bellebookworm9
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 25, 2009
Hello! My name is Gretchen and it has been way, way, WAY too long since I have written a trip report! You may know me as one half of "The Twinsies" from my 2014 trip reports that got quite a lot of views (especially Disneyland) - you can find the links in my sig if you're interested.
I'm 26 years old and last summer I moved across the country from Buffalo, NY to Bellingham, WA for a new job. I'm happily employed as an audiologist at an ENT practice, and live a quiet, introverted life with my three cats (Carly is 12, Tiny Sir is 1.5, and Gus is almost 8 months). I also moonlight as a Disney specialized TA in my free time, which is how this trip came about (I'm not plugging my services, I promise, but this is relevant info). I did the WDW College Program in 2012, have traveled to WDW numerous times and Disneyland twice, but I had never made it onboard a cruise, Disney or otherwise. Thought about it many times, even paid a deposit for a week on the Fantasy, and then decided to go to Disneyland for the 60th Anniversary instead - priorities, people. You can cruise anytime but the Diamond Celebration wasn't lasting forever! (I'll tell you now, I LOVE the DIS emojis, and wish I had access to them in other forms of text.)
My travel partner for this trip, and many in the past, is my mom, Debbie. She's 60 and this was her first cruise, too. She still lives in Buffalo with the majority of our extended family and we had not seen each other since she returned home after my move seven months prior.
How did this trip come about, you're probably wondering? All good trip reports start with a background story! Well, the travel agency I work for has agents scattered about the country. At some point, in early February 2017, the idea came about that we should take a cruise to meet each other, at our own expense. Bring the family, bring whoever you want. There was a poll about dates and length of cruise, and it turned out the 3-Night Bahamian on the Wonder from February 8-11, 2018 worked for most people - and also happened to be THE cheapest option out there (always a nice bonus)! I booked our stateroom in late February 2017. Soon after that, my mom's friend "C" and her husband "B" said they would like to come, too, so I booked their room as well. As the months went on, the original number of agents going dropped down to a whopping nine who actually made it onboard.
I was DYING for a Disney vacation, since my last WDW trip was March 2015 and last Disneyland trip was September 2015. Alas, life and student loan debt and minimum wage pay in animal shelter life prevented me from going back sooner. I figured if we were going to do this, we were going to do it RIGHT, and we'd always been interested in the Navigator's Verandah on the older ships. At first, I booked us in 7120 (my mom has an aversion to the number 6, so that knocks out one whole deck and about half the ship on any other deck for stateroom options). Then, as I continued my planning, I found that 7120 is actually a regular plexiglass verandah with an obstructed view from the hull design, and we just really wanted the true Navigator's option. So I switched our room to 7128. "C" and "B" had originally planned to bring their teenage granddaughters and stay in an inside stateroom, but that didn't work out, and I was able to upgrade them to a Category 6A (verandah with whitewall) for about the same price with just the two of them. I put them in 7634, really not too far from our room at all, basically just around the corner.
Flights were booked (me from Vancouver, about an hour from my apartment, and everyone else from Buffalo), a one night pre-cruise stay at All Star Sports was arranged, a passport was obtained (for me, to fly from Vancouver), an enhanced driver's license was obtained (for my mom, to give me peace of mind about re-entering the states after the cruise), excursions were chosen, excitement built up (a year is a really, really long time to wait), pet sitters were hired, time off was arranged from work (I only get three vacation days this first year so I had to use them wisely), and FINALLY, it was time to go!
I'm 26 years old and last summer I moved across the country from Buffalo, NY to Bellingham, WA for a new job. I'm happily employed as an audiologist at an ENT practice, and live a quiet, introverted life with my three cats (Carly is 12, Tiny Sir is 1.5, and Gus is almost 8 months). I also moonlight as a Disney specialized TA in my free time, which is how this trip came about (I'm not plugging my services, I promise, but this is relevant info). I did the WDW College Program in 2012, have traveled to WDW numerous times and Disneyland twice, but I had never made it onboard a cruise, Disney or otherwise. Thought about it many times, even paid a deposit for a week on the Fantasy, and then decided to go to Disneyland for the 60th Anniversary instead - priorities, people. You can cruise anytime but the Diamond Celebration wasn't lasting forever! (I'll tell you now, I LOVE the DIS emojis, and wish I had access to them in other forms of text.)
My travel partner for this trip, and many in the past, is my mom, Debbie. She's 60 and this was her first cruise, too. She still lives in Buffalo with the majority of our extended family and we had not seen each other since she returned home after my move seven months prior.
How did this trip come about, you're probably wondering? All good trip reports start with a background story! Well, the travel agency I work for has agents scattered about the country. At some point, in early February 2017, the idea came about that we should take a cruise to meet each other, at our own expense. Bring the family, bring whoever you want. There was a poll about dates and length of cruise, and it turned out the 3-Night Bahamian on the Wonder from February 8-11, 2018 worked for most people - and also happened to be THE cheapest option out there (always a nice bonus)! I booked our stateroom in late February 2017. Soon after that, my mom's friend "C" and her husband "B" said they would like to come, too, so I booked their room as well. As the months went on, the original number of agents going dropped down to a whopping nine who actually made it onboard.
I was DYING for a Disney vacation, since my last WDW trip was March 2015 and last Disneyland trip was September 2015. Alas, life and student loan debt and minimum wage pay in animal shelter life prevented me from going back sooner. I figured if we were going to do this, we were going to do it RIGHT, and we'd always been interested in the Navigator's Verandah on the older ships. At first, I booked us in 7120 (my mom has an aversion to the number 6, so that knocks out one whole deck and about half the ship on any other deck for stateroom options). Then, as I continued my planning, I found that 7120 is actually a regular plexiglass verandah with an obstructed view from the hull design, and we just really wanted the true Navigator's option. So I switched our room to 7128. "C" and "B" had originally planned to bring their teenage granddaughters and stay in an inside stateroom, but that didn't work out, and I was able to upgrade them to a Category 6A (verandah with whitewall) for about the same price with just the two of them. I put them in 7634, really not too far from our room at all, basically just around the corner.
Flights were booked (me from Vancouver, about an hour from my apartment, and everyone else from Buffalo), a one night pre-cruise stay at All Star Sports was arranged, a passport was obtained (for me, to fly from Vancouver), an enhanced driver's license was obtained (for my mom, to give me peace of mind about re-entering the states after the cruise), excursions were chosen, excitement built up (a year is a really, really long time to wait), pet sitters were hired, time off was arranged from work (I only get three vacation days this first year so I had to use them wisely), and FINALLY, it was time to go!