gometros
<font color=teal>WDWWDS Chief Weapons Inspector an
- Joined
- May 4, 2001
Prequel, the trip down and Day 1
Cruisers - Sandy (47), Judy (47), fourth time cruisers (three on DCL)
This all started when we got the Disney Insider over the summer and they advertised the Fall Fantasy rates for DVC points. Judy innocently said we should go and I said why not? This is something we were planning to do in two more years, for our 25th anniversary, but the discount was too tempting to resist. It was not so straight forward, since we had two girls still home, one in high school and one in middle school that we knew couldn't come and had to be accounted for while we were away. Fortunately, good friends of ours, whose daughters are the same ages and friends, offered to help. So here we are.
11/22 - Thursday
We left my parents' house at 6:30, after finishing Thanksgiving dinner. On the way to Lorton, Va, we made three stops for gas, bathroom breaks and snack. Although it was Thanksgiving Eve, traffic was not bad and we made it to the Comfort Inn next to the Auto Train just shy of midnight. While we were getting ready for bed, I suddenly realized that I forgot my pin lanyard. After all the planning and preparation, I left all my trading pins hanging on my doorknob in the bedroom!
11/23 - Friday
We were up at 8:30. Judy brought her breakfast back to the room and accidentally spilled her cereal all over her jeans. We had to wait for them to dry in the dryer before we could check out at a little after 11:00am. While waiting, I called DCL to see if there might be a way we could Fed Ex my pins to the ship. The CM was very helpful, but the bottom line was that since 911, they closed the address that was used for such instances. While they would have been able to help if it was something important, like medication, clearly Disney pins were not. All those months of buying pins to trade and I forgot them. I was so upset.
Usually, we like to check in at the Auto Train, then take a drive to get some lunch, but new security rules did not allow us to leave once we checked in. So, instead of checking in right away, we went to a little mall not too far from the station. There is a Food Lion supermarket there and we bought some sandwiches from the deli counter. We then returned to the station and checked in.
We got a pleasant surprise when our reservation was being checked. The ticket agent said that the price for the economy room had come down since we made the reservation and she ended up saving us about $300. We boarded the train at 2:30 and settled in. The train left about 15 minutes early and we were on our way. We had dinner at the early seating (5:30) and quickly realized we were probably the youngest people on this trip. I guess all the snowbirds were flying south for the winter. After dinner, we went back to our room and while Judy went to the lounge car to watch the movie "Legally Blonde", I read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", which I had borrowed from my daughter. I should have brought another book on the train with me, because I finished it by the time we went to bed. Great book, but a very quick read.
The train was running nicely ahead of schedule and we hit Florence by around 10:30. Judy and I watched the "I Love Lucy" special that I had taped a few weeks earlier, on our little TV. We went to sleep at 11:30.
11/24 - Saturday
In the middle of the night, I woke up and we were stopped. I fell back asleep and woke up a few hours later and we were still stopped. In fact, I had a strange feeling we hadn't moved in all that time. We were supposed to be woken up at 6:30, but I woke by myself at it was already 6:50. I found out very quickly why we weren't woken up, when I learned that my instincts had been right. We had stopped for three hours, while a train in front of us had to be removed from the tracks do to mechanical problems. We were now three hours behind schedule!
Judy showered and then we went to the dining car for breakfast. I guess I was little upset, which is why I didn't have much of an appetite. We went back to the room and finished watching "I Love Lucy". We hit Jacksonville around 10:00, which meant we were really running late. Then around 10:30, we stopped again. It turns out that federal law states that a train crew cannot work more than twelve hours, so we had to wait for a new crew to arrive. By now, Judy and I were getting very nervous.
We finally pulled into Sanford at 12:15 and went to wait for our car. Since Murphy was working overtime, our car didn't come off the train until 1:30. Thank goodness, for the 70-mph limit on the Beeline, we made it to Port Canaveral in an hour.
The change in security was obvious, as we first had to show our documents, then check in with someone else who compared our name to a passenger list, before we could enter the terminal area. We unloaded our luggage at the curb and I parked in the lot across the street. To come back in, I had to show identification to a guard at the walkway. The terminal was quiet by now and we didn't even need to go to the Castaway Club counter to check in. Check in went quickly and we were on board at 2:45. We ran up to our rooms, dumped our stuff on the bed and while Judy went to the Vista Spa, Before we left the room, we noticed that we had two presents - a DVC tote bag and a bottle of champagne from Matt Ouimet, president of DCL. I went to Palos. I was so afraid that everything would be closed out, but was pleasantly surprised that the time slots we wanted were available - brunch on Monday at 11:45 and dinner on Tuesday at 6:00. High Tea was all sold out. I guess eating early helps. I had told Judy to meet me at Parrot Cay, since I wanted to try their brunch, but I didn't realize that it closed at 2:00. So I waited for Judy to arrive. Apparently, I gave her bad instructions for making reservations for the cabana massages, since I didn't realize that there were choices. So, we had to go back up to the spa. It didn't matter, because we could not get two full body massages together, so Judy took and head and back massage at noon, while I reserved a full body massage at 2:30.
We went to Topsiders to get something to eat, but since by now it was 3:30 and we would be eating in two and half hours, we ate lightly. I feasted on the shrimp, while Judy had some salad. We returned to our room, just in time for the lifeboat drill. As we were leaving the room to go to deck 4, my cell phone rang. It was the kids calling. They were going to see Harry Potter and wanted to call to say goodbye.
When we returned to the room, there was a note for us. It was a handwritten note from Matt Ouimet, apologizing to us for not being able to make the upgrade happen! What upgrade, you ask? In a discussion on these boards about upgrades, someone mentioned that Mr. Ouimet occasionally read the boards. I posted a facetious response practically begging for an upgrade, not really believing it would be read by Mr. Ouimet, or anyone in DCL for that matter. Needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised and amused that he not only read the boards, but also took the time to respond to me in person.
We went up to the deck party and watched the ship depart. A police tug escorted us out of the harbor, something that I don't recall being done for past cruises. We didn't stay long, went back to our room to shower, and got ready for dinner. Our rotation was LAPLAPL, so tonight was Lumiere's. We were running a little late and arrived at 6:15. We had a table for eight and our table companions were all there ahead of us. They were Pam and Larry, from Chicago, Pat and Frank, also from Chicago, and Al and Sadie, from Orlando. Our servers were Zoran, from Hungary, and Yan, from Chile. Both of them were great! Zoran could never do enough for us, although I didn't always agree with his recommendations (of course, that's always a matter of taste). We challenged him throughout the cruise and he always rose to the occasion. Yan quickly learned that I liked iced tea - a lot and I never had an empty glass for long. This is the first time we've had a table for eight, and to be honest, I don't like it. It wouldn't be so bad if the table was oval or round, but with a rectangular table, it is hard to include everyone in the conversation. When our head server, Sid, came over to introduce himself, we light-heartily gave him a hard time about the table and urged him to rectify the situation for the next night. That became a theme for a couple of nights, until Sid did resolve the problem. But more on that later. This was the first cruise where we didn't have to wait until the last night to see the head server. Sid would stop by every night and was a real delight. We later found out that he was moving up to become the manager of Palos and from what we could see, it was a well-deserved assignment. We ordered shortly after. Judy was able to order a plain salmon, while I had the Cramembert and the Herb Crusted Sea Bass.
After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard Variety Show then we returned to the room quickly, so that I could get rid of the jacket and tie I was wearing. The invitation to the DVC gathering was in the door. We then went to Mickey Mania, but I wasn't into to it, so we went to Beat Streetand the Dueling Pianos. I noticed that the set was still the same as it was from our first cruise on the Magic, back in 1998, when they still had the improv. I really enjoyed that and wished that DCL had not done away with it. After the show, we called it a night and went back to the room and bed.
Cruisers - Sandy (47), Judy (47), fourth time cruisers (three on DCL)
This all started when we got the Disney Insider over the summer and they advertised the Fall Fantasy rates for DVC points. Judy innocently said we should go and I said why not? This is something we were planning to do in two more years, for our 25th anniversary, but the discount was too tempting to resist. It was not so straight forward, since we had two girls still home, one in high school and one in middle school that we knew couldn't come and had to be accounted for while we were away. Fortunately, good friends of ours, whose daughters are the same ages and friends, offered to help. So here we are.
11/22 - Thursday
We left my parents' house at 6:30, after finishing Thanksgiving dinner. On the way to Lorton, Va, we made three stops for gas, bathroom breaks and snack. Although it was Thanksgiving Eve, traffic was not bad and we made it to the Comfort Inn next to the Auto Train just shy of midnight. While we were getting ready for bed, I suddenly realized that I forgot my pin lanyard. After all the planning and preparation, I left all my trading pins hanging on my doorknob in the bedroom!
11/23 - Friday
We were up at 8:30. Judy brought her breakfast back to the room and accidentally spilled her cereal all over her jeans. We had to wait for them to dry in the dryer before we could check out at a little after 11:00am. While waiting, I called DCL to see if there might be a way we could Fed Ex my pins to the ship. The CM was very helpful, but the bottom line was that since 911, they closed the address that was used for such instances. While they would have been able to help if it was something important, like medication, clearly Disney pins were not. All those months of buying pins to trade and I forgot them. I was so upset.
Usually, we like to check in at the Auto Train, then take a drive to get some lunch, but new security rules did not allow us to leave once we checked in. So, instead of checking in right away, we went to a little mall not too far from the station. There is a Food Lion supermarket there and we bought some sandwiches from the deli counter. We then returned to the station and checked in.
We got a pleasant surprise when our reservation was being checked. The ticket agent said that the price for the economy room had come down since we made the reservation and she ended up saving us about $300. We boarded the train at 2:30 and settled in. The train left about 15 minutes early and we were on our way. We had dinner at the early seating (5:30) and quickly realized we were probably the youngest people on this trip. I guess all the snowbirds were flying south for the winter. After dinner, we went back to our room and while Judy went to the lounge car to watch the movie "Legally Blonde", I read "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", which I had borrowed from my daughter. I should have brought another book on the train with me, because I finished it by the time we went to bed. Great book, but a very quick read.
The train was running nicely ahead of schedule and we hit Florence by around 10:30. Judy and I watched the "I Love Lucy" special that I had taped a few weeks earlier, on our little TV. We went to sleep at 11:30.
11/24 - Saturday
In the middle of the night, I woke up and we were stopped. I fell back asleep and woke up a few hours later and we were still stopped. In fact, I had a strange feeling we hadn't moved in all that time. We were supposed to be woken up at 6:30, but I woke by myself at it was already 6:50. I found out very quickly why we weren't woken up, when I learned that my instincts had been right. We had stopped for three hours, while a train in front of us had to be removed from the tracks do to mechanical problems. We were now three hours behind schedule!
Judy showered and then we went to the dining car for breakfast. I guess I was little upset, which is why I didn't have much of an appetite. We went back to the room and finished watching "I Love Lucy". We hit Jacksonville around 10:00, which meant we were really running late. Then around 10:30, we stopped again. It turns out that federal law states that a train crew cannot work more than twelve hours, so we had to wait for a new crew to arrive. By now, Judy and I were getting very nervous.
We finally pulled into Sanford at 12:15 and went to wait for our car. Since Murphy was working overtime, our car didn't come off the train until 1:30. Thank goodness, for the 70-mph limit on the Beeline, we made it to Port Canaveral in an hour.
The change in security was obvious, as we first had to show our documents, then check in with someone else who compared our name to a passenger list, before we could enter the terminal area. We unloaded our luggage at the curb and I parked in the lot across the street. To come back in, I had to show identification to a guard at the walkway. The terminal was quiet by now and we didn't even need to go to the Castaway Club counter to check in. Check in went quickly and we were on board at 2:45. We ran up to our rooms, dumped our stuff on the bed and while Judy went to the Vista Spa, Before we left the room, we noticed that we had two presents - a DVC tote bag and a bottle of champagne from Matt Ouimet, president of DCL. I went to Palos. I was so afraid that everything would be closed out, but was pleasantly surprised that the time slots we wanted were available - brunch on Monday at 11:45 and dinner on Tuesday at 6:00. High Tea was all sold out. I guess eating early helps. I had told Judy to meet me at Parrot Cay, since I wanted to try their brunch, but I didn't realize that it closed at 2:00. So I waited for Judy to arrive. Apparently, I gave her bad instructions for making reservations for the cabana massages, since I didn't realize that there were choices. So, we had to go back up to the spa. It didn't matter, because we could not get two full body massages together, so Judy took and head and back massage at noon, while I reserved a full body massage at 2:30.
We went to Topsiders to get something to eat, but since by now it was 3:30 and we would be eating in two and half hours, we ate lightly. I feasted on the shrimp, while Judy had some salad. We returned to our room, just in time for the lifeboat drill. As we were leaving the room to go to deck 4, my cell phone rang. It was the kids calling. They were going to see Harry Potter and wanted to call to say goodbye.
When we returned to the room, there was a note for us. It was a handwritten note from Matt Ouimet, apologizing to us for not being able to make the upgrade happen! What upgrade, you ask? In a discussion on these boards about upgrades, someone mentioned that Mr. Ouimet occasionally read the boards. I posted a facetious response practically begging for an upgrade, not really believing it would be read by Mr. Ouimet, or anyone in DCL for that matter. Needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised and amused that he not only read the boards, but also took the time to respond to me in person.
We went up to the deck party and watched the ship depart. A police tug escorted us out of the harbor, something that I don't recall being done for past cruises. We didn't stay long, went back to our room to shower, and got ready for dinner. Our rotation was LAPLAPL, so tonight was Lumiere's. We were running a little late and arrived at 6:15. We had a table for eight and our table companions were all there ahead of us. They were Pam and Larry, from Chicago, Pat and Frank, also from Chicago, and Al and Sadie, from Orlando. Our servers were Zoran, from Hungary, and Yan, from Chile. Both of them were great! Zoran could never do enough for us, although I didn't always agree with his recommendations (of course, that's always a matter of taste). We challenged him throughout the cruise and he always rose to the occasion. Yan quickly learned that I liked iced tea - a lot and I never had an empty glass for long. This is the first time we've had a table for eight, and to be honest, I don't like it. It wouldn't be so bad if the table was oval or round, but with a rectangular table, it is hard to include everyone in the conversation. When our head server, Sid, came over to introduce himself, we light-heartily gave him a hard time about the table and urged him to rectify the situation for the next night. That became a theme for a couple of nights, until Sid did resolve the problem. But more on that later. This was the first cruise where we didn't have to wait until the last night to see the head server. Sid would stop by every night and was a real delight. We later found out that he was moving up to become the manager of Palos and from what we could see, it was a well-deserved assignment. We ordered shortly after. Judy was able to order a plain salmon, while I had the Cramembert and the Herb Crusted Sea Bass.
After dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard Variety Show then we returned to the room quickly, so that I could get rid of the jacket and tie I was wearing. The invitation to the DVC gathering was in the door. We then went to Mickey Mania, but I wasn't into to it, so we went to Beat Streetand the Dueling Pianos. I noticed that the set was still the same as it was from our first cruise on the Magic, back in 1998, when they still had the improv. I really enjoyed that and wished that DCL had not done away with it. After the show, we called it a night and went back to the room and bed.
