There's A First Time For Everything.. And Everything's Our First! (PTR Magic 02/26/2017)

Thrifty Canadian

Earning My Ears
Joined
Nov 5, 2015
Note: I'm still new here and am not 100% sure on how to format things in forums. Forgive me as I take my first steps! ((Moved from wrong forum.... lol))


I am so excited to be writing a pre-trip report!! Little old me is actually going on a Disney Cruise! I am ACTUALLY taking my kids on the trip of a lifetime and I am making it happen all by myself. :)



That is me. I'm currently 38 years old and I'm a single Mom from Ontario, Canada. I am self-employed with a part time business making diaper cakes and am not by any means rolling in money. I was in a car accident 2 years ago and cannot work too much. I have, however, realized that our time on this Earth is short and can be cut even shorter at any time. My kids are my life and I want to spend as much time with them as possible making memories. I'm also a peppy morning person, while DS is NOT. Which I'm sure will play a hilarious part in the unfolding of our cruise. evil laugh




Those are my kids. DS is 14, and DD is 6. They are very good at pretending they get along for the camera. :love:




DS is a huge nature nut and loves all things animals. He would prefer to spend time with an animal over a human any day of the week.





DD wants to be a singing, ice-skating mermaid with some form of magic power when she grows up. Think Ariel and Elsa all in one firecracker of a package.



One evening in early 2014 we happened across a plug for DCL while watching America's Funniest Home Videos :happytv: and all three of us sat up and paid attention. We'd never heard of this before. Usually I don't let myself even THINK of vacations (especially not Disney) because a) I grew up poor and we could never afford any sort of vacation (plus I'm a single Mom, now), and b) I don't do airplanes. :eek: But I was close to finishing college and knew there was a decent-paying job waiting for me when I was done in a few short months. So maybe I could at least look into it. After all, I could drive, right??

Well. The more we looked into it, the more we thought we might be able to pull it off. So we let ourselves consider it a possibility, and started putting some money away. I didn't know when we'd have enough to actually go, but we were determined to try!



Fast forward a few months, and we come to the car accident. DD was in the car with me as we went to pick up my son from his part time job (he was working with parrots!), and someone decided they didn't need to look for oncoming traffic before they turned left. In the end DD and I were alright, but I will continue to suffer from some pretty serious muscle damage in my neck. Couldn't finish school and no job waiting for me anymore. I also can't drive much more than an hour without breaks and without feeling serious pain. We ate through our emergency savings pretty easily, and our Disney savings had to pick up the slack. I promised the kids we'd turn things right again and about a year and a half later (November 2015) we actually put the deposit down on our chosen cruise!!:tigger:


We chose a Disney Cruise as our trip of a lifetime because it wraps up our three wants in one vacation:

~DD, the Princess wants to be treated as such by everyone she meets.
~DS wants to swim with dolphins- he doesn't care where.
~I don't believe water can be that colour. And because palm trees.


This is the extent of our boat/water experience.

~We'd like to experience the family-like atmosphere of Disney, but without all the walking. And not one of us cares for rides.


I'm not a foodie and I don't drink, so the big attraction of all meals will be that I get to dress up and have someone else bring me food. Sorry to anyone who was hoping to see/hear about wine-tasting and Palo/Remy. That won't be me. :) I'm always taking the kids out to museums and festivals and doing kid-type things with them and I get a ton of enjoyment out of watching them experience these things. Our cruise will be quite kid-oriented with a few “Me time” things snuck in where possible. Also, I'm a huge sap and I can see DS keeping track of just how many times I shed a tear or two over the course of our vacation. He thinks it's hilarious. :/



Where I'm at in the planning:

Due to financial constraints and the fact that I do not have a credit card and am paying for all of this with cash only, (and possibly the insane need I have to know everything that's going on at all times) I am playing my own travel agent for every part of this adventure. Considering I've never done this before this is proving to be fun, embarrassing and informative all at the same time. I'm so glad I have a sense of humour because trying to figure all of this out on my own is brutal! :surfweb:

Cruise tickets: We've got a little more than our required deposit already down on the cruise. The exchange rate right now is killing me, though it's improved over the past few weeks. I'm not sure what number will make me jump on paying the rest off, but I know I'm not quite ready yet.

Flight: Driving is now out of the question. So in order to make this happen, we HAVE to fly. :sick: Only one of all applicable airlines currently has their schedule up for the time frame we need. I did chat with someone at a local Flight Center about prices since I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, and she gave me a good round number to aim for. Prices are pretty steep for me right now and I'm hoping they start to go down a little as other airlines release their schedules. It looks like I'll have to wait about a month for all of them to be up and ready. In that time I have to narrow down a departure date and a return date. There is no way I will survive the cruise blues, so I'd like to stay in Miami for a few days after we disembark. The hope: February 24 - Mar 7.

Hotel: This is an easy one. Comfort Suites Miami Airport North. Breakfast is included, as is a shuttle to/from the airport and the cruise port, and some of the best prices I've seen given all that's offered. Of course we're going up the night before the cruise, but because I'm worried about weather playing a factor in whether or not we actually get ON a plane on our intended day, I would be more comfortable going up two days before embarkation. With their prices and transportation service, we certainly can afford to do this. I have yet to decide how long we will be staying in Miami after the cruise, so I can't say 100% that we'll be staying st this hotel after as well. Our pre-cruise dates are not available yet on their calendar so we have to wait to book this. I also have to consider the exchange rate here as well.

Car rental: Still not sure on this one. Considering a stop at Jungle Island to hang out with the lemurs (my son's favourite animal of all time) the day after we disembark. Driving a Ford Mustang convertible is on my bucket list and what better place to do it than while in Miami??? Hoping it's in the budget, if even only for one day. :drive:VROOM VROOM!!


Excursions:

Of course we'll be hitting up the Extreme Dolphin Swim on Grand Cayman day. All three of us will be jumping in and taking part. I expect to pay dearly for those photos. :hyper: The kids don't know that we'll also be hanging out at the Turtle Farm afterwards. Being the only one planning everything for this trip, it kind of sucks knowing every little thing that we will be doing almost every step of the way. So I've refused to look up anything to do with the turtle farm other than the brief description Disney has on their site. I won't know anything more than the kids once we get there!!

I'm crossing my fingers, toes and eyeballs that Castaway Cay is sunny and warmish when we arrive. I don't like the cold. DD wants to feed the stingrays and go snorkeling, so if the water's cold I will have to work extra hard at enjoying myself. DS wants do the Wild Side Teen Adventure. He figures he'll be hanging out with other teens for most of the cruise (he makes friends easily) and doesn't want to miss out on more time with them. I myself am going to hop on a jetski and scoot around in those fake aqua-coloured waters (still in disbelief). DD doesn't want to be anywhere without me but has agreed to play at the Scuttle's Cove kids program so I can do that. How thoughtful. o_O The only photo I want of just myself is of me on that jetski. I likely will never ever do anything like this again and I want photo proof that it happened.


Us Geocaching last week!

I've done SO much research on all the details of planning a Disney Cruise, but it's not easy when I not only have never been on a cruise but I've never purchased flight tickets, AND I'm coming in from Canada (I've never crossed the border before!). So many details to learn and remember. I can't wait to actually walk on the ship and enjoy our first ever vacation. I sure picked a big one, didn't I?!
 
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Welcome to cruising! :welcome: It sounds like you and your kids have been through an awful lot lately so this vacation will be so amazing for you all!!

We are also in Canada (BC) and yes, the exchange is killer but as of late it's been going up up up, woohoo!
 
Welcome to cruising! :welcome: It sounds like you and your kids have been through an awful lot lately so this vacation will be so amazing for you all!!

We are also in Canada (BC) and yes, the exchange is killer but as of late it's been going up up up, woohoo!


Thanks! We are excited but for the most part, are keeping quite reserved because it's still so far away. I'm so happy to see the dollar has reached 79c! Seeing 80c on my screen might make me put the rest on the cruise, but if it starts looking like it wants to go further I may just wait a few weeks more.
 


We are 10 months less a day from boarding the Magic!!! :love: I promised myself I'd write an update a month for the first few months and even though there isn't been much to report, I'm keeping my word.

I found a Cinderella T-shirt for my daughter on clearance for $3 at Walmart the other day, so I picked that up and put it away for the trip. That's about the only progress so far. (teehee)

All of the applicable airlines have their schedules up now for that month, so I've been able to compare prices prematurely. AirCanada is currently winning by a landslide, though it's still a bit too high for my liking. Though with the Canadian dollar starting to settle down again, I may just be able to even things out in the end.

My sister has decided she no longer wishes to hear about my plans for Disney, so I officially have no one left to gush about the trip to save for you guys. I guess that's why many of us are here, huh? :teeth:

Well I literally have nothing else to report. Nothing.

*sigh*
 

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