The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Dancing, The Dark Side, And A Cruise!!!

[tyandskyesmom]

More of the show...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

More of the show...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

After their performance we headed back to the pool and for food. All the girls were using the slide together until one of them didn't want to so she went back by the parents and someone else's mom came over and made all of the girls (minus Skyler because she knew she didn't do anything wrong) apologize and go do what she wanted to do...UGH! Skye had her first hamburger outside of home ever..from Guy Fieri...and loved it...granted it was plain but I'll take what I can get. We had some tacos from the taco window...they were good. Tyler loved the pizza window but it was slow. To me the pizza sauce was too sweet and plain...the pizza window was not where I would spend my time. There was a sushi window but that was extra and to tell you the truth, from what I had seen as far as food goes, I wasn't going to take the chance. At some point Skye, Cary and I headed to a Harry Potter trivia contest...we almost won but missed one question...that we ended up all going "OH YEAH!!!!" when we were told the answer.

We eventually headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.

Skye had her same Caesar salad again...

It as the same.

Tyler had a sausage flatbread...

It was little but after he took all the greens off of it he said it was good.

I had the Shrimp Cocktail (the first time for me but not the first time for our family)...

It was the same.

Cary had the meatballs...

Which he really liked and could have done with a few more for his meal.

Skyler ordered the salmon again...

And it was the same as before.

Tyler had the spaghetti...

Which was plain but for him, that was ok.

I ordered the fish...I don't remember what it was though.

I don't know what the veggies were but it looks like zucchini and squash and onions maybe??? I cannot tell what's inthe little bowl nor does anything make sense to be in that sized bowl but it looks like maybe rice??? The fish was ok..nothing fancy, just kinda safe.

Cary had the steak again.

And it was the same.

Skye had sorbet for dessert.

I don't remember what they were though...but it's hard to not like sorbet.

I had some kind of strawberry cake...I can't remember what it was exactly...I believe it got eaten and I was happy to have a different choice.

And the guys got the chocolate cake and ice cream again...

ANd it was all they had grown to expect it to be...LOL

Later, after dinner the girls had a class with a cruise dancer named, Five (but not actually spelled that way). She has danced with some famous singers in the past and now in the cruise. The girls loved her. She taught them a contemporary dance and at the end parents were allowed to come in and watch. Most of the girls were a mess but Skye (who is very good at getting choreo quickly) and Ashley (who was a huge surprise) were both the best. They performed it in groups of three and Skye and Ashley were in different groups. After that everyone headed back to the pool. The older girls were supposed to come back later and meet Five for a separate on the side class but her schedule didn't pan out. So after sitting in the lounge where they were supposed to meet her watching some karaoke for a while, we headed back to the room for bed.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We packed up as much as possible before getting to bed. Disembarkation is really early. We were told by our coach to not put our bags outside the door for pick up because it would be easier and faster but we had so many, it would have been a pain to lug them with us all morning. So we had most of our stuff put side the door at the given time. I find this weird and not very secure but that's how it's done so it much work, right? We had a lot of bags. More than the average person since our trip was twice as long as everyone else. In the morning we all got up and showered, finished packing up in our carry-ons and headed up for the same breakfast we had had for three days. Except it was much more crowded and it seemed like they had less options...I assume because it is the end of the cruise...

And I found more pictures I was missing from the cruise so I'm going to put them here...

We never closed our curtains so these guys spent their time there. We had our luggage stored on the window side of the bed out of the way.

This is the girls with Five...

Desiree, Sarah, Rachel, Ashley, Sam (behind), Liv, Christina, Skyler, Ava, Five, Kyra, and Ari.

Skye had to grab one last ice cream on the way out...

So, back on track...we disembarked and again, all the workers were not very helpful or nice. Once we got down the ramp, we headed to where we could collect our luggage which, even though you are called to disembark in groups, it was crazy down there. It is a basic warehouse style building and you have to find your section to locate your luggage. Again, without much direction for those of us who are not cruise experienced. And again, lots of yelling by the workers and men coming around asking if you needed help with luggage, that I had already been warned not to accept. Once we found our luggage and got through the line to get out, we found the line for the shuttle to the National desk. There were like four lines and all the car rentals come into the same place so you just have to watch for your company to come along. Ours came up finally and the people behind us ran up to get on. They sat in all the seats closest to the door so we had to climb over them to get to the open seats. It was pretty ridicules!

Anyway, we got on and National is right around the corner basically...not walking distance but not far. Liz had reserved us both cars with her Emerald Isle membership for $45.00 to drive to Disney and then drop it back off at The Swan. She was ready and had our car but I needed to sign the paper so they were just waiting for us. When we arrived I went right in while Cary and the kids gathered our luggage. It ended up that the rude people who pushed into the bus to get here walked up at the counter next to us and wanted an SUV but they only had a compact left. He was not happy. I kinda laughed when they guy handed me the keys to and announced that our Jeep Grand Cherokee was right outside.

I was in love! I was liking these prior to this but now I want to buy one! It was a nice comfy ride.

The problem was, we put into our GPS to not use tollways and we got a nice tour of the route from Port Canaveral to Port Orleans French Quarter. It actually didn't take much longer than I expected so whatever.

So anyway, soon enough we saw this...

And then we found our way to Port Orleans French Quarter around 11:15am...

And of course, true to our luck this trip, our room was not ready yet. I had requested close to the main building and the pool (I really had a preference of building 2 but figured we wouldn't get that because there are very few standard rooms in that building. So we walked out to take a look around.

Tyler and I had stayed here before but Cary and Skyler have only walked through. I have to say, contrary to popular opinion, I like Caribbean Beach better. I have stayed French Quarter and Riverside and I actually prefer Riverside to French Quarter...but none of this is by much and I have no specific reasons. Just that if I am choosing a moderate hotel, i usually go to Caribbean Beach...and have never been to Coronado either...although I want to (but I think that new huge building they are building looks so out of place in the artist renditions I have seen!). But I was excited to be here and couldn't wait to see where our room was and to move in.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Sorry...I do have to finish this but life, again, gets in the way...

Yesterday was Skyler's last day of 8th grade and she graduated Monday afternoon! She is so excited for high school. She made the JV Cheer Squad for freshman year so GymTyme starts Wednesday for an hour throughout the summer and she gets to tumble with the Varsity team because she is this close to throwing a back tuck! Which is what she needed to make Varsity. Cheer practice is Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer too. She also has AP and Honors class boot camps various weeks throughout the summer.

But back to the reasons I have been away so long...

COMPETITION mostly. So Skyler competed two solos this year. On the Recreational Circuit, she performed one at each of four competitions except once when she did both. She was always placing first in category but hadn't hit the overall high point she was used to...until STATE! Where her Jazz solo was the OVERALL HIGH POINT winner!!! She had a love-hate relationship with that dance...she loved it because it was cool and difficult and sassy but she hated it because it was probably her most difficult dance to date.

Then the "real" competitions started. You know, the ones that the actual dance schools go to...ya, those! First up as Rainbow...both her solos tied each other for Double Platinum but at this competition only one solo will place in Overalls so her Lyrical (to Turning Page from Breaking Dawn 2) took 5th OVERALL. Her Jazz solo was then chosen to receive an invite to an invite only Convention trip to New York in the summer!!!! Oh she was so excited!!!! New York is her presumed "happy place"...although she has never been there! But it was a huge honor.

At Showstoppers her Lyrical and Jazz both took Platinum. Jazz was first in category and Lyrical was second in category. Not too bad for a little park district trained dancer!

Dancefest at Great America is tomorrow, Graduation is Monday, Cheer starts Wednesday, they do a little kid dance school's recital Thursday, AP Human Geography boot camp is in a couple of weeks, and then in July is Starbound...and she can only do the preliminary competition because Nationals is at the same time as Cheer camp in Wisconsin for three days.

And as of Monday I am a WORK AT HOME employee so less driving and more time to do other things...like finishing this trip report!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

And it's officially 1 year from the start of this trip...this time a year ago we were on Carousel of Progress anticipating our first lunch at Skipper Canteen...wish we were there now...or at least had a trip on the near horizon...better get this TR and DR finished soon though!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So continuing on July 2, 2017...

After we arrived we were hungry and our room was not ready so we headed to the food court. I have to say, I liked the old decor much better. I think Disney in general is taking everything in a similar direction where everything is mainstream and things are all very plain. That is what I think happened to Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory. But we headed in to get some lunch.

Tyler decided on the Grilled Chicken Sandwich - with mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, and red pepper aioli and choice of two: french fries, coleslaw, potato chips, and macaroni salad. But he had it with just lettuce and creole sauce on the side. The current menu option might actually be a different sandwich all together though. The receipt says "Sand Grl Chkn P2M" and I think I remember it actually being a buffalo style chicken sandwich but I could be wrong. He also just got fries for his sides.

He enjoyed it. You cant see the chicken through all the lettuce but it was a decent sized piece of chicken.

Cary ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger - House-smoked Bacon and Cheddar Cheese on a Broiche Bun and choice of two: french fries, coleslaw, potato chips, and macaroni salad...with fries and macaroni salad. The macaroni salad was different than the one at Pop on the first part of our trip. It was more mayo based but it was still good.

Skyler and I decided on the Create Your Own Pasta. Skyler had the fettuccine noodles with Alfredo sauce and Parmesan cheese.

She loved it and it was a ton of pasta. They have boxes available for people who need to take away and she was able to box up about half of hers to eat later.

I had the Penne Pasta with shrimp, marinara sauce, and Parmesan cheese.

These are made to order while you point out what you want from a pretty large variety of options. THere were different kinds of noodles, sauces, meats, veggies and cheese.

We also got Mardi Gras King Cake for Tyler and it ended up being the last one. It is actually a cinnamon roll. He thought it was realy good...not as good as the ones at Gaston's bit better than the normal, average cinnamon roll. We were unable to find another one the rest of our stay!

And an order of three Beignets.

What's to say about beignets??? Fried dough with powdered sugar on them...what more could you ask for???

Our mugs were still activated so we were able to use them for drinks.

Over all we enjoyed our meal. It felt like we were eating in a large warehouse though. I was not thrilled with the venue decor (I loved it the old way!). We also thought there were not many options. SO it you are someone who eats at the food court at your hotel often, this could get old real fast. For our first meal, we were please though.

In all, our bill here was $60.11.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

After lunch (around noon) we headed out towards the pool.

We swam for a while. It was super hot and the pool chairs were pretty full so we had one chair to put our things on but since we would all be in the pool, that didn't matter.

At about 1:24pm our room was ready. We were texted the number and I knew right away it was not where I wanted.

We headed to the bathroom to change into dry clothes.

then headed to the car to head towards building 7, room #7308. My requests were building 2 or 3, ground floor, and a corner room. Well, we got a corner room...none of the other requests. We were building 7, which was the furthest building back and our room was the third floor around the back side. We brought our luggage up. Our room was convenient for bringing up luggage and if you were keeping a car and using it the whole time, it would have been a great spot but I don't care how small the resort is, when you are walking to the bus stop in the morning or back to the room at night or to the pool when your hot or you are running to the food court for a refill...this room is not close. And it was absolutely NOT what I wanted. Again, a bad room location. We unpacked what we needed and decorated the windows a little.

We did really like the room decor and set up. Like I said earlier, Ty and I had stayed here before, Skye and Cary had not.

We were coming up on time to return the car so we headed out.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We had to return the car at The Dolphin. We stopped at Speedway on the way. I hate driving in Disney but that was out easiest and cheapest way to get from the port to Disney again so we did it. The Speedway is right outside the entrance to The Dolphin. We had to put $14.92 into it to fill it up (gas was $2.04 per gallon).

We pulled up at valet and they took the receipt and the car and we were on our way out back to the boat dock.

We quickly caught a boat launch towards our destination.

Initially when planned we had dinner planned at Morimoto's (again) that got changed to STK that got cancelled all together. We had fast passes for Muppets, Toy Story, and Star Tours.

We arrived at Hollywood Studios around 5pm and headed to ABC Commissary for dinner.

 

[Lesley Wake]

She loved it and it was a ton of pasta. They have boxes available for people who need to take away and she was able to box up about half of hers to eat later.

My sister got one of these and we ended up sharing and still had food leftover! I realized for Disney food court, if it was both of us we’d share a meal, but with one person, kids meal was better!

We also thought there were not many options. SO it you are someone who eats at the food court at your hotel often, this could get old real fast. For our first meal, we were please though

It definitely was small, but I guess that’s the result of a smaller resort!

Our room was convenient for bringing up luggage and if you were keeping a car and using it the whole time, it would have been a great spot but I don't care how small the resort is, when you are walking to the bus stop in the morning or back to the room at night or to the pool when your hot or you are running to the food court for a refill...this room is not close. And it was absolutely NOT what I wanted. Again, a bad room location. We unpacked what we needed and decorated the windows a little.

Aw, that’s too bad!

I hate driving in Disney but that was out easiest and cheapest way to get from the port to Disney again so we did it. The Speedway is right outside the entrance to The Dolphin. We had to put $14.92 into it to fill it up (gas was $2.04 per gallon).

I’m doing the same thing, with a car rental to and from the port for my upcoming cruise. After the cruise though I’m going to make a stop at Cape Canaveral, mostly so my family stops bugging me about seeing nothing cultural!

 

[overstreetprncss]

I really enjoyed seeing all the pictures from your trip. Thanks for sharing