fladogfan aka Gretchen

So this August will be our 25th wedding anniversary. Since I work for the local Catholic school and our school year starts back the first week of August doing something then is not possible. However, we have a nice long fall break the first week in October. So Steve and I are booked on the Norwegian Bliss that week. Thanks to Jason for helping me in getting that booked. 
Our ports include Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. We also have a day cruising through Glacier Bay.
So I have a question. Would it be weird for us to do separate excursions for the Mendenhall Glacier? Steve is more active (better physical condition than me) and I was thinking he might really enjoy an excursion that included a more strenuous hike. 

Fantasy and the Wish at PC..

Oooohhh.. Trip report when you are done, please!

Nacole suggest you contact Mostly Mutts in Kennesaw.  Please don’t call doggy jail because that really means doggy death row.  We have adopted two dogs and it’s a wonderful organization.  Constantly taking in sic ups and getting them healthy.
and BTW it’s not dogs that are stupid it is dog owners that are stupid
 

Thanks, Mo.
Baby girl pup was adopted today and to a wonderful, young couple.  Married 3 years, no kids or other pets.  They both grew up with dogs, she fostered dogs in college, he works FT from HOME, they just bought their first home with a FENCED in back yard.   I'm not sure that I could have asked the Lord for a better fit for this pup.  Miss her cute face, but my heart is full.
Next is baby boy pup and sweet mama dog.  Praying that the Lord would bring them their, furever family ❤️

Some of you may have remembered the discussions surrounding Simon, our little pup and the struggles we've had with his separation anxiety.  Exhausting, no question.   With that, I've always professed, that I am NOT a dog person.  Do I like dogs?  Sure.  But am I dog person... no way.
So.. here's this busy mama, who is not a dog person, and I am now in the situation of "fostering" three pups.  A mama and two, 12 weeks old puppies.  Monday morning, we're trying to get out the door and my son yells, "there's puppies in the yard!"   I think he's seeing things so, as any good mama would do, I yell back... "it's probably a big squirrel."    Less than 15 minutes later and we have both pups and the mama.  I blasted all the "lost pet" social media sites, hung signs and then called the county that night around 5p.  The animal control officer shows up and... I can't do it.  Can't send them to doggy-jail.  So, I turn him away but not until he suggests taking mama to the vet to see if she's chipped.   Now it's 6:30p on Monday night and I'm in the car with mama, on the way to the vet.  They scan her and yay!  She has a chip!  I'm excited, but the vet tech says, "don't get too excited."    Vet tech was right.  The owner was located. The owner does not want them.   I know have two options:  doggy jail or find them homes.
This is where I am at.  Here is what I posted online:  It's hard to not get attached. Baby boy is the light brown pup. We've named him Micheal. He is a spitfire and a crack-up to watch. Baby girl is the black pup, we've named her Georgia. Georgia Grace. She is all puppy, but she is a shy pup. Such a sweet girl though when you pick her up. Mama... oh sweet mama. I love this pup. Those owners either a) ignored her or b) were not nice to her. She will literally crawl on her belly to come get love from you. We've spent the past 48 hours working with her and she has really started to come out her shell She is so, SO sweet. She did fantastic in her crate last night, even waited to go potty until we took her out this morning. She does well with kids and so far just gets excited to see other dogs. They are all, wonderful pups. Mama is 2-3 years old. Pups are 12 weeks.
Having these dogs has been SO much work.  But, on my gosh, they are such good pups.  Baby girl may be going to her forever home tonight and I'm already tearing up because yes... dogs are stupid.  Stupid, exhausting little creatures that take up your time and your money.  It's dumb.  But, my heart hurts, which is ridiculous because I am tired and they both need and deserve good homes.
So, next it's on to baby boy... who I think is the friendlier of the two pups and will be (much) easier to train.  He's the dog that will tear into your flowers but crack you up at the same time.  Hard part is...he's a mama's boy, so it's sad to break them up.  And mama... sweet mama.  If I could handle another dog, this non-dog person would keep her.  She is such a good dog.  She deserves the best home.
Ugh.  I'm not going to cry.
Dogs are stupid. 

Can I please get a job there?    - nobody has to pay me - I will take my salary in Cinnamon Rolls !!!!!!!

In my head it is as fresh as ever.  At least that's what the voices in there tell me. 

You know, that particular cinnamon roll that Dave has been peddling for the last several years has got to be sort of stale by now....

Thanks!  Glad you had fun and weather wise was pretty nice.
One question/thought,  In the photo in front of ToT it looks like you are getting ready to swat Tink

No internet for me on phone. 😁

My guess is your flip phone will do just as good a job as a smart phone in keeping the paper menu from flying off your table.

Foot pain can really mess up a good day.  Sorry you have to deal with that.
I am old. 
I use a flip phone.
Can I use that for the menus?
Liked your idea to read menu before getting to restaurant.

Final thoughts:

I probably should have put this at the beginning of the report, because it has the most useful information about traveling to WDW right now. Well, call this the reward for traveling there with me, as I reminisced.

Mousekeeping is limited. Something I must have missed in all my reading, but mousekeeping is still not doing sheets or bedding changes. Neither will they make the bed on their days in the room. Mousekeeping comes every other day for light cleanup and to replace towels and sundries. If you want to come back to a freshly made up room, you will need to make your beds before you leave. If you want new sheets, just call down to the concierge, and they will have new bedding delivered. Mousekeeping will pick up dirty sheets on their cleaning days.

Genie+: For us, just 2 people wandering the parks, Genie+ was worth it. We used it daily and probably averaged about 5 rides using it, at each park. The only 2 rides we never managed to grab were Test Track and Slinky Dog. We didn't try real hard with TT, because we just weren't that into it. So that's $75 to save about 1 to 2 hours a day in line. Worth it to my feet.

Mobile Ordering: I LOVE this feature and took advantage of it wherever I could. I can understand how it would be hard to work with if you have any kind of severe allergy or food intolerance. Not a whole lot of options on most items. But when you can use it, nothing like just ordering while in line, and having your food ready when you are ready to eat.

QR codes for full restaurant menu's: This is the hardest thing to get used to. If I am eating in a full service restaurant, I don't want to stare at the tiny screen of my phone for the menu, I want a full, page turning menu. Can't put my finger on exactly why, maybe because the explanations of each dish are easier to compare that way? After our first dinner at Nine Dragons, we decided to study the menu's before we got to our restaurant, so we would know what we wanted, and didn't even have to use the menu in house. It just felt better that way. At Skipper Canteen and at Morimoto's, both our servers there brought us paper menu's when we tried to explain we'd already chosen our options before arriving. I think they are used to the older crowd griping at them about it.

Crowds and attitudes: We did not see a lot of crowding, except on that Saturday. Probably a lot of locals coming to enjoy the Christmas season. The only time I saw upset guests was in front of Columbia Harbor House. The mobile order 'required' seemed to really rub people the wrong way, there. Outside of Sat'uli Canteen, there was a general air of "yes, mobile order is how it's done!". Also, Docking Bay 9 at HS had happy people using mobile order.
I never once saw a cranky CM while at the parks. Everyone we waved at or spoke to seemed to be in a great mood. It was what I expect of WDW, I felt the CM's were happy to be back. Or they were great at faking it.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my trip report. Not sure when I'll be back to WDW. We have Disneyland and a Disney cruise on tap for our next adventures.

My husband said the same thing.. lol.  I was trying for 'suprised' , but my hand is just in the wrong place.
 

Me too Dave, thanks for asking.  Also thank you for answers.

Me too Dave, thanks for asking.  Also thank you for answers.

Your last update makes me realize how long it’s been since I’ve been to WDW, and how much has changed.  I need some help…LL? VQ?  BatB?   I know what Rat is because I’ve read about it but otherwise you could be talking about a theme park in Bangladesh and I’d be no more lost.  😂

First off, let me say it's great to see a trip report here.  Enjoying reading it! 
But I also have to say, regarding the part I quoted above...I don't know what any of that means but it sounds like the garbage I deal with at work every day.  Technology that is supposed to make things better doesn't work as intended, and we waste more time trying to find a workaround than it would have taken to do it the old way.  Why would I want to do that on vacation?? 

We're back. Three years of careful planning, delay due to COVID, the death of my 35 year old son who was supposed to be on this trip with us, many attempts to reserve the Candlelight Processional dining package anywhere in EPCOT, and trying get to all the new things to do... this was a trip of many emotions.

I'm glad we went. Overall, we had a good time, with a lot of laughter, a few tears, a few misunderstandings and some interesting Disney magic.

We flew into Orlando on Southwest, landing at 9:00 pm on Dec 5th. At 8:30 pm, I got a text from Port Orleans French Quarter that our room was not ready. That was odd, but since we weren't even there yet, not an issue. The Magical Express took us to the resort, and while we didn't get an automatic check in, we were able to get a room on the top floor, which we had requested.

We slogged over to building one, which was not the furthest building from the lobby at least. And it was really near the riverboat landing. We dropped off our bags, and went back to Sassagoula's. We got a pizza for dinner (actually love the pizza at the resort!) ,and some beignet's. We've been looking forward to trying those, and they were delicious! Picked up our refillable mugs and got to sleep, ready to wake up at 7:00am to get our Genie+ and ILL reservations for EPCOT on Monday.
I hope it's ok to post a trip report here, even though I am not a camper.  We didn't even make it to the Fort, although we wanted to. 
 

Well we're back and I will do a modified report as soon as possible since we have the holidays coming up. One thing I will mention now is, we were the longest "post shutdown" cruise of any Cruiseline. 

On the Wonder for the East bound Panama Canal.  Only 850 guests on board, 27 kids and outnumbered by the crew, 920.

Ok not sure if we will do parks or maybe venture to that Universal place but either way a week in Feb away from the cold of the north east is still a WIN 😎

Thank you for posting this story. 
What a wonderful life, which she tells us she was still enjoying in the interview at the end of the story.

The claims they are making about how this app will help guests are ridiculous. It’s bad enough that they are price gouging again, but what makes it worse is that the damn app will be just as glitchy as all of their other app iterations. The DCL app is a piece of crap. The MDE app crashed at the MK for most of the day on the big 50th anniversary day on October 1.  And they expect us to believe that this new app will somehow plan a perfect day for guests? No way. 
TCD