The Secret Cruise Blog of Perdita X (Dream, 09/14/2015)

[party-of-five]

Thank you for the link to gambee's post. Beautiful pics. If you could have seen my DD's face when I showed her the pics of Castaway Cay - "we're going there?!?!"

I look at the Dis like I do product reviews on Amazon - throw out the highest review, throw out the lowest review and there somewhere in the middle is a review from someone who is similar enough to me and my needs that their review is actually helpful.

There are those on the boards for whom Disney can do no wrong and there are others for whom nothing and no one will ever make them happy. when reading the Dis, I try to just look for the tips, the tricks, a general idea of what to expect, and policies that may have changed this week. I have to admit there are times when I read a seemingly impossibly perfect trip report and begin to daydream. And then there are those threads that make me wonder why am I paying all this money to take this trip when it's so horrible. The truth is somewhere in the middle and a lot of it is what we will make of it as a family and as individuals.

I hope you have an amazing cruise. I've really enjoyed reading your opinion and experiences on NCL and look forward to others as I don't think we are loyal to the Disney brand. Sure, right now it makes sense for us because of the kids' ages and the fact that we earned so many points with the Disney visa over the last few years. But we're open to others.

Safe travels, Bon voyage!

 

[perditax]

Thank you to the last few posters with the reassurances. All I can say is that I am a person who thinks too deeply about things, and I never expected this thread to turn into "talk Perdita out of being neurotic!". It can't be done, and I promise I'll have a good time anyway.

Nice evening with BF's family tonight, and his Mom was eager to hear about our cruise. She travels a lot too, but has never been on a cruise.

I believe I fractured my pinky toe stubbing it on the foot of my weight bench today, so maybe that is the required pre trip disaster? If so, I can live with it. (last vacation with BF; got a terrible head cold 36 hours before flying to NOLA. Couldn't hear out of my right ear for 18 hrs after we landed. We go to NOLA for music, "lol". Also, they still allow smoking in bars there. Lovely when you're a non smoker AND sick. I will totally take this stubbed toe situation.) I also still have mysterious tongue bumps/swollen tastebuds, but they are subsiding.

Packed and re packed a bit today, have lost my sunglass lanyards. Will need to buy new ones.

Now I'm arguing with strangers on the Internet, because I am a dork.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Ooooo-my toe hurts just thinking about that! Hopefully, it's feeling better some before you leave!

I feel like I should start packing but we still have a couple weeks. I'm trying to wait a little while more....we'll see how I do.

The mysterious bumps aren't from some sort of food allergy are they? Not trying to add to your list of worries before you leave, but would hate for some weird allergy to pop up on the boat!

 

[perditax]

Ooooo-my toe hurts just thinking about that! Hopefully, it's feeling better some before you leave!

I feel like I should start packing but we still have a couple weeks. I'm trying to wait a little while more....we'll see how I do.

The mysterious bumps aren't from some sort of food allergy are they? Not trying to add to your list of worries before you leave, but would hate for some weird allergy to pop up on the boat!

Thanks!

I THINK what happened with the tongue is I was using some random heath-store-type mouthwash and kind of swishing it around too long while I got distracted loading the washing machine, and it caused some sort of reaction which showed up about 48 hours later. And I could sort of feel it (couple of bumps, way back on my tongue, thankfully), but it never actually hurt, so I spent the next week doing stupid things like eating spicy thai food and (crunchy/sharp) nachos, and then it got a lot worse I saw my doctor and she says it could take a couple of weeks to go away. Some days they get a little swollen again (like, um, I may have eaten tortilla chips today), but overall they are much better than they were a week ago. It's still creepy.

In other news, I finally rebooked my unreasonably early departure-date flight to a slightly later one tonight. I think we could have made the earlier one, but then I would have been worrying and ... eh. Different airline and had to drop a few hundred dollars, but we got the points back on the original return flight, and new flight is nonstop. I've never flown Delta before, hopefully they aren't completely godawful.

Oh, and packing: I totally started packing an embarrassing number of weeks ago. I've also repacked the stuff I already packed several times.

 

[perditax]

Trip report of sorts going on here, no pics yet, but I'll get them sorted out this week:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/dream-9-14-15-semi-live-report-from-a-dcl-skeptic.3447655/

 

[perditax]

Writing here randomly because I'm too lazy to start a generic cruise blog on wordpress.

So the DCL cruise went pretty well (see TR link in previous post). Now I'm posting to work out my thoughts on my next cruise, which will be in December. I currently have a PIF cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse (5 night Western) in an Aqua class balcony room, by myself. It is just a bit more money than I would like to spend, although I am getting a crazy amount of OBC ($420). I have a week left to cancel without penalty.

But ... there is a 7-night western on Getaway leaving the same day from the same port. Studio rooms were running about $1200 for a while, but they just dropped to $800ish. Even factoring in the lack of OBC and the extras I would need to buy (spa pass and internet package), it would be a bit cheaper than the Eclipse for two more nights. And I loved the GA. But ...

• I want to keep trying different lines, and X is next on the list. (Except that during the next time frame BF would likely be able to travel, X will only be doing Euro itineraries, except for Summit doing the Bermuda run, and Summit seems to be very old. So evaluating X for a couples cruise seems possibly pointless.)
• That would have me returning on Dec 20, which is getting into Christmas flight fares and a lot of last-minute Christmasing.
• No balcony
• No solarium (the solarium on Eclipse looks nice).

So ... decisions!