Wonder(lots of pics)-8 people, 4 nights and 2 trips to CC–July 27-31 (complete w/WDW)

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by CapnJackGroupie

Awww...I don't want it to end!!

Neither do I!! Anyone u for some WDW pics when I'm done?

Originally Posted by mackeyapp

Your report has been so enjoyable I hate for it to end. We will be doing our first ever cruise next June and I can't wait!!

Thanks for bringing it to life for me. Our boys have no idea and I get excited when I think about telling them when we spend Xmas as DW.

Your girls are beautiful and always smiling. Looks like it was a fabulous time.

Sincerely
Joan

Thanks for the kind words. I have had a great time writing this. I'm glad that I could help you get excited for your trip. I wish we had another cruise planned.

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

How lovely of your servers to serenade Lizzietish Fantastic pictures yet again. What a shame it's nearly over

Lizzietish was so embarassed, it was great! It is sad that it's almost over. About 2-3 more updates and then we're home.

Originally Posted by poffles

That sunset picture is incredible. Amazing!

Thanks, my dh took it.

Originally Posted by Fidler

Thank you so much for your great TR!
We are going on our first cruise in November. 4 day on the Wonder. Actually the 7 day Land/Sea, but the first three days are at BCR.
We cant WAIT!!!
Thanks again for getting me psyched up! ( LOL Like i needed the help! )

Glad I could help!

Originally Posted by tinkerbell*Xo

Great Trip Report Don't want it to end!!!
Im going on my first cruise in DEC 7 day Land/Sea so it really helped to visualize the cruise! You girls are beautiful!!
Did you happen to notice what people wore on their feet for snorkelling if they didn't rent?

Thanks for the kind words!

DH said most peole had flippers on for snorkeling, but the first day he went out barefoot and had no problems.

[Renysmom]

Love your trip report... We leave in 45 days for our first cruise.. I am so excited...

I am in VA also, where are you?

I see your photo's are with a Oly E-500. How do you like it? DH has a Oly E-330 and I have the Oly E-3 and I have been looking at the E-500 as a upgrade for DH.

Hope you share the WDW portion as well.

[Kim in TN]

Great trip report, thank you for sharing. The pictures are all wonderful and your girls are beautiful. I love their outfits! I can't wait for the next installment including WDW!

[anewmac]

Loving the trip report just found it. YOur family is adorable and looks like you all had a great time! Cant wait to read more!

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by Renysmom

Love your trip report... We leave in 45 days for our first cruise.. I am so excited...

I am in VA also, where are you?

I see your photo's are with a Oly E-500. How do you like it? DH has a Oly E-330 and I have the Oly E-3 and I have been looking at the E-500 as a upgrade for DH.

Hope you share the WDW portion as well.

Thanks, we are in Northern Virginia. I'm hoping to have another update up tonight.

Originally Posted by Kim in TN

Great trip report, thank you for sharing. The pictures are all wonderful and your girls are beautiful. I love their outfits! I can't wait for the next installment including WDW!

Thanks! I'm hoping to have the next installment up tonight.

Originally Posted by anewmac

Loving the trip report just found it. Your family is adorable and looks like you all had a great time! Cant wait to read more!

We did have a great time. It's been fun reliving it during the past few weeks.

[vatchr]

After wandering the ship we headed back to the room, finished packing, changed our clothes (into the clothes we would wear to disembark) and put our suitcases into the hallway.

At about 9:45 we headed to the Atrium for ‘Til We Meet Again. I had no idea how this show worked, except that there were going to be lots of characters. We got there very early, but there were already others waiting also. There were CM’s hanging out getting ready so I asked how it worked and where would be the best spot for viewing.

They gave us some tips, but also explained that the characters fan out on both levels and do meet and greets for about 20 minutes. So if you move fast, you could basically see many of the characters. I had no idea that we would have photo ops also, WOW!

So we just sat and waited. Rina, Nana andLizzietish were with us. We had front row for the entrance down the staircase.

Here they come:













Donald and Daisy were right in front of us for the whole opening show. They were hysterical:




Here she is trying to "fix" his hair - he's not happy about it:



Then after the characters and some of the actors/actresses from the stage shows came out – they sang some songs and then spread out for meet n greets.

We rushed around (it was actually very organized) and the lines were SHORT…

And saw:

Peter Pan



Princess Aurora:



Alice in Wonderland:



Minnie Mouse:



Cinderella again:



We then went upstairs and saw:

Chip n Dale one last time:



Stitch one last time:



He almost swallowed up DD1 - she was loving it:



Then they started calling all of the characters back to the stairs to say goodbye! It was very sad because I knew it meant the end of our cruise. Each character was announced as they walked back up the stairs and the others waved goodbye to them.

Bye!



Bye!



Bye Donald!



Then it was just Mickey and Minnie left. There was a song and they we all waved goodbye to them.





Now back to the room to sleep, get up early and disembark!

Up next: Disembarkation day and back to the Hyatt

[tinkerbell*Xo]

I love the Picture of Minnie Mouse!!! so cute in her little sailor dress!

[jenseib]

Super awesome. What time does that start? Do they set up chairs in the atrium then? Though I never have been on the ship, isn;t that a small area to have a show, or do not many people come?
I definatley want to, seeing your photos.
So did you stay one extra night in FL before flying out? I am actually thinking about that. DD will be lacking sleep and I was thinking if we jsut got a room that day and slept and relaxed, the plane ride might be more pleasant. Our trip to WDW in March, she was so overtired and had gotten sick one day, and she was having totla meltdowns at the aipr port and plane til lwe took off and hten she fell asleep. It was so embarrassing and at the same time I felt for her too. I know DH wil lwant to get home ASAP, but I think a day of nothing will do us all good before jumping back into life.

[jenseib]

BTW..Who is the girl with Peter Pan?

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by tinkerbell*Xo

I love the Picture of Minnie Mouse!!! so cute in her little sailor dress!

I agree! I was surprised when I saw the pic that I was able to catch her "mid-air."

Originally Posted by jenseib

Super awesome. What time does that start? Do they set up chairs in the atrium then? Though I never have been on the ship, isn;t that a small area to have a show, or do not many people come?
I definatley want to, seeing your photos.
So did you stay one extra night in FL before flying out? I am actually thinking about that. DD will be lacking sleep and I was thinking if we jsut got a room that day and slept and relaxed, the plane ride might be more pleasant. Our trip to WDW in March, she was so overtired and had gotten sick one day, and she was having totla meltdowns at the aipr port and plane til lwe took off and hten she fell asleep. It was so embarrassing and at the same time I felt for her too. I know DH wil lwant to get home ASAP, but I think a day of nothing will do us all good before jumping back into life.

The show starts at about 10:00 pm. No chairs...just standing and people are leaning over the railings from the deck above the Atrium also. Lots of people are there and it is pretty crowded, but VERY organized (as you would expect Disney to be). We didn't stay an extra night, but did get the day room at the Hyatt after the cruise. I'm hoping to have my final update with all of that info up before the weekend is over.

Originally Posted by jenseib

BTW..Who is the girl with Peter Pan?

She is from the show Enchanted Dreams. We didn't see it (it was on the last night), but they introduced her as being from that show.

Originally Posted by Disney owl

thanks for sharing

You're welcome! Thanks for reading and posting!

[wilma-bride]

Love the latest update - don't know how I managed to miss it before now. We didn't catch the 'Till we meet again' event last cruise so will make sure to see it next time.

I am so sad your trip (and report) is nearly over

[sondi632]

Only 6 days until our trip. You have been so helpful! We just hope Hannah doesn't come anywhere near us! So, can you carry your own luggage off? I am getting hungry thinking of the good food available. Thanks for the great report...anyone else leaving on the 7th? Ann Allen

[vatchr]

Originally Posted by sondi632

Only 6 days until our trip. You have been so helpful! We just hope Hannah doesn't come anywhere near us! So, can you carry your own luggage off? I am getting hungry thinking of the good food available. Thanks for the great report...anyone else leaving on the 7th? Ann Allen

I am so glad that I could help you. My prayers are with you to avoid Hannah. You can carry your own luggage off - but we put it out the night before and let DCL deal with it. We used online check in and didn't see it again until we went to baggage claim when we landed at home. It was wonderful.

Have a great trip!

[vatchr]

Our final morning:

Rina and Lizzietish had an 11:45 flight out of MCO and Nana and Bubba had a 12:15 flight, so the four of them got up early and made it to our set breakfast time at 6:45 a.m. with our servers in Parrot Cay. Our flight for the four of us was not until 5:00 p.m., so we decided to not rush the girls, and try to get to breakfast at 6:45.

The other four were our wakeup call and came in to say goodbye to the girls and then they were off to breakfast. We slowly woke up and made it to Beach Blanket Buffet right before 8:00 a.m. It was a nice breakfast, but a little sad because we had all of our carryons and knew we would have to go straight to disembark after breakfast.

That is what happened…..breakfast, disembark, through customs and straight onto a DCL bus back to MCO. It was a very fast experience and we had no problems. We had used onboard check in for our flight, so no need to get our luggage – it was on its way to our home airport (we hoped!).

Once settled on the DCL bus, they again had some fun videos and we all sat back and relaxed.

DD2 and DH took advantage of the quiet time, after a VERY long, busy and FUN week:



We arrived at MCO and we headed straight back to the Hyatt. We had reserved a day room and were looking forward to relaxing a little more before getting on our flight. We got to MCO at about 10:00 a.m. and our flight wasn’t until 5:00 p.m., so it was perfect. We checked into our room, and the girls played, watched some TV and DH rested.

This is much better than sitting in the airport terminal for 6 hours:



I took advantage of the quiet time to “shop” in the terminal. The girls had some spending money left, so we went down to the Disney stores and also checked out the Del Sol in the terminal. We also bought some last minute gifts for friends back home. At about 1:00 we all headed down to the food court to get lunch (a nice leisurely lunch without our carryons). Then we returned to the room for a couple more hours.

We checked out at about 3:30 p.m. (I had been watching the security lines from our balcony of our room – and noticed the lines were pretty short, so we took advantage of that time) and got through security in under 10 minutes.

We hung out at our gate, bought some dinner food for the flight and then boarded. Had an uneventful flight, landed at home, got our luggage, retrieved our car from long term parking and were in our home in Virginia by 9:30 p.m.

The trip that I had spent the last 13 months planning was over, and Disney Depression set in.

So what did I do?

1. I immediately started working on our Disney Scrapbook (I use Creative Memories digital scrapbooking) and had it complete and in my hands within the week.









2. I started planning our next Disney trip – not a cruise, but our first MNSSHP in Oct. 09

And 3. I am anxiously waiting for 2010 dates to be announced – maybe a summer ’10 7 night?

School starts tomorrow for all four of us – DD1 will be in third grade, DD2 will be in first grade, I will be teaching my 19th class of fourth graders, and DH will be teaching fifth grade. We’ve basically got elementary school covered this year.

Thanks so much for reading and “going” on this trip with us. It’s been fun!

I’ll leave you with some random pics from the 4 days at WDW and WL before we boarded the Wonder:

















Again, thanks for "playing!" All questions or comments are welcome, I would love to continue to "talk" about our trip with anyone who wants to.