The rest of Day 1!

Ok, when I left off a while back, it was our turn to get on board! So first you show your boading pass and Key to the World cards to a cast member. At this point they decided they didn't like Jack's picture so they redid it. Then we went through the doors to the tunnel thing. I guess it would be called the gangway? I don't know. Regardless, you stop first to get your welcome aboard photo taken. Some people just bypassed this, but I was hoping it would be a good shot. It wasn't. So then we continue on the gangway and I am getting more and more excited! I took some quick pictures of the side of the ship to illustrate the differences in the size of portholes for future reference.


So once you approach the entrance of the ship, there are crew members there who ask your family name. Then they announce you as you walk across the lobby and everyone claps. How awesome is that???? So the lobby is on the third deck midship. They funnel you through the lobby and guest services in on the right. I didn't have any reason to stop so we followed the traffic, which leads you to the aft part of the third deck where Parrot Cay is located. The lunch options were Parrot Cay or Beach Blanket Buffet on 9. We decided to eat out in the California sunshine so we hopped on an elevator to deck 9. There were cast members there handing out sanitizing wipes before you entered the buffet. We picked a line and were handed trays and silverware. I was pleasnatly surprised to see that they have different trays for kids, they are the kind most of us had in school with lots of different sections. This came in handy because soemtimes Jack can be picky about his food touching, and sometimes he wants things that definitely do NOT go together. Plus he made it his mission to get something in each section! The lunch buffet was relatively impressive and there were plenty of yummy options. Once we were ready to head outside a CM appeared out of nowhere to help me out with our trays! I was so happy because balance is not my strong suit... We made it outside and found a nice table to sit at and soak in the atmoshpere.

Jack had Mac and Cheese, chicken and 2 types of bread along with pink lemonade




I also had 2 types of bread (he gets his love of carbs from me obviously), a tomato and mozzarella mini sandwich, chicken and gherkin salad with what appears to be Sprite. I am not sure what was wrong with me, I don't ever drink Sprite. Oh well.



As we were eating I noticed one of my favorite people on ships, the man with a tray full of drinks!! Now let me clarify from the beginning, I am not a heavy drinker. I do however enjoy "boat drinks" which to me are drinks, usually fruity in nature, that are served in excess on cruise ships. It's really one of my favorite part of cruises because how often am I going to go to a bar and order a Bahama Mama? Never. But on a boat, it's the natural thing to do. So the wonderful man with the drinks notices my excitement and came over. He informed me that the Drink of the Day was in fact a Bahama Mama. I asked the most important question of "How much?" to which he replied that the first drink is $7.50 but I keep the cup and then every drink of the day for the REST OF THE CRUISE would be $4.50. (All prices are before the 15% automatic gratuity and tax). This was a fantastic offer, too good to be true, and one that I would most certainly be taking advantage of!



Now I was really on vacation.

Soon we finished lunch. Jack said he wanted ice cream for dessert, but we couldn't find it so he ended up with a plate of desserts instead:


Once we finished dessert it was still way too early to get into our room. We went to check out the Oceaneer's Club next and Jack was excited about the slide. He played for a few minutes.








We explored a bit, took a tour of the spa where I got to see the beautiful Rainforest Room where I planned on spending some time later on. Then we wandered inside and ran into our first princess!



We hadn't purchased our autograph book yet because the stores have to stay closed until we are out of port, so no autograph.



Then we continued walking around the ship aimlessly. We found the ice cream, and I found another man with Bahama Mama's. I signed the reciept and was pleased to discover the drinks are only $4.89 after all extra fees!

We went to sit in the buffet so Jack could eat his ice cream, and I took note of this brochure for my parents and future clients, as I am not a wine drinker.









As I finished taking pictures, an annoucement was made that rooms were ready!!!

Jack and I hurried to the elevator outside of the Beach Blanket Buffet and zipped down to deck 2! It turned out our room was pretty conveniently located not too far from the aft elevators. Soon we were standing in front of our home for the next 7 days!!



I immediately started taking pictures before we could mess anything up! From the entrance, on the right were the bathrooms, left were the closets.

View from entrance:


Toilet bathroom:



Bath products in the bathtub bathroom:


Bathtub/Shower




They had combined the beds into one. I asked Jack if he wanted his own bed and he said he just wanted to share with me, which was fine, it was plenty big!


Cabinet at the end of the bed:


Couch (which converts to a bed):


Desk area:


Info guide, week at a glance navigator, dining tickets:


Inside desk drawers (naturally all this came home with us )


Wave phones:


Dining schedule:

Convenient bench and drawers:


Inside smaller closet:


Bigger closet, plenty of hangers:
 

After our 3 pm meet and greet, we headed back to the room to drop off our tshirts and see if our luggage made it yet. It hadn't so we headed to our Muster Drill. This is the first drill I've ever been to where our muster station wasn't outside on a deck. Ours was R I believe and it was in Animators Palate! We sat there for a couple minutes then headed back to our room briefly before heading up to the Sailaway party! Once we got up there, I saw a guy selling Bon Voyage drinks, which were a Pina Colada and Strawberry Daqueri mixed! Naturally I had to try it! I can already see the heads shaking now, "She's on her third drink in 4 hours???" Yes, yes I was. This was the only day that was like that though, and I was ambushed at the elevator by these guys!

So as I said, we had gone back to our room after teh drill. That was a mistake because by the time we got there it was so packed we had to head up to deck 10 and I had to put Jack on my shoulders so he could see.




Christian, our cruise director:





I took a video of the show on my phone, but it is too large to email, so I have to find a way to get it onto a computer...

We didn't sail away right away, there was some sort of delay, so we headed back to our cabin to unpack before dinner. When we came back up we were moving!

Bye Bye LA!



Our first dinner was at Parrot Cay. We were early seating (5:45 pm) and I had been worried about whether or not this was the right choice. The late seating was just so late. It turned out well, the early seating was perfect for us and our schedules!

I was also very worried about my table mates. I ahd no idea who they would be, and I was supposed to be eating dinner with them for the next seven nights!!! When we got to our table (78) there was another mom and her daughter but the other two seats were empty. We introduced ourselves, the mom was Cassandra and her daughter was Sophia (who was 8). Our servers came and introduced themselves, Teody from the Phillippines and Anthony from France. They were both very nice. There was some confusion at the table because they had the kids cups all ready with water, and they had names on them. Sophia's was obvious, but then there was a John and a Jack... Well Jack's actual name is John... and when the other people came we realized the mistake. We had sat at the one that said Jack, but the other boy's name was Jack! Once the confusion was sorted out, it was smooth sailing! The other Jack is almost exactly a year older than my Jack, 4 1/2. His mom's name is Shayna (not sure if I am spelling that right...) Everyone was pretty quiet at first, it had been a long day for most of us. Jack had fruit for his appetizer and pizza for dinner. Every kids entree came with fries. Every. Single. One.


We also got our very first ketchup Mickey!


I do not remember what I had for my appetizer. This is the only picture I forgot to take!! And it was really more an issue of not wanting my table mates to think I was a complete freak. I figured I would need to ease into it. I didn manage to get a picture of my entree, steak, twice baked potato and corn. I apologize, I had already started eating...


This meal concerned me because my steak was overdone, my potato was dry, and I don't like corn. I worried for nothing, every other meal I had was AMAZING!

For dessert Jack got the first (of many) Mickey bar!


I learned my lesson this night and ordered it without sprinkles the rest of the trip, because I was finding sprinkles for hours after dinner.

I had a delicious banana french toast cake. Not sure what it was actually called...


We left dinner, and I felt pleased that my table mates were people I wouldn't mind eating with for the week!

After dinner we went back to the room briefly and found that we had already received some gifts in our Fish Extender. *A Fish Extender is something you hang off of the fish that is on the wall outside your room. Then throughout the cruise, people will leave little gifts in it, adn you will take gifts to other people. Usually a group of people decide on this in advance through cruise line roll calls/meet and greet type things, which is what our group did. We ended up with 25 cabins in our exchange.*






Next we headed up to the Walt Disney Theater for the show of the night, who's name escapes me. Maybe the All Aboard show? Anyways we still had plenty of time to kill so we went into the shops right outside and I almost cried tears of joy!

See, I canceled a trip to WDW for this cruise, and the only part I was sad about was missing out on all the Halloween stuff for sale. It never occurred to me that they would have Parks merchandise onthe ship!! They not only had it, it was on sale!!! I was giddy with excitement. I managed to keep my cool though and only bought two items.

It's a lantern/flashlight thing


Placemat:


We also picked up Jack's autograph book. Then we headed into the theater. We got relatively good seats and the show started!

*I never took pictures during the shows because my camera just isn't good enough without a flash*

Jack was tired, but we enjoyed it and it was nice to finally be there!

After the show we headed back to the cabin and saw our first towel animal:
(your guess is as good as mine)


Jack enjoyed his first of many turndown chocolates and then we passed out from sheer exhaustion!

Day 1 part 2

When I left off we had landed early at LAX.

I had purposely scheduled our transportation through Disney for this leg for 2 reasons. The first and most important was since we were flying in day of, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure Disney would get us on that boat, even if we were running late. The second was I love the Magical Express at Disney World, so I though this might be more magical than a Super Shuttle. As it turns out, it's not all that magical. It's pretty efficient, you head for baggage claim and right at the bottom of the escalator is a little desk with Disney reps waiting to check people in. They then take you to bag claim where you grab your bags and give them to a porter. I decided to send Jack's backpack with them as well, since we had the extra luggage tags (DCL sent two per person) and I didn' t want to have to haul all the stuff around the ship until our room was ready. Then they take you to the passenger pick up area where you wait for the bus. The lady kept apologizing to me for the bus not being there yet, but we were early so I wasn't concerned at all. I used the time to check in with my parents and check voicemails.

The bus was there by 10:30, maybe even earlier. We were the only ones at that terminal to get on. It was just a plain bus, no Disney at all, which was slightly disappointing, but not surprising. We went to the next terminal where a lot more people got on, and then we were on our way to the port!



The ride took about 30 minutes. We passed many familiar sights (I lived in California for six years) and eventually pulled up to the cruise terminal!!



They have several signs out front asking that you don't take pictures in the building, so I didn't. Basically you go in, show your passports, take the escalator up and there is a CM waiting to have you fill out a health form. From there you walk over to the check in desk, they take your picture, verfiy credit card info and make your Key to the World cards. On your card it has your table # and dining rotation as well. Mine said PTTAPTA, which was slightly confusing, but once I deciphered it, looked promising. P= Parrot Cay, T= Triton's and A= Animator's Palate. I ended up being really pleased with our rotation.

While we were at the desk I asked about Port Upgrades. She said there were plenty still available. A port upgrade is when you pay to upgrade your room category. When you do it at the port, the cost is usually 50% of the difference in price of the rooms. I was considering trying for an Ocean View at least, but then I decided to stick with my super cheap room, and save the $$ for other fun things. It is a great deal though.

Once we were all done checking in we went through security just like at an airport. We were given a boarding group number (6). I was hosting a Meet and Greet on the ship, and was told to mention it so they wouldn't make me ait till our scheduled 2 pm check in. I told the lady handing out the cards and she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Turns out they aren't big on the check in time system. After we were through a CM said it would be a good idea to go ahead and go to the Kids Club registration to get Jack all set up for the Oceaneer's Club so we wouldn't have to do it on board. We waited in line for about 5 minutes and then got Jack his security bracelet, which we were told would cost us $50 if we failed to turn it in at the end of the cruise. This was way more more sophisticated than the one we had n Carnival. This one had a big plastic sensor thing (hence the $50 charge). They also left it pretty loose, so throughout the cruise Jack would take it off when we weren't going to the club.

Once we were done registering we had our first character experience! They had Goofy set up near the kids registration so we got in line for that. We didn't have our autograph book yet, but I figured we would just get him to sign later.





While we were in line a guy asked about my lanyard (from my travel agency). I explained it was for my travel agency and he asked if I liked using a travel agent so I told him I actually was a travel agent, and he asked a couple more questions about whether or not it was beneficial to use a TA or not. We chatted for a minute but it was Jack's turn for Goofy so we had to hurry away.

After Goofy we went to find seats to wait for them to start boarding. At this point no one had boarded yet, so I was even happier with my decision to fly in same day. We didn't have to worry about missing anything! I think we probably waited about 30 minutes before they started! Then they started calling numbers and we waited maybe another 15 minutes. Then it was our turn!!!

Our Mexican Adventure, Day 1

Hola Everyone!!! Welcome to another installment of the Many Adventures of Mommy and Jack! This story will be about our WONDER-ful vacation aboard the Disney Wonder! Be prepared for plenty of pictures and many details of our 7 night cruise and one day Disneyland Extravaganza!

Here we are, me (mommy) :


and he (Jack- DS3):


You'd have a face like Jack's if your mommy looked like that too! I only look like that on travel days Just kidding, I was getting my hair done for a friends wedding, I just thought it would be entertaining!

So to set the scene, our Mexican Riveiera cruise was Oct 30-Nov 6 out of LA and we were spending a night at Disneyland before coming home. I worked 9 days in row prior to my vacation, and things got a bit hectic towards the end. Needless to say, this was a much needed vacation.

We had free flights through Southwest since we have been flying a lot the past couple of years, so that was a major selling point since airfare to CA (we live in Kansas City) is usually pretty pricey. I took the risk and booked us on flights the morning of our departure day. Typically I wouldn't risk that, but with the time change and the good weather forecast, I decided to cut out the expense of a hotel the night before the cruise and go same day.

Our flight left at 7 am, and we thankfully live only a few minutes from the airport so my dad being the kind and generous soul he is dropped us off at 6 am, which meant I was up at 5:15 to get dressed and walk the dog.

I managed to get all our stuff in 2 suitcases (at 48 pounds each) and 3 carry ons, so we were set. We did curbside check in and and breezed through security. Turns out they don't make little kids take off their shoes to go through security! This was a relief becuase for some reason this really upsets Jack.

Soon we were sitting calmly, drinking chocolate milk, and waiting to board!

Our plane:


Carry ons:

I borrowed the Baggalini from my mom. It ended up being attached to me most of the trip...

Soon we were on the plane!!!

Mickey decided to join us for our Halloween getaway!


Jack had a cookie for breakfast while watching the Thanksgiving episode of Charlie Brown:


We had a layover in Denver:


We got into LAX a few minutes early!! We were scheduled to arrive at 10:10 but we were off the plane before 10 am! I was so glad we decided to risk the same day flight! Saving that $100 was worth it in this instance!

My Failed Attempt at Tie Dye...

Everyone ready for a good chuckle?

For those that haven't heard, Jack and  I are preparing to embark on our latest adventure.  More details later, but the short story is we are going on a seven night Mexican Riviera Disney cruise and spending a night at Disneyland after.

So I keep reading about all these people who have made Mickey tie dye shirts for their trips, and people who have bought them, and to be honest, tie dye has never really been my "thing". But I got to thinking about how we don't have t-shirts for this trip, since I made our other "We're Going to WDW" shirts for our WDW trips (and Jack's is so big it will probably fit him till he's 10). So then I started thinking about what we could wear for this trip, and I started thinking about all these other people and their tie dye shirts. So I figured, why not, I'd make some tie dye Mickey shirts, we could wear them for all our DCL trips (since I am already planning another) and if they turned out well I could make some for my family too (who will be joining us on our next DCL cruise). So off to Michael's I went...

They were having a sale on tshirts, 2 for $5. Then I started looking at dyes. I probably should have gone with a kit, but I wanted red and blue to be sort of DCL color themed, and the kits all had random colors. I spent a while looking at dyes, but eventually I settled on these:


I had heard complaints that RIT dye wasn't as bright, but that was fine with me, I wasn't going for bright. I figured pre-made liquid would eliminate at least one step, and I would have plenty of left over dye for my family's shirts later.

This process was a 3 day process, since I didn't have time to start on it till late on evening. I printed out a Mickey outline, and a smaller one for Jack and traced them onto our shirts with pencil





Then Jack and I headed upstairs to watch Spooky Buddies (not sure which was worse the movie or the stitching of the shirts... DO NOT let your children talk you into that movie...) while I got the dental floss going. Now let me say, I do not sew. I have many crafty ideas, but they mostly remain in my head because I'm not so good at the execution of these ideas. I have never in my life sewn anything. So I got started. First, my needle was too big, so I had to get a smaller one. Then the floss kept getting tangled. I started with mine. I was about halfway through when I realized I wasn't sure I was doing it right. I wasn't sure if I should be sewing over and under the traced line, or along it. I also didn't know what a basting stitch was. I refused to start over, so I did mine one way and Jack's the other.

Once you have them sewed up, you are supposed to pull the floss to make the Mickey pucker up.



That's as far as I got the first day because I realized I didn't have any rubber bands...

Once I managed to pilfer some rubber bands from work, the process continued... You are supposed to wrap rubber bands around the base of the puckered Mickey. This is to keep dye from seeping into the Mickey head so you can dye it differently. Originally I was going to leave our white.



Then according to some reports, you are supposed to soak the shirts in soda ash. I found a couple sets of instructions that just soaked them in water, and I decided rather than spending more $$, I would just go with water. Then you squeeze the water out, hold onto the Mickey and twist, until you end up with a shirt that looks like a danish.

Mid twisting


Then you put rubber bands across the "danish shirt" to divide the sections for dye-ing. I had originally planned on leaving the Mickey head white so I had already saran wrapped it, but once I started with the dye, I decided to make Mickey blue. Also we don't have saran wrap, we have Press and Seal, so I used that.





Now I was ready for the "fun" part! I opened the bottle of dye and...


It wasn't what I was expecting. I kinda thought there would be a little plastic thing with a hole in it for the dye to come out in a more controlled flow... but being a quick thinker (and not being willing to delay any more) I slapped some press and seal on the top, secured it with rubber bands, and poke a hole in it. NOW I was ready for the "fun" part!

One last look at a pristine white shirt...


I instantly knew this wasn't going to work right, but I plowed right on anyways. The dye wouldn't stay in it's section!!! It was dripping everywhere! Thank goodness we have a utility sink in our laundry room, I cannot even imagine what my mother would have done to me if I used her kitchen sink...

So anyways, dye is running all over the place and my hands are covered in it so I am leaving spots on the white sections and it's just a mess. But I learned from it and got it done and wrapped up and moved onto the second attempt. This time I did a much better job keeping control of it and keeping the dye in it's appropriate section and it was much easier. I got them both wrapped up and set them in the garage to sit overnight!



The next evening, I unwrapped the first one and got started rinsing. I didn't think to take a picture before rinsing, but this is what it looked like after...


So the part that confuses me is as I'm rinsing it out, the dye is running down the shirt and into other sections that were previously white... my shirt is a better example.

Just unwrapped (and I am not sure where all the dye went since I used a ton and my shirt was mostly white...):


After rinsing:


It's mostly purple now??? I think oh well, I'm sure once I get done washing it 5 times like I read in the instructions, some sort of dye magic will occur and it will go back to looking like it did when I unwrapped it... right??? I will say that my Mickey head ( the one I did the "wrong" way) came out much better than Jack's though the more I rinsed his shirt, the more defined the Mickey became.

Anyways, I washed it 5 or 6 times in the washer, as I had read, with nothing else in the washer. Then I threw it in the dryer. I pulled them out and...

Mine:


Jack's:


So needless to say, we will NOT be wearing these. My Mickey is basically completely gone, with the exception of the pencil outline which survived intact. The whole thing is a faded dirty looking color.

Jack's actually looks the best, but that's not saying much.

I know there are several places I could have gone wrong, maybe the soda ash is actually vital, maybe I didn't let them sit long enough (instructions said 6 hours, I did it 24...) maybe when you rinse you have to say some magic spell?? Who knows, but it has reaffirmed for me that tie dye is indeed "not my thing". Hindsight being 20/20, I should have bought them on Etsy or something...

Lights, Camera, Popcorn!

Jack is your average 3 year old boy, not the type of child who does well with sitting still, but this summer has been so hot we have had to head indoors to keep cool on several occasions, and where better to do that than at a movie theater??

Jack had only been to the movies once previously, and that was to see Toy Story 3 in theaters when he was 2. It went ok, but he was clearly not ready to go on a regular basis. This summer when Cars 2 was released I decided it was worth the risk to take him. He really enjoyed it and did very well. Consequently, we have now seen in three times in theaters!



The second time we saw it in 3D, and I wasn't sure how he would do with the glasses. He managed to keep them on most of the time though, which makes me hopeful for 3D rides at Disneyland or WDW on the future...





He, like most humans, LOVES movie theater popcorn too, so it's a real treat for him when we go. We also managed to get his friend for the afternoon and see Winnie the Pooh on her 3rd birthday. Experiencing the movie with both of them was a clear indication of the difference between boys and girls, she was nice and calm and still... Jack, not so much.