I'm Bananas...B - A - N - A - N - A - S...for my nephew

I've known since the day Sister told me about her "plus one" that it was a little boy. Obvs, it is my auntie intuition.  The Goog and I had the following conversation on the way to lunch no more than an hour after Sister told us about her plus-one, Squirt:

Me: What do you think Sister will have? A boy or a girl?
Goog: A girl. Your family only has girls.
Me: I think it is a boy. Because I don't know what to do with little boys.

The weekend after we found out about my future nephew/niece, my mom and I went shopping for some gender neutral clothing.  The very first thing I found when shopping was this cute little monkey blanket that said "I'm bananas." It was the PERFECT first present because 1.) monkey stuff can be for boys or girls and 2.) I have bought Sister some kind of monkey (weather it be a stuffed monkey or a monkey on a coffee mug) every Christmas and birthday for probably over 10 years.  Sure, it was blue but GIRLS can wear blue too. I wear blue just about every day. If the plus one ended up a girl, I was going to move the monkey's little orange bowtie above it's ear.



I also got this little monkey bath towel. Because do you know what would make a baby even cuter? If it has a monkey...on it's head.

Sister and B-i-L officially found out last Thursday what Squirt will be, and Sister texted me as soon as she found out: "Squirt is a boy!!! He'd like some buzzz and mickey stuff please!!" Well you don't have to tell me twice to go to DisneyShopping.com, so I headed over there with absolutely no clue what little boys actually like.  Luckily for me, Disney Shopping has a whole section called "boys toys" for all us aunts that don't really know. 

 The boy toy section includes Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, Cars, and Handy Manny.  Which of these toys will Squirt get? Probably all of them by the time it is all said and done. This is going to be one spoiled little boy!

This past weekend, my mom and I went shopping yet again, except this time we were looking specifically for little boy (and little monkey) things. Although I want to keep most of the things I bought a surprise, I can't help but share the most precious little pair of monkey booties!! They are for babies sized 0 to 12 months, so I guess Squirt can wear them for awhile.  They even have little rubber grippers on the bottom so that when he learns how to walk, he won't slip on those hardwood floor!

The ABC's of our Disney Cruise

 Now that I've fully recovered from my week-long trip to Florida and the Caribbean, I'm ready to give a quick A to Z run down of all the fun we had on our Disney Cruise.  While I'm sure approximately 1 of my lovely followers would enjoy browsing through the 2,160 pictures taken between 3 cameras in 5 days (take that, Japaneses couple! Who is the shutterbug now??), I'll spare you THIS time. Instead, enjoy my ABCs of the Disney Cruise Line, with corresponding slideshow below.

Arts & Crafts: We made  frisbees, Sister and B-i-L learned how to fold napkins for their next big party and we all learned how to fold our towels into cute little animals.

Bon Voyage! cake and decorations in my stateroom, thanks to the Goog.

Castaway Club Silver Members: You are automatically a member of the Castaway club once you go on a Disney Cruise.

Disney Dreams: We got to see a Broadway-style show almost nightly, but Disney Dreams was the BEST of all.

Ears: Every time I go to Disney World or on a Disney Cruise, I get a new pair of Mickey ears. This time, I got some pirate ears.

Freebies: The number of freebies that I got this cruise was ridic and really deserves its own blog entry. I'll save that for another day!

Golden Mickeys: Another of the Broadway-style shows. This one was about an Oscars-type show giving out awards to the best Disney films (you know, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame...). Best part was the Red Carpet outside the theater that Sis and I could pretend we were celebrities on.

Hidden Mickeys: Little Mickey Heads hidden all over the boat. My favorite was the Mickey head made out of coconuts on one of the statues on Castaway Cay.

Ice carving: Every buffet had these elaborate ice carvings, and we even watched a demo of the professional ice carver in action!


Jazz Hands: It's a revolution, y'all.


Kickin' it with Goofy: Goofy randomly came over to the Goog and I one afternoon and was making the Goog clap along to the music. It. Was. AWESOME.

Lobster, Peacock, Dog, Turtle and Rabbit Towel Animals on the bed every night.

Midtown- A cover band that was like listening to the Blend on XM, except LIVE. They were Canadian.

Next cruise booked for June 21, 2010: Because who doesn't like to save 10% AND get a $100 onboard credit while only paying half the deposit?

One year anniversary: The Goog and I celebrated our 1st anniversary (a week late) with lots of cake. Chip and Dale made us hold up a #1 for our 1st anniversary.

Pirates IN the Caribbean night: The night where we all dress like pirates and then watch fireworks. Fun fact: Disney Cruise Line is the only cruise line that does fireworks off their ships.

Quiet Cove Pool: The adults only pool. No kids around here to put their wet little hands on you.

Rain in Nassau: The worst day, weather wise AND port wise. Let's just say I was not impressed with Nassau.

Smoothies in Souvenir Glasses: I'm a total sucker for souvenir glasses.

Toy Story 3 Premiere…in 3D: Probably the coolest part of the cruise was we got to watch TS3 in 3D at 12:01 AM the day it came out in theaters!! They even had an "adults only" showing, so we got to watch Toy Story 3 without little kids talking during the movie.

Umbrellas on the beach:Very important for people like me who have translucent skin and burn just by looking at the sun.

Vacation Club:The Goog and I recently joined the Disney Vacation Cult Club, so this was why we got soooo many freebies!!

Wonder: Our boat, the Disney Wonder

Xtra smooth sailing conditions: The best sailing conditions I've ever seen. It was like we were on a lake the whole time.

Yellow lifeboat: Fun fact, Disney was granted special permission by the U.S. Coast Guard to paint the lifeboats yellow, in order to keep with the special color theming of the ship -- the colors of Mickey Mouse himself.

Zombie servers: Our servers, Ferenc and Lidia, were a lot of fun (even if not the most efficient). We took their pictures every night so they started making silly faces during the pictures.

Sand Castles in the Sand

This is a scheduled post because I am on the beach building sandcastles in the sand. 

 Every time I go to the beach now, I always have the Robin Sparkles smash hit "Sandcastles in the Sand" running through my head the whole day. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then shame on you, but also, here is the video. It is pure awesomeness from How I Met Your Mother.



On our final day of the cruise, we'll be spending another day at Castaway Cay. This is one of the very first 2-stops-at-Castaway Cay cruises Disney has ever offered, so our cruise is pretty much history in the making. 

Here's a fun fact. Did you know even water in the Caribbean gets cold in the winter? When the Goog and I went on a cruise at the end of December 2008, the water was a little too cold to swim in, so instead we sat under umbrellas and played in the sand. You tend to get brainwashed after spending 7 nights surrounded by Disney things, so I was making "hidden" Mickeys in the sand:

I'm not the only one that likes to play in the sand.  There was this hermit crab that made the most awesome tracks in the sand:

It was too cold to swim, but we still got to take this cool picture of us in the crystal clear water (ignoring the piece of seaweed on the Goog's shoulder).

Tomorrow morning, we'll be kicked off the boat bright and early.  With that, we will return to the real world where we must pay for food and don't have to clean our hands with baby wipes before every meal. Stay tuned for sights, sounds, stories, and maybe a little jazz hands from our trip (I have another 13 hour car ride ahead of me!!)

Crusin' at Sea

This is a scheduled post. I'm out in the middle of the ocean right now.

Today is our Day At Sea. It seems odd to me that we can get to Nassau overnight, yet it takes a FULL DAY to get back to Castaway Cay. Makes you wonder if we are just turning circles in the middle of the Atlantic.

     

We'll probably be doing some "relaxing" on our Day at Sea. Of course, by "relaxing" I mean, sitting by the pool (with me taking pictures), sitting on lounge chairs on the 4th deck (with me taking pictures), reading books and watching movies...after I take pictures. I've have to document our relaxation just so that I can go back and prove to the Goog that we did, in fact, relax.

The Day at Sea is also a good day to get Shutterbuggy and meet and greet with some characters. I'm thinking jazz hands, and lots of them.


I'm hoping no matter what happens during our Day at Sea, we at least get one thing. It is the most awesomely amazing thing in the history of amazing things and it is 2 words: Dessert Buffet.  The Dessert Buffet is about 5 tables, all pushed together with every type of dessert imaginable down either side. Then there is a chocolate fountain in the back. Oh, you don't want a ton of sugar? That's cool because there is also a tiny little sugar-free dessert table in a far dark corner of the room.

I'm going to go slip into my sugar coma until tomorrow...

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot in Nassau

On our 3rd day of the cruise we will be going to Nassau.  I've never been to Nassau before, so I have no idea what to expect with this port. Our plan is to walk around the city and do some shopping.  Maybe I will get one braid in my hair and learn to play the steel drum? Who knows. So since I can't provide you with pictures from my last trip to Nassau, here's some pictures from my favorite port-of-call: Grand Cayman. The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory. George Town, the capital of the Cayman Islands, feels like if you took a city in England and a Caribbean city and smooshed them together.


My favorite part of Grand Cayman is the Turtle Farm, where you can feed and hold baby sea turtles. When you take the turtles out of the water, they start flapping their flippers and all you have to do to calm them down is rub their necks. They relax immediately after that.


As you can see from the picture, I pretty much became Queen of the Sea Turtles on my last visit to the Turtle Farm.They would come flocking to me whenever I was near. It had nothing to do with the fact that they thought I had food. Nothing.

iI

I never thought I'd spend my birthday, which is at the end of December, on a beach. So when we went on a birthday cruise, I had to go to Seven Mile Beach! Fun fact: Seven Mile Beach is actually 5.5 miles long.

See ya real soon! (As in...for tomorrow's scheduled post!)

On Which Beach Would You Most Like to be Stranded, Sarah Mac?

This is a scheduled post because I am soaking up some sun slathered up in SPF 100+ in the Bahamas. 

Travel Channel, which is owned by my place of employment, has a blog called Terminal T that let's it's employees blog about their travel adventures.  Why should the Travel Channel employees get all the bloggy fun? (You can find the actual, official Terminal T blog here). One of the series of posts on Terminal T was which beach several TC employees would like to be stranded. It just so happens that I am spending today on my very favorite of all beach.

Today we are at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. (Don't be confused like I was the first time I came...it doesn't rhyme with May, it's pronounced key.) Fun fact according to Wikipedia, this island has been used for filming the beach where Tom Hanks first encounters Daryl Hannah in Splash is on the island. Before Disney bought it, it was called Gorda Cay and was once used as a stop for drug runners. Nice.


Today we are at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. (Don't be confused like I was the first time I came...it doesn't rhyme with May, it's pronounced key.) Fun fact according to Wikipedia, this island has been used for filming the beach where Tom Hanks first encounters Daryl Hannah in Splash is on the island. Before Disney bought it, it was called Gorda Cay and was once used as a stop for drug runners. Nice.

I'm not normally a big beach person. I am the whitest person in Holland and I can get a sunburn from sitting under an umbrella. I'm also usually very sensitive to water and I hate to get wet. But Castaway Cay seems to turn me into the biggest beach bum. Here are a few reasons I love it:

Serenity Bay Beach is a mile-long adults only beach. No, perv, adults only doesn't mean some crazy nude beach...come on, it's DISNEY. But it does mean that only no kids or teens. I'm surprised nobody has every questioned if I was old enough to be on that beach since most people think I am 16. The best thing about the beach is it isn't as crowded as the family beach. Notice how in the picture there isn't a soul on the beach.




Caribbean water is so much better than, say, the East Coast water.  It is crystal clear and is probably made from unicorn tears just like the sand on the beach is actually pixie dust.  I am standing in knee deep water and my feet (or at least the part not buried in sand).

There are cool Disney movie and ride artifacts, so it is like being at a beach version of Disney World.  The Flying Dutchman pirate ship, from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, is on display in the lagoon.  All the women the walk past the Flying Dutchman like to swoon over the fact the Johnny Depp has been on that boat.

It has a lot of character...and a lot of characters!  Happy Monday everybody! Now it's time for me to go back to relaxing.

Setting Sail on our Great Cruise Adventure

I'm scheduling a weeks worth of blogs so that my blog subscribers can share in all the cruise-y related fun. You're welcome.   I'm writing these blogs during my 13+ car ride to Florida on my fancy new iPad, a 1st anniversary present from the Goog.

The Goog and I have been on 2 Disney cruises, one in Aug 2006 and another in Dec 2008. We are old pros when it comes to cruising.  So the posts over the next week are my guesses on what we will be doing on this cruise. We are also going on this cruise with my parents (first time cruisers), Sister (first time DISNEY cruiser), and B-i-L (also a first time cruiser). I've been acting as our cruise director for months now, making sure all our paperwork is filled out and giving tips and advice on what to pack and do while we are on the cruise.

"Day 1" of the Cruise is really more of a half a day...that is why it is important to get to the cruise terminal as early as possible so that you can get on the boat as early as possible therefore maximizing your cruising fun and also getting your money's worth.

Typically first days don't include too many activities.  The Goog and I will give my parents, Sister and B-i-L a tour of the boat, then we'll eat, go to a deck party, and eat some more! 

Make sure you come back every day this week to see where in the Caribbean we are each day. Adventures Away!!!

WDW Wednesday: Faces of a Disney Cruise

I’m going to turn Walt Disney World Wednesday into a Disney Cruise Line edition this week because I’ll be setting sail on another cruise this coming Sunday.  I’ll be taking the Goog, my parents, Sister, and B-i-L with me on the cruise, but I’ll be scheduling some posts next week so that my readers can feel like they are cruising through the Bahamas with me too!!

When you spend 7 nights and 8 days on a boat, certain people tend to stand out.  On our first cruise in August 2006, there was a mother, along with her daughter, that we ate dinner with every night who had another daughter that worked on the cruise line as a performer in the stage shows…and a “friend” of the characters. We found this out during a character breakfast, when Chip came around to our table and was being really friendly and interacting with us more than all the other characters had.  After Chip left the table, the daughter explained how they “knew” Chip.  Every day after that, we kept an eye out for extremely friendly characters.  One morning, while I was walking to get breakfast, I saw Wendy (from Peter Pan) with no line so I went to have my picture made with her, and she too was very friendly.

On my last cruise in December of 2008, there was a gal, probably in her mid-twenties, that wore wigs and a different prom gown EVERY night to dinner.

We met her friend one afternoon when we were hanging out around the pool, and her friend told us all about this girl.  She apparently had a very wealthy father that paid for her and a couple friends to go on this cruise.  She wouldn’t leave her stateroom unless she was in full makeup, because she had a crush on one of the guys working on the cruise ship.  She also had brought 2 trunks of clothes, which contained all her wigs and gowns.

You would think based on this picture that it was formal night on the cruise, right? Well you would be wrong. This wasn't even semi-formal night. Maybe I should plan on taking my prom dress with me on this trip.

My all-time favorite people were on that December cruise.  There was a Japanese couple that, not that I have much room to talk, were complete Disney freaks. Every day, they were dressed in matching Disney outfits.  And everyday, they were in the front of every line to meet every single character available.  They must have just spent all the rest of their trip planning which characters would be at which locations. We started referring to this couple  as “the Shutterbugs.”

 This was the one time the Shutterbugs weren't at the front of the line. The girl is sporting a Minnie red polka dot shirt and the guy has a red headband. 

On the “Pirates IN the Caribbean” night, the guy dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and while he was waiting in line to meet Pirate Mickey Mouse, somebody came up to the Goog and I and asked us if we were in line for Jack Sparrow. His costume was THAT authentic. The Shutterbugs each had a super-fancy professional camera with a Mickey Mouse camera strap. So whenever they would meet a character, they had a whole routine.  The guy would have his picture taken with the character, then the girl would have hers done, then they would have a cast member take both of their picture. They’d also pose JUST LIKE the character.  They also were always the first people at all the deck parties, right there, in front of the stage.  Even though they probably had to show up an hour early just to get those prime-o spots! To the Goog and I, they were sort of like Disney characters themselves!!

In all honesty, the Shutterbugs were my heroes. I bet they had so many great pictures of the ship and all the characters!  I’m hoping that Sister and I will be the token people on our upcoming cruise.  Maybe I can convince Sister to wear matching outfits and we can be known throughout the ship as the “jazz hands sisters”!!

Dhani Tackles the Office: The Blog

Last Monday afternoon, I'm sitting in a "meeting" with a consultant at my desk when I see an e-mail ghost up in the corner of my computer screen from corporate communications with the subject line "Dhani Jones."  The e-mail said:

 

Dhani Jones, Bengals linebacker and Renaissance man who “Tackles the Globe” on the Travel Channel, will visit our office Wednesday afternoon. He will be available around 2:30 for a Meet and Greet in the Fun Room, where he will autograph photos and answer your questions. Plan to stop by and welcome Dhani.

 Wednesday was going to be a very exciting day, since we don't get celebrities in our office very much, even though we own the Food Network and Travel Channel. Ice cream sandwiches and cookies were provided that afternoon, because while not everyone is impressed with meeting a celebrity, everyone LOVES free snacks.

I'm trying to bring the jazz hand revolution to the mid-west and was totally doing jazz hands while he was signing his head shot for me. Unfortunately, the lady I had given my camera to take my picture isn't so good with candid shots. Fortunately, my friend and co-worker JM was there and she snapped a shot of half my jazz hands. 

Meeting a celebrity. He wanted all us married ladies to change our Facebook profile pictures to us with him.

Once everyone had gotten pictures and autographs, Dhani ate an ice cream sandwich then sat down in one of our Kermit-the-Frog skinned chairs for a little Question and Answer session. Here's the list




 of questions and the answers:

• Has he talked to Chad Ochocinco since Chad got kicked off of Dancing with the Stars? (Yes, this was actually the first question in the little Q&A session) Answer: No, he isn’t back in town yet. I guess they are not BFFFFFFs that talk daily.

• Would he ever do Dancing with the Stars? He would if the producers actively pursued HIM but he would not actively pursue it. He thinks it’s a great opportunity, blah blah blah, but he would rather go to Paris for the weekend rather than do dance training all weekend.

• Does he have a thing for boots?  Yes. He showed us his brand new boots then told us about how he had a custom made pair that looks like a pair of boots from Romeo and Juliet. He also has a pair of boots with big cats (Bengals) on the back.

• Does he like kitties, if so, what kind? Yes. Panthers and other big jungle cats....RAWR. (He really did give a RAWR!)

• Does he have any tattoos? No…but he wants one on his left side…he pointed to almost right under his armpit.

Notice how none of these questions are football related.  My manager did ask him if the Bengals were going to the Super Bowl this year. (His answer was "that is the plan.”) He didn't seem like he wanted to talk about the Bengals either. 


JM saw him as she was leaving for the day, and said he and his agent were just walking down the street. No limo. No mob of people. Just 2 regular dudes taking a stroll in downtown Cincinnati.

Have you ever met a celebrity? If so, what were they like?