Couples Only Cruise ~ Because It's a Tuesday

Howdy y'all!
I spent some time last week day dreaming about our cruise last spring. Since I appear to have recovered from the behemoth that was my first trip report (16,345 words is no joke) I figured why not test the waters with a second report. I was so thankful to cruise aboard the Disney Magic on DCL's first Thanksgiving itinerary from the port of Galveston last year, but our second cruise out of Galveston had an entirely different feel and flare.



Ben's the one on the left. :)

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I'm Lorelei (or Lori to my friends) better known as cruisecrasher (like partycrasher, not like the Titantic) on the DISboards or “That Disney Cruise Lady” as I’m known on this, my blog. I love DISigning, when I'm not in full on dream come true vacation planning mode, which seems to be all the time. I love blogging, running, writing, photography and reading. I am a goofball, spaz, and all around pixie-dust nut with the occasional OCD planning tendencies. I'm married to a kind Disney-holic supporting man, truly deserving of being called my better half. He's the calm to my kinetic, the milk to my cookie, the Flynn to my Rapunzel. Benjamin is also on some of the Disney community discussion boards, though he tends toward the lurking end of the Disney community.
After our honeymoon at the world, he was originally skeptical about DCL, thinking we might try a short stay at WDW and a short cruise. Then we took a short 3 day cruise out of Port Canaveral, just to "try it out" sans children. Now it's like pulling teeth to talk him back into the parks and off of the beautiful Disney ships. We are blessed with two darling children who had been on one seven night cruise on the Magic prior to this trip.



Back on deck over Thanksgiving 2012

They aren't what you would call pixie dust deprived. Christopher is 6, gluten free and in the throws of mastering handwriting, Kylee Anne is 4, loves ballet and is allergic to dairy. Contrasting allergies means I can read an ingredient list with lightning speed and know my way around both my own kitchen and special orders on deck. The original "big plan" was for us to pay off our house sometime around my 30th birthday, then save up for a super deluxe WDW DCL vacation for sometime around our tenth anniversary. We always prefaced that with a caveat "if they ever come to Texas, we'll jump right on that." We paid off our house ahead of my birthday, thankfully. However, the urge to hunt down a good deal became ingrained from that part of my life; I still love finding a good deal. Sometimes that means booking a high end room opening day, sometimes it means hunting out a last minute GTY, either way, I'm happy.




I take booking very seriously.

When DCL announced sailings out of Galveston in April of 2011, we did the whole crazy stay on hold opening day bookings thing, right as the NYC and Galveston itineraries were released. Thus giving us a leisurely 19 MONTHS to sit and wait for our Thanksgiving cruise to roll around.
In the interim, one of my sweet friends, Casey of the Casey Luvs Disney blog, completed Disney's College of Knowledge and became an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Yay her! Now since she started selling cruises, she felt she needed firsthand experience with DCL. She picked my brain for tips and tricks from my last cruise. I couldn't help but get caught up in her excitement!
I mean who doesn't love planning a Disney vacation with a friend? I told her she'd be welcome to stay the night before her cruise with us, once she had one picked out.

September 14, 2012

I browsed around the DIS with Ben one evening and we came across a thread "Non-family Vacation Reasons for Taking a Family Cruise" and DH told me to respond with "Because It's A Tuesday." I giggled and typed in his response, amazed at how totally cruise converted he had become. I spent that September evening surfing the web, browsing the DIS and paying bills.
Cool!
Our Disney VISA accumulated over $800 in rewards dollars. I wondered how much a really short cruise in January or February went for nowadays. Ben spent a load of time the rest of that week swamped at work so I had plenty of time to browse and pick dates.

September 21, 2012

One morning, I found "our cruise." We'd be staying in an 11c GTY stateroom for just the two of us on the February 5, 2013 four night cruise. After taxes and fees, the total stayed under our rewards dollars amount!
FREE CRUISE!!!!


Thank you, Nemo!
Not my card, but the demo from the Chase website.
I'm trusting, but not stupid.

I did a little happy dance! Then a bigger happy dance! Then went out for a run, came back showered and happy danced some more!

Ahem.

So I started figuring out the logistics while keeping the stateroom on a three day hold. I picked not to stress out Ben with the details until I arranged everything. Casey checked with her kids' grandparents to see if the dates could work for them also. I did the same, calling on Mimi and Pawpaw to see if they wanted a few days to spoil their grandbabies. Halfway through talking with Ben's parents, I realized it'd be super magical if I could surprise him with the cruise. Since we all had other Disney cruise plans in the works, I could freely talk about cruising with his parents in front of him and not entirely blow my cover.
Back the first year I met Ben I tried throwing him a surprise birthday party, but I stressed so much over it, that he figured it out ahead of time. If I wanted to not ruin the surprise, I was going to need a co-conspirator or two. I joined up with a DISboards meet up group and Facebook group, fully fifty co-conspirators would probably cover it.

More to Come!
This post is Part One in an Ongoing Trip Report Couples Only Cruise.