Make Sure You Get My Shake in the Pic *~* A Lavenous SWDAS Trip Report *~*3/4/17*~*

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Make Sure You Get My Shake in the Pic

*~* A Lavenous SWDAS Trip Report *~*

Piper: Knock knock
Alvin: Who's there?
Piper: Interrupting cow
Alvin: Interrupting cow (Piper "mooooooooooooooo") who?

After reading that joke we told our absolutely favorite server EVER on a Disney cruise, if you aren't terrified of reading further, please join me and my crazy family for an absolutely LAVENOUS vacation trip report! There were loads of mishaps, jokes, and all around laughs along the way. We all agreed that Star Wars Day at Sea was one of the best vacations we've ever taken and I have so much to share with you all!

If you aren't sure why this trip was Lavenous, and more importantly what in the world Lavenous even means, stay tuned as I will get to that as well during the report!

Here's the cast. This is us at Hollywood Studios after getting off of Rock 'n Roller Coaster last Halloween. Who knew there was even a photopass opportunity right by the exit? We've been through there so many times and this was the first time I'd ever noticed it. Much to my families delight I can't miss a good photo op so we jumped in and grabbed our blow up guitars and drum sticks, and did our best rock star impersonations. I think we nailed it...especially in the 2nd pic!

Piper is in the orange, Zoe is in the middle in black, that's me, your "ghost host"....er, I mean Kristen in the striped socks, and Andy in the front. G-Force records will never be the same!

We originally had a cruise planned for a different week in February however when I heard that Disney was going to be introducing Star Wars Days at Sea I quickly had our travel agent switch our booking to the 2/6/16 sailing. I am so glad I jumped on it immediately as the price seemed to skyrocket right after that. Whew! Saved by the quick switch!

Andy is a HUGE Star Wars fan. He has been since he was young and collected pretty much every Star Wars toy made. This cruise was pretty much the trifecta of perfection to him. Disney. Star Wars. Super Bowl. Oh. My. Gosh. Had the Steelers made it into the Super Bowl he probably would've fainted. Died and gone to Star Wars, Disney, Steelers heaven. They didn't, but he kept that dream alive for as long as he could. Like talked about it daily. Visions of Funnelvision danced in his head!

Usually when we go on vacation I have things under control. Like packing lists made, checked a gazillion times over, and way more stuff packed than any group of 4 humans could ever need. This trip I was completely unprepared even though it had been planned and on the horizon for what seemed like forever. Despite forgetting all kinds of essential items, I managed to go with the flow and learned that you can have fun no matter what happens along the way! Honestly, so. much. fun.

So thanks for joining in, I hope you enjoy the ride!







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[JoAnnPan]

Count me in! Looking forward to your report - my sister and I are going on our first cruise ever in November - so excited.
Also a Steelers fan! I will be watching them beat the Ravens on our cruise!!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Count me in! Looking forward to your report - my sister and I are going on our first cruise ever in November - so excited.
Also a Steelers fan! I will be watching them beat the Ravens on our cruise!!

Hooray! How exciting to go on a cruise with your sister! I am sure you will have a wonderful time! We put off cruising for years because honestly I didn't know if I would enjoy it but oh my goodness, it truly is amazing!

That's awesome that you will be able to watch the Steelers on your cruise!!!

 

[devonsmommy]

I think I JUST finished reading an old trip report of yours! Like two minutes ago! I was going back pages and pages looking for a Fantasy Eastern Caribbean one.
Can't wait to hear more about this one!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

We were flying down the night before as I didn't want to risk any travel delays from NY. You just never know what the weather will be like in February and I was terrified we'd miss the cruise. Because we were getting in quite late Friday night, we decided we would rent a car to drive to the Port however we would stay in a hotel near the Orlando airport.

I spent hours hunting around on the internet to find a reasonable yet decent hotel to stay in for the night. I wanted it to be close to the airport and preferably to include breakfast. We ended up going with the Hampton Inn - Orlando International Airport. For the one night it was $142.48. They do offer a shuttle but we rented a car from the airport.

The car rental was through Alamo and I was able to get a pretty good deal on that as well. After the cruise we were spending time in WDW and St. Augustine and for the 10 days the car rental ended up being $311 for a 7 passenger mini van.

The flight down was uneventful but I had already begun to notice that I had forgotten things that we needed. I had brought the Go-Pro yet realized I left home the bag with the battery packs, batteries, and other accessories. I figured that we would be able to swing by a store Saturday morning and get a battery so I didn't panic. Yet. I had also brought my Canon thankfully so we should be good to go. Since I had packed that I really didn't take many pics of the airport, etc. like I usually do. I did use my iphone to take the usual "monorail" pic at the airport. I always feel like I'm officially on vacation once we make it to this point! The girls always make a beeline for the front of the car so they can sit and watch out the window.

I was feeling pretty good that I had done the online check-in for Alamo and all we had to do was roll our luggage up to the self serve kiosk and print out our paperwork, bypassing the insanely huge car rental line considering it was almost 11pm by the time we arrived in Orlando.

We walked out to the car rental area where we were quickly given instructions on how to get our vehicle. You go to the area which has cars in the category you have rented and you just pick any one you want. Pretty cool! We made our decision, loaded up our luggage - there was a TON of space for suitcases luckily, and off we went to find our hotel. Here's a tip folks. Put the address in your GPS (phone) for your hotel before you have exited the Orlando airport and are driving down the expressway. There may or may not have been a few wrong turns extending the couple of miles we had to drive by a few minutes.

There was a very sweet employee working at the check in desk of the hotel. Luckily, because I had to come down to talk to her quite a few times! I snagged a pic of the little breakfast area while we were checking in.

The seating area by the front desk:

When we were checking in another family came in to check in as well. After being unable to locate their reservation they realized they were at the wrong Hampton. Their's was about 20 minutes away. Oh boy, I wasn't envying them at that moment! At least I got us to the right place We headed off to our room exhausted and couldn't get in. Our keys didn't work. We tried them so many times. I trudged downstairs and she reactivated (I am guessing) the keys and off I went. Still nothing! After multiple trips a manager had to come up and OF COURSE the key worked the first time they tried. I about died. I couldn't believe it so I closed the door and we tried again a few times and the keys didn't work. I was still a little skeptical but we got in finally and we were so tired we didn't bother changing rooms or anything like that. Other than the key incident the room was perfectly fine for one night.

We plugged in our phones to charge and headed off to sleep. Everyone was exhausted which meant they were sound asleep within a few minutes and I was wide awake! I finally drifted off and in what seemed like minutes I was awake at the break of dawn! I decided I would get up and get showered which is when I remembered that the night before I had been too tired to mess with the bags and had left the suitcases with all of our shampoo and other toiletries in the van. I snuck outside in my pjs (the lobby was packed with competition cheerleaders LOL) to get everything I needed.

This is the pic I took on my phone.

This was when I first started to get a little crazy. We literally had 7 suitcases in the car as we had taken overnight bag into the hotel. Now, please imagine me in my pajamas and my daughter's mickey crocs freezing (it was surprisingly cold!) while digging through suitcases filled with pirate costumes and Star Wars costumes. I can honestly laugh looking back on it it was so ridiculous but at the time I was clawing through suitcases finding stuff like pirate hats and Star Wars masks but for the life of me I couldn't find my bag of shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, etc. I must've looked like a nut! After going back and forth between the car and the room several times, convinced maybe what I needed was in the room (it wasn't), I eventually located the shampoo and conditioner and took a shower. I still hadn't found the hairspray.

Everyone else was still asleep, oblivious to my mini pre-cruise meltdown.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I think I JUST finished reading an old trip report of yours! Like two minutes ago! I was going back pages and pages looking for a Fantasy Eastern Caribbean one.
Can't wait to hear more about this one!

That is really neat that you just read the Fantasy Eastern trip report I wrote. Thanks for reading it! We really enjoyed that cruise so much and had just as much fun on the Western! I am glad you decided to join for this trip!

 

[TestingH2O]

Well this is certainly an exciting start! Can't wait to read more.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Hello and thanks for reading along! I am excited to share our trip with everyone it truly was magical! I hope you enjoy the report

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Well this is certainly an exciting start! Can't wait to read more.

Hello and thanks for reading along! I am excited to share our trip with everyone it truly was magical! I hope you enjoy the report

 

[nenglim]

following along... i enjoyed your Peach on the beach TR as we prepared for our 4 day sailing on the Dream on 04/11/16

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

following along... i enjoyed your Peach on the beach TR as we prepared for our 4 day sailing on the Dream on 04/11/16

Thanks so much and it's so great to hear that you enjoyed one of my other trip reports. I really like writing trip reports it gives me a chance to relive the experience. I also love reading other people's trip reports to get ideas on things to try on cruises and to pass the time until our next trip! I hope you enjoy this trip report as well . How was your 4 day sailing?

 

[cheermom2four]

Totally following along!!!

 

[nenglim]

Thanks so much and it's so great to hear that you enjoyed one of my other trip reports. I really like writing trip reports it gives me a chance to relive the experience. I also love reading other people's trip reports to get ideas on things to try on cruises and to pass the time until our next trip! I hope you enjoy this trip report as well . How was your 4 day sailing?

We had a great time...especially my 12 and 16 yo boys. we booked for the next one for July 2017 a 5 day on the Dream, so my eldest could still go on the Vibe. The biggest thing we got from your report was the unlimited ice cream social!!! We also got to see the Jungle Book PrimiEAR, which was very cool. i wish we could do the 7 day on the fantasy without having to mortgage our house!!! The prices for them during school vacations and holidays for a family of 5 is outrageous!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Totally following along!!!

Glad you joined the party!! Thanks for following!

We had a great time...especially my 12 and 16 yo boys. we booked for the next one for July 2017 a 5 day on the Dream, so my eldest could still go on the Vibe. The biggest thing we got from your report was the unlimited ice cream social!!! We also got to see the Jungle Book PrimiEAR, which was very cool. i wish we could do the 7 day on the fantasy without having to mortgage our house!!! The prices for them during school vacations and holidays for a family of 5 is outrageous!

I'm glad you had a great trip! The cruise we booked for next year is also a 5 day in July on the Dream. We booked the 7/9/17 double dip - is it the same one by any chance? That's hysterical about the ice cream social! We have so many laughs about the social even when we aren't on a cruise. There's just something about "free" unlimited soft serve ice cream. I guarantee there are is a social or two in the future of this trip report LOL. Jungle Book was an amazing movie, that is so cool that you saw it PremiEAR on the ship. I agree with you on the prices of the cruises during holidays, etc. We usually pull the girls out of school because the price difference is unreal! The Double Dip in July was the closest to our price range we could find for next summer.

 

[nenglim]

Glad you joined the party!! Thanks for following!



I'm glad you had a great trip! The cruise we booked for next year is also a 5 day in July on the Dream. We booked the 7/9/17 double dip - is it the same one by any chance? That's hysterical about the ice cream social! We have so many laughs about the social even when we aren't on a cruise. There's just something about "free" unlimited soft serve ice cream. I guarantee there are is a social or two in the future of this trip report LOL. Jungle Book was an amazing movie, that is so cool that you saw it PremiEAR on the ship. I agree with you on the prices of the cruises during holidays, etc. We usually pull the girls out of school because the price difference is unreal! The Double Dip in July was the closest to our price range we could find for next summer.

Yes, that is the same trip we have booked... i agree with you that was the closest to our price range as well. we used the placement booking i had made when we were onboard and got 10 percent off. that helped soften the blow somehow... i see you are from NY. We are from across the river, NJ. Looking forward to your TR.

 

[KarriTigger]

I don't always comment, but I like your TR's...read them all.. Thanks for letting us relive your magic!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I don't always comment, but I like your TR's...read them all.. Thanks for letting us relive your magic!

Thank you so much for reading along and posting! It always makes me happy to hear people enjoy my trip reports!

 

[ukintheus]

Joining in as well! You've already had an exhausting time just being at the hotel!

 

[condorthb]

following

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Joining in as well! You've already had an exhausting time just being at the hotel!

It was a bit of a rough start but it was an absolutely fabulous vacation! Thanks for joining the party!

following

Hello! Thanks for following along on our adventure!