The Pay It Forward TR-Concierge on Disney Fantasy Eastern Jan. 26, 2013–Complete!

[cblack]

Originally Posted by SigalTchelet

I agree-the picture of Jayden with the Fantasy in the background in the back is the best. I am glad you wrote about the Cabanas. I would need Cabana #1 as it is hca. I like that you have a private beach! Loving the tr. Do you have pics of Jayden and Conor together? I am following both TR!

I found one photo with Conor in it, but it is a profile of him and the back of Jayden while they were swimming in the pool at our excursion in San Juan. Conorama might have one

[CarolyninCO]

Once again, I'm in tears reading the Jayden / Aurora last moments together. What a treat for her!

Love the Castaway Cay and cabana info. One (of many) of the reasons I booked concierge is to up my chances for a cabana. Your trip report is so thorough I'm sure I'll be going back to it as our trip gets closer.

Thanks again!

[roxy72]

Oh my goodness, the house/petsitter let 7 people stay at your home?? Where did you find this person? I can't believe that. I've watched my old neighbors house and 2 weenie dogs in the past and cannot imagine doing something like that. I always want to leave the house in the same condition that it was in when I arrived (or maybe better, like taking out the trash and recycling before they arrive). Ay ay ay!

[jerelle]

Hi,

So I was on page 3 of your TR before I clued in and realized that I was looking at little Jayden from our 2011 cruise on the Magic! My how she's grown and what a little cutie pie!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread....656458&page=10
LOVING YOUR REPORT!

It's great to see the ship through your eyes.

Warm Regards,

Jerelle

[MomToPrincePhillip]

Thank you so much for the great report. I enjoyed reading it!

[tth5454]

Thanks for sharing!

[Conorama]

Originally Posted by cblack

Staying up really late and getting up really early do not go together well!




So, at this point, the in-laws say they came down to "clean up" because we had 7...7!!!! people stay at our house while we were gone. My natural next question (without the expletives) was WHY? Again, it seems the dog/house sitter got a bit busy and asked others to come and take care of everything.

OK, final (and random) thoughts...

• We also didn't do the Mid-Ship Detective game or putt-putt golf. I wanted to, really, but we chose to do other things when we had time. Again, maybe next time.
  
• We have been terrified to try non-Disney excursions on the islands, but I think we are more comfortable now and may choose to go non-Disney in the future.
  
• I don't think we will do Palo on our next cruise. It was nice, and I may very well change my mind, but we felt like we missed out on family time.
  
• I still didn't get to read a book on vacation. I am doomed and will never be able to sit down and read while on vacation.
  

Great report! I love the exhausted, grumpy photos above, just because it's just so very real and close to home! (And you have lots of other lovely happy photos, too, of course.)

OK - my thoughts:
A) It's entirely possible that homicide would happen if I came home to what you came home to. You are my hero for holding steady. I just had to cope with my dad's mildly chastising comments about how often we feel the litter box needs cleaning... I chose to ignore him!
B) Conor was early to bed and all, and still slept on the plane. Cruises are tiring, it seems.
C) Seriously - you did NOT DO THE MYSTERIES??????????? As you know, we did them over and over and over and over and over. Wow. Of course, we did no character meets, shows other than Aladdin, or a bunch of other stuff.
D) Agree on venturing into the land of the non-Disney excursions so long as there are NOT 25,000 tourists in port.
E) I read about 5 books. Sorry!
F) Palo once at night, near the end, was just about right for us. I didn't feel we missed out on other nights or brunches. Conor was keen on the kid's club by then, and so we were all happy - we were together 24/7 the rest of the trip, really.

Originally Posted by cblack

Conor = Dude = Sandboy Did you show him the picture of Jayden submerged in sand up to her neck??? That is some serious sand! Also, if there was ever sand to be covered in, the sand at CC is pretty darn good.

Ohh - good point. He might object though - Dude likes to be in CONTROL of his sand.

Originally Posted by cblack

I found one photo with Conor in it, but it is a profile of him and the back of Jayden while they were swimming in the pool at our excursion in San Juan. Conorama might have one

Hmmm - I'll look. Darned 4-year-olds move too much - hard enough to get photos with one of them holding still!

OK - looked, and no, not really - just Jayden's back again, and they're both blurred. Moving too much!

Great report, and thanks for organizing the FB page, and for doing your PTR - very helpful to me, even in my anti-Disney state. Jayden is a great little girl - as I've said before, I love her spunk and spark. She's gives a good name to princess, even I will admit.

[KarenMP59]

I loved both yours and Conorama's TRs so much!!! Thank you both for doing them!!!!

[lizzyb]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

[cblack]

Originally Posted by CarolyninCO

Once again, I'm in tears reading the Jayden / Aurora last moments together. What a treat for her!

Love the Castaway Cay and cabana info. One (of many) of the reasons I booked concierge is to up my chances for a cabana. Your trip report is so thorough I'm sure I'll be going back to it as our trip gets closer.

Thanks again!

I believe that the woman dressed up as Aurora and Jayden just hit it off. I'm sure it won't happen every time, but so happy we have those memories! I hope you have fun on your cruise!

Originally Posted by roxy72

Oh my goodness, the house/petsitter let 7 people stay at your home?? Where did you find this person? I can't believe that. I've watched my old neighbors house and 2 weenie dogs in the past and cannot imagine doing something like that. I always want to leave the house in the same condition that it was in when I arrived (or maybe better, like taking out the trash and recycling before they arrive). Ay ay ay!

Ok, let me be fair (or explain why there was no homicide), the dog/house sitter was family, and all of those except one that were at our house were family, too. Still doesn't explain the bonehead move of putting my darn rug outside, but you know what they say about family The good news is, they don't say that about future dog/house sitters!

Originally Posted by jerelle

Hi,

So I was on page 3 of your TR before I clued in and realized that I was looking at little Jayden from our 2011 cruise on the Magic! My how she's grown and what a little cutie pie!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread....656458&page=10
LOVING YOUR REPORT!

It's great to see the ship through your eyes.

Warm Regards,

Jerelle

Hi! I remember you and your DD! I loved her hat at the tea party with Alice! She is probably driving now, isn't she??? Thanks for reading along!

Originally Posted by MomToPrincePhillip

Thank you so much for the great report. I enjoyed reading it!

Thanks for reading along!

Originally Posted by tth5454

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading along!

Originally Posted by Conorama

Great report! I love the exhausted, grumpy photos above, just because it's just so very real and close to home! (And you have lots of other lovely happy photos, too, of course.)

OK - my thoughts:
A) It's entirely possible that homicide would happen if I came home to what you came home to. You are my hero for holding steady. I just had to cope with my dad's mildly chastising comments about how often we feel the litter box needs cleaning... I chose to ignore him!
B) Conor was early to bed and all, and still slept on the plane. Cruises are tiring, it seems.
C) Seriously - you did NOT DO THE MYSTERIES??????????? As you know, we did them over and over and over and over and over. Wow. Of course, we did no character meets, shows other than Aladdin, or a bunch of other stuff.
D) Agree on venturing into the land of the non-Disney excursions so long as there are NOT 25,000 tourists in port.
E) I read about 5 books. Sorry!
F) Palo once at night, near the end, was just about right for us. I didn't feel we missed out on other nights or brunches. Conor was keen on the kid's club by then, and so we were all happy - we were together 24/7 the rest of the trip, really.

Ohh - good point. He might object though - Dude likes to be in CONTROL of his sand.

Hmmm - I'll look. Darned 4-year-olds move too much - hard enough to get photos with one of them holding still!

OK - looked, and no, not really - just Jayden's back again, and they're both blurred. Moving too much!

Great report, and thanks for organizing the FB page, and for doing your PTR - very helpful to me, even in my anti-Disney state. Jayden is a great little girl - as I've said before, I love her spunk and spark. She's gives a good name to princess, even I will admit.

See my note above about the dog/house sitter...family...oy! With three large dogs, staying at our house, eating our food, being given gas money plus what it would cost us to board them is a pretty lucrative deal that will not be offered to that person in the future. Live and learn!

We really did not do the mysteries...next time! And, you did them enough for us and we handled all of the characters for you.

5 books?!?! Jealous!

Thanks for reading along! It was so nice getting to know you and reading your report! Conor is a great little dude, too and will forever be known as Sandboy to me :D. I do hope for his sake that they come out with a pirate themed all inclusive resort...that way you can wear you pirate shirt and sparkly shoes!

Originally Posted by KarenMP59

I loved both yours and Conorama's TRs so much!!! Thank you both for doing them!!!!

Thanks for reading along!

Originally Posted by lizzyb

Great review! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading along!

[Luv2Diz]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. Great TR and nice photos. I'm sorry to see it end!

[Conorama]

Originally Posted by KarenMP59

I loved both yours and Conorama's TRs so much!!! Thank you both for doing them!!!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by cblack

We really did not do the mysteries...next time! And, you did them enough for us and we handled all of the characters for you.

Thanks for reading along! It was so nice getting to know you and reading your report! Conor is a great little dude, too and will forever be known as Sandboy to me :D. I do hope for his sake that they come out with a pirate themed all inclusive resort...that way you can wear you pirate shirt and sparkly shoes!

Maybe that's what was driving Sandboy- he was worried the mysteries weren't being used to their full potential. He *still* talks about the mysteries.

To be honest, Beaches has a lot of pirate stuff - including a pirate ship splash pad, which Conor, of course, wouldn't try since he objects to splashing as a matter of principle (there is a reason we didn't go anywhere near Nemo's reef or the other splashy area) - and I might be able to hide my (hideous) sparkly leopard-print shoes long enough that he'll forget them. One can always dream!

Thx for the view of life in the Concierge realm. Good luck with that rug!

[Linda67]

What a wonderful TR

It sounds like you had a great cruise and some lovely memories to look back on

You've really made me want a Cabana now though!!

[Ensusieasm]

Originally Posted by KarenMP59

Absolutely love your TR. Your family is adorable. We also enjoyed our stay in a cabana last year It was our 5th cruise but our first time with a cabana. We did try to get one for our upcoming cruise but they were apparently instantly gone (we are concierge too). We are not at all upset that we didn't get one. We decided to run the 5K (ok walk) and then rent bikes, lunch, then back on the ship. We really aren't sit around on the beach people, especially now that the kids are grown up. So I just want to say that the cabanas are great, but they are hard to get and it's more than possible to have a fantastic time on CC if you can't get one!

I was able to get a cabana only two weeks before our Fantasy cruise that just ended today. People cancel, so check every day. I ended up canceling just a week before and spent the same money for an overnight at Disney port Orleans and two park hoppers. It was a wonderful trade off. I am sitting at the airport right now waiting for my flight home.... Can't believe I had breakfast on the ship this morning... 4 words..... YOU WILL LOVE IT!

[Bouldering]

Wonderful trip report and photos! Look forward to your next Pre-Trip report in 2015? We enjoyed our 1st cruise and I'm looking forward to our next cruise on the Fantasy!