Who's Cruising the Wonder? 2/1/09 (4day)

[GavinsMom]

Is anyone on the Wonder for February 1st, 2009? It will be our 3rd cruise and we are so excited.

It'll be Myself (MOM) and my son (DS6). And also going will be my mom (Grannie) and my niece (8yrs).::MinnieMo :charac4: :flower3: princess:

[seallenz]

Hi! My family also just booked our second cruise on the Wonder! It will be DH and I and our two kids, daughter age 6 and son who'll be 9 at the time of the cruise.

My parents are also coming, as is my sister with her husband and son age 3 and daughter 5. This will be their first Disney cruise.

I don't usually book things so far in advance -- it is going to be hard to wait almost a year for this cruise!

Glad there will be more DISers aboard!

[tobylars]

My dh and I will be there celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary and our birthdays!:banana:

[GavinsMom]

Hi!:wave2:
Happy to meet you! Oh FUN.......Anniversary and Birthdays, what a wonderful place to celebrate!

[Zane_Anthony]

Hello...I just booked this cruise for myself, DS who will be 7 at the time, and my DSis. This will be our first time on the Wonder. We did the Eastern on the Magic last September. We are actually doing back to backs and will stay on-board for the 3 night.

[GavinsMom]

Hi there! My son will be almost 7 by cruise time (6 1/2 actually).

Will your son be spending some time in the Kids Club?

[Zane_Anthony]

Yes I am sure he will be spending ALL of his time in the kids club :rotfl2: at least that's how it was last Sept on the Magic. I would go check on him and he would beg me to let him stay. He LOVED it. He also hit it off with a kid right away, I think that helped. Maybe we can "introduce" them through pics etc so they will feel like they are already friends.

[ToodlesRN]

We Are!!! I am so excited this is our first cruise! I booked it a few days ago! Those of you who have cruised before will have to give me tips on the must do's and don'ts! I bought the passporter and have been reading it since! We are arriving on the 30 or 31st and then after the cruise will be going to the AKV's for 4 nights!

It will be myself Tierre, DH Jason and Dson 2 were going to celebrate his 3rd birthday

Looking forward on getting to know some of you and meeting on the cruise!

[Zane_Anthony]

:welcome: You are going to :love: DCL!! The passporter and the boards offer sooo much info. If you have any questions let me know.

[romino]

Hi, I am from Mexico city and we will be on our first Disney cruise on February First. We are celebrating our 10th wedding aniversary.
Our first cruise was 10 years ago with Royal Caribbean on our honey moon.
We wanted to experience again the cruise experience but now with our children so we decided that a Disney Cruise would be the best option.

It will be Me Jorge, my wife, my son (8 years old) and my daughter (7 years old)

I have one question, although my children are studying in a bilingüal school (Spanish-English) they some times have problems understanding english. Do you know if in the Kids clubs they have cast members that speak spanish?

Thank you.

[ToodlesRN]

Welcome! I don't have an answer to your question since this will be our first cruise. By the looks of the photos etc.. the cast members seem to be from all over the world!

Hopefully as our sailing dates get closer we start to pick up and get more members going and we can meet each other.

I've been thinking about doing the Romance at Sea Package has anyone done this one before and if so is it worth it?

Tierre!

[rox]

Hello everyone. We will be on the February 1 Wonder Cruise. This will be our second cruise on the Wonder. Our Last cruise was in March 2008 celebrating our 25th anniversary. This time we are cruising to beat the winter blahs... My husband, myself and our 12 year old daughter will be cruising. Our 12 year old had a wonderful time in the clubs last year and is looking forward to them again.:woohoo:

[NEDisneyFans]

We will be taking our first cruise on the Wonder -- sailed on the Magic in 10/06 for our honeymoon.

This will be a "break" from a New England Winter, and is the second part of our DIY Land-Sea trip.

We'll be at the BWV 1/26-2/1, then driving over to Port Canveral to board the Wonder!

Met some great people on the Magic and we're looking forward to meeting more this time.

Ali

[NEDisneyFans]

Has anyone participated in a "fish extender gift exchange"? If you don't know what I am talking about, check out this thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607

I know that we still have QUITE a while to go, and not too many folks signed up on this thread, but I wondered if there would be any/much interest in doing something like this on our cruise???

[ToodlesRN]

Ali,
I would be interested in doing a fish extender gift exchange. I read about them and they sound like so much fun. Hopefully we will get more people checking in on this cruise.

[NEDisneyFans]

Ali,
I would be interested in doing a fish extender gift exchange. I read about them and they sound like so much fun. Hopefully we will get more people checking in on this cruise.

Glad I'm not the only one, LOL. Once we have about 20 cruisers/families on board, I'll survey interest and start sign-ups! :thumbsup2

Ali

[romino]

Ali:

I would also like to participate in the fish extender exchange. It sounds like something to make this vacation more exciting¡¡

[NEDisneyFans]

Ali:

I would also like to participate in the fish extender exchange. It sounds like something to make this vacation more exciting¡¡

Great -- I think it will be fun! :thumbsup2

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

The fish extender exchange sounds like a lot of fun. Count us in. This will be our first cruise ever. We're checking into WL on 1/25 for some needed park time before the cruise. We have 4 adults. My daughter, her sister-in-law, and a friend of mine from work. We'd love to do the fish extender exchange. I have questions on how it works though. Once we know how many are participating in the exchange, do we need one gift for everyone, or do we need ones for every day of the cruise?

[romino]

From what I have read in the forums it is only one gift for the whole cruise. Altough some people leave more than one gift but it is not common because otherwise you would have to walk all over the cruise everyday leaving gifts and they say it takes a lot of time.
In some cruises there has beeen only gifts for the children but not every participant has children.

Is this right Ali?

[NEDisneyFans]

My understanding is that the basic FEX tends to be for each cabin who signs up to leave one gift for each of the other cabins.

In addition to this "cabin" level swap, if there is interest, we could have a "kids only" swap -- each child who signs up would leave a gift for each of the other children who had signed up.

Another option would be to do a 1:1 exchange where each adult* who signs up would provide a gift for every other adult and each child who signs up would provide a gift for every other child.

Let me know if you have a preference -- either way works for me -- and I can set it up accordingly.


Ali

*Adults would have the option to sign up as a couple or group, for example, Beth & I would sign up for one spot, giving and receiving joint gifts. I'm trying to allow for the fact that adults travelling together may prefer to give/receive as individuals. I hope this is clear, LOL

P.S. Any gifts left beyond the agreed upon amount would be at your own discretion. (Not needed, but probably not refused, LOL)

[NEDisneyFans]

counting DISers and our F&F (family & friends) -- 27 adults and 11 kids!

I must admit that I am somewhat of a "list maker" (okay I'm flat-out compulsive, especially when it comes to planning trips :laughing: ) and would like to start a database with everyone's name & info, to be shared among the group ONLY.

If you would like to be included, please PM me the following information:

Adults -- First & Last Name, Age, eMail and physical addresses and (if you have it) your Cabin Number and Dinner preference (early or late).

Children -- First Name, Age, and the name of his or her "adult" (parent/guardian); also gender, if it isn't apparent by the name ;)

Starting in September, I'll send the list via email and update it as needed (as new folks/information are added).

Also, some of you have already expressed interest in the FEX but it would be helpful if everyone would please let me know who among your party would like to participate (or not -- each person's choice -- no pressure) and if you have a preference as to how it is set up (see previous post). This is to assess interest, not a commitment at this point.

Whew -- only 24 weeks and 4 days before we set sail!

[NEDisneyFans]

I was playing around and came up with an idea for an image and name for our cruise group . . . what do you think?

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/aunts2topher/WinterWonderCruise.jpg

[TINKERBELLFAN50265]

I like it! You did a great job.

[ToodlesRN]

Ali~ We are pretty easy going so what ever everyone chooses is fine with us! I will send you a pm with our info.

are we going to set a limit on each gift?

I am getting excited about the cruise coming up around the corner! I booked the Romance at Sea Package a few weeks ago!

[NEDisneyFans]

are we going to set a limit on each gift?

I can't imagine spending more than $5 per gift, but am willing to set a lower "max" if that is what folks want.

What do you guys think?

[romino]

Ups, sorry unintentional double post.

[romino]

Ali:

I also liked the image and name you propose for the cruise.
About the FEE, I think that the 1:1 exchange would be Ok.
I will send you a PM with our info.

[NEDisneyFans]

Got your PM, Jorge -- thanks!

Hope everyone is doing well as the summer draws to a close . . . and good luck to everyone going back to school!

[NEDisneyFans]

:sad1:

The good news is that I will be starting a new, full-time job on Monday.

The bad news is that I won't be able to take enough time off for the Land and Sea portions of our trip -- it is one or the other.

We'll still be going on the land portion because we used points and had to borrow some so they are locked in, while we can still get a full refund for the cruise.

I hope someone takes on coordinating the FEX (it sounds like so much fun) and that you all have a great time!

I have been collecting some VistaPrint "freebies" for the cruise -- if you PM me your mailing address, I will send you some postcards that look like the sign I posted before, and the FIRST person to send their address will also receive a pre-printed magnetic sign as well.

Take care,

Ali

[ToodlesRN]

Ali~ Well I guess that is good and bad news! I was hoping on meeting you since it seemed like we were neighbors at one point:) When is the last day to request a refund for the cruise? Maybe you can hold off until the end to see what happens with your new job?

I'm getting ready to book our reservations and etc on 10/19 which means we are getting closer to the cruise!

Anyone know how to make magnetic signs? I want a few but don't know where to start, I looked at the threads but I get so confused!

[NEDisneyFans]

Anyone know how to make magnetic signs? I want a few but don't know where to start, I looked at the threads but I get so confused!

There are a couple of ways to do it:

(1) Buy magnetic sheets designed to go through an inkjet printer and print your design directly onto it. (Instructions are on the package.)

(2) Print onto any paper or cardstock, then use a Xyron with a laminate/magnet cartridge to seal your sign.

(3) Print onto cardstock or photo paper and slide into a magnetic frame, available at most craft stores in standard photo sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 8-1/2x11) This is the easiest way to switch out signs and then use them in your scrapbook later!

HTH -- let me know if you need more assistance.

Ali

P.S. We'll just have to meet up another time!

[romino]

So sorry to hear that Ali. I am also starting a new job in a couple of weeks but I clearly specified that one of the conditions for accepting the new job was to be able to take two weeks of vacations in January-February 2009.
They accepted, I just hope they dont change things once I am in the new job.

Well the good thing is that it surelly is a good job oportunity for you.

[Josiah]

Hello, everyone,

We are taking our first cruise on the Disney Wonder on 2/1. We have two g'kids, boy 11 and girl 8. We look forward to becoming sailing partners.

Anchors aweigh!

[Josiah]

Is anyone on the Wonder for February 1st, 2009? It will be our 3rd cruise and we are so excited.

It'll be Myself (MOM) and my son (DS6). And also going will be my mom (Grannie) and my niece (8yrs).::MinnieMo :charac4: :flower3: princess:

Dear GavinsMom:

We are also traveling on the same cruise with an 8 year old girl and an 11 year old boy (grandkids). Wouldn't it be great if the girls could post to each other before the cruise? Do you know what's the best way to go about that?

[ToodlesRN]

Is anyone still interested in doing FE exchange? I've never done one before since this is our first cruise, but I'm willing to pair up with some one and help get this all organized if your all still interested?

[Josiah]

:confused3 I don't know anything about it either. In fact, it's prob'ly fair to say I don't know anything about anything related to the cruise; it's our first time, too. All I know is I hope we'll be WARM! I'm in the Pacific NW. :)

[ToodlesRN]

:confused3 I don't know anything about it either. In fact, it's prob'ly fair to say I don't know anything about anything related to the cruise; it's our first time, too. All I know is I hope we'll be WARM! I'm in the Pacific NW. :)

Where are you located in the PNW? Were in the Seattle Area!

[Josiah]

Whidbey Island, Seahawk Country!! (well, yes, I know it's nothing to brag about so far this year, but....)

BTW: Did any of you football fans consider that we're arriving on our cruise on Super Bowl Sunday??? What was I thinking?!?!?! Arrgghhh!:headache:

[ToodlesRN]

Whidbey Island, Seahawk Country!! (well, yes, I know it's nothing to brag about so far this year, but....)

BTW: Did any of you football fans consider that we're arriving on our cruise on Super Bowl Sunday??? What was I thinking?!?!?! Arrgghhh!:headache:

Were close to being neighbors just a ferry boat ride away! Didn't even think about Super Bowl Sunday until you mentioned it, but thats all right missing one time! When are you leaving to orlando? We are leaving on Jan 29th

[Josiah]

We are leaving Jan 30, staying at SOG; we'll do MK on Sat, though I know they say that's the most crowded day. Then we'll leave Sun morning for the port. What about you?

I would've like to leave earlier, but one of our kids has semester exams that week. My second choice was to leave on Thursday evening, the overnight flight, so we could tour on Fri, but by the time we got our act together, it was fully booked. Now we're leaving on Fri afternoon, arriving Fri evening. Ah, well, it's the best we could do. :)

I'd like to know about your cruise experience. W/kids? We've taken one cruise, RC, in 2003, no kids. Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios.

[Mndisneygirl]

We will be going on our first Disney cruise on Feb 1 too. Me, DHpirate: , DD7princess: and DD5princess: . Plus my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. We'll be staying at Shades of Green for 4 nights first. Looking forward to meeting all of you!

Sheree

[Josiah]

It's good to know you have girls, Sheree. I'll look forward to our girls being together on the cruise. Our granddaughter is 8. Looks like we're all girls so far; won't my 11 year old g'son be disappointed. Well, it's early yet. Maybe he'll still find a friend.

[Mndisneygirl]

Josiah - looks like we may cross paths at SOG too! We are there from 1/28 to 2/1. My 7 year old is always excited to make new friends! I'm sure there will be some boys for your G'son.

We also took a Carnival cruise last year - our first of any kind. W/kids and about 30 other relatives. We were on a 7 day western Carribean to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan and Belize City. Very cool stuff to do at ports. My older DD (6 at the time) loved the kids' club. My 4 yr old DD did not, chose to spend more time with parents. (she wasn't grouped with her sis) Great food, very nice service. Shows were "so-so". Good value for the $$ though. I'd be happy to answer any other questions.

[Mndisneygirl]

Is anyone on the Wonder for February 1st, 2009? It will be our 3rd cruise and we are so excited.

It'll be Myself (MOM) and my son (DS6). And also going will be my mom (Grannie) and my niece (8yrs).::MinnieMo :charac4: :flower3: princess:

Where in MN are you from? We're in Oakdale. I will have two princesses with me - 7 1/2 and 5 1/2. Looking forward to meeting you!

Sheree

[ToodlesRN]

We are leaving Jan 30, staying at SOG; we'll do MK on Sat, though I know they say that's the most crowded day. Then we'll leave Sun morning for the port. What about you?

I would've like to leave earlier, but one of our kids has semester exams that week. My second choice was to leave on Thursday evening, the overnight flight, so we could tour on Fri, but by the time we got our act together, it was fully booked. Now we're leaving on Fri afternoon, arriving Fri evening. Ah, well, it's the best we could do. :)

I'd like to know about your cruise experience. W/kids? We've taken one cruise, RC, in 2003, no kids. Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios.

Were leaving on the 29th in the morning staying at SSR then when we get off the cruise were going to AKV until the 9th. It's going to be a long flight non stop. We go to Hawaii often, but I think this flight is longer.

No cruise experience for me this will be our first. I've been doing lots of reading on the boards and the passporter.

[ToodlesRN]

We will be going on our first Disney cruise on Feb 1 too. Me, DHpirate: , DD7princess: and DD5princess: . Plus my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. We'll be staying at Shades of Green for 4 nights first. Looking forward to meeting all of you!

Sheree

Welcome Sheree!

[jadedjojo]

:confused3 I don't know anything about it either. In fact, it's prob'ly fair to say I don't know anything about anything related to the cruise; it's our first time, too. All I know is I hope we'll be WARM! I'm in the Pacific NW. :)

We went on the same itinerary the first week in March a few years ago, and I'd recommend bringing a light jacket or sweater. Atleast for the evening... it gets chilly on the top deck. :cold:

This will be our fifth Disney cruise. Look for the crazily decorated door on deck five. I have an obsession with magnets!

:beach:

[Mndisneygirl]

My girlfriend was on the Wonder at the end of Jan 08. She says it was cool in the water at CC, but it was warm and sunny on the beach. Evenings get cool, especially on deck with the winds, so a jacket or sweater is a good idea. Some people have said they were cold in the theaters too.

We are planning to decorate our door - it just depends on if I get my act together! My DH is all excited about it, but I'll be doing the hard labor. Funny how that works!:laughing: It will be good to have something to help me find our cabin!

[tazgirl1981]

Hi Everyone. I just got off the Magic Cruise ship this past Saturday 10/18/08 and while onboard we rebooked this cruise for Myself, My son (3) and my sister and mom. So we will be joining you guys on the cruise ship:dance3: :cool1: :thumbsup2

[Mndisneygirl]

:welcome: Did you love the Magic cruise? Where did you go? Can you tell I'm excited about my cruise? :)

[choco_latae]

Hi, Im Tazgirls mom. She just surprised us with this cruise. We will be joining you on it. Im so excited. Never been on any cruise before. Since my daughter (tazgirl) has been married , Ive had alot of firsts. She and her husband and son ( my beautiful, smart grandson of three)are the sweetest.They have been on a couple of Disney cruises already. She will half to tell us all what to expect. We all have our fish extenders made and ready to go too. I will talk to you guys later. :cheer2: pirate:

[Josiah]

Welcome, Tazgirl and Choco latae! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Here's my somewhat rhetorical question, though. I see you were just on a cruise, and have now booked another one in a few months. Great for you!:thumbsup2 Last week I was following the weekly cruise chat on this forum, and the moderator said she's been on a dozen Disney cruises, plus other cruises and other vacations. Here comes the question:

How do people have both the time and the money at the same time for multiple cruises?!? It seems like we save for years just for one cruise! Also, I can't get nearly that much time off work to do all that. What kind of work do people do that lets them take weeks every year?!? :confused3 I thought I had a pretty good vacation plan at my work, and I am compensated well, but I guess I have to figure out how folks manage their resources. That's remarkable to me.

Can't wait to hear more, though. We have lots of our plans set for this upcoming trip. One day in WDW before the cruise, MK, with morning at Cindy's. The Sunday of our crusie, we are planning to have breakfast with Mary Poppins at 1900 Park Fare, and then go on the cruise. We also have three days after the cruise, going to DHS, EP, then AK before heading home.

Our group includes DH, grandson, 11, and granddaughter, 8. Still waiting to hear from others w/kids around these ages. We have a couple girls on the forum, I see, but no boys this age yet.

[ToodlesRN]

We went on the same itinerary the first week in March a few years ago, and I'd recommend bringing a light jacket or sweater. Atleast for the evening... it gets chilly on the top deck. :cold:

This will be our fifth Disney cruise. Look for the crazily decorated door on deck five. I have an obsession with magnets!

:beach:

I'm new to the whole magnet doors, do you have any easy instructions from start to finish? I want to make a few signs but don't know where to start. I read the boards but I get so lost:confused:

Welcome Tazgirl and mom!
Glad to see some experienced cruisers coming along! How was the recent cruise? Do you have a trip report to read! Our DS will almost be 3 on the cruise!

Should we all get a head count of children and adults who want to parcipate in the Fish extender exchange?

I was so excited I made myself get sick over the weekend, we booked the REAS package and on the 19th I was able to book everything we wanted. All the stress made me sick, I hate when that happens. I booked a Palo brunch as DH refuses to wear a formal clothes while on vacation! some spa treatments, excursion for DH at CC and babysitting for a few hours. I felt gulity booking Flounders as this is our family vacation, but DH and myself need a little time for a nice brunch and spa!

[tazgirl1981]

Did you love the Magic cruise? Where did you go? Can you tell I'm excited about my cruise?
Oh I did LOVE the Magic Cruise. We were supposed to go to St.Maarten and St.Thomas as well as Castaway Cay, but because of the tropical storm (which had just been upgraded to a Hurricane) we missed out on St. Thomas and instead went to Nassau. But we had fun anyways. :goodvibes

How do people have both the time and the money at the same time for multiple cruises?!? It seems like we save for years just for one cruise! Also, I can't get nearly that much time off work to do all that. What kind of work do people do that lets them take weeks every year?!? I thought I had a pretty good vacation plan at my work, and I am compensated well, but I guess I have to figure out how folks manage their resources. That's remarkable to me.


We are Florida Residents plus we go thru a travel agent who gets us GREAT deals on the cruises. If you think about it, it is sometimes cheaper to go on a cruise than a Disney vacation. I go on a Disney vacation every year when my hubby is in Tax Season (he is an IT guy-computers for a tax ferm here in North Miami) I am a housewife and mother of 1. So although he has a good job, we dont have a ton of money. But we find deals to go on the cruises. We booked this one we just went on and our anniversary cruise in May of 2009 at the same time thru our travel agent earlier this year. We did it before they put the fuel charges in there. By booking early you save money...so the may Cruise will be all set. Then because we rebooked this 4 day cruise while on the ship this time, we also saved money...and got onboard discount and credit for this upcoming cruise...more money saved. In the end this trip will be cheaper than if I had decided to go to Disney with my family (like I always do when hubby gets into tax season and starts working late hours)...So that is how we justify doing so many cruises in one year...;) HTH. This is the first time we have ever had some many cruises going at once...It wasnt pre-planned, besides the Anniversary Cruise in May and the one that we had just went on. I do not work and although my lovely hubby does work, he only got to go on the past cruise and then the one in May (which will be next year not this year) and he will not be going with us on this cruise because he will be working late hours at work. He is a Manager so he does get 4 weeks off of work but he barely takes two if he is lucky. The two weeks he will take is the one that he just took for the 1 week cruise and then the 1 week in May.

I also would be happy to participate in a FE exchange if we are thinking of setting one up :grouphug: We did one on this past cruise and it was fun! :goodvibes

Thank you so much for the warm welcomes :hug:

[choco_latae]

Hi. I am Julie, Shauna's (tazgirl) mom. I will also like to be included in the fish extender gifts. Of course Shauna and us are in the same room. I have another daughter that will be cruising with us. She is thirty one but handicapped. She is slow so she is menetly thirteen. So that might help you in some way with the fish extender stuff. She likes coloring , drawing. Not at all a girly girl. Shes a tomboy. Loves Star wars. Ive already started some magnates. I havnt been on a cruise yet but I am really excited. Here is a couple of pictures that I took as my daughter left on her cruise a couple of weeks ago.I live about ten minutes from the port anyways. My daughter doesnt though. I look forward to meeting all of you.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/10-11-08033.jpg
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/10-11-08023.jpg
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/10-11-08TheSidnamsWaving.jpg

[choco_latae]

Hi there Disney winter wonderland cruisers, anyone out there? Havnt heard a peep in a while.:confused3

[Josiah]

I've been working hard, and we're sooo looking forward to the cruise. I'd also like info on the door magnets, start to finish, if anyone knows a simple way to get it done. I've seen on the Disigns board where we can ask others to make something for us, but that doesn't seem quite right to me. Also, I'm the one w/the 'old' kids (boy, 11, and girl, 8) so they can do some of the work themselves.

I'm not sure about the fish exchange at this point. I'll have to know more about it before I commit. What is it? What do I have to do?

A little about us:

I work in a public library, where I can spend a LITTLE bit of work time doing cruise research, but not much. It's a judgment call thing. Anyway, I'm on loan right now to a library branch far, far away (no intentional inference to Shrek). It's temporary, but not sure when it will be over. Result: a long commute for me right now. It means less time home, but I do download the Inside the Magic podcasts, so I have something to do while I drive and/or ride the bus.

My husband is very recently unemployed. He worked for a MAJOR international charity who has experienced big reductions in donations. He is looking for work. (At an interview right now.) Fortunately, we had planned on the cruise $$ before all this, so it's good.

The children, boy, 11, and girl, 8, who we are bringing live in the same town we do. Thankfully, we see them very frequently and usually spend weekends together, etc. We are allowed a BIG hand in helping rear them and their little sister, age 5. The children were told that they had to have good grades to go on the cruise, and they are highly motivated. Their dad is in the military and preparing to go away to schools for a long time on the east coast. Mommy is a stay-at-home.

We've traveled to WDW w/these two kids before, boy only in 04 and both in 06. Next time will be baby sister's turn. The boy LOVES thriller rides. Our girl likes the shows. Our boy can be a little wild himself, but our girl is quite mellow and easily liked by others.

Hope that helps. I look forward to knowing all of you.

[choco_latae]

I've been working hard, and we're sooo looking forward to the cruise. I'd also like info on the door magnets, start to finish, if anyone knows a simple way to get it done. I've seen on the Disigns board where we can ask others to make something for us, but that doesn't seem quite right to me. Also, I'm the one w/the 'old' kids (boy, 11, and girl, 8) so they can do some of the work themselves.

I'm not sure about the fish exchange at this point. I'll have to know more about it before I commit. What is it? What do I have to do?

A little about us:

I work in a public library, where I can spend a LITTLE bit of work time doing cruise research, but not much. It's a judgment call thing. Anyway, I'm on loan right now to a library branch far, far away (no intentional inference to Shrek). It's temporary, but not sure when it will be over. Result: a long commute for me right now. It means less time home, but I do download the Inside the Magic podcasts, so I have something to do while I drive and/or ride the bus.

My husband is very recently unemployed. He worked for a MAJOR international charity who has experienced big reductions in donations. He is looking for work. (At an interview right now.) Fortunately, we had planned on the cruise $$ before all this, so it's good.

The children, boy, 11, and girl, 8, who we are bringing live in the same town we do. Thankfully, we see them very frequently and usually spend weekends together, etc. We are allowed a BIG hand in helping rear them and their little sister, age 5. The children were told that they had to have good grades to go on the cruise, and they are highly motivated. Their dad is in the military and preparing to go away to schools for a long time on the east coast. Mommy is a stay-at-home.

We've traveled to WDW w/these two kids before, boy only in 04 and both in 06. Next time will be baby sister's turn. The boy LOVES thriller rides. Our girl likes the shows. Our boy can be a little wild himself, but our girl is quite mellow and easily liked by others.

Hope that helps. I look forward to knowing all of you.

Hi, it will be nice to see you on the cruise. This will be my first cruise but I have learned quite a bit from my daughter that has been on several cruises already. The magnets are simple. The kids can do it. You get magnet sheets from computer stores and print whatever you want to , to go on your door to your room. You can find all kinds of Disney stuff on the internet and print them out on the magnets. You can be creative with it too . That is why the kids are really good at it.

The fish extenders for those that wants to perticapate . You either make or buy pouches either with one or more pockets in them, however you want to do them. You get a little something to put in the pouches or pockets of others for each family. Not expensive stuff, just stuff that the familys might like Pens , papers or something from where you live, whatever. There is more sites on the DISboards that shows you all about it if you want to check it out. I hope some of this helps you out some.
Nice to see you on the cruise.:woohoo:

[Hanover]

Hi everyone!

My name is Danielle and we just booked this cruise this morning. It will be me, DH Derek, DS11 Keegan and DS7 Brennan.

This will be our 8th Disney cruise. I saw the fall bounceback offer and decided it was way too good to pass up!

[choco_latae]

Ok guys, Ive been playing on the computer again. Here you go.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/feb12009.jpg

[Mndisneygirl]

Ok guys, Ive been playing on the computer again. Here you go.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/feb12009.jpg

Oh that is so cute!! I am NOT creative at all. I haven't been around on this thread too much lately. I did just call and make sure we qualified for the fall bounceback 3 day cruise. We did!! :yay: We are planning to go in December and add a few days at the parks to see all the Christmas stuff. To answer the PP question about how do people manage this with time/money: This is one of the few things we spend a lot of money on. We really don't drink, gamble, smoke - any of the expensive vices. We have a pretty low cost of living and splurge on Disney. Both my DH and I work for government, and are able to take a lot of time off per year, so that helps. We tend to spend more money on our kids' activities but that's about it. I LOVE BARGAIN SHOPPING! So that's how it works for us. This two trips in one year is definitely an exception. Usually we do one big Disney-type trip and maybe a small road trip to visit relatives each year. We cruised with another line last January and haven't left home since for any other trips, saving up for this next one. Christmas is going to be VERY small this year and our kids have been warned. :) Fortunately we have a small family and don't buy gifts for everyone. I do a lot of baking and take food gifts whenever we go places or to coworkers. Thankfully, they seem to like the treats! :)

[choco_latae]

Thanks mndisneygirl , I like doing these pictures when I have time. Though I dont have much these days. Oh neat, so your going on another cruise too. We also qualify and dont know when we will go again. My DD and DSon-in-law provide us with our cruises. My hubby has been out of work since May. Nice that we get to go on cruises while he is out of work. Well who knows we might see you then too. :cheer2:

[kath1210]

Never mind.

[Josiah]

Hi everyone!

My name is Danielle and we just booked this cruise this morning. It will be me, DH Derek, DS11 Keegan and DS7 Brennan.

This will be our 8th Disney cruise. I saw the fall bounceback offer and decided it was way too good to pass up!

Hi, Danielle,

I was so excited to see your post for two reasons:

1. You seem to have more cruise experience than most of us, and

2. You're the first one I've seen w/an 11 year old boy, like us. Whoopee!

[Josiah]

Ok guys, Ive been playing on the computer again. Here you go.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/feb12009.jpg

This is wonderful work, Choco. How do we go about getting a copy, or would you prefer we don't?

[choco_latae]

This is wonderful work, Choco. How do we go about getting a copy, or would you prefer we don't?

I dont care if you want it.It makes me feel good that you like it. The easest way is to right click on the picture (the first pict that I posted, not the copies) and click save as. Just remember where on your computer that you put it. If you want it any other way just let me know and I can email it to you. :thumbsup2

[Mndisneygirl]

I'm getting so excited to go on this cruise!! I copied the picture. Maybe I'll get my act together and make it into a magnet for the door!
We're planning on doing the bounceback and going in December again too. Do you think that it will be hard to book in April when we are allowed? I'm concerned about room availability. Although we don't care too much, we're in an inside room anyway. It's so crazy, all these trips and planning going on!

[choco_latae]

I'm getting so excited to go on this cruise!! I copied the picture. Maybe I'll get my act together and make it into a magnet for the door!
We're planning on doing the bounceback and going in December again too. Do you think that it will be hard to book in April when we are allowed? I'm concerned about room availability. Although we don't care too much, we're in an inside room anyway. It's so crazy, all these trips and planning going on!

This is my first cruise too , so I dont know but since its not in the hight of the season, seems like that would be ok. You could always call or email them and ask.WE will probley be going on a couple more in the yr too but not sure when yet. I do know we have this one and the one in May, Plus another one sometime after that.Probley in Nov or Dec.

[Hanover]

I'm getting so excited to go on this cruise!! I copied the picture. Maybe I'll get my act together and make it into a magnet for the door!
We're planning on doing the bounceback and going in December again too. Do you think that it will be hard to book in April when we are allowed? I'm concerned about room availability. Although we don't care too much, we're in an inside room anyway. It's so crazy, all these trips and planning going on!

I just made magnets for our December cruise and left off dates so I can reuse them. I had some of the people on the Creative DISign thread do some for us and they turned out great.

As far as booking the new bounceback cruise, I looked at the availability of category 6's on the cruise we wanted to go on and saw only 8 category 6's remaining. I was afraid it would be like getting free dining and no ADR's to actually eat so we went ahead and put a deposit on the cruise. My TA said she also feared rooms not being available and DCL said if that's the case we'd have to pick a different cruise. We really want that one so we're hoping in April to quickly cancel/rebook for the same date/room. We did had to put $400 down, but we figure we'll be spending that anyway for the 4 of us plus tips, tax, etc.

[camarks1234]

I'm so glad I found this. The Disney boards are so vast I wander around lost and don't know where I am half the time! LOL :)

We are booked for the Feb 1-5 cruise too and are super excited! It will be our 1st cruise ever and it's a Make A Wish trip for my 8 year old boy, AJ. We also have a 13 year old son, Austin who is very excited. (we all are). I have more info in my pre-trip report that's in my siggy.

I'm looking forward to this and a lot of what is in this thread is greek to me... the fish exchange and stuff. But I'll have to do some research and learn.

If anyone has advice on trip excursions, etc. I'd love to hear it. We have planned on doing the Atlantis aquaventure in nassau already.

[rox]

I was so excited to have made my final payment on our cruise three weeks ago. Then three days later my dad became critically ill and has been INOVA Fairfax for over two weeks now. His kidney's failed and he continues to be very sick. So I lost two weeks of work and finally had to go back to work. Then my husband's work is talking layoffs. He is safe at the moment, but if the housing/construction market doesn't pick up soon....So to play it safe I felt it necessary to cancel before penalties would incur. I hope everyone has a wonderful time on the cruise. We cruised in March 2008 for our 25th wedding anniversary and it was heavenly. So although we can't go as planned in February 2009, we did have our dream cruise last March. :woohoo: :flower3:

[Mndisneygirl]

I was so excited to have made my final payment on our cruise three weeks ago. Then three days later my dad became critically ill and has been INOVA Fairfax for over two weeks now. His kidney's failed and he continues to be very sick. So I lost two weeks of work and finally had to go back to work. Then my husband's work is talking layoffs. He is safe at the moment, but if the housing/construction market doesn't pick up soon....So to play it safe I felt it necessary to cancel before penalties would incur. I hope everyone has a wonderful time on the cruise. We cruised in March 2008 for our 25th wedding anniversary and it was heavenly. So although we can't go as planned in February 2009, we did have our dream cruise last March. :woohoo: :flower3:


I'm so sorry for all of your troubles. I hope that things will work out for you and your family and that you will be able to go on another cruise someday. I'm glad that you were able to enjoy one last year. Best wishes! :flower3: :hug:

[Mndisneygirl]

I'm so glad I found this. The Disney boards are so vast I wander around lost and don't know where I am half the time! LOL :)

We are booked for the Feb 1-5 cruise too and are super excited! It will be our 1st cruise ever and it's a Make A Wish trip for my 8 year old boy, AJ. We also have a 13 year old son, Austin who is very excited. (we all are). I have more info in my pre-trip report that's in my siggy.

I'm looking forward to this and a lot of what is in this thread is greek to me... the fish exchange and stuff. But I'll have to do some research and learn.

If anyone has advice on trip excursions, etc. I'd love to hear it. We have planned on doing the Atlantis aquaventure in nassau already.

Hi! Sometimes I think these boards have too much information!! I don't have much advice, never been on Disney cruise before, but welcome to our meet! My oldest daughter will be almost 8 when we cruise. My husband wants to do something with Atlantis too - probably the beach excursion rather than the "big" water park one. We're getting excited, but we've recently been busy planning our WDW time first. We changed our plans from 3 days in the parks to the new deal they're offering - buy 4 nights, get 3 free. So we're spending the better part of a week (really 6 nights) at WDW first. We had been planning to stay at SOG, but to get the deal, we had to stay in a Disney resort, so we switched to Carribean Beach Resort!! :yay: The only down side is that we will be missing school and work for 2 weeks! I really didn't want to do that, but my kids are good students and quite young. This will be the last time we plan to miss more than 4 or 5 days.

[choco_latae]

I just wanted to say , Hi to all you Feb. cruisers.pirate:

[choco_latae]

Oh my gosh everyone, we only have two months left. This is so exciting.

[Josiah]

Hi! Sometimes I think these boards have too much information!! I don't have much advice, never been on Disney cruise before, but welcome to our meet! My oldest daughter will be almost 8 when we cruise. My husband wants to do something with Atlantis too - probably the beach excursion rather than the "big" water park one. We're getting excited, but we've recently been busy planning our WDW time first. We changed our plans from 3 days in the parks to the new deal they're offering - buy 4 nights, get 3 free. So we're spending the better part of a week (really 6 nights) at WDW first. We had been planning to stay at SOG, but to get the deal, we had to stay in a Disney resort, so we switched to Carribean Beach Resort!! :yay: The only down side is that we will be missing school and work for 2 weeks! I really didn't want to do that, but my kids are good students and quite young. This will be the last time we plan to miss more than 4 or 5 days.

We thought about some of these same issues and we decided to stay w/SoG. I'm not sure which way saves more $$, but it's a moot point for us; we are bringing two children, ages 11 and 8, and their parents do not want the children to miss more than four or five days of school, and rightly so, as the older one is in middle school. So, for us, it's one day WDW followed by the cruise, and then thee more days SoG. One may think that's more than a few days away, but not really. That last Friday in Jan is a half day; Feb 2 is a teacher training day, so it's just four and a half days.

[Josiah]

We got information from a book at our library. The book is Disney Cruise Lines. It gives lots of info and also reviews of each port of call. We chose the catamaran reef adventure because we think the children (11 and 8) would like to be close to the fish. We chose the StingRay adventure at Castaway Cay because it's only an hour long, and we know the oldest one wants to be near the stingrays. Also, we rented bikes for Castaway Cay for something a little different; we expect to use them for one hour.

One thing that was important to us was that we get off the boat early, which was a consideration in our choices. (we're more morning people) We chose excursions that were well rated and reviewed in the book for the ages of our children. I recommend you find this book in your library quickly. It's time to book excursions!

As it is, we didn't calculate 75 days correctly, and couldn't get Palo for brunch, which would have been our choice, but at least we got it for an early dinner, though it is on Pirate night. Dinner is at 6:30 and Pirate night starts at 8 or so, if I remember correctly. I remember it was later than I thought it would be; 8 or 9 p.m. (I called and asked.)

[camarks1234]

I got a passporter and it has been very useful.

I thought Palo sounded like fun, but we're not making ressies there because I'm not sure I want to leave the kids on their own for a night. I'm sure the oldest would be fine with it, but the youngest maybe not.

We can't wait though!!!! WOOHOO!

[Josiah]

CAMarks1234,

I was looking at one of your links, prayforaj. I saw the lovely pictures. It looks like someone has been doing fundraisers for a sick child, AJ. Would you like to tell us something about AJ? It's obvious he's someone very special to you.

[camarks1234]

Hi Josiah!

I tried to explain a little in an earlier post:

We are booked for the Feb 1-5 cruise too and are super excited! It will be our 1st cruise ever and it's a Make A Wish trip for my 8 year old boy, AJ. We also have a 13 year old son, Austin who is very excited. (we all are). I have more info in my pre-trip report that's in my siggy.


AJ is my son and this is his Make A Wish trip. There is more info in my PreTrip Report too, there is a link in my signature.

[Josiah]

Christy,

Thanks for sharing those details. I didn't know what 'PTR' was until you mentioned it.

So I went back and read the PTR and one question: Is it still true that AJ's treatments will be completed in Dec as far as you know?

I'm sure you are all counting down the days!

I hope to see you on the cruise. As I've mentioned, our gkids are 11 and 8. I'm sure they'll have fun together.

[camarks1234]

We hope that Dec will be the last of his treatments. He will have the rest of the month and Jan. to recover a little bit. We won't know for sure if the chemo worked on getting rid of the tumor completely until the end of Feb. or March (that is when the decisive MRI determining NED (no evidence of disease) will be done).

So we just plan on living life to it's fullest, enjoying the cruise to the fullest, and just celebrating.

We are going out today to pick out the most beautiful Christmas tree. The boys have always wanted a flocked one and I've always nixed it because of the cost and the mess, but who cares anymore. I want this to be a magical holiday for them. (don't worry, we won't put it up until after Turkey Day)! :D LOL

I hope everyone here has a wonderful, happy and safe Thanksgiving!!!!

[Hanover]

We hope that Dec will be the last of his treatments. He will have the rest of the month and Jan. to recover a little bit. We won't know for sure if the chemo worked on getting rid of the tumor completely until the end of Feb. or March (that is when the decisive MRI determining NED (no evidence of disease) will be done).

So we just plan on living life to it's fullest, enjoying the cruise to the fullest, and just celebrating.

We are going out today to pick out the most beautiful Christmas tree. The boys have always wanted a flocked one and I've always nixed it because of the cost and the mess, but who cares anymore. I want this to be a magical holiday for them. (don't worry, we won't put it up until after Turkey Day)! :D LOL

I hope everyone here has a wonderful, happy and safe Thanksgiving!!!!

Christy,

Our prayers are with your family for a complete recovery for AJ. In February of this year our DS11 was diagnosed with lymphoma. We were sent immediately for chemo and radiation at Johns Hopkins where we later found out it was a benign infected mass in our son's chest. By August (after a few rounds of medication) it had shrunk to scar tissue. It's an extremely rare cystic tumor that had 6 different diagnoses and had never been seen at Hopkins. He was scheduled 3 different times for surgeries but due to the amount it shrunk between his 6 CTs, they decided to hold off and wait to see if it would completely dissolve. At this point they are following him closely to make sure it does not re -grow or become infected again. I know it's not what you are going though, but I can empathize with you and wish AJ the best.

[Josiah]

What powerful stories your families are sharing with us. I truly appreciate hearing them.

Is it okay with you folks if I send both your sons through our prayer chain at church?

Christy, when I told our 8 year old AJ's story, she immediately said, "Hey! AJ has the same name as the first letters of the two of us who will be with him on the cruise! Our grandson is Josiah, and our granddaughter is Alissa. She's looking forward to meeting him.

Hanover, are you planning to cruise w/us, too?

Debbie

[choco_latae]

Ok you guys, here is a picture for all those that hasnt cruised yet. I took this when my kids went on the cruise a few months back. I havnt been on it yet either. This will be my first cruise. So I love this photo. I keep it dear.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/10-11-08033.jpg

[Hanover]

What powerful stories your families are sharing with us. I truly appreciate hearing them.

Is it okay with you folks if I send both your sons through our prayer chain at church?

Christy, when I told our 8 year old AJ's story, she immediately said, "Hey! AJ has the same name as the first letters of the two of us who will be with him on the cruise! Our grandson is Josiah, and our granddaughter is Alissa. She's looking forward to meeting him.

Hanover, are you planning to cruise w/us, too?

Debbie

Hi Debbie,

Yes, we are sailing on the 2/1 Wonder. We just booked it about a month ago when DCL released the Fall Bounceback offer. It will be our 8th Disney cruise and we are really looking forward to it.

I'm Danielle and I'll be sailing with my DH Derek, DS11 Keegan and DS7 Brennan.

[camarks1234]

Our prayers are with your family for a complete recovery for AJ. In February of this year our DS11 was diagnosed with lymphoma. We were sent immediately for chemo and radiation at Johns Hopkins where we later found out it was a benign infected mass in our son's chest. By August (after a few rounds of medication) it had shrunk to scar tissue. It's an extremely rare cystic tumor that had 6 different diagnoses and had never been seen at Hopkins. He was scheduled 3 different times for surgeries but due to the amount it shrunk between his 6 CTs, they decided to hold off and wait to see if it would completely dissolve. At this point they are following him closely to make sure it does not re -grow or become infected again. I know it's not what you are going though, but I can empathize with you and wish AJ the best.

Danielle, I will be keeping your family and DS in my prayers. It's so sad, but until we were struck with this, I never realized how many sick children there are. It just breaks my heart. I will look forward to meeting you on the cruise!

Is it okay with you folks if I send both your sons through our prayer chain at church?


That would be awesome!

Christy, when I told our 8 year old AJ's story, she immediately said, "Hey! AJ has the same name as the first letters of the two of us who will be with him on the cruise! Our grandson is Josiah, and our granddaughter is Alissa. She's looking forward to meeting him.

They can't wait either! Woohoo! Feb 1st can't come soon enough.

I wanted to say happy Tday to everyone as well, a little late, but...:)

[Hanover]

Danielle, I will be keeping your family and DS in my prayers. It's so sad, but until we were struck with this, I never realized how many sick children there are. It just breaks my heart. I will look forward to meeting you on the cruise!



That would be awesome!



They can't wait either! Woohoo! Feb 1st can't come soon enough.

I wanted to say happy Tday to everyone as well, a little late, but...:)

Christy, I know what you mean. We were wrapped up in our own little world and were not prepared for what we went through at all. After getting over the shock if it all, we took one day at a time and fortunately had a great outcome. We are extremely grateful and know just how lucky we are. When I was in college, I had volunteered a lot for kids with muscular dystrophy but didn't know much about childhood cancers at all. My son had been the epitome of health up until February. He was in gym glass and all of a sudden had a tough time breathing when they were running sprints. He's extremely athletic and was in really good shape so he knew something was wrong. He had never been to the school nurse in 6 years so when I got a call from her I knew it was serious. It took a week of lots of blood work, xrays and CT testing for him to be diagnosed with lymphoma. I'm still quite angry his pediatrician told us in front of him and didn't leave room for error. Meaning, he didn't say "he might have lymphoma." He flat out said he had lynmphoma, was sorry and that we had an appointment already set at Hopkins to begin treatment in 2 hours. I thought we'd hear that he may have had pneumonia. The oncology doctors at Hopkins were wonderful and went above and beyond for us to bring his case to a panel of specialists and rule out diagnoses. They told us they didn't think the mass was cancer since there was fluid in it, but they weren't 100% sure and wanted to keep us in the unit to follow his progress/do surgery if needed. I think it was more difficult to not know what it was than anything. We just knew it was a mass the size of a grapefruit over his heart and out of his lung. Each visit we had to the peds oncology dept at Hopkins I was overwhelmed with the amount of kids getting treatment. What struck me the most was for the most part the kids were so happy and playful considering what they were going through/had gone through. Our son was one of the older patients and it just broke my heart to see the babies and young kids sick. Our son knows he's very lucky and for his 11th birthday in May, on his own he requested no gifts and instead asked for donations to the Hopkins pediatric oncology department.

Thank you for the prayer chain. I will add your son to ours too.

[ToodlesRN]

Ugh, both my son and I have been sick for a month now with this nasty cold. We both started some antibiotics so hopefully were on the mend. I guess it's good we have it now instead of later.

Should we start deciding if we want to do the gift exchange, Since were getting closer? If we do I was thinking that we can do it for both, kids and adults as there may be some adults only on the cruise? Let me know and I can start getting a list with everyone names going.

Christy and Danielle~ Thanks for sharing your personal life ongoings. I worked in a inpatient adult oncology unit for a few years and that was rough on the patients, families and nurses. I really hope that everything goes well and they both go into remission soon.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

[Josiah]

I'm finally getting the picture of the gift exchange. I saw someone post about it on a trip report. I guess for me I was confused about what it all had to do with fish.

From what I gather, there is a hanger of some sort in the shape of a fish outside the door of the staterooms. (that's where the fish comes in). Those who wish to participate purchase a bag of some type, and hang it from the fish-shaped hanger. Then at some point, someone from our group drops some sort of small gift into the bag. We do the same with someone (or multiple people?).

Is that basically the idea?

Debbie

[choco_latae]

I'm finally getting the picture of the gift exchange. I saw someone post about it on a trip report. I guess for me I was confused about what it all had to do with fish.

From what I gather, there is a hanger of some sort in the shape of a fish outside the door of the staterooms. (that's where the fish comes in). Those who wish to participate purchase a bag of some type, and hang it from the fish-shaped hanger. Then at some point, someone from our group drops some sort of small gift into the bag. We do the same with someone (or multiple people?).

Is that basically the idea?

Debbie

Basicly thats right. There is a metal fish that is outside each room and you can hang pockets on it for others to put stuff into. You can either make them or buy them or whatever. Some people do hang bags on them. But here is a few that I have made. I havnt put the dowel rod in the top of it yet. But these are pockets. There is three in my family right now so I have three pockets in it.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/12-6-08001.jpg

[ToodlesRN]

Basicly thats right. There is a metal fish that is outside each room and you can hang pockets on it for others to put stuff into. You can either make them or buy them or whatever. Some people do hang bags on them. But here is a few that I have made. I havnt put the dowel rod in the top of it yet. But these are pockets. There is three in my family right now so I have three pockets in it.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/12-6-08001.jpg

Those look great! I got ours off of ebay from the lady (forgive me I forgot her name) who is also a Diser!

Are there any takers on who wants to do the gift exchange? If so let me know so I can get a list going with the names of everyone is your party and your room numbers.

[camarks1234]

We'd like to do it. Does anyone know if there is a pattern to making them? Or what I would search for, would it be fish pockets?

[Josiah]

We'd like to do it, too, but there is NO WAY that I have time to make one more thing....maybe after Christmas...anyway, I'm planning to check our local dollar store for something that might work. What else do we have to do?

BTW: We're having some trouble getting a passport for our grandson; long story short, we have to go through a legal process; we're hoping we're done by the cruise, but it's gonna be close.

Does anyone know if AJ had his last treatment? I thought it was to be in Dec.

[camarks1234]

Yep! We had our "unofficial" last treatment on Tues. I say unofficial because we won't know for sure the tumor is really gone until he has his next MRI in mid-Jan. It's a wierd feeling, being in limbo. :confused3

[ToodlesRN]

We'd like to do it. Does anyone know if there is a pattern to making them? Or what I would search for, would it be fish pockets?

This is the person who we bought ours from on Ebay and she is a diser as well. If you go to ebay and advanced search enter her in name in and you should see her auctions "gradysmommy"

[Mndisneygirl]

Hi all - I've been AWOL lately, but saw someone was interested in where to get a fish extender/pocket thing. I was on Disney shopping online and saw a cute Mickey Christmas card holder and it's currently on sale for $12.99! It's got 5 pockets on it. I bet it would work.

I don't think I'll be able to participate in an exchange, but I'll keep an eye out for any of your extenders. We will hopefully have our door decorated- at least a little! We're in cabin 6081 if nothing changes.

[Hanover]

Hi Everyone,

We just got back from WDW late last night. We had a fabulous cruise and time in the parks. The parks were much more crowded than the last few Decembers, but manageable. On the cruise I got to meet a bunch of Disboard friends and Disney website founders/authors who were there for MouseFest.

We were in stateroom 6538 which was a nice location and had a really good stateroom host and meal servers. The weather was a tad chilly at sailaway--in the low 60's but was in the mid 70s in Nassau. We walked to the straw market with friends who were cruising with us (they hadn't been to Nassau before) and then took advantage of a half full Mickey Pool in the afternoon. My friend Beth and I went to the spa and had a massage/facial. When at Nassau, that treatments is $125 for the hour massage/facial, and then you get strawberries dipped in chocolate, champagne and an hour in the rain forest room. It was heavenly and a lot less costly than the spa on sea days. We had dinner at Palo which was wonderful. The day we were supposed to be docked at CC we were unable to do so after 2 attempts because of the currents and wind. It was overcast and sprinkling too. We ended up having it as a sea day and missed our Palo brunch since we had just eaten breakfast and didn't know that they would do brunch that day instead of the next day as scheduled. The following day (day 4) we were able to dock at CC and the weather was in the mid 80s. It was perfect!! The water was a little cold at first but it didn't stop anyone from swimming. The water play area was closed until the afternoon because of the tide, but luckily the kids were able to play on it a couple of hours. All of the shows were really good. They changed the kid's graduation celebration and unfortunately I don't think it's half as good as the old show, which always brought tears to my eyes. Overall we had a wonderful, wonderful time and can't wait to be back!

We did do the FE exchange and that was a lot of fun. I had ordered one for my friend's family about a month before our cruise from the person I got mine from on ebay (she said it would take a week) and unfortunately didn't get it until our cruise was over when we checked back into Animal Kingdom. They rebooked though so they'll be able to use it on their next trip.

The cruise director we had was Clayton and he was great. Feel free to ask any questions.

[Hanover]

Hi all - I've been AWOL lately, but saw someone was interested in where to get a fish extender/pocket thing. I was on Disney shopping online and saw a cute Mickey Christmas card holder and it's currently on sale for $12.99! It's got 5 pockets on it. I bet it would work.

I don't think I'll be able to participate in an exchange, but I'll keep an eye out for any of your extenders. We will hopefully have our door decorated- at least a little! We're in cabin 6081 if nothing changes.

I bought this one a couple of weeks ago for our Christmas cards and it's great. It would work out very well for an FE and I saw 2 on our ship being used as Fish Extenders.

[Hanover]

Yep! We had our "unofficial" last treatment on Tues. I say unofficial because we won't know for sure the tumor is really gone until he has his next MRI in mid-Jan. It's a wierd feeling, being in limbo. :confused3

We have our fingers crossed for you! I definitely understand the limbo feeling. We will be praying for it to be completely gone for AJ.

[ToodlesRN]

It seems there are still some questions about the FE gift exchange, so I will try to clarify it.

The FE's are what you hang on the outside of your door, it can be a bag or custom made with pockets. Then the people who sign up will leave gifts in each others FE's outside the stateroom. From what I see the items vary like pencils, candy, Disney themed items, cheap small toys or some people are very crafty/creative and make things. Each person who signs up gets a list of the room numbers and what day you will deliver your items, that way everyone doesn't deliver on the same day and you get something daily in your FE.

So it looks like so far 2-3 people have a interest, anymore takers? If you do want to participate please PM me with your info; how many people in your party with kids ages and room numbers/deck level that way we can get a list going soon. It will be fun for the kids and adults!!

[ToodlesRN]

Has anyone made the magnet signs? I would like to learn, but need detailed step by step instructions to do it. Where does everyone get there designs from?

[Hanover]

Has anyone made the magnet signs? I would like to learn, but need detailed step by step instructions to do it. Where does everyone get there designs from?

I made quite a few to decorate our door on our last cruise according to what day/location we were at. The first day I had welcome aboard, bon voyage, etc. magnets. For Nassau day, I had general Disney cruise characters, etc. magnets. For Castaway Cay Day/Pirate night I had magnets representing both and the last day I had Christmas Disney magnets. I found most of the graphics here on disboards on different threads. There's a few on the Disney Cruise Line thread and TONS on the Creative "Disign" thread. There's lots of people willing to customize them too. Once you find one you like, right click and save. Once you want to print them, you need magnet paper or plain paper and magnet tape. I know that Michaels/AC Moore also has magnetic sleeves you can put picutres in that have a backing. What I did was buy magnetic paper, print them out, used contact paper on top to seal/protect and cut them out. It was time consuming but they turned out great. Staples has magnetic paper, but it's like 4 sheets for $15. I found decalpaper.com was a great deal with fast shipping. They come out to about just over $1 a page of magnetic paper. Once I upload our pictures from our trip, I'll post some of the pictures I took of our door.

[Josiah]

I've tried looking a little bit at disigns, too, but I don't find it easy to navigate. There's tons of information, all right, but trying to find something specific is like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. If anyone comes up with a link or two they like, that would be extremely helpful. I'm at a place in my life where I have very limited searching time. (I have a full time job, plus three hour daily commute and a 'real' life, too!)

I have an unfair advantage because I met a fellow Diser; I did a small favor for her, and she wants to repay me by doing my research for me, and even customizing my signs! However, I'd still like to do some of my own work, if I can figure out where to start!

I can get to the Disigns just fine, but I find the 'search' and 'advanced search' functions mostly unhelpful. I also had some trouble getting some folks' links to open. I also tried a google search with Disney cruise door designs, and got some personal websites, but picking through all of it is very time consuming.

I am going to try to enlist the kids to help me, but they are currently distracted by Christmas. However, today we have a snow day, so maybe we can go pick up the oldest one (they live with their parents across town) and give him the job. He's 11, and a bit of a technogeek, so he can prob'ly find something somewhere. :thumbsup2

Debbie

[ToodlesRN]

Did anyone book anything exciting on the cruise?

We booked Palo brunch as we don't want to miss any evening actvities.
I have a massage booked at CC and Hubby has the snorkel booked (I don't snorkel that much anymore, fish scare me now!)

I want to book the exotic rassul, but they are at odd times or the Flounders is closed (they close midday for a few hours)

[camarks1234]

we have a few fun shore excursions booked. I didn't get in on the Palo in time, by the time we got our check in info everything was booked up except the first evening we sail and we want to be with the kids that night I'm sure.

[ToodlesRN]

we have a few fun shore excursions booked. I didn't get in on the Palo in time, by the time we got our check in info everything was booked up except the first evening we sail and we want to be with the kids that night I'm sure.

I heard that they hold spots, after you board check in at the desk to see what they have open. We have a time that I would like to change to accommodate something else.

Did you book anything for the Atlantis?
I was thinking of booking the comfort suites so we can use the water park, being that Matthew loves the water and the little Mickey splash pool isn't going to cut it. I'm working hard on getting him potty trained, but his mind is saying something else:)

[camarks1234]

We are doing Atlantis waterpark (it was a must with an 8yo & 13yo LOL). Since we are going through MAW (this is AJ's Make A Wish trip) we just booked it through Disney, but after seeing advice and some stuff here I would go through Comfort Suites.

[Josiah]

We booked Palo, but didn't get the a.m. that we wanted. Still, we're glad we got the evening. I can't remember which evening, but it's Tues or Wed. I should check. We wanted the brunch, so may try to switch once we get aboard.

We booked the catamaran snorkeling adventure for Nassau, but I was considering the Comfort Suite option with Atlantis also. Here's our dilemma: We still don't know if Josiah (11) will have his passport. Long story short: his adoption is scheduled for Jan 5. That, of course, will change his name. Therefore, we will have to wait until after the court hearing to receive the birth certificate so we can have the passport expedited. In other words, no passport, no excursions for him. One of us will have to stay on board with him while the other one takes Alissa (8) out.

We have the swimming with the stingrays scheduled for Castaway Cay and are also planning to rent bikes. There's also an area where you can get free games, such as ping pong, etc, and that appeals to our family.

All this may change if the passport deal doesn't work out; Josiah's more interested in the water excursions than Alissa.

I need to work on the details of all that still.

It's been crazy busy here, on top of everything else, we've had a 'snow event'. In the Pacific NW, that means more than 1" of snow. School's been closed, tomorrow, too, for a total of 3 days. Work hasn't closed, though, which means a difficult commute. I do, however, understand it doesn't snow much in Nassau. :rotfl2:

[Josiah]

BTW: We've been working on the adoption since SEPTEMBER!

[camarks1234]

Congratulations on the adoption! It took less than 2 weeks to get our passports when we applied back in Sept. with all the hype about passports we were shocked it was so fast and we didn't even expedite it.

Also, are you postitive you need them? Our wish planner told us that the only reason we needed ours was in case of an emergency with AJ should we need to fly out of a foreign port. If it wasn't for that we didn't need them.

[Hanover]

When we sailed on the 7th, we went to Studio Sea at 2PM to make dining changes and switch our Palo spot. There was a line of 20 people (at 2!) and it looked like everyone was getting what they wanted. We switched our Palo dinner from Pirate Night to Nassau night and our dining rotation to APPT, which was what we'd asked for initially and planned everything around. We missed out on brunch because we couldn't dock at Castaway Cay the first day the captain tried and they rescheduled the brunch for that day, which became a sea day, and we had already eaten by the time we missed the 2nd docking at 10:00.

As far as passports go, I noticed a lot of people in check in still using their birth certificates and driver's licences. We have passports, but adults still need their licenses to get on/off the ship in ports along with their Key to the World cards. I agree with Christy that the passports are great to have in case of emergencies and the need for flights in a foreign port.

As far as excursions, we aren't going to do anything in Nassau but maybe walk around the immediate shops. We've done the dolphin excursion, Atlantis and the pirate museum in the past and enjoyed those. I'd like to do the water park but DS7 isn't tall enough for a lot of the slides and will probably be next year so we'll try then. I am hoping to do the onboard spa deal that they offer when docked in Nassau. I know some people on our last cruise that booked online for the Comfort Suites and got some great deals--much cheaper than going through Disney (like 3/4 cheaper).


Josiah-congratulations on the adoption

[Josiah]

Be forewarned: I told you this was a long story! ;)

We called Disney Cruise Line regarding the passport and were told that he would need it if he wanted to disembark during the cruise.

Yes, we know we can expedite the passport, and that it won't take much time once that's done. Here's the wrinkle:

Josiah's adoptive father is in the military, scheduled to deploy...guess when...in January, around 1/10. Therefore, if the court hearing is Jan. 5, there is a small window before Dad will be leaving. Dad MUST appear physically in order to give permission for the passport, as well as Mom. Dad has to certify that he IS Dad, etc.

Also, both parents have a few other things on their mind during these last days together. We figure if Josiah can at least get his birth cert. & military i.d., he should be good to go, even if he can't get off the boat for excursions. At this point, we'll call that good enough.

All this is why we started the process in September. Unfortunately, circumstances did not fall our way, but we won't let it rain on our parade, just like all the rest of us who are battling far more serious problems. We'll keep our head up and our shoulders back, and LET'S GO!:thumbsup2

[Hanover]

I hope everyone's holiday plans and preparations are going well. Things have been super busy for us. Our ds7 is in full swing of wrestling season now and has kept us running around each night of the week for practice, weigh ins, etc.

Does everyone have a room assignment for our cruise? We are still GTY 6. My friend tried to get a quote for the same cruise and she said she was told only category 6 and 7's were left. I guess they are still selling 6's even though we don't even have a room!

I'm not sure who is organizing it, but I would like to join the FE group. I ordered a couple of the things that I gave out on our December cruise that went over well so I hope you all like them!

Happy holidays and 2009!

[Josiah]

Hanover,

That would be ToodlesRN (from Seattle, BTW) who is organizing the FE. You may want to PM her. She wants to know your room # (which it sounds like you don't have yet), everyone's name from your group who is participating, and the names of children.

Toodles and I have been involved in a 'snow event' in the Pacific NW. Bear in mind, we are snow wimps up here, as it's a relatively unusual phenomenon for us. I believe she works whatever the weather. I, otoh, have had a couple days off, since I work in a public library.

We are soooo looking forward to this trip. We do have our stateroom already, which is 2101, I believe. We're cat 10. We thought we'd talk about an upgrade once we got there, but it sounds like the ship is pretty full.

I'm sure you already know, but there's a site you visit to see where staterooms are located and view comments others who have been in your room previously have noted. Should be at:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-overview.htm
www.wdwinfo.com (http://http://wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-overview.htm)

We've also been talking with the kids about the different kinds of dining we'll do in WDW. On www.allearsnet.net we've been able to show them sample menus so they can think about what they'd like to choose. We've explained that some meals will be geared toward them, and some toward us, and they'll deal with it. (They're 8 and 11). Mainly, the oldest one doesn't deal as well with surprises, so the more info, the better for him.

I have the 11 year old checking out WDW on Google Earth, too. Building anticipation. We're also watching Disney 365 occasionally. That's essentially a 2 minute Disney commercial, but it features some of their faves, such as Zack and Cody.

See you real soon...

[Hanover]

Thanks for the information about the FE, I'll PM Toodles RN.

We had a dusting of snow/ice yesterday and today it's 1 degree with the wind chill. I'm glad wrestling is inside! We finished football less than a month ago and it was bitter cold at practice then!

I reall love Allearsnet dining link. I was lucky to meet Deb Wills (Allears founder) last month on the MouseFest cruise. She opened up the Roy Disney suite for tours and was beyond kind.

We also tend to do a few character meals and add a new restaurant on our WDW trips. It's nice to try out different places and stick to a few favorites. Just make sure to have ADRs because I saw a lot of people turned away earlier this month that didn't have them.

See you soon!

[Josiah]

Yep, we have the dining ressies already! We were lucky to score 9 a.m. at Cindy's; I was looking for Liberty Tree, but the reservationist said, "Sorry, all full; would you like anything else?" So I took a stab at it, and Viola! We also have adr's at Sci Fi, Hollywood & Vine, Le Cellier, Rose & Crown, and California Grill, so I think we're pretty set. We didn't choose them for AK; not sure what we want to do that day. Is anyone familiar with Yak & Yeti?

Also, is anyone doing the Photopass? Someone encouraged me to do it, but I'm hesitant.

[ToodlesRN]

For those of you that signed up for the FE gift exchange here is what we have so far for those who want to start getting ideas.

We have 4 families; each with 2 adults in the cabin, 6 boys and 1 girl.

I have a excel sheet made out, if you want a copy PM me your email address and I can send it to you.

[camarks1234]

So you can do the photopass on the cruise? I need to learn more about how it works.

[ToodlesRN]

This is getting so exciting we have 1 month before we leave, were flying out the 29th of Jan!

Is anyone sending a box of goods to the ship before you fly? I'm debating if we need to do it or not.

I'd like to know about the photopass as well? I aslo wonder if we we can use the same photopass at WDW also?

[camarks1234]

I just read in another thread that they do not have the photopass system on the ships. You can buy packages though so that when you find a picture at shutters, you can grab it when you see it. The packages are a little salty. I wish there was an option to just get it all on a CD.

Here is the thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2039416

[romino]

This is getting so exciting we have 1 month before we leave, were flying out the 29th of Jan!


Yes, I can´t believe it, one month. We are also flying out the 29th but we are arriving to Miami and then we are renting a car to get to Orlando. Flights from Mexico to Orlando are expensive so we are saving almost 1,000 USD by arriving to Miami¡¡

What is that about sending a box of goods to the ship?

[Josiah]

We're planning to leave on January 30, as our children have semester exams that week.

We do not currently plan to have a box sent to the ship, but it's not a bad idea. When going to WDW, we used to pack one suitcase with food; breakfast and snack food mostly. This way we'd have an empty suitcase to take souvenirs home. Now, though, it may be different with the airline charging extra for bags. Haven't figured that part out yet. I did see where we can have a case of water shipped to our hotel for under $7 from Costco, though, even if we don't have a membership. Just starting to ponder that.

Next week we're going to throw open our suitcases and start to put stuff in we'll need on the cruise, such as swimsuits, tickets, etc. Getting close!

[camarks1234]

I did a little shopping yesterday for the trip. So fun, I bought some material to make my extender (I'm ambitious) LOL, some cute things for the kids to put in others extenders, a new outfit. I'm looking for a couple new carry-on bags as the kids don't have any and I want us to each have a carry-on bag for the plane. whew. I think I might have to line up suitcases in my room and start it up! :)

[Hanover]

Christy,

When we were on the Wonder from 12/7-11, they had 4 photopass kiosks set up. I never used the actual kiosks, but did see some people using them. During certain pictures onboard, the photographer would ask me for our KTTW card. I believe that I could have gone to the kiosks and swiped it to see our pictures. Luckily when we were in Shutters, it was sparsely crowded and we had no problem finding our pictures. I think if it was crowded, I'd have done the kiosks, but not all the pictures I had taken were added to my KTTW card. I always ask the photographers to take a picture of us with my camera too (it's the same Nikon they use) and half the time my picture is just as good or nicer. Of course I don't have the fancy borders, but for .19 cents versus $20 + it's a deal! I still manage to always buy a couple smaller and one or two bigger photos from Shutters. I especially like the ones they do with white backgrounds.

We'll probably each have a rolling duffel bag (easy to slip under the bed in the staterooms) for our trip and 2 carry- ons. In one of the carry ons, I take a few snacks, drawing books, the boys nintendo ds, ipods and my camera. The other is for our lap top/chargers. We rent a car and also have our ds7's very small booster seat we bring. I can tell you that every cruise we've ever gone on, 90% of the snacks are not eaten that I bring. I keep saying we need to stop packing them and save room. I've left them for our stateroom host to share with his/her friends and have souvenir room instead. They did have a small duffel bag in the gift shops you could buy for $20 if you spent $60 if you need extra room.


Josiah--we usually stop and get a 12-24 pack of water for a couple of dollars before boarding the ship. It's well worth it if you have a rental car or town car that can stop. We bought a case of water on the Magic when we were on the Med Cruise in 2007 and it was about $48 with the taxes. We had no other option and needed the water. That was still cheaper than buying it individually, but if you can get it cheaper elsewhere I'd recommend it. I know on Castaway Cay they were offering either 6 sodas, 6 waters or a combination of each in a soft sided cooler for just over $20 with taxes included. They have a drink station at Cookies BBQ you can go to and get drinks at as well. Usually they charge $4 for a bottle of water on excursion days. I've heard of some people packing empty bottles and just filling them up at deck 9's drink station with water. I know there has been talk about DCL not allowing water to be dropped off with porters but on our last 2 cruises, the porter has told us to leave it with them.

[blumski]

Our family will be sailing on the Wonder on Feb 1st and can hardly wait! It will be my husband and I along with our 4 year old (1 weeks shy of age 5) daughter.

This is our very first Disney cruise. We have been to Disney World a bunch of times and finally decided to "take the plunge" so to speak.

I am so excited and this board is full of great information!

[jadedjojo]

26 days to go! I am already packed! :banana:
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful trip here!

[Hanover]

Welcome to our group Blumski!

Jadedjojo- I envy your ability to pack so early! I'm always a last minute packer.

Have if we are going to try and do a Dismeet on embarkation day? On our past cruises, a 3PM near the Mickey Pool/drink stations has really worked out well if anyone's up for it.

I just found out today we finally have been assigned a stateroom! It's the very last room on deck 7. I'm not thrilled with the location, but at least it's a room and it's supposed to be huge since it's handicapped accessible. I'm not sure if we'll get moved again if a handicapped person needs it. I looked at the stateroom reports and it's got decent reviews. I think we'll like the deck 7 aft overlook and just 2 floors down from the pools and food locations!

[tazgirl1981]

Im sorry for getting in here a little late...I think I have signed on before and introduced myself and my family but I cant remember....anyhoo we are sailing on Feb 1 as well. It will be myself (Shauna) and my son Christopher who is 3 and my mom (Julie---known as Choco_latae on here) and my sister Jenny. We are all in the same stateroom and it will be their first time cruising...my 3rd.

Have you guys talked Fish Extenders? If so I am sure we would love to be added to the list. I did this on my last cruise in October and had a blast.

I cant believe how close it is getting to sail date!! WOO HOO!! :cool1:

[camarks1234]

ToodlesRN (from Seattle, BTW) who is organizing the FE. You may want to PM her. She wants to know your room # (which it sounds like you don't have yet), everyone's name from your group who is participating, and the names of children.


You might want to send her a PM.

[Mndisneygirl]

Hi all - just wanted to pop back on and say hi! Now that it's getting so close!
We are staying at WDW for 6 nights prior to the cruise, so I've been doing lots of planning for that! I am still hoping to have door decorations (rm 6081).
We joined a photopass share for WDW with some others I've been DISing with on the January Snowbirds thread. I sure wish it was available on the cruise, or like someone said, you could just buy a CD of them all and then get whatever sizes you want. It will probably become available someday - after we're done!
Hope all of you had great holidays! See you in a few weeks!!

[Hanover]

Hi all - just wanted to pop back on and say hi! Now that it's getting so close!
We are staying at WDW for 6 nights prior to the cruise, so I've been doing lots of planning for that! I am still hoping to have door decorations (rm 6081).
We joined a photopass share for WDW with some others I've been DISing with on the January Snowbirds thread. I sure wish it was available on the cruise, or like someone said, you could just buy a CD of them all and then get whatever sizes you want. It will probably become available someday - after we're done!
Hope all of you had great holidays! See you in a few weeks!!

I really wish they had the CD for the cruise too. The photopass system they currently have is just to view your pictures at a kiosk from your KTTW card. You still have to buy pictures/picture packages before you leave the ship or you are out of luck. Also, not all the picture opportunities have photographers scanning your pictures on to your KTTW card onboard so you'd still have to look in Shutters.

[sarahgirl]

Hi all! I'll be joining you all on the cruise this February. I'm 25 and going all by myself on my first cruise. So I am REALLY excited. I was wondering how you found out your room assignments? Everyday I check the disney website and I still have not been assigned a room. I have a GTY Cat 12 so Im just wondering if I have to wait until I get the information in the mail or what?

Anyways cant wait to sail.

[camarks1234]

hi and welcome sarahgirl!

[Hanover]

Welcome Sarahgirl!

I just found out our room assignment on our reservation on dcl.com yesterday. I had asked my travel agent last week to check and she said it still was GTY. She said most of the time they have room assignments by the time they send the documents out. We should receive those in a week or two. She said she has had some people not get rooms until they get to the terminal, but that is rare.

[Josiah]

Hi all! I'll be joining you all on the cruise this February. I'm 25 and going all by myself on my first cruise. So I am REALLY excited. I was wondering how you found out your room assignments? Everyday I check the disney website and I still have not been assigned a room. I have a GTY Cat 12 so Im just wondering if I have to wait until I get the information in the mail or what?

Anyways cant wait to sail.

Hi, Sarah,

You can go to www.disneycruiseline.com and then look at my disney cruise to get detailed information. You'll need to set up an account using your cruise reservation number. If you don't have that yet, you can call disney cruise lines and get it, or go through your travel agent to hook you up.

We'll be glad to meet you. Speaking of meeting, do we have a plan to meet up together at some point? That would be fun.

I think we have quite a mix of folks on this trip. We seem to have quite a few boys in our group. My husband and I are bringing our grandchildren, boy 11 and girl 8. Some are adults coming with grown children. Two of the children who are in our group have serious health issues (both boys).

When I booked the trip, I didn't realize it was Super Bowl Sunday. If you're not a football fan, here's what it means to you: WDW will be extra crowded just before and after Feb. 1 because the Super Bowl is in Tampa this year. So, for folks like us who plan to visit MK on Jan. 31, it promises to be quite crowded. Oh, well, such goes life. We have fun anyway.

Who has ressies in WDW? Where ya goin'? We have the following:
Cinderella's Castle
Liberty Tree Tavern

Le Cellier
Rose & Crown

Sci Fi Diner
Hollywood & Vine

California Grill
1900 Park Faire

dl

[Mndisneygirl]

We are spending most of the week prior to the cruise at WDW. We arrive on Monday 1/26 and are doing the DDP, so have a bunch of ADRs. Crystal Palace breakfast, Mama Melrose, Tusker House breakfast, LeCellier, Ohana breakfast and 1900 Park Fare dinner. I'm so psyched - I've never tried any of these before.
I've been hearing lots of mixed info on crowds because of the Super bowl, but I'm hoping that it won't be too bad! We have plans to be in Epcot on the 31st. Oh well, a crowded Disney is better than Minnesota in January any day!
My hubby and I are now on a t-shirt making kick. Back at the beginning of the thread someone made a cute design with the ship and Mickey and Minnie on the beach - we're trying to make it into a t-shirt. I've been learning a bit about how to do it and am also making some other Disney/princess type ones. It's fun, but frustrating because I am really not that techno savvy so if I screw something up, I have no idea how to fix it!! I know just enough to be dangerous!! In any event, I printed out the ship picture, and will make a door magnet sign with it. That much I can handle!! :laughing:

[Hanover]

We are spending most of the week prior to the cruise at WDW. We arrive on Monday 1/26 and are doing the DDP, so have a bunch of ADRs. Crystal Palace breakfast, Mama Melrose, Tusker House breakfast, LeCellier, Ohana breakfast and 1900 Park Fare dinner. I'm so psyched - I've never tried any of these before.
I've been hearing lots of mixed info on crowds because of the Super bowl, but I'm hoping that it won't be too bad! We have plans to be in Epcot on the 31st. Oh well, a crowded Disney is better than Minnesota in January any day!
My hubby and I are now on a t-shirt making kick. Back at the beginning of the thread someone made a cute design with the ship and Mickey and Minnie on the beach - we're trying to make it into a t-shirt. I've been learning a bit about how to do it and am also making some other Disney/princess type ones. It's fun, but frustrating because I am really not that techno savvy so if I screw something up, I have no idea how to fix it!! I know just enough to be dangerous!! In any event, I printed out the ship picture, and will make a door magnet sign with it. That much I can handle!! :laughing:

We've done all of the meals you listed and they are all GREAT!

We are flying down the night before the cruise and staying at a Marriot near the port. The day we debark, we are heading to the Magic Kingdom until our flight that evening. We have annual passes and wanted to get in a few of our favortie rides. This trip was a last minute thing thatnks the the bounceback offer and the boys already missed 6 days of school in December when we went to Disney/DCL so we thought it would be best for them to go to school Friday. Which reminds me we have to do the boy's vacation excuse forms next week.

I don't have any advice about the Super Bowl crowds, but I know Keegan is desperate for the Ravens to be in it!

[Hanover]

Hi, Sarah,

You can go to www.disneycruiseline.com and then look at my disney cruise to get detailed information. You'll need to set up an account using your cruise reservation number. If you don't have that yet, you can call disney cruise lines and get it, or go through your travel agent to hook you up.

We'll be glad to meet you. Speaking of meeting, do we have a plan to meet up together at some point? That would be fun.

I think we have quite a mix of folks on this trip. We seem to have quite a few boys in our group. My husband and I are bringing our grandchildren, boy 11 and girl 8. Some are adults coming with grown children. Two of the children who are in our group have serious health issues (both boys).

When I booked the trip, I didn't realize it was Super Bowl Sunday. If you're not a football fan, here's what it means to you: WDW will be extra crowded just before and after Feb. 1 because the Super Bowl is in Tampa this year. So, for folks like us who plan to visit MK on Jan. 31, it promises to be quite crowded. Oh, well, such goes life. We have fun anyway.

Who has ressies in WDW? Where ya goin'? We have the following:
Cinderella's Castle
Liberty Tree Tavern

Le Cellier
Rose & Crown

Sci Fi Diner
Hollywood & Vine

California Grill
1900 Park Faire

dl

You've got some really great restaurants planned too! We haven't done the castle or California Grill, but we have done the others and liked them all. In fact, I don't think we've tried a WDW restaurant we don't like!

I'm not sure if anyone on our board is retired or active duty Military, but they just released a really sweet deal for tickets. The active duty/retired individual gets a free 5 day ticket and up to 5 guests get a 5 day pass for $99.

[blumski]

Today, our cruise documents arrived......Yipee!!!

[ToodlesRN]

26 days to go! I am already packed! :banana:
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful trip here!

I haven't even thought of packing yet, way to go:worship:

[ToodlesRN]

Hi all! I'll be joining you all on the cruise this February. I'm 25 and going all by myself on my first cruise. So I am REALLY excited. I was wondering how you found out your room assignments? Everyday I check the disney website and I still have not been assigned a room. I have a GTY Cat 12 so Im just wondering if I have to wait until I get the information in the mail or what?

Anyways cant wait to sail.

Good for you coming by your self! With the $99 special I may have to do a mommy trip by myself;)

[ToodlesRN]

For those of you who want to still do the Fish Extender gift exchange that haven't signed up yet, please send me a PM no later than the 10th of this month so we can get a final head count. Some of us are starting to get items and need to know exactly how many to get.

As far as a group meet that sounds like fun but, I will let someone else get that organized as this is our first time on the cruise and not sure of good meeting spots!

Today, our cruise documents arrived......Yipee!!!

I was just thinking about those docs last night, hopefully they will wihin the next few days!

[Josiah]

I'm not sure if anyone on our board is retired or active duty Military, but they just released a really sweet deal for tickets. The active duty/retired individual gets a free 5 day ticket and up to 5 guests get a 5 day pass for $99.[/QUOTE]

We are retired military; our son-in-law, whose kids are accomanying us, is active duty. I've been paying very close attention to the military offer. Here's what I know for anyone else who might be interested:


The military person gets a complimentary 5 day base ticket; needs to be used by Dec. 23 this year. That person may sponsor up to 5 more people at the rate of $99 each. I called WDW this morning with specific questions. Also found out:

Tickets can be purchased at the local base's ITT office OR at WDW. Ticket windows are open during park operating hours.

Tickets may be upgraded to Park Hopper for $25 per.
Tickets expire 14 days from activation (first use). This was an important point for us because we are in WDW on 1/31, then again 2/5-2/7.


Disneyland has a similar offer, but it's different in details. For example,theirs is a 3 day Park Hopper ticket.

The offer is called Salute to the Armed Forces.


We had already purchased tickets for the kids, but were told by our ITT office that they never expire if we don't activate them. Therefore, we can use the military offer this year, and keep the tickets we've already bought towards our next trip.

BTW: For anyone who's been following our passport drama, it's settled. Jo won't be getting a passport, but he can take his old birth certificate along with a certified copy of his adoption proceeding (finalized this past Monday!:woohoo: ) and that's all the i.d. he'll need to travel. We were told by Disney Cruise Lines that he can get off the boat for excursions, etc, just like anyone else. Of course, both kids have to have a letter notarized by their parent that gives us permission to board with them. That's our next step.

We're getting close!!

[ToodlesRN]

I'm not sure if anyone on our board is retired or active duty Military, but they just released a really sweet deal for tickets. The active duty/retired individual gets a free 5 day ticket and up to 5 guests get a 5 day pass for $99.


That is a sweet deal!, We have a very close family friend that is retired do you think he would be able to us tickets? Or are they put in each persons name and which he would need to one to buy to show that he is "going"? Once when he/we gets the tickets he/we doesn't need to show anything else once at the parks to enter? One more Q can you get more than 5 days, if so what would the price be?

Way to go on finally getting all that paperwork information figured out and on the finalization of the adoption!

[ToodlesRN]

Found my answers to my questions above!

[camarks1234]

BTW: For anyone who's been following our passport drama, it's settled. Jo won't be getting a passport, but he can take his old birth certificate along with a certified copy of his adoption proceeding (finalized this past Monday! ) and that's all the i.d. he'll need to travel. We were told by Disney Cruise Lines that he can get off the boat for excursions, etc, just like anyone else. Of course, both kids have to have a letter notarized by their parent that gives us permission to board with them. That's our next step.


SWEET!

We're getting our docs on Saturday. MAW is meeting us for a "surprise party" at Culvers. Can't wait! :yay:

[jadedjojo]

I haven't even thought of packing yet, way to go:worship:

It's not as impressive as it sounds, LOL. Two cruises ago, our luggage was destroyed in transit from our room to the terminal. I mean a wheel was ripped off someplace, the handle to our suitcase was gone, the inside was crushed and plastic was everywhere. Granted it was Wal-Mart luggage and not Louis Vuitton, but I bought it specifically for our cruising endeavours and I was not very happy! So now we carry on our luggage, which this time consists of a backpack a piece and my camera bag (which, since I'm a photographer, is almost bigger than my backpack). Long-live wrinkle-free pants!

For the bounceback $99 cruise in the fall, we are bringing my husband's two teenage sisters, so I am sure we will need four carloads of luggage and a moving van filled with their makeup cases, and my "light packing" will go out the window.

[ToodlesRN]

Who has ressies in WDW? Where ya goin'? We have the following:
Cinderella's Castle
Liberty Tree Tavern

Le Cellier
Rose & Crown

Sci Fi Diner
Hollywood & Vine

California Grill
1900 Park Faire

dl

Were flying out the on the 29th

30th Playhouse Breakfast buffet
31st Fulton Crab House and then Cirque Du Solei show
5th Garden Grill
6th Crystal Palace and Cinderella Royal Table
7th Donalds Safari Breakfast
8th Chef Mickeys
9th going home

I also made reseravations at Boma for the 29th but meant to make after the
5th as we will be at AKL until the 9th, guess I better call and get that figured out.

[vtinkerbell]

Hi my DH (1stime74)and I will be joining all of you along with DH parents for our 2nd "Wonder" cruise. I would like to participate in the Fish Extender Exchange. Our cabin number is 7005. I would like to exchange with the adults or couples.

I am a big time Superbowl fan or should I say my DH is a widower LOL I am the sportsfan. Last year I was the grand prize winner on the ship and won a 32 PLASM TV I can say for all the superbowl lovers you will see and enjoy the superbowl.

I love the designs for the cruise "Winter Wonder Cruise 2009" I saw those in the string. Can't wait to meet ya Ill be the pink tink with lots of pixie dust!!!!

[Mndisneygirl]

Today, our cruise documents arrived......Yipee!!!


How long should I wait before I get worried? I really would love to have them soon. We leave in two weeks!

[Mndisneygirl]

Hi my DH (1stime74)and I will be joining all of you along with DH parents for our 2nd "Wonder" cruise. I would like to participate in the Fish Extender Exchange. Our cabin number is 7005. I would like to exchange with the adults or couples.

I am a big time Superbowl fan or should I say my DH is a widower LOL I am the sportsfan. Last year I was the grand prize winner on the ship and won a 32 PLASM TV I can say for all the superbowl lovers you will see and enjoy the superbowl.

I love the designs for the cruise "Winter Wonder Cruise 2009" I saw those in the string. Can't wait to meet ya Ill be the pink tink with lots of pixie dust!!!!

You will get along well with my DH. He will be watching the game and wearing a t-shirt with the Winter Wonder Cruise logo on it! We've been making t-shirts like crazy. We got some designs from the Creative DISigns thread and one is personalized for our family. We will all be wearing red t-shirts with that on it for our boarding picture. Then we made black ones for pirate night. It has a porthole with a picture of the pirate ship and the characters in pirate garb. Very cute - putzy work , but fun!

[vtinkerbell]

I will be in Diversions for the Superbowl if the Giants are playing Ill be in Giants garb for my DH mother in law if the Panthers are in well then thats who Ill be in. Otherwise you will know me Ill be the one in the "Pink-Tink" shirt I had someone design for me. I would love to meet ya there. That will be my residence for the first night.

Brush up on your NFL and Superbowl trivia they will be playing lots of games during the game for prizes. They have the wii set up for half time and play many games so there is never a dull moment at Diversions.

Look forward to seeing ya. :cloud9:

[ToodlesRN]

I will get the FE exchange list updated and send out emails with the updates!

[Josiah]

Wow! It does sound like there's lots to do!

I also plan to watch the Super Bowl, but I admit I have not the first idea what I'll be wearing. I'm not much for dressing up; haven't made t-shirts, etc. I'll have to find you guys. My DH isn't much for sports, either, but he'll be happy to be along for the ride. Our team's out, so who cares?

What about the kids? Are they allowed in Diversions? They're not really football fans, but the oldest (11) is very attracted to the wii stuff. (He has figured out that you can take your memory stick out of your camera, stick it in the wii and upload the pictures, then make puzzles out of them.)

Anyway, I hope I can find you! You guys sound like a fun group.

You'll see our room in Tierre's email to you re: fe's. I think it's 1201.

Tink, have you been cruising before?

[vtinkerbell]

Last year Diversions was where the adults hung out. Now thats not to say kids cant go there,because kids can go anywhere on the ship. Im sure the Disney staff would love to learn new things with the wii. Deck 9 is where most kids hang out at the goofy pool with the jumbo tv,but if you like a little more calm then Diversons is the better place.

As far as the t-shirts well I mentioned Im a sports fan so if one of my teams makes it Im there, others wise its tink all the way. People do make there own you will see alot of those on the ship. That is one of my favorite things to look for beside the doors all made up. i enjoy the creativity.

This will be my DH and my second Disney Wonder cruise and we will be on the Magic in May and then the Wonder again in November. We have been on 10 Carnival cruises but once we were bitten by Disney I dont think I will do another Carnival.LOL

Look forward to Meeting you!! Look for the pink tink!:cloud9:

[ToodlesRN]

I have the FE gift list all updated and sent emails to those of you who signed up.

I will take requests until Monday 1/12 if you haven't signed up and want to. I will need the names of everyone who will particapte in your group along with the kids ages, room number and your email address.

Were getting close!!!

[romino]

Just finished sending a fish extender participation PM to Tierre.
I can´t believe it´s almost two weeks for our trip. The anticipation is growing day by day in our family. Yesterday I showed the children the videos Disneycruise has in it's web page. I couldn't get my hands on a Planning DVD because Disney doesn't send them to Mexico.

[bridgemanva]

We booked this when the bounceback offer was out thought it was a great opportunity to experience the Wonder. We've sailed on the Magic a few times and love the longer cruises. however now that we're totally enjoying the "empty nest" and traveling w/o our son (freshman in college)we booked a cat12 and I just realized we've been upgraded to cat 9 :yay:.

I also just realized we're onboard Superbowl Sunday and cancelled the Palos reservation that night -- maybe we'll get one onboard.

Looking forward to a relaxing few days.

Kathy

[Josiah]

Hi, Kathy,

Welcome aboard! It seems our cruise is full now. We booked for cat 10 and am waiting for the package of papers that I hear is supposed to be coming our way. This is our first Disney cruise.

[ToodlesRN]

Welcome to Jorge and Kathy!

I been so busy with work and Matthew's activites, I did get some pm's Jorge and his family joined in on the Fe exchange.

I will read through my pms and the thread and get the final list updated and emailed out to everyone within the next few hours.

Tierre

[ToodlesRN]

Did we ever decide on how many FE gifts to give?
A) One to each person in the cabin?
B) One to each cabin?
C) One to each kid in the cabin? Besides the adults only Exchange would be to the adults.

I will go with anyone of those, but A does sound like fun and our group is small?

Let me know!

[romino]

About the FE exchange I have been doing some research and I've found that some people give a present for each person in the cabin (including children) and some people give a gift for the whole family, like a goodie bag or something like that. In other exchanges people has given gifts that represents their hometown, I would really like that.

I think that we need to try to be sure everyone in the stateroom gets a present, specially children. About the adults I think it could be one present for each adult or one present for the whole family.

What do you think?

[Hanover]

About the FE exchange I have been doing some research and I've found that some people give a present for each person in the cabin (including children) and some people give a gift for the whole family, like a goodie bag or something like that. In other exchanges people has given gifts that represents their hometown, I would really like that.

I think that we need to try to be sure everyone in the stateroom gets a present, specially children. About the adults I think it could be one present for each adult or one present for the whole family.

What do you think?


We made up goody bags (sort of like what a child would give/get at a birthday party) for the kids and have some cruise-dated small stuff for the adults (I don't want to give it away). It's really up to each family with what they'd like to give--single gift or a couple/few small items. I know my kids are thrilled to find anything in the FE when we return to our stateroom.

Sorry in advance for the loooong walk it's going to be to our room!! We had to deliver an FE gift to the same room in December after giving one out at the front of deck 7 and it was like walking the length of 2 football fields to get there!

[ToodlesRN]

We made up goody bags (sort of like what a child would give/get at a birthday party) for the kids and have some cruise-dated small stuff for the adults (I don't want to give it away). It's really up to each family with what they'd like to give--single gift or a couple/few small items. I know my kids are thrilled to find anything in the FE when we return to our stateroom.

Sorry in advance for the loooong walk it's going to be to our room!! We had to deliver an FE gift to the same room in December after giving one out at the front of deck 7 and it was like walking the length of 2 football fields to get there!

We did the same thing goodie bags for everyone in the cabin, kids themed bag for the kids and ditto for the adults!

Tierre

[vtinkerbell]

We have goodies from our home State that the kids can share as well.

Can't wait to meet everyone.:cloud9:

[Josiah]

I have no idea how long it takes to get to our room, but we're on the 2nd deck, so I take it we're away from a lot of stuff. It doesn't seem like we're all that far from an elevator, though. Our room is 2101. is that far?

I don't want to say what we're bringing cuz it's a little different and I may have to make a last-minute adjustment, but I'm in there tryin'!

[Mndisneygirl]

Got my cruise documents today!! Wouldn't have even known but my SIL got hers delivered UPS and told us to look in our door. There they were!! YAY! I'm glad because we leave in a week and are starting to pack. WHEW!

[Josiah]

We got our cruise docs yesterday; one set came to our house, and the other to the grandkids' house. good thing we live in the same town!! :-)

[ToodlesRN]

So did we, got them yesterday evening!!! It's getting so real now!

[Josiah]

Ok, so now we're asking specific questions and so on. (I openly admit I obsess about this kind of stuff!)

I called DCL today as DH wanted to know which movies will be playing. They include:

Bolt 3D
Wall E
Morning Light (which I never heard of)
Bedtime Stories
Hannna Montana concert 3D
Beverly Hills Chichuaua
HS3


Also, I'm concerned about how we will be able to stay in touch w/the kids while we're there; don't really wanna buy/bring walkie talkies, and can picture them being left laying around. Cell phones may not work (we have AT & T). Our kids have self sign in/out privileges. I know I get a pager so they can contact me if necessary, but what if I want to contact them? Do I just go up/down to the Lab? What if they change their plans? Do they leave a note on the door or what? :confused3

We've decided to use the top envelope of our FE hanger for messages for each other. I can picture our kids making friends w/your kids and deciding to tour the ship or something. I just want to know where they are at all times. Or what if I change my plans? i guess a note on the door will do it.

Anyway, maybe some of you have a better idea? These children are typically well-behaved, but I don't want any nasty surprises, such as 'Man overboard!' Yikes!

While I had the DCL gal (Alia) on the phone this morning, I asked about breakfast on that last day. Yes, we'll get breakfast. We're at the second seating, so we'll be out around 10:00, she estimates. She said there's also a buffet. This means I don't have to squirrel away an orange here or there for the last morning's meal. (sometimes I'm such a dolt!)

If any of you have a Pal Mickey, I asked about that today, too, whether they give updated info in the parks since they don't sell them anymore. Short answer: Sure do. If you have one, bring it for the parks. (Not for the boat, obviously.)

We have a split stay at SOG, so we're going to try to create one suitcase for stuff (Like PM) that we want at the parks, but not on the cruise. Maybe they'll stash it somewhere for us and lighten our load a bit.

I know I'll be able to relax once I get there, but right now I'm a little stressed about the 11 yr old's homework load. We have several major projects due before he leaves. But he's doing a great job of buckling down and getting the research down, and that's the major part, really.

I'm SOOOO looking forward to this trip. I can't wait to meet everyone.

[jadedjojo]

Thanks for the movie list! "Bedtime Stories" is something I was looking forward to seeing.

14 days, 16 hours, 54 minutes and 54 seconds. But who's counting. :beach:

[camarks1234]

are the movies shown in a theatre or just on the big tv by the pool? I'm looking forward to bedtime stories, but I need quiet when I watch a movie. :) LOL

[Josiah]

In the Buena Vista Theater

[jadedjojo]

I had an idea for another door magnet. I thought perhaps we could put our username on the blank spot, so we recognize fellow disboard'ers rooms.

(I hope it's okay that I stole the forum's logo LOL).

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5822/mickeymagnetje5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

What do you think?

[romino]

Hello everyone¡¡¡
Just two more weeks to go¡¡¡ :cool1:

By the way, I recieved my travel documents last monday trough federal express and I kind of feel that they are incomplete. I recieved...

-A checklist leaflet
-Lugage tags, wich I don´t think we are going to need since we are arriving from Miami by rental car (The flight from mexico to Miami was half the price from the one to Orlando).
-Ticket booklet including:
The first page is torned out, not by me.
The second has the mailing information
The third says for DCL/DME transportation use only
The fourth says Important Messages
The fifth says Important messages continued
The sixth says Ground transfer information
The seventh says Transfer purchase option
From number nineth to twelveth says Onboard check in information that we will not be using since we are not going to fly the day the cruise ends.
The last page is a blank one that says Cruise and Airline contracts but it doesn´t have any infromation.

And thats all.

Did I recieved everything I was supposed to?

And jadedjojo, I agree with your proposition.

Thank you

[jadedjojo]

Hello everyone¡¡¡
Just two more weeks to go¡¡¡ :cool1:

By the way, I recieved my travel documents last monday trough federal express and I kind of feel that they are incomplete. I recieved...

-A checklist leaflet
-Lugage tags, wich I don´t think we are going to need since we are arriving from Miami by rental car (The flight from mexico to Miami was half the price from the one to Orlando).
-Ticket booklet including:
The first page is torned out, not by me.
The second has the mailing information
The third says for DCL/DME transportation use only
The fourth says Important Messages
The fifth says Important messages continued
The sixth says Ground transfer information
The seventh says Transfer purchase option
From number nineth to twelveth says Onboard check in information that we will not be using since we are not going to fly the day the cruise ends.
The last page is a blank one that says Cruise and Airline contracts but it doesn´t have any infromation.

And thats all.

Did I recieved everything I was supposed to?

And jadedjojo, I agree with your proposition.

Thank you

The luggage tags are for your luggage for the ship. You put them on everything you are going to check at the terminal. You are allowed a carry-on and personal bag to bring on the ship (it has to fit through an x-ray machine, so normally a backpack or something of that size), and everything else that is large gets those luggage tags put on it and it is taken by porters when you arrive at the terminal. They transport your luggage to your room a few hours after you board the boat.

From your description, it sounds like you got everything! Make sure you fill out all of the stuff in the booklet before you get to the terminal to ensure an early check-in. The pages that were ripped out of your book were ripped out if you checked-in online, or it may have been something you didn't need (my book is missing pages as well). Sounds like everything is a go!

I hope you have a nice drive up from Miami! :drive:

[ToodlesRN]

The luggage tags are for your luggage for the ship. You put them on everything you are going to check at the terminal. You are allowed a carry-on and personal bag to bring on the ship (it has to fit through an x-ray machine, so normally a backpack or something of that size), and everything else that is large gets those luggage tags put on it and it is taken by porters when you arrive at the terminal. They transport your luggage to your room a few hours after you board the boat.

From your description, it sounds like you got everything! Make sure you fill out all of the stuff in the booklet before you get to the terminal to ensure an early check-in. The pages that were ripped out of your book were ripped out if you checked-in online, or it may have been something you didn't need (my book is missing pages as well). Sounds like everything is a go!

I hope you have a nice drive up from Miami! :drive:

We didn't get any luggage tags with our documents:confused3 Should I cal them since we have to put them on our luggage for the cruise?

Getting closer!!

[jadedjojo]

They can provide them at the port as well, they just aren't the pre-printed ones you get with the cruise docs. This is our fifth cruise and we've never not gotten them, but if you are doing a land/sea package or are coming in by plane, perhaps you get them in another fashion. We live close to the port so we just drive... now I'm wondering if those who drive to the port are the ones who get the luggage tags in the mail. I would call just to make sure, it can't hurt! I will check around to see what I can find out for now.

Edit: Just found this information. I don't know if this helps at all (lol), but it mentioned different types of cruise packages so I thought I'd post! It may be helpful in general in regards to when everyone should affix their luggage tags.

HOW DO DISNEY TRANSFERS WORK?

CRUISE ONLY: You’ll receive luggage tags in your cruise packet. When flying on the same day as the departure of your cruise, you’ll affix these tags to your luggage before leaving for the airport. (Since your bags may not arrive at your stateroom until 5:00pm or later, pack a carryon bag with your documents and necessities.) Upon arrival in the Orlando airport, these tags identify your bags and they are brought directly to the ship. You do not need to go to Baggage Claim.

Disney Cruise Line agents will be in the main terminal of the airport and are easily identified. Starting at 9:00am, a “meet and greet” is scheduled. The shuttles are boarded on a first come/first served basis. Departure begins at 10:30am.

LAND/SEA PACKAGE: You’ll affix your tags to your checked bags the same as “cruise only” clients providing that you are arriving on the same day that the package is scheduled to begin. It will not be necessary to go to Baggage Claim as your bags will be brought to your resort. Shuttle service to the resorts begins at 9:00am. (If you’ve added on a pre-stay, you must not attach the tags and you will need to retrieve your luggage. The transfers will be honored by Mears, the official shuttle of Walt Disney World.)

The evening before your cruise, your luggage is picked up from the resort. You’ll receive instructions while there as to how this process works, and what time the shuttle will be departing from your resort.


Just read this about the packet in general:

The Cruise Packet is delivered via UPS. No one needs to sign for it. It can be delivered to whatever address you choose, but it cannot be delivered to a PO box. Please note that if you choose an alternate address other than your home, DCL still needs to have your home address in their records.

The forms in the Cruise Packet include your itinerary, the ship’s policies, gratuity guidelines, luggage tags which are to be affixed to your checked bags when you arrive at the Port unless you’re using Disney transfers (see above), a form which is to be filled out and notarized if you have a minor under age 18 who is traveling without their parent/legal guardian, and the form which is to be filled out with your credit card information while onboard. You’ll also be provided with any Immigration forms that are required for your particular sailing.

I hope this helps!

[choco_latae]

Hi everyone. I have a question. Is it to late to be put on the list for the fish extenders? I am traveling with my daughter and her son and I just found out what room we are gonna be in. There is three adults and one child in the room - Shauna ( tazgirl1981) 27 yrs old- Julie (me)51 yrs- Jenny (handicapped daughter) 31 yrs- Chris 3 yrs old and we will be in room # 7000 I hope that helps. Please let me know.

[Hanover]

We don't have our cruise documents just yet. Our travel agent emailed me this morning saying she got them Saturday afternoon and will mail them tomorrow.

We've had flurries the last couple of days and it's freezing cold---we can't wait to be in Florida! Even if it's only in the 60's it will be much warmer!

We're heading back to Johns Hopkins tomorrow with Keegan for another CT scan and hoping for an all-clear. He's been having chest pains again which his doctor said could be from the scar tissue on his nerve where the mass was last year. He did have an xray this past Friday and that was clear of any chest infections which is great.

Jadedjojo--great job on the design for the door magnet.

Christy, you can take drinks/snacks into the Buena Vista Theater for movies from deck 9. They do show some movies on the "dumbotron" at the Goofy pool, but they are older ones. They show a lot of Disney cartoons on it during the day. The new releases are usually shown in the Buena Vista Theater and sometimes the real big new releases are shown in the Walt Disney Theater.

Josiah- We give Keegan (11) check out privileges, but we also insist that he has us paged when he checks out and he's only allowed to go to meet us somewhere pre-determined or go to the arcade or sports deck. We don't want him going in any of the decks with staterooms or going with anyone to their stateroom. We had friends with us this past cruise with a friend his age and they were really great with following all our rules. His favorite thing to do onboard is play on the sports deck so that is where he spends a lot of time. Brennan is only 7 and doesn't have check out privileges.

We have early dining and now always do the Beach Blanket Buffet the last day at our leisure. I think they are open until about 8:30, which is a good deal later than we'd have to be at our specific restaurant. We went to the restaurant on our first 2 cruises and it just seemed rushed and the servers didn't seem as perky/friendly as they had been (and we tipped well). You have to take all of your carry-on stuff with you so keep that in mind too. Once you leave your room on debarkation day, your KTTW cards are deactivated.

[1stime74]

Adding one more family would not be a problem for us. We are leaving on January 27th for WDW so if anyone is added on after that, we won't know.

Today it went to 17 degrees and it felt warm after the 24 below of last week.:scared: So 70 would feel like summer.:beach:

[jadedjojo]

17 degrees!!! Holy moly!!! And here I was complaining because it was 50 here one day last week :scared: . It was 71 here today. Warm weather awaits you soon! :beach:

[Josiah]

We could try to add one more family. The only reason I hesitate is because I'm trying to make something homemade, and time is running short to complete my project. It could be I get most of 'em done, but I may wind up having something else small for latecomers. Is that ok? It would make a good compromise for me.

Danielle, our checkout rules for the kids would be the same; page me when you check out. I hadn't thought about which decks they can go on, so that's a good idea. Our 8 year old is very responsible, so I know she'll be fine.

Can't wait! Just a few days now!

[choco_latae]

We could try to add one more family. The only reason I hesitate is because I'm trying to make something homemade, and time is running short to complete my project. It could be I get most of 'em done, but I may wind up having something else small for latecomers. Is that ok? It would make a good compromise for me.

Danielle, our checkout rules for the kids would be the same; page me when you check out. I hadn't thought about which decks they can go on, so that's a good idea. Our 8 year old is very responsible, so I know she'll be fine.

Can't wait! Just a few days now!

That will be fine for us. Hey , we are the latecommers. I didnt know our room # untile now so I couldnt be added sooner for the fish extenders but I have alot of stuff to put in for it. So when is the list gonna be posted so we will be able have enough bags? Thanks again. I did post our room number and names an a previous post but if you want me to do it again I will.

[ToodlesRN]

That will be fine for us. Hey , we are the latecommers. I didnt know our room # untile now so I couldnt be added sooner for the fish extenders but I have alot of stuff to put in for it. So when is the list gonna be posted so we will be able have enough bags? Thanks again. I did post our room number and names an a previous post but if you want me to do it again I will.

Send me a PM with all your info again with the names of everyone in your cabin, kids ages, cabin number and email address. I will add you to the list and then email a updated list.

[ToodlesRN]

The last updated FE list has been emailed. Since some of us will be leaving soon the list has been closed for latecomers. Let me know if anyone has questions about your delivery dates etc...

[tazgirl1981]

Thank you for including us last minute...sorry about the hassle for everyone :blush:

I just wanted to ask something, In the email it was saying to deliver our FE gifts on our assigned day...What day is best for us to deliver ours to everyone?

[ToodlesRN]

In the email with the spreadsheet has everyones assigned day of delivery and I put your group during the 4th day anytime.

[tazgirl1981]

Oh Thanks for the info, I wasnt able to get into my file (must be because I own a mac computer) but thats ok. I was able to get my mom to open it up and print a couple up for us ;) thanks!! :thumbsup2

[sarahgirl]

Just got my stateroom info today. Boy I can't believe I got it that late. Anyways I got upgraded to a CAT 10 but I'm going to be on Level 1 so I dont know how I feel about that. Anyways I can't wait until the cruise. Only 10 more days to go!

[choco_latae]

Oh my gosh, I cant believe its only ten days away.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/FebCruise.jpg

[Josiah]

I will be in Diversions for the Superbowl if the Giants are playing Ill be in Giants garb for my DH mother in law if the Panthers are in well then thats who Ill be in. Otherwise you will know me Ill be the one in the "Pink-Tink" shirt I had someone design for me. I would love to meet ya there. That will be my residence for the first night.

Brush up on your NFL and Superbowl trivia they will be playing lots of games during the game for prizes. They have the wii set up for half time and play many games so there is never a dull moment at Diversions.

Look forward to seeing ya. :cloud9:

Tink:

I'll try to find you in Diversions on Feb. 1; I think I'll wear my #8 Matt Hasselbeck Seattle Seahawk jersey. You won't see many of them around, right?!?:cheer2:

Debbie

[Hanover]

We received our documents today! I can't believe we leave a week from tomorrow. I still haven't thought of what we are packing but I'll probably set some clothes aside for all of us when I get a chance on Sunday. Tomorrow's another busy wrestling day for us. Tonight I get to go chaperone a "double date" with Keegan and some friends. I just hope I don't have to sit through Mall Cop again! Have a nice weekend everyone. For those of you leaving soon, have a safe trip and enjoy WDW!

Are we settled on a meet and greet time/place on embarkation day? I know we talked about 3PM at the drink station/Mickey pool but can't remember if it's set in stone.

[vtinkerbell]

Tink:

I'll try to find you in Diversions on Feb. 1; I think I'll wear my #8 Matt Hasselbeck Seattle Seahawk jersey. You won't see many of them around, right?!?:cheer2:

Debbie

I'll be there, I will be wearing my "pink tink" shirt and will have my DH and his parents in tow.

:thumbsup2

[camarks1234]

I can't wait. I have myself and AJ packed so far, at least most of it. I mean, they're summer clothes, we can't wear them here right now anyway, right? LOL.

[romino]

Are we settled on a meet and greet time/place on embarkation day? I know we talked about 3PM at the drink station/Mickey pool but can't remember if it's set in stone.

Count us in¡¡

[camarks1234]

we will try to be there as well.

As far as the Superbowl goes, I think I read earlier in the thread it will be on in Diversions? Are kids allowed in there or is it a bar? Just wondering because my boys are superbowl/football CCCRRAAZZYYY! and both teams in it this year are special for different reasons.

[romino]

I hope Disney shows the superbowl on the giant screen thats near the pool, but I was thinking that perhaps because the Sailaway party is around 5:00 they will not show it.My children are not that into superbowl so something to distract them is mandatory¡¡¡

Go Cardinals¡¡¡ :cheer2:

[ToodlesRN]

Not sure if you will find us in Diversions, were not much football fans.

Has a time and date been set up for the meet?

A few more days and we will be sailing the seas with Mickey!!!

[Hanover]

The boys are home today with schools closed due to the snow. I think we got about 6 inches. At least with them home I can get their clothes packed! We've been so busy with wrestling in the evenings we haven't had the time to pack yet. I can't wait to be in warmer weather!!

For everyone leaving soon, have a safe, fun trip! See you Sunday!

[1stime74]

Got in last night. Hit 80 degrees yesterday and looks like it will be the same today. Much better than 23 below. Look forward to seeing everyone. We will be in Diversions for the Superbowl at 6:00 then off to late dinner. Last year we took our desert to watch the end of the game and the Giants win. My DW (vtinkerbell) is rooting for the Steelers this year, her family is from Penn.

[romino]

We already left our home today. Weekend left Monterrey today and are right now in Mexico city and tomorrow we fly to miami to drive to Orlando.
See ya soon

[jadedjojo]

I'm very excited :). Been daydreaming about sunsets at sea and all-you-can-eat fruit salad. I've also been humming "Margaritaville" all day. :boat:

I hope everyone has a wonderful trip, and enjoys our toasty weather! :beach:

(Although, there is a little "liquid sunshine" in the forecast for Thursday and Friday... but hey, it's not snow!) :cold:

[ToodlesRN]

We leave in the morning, can't wait to see some sunshine it will be more than what we've been having here. It snowed for 2 days thank goodness it isn't sticking.

Can't wait to meet everyone! I will have my laptop amd cell phone to check my emails!

[choco_latae]

Oh my goodness, everyone is almost here. I dont half to leave home to get to the Disney Cruise ship. I live right here. But Ive never been on any cruise. Im so excited but a little scared too since Ive never been on one. I will see everyone soon. Everyone have a safe trip down.

[camarks1234]

woohoo! how exciting so many of you have left already. We don't leave until Sat. but can't wait!!! :cheer2:

[Josiah]

We're packing this morning; homework's all caught up, and we plan to roll down to Seattle this evening. We'll spend the night at the USO, and fly tomorrow!

I feel lots of things all mingled together; anticipation, excitement, fear, even guilt (for leaving some behind). Well, once we back the car out of the driveway, it is what it is...a big adventure!!

See ya soon!

dl

[Hanover]

woohoo! how exciting so many of you have left already. We don't leave until Sat. but can't wait!!! :cheer2:

We're here too until Saturday. DH has a police exam that's only given once a year so we plan on heading to the airport as soon as he's done. Brennan has a wrestling match, but I haven't decided if we're going. In one way, it would make the time go faster, but I don't want to get stressed about running late either because sometimes they last several hours. I think I'll let him do a match or two and then leave. If we stay home, we'll be watching the clock and drive myself crazy!! Heck, I'm already watching the clock! The kids keep saying in 72 ours...in 70 hours...

I've got the boys stuff ready to go. Well all their items are sitting out with the suitcase next to them and I've got to roll them up and stick them in ziplocks first (they won't wrinkle that way). I still have my stuff to pack but I know what I'm taking so it will be easy.

Looks like there will be snow here again next week so I'll be glad to miss it! It's wouldn't be bad to have our flight cancelled on the way home, I just don't want to have to drive down!

Have a safe trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday.

[Hanover]

We're packing this morning; homework's all caught up, and we plan to roll down to Seattle this evening. We'll spend the night at the USO, and fly tomorrow!

I feel lots of things all mingled together; anticipation, excitement, fear, even guilt (for leaving some behind). Well, once we back the car out of the driveway, it is what it is...a big adventure!!

See ya soon!

dl

Have a safe trip. We used to go to USO's a lot growing up and the thing I remember most is they always had rolls of those little powdered white donuts!

[Hanover]

we will try to be there as well.

As far as the Superbowl goes, I think I read earlier in the thread it will be on in Diversions? Are kids allowed in there or is it a bar? Just wondering because my boys are superbowl/football CCCRRAAZZYYY! and both teams in it this year are special for different reasons.

I have definitely seen kids in diversions during the day time. I think sometime in the evening (I want to say 9PM) they restrict the bar areas to adults. I'm not positive about the time though.

My DH's family is from Pittsburgh so 3 of us are rooting for the Steelers. Keegan's rooting for the Cardinals since the Steelers beat his beloved Ravens.

[jadedjojo]

15 Hours! WOOHOO! If any of you are still at home LOL. I only have to drive an hour to the port so I have no grand traveling adventures like some of you are undertaking! Although I do enjoy the drive to the port.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1411/jojorr5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

WOOHOO! Here we come!

[choco_latae]

I just wanted to tell all the wonderful "Disney Winter Wonderland Cruisers" , thanks for all the nice fish extender gifts. They were all wonderful. A delight. Thanks a ton. The cruise was a cold one but we all had fun anyways.At least it wasnt as bad as they are having it up north. I hope everyone is making it home safe and sound. Julie or choco_latae State Room # 7000 party:

[camarks1234]

Signing on to say THANKS! all the FE gifts were so much fun, the boys had a blast. I hope everyone had a wonderful time even though it turned out to be chilly in the end.

The Marks!

[Hanover]

I wanted to say thank you to everyone for the great FE gifts! We really had a lot of fun on the cruise, though I do wish it had been a tad bit warmer in CC and getting off the ship! I'd rather be cold there than anywhere though.

[Josiah]

We finally rolled in around midnight last night after a few days in the park after the cruise.

I would like to ditto our appreciation for all the fun FE surprises. Our children certainly loved coming back to their rooms and seeing the surprises. I think other cruisers enjoyed looking at all the magnets our 'virtual' friends created for us.

I'd like to extend a special thanks to Tierre for making the fish exchange possible.

We are also very, very thankful to Steve and Josie, especially for your assistance with the children with pin trading. Your generosity astounded us. I hope your father is well now.

We, too, were disappointed with the weather, but at least it didn't rain!!:goodvibes

I feel like I want to process some of my thoughts on what went well, and what we learned from this event. I suppose the best place to do that is in a trip report. Maybe I'll get to that by this weekend.

Our biggest misadventure came at the very beginning when we lost Josiah, the 11 year old. We were searching for him during our 3:00 appointment at Mickey's pool meeting. Did everyone else make it? Of course, we found him, but that was very scary for me, since we had just boarded and I couldn't predict what he might do. He did the right thing, in fact, which was to go to the stateroom and call us from his cell.


Thanks again!

Debbie

[Hanover]

We did go to the drink station at 3PM and waited about 10 minutes, but didn't see anyone else.

We did get to meet Tazgirl and Chcolate in the line at the terminal, a few times on the ship and the pick up area at the port.

I believe Steve was in the DVC meeting when they called out his name for trivia (how could I ever forget the guy 2 seats away adding his unwanted input to every single thing the presenter mentioned). I didn't know Steve M. was the disboards Steve until I saw their last name on their door magnets on the stateroom door. Steve, be glad you weren't stuck in the Rainforest room with that guy. I was supposed to be in there for an hour after my massage and left after it was just him and I and he berated my spa attendant because of the steam room not being as hot as he wanted it, probably "due to all the out of shape guests complaining about it." He also added a lot of swear words before and after. We did hear that 2 couples complained to the captain about him from dinner and the DVC meeting and he was told to calm down or he'd be off the ship. Never in 8 cruises have I experienced someone so obnoxious.

Debbie, Josiah was a smart boy to do what he did after becoming separated.

I hope to see some cruise photos of everyone. We may realize we met afterall!

[sas_mk]

I am hoping that some recent cruisers can help me out. I need a few schedule questions answered. :goodvibes

I am heading out on the 4-day wonder in a few weeks and the recent navigators that have been posted don't match up with our itinerary. I was wondering if your cruise matches ours?

We are boarding on Sunday, doing Nassau on Monday, Castaway Cay on Tuesday and a Day at Sea on Wednesday. If your cruise itinerary matched what ours will be, could you please answer the following:

1. What was the order of your nightly shows? Which night had which show?

2. Do you remember what time you had to be back on the ship after your day on Nassau?

3. Which night was pirate night?

4. Which night was the dress-up night?

I really appreciate any help you can give me. I know I am a little bit OCD with my planning, but aren't all dissers???? :rotfl2:

[camarks1234]

1. What was the order of your nightly shows? Which night had which show? I couldn't answer this in a million years, I couldn't keep them straight on the ship.

2. Do you remember what time you had to be back on the ship after your day on Nassau?

All aboard at Nassau was 7 pm (we were at Atlantis and the last Disney shuttle was 5:30, after that you had to find your own way back)

3. Which night was pirate night?
It was Tuesday night, the evening after we were at Castaway Cay

4. Which night was the dress-up night?
I think it was Monday night, honestly, I didn't dress up 'that' much. I just wore nice capris and a blouse. I saw all varieties of dress that night. Some formal and some not.

hope this helps!

[camarks1234]

We went up to the drink station but got there late around 3:15 and didn't see anyone obviously looking like they were there to meet up so we just left. I really would have loved to have met all of you.

I think I closed the door in someone's face (sorry) they were putting out FE gifts and I didn't know if I was supposed to see them or not. Didn't know the etiquette. bleah.

Both the boys got hurt at Atlantis, AJ got hurt bad on a waterslide, stubbed his toe at the bottom. He was tall enough to ride it, but didn't weigh enough and got stuck in the darkest part. I was right behind him and could hear him screaming and I was coming down after him. Kind of a nightmare that spoiled Atlantis for us, but o'well. We survived. :)

[Hanover]

I am hoping that some recent cruisers can help me out. I need a few schedule questions answered. :goodvibes

I am heading out on the 4-day wonder in a few weeks and the recent navigators that have been posted don't match up with our itinerary. I was wondering if your cruise matches ours?

We are boarding on Sunday, doing Nassau on Monday, Castaway Cay on Tuesday and a Day at Sea on Wednesday. If your cruise itinerary matched what ours will be, could you please answer the following:

1. What was the order of your nightly shows? Which night had which show?
Sunday--The Golden Mickey's--Cruise Casual attire
Monday-- Nassau (all aboard 7PM) --Toy Story--Dressy Night
Tuesday--Castaway Cay (all aboard 4PM)--Bolt 3D--Pirate Night--Pirate or Cruise Casual
Wednesday--Day at Sea---Disney Dreams (also had a matinee of the show)--Cruise Casual

2. Do you remember what time you had to be back on the ship after your day on Nassau? Even though our Navigators said 2AM, they announced it was 7PM. On our cruise in August, it was 2AM so that the crew could have a little time off after their evening duties.



3. Which night was pirate night? Castaway Cay Night, Tuesday

4. Which night was the dress-up night? Monday/Nassau

I really appreciate any help you can give me. I know I am a little bit OCD with my planning, but aren't all dissers???? :rotfl2:

I totally empathize with the OCD planning. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[sas_mk]

Wow! That was quick!! :worship:

Thank you so much. That information really helps!

[Hanover]

We went up to the drink station but got there late around 3:15 and didn't see anyone obviously looking like they were there to meet up so we just left. I really would have loved to have met all of you.

I think I closed the door in someone's face (sorry) they were putting out FE gifts and I didn't know if I was supposed to see them or not. Didn't know the etiquette. bleah.

Both the boys got hurt at Atlantis, AJ got hurt bad on a waterslide, stubbed his toe at the bottom. He was tall enough to ride it, but didn't weigh enough and got stuck in the darkest part. I was right behind him and could hear him screaming and I was coming down after him. Kind of a nightmare that spoiled Atlantis for us, but o'well. We survived. :)


We must have just missed you all! I'm sorry to hear about the boys getting injured at Atlantis. Would you do the Atlantis Aquaadventure again? I'm considering it in August, but Brennan's only about 48-49 inches and 49 pounds. He'd freak out if he got stuck in the dark on a slide--- I'd freak out if I got stuck myself!

[camarks1234]

We got offered a $99 deal to go back between April and can't remember, but we're booking for Sept. and going back for a 3 day.

And yes, my hubby and oldest will probably go back to the aquaventure. It was really incredible, the resort, the park, the beach, everything.

AJ even said he wanted to go back and we'll see, but he only would do 1 or 2 slides and when he got hurt he said he was done with them. I'm thinking my mom, I and AJ will go shopping in Nassua instead this time, or do something else.

What they got hurt on was the rough rocks around the lazy river type of thing (the slide AJ got hurt on deposited into the lazy river and his toe was severely stubbed at the bottom on the rocks because I had crashed into him in the upper part of the slide. He weighs about 62ish and maybe needed to be heavier to go on that particular slide. I think it was the falls.

The lazy river was absolutely the best lazy river I've ever been on. Tidal wave section, lots of different rapids sections, waterfalls and it was long with many areas you could get off. Just remember to keep your butt UP on the rapids and you'll be fine. :) :rolleyes1

[Josiah]

The shows:

Sunday: Golden Mickey. We missed that one, with Josiah lost and all.
Monday: Toy Story, the Musical. It was great fun.
Tuesday: Bolt 3D
Wed: Disney Dreams

I don't blame you for being OCD about it. We spent the first afternoon so disoriented, we lost some of what was going on. It was our first Disney cruise, and our first cruise with children.

Let me know if you have any other questions. My husband saved Navigators, but I don't know how to post them.

[Josiah]

I'm sorry that the boys got hurt at Atlantis. We met other families who had gone there, too. We went on the snorkeling excursion instead. Do NOT believe them when they say the water is 'a little chilly'. It took my breath away, it was so cold! Despite that, it was fun to ride out on the boat. They say you get a tour of the harbor, but no one guides it. The ride going was pretty quiet, but folks started to really talk to each other on the way back.

Josiah and Mark stayed in the water quite awhile. There were only a few people in when Josiah came in, so I guess the temp affects some more than others. Josiah's more adventuresome than some, and he also made a friend on the boat and they hung out later. Later I introduced Alissa to girl named Grace, and they hit it off.

I was disappointed that the kids didn't spend more time in the Oceaneer's Lab. If I were to do it again, I would not give them check out privileges at first. That way they would have more chance to get comfortable there. They only stayed for the orientation, and then didn't really want to go back. When they did, the group was in transition, or eating upstairs, which they didn't prefer.

All that said, they had a great time. One of our very favorite events was renting the bikes at Castaway Cay. The road is mostly level and smooth and it felt good to ride.

[ToodlesRN]

Were home, after our extended stay at AKV's and visiting the world! Same as everyone else wished the weather was way nicer than what we got. Our last 2 days were in the 70's!

Thanks to everyone who was in the FE exchange it turned out quite well and was lots of fun for Matthew to see a gift left in his slot! Only wished that we met all or some of you to put a face to the name. We didn't make it at 3pm Mathew hadn't napped so we were trying to get him to rest before the drill and dinner.

[ToodlesRN]

I believe Steve was in the DVC meeting when they called out his name for trivia (how could I ever forget the guy 2 seats away adding his unwanted input to every single thing the presenter mentioned). I didn't know Steve M. was the disboards Steve until I saw their last name on their door magnets on the stateroom door. Steve, be glad you weren't stuck in the Rainforest room with that guy. I was supposed to be in there for an hour after my massage and left after it was just him and I and he berated my spa attendant because of the steam room not being as hot as he wanted it, probably "due to all the out of shape guests complaining about it." He also added a lot of swear words before and after. We did hear that 2 couples complained to the captain about him from dinner and the DVC meeting and he was told to calm down or he'd be off the ship. Never in 8 cruises have I experienced someone so obnoxious.


OMGosh I was sitting right next to that guy at the meeting, talk about loud mouth. After the meeting he spoke with the DVC member about how he thought the meeting was a sales pitch to get people to buy add-ons. I didn't stick around I left after hearing him say that! I heard Steve M name and tried to look for him but was too late. Wish I knew both you and Steve were going to be there we could have met up and had a chat!

[romino]

Hi everyone, just returned to Mexico last monday night and I haven´t had the chance to check the boards.

We also enoyed the exchange a lot. The children were very excited to find goodies daily on the Fish Extender. I also want to thank Tierre for putting the exchange together it was something that made the cruise much better.

Thank you for all your gifts, there were some personal details in each of them.

Christy, those that you caught up in the act of leaving the presents were my family and I, we tought that you assumed that we were just admiring your fish extender and thats why you closed the door.... don´t worry. So sorry that AJ got hurt in Atlantis, we were thinking on doing it but the children wanted to saty at the ship so we didn´t disembark at Nassau.

On the first day we went to Parrot Cay for lunch at around 2:30 so we arrived to the meet around 3:15 but didn't seemed to us like anyone was waiting someone so we pressumed that those that arrived at 3:00 pm had already left.

Well I promise to post a photograph of my family in the next days so you can place a face to the name.

It was great meeting you in the boards and even better sharing with you the exchange.

Thanks

[Hanover]

OMGosh I was sitting right next to that guy at the meeting, talk about loud mouth. After the meeting he spoke with the DVC member about how he thought the meeting was a sales pitch to get people to buy add-ons. I didn't stick around I left after hearing him say that! I heard Steve M name and tried to look for him but was too late. Wish I knew both you and Steve were going to be there we could have met up and had a chat!

Wow, were you the one he said "the seat's yours, I've been saving it for you" or something to that effect when asked if it was empty. If so, you were right next to my DH on your left side and I was 2 seats away from you! If that was in fact you, I felt SO bad when you sat there because I knew he'd be a loud mouth after hearing him go on and on before it even began and the stuff he pulled in the Rain Forest room. He freaked me out in the Rain Forest room. I told my DH all about it and when he sat there I said, that's the RF guy! I couldn't believe it. We ran into Tommy (guide from DVC) later and he told us that there had been 2 formal complaints about him and that he would be removed from the ship if there was another disturbance. It's too bad we didn't realize that was you. We met one of the couples that complained about loud mouth at the Castaway Club presentation and they said out of 39 DCL cruises they'd been on, they'd never seen anyone like him. I just feel bad for his wife!!

[Hanover]

Here's a few of our family pictures and one from Castaway Cay...



http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/CastawayCayFeb2009.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanoffFamilyDisneyCruiseFeb2009.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanoffFamilyFeb2009KeeganBrennan.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanofffamilyFeb2009DisneyCruise.jpg

[1stime74]

Wow, were you the one he said "the seat's yours, I've been saving it for you" or something to that effect when asked if it was empty. If so, you were right next to my DH on your left side and I was 2 seats away from you! If that was in fact you, I felt SO bad when you sat there because I knew he'd be a loud mouth after hearing him go on and on before it even began and the stuff he pulled in the Rain Forest room. He freaked me out in the Rain Forest room. I told my DH all about it and when he sat there I said, that's the RF guy! I couldn't believe it. We ran into Tommy (guide from DVC) later and he told us that there had been 2 formal complaints about him and that he would be removed from the ship if there was another disturbance. It's too bad we didn't realize that was you. We met one of the couples that complained about loud mouth at the Castaway Club presentation and they said out of 39 DCL cruises they'd been on, they'd never seen anyone like him. I just feel bad for his wife!!


Hi all, he must have been the guy you yelled "I thought he was dead" when the DVC fellow called my name. Of course, I'm used to that which is why I yell back "I'm still alive and kicking".

We all had a great time, even though it was a little cold at CC, we enjoyed not being in the snow. This was our second Disney Cruise and we were not disapointed. The food was great and my parents really enjoyed Palo's for brunch and dinner.

We are taking advantage of the bounce back offer and going on the 3 day November 19th. My parents had so much fun, they are going back with us.

We finished our trip with another week at the AKV.

Hope all have a great year and remember that it started with a great trip to the happiest place on earth. :woohoo:

[choco_latae]

Thanks for posting your pictures of the cruise. Now we can put faces with the names. Here is a few we had taken on the cruise. Me and Tazgirl.
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/AllInParrotCay.jpg
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/ShipBackground.jpg
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc105/choco_latae/Disney/CastawayKay.jpg

[jadedjojo]

Wonderful pictures everyone! I'm glad to hear everyone had a great time :). Sarahgirl was at our dinner table, and we had SO much fun together. We ended up scaring off the other five people at the table, and we had a terrific time with our pepper-loving assistant waiter, Roland. It was by far the best dinner experience I've had in five cruises! Thank you Sarah! :flower3: (I couldn't find a smiley with a pepper grinder LOL).

The hubby and I spent the day in Nassau at Cabbage Beach (which we had a heck of a time finding, the roads are quite confusing!), then headed to Atlantis where we somehow managed to sneak into the aquarium (I think it was because we came up from the beach, and nobody was there to check if we should be there or not). The weather was better than I expected after seeing those scary weather reports, so I was happy with our day.


http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/973/65267818se4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8461/81269737sb8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3070/79093285pk6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Castaway Cay... well you guys all know how that started off lol. I have some great video of the waves crashing over the rocks while we were trying to dock. When we did disembark, we took a bike ride down the trails and went up the observation tower (five visits to CC, and I never knew they had an observation tower! :sad1: ) It was well worth the $12 for the two bikes, and I recommend it to any future cruisers who also won't venture into the cold water (I'm not going to believe that water was 75 degrees! YIKES!).

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8585/34717545ll0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



We had a fantastic time of course, and can't wait for the next one in the fall. We were quite land-sick this time though, it took me a good four or five days to get back to normal, although some of my sickness may have been from the scopolamine patch. I may leave it behind next time because I was almost as sick on land as I would have been on the boat! :sick:

I have more photos of the cruise on my flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/jadedjojo/ and I am slowly adding them a few at a time.

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5673/23048767js8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
^Me and my crazy hair on the water taxi back from Atlantis.

[ToodlesRN]

Wow, were you the one he said "the seat's yours, I've been saving it for you" or something to that effect when asked if it was empty. If so, you were right next to my DH on your left side and I was 2 seats away from you! If that was in fact you, I felt SO bad when you sat there because I knew he'd be a loud mouth after hearing him go on and on before it even began and the stuff he pulled in the Rain Forest room. He freaked me out in the Rain Forest room. I told my DH all about it and when he sat there I said, that's the RF guy! I couldn't believe it. We ran into Tommy (guide from DVC) later and he told us that there had been 2 formal complaints about him and that he would be removed from the ship if there was another disturbance. It's too bad we didn't realize that was you. We met one of the couples that complained about loud mouth at the Castaway Club presentation and they said out of 39 DCL cruises they'd been on, they'd never seen anyone like him. I just feel bad for his wife!!

Yep that was me!!! I think I looked like hell as we just got back from Altantis and my hair was wet so I threw on the wondeful red DVC hat:rotfl:

[ToodlesRN]

Great Pictures everyone nice to see a face to the name! I haven't even downloaded our pictures yet nor posted one on this board so it may take me awhile to get one up!

We do plan on using the $99 offer,but not sure on what date. Anyone else going?

[Mndisneygirl]

Here's a few of our family pictures and one from Castaway Cay...




http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanoffFamilyDisneyCruiseFeb2009.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanoffFamilyFeb2009KeeganBrennan.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb91/Romanoff1996/RomanofffamilyFeb2009DisneyCruise.jpg

I think I remember seeing you all in your Steelers jerseys! My DH was the guy at the sail away party in the red t-shirt they dragged on stage to "dance". We were laughing so hard and I was taking video, or I'd post a picture!

We had a great time too - and are looking at the Nov. 19 3 day. We're hoping to tack on some time at WDW after (the week of Thanksgiving).
Does anyone know whether the 11/22 three day would be available with the bounceback offer? It is a Sunday departure, but it's only a three day because of Thanksgiving.

[1stime74]

Great Pictures everyone nice to see a face to the name! I haven't even downloaded our pictures yet nor posted one on this board so it may take me awhile to get one up!

We do plan on using the $99 offer,but not sure on what date. Anyone else going?

We are planning on returning for the Nov. 19th 3 day along with my parents.

[Josiah]

If I knew how to post pictures, I'd send one of our family during the cruise. Will someone coach me? Thanks!

[romino]

Debbie:
First you need to upload your pictures to a site like http://photobucket.com/.
You have to create an account and the instructions for uploading pictures are pretty straight forward. After you upload your pictures you will find a webpage assigned to each of your photos.
Then when you post in the forum you just have to paste the web page that photbucket assigned to your photo that is surronded with the letters and .

Then when you submit your post the photo will be visible.

I hope I was clear, you know, the language barrier.

I hope I have the chance to post a photo from our family today and some other surprise photos that might have someone from our FE group by luck.

[camarks1234]

We are taking advantage of the bounce back offer

We are too, it was so much fun and the good thing was that we all enjoyed it. I have pictures posted on AJ's blog and I've also started a TR as well.

I love DCL so much! An amazing thing happened yesterday. I went out to my mailbox and they mailed me my pictures that I had forgotten to pick up on the trip. I started crying I was so happy. I had been heartbroken that I was so stupid to have forgotten to pick them up. DISNEY ROCKS!

Day 1 (http://prayforaj.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/ajs-make-a-wish-magical-disney-cruise-night-1-day-1/)

Day 2 (http://prayforaj.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/ajs-maw-disney-cruise-day-2-nassau-bahamas/)

Day 3 (http://prayforaj.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/ajs-maw-disney-cruise-day-3-castaway-cay/)

Pirate Night (http://prayforaj.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/pirate-party/)

[ToodlesRN]

Christy~ It looks like AJ really had a great time, it's a great feeling to see kids that have to fight a nasty disease at such a young age having smiles on there faces! At work recently I had a mom who during her pregnancy found out she has breast cancer, so after haivng the baby she has to start chemo and radiation right away.

Finally I have a few photos ready to show of our family!! I almost forgot to mention that during pirate night we lost Matthew, he was at the very front of the stage dancing with the cast members, I was at the table sitting and Jason was with him. Jason came to the table to to take a sip of his drink and he went back and Matthew was gone. Jason came and got me and we searched the first front rows and no Matthew anywhere all of a sudden I was by the arcade and 2 cast members were holding him scanning his wristband to see who he belonged too. Let me tell you how scary the first few minutes were all I could think about was him overboard for some strange reason. Then on castaway a cast member said hi Matthew and it was one of the guys who found him on the boat, he was like you were lost on pirate night. (I was like thanks for rubbing it in guy!, bad mom!) Matthew has never been the type of kid to run off, but I think he saw the arcade and remembered playing in there and wanting to play some more games.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tierrew/scan006001.jpg

[ToodlesRN]

and another

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/tierrew/family.jpg

[Hanover]

We are going to do the bounce back offer on 8/13/09. It's the 1st date offered for the bounce back and we had a week at Animal Kingdom Villas already booked so it will be great to have a 3 day cruise in the middle!! We already have the cruise booked and are hoping to either have our TA apply the code or cancel and rebook the same room right away. Hoping is the key word!

It's been freezing cold here lately and very windy. We had a neighbor's trampoline come through our fence in 70 MPH winds last week. We are in the mist of having the entire fence replaced since we lost 5 panels totally and needed to have 12 repaired. The fence company called earlier and said the work crew has the flu today and they'll finish tomorrow. We realized having to leash walk our dog everywhere how spoiled we've been by allowing her to just go out whenever she wants.

I love everyone's pictures. It's hard to believe we could spend 4 days on the ship and not run into everyone!

Christy, I really really need to take a good camera class after looking at your photos! I have a Nikon D80 that I keep on automatic because I don't know how to use all the other buttons. Your pictures are really amazing and you can tell it was a great trip for you all! Also, I hope you don't mind but Keegan's school is doing a 4 Diamonds Fundraiser for Childhood Cancer and buying stars to put on the walls for anyone affected by cancer and added AJ's name along with some of our other friends affected.

[camarks1234]

Christy, I really really need to take a good camera class after looking at your photos! I have a Nikon D80 that I keep on automatic because I don't know how to use all the other buttons. Your pictures are really amazing and you can tell it was a great trip for you all!

Thanks, it is what I do professionally and I really tried but couldn't leave my big camera at home. Some of my pics are on my Nikon D3 (especially the firewords for the lowlight capability), but honestly the rest are on a little P&S Canon G10. For a P&S it is absolutely the best one on the market.

Also, I hope you don't mind but Keegan's school is doing a 4 Diamonds Fundraiser for Childhood Cancer and buying stars to put on the walls for anyone affected by cancer and added AJ's name along with some of our other friends affected.

That is awesome! Thanks!