Wombat's Disney Adventure

Epilogue

2008-05-09T17:02:00.000-04:00

May 9, 2008. I started posting this trip report on January 7, the day after we returned. I’m posting this final message on May 9, 2008 (although for now I’m telling the blog it’s posted in January, so the other new posts aren’t hidden in the sidebar), meaning it’s taken me over four months to write this report. Wow.

In that time, life has gone on. My men's chorus, the Vocal Majority, has performed five shows and also competed in and won our division championship, the first step towards the competition for our twelfth international gold medal. I’ve also had bronchitis three times since starting this report. Brandon and Benjamin have each grown an inch and a half. (I wish I were exaggerating!) Brandon now wears glasses. Benjamin's children’s choir performed the program they were working on – and one more since then. And the family I mentioned in the last post, that we sent the Mickey postcard to? They just got back from Walt Disney World themselves – like, yesterday!

But even with all the time that has passed, it seems like the trip really is just ending. In part, I'm sure, that's because I've still got the tune to “There’s a restroom in our volcano, Cinderella’s in our pool!” stuck in my head.

I never intended for writing the report to take this long. At the same time, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being able to put in lots of detail and write in the “you are there” format. It’s like I’ve been reliving all of the fun of the vacation for an additional four months – and from the feedback I’ve received from many of you, you’ve enjoyed it too.

It amazes me the number of readers I’ve had. As I posted last month on my (other) blog, The World of Wombat (which has suffered in the four months of writing this report), I put a free web tracking service on this report’s website and found that hundreds of you, from all over the world, have been tuning in regularly. It's hard to fathom. Thank you for all of your interest and for the encouraging comments I’ve received, not only here on the blog, but also on Stupid Guest Tricks, Passporter, and All Things and WDW.

Many, many thanks are due, as usual, first and foremost to Bob and Linda for making the trip possible; to my parents for the awesome custom windbreakers, and to Chillus for creating them; to my “Disney family” at Stupid Guest Tricks; to Big Wallaby for an awesome KSR tour and for being great company at Ohana and MGM ("MGM"? There’s another change that’s happened while writing this report!); and to Zazu and all of the other CM’s we met – you really make the magic at Disney!!! Thanks also to AllEarsNet.com and CastawayClub.com, which were great resources for when my notes weren’t detailed enough!!

So now, at last, it’s over. This trip will live on from here on out only in our memories, in photographs, and in this report. Hopefully they will be enough to tide us over until our next Disney vacation.

Speaking of which...

Normally it’s at least two years before we get back to Disney. Not this time! Our next trip is already scheduled for July 2009! Why so soon? Well, remember the mention above that the Vocal Majority will be competing for the international gold medal again? It just so happens that the Barbershop Harmony Society’s annual convention, where we will compete in 2009,... is going to be in Anaheim, California!!!

How could we go to Anaheim and not go to Disneyland???

I have been to Disneyland before, way back in 1982, but no one else in the family has, so it will be a “first” for them. It will also be interesting tacking a Disney vacation onto the end of the convention – especially since I’m sure I’ll be wiped out from rehearsing and competing. Still, all six of us – Becky, our boys, and her parents – are already planning on going, and my parents will be joining us – another “first” – so I know it will be a blast!

So it won’t be too long until I’m posting here again -- and who knows, I may have Disney-related things to post here from time to time, so don't delete this site from your bookmarks entirely. For sure, though, tune in again in the summer of 2009, when I’ll start writing a combination VM competition/Disneyland trip report!

Hopefully it’ll be finished before 2010.

Thanks again for reading! Keep in touch with the doings of my family at The World of Wombat, and please let me know of your trips and trip reports!!

THE END

The final leg

2008-01-06T15:56:00.001-05:00

The jet continues east all the way to the west coast of the Florida peninsula and out a bit over the Gulf before turning north. With Disney World behind us, literally and figuratively, we settle in for the flight to Dallas.

I get a ginger ale from the flight attendant and enjoy my M&M’s, and then I doze off. Actually, I sleep – hard. I’m out for half of the flight, waking about forty minutes before landing. It’s a nice way to pass the time.

Becky tells me she dozed some as well, but not as much as me. Benjamin… is still out like a light, draped across his lap tray. It’s pretty cute.

We get another semi-interesting view out of the window as we pass just to the southwest of downtown Dallas. I take a picture of the skyscrapers, and then try to spot landmarks, ending up with finding the red brick, four-story Sammons Center for the Performing Arts, where the Vocal Majority practices each Thursday. We’ve had a few weeks off following our Christmas shows, and I’m ready to be back singing with them!

The flight lands right at 12:52 – Central time, now. Within thirty minutes we have our bags and wheel them out to the Super Shuttle stand. There’s a couple of families waiting there already, but we have a prepaid reservation, and a van comes to get us within a few minutes of our checking in!

Along the ride back to Becky’s parent’s house, Becky calls her friend and fellow church children’s choir worker Tina. Becky and Benjamin actually have a rehearsal this afternoon, preparing for a joint musical debut with another church’s kids! Tina , her husband Rob, and their son Ryan will be taking their first trip to Walt Disney World in a few months, and Ryan was one of the kids to whom we sent a “postcard from Mickey” a few days ago. Becky asks Tina if he got it, and laughs when she realizes that Rob and Tina didn’t realize that we had sent it – they thought it was just a magical Disney thing!

The ride back to Bob and Linda’s house is otherwise uneventful. With a choir practice to get to, we’re not doing the traditional “viewing of the pictures” on the TV, just loading our minivan and heading out. I get my keys from where I’ve left them in their house and pull the minivan around front. We load the luggage, say our goodbyes, and start to leave…

…only to find that the right rear tire has lost some pressure. I get word to Linda to have Bob meet me around back with his air compressor.

I pull to their driveway in the back of the house, and when I get out, the tire is hissing audibly. Uh oh. I must have run over something. Becky and the boys go inside the house to wait while Bob and I work on the minivan.

One tire change later, we repeat our goodbyes and thanks and are finally on the road. We drive through a Wendy’s to grab lunch before getting on the freeway, and eat on the way.

It’s a very different atmosphere in the minivan, compared to the end of our last two Disney vacations. With both of them, we were heading home, settling down after nine days of exhaustion. Now the kids are older and more involved, and we have to hit the ground running. Oh, well, life goes on.

We drop Becky and Benjamin off at their rehearsal, and then Brandon and I stop off at the grocery store and then, finally, head home. We unload the suitcases and put away the groceries. Once that's done, I fire up the computer for the first time in a week and a half. There are 122 emails waiting – and 1,720 new posts on Stupid Guest Tricks!

The adventure never ends.

Stay tuned – one more post coming!

One last Disney surprise!

2008-01-06T11:55:00.011-05:00

The time doesn’t drag too much, and before 11:00 we are on the plane. We push back from the gate right at 11:15, taxi to the runway, and are in the air quickly.

We’ve departed to the south, and then make a climbing turn to the east. Usually our flights back to Dallas turn north or northeast fairly quickly. I’ve always wanted to spot Walt Disney World from the air, but so far it hasn’t happened. Although I’ve practically memorized the place from the air by looking at Google Earth and Virtual Earth, local.live.com and the rest, I’ve never seen it from the air with my own eyes. But having departed south from the airport and then turned east, maybe, just maybe…

Yes!! There’s Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon. If we keep going the same way we’re going, we will pass just south of WDW, giving us a perfect view of the World from the air!!!

We do!

We see Walt Disney World approaching. Bay Lake is in the center of the photograph.

Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake.

Epcot, with World Showcase at the bottom, the parking lot at the top. The brightly-colored rooftops of the Caribbean Beach Resort are at the bottom right.

Another shot of Epcot.

Seven Seas Lagoon. The Magic Kingdom is just above it, while the WDW Speedway is at the bottom of the picture. Space Mountain is clearly visible at the center right of the picture. Sharp eyes might be able to make out the Contemporary just below it, and even the green roof of the Wilderness Lodge.

A last shot of the same area. The Mickey-shaped water feature at the Speedway is easy to spot towards the bottom of the photograph.

Seeing Walt Disney World for one last time on our way out of town is a real treat. Of course, it just makes me want to go back again!

On our own again

2008-01-06T10:45:00.001-05:00

I’ve taken many, many pictures of the Disney Wonder from the bus after our previous two cruises. They are almost all indistinguishable from each other. Even so, I still find myself with my camera out, snapping away. It’s not only a beautiful ship, but there’s also a strong sense of not wanting this moment to pass – or if it must, to have a tangible record of it.

Soon enough, though, the bus turns onto the main highway and starts across the Banana River, and the ship is now behind us.

There’s no departure video, but a Donald Duck cartoon is playing, interrupted frequently by our talkative driver. I’m not sure about his mastery of the facts he is giving out, though. He points out NASA’s massive Vehicle Assembly Building – good so far – but then states that they are getting ready for a shuttle launch “to the moon, this time.” Umm, I don’t think so – the space shuttle is only made for low Earth orbit.

His interruptions continue to point out wildlife. I do spot a dolphin briefly in the water on the left side of the roadway, but after that I lose interest. Before long I notice that the other five members of my family have dozed off – Brandon, in the seat next to me, is leaning on me, with his head frequently sliding down my arm before he catches himself.

I power up my cell phone and find a couple of messages. The first says that our flight’s gate has been changed, from Gate 13 to Gate 12. The second, sent five minutes after the first, says that the gate has been changed again, from 12 to 16. Whatever.

The Donald cartoon is followed by a couple of Pluto cartoons, and before long we are arriving at the Orlando airport. Our group drowsily clambers off the bus, and for the first time in a week – almost to the minute – we are no longer in Disney’s hands.

We take our usual “freshen up” break on the lower level of the airport and then head upstairs to go through security. There’s a substantial line, but also multiple screening checkpoints, so the line moves quickly. I’m the first through, with the boys and then Linda and Becky close behind. We wait several minutes at the exit while Bob is wanded yet again. Thoroughly.

Poor guy.

Onto the automated tram we go, and then to our gate. We have an hour and a half to kill until our flight. I call home and check our answering machine messages. Nothing exciting there.

I notice for the first time that the airport seems to be gently rocking. Becky comments on it as well. As we learned after the first cruise, it’s the aftereffect of rough seas on our internal balance.

Brandon’s wearing his autographed t-shirt for the first time. It’s really cool with all of the signatures on it.

We take turns getting up, stretching our legs, getting a drink. I grab a Dr Pepper, my first in a week – they’re hard to find at Disney and on the ship. Brandon wants a snack “for the plane,” even though we’re still full from breakfast. Okay, sure – it’s still vacation, after all. He gets a bag of cookies and I add a couple of bags of Peanut M&M’s.

When we return to the gate, I half expect Becky to jump at the chance to have some Dr Pepper, since it’s her favorite, but she says, “Not before 10:00.” Within a couple of minutes, though, she’s reaching for “just a sip.”

I toss the bags of Peanut M&M’s into Becky’s purse, sheepishly joking to her parents that “I haven’t reached my chocolate quota for the week.” Bob just smiles and reaches into a pocket – to show his own bag of M&M’s! Great minds think alike.

Out and away

2008-01-06T08:39:00.002-05:00

From the gangway we enter the terminal building, into that second-floor hallway we were so eager to walk up three days ago. There’s no one scanning our cards, though. Hmm. We just file down the hall with the other cruisers and head down the escalator to the baggage area.

This place has been redecorated since we were last here. Either that, or it’s just easier to see around the room, with so much of the luggage now being taken directly to the airlines. Either way, there are large sepia-toned murals on the walls depicting Disney cruise ships and characters as if they were around in the golden age of ocean liners, in the early 20th century. The Wonder and Magic with their classic designs would have fit right in.

Unfortunately, this is a customs area, so I can’t take any pictures of the murals.

The ever-friendly and helpful porters are around with their carts, and we’re able to find our bags quickly. There’s a double line for customs, but it moves quickly. We have our passports out, each opened to the photo page.

When we reach the agent, she takes the passports and the declarations page, quickly scans the passports with an optical reader, and waves us through. No questions to us this time, which is good, since I was a sputtering idiot last time.

Once past customs, we follow our agent outside and to the American Airlines desk. There’s no line there. Nice. As on our previous two trips, our bags are placed behind the desk and we hand our eTicket info to the agent, who checks us in, tags our bags, and gives us our boarding passes.

Only one thing left to do – board a bus to the airport. The Disney crew member at the door to the bus checks one of our KTTW cards – verifying that we have the ground transfer – and waves us onto the bus.

We find seats about 2/3 of the way back, and before long the bus is backing out of its spot and we’re rolling to the airport. This whole experience of departing the ship, finding our bags, going through customs, checking in with the airline, and boarding our ground transportation has only taken about 20 minutes. Amazing. It’s a seamless process and a great convenience.

Goodbyes

2008-01-06T07:18:00.002-05:00

We take the lifts down to Deck 4 and walk back to Animator’s Palate. The doors are already open, and we find Sutas and Nino smiling and waiting for us at our table. Bob cheerfully remarks to Sutas, “You’re up early!”

He evenly replies, “Always.”

As we are seated he starts reciting the menu items and stumbles once or twice, finally apologizing, “Sorry, but I’m not a morning person.” Hey, my kind of guy. We order our usual array of hearty vacation breakfasts and a plate of donuts.

While Nino is serving our drinks, Bob asks him what time he had to get up that morning, and is surprised to hear that he rose at 5:45. Bob thought he’d be up much earlier preparing the dining room. No, Nino explains, we actually set up the room the night before, and then cover everything, because then another crew comes in and cleans the floors overnight .

Breakfast is very, very tasty. Here’s another set of conflicting emotions – we’re tempted to linger over it and stay on the ship as much as possible, but we also have places to be and we’re anxious to get on with the next stage. We take a few more pictures of Sutas and Nino, and thank them for all they’ve done.

We’re out of the restaurant by 7:10.

We descend the big staircase on the other side of Shutters, with our carry-on bags in hand, and enter the atrium for the last time. The “See You Real Soon” banner is hanging over the exit on the other side of the floor. Sigh.

Just as we enter the atrium, a fanfare starts playing over the loud speakers, and Mickey’s voice thanks us (okay, probably not just us) for cruising with him. Hmm, never heard this before! He ends with – what else? – “See you real soon!” Maybe, Mickey. Maybe.

We walk across the floor, under the banner, and onto the gangway. We’re off the ship.

Into port, out the door

2008-01-06T06:33:00.007-05:00

Sunday, January 6, 2008. It’s finally here – our last day. Wow. Once again, we deal with the emotional contradiction: Yes, we’re sad to be going home, but we’re also ready to be there. In that respect, these vacations are the perfect length – short enough to leave us wanting more, but long enough to have us really missing home.

My alarm sounds at 5:55 a.m., and I’m fully awake after only hitting the snooze once. I turn on the TV to the “View from the Bridge” channel. It’s dark outside, but there are stationary lights in plain view ahead. We’re at Port Canaveral and docked already.

I’m not too surprised. Christiaan, our cruise director, told us we’d probably be back at around 5:30. I hope Captain Henry forgives me for not getting up to help him dock.

As we rouse the boys up, I flip the TV over to the movie channels and find Nemo playing. I then step out onto the veranda and find Bob already there. He and I watch as a Royal Caribbean cruise ship backs into its dock just ahead of the Disney Wonder. We’re both hoping the ship doesn’t hit us, but intellectually I know it’s not as close as it looks.

Back inside, everyone’s dressed pretty quickly. It’s easier to do when your clothes have been laid out the night before and everything else is packed and gone. We spend some time stuffing everything that’s left – including the stuffed friends Benjamin and Brandon have – into backpacks and carry-ons.

It’s time for our final inventory before we leave the Suite for the last time. It goes like this:

Linda: “I have our passports.”

Me: “I have ours.”

Bob: “I have my driver’s license and Key to the World card.”

Me: “I have rhythm, I have music.”

Bob & Me, singing: “Who could ask for anything more?”

Sad to say, the time has now come to leave this blessed luxury in which we’ve been privileged to stay. The family files down the central hallway and out the door, with me trailing behind.

I pause to half-close the entry door and examine its back side, the one with all the paperwork and evacuation routes posted. There’s nothing really remarkable about it – I just figure that it may be my very last time to see that side of that particular door.

The door shuts behind me as I step out into the hallway. Goodbye, Walter E. Disney Suite.

Final scramble

2008-01-05T23:58:00.004-05:00

It is such a blast being surrounded by all of the characters. But… now we’re back in the Suite, rushing to get our luggage out the door again. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

We’ve got to have our bags packed and in the hallway by 11:00 p.m. Okay, it’s not an absolute necessity, but the reward is that we don’t have to haul all of our bags off of the ship. Disney crew members pick up the bags and carry them off the ship for us, and then we find them on the lower level of the DCL terminal tomorrow morning, where we take them through customs. We could in theory take them off of the ship ourselves, but it’s a lot more convenient this way.

This means, of course, that we must have everything out of the bags that we need for sleeping tonight, dressing in the morning, and traveling tomorrow. We’re never organized in advance enough, no matter how much we plan, to get the bags out early, so it always turns into a last-minute rush.

I throw things into the bags – no sense being organized now, just want to make sure everything gets home somehow. Becky and I tear through all of the cabinets, drawers, closets, nooks, crannies… Okay, this is one time that being in the Walt Disney Suite is a disadvantage – there are a lot of places to look!

In the meantime, Brandon and Benjamin are getting ready for bed. I can tell Brandon’s a little frazzled from the long day. But they head for bed, and right at 11:00 I place the final bags outside the door.

Whew. Okay, that was a chore, but the bags are gone now, and we can relax. I chuckle to myself when I remember our last cruise – that was worse, because one of the boys packed away his Key to the World card, and we had to scramble after our bags and rummage through them to find it. It would have been a huge hassle trying to get off of the ship without it.

I’m pretty sure we learned our lesson last time, and I’d mentioned this to everyone already today, but… just to be safe, I’d better ask again.

That’s when I learn that Benjamin’s KTTW card is on his lanyard. Which he packed.

I scramble for the door, in my sock feet, screaming bloody murder – at least internally. Our bags our gone! ARGH!

There’s a luggage cart down the hallway. I race down towards it and find the boys suitcases on it. I can’t tell if I’ve surprised the poor CM who’s been collecting luggage or if he’s used to this sort of spectacle, but frankly, my attention isn’t on him. It’s on the bags I’m digging through, and … yes! Got it!

I thank the crew member and pad back to the Suite, the panic subsided. We’re ready to go for tomorrow.

Okay, not quite ready. As Becky and the boys settle down for the night, I finish up my trip notes, work some on the DCL guest survey, and then fill that big whirlpool tub with hot water for another late-night soak.

Ahhhh…. If this is my final night in the Walt Disney Suite, I’m going end it in style!

‘Till We Meet Again

2008-01-05T22:46:00.001-05:00

We now rejoin your previously scheduled program, already in progress...

We have a few minutes to go until the 10:00 “’Till We Meet Again” massive character greet. Bob and Linda decide to turn in for the night. The rest of us head towards Mickey’s Mates for some last-night shopping.

On the way we find Christiaan greeting the exiting crowds. I thank him for a great cruise, and he’s nice enough to pose with the boys for a picture.

The store is crowded. I never do find a new cruise line hat that I like, so I don’t end up buying any. Maybe next trip? Becky finds a t-shirt that she likes, which has several of the character’s signatures printed on it, so it matches the boys’. Benjamin is tempted by many of the pins on sale.

Speaking of pins, Katrina from the pin station is checking us out. Okay, that sounds wrong. Katrina is working at the check-out counter. (Much better.)

Benjamin notices she has a pin of “Scrump,” Lilo’s homemade rag doll, on her lanyard, and tells Katrina he had one just like it. Well, yes, she replies – you traded it to me!

Okay, it’s just about 10:00, and Becky and the boys want to get a little more casual, so we all hustle up to the Suite. There's a towel lobster on the bed.

Once clothes are changed, we head back down to Deck 3.

When we arrive, we’ve missed the grand introduction, but the characters are just arriving, streaming in. On the last trip the boys and I saw this for the first time, and it is a Disney character lover’s dream. There are new characters everywhere you turn, on two different levels of the atrium. We still do have some packing left, so as a practical matter we focus on the characters whose signatures the boys do not yet have (sorry Mickey!):

Starting with Minnie, I noticed for the first time that the non-face characters never hold still. Even when posing, they do this head-bobble movement that (1) gives life to the character and (2) really comes out blurry when you have a cheap digital camera with a slow shutter speed!

Notice the bobble-head blur on Goofy also. (Yes, I know I need a better camera, or a flash.)

With Anne Marie and Peter Pan, the stars of Disney Dreams.

Ensign Bensen, the star of The Golden Mickeys.

Captain James "Bobblehead" Hook

Disney Dreams

2008-01-05T21:40:00.004-05:00

So here we sit, waiting for the start of my favorite onboard Disney stage show, perhaps one of the best stage shows ever for Disney fans. It is a “kiss goodnight” from the Cruise Line to us, and it never fails to wring the emotions out of me.

I’ve read that this is an “enhanced” version, with added effects and characters. I’m both curious and skeptical. I’d hate for any additions to detract from what was already a great show.

Right away, though – even before the show starts – a new effect appears. Accompanied by a tinkling sound effect, a laser-generated Tinker Bell sparkle flits and sparkles and loops across the main curtain, and then disappears. Tink “reappears” every few minutes. It’s a simple thing, but it gets the audience, me included, bubbling with anticipation. Okay, I think I’m going to really enjoy the enhanced version.

When it’s time for the show to begin, cruise director Christiaan runs out on stage and flips to a stop, literally, with a one-handed cartwheel! The guy is awesome.

The last time I saw this, on our 2005 cruise, I documented just about every scene, kind of like I did for The Golden Mickeys last night. Sorry, but tonight, I sit back and just enjoy the show, without taking many pictures. Feel free to check out my 2005 report for pictures and a rehash of my 2003 narrative.

Disney Dreams is amazing as always, and the new effects are spectacular, beginning with the title of the show "etched" in laser light on the main curtain just before it rises. The laser is used (without being overused) throughout the show, to portray Tinker Bell and to add to the pixie dust sparkling in the theater at the end of the show.

There are a couple of character additions, notably Timon & Pumbaa in the Lion King segment. I notice some other new touches as well, such as confetti cannons at the end of the "Prince Ali" section and snow falling (!) on Beauty and Beast. I may be imagining it, but it seems as if the script has been tightened, and flows even better than before.

Besides these changes, though, the biggest improvement is to the flying that the characters do. In the original version, when Anne Marie learns to fly near the end of the show, she and Peter Pan are hoisted straight up, and then sideways off stage. Dramatic, but not that impressive.

The flying is different from the start of the show in this one. When Peter Pan first appears in Anne Marie's window, he launches himself off the window sill and soars effortless toward the audience and around the stage before landing again. It is breathtaking, and serves the storyline much better -- after all, if Peter is teaching Anne Marie how to fly, it's great to demonstrate that he already knows how! Best of all is the complete unexpectedness of the flying, for those of us who have seen the show before. It's a brief thing, but very stunning.

Of course, at the end of the show, both Peter and Anne Marie's flying is vastly improved -- no straight up and out any more! It's really cool.

The show is as touching as always, and the performers receive a well-deserved standing ovation. It's got me choked up again as well, with pixie dust filling the theatre and then the "home is where dreams come true" line and all of the characters coming out. Sniff.

The boys and I sing heartily along with the exit music, "When You Wish Upon a Star" as taken from WDW's "Remember the Magic" parade finale, as we walk up the aisles. Sniff.

Do real animators eat this well?

2008-01-05T20:11:00.003-05:00

For my entrée, I select the bacon-wrapped filet mignon, served with a seafood-stuffed pastry shell. Becky orders the same. It’s delicious. Benjamin orders the lemon pepper chicken… and frankly, I start enjoying the conversation and atmosphere so much that I stop paying attention to (and taking notes on) what everyone else is eating. Just trust me that it was all good.

Sutas and Nino are delightful as ever, and at one point Lars the concierge stops by the table. He had popped by the Walt Disney Suite to deliver our printed arrival weather forecast and didn’t find us there. He must have gone there right after we left to have our portrait made. He gives us the custom-printed page and asks us if there is anything else he can do for us. It’s honestly hard to think of anything we could possibly be lacking!

There’s no “tribute to animation” video, but the servers do parade out, after we are asked to show who had the best servers by our cheering, of course. The high-pitched roar throughout the restaurant is almost deafening – everyone on a Disney cruise gets treated well!

Dessert time – again! Becky’s drawn to the chocolate and peanut butter pie, just as she is drawn to almost everything that combines chocolate and peanut butter. I’m not as big a fan, but when she offers me a bite I try it, and it is good! Bob also gets the pie, while Linda and I each get the ice cream sundae, which turns out to be a rather large concoction with a small wedge of chocolate walnut cake topped with scoops of both strawberry and mud pie ice cream, and drowned in a fudge sauce and whipped cream. Yum, yum, yum.

Brandon and Benjamin… can’t make up their minds, and each ends up ordering two desserts, with our once in a lifetime (or at least once in a cruise) permission. Brandon gets the chocolate / peanut butter pie and a Mickey bar, while Benjamin orders the double-fudge chocolate cake and custard.

Head server Bhoola stops by, and along with Sutas and Nino gives us our morning of departure instructions, which we already know by heart. We are to be out of our room and down here at the same table for breakfast at the way-early hour of 6:45, and then we leave the ship immediately thereafter. Sigh. I guess the end is that near.

We thank them all for a wonderful cruise. We’ll probably see them again in the morning, but better to thank them twice than forget.

We’re out the door at 7:45. We’d like to get to the Walt Disney Theatre earlier for Disney Dreams so as to get my long-leg seats on the center aisle, but first we have some more pin trading to do – and this time there are officers present with their lanyards. Katrina, the crew member who’s been at this pin station both previous nights, is here again, but there’s also a line of 4 or 5 DCL officers in their pristine white uniforms.

It’s fun chatting with them – and they have some cool pins. Brandon and I both end up making two trades, and when we compare pins afterward, we find that we’ve both ended up with the same pins! One is a Disney Cruise Line-specific pin commemorating pin trading on board, and the other is a small pin of the WDW monorail. The only difference between our pins is the color of the monorail!

From the atrium we head up to Deck 4 and down to the Walt Disney Theatre. It’s not open yet, and there is a small line, but before long we’re able to go in.

And we get the long-leg seats.

On the fritz

2008-01-05T18:39:00.006-05:00

Animator’s Palate is a stunning, imaginative restaurant, themed as a tribute to Disney animation and animators over the years. With the special effects and unique musical score, this one restaurant added $4.3 million to the costs of building the ship.

It is a delight to the eyes and ears as well as the taste buds, for as you enter the restaurant, all is in black-and-white – the walls (covered, on closer examination, with copies of Disney character pencil sketches), the ceiling (which features painters’ palettes supported by “paint brush” columns), the framed artwork of Disney characters on the walls. Tables, chairs, even the wait staff’s uniforms, all are in black and white.

As you dine, the music swells and recedes with themes from many classic Disney features, and portraits associated with that film change to color. When all the pictures have turned to color, they change back to black and white – some of the frames change pictures entirely – and the process begins again. Splashes of color pulse overhead as well, on the ceiling palettes and with fiber optics in the paint brushes.

Then, after the entrees have been cleared, the lights lower and video screens play a sweet and stirring tribute to the art of storytelling through animation, and at the climax of the video “Zip-Ah-Dee-Doo-Dah” plays, the lights come up, and the restaurant has turned to color – not just the pictures and paint brushes, as before, but the formerly black and white walls are awash in oranges and yellows. Our servers parade enthusiastically to the music, now wearing colorful vests instead of plain ones.

That’s the experience of Animator’s Palate. When it works.

When the doors finally open, it’s quickly apparent that the delay was caused by the “show” part of the restaurant, as the walls are already in color as we enter. That… just shouldn’t be yet.

Some of the show lights flicker on and off, and the music doesn’t even play until we’ve been seated for twenty minutes. Eventually they get the lights to the black and white setting, but there are still obvious problems. At least, the problems are obvious to those of us who know what to expect. I just feel sorry for new cruisers not getting to experience the full effect.

Dinner is still delicious, even without fully functional effects. As an appetizer, Linda and I each order the seafood and avocado wrapper, which is very tasty, while Becky and Brandon get the wild garlic mushrooms in a pastry cup. Benjamin has a fruit plate, while Bob passes on an appetizer and just orders a Caesar salad. Linda gets a bowl of butternut squash soup, but Becky, Brandon and I add a Caesar salad as well.

When the salads arrive, Benjamin decides he’d like one, too. We flag Sutas to see if that’s okay, knowing the answer before we ask. Life on a cruise ship is pretty amazing, and they do their best to spoil you rotten. Benjamin soon has his salad.

Portrait and Palate

2008-01-05T18:03:00.008-05:00

After we’re well on our way, we return inside to dress for dinner. This night we will be in Animator’s Palate – always a great experience – but we’re also dressing up a bit to have our shipboard portrait done.

Once we’re ready we head down to the atrium. I’m hoping the backdrop with the ship against the Mickey sunset is still available. That looked so cool. Alas, when we arrive, the background is a stark white. They’re just going for plain and artsy this time. Bummer.

We start to line up for our picture, but as we look around we see a second photographer one floor up. The background is abstract but colorful, which is already an improvement, but the big difference that makes us go there is the fact that the portraits are being done with Mickey!!

Mickey Mouse is posing with all comers, resplendent in his tuxedo. We’ve had family portraits done on both previous cruises, but never with the Mouse. This’ll be great.

We head upstairs and join the short line, with Becky double-checking the boys’ hair and making sure we’re all photogenic – to the limits of what she has to work with, of course. Soon enough, our turn comes, and we gather around Mickey. The photographer poses us and takes a few shots, and a nearby female crew member is nice enough to take a couple of pictures with our own cameras.

Mickey, of course, doesn’t say much, but he’s still pretty nice to hang out with.

We’re done with pictures at about 5:45, meaning that we have 15 minutes to go until our official dinner time, but we still head down to the restaurant, just down the hall on this same deck, since they usually begin seating early.

Shutters, the photo shop, is on the way, and we stop to look at some other pictures. Since we just had our portrait made, we’ll have to come back by here again, probably tomorrow morning, to buy it. It’s possible it might be here later tonight, though.

When we arrive at Animator’s Palate, the doors are shut and there is a bit of a line already formed. I don’t mind the wait in and of itself, but it’s quickly getting warm and stuffy in this hallway. Brandon is especially feeling the warmth, since he got a little sunburned on the beach.

I eventually step out the nearby double doors to the outside deck for some fresh air. The sun has just set, and the Caribbean sky is absolutely beautiful. It is windy and a little cold, so I cool off in a hurry. After I return, Brandon goes outside himself.

Six o’clock is fast approaching, and the restaurant doors still haven’t opened. That’s odd, especially considering how punctual shipboard activities usually are. Of course, they’re not late yet, but usually people are being seated well before the scheduled arrival time.

At 6:00 straight up – there’s that punctuality! – the Animator’s Palate doors open, and the servers work quickly to seat everyone waiting. There’s no hint of whatever problem might have delayed the opening… Oh, wait. Yes, there is.

The walls are in color.

Casting off

2008-01-05T17:19:00.001-05:00

Around four o’clock I go to get clean – in the two-shower-head walk-in stall again. I take my time and savor the experience, knowing I probably won’t use the Suite’s shower again. (The tub, however? We’ll see.)

When I’m out and dressed, we begin packing in earnest. We normally leave packing for after the show, but that always seems to end up as a rushed effort to have the bags out the door by 11:00, when the crew picks them up. This time, I really want Becky to experience the “’Til We Meet Again” character goodbye in the Atrium at ten, and I know she won’t think about coming unless the packing is mostly done.

We’re departing from Castaway Cay at 5:00, so at five minutes till most of us go out on the balcony to watch the departure. Since we’re right over the dock, we have a front row (if elevated) view of the well-rehearsed interplay of activity that accompanies the ship’s exit.

The Wonder is attached to the dock with several big heavy ropes both at the fore and aft of the ship. Workers on the dock at each location are already casting off some, but not all, of those ropes, even though a couple of gangways still attached.

When we look to the right, we can see that Captain Henry and his first officer are overseeing the departure on the port wing of the bridge, which is on the same deck as us. The cover is open on the outdoor-grill-shaped console they use to control the engines and side thrusters.

The main task needing to be completed before departure on the dock below is apparently the final gathering of all of the towels. A tractor has pulled a trailer loaded with bags of used towels near the base of one of the ramps, and crew members are quickly transfer the towels into tall wheeled carts. When the bags are empty, the carts are pushed up the ramps and onto the ship.

Once that is completed, forklifts remove both gangways from the ship and set them on the dock. The final ropes are cast off fore and aft, and when we look straight down we can see that the ship is moving sideways away from the dock, pushed by the Wonder’s side thrusters. It’s an amazing thing to watch.

We start to detect some forward motion as the ship slowly begins to accelerate out of its slip – and then the “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn sounds. We’re on our way!

On the dock, six of the island cast members, their work done, stand side by side waving goodbye to us – with Mickey-gloved hands. I love Disney!

Once the ship clears the outer marker buoy, the officers retreat from the wing. It’s fascinating to watch so massive a ship depart so gracefully, but it’s also a bit sad. It means we’ve started the last leg of our cruise.

Unlikely entertainment

2008-01-05T15:54:00.001-05:00

Shortly after Captain Henry leaves us, Bob and Linda get up to go to the Suite to change. Becky and I spend another 20 or 25 quiet minutes relaxing on deck, and then we follow.

When we arrive in the Suite, Aladdin is showing on the television. Disney, Disney, Disney, all around us. It's wonderful. Certainly there are people in the world for whom this would be "Disney overload" – and there are plenty of non-Mouse-related channels and other options for them – but I love the total immersion in the magic.

Bob and Linda point out our newest delivery from the concierge staff – a plate of deluxe sweets, including chocolate truffles, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and mini fruit tarts. I’m still full of hot dog and pizza, so I just share a truffle with Becky, and then she also has a chocolate-dipped strawberry.

I flip the TV over to the other Disney movie channel and find Lilo & Stitch, a movie I can watch over and over without getting tired of it. Bob goes to take a nap, and the boys return from swimming. We send them to shower the chlorine off.

Once again, this is the life – just relaxing, doing not much of anything, in the Walt Disney Suite. It's still hard to wrap my brain around the idea that I'm actually getting to do this, but it's getting easier. I'll be fully adjusted to the luxury by the time the cruise ends, I'm sure.

At one point I flip over to a shipboard channel, where cruise director Christiaan is giving the debarkation talk. They used to do this live in the Walt Disney Theatre and then replay it for those who missed it, but now I think it’s just shown on the television.

Normally I don’t pay too close of attention to these talks, since they don’t tell me much I don’t already know, but I find myself really enjoying Christiaan’s version. He’s pretty funny.

Christiaan gives the usual information about using the luggage tags and filling out the customs forms. When he starts talking about the printed charge information being slipped under our stateroom doors in the wee hours of the morning, he says, “Now, for some of you, your printout will be too big to fit under the door. So when you hear a big ‘thud’ in the middle of the night, that’s what it is.” He then gives an embarrassed laugh and says, “I shouldn’t say that!”

Whatever reluctance he feels about improvising on his script doesn’t last long. He advises cruisers that no alcohol can be in checked bags, and then says if any is found, “it has a way of showing up at crew parties.”

He then reminds cruisers that, before they put their bags out in the halls tonight for removal from the ship, they should remember to get clothing out for the next day. He reports that he has seen whole families appear in the atrium, “wearing nothing but pajamas or pillow cases, and it’s not funny.” He pauses a bit, and then admits, “Okay, it’s funny for me…”

I’ve never been so entertained by a debarkation talk before.

Captain Henry Andersson

2008-01-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

Benjamin and Brandon are having a good time in the pool, Becky and I are resting and reading at the table. Then Bob and Linda appear. I guess the island just wasn’t fun any more without us! They did stay to eat lunch on Castaway Cay before returning to the ship.

Hey, there’s Captain Henry – just strolling around chatting with people. I’ve written in previous trip reports about how his job is one of the most fascinating I can think of. Being master of the vessel not only puts him in charge of the operation and piloting of the ship itself, it also makes him the ultimate boss of everything else – dining, hotel, and entertainment. There is an extensive social aspect to the job, what with the various receptions and the mingling that is required (I’ve seen him autographing purchases in the Treasure Ketch store!), and being a Disney captain certainly means that he must take “making magic” seriously.

In a moment, the good Captain walks over to our table and chats with Becky, Bob, Linda and me. He is extremely nice and easy to talk to, and gives no hint of reluctance to answer questions that I’m sure he has answered literally thousands of times over. (For the record, though, the answers are: He’s been at sea for 38 years (!); he has been a ship’s captain for the past 25 years; and he has worked for Disney for 12 years – which by my math would start his employment with DCL before either the Disney Magic or Disney Wonder were launched.)

While he has captained the Magic, he is only aboard the Wonder now. I ask him about the two new, much larger Disney cruise ships that are being built, and whether he will put in to helm one of them. I’m behind the curve, though – Captain Henry says that he has already been assigned to one of them!

Bob asks what itineraries the new ships will be on, but Captain Henry does not yet know. Surprisingly to me, though, he expresses a hope that his ship will be assigned to the 3-day/4-day cruise rotations. He says he really, really enjoys these shorter cruises.

Captain Henry wishes us a enjoyable remainder of the cruise and safe return home, and then excuses himself. What a very nice guy.

A relaxed lunch on Deck 9

2008-01-05T12:23:00.001-05:00

Our stateroom hosts are in the Suite when we return from the beach, finishing up their morning cleaning. The beds are made – with a few of our stuffed friends placed sitting together on the master bed – and the boys’ folded away. In the dining room, the dirty breakfast dishes and the tablecloth are nowhere to be seen.

We also have the necessary (but unwelcome!) forms that we need for the end of our cruise – luggage tags, customs declaration forms, and our cruise survey. They’ve left us eight luggage tags for the six of us – I ask for three more, since we’ll have them carry 11 bags off the ship for us.

After we freshen up a bit, we leave the Suite for Deck 9. I take the etiquette book with me, the one I found on the bookshelves here. I hope that’s not a no-no – I will return it, after all. We climb the stairs to Deck 9 and claim a table next to the port walkway, midship, near the Goofy pool. Benjamin goes straight for the pool, which only has a couple of other people in it.

I walk down to the drink station and get sodas for Becky and me. After delivering them to the table, I walk across to the starboard side of Deck 9 and take some pictures of the island, the unfinished side of the Flying Dutchman, and the clear blue water below. It has turned into a gorgeous day.

I then cross around to Pluto’s Dog House, which is at the base of the aft funnel facing the Mickey Pool. I’m in the mood for something pretty basic here, so I order a hot dog and some fries. Once I get back to the table, Becky hops up to find her lunch.

While she’s gone, I suddenly spot Brandon walking by. Hmm. I thought he would still be on the island, but apparently he didn’t stay for much longer after we left.

Becky returns with her plate, very satisfied with what she was able to find, a chicken salad wrap and lots of fresh fruit. She says she got it at Pluto’s Dog House, too. Hmm, I didn’t even notice those options. No big deal, though – I still probably would have gotten a hot dog.

Our cruise director, Christiaan, walks by and gives us a friendly greeting. He’s a nice guy. I’ve been impressed with all three cruise directors we’ve had – all have been friendly and enthusiastic – but Christiaan might just be my favorite. He not only has a bit of a mischievous streak, which I always admire, he also just seems to be having a total blast at his job. It’s a very genuine energy he possesses. I know I could never maintain it for any length of time.

There’s a “virtual bridge tour” scheduled to show on the big screen above the pool beginning at 12:15. It starts on time, but there’s no sound playing. I debate going to tell someone, but I shrug it off. I’ve got my book to read.

After my hot dog is gone, I go sample the pizza from Pinocchio’s. Once I have a refill on my drink, I’m settled in for a nice, quiet relaxing time on deck.

Going our separate ways

2008-01-05T11:48:00.002-05:00

Before long we spot the tram on its way down the runway. When it arrives we hop on board, and then Bob notices that I’ve left my PassPorter (with all my trip notes) on the bench. Yikes! I hop off and retrieve it. That wouldn’t have been good!

On the way back down the runway, there’s a young boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old, riding a bicycle alongside us. The trams don’t go very fast, so he’s able to keep up with us easily, and even passes us at one point. He turns off onto another trail about halfway down the runway.

We’re back to the family beach at about a quarter past eleven. Becky and Benjamin are still on their chairs, and Brandon… Brandon is half buried in sand.

Brandon asks me about Serenity Bay: “How was it?” My reply: “Sereeeeeeeeene…”

Lunch will be served at Cookie’s BBQ nearby beginning at 11:30, but now we’re debating whether to stick around or head back to the ship. Again, we’re just not the types to laze around on a beach for unlimited hours – plus Benjamin really wants to swim, but in water that won’t freeze him. In other words, he wants to head back to the pools onboard, which are rarely busy when we’re at Castaway Cay.

Becky’s willing to go back with him. After some thought, I decide to head back, too. While I’ve never eaten at Cookie’s, the onboard lunch buffet on past trips was reported to have the same food served. Instead, I think I’d like to try eating from one of the counter service food places up on Deck 9, like Pluto’s Dog House or Pinocchio’s Pizzaria. These places have always been available for casual dining, but we’ve never skipped a restaurant meal or buffet to try them.

Bob and Linda will stay for lunch on the island, and Brandon… is still half-buried in sand, so I guess he’s staying. Actually, he can get himself out, but he chooses to stay behind also.

Becky, Benjamin and I gather our belongings, say goodbye to the others, and head to the walkway. A short walk later, we are back on the tram and watching the Flying Dutchman slip by again. Captain Jack is still out. I try to get a picture as we pass, but the slow shutter on my camera causes me to mis-time the shot.

We exit the tram and walk back to the dock. After tossing our used towels in the big bin set up to receive them, we head up the walkway. Once onboard, we show our i.d.’s, hand our KTTW cards over to be scanned, and pass through a metal detector before we are readmitted to the ship.

From there we pass into the aft elevator lobby, and… Uh oh. I was afraid of this. From past trips I learned that the Wonder conducts some sort of electrical testing on the morning we are docked at Castaway Cay, and during those tests the elevators are unavailable. I had hoped that the tests would be done by now, but the lifts are still out of commission.

Nothing to do but turn toward the stairs to get us to Deck 8. Just seven (!) decks to climb!

My still vacation-weary joints scream at me, and I pause once along the way to catch my breath before continuing. Sore and panting, we make it up to Deck 8 and head into the Suite, where I fall into a chair to recover.

Three minutes after we arrive, the PA system carries the announcement that the tests are complete and the elevators are back in service. Sigh.

Serenity Bay

2008-01-05T11:09:00.008-05:00

When we get off of the tram at the north end of the runway, we are steps from the entrance to Serenity Bay. To our left is the Castaway Air Bar, to the right a path leading to the open-air massage cabanas and further east, for adventurous cruisers to explore the island. We walk up and over a slight rise, onto the sand of Serenity Bay Beach.

There’s almost nobody here.

Seriously, I thought it was relatively quiet today on the family beach, but this is actually quiet. The umbrella-covered beach chairs stretching down the shore are almost completely unoccupied. There’s nothing to hear but the sound of the water and the breeze.

How best to describe it? Oh, yeah. Duh. Serene. This place is very aptly named.

Linda stretches out in a hammock while Bob and I walk down to the water. Yep, it’s cold here too.

I snap a few pictures so the kids can see what the place looks like. I remember being that age, thinking that any place labeled “adults only” must just be hopping with fun and possibly scandalous activity – otherwise, why wouldn’t they let us kids go there?

We spend our time here relaxing. I don’t see any particular need to explore much further – the view down the beach is unobstructed – so I find a lounge chair and park myself.

Linda gets up from the hammock before too long, and joins Bob at the water’s edge. He takes a few pictures of her, and then a crew member comes along and takes pictures of both of them. I just lounge away, amusing myself by taking pictures of the crew member taking pictures of them.

Okay, there’s only so much serenity I can take. We’ve been here maybe 15 minutes, but we’re all about ready to head back. We walk over to the tram stop, noting along the way that the Air Bar is getting ready to start serving lunch.

The tram’s not waiting with we get to the stop, so we sit on the benches to wait. There’s a gaggle of teens on bicycles gathered at the end of the runway. This must be the “Wild Side” teen-only adventure tour. That sounds like it would be a lot of fun – if I were a teenager. If God had intended for me to ride a bike around the island at age 43, he wouldn’t have invented trams.

Rolling down the runway

2008-01-05T10:47:00.001-05:00

In my dreams, perhaps I could be a beach bum. In real life, though, I just can’t bring myself to just sit and lounge for hours on end, no matter how nice the surroundings. So before too long, I’m up from the beach chair and itching to explore.

Bob and I have talked about taking the tram down to Serenity Bay, the adults-only beach. He and Linda have been there before. They describe it as nice and quiet, with of course lots fewer people. The water, they say, doesn’t slope off from the shore quite as quickly as on the west shore of the island where the other cruiser beaches are – you can wade out a hundred feet and the water won’t be up to your knees.

Frankly, there’s not a lot about Serenity Bay that appeals to me, except for the fact that I haven’t seen it. So Bob and I plan on going to visit. Linda offers to stay and keep an eye on Brandon and Benjamin, but Becky’s quite content to stay on her lounge chair, so Linda comes with us instead.

The “Palm Central Station” tram stop is just down the walkway. On the way I pass the main eating area, Cookie’s BBQ, which I’d not seen before – I’d never been past the family beach, since we abandoned the island before lunch on our first trip because of the weather.

We stand around for a while waiting on the tram. There’s a sign that says that the tram comes around every 12 minutes, but qualifies that with the parenthetical “(Bahamian time!).” No worries – it’s a beautiful spot to wait, with sprays of colorful tropical flowers in bloom around us.

After about 15 minutes the tram arrives, a smaller version of the other tram, and we hop on board.

While I am interested in seeing Serenity Bay, I’m also curious about the path that the tram takes. For after we wind through a paved tramway bordered by dense foliage, we turn onto a wide, straight, long drive that takes us the rest of the way. This is Castaway Cay’s airstrip. I’ve landed and taken off from this runway many times – on Microsoft Flight Simulator! (Castaway Cay’s ICAO identifier is “MXYB,” in case you want to go there yourself.) It’s pretty wild to see it in person.

I’m almost certain this used to be an asphalt airstrip, one that Disney even painted with “CASTAWAY CAY” in large letters after they acquired the island. Now, however, they’ve covered it with sand. Interesting. It’s still very usable as an airstrip when needed, but I guess it fits the uninhabited island motif a little better? I’m not sure.

We pass an abandoned (?) twin-engine airplane halfway down the runway -- and a wooden sign reading "Beware of Low-Flying Planes"! Another airplane is parked at the end of the ride, covered in foliage, beside the entrance to Serenity Bay.

So much for that theory...

2008-01-05T10:24:00.001-05:00

The tram ride gives us an even more impressive view of the Flying Dutchman. I almost expect Davy Jones to suddenly appear on the tram with us and ask, “Do ye fear death???”

As we pass the closest point on the walkway to the Dutchman, we see that Disney has made it a photo spot, with an official ship photographer on hand and – who else? – Captain Jack Sparrow ready to pose with you. Pretty cool, although I’m still glad we took the tram.

The ride takes only a couple of minutes and we are deposited near the family beach. We continue down the pathway a bit and encounter Pluto and Mickey going the other way, taking a break from greeting people. They return our waves, and Mickey high-fives me as we pass.

We take a short, sandy path onto the beach itself. It is not overly crowded, which is nice. We grab a few adjacent lounge chairs and hang a towel from the overhead umbrella – a trick I learned from Bob on our first cruise. It’s a great way to find your own stuff in a sea of identical chairs and umbrellas.

I settle onto a beach chair and remove my flip flops. Brandon, of course, takes off straight for the water. After a short while, Bob, Linda and I follow, leaving Becky and Benjamin at the chairs – neither are too enthused about getting in the water.

Finding Brandon out a ways in the water, I ask him how it is. “Cold!” he yells in reply!

I cautiously wade out. Dang, he’s not kidding – the water is ice cold! So much for my theory about the water being slightly warmer earlier in the winter.

I make it out into the water far enough that it’s up to my ankles, and… that’s enough for me!

I can do with out the cold water, sure, but the rest of the experience is still amazing. It’s cool outside but not cold, with a slight breeze, and when you’re in the sunlight it’s just about perfect. And the sun’s still relatively low – it should warm up as the day goes on.

Becky and Benjamin are lounging on the beach chairs when I return, looking pretty relaxed. I tell them about the water temperature, and each seems pretty content that they made the right call about not going into the water.

So, I’m not going to swim. We’re planning on eating lunch on the island, so we should be here at least another hour and a half. What to do, what to do…

Okay, it’s not a huge mystery what to do. I plop down on one of the lounge chairs, lean back, close my eyes, and relaaaaaaaaaax…

Going ashore

2008-01-05T09:59:00.004-05:00

Once properly attired for our time on the island, we walk down the Deck 8 corridor to the aft elevator lobby, and then ride down to Deck 1. (Getting off of the ship in port is about the only reason to ever go to Deck 1, unless either you have to visit the infirmary or you are among the handful of cruisers that has one of the very few staterooms at this level.) It feels kind of strange walking around dressed for swimming without carrying a towel, but all of the towels are provided on shore.

Before stepping off of the ship, our i.d.’s are checked and our Key to the World cards are swiped, and then we are able to step out onto the gangway. A big container of fresh towels is waiting for us on the dock.

It’s always an impressive sight to step off of this massive cruise ship and then turn around and see it towering above us. I stop and snap a few pics, including one zoomed in on our lengthy veranda as seen from below.

Heh. I just looked back at the gangway leading off of the ship, and I notice that they already have a “welcome home” banner hung above the entrance for when we and other cruisers return to the ship. “Home”??? Cut it out, Disney – I’m already struggling with wanting to stay on the ship forever!

It’s a moderately lengthy walk to the family beach, but fortunately, it’s only a short walk to the waiting area for the tram that takes you to the family beach! This is really a gorgeous day. Of course, this being January I bet the water’s cold -- although I have a theory that it might be warmer than in March, when we usually cruise, because it is much earlier in winter. We'll see, I guess.

On our short walk to the tram stop, there’s plenty to look at. As we walk past the aft of the ship we get our first look at the newest resident of Castaway Cay – the Flying Dutchman, the ghost ship captained by Davy Jones in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

This is the actual ship used in the filming of the movies. When filming was completed, the production company didn’t know what to do with the ship, and Disney suggested that it be moored here for Disney cruisers to enjoy.

The Dutchman set was built over and around another boat, and on its port side – a side that never faced the cameras in the filming – it’s been left unfinished. The finished side, of course, faces the island.

We pass by the Castaway Cay post office, where you can mail cards and letters to friends at home with a unique Castaway Cay postmark. It’s also one of the few places on a Disney cruise where you need cash, to buy Bahamian postage. Goofy’s son Max is in front of the post office, posing for pictures with cruisers.

A tram is pulling up just after we arrive at the stop. Good timing! We climb aboard and set off for the family beach.

Island-hopping

2008-01-05T09:35:00.001-05:00

At the end of breakfast, we take the dishes to the kitchenette sink and wash them, wiping them each with a dish towel and placing them gently in a drying rack on the counter. We likewise clean our glassware and silverware. After allowing them to air-dry, we stack them neatly to await pickup by the serving staff.

Nah, I’m just kidding. The dirty dishes stay on the table. We've each quickly become accustomed to being waited upon hand and foot, so no one even suggests otherwise. Someone will take care of the dishes!

Castaway Cay awaits! This beautiful Caribbean island is wholly owned by Disney, and they have adapted its natural beauty for the benefit of their cruisers, with water sports and boating areas, a family beach, a teens-only beach, an adults-only beach, a children’s club area, dining pavilions, shops, and more. Like the theme parks’ well-kept fantasy versions of the real world, this real-world island is kept beautifully and makes for a spectacular experience.

If you like beaches, that is. We skipped it on our last trip.

We really do enjoy the island, but none of us are really the type of people who like to hang out at the beach for unlimited hours. We did spend a short while at the family beach on our first trip, in 2003, but went back aboard before lunch, when the weather turned threatening. In 2005, as I said, Becky and the boys and I stayed on board and enjoyed the almost-empty shipboard pools – and I rested my hurting feet!

Today we’re itching to get back and enjoy it again, though as before we probably won’t stay all day.

We change into swimsuits with t-shirts, hats, flip-flops, etc., while Toy Story plays on the television. It’s still tempting to stay in, but it’s also shaping up to be just a beautiful day outside.

Room service on steroids

2008-01-05T09:23:00.003-05:00

Benjamin’s up now, a little groggy from the previous late night. It helps that we’re able to go slow and just wait for breakfast to arrive, rather than having to go out to eat.

At 8:15, well within the twenty-minute window we were given, the doorbell rings. Room service!

A server in vest and bow tie wheels a cart into the Suite and – oh my goodness… Wow. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe just our orders on trays or something, but this is truly first class treatment here! The server pulls out a white linen tablecloth and covers the dining room table with it, and then puts out full place settings for the six of us!

It’s amazing. I’m sure we look like a bunch of backwater hicks, because we just stand around watching the server set up the table, gawking at the luxury of it all. We’re being treated like royalty again.

After the table is set, the server places our already plated meals on the table and then departs. Of course, we have to get pictures of the table before we even think of sitting down to the meal!

Breakfast is wonderful, hot and tasty, just as if we’d been seated in Triton’s. We each have glasses of juice that we’d ordered, plus a carafe of coffee for Bob and Linda. Brandon and I have ordered the “Scuttle on the Run” breakfast combo, with scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, and hash browns, while Bob has oatmeal (which comes in a big bowl!) and a side of toast. Benjamin has the “Mickey’s Special Combo Platter,” a Mickey waffle and scrambled eggs alongside a “pancake tower.” Becky indulges with the “Sebastian’s Trio” of Belgian waffle, pancake and French toast served with cinnamon butter and bacon.

Linda’s choice looks the most interesting to me: the “Atlantis Secret Tower,” a stack of French toast topped with grilled pineapple and a strawberry coulis, served with a maple-glazed fruit salad. Yum.

We enjoy all of this, plus the side of donuts and pastries, in a very leisurely fashion. It is very nice to have breakfast together as a family, cooked to order, served discretely, and then eaten in total luxury and complete privacy. Very, very nice. Did I mention that I could get used to this?

We stuff ourselves happily, though, because, um, we’ll need the energy the food provides for our day of, um,… lounging around on the beach! Yeah, that’s why.

Our last full day

2008-01-05T08:12:00.003-05:00

Saturday, January 5, 2008. I wake slowly, around 7:20, ten minutes before I’d set my alarm to go off. We want to be up and presentable, or at least semi-presentable, when room service delivers our breakfast at 8:00.

This is day eight of our vacation, a day of multiple mixed emotions. It’s the last full day of our trip, but still a full day. It promises Castaway Cay, tropical island paradise, sand and sea… and packing for the trip home, our last night on the ship, knowing that the fairy tale comes to an end tomorrow – or at least gets put on “hold” until we can get back here again.

I do what I can to put aside the impending feelings of melancholy that go with the end of a wonderful Disney vacation – and then laugh to myself as I realize the parallel with the four stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance.

I choose to live today merrily in denial.

Because when we turned in last night we weren’t having to deal with the rough seas of the first night, we went ahead and sealed off the boy’s sleeping room from the living room, so Bob could be up early without disturbing them, and left the doors to our master bedroom unlatched, so they'd have access to a bathroom.

We soon discover that Brandon is also awake. He lets himself into our room so he can go through our closet/hallway and into the main area, all so he can go out on the veranda without waking his brother.

He’s back in just a couple of minutes to report: “We’re, like, there!” – already docked at Castaway Cay!

The ship’s distinctive horn sounds at that moment as if to confirm his report.

I throw on some sweats and a t-shirt and follow Brandon out onto the veranda, squinting as my eyes adjust to the light. Bob and Linda are already out, watching the well-choreographed hubbub below. There is lots of activity on the dock, as supplies are offloaded, gangways attached, and everything is done that needs to be done to prepare the island for our arrival.

It speaks to the amount of work that is done that it is usually an hour-and-a-half to two hours between our arrival and the time cruisers can go onshore. But when we arrive, we find a beautiful, well-maintained island with everything geared for our enjoyment of the “quintessential island experience” and almost nothing out of place. There is no trace of the thousand-plus of other cruisers from the Disney Magic who descended on the island just yesterday or the day before, or of the many others who have visited, three shiploads per week.

Bob reports that he was up at dawn again, “helping Captain Henry to dock the ship.” It’s a long-running tradition he has, since he’s up early anyway, to watch the proceedings from above the wing of the bridge and “help” the captain and officers as they come into the port – at least by providing moral support.

This time, Bob even got an appreciative wave from Captain Henry.

Even pirates need sleep

2008-01-04T23:42:00.001-05:00

Full-size pictures of Day 7 are now online at Webshots!!

Okay, I must say, this fireworks show would look lame next to any of Walt Disney World’s amazing music-synchronized, computer-controlled spectacles. It’s one or two small or medium shells at a time, fired off continuously for about ten minutes, and then a “big finish” of 12-15 bursts. But it's pretty cool nevertheless, because we’re watching it while standing on the deck of a cruise ship in the Bahamas!

Not long after the fireworks are over, the characters say goodbye. The party’s still in full swing, but Becky and I decide to call it a night. Benjamin wants to stay a while longer.

We never did spot Brandon in the mob.

Becky and I head back to the Suite and begin getting ready for bed. Brandon comes in a short while later – carrying a plate full of desserts from the just-opened buffet! Nice kid. No, I’m not hungry, but you know, since he went through the trouble and all, I’d hate to offend him by not at least trying one, or two, of the goodies. (Is anyone buying that I was really reluctant?)

Benjamin’s back five minutes after Brandon, and is mildly upset that he somehow missed the existence of the dessert buffet. He wants to head out again, but we encourage him to stay since there’s plenty of what Brandon brought.

We discuss our plans for the next day, and then Brandon exits again – they’re showing Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on the big screen starting at 11:00. He realizes that it will be ending at 1:15 in the morning, and tells us he “probably won’t stay for all of it.”

He’s back in fifteen minutes, saying, “I can say I’ve seen some of it.”

Lilo & Stitch is on the TV again as we settle for the night. We’re all asleep quickly.

Pirates IN the Caribbean

2008-01-04T22:46:00.001-05:00

Brandon has noticed something interesting on the TV channel that shows our current position – we are just off of Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island, which is our destination tomorrow!

Wow. I knew we’d left Nassau at 7:00, while we were having dinner in Triton’s, but I always thought that the ship took it’s time getting to the next stop – but we’re already here, more or less. Hey, maybe that’s why Disney is the only cruise line with permission to shoot off fireworks at sea – they are able to make it to their private island for the show.

Brandon leaves to go out to the Pirates In The Caribbean deck party, and Becky, Benjamin and I follow not too long afterwards.

Deck 9 is packed with people, and the music is loud!! Any time Becky or I need to say something to each other, we have to scream into the other’s ear!

It’s awesome.

The tunes are all recognizable, but of course family-safe, dance tunes. I quickly notice that each song is actually shortened quite a bit, quite the opposite of extended-length “dance remixes.” There's just about two minutes of each song before it changes to the next tune. It adds a lot of energy to the party, because the songs never have a chance of getting old.

Becky and I look for Brandon in the crowd, but can’t spot him. I’m sure he’s in the mass of people right in front of the stage. Benjamin decides he wants to view the party from above, on Deck 10. Becky’s looking for Brandon, still, and I wander over to the food table. It’s not open yet – it will at 11 – but it holds a huge spread of desserts.

It's a visually appealing feast, but I’m not at all hungry for any of it.

I climb the stairs to Deck 10 and find Benjamin by the rail, bopping to the music. I sneak a couple of pictures before announcing my presence.

Goofy, Minnie, Chip and Dale are out now leading the dancing, both onstage and in the crowd. The music almost never lets up! Becky finds us at the rail, never having found Brandon. We’re not worried, though – I’d be more surprised if she did find him.

Captain Hook and a band of CM pirates, along with Smee and Pirate Stitch, interrupt the party and take over the stage. I try to spot Suzanne, our emcee from the trivia contest earlier today. I think I can tell which pirate she is, but like Stitch, they never hold still, so I can’t be sure.

The music still goes full blast, but with the pirates leading the dancing. Ooookay. It would be more in character to have them pillaging or fighting the audience, but that might not be very fun for the guests.

Even so, the party needs to be “rescued” from the pirates, and who else would you expect to do that but Mickey! He shows up on Deck 10, on the opposite side from us, dressed in an older-style blue Captain’s coat, and announces that now we’re going to have a party in the sky!!

Fireworks!

Time for breakfast...?

2008-01-04T21:51:00.002-05:00

What an awesome show. We exit the theatre with the crowd, but the evening’s not over – we have the Pirates In The Caribbean deck part later, with a few stops to make beforehand. First, a quick stop at Shutters on Deck 4 to review our cruise pictures so far.

Visiting Shutters has never been a favorite activity of mine. Like posing for official photographers, it’s something that we more just have to do rather than want to do, so the quicker it goes, the better. Disney does make it convenient by grouping pictures by event in the display cases, so locating family pictures is never too difficult. I just hope some day that the shipboard photographers get hooked into the PhotoPass system. That would be a nice improvement.

We see several photos we may return to later, but for now we just purchase one we know we have to have – Benjamin and Stitch together!

We’re back in the Walt Disney Suite around 9:40. Bob and Linda are almost certainly going to bed soon, but breakfast comes first.

Yes, breakfast. No, not eating it. Ordering it!

In our many “what do we want to do” discussions leading up to this trip, we most focused on trying things we’d never done before. Ordering from room service on board the ship was something we’d not done, since it’s always so easy to find food handy, so we thought we’d give it a try. And when we were upgraded in advance to the Walt Disney Suite and found that we would be able to order a full meal from the onboard restaurants, that cinched it – we were going to enjoy at least one meal in our suite.

Breakfast tomorrow morning is it, and the concierge guide urges us to call the night before with our order. The six of us take turns perusing the Triton’s breakfast menu in the guide and selecting the meal we each want, and I make notes on a piece of our personalized stationery that we’re not likely to use for any other purpose. We get pretty detailed, with how we want eggs cooked, side items of toast, and assorted pastries, donuts or muffins for the six of us. It’s going to be a feast.

I’m curious what it will be like calling it in, since I am to call the regular room service line and not the concierge desk, but it turns out to be no problem at all. The CM at the other end of the line is friendly, and he patiently listens as I rattle off the orders for the six of us. He reads back the order correctly, and then asks when we’d like it delivered. We’d already settled on 8:00, and he tells us it should arrive between 8 and 8:20.

That was super easy. Okay, I definitely could get used to phoning in my meals and not having to lift a finger for them. Take that and add the endless entertainment, someone to make the bed, a beautiful, frequently changing ocean view – and no yard to mow – and this comes really close to paradise on earth.

I do realize that I have to give this Suite up in about 36 hours, but they may have to drag me away from it!

The Golden Mickeys, Part Two

2008-01-04T21:27:00.000-05:00

I have too many pictures and not enough narrative to go along with them. What say I just show the pictures from The Golden Mickeys, eh?

Opening Number

Snow White and the Seven "Dwarves": Dopey plus six kids from the audience!

Tarzan

Mulan

Stitch as Elvis -- except he never holds still enough for a good, no-flash picture!

Ursula and her audience-menacing tentacles.

Cruella dances to her theme song.

The Toy Story number. I love the back-projected "wallpaper," where the clouds are actually drifting by!

Blue! Pink! Blue! Pink!

Pocahontas with John Smith, who has looked kind of wimpy to me both times we've seen this show.

The Lion King segments in both this and in tomorrow's Disney Dreams are always amazing -- lots of revival-style, foot stomping energy.

Ensign Benson overcomes her stage fright, inspired by Walt Disney and his perseverance through his life's setbacks.

The big finish, with Mickey, Minnie, Rona, Ensign Benson, fireworks, and lots of characters!

The Golden Mickeys, Part One

2008-01-04T20:42:00.002-05:00

With our latest eating opportunity at an end, we say goodbye to Sutas and Nino and head out. Becky, Bob and Linda go to Shutters, while the boys and I step out into the atrium to check out this evening’s pin trading.

The same cast member is handling the pin station, but there’s still not a lot of trading going on. The boys do buy some new pins.

There’s an official photographer nearby with a really cool DCL backdrop, with the ship on the ocean at sunset – with the sun in the shape of a glimmering, golden Mickey.

We stop off briefly at the Walt Disney Suite to freshen up after dinner. The Suite has been prepared for the evening in our absence, with the curtains drawn and the beds turned down. Ah, the life of luxury. There’s a puppy dog towel animal on Brandon and Benjamin’s bed.

The chocolates on all of the beds are pirate coins tonight.

We’re not missing tonight’s stage show, The Golden Mickeys. It’s a fanciful “awards show” like the Oscars used as a framework for big musical production numbers honoring great Disney films and music. Those scenes are wonderful, but as a Disney fan I especially like that there is a focus on the man Walt Disney, with stories and pictures from his life helping to encourage one of the characters in the show to overcome adversity.

What made it even better when we saw this same show in 2005 was that the biographical info about Walt was presented (on video) by his nephew Roy Disney. It was an amazing and sentimental touch, and commendable especially because it debuted when Roy and the Disney management were in a fierce battle over the direction of the company.

I say “was” because I’ve since learned that Roy’s portion of the show has been removed, and now Whoopi Goldberg, of all people, talks about Walt Disney’s life. I cannot fathom why they’d make such a trade. I like a lot of Whoopi’s movies, but this is not a change for the better.

I resolve to try to enjoy the show anyway.

When we make it to the Walt Disney Theatre, we’re a little later arriving that we normally are, and all of the middle-aisle “long leg” seats are taken. Bummer. We find some pretty decent seats instead on the right side of the theatre, about a third of the way back, and settle in to watch the show.

“Rona Rivers” is on the video screen interviewing “celebrities” – kids – on the red carpet on the way into the theatre. It’s cute. Better yet is when cruise director Christiaan, in keeping with the pirate theme of the night, sneaks in behind “Rona” and steals the Golden Mickey statue behind her, then tries to claim that he won it.

The Golden Mickeys begins, as usual, with a big production number, followed by “Ensign Benson” fretting about having to host the show in stead of the Captain (who is incapacitated off stage somehow by Goofy). This is where Whoopi shows up to encourage her…

Hey, wait! No way!! Roy is back!!!! Yay!!!!

I’m going to love this show.

Triton’s, Part Two

2008-01-04T19:58:00.002-05:00

As for our appetizers – like we need them – Bob orders his standard serving of escargot. Yuck. I’m reminded of what a friend of my parents once said of escargot: “Anything will taste good if you put it in enough garlic butter”!

Becky can’t decide between two appetizers – both the Shrimp Medley and the Leek and Goat Cheese Quiche look good to her. I encourage her to ask for both, and she does.

Benjamin is at the age where he could easily order off of the adult menu if something looks good to him – remember at Walt Disney World ages 10 and up are considered “adults” – but he mostly sticks to the kids’ menus. He chooses chicken noodle soup for an appetizer, and when it comes it has Mickey-shaped noodles.

Me, I try the Normandy Salad, a mixture of lettuce, hearts of palm, and shredded red cabbage with slices of green apple and a “citrus shallot” vinaigrette. It’s good… but I really need to save room for my entrée, so I don’t indulge too much.

This being the night of the “Pirates In The Caribbean” deck party, we have skull-and-crossbones black bandannas at our places. Sutas folds Brandon and Benjamin’s bandannas into pirate hats. The adults don’t want to be left out, so Sutas good-naturedly folds ours, too. I’m impressed that they don’t all look alike – he knows several different designs. Interesting, the skills you pick up working on a cruise ship.

Our head server, a big goofy guy from South Africa named Bhoola, comes around to visit with us. I ask Bhoola if I can snap his picture, and he insists on striking a scowling pirate pose as I do. Fun guy. He also takes a picture of us – wearing our pirate hats – with Bob’s camera.

Our entrees arrive and they are wonderful. The halibut is very, very tasty, maybe not quite as good as the sea bass, but much better than the sole. This “Herb-Crusted” recipe is one I requested and received from the cruise line back in 2003, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make it on my own, as it is one of the most complicated recipes I’d ever seen. It not only takes hours of preparation time, it also includes ingredients that I’d never heard of, including one or two that an internet search shows may not be available in the U.S. I’ve decided I’ll have to be content with having it here.

Bob’s “lighter fare” steak and potato are huge.

Our meal time is relaxed and fun. Sutas does a trick where it appears that a coin passes through a saucer into a wine glass. He leaves the props with us for the boys to try to figure out how it’s done. I’m worried that we’re going to have broken glassware before this is over.

Sutas and Nino also both create more brain teaser puzzles from toothpicks to keep us entertained. At the urging of the boys, I throw a couple back at them – the old “What’s the Name of the Bus Driver” puzzle and a comical mind reading “trick” I stole from The Amazing Johnathan. They both laugh heartily at the routines. Hopefully I’ve given them more resources they can draw on to entertain future cruisers.

Dessert time! Bob orders another of his favorites: crème brulee, letting Sutas know how he never passes it up.

Sutas brings two of them.

Triton's, Part One

2008-01-04T18:17:00.005-05:00

We make a brief stop in the Suite following our concierge reception. Brandon is the first back out the door, wanting to go to Shutters and see if any of his pictures with characters from earlier in the day are there.

This has been a great vacation day. I’ve done a whole lot, without actually doing much, if that makes sense. I mean, almost everything I’ve taken part in today has consisted of my sitting around while someone else either feeds me or entertains me. And that, my friends, is a vacation!

At ten till six, the rest of us head downstairs for dinner. The door to Triton’s is not yet open when we arrive, so we gather with the growing crowd on the steps leading to the entrance. Two crew members pass out sanitizing wipes as we wait, which is standard these days to avoid repeats of the shipboard illness-passing that has plagued some previous cruises.

Benjamin realizes that he left his “trading pins” in the Suite, so we let him go back on his own to retrieve them. I realize that he will be returning on one of the glass elevators that face us across the atrium, so I prepare to snap his picture as he returns. The doors to Triton’s open and the crowd begins to file in before he comes back, but I’m able to linger long enough to get the picture I want.

We are escorted to Table 55, which turns out to be the same table where we ate Triton’s dinner at on our last voyage – and breakfast on the morning of our departure. It’s kind of déjà vu-ish, but also cool to come full circle like this.

Sutas and Nino are in good spirits, already joking around with us as we arrive, and "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" over our pin lanyards. It looks like this will be a fun meal again.

It sinks in a bit, as we are handed our menus, that we are not really in the mood to be thinking too much about food. It is mealtime and we didn’t stuff ourselves too much at the reception, so we are a little hungry. Maybe it’s just that “gourmet overload” we felt at lunch.

Bob orders a steak and baked potato off of the “Lighter Fare” portion of the menu. That speaks volumes about the richness of the food here, that a steak and potato are considered “lighter fare”! Linda handles the overload by just ordering the list of “Chef’s Selections” on the menu, so, as she says, she “doesn’t have to think.”

The past two times I’ve gotten the herb-crusted fish entrée. In 2003, it was sea bass, and melt-in-your-mouth wonderful, easily the best dish I ate on the entire vacation. In 2005 Triton’s had switched the fish – same recipe, but with sole instead of sea bass. The fish was much heavier and just didn’t work as well, though it was still good. I thought perhaps I’d try something else this time, but I see they’ve changed fish again. It’s now Herb-Encrusted Halibut on the menu. Hmmm. Okay, I’ll give it a try!

Golden hour

2008-01-04T17:37:00.008-05:00

With the movie finished and 40 minutes until dinner – Triton’s tonight! – we actually have a choice of receptions to attend. We can either go to the Castaway Club reception in one of the lounges, or head to the outdoor portion of the Beach Blanket Buffet on Deck 9 aft for the concierge reception. Frankly, there’s not much debate. The concierge reception is by far the more exclusive event, and one we can’t get to that often – notwithstanding that we’ve been to it on two out of our three cruises!

We take the elevator to Deck 9 and stroll down the starboard deck towards the stern of the ship. There’s a sign marking the concierge reception, and Lars and Thabi both are there to great us. A few other people are seated at the tables.

It is absolutely gorgeous outside. Of course, we are still docked in Nassau, with the city on one side and the Atlantis Resort on the other. Better yet, we’re in that “golden hour” time just before sunset when everything just glows warmly with the light of the setting sun. Just beautiful.

Thabi directs us to the food – like we wouldn’t naturally just gravitate there! It’s a nice reception spread, with vegetable rolls, fresh fruit skewers, barbecue wings, and oh, the coconut shrimp! Diehard shrimp lover that I am, I never liked coconut shrimp until I tried the Wonder’s at the concierge reception in 2003. Yum, yum, yum.

Of course, our feasting impulse is tempered just a bit by the fact that dinner begins in a little more than half an hour!

There’s also limited bar service, with red and white wine and a featured cocktail, the Bahama Mama. None of us drink, but Bob and Linda order the virgin version (say that ten times fast) of the Bahama Mama, and then Becky and Brandon follow suit. Benjamin and I stick with sodas.

We grab a table and enjoy our snack. The breeze is a bit cool, but it’s otherwise perfect out here.

Brandon and Benjamin visit the rail and report a wedding ceremony in sight below. We learn from Lars that it is a vow renewal ceremony, being conducted by Captain Henry on Deck 7. They couldn’t have picked a more beautiful place and time for it! The glow of the sunset off of the surrounding island buildings is amazing.

With our appetites, uh, appetized, we thank Lars and Thabi – again – for their graciousness and exit back to the Suite. I want to see for myself that multi-layer tray of cookies. (No, not to eat – we are on our way to dinner!)

Cinema afloat

2008-01-04T17:15:00.002-05:00

At around 2:30 Brandon goes back downstairs to change, and then at 2:45 I head down to the Buena Vista Theatre. Brandon, Benjamin, Bob, Linda, and I all arrive within minutes of each other.

The Disney Wonder is luxurious in almost every way, but the legroom in both here and the Walt Disney Theatre leaves a lot to be desired for a tall guy like me, and my knees will scream at me if I can’t stretch them out pretty often. At the Walt Disney Theatre, I’ve solved the problem by showing up early enough to get seats on the central walkway that crosses the theater. Here there is no such walkway. It looks like I’m in for an uncomfortable couple of hours here. Unless…

At the top of the theater are two relatively open areas with some folding chairs, the handicap-accessible seating. That’ll work, so long as no one else needs it. There’s plenty of room there for leg stretching – which, frankly, is not just a luxury for me. Our whole gang moves up there. Ahhh, much better. Certainly if anyone in a wheelchair or with a greater need of the seats comes along, we’ll gladly give up the space, but I’m very grateful for it if no one else needs it.

Becky pops in to say hi, while we wait. She enjoyed her nap, she says, but she’s still not interested in the movie. She has seen in the Navigator that Donald Duck will be appearing in the atrium. She’s going to take the boys’ shirts and try to get his duck-ograph.

Our short wait time here gives me more time to enjoy – and be impressed by – the Disney Wonder’s décor. As I’ve written before, the ship is beautiful and luxurious, and could hold its own in comparison with any first-class ocean liner. At the same time, the designers work in subtle but unmistakable Disney touches in just about every space – character profiles in the metalwork railings in the atrium, hidden Mickeys in the stained glass windows of Triton’s, Mickey-glove floor pointers at the elevator lobbies. Likewise here, in the Buena Vista Theatre, there are Mickey-shaped metal medallions at the intersections of the woodwork designs on the walls. Classy, and Disney, too.

Promptly at 3:15 – ship schedules are normally kept with strict punctuality – National Treasure 2 begins. While the whole premise of National Treasure and this sequel are fantastical and more than a little unbelievable, they are escapist fun; great “popcorn movies.” Mmm, popcorn. I don’t have any. No matter, since even 90 minutes later I’m still stuffed from lunch.

National Treasure 2 is much like its predecessor, impossible to take seriously but still fun. It dragged in a couple of places and could’ve stood some trimming, but all in all it was a good way to pass a couple of hours.

And no one else ever needs our seats –the other similar section stays empty, even – so I can stretch my legs out as much as I want.

Cars and Coca-cola

2008-01-04T14:28:00.008-05:00

Time to plan for our (casual) afternoon. National Treasure 2 is showing at the Buena Vista Theatre on Deck 5 at 3:15. Becky’s not too interested in seeing it, but the rest of us are. It’s just been in theaters a couple of weeks, and we’ve held off on seeing it, knowing it would likely be showing onboard.

What to do before then? Brandon wants to swim again, and I note from the Navigator that Cars will be showing on the big outdoor “Arielvision” screen over the Goofy pool starting at 2:00. While we won’t have time for the entire movie, that sure sounds like a fun thing to experience. I don’t think I’ll swim, but it’ll be nice to sit on deck and watch.

Brandon leaves for the Suite to put on his swimsuit, and after a few more minutes lingering at table Becky, Benjamin and I leave for Deck 9. I’m not sure what Bob and Linda are going to do, but they say they’ll meet us at the Buena Vista Theater by 3:00 for the movie.

We get to the Goofy pool, but Brandon’s not there yet. There’s still a couple of minutes until Cars begins. Becky decides to go back to the Suite and rest a bit, taking advantage of the fact that we’re all out and about. I go to the drink station near the Mickey pool and get a cup of Coke, and then return to the Goofy pool area and find a table with a good view of the screen.

Brandon arrives and starts swimming, apparently without noticing me. No matter. The movie starts up, and I sit back and relax. It’s still cloudy and slightly cool, but I’m comfortable. I’m on deck on a cruise ship in the Bahamas, I’ve got a Coke, a comfortable chair, and Lightning McQueen on the big screen.

Life. Is. Good.

Brandon swims a bit, then gets out and spots me. He comes over to chat a bit, and then goes back to the pool. It must be fun to swim and watch the movie.

Benjamin stops by, as I knew he would – Cars being one of his favorite movies. He says he’s been to the Suite and reports that we have another delivery from the concierge staff: a two-level tray with six different kinds of cookies. Yum – except I have to admit I’m not salivating as much as I would if we’d gotten the same gift of cookies on shore. It's not that I'm unappreciative. It's just that, with all of the good food onboard, these gifts are almost... excess on top of excess.

Doesn’t mean I won’t eat any of them.

Lunchtime entertainment

2008-01-04T13:37:00.002-05:00

We arrive in the atrium to find Bob and Linda seated in some chairs talking with our concierge Lars. They’re talking about the two new ships being built for the Disney Cruise Line, both of them significantly larger than the Wonder and Magic. Lars says that the ships are actually being built near to his home in Germany. I can't wait to see them when they sail in a few years.

Lars moves on, to perform other tasks of conciergery, I’m sure. Our group enters Triton’s, where we are quickly seated at a table near the entrance. Hey, Sutas and Nino, our dinner wait staff, are here! Since there’s no assigned restaurant or seating for breakfast or lunch, we don’t necessarily get the same servers, so it’s a nice bit of luck to have these two guys again. I wonder if they’ll be as entertaining.

We ask Sutas what’s good on the lunch menu, and he recommends both the broiled tilapia and the hamburger. I love a good piece of tilapia, but my taste buds might be bordering on “gourmet overload.” The burger sounds like it might be the cure for that. Bob apparently feels the same, so we both order hamburgers – but with a shrimp cocktail appetizer. Hey, we still gotta have a little gourmet in the meal.

Nino’s apparently working at a serving table, not actually waiting on our table, but he’s close enough that he still comes over to interact. That’s pretty cool. And yes, he and Sutas are still finding ways to entertain us. Nino starts by handing Benjamin a little metal puzzle, a ring “locked” into a short spring, with the instruction to find a way to remove the ring. Brandon and I immediately know the solution, as this same trick was in a magic kit Brandon received years ago, so it’s perfect that he gave it to Benjamin.

After we’ve figured it out, and another metal puzzle after it, Nino returns with a show stopper. It’s a seemingly gravity-defying arrangement of two forks and a toothpick. It’s not easy to picture with words, so I snap a picture, but basically he’s taken two forks – and mind you, the shipboard silverware is not lightweight – and jammed them together at the tines so that they are locked in an inverted “V.” Then one end of a toothpick is inserted at the intersection of the two forks. Then – and this is the amazing part – this entire unwieldy combination is suspended from the corner our table number sign by the other end of the toothpick, so that the forks appear that they are practically weightless as they dangle in the air, balanced precisely on the tip of a toothpick. Wow.

Okay, intellectually I understand that the center of gravity is below the tip of the toothpick, so it is stable and breaks no laws of physics. But even with that understanding, it’s hard to make my eyes go along. It sure looks gravity-defying!

Oh, yeah, our food is good – I have some tasty key lime pie for dessert – but most of our meal time is spent trying to replicate the fork contraption and dangle it from the sign and our drink glasses. While the configuration is easy to understand, actually creating it is something of an art, and more difficult than it appears.

Nino helpfully keeps us supplied with extra toothpicks for all of our attempts.

Trivial pursuits

2008-01-04T12:12:00.001-05:00

There’s a Disney Trivia Challenge in the Promenade Lounge at 11:45, and with our big breakfast, we can put off lunch until after that. On our 2005 cruise, I entered and won a similar trivia contest and won a medal, a Disney Cruise Line keychain, and my favorite prize, a small DCL logo pin like the ones crew members wear. Brandon has been drooling over it ever since, and would like a chance to win something similar.

I still need to get cleaned up, though, so I head to take a shower. The shower in the master bathroom is almost the luxury equivalent of the tub. It is lined in marble, has two shower heads, and even a marble alcove where you can sit while you shower.

The two shower heads are wonderful. The seat, though, is... not so much – that marble is cold! Still, it’s a very enjoyable shower, and I make it last quite a while.

I dress in time to leave for the trivia challenge with Brandon and Benjamin. The boys have talked Becky into going, too, although she doesn’t think she’ll be much use during the game. She knows Disney stuff, sure, but not to the obsessive degree that the boys and I do! At least she’ll be with us when we’re ready for lunch.

We go down to Deck 4 and make our way to the Promenade Lounge. There are a few people already there. Life onboard is so casual sometimes that it’s hard to tell if the people here are intending to be part of the trivia challenge, or if they are just, um, lounging.

We find a set of seats and a table to write on, and soon a crew member is by with an answer sheet. The boys are excited, and given our extensive Disney knowledge, we figure we’ve got a pretty decent chance of winning this!

Suzanne from England is our MC (hmm, a "CM MC"?) for the game. She has fun with the contest, freely admitting that she may have trouble pronouncing some of the words in the questions, and also challenging us to get a good look at her now and try to spot her dressed as a pirate in this evening’s Pirates In the Caribbean deck party.

The game begins, with the questions projected on a screen at one end of the lounge. And the first question is… “What U.S. state is known as the ‘Beehive State’?”

Whaaat?

As we quickly realize, this is not specifically a Disney trivia challenge, and a quick glance at our “Navigator” schedule confirms that it is just listed as “Trivia Challenge.”

Oh, well, that’s a bit disappointing. I’m okay with general trivia, but it’s just less interesting to us. On the positive side, though, Becky joins in and helps on the non-Disney stuff.

There do turn out to be a few Disney questions thrown in, and at the end of the 25-question game, we have gotten 23 correct! Not bad at all – but not good enough to win. Another family nearby only missed one, so they get the prizes: key chains, a refrigerator picture-frame magnet, and a beach ball. Oh well, we tried.

It’s after noon now, and we are ready for lunch, so off we go downstairs to meet Bob and Linda at Triton’s.

At Nassau... but not into it?

2008-01-04T11:03:00.001-05:00

The ship is arriving at Nassau. Watching this massive vessel dock so precisely is always amazing, especially considering that it pulls into the harbor, rotates in place 180 degrees, and then backs into the slip. This isn’t your father’s ocean liner.

Bob and Linda station themselves out on the veranda to watch the arrival dance. The ship docks without incident and the “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn sounds. We’re in Nassau!

Of course, will we get off in Nassau? We have on both of our previous trips. In 2003, we took a horse-drawn carriage tour around the main part of town and visited the Straw Market, and then in 2005, we took the hour-long walking tour of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. Both were memorable, but we may be content this time to stay on board and enjoy the ship. After all, everything going on here is already paid for!

Bob and Linda return from the veranda and, reflecting my current thoughts, announce that they might not get off the ship. The wind is blowing hard, Bob reports, so hard that when he looked down he saw a light pole – not a tree – swaying in the wind. Hmm. That pretty much cinches the decision for me!

Besides, there is absolutely nothing bad about staying here! Just staying in this Suite is magical, even if we never did anything else. I smile as I see Bob and Linda both succumb to the feeling themselves and start dancing together – with no music.

Shortly before 10:00 I rouse myself from my lethargy and go upstairs to Deck 9 and locate the Cove Café. I’ve never before been in here. Of course, it was the teen club when we first cruised, but now it’s an adults-only coffee bar. I’ve turned into a bit of a coffee snob, and I thought I’d give this a try. I order a Caffe Mocha and charge it on my KTTW card, then head back downstairs.

The coffee is okay, but I like my own homemade concoction better.

After I return to the Suite and settle in to watch some of Lilo and Stitch, there is a knock at the door. It’s one of the housekeeping staff, come to restock our bottled Evian.

I really could get used to this life.

Over the next hour, Brandon and Benjamin pop in and out of the Suite. They see several characters and are as excited as… well, kids. At one point Benjamin was on his own and gets off an elevator to find Goofy waiting for it! Goofy ruffles Benjamin’s hair as they pass each other. Life on a Disney ship truly is like nothing else.

Doing nothing, in style

2008-01-04T09:18:00.009-05:00

Becky and Benjamin are soon finished with breakfast, and they go to look for characters. Benjamin, our schedule fanatic, has seen that Lilo and Stitch will be in the atrium soon, and he wants to get their autographs on the t-shirts.

I head back to the Walt Disney Suite and let myself sink into one of the comfortable chairs in the living room. I turn the big TV to Aladdin and settle in to relax and plan out the day’s activities. Or possibly lack of activities.

Before long the other five in the family have returned to the Suite from their various wanderings. Brandon found Becky and Benjamin and made it in a few pictures, but they only got one autograph – Stitch’s, thankfully. Apparently they were told while they were in the atrium that the characters wouldn’t necessarily be signing autographs during these meet and greet sessions, but that they could leave the signature t-shirts at Guest Services with a list of characters' signatures they wanted, and they’d be signed for them. They consider this, but it just doesn’t seem as special. They’d rather have the signatures “in person” if they can get them.

Brandon changes into his swimsuit and heads out to swim, and soon thereafter Benjamin is out on his own to do some exploring.

All this time I’m just sitting, relaxing, taking notes, watching Aladdin, and reading the etiquette book I found on one of the Suite’s bookshelves. Yes, I could be up doing something, but this is “vacation” at it’s best for me. Like at Walt Disney World, there is a lot to be enjoyed about just being here – and unlike Walt Disney World, here I can just sit and relax and take it all in!

Brandon comes back and reports that the pools are warm, and changes back into his casual clothes to go explore the ship.

Benjamin returns and says that he saw Ariel, Cinderella, and Belle down in the atrium. Benjamin then had a one-on-one encounter with a character on Deck 4, in the same place I met Captain Mickey on my first cruise. Alice came walking by him, on the way to the atrium, asking, “Has anyone seen a white rabbit?” Too funny.

Brandon’s back again soon, excited that he’s spotted his own “stupid guest trick.” Now, at each elevator lobby onboard, on each deck, there are large metal numbers and letters mounted on the walls between the elevator doors letting you know at a glance exactly where you are -- "Deck 6 Fore," for example, or "Deck 10 Midships."

Brandon was at "Deck 2 Aft," waiting for the lift, when a mom and two kids walked by in a hurry. He overheard one kid ask, “What deck are we on?” The mom replies, “I don't know” as she led them onto the stairs.

Brandon marvels that they could miss such obvious signage. But my thought is, where did they think they were going in such a hurry if they didn't even know where they were?

All this time, as Becky and the kids are in and out of the Suite, I’m being a lazy bum and just sitting and soaking up the luxury. Life is good.

Indulgence

2008-01-04T08:26:00.001-05:00

We leave the basketball court and descend an open-deck stairwell to Deck 9. I find on the way down that the wind, while strong on deck, is whipping through the stairwell pretty ferociously. I take my hat in one hand and hold onto my glasses with the other, only to have my lanyard start to fly up and over my head! I catch it in time, but I could really use another hand.

We duck inside and take the forward stairs down a deck and then walk back to the Walt Disney Suite. Becky and Linda are up, and we head back out to breakfast at 7:45. Breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet is always wonderful. It feels like it’s been a while since dinner, and I’m pretty hungry, so I indulge myself: biscuits and gravy, sausage, bacon, fresh pineapple, a chocolate Mickey waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, and a chocolate croissant, with apple juice and chocolate milk to drink – you know, the kind of breakfast cardiologists serve. At least when they’re trying to drum up business.

Conversation is light and relaxed as we enjoy our breakfast, and the view of the ocean as the ship nears Nassau. I remind Benjamin of our 2003 trip where, at one of our large shipboard breakfasts, Becky set out to admonish him and Brandon that future breakfasts would be back to normal by asking, “Do you know what you’ll be having for breakfast when you get home?” Then-six-year-old Benjamin quickly responded, with a mischievous smile, “Pastries???”

We compare notes on our enjoyment of our Suite so far – Benjamin marvels, “I watched Finding Nemo in the bathtub!” And I watched Monsters, Inc. That, sadly, is a shipboard luxury only, but we’re enjoying it while we can.

The passage of time and the aging of our children are brought home to Becky and me once more when Brandon finishes breakfast and announces that he’s leaving. Now on our first trip, we took the boys everywhere, checking them in and out of clubs ourselves. On the 2005 trip, we gave them permission to explore a bit on their own, as long as we knew where they were and when they’d be back.

But now, Brandon is departing, and we ask him where he’s going. He just shrugs.

“Check in sometime,” is my only instruction to him. And then Becky helpfully adds, “Don’t fall off the ship.”

My, how things change.

Morning magic

2008-01-04T07:24:00.001-05:00

The full-sized pictures for Day 6, from Epcot to the Walt Disney Suite, have been posted now at Webshots!

Friday, January 4, 2008. My travel alarm beeps me awake at 6:40, and somehow I am able to drag myself up. I open the door to the sitting room and rouse the boys, trying to be loud enough to get them moving without being so loud that I disturb Becky’s sleep.

To their credit, both are up and dressed quickly. Brandon’s always been a fast riser – though now that he’s a teenager, he can sleep in when he wants to – but Benjamin is much, much faster than he used to be.

Our veranda doors and windows are facing east as we cruise south to Nassau. It’s overcast, but with some breaks in the clouds.

I expect to see Bob up and about, but the door to his bedroom is closed. It’s convenient sharing the same Suite, but at the same time I don’t want to go banging on his bedroom door to see if he’s up. We wait around until almost sunrise, and then figure he must have beat us out the door.

Out we go, first to the midship stairwell and up to Deck 9, and then aft. The big “ArielVision” jumbo TV, new to us on this trip, is showing fish swimming. We walk to the drink station, where I get a cup of coffee, Benjamin pours a cup of fruit punch, and Brandon just gets some water. Still no Bob, so we head upstairs to deck 10 for an unobstructed view of the sunrise. Unobstructed by windows, that is – there are plenty of clouds in the way. It’s still pretty.

Up on Deck 10, it is windy, but it doesn’t seem as bad as on our first trip, where I had to hang onto my hat. Temperature-wise, too, it’s much, much better than yesterday when we left Florida. I heard someone say that yesterday was the coldest day at the port in five years. I believe it. It’s not exactly warm at this hour of the morning, but it is warmer. But then, we are in the Caribbean now.

Our destination is the Wide World of Sports deck. Playing basketball on deck at sunrise while at sea is part and parcel of our first-morning cruise tradition. It such an unusual experience, something magical even.

There are a couple of guys bouncing the ball around when we arrive, but they finish and leave quickly, and we take over the court. Bob appears after a few minutes, coffee in hand.

We bounce the ball around for a bit, take pictures, and enjoy the view. The buildings of Nassau are barely visible, just specks on the horizon, but we can see them. I quickly learn to stay behind the clear barrier that shields the sports deck from the wind – I go around it once to get a picture of the crew pool below, and am staggered by the strength of the wind. Okay, maybe it’s picked up a bit. I not only find myself holding onto my hat, but also my eyeglasses!

We are just about ready to head back below when one of the boys spots a rainbow. Wow. Just… wow. Sunrise at sea, with Bob and my boys, and now a rainbow.

Told you it was magical.

Luxury at the end of the day

2008-01-03T23:18:00.004-05:00

It’s 8:20, and Brandon and I return to the Suite to find that Bob has already turned in for the evening. I change into some sweats for lounging around, and we turn the TV – okay, TVs – to the channel showing the Hercules "Muse-ical." The show is really funny, and entertaining – and quite honestly, I think I enjoy it as much or more as I ever have seeing it live. It’s very nice to be relaxing in luxury with the ship’s stage show beamed to our hi-def television!

I show Benjamin the Mater pin, and his eyes bug out! But as he looks through his lanyard for a pin to trade me for it, I realize that all of his pins are either Lilo & Stitch or Cars pins. I just can’t bring myself make him part with any of them, so I give him the pin without requiring a trade in return. I have too many pins anyway.

Brandon is in and out of the Suite during the show, I think wanting to play the part of the independent teenager who gets out on his own at night, but not yet willing to stay away from his family for too long.

After the show, Linda goes to bed and Benjamin heads to the bathtub – he’s delighted that he can see Finding Nemo on the bathroom TV while he’s in the tub. All of us start winding down except Brandon, who goes to Aloft for the “411” teen welcome party. He’s back some time later, saying that there’s not much happening there.

The shipboard TVs always have a couple of movies running on various channels. Since Hercules we’ve been flipping back and forth between Nemo and Jungle Book. Monsters, Inc. will be coming on soon, and I intend to watch some of it from that big, inviting, whirlpool tub, now that Benjamin and Becky have both had their turn.

I run some deliciously hot water, crank up the TV, and lower myself into the tub. It is deep and feels heavenly – and that's before I even turn on the whirlpool jets. I hit the on/off switch, and ...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

My sore feet needed this. Heck, my whole body needed this. This is a Disney-lover’s dream, soaking my theme-park aches away while laughing with Mike and Sully. I debate whether to spend the entire night in here.

Then I debate whether to spend the entire cruise in here.

After thirty minutes or so of bliss, I decide to bring my first-class bath experience to an end – for now, at least, knowing we will still be here for a couple more nights.

The kids are tucked into bed, also watching Monsters Inc. on their television, when I get out. We’ve got our traditional early start tomorrow morning – up with Bob to watch the sunrise. Bob is typically an early riser, but I surprised him on our first cruise together in 2003 by getting up on our first morning to join him. We ended up having a great time, drinking coffee, watching the sun rise, and playing basketball on the Wide World of Sports deck. Brandon joined us in 2005, and now Benjamin is planning on continuing the tradition with us.

Let’s see – sunrise will be at 6:57, so an alarm time of 6:40 will do, so long as we have clothes ready to throw on.

There is one last issue to fix before we go to sleep. There are sliding doors between the kids’ bedroom (formerly the sitting room) and the living room, and between their room and our bedroom. Ideally, we’d like them closed, but the latches are difficult for me to work even in the light, so the kids would for sure have trouble getting them open if they had to get up in the middle of the night. But with the ship rocking, we either need the doors all the way open – where they click in place – or latched.

We finally settle on leaving their door to the living room open. On most mornings that would be an issue with Bob rising early and turning on the TV, but tomorrow we’ll be up early with him.

With that, I set the sleep timers on the TVs and we all quickly fall asleep. Given that we awoke in the Polynesian Resort this morning, got stranded on Test Track, had a bus ride to Port Canaveral, and are now ending the day in the Walter E. Disney Suite on the Disney Wonder, this has been one special and amazing day.

Elephants, pins, and such

2008-01-03T20:19:00.003-05:00

We leave Parrot Cay and head up to the Walt Disney Suite – it still makes me giddy to think that it’s ours. The ship is now rocking enough that walking in a straight line is a challenge, and more than once I bump up against the hallway walls. We’re grateful for the handrails provided down the hallways.

When we arrive, we find the beds have been turned down, including the boys’ Murphy bed in the sitting room. The chairs in there fit nicely on either side of the bed. There are chocolates on each bed – not that we’re hungry for them at all! – and there is a towel elephant on the bed in the master bedroom. Awesome.

"Bari," the stuffed bear I got for Becky at the Barbershop Harmony Society convention in Denver (still sporting a lei from the Polynesian), has been placed next to the towel elephant. I'm not sure he knows what to think about it.

Okay, decision time – are we going to go to the 8:30 stage show, Hercules: the Muse-ical? Benjamin and I are semi-interested, but the general consensus seems to be, “no.” We’ve seen it on our previous cruises, it’s been a long day, and we have this wonderful Suite to enjoy. Besides, Hercules will be shown on our in-suite televisions, so we’ll still see the show, but in the comfort of our living room. Or in the sitting room. Or bedroom. Or other bedroom. Or bathroom, for that matter! (Five televisions! Wow!)

There’s pin trading in the atrium until 8:30, and Brandon and I want to go check that out. From past experience, it’s not always a hotbed of trading activity, but there’s usually at least one crew member there with pins to trade, and also DCL pins for sale that can’t be bought anywhere else.

The female crew member at the pin display is very nice. There are some amazing pins for sale, but none that match the one I got here on my last trip, with the Disney Wonder in profile against a star-filled night-sky Mickey shape. It’s one of my two favorites, along with the pin that features the Walt and Mickey “Partners” statue in pewter against a color Cinderella Castle.

The CM does have a Captain Mickey pin available for trade, showing him dressed in his officer whites and throwing a snappy gloved salute. I trade for it – now that I have more pins than my lanyard can hold, I keep several off-lanyard and let the CM have his or her pick, which most of them seem to appreciate over the usual method where guest picks one for them. There’s also a pin featuring Mater from Cars. Ooo, I know Benjamin would want that if he were here, so I trade for it, figuring Benjamin can then trade me for it later.

Brandon has his eye on a Chip and Dale pin the CM is wearing, but alas, he has left his extra “trading pins” in the Suite. The cast member very nicely says, "No problem!" and gives him a set of two identical Tinkerbell “Where Dreams Come True” pins! She then lets Brandon make the trade with one of the free pins and keep the other! That was cool.

She tells us that she will be there each night, and that on the final night of the cruise, several of the officers will be there with their pin collections. We’ll definitely have to be back for that.

We thank the CM and then turn towards the midship stairs. We’re going up a deck to the ship’s two onboard stores, Mickey’s Mates and Treasure Ketch. Treasure Ketch has mostly high-end stuff – watches, jewelry, and the like, while Mickey’s Mates has clothes, hats, toys, etc., and is usually the place I’m more likely to spend money. However, I do duck into Treasure Ketch, as they now also have a line of Castaway Club clothing, kept behind the sales counter, that you can only buy if you are on your second or subsequent cruise.

I’d like to find another Disney Cruise Line cap, but I’m not seeing anything that really catches my attention. The Castaway Club stuff is okay, but it’s all red – red t-shirts, red hats – and that’s not really what I want. I leave without making a purchase today, but I know I’ll have more time later to come back and shop.

Parrot Cay entertainment

2008-01-03T19:51:00.008-05:00

Our entrees arrive. Benjamin has ordered pizza (what else?) and fries. He goes slowly on them, but insists that they taste good and that he is feeling better. I’ve got the mixed grill. I’d never ordered it here before, because on previous trips it seemed too close to the low-carb diet I’d been on in the past, but it always looked good when someone else got it. It really is delicious.

I ask Assistant Server Nino if his name is pronounced “NEE-no” (as I’ve heard Sutas calling him) or “NEEN-yo.” He tells me it’s actually “NEEN-yo,” but on board the ship a lot of the other CMs call him “NEE-no,” and he’s gotten used to it.

Nino and Sutas are very enjoyable servers, not only efficient and attentive, but also able to spend time conversing and entertaining us. Nino entertains the recovering Benjamin with a bit of kids’ menu origami, folding the page into a giraffe. At least, he says it’s a giraffe. It does have a long neck, but it still takes quite a lot of imagination to call it a giraffe. Maybe a llama?

As we are finishing our entrees, the Parrot Cay entertainment starts, with all the servers, led by the head servers, dancing in a line around the restaurant to “Hot, Hot, Hot.” Brandon immediately hops up to join the line. Does Benjamin feel like dancing? No, he doesn’t, but he seems to enjoy the music. He’s looking much, much better.

How much better we come to understand just about ten seconds later, when another server invites Benjamin to dance. This time, he shrugs and stands up with a smile to join the dance line! We watch the boys as they parade around Parrot Cay, Brandon bopping around with as much energy as anybody, and Benjamin not dancing much, but smiling from ear to ear. It’s a fun time.

After that musical interlude, Brandon and Benjamin return to the table, and Sutas comes to take our dessert order. Mmm, cruise ship dessert! I order the Chocolate-Espresso Walnut Cake, Becky and Linda each order the Ice Cream Sundae, and Benjamin asks for the “Rich Chocolate Pudding” from the kids’ menu. Bob reminds Sutas of his Mickey Bar request, and Brandon joins him.

While we wait for the desserts, Sutas entertains the kids – and the rest of us – with some brain teaser-type puzzles, using the crayons on the table. He first lays down four crayons in the shape of a simple stemware glass, with a salt shaker “in” the glass, and then tells us to recreate the shape with the salt shaker on the outside of the glass by moving only two crayons. Sutas then leaves to go about his work while we try to figure it out.

Our whole table gets involved in the puzzle, and I’m really admiring both Sutas and Nino already. They are different from Nick, but these type of puzzles are perfect from Brandon and Benjamin – and a great way to make the wait time fly by.

When we demonstrate that we’ve solved the first puzzle, Sutas leaves another, and then another, and before we know it, desserts are here, and we almost don’t want to quit the puzzles to eat them. Almost.

We have a laugh at Bob’s requested Mickey Bar – he is given two Mickey Bars on a plate. Brandon just has one Mickey Bar, but it is dressed up with chocolate syrup, marshmallows, and sprinkles! Brandon marvels, “And it’s all free!” We remind him that, more accurately, it is all "paid for."

My chocolate cake is just the right size, and pretty soon we’ve wolfed down all that we can. I glance at my watch – we’ve been here almost two hours. We normally don’t linger over a meal like this, but the time just flew. Sutas and Nino are great, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again over the next couple of days.

Apart from Benjamin’s incident, which seems to be fully past us now, this was a great first dinner onboard.

Dinner, interrupted

2008-01-03T19:01:00.002-05:00

With Benjamin thinking he might need to, um, be sick, he knows to head to the nearest restroom. Unfortunately, there are none right within view in the restaurants on board. We point him out the exit and down the hallway with the word that there are restrooms right by the stairwells, and we send Brandon with him to help guide him there.

Within a couple of minutes a bowl of delicious Cream of Sweet Onion soup is placed in front of me, but we haven’t heard back from either son, so I get up to go check on them. The soup will have to wait – though it would be easier to leave it I hadn’t been able to smell it first.

I walk out of the restaurant and down the short hall to the closest elevator/stair landing and step into the snug men’s room there. One stall is in use. “Benjamin? Brandon?” I call out. “No,” says an unfamiliar voice. Hmm.

If they are not in the closest bathroom, where are they?

As I step back out in the hallway and turn towards the Promenade Lounge, I see Brandon coming towards me. He reports that Benjamin got sick on the carpet a little further along. In the stress of the moment, they missed the closest set of bathrooms and kept going. Lovely.

Brandon says that Benjamin is not alone – he’s being tended to by a crew member in the Lounge. I thank Brandon and send him back to supper, and then start down the hallway to the other end of the Lounge. Except I find the walkway blocked from each direction by a row of chairs. Oh. That must be… the place. Wow, these Disney crew members are efficient.

I step into the Lounge and spot Benjamin in a chair at the far end. A female crew member is wiping his face with a washcloth, and he himself is sipping ginger ale from a can with a straw in it. He looks a little pale, but otherwise all right.

I introduce myself to the crew member and apologize for the inconvenience, but she is very gracious and tells us both not to worry about it at all – it happens. She’s very good at putting us both at ease. She recommends getting Benjamin a little fresh air up on Deck 4.

Benjamin confirms he’s good to move, so I thank the cast member and we step out of the Promenade Lounge and head upstairs to Deck 4, using the large staircase near Shutters. We go to the nearest doorway to the outside deck and find it blocked off for some reason. I turn to lead Benjamin to the next closest door, but he says he just wants to sit for a few minutes. That’s fine. There are a couple of chairs nearby, so we sit.

He sips his ginger ale reports that he feels a lot better – which is often the case after an upset stomach. We just rest there for 5 or 10 minutes, and then Benjamin says he’s ready to go back to the restaurant. Funny, but his main concern, now that he feels better, is that he’ll have to give back the Sprite he ordered at Parrot Cay because he now has a ginger ale! I assure him that no one will mind if he keeps both drinks.

We go through Shutters to the aft stairs, to avoid walking past the Promenade Lounge, and then drop down to Deck 3 and return our table in Parrot Cay. Benjamin really does look much better, but we still admonish him to take it easy, and especially go slow on eating much. He doesn’t seem to need us to tell him that, though.

My soup’s still here, and tastes wonderful.

Rough seas

2008-01-03T18:35:00.006-05:00

The ship is noticeably rocking as we prepare to go to dinner. It’s not at all violent, more of a gentle swaying, and not so much as to knock you off your feet. But it is constant, over and over and over, and that can cause problems.

Benjamin is feeling the effects.

We don’t have any chewable Dramamine handy, but we find a suitable dose in pill form for him to take. Unfortunately, Benjamin has never taken a pill before. Given his marginally queasy state and the stress of swallowing a pill for the first time, it takes a bit of trying for him to get it down, but he eventually does.

I hope we’ve given it to him in time.

Off we go to Parrot Cay. The midship elevators take us to Deck 3, and we walk down the port-side hallway past the Promenade Lounge where we waited for our table at lunch. Our table, number 55, is right in the middle of the restaurant. Waiting to greet us as soon as we are seated are our server and assistant server, Sutas from Thailand, and Nino from the Philippines.

We’ve been curious about our servers – we spend so much time with them on the ship, since they rotate from restaurant to restaurant with us, that they can really add a lot of magic to a cruise. The boys absolutely adored Nick, our goofy and endearing Croatian server in 2003; okay, we all adored him. He was sweet and wonderful and fun, and easily was the favorite part of our cruise. Sunil & Sara, our 2005 team, on the other hand, gave great service, but were just not as personable or fun. Granted, Nick set the bar high – any future server will have a hard time living up to his standard.

Already Sutas and Nino seem to be an improvement over our last cruise. They are warm, friendly, and funny as we introduce ourselves to them.

Benjamin is still looking a little queasy, but says he’s okay for now. The ship is still rocking noticeably, and even I am starting to feel the effects. We forge ahead with ordering from the Parrot Cay menu. I order my favorite appetizer at this place, the Baked Crab Martinique, a delicious cheesy crab concoction, as well as a bowl of the Cream of Sweet Onion Soup.

Bob tells Sutas that for dessert later, he might pass on the fancier items and just have a Mickey bar. Sutas gives him a mischievous double take and laughingly says, “Can I see a photo i.d.? That’s for kids!” He tells Bob not to worry, he’ll take care of him.

Nino brings our sodas, and Sutas delivers some warm banana bread and sesame rolls. It may have only been a few hours since lunch, but they still taste fantastic. Then the appetizers arrive, and I dig into the Crab Martinique. Yummm! It is very, very good.

Sutas is just starting to deliver our soups and salads when Benjamin signals that he thinks he’s going to be sick.

At our beck and call

2008-01-03T17:49:00.002-05:00

Shortly after I return to the Walt Disney Suite, our doorbell – yes, the Walt Disney Suite has a doorbell – rings. At the door are Lars and Thabi (pronounced like “Tabby”), our concierges. They make an interesting pair, standing next to each other. Lars, from Germany, is quite tall, while South African Thabi is, um… not. Both, however, are extraordinarily friendly.

They’ve come to invite us to the concierge reception tomorrow afternoon while we are docked in Nassau, and to give us information about our coming ports of call and events onboard the ship. We’re given a printed page with the DCL logo and personalized with our family names and suite, showing the weather forecast for the next day. They're really giving us the royal treatment!

We enjoy the information, but honestly admit to them that we might not get off the ship in Nassau. Heck, we might not even go to the stage show, Hercules, this evening. We’ve got this amazing Suite, a once in a lifetime kind of experience, and so, we tell them, we might just be in here relaxing and enjoying it!

Thabi is quick to respond, “I don’t blame you! I’d do that, too!”

Lars does give us one bit of bad news. Disney’s new luggage check-out, where they take your bags off the ship and give them directly to your airline, won’t work for us. To minimize the risk of bags not making your flight, they don’t do that when your flight leaves earlier than 11:25 a.m. Ours is scheduled for 11:15, just ten minutes too early. Oh, well – they’ll still take the bags off the ship, but we just have to claim them and take them through customs ourselves, then give them to the airline reps there at the port. It’s still not much of a hassle.

Bob brings up the single Castaway Club gift bag issue delicately, by asking them if they are familiar with the expression, “looking a gift horse in the mouth.” Thabi doesn’t know the phrase, but Lars says they have the same saying in German. They assure us that they’ll see “if they have any extras” and get a gift bag for Bob and Linda by the end of the voyage.

Lars and Thabi tell us how to contact them by phone, and urge us to call, day or night, someone will answer, and they love to help, so please call if we need anything! Thabi adds, “Even if you just want to know the time, call!”

Bob asks if they can adjust the weather. They laugh and say that it should be much nicer in Nassau tomorrow.

With a cheerful goodbye, Lars and Thabi depart, and for us it’s time for supper. Time to head back to Parrot Cay. I’m thankful that we have a reserved table this time.

Farewell Florida

2008-01-03T17:40:00.001-05:00

Normally as the ship leaves, I’ll stay on Deck 10, watching the Port slip by, but today it really is too cold for that. So, Bob and I walk forward on Deck 9, which is mostly enclosed. I pull up a chair next to the glass and enjoy our departure. There is an opening in the glass which lets just enough breeze through to let me experience some of the feeling of our increasing speed.

A pilot boat is alongside us, guiding the ship out of the channel. I look around and try to spot a few landmarks, primarily the location of various Cape Canaveral webcams I watch throughout the year to get my Disney Cruise Line “fix.” Let’s see, there’s the Canaveral Radisson off in the distance. It has a great web-controllable camera. Its view of the Disney ships in port is partially blocked, but as they are departing, you can turn the camera to follow them. Someone is probably doing that right now! That's cool to think about.

We pass the coast line – there’s another building with a camera on it – and I say goodbye to land for now. The pilot boat stays with us for a short while after we’re past the land, and then drops back and out of sight. We really start picking up speed now that we’re in the open water.

Bob takes his leave, saying that he’s heading back to the Suite. I decide to stay a bit longer.

The ship turns southeast, and I snap a picture looking back up the Port Canaveral waterway. After that, I decide to go explore a bit. I walk down Deck 9 and go into the midship elevators. Let’s see what this deck party in the atrium looks like.

As I descend past Deck 5 and the atrium comes into view through the glass elevator wall, it becomes clear that the deck party looks, um, over. No band, no characters, no crowds. There are some people hanging around the door to Triton’s, waiting for it to open for dinner, but otherwise not much is happening.

I stay on the lift and head back to the Suite on Deck 8.

Quiet departure...?

2008-01-03T17:17:00.003-05:00

Note: Sorry that my usual trickle of posts has dwindled to a drip in recent days. I was out of town this past week competing with the Vocal Majority chorus (full story at The World of Wombat) and I fell behind on writing the trip report. I've caught up enough now that I can resume the usual, um, trickle. Thanks for your patience.

We step out onto Deck 10, and the cold wind hits us with a blast. Combined with the icy drizzle, it’s pretty miserable weather – but my spirits are flying high. Our cruise is about to really get underway!

We walk along the starboard rail until we are in front of the forward funnel. It’s bizarrely quiet, given that on previous trips music from the deck party was blaring. Here we have only the whistling wind. There are only a few other souls wandering around, unlike the hundreds hugging the rail in normal weather.

In the absence of the usual Mickey-led countdown from the stage below, I check my Mickey watch – it is almost 5:00. Bob and I are steeling ourselves to be surprised by the “When You Wish Upon a Star” horn. It should be really loud without any other noises around.

Without any fanfare – or horn – we look down to the terminal building below us and see that the ship has started moving laterally away from the dock. It’s kind of surreal, at least compared to the normal departure. There’s no band and no characters (at least not up here!). There are hardly any people. Looking down to the terminal, which is now noticeable begin to slip away as we build forward momentum, there are no DCL cast members with Mickey gloves on waving goodbye. It’s cold, wet, and very, very quiet.

But watching this 83,000-ton vessel leave port is still incredible.

There still has been no horn. Usually it’s timed with the deck party countdown, right when we begin to pull away from the dock, but that time has passed. The Disney terminal is well behind us now. Surely they’re not going to skip the horn?

In concession to the weather, Bob goes down to the more wind-shielded Deck 9 and finds a dry spot to wait. Brandon heads up towards the bow of the ship, I’m guessing to have a “I’m king of the world” moment to himself. Still no horn.

Finally, even my “this is no big deal I grew up in Colorado” disdain for the weather crumbles, and I go down to Deck 9 to join Bob. We’re still in front of the horn, still outside, but just a bit more shielded from the cold.

The ship is turning east down the Port Canaveral channel to the ocean, and I’m about to give up waiting and go walk around, when Captain Henry comes over the speakers to announce that the ship’s horn is about to sound. The handful of people around us cover their ears tightly. I do not.

Seconds slip by. Knowing that it’s coming, but not exactly when, is a delicious kind of anticipation –

BOM- BOM- BOM- BOM- BOM- BOM- BOOOOOOOOM!!

It is loud.

It is AWESOME.

Okay, not covering my ears may not have been the brightest thing, standing in front of a ship's horn. Disney fanatic that I am, though, I figure that there are worse things in life than having “When You Wish Upon a Star” ringing in my ears!

Final pre-sail details

2008-01-03T16:55:00.001-05:00

Climbing up all those stairs is a chore, but it’s a very nice reward to be able to rest in the Walt Disney Suite when we make it back to Deck 8!

Captain Henry (Andersson, our ship’s captain for the third time in a row aboard the Wonder) comes over the loud speakers announcing that we will be facing rough seas tonight until about 10:30, and tells us that, even with the ship’s stabilizers, there still may be seasickness. If you have Dramamine, he advises, take it now!

Point taken.

Okay, what to do next? Traditionally we head up to Deck 10 and watch the sail-away party, held on the stage by the Goofy pool on Deck 9. But as we’re discussing this, our cruise director, Christiaan, comes over the speakers to announce that, because of the chilly, wet weather, the sail-away party is being moved indoors. Okay, he’s a cruise director, so he doesn’t say it all matter-of-fact like that. It’s more bubbly and excited, all “Are we going to let a little weather spoil the fun? No!!” It definitely takes a certain personality type to do his job. And it’s not the same personality type as me.

The “Adventures Away” sail away party will be held in the atrium instead. Brandon and Benjamin ask if they can go on to the party, and we let them head out. While no place is ever perfectly safe, the ship is a pretty controlled environment. They’ve both shown themselves to be pretty responsible, and we’re confident at their age, now, letting them loose with just a few safety rules.

At 4:30 Becky and Linda head out to check out the spa. They’ve never taken advantage of any of its services before, and they want to take a look, and possible set up a time for some pampering.

That leaves Bob and me. We each decide we still want to go up on deck and watch us head out of the port. That’s also the main attraction to me – the sail away party has always been fun, but secondary. I’d rather enjoy the experience of this beautiful but massive ship maneuvering out from the mainland to the open seas. Plus, both Bob and I want to risk our eardrums and stand in front of the ship’s horn when it sounds. What can I say, we live on the edge.

As it is, luggage is beginning to arrive, and Bob and I are able to direct which piece of luggage goes to which side of the suite. Never had to do that before! I hang our hanging clothes in our walk-in closet – mine and the boys’ on one side, Becky’s on the other, having to push aside the white terry-cloth bathrobes that are provided there. As at the Polynesian, I pull a few things from the suitcase and tuck them into drawers, and then use a trick I didn’t know on my previous two cruises – clearing floor space by sliding the suitcases under the bed.

Brandon returns to the cabin, reporting that Benjamin stayed at the sail-away party after they went exploring the ship some more. Brandon played some basketball again for a few minutes with 9-10 other guys, and then came back here to the suite.

Soon it’s getting close to 5:00, so Brandon, Bob and I put on our jackets and head up into the wet chill to Deck 10.

Lifeboat drill

2008-01-03T16:14:00.001-05:00

Clad in our orange life jackets, we file out of the Suite and follow the signs in the corridor to the forward stairs – no elevators during the drill, except for those with mobility issues – and begin our descent to Deck 4, where all of the assembly stations are. We are assigned to Assembly Station D, out the forward stairwell door on the port side and to the left.

It is indeed still very chilly and windy, and we are surprised to find our crew member “station captain” wearing shorts. She’s cheerful but admits that she is cold.

We are instructed to line up coming out from the wall, a single line per stateroom. It dawns on me that we are one of only four cabins on the ship that may have six or more people in our line, as just the Category 1 and Category 2 suites – two each – sleep seven people.

We line up with the tallest in the back, shortest in the front. Brandon is jubilant that he is behind his mom for the first time. Poor Benjamin is at the front, exposed the most to the cold, while I am doing great snuggled in at the back behind Bob. As other cruisers arrive and fill in to our right, I am downright cozy. The dad to my right comments about how comfortable we are with our families blocking us from the cold. I agree and toss out a “Thanks, Bob!” to my father-in-law. (Funny, but his "You're so welcome" seems just a tad sarcastic!)

The lifeboat drill proceeds as it always does – once we’re in place, we just stand and listen until we’re dismissed. There are instructions over the PA system, telling us about the emergency horn signal and that we’re to do just what we’ve done now if we hear it, that is, go to our cabins, dress quickly for the weather, get our life preservers and come line up at our stations. Then the signal is sounded – seven short blasts of the horn followed by one long blast. No “When You Wish Upon a Star” on the horn in an emergency, folks… though it occurs to me that they could always just play “Poor Unfortunate Souls” instead.

Our station captain gives a roll call of the few cabins that she hasn’t spotted, and then we are dismissed. The whole drill takes only about ten minutes once we’re in place, and then we can go back inside to warm up. The “work” part of the cruise is over, and now the fun part can begin in earnest!

Wait, I spoke too soon. While the elevators are in use again, they are packed with everyone returning at once, so the stairs are the faster option. But that means four decks' worths of stairs to climb on my still theme-park-weary feet!

Relaxing in luxury

2008-01-03T15:53:00.005-05:00

Brandon opens the envelope that was waiting for him as we entered the suite, and finds a personal invitation to him to come to the teen club, Aloft, for the “411” meeting tonight. That’s a nice touch.

He and Benjamin want to get out and explore the ship for a few minutes, so we let them go with warnings to be back very soon!

We have a a little time still to explore our Suite before the 4:00 lifeboat drill. On the coffee table in the living room is the typical menu of services, including room services options, that all cabins get. But there is an additional concierge folder, which has a few pages of personalized stationery for us, a list of DVDs we can order from the concierge, and full menus from each of the three main onboard restaurants – as concierge-level guests, we can get anything off of the menu of any of the restaurants delivered by room service!

In fact, there is a separate, metal-covered menu from Palo, the exclusive adults-only restaurant. Bob tells us that, according to Lars, only guests in the two Disney Suites can order room service from Palo. Hmmm. I may have to see about getting to try Palo’s famous chocolate soufflé!

I peruse the bookshelves in the sitting room and find a book on etiquette. Those always seem to be interesting reading to me – mostly to see how far I deviate from what is socially acceptable, I suppose. I’m curious whether these books have any connection to Walt Disney. Upon finding that the book I’ve chosen was published in the 1980’s, though, I suspect not. Still, I setting down in a comfortable chair by the veranda door and read a little to relax.

Brandon and Benjamin return with reports that they went up to Deck 9, got a few pictures on deck, and Brandon briefly joined a pickup basketball game on the Wide World of Sports deck. And they saw a rainbow!

It’s approaching 4:00 now, and in-cabin announcements (preceded by the delightful “When You Wish Upon a Star” chime) are urging us to begin assembling on Deck 4. Time to don our life jackets.

Bob and I pull the life preservers out of our walk-in closets. They are a different design than I recall from previous cruises, both less bulky and able to fold up smaller for storage in the closet.

Knowing that it is still cold outside, we all put on jackets before we add the life preservers. It takes just a second to figure out how the life vests go on. Wearing these things is always entertaining – okay, really it’s just entertaining seeing other people in your family wearing them – and the contrast between being dressed for going into the ocean and the luxury of the Suite is striking. I try not to think of Titanic.

Sleeping arrangements

2008-01-03T15:43:00.004-05:00

Back inside the suite (or should I say, the Suite, capital ‘S’!), I note that the fruit basket is not the only thing left for us – there’s also a cool, useful black and red Castaway Club bag on the bed in the Master Bedroom. It contains a couple of reusable drink bottles, mesh beach bag, notebook and pen, and a few other goodies, all branded with the DCL logo. Every repeat cruiser gets a gift like this – in the past we’ve received pins and a beach towel.

Bob and Linda confirm that there is not another bag in the other bedroom. Just one? That doesn’t seem right. Maybe it’s a “one per stateroom” deal, but I’d think both families should get one – we did book two staterooms initially, after all. It’s not something we’ll press, I’m sure, given that it’s hard to complain that we’re being deprived when we’ve been upgraded to Category 1, but we still might mention it.

Now that we’ve explored, we need to figure out our living arrangements for the next few days. One surprising thing we find is that the Walt Disney Suite, while advertised to hold up to seven cruisers, actually has beds enough for ten! The “permanent” beds – the queen bed in the master bedroom and the twin beds in the second bedroom – sleep four. Above each bed in the second bedroom are pull-down bunks, like those found in many staterooms, so that's room for another two people. The Murphy bed in the sitting room sleeps another two, and then the couch in the living room converts to a bed that also sleeps two. It's kind of mind-boggling to think that ten people, adults even, could sleep in a single "stateroom" aboard a ship in absolute comfort!

We discuss various arrangements of where we'll each sleep. If Becky and the boys and I took the second bedroom together, with Bob & Linda in the master suite, it might be problematic when Becky or I stay up later than the boys, but it would definitely work. We couldn’t put the boys on the living room couch, because Bob likes to rise early and turn on the news. Brandon and Benjamin are most eager to sleep on the Murphy bed, but that would put them next to Bob and Linda if they were in the master bedroom.

The arrangement that seems to work best is to put Becky and me in the master bedroom, Brandon and Benjamin on the Murphy bed, and Becky’s parents in the second bedroom. That will have the larger bathroom for the four of us Randalls, and give Bob and Linda their own private facilities, even though it means sleeping apart in two twin beds. I feel a bit guilty about taking the master bedroom when we wouldn’t even be here were it not for Bob and Linda, but they assure us that they’re fine with this arrangement, so that's what we settle on.

I feel guilty all over again when I sink into the queen-size bed with thoughts of, “Mine, mine, all mine!!!”

WED Suite cont'd

2008-01-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

Back through the living room, the room on the other side is a simple sitting room, with two comfortable chairs and its own television. I know from research beforehand that there is a Murphy bed in this room that sleeps two.

The sitting room leads to the master bedroom. Ahhh – the master bedroom of the Walter E. Disney Suite. Just saying it sounds luxurious! It has a queen-sized bed, two nightstands, dresser, vanity/desk, and another television with its own DVD player. There’s a big walk-in closet – or rather “walk-through,” since it also connects with the entrance hallway – with hanging and storage space on each side behind polished wooden doors.

Then there’s the master bathroom. Wow. I wish my bathroom at home were this nice and spacious! There are two sinks with plenty of counter space, a ginormous whirlpool tub at one end, and a separate glass shower stall at the other – with two shower heads.

And in the cabinet above the sinks is the suite’s fifth television, fully in view from the whirlpool tub. I think I’m going to have to spend some time there.

There are bookshelves all over and photographs of Walt Disney everywhere. It’s just all too wonderful. Our jaws are scraping the floor, at least figuratively, taking in all of this space and luxury and trying to wrap our brains around the concept that it is all ours for the next three days!

I’m still videoing, although already I can tell it’s not going to be very good. Besides the delay in getting in (and the poor quality video my cheapo digital camera takes anyway), with every new room we’re having to find and try the various light switches until the lights come on, meaning that half of the video will be dark.

Now that I’ve gone through all the rooms, I head through the sitting room for the veranda door.

I start fiddling with the lock and handle with my free hand, with no success in opening the door. After a minute or so of this, I finally stop the video and devote my whole attention to getting the door open. As it turns out, the lock is mislabeled. Once I turn it in the direction that says “lock,” I can open the door.

Brandon and I step out onto the looooong veranda. This is too cool. It’s just as narrow as a standard veranda, but about 4 or 5 times as long! Brandon has to make the point by leaving me through one door, racing through the suite, and then emerging 40 feet away from me at the other door!

I can’t help but think of our 2003 trip, when we were upgraded to two Category 3 (one-bedroom) suites. Because the suites were at the back of the ship, their verandas were actually both wide and long. In fact, Bob & Linda’s, at the very aft of the ship, may have been longer than this one. But this Disney Suite veranda has something that those in 2003 did not – privacy!! Because of the layout of the decks, people could look down on us from Deck 9 when we were on our verandas in 2003. Here, no one can look down from above. It’s pretty nice.

Of course, it’s also still cold, wet, and windy. Unless that changes, we won’t be spending too much time on the verandas anyway! (And frankly, when we’ve got a magnificent suite indoors, the outdoors loses some of its appeal.)

At last – the Walter E. Disney Suite!

2008-01-03T15:33:00.001-05:00

We finally realize that no one is making a move to open the door, so everyone goes for their card at once. Bob’s the first with his at the ready. He slides it in, pulls it out, and – green light! The door to the Walt Disney Suite opened for us!!

This is so cool! We step through the door and into a long hallway. There are doors on either side, but we’ll explore those later. The hall leads us into the main living room, the biggest room in the suite.

It has a couch, two chairs, and a coffee table. This is the room that used to have the baby grand piano, but it has been removed – and, according to the lady at DCL that I talked to when we were upgraded, it was just for show, never a functional piano.

The wall behind the couch is covered with curtains, through which we can see our veranda. (Our 40-foot veranda!) Since the doors behind the couch are blocked, though, we apparently access the veranda through other rooms.

Turning around at the couch and facing the opposite wall, the one split by the entrance hallway, to the left is a media center with a DVD player and a rather nice flat-screen, Hi-Def television. It’s not big by home theater standards by any means, maybe 25”, but it’s a pretty decent size for onboard a cruise ship.

It turns out to be one of five televisions in the suite.

Still in the living room, same wall as the TV, but on the opposite side of the hallway, there are cabinets that open to reveal a wet bar. It has stemware available and is stocked with Evian water bottles.

The living room connects with two smaller rooms, one on each end. “Smaller” being a relative term, of course: each of them is as big or bigger than the sitting areas in a Category 4 stateroom (the highest non-concierge; the Walt and Roy Disney Suites are Category 1). The room to the aft – to the left coming from the entrance hallway – is a dining room with seating for eight.

There’s a large (!) gift platter of fresh fruit, wrapped in plastic and tied off with a Disney Cruise Line ribbon, sitting on the dining room table, along with a “welcome aboard” note from Lars and our other concierge, Thabi. Life is good.

To the right are curtains and a door to the veranda. To the left, another room, this one the smaller bedroom. Again, “smaller” is relative – the room contains two twin beds, a desk, a dresser, and a television! It also has a walk-in closet, which connects back to the entrance hallway. There is a bathroom with sink/counter/mirror space, and an almost full-size, deep whirlpool tub!

I can’t wait to see what the big bedroom looks like!

Concierge service

2008-01-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Finally satisfied, we head out of Parrot Cay, down the hallway, through the atrium, between the midship elevators and down the “Route 66” corridor, with its highway-map carpeting. “Cars” fan Benjamin suddenly has a new appreciation for the theming of this area!

We walk into the Cadillac Lounge, where the concierge meeting is being held, and are greeted warmly. We tell them we need to check in Benjamin, and he and I are directed to have a seat on a couch. A female crew member joins us and pulls up our paperwork on her handheld computer. She goes over all of what to expect, and discusses the use of the pager, and talks with Benjamin about different activities for his age.

Okay, even with the online enrollment before we left, this isn’t much faster than it used to be. I must admit my “no hurries, no worries” attitude is already showing cracks – I wanna see the Walt Disney Suite! But I take a deep breath and decide to be patient, particularly when I think that this may be our last time to put either kid into a club.

Brandon, being a teen now, doesn’t have a sign-in, but the CM tells him of a “411” session at 9:30 tonight in Aloft. He gives a non-committal, fully “teenager” nod and grunt of acknowledgement.

Bob, Linda, and Becky pass the time talking with Lars, a tall, friendly CM from Germany, who is one of our concierges. Eventually the check-in for Benjamin is done, but we all keep talking for several minutes. Everyone here is extraordinarily nice.

Okay, enough of nice… let’s get to the suite!!! We say our goodbyes and thanks and turn towards the fore bank of elevators. We squeeze in to the first available elevator – shipboard lifts are not that large – and press the button for deck 8. This is getting exciting now!

At deck 8, we turn to the port hallway and begin walking aft, heading for number 8030… let’s see, 8018… 8022… 26… 28… And we’re here – number 8030. Stylish metal lettering on the door reads "Walter E. Disney Suite"! There’s an envelope at the door, addressed to Brandon. That’s a good sign, but the true test will be when we stick one of our Key to the World cards in the door and are rewarded with a green light!

I stand back and start recording video on my camera – I want to capture our first view of the shipboard Shangri-La and everyone’s reactions to it. And so we stand at the doorway… not going in.

Why are we not going in?

Heh. In all of our anticipation and excitement, none of us have thought to get out a KTTW card!

Buffet bliss

2008-01-03T15:03:00.001-05:00

Shaking off the rudeness of the stupid guest is not easy, but we do our best and enjoy our food. It is a decent spread as always – lots of fruit, vegetable dishes, carved meats, salmon, and of course large, peel-and-eat shrimp. I’m not in a very adventurous mood, food-wise, so I get some chicken, rice pilaf, seasoned potatoes, cheese cubes, bread and butter – and a corn dog.

Our table is right up against a starboard-side porthole, behind my chair, meaning I can watch all of the dockhands working below. Now that we are onboard the ship and our hunger is being satisfied, there is a very strong change of mood among us. We are no longer in any hurry, there’s no place we have to be at any time, and everything we could possibly need is available to us without any stress or distance to travel. Because of that, we settle in, take things slow, and relaaaaaaaaax…

It’s this “no care in the world” feeling that really makes a cruise worthwhile!

Consequently, even without having to wait for food once we were seated, we spend over an hour having a slow, relaxed, casual lunch. Sure, we’re anxious to get to the Walt Disney Suite, but… no hurries, no worries. We’ll get there eventually.

In fact, since the timing is working out, we decide to head straight from Parrot Cay to the concierge meeting in the Cadillac Lounge. We can get Benjamin checked in and meet our concierge staff, and then we’ll be free to head upstairs with all of our “required” tasks behind us (with the exception of the lifeboat drill at 4:00). Yes, it means waiting a bit more to see our suite, but (a) every added bit we put it off just builds the anticipation, and (b) I have a feeling that once we’re in there, we won’t want to leave!

Dessert time! Again, the spread is wonderful – cakes, pies, cheesecake, tarts, more fruit. Cruise life being what it is, we sample all of it. I know some people diet and exercise as a lifestyle and do not break their routine on vacations, even on a cruise, and Disney is wonderful to accommodate those people… but I’m not one of them. To me, the point of the diet and exercise at home is so that I can enjoy all of the food while I’m here!

We do restrain ourselves a bit – just a bit – but mainly because our dinnertime, back here in Parrot Cay, is just four hours away.

Stupid Cruiser Trick

2008-01-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

There’s a limit to this pampering thing, of course – it doesn’t speed up our wait for a table at Parrot Cay. Forty-five minutes after we sign in, we're pretty hungry, and finally our names are called. We hear our family name, "party of six," and we go to the crew member with the waiting list, and she directs us to the restaurant. We walk up the hallway and then stand at the entrance to Parrot Cay for a couple of minutes waiting on a server to take us to a specific table.

There is a smaller group ahead of us, and one lone middle-aged guy milling around nearby. The smaller party is seated, and by the time a server comes for us, the lone guy has worked his way ahead of us.

"Party of six?" the server asks.

"Yes" I answer, but so does the other guy standing nearby! Color me confused.

Now, I have no idea what's going on, but the server is in a rush and doesn't notice anything out of place. He takes off at a brisk walk through the restaurant, with the seven of us in tow -- the six of us plus the other guy.

The server barely slows down to indicate a table for six and then moves on. And then… then the lone guy plops himself down in one of the chairs!

We stand there stunned. It finally dawns on me that this guy is cutting in line, stealing our table -- he heard "party of 6" and planted himself ahead of us.

We're almost too dumbfounded to say anything, but we protest to the guy that we were the party of six that was called. No, it was him, he smugly says. Where's your family, then? We ask.

"Oh, they're on their way," he replies -- as he pulls out his cell phone to call them.

We flag a nearby server and sputter out the situation. Thankfully, another table for six is open and we are seated in it immediately. I gather that the server considers this a solution to the issue and doesn't do anything to the other (balding, ugly) dude -- who to him is also a paying customer on the first day of his cruise, I'm sure.

Within a few minutes we've given our drink order and are headed for the buffet. The line-cutting idiot is still smugly sitting at the table alone, waiting for his family. So, apart from looks that could kill from each member of our family (which he studiously avoids meeting), he gets away with it.

So... we decide shake it off, let it go, and enjoy lunch and the rest of our cruise. But it bugs me that someone can act so selfish and inconsiderate and not suffer any consequences – apart from just having to be who he is. Which, now that I think about it, is a pretty severe punishment.

Onto our new floating home

2008-01-03T13:10:00.001-05:00

The six of us approach the portal, shaped like Mickey’s head, and present our i.d.’s and KTTW cards. We are waved into the passageway, where our cards are scanned and we are officially cleared to board. Yay!

Something new happens at this point – Bob and Linda are handed an envelope with their names on it. Not sure what that’s about, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

We toss down our bags and pose for the welcome aboard picture – I’ve had to learn to suppress my impatience and just get this over with – and then we regather our belongings and head for the gangway, where tarps have been lowered on both sides to protect us from the cold wind and rain as we walk across to the ship.

We step onto the Disney Wonder. Ahhhhh, it’s good to be back. A cheerful young crew member welcomes us aboard and asks our family name and where we’re from. I know what’s coming next, and I’m determined this time not to be trying to take pictures so I can fully enjoy her announcement over the loudspeakers: “Please welcome the Murdock and Randall families from Texas!” Crew members applaud us as we walk across the beautiful three-story atrium.

It never fails to make us feel like royalty.

As it is just 1:00, it’s a bit early for us to try to get into our cabin – I mean, our suite – so we head for lunch. As a change, and because the weather is chilly on deck, we’d decided some time ago to head for the (indoor, enclosed) Parrot Cay restaurant for lunch rather than the Beach Blanket Buffet on Deck 9. We stay on Deck 3 and turn down the long port walkway towards Parrot Cay.

There are not a whole lot of holiday decorations still up on the ship, but we do pass a big gingerbread house at the base of a large staircase. It’s not as grand or as detailed as the ones in the WDW resorts, but it’s still pretty cool.

Uh oh. With the chilly weather, it looks like we’re not the only ones who have had the idea to go to Parrot Cay. There’s a cast member at the entrance with a waiting list. Not much to do but join in. We give him our name and party size, and then he directs us to have a seat in the nearby Promenade Lounge to wait.

We find a set of chairs to relax in, and Bob and Linda open up their mystery envelope. It turns out to be for all of us, since all six of us are in the same suite together. It contains a “welcome aboard” card signed by our concierge staff, a separate invitation to the concierge meet-and-greet in the Cadillac Lounge this afternoon. There are also two full-sized printed pages, which turn out to be personalized itineraries for our family, giving dining rotations (confirming what I gleaned from our cards – Parrot Cay, Triton’s, and then Animator’s Palate), show times, concierge-level-only events, and other items.

How cool! I really could get used to being pampered.

Why wait?

2008-01-03T12:54:00.002-05:00

We grab our carry-ons and climb off the bus. Benjamin’s a little droopy – I think he slept pretty hard on the bus – but he’s able to get moving pretty quickly.

Into the security line we go. There’s a line ahead of us, but it moves steadily. We use the time to clear ourselves of metal – jackets, lanyards, pins, cameras, phones, watches, all go into our carry-ons or are in our hands ready to put in the basket.

When it comes our turn, I’m the first in our group through the metal detector. BEEEP. I immediately suspect my belt buckle, which I took a chance leaving on since the cruise line doesn’t turn its detectors up as high. Belt off, then back through the machine, and… BEEEP. Shoot.

I’m pulled aside to be wanded, wondering what I’ve overlooked. The security guard, an older man, is friendly and apologetic as he waves the wand over me.

It beeps in front of my right pocket. That can’t be right. There’s nothing in that pocket but a piece of trash. I pull out the trash – an empty packet that once contained an eyeglass wipe – and the guard runs the wand past it. Beep! That was it! Apparently those little packets contain a lot of metal.

While I’ve been wanded, most of the rest of my group has made it through the checkpoint. I grab my stuff from the bins, trying to gather it all up and get quickly out of the way, without letting my beltless pants fall down. Not as easy as it sounds.

Once we have all of our stuff, we step onto the large escalator and up we go into the main part of the terminal. This is a beautiful building, one that Disney put a lot of thought and effort into, and I’ve always thought it a shame that it’s overshadowed by the ships themselves. Since we’re already checked in, it’s easy to rush through without stopping to enjoy the place.

The holiday decorations here are clever – oversized Christmas tree ornaments hung from the columns by giant gloved Mickey hands! Too cute.

“Sailor Goofy” is greeting people in front of the ship model in the middle of the terminal.

Although we don’t have to check in for the cruise, having done so back at the Polynesian on our arrival at Walt Disney World, Benjamin and I have one stop to make. Since our last cruise, Disney Cruise Line has put much of the check-in process onto their website. Cruisers can now enter all of their information, print the cruise contract, sign up for shore excursions, and enroll kids in the kids’ clubs before leaving home. We passed on shore excursions for this trip, and Brandon’s now a teenager and too old for the Oceaneer’s Lab, but we did sign Benjamin up online a couple of months ago. Rather than visiting the Lab onboard, we are now supposed to go to a new kids’ club desk in the terminal to get our pager.

Hopefully with the paperwork completed online already, this will be a speedy process and we can get on the ship quickly. But when Benjamin and I reach the check-in desk at the far end of the terminal, there are 25-30 people waiting in line. Even though there are 3 or 4 attendants checking kids in, I don’t think this is going to go fast at all!

A female crew member is at the entrance to the queue. I question whether we have to go through this (long) check-in even though we’ve enrolled Benjamin online, and she confirms that we do. Sigh. I’m resigning myself to the delay, and then… then the crew member spots the KTTW card at the end of my lanyard. My gold KTTW card.

“But actually you can just go to the concierge meeting and they’ll sign him up. That will be a lot faster.”

I’m all smiles. Okay, this concierge-level thing does have its perks. I thank the CM, and Benjamin and I turn away from the lengthy line to rejoin our family.

It’s time to board the ship!

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’

2008-01-03T12:37:00.000-05:00

About twenty minutes into the bus ride, the driver rolls the cruise line’s video. It’s a lot like the Magical Express one, with the Disney characters playing the part of guests on vacation, but this time geared towards checking in at the port and enjoying life onboard the ship.

They use the same gag with Stitch checking in and using a “Wanted” poster as his i.d. It still makes me laugh.

For the most part, I just keep my eyes closed and try to nap a bit. There’s not a whole lot to look at on this trip, scenery-wise, and I can use the rest. I never fully sleep, but I come close to nodding off from time to time.

I do listen with one ear to the video, and open my eyes enough every now and then to keep track of where we are. I like to be awake when we first come in view of the port.

My get-alert time is when we encounter the signs directing traffic to turn off of our roadway to go to the Kennedy Space Center – the port is only a few minutes away then. We pass the exchange where 407 heads north to I-95, and I know we’re close. The video comes to an end. Just past State Highway 1, we cross the Indian River, and from its bridge we can see the Disney Wonder in the distance for the first time. Almost there!

Across the Banana River we go, and then we take the cloverleaf exit and turn toward the north, to make the winding loop that will take us past Disney’s terminal and then back to it, which has the nice effect of giving us an extended viewing of the ship as it sits in port, waiting for us!

Our driver announces that we have been cleared straight in to the terminal building! We pull in and park alongside the terminal and, as usual, we are instructed to wait in our seats until a cruise line rep tells us otherwise.

The cruise reps are waiting for the bus and climb on board immediately. They give us the short talk we’ve heard before, about going through security and then about who needs to check in upstairs (not us) and who can go straight onto the ship (us!), and then clear us to get off the bus.

We’re here!

WDW in review

2008-01-03T11:53:00.001-05:00

Leaving Walt Disney World may never be an entirely pleasant experience, but we depart we some wonderful new memories, and I have an hour-long bus ride to reflect on them. I sip my “free” Coke from my Year of a Million Dreams refillable mug and think over our past few days.

Attractions? We saw and did almost everything we wanted to, which is an amazing thing considering that we were here at the busiest time of the year. We saw new attractions (since our last trip) Soarin’, Expedition: Everest, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, and Finding Nemo: the Musical, as well as the many renovated rides like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and it’s a small world. We finally got on Big Thunder Mountain. The only new thing we wanted to get to but didn’t was the Lights Motors Action stunt show.

Crowds – were heavy, but we were psyched for that, so it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. And the numbers really dropped in the last couple of days, especially with the cold weather.

Speaking of weather, it was never a huge factor. It was slightly wet at times, cold and windy other times, but it never slowed us down or kept us from doing anything we wanted to do.

Physically, I’ve mentioned before, was much, much better than 2005, when I started developing blisters from day one. More importantly, I can tell that my practicing and singing with a top-quality chorus like the Vocal Majority has really increased my endurance for being on my feet. I’m sore and tired, but I was never in pain and was always able to get around and do all I wanted to.

The resort? Oh, man, the Polynesian was just incredible. I thought I loved the atmosphere of the Wilderness Lodge, where we stayed in 2003, but the Poly was just as immersive. The Beach Club in 2005 always felt like a hotel at Walt Disney World – a nice one, yes, but it didn’t really transport us to a different time and place like the Wilderness Lodge. But the Polynesian did – we felt like we stepped off of the bus (or boat or monorail) and were somehow magically whisked to a South Seas island. It was beautiful and oh so relaxing. And that pool!! (“There’s a restroom in our volcano, Cinderella’s in our pool…”!)

Extras? Well, the fireworks cruise was a big disappointment because of the scheduling mixup, but… honestly it turned out to be not too bad, especially since so many other things went so well. Our meals were extraordinary, and the Candlelight Processional was phenomenal. Apart from that one fireworks cruise glitch, almost everything went better than expected.

And the cast members this time… were absolutely amazing! We’ve never before had a Disney trip where we didn’t catch some CM’s with a less than friendly demeanor. We try not to fault them, since everyone has an off day sometimes, and odds are you’re going to have an occasional unfriendly CM. But not this trip! Each and every cast member we met was bright, cheerful, and pleasant to talk to – frankly, just the opposite of what I expected with the higher crowds. Add to this the chance to meet Zazu and the great time we had with Big Wallaby, and this trip was the best ever for cast member interaction.

All things considered, though, the most special thing about any trip is the time we have together as a family, and in this category as well, this trip has been wonderful. We’ve had so many great times with the six of us together! But what I will remember most, I think, is how Brandon and Benjamin and I were able to have some really fun times with just the three of us in the parks. No ride, no show, no character, can ever be as magical to me as the memories I created with my boys. All told, while we still never even saw the “Dream Squad,” we’ve had a million dreams come true already this week.

I close my eyes and mentally file my Walt Disney World memories away, to be pulled out and savored later, and turn my attention now to our current destination – the Disney Wonder!!

Goodbyes

2008-01-03T11:44:00.007-05:00

I know we’re about to leave for Port Canaveral, but I have the last-minute idea to trot downstairs Captain Cook’s for one last soda refill in my unlimited refill mug. That’ll be nice to have on our bus ride.

At 11:25, DCL rep John stands at the top of the stairs and announces that the buses to Port Canaveral are here, and would we all follow him downstairs. Our lobby seats, where we’ve been waiting, are right by the stairs, so we are among the ones following John. Hey, maybe we’ll get on the first bus to Port Canaveral this time, and get to sit together!

On our first trip, we were the last six on the first bus, but had to take whichever seats we could find, so we were scattered all over the bus. On the 2005 trip, we were on the second bus, which not only left a few minutes later, but we then had to go to another resort to pick up cruisers there.

Once downstairs, our line of cruisers parades past the front desk and out the front entrance. A Disney Cruise Line bus is right there waiting on us. There’s only about ten other cruisers ahead of us, so we’ll definitely be on this bus.

There’s a delay of a few minutes while a wheelchair is loaded, and then we are able to board the bus. We claim seats on either side of the aisle, about a third of the way back -- Benjamin and I sitting together -- and settle in for the hour-long ride to the Port.

The bus fills quickly and we pull away from the resort. Bye, Polynesian. You were awesome.

We turn south onto Floridian Way, and the bus driver comes over the PA with some good news: “We’re full so we have no other stops to make. We’ve been cleared to go straight to Port Canaveral!” Yay.

Walt Disney World rolls past our windows, and I become wistful as it slips by, committing as much of it to memory as I can, knowing it will likely be a few years at the earliest before I’m here again. I see the turnoff to FIW that was pointed out to us last night by Wallaby (Fuel, Inspection, Wash, where over 300 buses are serviced every night) and think of him and all of the other cast members we met. A monorail passes on our left, the last we’ll see for who knows how long. Then we’re passing Epcot, and finally the “welcome” archway on the opposite side of the road marks our exit from the property.

Too soon. Always over too soon. Goodbye, Walt Disney World.

Gold card

2008-01-03T11:21:00.001-05:00

As we sit and wait for the scheduled 11:30 departure time, John and Joy – the cruise line reps we met on our arrival here on Sunday (just four days ago? Wow, it seems a lot longer than that) – are roaming through the crowds checking people off of their list. John approaches us and hands us a manila envelope.

We open up the envelope and find six new Key to the World cards for us, just as Bob said we’d have! And they are indeed Disney Cruise Line KTTW cards, not Walt Disney World ones. Instead of the Year of a Million Dreams castle, they have Captain Mickey on them!

In fact, unlike all of our previous (WDW) cards, these show several cruise-specific bits of information. For example, they prominently say “Castaway Club Member” beneath our names (which just means we’ve cruised with DCL before). They also, for once, list our onboard restaurant rotation and that we are to be seated at “Table 55.”

I mentioned on Sunday that I’d read that cruiser’s KTTW cards have their dining rotation spelled out in a three letter code, but I was never able to glean that information from our previous cards. We did have a three-letter code, but it always said “RPA,” which I could never fit with where we were assigned to eat. But now that I have a DCL-specific card, the dining rotation is pretty obvious, being right next to our table number. It says “PTA,” meaning Parrot Key tonight, Triton’s tomorrow night, and Animator’s Palette on the third night.

But the other 3-letter code, “RPA,” is still there. What does it stand for, if it has nothing to do with the dining rotation? I mull this over while we wait to board the bus from our resort to Port Canaveral. Hang on… “resort,” R… “port,” P… so “A” is… airport!!! Aha! “RPA” indicates our ground transfers, from the airport to our WDW resort, then to Port Canaveral, and finally back to the airport. That’s why the same code has been on all of our cards on this and previous trips!!

Solving that little mystery is satisfying – I can’t stand not knowing something – but what really puts a smile on my face is the color of the cards.

Oh yes, our new Key to the World cards are gold. Okay, not metallic gold, but a light, goldish yellow-brown. The point being, they’re not the usual blue. Not that I think that the special cards will get us any better treatment – Disney Cruise Line tends to treat everybody like royalty – but the concierge-level cards are just one more thing that make our coming upgrade to the Walt Disney Suite seem real.

See you soon, Walt!

Back in time

2008-01-03T11:14:00.001-05:00

It’s after 10:30 and we have a ship to catch. The time situation is not at all desperate – assuming no other delays, we should be back in plenty of time. We'll possibly even make our “11:00 at the latest” Becky deadline, though we certainly have a decent excuse if we don’t. But we also don’t have much time to dawdle.

That doesn’t mean we can’t pause in the post-show area for a picture. Benjamin spots a race car adorned with Richard Petty’s name, and as a Cars fanatic he knows Petty is the voice of “The King” in that movie, so a photograph is a necessity.

After that, it’s back out into the cold outdoors for a brisk walk – brisk in temperature and in speed!

We’re through Future World and out the front gates pretty quickly, and up the ramp to the monorail station. A train pulls in at 10:45, and I allow myself to relax a bit once we’re under way.

Well, the boys and I say to each other, we didn’t get to ride our two rides; only about half of one. But we got an interesting story to tell in the bargain!

The train pulls into the monorail station, and we charge out the doors, down the ramp, and across the open area to the resort loop ramp. Monorail Pink is along fairly quickly. We ride one stop and get off at the Polynesian.

It’s 10:55. Made it! I’m anxious to get inside, but I take the time to turn and watch the monorail depart. We’ve ridden these trains more on this trip than on all my previous trips combined, and that was our last ride. For now, at least, I tell myself.

My cell phone rings as I enter the lobby, and sure enough, I spot Becky on her phone, calling to make sure we’re on our way. We quickly make eye contact, and she’s got one of those “do you realize what time it is” looks on her face, but she’s not at all irate – particularly as we give a quick summary of our adventure and how we’re grateful to be here now at all!

The lobby close to ‘Ohana is filled with families carrying day bags, all cruisers headed to the ship with us. Bob, Linda and Becky have snagged a set of seats, so we squeeze in together as best we can to get off of our feet.

As we wait, we share all of our “stranded on Test Track” adventure at Epcot with the others, while Becky, Bob & Linda tell us that they were able to do quite a bit at the Magic Kingdom. They were able to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventure, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan’s Flight. They also had more PhotoPass pictures taken in front of the castle, and Bob shows me on his camera that the PhotoPass photographer also took their picture with Bob’s camera!

They look cold.

It's pleasant conversation, but this part of the trip always requires a bit of mental adjustment for me… I mean, I’m still at Walt Disney World, but I have to sit and do nothing, at least until time to catch the bus to the cruise ship. I mean, I can turn around and see the Magic Kingdom out the window behind me. I want to go there! But I make myself sit and try to use the time to mentally shift gears and get into “cruise mode.”