Cruising for Practically Free…Yep..I said Free!...A Cruise Trip Report

[jenseib]

We then connected with J’s family and headed to the boat launch so we could head over to Disney Springs for a while.

 

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And off we go!!!!

 

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We arrived and got off the boat.  J’s girls came across the water fountain and played….As in who can make it through without getting wet.

 

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They would watch it and time it to walk through and did pretty good.

 

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And then after the big kids had their fun we moved on.  Hahaha.

 

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We shopped around and spent a lot of time in Basin where the kids all washed their hands with the scrubs and we ended up buying some bath bombs. They had a little tube you could fill with 5 or 6 small balls….and you could pick which smells you wanted. Claire and I both got one of those tubes. I really like the smaller ones over the big ones anyways.

 

Believe it or not…we were hungry now and looking for lunch options.

 

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There are so many new options now at Disney Springs that it makes it overwhelming.  And then no one wanted to be the one to commit to anything.  J suggested a few and I didn’t care.  Claire is picky, but I figured if she didn’t like something, we would get her something somewhere else later.  Well Mom eats so little that when she is hungry she gets really HANGRY and she was done with all of us hem hawing and said the Polite Pig would work and went in and ordered!  LOL.

 

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The food was AWESOME!!!!

 

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My Mom is famous for only eating half of what she orders…if that….and she ate every bite she ordered.  Though Claire did share fries with us.

 

Next  it was time for dessert!  J’s favorite cupcake place.

 

 

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They were good, but I still think Be Our Guest Cupcakes are better.  Mom and Chloe were hot so they left to go back to the resort.  Mom went swimming I think and Chloe just rested and cooled off.

 

We shopped around but I didn’t take pictures. It was so hot, so it was just nice walking into stores to try and cool off a little bit. Finally we were all too tired and hot to do anymore as well and we got on the boat back to the resort.

 

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We split off and headed our own ways.

 

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Claire was still hungry as she didn’t get her own food at Disney Springs, so I took her to the food court to get a pizza.

 

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[jenseib]

It seemed to take forever to get our food and I was tired and hot….which is probably why it seemed to take so long.

 

I just snapped pictures as we waited.

 

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Finally we got it and headed back towards the room.

 

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Claire ate her food and Mom chattered and I went for a nap….except Mom kept talking to me.  Finally I had to tell her not to talk to me anymore as it was hard to sleep when someone was asking me questions.  Hahahaa..

 

I needed that nap and it was great!  I think Claire ended up taking a little nap too.

 

After the nap, I went out to the gift shop for something. I can’t remember what now, but while there decided to get a Mickey bar too.

 

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We decided we wanted to go to the outlet mall and go to the Disney Character store there. I have always wanted to go and we just never found the time.  We headed off that way and traffic was crazy, but we made it there.  J’s family decided to go too and we saw them a few times there, but we were in and out of different stores.  The outlet was fun and I bought a few things, but there wasn’t much that was screaming “buy me!”

 

We looked around and Mom got to feeling sick, so she sat down in a cooler area.  I went and got her a root beer to drink and she felt a bit better then.  She said she thinks she got too hot and needed some sugar and liquid to make her feel better.  After she rested up a bit, we left. It was crazy busy there as the tour groups were all over there as well.

 

Back to French Quarter we went.

 

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J and I had messaged each other, debating on dinner options. We talked about going offsite, but the traffic was so bad we decided against that. Then we thought Disney Springs, but again, we were super tired and getting there didn’t sound so fun…either by driving or by boat.

 

In the end, we decided the food court was where we would go.  It was funny, as when we were planning our trip the 2 weeks prior to going, we had all these thoughts of things to do this evening. One being the water park party. Another Hoop Dee Doo.  But we decided to save money and just play it by ear.  I am so glad we did as we were all so tired.  I tend to forget how the heat can beat you down fast.

 

Claire went with a pizza again.

 

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I went with noodles with chicken and alfredo.

 

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I also bought some beignets to share. I think Claire was the only one who really ate a whole one and we had several left, which she worked on over the next few days.

 

We sat and talked and had a fun dinner. We were all tired and tomorrow was going to be a busy day…and a big one for Kelsey, though she didn’t know it yet.

 

We went back to our rooms and then J said Kelsey lost her phone and did we see it. Nope! But Claire and I went back to the food court and dialed her number to see if it rang…and walked by the trash cans.  I even asked a CM if they could listen where they store their garbage for a ring….and right then J said Kelsey found it.  In a bush near their room.  Hahaha.  I think her and Bella had been horsing around and it must have fallen in the bush then.

 

We relaxed the rest of the evening and got a good night’s sleep. We had one more full day left and we were excited to see how it went.

 

[jenseib]

July 15, 2018, Sunday

 

We got up and ready and had beignets for breakfast!  J was messaging me updates on what we needed to do. Kelsey was out jogging and she was worried she wouldn’t take a shower after. LOL.  Kelsey did though…Yay!  Then J said…OMG she’s wearing ratty jean shorts.  Hahaha.  Well we can’t push too hard or we would ruin the surprise.

 

The plan was to arrive at Magic Kingdom at opening and to avoid being seen by Josh and J’s friend T who Josh was staying with that night. I think he came in at like 3 AM.

 

Claire, who is not a morning person, was up and ready. She was so excited to see a proposal.

We took a walk and took some pictures.  Mom was going to stay back and come to the park later.

 

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J’s family was ready so we headed to the lobby to meet up with them.

 

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I tried to get a lot of pictures because last time we stayed here it was just for one night and most of the time spent here had been dark….which meant my pics weren’t that great.

 

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[jenseib]

J’s family arrived and Kelsey looked nice…..even in her ratty shorts. We headed off to the bus stop.

 

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Once we arrived at MK, J was a little nervous as Josh and T had not left yet to come to the MK.  We went in on the far left and let them know where we were so they wouldn’t accidentally bump into us.

 

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I was instructed to use my bossy side and start yelling out things I wanted to do. LOL.

 

First we stopped off to get a disability card.  One of the kids has some issues with heat and lines and though not normally uses this card, it was a way to waste some time…and we scored a Mine Train time as well.  Can’t beat that!

 

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Josh still had not arrived yet, so I went into Bossy mode and stated that I wanted to ride my favorite ride first before the lines got long….so we are heading to pirates….then I want to get a picture in front of the castle with all the kids.  Poor Kelsey wanted Starbucks to start her day and we kept telling her later…later…we will get there soon. We didn’t want to be in Starbucks and have her accidentally spot Josh walking up Main Street.  She was polite enough not to grumble too much.  Hahaha

 

So off to Pirates we went.

 

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I still think they should now say “We wants the Red Hen” at the auction.  LOL

 

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Well that was fun!  Kelsey wanted her Starbucks!  Ok, let’s walk that way.  Shoot! No word from Josh…so we take our time going out of the gift shop and on our way towards main street.  Then J got word they were in place and says…Let’s get those castle pics before going to Starbucks. We want to do it before it gets busy.

 

So we headed that way and walk to the hub.

 

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And Josh came up behind Kelsey and she was excited to see him and so surprised! She knew he had big tests going on and was shocked he was there…..and then he went down on his knee.

 

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T had set up 2 photopass photographers to snap pics…and we all were snapping away too.

 

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And she said YES!  The photographers took lots of pictures for them.

 

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And some with us too.

 

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And we walked to a few other spots for pictures as well.

 

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I spotted one of those fancy carriage strollers.

 

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After all the pictures were done we decided to head to the Mine Train. We were hungry, so while walking over we looked on the app for somewhere to eat.  Kelsey stopped at Be Our Guest to see if they could get us in, but unfortunately no.  We decided on Crystal Palace.  I texted Mom and told her if she wanted to eat with us, she better be on her way and she was.

 

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We had a blast! While in line I told Bella and Chloe that now their future boyfriends would really have to step it up when they proposed.  Hahaha.  Chloe said she wasn’t going to get married.  Hahaha.

 

Off to Crystal Palace.

 

We checked in, but Mom hadn’t arrived yet.  She said she waited forever for the bus today…of course.  She kept us posted and soon was walking up main street and then once she arrived they seated us.

 

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It was so hot out and it felt good to sit down and cool off.

 

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Breakfast was being served, but before we left they brought out the lunch offerings as well.  Unfortunately I was so full that I couldn’t enjoy those offerings so much.

 

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[jenseib]

The characters made the rounds.

 

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Actually I think they came around a couple of times as the place was pretty empty.

 

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Round 2.

 

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Claire was too cool for characters. 

We definitely had our fill here and it was good.  Mom insisted on paying for Claire and I.  Again, I told her no need as it was not even planned but a last minute meal, but she insisted.

 

The kids had a Space Mountain Fastpass, so they headed that way and the adults went into a gift shop to keep cool.  T is getting married and was talking about that…but after a bit, my back was hurting, so I went outside to sit for a bit.

 

I saw these strange characters walking around…..I have no clue who they are or why they were there.

 

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There were at least 3 or 4 dressed up in these odd costumes.

 

I saw the Incredibles having a dance party too.

 

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Once the kids came back we headed off to the People Mover.

 

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We spotted more costumed people.

 

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We decided to shop a bit on Main Street as we worked our way to the front. Sadly, Josh was going to have to leave soon.

 

Mom headed back to the hotel as she wanted to swim. A few minutes later Chloe decided to leave too. I texted Mom to let her know to look out for Chloe but no reply. I gave Chloe her number and off she went.  I found out later that Mom decided to ride the train around the park before leaving, so Chloe actually got back to French Quarter before Mom.

 

T invited us all over to Bay Lake to look at her room, which was a 3 bedroom, so we walked over there.

 

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Picture from the hall.

 

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She had cakes and snacks and served us some. Since it wasn’t someone I knew I didn’t take pictures, but it was a huge 2 story room. Super cool.  I did take some view pics though.

 

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After a bit though, I had to go the bathroom and I felt funny about asking to use theirs, so Claire and I said we were heading back to the park.  T is J’s friend and I didn’t want to intrude for too long.

 

We used the bathroom in the lobby and walked back over the MK.

 

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[jenseib]

We saw the parade was getting ready so we found a spot and sat down.  About 5 minutes later a CM came over and asked for our ticket…except I couldn’t understand what she was saying.  Someone nearby said I needed a ticket. Oh, gosh…no sorry, we don’t have one.  And we moved on to another spot.  It was odd. I don’t know of an area with a physical ticket needed…then I thought about it and maybe it was a lunch/parade combo.  Either way…the CM obviously wasn’t doing a good job since we sat there for at least 5 minutes before she asked us for one.

 

And I will warn you now…I took a lot of pics.

 

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[jenseib]

More parade….

 

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And as you probably know…the Dragon blew up earlier this year…so we had a substitute float.

 

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Which was nice to finally include Sleeping Beauty in this parade.

 

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[jenseib]

And more parade….

 

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We were glad we had arrived in time to see the parade.  We do love this parade.

 

And a walk down Main Street.

 

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I think Claire may have gotten a pretzel at some point for a snack.

 

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I believe we rode Splash Mountain, which had a fairly long wait and then headed to Haunted Mansion and then met up with J’s family….who were talking about dinner options. Kelsey was looking on the app and found a few with Whispering Canyon Café sounding pretty good to most of us.  We texted Mom and Chloe and told them to taxi over to Wilderness Lodge and we would meet them over there and then we headed to the front of the park.

[jenseib]

As we walked out of the park I took some pictures of the flags for one of my co-workers.  Of course there was no wind and they were all droopy.

 

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We hopped on the boat over to Wilderness Lodge and soon were there.

 

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Mom and Chloe were there and we were seated right away.

 

Most of us got the family style meal, but Claire got a steak and Kelsey got the vegetarian version of family style.

 

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And we totally pigged out!

 

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We had such a fun dinner…telling stories and laughing at jokes. The food was good and we all agreed it was a good decision to eat here. 

 

When the bill came, once again my Mom snatched it from me and paid.  Again, she did not need to do that, but she insisted. 

Chloe and Mom went to get a taxi back to French Quarter and the rest of us headed back to the boat to ride back to MK.

 

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A Disney trip isn’t complete without a ride on Small World….so we headed there.

 

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And then we took a spin with Ariel.

 

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I think we made our way over to Buzz too. I wasn’t very good at taking pictures this evening.

 

We wanted to end our evening on the People Mover…so off we went.  The kids got 1 or 2 cars I think…but the adults (J and I) got our own.

 

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And then not far out it stopped.  And we waited…and waited…and waited.  Then the fireworks started and we saw people get out of their cars and run off to go watch.  Hahaha.  Claire said she could see the fireworks from where she was stopped but I saw nothing from my spot, which was a bummer.  After a while we did finally start to move though.

 

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And I could see a few fireworks as we moved along.

 

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By the time we got off the show was over.   We slowly made our way to the front and the bus stop.  No need to hurry.

As we approached the bus stop area I was just so tired and my feet hurt.  J’s girls were walking fast and I told them to go on.  They got to the bus and I could see it was full and J said hurry up….they told the bus to wait for us…and they were turning other people away.  I couldn’t even believe it.  Hahaha.  She was shocked too.  So we all rode back to FQ together and then said our good byes.  They still had another day, but we were leaving tomorrow morning bright and early.

 

We packed up and headed to bed.

 

[jenseib]

July 16, 2018, Monday

 

I never took any pictures today, so it is all from memory…so bear with me.

 

We had a very early flight, so sadly we had to be packed up and out the door fairly early. Off to the airport we went and we dropped off our rental car and checked our bags in. I believe the airport was pretty busy, but we moved fairly fast. Again, we have TSA pre-check, so even when lines are long, we usually get through fairly fast. 

 

We found our gate and got some food for breakfast and settled in to wait.  I believe we were on time, which was good as it seems the last few flights I have had delays.

 

As we got in line to get on the plane, people in line were talking about the heat of Florida.  One gal said she couldn’t wait to get to Ohio where it would be cooler.  A guy said to her “Oh no, it will be just as hot there.”  The girl then replied….LOUDLY…”It’s Hot in Ohio?”  So many people started to laugh. Um yes…it’s not the North Pole.  This gal was visiting a friend in Ohio…and packed all long sleeves and sweaters. 

Did she not even look at a weather app? It had been in the 80’s and 90s with very high humidity most of the summer. Definitely not sweater weather.

I don’t know why people think Ohio is cold year round. Even when we got off the ship our porter was asking us about the weather and was surprised we had humidity.

 

I don’t remember anything big about the flight, so it must have been just normal.  Every so often, Claire, who thought she was hilarious, would say in a high squeaky voice “It’s Hot in Ohio?” and then she would just giggle and laugh.

 

As we were starting to descent, a little kid started chanting over and over and over….”Are we in Ohio yet?”  Mom says under her breath….”Someone ANSWER that kid!”  hahaha.  He just kept saying it over and over.  Claire’s responds was…”It’s hot in Ohio?” Hahahaha.

 

Once we landed and got off the plane, we headed to the bathroom.  As we were washing our hands I noticed Miss Sweater standing near us washing hers.  Claire saw her and looked right at me and I gave her a warning glare.  I knew she wanted to say it, but thank goodness she didn’t.  As soon as we left Claire started laughing and said she really was holding back.  However she didn’t hold back for about the next week and kept saying “It’s Hot in Ohio?” over and over and over at any chance she could.

 

We got our luggage and took the bus over to get the car and loaded up.  We programmed my sisters work address in since I had to pick up my laptop and other things I had left at her house and off we went.

 

Once there, Amanda gave us the tour of her work place (My Uncle owns it) and we chatted a bit, but it was time to get moving on. 

 

Skip called and wondered if we were on our way home yet.  I let him know that we were making our way there, but had stopped at Amanda’s work and would get a bite to eat along the way.  There were grumbles about us taking so long to get home…..which I thought was stupid.  There is no time limit from the time I land till the time we pull in the driveway. I was a little irritated.

 

We stopped off for some lunch and then made the drive home. I was so tired and it was nice to be home, but of course I started to unpack and get the laundry going.

 

And that was the end of our vacation!  It seemed so short, but we had so much fun and it didn’t cost much out of pocket at all!  It was "practically free" in the grand scheme of things!

 

[jenseib]

Follow up…

 

As the title says….we cruised for practically free. Our whole trip for me was very little out of pocket.

The way it worked for me would not work for others, but there are ways to “earn” free gift cards to help pay for vacations.

We had our air covered with points (Claire and I) minus taxes and early bird check in.

Our Disney hotel and tickets were covered by gift cards that I had earned either by doing something to earn free gift cards or buying them when I had extra money.

Our cruise was the same way...gift cards for Claire and I.

We had some extra gift cards to pay for extras on the ship for the most part and for some food. I also had saved up spending money.  And then Mom was a big contributor to many "free meals" for Claire and I.  That was not in the plan, but was nice.

We basically paid out of pocket for our pre-cruise hotel and car rentals.

 

All in All in was a VERY cheap vacation for us when it came to anything out of pocket.

 

 

I have picked right up when I got back home to earn more cards and also buying some when I have extra money.  I had quite a bit saved up and on Christmas Eve we booked another cruise at a discounted rate. I had enough to pay for all of us (my husband is coming too) and enough air points to fly us there and back...sadly my points are pretty depleted now.

We are excited to finally go on the Wonder for the first time and will be sailing her on Jan. 27!

 

This cruise was short, but oh so much fun! Whenever I travel with J and gang, it’s a good time. P is also is so much fun!  And I got meet more daughters and they were all so nice. I am so excited to be sailing with J once again this year and another friend of ours who we sailed with in the summer of 2017. 

 

I am so glad we checked out Toy Story Land.  We got to see firsthand how the land looks and pros and cons to it.  I can’t wait for Galaxy’s Edge to open, but I know the crowds will be insane too.

 

I have learned over the last few trips I just can’t go like I used to and need more resting time.  Part might be the heat too. I always forget how that can slow me down….but I also kind of need more sleep now too.  A nap does wonders!!!!!

 

Thanks for joining me on our little adventure!

[RMac713]

I enjoyed reading this as my husband and I were on that cruise...I turned 55 on CC day, but we stayed at the adult beach the whole time, LOL.  Going on a 4 night Dream for our anniversary in June...3 nights is just not enough, but I wanted to go on the Fantasy to get our grand slam!

[rmsanger]

Thank you for this detailed pictorial overview; very helpful!  I was paging down trying to get to the cruise section as we aren't going to disney proper; but once I got to that section your pictures were a great way to capture your entire cruise experience.

[jenseib]

On 1/25/2019 at 1:42 PM, RMac713 said:

I enjoyed reading this as my husband and I were on that cruise...I turned 55 on CC day, but we stayed at the adult beach the whole time, LOL.  Going on a 4 night Dream for our anniversary in June...3 nights is just not enough, but I wanted to go on the Fantasy to get our grand slam!

 

 

I just completed my Grand Slam last week!  Finally made it to the Wonder.  We had a few bumps because of weather and my husband had to cancel the day before we flew.  We are supposed to do a make up trip now with him in March, but he won't commit to anything yet. If I know him, he will wait till very last minute...and annoy the heck out of me.

 

On 1/28/2019 at 2:45 PM, rmsanger said:

Thank you for this detailed pictorial overview; very helpful!  I was paging down trying to get to the cruise section as we aren't going to disney proper; but once I got to that section your pictures were a great way to capture your entire cruise experience.

 

Thanks for reading!  It was a quicky, but a lot of fun.

[Corb341]

I always enjoy reading your trip reports and so appreciate the time you put in to creating them! 

[jenseib]

On 2/26/2019 at 1:31 PM, Corb341 said:

I always enjoy reading your trip reports and so appreciate the time you put in to creating them! 

 

Thanks for reading!!