Happy New Year!

So it's 11:30pm, and I'm trying to stay up and watch the ball drop in my time zone. We already saw the new york time, so I believe I'm good to go. Taylor and I are looking forward to a great 2008. We each have big birthdays this year. Taylor hits the double digits and I hit the big 40! Still trying to decide what to do for my big birthday. I guess it will all depend on the finances.



Here's tay and omni relaxing watching the ball drop in new york. I still fool her with the time zone issue. She stays up til midnight somewhere!

So whats all of your new years resolutions? Mine is still the same as last year....ORGANIZATION. I want to be organized in all aspects. Home, finance, work. I have succeeded in the work one. I am on the ball there, so this year I will tackle home and finance. Of course putting the finance part last. Home is about half way there. I got started a little late this year on my home improvements but they're coming along.

Now, for the rest of this week, I need to put away the xmas decorations. BUT FIRST get over this cold! I can't believe I picked up a bug after xmas. Taylor is on antibiotics too. We just have some bugs over here.

Have a great new year and lots of love and luck in 2008!

LOVE YA
Steph and Tay

Post Holiday Blahs....

So here we are 2 days after xmas and I'm tired. My sister, her husband and son came up for a visit..jeez I forgot how a little one can tire you out. (And I wasn't even the one taking care of him!) We had a great holiday. Taylor got many of her "list" items. She's very happy with Santa this year. Now it's time to clean up. That's the blah part!
So here are some pictures from the holidays....

David discovers his love of trampolines!


Courtney volunteered her services to help make some appetizers for everyone. She was very helpful even though she was fighting a cold!

The kids couldn't wait to open presents on christmas eve. All of taylors cousins were there for dinner. We had a full house! We also met our cousin rebeccas new man, mark. A very nice guy. It was nice to see laurie and rebecca again. I'm holding mark and rebecca to my wine date in the future!


David became friends with omni. (or rather omni gave up running from david) I think omni discovered the benefits of a toddler. David was omni's little salt lick! And oh boy, when david was done with dinner, omni went in an cleaned up the high chair. What a help!
We never really saw madison the cat. She saw david and the dog and took off for under my bed and didn't come out until today. She's still mad that the dog is here but at least she's roaming around the house now.
Taylor spent christmas eve night with her dad and his GF and her son. So she had to wait until she came home christmas day to open her presents. She was very excited that her uncle got her a keyboard so she can practice her piano skills.

Taylor and david loved their christmas presents. They played with them until it was time to go to grandmas for dinner.


My sister and her husband at moms on christmas day. They do this popper thing after dinner and everyone has to wear paper crowns. It's fun after a few glasses of wine!


Me and my bro being silly with our crowns. All in all a fun few days. I'm definately looking forward to some down time. Too bad there's some cleaning that is involved in that. If only I got a merry maids certificate. I'll ask santa for that next year.

Happy Holiday and a great new year!

Cold December Weekend

Well the big game was here saturday night and we lost. It was too bad, but the kids had a great season and were proud that they reached the championship. Their first time ever. This game was televised on FSN too. We have TV time outs. My cousin and her friends were also excited to be cheering in the Oakland Coliseum. Quite different from the High School bleacher experience. It was so cold at the game, but we had a great time. Even though our football team lost, our cheerleaders were better and our band was better. SO THERE!
How cute are these girls. This was their last football game to cheer for and they are sad it's over.
Taylor and her cousin Nick, stayed at my house and destroyed it with the babysitter. They were a little miffed that they couldn't go to the game, but they would have been miserable and in the end, they enjoyed the babysitter.

On Sunday we had a piano recital at school. I put her performance on the page. My little prodigy. It was a cute performance as seen below.

We also have the house decorated and put the tree up. .

It's small but does the job. Already the gifts are under taunting my child. HAHAHAHA. So we're ready for the christmas holiday. 2 weeks of school left and then VACATION.

Have a great holiday!

Happy Birthday to me....etc...

So today is the last birthday of my 30's and what exciting thing did I do....wait for it....

I cleaned my house, oh and put up the xmas tree. Woo hoo...what an exciting day.

We've had a fun week off of work, now it's time to go back. :(

So here's a run down of the thanksgiving weekend festivities... I drove down to So Cal to see my sister and her family at her inlaws. A long drive down due to traffic in Santa Barbara. But, when you hit Pismo Beach on 101...it's beautiful. I keep forgetting that I love the beach. Not necesarily lounging on it, but I think living on the california coast would be amazing. I hope that someday I'll be able to do it. Anyways, landed safely in Ventura, CA and had a great 24 hour visit with the family. My sisters baby is so big and very cute.

He was fun to visit with and I made sure to remind him that I was his favorite auntie! So after the lovely dinner preparred by the other aunt, I loaded up my car and headed home. My friend was really wanting to get in line early to best buy and get a good deal on a computer. Well by 8:30 pm the line at best buy in 2 different cities was around the store. So she settled on Circut City and called to have me meet her there to spend the night. That's right..we spent the night in front of the store along with hundreds of others. It was freezing and I left several times to go home and get more blankets and go potty. Luckily she picked the store that was 5 minutes from my house so I could go back and forth. Here's a picture of the line around 4:30am
Now just so you can appreciate it, It went around the side and back of the building. Anyways, we found some good deals but I can't elaborate as some are xmas gifts.

After that long night, I went home to go to bed. I then called my dd's dad and said I'd come and pick her up, but they were going to the movies..yea! so more time to lounge and catch up on sleep. I felt hungover! Then saturday night tay and I went to the big California High School football game. Their 2nd playoff game against James Logan High School. We beat my local HS last week and now they were going to try again to continue on the the championship. Now, Cal was not expected to win. They were the underdogs and this was their first time in the playoffs but they totally kicked butt and won 27-9. It was awesome. My cousins BF scored a touchdown and now the kids are totally pumped as they get to play in the Oakland Coliseum against the Powerhouse that is De La Salle. I hope you'll all keep your fingers crossed and hope that Cal pulls a major upset! After all this is DeLaSalles 16th consecutive title bid...don't ya think it's time they gave someone else a chance!

Anyhoo..there's our family update. 4 more weeks of school and then we're out for 2 weeks for the xmas holidays.

hope you all had a great thanksgiving.

Who's got a birthday coming up????

I do, I do...so as another year passes. I realize that many of you do not know that I am really lazy...I mean really lazy...beyond what you'd think!
I've decided to share my new favorite TV show with you...as most you who know me, know I TIVO everything...gotta love that recorder.
I definately have guilty pleasures that will remain a mystery. BUT this TV year I am really enjoying Gossip Girl on the CW. I didn't think I was going to give that channel a chance after my beloved Gilmore Girls ended and they cancelled Veronica Mars. In fact, I orginally tuned in to Gossip Girl because Kristin Bell ( the actress that played Veronica Mars) was doing the voice over for the show. This show has all the juicy inane drama that I love. Anyways, if you haven't checked it out yet..I recommend it...it's on wed. nights. I know that I like it cause it's one of the few shows I watch during it's actual time, not on TIVO.
Nothing else stands out, but remember that Nip/Tuck has started up again...and it's even better in LA. Such a great show easy to get into no matter how long you've been watching.
Another new show to me is Hero's. This show is driving me crazy cause I didn't watch season 1 (and again, the only reason I watch now is that Kristin Bell is doing a guest stint) but while waiting for VM to appear I have started to really enjoy this show. I'm sure this is old news to most of you but it's new to me!
So as my last birthday of my 30's approachs, I realize that I need another TIVO..hint hint...no just kidding.
I realize how lucky and blessed I have been in my life so far and I am looking forward to the next couple of decades. I know tv will just get better and better...hahahahahahahaha

Everybody loves a parade

Friday was the big halloween parade and carnival at taylors school. Holding strong to my tradition of dressing up every other year, it was time to don a costume. I decided to be drucilla, cinderellas ugly and mean stepsister, but alas, the ugly bridesmaid dress that hangs in my closet just wouldn't zip! Ironically, it was small in the chest..when did those get bigger??????
So off to the goodwill store..they should have some hideous prom/wedding dresses right? but NO...nothing to be found. Next stop walmart. No dresses for sale, but they had costumes. So I brokedown and bought a "queen" costume. It was 3 sizes to big, but that just made it comfortable. My ninja daughter was just excited to wear her costume to school. Here is tay and me at the carnival.
So it was a fun day for all. A nice half day of work for me.Friday night we went to the California High School Homecoming Football game. They did things a little different than when I was in HS. The floats did not parade across the field, but they had fireworks. It was a good game and Cal won. BUT it went very long..taylors cousin nick came home with us for a weekend sleepover. Saturday we tried out 2 of our local festivals, both free. One was down by the movie theater it was pretty small, but they had lots of those jumpy things..so they had fun. Saturday night we went with our neighbors and their 2 grandchildren to the City halloween festival. The kids had fun, but the flyer for the city was much grander than they actual event. I will say that 6 years living here and thats the first city sponsored event I went to. I guess we'll check out more of these in the future. I hear they have a great italian festival in the spring.

Happy Halloween to all.

It's time for tricks and treats

October has arrived and the buzz around our house is how many days until halloween? It's asked daily! Along with, when is my costume arriving? Well, thankfully the costume arrived yesterday and taylor has promptly tried it on and YEA it fits. She's some kind of ninja..who knew... and another friend of hers is going to be the same. They planned it this way. The nice part is just realizing that she's still young and was so very excited to put on the costume.

So here's a sneak peak.

Taylor continues to work through the requirements of 4th grade. I have joined her in becoming more organized too. Teach what you preach right...! It's hard to stay organized but I hope to have my house done by the end of the year. Then I can start my next new years resolution!

So I hope all you ghosts and goblins have a wonderful and safe halloween.

September already??!!!

So here we are a month later. School has started and we've been busy. Taylor is having a hard time keeping up with 4th grade requirements. She is now working on her organizational skills. During the last month she discovered the internet..mostly webkins and club penguin. Which is great as she is much more familiar with the computer. She has also started the braces process. She currently has a "space maintainer" which looks very similiar to a retainer but it's on the inside of the teeth and it's not removeable.
We are both happy that school has started as it gets us that much closer to our next vacation. Which I am ready for!
We'll post pics later!

Hi again

So it's been a while since my last post. Things are very quiet out here in california. It's hot so we've been staying around the house. Trying to save some cash for the may trip.
I had a beef with disney. They raised the rate of the cruise under the guise of government taxes. I don't feel that they raised it fairly, seems they'll be getting an additional 200K out of us passengers..but my TA, Dreams Unlimited, also thought it was unfair of disney and handed out an additional 200 OBC (on board credit) so thats cool. It wasn't enough of an increase to make me cancel, but it put a bad taste in my mouth.
I don't want to say never, but I think I am done with disney after this cruise and going to head back to RCCL. Their prices are less, they have more itineraries available and they also have a kids club. The only drawback is their kids club is not open on port days, but oh well...it's no biggie.
My sister and I are planning an Alaska trip for summer 2009 and I think I want to do a cruise for my 40th. Since it's right around the corner..well a year away but still.
We'll see how the finances go.
Taylor is ready to start 4th grade. She has her last week of regular summer camp this week and then we'll see what we do with her for the next 2 weeks. I will take a week off and we'll hang around. I'm hoping to get some housekeeping done. I need to paint and finish my kitchen. Otherwise, she'll probably end up at tennis camp or horse camp. Tennis is less, so I like that one better.
Hope all of you are having a fabulous summer. I'm ready for the school year to start, the faster it starts the faster our next vacation arrives.

Cya

Lazy kid free day!

So I spent my first kid free weekend...planning our next disney vacation. I have now secured our hotel for may 2008. I have also booked my sister and her family in another room, hoping that they'll bring my nephew out for a 2 day trip to WDW. It'll be his first time and taylors first time. I think it would be really cool for them to experience it together. Even thought david will only be 1 1/2 years old...still. I have asked my brother to join us, but it's too far away for him to consider. So many things can change. Although, after planning the med cruise..time seemed to fly by from planning to travelling.
Now I'm getting ready to go to a friends for a bbq and tomorrow..ugh! housework. My least favorite part of the weekend. So signing off for now.

So Sad, but true

So I am so sad! I mean a sad, pathetic planner. I have already booked our hotel for the panama cruise. I have also checked out shore excursions on castaway cay. I am waiting for the cheapee airlines to open their flights, but it looks like we'll do RT oak/lax and then fly one way from lax to orlando. We can take a flight that will get us in at 6am.. So now the question...how much school can one kid miss? I am at 10 days right now, but thinking about 12...I asked and they said ..whats 2 more...and really what is 2 more. BUT still...once you purchase the airline tix you're locked in! AND....tays never been to WDW...so I just talked myself into it...
hahahaha

Happy Summer all!

Home, home on the range

So we've been home for a week. I miss the mouse! Now I am planning our next vacation thru the panama canal on disney. I am looking forward to the many sea days we have. Finally, I'll get to relax and do nothing. Take advantage of all of the ships activities. I missed alot on the med cruise.
I was reading other trip reports and apparently there was a night buffet, the mickey dreams show, the sailaway show and more.
I also wanted to participate in more activities, like trivia etc. I didn't try any restaurants for breakfast or lunch. Ok enought complaining. I'll try it out on the next one. I think we might add some time at WDW in the beginning. I have checked again and it looks like taylor won't get into too much trouble missing another 2 days of school. Lucky for us!

Cya later....

We're Home..and the laundry begins again!

So we're home. YEA!
After some stressful and chaotic beginning at Heathrow this morning, we got to our house around 4:30pm california time. I am glad to be home. I was glad to see my kitty, who is very loving right now. In fact her voice is so hoarse from all the meowing she did when she saw us!
That'll change and she'll go back to her old ways of ignoring us soon enough!

I have started to unpack, but it's tedious and I'm super tired. I want to thank all of you that commented on this blog. It's been fun to write and fun to hear about how much you enjoyed it.

My final thoughts are this....

If disney were to offer this cruise again identical..I wouldn't do it. They need to make it a 2 week cruise and go all the way around to greece or venice. It needs to be spread out more too. To much stuff going on all the time. I blame that as to why I got sick...not the fact that I drank my WHOLE bottle of limoncello before I got home ;).
Also, I would have skipped london all together. I didn't really like the one day we spent there, but I would give it a second chance.
I would pack better! Definately. I didn't take too many clothes or shoes, but I would pare down next time and try to do more laundry.
And finally, I would do everything ON MY OWN...no more disney tours. While they were helpful and convenient, they were costly. I should have been more adventurous.
BUT....There's always next time.....

So thats it. I don't plan on blogging again, but you can always check for updates. I named this page wrong, should have called it something else, but I will blog our Panama Canal Cruise next may so look for that.
For all you disboarders..see you online!

Steph and Tay

London...

Well guess what...it rained in london...not just a sprinkle, but a full blooded downpour!
We still tried to make the most of it. After getting to our hotel (if you can call it that!) we went back to victoria station and boarded one of the big red busses. We did the "yellow line" which was supposed to take us around to all kinds of famous places, however there were lots of road closures, so we went around alot of them. I didn't even realize we'd missed some until we were back at our starting point!

This is Big Ben

Tower Bridge or London Bridge..can't remember which

Apparently whenever anything happens in London, they close roads. Well it would be just our luck that...
1. Di's anniversary memorial was this weekend.
2. Wimbledon is in town
3. The big Gay pride parade was saturday

and 4. Two car bombs were discovered!

So basically, we got the short tour in the rain. We still sat in the top of the bus with our "free" raincoats. Clear plastic garbage bags with hoods in them. We had fun and then we got off the yellow line and switched to the blue to end up at the famous "Harrods" department store. Again, with road closures we got stuck in a huge traffic jam. 45 minutes of sitting and going maybe 100 feet forward, taylor and I along with a mom and her 2 daughters from Orange County, got off and walked to harrods.
Harrods was interesting, but VERY expensive. We did buy some trinkets there, but nothing extravagent. No designer anything, however I did see the new Dior purses..jenn if your reading this...they're beautiful! I couldn't find the Diana memorial, but we got there late and they were closing. So off we went in the rain to head back to our "hotel". Once at the place, we turned on the "tele" as they call it, to discover that glasgow airport had been hit with a car bomb and all united kingdom airports were in CRITICAL alert.
I went down and asked the desk clerk what time we should leave and he said at least 4 hours early...ugh!
So this morning taylor and I headed out to Heathrow at 7am! Our flight was at 11am and we BARELY made it. BUT we did and now we're home!

Euro Disney

Well we did it, went to eurodisney. It was...hmmm...ok. Not as good as california but definately had it's good things.
1st was space mountain. It was fantastic. They do it a little different here and..spoiler alert...it has corkscrew turns..you go upside down! We were definately suprised and I was a little green at the end!
2nd was Big Thunder..my personal favorite in california and Euro disney did it better. It seemed faster and you went under water to it's own island. It was very cool.

The bad things...well hate to say it but the people. Everyone was pushing and shoving. So many people cutting in line. It was hard to be happy in this place.
Also, I never thought I would appreciate the "smoking" zones in california. Here people smoke EVERYWHERE...in lines and all over the park. It was definately a shock from california.

Unfortunately, it rained so the parade was cancelled. Which was a bummer. We did get to see some characters and tay got some autographs.

The other bad things...the cost...OMG...it was 20 euros for a hamberger and chix nuggets at lunch! Crazy!..All of the food was expensive...but something I've never seen at disneyland...SALES..they had so much merch on sale. I'd never seen anything like it in california. We got some trinkets as memories, but otherwise we really stayed away from the souveniers.

We didn't get over to MGM, so Robert if your reading this, I could not find a "cars" shirt for adults. Plenty for kids, but nothing in the big boys size. It was actually hard to find items with anything DLP on it.

Anyways, we are packing up for london tomorrow. I broke down and hired a car service to take us to the train station. No lugging luggage tomorrow. Will do the same in london.

Then it's the big red bus to sightsee and harrods and back to the hotel to head home.
I won't be blogging again until then as my battery is pretty much dead!

Can't wait to be home. Talk to you all then!

Will add pics then.

City of Lights

Here we are in Paris. We have done the eiffel tower



Louvre...

Versailles

It has been fun to run around paris. BTW, at the Louvre they have a kids tour. It's a brouchure in french, but with pictures. It really help taylor stayed interested in the art. She was trying to "find" the pictures in the brochure. She really liked Versailles, looking at a "real palace" was too cool to her. If we had planned better, I would have gone to versaille in the morning to see all and then the louvre. OH well...there's always next time.
Taylor still prefers the ship, but she has liked what we have seen so far. I am in a internet cafe to post this report and the french keyboard is killing me. Tomorrow is Disneyland, then london and home. We are missing our kitty very much.

Waiting at barcelona airport

Pictures have been updated through Marseilles.

We are currently waiting for our flight to paris. It's about 2am california time, 11am barcelona time. Taylor is sleeping next to me. I am trying to use up the 15 minutes I have left on my airport wireless card. I just finished work! Yea, might have some more to do, but I don't know if I'll be able to charge the laptop in france. I forgot the converter. Thank goodness the ship had US plugs or i'd have been in trouble.

It was hard to leave this morning. We stopped and said goodbye to the johnsons. Taylor was very sad so she wasn't in the mood for hugs! She wanted to stay on the ship again, what could be the problem..didn't we have 2 more months of summer vacation? HAHAHA..she just doesn't understand. Now if mommy had won the bingo pot last night...hmmm..

So, we might blog again in paris, if we can post otherwise we'll see our family and friends in July when we return.

Hope you all had fun reading about our trip. Have a good summer. We'll miss the mouse!

Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze

Today we went to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze. It was a quick bus ride to Monaco. We arrived in a parking garage and then went up to the outside level. It was beautiful. Beyond Beautiful. Gorgeous ocean views of this hillside principality. We were on the lookout for Crown Price Albert. You know he’s looking for a wife! We toured his “castle”, saw where his sisters live.


We also went to the church where his mother and father are buried. Princess Graces grave was covered in flowers. Prince Rainers was too, but not as much. It’s hard to believe that all these years later, she’s still so thought of by the people. After this, we boarded the bus for a short, really short, ride to Monte Carlo. Playground of the rich and famous. We walked up and saw Bentleys and Rolls Royces and Ferraris, well you get the drift. People walking around in their fancy shoes, dripping in diamonds and lots of people with their little dogs. We went to Café du paris for lunch. Apparently a very respectable restaurant, then we had free time to explore. I went to the Casino and dropped 11 euro gambling.

No winner here, so I decided to walk around and window show through all the fancy stores. Prada, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Cartier to name a few. I didn’t buy anything, such restraint I know! A guy on our bus bought a rolex. He was very excited, but his wife and kids weren’t.
Then we boarded our bus and went back towards the ship to Eze. This place was HIGH up on a hill. It had the most beautiful scenery.



Patricia and I walked up to the top of the village. Taylor stayed back with Patsy and her granddaughter, Jenna. Then I shopped all the way down. I bought some cute pictures to give to our server and some smaller trinkets. All in all it was a good day. It was a long excursion that didn’t seem to long. We had a fantastic guide that gave us pertinent and current information. Never boring. On the way back to the ship we drove through Nice and she pointed out Elton John’s home, Tina Turner and various other famous Europeans.
We came back to the ship and I crashed. This cold finally won and I decided to skip the show and dinner and went to bed. Taylor stayed with Jenna and ran around the ship. She had her own babysitter, which was great. They had a good time. Taylor felt like a big girl.

before the end...

Ok, so today was our last day at sea. And I slept..most of the day. LAME, I know, but it was necessary. Taylor ran around with Jenna most of the day and rachel a little in the night. I am sad we are done. It's been a GREAT first disney cruise...minus the small excursion mishaps, and the staff has been excellent. Especially, Phillip our Room steward, Louise and Michelle in the dining room, and ally in kids club. They have all been phenomenal..above and beyond. They are all going to be on our Panama Canal cruise, so we look forward to seeing them again. I certainly hope they will be our peeps again. So tomorrow we disembark around 8am and head to barcelona airport to catch our flight to Paris, city of lights. We plan on checking in to our hotel and then going over to the eiffel tower and checking it out. Maybe the square where marie antoinette lost her head... We don't plan on going to euro disney until friday, however it's raining in paris, so we'll see. Play it by ear. I guess we'll be spending alot of time indoors at the louvre.
Thanks for playing along with our blog. We hope we didn't bore you too much. For all you future disney cruisers, it was great! BUT be preparred to GO GO GO ...there's very little down time.
Oh, and thanks to the anonymous disboarder that gave me the zpack and decongestant...it has worked wonders! I feel 1000% better.

Also, to all my fellow cruisers and disboarders It was great to meet you all. You have made our cruise so much fun! I've enjoyed spending time with you all and look forward to seeing you on the boards!

Stephanie and Taylor

Tay says hi to Lise and Alex and can't wait to see you guys when we get home!

Marseilles, a beautiful city.

We started off this morning with a tour to aix en province (pronounced x in province). It was a cute town. A short bus ride to the city and then an hour walking tour to churches and squares and lots of fountains.

I put my hand in the “healing” fountain hoping to get over my “cruise cough” I’ve developed. We’ll see…. It was Sunday, so for all you future cruisers beware that most shops are closed all day. There were a few little soap and candy shops open and of course the outdoor markets and patisseries were open. BUT that’s it. We sat at an outdoor café and I had my café au lait while taylor had a coke. I know so very French of her. We bought pastries and some souvenirs then made our way back to the ship.


I had every intention of going to chateau d’if this afternoon, but with my mild sickness coming on, I chose to take a nice long nap by the pool. Taylor was off in kids club. Her check in /out privileges have been restored…we’ll see how that goes. I reminded her today that we only have 3 days left, well 2 now as I type this. She’s sad that it’s over as she has made lots of new friends from all over the country. We are both dreading carrying our luggage to our hotel in Paris, but we’ll persevere.

The show tonight was Dreams. It was FANTASTIC. Best one so far, but I hear tomorrows, when mickey dreams, is even better….we’ll see.

Tonight was pirate night. Our first one!

Here is me, with amanda, allison and lauren...all sisters and very sweet! Don't they look good in their costumes. I felt underdressed. Unfortunately this cruise cough was starting to get to me. It was very windy and cold up on deck. Taylor and I were both tired, plus I scored a washing machine right before the party, so we only stayed about 15 minutes. It was too windy to wait and see if they were doing fireworks.

I tried to cancel my evening casino excursion, but in order to do that I have to see the ships doctor and it’s pretty much the same price. So if I still feel poorly, I just won’t go. We have an all day excursion in the morning to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze and I think that’s going to wipe me out for the day!

It’s almost over….:(

Pisa, Pisamo, Paisano

Today we went to Pisa. Not VIP Pisa, just Pisa. I guess the old saying goes, it really DOES matter what bus you’re on! We had a bus guide that didn’t speak a word. Literally. We rode from the ship to Pisa in silence then she let us to the main square. When SOMEONE else informed us we’d have free time for 45 minutes. OK, what is that all about? Then we met back at the center and we had a guide that took us over to the Tower and gave us all the info, we walked to the basilica and went inside. It was beautiful. Then to the Baptismal and went inside to hear some beautiful singing. It echos throughout and makes it seem as though there is more than one person singing. Well, our guide, while knowledgeable didn’t like the hands free microphone to talk into, so she chose to push the button on the walkie to talk. However, she would release the button and keep talking. People would remind her that she had to push so we could hear her. It was a mess. I ended up switching channels and listening to another guide with another bus. I spoke with several people who had other busses and they all had a great experience. Meanwhile, I spoke with several people on our bus and they were all frustrated. So…I don’t know how to pick the right bus, but good luck.

These people were on our bus and they HAD to be first in line for EVERYTHING…hello kindergartners. They were cutting people, including children, off to make sure they were right behind the guide. I took their picture from the back, so I won’t get sued. There were several of us laughing our butts off at them.

After Pisa, we came back and taylor and I swam (well I read) and then I lost her again to her friends! We met up at the Crew Talent Show which our tablemate and friend (and disser) marie was in! It was a good show and Marie did fabulous, even though she was really nervous.

After the show taylor stayed with her son Jeff, to watch the second show, and I went to dinner. Since I had no table mates tonight, Sandy and JJ joined me for dinner. Sandy and I are both a little sick. We have some throat thing going on. Sandy is amazed at how much we have in common, it’s quite funny. Then I came back and went to bed. Taylor got to run around with Jeff and Jenna and trade pins and do whatever until Midnight. Jeff and Jenna are 12 and 13 so I felt comfortable with taylor being with them. She came crawling into bed and fell fast asleep.

Next stop Marseille…

2nd sea day...

So another sea day has come and gone. Today we slept in, well my little one slept. I was up around 8am. Today we had the Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast (character breakfast). Now I don’t mean to sound whiny, but…we arrived and sat at our table, which wasn’t our table today. It turns out since we switched our dining rotation we had it another day, so we found our friends, the Johnsons’ who also weren’t supposed to be there and sat with them. Unfortunately, there were very few people, but you had to sit at your assigned table regardless. We were far away from the action. The kids were always over where the characters were and our waiters were trying to move us along very quickly. I sure do appreciate the buffet style breakfast.
After that I lost taylor for several hours. She was off with her friends. I eventually found her at the pool and soon enough it was time to get ready for Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. The tea was…well…terrible. If you forget to go, don’t worry you’re not missing much. They had tea (real iced tea, unsweetened) on the table for the kids with 1 cookie. The tables were all smashed together and it was basically an etiquette class for the kids with some fun thrown in. Taylor was disappointed, but we did get our obligatory picture with Alice and the Mad Hatter.

After that, I dropped taylor off at kids club as I had another Disboard meet that she didn’t want to attend and then right after dinner at Palo’s with the ladies.
The Disgroup meet was fun. We all had time to catch up and compare notes. See people we hadn’t seen in a while.


Then Marie, Patricia, Patsy and I went to Palo’s for dinner. We met up with a woman patricia had met (who was a reporter) and her son’s girlfriend…got that?!

She interviewed me about being a single mom on the cruise. I still need to get a link to her article. Dinner was wonderful. I had the most brilliant filet and dessert…OMG! A soufflé to end all soufflés. Our waiter was Ciao and he was very accommodating. We were sitting next to 3 women who some in our group thought were men in drag. I must admit that the one in the Tigerskin blazer did look like an old man in drag. HAHAHA...
So I ran out of dinner to get taylor and go see Twice Charmed. We didn’t make it in time to find seats, so we stood in the back behind a crotchety old man who was shooshing every child that made any noise. We reminded him that this was a Disney cruise he signed up for, but he didn’t care. He was just rude.
I was wiped out after the show and surprisingly so was taylor, so we headed to our cabin to go to sleep. Another early day tomorrow as we are going to Pisa to hold up the leaning tower.

My thoughts so far…

So I thought I would share my thoughts on what we’ve done so far, this being my first Disney cruise and first time in the Mediterranean. We have enjoyed all aspects of this cruise, including our inside cabin. We have a “sideways” cabin on deck 6 and it’s great. I like it much better than the lengthwise one. My daughters wish is that we have more sea days. 3 are not enough according to her. I’m glad we weren’t on the 10 day. I have enjoyed our excursions, but my 9 year old has not. She always says she’s glad she went but really, she would have preferred to stay on board. I won’t let her as this is her first time also and I don’t know when/if we’ll get back here.
The on our own excursions we did in Palermo and a Naples were fine. We had plenty of time to run around. I felt that we saw the important things and the literature provided by the churches and historical sights was informative. Disney also provides bus and train schedules and ferry schedules which really help out a lot!
For Olbia, its beauty surpassed the excursion. In hindsight, I realized I paid way too much for “day at sea” but being my first time, I would say it was worth it. If you do your research you should be able to find a gorgeous beach on your own and spend about 20-40 euros (total). If that’s what you’re looking for!
For Rome, again, I felt that I paid too much for the “Jumping Back” excursion. Although, the extra 20? Dollars to take the train was WELL worth it! Our group was a slow one, which was fine with me, but there were 7 bus loads of people on this excursion and I heard from more than one person on different busses that they were being rushed and “herded”. We were not, which I am sure frustrated our guides as people were always disappearing. Our penance was a smaller amount of time at the Vatican. On the other hand, our guide was not as informative as I would have liked. She couldn’t answer “historical” based questions on the landmarks we were seeing. She’d give us the overview in broken English and sent us around on our own. She apologized a lot for this and stated many times, that she was a “guide to take us to the places” but not an expert on each place. For the amount of money this excursion was, I expected someone to know more. Especially since I didn’t know much either. At then end of the day, I spoke with Sandy and she did the whole Rome on your own (taking the train on her own) and saw all the same places I did and had a much more interesting time. She was able to spend more time at each location. I know Disney provides a lunch, but it is a 1-2 hour stop, which really cuts into your time to explore. Additionally, since we were on a Private train, this excursion could have given us an additional hour at the Vatican. Again, this being my first time, I did enjoy it but those little touches would have added so much more.

Also, it’s been HOT. I have quite a nice tan going. Be prepared for the heat as they have said it’s just going to get worse over the summer. It’s a wet hot too, very humid. Bring sunscreen and either a case of water with you or buy the water package on board.

I have been to the spa several times (too many) but it’s been good. The employees are friendly and good at their services. I highly recommend.

We have Philip as our room steward, he’s excellent. Can’t say more or I might get him into trouble, but he has gotten me everything that Taylor and I have wanted!

We have Louise and Delroy as our servers and they are spot on! Bringing you more that what you asked for and never judging!


I’ll sum up the second half at the end.

Civit…whatever..it’s ROME!

Today was the BIG excursion day. We went to Rome. Our excursion left at 7:45am, which was very early for taylor and I but we made it on time. Taylor and I took the “Jumping back to Eternal Rome” tour. Basically, we boarded busses for a train station and took a private train to Rome. The train was very nice. It was about 45 minutes to the San Pietro station, which is just outside Vatican City. Once there we boarded busses and headed into Rome itself. We drove straight to the coliseum and got out and looked around.

It was magnificent. To see these structures to well preserved and such history behind them was amazing. On our bus today was Jsmom and Vtiffany from disboards, but Silver 7 and Also were on another bus. We saw so many disboarders today on all the tours as we crossed paths with others throughout the day.
We even ran into a student from Seven Hills, Victoria B. She was on a tour with other students from the bay area. She was very surprised to see us at the coliseum.

After that stop we went down to the Trevi Fountain.

It was beautiful. Taylor and I threw a coin in the fountain in hopes of returning some day to Rome. We tried to find the Spanish steps in our allotted “free time” but got a little lost so we returned to get some ice cream at Blue ice. I recommend this place at the trevi fountain as the portions were big and the prices were reasonable. Then we headed by foot to the panthenon.

Another magnificent, well preserved building. After that, we headed again by foot to see a Bernini statue. It was under restoration but it was still magnificent. Then we boarded our bus and headed to Lunch.
Lunch was at a restaurant on the river. It was a good meal, with lots of wine! I was very happy as dealing with my whiny child was getting on my last nerve! So now I was relaxed and taylor was happy and we boarded the bus again and went to St. Peters Basilica and Vatican City.



This was the most amazing structure of them all. The paintings still so stunning and the sculptures were fascinating. We didn’t see the pope, but we did see the popes swiss guards and lots of nuns and padres.

After this we headed back to the train and came back to the Magic. All in all it was a great day with amazing sights. I have lots of pictures and I couldn’t tell you what they are all of, as we saw so many things. Taylor was lucky that we hooked up with Jsmom (wendy) so she was with jasmine all day.

I have secured my foot massage appointment for later this evening and taylor and jasmine are going to see pirates 3 later, so I am feeling very good!
Tomorrow is a sea day. We have only 6 nights left. About ½ way done with this cruise. It has been a great first Disney cruise and now I am really looking forward to the Panama Canal trip next may.