Sunshine2U
Disney Nana
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2001
I wasn’t planning to write a trip report but there were enough things that were “off” on this trip that I thought I’d share. Sometimes people expect everything to be perfect and pixie dusted. Sometimes that just doesn’t happen but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great vacation. So here goes. I’ll post our trip day by day and then wrap up my take away.
Our Cruise: 4-Day Bahama on Disney Wonder
Our Crew:
Me – 60+ Nana – this is our 4th Disney cruise with the first trip being on the Wonder in 2001. I’m an uber planner so it feels like I’ve been on a lot more Disney cruises since each cruise seems to last 2 years. We’ve also sailed Carnival, NCL and MSC and have lots of trips to WDW.
DH – Poppy is also 60+. He lets me plan all I want.
MIL – we lost FIL this past June. We had planned to take them on a Nov. 2017 cruise in MSC Yacht Club but cancelled when he got sick.
DD – 27. Her significant doesn’t do Disney or family trips. So DD roomed with and was in charge of MIL.
DS and DSS – Son and his significant. Both around 30. Collectively, the last three are “the millennials”.
DGS – 5 year old grandson (son of DS) – his first cruise. Has been to WDW twice.
DN – 9 year old nephew – his second cruise with one trip to WDW under his belt.
When I originally booked the cruise, the only thing I knew was, at the very least, DH and I would cruise with the two boys. So I booked a veranda for 4, and two inside staterooms for what at the time could be 4 milliennials – knowing that could change. When I added MIL to the booking, I added a 2nd veranda stateroom. At that point I had 12 different names on 4 staterooms so I could cover all the bases.
Over time, we narrowed it down to 1-inside and 2-verandas with our cast of 8. Initially the 2 verandas were separated by 6 cabins. I kept going back to the website and checking availability. The week before PIF, I found 2 side-by-side verandas that were 6 doors down from the inside stateroom. We were in 6030 and 6032 which is right off the forward elevators on the port side. We hardly ever saw anyone or heard people in the corridor. Our next door neighbors were loud talkers and we could definitely hear them. But it was mainly when their other family members stopped by and their
door was open. They could probably say the same for us and our coughing (more later).
This was a new experience for MIL who lives in MI – there are other family members close to her. We live in SC. She never used a computer or email, and relied on FIL for electronic communication via computer. We got her an iPhone this summer and she has loved learning how to text and hearing from various friends and family members. She really likes emojis. She keeps using gay family emojis to represent different groups of people. For example, the 8 of us were represented by 4-female and 4-male families. It was an Olaf and summer moment – one says we should really tell her. The rest vote no. So she continues to send us all kinds of people who love each other – at least in emoji world.
I digress. DS setup a #DisneySquadGoals group text and added All Fun initials at the end which I thought was sweet. So I would text notes and countdown images over the last 6 weeks which helped to build her comfort and excitement with the trip, since it made her feel part of the larger group as others responded and chatted. MIL will not fly. So the weekend before our trip, my sweet DH drove to Kentucky and met BIL/MIL who drove from MI. Kudos to BIL for making that trip. They spent a nice night visiting over dinner and stayed the night in a hotel before reversing directions the next morning.
In the meantime, everyone at DGS’s mother’s house had been coming down with the flu. DS was trying to wrap things up at his company’s NC facility. It’s a bit complicated but I ended up being the one caring for DGS over 3 days – even took a personal day to care for him. Even if you’ve had a flu shot, after you’ve held and comforted a sick, sneezing, coughing, snotty child for 3 days – you get sick. DGS left the house on Sunday. I spent four hours sanitizing surfaces, running extra hot dishwasher, and doing multiple loads of laundry. Then I isolated myself to 1 bathroom and 4 sq ft of recliner in our den. MIL and DH arrive – I assign them to a different TV room, different bathroom, different eco system – and tell DH he’s in charge of meals. I hibernated in my space over Sunday and Monday (another pre-vacation personal day!). Thankfully my company will let me work from home so I did get some hours in. I never developed a full blown version of the flu. It was something that took me down for 2 days and left me with a sinus infection, lingering cough, and other things that go with being on antibiotics.
Next person to fall was DN. His last fever was Tuesday before our Sunday cruise. The doctor told him to stay away from school but if no more fever, he would be clear to cruise. DGS was 7 days fever free and was cleared to cruise. I was also 7 days free of fever but the congestion and bronchitis lingered and really took a lot out of me.
It was really a tough week of worrying about the cruise. We had purchased trip insurance. If one of us was still really sick, what would we do? Could we really go and leave DN behind if his sickness became worse? Would we push the envelope on being non-contagious and go anyway? What if MIL started running a fever later in the week? I’m swearing off February cruises! We’ve never had the flu and now everybody seems to be falling. I refused to sleep with DH all week so he could stay well. I was never in same room with MIL for 5 days! On our FB group, someone said they arrived in FL on Friday night and their DD had started running a fever. She made no mention of possibly not cruising – but don’t know how she handled it, so I don’t want to imply anything negative. It’s just that getting sick has never been part of our vacation/Disney picture. But that’s why I get the trip insurance!!! I’m just sooo thankful our integrity was not put to the test because, I’ll tell you, it would have been HARD to cancel.
But as you can see from the fact that this is a trip report, we actually did cruise. I’ll wrap up here for now. Next up. Our Saturday travel day – and the reminder for the flight that wasn’t.
Our Cruise: 4-Day Bahama on Disney Wonder
Our Crew:
Me – 60+ Nana – this is our 4th Disney cruise with the first trip being on the Wonder in 2001. I’m an uber planner so it feels like I’ve been on a lot more Disney cruises since each cruise seems to last 2 years. We’ve also sailed Carnival, NCL and MSC and have lots of trips to WDW.
DH – Poppy is also 60+. He lets me plan all I want.
MIL – we lost FIL this past June. We had planned to take them on a Nov. 2017 cruise in MSC Yacht Club but cancelled when he got sick.
DD – 27. Her significant doesn’t do Disney or family trips. So DD roomed with and was in charge of MIL.
DS and DSS – Son and his significant. Both around 30. Collectively, the last three are “the millennials”.
DGS – 5 year old grandson (son of DS) – his first cruise. Has been to WDW twice.
DN – 9 year old nephew – his second cruise with one trip to WDW under his belt.
When I originally booked the cruise, the only thing I knew was, at the very least, DH and I would cruise with the two boys. So I booked a veranda for 4, and two inside staterooms for what at the time could be 4 milliennials – knowing that could change. When I added MIL to the booking, I added a 2nd veranda stateroom. At that point I had 12 different names on 4 staterooms so I could cover all the bases.
Over time, we narrowed it down to 1-inside and 2-verandas with our cast of 8. Initially the 2 verandas were separated by 6 cabins. I kept going back to the website and checking availability. The week before PIF, I found 2 side-by-side verandas that were 6 doors down from the inside stateroom. We were in 6030 and 6032 which is right off the forward elevators on the port side. We hardly ever saw anyone or heard people in the corridor. Our next door neighbors were loud talkers and we could definitely hear them. But it was mainly when their other family members stopped by and their
door was open. They could probably say the same for us and our coughing (more later).
This was a new experience for MIL who lives in MI – there are other family members close to her. We live in SC. She never used a computer or email, and relied on FIL for electronic communication via computer. We got her an iPhone this summer and she has loved learning how to text and hearing from various friends and family members. She really likes emojis. She keeps using gay family emojis to represent different groups of people. For example, the 8 of us were represented by 4-female and 4-male families. It was an Olaf and summer moment – one says we should really tell her. The rest vote no. So she continues to send us all kinds of people who love each other – at least in emoji world.
I digress. DS setup a #DisneySquadGoals group text and added All Fun initials at the end which I thought was sweet. So I would text notes and countdown images over the last 6 weeks which helped to build her comfort and excitement with the trip, since it made her feel part of the larger group as others responded and chatted. MIL will not fly. So the weekend before our trip, my sweet DH drove to Kentucky and met BIL/MIL who drove from MI. Kudos to BIL for making that trip. They spent a nice night visiting over dinner and stayed the night in a hotel before reversing directions the next morning.
In the meantime, everyone at DGS’s mother’s house had been coming down with the flu. DS was trying to wrap things up at his company’s NC facility. It’s a bit complicated but I ended up being the one caring for DGS over 3 days – even took a personal day to care for him. Even if you’ve had a flu shot, after you’ve held and comforted a sick, sneezing, coughing, snotty child for 3 days – you get sick. DGS left the house on Sunday. I spent four hours sanitizing surfaces, running extra hot dishwasher, and doing multiple loads of laundry. Then I isolated myself to 1 bathroom and 4 sq ft of recliner in our den. MIL and DH arrive – I assign them to a different TV room, different bathroom, different eco system – and tell DH he’s in charge of meals. I hibernated in my space over Sunday and Monday (another pre-vacation personal day!). Thankfully my company will let me work from home so I did get some hours in. I never developed a full blown version of the flu. It was something that took me down for 2 days and left me with a sinus infection, lingering cough, and other things that go with being on antibiotics.
Next person to fall was DN. His last fever was Tuesday before our Sunday cruise. The doctor told him to stay away from school but if no more fever, he would be clear to cruise. DGS was 7 days fever free and was cleared to cruise. I was also 7 days free of fever but the congestion and bronchitis lingered and really took a lot out of me.
It was really a tough week of worrying about the cruise. We had purchased trip insurance. If one of us was still really sick, what would we do? Could we really go and leave DN behind if his sickness became worse? Would we push the envelope on being non-contagious and go anyway? What if MIL started running a fever later in the week? I’m swearing off February cruises! We’ve never had the flu and now everybody seems to be falling. I refused to sleep with DH all week so he could stay well. I was never in same room with MIL for 5 days! On our FB group, someone said they arrived in FL on Friday night and their DD had started running a fever. She made no mention of possibly not cruising – but don’t know how she handled it, so I don’t want to imply anything negative. It’s just that getting sick has never been part of our vacation/Disney picture. But that’s why I get the trip insurance!!! I’m just sooo thankful our integrity was not put to the test because, I’ll tell you, it would have been HARD to cancel.
But as you can see from the fact that this is a trip report, we actually did cruise. I’ll wrap up here for now. Next up. Our Saturday travel day – and the reminder for the flight that wasn’t.