WOW there were a bunch of DIS'er's on that 7/22 cruise!! If you aren't sick (yet) of trip reports, here's my FIRST EVER trip report!
But first, some background info:
Our adventure began four years ago when we (~100) of us went on our first 4-night Wonder (July 2002) to celebrate our DF Michelle's (AKA "Princess" Michelle) 40th birthday (or as she prefers, the 11th anniversary of her 29th birthday!! She took care of all the booking and planning with help from the DIS'ers (I'm proud to rat her out that she is a lurker--LOL) and needless to say we had a fabulous time! Suffering from post-cruise depression when we returned to the real world in 2002, we then decided to plan another 4-night Wonder trip for July 2004, which, by coinky-dink coincided with DF George's (AKA "Jorge", say it with me "en Espanol") 40th birthday. Some of you may have seen our personalized red can coolie cups in Palo ("gasp"--yes, we are THAT partying crowd!) that read "Summer of George". SO when THAT post-cruise depression set in and DCL released the double dip itinerary on the Magic, DF Princess Michelle called all the troops and told us to book (Costco) and start saving for our first ever Magic cruise!!! TWO stops in Castaway Cay???? We are sooooo there!!! I'd just started back to work full-time after an almost 16-year sabbatical (doing the full-time Mom thing), so we felt we would be able to do this trip. This particular trip would be yet another celebration of a 40th birthday--DF Jerry's 40th (obviously, he is the youngest of the group). Jerry (AKA "the Sod God") runs (with the help of his brothers) a sod farm here in O'Fallon, MO, hence this year's slogan!! None of us are particularly wealthy, we're just a group of friends who are crazy about the Mouse, love cruising on DCL's awesome ships, and most of all, enjoy celebrating our friendship which has obviously grown over the years!
Since I am the only official DIS'er (maybe some of you guys on the 6th floor caught DF Princess Michelle's "Lurker" sign I made her--LOL) , this TR will be written from my POV, so here's my story:
Cast of Characters:
Me - 44
DH - 44
DS - 17
DS - 15
PLUS 40 of our DF's!! Yep, I'm guessing we were the largest group on that ship, 44 of us total!!
While this was my DS's third Disney cruise, my DH and I were fortunate enough to sneak in a last minute 20th anniversary 4-night Wonder in October 2005 with two of our DF's (Lisa and Pat) who actually GOT ENGAGED in Palo on 10/25/05!! DF Princess Michelle and her DH Rick went alone (the nerve!) on the 4-night Wonder in 1/05, it was two of the families in our group's first Disney Cruise ever!
Friday, July 21 - We're on our Way!!
We woke up bright and early at 4:30 a.m. for a 7:45 a.m. Southwest flight out of Lambert. (Dang, that is early--still taking clothes out of the dryer and packing them--LOL). There were 16 of us on that flight--some of us were at Disneyworld a few days prior, and some were spending time in Tampa/St. Pete Beach. No problems with the flight, but we heard that we got out of there just in time, as another MAJOR storm hit St. Louis that morning and the airport lost power--heard on the national news about the 500,000 back home without power and felt so badly for them, as St. Louis, like most of the rest of the country, was going through a bad heat wave.
Arrived at MCO without incident, picked up baggage and DH went to pick up the car (Avis)--snagged a small SUV (we had LOTS of luggage, okay most of it was my SHOES--LOL!) Really, I must confess that we had seven checked bags and each of us had a carry-on!!! Drove to Cocoa Beach and to our hotel, the Marriott Residence Inn. We've previously stayed at the Hilton, and Ron Jon, and while we really loved Ron Jon, we weren't thrilled with the price ($250--YIKES!!!)
We booked the Marriott from everyone's help here on the DIS--it is a really new, clean, nice hotel. Someone messed up (dang it) and we were given a two bedroom HUGE suite for the night--it was really spacious and nice--told the boys not to get used to all of this space, as we would be in a cabin for the next seven nights!! I would highly recommend this hotel--it is sooo close to port it's crazy. BTW, the Sod God and his family couldn't get in this hotel since it was booked and stayed at the very nearby (also new) Comfort Inn/Country Inn, I don't remember but it is right next to Residence Inn--they said it was also a nice place to be!!
Grabbed some lunch, hit the pool (which we had almost to ourselves), and DF Pam and I discovered the pool bar, which opened at 3:00. In order to give an accurate trip report, we decided we'd take one for the team and try out their Pina Colada's, and I can say that Pam and I would recommend these (we give them a thumbs up!) DH and DS's played some basketball (yep, there's a hoop there) and then joined us at the pool. Cleaned up and went to dinner--the front desk clerk told us to stay away from Grills that night (some basketball playoffs in town or something), so Bethipoo, we missed you! Sorry we didn't post on the Cruise Meet thread, because with a group of 44 we have enough already!! Ended up at a place called Beef O'Brady's (I think)--publike atmosphere with food the teens would like, Cardinals on t.v., cold beer in hand, all is right with the world. After dinner, we went to Publix (right in the same parking lot) to stock up on our onboard beer/liquor. DH had FOUR CASES of Bud Light in the cart, and I made him put a 12-pack back (he looked so sad!) I didn't remember that you couldn't buy liquor at the grocery store down there, so we also had to hit the liquor store to get a bottle of raspberry Stoli which my DF Lisa assured me was quite tasty with lemonade (which is free onboard)--btw, she was right!!! By now you are all probably thinking, "hmmm she drinks ALOT!!" Au contraire mes amis, just socially--plus when you go with a gang our size, we always bring along our fair share of the drinks to enjoy either at the adult pool, Promenade lounge (our fave place to meet pre-dinner), Castaway Cay, or Deck 10. Bringing your own on board is a HUGE cost savings, trust me!! After the liquor store, it was off to Ron Jon's for some souvenirs for the DS's. We were all wiped out (my DS 15 didn't sleep the night before at all--"too excited to sweep" --I just love that Disney commercial!!, so we went back to the Marriott and crashed for an early wake up and our first Magic cruise!!
But first, some background info:
Our adventure began four years ago when we (~100) of us went on our first 4-night Wonder (July 2002) to celebrate our DF Michelle's (AKA "Princess" Michelle) 40th birthday (or as she prefers, the 11th anniversary of her 29th birthday!! She took care of all the booking and planning with help from the DIS'ers (I'm proud to rat her out that she is a lurker--LOL) and needless to say we had a fabulous time! Suffering from post-cruise depression when we returned to the real world in 2002, we then decided to plan another 4-night Wonder trip for July 2004, which, by coinky-dink coincided with DF George's (AKA "Jorge", say it with me "en Espanol") 40th birthday. Some of you may have seen our personalized red can coolie cups in Palo ("gasp"--yes, we are THAT partying crowd!) that read "Summer of George". SO when THAT post-cruise depression set in and DCL released the double dip itinerary on the Magic, DF Princess Michelle called all the troops and told us to book (Costco) and start saving for our first ever Magic cruise!!! TWO stops in Castaway Cay???? We are sooooo there!!! I'd just started back to work full-time after an almost 16-year sabbatical (doing the full-time Mom thing), so we felt we would be able to do this trip. This particular trip would be yet another celebration of a 40th birthday--DF Jerry's 40th (obviously, he is the youngest of the group). Jerry (AKA "the Sod God") runs (with the help of his brothers) a sod farm here in O'Fallon, MO, hence this year's slogan!! None of us are particularly wealthy, we're just a group of friends who are crazy about the Mouse, love cruising on DCL's awesome ships, and most of all, enjoy celebrating our friendship which has obviously grown over the years!
Since I am the only official DIS'er (maybe some of you guys on the 6th floor caught DF Princess Michelle's "Lurker" sign I made her--LOL) , this TR will be written from my POV, so here's my story:
Cast of Characters:
Me - 44
DH - 44
DS - 17
DS - 15
PLUS 40 of our DF's!! Yep, I'm guessing we were the largest group on that ship, 44 of us total!!
While this was my DS's third Disney cruise, my DH and I were fortunate enough to sneak in a last minute 20th anniversary 4-night Wonder in October 2005 with two of our DF's (Lisa and Pat) who actually GOT ENGAGED in Palo on 10/25/05!! DF Princess Michelle and her DH Rick went alone (the nerve!) on the 4-night Wonder in 1/05, it was two of the families in our group's first Disney Cruise ever!
Friday, July 21 - We're on our Way!!
We woke up bright and early at 4:30 a.m. for a 7:45 a.m. Southwest flight out of Lambert. (Dang, that is early--still taking clothes out of the dryer and packing them--LOL). There were 16 of us on that flight--some of us were at Disneyworld a few days prior, and some were spending time in Tampa/St. Pete Beach. No problems with the flight, but we heard that we got out of there just in time, as another MAJOR storm hit St. Louis that morning and the airport lost power--heard on the national news about the 500,000 back home without power and felt so badly for them, as St. Louis, like most of the rest of the country, was going through a bad heat wave.
Arrived at MCO without incident, picked up baggage and DH went to pick up the car (Avis)--snagged a small SUV (we had LOTS of luggage, okay most of it was my SHOES--LOL!) Really, I must confess that we had seven checked bags and each of us had a carry-on!!! Drove to Cocoa Beach and to our hotel, the Marriott Residence Inn. We've previously stayed at the Hilton, and Ron Jon, and while we really loved Ron Jon, we weren't thrilled with the price ($250--YIKES!!!)
We booked the Marriott from everyone's help here on the DIS--it is a really new, clean, nice hotel. Someone messed up (dang it) and we were given a two bedroom HUGE suite for the night--it was really spacious and nice--told the boys not to get used to all of this space, as we would be in a cabin for the next seven nights!! I would highly recommend this hotel--it is sooo close to port it's crazy. BTW, the Sod God and his family couldn't get in this hotel since it was booked and stayed at the very nearby (also new) Comfort Inn/Country Inn, I don't remember but it is right next to Residence Inn--they said it was also a nice place to be!!
Grabbed some lunch, hit the pool (which we had almost to ourselves), and DF Pam and I discovered the pool bar, which opened at 3:00. In order to give an accurate trip report, we decided we'd take one for the team and try out their Pina Colada's, and I can say that Pam and I would recommend these (we give them a thumbs up!) DH and DS's played some basketball (yep, there's a hoop there) and then joined us at the pool. Cleaned up and went to dinner--the front desk clerk told us to stay away from Grills that night (some basketball playoffs in town or something), so Bethipoo, we missed you! Sorry we didn't post on the Cruise Meet thread, because with a group of 44 we have enough already!! Ended up at a place called Beef O'Brady's (I think)--publike atmosphere with food the teens would like, Cardinals on t.v., cold beer in hand, all is right with the world. After dinner, we went to Publix (right in the same parking lot) to stock up on our onboard beer/liquor. DH had FOUR CASES of Bud Light in the cart, and I made him put a 12-pack back (he looked so sad!) I didn't remember that you couldn't buy liquor at the grocery store down there, so we also had to hit the liquor store to get a bottle of raspberry Stoli which my DF Lisa assured me was quite tasty with lemonade (which is free onboard)--btw, she was right!!! By now you are all probably thinking, "hmmm she drinks ALOT!!" Au contraire mes amis, just socially--plus when you go with a gang our size, we always bring along our fair share of the drinks to enjoy either at the adult pool, Promenade lounge (our fave place to meet pre-dinner), Castaway Cay, or Deck 10. Bringing your own on board is a HUGE cost savings, trust me!! After the liquor store, it was off to Ron Jon's for some souvenirs for the DS's. We were all wiped out (my DS 15 didn't sleep the night before at all--"too excited to sweep" --I just love that Disney commercial!!, so we went back to the Marriott and crashed for an early wake up and our first Magic cruise!!