Our Very Merry USO, DCL and WDW Christmas Break!

missjackiemcg

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Hello, there! :) Welcome to my first ever DCL trip report! This is actually a report within a report. This Merry Time cruise takes place right smack in the middle of a pretty exciting vacation for our family. You can read all about how it started by visiting my TR in progress, HERE! I left off with the morning of our Embarkation on the Disney Dream, so that's where I'll pick up here!

Look at this beautiful countdown :)

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We packed up most of our things the night before, so we wouldn't be wasting time rushing around this morning. We got up and dressed, and headed down to the food court to grab a quick breakfast. We also had to make a pretty important stop in the gift shop...not just so Jimmy could spend his Universal gift card (though that was on the list, too!), but more importantly so my Dad could purchase a bathing suit and rashguard shirt, having realized the day before that he neglected to pack them both before leaving Chicago!! OOPS. Keep that in mind later when you see him rocking his Volcano Bay shirt poolside.

While we were in the gift shop, my phone rang. I couldn't imagine who would be calling, but thankfully I answered because I had completely forgotten I scheduled a character call for the morning of our cruise! We stood there in the middle of the Universal store on speakerphone hearing Mickey and Minnie tell us how they couldn't wait to cruise with us later today :) It was such a fun surprise!

We had gotten a port arrival time of 11:45, but my Mom was VERY nervous about being late to the terminal, so our Happy Limo ride was picking us up at 9:30 a.m. We gathered all of our stuff and waited in the lobby by the beautiful Christmas tree for just a few minutes before he arrived. Our ride did include a grocery stop, but we decided we would forgo the stop and just get on our way.

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We were pleasantly surprised by how quickly we were met by porters who took care of our luggage, leaving us with our carryons to head into the building. Our first views of the ship had us all excited SO excited for the next few days!

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(A side note about poor "Baby." He looks disgustingly dirty, but I assure you he is clean!! Jimmy dropped him getting out of the car when he was about 3 years old, and Baby ended up in between the car and the curb in a big puddle of mud. He's never been the same since, but he takes regular trips through the wash!!)

We walked through security pretty quickly and up into the terminal. We headed into the line together and were quickly waved up to the counter where two different CMs took care of my parents and my own family. We filled out our paperwork, got Jimmy's picture taken and Kid's Club wristband, along with our silver Castaway Club lanyards (having taken our last cruise in 2006 on our Honeymoon!) and were given Boarding Group 2!!! I was SO excited and couldn't believe our good luck :) My Mom and Dad were given boarding group 12, and she was very upset about it. We all headed over to line up and meet Goofy, but my Mom wouldn't stop worrying about the boarding group numbers. I assured her we would just wait for them and it wouldn't be a big deal, but she went off to the counter again, while we waited.

After a few minutes, Goofy walked off, and Minnie came back in her cute little Christmas sweater! Just a moment later, my Mom came back to the line, as well, after the CM had told her to stay with her family when they called the boarding groups and it wouldn't be a problem. She seemed relieved, though I wasn't so sure how this would play out. Before long, it was our turn to see Minnie!

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The time seemed to fly by, and before we had time to do much else than find a place to wait for boarding, they called the family of the day and the first boarding group. When they called boarding group 2, we headed into the line with my parents right alongside. The CM who my Mom had talked to waved her on through with us, so I guess we had a little pixie dust right off the bat.

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We stopped again to get our picture taken before finally heading onto the ship! It brought tears to my eyes to hear our family welcomed aboard.
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Thanks for coming along! I'll be back soon with more of our first hour on the ship!
 
Hopping over from the Universal portion. Great start. Looking forward to reading more.
 


So happy you're finally up to the cruise part! And ironic you started today as my family was supposed to be boarding the Dream this afternoon :( Still, seeing you guys board has made me smile!
 
I'm here, Jackie! Can't wait to hear about your cruise!


but more importantly so my Dad could purchase a bathing suit and rashguard shirt, having realized the day before that he neglected to pack them both before leaving Chicago!! OOPS.

Oh, no!


(A side note about poor "Baby." He looks disgustingly dirty, but I assure you he is clean!! Jimmy dropped him getting out of the car when he was about 3 years old, and Baby ended up in between the car and the curb in a big puddle of mud. He's never been the same since, but he takes regular trips through the wash!!)

:rotfl:


We stopped again to get our picture taken before finally heading onto the ship! It brought tears to my eyes to hear our family welcomed aboard.

Such a happy moment! :love:
 
Made it over! Woo hoo! I am already itching to get back on a Disney ship. Looking forward to hearing all about the cruise while I deal with my missing Disney blues!
 


And because of that... I"M FIRST!!! LOL!
Yay for being 1st!! :) Welcome aboard!

Yay I'm here! Sounds like a great start- love the pic with Minnie!!
I was super excited when the character meet switched from Goofy to Minnie! My only tiny twinge of regret was this being a Merry Time cruise, so we never got to see Captain Minnie sporting her captain gear because was always dolled up in her Christmas wear.

Hopping over from the Universal portion. Great start. Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks for joining in!! :)

So happy you're finally up to the cruise part! And ironic you started today as my family was supposed to be boarding the Dream this afternoon :( Still, seeing you guys board has made me smile!
I'm so sad you didn't get to go on your cruise :( I'm sad for all of us all the time right now, LOL! Just trying to stay hopeful for everyone's upcoming trips, both of ours included!! :)

I'm here, Jackie! Can't wait to hear about your cruise!
Hi, Kelly!!!! :) So glad you're here!

Made it over! Woo hoo! I am already itching to get back on a Disney ship. Looking forward to hearing all about the cruise while I deal with my missing Disney blues!
Yay!! Thanks for joining :) My son keeps asking if we're going on a Disney Cruise again sometime soon.....He does not understand the save-up that needs to happen in between awesome vacations LOL But believe me, I have the itch, too!

Joining in! Can't wait to hear about the cruise.
Hi!! :) Thanks for coming along!
 
As soon as we boarded the ship and found ourselves in the gorgeous atrium, we were ready to explore, BUT first my Mom and I hopped over to Guest Services where there was currently no line, to add gift cards to our stateroom accounts. We both used our Disney Visa Rewards for our credit (spoiler alert, my rewards were not sufficient to cover all the drinks charged back to the room, so Rob had to wait in the god awful final night guest services line to pay the balance with some gift cards, too. Oops!)

While Mom and I were taking care of that, the boys were checking out the REAL gingerbread house! It smelled so good, and Jimmy loved looking at the little details throughout the trip, like all the little characters peeking out of windows.
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I was glad my Mom had me pose for this picture because I never thought to go back over there during our trip!
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Business handled for the time being, and knowing our rooms wouldn't be available until 1:30 or so, we decided to get some lunch and make our game plan for exploring the ship. We only had a few small carry on bags with us, so we didn't have much trouble navigating through the ship and making our way up to Cabanas. All of the CMs we passed on our way through the ship were incredibly friendly, of course, and all were wearing red and white striped scarves and/or santa hats :)

Zero pictures were taken at this lunch. My Mom and Dad were a little overwhelmed at the size of Cabanas, and so we decided to find a place to drop our things before getting in line for food. We chose a large table on the deck outside in the sun, which was perfect, but people were getting hangry, and our lunch was not super pleasant! My Mom and Dad were bickering about something...diet Coke, I think. Jimmy was whining because it was "too cold" to sit outside. I immediately went in and got two Miller Lites for Rob and I because, of course I did ( @chunkymonkey didn't name me Chunkylite for nothing!) Eventually everyone got something to eat and we were back to feeling excited about checking out the ship!

Jimmy was excited to see Nigel from Finding Nemo just outside Cabanas by the elevator, so we had to snap a pic as we walked by. It actually ended up being a good thing we stopped here because we actually had no idea where we were going! The map on the wall here helped us to get our bearings, as well as the lovely CM passing out handwipes at the doorway to Cabanas, pointed us in the right direction to our next destination.

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We had been talking up the Oceaneer's Club to Jimmy since we booked this trip. And he had been very nervous about the prospect of "being left" there. Since Rob and I are both teachers, we spend summers off together as a family, so Jimmy hasn't ever gone to day camp or anything like that. He goes to the school where I teach, and has since he was in three year old preschool, so he quite literally has never been "away" from us. He was quite worried about how this would all work, so we knew we had to take advantage of the Open House hours to show him what the Kid's Club was all about, and how he would most definitely be spending time there (like it or not, kid!)

We all had a great time checking out the parts of the Kid's Club and Lab. I really loved the layout and the fact that they were connected, so he could go between the areas. Jimmy is 10 years old, but as evidenced by still having to bring Baby places, he is not a mature 10! I had wondered if he would have to choose between checking into the lab or checking into the club because I knew he would enjoy the activities for the younger kids just as much as trying out some of the activities for kids his own age. It was a relief knowing he could come and go between both areas depending on what activities were being offered in either place.

I loved Andy's room the most, and the magic play floor. (and spoiler: Jimmy had THE BEST time in the club. He never wanted to leave when we came to get him, and always begged to go back as soon as we were done with whatever we picked him up to do!)
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While we were at the Open House, we set up Jimmy's wristband, who was allowed to drop off or pick him up, as well as his secret pick up password. I didn't feel at all nervous leaving Jimmy in the club, but I really appreciated their security efforts, and this was taken very seriously at every drop off/pick up during our cruise. I also LOVED the amazing hand-washing stations! Every person who enters, even if it's just to pick up, has to wash their hands. The stations are awesome because all you do is stick your hands in and they are automatically washed and soaped inside!! They're amazing, and I (now more than ever!!) wish they had those things everywhere!

As we left the Kid's Club, we passed something that had been on my list to search for during our trip, Pepe's door! I knew it was part of the Mid Ship Detective Agency Muppet game on board, which we had not yet signed up for, but we stopped for a picture as we passed by. We would definitely be back!
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We were headed down to the Walt Disney theater to join a tour of the ship. We were pretty excited and our timing was just about perfect. When we got to the right spot, there was a table of VERY cheerful CMs from the Entertainment crew who suggested the staterooms would be opening in just a few minutes if we wanted to drop off our bags before the tour. We hadn't realized it was almost that time, so we were really grateful for the suggestion! I snapped a picture I loved right outside the theater before we headed off to find our staterooms!
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I miss Disney Cruising so much!!! I wish I could be on any of the ships right now!! I will just live vicariously through your report!
Cheers to living up to your Chunkylite name, I wouldn't have expected anything less!
 
I'm so sad you didn't get to go on your cruise :( I'm sad for all of us all the time right now, LOL! Just trying to stay hopeful for everyone's upcoming trips, both of ours included!! :)
I just binged @buzzrelly 's cruise TR so between hers and yours I'm really feeling down about missing our cruise and wishing we had another one booked! But June isn't that far away and right now we both still have Disney to look forward to ❤
I was glad my Mom had me pose for this picture because I never thought to go back over there during our trip!
Adorable!
We all had a great time checking out the parts of the Kid's Club and Lab. I really loved the layout and the fact that they were connected,
The Kid's Clubs are amazing! And yes the fact that they're connected is great and a huge plus for sailing DCL
Jimmy had THE BEST time in the club. He never wanted to leave when we came to get him, and always begged to go back as soon as we were done with whatever we picked him up to do!)
So good to hear!
 
We made our way over to the stairs and headed to our rooms on deck 6. @ariane37 helped us pick an excellent location for our rooms! We were mid-ship and just a few rooms off from the stairway/elevators. We didn't hear any noise from the elevators or people passing through the hallways throughout the trip. The best perk was that our rooms were connecting, and our stateroom host was even able to fold back the wall between our verandas to make it feel like ours was twice as long.

When we entered our room, we had goodies all laid out for us!! We had pre-purchased the blanket, pillow and hanging decorations, and I was SO glad we did! That blanket alone was worth the $70ish pricetag. The back side is plush sherpa deliciousness!!!! I used this blanket the whole rest of the cruise and at Pop during the land part of our trip afterward. It is literally THE BEST.
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The blue sling backpack on the lower right side is the gift for being a Silver Castaway Club member, meaning you've already sailed with DCL at least once. (I know a lot of people on our sailing's FB page were wanting DCL to change the silver level gift, so it must have been around for awhile now, but it was new to us, and we were excited to receive it!)

The blue bag to the left contained a gift we purchased for Jimmy (and a little bit for me!!) that included a foldable travel game board and pieces to play 4 different games, as well as a fish extender with 3 pockets. (We also got one of those included in the Christmas decor set.) The luggage straps and beach bag with cooler underneath were for me :) Pic, courtesy of Google!
family nautical package

We didn't have much time before the ship tour was about to begin, so we dropped our bags, I snapped that picture and we headed back to the Walt Disney Theater to meet our tour guides. One of us wasn't acting very magical! His "feet hurt" from "all that walking" we were making him do. He was very dramatic at the start of this trip, let me tell you!
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So, it turns out that though our two tour guides were delightful, and we really enjoyed them, this tour was just not what we thought it would be. We were thinking it would be more about the ship itself, a little information and exploration to get you excited about the days ahead. It was really more of a walk to the theaters, "yep, these are the theaters, and there are shows here." Walk to the adult district, "yep, these are the bars. You drink here." It was about 45 minutes or so without much other information or interesting facts to be found, which was kind of a bummer. I didn't even take one picture!f

Following the tour, we had some time before we had to report to our muster drill stations, so we headed back to unpack a little and settle into our rooms. Well, the boys settled. My Mom and I scurried about moving luggage, unpacking, decorating our doors and leaving some little goodies in each other's Fish Extenders. (Does anyone NOT know what I'm talking about when I say Fish Extenders? I figure you all do, but let me know if I should explain!)

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Our big Mickey head magnets with matching clotheslines were my absolute favorite find for decorating our doors. The seller was from Etsy, and I was SO happy with how these turned out. She includes everything including the twine and little painted clothespins. Ours is hanging on the inside of our front door still because I just don't want to put it away!

The other magnets on my parents' door and Jimmy's Zombie Zed magnet on our door came from another Etsy seller that my Mom liked. Rob and I couldn't decide on which characters we wanted for ours, so she placed her order without us, LOL. Our MerryTime Cruise dry erase boards were from our most wonderful TA!! Jimmy liked leaving messages on Grandma and Grandpa's board, especially!

The fish extenders came with our Disney Cruise Line Christmas decor set. They were a little smaller than we expected, but just the right size for all of the things we brought for one another, so they worked out just fine. We didn't sign up to formally participate in a fish extender or pixie dust group. We just did it between our two rooms; however, we were pixie dusted by several other staterooms just because we had a fish extender hanging! On Pirate night, someone left us pirate keychains. Another day, we found a Christmas Mickey and Minnie magnet on our door, and Jimmy got some candy. Our stateroom host left extra chocolate in each pocket every night, as well :)

When Rob and I cruised for our Honeymoon in 2006, the muster drill required everyone to report to their stations wearing their life vests. This is no longer the case. We looked at the back of our door to find out we were station J, and we headed up to the open air of Deck 4 (I think!) I remembered back in '06 that we were among the last people in our station to arrive, and the crew were not pleased, so this time we were plenty early! There seemed to be QUITE a few people in our grouping. They started having each stateroom line up shortest to tallest and squeezed each family closer and closer together as more staterooms arrived. The CMs in charge of our area were wonderful--just the right amount of serious and fun. While not a thrilling way to spend your time, we understood that this was for our benefit and everyone's safety. Thankfully the weather was just perfect, so it was actually a nice breeze and not uncomfortable besides being squeezed together. Before long, the final family had arrived, the announcements were made, and we were sent on our way.

We made our way straight to the main stage where the Sail Away Celebration was about to begin! They had an area roped off just for the kids, and of course Captain Cranky wasn't having any part of me telling him to get up there with the other kids. He was "too cold" to participate. I put my sweatshirt on him and basically shoved him onto the dance floor. You WILL enjoy your vacation, kid!
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Once those magical entertainment folks took the stage and everyone's favorite Fab 5 crew joined them, all his crankiness was gone, and my most magical boy had returned! He was having the time of his life, and we all celebrated because it was time to SAIL AWAY!!

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During the dance party, some little rain drops started to fall, but the fun never stopped. We started sailing, and before long were hearing the most magical ship horn in the port! Our Very MerryTime Cruise was finally beginning.
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That blanket alone was worth the $70ish pricetag. The back side is plush sherpa deliciousness!!!! I used this blanket the whole rest of the cruise and at Pop during the land part of our trip afterward. It is literally THE BEST.

I love the blanket! It looks super soft and cozy!

So, it turns out that though our two tour guides were delightful, and we really enjoyed them, this tour was just not what we thought it would be. We were thinking it would be more about the ship itself, a little information and exploration to get you excited about the days ahead. It was really more of a walk to the theaters, "yep, these are the theaters, and there are shows here." Walk to the adult district, "yep, these are the bars. You drink here." It was about 45 minutes or so without much other information or interesting facts to be found, which was kind of a bummer.

I tried doing the art of the cruise ship tour, or something like that, on the Fantasy. I got bored about five minutes in so kind of just slunk off while the guide's back was turned :rotfl:


My Mom and I scurried about moving luggage, unpacking, decorating our doors and leaving some little goodies in each other's Fish Extenders.

Your door looks a-"door"-able!


The fish extenders came with our Disney Cruise Line Christmas decor set. They were a little smaller than we expected, but just the right size for all of the things we brought for one another, so they worked out just fine. We didn't sign up to formally participate in a fish extender or pixie dust group. We just did it between our two rooms; however, we were pixie dusted by several other staterooms just because we had a fish extender hanging! On Pirate night, someone left us pirate keychains. Another day, we found a Christmas Mickey and Minnie magnet on our door, and Jimmy got some candy. Our stateroom host left extra chocolate in each pocket every night, as well :)

How fun! We've never done the FE either…I just can't be bothered bringing gifts for strangers all the way from CT. The whole thing just sounds more stressful than fun to me. But that's a good idea to just do it yourself :thumbsup2


We made our way straight to the main stage where the Sail Away Celebration was about to begin! They had an area roped off just for the kids, and of course Captain Cranky wasn't having any part of me telling him to get up there with the other kids. He was "too cold" to participate. I put my sweatshirt on him and basically shoved him onto the dance floor. You WILL enjoy your vacation, kid!

:laughing:

He does look like he's finally having fun!


During the dance party, some little rain drops started to fall, but the fun never stopped. We started sailing, and before long were hearing the most magical ship horn in the port! Our Very MerryTime Cruise was finally beginning.

Great picture! I love the Sail Away party and just reading about this makes me happy. Someday, we will all be sailing away again ::yes::
 
I got bored about five minutes in so kind of just slunk off while the guide's back was turned :rotfl:
If I was by myself on the tour, that is exactly what I would have done!!! But since we made up half the tour group, it would have been kind of noticeable, LOL

Your door looks a-"door"-able!
I like what you did there :hug:

How fun! We've never done the FE either…I just can't be bothered bringing gifts for strangers all the way from CT. The whole thing just sounds more stressful than fun to me. But that's a good idea to just do it yourself :thumbsup2
I feel the SAME way! Watching people post their FE gifts on Facebook, I find myself either thinking "that is awesome and SO generous" or "I really don't think I would want that." We had so much luggage already with having Universal and WDW before and after the cruise. I cannot even imagine trying to bring one more bag or finding the time to deliver any of it!!

Great picture! I love the Sail Away party and just reading about this makes me happy. Someday, we will all be sailing away again ::yes::
It was really so much fun! I can't wait until we can get back for another cruise!
 
Love how you decorated your doors, they came out great!

The Sail Away party looks so fun!

Love the family selfie!
Thanks! It was one of those things we kept going back and forth about--do we want to decorate? How much stuff should we bring? Should we order magnets? How many is too many? LOL I was really happy with what we ended up doing, and how it looked in the end :)

The party was really fun! I was so glad Jimmy ended up getting into it because the joy on his face made me even happier!

There will be several family selfies! I'm our resident selfie-taker!

Your cruise sounds like so much fun already! I love how you decorated your doors!
Thanks! Our day was definitely off to a great start! I was SO happy with how our doors came together because we were being super undecided about what we wanted to do!
 

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