. It appeared that the plane was not sold out and we kind of hoped no one would sit with us, but then towards the end, a lady did sit with us. She was very nice and we made a bit of chit chat here and there. Things were going fast and soon the plane door was shut and we were on our way. The pilot said we would be arriving in Orlando early because we were going to have some good tail winds. YES! I love hearing that. I seem to start getting panic attacks on planes lately. After about an hour in I start feeling like I need to move and it plays with my mind. I did much better this trip. I have learned to take rescue remedy. I don’t know if it works or is all in your mind, but I seem to be a bit calmer with it. I am not afraid of flying; I just hate being cramped up for 2 hours. And for the record, I have been having this issue in car trips over the past year too. If I am the driver, it doesn’t seem to bother me so much. Soon we were taking off and saw the beautiful lights below us. We watched the sun come up. I made Claire pull out some homework. She wasn’t too happy about that, but we did know there wouldn’t be much time to work on it later, so it was best to get through some of it. We did half of the math (the other subject sent with us) done. Technically she could’ve gotten it all done, but she really started grumbling, so we put it away. It was easy math too, with most being greater than and less than problems. We were served snacks and drinks, which was a highlight for Claire and she watched a movie on her ipod and I did a little reading. Soon we were landing ….25 minutes early. I was so happy. I had to go to the bathroom, but figured I would wait since we landed early. I try to avoid the airplane bathroom if I can, plus I didn’t want to make our row mate have to move. Sadly, with being so early, our gate was not open. So we sat and waited and waited and waited. Finally we made it to our gate. We got off fairly fast and headed to the bathroom. We were excited and ready. The weather was nice and we could hardly wait to feel it. We went over to wait for the fake monorail. And soon it was there and we hopped on. In our excitement, I took a picture of Claire on the monorail. Look closely at the picture. You will see a lady staring at us in the background. I didn’t notice her in the picture till I got home. Soon after that picture, as Claire and I were chatting away, I notice this lady walking towards me. My first thought was, “Wow, she looks just like Lynne”. My words to her as she came forward were, “You look so familiar”. And she replied, “I should, I’m Lynne.” So who is Lynne you may ask? Lynne is a former coworker. My job is mostly online based and everyone who works for it lives basically all over the country, even one in Canada. We talk on facebook and via emails, but we haven’t met many of each other in real life. I have been lucky enough to meet 4 up to this point, Brook, who I have traveled twice with now, and Mindy and Patty, who traveled to WDW last year when I did too. Lynne recently quit the company, so I had not talked to her for a few weeks. Originally, many months ago, Lynne was going to come down to WDW and go to the Halloween party and then sail on the same Dream sailing that I was, she ended up canceling that to go on a Princess cruise, which she ended up canceling because her Dad was having health issues. I had not talked to her much since then, and hadn’t realized that the WDW portion of her trip was back on. I was totally shocked to see her there and what a small world to be on the same monorail car. We chatted a bit and she introduced me to her niece. We walked and talked after getting off the monorail and then we stopped for a picture before going on our separate ways. Lynne was renting a car, so she headed off in a different direction. As we moved on, I saw this for the first time (I usually fly into Sanford), so we stopped for a blurry photo op. Claire and I headed outside before hitting the Magical Express line. We just had to go and feel the weather before going on a bus. After getting a quick breath of Florida air we headed back in to get in line for Magical Express. I was shocked to find no one in the Animal Kingdom Lodge line. The bad thing was that meant they probably had just sent a bus there since all the other lines seemed pretty full. We got in line around 10 AM. And we waited and waited and waited. We watched them call every other resort but ours. Some got called a couple of times. After a bit another couple joined us in line, than a 3rd a bit later. I figured that had to be good. Hopefully we would soon be called with more people in our line. Finally we got on a bus. I think we waited at least 20 – 30 minutes before we were called. I kept watching the clock tick away our precious time and so did Claire. Of course we had 3 other resorts on the bus with us and we were the last stop, but at least we were on our way. Our driver was Rockland Steel. Rock Steel to all his friends. Ok, I made that part up, but that’s all I kept thinking …his name is Rock Steel, what a strange name. And then being married to a man who can turn anything innocent into something dirty, my mind wandered a bit and I kept laughing to myself. Skip would definitely think this would be the perfect porn star name. Claire and I were the first on the bus, so we got the very front seat. I really like that seat. You sure can see a lot and take some pictures a little better along the way. Rockland told us it was brand new bus and the drivers all had bets on who would be the first to dent it. I swear he said it was $500,000.00, but that seems like an awfully high price for a bus, but what do I know. He also said the Magical Express got a whole new fleet of buses, so maybe that was the cost for all of them. One thing the new buses now have ….seatbelts. I guess enough people complained about the buses not having them, so they added them to the new ones. Soon the movie started up. Rockland asked if it was playing and we said yes. He said all morning it had just run the audio, but the video hadn’t worked. So we were lucky and it did for us. Claire was entranced in it. This was a nice sight to see. And these guys are so cute. I probably have taken this picture almost every trip I have been on to the World. Soon we made our first stop, CBR. I took a couple quick pictures, but they are not very good. And then to one of my favorite resorts. On our way once again. But this time only to the other side of the lake. Now I have to tell you, there was a family in the rows behind us with a couple of kids. After listening to them I realized that the kids had no idea where they were or where they were going. You could hear them say I think it’s Disney, then the other one would doubt it and say no, it’s just another hotel, and then one would say I think it’s a hotel at Disney, and the other would say there weren’t hotels there, only castles. It was so cute. The Mom told me after a bit that they had no idea and just told them they were going on a plane ride. It was so cute to watch them. At Art of Animation they told them they were getting off and that this WAS Disney. They were so excited. That had to be the best kept secret ever. I have to admit, I was pretty darn excited to see AoA too. In just over a week we would be staying here ourselves, and my Dis friend Carey was there right at that moment. I would say the majority of the bus got off here. Now we were down to just a few people and once again on our way.

I love it there!!!

As we were about to sail away, Lisa said she was going to go inside because it was so hot. I told her I was just going to stand at the railing and watch us go. Well wait…She said she better not miss this too and she stood out there with me and we just had such a nice time watching us leave the real world. I totally enjoyed it. If you read my trip report about our Dream Cruise, you know it rained that day ….very hard, and the sail away party was inside in the Atrium. It was also at a later time because the ship stayed late to let passengers who had flight delays because of the bad weather able to make the ship. (Ironically I had the same experience on the last NCL ship I sailed too) We left late and we didn’t start moving till it was time for us to go to the first show, which I did not want to miss, so all we saw from our balcony was us moving away from the dock. Lisa and I hung towards the back of the ship and we were practically alone back there. We were making news! We first watched them untie us. We did lots of waving! And we blasted the horn once more if I remember right. We did walk from side to side at times to take it all in. Lisa and I both grew up on farms and then married farmers, so we had to get a picture of all the tractors lined up. Lisa told me to be sure to get a picture with the John Deere’s and combines in it. While we were standing there, we noticed that the windows into Palo looked like a mirror and we easily each lost 20-30 pounds while looking at ourselves in them. We wish we could walk around with those reflecting our images all the time. It doesn’t take much to excite us. I was so amazed at how many ships we saw out at sea. And I really liked this sail boat. And we then decided to head back to the room and relax a bit, get showers and get ready for the show. We showered and just hung out and watched the world go by on our balcony. I remembered to take a picture of the goodies inside of the bag. We then headed off to the show ….All Aboard, Let the Magic Begin. This is the Disney Magic Performers…A.K.A. the cast that would be entertaining us at the main shows, and also a comedian, David Williamson and a Venquilotrist, Lynn Trefzger. The performers had a small storyline and then the other entertainment would come out. I really enjoyed the show. I am at such a lost that we can no longer take pictures of the shows though. I love taking pictures of things like this, and I was soooo tempted, but I refrained. The Comedian was really funny and brought kids up on stage. The Venquilotrist was good, but she kind of over did her 2 things and it became a little too long. We were happy to see the show and Lisa got her first taste of what a Disney show is like ….and she liked what she saw. After the show we headed back to the room once again. We had a little time to kill. Our beds had been turned down and we had a new friend & chocolates. Something about chocolate left on your bed make it tastes so much better. We ate them each morning …breakfast of champions! We had a little time to kill so we went down to the shops before heading to dinner. I was happy to see a few Galveston related items. I loved this hat. I was so tempted to buy it. I loved the look and color …but I am not a hat person. I never wear them, they look horrid on me and my head must be weird shaped, because they never sit right on me. We weren’t inspired to buy anything, so we headed out and explored a bit more before dinner. We saw Minnie out for a greet. I had a thing about trying to take the perfect chandelier picture. You will notice this is a theme for me. I did it on the Dream as well, and also of a few other items as well on that cruise. We stopped and learned a little history about the Magic. And we walked through Studio Sea since we hadn’t yet looked at it. This is more the family type club. It was close to 8:15 now so we headed towards dinner.

For dinner, Claire and I planned to share a pizza. I had had their pizza last year and really liked it and I knew Claire would like this choice as well. Carrie got the Alfredo…I think with chicken in it. And Amanda got some sort of club if I remember right. The food was good, but I think we all ended up with to go boxes with leftovers. Now for the real reason we came here ….the Cheesecake! I got the reeses peanut butter one. Yum yum yum!!! I couldn’t finish it so I brought that home with me as well. Carrie got a pumpkin. Amanda got hers to go, and I can’t remember which flavor she got, it might have been pumpkin as well. Carrie also got one to go for her DH. She said he made her promise to bring home a slice. LOL. All too soon it was time to say good bye. I was really happy to have the chance to get to meet up with Carrie. It was also amazing how many things she and Amanda had in common. Before we left I did have Amanda take a picture of us. We walked out together and then separated to head to our cars. We headed down the road to Amanda’s house and once again I got on the kindle for a bit and we turned on some TV. Claire pulled out some homework to do too. We figured we wouldn’t have a lot of time to do it once we left, so we better at least put some effort into it now. Well ….let’s just say …Amanda and I could fail the 2nd grade. We worked on phonics. Who invented such a horrid subject. Neither of us understood how to do her work, but she seemed to know what she was doing. It looked “wrong” to us, but what do we know. In the meantime, we pulled out the cheesecake and finished that off too. She only did a few pages and we gave up and I insisted on going to bed. Amanda was packing her lunch for the next day at work. She also was driving to Toledo to visit a friend after work, so she was getting that all ready as well. She kept asking me if I was going to eat my pizza, then it dawned on me that she wanted it for her lunch and I told her to take it as I didn’t think I would eat it before we left in the early AM. We had the car packed with luggage and decided on a time to wake up and leave. I think it was something like 4:50 AM…or some awful time like that. I knew I really didn’t have to do much to myself that morning. So I wasn’t going to get up earlier than needed. We hit the sack and Claire was anxious …and so was I. But soon she was asleep. Let me tell you sleeping with Claire is drawing the short straw. She is ALL over the bed. I did not sleep well that night at all. It was much too hot and I kept waking in a sweat. Claire kept shimmying over to my side and I kept pushing her back. One time I realized she had absolutely no blankets on her and I realized she was probably cold, so I pushed all the blankets back on her and things went a little better after that.

Nov. 1, 2012, Thursday Today was the day….the day we had been looking forward to for so long. But it was a busy day too. Claire had to go to school today. Of course she tried to figure ways to be able to stay home and help, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. I had a lot to do, actually the whole week had been busy, so it was more helpful for me for her to be away from the action. The night before had been Halloween. I worked hard that day to get as much ready as possible before we left for the big trick or treating extravaganza. Claire was a “nice” vampire. So nice that she refused to put in her teeth. Even for pictures. We went with some friends and here is a picture of the kids. So with a sugar and Disney high, I sent her off to school. That poor teacher. I had a project I had to finish and deliver before I could leave, so I spent my morning on that and then loaded my car up with luggage. Before I knew it, it was 2:30 and time to pick Claire up. She was beyond excited…and so was I. We went home and changed her clothes and had a little time to waste before leaving. We couldn’t leave too early or we would get to my sister’s house before she was home from work. I told Claire to be sure she put on her white tennis shoes, as those were going to be her main park shoes for the trip. We said our good byes to Skip and lots of hugs and kisses were given. He acts like he is Mr. Cool, but I know he was going to miss us. I think we hit the road around 3:30ish, give or take. This was going to be boring. Within 10 minutes, Claire asked how much longer. LOL She had her ipod and played with that for most of the trip and I had “Mocking Jay” (the last book in the Hunger Game series) on CD, so that kept us both occupied. Not too far out of the Toledo area we ran over something. It appeared to be just a piece of rubber road “stuff” sticking up. All the cars were running over it and when I saw it I quickly tried to avoid it by having it go down the middle of my car. It looked harmless, but you never know. Well my car made a horrible noise when we went over it. I was surprised because I didn’t appear to hit it with my tire. A few curse words “might” have escaped my mouth and I told Claire that I sure hope we don’t get a flat tire as we had a long ways to go yet. Things kept running smoothly after that and no flat tires appeared while driving. Thank goodness! As we go closer, my sister Amanda called and said she was on her way home from work. I think we still had about 45 minutes to go, but we were assured she would be there when we got there. As we got closer, we thought about using the bathroom, but we decided we could make it. Claire was more interested in finding a McDonalds anyways. I told her no, because we had a dinner date a little later that evening. We arrived at Amanda’s and used the potty and sat and relaxed a little bit. Claire was talking a mile a minute with Amanda. I pulled out my kindle to check out what was happening in the real world ….aka facebook. LOL I was sitting in a chair and just looked up and my glance fell on Claire’s shoes sitting on the floor ……and it clicked. Claire had her school shoes with her, which meant the white tennis shoes were still sitting on the floor in my living room. UGH! I quickly panicked. “Where are your tennis shoes?” She swears I never told her to put them on, yet I know I told her at least 3 times. Plus she had known for weeks that those shoes were what we planned to wear “on the plane”. So a quick trip to Target was in order before our dinner date. We found the exact same shoes that she has at home and they were purchased and luckily didn’t break the bank. We also picked up some headphones for her ipod since I did leave those at home in another bag. I just never thought about it till we were on the road and I kept hearing the ipod noises. Next stop was the Cheesecake Factory. I visited one for the first time in Florida last year and I was hooked. Boy that food is darn good. When I realized my sister lived right down the road from one I insisted we eat here tonight. We were also meeting a Dis/facebook friend, Carrie, here too. She said she likes any excuse to come there as well. We arrived a little earlier than planned so I texted Carrie and let her know we had arrived and were seated and to just ask for the Jennifer table. This actually worked out really well for me. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure exactly what Carrie looked like …..because she doesn’t post many pictures of herself online ……shame on you Carrie. I knew she would probably recognize me first, since I am kind of unusual, LOL, but this worked out great. She was brought to our table soon after we arrived and we introduced her to Amanda and Claire and we all chatted. She was really easy to talk to and a big Disney fan as well. We soon were brought bread, which was really good, and Claire devoured a lot of it. Then we settled in to make our dinner choices.

We were excused from the drill and we went to the room once again…I am not sure why we made a stop there, but I have pictures to prove we did …Probably to use the bathroom. Here is what the beds look like separated. I think we also each took bonine at this point in time …just in case. This is a terrible picture, but it shows that we had our port adventure tickets on our desk along with a movies guide. And I took another shot of this picture. And it was time to go to the sail away party. I took a shot of these drinks. We didn’t get any, but they looked so pretty. Lisa was in charge of video. I am HORRIBLE at taking video. I make myself motion sick whenever I watch whatever I have taped. Lisa said she was bad too, but I said it had to be better than mine…well it wasn’t. Not worse, but no better. I will post random video she took. I won’t feel offended if you can’t watch it all because you are feeling sick. And some more pretty drinks. And more video. We spot Brook and Susan not too far away. They wave us over, but we decided to just stay where we are and not bud in on others views. Now let me tell you, it was VERY hot this day. You could see the sweat pouring off these poor dancers. Do you see the black girl? I went to a class she had a few days later. She is so nice, by the way. She is a theatre arts major if I remember right and is from California and plans to take her Mom on this cruise around Thanksgiving ….anyways. She was talking about how hot it was that day. She said she was like melting chocolate. They had just come from NYC and she said this weather just threw them for a loop. They hadn’t had much heat like this in a while. And some more people near us were having some nice ice cold beverages. Peter, our cruise director came out. I really liked him. I see Carolyn now too. And the characters are about to come out!! I had described the horn to Lisa ….I also told her that some of us “fans” sometimes tear up when we hear it …or at least get chills from it. I had her tape it. More pictures form the party. There go some more drinks! And there is Carolyn and Susan. Looking around After the characters left, the dancers kept going…those poor people. They played quite a few catchy tunes and I spotted this lady down on the deck below us. She was an older lady, with short grey hair. And she had the moves! This lady could dance. We watched her and were amazed at how good she was. We ended up seeing this lady a lot on the cruise, though we never talked to her. Yep, we became stalkers. We just loved her and we ended up nicknaming her “Jazzy”. We pointed her out to Brook one day and she started referring her to Jazzy too and I think she even pointed her out to Carolyn and gang. I didn’t get a picture of her that day, but I think she might be in one many days later while we were doing a tour. I’ll point her out if I do. The bar staff hard at work. I really like this picture. This party was completely different than the one on the Dream. Of course we saw that one indoors due to rain as well.

All 3 of us headed out of the room. We went to look at the shops area. This was not open yet, but I wanted to see what it looked like. I really loved the window displays. Look how cute the door is too. A special shirt for this cruise…there were actually 2 and I liked the other one better but both were too pricey for me. I took a peek in through the window …… I spot Dooneys! I had to get some shots of good old Walt. Something learned on a tour later in the week ….there is something missing from this famous picture ….do you know what it is? Brook took a picture of Lisa and I. I then decided to give Claire a call. I didn’t mention this, but in the morning I had called Skip, and he had said he ended up going to my Moms and getting Claire last night. I guess he was already getting lonely. So she spent the night with him and my Mom came over around 9 or so and picked her back up this morning. Claire wasn’t too talkative. She was busy playing, but we said “I Love Yous” and I told her I would try to call if I could, but I might not be able to. She was doing fine and told me about some of the fun she had had already. They had gone to a movie the day before and my Mom was keeping her very busy ….or vice versa! A few more pictures randomly around the area. I think I might’ve taken some of them while I was on the phone. I stepped outside and looked at deck 4. I liked to call this the Titanic deck. It just made me think of the movie so much with the look of it. And back in again. More shop windows. We were thirsty now so we made our way up to deck 9 to the drink station. A few while we waited for the elevator. The drink station was a “happening” place. We wandered a bit more. I have to say that I kept forgetting that Lisa and Brook had just met the day before. They got along fabulously. A view off the side of the ship. I wanted to see if I could take a look at the Vibe (Teen Club). I believe we separated from Brook at this point. Sadly when we got there it was already closed because the muster drill time was approaching. So we gave up on that and headed towards our station. I admired this artwork over the course of the cruise. Let’s just say the prices were not cheap and I would’ve been murdered for spending such an amount of money on any of these. Our muster drill station was in Animators Palate, along with several other groups. We checked in and took a seat. It still amazes me how many people show up late for this. I figure if you get there on time you can be done with it much faster. We had a loud family come in and stand behind us. They were kind of funny and they never realized they had to check in when they came in. Here they were calling out their room number looking for them and not one in the group of several rooms had even checked in. The drill was painless, but something about it makes me sleepy. I think sitting for more than 5 minutes on a busy day does that to you.

We headed out and over to Guest Services. I wanted to get tickets for the Alice Tea Party. I ended up getting them for our 2nd sea day for Lisa, Brook and I. I will give you all the disappointing news right now. We all completely forgot about it and never went. I am so mad at myself for doing so…but I took a nap without a care in the world and remembered several hours later. And then we had to get a picture with the Mickey Icon. And then it was time to check out Beat Street, which is the bar area. A look into Rockin Bar D. This place hosted a lot of events and usually had the adult nightly entertainer in here. After our tour of the bar area I wanted to find the Edge (the preteen club) and take a look at that. That is the one club I had not seen on the Dream, so it would be nice to see what the Magic had…and maybe I can compare in a few weeks…. It was nice and I am sure the preteens enjoy it very much. We then headed towards Brook’s room. I wanted to give her her tea party ticket …..you know ….the ones we totally forgot about on the actual day ….. While in her room, I took a few pictures. She brought this turtle along. It’s Henry’s and she took pictures of him throughout the cruise in different spots and was going to show Henry his adventures. Brook had an ocean view room. This was the view out her window. I noticed Brook has this little stool under her desk. I wasn’t sure if we had one in our room too, as I didn’t see it. I did later find out we do, and I think ours was a different pattern of covering too. I’m sure I eventually took a picture. Here is the fish outside the doors (the Fantasy and Dream are not all actual fish, but have other things like seahorses too). Disney will leave notes on the fish. This is also where people hang their “Fish Extenders”. Those are people who join a group, usually on Dis, and they get so many members (10 -30) and then every room leaves a gift in the Fish Extender (FE) to all on the list. Kind of like a secret Santa type thing, but you leave it for everyone on the list and you don’t have to be anonymous. We did not partake in it this cruise. With such a short time to plan, I just didn’t have time to get little gifts for each room. I am doing it for our Nov. cruise, and that’s been enough work there. However, many people on our facebook page said they had more than enough gifts to share, and if anyone wanted to sign up on the “extra gift” list, we were welcomed to. Brook and I both did. I hung my FE out, but Brook didn’t. I think I got more than she did though because I was well marked and had a spot to leave the goodies. I think Lisa thought I was a bit crazy at first for placing mine out and putting magnets on our door, but after a bit, she commented that she loved our decorated door and it made our room very easy to find when we came back to it each time. (That was the same comment my Mom had made last year on the Dream too)

Hi again. I also started my Dream/WDW TR now if you would like to join in. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64190

I have started my newest Trip Report as well if you would like to join me there. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64190

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen. That’s my Daughter Claire with me. We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members. We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well. This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along. After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience. Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others. My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone. The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left. Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight. Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed. Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy. In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister. Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is. This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well. Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

We decided to split up after the spa tour. It was almost 1:30 and I was so excited with how much I had done and seen already at such an early hour. My next destination in mind was the kids clubs. I wanted to get a few pictures while they were still open to anyone. We said good bye to the other girls and off we went ….with pictures along the way. I had given Lisa the option of going on her own too, but she was interested in seeing the clubs a bit too, and I think she was still too nervous to yet go off on her own. First we came to Flounders Nursery. It was very cute. It was also bigger than I had thought it would be. Then we hit the bigger kids clubs. I think we went in the lab first then over to the club, but I can’t swear to it and I can’t remember off the top of my head which is which. I do like the Dreams set up better where both clubs run into each other and kids can go from side to side. On the Magic the age groups are completely separated. You have to go around to the other side of the Atrium on deck 5 to get to the other club. I’ll let you in on a secret. I had trouble finding both clubs. It was set up so differently than the Dream that I walked by them a couple of times and had to ask a CM to direct us. And this is why I want to be a kid …….the pirate ship! It was actually very different than I had pictured it…but still looked like great fun for kids. More of the club. I had to take a peek at the cute kids club bathrooms too. This hallway is between the 2 clubs. We headed back to our room. I am not sure why we did, but our luggage had arrived. I forgot to mention earlier that we had also met our State Room Host, Rodrigo, and he was just so friendly. We loved this guy. We had asked him to separate the beds and they were already done now and he had brought our luggage into our room as well. We decided to unpack a bit and then I hung out on the balcony taking it all in…and then we spot them…dolphins! Sadly those are the best pictures I got of the buggers. They were popping up randomly and I never knew where to aim. Why did they hang here in this gross looking green water….go out into the ocean…it’s cleaner out there! You probably can’t see them in this picture, but there are 2 dolphins peeking up out in the distance. And a few birds flew by. We then saw this float by. UGH! Lisa told me to take a picture and tell everyone NOT to litter and it is so nasty and the poor dolphins are swimming with this junk.

I took a picture and Susan happened to be there. Carolyn says it looks like she is trying to hide quickly in a game of hide and seek. LOL These are a HUGE hit with people. The heated stone chairs in the rainforest room. I heard they are fabulous, but I never did try them for myself. These are hot saunas. When Brook opened the door the steam was pouring out. These benches were heated too. I didn’t know that till several days later when I was making the rounds early morning to take pictures with the tripod and I sat on one and WOW…they are really hot. On we went down, the hall. They had several rooms decorated so cute. I only took a picture of a few of the rooms. Each was slightly different, but I actually was tired of taking so many spa pictures at that point. As I rounded back around the circle near the reception desk I saw a door open and several people walked out. My guess is that they were having a meeting in there. It was the hair salon and being a licensed cosmologist, I had to go in and take a few pictures of that as well. We came back out and some of us asked about different services, etc. Some were really interested in the rain forest room. I liked the sound of it, but honestly I don’t see myself using it enough to pay for it. I think Susan and Carolyn did a couples package, which basically means 2 people in the same cabin, for the rain forest room on sea days (3). It was cheaper to do it that way over the single packages. Lisa considered it and asked me, but I just couldn’t commit. What if I totally hated it? I could only see me sitting on the hot stones for short periods of time …. And then what if I loved it. I was then worried I would spend too much time there and miss other fun events. I’m complex that way. In the end we didn’t get it and Lisa never do get a single day or sea day package. Maybe next time I will give it a try.

After the fiasco with the overloaded elevator, Lisa and I cautiously got on the next one that came. All was fine. We didn’t set off any alarms this time. We headed up to deck 9 and got our first glimpse of the outdoor area. I have to admit….I only took a few pictures for now…but have many more later. And we headed into the Vista Spa and found the rest of our gang there too. It is really a beautiful spa. I was impressed. It wasn’t as beautiful as the Dreams, but darn close. We all signed up for the drawing that was gonna take place at 3 PM. They were going to give away several different things and though I am not really a spa kind of gal….I would take anything for free. LOL We proceeded to walk down the hallway to take a look and get some pictures. The rooms all looked so nice. Another complaint. …. This hot tub was not very pretty. This is Disney and they need to put some kind of nice covering around the sides of it. This looked kind of disgusting and falling apart. I surely didn’t expect to see that. At the end of the hallway, all the way to the front of the ship is the gym. One of the instructors asked if we would like a picture together. We all made our strong look and posed. Shelly is not in that picture…not sure where she had roamed off to at the moment. The instructor was from Austria. I couldn’t help but think of the Saturday Night Live skit with Hans and Frans. This guy sounded just like them and he was ready to “pump you up”! Some of the gals looked at a few classes, like detoxing, etc. I skimmed it, but I didn’t want to comment just yet to anything. I wanted to think over exactly what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to sign up and then not show up. While he talked, I took some pictures out the front window of the ship. This is the crew pool….which was almost never used. Even our waiter made a comment one night that no one ever uses it as they just don’t have much time to. On a side note…one afternoon Lisa was watching the camera on TV that shows the front of the ship. She was all excited to see a couple of people out on that deck. It was kind of twilight out and the camera doesn’t capture it great, but I swear there was a girl and 2 guys…and though I am sure this “wasn’t” going on…it almost looked like there was some sort of standing threesome going on. Lisa was cracking up so much. She kept saying to me…”look now…..what do you think that looks like?” Back to taking pictures of the gym and spa. I am not sure how this works? On the Dream they have water coolers with fresh lemons in the water. Here there is a drinking fountain with lemons next to it. LOL! Do you filter your water with a lemon slice as you drink it? Back to the spa. If you ever finding yourself needing a razor…come here…they have tons you can use. You can even shower here too. Or if the sauna is your type of thing…go for it!

We found our room easily and I took a couple of quick pictures. That was my gift for being a silver Castaway Club member. It had some pretzels, Disney shaped goldfish crackers and a keychain inside I believe. (I think I took a picture of it later on) This room was 5130. I looked for reviews online and one person made mention that it did NOT have a split bathroom. I figured this person must’ve been off their rocker, because there aren’t any veranda rooms on the Magic in this category without a split bathroom. Sure enough I was right, it did have 2 bathrooms. I do plan to go in and make a review myself and correct the info. We then headed back towards the atrium to meet up with the gals. As we walked I really liked what I saw. My friend and co-worker Jeanne has sailed the Magic many times…..I think she has sailed with Disney something like 40 times!!!!! She had told me the Magic was still her favorite, but it did look a little worn. I was expecting it to look much more worn than it was. Most things were still bright and clean and we saw them daily doing maintenance on painting and floor boards, etc. Only a few spots did I find it look less than Disney standards. We decided to take the stairs down from deck 5 to 3. Look! Oil Rigs right outside the porthole….and nasty green water. And the girls were just coming in the Atrium at the same time. And we didn’t mingle too long, we were starving! There was practically no one in the restaurant too. We were seated and I went and took a few pictures before I ate. I guess the desserts were calling my name first…..actually they were still full and not picked over, so I wanted to get shots like that. The ultimate, best dessert EVER! I just love their chocolate chip cookies. I don’t know what it is, but they are to die for. I will push you down and step on you if you get between me and those cookies! More pictures of the buffet. The place was very tropical looking. And my first round of plates. My only complaint was the salad dressing. I am a French dressing kid of girl….and I never saw it offered….though I never asked if they had it either. A view up from our table. After sitting and chatting and eating a bit, we saw Mary walk in. We said hellos and she said her friends were already seated and we glanced back at their table and gave a wave. I was not done yet. I went back up for a 2nd round…and then desserts too! My 2nd plate. And dessert. This was really good, but I can’t remember what it was. I think some sort of mousse type thing. After stuffing myself silly, I took a few pictures of the tables. We chatted a little longer….Can you believe that Susan isn’t a dessert fan. I almost had to leave the room! LOL. Actually I wish I wasn’t a big dessert lover…I would probably lose weight a lot easier then. We decided it was time to tour the ship a bit. We still had lots of time till we had to attend the muster drill. We had finished eating about 12:45. Off we went. The plan was to go sign up for the drawing at the Vista Spa. We headed to the midship elevators. I stopped and took this picture of this boat, but got a lot of my own reflection in it. And we all tried to crowd into a very full elevator. Guess what…the elevator will have a light that says overloaded when you exceed its weight. LOL…..Yep we found that out the hard way. Lisa and I stepped back out and said we would meet up later. We got on the next one and Lisa was now paranoid that every time she stepped into one the light would alert.

I decided it was time to take a potty break and took a few pictures on the way. This is the kids club registration area. Then it was time! They were announcing boarding and we gathered our things. When number 2 was announce, it was a race….the place went crazy. LOTS of people had 2’s. We all walked together to start with, but a lady with her stroller and family decided to step in front of us and fold it up and she got put a stop to Brook, Lisa and I. They started moving too and made it pretty clear they wanted to board before us. Really? She couldn’t see that she just separated a group of people wearing matching shirts? So we walked fast and Brook made a pass…after a bit I did the pass too and she gave me a VERY dirty look. Lisa was stuck behind them and I think the lady took action NOT to be passed again. So I said to her, “My friend got behind you and she is part of our group, will you let her around, and she flat out told me no, I won’t let her.…..what a Witch with a capital B. We went down the long hallway to get to the ship and they had photographers set up there to take the welcome aboard photos. We made a stop and we all were caught up with each other. Crazy lady and her family on the other hand had bypassed it and kept going. We had a nice photo taken, but I don’t think any of us actually bought it. We then headed to have our cards swiped. Carolyn, Susan, and Shelly got through right away. Lisa wasn’t far behind. They stopped Brook as her photo was from her last cruise and she was wearing a hat, so they needed a new one. I then went to another line and got swiped and headed up the stairs to meet with Lisa and we waited for Brook. As we walked down the gangway I said we needed to think of a name to have announced for us…but we are not good with quick thinking evidently, because none of us could think of anything clever. A peek of the ship from the gangway. When we got to the doors, we still hadn’t thought of a name and the CM basically just asked our 1st names and we were announced that way. We walked in and I looked up and all around and my first thought was WOW……………........................ …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… This Atrium is sooooo SMALL. It looks big in pictures, but compared to the Dream it is TINY. That was probably my only major disappoint in the ship. Now it isn’t really small and it is beautiful, but it was the very first thing I noticed….smaller ship means smaller atrium. As time wore on, it came to where I never noticed how much smaller it was. We were stopped by a CM and told we could go eat lunch right away at either Parrot Cay or Topsiders and that all rooms were ready already. YES!!! We had boarded the ship at 11:50 AM and rooms are not supposed to be ready till 1:30 PM. We had hoped that since this was a first sailing coming into port with a pretty much empty ship that this would happen. Now to find Carolyn and gals. Aha! There they are….getting interviewed by a local news station. This is the footage from the interview. I am not sure how long this link will stay active though. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8820698 The lady had info wrong too. She said this is a 6 night sailing and it’s an 7 nighter. Carolyn said she was kind of anti-Disney and wanted to know why a group of only adults would ever even consider sailing on Disney. Oh well…not everyone gets it. I had to get a quick shot of this too. And this We separated to go to our rooms and said we would meet back up in the atrium and then head off to Parrot Cay for lunch. Our bellies were starting to rumble a bit. Brook and Carolyn’s gang both had ocean view rooms and were down on deck 2 right next to each other. Lisa and I had a veranda room on deck 5 towards the aft.

We sat next to this, which we assumed would be where the characters would come out for meets. We all compared our boarding numbers. Now this was weird. Carolyn, Shelly, Susan, Lisa and I all had port arrival times for 11:30, and this is “supposed” to be what they base your boarding number on. Brook had a 12:30 port arrival time. Brook had a 12, Lisa, Shelly, Susan and I had 8’s and Carolyn had a 2!!!! So weird since Shelly and Susan were her roommates, you would assume they all got the same number. We sat and talked and we met a few more people from our facebook group….and then we found out from some experienced cruisers that if 1 person in your group has a higher number, you can all board at the same time with them. Jackpot! We now all had a 2! I asked a CM nearby when the characters were coming out and if we could line up…she said soon ,and no, we couldn’t line up quite yet. So we chatted some more and looked over the navigators and I took some pictures. We noticed a ship tour was scheduled for around 2Pm . It sounded really interesting, but I wasn’t sure if I would have time. I had wanted to get pictures of some areas right away that day while I could. I will tell you I did end up missing it, but Shelly and Susan went on it and they said it was very interesting. They told them that they put the cowboy had on just before they entered the channel and it wasn’t very secure, so they had to go very slow. It was removed already by 2 PM because they didn’t want it to fall off on to people. More pictures. These are the glass door I was talking about, where you could see the stairs leading up towards the ship. We then saw Donald come out to the character greet spot. You would’ve thought we were crazed kids. We all practically ran to get in line. I think we were about the 3rd group in line. Well some were slower than others and we told them to get a move on for a group shot. The nice CM used all our cameras and took a photo or 2 with each. From left to right, that is Susan, Carolyn, Brook, Donald, Me, Lisa and Shelly. We sat back down and again chatted and looked over the navigator and I decided it was time to take a picture of my KTTW card. Speaking of Navigators, here is the one for the first day. I have to admit I thought there would be more to it. I swear on the Dream they were at least 6 pages…and I went and looked at some posted online and I am right, they are a few pages bigger. I didn’t look closely, so I am not sure why the longer cruises have less to write about.

Sept. 22, 2012, Saturday…Day 2 I woke up before the alarm, though not too much earlier. I was full of excitement and a bit of nervousness. I will admit a little fear I had. I was on the Dream in 2011. Boy is she a beautiful ship…and HUGE. I knew that the Magic was smaller. Just to show you the size difference, here are some pictures I borrowed from some friends. The Magic is the “little” one. It looks like the Dream could eat the Magic for a snack. Would I be cramped? Would it seem more crowded on a smaller ship? Would I notice the smallness? I am pretty sure the NCL cruises I went on many years ago were actually smaller ships, and I was fine on those, but after being on such a behemoth, would I be OK? I showered and got ready. As you may have noticed, I don’t sport a traditional hair color. I had just “freshened” the color on Thursday, so this was my first wash since the new application of color. I am a licensed hairstylist, so I know how to rinse color out…basically do it forever till the water runs clear, shampoo repeat, shampoo repeat and condition. Well when I took the shower, I had more pink water coming out. Sometimes this will happen after the first wash, but this seemed like a lot coming out and towel drying my hair left the towel with some pink streaks….I have NEVER had that before. So odd. I wondered if this is how my hair reacts to good water versus the well water crap we have at home. We got ready and rearranged our suitcases. I had packed a rolling duffle inside my suitcase. Well I had a heck of a time trying to get it all zipped back up with it in there, so we just pulled it out and threw a few things in it. We jammed the trunk full and left the backseat for Brook and her bags. We hit the road about 7 AM and were off to Springhill Suites to meet up with the other girls. They were just getting breakfast and we joined them. It was a very simple breakfast with cereals, some fruit and make your own waffles, eggs, sausage and other basics. Brook was tackling the make your own waffle. Lisa got some cereal. And this is my plate. I think I got a bagel too. Brook’s first waffle stuck to the waffle maker and she redid it…for one reason…we needed to take a picture of this baby. Isn’t that so cute? We talked about what “special” thing the Magic might have, like when she came to NYC she had a bumper sticker. My suggestion was a 10 gallon hat, though I wasn’t sure how that would work on a ship. Around 8 or so, Brook noticed that people were posting on facebook that she had arrived finally. No one knew what time she would come into port and it was guessed from 4 to 7 AM. I guess she wanted to make a grand entrance in daylight and waited out at sea a bit to do so…and we later learned that is when they put on her “special” attire for Galveston. After we ate, we made bathroom stops, and a couple of us bought a pop for the road trip and we loaded their car up with their bags. Brook shoved 1 in there and brought her other one into our car. I had directions, but I wasn’t sure how good they were. Carolyn seemed to have a better idea of where to go, so she said to follow them. Shelly was the driver…and the funny thing is, Shelly is a nervous driver in areas she is not familiar with, so she was really worried…but she did a perfect job. We hit the road and followed them all the way down. The 3 of us chatted away. It was just like Brook and Lisa had known each other for years. I am lucky to have both of them as friends. Both are nice and friendly and probably can talk to a wall if they needed to. As we got closer to Galveston (the ride was probably about an hour, but went by VERY fast), we noticed some beautiful houses, and some really neat houses built on stilts. Being the driver, I couldn’t dig around for a camera and take shots. I wish I would’ve had it out though and then Lisa could’ve taken some. Lisa kept saying, look at that one, or this one. And then we started driving through town with some old amazing looking homes and buildings and she was pointing constantly. I had to tell her I couldn’t look or I might be in the bumper of Shelly’s car. LOL It was beautiful though. As we got closer to the port we started zigzagging around as many streets were shut down for some sort of festival…I later read it was a shrimp festival… I just kept following and Shelly later told us that some of the roads we went down were one ways…and we went the wrong way. I never even noticed. Finally we found the entrance and pulled right up and dropped our bags off. We had arrived around 9 AM. Several porters were waiting to start the day. We said good bye to our bags for a while and pulled forward to find the parking lot…..then we saw her…the Magic. Yep, she was hidden behind the terminal. So EXCITING! And guess what she had on! A 10 gallon hat! It was placed on one of the Mickey heads on one of the stacks. Now I couldn’t take a picture yet. I was driving still. Next we headed off to find the parking lot. It is quite a ways away and I was hoping we weren’t getting lost. I didn’t think it was marked very well on how to get there, BUT then we realized that a stupid news van was right in front of the sign showing us the way. Not a great spot to park buddy! We found the lot and asked where to go to get the free parking ticket we needed and they directed us to the lot across the street. We pulled over there and Brook and Carolyn ran in while the rest of us talked outside and oohed and ahhed at this! I have to say she still looked pretty darn big to me. I felt a bit of relief. When Brook and Carolyn came back we headed back across the street and got parking right up front. The shuttle pulled right up and we hopped on. I took a quick picture of our rental so I could remember it and the license plate too if need be. And off we went. I took this shot of the Mickey hat as we drove over. We were dropped off and there were several people already waiting. Many of them were people from our facebook group and we said some hellos. We were told that they would not be opening doors till at least 10:30 but if we needed to use the restroom we would be let in. A couple of us went in. I do think these bathrooms were nicer than the Port Canaveral bathrooms. I still think those are not very disneylike. I shot this really fast as we walked back out. And then we sat down and waited. That’s Lisa and Brook sitting and Carolyn standing with the pony tail and Susan with the short hair. I think Shelly took these pictures of us. Brook must’ve been dreaming of corndog nuggets there. I went around the side of the building and got a few pictures of my new home. And some of the terminal area. Here is what the shuttles look like. Someone must’ve been eating on the go and left their bowl on top of this sign. I think about 10:15 people started lining up. We had been told that the doors should open around 10:30. By now it was getting pretty hot outside too, so we were anxious to get in and cool off. Finally they started letting in a few people at a time and then more a little later. We made our way through security, which was very easy and went to the check in counter line for silver and gold members. I was now officially a silver member and Lisa got to come in that line since she was in my room. Our girl was VERY slow. I know this was all new to them with Disney being there, so I was patient. I did have to ask for a silver lanyard though. I think she was leery about giving me one, but then looked it up and found that I did indeed get one. It’s not a huge perk…but darn it, I wanted it! We got done and found the other girls sitting down near glass doors that you could see the stairway that went up towards the ship . This is NOT where you enter though. You actually go in on the complete opposite side of the terminal and then down a long hallway and then back to those stairs to swipe your card and go up.

After leaving our 2 new “friends”, we walked around the hotel lobby and I shot some pictures. This was the little hallway that was on the side of the hotel and led to where we had parked. We decided to take an outdoor tour. I then realized that Texas has Palm trees. I guess I never realized that they would and I was excited. It was very pretty around the sides and front of the Marriott….but then we came to the backside. It was a little bit scary. This alley didn’t look so pretty or inviting. We debated turning around…..but we had seen video monitor cameras ALL over the parking lot and could spot them in the alley, so we proceeded on. As soon as we started walking we saw a guy fishing through a dumpster. I have no clue if he worked there or what, but I did see him a couple more times that night. We walked quickly by him and he never looked up, and I just stayed clear of him when I saw him other times. As we came to the end of the spooky alley…and I will NEVER do that again….we saw a police car right around the corner. We laughed to ourselves about worrying about being safe, and then there was a police car right at the end. WELL……there was a reason he was there. There was a car parked in the last spot against the building and in fact it had a special parking place with a plaque that said employee of the year on it. 2 employees were talking to the police man, one being our bartender friend. We kept walking, but I came back later and took a picture of what we saw. And this is it. Yep, it’s a car with no tires on it at ALL! ……..And was sitting on 2 bricks. Oh my word. We did talk to our bartender friend as he started walking to the building as we were. We asked what happened, and he wasn’t sure, but it had to happen sometime today. I told him we were shocked that someone could get away with this with all the video cameras around and the security gate. He told us yes, they had several cameras and it was likely the person would be caught and he too was amazed. We headed back inside. The gym and pool door was right near where we entered in the side parking lot so we slipped in there for pictures………..you didn’t actually think I was gonna work out did you? While in there I got that childhood memory feeling of being on vacation. You probably know what I mean…..you enter a hotel with a pool and it has that small hint of chlorine in the air. Every time I smell that I feel like a kid again and that excitement of being at a hotel….with a pool. That was major excitement as a kid. As an adult, I don’t swim much, and when I do, it’s more of a stand and talk in the pool thing. But still I love that feeling of knowing we are on vacation. I got a couple of shots of the pool. It had a little enclosed outdoor area off of it too. It was nice looking. There were a few people out there and they had 2 boys at the pool. I really tried to avoid getting the boys in my pictures, because one had major plumbers butt going. LOL. I swear he kept moving into my frame as I took the picture each time. After our little tour we headed back towards the room. We found out that 1 elevator of the 2 was not working so we ventured up the stairs. Well that totally sucks. We were on the 5th floor. I think we went up the first 2 floors and took the elevator up the rest of the way. This ballroom is where was saw the chess players going to. We headed back to the room and I took a few shots out our window. It was not a very pretty area at all. I noticed this black box. What the heck could that be? OOOOOH! It had the coffee fixings in it. Neither of us drink coffee, so it was left intact. We just laid around from there on. I got on my kindle and checked emails, Lisa surfed the TV stations. I debated on a short nap, but Lisa said we shouldn’t because we may then have issues sleeping later tonight, so it was probably better to be exhausted when we went to bed. Good call. After a while I got a text from Brook. She had just landed and they were taxing to the gate. I told her we would get ready and head out. We went slowly, as I didn’t want to get there early and then be made to circle around again. I realized that I must’ve not printed out the directions to the airport from the Marriott. I swore I did, I know I looked at the route, but maybe because it was so easy, I figured I would remember….but I didn’t. So I asked at the desk, and it was very simple and off we went. As soon as we got close to the airport pick up area we came to a complete stop in traffic. I guess this must be a popular time to get picked up. Brook texted us a few times and I had Lisa text her back that we were on our way and stuck in traffic. We inched our way there and I just hate traffic like this. I hate when people pass and then try to get in up at the front of the line too and this was happening. As we got closer though I was able to pull into another lane and got through faster and parked along the furthest curb for pick up. I think I spotted Brook as we drove up and I told Lisa, I think that’s her, so she rolled down the window and yelled Brook. Brook and Lisa have never met, nor seen a picture of each other, and it was kind of funny having Lisa yell for her while Brook took it on blind faith that it was Lisa and headed to our car. We said our hellos and I introduced them both and we quickly threw her bags in the car. Brook was starving so we headed off blindly to find something to eat. I went straight out of the airport and as we kept driving I was worried we were getting out of familiar territory. It was mostly residential. I went to turn around and as I did we spotted a lighted area down the road and then a Mexican restaurant, so we turned around once again and pulled in there. I was a bad trip report writer here. I only took 2 pictures…and those were of food. I can’t remember the name of the place, but the parking lot was pretty full. We walked in and it looked like the bar area was having a party…with a bunch of kids….and it was LOUD. Lots of music and they were all doing some sort of dance. We were seated right away and soon realized this was an authentic Mexican restaurant…we were the only non-Mexican people in there. Lisa and I were looking for something lighter since we had eaten earlier, but I ended up with my old faithful…chimichonga. Brook got some HUGE meal that looked wonderful. Lisa got some sort of cheese dip with nachos. We also learned we weren’t in Ohio anymore. Lisa asked what kind of pop they had and the girl had no clue what she meant. Finally she said soda, and the girl rattled off some. We did find out from some Texas friends later that usually all pop/soda is referred to as Coke in Texas…so you ask what kind of Coke do you have? Here are the 2 pictures I took. The food was very good and filling. I only ate the Chimi and not the sides. Brook just kept having plate after plate brought out and she did some damage to them, but there was no way she could eat it all. After we paid, we found our way back towards our hotel. Brook was staying with Carolyn and her friends for the night at a hotel just down the road from us, but since the roads are one-way, we had to go by our hotel first. Just as we pulled into Springhill Suites, we saw Carolyn walking out the doors. They were off to find some food as well. We all said hellos and made introductions. Carolyn had her friends Shelly and Susan with her. Carolyn and friends are from Canada, though Susan is still a US citizen, and Carolyn said she had only brought her passport and realized it when they went to rent a car. So the car was put in Shelly’s name since she had her license with her. We all laughed about that. They handed Brook a room key and we all went our separate ways then. We planned to meet back at their hotel around 7:15 AM. Lisa and I were going to sneak in and eat their “free” breakfast before we took off towards the port. We wanted to head out early and to drive together if possible. Brook was going to ride with us as well so that we could distribute luggage between the 2 cars. Lisa and I made the circle back to the Marriott and got ready for bed. I think Lisa showered at night, and I was going to in the morning. We set the alarm on my phone for butt crack of dawn. I had a feeling I would be up by then, but I sure didn’t want to chance being late. The bed was comfy and soon I was drifted off to dreamland…and believe it or not, I slept halfway decent. It was a very long day…and it even had an extra hour since we gained one with the time difference.

Originally we had made reservations to take the Disney transportation to the port the next day. The only down side was we were to shuttle back and forth to the Marriott. It’s not the worst thing, but we would be schlepping suitcases all over then. Carolyn pointed me to Enterprise one evening and told me there was a very cheap rate and I should jump on it, so I did. It was slightly less than our Disney transfers, but not much. But the freedom of a car is really nice. Then we found out that we could park at the port for free because of our job. This made the car really worth it then, as we didn’t have the added expense of port parking. Once I left Lisa on a bench with the luggage, I made my way to the Enterprise counter, which was basically about 15 steps from the baggage claim carousel. I only had 1 person in front of me. At my turn, I handed my paperwork with the reservation number. The guy typed away and then tried my name as well. He didn’t say much, but I could tell he couldn’t find it. So I asked, and he finally said it appears this reservation has been used already…..What? Not sure what happened…and still don’t, but I do know we JUST got there. He said he would try to price match it ad came up with a price $4 more…and my reply is, why can’t I have it for the price I booked it at….so he typed some more and actually got it 10 cents less than what I booked it at. OK, I can live with that. He told me to head over on the shuttle to the car claim area and they had my paper work printed out there. So we hauled the bags out and a shuttle had just pulled up. The lady helped us load them and she was really nice. She loved my hair and kept asking about it. In the mean time I heard the “beep”. Those who have Nextel know the beep and you frantically look for your phone when you hear it. It becomes part of your nature to do so. It’s a direct connect beep. I pulled my phone out thinking Skip was calling once again…he had beeped me several times that day already at each airport…and nope, he hadn’t called in several hours now. I hear it again and realized the shuttle drivers used Nextel as well and it was her phone beeping. If you have Nextel…you know what I mean…it’s just so weird hearing the beep and not having it for you. LOL. We only had one other lady on the shuttle and she talked with us as we drove along. She asked where we were going and told us to leave early as traffic could be bad, etc. She had no bags, which we found odd. Once we got to Enterprise …a very short drive…we got in line, while Lisa sat with the suitcases once again. The lady then told me that she always rents a car when she goes to football games. I have no clue what that meant, but I smiled in response and figured she was local and rented a car for far away games…or something…who knows. LOL. We got our vehicle and it was small, but manageable. I believe it was a Dodge Caliber. It had a hatch back and the guy had no clue how to load luggage in it. Seriously…he should be a pro at this; I had to rearrange it to make it fit. He slammed the hatchback down and it seemed like it just barely shut. He had me sign paperwork and of course tried to sell me insurance, etc. I am always so leery on what they will charge me, and I doubled checked when I got home to be sure I wasn’t charged more than I signed for. I go in, adjust controls and took off. Lisa said this was a car she had looked at and it would be nice to see if she liked it. The car was fine, but not much room in the trunk, and by the end of the trip she was glad she went with the car she had gotten. As we take off I hear a little beep. About a mile down the road I realize the dash says gate. I tell Lisa that I think the hatch isn’t latched properly, but I think we should be fine. She on the other hand didn’t. Her bag was the one that would fall out if the hatch opened….Like I said…..”I” am fine…just not her. LOL! We were on a very bumpy road too, so we pulled off in the 1st parking lot we found and rearranged the luggage and got it shut properly. The Marriott was easy to find and not far at all. But it was on a one way street, not a major problem, and I had maps, but it’s something to remember if you ever go there. We pulled in and I ran in to check us in. The lobby was beautiful, check in was easy and we had a room key in just mere minutes. One thing to keep in mind is that this area is not nice. Nothing was pretty on the outside as we drove. I was told ahead of time that this area was not good and to not hang outside at night for the most part. I guess in years past this hotel had experienced crime, but they now had a security gate to go through that took a picture of each coming and going car and the crime has gone way down since then. We parked near a lamp post and made 2 trips to carry our bags up. The room was nice as well. I believe on the 2nd trip down, I stopped outside the doors and beeped Skip…and I had to be a bit sarcastic and greeted him by saying “Houston, we have a problem”…..I mean how could I resist. I love being corny that way. And if Skip had thought of it first, he would’ve said it. I took pictures of the room before we messed it up too much. We kind of lazed around and decided that we really needed a snack. We were going to pick Brook up from the airport later and go eat, but that was several hours away yet. So we headed down to the lobby and of course I took pictures there as well. And we headed into this bar and grill to see if we could find an appetizer to share. We each ordered a soft drink and chicken Quesadillas to share. The bar tender guy was very nice and we talked to him a bit and then chatted between us some more. It did seem to take a long time for the food to come and at one point someone came out and asked us what we ordered. Not sure if it was forgotten or what, but minutes after that the food came. It wasn’t very big, but good and filling. It hit the spot that needed filled. After we ate and paid, we headed out to take some more pictures. This is where they serve breakfast, but it’s not free. I think I read it was $15 a person, which I thought was kind of high. We did not eat here the next day. We wanted something lighter. We didn’t get too far and 2 guys walked by us and stopped to talk…I know it’s because we are two hot and sexy women…why else would it be….right?....OK, it was my camera. The guy asked about my camera, etc. and then offered to take our picture. He said he was really into photography. But the pictures were blurry, so he needs some work. LOL We chatted some more and he asked if we were there for the Chess tournament. I almost laughed in his face. Not that there is anything wrong with chess, but I do associate it more with geeky, techy type people, and I am pretty sure we don’t look like chess players. We finally said goodbye, though I think he wanted us to go in the bar and have a drink with him and his buddy, and off to take more pictures.

Sept.21 (Friday) I had a nice night’s sleep and woke up right at 4:30 and got myself ready. I gave Skip a final kiss good bye and let him know I would call him later in the day, and tomorrow as well, but once on the ship, I had no clue when I could call again. We have Nextel and they are phasing it out, so there was a good chance that I might not get another signal again till back on US soil. Lisa only lives about 5 minutes from my house and she walked out as I pulled in. We loaded her bags in the car, one last bathroom trip, she said good bye to extremely fat cats…yes they need a diet….and I think we were on the road by 5:40. I handed her the directions to my Aunts house. My sister , Amanda, was going to take us to the airport…in Columbus, which is about 2 ½ hours from my house….and she was house sitting at my Aunts, so we were driving there and leaving my car there for the week. It was so dark out still and we actually goofed…not far from home. We were chatting away and I kept following the signs for 23 south, but we needed to turn off on 75 south and meet up with 23 south later on. This was the faster way. We laughed at how we already got lost and we hadn’t yet left Toledo. It only took about 15 minutes to get ourselves turned around and back in the right direction. At one point Lisa told me my driving was giving her motion sickness…. OOPS I was letting off the gas a lot because the guy in front of me wasn’t going as fast as I wanted to go. I fixed that by setting the cruise control. I had an “OH NO!” feeling though. We were going to be on a MOVING ship for 7 days….this might not be good. The time flew by. We talked the whole way down and not far from my Aunt’s we decided to stop and get a drink and bathroom stop at McDonalds. We pulled in and immediately pulled back out. It was PACKED! The drive through was circling the building and we couldn’t even get into a parking spot…..we could wait. We weren’t far now. We made it to my Aunts in just over 2 ½ hours, so even with our flub up, we made very good time. We made a pit stop, and Amanda gave Lisa a tour of my Aunts house. Lisa made friends with my Aunts cat, Gwenny, and I swore she was going to try and smuggle him out. I took a few pictures of my Aunts house…They are kind of blurry, but she has a very beautiful home. We got Amanda’s car loaded and off to the airport we went. I think it was about another 15 – 20 minutes from there. Of course with 3 girls in a car…the talking never stopped. As we drove up the airport Lisa was telling us how she was trying to be more spiritual and trying to make life better. She said how she tried to meditate and write down each day things she is grateful for or things she is hopeful for. I forget the exact thing she said, but it was kind of freaky…the day that I had texted her about going on a trip with me, she said she had wrote down something about being thankful for the things she has been able to do and any future trips she may take….or something along those lines…..Freaky right? Amanda dropped us off at the Southwest gate and we handed off our bags and checked in right outside. We were informed that out flight was delayed 15 minutes. I asked if it would cause any troubles for our connecting flight and they reassured us all would be fine. And I let him know I was taking note of his name. LOL We breezed right through security and I made a note to myself that in Nov I do NOT need to be there 2 hours early, as we sat and waited a LONG time. We picked up some snacks. I got a turkey sandwich, which I was not impressed with. It needed mayo or something. I ate half and saved the other half for later. For anyone who knows me, I do need to eat or I turn into a nasty creature. Wasted $7.50 on a crappy sandwich. We pulled out our kindles and I connected online and did some facebooking and catching up on emails. We saw the plane arrive and it really didn’t seem to be too late. I think one is not our plan and the other is….can’t remember for sure now. The flight was oversold. Why they do this, I have no clue, and they asked for 2 volunteers to wait. If this was going home, I probably would’ve, but going to our destination….NOPE. I heard from Brook later that day whose flight was also over booked that they were offering free flights plus $300. I assume round trip, but it might’ve been 1 way flights. She volunteered, but they didn’t need her to. This was our first time flying with Southwest, and I really didn’t have much to complain about…except. Why bother giving boarding numbers. No one lines up right. I tried to stay in my area, but it was obvious no one else cared if your number was before or after them. In fact on our last leg home, there was a lady who firmly planted herself in our number area. I KNEW Lisa had the 1st number for that section and I had the 2nd, but this lady was not going to move….and she was single, so not sure how important it was for her to board before 2 others. When we scanned our tickets I saw she was actually supposed to be 2 sections of numbers back. OH well…..never saw her again. So that’s my only complaint. I paid the extra $10 for early bird online check in, but others didn’t seem to care about the numbers, nor was it enforced. We found seats together about half way back or so. Lisa sat near the window. She asked if I wanted to and I didn’t care. I told her it had been years since I got to sit by one, so I was OK. (Claire is a window hog) I still kept looking out the window over her though. And look at this cute Shamu plane. We ended up pulling away from the gate only about 10 minutes later than the original scheduled time. I would randomly lean over and take pictures out the window as we flew. We both dozed off and on, but would wake ourselves with a jerk of falling forward or the nasty drool that likes to escape your mouth in public places. Don’t lie…you know it’s all happened to you at some point too! And coming into Chicago. Our next gate was in the B area and we landed in the A. We had a bit of a walk, but not too bad, as it went fast and we utilized the moving walkways. Note…moving walkways are NOT rides…..please keep walking. So many people step on and ride it to the end…..not the purpose folks! Or at least move to one side so the walkers can pass. We had actually landed a few minutes early, so the worry of not making the connection was null. We used the bathrooms (Lisa has a phobia of plane bathrooms, and I honestly don’t blame her there) and waited. I took a couple of shots of the area. As the time got closer we took turns using the bathroom one last time. As I came out, I heard they were starting to call us to line up and Lisa had a look of hurry up. I ran back and we squished our way to our little post with our boarding number and again it was a bit of chaos. We boarded and went back to about the same area and sat next to the window again…this time Lisa insisted I take the window seat since I took pictures. While we waited to take off I took a few shots. I took a couple of self-portraits…none of which looked very good….Here is one…notice my lazy eye. I hate that. And one of us together. This flight was longer. A bit over 2 hours…scheduled at 2 ½ from gate to gate. I get ansty sitting for long periods like that. And sometimes start to feel those panic attacks coming on. I kept trying to get my mind off of it. I did sleep off and on for an hour. But after that, I had that need to move…restless leg syndrome. Lisa said she was having the same issues. We are quite the pair, aren’t we? I took a few random shots on this flight as well. I think this is as we were taking off from Chicago Midway. And now we were coming into Houston….YAY!!!!! We actually landed and were off the plane about 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. I love that! We headed outside to check out the weather. VERY humid. After a few minutes we headed back inside to baggage claim and the bags were coming out. We grabbed those and plopped them near a bench where Lisa sat. I was off to get check in for the car rental.

This post will not have pictures…but I promise there will be MANY coming up soon. The week prior to sailing, Lisa and I started phoning each other a bit more. She was very nervous and not sure what to pack. I went over some of the list of things she should have and things I was bringing that she wouldn’t need to have, like a blow dryer and bonine, etc. Sept 20 (Thursday) rolls around. The night before our departure day.…..It was a busy one for me. I had to be sure I had things packed for Claire. She was going to be going back and forth between her Grandmas’s, so I had to have 2 suitcases packed for her. 1 Grandma lives right next door, so if anything was forgotten, she could run over and get it (and evidently that means toys…as many seemed to make their way over to MIL’s while I was gone). My Mom doesn’t live too far away and it’s an easy stop here to pick up anything if it was forgotten as well. After school we took everything over to MIL’s house and gave her Claire’s planning itinerary. Yes, I made one for Claire’s grandmas and a friend who would be picking up Claire a couple of the days after school. I wanted to try and make it go smoothly and to give everyone each other’s phone numbers, etc. It was also Family Fun night at Claire’s school. I made an early dinner, since Claire rarely eats at events like this, and I wanted to be sure she got something in her stomach that wasn’t junk, and then we headed off for a night of fun activities at the school. They had a DJ and all the kids had such a great time. Normally I would take pictures, but with all the rushing and getting ready, I didn’t even think about bringing a camera this night. Towards the end of the night, Lisa called one last time. She was on her way to Meijer and picking up the last things she needed. We chatted a bit and I told her my goal would be to be at her house around 5:30 AM. YIKES…that sounded so early! I was going to get up at 4:30, but she was getting up at 3:30. She wanted to get up and have her body adjust to the early hour. The dance ended and Claire and I headed off to my Moms. Claire was dropped off and we gave big hugs and kisses, but she was practically kicking me out the door. Her cousin was going to be arriving soon to spend the night as well, (neither had school on Friday and my Mom took the day off of work to keep them both) and she had no interest in me hanging around. PLUS, my Mom had made a treasure hunt, so as soon as Cousin Alexis (Who will be sailing with us in Nov.) arrived, they could get started on that fun. I went home, finished packing the last minute things items and loaded suitcases in the car. Skip was in the house…and of course bothering me. He thinks it’s funny to ask many questions while I am busy. He did, however give me some cash to take. He gave me his wallet and told me to take what I needed…Um…not a wise thing to do. I told him to give me what he wanted to give me. I didn’t want to hear later that I took too much. He gave me $200. I was good with that. Then he continued to tell me to take more because we would be “laying” in the bars all the time. That is so not us. And he knows it, but it was funny. I did end up taking $20 more just to make him happy.

Hi everyone. I have just started my newest trip report and I invite you al lto come over and join in the fun. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63872

Hello and welcome to my latest trip report. I had the wonderful opportunity to sail the Magic out of Galveston for her inaugural sailing Sept 22. Who am I? Well I am Jennifer….jenseib here on the boards. I love writing Trip Reports and sometimes I am a little Whacky. I am a Mom of 3 children, Michael, who is 23, Paige, who is 20, and Claire who is 7. I am married to Skip. If you have read any of my past TR’s and/or PTR’s you will know he is a fun loving guy, but a vacation resistor. This trip was no different. This past May I started planning a trip I had earned from my job. It was NOT a Disney cruise…..but one on another very nice line. The thing is, I had to wait for dates to be released for the time of year I wanted to go….Sept. Since this was kind of a promotional type cruise, I couldn’t just pick anything; I had to go with what was offered. From the start, I knew Skip would not go on this trip. I wanted Sept. for several reasons. Well actually I would’ve loved to have gone over the summer, but all of the summer dates released were during other scheduled events here at home that could not be changed. I would’ve lie to have brought along Claire, but she will be missing almost 2 weeks of school in Nov for a family trip on the Dream and to WDW, so there was just no way I could let her miss that much more school. I asked Skip if he would mind if I asked my friend Lisa to join me and he was fine with that. I texted Lisa and she responded with a yes. Lisa has been my friend for years. Back in our single days we used to hit the local bar scene every weekend. We have traveled together a few times and I knew we were compatible that way. We have no problems going off on our own if we want to. Sadly over the years we have drifted apart. We both got married, and I had my 3rd child, Claire. We only see each a few times a year at most. We usually have no troubles picking up right where we left off, but this could be different. We hadn’t spent a long time together in over 10 years. Secretly, I did wonder if we would hate each other by the end of the trip. LOL…OK, not hate each other, but be annoyed with each other. Well no worries. We had a blast together and it was just like we have seen each other every week since we got married. All summer long I waited for the dates to be released and it just wasn’t happening. Finally the next batch was released…and they totally skipped the month of Sept. WHAT? I was crushed. How could this be? Fate stepped in and crushed my dreams….or so I thought. I told Lisa right away. I felt so awful. She had even applied for a passport just for this trip. But Fate had other plans for us. Later that day, another promotion was released through my job. This one was for the Disney Magic. It gave select dates in Sept and Oct. Sept 22 worked best for me, so I quickly called Lisa and she said yes. We booked immediately. Long story short, my DH, who had known about this since May decided to be a big baby about it and we spent a few days not talking. I will not back down and if he doesn’t want to talk to me, I sure can handle that. Sometimes he talks way too much, so a few days of peace and quiet is fine. LOL. Eventually he got over it and I just chose not to talk to him about the trip. He really has no interest in where I was going, he only asked when about 2 weeks before I left. I booked this trip in early Aug. I believe around Aug 9th. That meant not much time for planning. Soon I learned that 2 of the girls I had gone to an Agent Education program last year at WDW were going. It would be exciting to see Mary and Carolyn again. Not long after that, one of my co-workers, Brook….brookelizabeth on Dis…decided she wanted to go as well. She booked a cabin for herself, while Carolyn had 2 friends coming and Mary had 3. Brook and I were roommates last year, and it was going to be really nice to see her again. The planning got started as much as we could and for the most part we were going to do a lot of “winging” it. We only pre-booked a couple of things. We did make matching t-shirts though…we are geeky that way. How I came up with the name of this TR will be revealed later. Lisa and I always seem to have some sort of funny saying at some point in a trip together that makes us laugh and then we repeat it over and over…and this happened to be one of those lines. Please join me as I relive one of the greatest vacations I have ever had. It was very different than ones with my family, but in a good way. I still love traveling with my family, don’t get me wrong, but it was really nice to do a girls only trip this time around. I will forewarn you now. I have a very busy month ahead of me as well as a long trip (Nov. 2- 14) to WDW and on the Disney Dream. This TR will be slow going, but I will finish it. It will just take some time.