Dede, DH and Friend - September 2007

Well here I am back from my cruise and trip to disney. Originally I had booked for my hubby and daughter to go with me back in June so we could get the free dining. It would have been our first family trip to disney together and I was all excited. Then in August, my teenager had other plans, so I ended up inviting my friend Ellie instead.

There is me, Dede, age 54, Broc, age 54, and Ellie my best friend age 60. We ordered a room at all star sports which was the only one with a preferred room available for our dates.I had ordered the free dining plan, and I ordered a scooter from Randys Mobility.

The plans were we had a cruise planned on Royal carribean soverign of the seas sept 17-21 and then to disney from Sept 21st to Sept 28th. Hubby was planning to leave sept 23rd as he had to return to work. He got an email from Jetblue saying his flight had been cancelled at the way home so we had to reschedule it. Disney told us that we still had to book the room for the entire time and Ellie and I could just use his meal credits.They charged an extra $10 a night for switching from a teen to another adult. Our package included two nights at the parks. I had a 5 day NED pass from a prior trip and Ellie bought an additional 5 days which only cost her $83, which I didn't think was too bad.

Now on to the trip.

We started out from Syracuse NY on Jetblue flying thru NYC. I thought Royal Carribean was going to take our luggage to the pier, like Disney cruise did, but when we got to the desk at the airport she said we had to get our own luggage to take to the bus. So Ellie and Broc went up to the luggage and came back and told me mine wasn't there! Jetblue had short checked it and only sent it to JFK airport. So that was not a very good start. I had only brought one extra top and shorts and swimsuit in my carryon and hubby had brought my gown, that was all. They said they would try to get it on the 1 pm flight, and luckily they did get it to the ship just before we sailed at 5 pm.

We took the Royal Carribean bus to the pier, and when we got to their terminal found a LONG line. Even tho we had filled out the sailaway pass at home on the computer and had to wait for an hour. Got our cabin. It was on the 6th floor, oceanview. WOW! very small! It had two beds about the size of sofas, and maybe 15 inches of space between them, and a pulldown bed from the wall that went over my bed. Like a bunk. It was WAY too small for 3 people. We were always tripping over each other.I can't imagine 4 people being in there. It had a desk with a chair that jutted into the room, and some drawers on the opposite side. No refrigerator or safe. It did have a closet. Small bathroom. Really made me miss Disney's roomy cabins.

We went up for the welcome aboard buffet which was nice, and they were selling a drink package for $24 for the 4 nights where they gave you an insulated mug and put a sticker on your room key card so it would include all sodas for the whole cruise. In my case, it didn't really pay, as I usually drink water. I found out since our last cruise, they are now charging for sodas in the dining room unless you had the sticker on your card.

We went on to the fire drill and then came back to the room to rest a few.Then it was time to get ready for our 6 pm dinner.had prime rib for dinner. That night I went to Bingo. It cost $30 for 12 cards and $20 for 6 cards. If you bought the $30 pack they gave you a little stuffed bingo dog that if you brought back with you, you could get a free bonus card for the jackpot each time. I was disappointed they only played ONE game for that amount.

We had gotten a booklet of coupons for being prior cruise guests and one of them was for a free card, and one was $5 off the internet. It was .50 a minute so I just stayed on the 10 minutes to check my email. It took like 3 minutes out of the 10 just to connect to aol.

That night they had a funny comedian and went to a karaoke show.

Sept 18th- This was our day at their private beach cococay. It was a nice day. They had bbq ribs, corn, watermelon, hamburgs, hot dogs, salads, fruit. Free fruit punch and water.I went in the water and it was quite warm. very clear and blue.

I went back to the ship as I had an appointment at the spa for 3pm. They had a special that day for a 25 minute facial and a 25 minute massage for $89. That was nice and she didn't really try too hard to sell me the products.

I had to go direct from there to Bingo and bought my cards. this time it was $35 for 6 cards. $45 with 3 extra . Right after I bought my cards, they told us we were playing 5 games and it wouldn't let out til 5:45 pm which wouldn't have been bad, except I was all greasy from the massage and my hair too and our formal night was at 6 pm! They sure didn't plan that very well.

That night I had sirloin steak for dinner. Went to comedy show at night. I went several times to their trivia games but found out they ask the same questions on every cruise and every ship so you didn't even have a chance if you had people there who had cruised with them before. There was one couple there that told me they had been on over 180 cruises, 150 of them with royal carribean. They even had their names in the newsletter telling everyone they were aboard.

Sept 19- This was our day at Nassau. We had booked a shore excursion on the yellowbird party boat. That was really nice and they gave you free rum punch or regular punch and took you to a private island for a little over an hour. I went swimming. They had a band on the boat and on the way back they were having dancing games and a limbo contest. It was a lot of fun.It was about a 3 block walk from the ship to the boat tho. Went to trivia again. I never did win. Played bingo. That night they had their version of the newlywed game which was really funny. Then there was a buffet and pool party on the upper deck. There was so many people there you couldn't even find a place to sit and had to sit on chaise lounges to eat. The meat was very spicy. they had a band up there and dancing too and the pools were open.

Sept 20 Our day at sea. I played bingo for $35 and nobody won, so they had another afternoon session. someone won $2100. They had an onboard restaurant called Johnny Rockets that they charge 3.95 for cover charge regularly, but I had a coupon in my book for free cover charge. You didn't have to pay for the food but you were supposed to pay for the drinks. I got a strawberry milkshake, and burger, but the waiter said he wouldn't charge me. It was kind of decorated like the 50s. They also had a sorrentos pizza place on the same floor but I didn't go there.

That night they had a chocolate buffet and the show was a musical show about show songs.All their entertainment was nice.This was our last night so I had to get packed .

Sept 21. Had early breakfast then they wanted us out of our rooms by 8 so we had to wait in one of the lounges to depart. We were supposed to leave about 9:05 as we were one of the last groups and hubby checked his voicemail on his cell and had a message from Jetblue that they had cancelled his flight AGAIN! He was pretty angry. They tried to reschedule him on the direct flight but wanted him to pay an extra $40,and he told them no way.. it was their fault they cancelled him twice.So they did finally give him the direct flight. When he got home, they sent him a $25 gift certificate.

My next trip report will be about my disney portion. Don't want this too long.

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