2006 DVC Member Cruise - SSMC06 - October 22, 2006 Part 2

[WDWLVR]

Amy - congrats on becoming an Aunt!

Cindy - my condolences on losing your Aunt.

rsschneck - congrats on post #3000!

 

[mrsdon]

Cindy
So sorry to hear about the loss of your aunt.

 

[alikat99]

Oh Cindy - I'm SO sorry to hear about your aunt. My prayers are with your family!!!

 

[Diana Lyn]

3000 posts!

Congrats on post 3000!!

 

[Scratch42]

Cindy sorry for your loss.

janet

 

[Scratch42]

Well today is the day I hope to meet up with Jacqui from the cruise!

Weather Permitting, of course!

Have a Disney Day Everybody!

janet

 

[chipscinderelly]

It's a BOY!!!



Caleb Wade was born at 3:59pm CST. 6 lbs, 1 oz and 19" long

My side of the family is SO excited because we already have 5 girls (my 2 and my sister's 3), so this is the first little boy. He's going to be one spoiled little guy!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to the entire family!!!

 

[chipscinderelly]

I have no idea who Jim Brickman is and I did not see the show on PBS.

Stacy - he plays the piano and sometimes sings his own songs or has others. He's famous for "the Gift" and other romance songs. His most recent album (do we still call em that?) is a Disney Songbook.

 

[chipscinderelly]

WOW
I didnt even notice I hit 1100 posts the other day.
Im exhausted.
My dog has decided that 1am is the time he wants to go out side and roll around on the grass and BARK!!!
Hes such a baby.
Im going to bed early tonight, so I'll probably miss chat.

CONGRATS Debbie!

 

[WDWLVR]

We saw the Jim Brinkman special on PBS the other night. It was wonderful! It was shot at WDW and it was great to see the castle as a backdrop every now and then. I'll have to look for his CD while we are at DCA today.

 

[chipscinderelly]

So I'm going to have a repeat of last Saturdays call in frenzy tomorrow morning at 10 when I try to get Billy Joel tickets! I'm already a nervous wreck....practicing my ticketmaster.com skills!

OK, not a very serious or life altering event but I can use some pixie dust!!

GO DIANA!!! Oh isn't this his last tour also?

 

[chipscinderelly]

I JUST got home! Can you imagine being stuck in the office? There were approximately 150 employees in the building. My office was closed at 3pm and those employees that left at 3pm didn't get out of the business park until 6pm. They recently built another building in the park and getting in and out was a problem during the summer. Now that winter is here I'm very concerned today is going to be the norm! Everyone who stayed in the office said they are going to call in sick if we are expecting a lot of snow.

I'm so happy to be home! The roads are terrible!

I am so gld you were able to get out and get safely home! I hope they fix the problem or it sounds like you are going to have a sick out.

 

[chipscinderelly]

Amy had good news today. I have bad news.

I've heard it say for every birth, there is a death. Tonight it's in my family.

My Mom sister, who the doctors told on Sunday she would have 6-10 weeks left, passed away early this evening.

I am very sad that my Mom didn't get to say goodbye. I planned to take her to see my aunt at the hospital last Wednesday night, but my aunt was released by then. I couldn't take her earlier in the week as I had prevous committments Monday & Tuesday. Since my Mom had a stroke 11 years ago, she hasn't been able to walk stairs and mostly gets around by way of a wheelchair. So, going to see my Aunt, who lived in an older style bungalow with a set of stairs to get inside, was not an option.

My cousin's son arranged for his Eagle Scout friend to come on Thursday night to help my Mom into my aunt's house. But, we had a snow storm here instead and there is no way my Mom could have been out in the snow we had last night.

We planned to get her there over the weekend. Now it's too late. My Mom did get to talk to her sister on the phone this afternoon, but I know this is going to be very hard on my Mom. As sisters, they had the bond I will never have with my own sisters.

It's just so unbelievable. I guess I have to think about how many years my aunt lived without any ailments. She had a long and healthy life up until the last couple of months. And, 2 sons she adored along with 2 DIL's she adored and a bunch of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren who will carry on what she instilled in all of them.

I know I will always have very fond memories of her.

Cindy - our deepest sympathy to you, your mom, Gary, Cameron, Walker and your entire family. We are thinking of all of you and wishing you peace.

 

[cgcw]

Morning all

Thanks for the good thoughts and prayers. It's going to be a rough couple of days coming up but we'll get through it.

Good thing is that I forewarned my daycare families yesterday when they picked up that my aunt's passing as on the horizon (I just had no idea at that point it was in the process) so when I find out the arrangements and call them, they won't be totally surprised that they will need to make other arrangements for their children.

 

[KarenNY]

Cindy-I am sorry for your loss. Cherish your memories of your dear aunt.
Amy-Congrats on your new nephew!
Stacy- hi neighbor

 

[cgcw]

Sorry I missed you guys, I was doing the Christmas cards and making my weekend list of things we need to get done. Don't tell Bruce about the list......

I have a list going in my head too. Gary doesn't know about it yet (I'm sure he will soon when he reads it here). I was talking to Amy about commissioning her Mom to make some Disney themed valances for my kitchen and bathroom which is right off the kitchen. Gail and I were talking about sponge painting and such and now I have tons of ideas flowing through my head. I've already hunted down some accessories on ebay and disneyshopping. So, I'm on a roll.

Gary's all time favorite phrase I use is "I was thinking......" because it usually means I'm thinking of something for him to do.

 

[scrappy910]

My dh hates to see me turn to HGTV because he knows it will usually mean I will come up with something for him to do. I usually do all the painting in the house. Too inpatient to wait for dh to "find the time". My kitchen is disney themed. I have been buying the different tea kettles and they sit on top of my cupboards. Have other disney items for the kitchen but haven't gotten everything the way I like it. I just keep moving things around. And since my grandson no longer likes to sit in the high chair I can now move that out of the kitchen area and have more space to arrange my disney stuff. Haven't figured out what color to paint the walls. Right now they are just builders neutral (YUK!!!) When Gail and John come down for Christmas I will get Gail's input to arranging. She is good at that. Maybe I could just hire her and pay her with a stay at WDW!!!

Carol

 

[WDWLVR]

Well Mark has posted a bit and I'm sure he'll add more today but here is my recap of the trip so far - sorry very long so skip if you want.

Thursday night was one of those nights that nothing seemed to go right. From the flight delays to the wierd neighbors. Just didn't get the trip off to the best start. Friday, however, was an awesome day.

Started the morning by heading down to the front desk and explaining that we would like to change rooms. I prefaced it with the girl by saying she might need her manager. Nope she heard what I had to say, looked us up in the system (where we are assuming the notes about the noisy neighbors and non working phone were) and assured us she would find us another room. Only problem is we would have to check out of our old one and then check back in later that day. She did not have a room we could move right into. No problem.

We then head over to Goofy's Kitchen. It is a character breakfast buffet that in the past we have been able to just walk into. Same at most (but not all) of the breakfast buffets at WDW. Wrong - without a reservation the wait was 90 minutes! Not to worry Grandville's was open. No characters and no buffet but the food was good and we were seated immediately. Then up to the room to pack (no problem - we are traveling light) and down to Bell Services to check our bags.

First stop was the Disney Travel company office in Downtown Disney. We are on a package and got a voucher for a nice travel bag from them. Then off to Disneyland. For those who haven't been here you can easily walk from the hotel, through Downtown Disney and to both parks. It is much more compact than WDW.

We get lockers and stow our jackets since it is now warming up. First ride was Storbook Gardens. You right in these little boats past miniature villages from all the Disney stories. We even got the golden boat. All of the original rides here at Disneyland have one Golden vehicle in honor of the 50th. Mark checks his phone and sees he has a message from Todd saying he was calling because Cheryl told him to call at 8. He didn't say they were in the park. So thinking they were still on their way we decide to head over to Small World. Out here they redo it for the holidays and it is awesome! We watched the outside show at the top of the hour and then road the ride inside. While inside we got another call. Mark's ringer is hard to hear so we keep missing these calls. Mark calls back and gets Todd's voice mail (turns out they were inside riding Small World. We head over to New Orleans Square and finally at about 11 am we finally connect and hear they are on their way over by train.

They get in about 11:25 and we go check in for our 11:30 lunch. We only had a short wait for a table and then had a very nice sit-down lunch at Blue Bayou. After lunch we stayed together and rode Pirates. Then walked over and did Haunted Mansion. This is another ride that Disneyland revamps for the holiday season. This one with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Excellent! After that we did the Winnie-the-Pooh ride (you ride in beehives out here not honey pots), then a short break for some candy shopping. Splash has a 90 minute wait so we skip that. We head over to Mr. Toads wild ride since they don't have that at WDW any more. By this time it is close to 3 pm and our room should be ready (and our feet are tired). We invite Cheryl and Todd to come back with us and relax for a while.

On the way out we find a DVC kiosk and have a great conversation with a CM there named Lowell. DVC seems to be selling really well here in California. As we go past another DVC kiosk in Downtown Disney Cheryl spots a CM with the "I know a secret" DVC pin and asks if i have it. I don't and would love it but didn't bring any trading pins. Not to fear - Cheryl has and trades for it and gives it to me. Thanks Cheryl! We then pass a pin booth where I insist on buying Cheryl a replacement pin and pick up about 7 more of our own including the one for Narnia that just came out that day. Finally at the hotel and we have a new room. Same tower, same location, just two floors up. Pick up our bags and off we go. Wonderful room!

After relaxing and talking a bit we decide to head out to dinner. We chose Storyteller's Cafe over at the Grand Floridian. We only had about a 15 minute wait. Food was great (Cheryl and I ordered off the menu while the guys did the buffet). They do a character breakfast here with Chip and Dale and we made plans to join Cheryl and Todd here Monday morning. Then it was off to Downtown Disney to catch the monorail.

Mark and I had tickets for the dessert buffet for the Fantasmic showing at 9 pm and it said check-in was at 8 so we said good-bye to Cheryl and Todd and made our way over there. By now my ankle was really bother me (way too much walking) so when we got there we sat in the cute little second story coutryard and waiting for check in. There are only about 20 seats on the balcony and they seat you by when your call comes in for the tickets. We didn't call for ourselves. We found that since we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel vacation planning there could take care of it. We were the second ones seated and had front and center seats. A lavish display of desserts were available and we both had some but not a lot. To be honest the fact that we could walk right in and sit down without staking out a spot on the ground 2 hours before was worth it.

After Fantasmic we got to stay in our seats for the firewoks. Really nice. Part of the soundtrack is from Wishes and the rest is narrated by Julie Andrews and hightlights the major rides in the park.

It is now after 10 pm so we head back to the room, unpack and go to sleep. We had a great night with no noisy neighbors. Yeah!

All in all a wonderful day and I'm happy we got to share most of it with friends. Today is much more relaxed. Going to Disney's California Adventure and maybe to see Narnia.

Sorry this was so long but if you read it all - thanks!

 

[cgcw]

My dh hates to see me turn to HGTV because he knows it will usually mean I will come up with something for him to do. I usually do all the painting in the house. Too inpatient to wait for dh to "find the time". My kitchen is disney themed. I have been buying the different tea kettles and they sit on top of my cupboards. Have other disney items for the kitchen but haven't gotten everything the way I like it. I just keep moving things around. And since my grandson no longer likes to sit in the high chair I can now move that out of the kitchen area and have more space to arrange my disney stuff. Haven't figured out what color to paint the walls. Right now they are just builders neutral (YUK!!!) When Gail and John come down for Christmas I will get Gail's input to arranging. She is good at that. Maybe I could just hire her and pay her with a stay at WDW!!!

Carol

Hey, good idea. Maybe I can hire Gail too when she's done. I can offer loads of shopping at Woodfield Mall if that's an incentive.

I envy people who have the "touch". My sister lives in a beautiful home, it's like a model, only it has that lived in feel to it. My sister could walk into my home and rearrange my furniture and it make feel more homey without a second thought. In fact, many years ago, my ex and I lived in an apartment down the street from my sister's house. For kicks, my sister would come over and we'd do just that. It was amazing what her touches would add to a room.

But I know she's not for hire, so hey, Gail, are you interested in a "winter project"?

 

[cgcw]

Sorry this was so long but if you read it all - thanks!

I read it all and now I want to take my family out to Disneyland. Thanks...I look forward to the next "edition".