March 17, 2007 7 Day Eastern

[jenbrem1]

Anyone else booked on this one yet? ? ? We are traveling with my parents, my DH, DS (will be 8) and DD (will be 6).

Update:

For the website (this is what is on other meet sites let me know if you have other stuff you want added):
DIS name(s)
First and Last name of people in your group including ages of kids at time of cruise
Where your from
Stateroom
If you have early or late seating
E-mail address (if you don't want it listed let me know)
Birthdays for your group, including age kids will be on next birthday
Family Picture
Brief description of occupations, familie's intrests/activities
Any Pre and post cruise plans
For each child: picture, activities and/or interests, grade they will be in at cruise time, activities they are looking forward to on the cruise

You can e-mail it to Stacie at vanweeldens@mchsi.com. Once she gets the info she'll e-mail you back with the site address

Thanks all!

[jenbrem1]

:cool1:

[mwrogers]

Hi!

We're considering booking this week. It would be our first cruise as a family. We'd be going with my mom, her husband, his dd17, my dw, dd3 and ds1. I'm in the process of getting quotes from several TA's, and finding out everything I need to know from these forums. Here's to hoping everything gets booked soon!

Marcus

[jenbrem1]

I was starting to feel lonely here! - I hope it works out!!

[mwrogers]

Yeah, I was looking at some of the other threads for dates around this one, and they already have lots of posts. Since you've already booked, I've got a question for you. We're stuck with this date due to spring break restrictions, but I was wondering if other dates around this one were priced differently, or if they're all about the same. Not sure if you checked.

[jenbrem1]

We have spring break restrictions so were pretty much locked in to this date if we wanted a spring cruise. I checked summer prices and it was as much if not more expensive than spring break. The only times where you will see any lower prices are during times that school is in session. I would say September through mid-November and then maybe January/February.

[MN Dis Fans]

Count us in! :cool1: :cool1: Our cast includes me the DH :earsboy: , DW :earsgirl: , DS (11) pirate: , and DS (9) pirate: . I had originally thought about and actually booked one of the "Med" cruises, but DW and I got to thinking we could probably almost do 2x of these for the price of one of the "Med" Cruises, plus we would probably have to sell one of the kids! :rotfl2: :rotfl2: to pay for the trip.

Actually, this way we can now cruise 3 months sooner! :cheer2: :cheer2:

[jenbrem1]

Where's Fergus Falls, MN? We're from the Des Moines, Iowa area.

[MN Dis Fans]

We're located West-Central Minnesota, about 60 miles South East of Fargo - Moorhead, just off of I-94. :thumbsup2

[mwrogers]

It's official! just finished the booking process through Costco. 40 minutes - I didn't realize it would take that long. Rooms 2530 and 2532. Now it's time to start reading old threads for good ideas.

jenbrem1 - glad to hear from someone from Iowa. I lived in Des Moines for about a year in the 90's. Nice place.

[jenbrem1]

I grew up here as well. It's a very nice place to raise a family. If only it was located a little further south. :sunny:

[dutch_girl_scout]

This must be a midwestern cruise!!! Good old spring break in the middle of March! We're from Pella, IA. It will be me, DH, DS14, DD12, and TBA DBaby who will be somewhere around 5 months. We were orignally booked for the 12/09/06 Double Dip cruise, then found out I was pregnant, OOPS!, then we booked for April 14 because I thought it wouldn't be so busy after Easter, when I found out what the Easter crowds were like at the parks, we shelled out the extra $$$ for this cruise. This will be our second cruise and our first 7-day. We're looking forward to lounging on the beaches and warm weather.

[MN Dis Fans]

Is Pella anywhere near Le Mar - ice cream capitol of the world and home to Blue Bunny Ice Cream? :love: We visited the ice cream museum there a while back.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Is Pella anywhere near Le Mar - ice cream capitol of the world and home to Blue Bunny Ice Cream? :love: We visited the ice cream museum there a while back.


Pella is in the SE part of Iowa, about 45 miles SE of Des Moines. It's where Pella windows and doors are made along with Vermeer manufacturing. We were just in Minneapolis for the MYAS swim meet at the U of M. Our Girl Scout troop is taking a road trip up to the twin cities at the end of June.

[dutch_girl_scout]

jenbrem1--I'm excited to see fellow Iowans on the cruise. I agree with you that Iowa is a good place to rasie a family. We were always going to move until we had kids, I didn't want to move them away from family and a small town.

[jenbrem1]

We live in Norwalk which is a few miles south of Des Moines - and play Pella in sports all of the time!! Small world.

This isn't your first DCL experience I'm guessing? It's our first.

[dutch_girl_scout]

jenbrem1 (Jen?)--We come over your way to Happy Apple Orchard in the fall. That's by Norwalk right?

We went on a land/sea last December (11-18) and the cruise part was WAAAYY too short. My kids don't even care if they go to the parks this time, they just want a longer cruise.

The cruise is totally addidcting, almost more than the DIS boards!

[jenbrem1]

Jen is fine. My kids are Brady and Emma so I tend to use Jenbrem when I have to come up with user names on different sites.
Yes, Happy Apple Orchard is between Norwalk and Cumming, not far from me.
I've been reading these boards ever since we booked and it sure sounds addicting. It took a lot of convincing to do this one, but I hope if everyone loves it like I think they will that we'll book onboard and plan another one in the following year or two.

[dutch_girl_scout]

We have one booked already for December 2007 (love the Christmas decorations!). We just found it to be great, the kids could do their thing, we could do ours, we could all hang out together, whatever we wanted. It was the first vacation we've been on that no one felt like they were compromising our having to give up something they wanted to do. Are you going through a TA our doing things on your own? I found a TA at AAA in West Des Moines and I love her! The first time I met with her in person she had flowers for me, it made me cry.

[jenbrem1]

We booked through Costco. It was the cheapest we found for our group. We have 3 cabins total.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Just bumping, wondering if anyone else out there is going to have a Magical Spring Break.

Airline fares came out the other day. I was looking online for our hotel and didn't know that you couldn't book online for March yet. I thought that it went by 365 days but found out that the 2007 packages don't come out until January, I guess I'll do a room only now and transfer it to a package later.

[jenbrem1]

Are you doing WDW in conjunction with the cruise this time?

[dutch_girl_scout]

Yes, we're flying down the morning of the 14th, doing WDW, then doing the cruise. We're also staying an extra day after the cruise because the price difference between flying home on Saturday and Sunday was HUGE! I think we're staying at Beach Club before the cruise and Coronado Springs after. I wanted to stay at Coroando Springs the whole time but DCL doesn't pick up there and I didn't want to move all of our "stuff" to a different resort to be picked up. DCL will drop us off at CSR afterwards though.

[jenbrem1]

Bumping this back up again.

Hi everyone!! :wave2:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Where is everyone at? I think I'll post on the regular cruise forum and see if anyone is out there. With less than a year to go you would think that more people would be booked. Maybe it won't fill up and DCL will reduce the rates and we'll be able to cruise for a lot cheaper even though it's Spring Break! :cloud9: OK, the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

[jenbrem1]

Yes, I was thinking maybe double or triple upgrades would be in store for all of us!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Evidently others are booked on this cruise, just not DISers. I checked the prices tonight and for us (two Cat 6s) the price has increased by $375. I just booked on April 12.

[MN Dis Fans]

:cool1: :cool1:

Just managed to book our flights at standard perksaver rates with frequent flier miles! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

I've been checking the nwa website daily, and was beginning to think that because of spring break, etc. that there wouldn't be any available.

Now only 10 more months to go! :rotfl2:

Yes, this thread has been really quiet, and I was almost hoping the boat would be empty (just our 3 - 4 families which are subscribed)

Somehow I reckon we're living in a dream world. :disrocks:

[dutch_girl_scout]

If anyone cares, this cruise leaves in less than ten months!! Where is everbody???

[jenbrem1]

We haven't booked airfare yet but I've started checking rates at the port hotels. Has anyone stayed anywhere other than the Radisson or Ron Jon's? I have Holiday Inn Priority Club points to use and I think that there are a couple of those close to port.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--
There's been alot of talk about the Residence Inn at the port. It is brand new (opened less than two months ago). It serves a full hot breakfast. It doesn't have a shuttle though. Rates I've seen run around $100. If you do a search you'll get lots of threads. There is also a Country Inn and Suites opening this month. It doesn't have a shuttle either but I understand that both are very close to the port, and car rental agencies.

We found that flying home on Sunday rather than Saturday was going to save about $600 for the 5 of us (that's with Delta). I don't think Allegiant has come out with their rates yet.

[jenbrem1]

I am going to look in to Allegiant too. I don't believe they fly on Saturdays so we would stay the extra night and come home Sunday. The non-stop flight they offer is too good to pass up!

[dutch_girl_scout]

The non-stop flight does sound wonderful. My mom flew in/out of Sanford in April and said it was a really nice, small, uncongested airport. She said she saw DCL busses there but I'm not sure what transportion Disney has available from Sanford. We did Delta only becasue we had our tickets already bought for the Dec cruise we had to postpone. We had bought them for $243 per person. It's costing WAY more to fly down in March.

[jenbrem1]

I think we'll probably just rent a car and stay somewhere on the coast Friday night. I think Allegiant has only one flight a day so it will just depend on what time that one flight arrives.

[dutch_girl_scout]

I had my first ultrasound today and it looks like we'll be going on this cruise with a 4-month-old little boy. My DS14 is excited, my DD11, had her heart set on a little girl. Just wanted to share the exciting news!

Here's a pic, gotta love technology!

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e7/dutch_girl_scout/BabyI.jpg

[jenbrem1]

SO COOL!! So, will the baby be a newborn when you go in December? It's December, right?

Congrats!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--
Last year we did and land/sea in December and were booked to go on the 12/09/06 cruise when we found out I was pregnant. We couldn't go on that one because babies have to be twelve weeks old. We postponed to this cruise. The baby will be 4 months or so on this cruise. Hopefully it is a good baby and sleeps a lot and likes the beaches! We are cruising in December of 2007 also, on the 12/15/07 cruise. Sorry, I probably confused you.

[jenbrem1]

Bumping this up....Hi everyone!!

[TiaMaria]

Hello all, Can you find room for 3 more Midwesterners on Spring Break? :thumbsup2

I will be treating my DNephew (will be 9 1/2) and my DNiece (will have just turned 8 on March 3) to a Spring Break cruise. :wizard:

We actually booked at the end of April and have been happily anticipating ever since. Once the DVD arrived - they went into overdrive. Although I must say it was nice to see them actually sit down together and pour over the booklet and DVD without fighting. :love: Maybe this trip will make "togetherness" a good thing for them.

I am looking forward to getting to know you all and enjoy planning our trips together.

[jenbrem1]

The more the merrier!! I haven't told my kids that we are going yet. I'm going to hold off as long as possible and I'd like to plan a surprise to tell them, maybe at Christmas.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome TiaMaria!! Glad to have you along, what a nice aunt you are. Saturday is the 17th, another month closer to cruising!! :Pinkbounc

[jenbrem1]

Wow - I just saw that on your ticker. Just over 9 months left. I'm sure it will fly by. It seems like ever since I had kids, time flies. We are going to get our passports next week.

[TiaMaria]

I'm pretty surprised that there are just several of us posting about this date with just 9 months to go! I would have thought there would be so many more since I keep hearing what a busy time of year it is to cruise. :confused3

Maybe we are the only DIS'ers booked! :thumbsup2

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen-Time does fly with kids. I was thinking of major things that happen each month for the next nine hopefully it will fly.

July-They start construction on our house for the addition.
August-GS camp, state fair, and back to school
September-Soccer and cross country season starts
October-Soccer and cross country continued, DH and I's 15th anniversary
November-Baby and Thanksgiving
December-Swim season and Christmas
January-Swim season
February-DD's birthday, packing and shopping for cruise
March- :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc

Really not that far away. I have know idea where everyone else is for this thread, maybe spring break attracts first-timers. Hopefully that means we'll have no trouble getting our ressies in for Palo, excursions, etc.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[TiaMaria]

Jen-Time does fly with kids. I was thinking of major things that happen each month for the next nine hopefully it will fly.

July-They start construction on our house for the addition.
August-GS camp, state fair, and back to school
September-Soccer and cross country season starts
October-Soccer and cross country continued, DH and I's 15th anniversary
November-Baby and Thanksgiving
December-Swim season and Christmas
January-Swim season
February-DD's birthday, packing and shopping for cruise
March- :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc

Really not that far away. I have know idea where everyone else is for this thread, maybe spring break attracts first-timers. Hopefully that means we'll have no trouble getting our ressies in for Palo, excursions, etc.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Stacie,

How are you feeling these days? Getting close to baby huh? :cloud9: I must say what great motivation you will have to get back in shape - a cruise! From all your plans, it looks like time will just fly by for your family! :yay:

Anybody else out there for a St. Paddy's Day cruise besides just the few of us yet? :bounce:

[dutch_girl_scout]

TiaMaria-
Is your name Maria?

I'm almost half way to baby. I'm feeling good, this week doesn't look near as busy as last week was, we had vacation bible school at our church and I was sharing carpooling with another family to take my DD11 to swim camp and back (90 miles away) each day. Today was our church picnic, which we're on the comittee for. Tomorrow, DS14 has to be at Driver's Ed at 8:00 then I'm going back to bed. Tuesday we're all sleeping in.

I didn't realize our cruise would be during St. Patrick's day. What day is it? Maybe the DISers (all three of us families) could make lime green DIS shirts. As far as getting back into shape, my husband has a recycling business, I keep joking that I'm recycling my stretch marks from the last two. Maybe it will all go away after this one.

I'm finding it hard to wait for Disney to release the 2007 packages, and for AAA to release their 2007 room rates. We were going to do the parks for a few days before the cruise. Are you visiting the parks before or after the cruise? Do you know where your staying?

[TiaMaria]

Hi Stacie :wave2:

Actually my name is Maureen (Irish for Mary/Maria) and I am a rabid aunt of 3- therefore TiaMaria! :thumbsup2

St. Patrick's Day is actually our sailing date - March 17th - so we will fit right in if we are wearing DIS green.

My sister and brother-in-law are letting me pull my (then) 2nd grade niece and (then) 4th grade nephew out of school 1 day early for spring break and we plan to fly down from St. Louis on Friday and stay overnight at the Radisson at the port.

Would love to do a few days before and after at WDW but - school and all for the kids - we don't want them to miss more than necessary. We are kicking around the idea of doing a couple of days post cruise - they are not due back at school until the Tuesday after the cruise...but we 3 may want some down time before jumping into school/work.

I also have another niece (8 years old - is in 2nd grade this year) from my brother, but he and my sister-in-law adopted her from Russia about 20 months ago and don't want her to miss any more school since she is still playing catch-up in reading and math. I offered to wait until summer next year so she could go with us, but with her being their first child, they are still in the "we want to experience all her firsts with her" stage. Understandable. I am now trying to convince them to either come with us or book with us for the next cruise which we intend to do once on board if not before. She is great - didn't speak a word of English when they brought her home in Oct '04 and went 1/2 day Kindergarten and 1/2 day 1st grade that year. :teacher: Now she is in 2nd grade full time with her age group and we can't get her to shut up! :goodvibes

Anyhow, I'm hoping to make this a special time for my 2 little sweethearts since we all are Disney freaks. Our family has gone to WDW every other year since my niece was born. I have cruised many times on other lines, but this is my first (but I'm sure not my last) Disney cruise. They have never cruised, but believe themselves to be experts since they have both watched Titanic hundreds of times :rolleyes: Won't they be surprised to see what it's really like?

[TiaMaria]

Is anyone else joining us? Still looks like plenty of cabins in my Catagory (5) still available. I was worried about space as this is such a peak time of year, but maybe most people are getting Spring Break a little later? :confused3

I know my second niece doesn't get hers until the first week in April.

Where are all the DIS'ers? :grouphug: Are we sailing with strangers LOL! :goodvibes

[jenbrem1]

You are such a great aunt! We are forcing my brother (my kids' uncle) to come along on the trip. He's single and 29 and thinks it's ridiculous that we think he would want to go. I've told him that there will be plenty for him to do without the kids.

[dutch_girl_scout]

I agree, you are a super aunt. Thanks for explaining your name, I always like to hear where people come up with their names. Mine is because I'm from a town founded by Dutch settlers, and I'm a Girl Scout, not real original but the user name is never taken anywhere.

We felt like Spring Break was the ideal time to go with our kids too. Last year they missed a week of school in early December for our land/sea, then had to go to school for four days before Christmas break. This year they'll miss three days (Wed, Thurs, Fri) prior to the cruise so that we can do the parks, but they are getting a 7-day cruise. We also will have the Saturday after the cruise, although we haven't decided whether to do the parks that day or not. It depends on how wiped out we are. We fly out EARLY Sunday morning (7:00, be at airport by 5:30?) so we might just hang out at the resort and swim and do laundry that day. The only thing on my list of stuff I have to do at the parks is the Muppet Show at MGM, we didn't have time last time so I gave it up. We missed the stunt car show thing too that DS wanted to see. I think this trip (at least I hope) will be more relaxed than the last. Last time we thought it was our one and only time we'd be at WDW so we had to see and do it all. We know now that we'll be back many, many times so the pressure is off.

[jenbrem1]

I love the Muppets at MGM! That was one of the highlights of our whole trip.

I think we'll spend the Saturday after the cruise at a hotel with a huge pool so the kids can relax and swim, since it sounds like the pools on the ship are always crazy busy. I'm sure we'll get a super early flight out on Sunday morning too.

[dutch_girl_scout]

We have room-only reservations at Beach Club before the cruise and Coronado Springs after the cruise. The pics of both pools look nice so hopefully we get pool time before and after the cruise, both my kids (Lab and Stack) had pool parties on the last cruise and that was the best time for them to swim because the pools were crowded. That was a three day though, hopefully there are more opportunities on the 7-day.

[SB's Mom]

My family just booked the March 17 cruise on our Disney cruise last week! It will be me, my DH and my DD (she's 8). This will be our 3rd Disney cruise!

We had a wonderful time last week on the Magic. . . except for the rain at St Maartin. :sad1: . . .bumpy boat ride to the Dolphin Encounter. . .overcast in St Thomas. . . but WONDERFUL weather at Castaway Cay. . .

We enjoyed the thread for our cruise last week. . . it was great getting to know them on line and then finally meeting on the Magic. . . so of us linked our dinner reservations and that was great for our children.

Have a wonderful day.
Charlene

[Nala9824]

Hi Everyone -

Here's another family joining the cruise! We actually booked last January while on our prior cruise. This will be our family's 5th Disney cruise... we love it.

There will be me :earsgirl: , my sister :earsgirl: , her husband :earsboy: and their son :earboy2: (will be 11). Also along are our parents - Grandma ::MinnieMo and Grandpa pirate: ! All of the family (except me) are also mid-westerners (Kansas City area), but I live in New York City. I'm also hoping one of my friends (and her husband and baby daughter) joins us as well!

Still seems like a long time off... but I'm sure the summer will go quickly!

:earsgirl:

[jenbrem1]

Welcome!

It's exciting to have some more families. This will be our first Disney cruise so I look to all of you DCL veterans for your expertise.

[dutch_girl_scout]

:Pinkbounc Yeah, more DISers!!!! :Pinkbounc

It will be nice to have someone who has done the eastern before, Charlene, I hope you don't mind questions. Nala, have you been on an eastern too?

[SB's Mom]

I'll be happy to pass along any help I can.
There were thing I took this trip that really helped in the room that I didn't have on our 1st cruise.

Our family loves Disney vacations and cruising :cheer2: , so bring on the questions! If I can help, I have friends from last week that we can ask! :cool1:

Have a great day!
Charlene

[dutch_girl_scout]

I'm not sure how many excursions we'll be doing this time around since we'll have baby. We're leaning towards going to beaches that have snorkeling for the kids, maybe jet skis, or a water trampoline too. I don't want my DS14 and DD12 to be bored and frustrated just because we have baby along. I wouldn't mind sitting in a lounger sipping iced tea and reading a book with baby while the others went to play. We've already bought a little pop up sun tent for baby so that he doesn't get fried in the Caribbean sun. I'm looking forward to the sea days too. We didn't have any on our land/sea, not having to cook or clean for a whole week just sounds wonderful!

[Nala9824]

Stacie -
Yes - our family has done both Eastern and Western. We like the Eastern because it gives us an extra sea day... we love the lazy days of hanging out on the boat, and some of the "sea day only" activities - such as the wine tasting and beer tastings. The wine tasting is a bit formal, but the beer tasting is a lot of fun... some members of the family that don't drink much tag along for the entertainment. I also try to sneek in a spa day on sea days... it's a bit more expensive on sea days, but very relaxing to get a massage with the gentle rolling of the boat!

We have so many tips I don't even know where to start... but one thing I recommend is checking out a recent Navigator (daily activity sheet) to give you an idea of the type of things going on. You can find some on the WDWINFO website - search for Navigators. (Sorry - for some reason, I can't seem to paste a link here.)


I'll try to think of some key tips and pass along... but feel free to ask any questions you want... don't worry - nothing's a dumb question! :yay: I had a million questions before my first cruise!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Here's the link to the navigators (you have to have a certain amount of posts before you can post links or pics):

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-stateroom-navigator.htm

I found the DIS boards to be WAAAY helpful. I found them right before our last cruise and would have been lost without them (wouldn't have had my extension cord, power strip, over the door shoe caddy, own hair dryer, Palo ressies, etc, etc, etc). :disrocks:

We have two staterooms this time, I guess that means double Palo ressies. DD has volunteered to babysit for us, maybe I'll see about the spa too.

[SB's Mom]

Something to think about is brunch at Palo. It is only on the day we are at sea (Sunday, Monday and Thursday). I was invited by a friend to join her and her husband from brunch and it was wonderful. My DH and I had dinner there but in my opinion brunch was so much better! We will book both this trip!

You can book Palo as many times a you want it doesn't matter how many room reservations you have.

Charlene

[TiaMaria]

It's exciting to see some more DIS'ers on the Spring Break cruise. :wave2: I have looked through the Eastern Navigators but haven't shared them yet with my nephew and niece. They are already on information overload. Also, they are going this July to WDW with my sister and brother-in-law and staying at the Contempory and I don't want to overshadow this vacation with the cruise with too much too soon. Once they are back home, I plan to start the day-to-day planning with them.

One thing I am thinking about is what to do on Castaway Cay....we are interested in the Eco Tour...but I can't figure out how to manage that since there are 2 of them and 1 of me. :confused3 Do you know if I am able to book myself twice so I can take each of them? Or maybe we can buddy up with another family that has "odd" numbers and wants this excursion once on board?

Anyway, we are so excited to be going and as Stacie said, thank heavens for these boards for great advice in planning! We are going to feel like seasoned veterans of Disney Cruise Line once on board because of everyone here. :thumbsup2

[dutch_girl_scout]

I'm going to start talking to myself on this thread just to keep it on the first couple of pages.

Maureen-We wanted to do the eco-tour also. We didn't do it last time and I've read good things about it. Guess baby will need to go to Flounder's for a little bit that day. If DS is off on the teen expedition (he loved it last time)we'd only have one child with us and could take one of yours. We'll have to see if the times coordinate or if another DIS family has an odd number.

Edited to add: I just looked at the excursions as they are listed on the DIS site and DCL site. The teen adventure is four hours in the morning and it looks like the eco-tour is offered in the morning, so the times would work if DS wants to do the teen thing and doesn't mind missing the eco-tour.

[TiaMaria]

Stacie,

That may work out :thumbsup2 ....we'll have to take a good look as our reservation date draws near. I know my nephew, who will be 9 1/2 then will want to do it. I will have to see about my niece (will just be turning 8). She's not as adventurous as her brother, but who knows by next March? :confused3 She doesn't like being left out - so I'm betting she will want to do it.

I agree, we need to be better at bumping this thread up to see if we can get more DIS'ers to be on our cruise! :sunny:

Anyone else out there for March 17? :wave2:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Here's my daily bump.

Storms have passed through here the last two nights, too wet to camp, hopefully tomorrow it is drier and cooler for the festivities and fireworks.

I'm bummed that Disney didn't release their 2007 packages yet like was rumored. I need to call my TA on Wednesday though, my understanding is that you can book a "standard" package and then just change it when the package rates come out. I don't know how all that works with AAA though, its our first time buying a package (want the Dining Plan) and our first time being AAA members.

Hope everyone has a great 4th.

God Bless America and All Those Defending Our Freedom!!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

I'm breaking my no two posts in a row rule to bump this thread.

We had a great 4th. Got lots done at home, mowing, packing, cleaning, etc. Fireworks were great, and it's cooled off enough to have the windows open.

Happy Wednesday everybody!

[jenbrem1]

Hey everyone!!
I shut off the AC and opened our house back up yesterday morning. It was sure good sleeping weather last night - with the exception of the neighborhood idiots continuing to light off fireworks well in to the early morning hours. I'm not kidding, I woke up to them at 5:30 this morning.

We are leaving for vacation on Friday, driving out to Breckenridge, Colorado. I can't wait to spend some time away from work...

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--I agree with you, Iowa's weather today is a perfect 10! Are you guys skiing in CO (do they ski in July?) or just relaxing? We don't have any big vacation plans this summer. Both the kids go to camp in 2 weeks. Then DD and I have GS Troop camp in August, plus moving into a new house, there is no time.

[TiaMaria]

It did not really cool off here until today. We had a large family reunion over the weekend here (our family came in from Texas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana - did I miss anybody....? lol). It was in the mid-90's all weekend. :sunny:

We had heat lightening on Monday night and heavy storms predicted - but no rain (only spotty areas). Tuesday was gloomy and humid and it downpoured from 6-7 pm but cleared up in time for fireworks grand finale. ;)

Today was nice - high 70's to low 80's and no humidity. Just in time for me to go back to work! :guilty:

We will celebrate my nephew's 9th birthday this weekend and then off he goes camping with the Cub Scouts next week - over his real birthday. :bounce:

Cannot believe he is going to be 9! :love:

We are pretty excited now that our tickers are below 9 months! :banana:

[jenbrem1]

No skiing...Where we are there is very little snow left this time of year. We do a lot of relaxing, some hiking, some biking, swimming in the pools. This year we are taking the kids whitewater rafting for the first time. I love Colorado in the summertime!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen-Sounds like a fun trip, hope you have a great time. I'll try to keep Iowa under control while your gone.

Tia-- :bday: to your nephew!

Packing more boxes today, hopefully I don't get lost in the clutter!

[TiaMaria]

Bumping for you Stacie!

Nephew and Niece and I saw POTC 2 today. pirate: pirate: pirate: We loved it. Nephew (who turns 9 on Monday) absolutely loved it. Niece (7) really liked it too, but hid her eyes once or twice and loudly proclaimed "GROSS!!" in a couple of scenes..lol :blush:

I didn't have the heart to tell them the Flying Dutchman is currently at CC since it will probably be long gone when we get there. :guilty:

We confirmed shuttle reservations at 10AM from the Radisson PC to the terminal today - I know it's still really early, but I just want to get the small things done so I can concentrate on the big things (such as concentrating on SW Airlines dropping fares dramatically once they are advertised for March, lol :wizard: ). We are really screwed over here in STL since TWA was bought and dismantled by AA. AA basically cut flights down to nothing here and unfortunately still owns all the gates so lower cost airlines like Jet Blue, Spirit, Allegiant and so forth cannot get in and compete with them. AA has been nothing but bad news for our area and economy. I avoid them if at all possible because of it. My loyalties now lay with SW whenever possible.

So....really all I have left to reserve is air, limo to/from Port Canaveral and possibly 1 nt at WDW on the return if we decide to come back late on the 25th. princess:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Maureen-sounds like your tirp is coming along nicely, could you talk to Disney and get them to announce their packages for 2007? I feel bad for the people trying to plan trips in Jan, let alone March. Air in STL sounds tricky. DSM has Allegiant that flies direct but only on certain days and the schedules don't come out until 6 months in advance.

It's really sad but we just got POTC I from the library and watched it for the first time, now we're ready to see part II.

Hope everyone has a good day. After church we're heading to Menards to pick up the shower and toilet for the bath remodel, and to Sam's Club for Swim Team concession stand food.

[TiaMaria]

Stacie,

You have a busy day planned! I am right there with you. Planting some new perrenials that I picked up yesterday and cleaning my carpets (I have a cat with a "sensitive" tummy - yuk! :guilty: )

You know I bet you will be glad that you are just watching POTC 1 - I hadn't seen it in over a year and found myself forgetting a lot of the characters. Of course Nephew and Niece memorize every movie they have ever seen and filled me in, lol.

I agree about the 2007 packages. I was reading over on the Resort boards that you can call and have Disney set up a "basic" package with the understanding that you can add "package" details later without having to cxl and be refunded and rebook like you do when switching from "room only" to a package. That is at least something to think about to at least secure the property and roomtype that you may want.

Everyone have a wonderful end to the weekend!

[dutch_girl_scout]

I talked with my AAA TA yesterday and set up the basic package. Now I guess we just wait. I need to figure out how many days I want tickets for, do I go all out and buy the non-expiring since we'll be back next December or do I just get what I need for this trip? Decisions, decisions.

I think the kids and I might go to the matinee of Pirates tomorrow, while the contractor is working on the bathroom. The movie might be the only bit of relaxing I get to do.

Have a great day!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Here's a bump for this thread, looking for other Spring Break cruisers.

The bathroom is coming along, he thinks he'll be done early next week sometime. Didn't go to POTC, forgot DD and I had signed up for a knitting/crocheting class at the art center. Both kids are going river tubing with church today. Should be a quiet day except for the work in the bathroom.

Jen-Hope your having a great vacation!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Yikes, this thread was hiding on the 3rd page. Tomorrow is the 17th. Another month gone!!

[SB's Mom]

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile!
Looking forward to Spring Break also! We are trying to convince some friends to also cruise that week!

It was extremely hot here the last few weeks! Our grass, plants and trees could use some RAIN!

Busy time here. We had to get a new A/C unit!
Our new dog wasn't happy with all the work men in the house. Hopefully this week will be "back to normal".

Maureen~ I see you are from St Louis! Our tablemates on our June cruise were from there! It was 2 different families (we all had meet on a Dis Thread and then linked our dinner reservations thru Disney). One lived in the St Charles area and I don't remember the others area. They are now all dear friends to us!

What is everyone looking forward to on the cruise?

Have a great week!
Charlene

[jenbrem1]

Hello everyone! :wave2:
Today is my first day back at work after our lovely vacation last week. It is so hard getting my motivation back - in fact it sucks!! I've been reading trip reports while going through my email box. It seems fewer people do reviews on the Eastern itineraries - anyone know why??

My mom and I did some shopping over the weekend with the cruise in mind. It's a good time of year to get some bargains on things to wear at dinner.

8 more months!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen-Welcome back to the real world. Did you have a good vacation? I've noticed the trip reports too. I keep trying to find ones that talk about excursions we might want to do. I agree about the shopping, we've picked up some summer baby clothes on clearance. Good time for swimsuits too.

Charlene-a new a/c sounds expensive but definately a necessity. We're topping out around 100 here, heat indecies in the 107 range. Hopefully it will cool off. I can sympathize about the dog and workmen. We have the downstairs blocked off from the dogs and cat. They aren't really as much help as they think they are. What kind of puppy do you have? We have a two-year-old beagle/heeler mix, a fifteen-year-old carin terrier and a 4-year-old rescued tiger cat. Never a dull moment here.

[SB's Mom]

We have a 2 year old pekinese. She is our DD's (stacy) 8th birthday present. We picked her up after our June cruise! She is totally house trained and very good natured.
(Stacy wants to always carry her or hold her)

Our Eastern cruise in June was great. The hardest part for me was the 2 days at sea. I was so ready to see land on Tuesday! When we arrived at St Maartin. . . it was raining! Some shore excurisions were shortened and others were completely cancelled. Our excurision was to Anguilla for the Dolphin Encounter. We were told that the excursion was still going but the 45 minute boat ride would be rough. It was VERY rough. The dolphin time was great. . . it was raining so we didn't get much beach time. . . lunch was ok. . . then we had to return (45 minutes) back to St Maartin. Very, Very rough ride back! DD got sick (on me!) and one guy got hurt when the boat was thrown around by the waves.

Some friends did the 2 Flags tour and enjoyed it but said their kids were totally bored!

Disney did a great thing in filling in the day with activities on the boat. They showed the movie CARS several times that day and had many activities to choose from on the boat.

In St Thomas, we did an island tour and shopping. Stacy was thrilled but she made it through. Like many of the Carribean islands, it was very poor except in the tourist areas and the shopping stores.

Friends went to St Johns and said it was beautiful. . . while others went to Maagens Beach for the day. . .and others did a catamaran and snorkeling excurision.

At CC, we parasailed! It is so wonderful. . . Paul and I had parasailed 2 years ago but DD wasn't old enough. Since she was "finally" 8 she got to parasail with Paul. She loved it! She convinced the boat captian to dip me 3 times before bring me in! It was great!

The a/c was expensive but here (as in other areas also) in south Alabama it is very needed! With our extreme heat the past few weeks and the high humidity . . . it would be terrible without it.

Have a great day tomorrow
Charlene

[DW4US]

We're booked for Spring Break 2007 also! We originally booked for June 10, 2006, while on the 10-Day Christmas cruise (awesome!), but we had to cancel due to my DD's (16 & 13) dance recital. You know what they say about best laid plans...never pays to plan 2 years of vacations ahead of time. Anyway, we couldn't let the great re-booking savings and the stateroom credit go to waste so the "had" to rebook. :cool1: We waited and waited for dates for 2007 knowing that summer would be out with the rumoured repo, so that left us with Spring Break. Only draw back with Spring Break is that we won't be able to work in any park time :sad1:, but I guess you can't have everything.

We are a family of four: Me, DH, DD16 & DD13 (DD14 at cruise time). This will be our third Disney cruise, all with the eastern itin. We love at sea days and St. John has the best beach and snorkeling ever!!!

Looking forward to "talking" to everyone here! :wave:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-- :welcome: This is turning out to be a midwestern cruise!
We're letting the kids miss a couple days of school so that we can have some park time. We're flying down on Wednesday, so they are missing Wed, Thurs, and Fri.

Which beach have you been to in St. John? Is it close to the ship? DS and DD want to Jet Ski and snorkel. We're thinking that beaches will be good excursions for us to go on since we'll have baby.

[DW4US]

Thanks for the big welcome!!

We've been to St. John twice, both Disney shore excursions. The first time we did the 5-Star Snorkel tour and the second time we did the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel. Both take you to Trunk Bay which is our dream beach -- soft, white sand and beautiful clear water and you snorkel in St. John National Park --- it is truly awesome. On the 5-Star you take a boat over and snorkel from the boat so that won't work with the baby, plus it was pretty rough. On the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel you take a ferry over that you board right next to the Magic then taxi (kind of like a trolley) to the beach, gives you a chance to see some of the island. You're free to just hang out on the beach or snorkel (equipment is provided if you don't have your own), I think that would work for your family if you want to go to St. John. We are thinking of just going over to the beach on our own, not on a planned excursion, that way would get more beach time. I just don't know if we're that brave or not. I've talked to a lot of people who've done it on their own and had no problems. We'll just have to see.

As far as jet skis --- I don't think they have jet skis at Trunk Bay, being that it is a national park it is all very natural, I don't think you could ever find a more beautiful place.

We did rent jet skis in St. Maarten at the beach right in the bay where the ship docks. It is kind of a commercial beach in that there are people selling things and it is right next to the shopping district, but it would be really convenient to head back to the ship with the baby if you needed to. They also had a water trampoline with a slide in the bay that my DD13 played on. So many things to do and so little time!!!!

I don't know if we'll take the kids out of school or not (I would love to, cause I never have enough Mickey and I truly believe I should live at WDW), but it gets harder the older they get. They have a half day on Friday so they'll probably miss that day (DD16 gets out at 10:30 on a half day anyway, so what's the point), depending on what kind of flight we get. I know I want to get the earliest possible --- even if we don't get to go to a park we can at least hang out at a resort and Downtown Disney. (Guess I better pack an extra bag!) :dance3:

[jenbrem1]

Hi Patty - welcome!

I think we will most likely do the beaches at every stop, weather permitting. I'm curious to find out what beaches are easily accessible on your own via cabs/ferries.

[DW4US]

Jen,

I think it's very easy to get to the beaches via taxi --- I've talked to others who've said they just have the driver drop them off and set a pick-up time for the same driver to come back --- I think you wait to pay until they pick you back up and you probably set a round-trip price before you start out. I'm sure there's a lot of people with experience. We just haven't been brave enough to try it --- we did see a Carnival boat leave without some people in St. Maarten, they tried to get out to it on a tender or something but they couldn't board because it was too rough. I don't know whatever happened to them. We think they were a group we saw on the beach earlier playing drinking games so they probably lost track of time. :confused3

[jenbrem1]

Cool. I've done this before on a western itinerary cruise but not on an Eastern.
Patty - where do you live in KC? I lived there for 3 years and really like the area. It's close enough to DSM that we go a couple times a year. We are actually taking the kids in August for a couple days to see the Red Sox play the Royals and then to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun

[DW4US]

We live north of the river, always lived here, always north --- obviously we like it (of couse we don't know any better). We're about 8 miles east of the airport. Where did you live while you were here?

[jenbrem1]

We lived in south Kansas City, 101st St area, then we moved further south and bought a house in Raymore, about 10 min south of KC. I liked it because it felt like my home town here in Iowa. The last time we were in KC, and visited the north side, I couldn't believe the development!

[DW4US]

The northland has grown a lot, personally I'm ready for it to stop. I can't believe all the houses going up, we can't figure out where all the people come from. Raymore is usually our first stop out of town when we're heading south -- cracks me up that we hardly get out of the city limits and we have to stop for snacks and potty breaks!

Are you staying up north when you're here? Hopefully it won't be so hot by then. Another 100 degree day today, but then it's supposed to cool off --- funny that it's hotter here than in Florida :rotfl2:

Have a great day and stay cool everyone!!!!!

[jenbrem1]

We are staying down in Country Club Plaza. There is a Holiday Inn down there that has a huge outdoor pool that the kids love and I love the shopping so everyone wins!! I think we are coming down August 9,10 and 11.

[DW4US]

FUN!! Shopping! Since they've opened up Zona Rosa (the Plaza of the northland --- or that's what we think!), we don't venture down to the Plaza too much. I work in the Crown Center area, so I try to avoid driving "over the river" on the weekend. They've also opened up a new shopping/dining meca over on the Kansas side by the speedway, we really like it. It's really nice and there's tons of different food options. They have Dave & Busters out there and they are opening up a T-Rex (looks like a Rainforest Cafe only dinosour themed) that looks really fun. You're really going to busy if you're doing both Worlds & Oceans of Fun as well as the Royals. Is this your "last blast" before school starts? We want to do something fun -- we just haven't decided what yet. We need to save up for passports. Has everyone else already order there's?????

Have a great day and weekend :banana: :banana:

[jenbrem1]

I don't blame you if you have everything you need right there. I'm going to have to check the area out.

It will be a busy couple of days but my son is a huge Red Sox fan so I promised him the games. My daughter just got over a broken arm so I promised her the Oceans of Fun. Hopefully I will get some school shopping done at the same time.

I'm doing the passport thing soon. I keep putting it off which is really bad because they have increased the timeframe in which you get them back. They are just so freaking expensive!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! What a crazy week. The kids are both back from camp. The downstairs bathroom is a few hours away from being done. I can take a shower instead of a bath in the morning!! :banana:

Last time we were in KC we stayed at the Great Wolf by the racetrack and had a great time. We went to some town close by and watched them make marbles at the Blue Moon marble company. It was awesome.

The kids and I got our passports done already. DH and baby still need them. The state told me it would take 2 weeks for a birth certificate, then we'll need to expedite baby's passport to get it back in time. Hopefully it all works out. They are expensive. We sent ours in in February and they took 12 weeks to the day to come back.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-Forgot to mention, my DS14 will be in KC next weekend with his Jr. High group from church for power connection. They stay on a college campus and get to go to Worlds of Fun while there. Do you know which college hosts that?

[DW4US]

Jen -- Are you going to the Sox game on Tuesday night? If you are I think it might be a T-Shirt night -- it's always fun to get something when you're spending so much for the game. My girls went Saturday night and got bobble heads --- no clue what I'm going to do with them, hopefully I can find a big Royals fan around here that wants them. We're going to the game tomorrow night and it's another t-shirt night --- at least it's something we can get some use out of.

Stacie -- Congratulations on the bathroom completion! :bounce: Could he be staying a William Jewell? That's close by World's of Fun. I hope it's not too hot next weekend, at least they're are a couple of water rides they can get wet on if it's too hot. Our youth group always stays at churches when they travel, they'd be thrilled to stay at a college. At least most of the churches they stay at have showers (always a plus with a bunch of teens). We're going to St. Louis (church youth) in August to go to Six Flags and then do some sort of mission project. I may or may not be going --- depends on the cost, have to figure in the cost of the trip as well as figure out what we're going to do with our dogs.

Do you remember where you went to see the marbles being made? You know when you live somewhere you never do any of the fun stuff around.

We need to start saving for those passports! Don't know how we're going to do that with school getting ready to start. At least we can get free passports photos through our AAA membership --- that will save around $30 or so.

Have a great day everyone!!!!! :sunny:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty-It's called Moon Marble Company, in Bonner Springs. Here is the link:

http://moonmarble.com/index.htm When we were there there was a Girl Scout group visiting, and they were teaching the girls how to play marbles. It was a hit with my kids, you can buy marbles by the pound, or just a few and they have a toy store too.

[jenbrem1]

Patty - Wednesday or Thursday will be the nights that we go. It depends on which day we do Oceans of Fun and which day we do Worlds of Fun. I'm thinking about just waiting on buying tickets until we get down there. The games during the week don't usually get crowded from what I remember.

On passport pictures - have any of you taken these yourself? When I got my first passport in high school, we just used my school picture. I don't think that meets the criteria now since the background is dark. It just seems silly to pay $15 for a picture.

[DW4US]

Don't think you have to worry about a crowd at a Royals game unless they have a big promotion. I think yesterday was Build A Bear day so that probably brought in a lot of people. I thought they just would give out little bears but my daughter said they are the full size ones.

I've been seeing all kinds of ads for passport photos -- Osco and Walgreens both advertise them for $7.99, I don't know if they take them there or what. I was at the post office a couple of weeks ago and saw a girl being turned away because her photo wouldn't work --- looked like it was the standard wallet size. I haven't really paid attention to the restrictions since we were planning on just having AAA do ours.

Thanks for the link to the marble company --- sounds like it might be something different to do when the kids are complaining about being bored. I can always fix them up with some housework -- but they don't seem to be that interested. :confused3

[smarttyone]

Hello there everyone. We are new to this site, new to disney, and booked for the March 17 7 day eastern cruise! It will be me, I should be married by then, and my dd 8 years old. See you all then

[SB's Mom]

:welcome: Smarttyone!
I hope you will love the Disney cruise as much as my family! We were on the Eastern cruise in June and had a wonderful time. :cool1: Maybe our dd's can chat before the cruise. Stacy (my dd) is also 8 and she chatted with girls from St Louis before our last cruise and our families meet on the ship and continue to chat!

If you have any question we might answer, just ask. You will find this thread to be a friendly crew!

If all of you needing passport pictures were near by, I'ld be happy to take them. I do them for our mission teams at church. There are guide lines on the internet and you can do them yourself by following their guideline. I'll be making my DD's in November or December. She is so excited about having her own passport (we been able to use her birth certificate for our other trips!)


Have a great day everyone!
Charlene

[MN Dis Fans]

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! and welcome aboard! :sail: :welcome:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome Smarttyone! Hope you'll love cruising as much as we do!!

Charlene--Do you think if we put a white sheet behind baby and set him in his carseat to take his picture that it will be ok? He'll only be a few weeks old, I'm not sure how else to take the picture without our hands in the way. I'm also thinking that we'll need pay extra to have it expedited since it took twelve weeks to get ours and that was last Feb.

Patty--I can't imagine your kids not wanting to do housework :confused3 I can't wait until mine go back to school, Aug 24th can't come fast enough.

[jenbrem1]

Passport pictures - Since I'm convinced I can do this myself...If I do a fairly close up - shoulders up shot in front of a light background, that should work? That's what I'm getting from the requirements. I would need to crop it to size, of course.

[SB's Mom]

I recently did a passport for a 6 week old. His mother held him up and we snapped his picture. It looked "odd" but they accepted it. Be sure in your cropping that you make it the correct measurement from the top of the hair to the bottom of your chin. (it should measure 1 to 1 3/8 inches) and the picture is 2x2. Be sure the shoulders show. (do a google search for passport pictures... when the search comes up. . . scroll down to Frequently asked question about passport pictures. . . this explains it very well)

[jenbrem1]

Awesome - thanks for your help!

[SB's Mom]

Stacie~ I talked with my cruise buddy from June and she said the Costco near her (she is in St Charles MO) will do passport pictures for about $3.00.

Have a great day!

Charlene

[TiaMaria]

Hi all,

Sorry I've not contributed lately to this thread, but things have been crazy around here with work, taking care of my Dad (he is going through chemo), my nephews 9th birthday (can he REALLY be 9?) and getting my sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew off to Disney for their summer vacation (and keeping an eye on their late teenage petsitter!). :confused3

They called yesterday with great news. They were booked at Contemporary in a standard gardenview room. My sisters only request was a renovated room. Upon check-in, when she reconfirmed her request, the CM said "no problem, I am putting you in a 12th floor tower concierge room". My sister nervously asked "how much more is that?" and the CM told her "no charge"!! :wizard: They are thrilled needless to say. My niece (7 1/2) looked off the balcony at Cinderella's castle and proclaimed "there's MY castle". princess: When you all meet her, you won't be surprised - she believes she is Cinderellas twin, lol. ;)

Jen- glad to hear your vacation went well - welcome back belatedly. :thumbsup2

Stacie - great news about the bathroom - I'm sure you are happy and relieved. :goodvibes

Charlene - St. Charles is a NW suburb of St. Louis - I am in a SW suburb - about 20 minutes away from your tablemates! :wave2:

Patty - welcome - another Midwesterner. Been to KC many times for Cards/Royals interleague. My nephew went to Worlds of Fun last year with our aunt for his birthday - considers himself an expert now, lol. :wave:

Smarttyone.... - welcome to this thread. Glad to have you aboard. Are you another Midwesterner, by chance. :wave:

Only other news here is that I booked 2 nights post-cruise at the Grand Floridian. The kids are still on Spring Break until Tuesday, March 27, so we thought we would at least hit Magic Kingdom Saturday, stay that night, do the pool thing Sunday morning and fly home Sunday night. Weren't sure yet what Southwests fares/schedules will be in March yet, so I booked 2 nights to be safe and figured we could always try to come back early Monday morning. I've got the insurance, so I can cancel up to 6 days out I believe. That way the kids could have at least 1 day to decompress and catch up with their parents before going back to school. :guilty: Although if air works out that we can get the flight that gets back to STL at 8:25 pm - we'll come back Sunday night. I'd like to take a full day off before going back to work. Plus I am in sales (for a major newly-merged national telecommunications company, lol), so if I just had a so-so month before heading down to FL, I will be chomping at the bit to finish off my month strong.

Whew! That's all my news for now. Sorry if I left anyone out, but I'll catch up with you all later. So excited that we are in the 7 month range!!! :hourglass

[dutch_girl_scout]

Maureen (Tia)--Sounds like you remembered to pack pixie dust with your neice and nephew. What a nice upgrade.

Sorry about your dad. Cancer sucks!! This week in Iowa it is RAGBRAI (The Des Moines Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). It is a week long ride from Western Iowa, starting at the Missouri River and ending in Eastern Iowa at the Mississippi river. Lance Armstrong flew in yesterday to ride the remainder of the week, talk about cancer, and raise money for his cancer foundation. People here a going nutso, he had paparazzi following him yesterday.

The kids both got wallpaper picked out for their rooms at the new house. We were going to go out yesterday with the relator and measure in the afternoon. I got a call from her in the morning that the current owners were there to move stuff and found water in the basement. It rained over 4" here on Tuesday night and they had never had water before but it seeped in under the walkout door and got all the carpet wet. Thankfully, the carpet in the basement doesn't have a pad and can be cleaned and dryed pretty easily. We also had them take the baseboard trim off so it and the drywall could dry out. Amazingly, our basement in our current house, that has a history of being wet, was totally dry. I guess all that money we spent tiling and on the new septic system was worth it. I wish Aug 15 would come so we can move and be done!

Definately a day to stay inside today. Highs in the upper 90s and so humid that you can feel the air. I don't know who invented Air Condiditioning but I really like them! :love:

Hope everyone has a good day!

[DW4US]

Stacie --- I wish we would've got some of your rain, it looks like we're going have to break down and water since the lawn people came out yesterday. Sorry to hear that your new house leaked, but at least it sounds like it's preventable in the future.

I guess I'm in the minority on school --- I really don't like it. Makes too many restrictions on my time and all the homework stress makes me crazy :eek: My youngest DD is a perfectionist and has to everything just so. I know that's good, but it sure adds to the stress.

We went out to the Royal's game Tuesday --- they actually won and they got 12 hits so we get free donuts! Pretty exciting for us since we usually miss by just one or two hits. Probably cost me more to drive out and get the donuts since we don't have Krispy Kreme close to us, but that's okay.

Have a great day everyone!!!!

[jenbrem1]

I remember that with the dozen hits and the dozen Krispy Kreme. It's funny with the Royals that it never happens!! It's too bad that it's not valid if the opposing team has 12 hits.

[TiaMaria]

We went out to the Royal's game Tuesday --- they actually won and they got 12 hits so we get free donuts! Pretty exciting for us since we usually miss by just one or two hits. Probably cost me more to drive out and get the donuts since we don't have Krispy Kreme close to us, but that's okay.

Have a great day everyone!!!!

The Cardinals do something like that too...something like hit a home run into "Big Mac Land" (way up high) and everyone in the park gets a free Big Mac the next day. :woohoo:

The hockey Blues do - 5 goals and you get a taco for .39 - they were so bad last year that I forgot. Whenever there were 4 goals - the organist would peck out some little 5 note ditty and the crowd would respond "we want tacos!". Funny - if you're there! :) ;)

Has anyone done anything about excursions on your own, or are you going with the Disney sponsored ones? We are planning on doing the following:

St Maarten/St. Martin - getting off the ship around 10 and taking a taxi to Le Galion Beach just past the Butterfly Farm on the French side. We found reports that claim this is a quiet, great "family" beach i.e. little nudity :blush: - with very warm, shallow water and a sandy bottom that extends out over 100 yards - no sudden drop-offs and only about mid thigh high that far out (for adults) - apparently there is a reef/break out in the bay that keeps the big waves away - good snorkeling - beach restaurant nearby (Tropical Wave - menu is online - looks good and not overly expensive) that rents umbrellas and chairs inexpensively - clean bathrooms (a must!). Apparently you make arrangements for your taxi driver to return at a certain time. Will go back to the ship mid afternoon and relax or swim there also. Might have time to fit some shopping in - but been there before and would not care if we missed the shopping.

St. Thomas - we are taking a daysail on a 42' sailboat the Winifred. They only take up to 6 passengers total (but will do a tandem sail with another sailboat that they are pals with) over towards Caneel Bay on St. John. We need to take a taxi to be there about 9:30 and will have a little breakfast, a nice lunch, open bar, a freshwater shower and up to 2 snorkeling spots within the Virgin Islands National Park. The first mate swims with you and brings up all kinds of sea life for you - and takes special care of the children - especially if they are hesitant (like my niece! princess: ). They stress how much they welcome children (unlike some of the "booze cruises") and we are only being charged $110 for me and $100 for each of the kids (cash rate - using a credit card is a bit more) Captain Sharon takes great care to get you back to Red Hook Marina in plenty of time for the Magic. They call their "own" taxi driver to be waiting and will tailor the sail to give you time to shop in the afternoon if you want. Again, I have been there several times and don't need to shop (except some t-shirts I can get at the pier). I have friends that chartered the Winifred about 3 years ago and said it was the highlight of their trip. :woohoo: All you bring are towels, sunscreen (they have t-shirts to swim in if anyone gets pink) and your camera. If anyone is interested in sailing with us that day (as far as I know my niece and nephew and I are the only ones on board so far) the website is www.sailwinifred.com.

We are still debating what to do on Castaway Cay. The jet skis sound great - that may be the only thing we plan ahead of time that day.

I know it's still early but is anyone else making plans yet?

[SB's Mom]

Be sure to have time for immigration at St Thomas. You are up EARLY and wait in the main theatre until you are cleared. They served coffee and danish while in line but nothing for the kids to drink!

We have always booked our excursion thru Disney.
In June we:
St Maartin: Dolphin Encounter at Anguilla (very rough 45 minute boat ride!) The dolphin was good.

St Thomas: Island Tour and Shopping

Castaway Cay: WE LOVE TO PARASAIL! When we cruised in 2004, Stacy was to little so she was in the kid's club until we got back and the rest of the day was spent at the family beach.
In June, Stacy parasailed tandem with her dad and LOVED it! Then we did the day at the family beach. We met our friends and all hung out together! It was so much fun!

I think book the excursion with Disney is best. If you book on your own and you get back to the port late, you have to get to the next port of call and meet the boat!

Have a great weekend!
Charlene

[TiaMaria]

Hi Charlene,

The parasailing sounds so wonderful too - we may just book that also for CC day. Thank you for the reminder about immigration on St. Thomas - such a pain. I will email Captain Sharon of the Winifred and let her know about timing as we get closer. I'm not worried about missing the ship - I usually do non-cruise excursions whenever I cruise - I find it easier and lots less expensive since I have been to many of the ports of call several times before.

My nephew is the adventurous one -so I know he would be up for the jet ski and/or parasailing on CC. My niece is getting a bit more adventurous as she gets older - but you never know with her. Of couse they may both want to abandon me and hang out with their kids group that day! I may end up just parking myself at Serenity Bay after all - who knows, lol? ;)

[SB's Mom]

YEA! We were able to change our reservation from an inside cabin to a secret porthole cabin! Dear friends from our June cruise noticed on available on the March cruise. I call my TA but wasn't sure about the price difference. When I called her back to book it, I was afraid it was gone but it wasn't!

Have a great Monday!

Charlene

[MN Dis Fans]

That is awesome! :thumbsup2 We have a secret porthole room, too! :yay:

[TiaMaria]

YEA! We were able to change our reservation from an inside cabin to a secret porthole cabin! Dear friends from our June cruise noticed on available on the March cruise. I call my TA but wasn't sure about the price difference. When I called her back to book it, I was afraid it was gone but it wasn't!

Have a great Monday!

Charlene

That is great news for you! Congrats! Thank goodness for DIS'ers looking out for one another!

[DW4US]

Congrats on the secret porthole room! :cool1: My DD badly wanted one of those rooms but we would need two (connecting) and I knew there was no way we'd get that. DD, of course, would be fine with her and sister up there on deck 5 and us down on 2, but that's not working for me! So we'll be down on 2 in the room we had on our first cruise :yay:, I really liked that location.

Have a great day everyone --- you all must be busy getting ready to go back to school (can't believe it's that time already). We registered my highschooler yesterday and we go to the middle school today so I can make my first "deposit"$$$$.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Charlene,
Congrats on the Secret Porthole Room! How odd is it that one of these rooms was available this late in the game? We also have the same room we had on the last cruise (6546), and the room connected to it (6544). The cheap side of me was going to put DS14 and DD12 in a cat 11 across the hall from our cat 6, but I just couldn't do it. I also couldn't give up a verandah, so it's connecting cat 6s for us.

I think my kids are all ready for school, we have the supplies bought and have paid the "registration" fee. School starts here on Aug 23. Not much of summer is left. DD and I go to Girl Scout Troop camp Tuesday-Friday. When we get back we're listing our house for sale, the following Tuesday (the 15th) we take possession of the new house. Somewhere in there I'd like to squeeze in a day or two at the Iowa State Fair, but it might not happen this year.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hello again!! Just bumping up our thread.

Talked to my AAA agent yesterday and got our package for this trip. Off to Girl Scout Camp today until Friday. Hope everyone has a good week!

[Mollie Jo]

Hello All,
It looks like we will be sailing with you. We are a family of four, me, DH, DS age 15, & DS age 10. We sailed on the Wonder in 2003, but never thought we would get to do the 7 day. So expensive compared to other lines, you know. So we are thrilled to be going. I haven't had a chance to read through all the post, but I know that TiaMaria is treating her niece and nephew, which I think is wonderful, and the Dutch-girl-Scout is pregnant with a baby boy. Congratulations! I love the DisBoards and frequent them often whenever I'm planning a trip to Disney. Looking forward to chatting with everyone as we anticipate our Spring Break cruise.

[SB's Mom]

:welcome: Mollie Jo!

We (myself, DH, and DD) took the 7 days cruise this past June. (and rebooked before we left the ship) You will have a wonderful time!

Charlene

[TiaMaria]

Welcome Mollie Jo, :wave:

Glad you made it over here!

Sounds like we've got a great group of people on the March 17th. I'm glad everything worked out with that Expedia rate for your family. :wizard:

My nephew will be 4 months shy of being 10 on the cruise and my niece will have just turned 8 on March 3, so they will probably be hanging out in the Lab with your DS. I know they can't wait to find out about all the Lab activities, although my niece looks fondly at the "dress up" time and the pirate ship in the Club when she watches the Disney Cruise video. I have to remind her that she'll be almost a whole year older by March and will likely have more "mature" interests by then!

Which part of the country are you travelling from? We are from St. Louis and are anxiously waiting for Southwest fares for March. Since we used to be a hub (before American decided to strip down all operations left over from TWA here :rolleyes: ) we don't get too many competitive airlines/flights out of here these days. So I prefer to fly SW over AA just for the principle of the matter. LOL

[Mollie Jo]

We live in east Tennessee, and we will be driving. It is about a 10 hour drive. We will probably leave Fri. after school lets out and drive for a few hours and get up the next morning and drive to the port. We usually like arriving the night before and spending the night when we have cruised, but since my son is in High School it is very important for him not to miss school. (They have to take semester test if they miss more than 3 days) We could take him out half a day.......................I don't know, our plans may change. Both my boys are out of school the Monday after the cruise, so I'm thinking of driving to the Wilderness Lodge and spending the night and just relax by their great pool before heading home. I know one thing, March seems so far away!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Mollie Jo--Welcome!!! My son will be turning 15 at the end of April, he'll be thrilled to know that they'll be another guy his age on board. My kids will be missing three days of school prior to their Spring break. Everyone here takes semester tests regardless so I don't feel too bad about them missing school.

Girl Scout camp was glorius fun even though it rained a couple inches in the three days we were there, mostly and night and hot-hot-hot during the day. All the better for memories and stories.

[SB's Mom]

Mollie Jo ~ where in East Tn? I lived in Nashville for 18 years and still love TN!

My family and I will also be driving on Friday evening after Stacy is out of school! She is an academic magnet school and they really frown on missing any time. It will take us about 8 hours to drive to the port. (we'll get there about midnight)

Charlene

[disneypoor]

Hi, everyone! :wave2: We are another Midwestern family that will be joining you for the spring break eastern cruise! :thumbsup2 It will be me, DH, DD (11-almost12), and DS (8--almost 9). We are also travelling with another family who also has two children--DD (11) and DS (9). We are from the Kansas City area. Ottawa, KS to be exact.

I'm already familiar with Mollie Jo because the two of us are going to have some sort of drink on this cruise! :) We both got lucky enough to get the great rate through expedia!

We are very excited about this trip! We had rebooked while onboard for our first ever 3 night cruise on the Wonder in June. We rebooked for next May, but when the opportunity came up to go on a 7 night (which I had only dreamed about) for only $400 more than our 4 night, we jumped on it! :banana:

Now I'm just worried about airfare from KC to MCO. We had already bought tickets for May through midwest for $199 per person, which was a great rate. However, Midwest charges $100 per person fee to make any changes to your flight plus you have to pay any difference in airfare. Well, airfare during spring break is outrageous! I'm just hoping it comes down soon so I can quit stressing about it!

I was glad to find this thread! I looked the other day but didn't find one for spring break. I must not have looked far enough! Just glad you guys are here and very excited about the cruise! :banana:

[Mollie Jo]

We live in a little town of about 4000 called Etowah, located about 60 miles north of Chattanooga and 60 miles south of Knoxville. We love Nashville though and visit when we can. It is about a 3 hour drive for us.
Disneypoor, I hope that airfare works out for you. Is Jetblue in your area? I've heard they have good rates.

[Mollie Jo]

Dutch-girl-scout. Is your son a scout too? Mine is Life, hoping to Eagle before this school year is out. Thought the two teens might have something in common.

[TiaMaria]

Hi all,

We are really starting to get a good-sized group together! We are so looking forward to our trip.

My niece and nephew just got back last week from their vacation with my sister and BIL 1 week at WDW (Contempory Resort) and the Fort Myers Beach area for 1 week. They apparently talked about the cruise non-stop at Disney as they kept running into reminders of it. My sister also has a picture of them somewhere in front of a model of the Magic posing on either end of it like Vanna White! LOL.

Now that they are back we have been doing some serious talking about our trip, but with starting back at school later this week (so early!) they are plenty excited about that too. :teacher:

Stacie - I see that you are back from Scout camp - hope you survived the weather. Know that you are probably swamped with the new house and all. Hope you take extra care of you and the impending little one with all you have to do this month! ;)

Jen - Where have you been hiding? You must be knee deep into summer vacation to be so quiet lately! :confused3

Charlene - I am so jealous of you and the others that are CC members because I just saw the pictures of the new CC return gift - so cool! :sunny:

MollieJo and Disneypoor - again welcome to the thread. Can't believe what an awesome rate you both scored. Serious Pixie Dust. :wizard:

Hello again to anyone I've missed! :blush: We will be at the 6 month mark before we all know it.

My sister and I have already scoured the racks for end-of-summer sales to stock up on some kid clothes for the cruise. The only thing we will probably have to buy before hand are shoes - who know how much/little their feet will grow by March? They've grown like weeds all summer. :rolleyes:

Let's see if we can snag anyone else for this thread this week!

[SB's Mom]

TiaMaria~ which gift did you see? I know they do change it from time to time. In June, we received a very nice beach bag with the cruise line logo. Others have received very nice beach towels.

Charlene

[TiaMaria]

TiaMaria~ which gift did you see? I know they do change it from time to time. In June, we received a very nice beach bag with the cruise line logo. Others have received very nice beach towels.

Charlene

Good morning Charlene,

I saw a great picture of the new gift on MBMinnieGirls trip report thread. It looks like a canvas carry bag with rubber logo bracelets, 2 logo mesh bags (one a backpack type and one a laundry bag), logo cups with lids, a journal/pen and some other great stuff. Kelly (MBMinnieGirl) did a great job posting a couple of pictures of the contents. :thumbsup2

I would post the thread, but I'm not allowed to yet. :guilty:

[TiaMaria]

I saw a great picture of the new gift on MBMinnieGirls trip report thread.
I would post the thread, but I'm not allowed to yet. :guilty:

Oops! Looks like she has moved the pics to a new thread on the main cruise forum. :blush:

Maureen :wave:

[jenbrem1]

Hi everyone - welcome Molliejo and Disneypoor! Sorry I've been MIA lately. We just got back from our last vacation this summer. We spent 3 days in Kansas City, taking the kids to Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun and a Royals game. I was wiped out but we had such a great time. My DS (6) is finally 48 inches so can ride everything she wants to now. It was quite a milestone!

We applied for the passports last Tuesday. The guy at the Post Office still said 8 weeks but everywhere I've been reading that it's taking closer to 12.

[dutch_girl_scout]

:welcome: DisneyPoor! Now both my kids will be happy, my DD will have turned 12 in February.

MollieJo--Yes, my son is a Boy Scout. He loves to backpack and hike. He was just elected to the Order of the Arrow. He's not near as eager to earn badges as his sister though, unless its something he's really interested in, and now he has most of those.

Jen--Welcome back, are you guys going to the fair at all this year? We went Saturday afternoon. We always swear we'll never go on another Saturday becasue it's always so crowded but we show up every year. We want to go back another evening this week but with moving and everything I don't know if we'll get there or not.

[dutch_girl_scout]

I was going to mention that I can set up a website for this cruise if anyone's interested. It would have pictures and bios of the families and kind of put faces with names prior to the cruise. Let me know if anyone's intersted.

[jenbrem1]

We actually went to the fair yesterday. It was my company sponsored day so we had free admission and food coupons. It's hard to pass up. It was nice outside until the torrential downpour! We plan on going again next Sunday to take the kids to see Raven. She's at one of the free stages at 4pm. My daughter loves her.

[disneypoor]

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I'm so excited!!! :Pinkbounc I got home today and our passports had arrived (all except my husband's that is)! It only took them about 6 weeks to get here. We also ended up buying our airfare yesterday, so I guess we are "officially" going on this cruise! :cool1: Can't wait for spring break!

[DW4US]

Hi everybody!!!

We finally bit the bullet this week and applied for our passports --- hopefully they'll come without any problems. The guy at the postoffice thought there may be a problem with my daughters picture due to a slight glare on her glasses --- hopefully it will pass the test. It's very slight and you can see her eyes fine. I decided we better go ahead and get them since the acceptance times at the post office are very limited and the chances of the kids being out of school, it not being a holiday, and my DH being home at the same time during those hours are very slim. Also, my DH heard something about them putting smartchips on passports so we decided better get them before they raise the prices again!!!

Welcome Mollie Jo and Disneypoor (we are also Disney Poor :goodvibes )!!!!!

Disneypoor, we are also flying out of MCI --- what kind of air did you get???? I haven't even started looking yet!

A website would be great!!! We had one for our 2005 Christmas Cruise and it was alot of fun!!!!

Have a great day!!!

[disneypoor]

Hi, Patty! I'm glad to know that someone else is Disney Poor! ;) We are flying Midwest on the Friday night before the cruise. The rates are HIGH, but it looks like all airlines are high at spring break. I was too afraid to wait. No matter what I do--buy early or wait until late--it never seems to work out the right way for us. :confused3 I'm just glad I have air! Our passports came also. We were waiting on my DH's, but it finally came yesterday. Have a good evening!

[DW4US]

Guess I'll have to start checking air so I can prepare myself. We went to WDW last year at the same time and got reasonable air --- I think it was around $190, anything under $200 with good flight times works for me. I would love to hook up with one of those Southwest deals --- I could get Southwest for $132 a few weeks ago for September or October, too bad I can't go then!!!

Jen -- glad you had a good time in KC!! Did the heat bother you much?

This is the last weekend before school starts --- I'm so sad summer is over, we weren't done having fun!

Have a great weekend everyone!!! We have tickets for Rent tonight at Starlight (outdoor theater) so we are hoping for NO rain. They've been predicting heavy storms for tonight, hopefully they're wrong or the rain will hold off until 11 or so.

[jenbrem1]

Out of Des Moines right now airfare is upwards of $500. I keep checking almost daily. We have looked at the flying out of KC or Omaha and will keep our options open there. I don't want to take the kids out of school really so leaving Friday afternoon is really our only option.

KC was hot on Wednesday but that was the day we were at Oceans of Fun so it was not so noticeable. Thursday at Worlds of Fun the sun wasn't out all day so it was just very humid and it drizzled on us a couple times at the ballgame that night. Friday was beautiful and we returned home to DSM to a beautiful 80 degrees.

I haven't told my kids about the cruise yet. I'm thinking about not telling them until we actually get on the boat that Saturday morning. What do you all think?

[DW4US]

WOW Jen -- impressive, I could never keep a secret that long. Good Luck!

[disneypoor]

Airfare from KC to Orlando on Midwest has gone up over $60 in the last two weeks! Believe it or not, Midwest has the cheapest flights for spring break right now--$418 BEFORE taxes. That is outrageous! Maybe Southwest will come out with a good deal?? I'm just glad I have my airfare secured and paid for! Good luck all of you KC area cruisers! I hope something good comes out for you soon! :thumbsup2

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all--I have Internet again :banana: We slept in the new house last night for the first time. It feels good to have furniture and stuff.

Patty--If you need to re-submit your DDs passport application there is a form that your husband can sign in front of a notary giving permission for you to get your DD's passport.

Jen--Have the Allegiant fares come out for March? They are non-stop and REALLY cheap. They fly into Sanford instead of MCO.

[Mollie Jo]

Hey everyone,
We just completed our first week back at school and I'm exhausted, I've hardly had time to check the Boards. I can tell I need to get busy on our passports. It seems everyone has them but me! We have our photos and I've filled out the paperwork, I just need to take them to the post office. Hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

[TiaMaria]

Hi all,

Airfares are really high from STL right now but there is hope - SW fares are finally up to early January so hopefully in a few more weeks we can jump on those.

Stacie- congrats on being "home". I'm sure you have lots of unpacking still, but at least you are now all there.

It has been hot and sticky here for the last 2 days (but the early part of the week was beautiful). They keep teasing us with rain (looks like everyone else in the Midwest got some except us today) and we are 10 inches below normal for the year so far. It is supposed to cool off for the weekend though so I might take the nieces and nephew to Six Flags (we are only 20 minutes away).

I am getting the kids passport photos done tomorrow and my sister and BIL are going to go get them sent off at the Post Office this week. I also heard about the microchips and decided to get going! LOL

Everyone have a great weekend!

[jenbrem1]

I thought I saw Midwest Express on Expedia.com out of KC for about $360. I'm keeping my eye on it. We have Omaha as an option too.

Allegiant Air out of DSM has fares through mid-January posted now but it doesn't look like they will have the flights out of Orlando on the days we need. For some reason, their schedule won't be the same next year. We need to leave Friday the 16th and return Sunday the 25th.

[disneypoor]

I do think there were a few cheaper flights for Midwest out of KC if you could be more flexible on the dates. We needed to leave Friday the 16th and come back on the 24th. I hope rates go down for everyone who still needs air. Maybe Southwest will have some cheap flights! :)

[DW4US]

If I see a good deal on air out of KC I'll let everyone know --- I think it might be too early right now. I'm hoping that we can get what we got this year at spring break, but with all this stuff going on right now I don't know where the airfares are going to go.

School started Monday :teacher: and my girls are tired!!!! We've been out shopping the past two nights for more school supplies --- I think I've spent about $150 for additional stuff. Of course, most of it was for some fancy calculator my daughter needs for trig --- I hope it can last her for a loooooong time! I'm glad that dance doesn't start for a couple of more weeks so they can get used to school. Once dance starts my DD13 has two or three 9:30 nights -- YUCK!

Stacie - congrats on the house! I don't know how you do it all!

I'm going to go on-line today and check the status of our passports --- last time I checked they weren't in the system yet. I forgot to put my e-mail on the application so if there are any problems I'll have to wait for notification in the mail. Of course, now my daughter wants to wear her contacts all the time --- we should've just had her take her glasses off for the picture.

Have a great day!!!! I can't wait for the weekend!!!

[TiaMaria]

Patty, that's so funny about your daughter and her glasses/contacts. Just figures doesn't it? I took my niece and nephew to get their passport photos last weekend and we told them that they shouldn't really smile - just be serious. Well, talk about 2 mug shots! LOL They both look like they were about to vomit! :lmao: They were SO serious. Your first instinct is to do them over - but it's only a passport and only for a few years at their ages (7 and 9 right now). Of course I couldn't let them see how hard I was laughing! :rotfl2:

[DW4US]

We weren't supposed to smile for our passport photos? We all look all happy --- I figure that's how we'll look when we're traveling --- hopefully :cool1: . In fact DD16's photo was so good she wanted copies! I checked on our passports and they are scheduled to be done Sept. 24th --- we'll see how close to that date we actually get them.

Have a great weekend everyone. We are praying the weather will calm down and we won't have storms this weekend --- we're taking our church youth group to a local lake for an end of summer blowout on Saturday and we need good weather so the kids can play in the water!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Patty--Central Iowa weather is supposed ot be beautiful this weekend, I'll send some of it your way.

MollieJo--School definately makes everyone tired. We hadn't gotten up before 8 or went to bed before 10 this summer, with the exception of when we went to camp. I'm glad that the weekend is here.

The kids had their first day of school yesterday. It is very quiet here. Just me, the pets, and lots and lots of boxes.

I had picked out Mickey wallpaper for the kids' bathroom/laundry room, DH just wanted to paint to save some money. He went up to the wallpaper/paint store with me last night to get the paint and saw the Disney wallpaper book. Now he wants Mickey too. I thought it was funny. Is it possible that he's a sucker for Disney things like I am?

[disneypoor]

I'm just writing in to say hi to everyone again! :) I'm a teacher and have been back to work for two weeks now :crazy: , so I haven't been on the DIS as much as I used to be. I just can't seem to get this cruise out of my head! :confused3 We are going to DL for the week of Thanksgiving, but I'm not quite as excited about it as I am the cruise. I hope my ticker moves quickly! :teeth: Have a great weekend!

[TiaMaria]

Is it possible that he's a sucker for Disney things like I am?

Stacie - you have got him trained very well apparently (or brainwashed!) LOL :banana:

Patty - they are talking about bad weather here in St. Louis off and on all weekend - and it usually comes from your direction. Here's hoping it skips over you. We really can't complain over here - we are terribly dry this summer. :wave2:

[DW4US]

We got lots and lots of rain this weekend, but thankfully it didn't rain during the day on Saturday :banana: , so we got in our day at the lake. It was overcast all day but that was okay because it kept the boat traffic down. I think the kids all had a great time! It could've been about 10 degrees warmer for me, but they didn't mind.

My DD13 is trying to use every ploy she knows to try and get me to buy her clothes --- everything she sees would be "great for the cruise". Somehow she thinks that I should make all those purchases!! I bought them both a formal, I was thinking they could just use their "regular" clothes to fill in on the other nights --- apparently I'm not thinking the same way they are.

If you all have Dillards near you, they just put all their swimming suits at 75% off yesterday. I picked up one, probably should have got two for that price.

Have a great day everyone --- looks like more rain here today!

[disneypoor]

Patty--thanks for the info on Dillards. I hope they still have some suits left! I'll probably go next weekend. Where did you find formals for your girls? My daughter will be almost 12 when we cruise. I wasn't going to buy her a formal but rather just a really nice dress. Did you find a good deal on a formal? I'd love for my daughter to have one if I can find it priced reasonably. :)

[SB's Mom]

Hello All

I've been keeping up with all the posting but just busy with work and getting Stacy started at school. On the dress for dress up, I found one for our past June cruise at Heartstrings. I'm hoping that she can wear it again this March. On the formal night this past June, she wanted to not dress up and went to the kid's club instead. She did wear the dress a few night later. I think I'll also look for a dress for Easter and let Stacy wear it also on the cruise.

I hope everyone is doing well!
We are looking forward to the March cruise.

Have a wonderful week.

Charlene

[DW4US]

We've gotten really good deals on formals at both Dillards and Penneys, the DEB store also had a lot to choose from. After all the homecoming dances are over you'll probably be able to pick up one pretty reasonably --- if you wait around for awhile they'll really start marking them down quite a bit -- you might even need to wait until about January, just watch the stock at the different stores. I think the ones we got at the first of August were probably leftover prom dresses. She'll have a blast getting all dressed up!!!

I can't decide how dressed up I want to get for semi-formal night --- I've always worn the "little black dress", but I've read where a lot of people are wearing long dresses to semi-formal too. I have two "formals" so I could just bring them both --- I sure don't have anywhere else to wear them!

[disneypoor]

Thanks, Patty! I think I'll just start checking at Dillard's every time I go to Oak Park Mall. I wasn't planning on wearing a formal. I bought a beautiful nice black dress. Will that be okay for formal night? It is gorgeous, but I don't know if it qualifies as a formal. :confused3 Let me know what you think. Thanks!

[SB's Mom]

On formal night, you see from the simple black dress to very formal dresses! Some just wear nice Sunday dresses and pant outfits. The dress I used in June was very dressy but not formal. I'm looking at a black skirt with a red or turquoise top for March.

Charlene

[jenbrem1]

Do any of you know how the nights will go during the cruise? Which ones are formal/semi-formal/casual??

[SB's Mom]

When we went in June it was (I think I'm remembering correctly)

Saturday / Cruise Casual
Sunday / Semi - Formal
Monday / Cruise Casual
Tuesday / Pirate Night
Wednesday / Cruise Casual
Thursday / Formal
Friday / Cruise Casual

Have a great Day

[jenbrem1]

Thanks Charlene. That helps. So only one real "Formal" night where I need to make sure the men in the group are wearing jackets?? I had sold them on this by telling them that for the most part, DCL was more casual than other cruises we had been on!

[DW4US]

I just have the "formal" long dress because I got such a good deal on it and it is fun to get dressed up for once. On either formal or semi-formal night any nice dress will work. My DD13 and I had a lot of fun on our last cruise getting different pictures in our dresses. It's also fun to be dressed up for the Golden Mickey's Show (if they still do that), because they have the red carpet out and everything so it's like you're going to the emmy's.

[SB's Mom]

FYI

I might have the formal and semi-formal nights switched. I just can't remember which was which.

They do still do the Golden Mickey! For the red carpet, you need to go to the doors on the right side of the theatre!


Charlene

[jenbrem1]

Good news - the kids passports came. We sent everything in on August 8. That was 22 days mailed and back. We did everything at the post office. My daughter's picture on her passport is really dark. The original is not. It's the same as my son's. Do you think I should send it back in, or let it go?? I thought about running back over the post office over my lunch today and see what they thought. :confused3

[DW4US]

Do your passports have the chip on it? I can't believe they came back that fast!

[jenbrem1]

How do I know if they have the chip? I have it right here in front of me.

[DW4US]

This is what's on the State Depts. page about the chip --- I don't know if you could tell if your passport has one or not since it says it is embedded in the back cover. I thought I had read something a few weeks ago that said they were starting to put them in but I don't know where that was.

"The proposed U.S. Electronic Passport is the same as a regular passport with the addition of a small contactless integrated circuit (computer chip) embedded in the back cover. The chip will securely store the same data visually displayed on the photo page of the passport, and will additionally include a digital photograph. The inclusion of the digital photograph will enable biometric comparison, through the use of facial recognition technology at international borders. The U.S. “e-passport” will also have a new look, incorporating additional anti-fraud and security features.

Passports without chips will still be valid for the full extent of their validity period."

[jenbrem1]

If it's there it's indetectable.
I called the National Passport Information Center this morning about my daughter's picture and they told me to keep an eye on it over the next couple months to see if the picture gets any darker. If it does, send a new one in with the passport and they would redo it. She told me to wait until I travel and see if they say anything.

I've been doing some more airfare detective work. Midwest Airlines out of KC leaving Friday the 16th at 7:30pm is down to $295 if you want to leave at 7am the morning of the 25th. It's a decent option at least.

[DW4US]

I was hoping to get air closer to $200 if possible --- a girl can dream :Pinkbounc. Okay, $250 is probably more realistic. With gas prices coming down and the predictions that it will keep dropping :cheer2:, hopefully that will also carry over to jet fuel. I keep seeing all these good fares if you want to travel in Sept or Oct and DH keeps asking me why we don't go --- let's see --- saving for cruise, dance, school, Christmas.... I just hate being practical!!!!

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. The weather is really cooling off here --- I love 85 and 70's sure feel a lot cooler in September than they do in May! I think I might be nuts --- I'm already planning on arranging my closet when I put away my "summer" stuff with everything I want to take on the cruise together.

[jenbrem1]

Hello all! You can tell that school has started because the posts sure have slowed down! My kids just started yesterday. My 1st grade daughter was over the moon excited and my 3rd grade son was surprisingly nervous.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend. The weather has cooled a lot which is nice. It's great sleeping weather that's for sure. I hope we have a long fall season. Some years it seems it goes right from summer in to winter.

Have a great day!

[disneypoor]

Hello all! You can tell that school has started because the posts sure have slowed down! My kids just started yesterday. My 1st grade daughter was over the moon excited and my 3rd grade son was surprisingly nervous.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend. The weather has cooled a lot which is nice. It's great sleeping weather that's for sure. I hope we have a long fall season. Some years it seems it goes right from summer in to winter.

Have a great day!
Hi! I was just thinking the same thing about the posts for our cruise slowing down. I'm sure they'll start picking up soon. BTW, I want fall and winter to fly by this year! I simply cannot wait for this cruise! I'm driving my family nuts about it! :teeth:

[DW4US]

Our passports came today :Pinkbounc :Pinkbounc ! Only three weeks after we applied for them and two weeks earlier then the website was saying. One more step down --- now I just need air fare and we'd be all set.

Maybe I need to be get up in the middle of the night and check fares --- they (who are they anyway?) say that the best fares are at 2:00 am on Tuesday nights --- don't know if I can test that theory or not! Maybe I should've checked last night, we were up past 12 --- my DD13 was finishing a school project --- I had no idea it would take so long. You've heard of people going the extra mile --- she usually goes an extra 10 miles. Good trait but sometimes frustrating when we see that the whole thing is only worth like 20 points, but I guess I should be thankful that she is so dedicated!

I can't wait to get home and see our passports!!! :banana: :banana:

Have a great day --- I hope school is going well for everyone!

[jenbrem1]

Hey everyone - there are finally some Eastern trip reports out there from the 9/2 through 9/9 cruise. It's kept me occupied much of the morning. Enjoy!!

[TiaMaria]

Hi everyone - sorry for being so neglectful (Yikes, this thread was back on page 3!!!) but like you, have been so busy lately. :sad2:

Jen - thanks for the heads up about the recent Eastern Trip Reports. Cannot believe that we are actually (finally) right at 6 months out!! :banana:

My niece and nephew have been swamped with "back-to-school" (niece in 2nd grade this year and nephew in 4th). They are also knee deep in PSR once a week, Tae Kwon Do and Soccer for him :bounce: and dance and cheerleading classes for her. :cheer2:

We got their passport photos done a couple of weeks ago, but my sister and BIL have not had a moment together on a Saturday to go to the Post Office to apply. Hopefully next week as we are getting to the "red zone" for applications this year. :rolleyes:

Work has been crazy busy for me. My Dad is finished with his course of chemo treatments, finally, and goes in for a cat scan and progress report in early October. He is feeling pretty good at the moment and we are praying for good news for his quality of life in the future. :goodvibes He is planning a trip to Albuquerque for Balloon Fiesta around that same time with some of his best buddies - which we are all thrilled about. :sunny:

I have been helping my SIL plan a surprise WDW birthday trip for her, my brother and my other niece who is in 3rd grade and will be turning 9 in the beginning of Oct. princess: My brother has been to WDW many times with our family, but my SIL has never gone and my niece wants to go but has no idea that it's not just like Six Flags. This is the niece that they adopted from Russia just 2 years ago. Couldn't be more American now and really, really wants to go to Mickey Mouses House and see "Pirates of the Bean" as she calls it! pirate: LOL :lmao: I am trying to help them maximize the 4 1/2 days that they will have.

That is all that is going on around here. Great weather this week once the rain disappeared, but this weekend it is hot again - mid 80's - I am looking for that cold front coming through here tomorrow night. This time of year I am done with hot weather. They are talking down around 48 on Tuesday night - that's what I call good sleeping weather!!

Everybody have a great rest of the weekend!!

[disneypoor]

Hi, everyone! I was so excited when I got on the DIS today and noticed that my "ticker" said that we only have 5 months 3 weeks and 6 days to go until our cruise! :thumbsup2 I love it when the months start falling off! Now, if I can only get the pounds to fall off before March 17th! :lmao:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! It looks like I'm not the only one that's been too busy to post. I hate trying to get back in the school routine. Hopefully the months until March will go just as fast as the last one has.

Maureen (Tia)--I hope your dad has good news. Your SIL is a lucky person to have a personal trip planner. I'm sure your neice will be blown away by WDW.

Jen--Thanks for the heads up about the trip reports, I haven't even been logged on to the boards for awhile, tomorrow's priority will be reading them and getting back into the cruise mood.

I need to keep on my husband about getting his passport, he's going to end up stalling and have to have his expedited with the baby's. We've just been busy trying to get settled in our new house before baby comes. We've painted and wallpapered in the kids' rooms. We have their bathroom/laundry to do yet. The Mickey paper is waiting patiently in the box for the lady to come and hang it, hopefully next week. The baby's furniture doesn't come until mid-October, that's making me a little nervous but it should be fine, we have a bassinet and as my mom keeps saying, he could sleep in a dresser drawer if he had to. NOT!!

5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days is A LOT better than 6 months. Talk to you all later.

[jenbrem1]

Happy Monday everyone! We certainly don't post much here anymore, do we? I jumped on to bump us back up to one of the top pages. We've now booked our airfare, the hotel the night before the cruise, and the port transportation. We need the Saturday night in Orlando prior to going home (we're thinking CBR at Disney) yet and then we should be all set.

I know the next 6 months are going to fly by! :cool1:

[disneypoor]

It sounds like you are about set, Jenbrem! We are set as well! I ordered my son a suit off of ebay the other day, and it is so cute on him! It was only $30 delivered to my door and is brand new! I couldn't believe it! I'm not sure my husband believed that it was only $30 until I showed him the online statement! We all have our dress clothes now and just can't wait to get on the ship! :cool1: Have a good week everyone!

[jenbrem1]

We are about set. I'm looking for a nice place in Orlando to stay on the 24th before going home. What we really want is a place with a huge pool for the kids. I was thinking about one of the Moderate resorts at Disney World. Does anyone here have any suggestions?

[disneypoor]

JenBrem--we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside last year when we went to WDW, and it was wonderful. The grounds are beautiful, and my kids really enjoyed the pool. It is sortof spread out, so there is some walking involved, but we loved it and would stay there again in a heartbeat! :)

[DW4US]

Port Orleans Riverside is our favorite resort. Guess I need to get on the stick and get a hotel for us. We're DVC so I need to give them a call and see what I can get. I was thinking Boardwalk would be fun for one night --- we could pretend we were in Epcot!!!

No airfare for us yet --- I wish some of those great deals I'm seeing for now would extend out to March. :sunny:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--We're staying at Coranado the Saturday night before flying home. It sounded like a great resort except that it doesn't provide transportation to the cruise so I thought we'd try it after the cruise. Who are you flying with? We're flying out with Delta at 7:00am Sunday morning. I've toyed with the idea of staying at the airport hotel just so we don't have to get up quite as early that day. Anyone ever stayed there?

My DS is running cross country at Norwalk on Tuesday. I'm not sure if we're going to make the trip or not but I immediately thought of you when he said it. My guess is that the apples at Happy Apple are about ready too? We might have to come your way one of these weekends.

[jenbrem1]

I'll look at all of those. The only one I've priced so far is the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's nice because you can do the Disney transfer back to the airport the next morning. Are the rooms in the moderate resorts still fairly small?

The night before the cruise we are staying at an Orlando airport hotel. It's the Holiday Inn Express Orlando Airport.

We are flying American and our flight leaves at 10am I think.

Cross Country meet in Norwalk next week - where do they run at? I think it's near the soccer fields where my kids play. Happy Apple Orchard is open for business. I saw their ad in the Sunday paper.

[disneypoor]

Hello, everyone! I'm just trying to boost us back up to the first page of this thread! Where have you all been? :confused3 We only have 164 days left til our cruise!!!! :banana:

[DW4US]

I'm still here --- don't know where everyone else is :confused3 , I know we're really busy with school, homework, etc.... Plus we're getting ready for a big hardware rollout here at work so I'll be really busy until after the first of November --- maybe I can get some OT out of the deal :banana: :banana:

Anyway, I bit the bullet yesterday and made air reservations --- about killed me --- I think I was almost sick. I got scared with all the high prices I've been seeing out of Orlando and thinking they may not go down especially during that time, sooooo while I was messing around I got $248 on Midwest --- not to Orlando but to Tampa. We've flown into Tampa before and it's not bad and it's only about an hour drive from WDW where we'll be staying (if I ever get around to calling for ressies). I hope I did the right thing --- guess it doesn't matter now since there's no turning back. Of course, today I get a SW Ding for $39 each way to Orlando for the month of November ---- better not see anything like that for March or I'll be sick!!!! Next thing is a rental car :moped:

Hope everyone's doing good!!!!!!

[jenbrem1]

I'm still here too!! It's weird that no one is posting much in here anymore. Like I said a couple posts above, I'm still researching a Saturday night hotel in Orlando before going home. I'm thinking Coronado Springs or Caribbean Beach Resort. My kids will just want a huge pool with a slide.

I don't have the ticker at the bottom, but it's so cool we're getting to the 5 month mark!! I hope this winter flies by.

[DW4US]

I don't know about the slide at Coronado, but unless Caribbean has redone their pool in the last few years their slide is really short. In the moderate range Port Orleans Riverside and French Quarter both have really fun slides. As I said before, Riverside is our fav mod, but it is big so you could have a little bit of a walk. French Quarter isn't as big so you're closer to the pool and food court. I'm going to try and call today and see what I can get for Friday night before and Saturday after.

When is everyone coming in and where is everyone planning on staying????

Have a great weekend everyone -- the weather looks great here!!! I'm really thankful for that since this is homecoming weekend and it's hard if it's cold with those formal dresses. Plus the nice weather will provide a great background for pictures!!!!

[jenbrem1]

Thanks for the info. From what I've heard, their opportunities on the ship to enjoy the pool will be limited due to the crowds so I'd like our last day to just be hanging out at a pool and relaxing.

We are coming in the Friday night before and staying by the Orlando airport. We are going home the Sunday after.

I love the weather too! I hope it lasts the whole month. The longer the kids have to play outside, the better.

[disneypoor]

Glad to hear from everyone! Patty--I don't think air from KC to Tampa for $248 sounds bad at all! We bought ours quite a while back and paid more than that. I've been watching it ever since we booked our cruise, and the same flights that we are on have gone up to $580 per person. Ouch! That makes me glad that I booked when I did. Of course, one of these days I'll probably check it and it will be something like $199 round trip and I'll be sick. :guilty: Oh well, I'm just glad we have air and I know we are going!

We are flying in the Friday night before the cruise and staying at Radisson at the port. We stayed there this past June and liked it. We have a 12:50 flight leaving Orlando on the Saturday we get off of the ship. I hope we make it in plenty of time. I worry a little bit about spring break crowds, but I'm hoping they are all flying back on Sunday. :rolleyes:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Susan

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! Long time no post.

Jen--We never made it to Norwalk. DS dislocated his knee playing neighborhood soccer so his cross country season is over. He went to the orthopedic Dr. this week, no surgery unless he does it again (this was the second time its happened). He starts physical therapy tomorrow.

We are flying in on the Wednesday before the cruise and doing the parks for a couple days. We're staying at the Beach Club. I hated to pay that much but it was about the same price as two rooms at a moderate. We are doing Cape Canaveral the day we disembark and flying home on Sunday morning.

I can't beleive the cruise is coming up so quick. I need to make dining reservations, but I don't even know which parks we're doing on which days yet. Has anyone used Tour Guide Mike before? I have the Unofficial Guide but some posts rave about how good Tour Guide Mike is. I'm thinking that since we'll be there during spring break time it might not be a bad idea.

[disneypoor]

Stacie--I sure wish we were doing the parks for a couple of days before the cruise! I'm a teacher, so we can't leave until Friday night. :guilty:

I found another very nice dress for my daughter this weekend at Dillards. She now has two nice dresses, and I'm hoping that's all we'll need as far as "dressy" stuff goes. I figured we'd need one for formal night and one for semi-formal night, so someone please let me know if we still need more. Other than that, I think we'll just wear nice clothes but not as nice as we will on formal and semi-formal nights.

I also went to the Disney store and bought a gift card to put towards our stateroom credit. I found out that you could do that and thought I might as well start buying now so we have quite a bit when our trip gets here.

BTW, I noticed that now you might not need a passport for our cruise. I was kindof let down since we've already spent the money on them, but I'm also sortof relieved so that if, I mean when :teeth: , we rebook onboard, we'll be covered for sure.

Have a great week!

Susan

[dutch_girl_scout]

Susan--I hear you on the passports. DH and baby don't have theirs yet, I don't know if we should go ahead and get them or not. We're going back in Dec of 2007. I'm leaning towards just getting them and being done with it.

My kids just wore church clothes to dinner each night. DD is not a frilly kind of girl but she did wear a skirt one night, otherwise it was sweaters and black gaucho pants. DS wore khaki pants and polo shirts. Your DD should be fine with two dressy dresses.

[SB's Mom]

Stacie ~ we're also waiting on the passport issue for DD but I believe that your DH will have to have one.

It is hard to believe that this cruise is just a little over 5 months away!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Charlene

[disneypoor]

Hi, everyone! I'm just bumping us up to the front again. Just think---next week all of our "tickers" will say 4 months and something--no more 5 months! :Pinkbounc

[DW4US]

Wow --- this cruise is slipping up fast on us :cool1: :cool1:

I called today and our ressies for before and after the cruise --- we'll be at Boardwalk Villas on Friday night before and the Wilderness Lodge Villas on the Saturday after :banana: :banana:

I guess we're all set until we can start making shore excursion ressies. I'm still going to keep checking rental car prices to see if I can't do better. We have to get at least a standard size to hold all of our luggage. Last cruise we had an Explorer before and that was great, but we weren't so lucky on the return side --- we got the biggest car they had but it didn't have the capacity of the SUV and we were surrounded by bags :rotfl2: :rotfl2: Funny now (I should've took a pic), but it wasn't so fun then. To top it all off we went to Downtown Disney and bought more stuff!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!! We need to keep this thread alive!!

[disneypoor]

Hi, Patty! I can't remember--do you have airfare already? If so, what line are you flying? We're flying out of KC Friday also. Just thought maybe we'd be on the same flight and could share in the excitement! :cool1:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all!! Time before the cruise seems to be going really quickly but time for this baby seems to be dragging.

I got some of my dining reservations made. I got into the Rose and Crown at Epcot late enough that I think we'll be able to watch Illuminations from there. I also got a fantasmic dinner package for our night at MGM. I didn't know you could do the dinner package with the dining plan.

I switched our reservation for the Saturday after to the MCO Hyatt. That way after Kennedy Space Center we can just return the car to the airport and go to our room. Our return flights home had changed since I booked them too. We're now going home through Atlanta instead of Cincinnati.

Patty--Where are you renting a car from? We've never rented at all before. Do the rates get cheaper as the dates get closer or should I do it now for best selection? I'm clueless about car rentals.

[SB's Mom]

Stacie

In June our family ate at the Rose and Crown. If you get seated inside. . .they have a special area for you to go out and see the show. Paul and Stacy went outside to watch and I was able to watch it from the window inside. We had dessert afterwards while the crowds were leaving the park. Have a great time!

Charlene

[disneypoor]

Stacie--we rented from Budget for our cruise this past June and are renting from them again this March. Our total for the rental is less than $100, and that is for the car to the port and then picking it up again after the cruise. I figured that's a heck of a lot less than using DCL transportation. Plus, we're flying in the night before and can get to the port early. ;)

[jenbrem1]

I think that since we are traveling with 7, we will get a car service. Florida Tours or Tiffany Town Cars. I can't even imagine the luggage we will have with 7 of us. Do any of you have any experience with either of those companies? I think we'll have to get a 15 passenger van.
Jen

[DW4US]

We're flying Midwest, but we are flying into Tampa. I was kicking myself for not booking them before when they were having their fare sale awhile back, so when I saw $219 into Tampa ($248 after taxes), I went ahead and booked it. I hope it was a good decision.

We've had our best luck with Budget also. I would go ahead and book now and then just keep checking the rates every so often to see if they go down. You can cancel and make new reservations as many times as you want, car rentals don't require anything (charge card) to reserve a car. Also, join Budjet's Fastbreak club, it's free and it allows you to skip the line at the airport (believe me you want to skip that line, especially with little ones, rental lines are beyond sloooow) and just go out to the lot and choose the car you want from the class you've rented from. You can find all the info on it on their website. Also, check Mousesavers for discount codes. Also, when checking the prices the location code for the the port to drop off the car is CC5.

Susan --- where are you all staying the night before, I can't remember if you said or not. What size car did you rent? We got a full size for $47 on Friday, then another full-size for the return for $87 (ouch). We're not returning it until Sunday and we're going over the 24 hours so that's why it's so much. Hopefully I can do better than that.

[disneypoor]

Patty--We are staying at the Radisson at the Port. We got a mid-size car. That's what we had last June, and we had five people that time because we took one of our friends with us. It worked just fine. I can't remember our total for each way for the rental (I do have it at home in my cruise stuff) but I know it was under $100 in all. We are leaving KC on Midwest on the Friday night before in the evening. Our flight leaves around 7:00 I think. I wanted to leave earlier in the day but I'm a teacher and have inservice that day. I had to ask off for two days in November because we are going to Disneyland for the week of Thanksgiving. I figured I'd be pushing my luck if I also asked off for that Friday before spring break. :confused3

We are moving in to a BRAND NEW school this week! It was supposed to be finished before school started but didn't make it. I only have students today and then they get the rest of the week off while we move. It's exciting, but I'll be so tired by the end of the week!

Have a great week everyone!

Susan

[kcarl021]

Hello All! Just booked this today. This will be our 3rd cruise. Stupid us, we did the Eastern in 05, the Western this year, and then decided NOT to book another one while we were on board because we thought we were done. Well we've been looking for somewhere else to go since March and nothing seems as fun AND everything else we were looking at was just as expensive, if not worse!

So we are me (KC), DH (Rick), DD (Molly - 7), BF (Heidi), BFDH (Peter), BFDD (Helen - 6), Grandma (Kathy), Grandpa (Jeff). Potentially 2 more cruisers coming along, just not sure yet.

We booked Cat 6 6624, 6626, 6628. I booked directly with DCL and then moved my reservation over to Small World Vacations. They will send us a $200 check when we get back from the trip.

I was surprised at how much more this cruise was than the one we did this year. We booked that one when we were on board, and that 10% discount really make a difference.

We are midwesterners too! Im in STL and BF is in Kansas.

[kcarl021]

We're flying out of KC Friday also. :cool1:

What airline did you book? I was looking at SWA since I usually get free flights, but they aren't booking for March yet.

[disneypoor]

What airline did you book? I was looking at SWA since I usually get free flights, but they aren't booking for March yet.
Hi and welcome to our thread! :) I booked with Midwest. I'm sure Southwest will possibly come out with cheaper flights, but I'm one of those people that has to book EVERYTHING the first week after I book something. :teeth:

We were on the wonder this past June and rebooked onboard for a four night for next May. When we got home, we were able to get air through midwest for $198, so we went ahead and booked it. Then, we changed all of our plans and are now booked on the 7 night eastern. Midwest won't refund your money so we had no choice but to book our spring break trip with them also.

Glad to see you're going on the Eastern again. That must mean it's a great cruise! :goodvibes Welcome!!!

[jenbrem1]

Hi KC. I'm Jen. We're traveling from the Des Moines area. My kids are DS (8) and DD (6 - almost 7 when we cruise). We haven't told them yet. My son saw a commercial for Norwegian Cruise lines the other night and asked when he would ever go on a cruise. It was all I could do not to tell him. I can't believe we've held off this long.

Welcome!

[kcarl021]

Eastern and Western both have their good points. I really wanted to do the Western again but it didn't work out due to the dates we needed to take. I wanted to do the Western because out of all of the ports I LOVE Grand Cayman the best! We were routed to Costa Maya last year and missed Cozumel, and I really did NOT like Cota Maya. I would have enjoyed seeing Cozumel. However, the Eastern has the extra day at sea and you cruise longer before hitting a port - so you kind of get into the swing of things first. I think St. Maarten is a bit "messy" of a island all around, but the beach is to die for! St. Thomas is a shopping mecca! We loved it there. So good with both - honestly, you just can't go wrong either way I don't think!

Hi Jen! It will be so nice to meet you. My BF and I met when we went to school at Northwest Missouri State, so we knew plenty of people from Iowa, and actually went up to Viesha one time! She was from Nebraska at the time, and is now in Topeka, KS. Ahhh those were the days! We both have DD's around the same age as yours too!

[DW4US]

Welcome KC!

We're from KC - myself, DH, DD16 & DD14. We're flying Midwest Friday morning and staying at Boardwalk that night. Good luck on finding good airfare. I'm sure there will be something good come up since I booked ours last week! If I remember correctly SWA didn't release their schedule for March until after the first of the year this year. We went to WDW for spring break this year and I finally ended up booking with Air Tran around the end of January.

Susan --- Good luck with your move!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Welcome KC to the Midwestern Spring Break Cruise! Glad to have you aboard!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Between this cruise and our 12/07 cruise I was getting confused on who was who. I compiled the following list for this cruise. Let me know if I have left somebody out or have the wrong info.

jenbrem1 (Jen), DH, DS8, DD6, DBrother, Grandma, Grandpa
mwrogers (Marcus), DW, DD3, DS1
Mother of mwrogers, DH, DD17
MN_Dis_Fans, DW, DS11, DS9
dutch_girl_scout (Stacie), DH, DS14, DD12, Dbaby~4months
TiaMaria (Maureen), DNephew9, DNiece8
SB's Mom (Charlene), DH, DD8
Nala9824, Dsis, DB-in-law, DNephew11, Grandma, Grandpa
DW4US (Patty), DH, DD16, DD13
smartyone, DH, DD8
MollieJo, DH, DS15, DS10
disneypoor, DH, DD11, DS8
Friends of disneypoor, DD11, DS9
kcarl021 (KC), DH, DD7, Grandma,Grandpa
Friends of kcarl021, DD6

[SB's Mom]

Stacie ~ it looks like you got all of us listed!

Welcome KC! :cheer2:

This will be my family's (myself, DH & DD (who is 8)) third Disney cruise also! We did a 4 day in 2004 and then a 7 Western this past June. We rebooked before leaving the ship! We live in south Alabama and will be driving in late on Friday to the port. Stacy doesn't get out of school until 3:30 and we will hit the road! :moped:

Have a great evening everyone!
Charlene

[TiaMaria]

Hello again!

Sorry it's been awhile but it has been SO busy! We are still waiting for my niece and nephew to receive their passports (any day now).

Stacie, you did a great job compiling all the info. We should think about getting stateroom numbers together and starting a discussion about a meet on sailing day. How are you feeling these days?

KC, welcome from another St. Louisan! Go Cards (starting Game 5 as I type this). We don't have our air yet. Holding out for some hopefully good SW air, but we will see. PM me if you want and we can chat about "where we went to high school" lol.

Susan, we are staying at the Radisson on the 16th also. Hoping to catch an early flight that Friday so we can get in and enjoy the pool. We are probably going to try to eat at Grills that night.

Jen - I think we are doing the limo service also. Friends of ours that sailed on RCCL recommend Southern Elegance. Not the least expensive, but they said great service and very prompt.

We are doing 2 nights at the Grand Floridian afterwards since my niece and nephew don't need to be back at school until Tuesday. We are figuring on flying home early to mid morning on Monday.

OK all, gotta go root for my team. Talk to you all later!

[kcarl021]

I think the Cards are losing. I try to avoid getting into any STL sports until we are closer to the final series. Seems like EVERY team we have here makes it into post season so it's almost like its not a big deal! Isn't that terrible team spirit? :teeth:

If anyone knows when SWA releases their mid March flights - let me know! I also need information on good transportation AND info on how to ship a case of wine to the boat. I've seen people talk about it and people do it, but I don't recall how its done. As for transportation, we used FL Tours last year, and I really wasnt impressed at all!

[jenbrem1]

Stacie - just to add a couple to the list under me....

Grandpa and Grandma
DB (30) - he has a room booked but I haven't convinced him that he will have fun as a single guy yet

[dutch_girl_scout]

I can put a website together for this cruise with staterooms, family pics, etc. Just let me know.

Maureen--I'm feeling VERY impatient, 20 some days seems like forever. Other than that everything is going great. The nursery is ready, everything is folded, put away, cleaned. Just waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

[TiaMaria]

Stacie,

Glad to hear you are well (if impatient!). A website sounds great if you are up to putting it together. Just let us know what you need from us and we will help. :thumbsup2

I am getting so excited....but....there are so many things to do around the holidays first. This will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my Mom (she passed away in Feb) and with my Dad's cancer -well - I want to do everything I can to make these days happy - as will my sister and brother...but it seems like we are all just feeling our way around and trying to figure out what will be best. We want to keep things as "normal" as possible for all the little ones in the family, but that empty chair is still there, you know?

Thankfully, everyone is well and my Dad is doing pretty good so we will all pull together, I'm sure. :grouphug:

I have done so much of the cruise planning already, I feel like it's OK if I put it aside for a few days at a time - and then I am always astonished to see how much time is left (not) on my ticker!

Again, just let me know what you need as far as the website, and count me in!

Maureen

[dutch_girl_scout]

Maureen--My DD and I were talking tonight about how fast it's coming up, holidays, then her birthday (Feb 6) then the cruise. :banana: I'm getting nervous about bringing baby but I think it will be fine. He can't be much trouble!!

For the website (this is what is on other meet sites let me know if you have other stuff you want added):
DIS name(s)
First and Last name of people in your group including ages of kids at time of cruise
Where your from
Stateroom
If you have early or late seating
E-mail address (if you don't want it listed let me know)
Birthdays for your group, including age kids will be on next birthday
Family Picture
Brief description of occupations, familie's intrests/activities
Any Pre and post cruise plans
For each child: picture, activities and/or interests, grade they will be in at cruise time, activities they are looking forward to on the cruise

You can e-mail it to me at vanweeldens@mchsi.com. Once I get the info I'll e-mail you back with the site address.

Jen--Since you started the thread can you copy this into your first post so that any newcomers can find it easily?

[kcarl021]

Stacie that is awesome! It will be nice to know people on the ship before we actually get there! We tried a cruise meet last year and it went ok - not too many people hung out together after we met up the first time. I was a little disappointed. Hope we have better results this year!

Maureen - the Cards LOST! Can you believe it? I get so sick of these series going to 7 games, just for us to lose in the end! I sent DH out to watch the game with the boys and I stayed home and watched LOST. I think I got the better end of the deal!

Well I had a Dr appt yesterday and she told me I only gained 5 pounds from last year - which I find HARD to believe! It must have all gone to my stomach, that is for sure. Anyone starting their cruise diets now?

[jenbrem1]

Stacie - I can copy in to my first post if you tell me how...I haven't figured out how to edit things yet.

[DW4US]

Stacie --- Thanks so much for doing a website for us all --- we had one for our '05 Christmas Cruise and it was so much fun getting to "know" people before hand. I'll try to get my stuff together and get it to you as soon as possible -- hardest thing is finding a decent pic of all of us. Hang in there the baby will be here before you know it and you'll be plenty busy.

Another gray day here in KC --- I need sun and beaches!!!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! I haven't had a chance to do anything today but will try to get to it tomorrow.

I'm hoping your Cardinals win just to represent the Midwest since the Cubs stunk so bad this year.

Jen--If you go to your first post there should be a button to edit your post then just cut and paste the info in.

[kcarl021]

Dont know about these Cardinals! It's been 1 - 1 for almost the entire game! I was upstairs watching Grey's Anatomy while DH was downstairs watching the game, and I feel like I didn't miss a thing! I just learned that I won a raffle so I actually get to buy 4 World Series Tickets if we go - so... would be kind of fun. However, 8th inning, tie game. I think I need to watch The Office on my Tivo!

[dutch_girl_scout]

:cheer2: YEAH CARDINALS!!!! :cheer2:

I don't usually watch baseball, but I tuned in last night in the 8th inning, tied 1-1. I switched the channel to see the weather and when I flipped back it was 3-1. Then I had to watch the rest to see if the Cards won. Too bad game seven wasn't in St. Louis, that would have been quite the celebration.

KC--I think going to a World Series game would be awesome, if for nothing more than hot roasted peanuts :) , and to say you had gone to a World Series game.

[dutch_girl_scout]

OK, the website is up and going. I can't get my backgrounds to work so it is a very BLAH website (white pages are BOOORING!) but it serves the purpose. Because there is personal information on it, please don't post a link or the web address on this board. Once I get your family's info I will e-mail you the address.

I had a Dr.'s appointment today, nothing new, still just waiting. I go back again next Friday.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

[TiaMaria]

Yea, Cards is right! Boy, do they like to lean towards the dramatic! I was SO tired at work today but at least we finally got some sunshine. I can't take that many gray days in a row this time of year. :sunny:

KC - awesome news about the ticket lottery. We get tickets at work for certain things (big sales) but World Series tickets? The execs will be hording those all to themselves I bet! I too kept switching beteween Grey's Anatomy and the game. I was almost ready to go to bed - but stuck with it a bit longer and am glad I did. :goodvibes

Stacie, I am so thankful that you are doing a website. I am with Charlene - hardest thing is to get a decent picture of all of us together. I have lots of the kids - but I am usually behind the camera. Will work on that this weekend. :rolleyes:

I hope everyone else is doing well....cannot believe how low our tickers have gotten! Just sitting back and playing the waiting game with airfare - otherwise I am just anticipating and planning over and over, lol. :Pinkbounc

[kcarl021]

Hey Stacie- how do we get to the site and what information do you need? Let me know so I can send it over.

Game 1 is on tonight! DH and I have a date night and he told me that it doesn't matter to him BUT if I just HAPPEN to want to have date night at a sports bar, he would be ok with that! LOL

[dutch_girl_scout]

For the website (this is what is on other meet sites let me know if you have other stuff you want added):
DIS name(s)
First and Last name of people in your group including ages of kids at time of cruise
Where your from
Stateroom
If you have early or late seating
E-mail address (if you don't want it listed let me know)
Birthdays for your group, including age kids will be on next birthday
Family Picture
Brief description of occupations, familie's intrests/activities
Any Pre and post cruise plans
For each child: picture, activities and/or interests, grade they will be in at cruise time, activities they are looking forward to on the cruise

You can e-mail it to me at vanweeldens@mchsi.com. Once I get your info I'll e-mail you back with the site address.



It's a yucky day here, no sun expected, they're even talking snow tonight. DD is up at Girl Scout camp today with our troop, hopefully they find something inside to do. They were supposed to do the "challenge course" which is rock climbing, high walk, swing, etc. I didn't go because it's a two hour drive each way, making it a twelve hour day. I'm really hoping to have this baby soon, and didn't want it to happen on a Girl Scout trip.

Hope the sun is shining where you are!!

[jenbrem1]

Thanks again for doing this Stacie. I'm working on my email right now. I won't have the pictures right away though.

I can't believe how cold it is now. Do you still have someone doing cross country? That sounds miserable. I'm doing the Race for the Cure on Saturday and I sure hope it's about 50 degrees.

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--My son's cross country season was over when he injured his knee. Our high school teams made it to state though. At least they practice after school and not in the morning when it is so cold.

Hopefully the weather on Saturday is good.

Are you cardinal fans going to the game tonight?

[dutch_girl_scout]

Bumpity, Bump, Bump!! :Pinkbounc Anyone out there?

[disneypoor]

I'm still here! :) We finally got moved into our new school, and it is AMAZING! I just got a smartboard in my classroom, and it's been a lot of fun learning to use it with my students. My family is getting ready to go to Disneyland for Thanksgiving week, so we're getting excited! Hope everyone has had a good week. We're ready for some sunshine here in Kansas! It's been rainy and gloomy around here lately! Have a good weekend everyone!

[jenbrem1]

I'm still here too. :wave: I check every day to see if someone's posted. I hope everyone is doing well!!

My husband and I are headed to KC on Sunday to see the Chiefs game. He's a huge Seahawks fan and I'm a big Chiefs fan. It sounds like our weather will be good so I'm looking forward to it.

[DW4US]

I'm still hanging around -- I try to check this thread every couple of days. We're are getting ready to implement around 140 new PC's where I work so most of my time is consummed with spreadsheets and unpacking boxes!!!

Stacie --- I going to try and send you my stuff for the website today, I'm still working on the picture so that will come later.

Jen --- Have fun in KC this weekend, you are getting really lucky with the weather --- it's 47 and rainy right now.

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!

[kcarl021]

Sorry guys! Us here in STL are busy with the World Series!

WHICH WE JUST WON!!!! WHEE HEE!!!!!

Ok so in honor of the World Series Champs - I think we all need to agree to wear red, baseball, or Cardinal gear at our first cruise meet!!!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

YEAH CARDINALS!!!!! :cheer2: :cheer2: I was so glad that they could win it at home, St.Louis is a great baseball town.

The KC/Seattle game should be a good one. I hope Seneca Wallace (former Iowa State Cyclone) plays good. I'm still mad at Mike Holmgren for leaving Green Bay, don't know who to cheer for but it will be a good game to watch.

[kcarl021]

We weren't lucky enough to get tickets to the game, but we did get tickets to the rally tomorrow! Should be FUN!!!!

[TiaMaria]

Hi everyone....

Well 3 fantastic things happened here over the weekend....

1) Cardinals won the World Series and I got to be there! Woo Hoo!! :banana: :cheer2: :banana: :cheer2:

2) The sun FINALLY made an appearance again! :sunny:

3) My Cruise Travel Kit came in the mail on Saturday! :thumbsup2

Now if I can just catch up on some sleep tonight so I can function at work tomorrow, all will be good. LOL

I promise to get my website info/pictures together this week.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend also! :goodvibes

[kcarl021]

Sounds like a LOVELY weekend! You are so lucky to have made it to the game! We got tickets for the rally on Sunday and, can you believe this, I couldn't find anyone who wanted to go??? So we put them on ebay and sold them for $140!!!! I couldn't believe it - they were FREE tickets!!!

We got our reservation information in the mail, but not the cruise planning materials. I wonder if they will send it to us since we've done this before? I don't know - my MIL got hers, but this is her 1st cruise. I can never figure out the process over at DCL for getting out those docs.

75 degrees and GORGEOUS here today! Too bad its not tomorrow for Halloween!!!

[jenbrem1]

We could not have had better weather for the Chiefs game yesterday. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and the Chiefs won!!! We drove right back home after the game which made it a pretty long day.

We trick or treat tonight here in the Des Moines area. It's supposed to be 70 degrees today and 50 tomorrow so I'm thrilled about that.

I can't agree to wearing the red thing in support of the Cardinals. As a Cubs fan, that is against everything I believe in. :teeth:

[dutch_girl_scout]

Jen--You guys had great weather for the game yesterday. It was a weird game to watch, Seattle had no defense and KC had some mistakes too. What a great night for trick-or-treating.

[TiaMaria]

Jen, we Rams fans thank you for helping us out with Seattle. As to the unfortunate Cub malady.....come over to the dark side. You would have so much more fun! LOL

Supposed to rain overnight tonight and only be around 50-55 tomorrow for Halloween. Remember being a kid? The only time you wanted to wear a coat or jacket was if it was part of your costume!!

My niece will be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (and wants to take their new Cairns Terrier out - Sis and BIL said "NO") and my nephew is one of the creepy crew from the Flying Dutchman. pirate: At least HE will be warm! My niece is pretty pleased with her Ruby Slippers from Target and will probably try to find a way to wear them on the cruise! :rolleyes: Not that they match anything she owns....

Everybody have a safe and fun Halloween!! :wave2:

[disneypoor]

Hi, everyone! We haven't received any of our cruise stuff yet, but when I got home today, we had received our package of travel docs/tickets from Disneyland. :cool1: We leave on Nov. 18th and can't wait! Hope everyone has a good week! :)

[DW4US]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN :hmghost:


I can't believe cruise stuff is coming already! Do you have you're cruise paid for? Maybe that's why you're getting stuff and I'm not or our package could be delayed because we transferred our reservation to a TA. We'll have to start watching our mailbox.

Gonna be cold for trick or treat tongiht --- I hate for the little ones to have to cover up their costumes. I'm sure there will be some that will stick it out until they are blue. We've already ran out of candy so I guess we'll be picking up some more today --- really works better if you buy stuff you don't like!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!!!!

[dutch_girl_scout]

Hey all! Happy Halloween!!

Maureen-We have a Carin Terrier, he just turned 16. He was my Christmas present from DH my senior year of high school.

Anyone have ideas for cruise meets? Patty has suggested that we have one sometime on Sunday, that way everyone can get settled and not have to rush around on Saturday. I was wondering if the adults wanted to have a Palo Brunch together.

Let me know what you guys think and once we decide I can add it to the meet website.

[jenbrem1]

Happy Halloween Back At Ya!! We trick or treated last night and it started about the same time the cold front came through. BRRRRRRRRR!

I agree with waiting to have the meeting until Sunday. Even though I've never done DCL before, I've cruised a few times and know how hectic the first day can be. I'd love to include the kids in whatever we do so they can all meet.

Are people really getting their cruise docs already? For some reason, I assumed we'd be getting them in the weeks leading up to the trip...

[SB's Mom]

Patty~ we received a cruise packet about 2 weeks ago and no we haven't paid our balance yet! It contain info about the islands, shore excursions, and some of the most popular activities on the ship. Paul looked through it all and has ideas of what shore excursions he wants this time. (Ones that we didn't get to do in June)

On our cruise in June, our chat group met during the sail away party on the upper deck on the terminal side of the ship. It was great meeting everyone them and sailing away with new friends! :cheer2: :cheer2:

Happy Halloween!
Charlene

[TiaMaria]

Hi Everyone,

Charlene, our packet sounds exactly like the one you got, and no, we haven't made the final payment yet.

Stacie and Jen, I am up for the cruise meet anytime you all decide. Brunch sounds wonderful for all of us grownups, but I agree with Jen, I would like the kids to all get together also. Maybe we can do as Charlene suggested - have an informal meet before sail away for those that CAN make it and plan a secondary one for brunch? That way each family can rest assured that there will be opportunity to do one or both.

Halloween was chilly, but at least the wind died down a bit. The kids made a haul, as usual and looked so cute!

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos2644/6/79/10/39/47/0/47391079610_0_ALB.jpg