We are home from a wonderful 7 night Fantasy cruise followed by 4 nights at WDW. We got home last Thursday, but this is the first chance I have had to get back to the boards. We came home to a very sick dog. Our male newfoundland got a really bad skin infection while we were away. He had to be shaved, put on antibiotics, steroids, medicated shampoo, medicated skin spray as well as wipes. This is on top of the allergy meds and immunotherapy drops he already gets every day. He was in really bad shape. He had lost nearly 20 pounds in 15 days. Today he is finally starting to get back to our big, affectionate goofy boy. Our other two dogs are fine.
The cruise was AMAZING. We had an extended veranda room all the way aft. Vibrations were so so our first night but after that not bad at all. Ship and service - fantastic as always. We had a great experience in St. Martin. We did a make your own perfume/cologne excursion through
DCL. It took us to Tijon perfumery where we donned lab coats had a quick introduction/class and then were able to make our own fragrance. We had to name it and got to bring a decent sized bottle home with us. We were also given a gift bag filled with other goodies including another full size fragrance of our choice. This was our 4th DCL cruise and my all time favorite excursion. It was more on the pricey side but for what we got - totally worth it. I want to do it again!
We had a really nice room on the 5th floor at BRV. When we checked in we went to the grocery and stocked up. We had decided to cook most meals in our room since we were kind of over the big meals from the 7 night cruise. That first night about 11:30 we noticed the frig was NOT cooling. Ian called and was told someone would be right up to look at it. No one came so after about 45 minutes he called the main WL phone number. That worked and someone came up immediately. For some reason the frig was on an auto defrost mode and she was able to get it off that and into normal cooling. She also brought by a studio sized frig just incase. Then much to our amazement we were credited 200.00 for groceries (no need everything was still OK at that point) and also given 3 anytime fast passes for each of the 4 of us. They had some restrictions - no Pandora or Frozen but that was Ok. We used them the next day at the MK. We weren't expecting them nor asked for anything more than a working frig so that was really nice and appreciated.
We also got to try out the new pool for the first time and liked it. Ian thought it should be a bit deeper, but I thought it was perfect. Now he is 6ft 2 and I am 4ft 11 so the difference of opinion is understandable.
This was the first vacation in 2 years all 4 of us were together. Our youngest went with us this time and it was really nice having her (most of the time it was really nice - to be fair she is not used to living with us anymore and it is an adjustment for her as it is for us). It is the most/longest time frame we have spent with her since she moved out. Letting her go back to Austin last Thursday broke my heart. But she is happy and will be home again later this month.
I am dying to go on another cruise. I was kind of surprised to realize I actually enjoy the cruises more than the parks right now. Maybe if I teach myself to slow down, stop and smell the roses more when we are in the parks I would feel differently. There is a HUGE difference in the trips Ian and I take by ourselves and the ones where we have our (adult) kids with us. Or maybe it is just because we have been to the parks 4 times in 2 years and it has been 5 years since we cruised. Regardless - I really want to cruise again as soon as we can. DCL is very pricey though and with changes coming to Ian's company (a buy out) we are not sure how things will be in the future so it may be a while. DL is also on our radar - maybe for next year. We lived close to the corner of Ball Rd and Euclid in Anaheim for 3 years. That is where we were living when our oldest was born. We haven't been back to California since we moved in October of '93 so we are really considering it. Anyone have any idea how hard it would be to get a 1 bedroom at VG in June, at the 7 month window?
)so I wanted to say a Happy(but belated)4th of July to all you wonderful folks!!
It will be my daughter & I. Any tips on attending?
