NYC Cruise {the cruise part}

I took way more pictures in NYC than I did the rest of the trip.  Another nice part of being on a ship in the ocean, means no phone or internet access.  Which means, most of the time my phone just sat in our room.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the things on the ship, but oh well, next time. 

Days 1 and 2 were at sea.  I know some people don't like the sea days but I love them. I love knowing that there is nothing to do other than explore the ship (which is a lot to do) and just relax.  Normally I'd be by the pool laying out, but it was freezing outside.

With all of the chaos and sickness before we left, Dave didn't get the haircut he planned to get before we left.  So we bit the cost and he got one on the boat.  $35, not terrible, but not his usual $10-15.

Our first stop, Day 3, was Port Canaveral, Florida.  The downside to leaving from NYC is that you don't have time to get too far south.  But I guess when you live in Kansas, any beach is better than being landlocked on all sides with flatland for miles. We opted out of the swamp-land alligator tours, and the Kennedy Space Center and decided it would be a good beach day.  We were saving our excursion money for something else!  But it ended up being pretty windy.  After a little bit of shopping, we found The Sand Bar that we had heard awesome things about, and took our time eating some amazing fish tacos and fresh peel-and-eat shrimp.  Just about the time we were finishing up, I spotted  a super sweet gal I went to high school and played basketball with.  She's in a different Premier family and it's always so fun to see each other at Premier events.  A few years ago we promoted to a new level of leadership and walked across the stage together at National Rally. She's awesome and it's been fun re-connecting a little bit!  She and her hubby were dropped off at the Wichita airport at the same time we were.  We were on different flights to NYC but we knew we'd see them on the boat. So it was super fun to see them walk into The Sand Bar and join us.  So our lunch continued for another hour or so. Those unexpected visits are always the best.

We never made it to the beach that day, other than just walking on it a bit.  So we missed some sun, but we also missed getting stung by the sand the whole time because of the wind. I did happen to get in a picture that made it LOOK like I had been at the beach all day.

 So the reason we opted out of some excursions was to get a couples massage at the spa on the boat. Total splurge, but so worth it to me.  Dave isn't a huge fan of massages, he likes them but doesn't see why I love them so much.  But he was up for doing it with me, as opposed to sending me to the spa alone.  So day 4 started with relaxation.

 And then an announcement from the captain that we wouldn't be stopping at Norwegian's private island that day due to rough seas.  There isn't a port and the only way to get people to the island is by small boats back and forth.  With rough seas, there's no safe way to do that.  But the bright side was that we would head on to Nassau and get in there for the whole evening instead of the next morning.  We had been to this private island before so we weren't too bummed.  We were excited for more time in Nassau.

We got off and ate a local seafood dinner and then visited the Atlantis.  It was free to see the aquarium at night, so total score!

On the taxi ride back to the port, our backpack (carrying our passports) got left in a taxi.  We noticed within a few minutes, but the taxi was already gone.  Soooooo.....
We did what we could for an hour or so that night to try to find the taxi, and decided to continue our search the next day.  We knew we could get back on the boat with just our boat card, but needed to make sure we could get back into the US.

I guess we have a history of losing important things on vacations.  Remember my $700 Visa gift card we lost at Disney World?

It was one of those tough decisions...do we just forget the passports and enjoy the day or try to find them?  We felt like we needed to attempt to find them.  In case they had been turned in or taken to the Embassy.  So the morning of day 5 consisted of a visit with the taxi booth, another trip back to the Atlantis, a visit to the police station, and then a trip to the US Embassy.  We got confirmation there that we would be fine getting back to the US.  So we ended the search and found a beach.

There is something wrong when you notice the lifeguard wearing sweats and a stocking cap.
 The wind was pretty awful.  We laid on the beach for an hour or so, and then had enough.

 We got back to the boat an hour or 2 before we needed to be.  We had really seen plenty of Nassau on our passport search.

This was the view of all the ships in port at Nassau.  Ours is the one on the far right.  I had no idea our ship was that big.

This was our view of Nassau as the boat left.

 Our room was off the very back of the boat, instead of one of the sides.  It was a fun new perspective.

Not sure what on earth happened to the coloring of this one.  Bummer too, because it was probably the only non-selfy picture the entire trip.

And Dave didn't even have to miss much March Madness.

 Ok, so one last thing.  I found some pictures online (and I'm sure there are rules on that, but I HAD to show you a few more things that I wasn't able to get pictures of).

 First, these are the slides I mentioned in the last post that dropped you straight down - so fun!

And one of our other favorite parts of the ship was the ropes course on the top deck.  AMAZING!

But wait, that's not all!  There was a plank!  It was the most terrifying thing ever - but soooo fun!  Dave and I both did it.  They just don't let you take your phones up there so we don't have proof.

It was craaaaazy!

 

And that's a wrap.  I noticed we had a bunch of pictures all posed the same way.  I guess there aren't too many ways to take "usies".  But it was a fun look back at our trip together.  Such a fun week with my love.

 
The last 2 days were back at sea.  One day it was warm enough to still lay out on the sun deck, while Dave took the behind-the-scenes tour of the boat.  Then on the last day it was rainy and cold all day.  The p.e.r.f.e.c.t day to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, go back for a late morning nap, eat lunch, then an afternoon nap, then dinner.  There is nothing more relaxing than doing NOTHING when you know there is nothing on earth else you can be doing.
It was a perfect ending before we were back to reality.

We are so thankful for these trips that we've been able to take because of Premier.  With life and kids, and busyness, and money...trips like these would not really happen.  It is such a treat to earn these trips for free and just pay to get there and for extras.  Premier is so generous, and we are so thankful for these memories and experiences that we've been given.  And always so humbled and thankful for those who support my business.  I just started my 11th year!

hollywood studios, epcot, & pretty much a miracle

We spent another half day finishing up everything we hadn't done at Magic Kingdom. If you're making future plans I would say that you really need 2 full days in Magic Kingdom.  We did a 1.5 at a pretty fast pace. Then the plan was to head straight to Hollywood Studies for the second half of the day.   Everyone with Premier could come into Hollywood Studios at 4 to enjoy the park and be there for a big dinner that night.

 

But at lunch time our day took a bad turn.

 

Dave asked me where our cash card was (the $700 gift card that I had gotten from Premier and a pretty big deciding factor in going on this trip).

I had no idea. He insisted that I was the last person to have it, so I checked my purse and insisted that I wasn't the last person to have it.  Neither of us could find it anywhere, but Dave wondered if it could be back in the hotel room.  Our moods were a little down, but we were counting on finding it.  Instead of going straight to Hollywood Studios we made a detour to the resort to look for it.

It was no where.

And then during our search, it hit me that I was the last one to have it.  And I remembered that it was loose in my hand the night before, along with a box of pizza, plates and napkins.  It must of slipped out and I didn't realize since I was carrying so many other things. I was carrying in my hand instead of my purse so I could give it right back to Dave.

I burst into tears.  I knew it was gone.

 

We checked with lost & founds, called the card company, made other phone calls and tried to accept that our $550 that was still on the card was gone.  My stomach was in knots, all I wanted to do was throw a big pity party and cry, and I pretty much did. All I could think about was how much this was going to mess up our entire trip budget and cause us to have to pull money from our cruise budget - ultimately affecting not just that trip, but 2 trips.  I definitely let my attitude go negative really fast.  I wanted to pack up and go home, I didn't want to go to the Hollywood Studios party that night or talk to anyone.  I was just sure that if I had to talk to anyone, it would be hard to hide how depressed I was feeling and I'd just end up crying all night.  After I was all done with my emotional wreck, I came to my senses and tried to pull it together for the kids, and told them all we could do was pray. 

We prayed that the right person would find it and turn it in and that some how we would get it back.

I prayed for peace as I tried to accept it was really gone, and tried so hard to trust that God works out all details.  He knew who had it, he knew if it was going to help them more than us, he knew how our trip would turn out regardless.

 

We walked back over our tracks from the night before and even talked to the people at the pizza shop. My tears earned me a free piece of chocolate cake. Ha! 

 

I really really didn't want to go to Hollywood Studios where everyone we knew would be. My face was tear-stained and I just had no energy to talk to anyone.  But my wise sister-in-law reminded me that we needed the free dinner more than ever at this point.  So we went.

 

We had a few hours to explore the park before the Premier event started. So we watched a stunt show, which of course had a nice surprise for Mason!  Lightning McQueen came out of the white truck beside him, and Mason's eyes lit up like no other.

 

 

We were all the way at the top of the stadium when they called for a volunteer from the audience.  When they pulled a boy from the audience out and asked him his name we realized it was our nephew Jaden!  We cheered loud for him!

 

 

Our black shirts kind of took over the park.

 

 

We met back in the stadium where the stunt show was for a quick presentation from our president and event coordinators.  It was so fun for the kids to get to see the big group they were a part of, and it was so sweet to have them stand up and cheer and gives hugs to their mamas who worked so hard to earn this trip for them.

 

It was here that God answered our prayers, in front of 4000 people.

When our event coordinator took the microphone and joked around about "So who here has lost their $700 cash card!?!?"  I didn't find it all that funny when lots of people jumped up and down jokingly in hopes they were going to be giving one away (like they had done the first night with a few $200 cash cards).

But then I heard my name.

"Amanda Balzer...we have your card right here! Come and get it!" 

I screamed and everyone around me screamed too.  And because we were in the VERY top row, I got to walk down all of those stairs in front of lots of people feeling so incredibly blessed. I caught several glances as I walked down the isle, faces that all looked just as relieved & excited for me as I was for myself.

 

We sat there in shock.  Still not really believing that card was back in our hands. We have no idea who found it, or where they found it or how it got back into the hands of the head Premier people.

But that little bitty card was an extreme example to our kids of answered prayers. I had a friend on Facebook say "and that may be the exact reason that the Lord took you on this trip!"  That lesson and the memories of losing and getting that card back will be in our minds far after we forget what rides we rode and what characters we met.

 



 

After dinner we enjoyed more of the park before it closed.  My sweet Premier great grandma (we're all one big happy family in Premier :-) and her husband from Virginia took the kiddos for ice cream and hung out with them for awhile, so that Dave and I could get in line for the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  It was one of the only rides that neither of the kids were tall enough to ride, but the one ride that we heard was a must.  It was a nice 30 minute break from the kids.  And the picture and sweet note we got later about our kiddos brought tears to my eyes.

 

 

For the record, all 4 of us rode the Hollywood Tower or Terror, and I'm pretty sure all 4 of us were scared to death.

There were no tears or complete terror from anyone.  We all screamed and laughed in the moment.  But afterwards, we were in pretty strong agreement that it was the scariest one of the whole trip. 

 

 Our trip came to an end on Father's Day.  It was not in any way a relaxing day for Dave, but we tried to at least do what he wanted to do that day.

 

So it was off to Epcot.

 

 Our original plans didn't include Epcot at all.  We knew it wasn't as appealing to the little kids.  But we decided to check it out after hearing there were at least 2 or 3 things there our kids would love.  Out of those 2 or 3, we did one of them.  The lines for the others were way too long.  After just a couple of hours, we were out of there.

 

And on to ride the Monorail (we had only taken bus transportation but Dave really wanted to ride on the Monorail to see more of the entire Disney World property and other resorts).  Around lunch time we headed to Downtown Disney, a shopping and eating district, and a Father's Day weekend car show.

 

We had a seafood (and hotdog) lunch, free samples at Ghirardelli, we sweated our booties off, stopped in LEGOLAND, and finally did some shopping for souvenirs.

 

 

 

Oh, and we saw the real Lightning McQueen again and Mater.  You could stand in line to get a picture just like all the other characters at the other parks, but Mason didn't want to.  He settled for a picture with Lightning in the background.

 



 

 

For 4 days the kids thought hard about the one thing they wanted to buy the most.  They had both been settled on Mickey and Minnie pillow pets the entire time.  And then in the last minute they both found something else they liked more.  Taylor got a baby Minnie, Mason got Stitch (he has slept with him every night since) and they picked out a Pluto pillow pet for Gavin.

 



The next morning our alarm went off at 4:30am. Total yuck!

The good thing was we were home by 1pm.  (supposed to be home by 11am but a weather delay set us back).  There was A LOT more sleeping on the trip home than there was on the way there.

 



 

We all missed our little Gavin soooo much!  The kids even missed him so much that a few times they said they wanted the trip to be over so we could go home to him. He did great with Mema and then Nana and Papa.  I don't think he even knew we were gone.

 

 And that's the end of Disney.  What a treasure it was to spend 5 days with our kiddos here.

Thank you Premier.

Thank you to everyone who supported my business from August 2012-March 2013.

Thank you Dave for cheering me on right down to the very last points that came in.

It was truly a magical vacation.  And we are truly thankful.

More Disney {Animal Kingdom}

Day 3 of our Disney trip started off with a Character Breakfast at our resort.  Lots of characters came to the resort just for Premier's group.  The lines to see them were still long but they were much better (and cooler) than at the parks.  It was a nice little treat.  It was still a good thing the kids weren't all that into it, so we didn't have to stand in line after line.  They chose 2 lines and then were done.

The night before is when they had met Mickey, and as fun as it would have been to get a picture with Mickey and Minnie together, they were happy enough just seeing them walk through.

 

 

Aunt Stef surprised them all with Mickey and Minnie shirts to wear together!

Premier fed us breakfast every day (except the two days we were there in addition to the Premier trip).  It was so nice to be able to fill our tummies full before heading to the parks...for free!

The other mornings we had cereal in our room.  This is a huge tip for anyone planning a Disney trip in the future...take as much breakfast food as you can and eat before you head out.

 



And it was off for Animal Kingdom.

 

 

Animal Kingdom has a handful of rides, but not as much as Magic Kingdom. It's pretty much a zoo on steroids.  And it has lots more shade than Magic Kingdom.

 

 

 

We loved the Mt. Everest rollercoaster!  This was the other one that Mason couldn't do, so we had a few meltdowns, but he found a few other things to make up for it.

 

 

And there were parades, just like Magic Kingdom.

I heard that the staff at Disney said this was the hottest June they've had in a long time.  I don't how the characters survived those costumes.  We were drenched of sweat all afternoon.

 

 

A 45 minute break in the air conditioning was amazing.  And so was the Lion King show. I heard it was very much like the Broadway version of The Lion King.

 Mason was petting a snake, and I stayed on the other side of the glass.

 

Seriously, that stroller was the best thing ever.

 



It's funny that my kids love twists and turns and drops on roller coasters, but when dinosaurs that look like they are coming down to eat you are involved, they weren't too impressed.

I love this picture of all of us.

  This was the only ride they kids did not want to ride again the entire trip.

 I think I'll have one more post for you and a pretty cool story too!

Surely I can get it done before we head off for vacation #2!