I remember.

There are so many stories from September 11, 2001. People who were spared. Thousands of others who were not. There were loads of memories of that day that flooded me yesterday as I remembered... No, I haven't forgotten. Nor will I. I was supposed to be in NYC that day at a client. We'd moved into our first house that summer and the dryer vent was loused up. The builder FINALLY (after some 'persuasion') agreed to fix it... that morning... so I was delayed in leaving. The man who came to fix it, and I, sat on the sofa watching the horror unfold all the while I was on and off the phone with Stephen .... He was at our office in Tinton Falls, NJ. A mere 40 miles from the attacks. There were so many in our little town of Easton, PA that were affected. We lived in a 'suburb' for a lot of people that worked in 'The City'. It took Stephen a long long time to get home that day/night. But he did get home. At the time, Stephen and I both traveled for a living... Always on airplanes. Most of the time leaving out of Newark. Flying in the weeks after the attacks was a totally different ball game. I remember leaving on my first trip after 9/11 and just crying at the airport. I didn't want to get on a plane. I didn't want to be in that airport. I didn't want to go. At the time I was on anywhere between 6-8 flights a week. It was what I did. I traveled. A lot! And then... I.was.done! I didn't want to travel anymore. I didn't want Stephen to get back on a plane. Yes, I let the fear get to me. I let them win. For a bit. But even through my feelings of please don't make me get back on a plane... I saw the good. I saw the kindness of strangers. The love that exists for others. The pilots and flight attendants who you always knew were pretty incredible at their jobs... but who I now looked at with a whole new respect and admiration. I received hugs the in airport as fellow business travelers saw my look of angst. I gave the hugs to those that I saw mirroring my thoughts and feelings. We talked about 'where we were' when we heard the news. We talked about those we knew affected by the terror attacks. We talked about the 'near misses' of that day. We prayed together. We talked.... We shared.... We prayed... We loved one another. 2,977 people died that day. At least a thousand more have died since then of health related issues that occurred from the work done at Ground Zero. Today in a time when our country seems to be so divided... We need to be ever more mindful to talk. Love. Share. Pray. I will never forget.

Birthday Coats!

If you've heard me talk about birthdays of my youth you know that my sister and I celebrated our birthdays together, every year.  Her birthday is July 13 and mine July 31.  So... with birthdays being weeks apart my Mom would split the difference and have one party.  One cake. Two kids. It made good fiscal sense. Given it was summer our parties consisted of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and maybe a neighbor or two. I don't recall ever having a school friend at a party. That's likely because we were in center of summer break and things like Evites, e-mail and texting didn't exist.  (Avoiding a summer birthday for our child was something S & I planned for so (she) could have birthday parties with friends... Yeah. Planner in all things. Judge if you must. ;) HA!) 

One of the traditions of our birthday parties was our gifts. I don't remember  a year where our birthday gifts weren't winter coats. Big, heavy winter coats. In July. That we modeled. Did I mention the IN JULY part? I distinctly remember that my coats were always pink. Hot pink. Light pink. Hot & Light pink combined. (No joke, one year my whole wardrobe was pink. One color. That's ALL I WORE!!!) Because of this I gained a nickname of 'Cupcake' by some of the older kids on the school bus. I still don't know if it was a term of endearment or they were teasing me... Either way... I was Cupcake all through elementary school. 

Now 30+ years later... approaching the big four oh and I look back and know the necessity of those gifts. Back then, we just thought that's what everyone got. Say what? You didn't get a winter coat for your birthday? I'm sorry! My sister and I would model them, twirls and all, with those hoods on and tied, in the dead of summer. Oh, I'm sure there were groans, mostly because of how hot it was, but we'd do it. Because, well... It was a new winter coat!!! Woohoo!!!  For years I've wondered... how in the world did they find a winter coat in July?  I couldn't tell you who gave us the coats... whether it was my grandparents, my mom, my aunt and uncle... I don't know. I just know we got them!  

Yesterday I was shopping at Costco and I came across these cute ... wait for it... WINTER COATS!!! What did I do? Yes ma'am, I bought one!! I didn't think about it until I got home and then laughed at myself. HAHAHA - I bought myself a winter coat. In July. About the same weekend we had our birthday party every year.  I felt like my Mom was getting a good chuckle out of this up in heaven. 

Yes Mom... A winter coat... but this time in blue.  See that? I'm branching out! ;)  (Oh. And they didn't have pink. Or green.) 

xo 

One Epic Swing Set

About 18 months ago K asked if she could have a swing set in the backyard.  Innocent question. I mean she was 6 at the time.  Seemed like a reasonable ask, right?  But for us... It was a much much larger conversation than a swing set. Stephen and I talked about getting one and redesigning the backyard on Serendipity to accommodate a swing set. And then we started talking about what I perceived as the commitment of installing a swing set. To me, it meant that we weren't moving anytime soon. It meant that church would continue to be 30-40 minutes away on a Sunday. 90 minutes on a weekday. It meant that Stephen's ambition to attend Theology School would very likely be later, if it ever happened.

And so... Because of the conversation of a swing set... We decided to move. We spent the next 15 months searching for a house, finding a house, contracting for the new house, staging our house, putting our house on the market, having over 18 offers on the house that either fell through or were crap, having major delays on the new house, Stephen STARTING THEOLOGY SCHOOL!!!!, Stephen having a middle of the night ER visit that turned into surgery and a 3 day hospital stay, closing on the Serendipity house the week between Christmas and New Years, moving to an apartment, K starting a new school, both of our companies being sold/acquired, to finally moving from the apartment into the new house.

It's been a crazy CRAZY ride the last 18 months.  Stephen is wrapping up his second semester at St. Stephens this month.  It's been a challenging year for him. With all of the things changing at work, home and new demands of school... He's had his hands full and continues to care for K and I as if we're the only thing that matters.  K's adapted to a new school. A school with the same name, in theory the same rules and yet... just slightly different enough that she's had a good amount of acclimating to do.  We've been in our house 108 days.  We have less than 10 boxes, total including the basement, that haven't been unpacked.  And as I look at this swing set, and we have nights like tonight where the neighbors came over to 'test it out' and play, giggle, sing and dance in the back yard, I see it all coming together.  I'm SO incredibly thankful for all the support, shoulders and love we have received over the last 18 months.  Friends who have helped with K while we did the 'grown-up stuff' that needed to be done. Friends who've checked in and asked what's up, how things were going and offered shoulders when I needed them. My sisters who gave Stephen and I a chance to have a break and go out for dinner, or picked K up from school so I could go get my hair cut... The neighbors who have remained close at heart and dear friends... who came to bring us breakfast for the morning of moving day, who we spent the 4th of July with on the beach...

I love you and from the bottom of my heart I thank you!!

This swing set wouldn't have happened without you.

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 5 – The Ship and the Cruise

This is a guest blog series by Stephen Aleksza about our Disney Cruise Line (DCL) cruise on the Disney Fantasy in September/October of 2014.  Our Halloween on the High Seas cruise had a western Caribbean itinerary that included: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay.  This was our first Disney cruise, but somewhere around our 13^th cruise overall.  Our previous cruises have been on Princess (Platinum), Celebrity, and Norwegian. We enjoy Disney stuff, but I would not say that we are Disney fanatics.  Our last trip to the Magic Kingdom was over ten years ago. I am big pre-trip researcher so I figured that I would share some of my research and contribute my own information through this series.

Part 5-

As the intro says, this was around our 13^th cruise, but our first on a Disney ship.  Let me start off by saying we really enjoyed the ship and we are booked again on the same ship and itinerary in 2016.  However, I was thrown a bit at the beginning.  Shocking, but there are a lot of families with a lot of kids.  I know you are shocked right, but on our last Princess cruise there were 12 kids in the kids club. Total! Our daughter thought being one of the few kids was amazing as she had quite a bit of attention in the kids club!

The meals were not as formal.  Not sure how to explain this.  The restaurants were noisier and not "stuffy".  On other cruises we were more accustomed to the tables being farther apart.  Perhaps a 5-course meal with wine on a casual night, and the walls didn't talk to us (unless additional partaking of wine occurred J). That was not quite the case on the Fantasy.  Tables were very close together and... the walls did talk. And it had nothing to do with wine. Once we realized that it was just different, and not in a bad way, all was good and we got right into it!  Here is our take on the ship and our cruise.

Ship-

It was still very new when we went so everything looked great and was well cared for.  No issues with the ship!

Aqua Duck Slide

We rode this about 90 times.  My daughter loved it.  Three tips:

• Ride it at least once at night
• Make sure you go to the photo section on ship and look for your photo.  Every time you slide it's photographed and they put the photos in your portfolio using facial recognition technology. (Super geeky, and I loved it!!) 
• If you skip a port day – Hit the slide – It was empty!

Bibbity Bobbity Boutique

Is this way over priced – Yes!  Will your daughter love it – Yes!  Our daughter sold her (no longer used) toys over 6 month period in the hopes that some day we'd be going on a Disney Cruise.  She also had choices when we were out of whether to get something (i.e. ice cream) or put that money towards her Disney Jar savings.  Over the course of 6 months she was able to save enough to go the Boutique.  Over a year later she still talks about it and her Fairy Godmother.  A few tips:

• Book this as soon as the bookings open.  Waiting until you are on the ship is too late
• Just get the hair and makeup.  You can bring her dressed in her own Princess outfit and save the high price tag.  (Things to consider bringing for your Princess: a tiara, a magic wand, shoes, princess dress. My suggestion would be to get something (new to her) prior to the trip and surprise her with it.  When you arrive you can take her into the dressing room there and let her change into her outfit. Have the crown or tiara that her Fairy Godmother can use when styling her hair.)  
• Also there are little boy "make-overs" on Pirate day/night.  The "evil twin sisters" of the Fairy Godmother's come in and take over the Salon!  We didn't do this but are sure that the boys have just as much fun! 

Following the make-over we received both nail colors, her make-up pallet and her sash that she wore for the rest of the day all in a little drawstring back-back. Make sure you take your camera. 

Kids Centers

Wow – this takes up half of a deck.  Serious space.  Not like the room or two on other cruise lines.  This ship was built around the child activities.  The spaces looked super cool.  However, I cannot say much because our daughter went about twice and did not want to go again.  I think it was too many things and too many kids and she was overwhelmed. Tips are:

Register your child online in advance.  Then just pick up your wrist band at embarkation.

Shows

Top notch.  Probably the best we have seen at sea.  Do not miss any of the production shows.  Some of that is because they can leverage from famous Disney story lines.  The only draw back was that most of it was pre-recorded and lip sync’d.

Dining Rooms

We loved them all.  They are all well themed and appointed.  We loved that our wait staff followed us from restaurant to restaurant as we rotated through the various dining rooms.  Our favorite was Animator’s Palette.  Making your own cartoon rocked!  Make sure you're on time for Animator's Palette nights! It's important!! 

Character Greetings

There are a lot of them, so do not panic if you miss one.  They all had lines.  I guess the longest was 30 minutes.  I thought that was unacceptable until someone reminded me that I could be waiting in the hot part for 90 minutes to see one.  So I will take 30 minutes in the AC with a drink any day.  Each character was super nice and we saw more than you would ever want. Tips:

• Get a picture everywhere; who knows which you will like
• Get in line early for the Princess meet-n-greet; at least 15 if not 30 minutes early. The line will not get any shorter then when you get there. Bring your autograph book.  Each character will sign it!

Photo Package

If you can afford it, get it.  We loved it.  It was so much fun to stop for every photo we could.  I hate photos and paying for them, but having the freedom to get them all made it super fun.  We ended up with a bit under 500 pictures!

Pirate Night

Hot, crowded, and don't miss it.  It was a blast, the fireworks were short but super cool.  It was a bit scary for the little one.  Get on deck early so you can get a good spot for the show.  I said, would people really dress in a pirate theme.  Yup they did.  Do not be left out and bring some pirate gear.

Halloween on the High Seas

It was nice to have the ship themed.  People did dress up on costume night, so if you don't want to be left out, pack a costume.

Movie Theater

Loved it.  Best theater I have been in on land or sea.  First run movies, great picture, and great sound!  Take in at least one movie – However, dress warm it was freezing in there.  (Our daughter that it was all part of the "Frozen" experience!!) 

Spa

We did an unlimited entry for the showers, hot stone beds, and hot tubs.  We loved it and it was super relaxing.  Again a bit of splurge, but for the price of one treatment you get something that will last you all cruise. 

Palo

On the adult theme.  You MUST go to either Palo or Remy.  We went to Palo and it was one of the best meals we have ever had.  The meal and the experience are worth it.  When you compare it to the price you paid for the best meal you ever had on land, you will see that it is a bargain.

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 4 – Fish Extender

This is a guest blog series by Stephen Aleksza about our Disney Cruise Line (DCL) cruise on the Disney Fantasy in September/October of 2014.  Our Halloween on the High Seas cruise had a western Caribbean itinerary that included: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay.  This was our first Disney cruise, but somewhere around our 13^th cruise overall.  Our previous cruises have been on Princess (Platinum), Celebrity, and Norwegian. We enjoy Disney stuff, but I would not say that we are Disney fanatics.  Our last trip to the Magic Kingdom was over ten years ago. I am big pre-trip researcher so I figured that I would share some of my research and contribute my own information through this series.

Part 4-

I would not say that it was at the last minute, but about 6 weeks before we departed we decided to join a Fish Extender group.  I was glad we did, so if you are on the fence and have a child with you, just do it! You probably want to do it sooner than six weeks out. Why? Our daughter loved coming back to the room to see what she had received.  She also walked the ship to distribute our gifts.  Her focus was to not get caught being the secret gift giver.  She thought surprising people with a gift was great!  Not only did we bring stuff for our own FE list, we also brought some items to just Pixie Dust people with.  That was the best.  Random gifts on random doors = a winner.

Let me start off at the end.  This is what my daughter received spread out on the dining room table when we got back.  We brought an extra suit case for the stuff we were going to give and ended up filling up that same suit case on our way back home!

 

Were do you start?  We started here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-cruise-line/meets.htm.  This has a bunch of stuff to get you started, including what is the fish extender stuff all out.  From there, go find your board, read it, and send you information to the person coordinating your FE group.  It is info like name, city, cabin number, Disney likes, allergies, etc.

Eventually your group will get locked in and then you will know the size and the preferences. Our group also had a Facebook page which I believe is now like 100 violations of the DISboard rules.  However, we loved it and wish they let them exist.  We met some friends and future business partners through that group!  It was so much easier than the boards.  First we figured out our FE.  They are all shapes, sizes, and qualities.  Do not get hung up on this.  Just figure out something to hold the loot.  We ended up ordering ours from Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/listing/112624434/2-pocket-fish-extender-for-disney-cruise?ref=shop_home_active_2).  We were very satisfied with it.

For our gifts themselves, they ran the gambit.  A lot from the Dollar Store, $1 section in Target, and Amazon.  We did mini-flashlights, soap, custom labeled water bottles, glow sticks, custom car stickers, sticker books, etc.  I will admit it was a bit to get it together and pack it, but it was worth it.  To me it was really about the thought and not the gift.  You will feel pressured to do some crazy Pinterest thing from a professional crafter.  Don’t worry, whatever you give will be appreciated.

This is probably a good place to talk about our door.  We did decorate our door.  Even if you don’t do an FE, you probably want to decorate your door.  Many doors were decorated, even without the FE.  We did make a few things but the characters around portal that we used we purchased from Etsy. They could be made, but we decided in the interest of time, we'd order those! (We purchased Beach Minnie, Else & Pirate Mickey and switched them out based on the theme of the day on the ship.) The Pirate Mickey/Minnie, Chevron heads & Sofia we made. (Print your design, laminate it and then put a magnet strip on the back.) 

My take aways are:

• #1 FE gift is a map with the cabins of everyone in your FE group marked on it.  It is a big ship and a pain to route to 10 different cabins
• Make sure you have room to bring all your goodies home
• Save some stuff for the 2^nd half of the cruise.  You do not need to give it all away on day one.
• Bring some stuff to Pixie Dust with, it will make you feel good. 

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 3 - Ports and Shore Excursions

This is a guest blog series by Stephen Aleksza about our Disney Cruise Line (DCL) cruise on the Disney Fantasy in September/October of 2014.  Our Halloween on the High Seas cruise had a western Caribbean itinerary that included: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay.  This was our first Disney cruise, but somewhere around our 13^th cruise overall.  Our previous cruises have been on Princess (Platinum), Celebrity, and Norwegian. We enjoy Disney stuff, but I would not say that we are Disney fanatics.  Our last trip to the Magic Kingdom was over ten years ago. I am big pre-trip researcher so I figured that I would share some of my research and contribute my own information through this series.

Part 3 -

This post is about our shore excursions.  These were our ports-of-call.

• Cozumel
• Grand Cayman
• Falmouth
• Castaway Cay

Cozumel

We have been to Cozumel several times.  We selected a Disney Port Adventure to 

Destination Website - Playa Mia

Disney Cruise Port Adventure - Cozumel Beach Break

We did research on going direct to Playa Mia instead of going through Disney Port Adventures.  The pricing direct and the pricing via Disney was within a couple dollars.  The only key difference by purchasing direct was that it would have allowed for a full day vs the excursion times.  However, the excursion time was pretty much the whole time our ship was in port and we wanted to do a bit of shopping.  So in reality, we would not have been staying any longer than the excursion times so we booked with Disney for the convenience.

We RECOMMEND this excursion.  We had a great time.  The facilities are very nice (Not as great as the photo shopped photos, but no place is).  We enjoyed the beach, the pools, the slides, the bars, and the lunch (The lunch was a little weak, but OK).  Our six-year old daughter had a blast.

There were two departure times and we chose the earliest.  We recommend that time.  We arrived right around opening time.  We had our choice of seats and were able to enjoy the slides, pools, etc without any crowd or any wait.

General Tips:

• Go-Pros are not allowed on the slides
• Bring your phone, there is free WiFi
• Drinks are standard resort open bar strength
• The ocean trampolines/play area is a pretty decent swim from the shore.  Our daughter does not swim and it was a long and tiring tow. (She refers to this as “our worst idea of the day”.)
• The shuttle returns you right at the dock mall so you can cross off your shopping on the way back to the boat

Grand Cayman

We have been there before several times too.  We also knew that it would be a tender service.  Nothing really jumped out for our daughter to do, so we stayed on the ship.  We picked up this habit of staying on the ship for a port day several cruises ago.  It paid off again.  We had a great day.  You are able to enjoy everything on the ship without the crowds or the waits of a sea day.  We rode the Aqua Duck with no wait, the pools with no crowds, etc.  I would encourage everyone to pick a port day to enjoy on the ship.

Falmouth

This is a relatively new port and we had not been there before.  We picked the Green Grotto excursion via Disney Port Excursions.  We choose this because most of the activities are a bit far from the port (30+ minutes) and Jamaica is not known for its safety and security.

Destination Website - Green Grotto Caves

Disney Cruise Port Adventure - Disney Cruise Port Adventure

Unless you have a 8-12 year old boy, I would not recommend this excursion.  On the up side, all the guides from the tour company, cave, and lunch were very nice and really tried to make it a good day.  Also, at the cave the tour guide did a great job with the kids.  Giving them adventures and opportunities to explore dark areas of the caves.  Every young boy LOVED the trip.  However, the cons are a bit longer:

• The bus A/C barely cooled the bus
• The bus had no power, as you went over a hill it had to slow to about 15 mph. Bicycles could pass beside us going up the hill we were going so slow. :D 
• The cave is exactly like the pictures and not at all.  All the pictures are super well lit.  Not the reality.  The caves are just plain limestone caves with a couple lights here and there.  I was expecting a show cave, this was not that. (We were thinking this would be similar to the Luray Caverns in the US.  So not that.) 
• The caves were hot.  That surprised us.  We were worried about being cold in the caves (many are).  Not here.  It was hot and stuffy.  It was so hot at some points were were anticipating the cold with glee!!! Never happened. 
• The lunch was a piece of chicken and rice in what looked like an old house on the beach.  Interesting, but definitely not up to the Disney experience.  However, the view from the beach is pretty

The port itself is new and built for cruise ships.  Very touristy, but a very clean, secure, and easy to access port to get off and stretch your legs.  Next time, we’d consider this for a “day on the ship” day.  

Castaway Cay

We have been to Norwegian Cruises and Princess Cruises private islands.  Castaway Cay beats them all.  The island is heavily themed with great infrastructure.  The BBQ is much better and the free ice cream and soda continues on the island.  There is also a lot of beach activities.  Another key point is the the water is within and artificial harbor.  So you get to enjoy the water with no waves. We recommend that you get off the boat here and enjoy the island. 

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise

Disney Cruise Line - Disney Fantasy - Trip Report - Part 2 - The Cabin

This is a guest blog series by Stephen Aleksza about our Disney Cruise Line (DCL) cruise on the Disney Fantasy in September/October of 2014.  Our Halloween on the High Seas cruise had a western Caribbean itinerary that included: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Castaway Cay.  This was our first Disney cruise, but somewhere around our 13^th cruise overall.  Our previous cruises have been on Princess (Platinum), Celebrity, and Norwegian. We enjoy Disney stuff, but I would not say that we are Disney fanatics.  Our last trip to the Magic Kingdom was over ten years ago. I am big pre-trip researcher so I figured that I would share some of my research and contribute my own information through this series.

Part 2 – The Cabin

We stayed in cabin 7552.  This was a Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah (Cat 5C) room.  We loved the location of the room.

The room was forward on the starboard side.

It was between elevators.  That made it easy to go forward or mid-ship.  It also helped cut down on foot traffic.  We also liked the 7^th floor.  Three floors up or down and you reached a main floor.

The stock photos are very accurate, albeit photo shopped to smooth out.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/staterooms/dream-fantasy/deluxe-oceanview-stateroom-with-verandah/

Here are some of our pictures. 

We would compare this room to a mini-suite on a Princess ship. The bed has no obstructions under it so it makes for plenty of space to store your luggage. Our bed, unlike other cruise ships, didn’t seem like it was two twins pushed together.  There was no dent or grove in the middle of the bed creating a divider.  We didn’t need the normal egg crate to try to decrease the “divide”. The bed for our daughter was more of a futon.  It was actually very comfortable. 

There is table that is by the sofa/futon that is actually a chest that you can use for storage. This was great for our daughter’s toys and assorted “stuff” that we didn’t want lying around the room (in addition to a place to put fish extender presents!).

There were two cons about the room.  One is that the verandah had a partial obstruction.  About a foot on the right side was blocked by a support structure.  It does not seem like a lot, but it did make it feel much smaller.  The other was that for being about two years old, the room was showing a bit of wear and tear.  The scratched furniture and worn areas caught us a bit by surprise.  A minor annoyance is that all the paper instructions, for things like the wave phone, were torn and super worn out.

The net was that we would stay on the 7^th floor again, but probably not that room because of the small verandah obstruction.

Post 1 - Embarkation
Post 2 - Cabin
Post 3 - Ports
Post 4 - Fish Extender
Post 5 - Ship and Cruise